Blood Angel vs. Dark Angel 2k BATREP

[BigBaals]

BLOOD ANGELS vs DARK ANGELS

2000 points

 

Blood Angels

Astorath the Grim

Honor Guard: MGx4

Sanguinary Guard: Inf Pistol x2, PF

Sanguinary Priest: JP/PW

Chaplain: JP

Assault Squad x10: MGx2 PF

Assault Squadx10: MGx2 PF

Vanguard Veterans x10: Glaive, LC, LC, PW, PF, PF

Attack Bike x2: MMx2

Devastator Squad: MLx4

 

 

Dark Angels:

 

HQ: Not sure, something with Initiative 5 and a power weapon, conferred 4+ invul to entire squad

Chaplain

Command Squad: PW x5

Tactical Squadx10: PG, HB, PW

Tactical Squadx10: PG, HB, PW

Assault Squadx10: PPx3, PW

Venerable Dreadnought: PC, HF

Venerable Dreadnought: PC, HF

Devastator Squad: MLx4

Devastator Squad: LCx4

 

 

DAWN OF WAR

2 OBJECTIVES

 

 

He won first turn, and took it. He placed his objective middle of the board, about 6” from his table edge. I placed mine about 6” from the middle of the table edge. The plan was to destroy his army, but if I couldn’t, I’d need to be able to jump backwards and run straight to my objective.

 

DEPLOYMENT:

He set up his two tactical squads 3” away on either side of his objective. One squad inside a building to the left of the objective. The other squad to the right of the objective and behind a building.

I choose to setup my Honor Guard exactly 18” away from his tactical but behind some cover. I also deployed a full 10 man Assault Squad to the right of the honor Guard and exactly 18” away, and in cover. I broke my other Assault Squad into Combat Squads and deployed the dual meltagun half to the left of the honor guard in some cover. The rest of my army would deep strike. The bikes and devastators would walk on turn 1. My red thirst rolls from Astorath were spot on. The Vanguard combat squads got it – so did most of my assault squads. Perfect!

 

Dark Angel TURN 1

He walks everything on. Devastators about 18” from the left table edge on a large hill. His assault squad jumped in front of his objective and tactical squads. Bait I would gladly take as they were the only thing fast enough in his list to contest my objective unless he’s a walk and shoot kind of Dark Angel! His command squad and two HQs walked on to the right of his right-most tactical squad. A dreadnought parked itself to the left of the left-most tactical squad. The Lascannon dev squad walked on to the far right of the board, along with a dreadnought.

He shoots – night fighting. See’s once, scattered with the PC dread, and nothing. No assaults.

 

Blood Angels TURN 1

My attack bikes turbo boost up the road to the right about 28” – in hopes of taking care of the devastator squad and dreadnought. The devastators walk on with a clear line of sight of both objectives. The honor guard jump forward along with the dual melta assault squad, aimed for the dreadnought. Night fighting, can’t see it. The 10 man assault squad leap to assault his assault squad and I roll a 1 on a terrain check. Down to 9 Assault troops in the squad. I assault his assault squad, priest in range to confer Furious Charge. I do some damage, we stay locked in combat. I lost none.

 

Dark Angels TURN 2

His vets/HQs move to eat up my assault troops. Dark Angels shoot there Missile Launchers at the Honor Guard – 2 die. More shooting from the tactical and 2 more die. The priest stands alone. No problem. He attempts to shoot my attack bikes with lascannons and plasma cannon – 3+ cover saves from turbo boost save the day. His 500 points of assault goodness slam into my assault squad that is locked in combat. I loose 6 total – he loses all but 2 of his original assault squad. I run, fall back 16”.

 

Blood Angels TURN 2

Sanguinary Guard with chaplain, one squad of Vanguard come in. Sanguinary Guard drop next to the 4 ML Devs and shoot down 2. Vanguard declare Heroic Intervention and drop perfectly down next to his 10 man Tactical squad to the right of his objective. The attack bikes decide to ignore the dreadnought and kill 2 Lascannon devastators. I felt like they would do more instant death damage to me than the dread. My combat squaded assault troops fly behind his left dreadnought – weapon destroyed, immobilized. Venerable dread…. He tells me to re-roll immobilized. The dreadnought explodes instead, taking out 2 of my troops in the process! The single priest from my honor guard jump back to sit on my objective and confer FNP to the 3 remaining assault troops nearby. I assault his devastators with my attack bikes, killing 2 more. My Vanguard assault and kill about 6 tacticas, loosing one in return. He passes his leadership, we stay in combat.

