6th Battle Report - BA vs Paladins

[Mezkh]

Hey all,

 

Took some pics of my friendly game today so I had the option of doing a battle report :D

 

Opponent is a comparatively new player with a GK Draigowing.

I don't find super Paladins the most exciting army to face, but I find 6th does a good job of making games interesting between missions, warlords, and terrain effects.

 

The armies;

Blood Angels

 

HQ:

Librarian - Jump Pack, Force Axe, Bolt Pistol, Unleash Rage, Shield of Sanguinius.

 

Elites:

Corbulo

Sanguinary Priest - Jump Pack, Power Axe, Bolt Pistol

 

Troops:

10 Assault Marines - 2xMeltagun, Sarge w/ Meltabomb

10 Assault Marines - 2xMeltagun, Sarge w/ Meltabomb

10 Tactical Marines - Multimelta, Flamer, Sarge w/BP+CCW

-Rhino

8 Death Company - Bolters, Thunderhammer, Powerfist

-Rhino

Death Company Dreadnought, Blood Talons

 

Fast Attack:

5 Vanguard Veterans - 5 Meltabombs, Lightning Claw

 

Heavy Support:

Storm Raven - TL Multimelta,TL Lascannon

 

Grey Knights

 

HQ:

Mr Kaldor Draigo

 

Elites:

Techmarine with grenades of ;) you.

 

Troops:

10 Paladins with toys

10 Strike Squad GK with Str5 stormbolters

 

Fast Attack:

Stormraven

 

Heavy Support:

Dreadie with TL-Autocannons, Psybolt ammo.

 

Yep that's 1750 that one is.

 

Pregame:

So with 6th, a bunch of stuff goes down first.

-The Eternal War mission rolled was 'Big Guns Never Tire'; My Stormraven becomes Scoring (woohoo!) and worth 1 VP, and opponent's Dakkadread the same.

-The Deployment was 'Hammer and Anvil', short table edges, and I won pick of side.

-With 3 objectives worth 3 VP each for the mission, it bought into play what I reckon is the problem with the Eternal War missions - Picking your side before placing objectives. Not only that, player who chooses his side first gets to place the first objective, which is terribly unfair with an odd number.

So in the interests of a fair game, I put the first marker roughly in the middle.

 

My Librarian rolled 'The Dust of a Thousand Worlds' as his trait - Himself and all units within 12 have move through cover. A wonderful trait for my army, as units with MTC don't take Dangerous terrain tests; perfect for my Jumpers and Rhinos.

Draigo rolled 'Divide to Conquer' as his trait - my Stormraven and Vanguard Veterans would be rolling 4+ to come into play turns 2 and 3.

 

The board is set out with some 2 small hills, 1 large hill 4 Mysterious Forests, 2 Mysterious Lakes, and 6 Archeotech Artifacts as in the picture. My deployment is the bottom half.

No Nightfight.

 

http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc393/Mezkh/Terrain-1.jpg

 

I lost the roll-off for turn, and opponent elected to go second. I set up my ASM in the middle on the 12" line, with the Death Company Rhino on their right carrying Corbulo, Tactical Squad combat squadded in the Rhino on their left.

Opponent deploys his Strike squad behind a mountain on his objective, and his Pallie monster and Dread fairly conservatively in the other corner.

 

http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc393/Mezkh/BAGKDeployment.jpg

 

Turn 1:

 

BA - Death Company Rhino moves forward 6" and drops off Death Company within 24" range of the Pallies in preparation to begin firing spitballs on them. One pokes his nose into the forest and discovers it to be filled with Overgrown Spinethorn - This terrain nullifies all grenades which might be a real thorn in the side (lol) of the super Pallie unit.

The Death Company also identify the nature of their objective - A Grav Wave Generator which halves charge range of units attempting to charge the unit in control of the objective - useful, but as Death Company do not Score, they can't make use of it.

The ASM Jump forward and discover they have an Ironback forest at their rear - Cover saves from it are 3+ (yummy)

The ASM explore an Archeotech Artifact and find a bunch of alien slime (does nothing)

The Tactical Rhino drives forward to hug the large hill for LOS cover.

I made a mistake here by not using flat out to move the DC Rhino into the Ironbark forest for 3+ cover. Flat out is done in the shooting phase now, and there are a lot of neat tricks BA can do with that 12" move. By relying on the 5+ cover, my opponent has much better odds of claiming First Blood!

 

GK - Pallies move forward conservatively and kill a couple of Assault Marines.

The Strike Squad lands a penetrating hit on the Tactical squad Rhino, removing a hull point and it's Storm Bolter

The Dread lands two glancing hits and two penetrating hits on the DC Rhino - I make two cover saves keeping it alive on one HP, and it is shaken.

The DC Rhino was not in range of the Psycannons and so couldn't be finished off for a VP

 

End Turn 1

http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc393/Mezkh/Endturn1.jpg

 

Turn 2:

 

BA - The Stormraven rolls it's 4 to come on. The Vanguard Vets fail their first roll, but get the 4 needed on the DoA reroll.

Decision time on how I'm going to take down the Dread as it's worth a VP for the mission. I decide to bank on the Stormraven taking it down, and send the Vanguard Vets in to erase the Strike Squad.

The Stormraven zooooms forward 36", bringing the Dread in range of all weaponry. It also inadvertently triggers another Archeotech Artifact -Sunkiller Engine! - Which creates nightfight until the end of the following turn. Stormraven misses with it's 2 Bloodstrikes, Penetrates and Immobilizes with it's Lascannons, and Glances with the multimelta, only to have the glance saved by the Dread making it's now Nightfight Stealth 6+ cover save...grumble grumble.