 

Dark Angels TURN 3

He shoots and kills my honor guard priest with his left-most tactical squad. His missile launcher Devastators shoot at something, miss completely. His dreadnought moves in to take out my attack bikes. The Command squad goes after my Vanguard – hoping to save the tacticals! His dreadnought assaults and wiffs completely. I finish off his devastators in return. The vanguard die a terrible death to his 500+ points of power weapon and HQ goodness. Hey, that’s what they are there for! His command squad consolidates 5” towards me, his tactical hole up in the right building since there are only 3 left. His 3 assault troops assault my assault squad that blew up his dreadnought. We kill one each. I have one guy with a MG left, he has 2 guys left. Tied combat.

 

Blood Angel TURN 3

My vanguard still don’t want to come in. Astorath comes in with his 5 man assault team and priest. They drop behind a curved hill about 12” from his command squad. I’m banking that his terrain roll will be low enough that I will get the charge. Devastators shoot and actually take out 3 of his command squad even with his 4+ Invul to the entire squad. That’s 3 less power weapons to deal with. My attack bikes die to the dread (of course). He turns around to aim at Astorath and gang. The Sanguinary guard utterly destroy his devastators and consolidate towards his full 10 man Tac squad still near his objective. The single assault troop with MG and his two assault troops wiff… locked in combat still.

 

Dark Angel TURN 4

He shoots a plasma cannon at Astorath – I make my cover saves. He moves forward to assault Astorath/Assault squad/priest with his command squad. He shoots at the Sanguinary guard with his tacticals– roll a 2 on my saves, they shrug it off. He attempts to roll through terrain with his command squad – 1 and a 2. He doesn’t make it.

 

Blood Angel TURN 4

The final Vanguard squad comes in – I drop them between his 3 man tactical squad, his 10 man tactical squad, and his command squad. The Sanguinary move an inch away from his 10 man TACs, Astorath moves to his command squad. The Vanguard assault his 3 man squad and destroy them. Sanguinary assault and take out all but 3 troops in his other TAC squad. Astorath meets up with his HQ, the priest between his HQ and Chaplain, and the rest of the assault squad with the remaining members of my opponents honor guard. I loose 4 regular troops – he looses 1 troop with PW. Astorath forces re-rolls on invul saves (awesome!) but my opponent still only takes one more wound. I make my Fearless saves, and combat continues. My assault troop and his 2 assault troops are still locked in combat, whiffing away.

 

TURN 5 and 6

Vanguard jump into the Command Squad combat – his HQ kills them (again, that’s there job!) By the end of it everything is dead except Astorath and his HQ. Epic. The Sanguinary Guard finish off his tactical squad, and jump in to help that lone meltagunner that’s been locked in combat all game. They all jump and consolidate to the objective. My 3 assault troops on the backfield near my objective jump into terrain to hold it… and I loose 2 of 3. Hilarious! Finally, after re-rolling invulnerable saves, Astorath is down to one wound… and my opponents HQ is dead. Tabled on turn 6.

 

 

BLOOD ANGELS WIN! 2 Objectives to 0 Objective – Opponent tabled.

 

 

Lessons Learned:

Astorath: I like him better than Sanguinor and Dante for a DoA list. Mephiston is still king of my mech list.

 

Chaplains: Starting to like them a little more than my Librarians. It’s 6 one way half a dozen the other. Libby for Mech, Chappy for DoA maybe. Depends on my mood. Putting them with Sanguinary Guard is almost overkill – unless you aim them at something as equally hard hitting!

 

Troops: By the end I had a single troop holding each objective. Maybe I need a few more troops.