The Tactical combat squads disembark, flame and rapidfire the Strike Squad, the Assault squad jumps over the hill and meltas one, then combines with the Vanguard Veterans to wipe them out. First Blood is mine! The Vanguard only just make assault with one model due to rolling a 3 on their charge and passing two overwatch saves...lucky. (Corbulo standing by!)

During the assault, an ASM who piles in through the lake discovers it to be filled with Daemon Bile, deadly to psykers. The nearby Archeotech Artifact is filled with more Alien Slime.

 

Swarming the Strike Squad - It's blurry because there is so much shakey-cam action!

http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc393/Mezkh/BAturn2assault.jpg

 

GK - The GK Stormraven fails it's reserve roll.

The immobilized Dread takes on the stormraven - 8 rolls, no 6's. Huzzah.

The Pallies again move pretty conservatively and take out a few more ASMs with shooting.

 

End Turn 2

http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc393/Mezkh/Endturn2.jpg

 

Turn 3:

 

BA - Thankfully, the Dakkadread not being immobilized mean my Zooming Stormraven can still move 18" forward and keep it within the 45 degree downwards arc of it's TL Multimelta. Not having a protracter, we D6 the Lascannon turret, which then counted as being in - Not required though, as the two remaining Bloodstrike Missiles and the TL-Multimelta account for the Dread.

The Vanguard march around behind the Pallies in the hope of pulling them where I want them via assault. Not so wise a move now - Pile in just being 3", and Consolidation being D6"...

The tactical combat squad identifies the nearby objective as being a Targetting Relay, giving them shooting rerolls of failed to hit rolls of 1.

Mindful of the yet to arrive enemy Stormraven, I place my Librarian's unit so that the opposing flyer will have to pick between my SR or roasting my HQ with Mindstrike missiles (worth a VP). With only the non contesting Stormraven and the Pallie squad left in my opponent's army, the game is really in the bag for me. Pallies can't string out now to claim multiple objectives, and I still have 5 scoring units and 2 denial units. I could kite around for a win as the Pally shooting hasn't been devastating so far, but I decide to throw some units into an assault to see if I can kill anyone.

 

GK - GK Stormraven comes on and targets infantry over the BA Stormraven - bit of a mistake I feel. It kills a few Vanguard and ASMs.

The Pally shooting bounces off BA armour and FNP saves again.

 

End Turn 3

http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc393/Mezkh/Endturn3.jpg

 

Turn 4:

 

BA - Stormraven moves to engage enemy Stormraven (too close for missiles, switching to guns) - Misses both it's MM Shot and it's TL LC Shot! Well that was unexpected...

No fear though, the Multi-Melta toting Tactical Marine steps up...6 to hit!....5 to Pen!...Explodes! Debris rains down on the Librarian's squad, scoring 8 wounds...luckily, their Power Armour holds.

Duff the good odds and fluke the bad odds...I'll take it!

 

Enemy Stormraven died where you see the flying base...Go Multimelta!

http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc393/Mezkh/HeroMultimelta.jpg

 

From here in the game, I try to launch a combined assault on the Pallies. Death Company Assault through cover, Corbulo tries rerolling one of the dice, doesn't get them in. The one assault squad fails.

This does not end well as you will see from these two pics... The combination of Rad Grenades making assaulters T3, double Hammerhand bumping the Pallies to Str6 (ignoring my FNP rolls and IDing my Libby) and I6 Halberds is nasty. Blood Talon Dread having AP3, not good.

For my trouble, I lose everything in the Assault in exchange for killing a Pallie and spreading one or two wounds around.

 

Before

http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc393/Mezkh/BAturn5preassault.jpg

 

After!

http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc393/Mezkh/BAturn5postassault.jpg

 

The Pallies march into the middle of the board, shrugging off bolter fire, and chewing through my other Assault Squad and the Death Company. Draigo takes two wounds, and that's it! Just no way to take them on in close combat for me. Game ends with no turn 7. Multimelta Tactical Combat squad hold one objective, Stormraven has zoomed over to take another, and the other half of the Tactical squad contests the remaining objective with the Pallies

 

BA have;

- First Blood (1 VP)

- Linebreaker (1 VP)

- 2 Objectives (6 VP)

 

GK have;

- Slay the Warlord (1 VP)

 

Overwhelming Victory to the BA!

 

End of the game (image is rotated sideways)

http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc393/Mezkh/endgame.jpg

 

This is my first real attempt at a Battle Report, so feedback appreciated - I can take criticism too, I'm a big boy ;)

[John_f]

Very nice! An excellent example on how to deal with deathstar units (altough you probably shouldn't have charged the Paladins) Keep these batreps comming!

[Mezkh]

Yeah charging the Pallies was always a bad move from a perfect strategy standpoint, but my opponent got to throw a few more dice around and make a game of it..not much fun coming in for a game and your super assault unit doesn't get to assault :(

[Israfel]

Yeah charging the Pallies was always a bad move from a perfect strategy standpoint, but my opponent got to throw a few more dice around and make a game of it..not much fun coming in for a game and your super assault unit doesn't get to assault ;)

 

I salute you brother for keeping with the spirit of the game :D and congratz on your win as well! :(

[Morticon]

nicely done buddy!

 

:)

[Kierdale]

A very good battle report! Congratulations on the win and kudos for assaulting that deathstar when you didn't have to. With the numbers in your favour I'm sure I would have done the same.

[Emperors Immortals]

Yeah charging the Pallies was always a bad move from a perfect strategy standpoint, but my opponent got to throw a few more dice around and make a game of it..not much fun coming in for a game and your super assault unit doesn't get to assault :P

 

I salute you brother for keeping with the spirit of the game :) and congratz on your win as well! :D

 

 

I second this, its the difference between winning and being a winner, nice strategy too :)