 

Devastators: hit and miss. Not so good in Dawn of War – but I built them so I’m going to use them from time to time. Might be better in a Mech list. Will switch them for more attack bikes in the future.

 

Attack Bikes: always do a good job and good opponents are scared of them!

 

Honor Guard: They are decent. I like the “hidden” priest – great against mech, and people want to shoot them which lets the other meltas roam free.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

Reading this just makes me feel bad for the poor Dark Angels player. They need a new 'dex.

 

Good read though, thanks for the battle report! You're really making me consider taking Astorath.

[ancient god]

Thanks for the BatRep! Entertaining read, always nice to see our BA do their thing.

[BigBaals]

Reading this just makes me feel bad for the poor Dark Angels player. They need a new 'dex.

 

Good read though, thanks for the battle report! You're really making me consider taking Astorath.

 

 

I agree, they need a new codex. I don't see much that they can do that Vanilla can't do (other than the full Terminator army), or that Wolves/Angels don't do better.

 

I use the old Lemartes model as my stand-in Astorath and after two games I'm pretty happy with his performance. I've used Death Company in 5-6 games and the only time they've made a bit of difference was in APOC when they took out a couple squads of Terminators before dissapearing to a Titan explosion, so that Astorath ability is quasi-useless to me. His pre-game Red Thirst booster is absolutely fantastic when my Vanguard and Sanguinary Guard get it.. and they almost always do. His forced re-roll to invul saves and ST 6 is also awesome. That and you can actually attach him to a squad, unlike a few of our other named characters.

 

Thanks for reading!

[JamesI]

Nice report BigBaals. When I first looked at your list, I noticed how similar it is to mine (though yours is larger as I play 1850).

[Judaz]

Great battle, but I do think that vanguard are a little more than meatshields ;)

 

You dropped the vanguards twice, shouldn't they be deployed at the same time even though they are combat squadded?

 

 

Edit: added than

[shatter]

Great battle, but I do think that vanguard are a little more meatshields biggrin.gif

 

You dropped the vanguards twice, shouldn't they be deployed at the same time even though they are combat squadded?

 

I thought so too. Combat squads happen at deployment, not reserve declaration. (C:BA combat squads)

 

I enjoyed the batrep very much. The re-roll on the dread blowing up and killing two of your guys made me chuckle.

 

Did any of your guys get red thirst? If I missed it, sorry. =)

[Drachnon]

I believe the HQ you didn't know the name of is Azrael with the lion helm providing the squad with a 4+ inv. save.

 

Anyways congrats on your victory

[BigBaals]

Yeah the Red Thirst is in there, "My red thirst rolls from Astorath were spot on. The Vanguard combat squads got it – so did most of my assault squads." - so basically half my army got it. Sanguinary Guard, Attack Bikes, and Devastators didn't get it.

 

Yeah, after re-reading the Combat Squad rule I'll do that from now on! Thanks for catching that! I'd been rolling seperately for my Combat Squad's Red Thirst also. That will help a bit.

 

I like to use my Vanguard as a fast acting Sanguinary Guard / Tie-up unit. They drop down, kill a squad, maybe a squad and a half, then die. It forces my opponent to either deal with them and backtrack and re-think there strategy, or ignore them and watch all of there troop choices vanish from the board.

 

I got bored with my Mech list - it was hit and miss depending on the opponent. I was 1-2 vs. Daemons, 2-3 vs. Vanilla Marines, 2-0 vs. Eldar, 0-2 vs. Space Wolves, 2-0 vs. Tyranids.

 

With slightly different takes each game on this DoA list (the RAS, VV, SG, and A. Bikes always present) I am 4-1. I was nearly tabled by the local Necron player, but I don't have any experience playing against Necrons and his Necron force is a very different type of list. I've tabled Dark Angels, nearly tabled I.G., and nearly tabled Vanilla Space Marines twice. The local Blood Angels players don't ever want to play me for some reason. I guess it's because I'm the only one that stuck with them through the AdobeDex debacle, and all but one of them just jumped on bored with BA.

 

Maybe everyone can chime in on how to beat this Necron force (do my best to explain them if I don't know what they are):

 

The Deciever

Warriors x10

Warriors x10

Warriors x10

Wraiths x3

Wraiths x3

Pariahs x5

Monolith

Tomb Spider (I think - big bug, fleet, hit like a MC?)

Some other IC that zoomed around with the Wraiths

 

I think my main mistake in that game was deploying my Objective mid-field. He held his Warriors in reserve, and decided to walk them all on his table edge. His objective was 6" from his table edge in the middle of the board. I don't know Necrons so I deep struck about 18" from his force - away from the heavy hitters. His Wraiths would zoom over and tie me up. I think I should have just started everything on the board except my Vanguard. After loosing about half my army on his turn 3 (he may have lost 5 models by the end of the game) I tried to keep to the outskirts of the board and zoom in for at least a draw. He kept to the center of the board with his monolith - teleporting things out of combat and assaulting other targets. It was rough.

[Brother Nathan]

kill the warriors and go for phase out! if only we had a uni tha could drop on them with loads of power weapons... lol. biggest threat is the deciever, as it dosent hae to fight what it dosent want to an can kill anything. id only go near the pariahs with the sanguard with a priest if you can deffinately get the charge. warscythes hurt so yu really dont want them to swing. mono hurts, but in a doa lisst the only thing that could be really effective would be a libby with sword of ssanguinius as the living armour rule dosent stop him getting str 10. but those are distractions. kill all the warriors and he will phase out. default win, the only way to really win;)

[Mezkh]

Necrons were my first army, I know them quite well. They do get tougher to play at higher points levels.

 

Tomb Spyder shouldn't have fleet, perhaps he was fielding the new Necron Forgeworld model? Awesome if so, that thing looks good.

 

I'd say start everything on the board, it's not like you have to weather much in the way of firepower coming downrage from his army (it has nothing) and that means you get stuck in with everyone at the same time.

 

The fearless negates some of the morale shenanigans he can pull, and the feel-no pain makes you pretty much invincible to shooting + Wraiths, so it's a fight in your favour.

 

Tactics wise, you want to delay committing to assaults until his warriors are on the board. Then beeline for them and crush them all via combat. Try to stay out of the Deciever's way at all costs - once he gets a charge off on anything, his rules make him a LOT more mobile. He can't be kept in combat and can bounce around anywhere he wants to go by hitting and running before blows are struck. But he only charges things within 12" of him. Never charge him, it's pointless as he can elect not to fight you.

 

The Wraiths are harder to avoid but they will fold quickly against many regular attacks. If he is smart his plan will be to use his cc units and the monolith to shield his warriors at all costs. If you get a combat squad of vanguard or the sanguard, or a reasonable charge with assault marines into each of the warriors they will often fold on the same turn they're charged and the game is yours, so good luck!

[death_incarnite]

first off knowing necron monoliths DONT WASTE YOUR TIME TRYING TO KILL IT, unless you have the raw power to take it out in one go that things a pain to kill and you can waste a lot of time trying to kill that thing t no avail, the problem with it though is it has some kind of lash that effects every unit within so and so inches so try and get the necrons to seperate from them, next the deceiver is going to be a problem but just watch your step and keep those rocket launchers safe because they will be able to put out some major damage.

[Bartali]

Reading this just makes me feel bad for the poor Dark Angels player. They need a new 'dex.

 

It's a dire DA list to be honest. The codex can do much better than that, even though it is outdated.

[Demoulius]

nice report on the dark angel, but as has been mentioned you only roll once for a squad, not for combat squads ;)

 

for the necrons, a find hta a vindicator or indeed S10 melee attack is about the only reliable way of popping that thing. other then that get multiple units of his in combat at the same time, he can only only teleport 1 unit out at a time. also when he does teleport units out he cant use his particle whip ^_^

 

if you wipe a unit out in close combat they cant come back either, no matter how many orbs or monoliths are nearby :)

 

though all necrons are LD 10, theyre not fearless. beat them in combat and hope they flee, then run them down. they got like I1 or I2, not really all that fast :P

 

the 2nd IC you mentioned was probably a lord with destroyer body? as thats the only character he MIGHT have had that one was probably it :(

 

better luck next time brother :woot: