Battle Report: 1850 pts

[CitadelArmyGuy]

Heads up before you get started!

I’d never played this guy and never seen him play before either-- it turns out he’s out for fluff and fun primarily, and also hadn’t played in a couple months too so was fairly rusty. I am posting the battle report anyhow because I have some good insights and also, I promised :) With that said, let’s get started.

I promised an 1850pts Battle Report, using the following list posted over in the Army List section—I used the variant in the comments below Morticon’s suggestions:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=257062

Opponent actually gave me his list printout to keep (told him I was doing a batrep), so here is his 1850 SW army:

Canis Wolfborn w/15 Fenrisian Wolves (305)

GH: x10 w/Meltagun, Flamer, Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Banner, Mark of Wulfen & Drop Pod (240)

GH: x10 w/Meltagun, Flamer, Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Banner, Mark of Wulfen & Drop Pod (240)

GH: x10 w/Meltagun, Flamer, Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Banner, Mark of Wulfen & Drop Pod (240)

LandSpeeder: x2 both with double multimeltas (160)

LandSpeeder: x2 both with double multimeltas (160)

LandSpeeder: x2 both with double multimeltas (160)

Long Fangs: x6 w/2 Lascannons 3 Missile Launchers (170)

Long Fangs: x6 w/2 Lascannons 3 Missile Launchers (170)

MISSION: Rolled for “Purge the Alien” with “Hammer and Anvil” deployment. I was a little sad bc I had wanted to test my list-viability in an objectives mission.

TERRAIN: We did something very strange where we rolled for mission and did all the terrain setup before sharing lists, so I didn’t have too much to go on for advantageous board-setup at all. All I knew was I was facing Space Wolves, so I used the assumptions of “LongFangs-DropPods-RunePriests” and so decided to set myself up with a defensive position-- I figured to keep cover versus any LongFangs and prepare a counter-charge. I knew my army was pretty slow (designed that way), but since the mission was KillPoints I figured I could keep everything close together and mutually supporting.

DEPLOYMENT: No night fight on Turn1, and my opponent won the dice off and decided to deploy first. He deployed Canis’ wolfpack centrally, with the 3 squadrons of speeders behind cover on his left, right and center and the two Long Fang units in crows-nest type cover in his left and right backfield. He seemed pretty eager to game, so I figured he wouldn’t be playing a patient game and would come to me since he had far more mobility than I did, so I went with the castling approach. Also, I carefully measured to make sure everything was outside of Long Fang range and MM speeder range to limit his Turn 1 shooting. I deployed Corbulo leading Hammernators and my LibTermy leading DC to form my core, with RAS in the back, GH on my wings and MM Bikes on my front. JP-Lib got Misfortune and Termy-Lib got Precognition, both got Prescience. Oh and I got no Red Thirst units.

SW Deployment

BA Deployment (plus the First SW droppod location)

SW T1: Well with 2x Drop Pods inbound, the SW decided to huck ‘em right down in front of my army into the gap I left between myself and the cover-line I’d setup. Sadly, one of the pods scattered 11” right off the board and the mishap table put it back in reserves. For reasons I can’t fathom, my opponent sat still with Canis and all the Speeders. The GH squad that now faced my entire army grit their teeth and let fly—but he took aim at my Lone Wolf, because the SW FAQ says while he give no KPs, he does surrender a First Blood VP. The plasma pistol killed himself, the meltagun missed, and the dakka snuck one wound past the 2+. Oof. With everything else out of range, BA are up.

BA T1: Not much to say really… Libby’s gave the Lone Wolf and a GH squad Prescience, and my army does a general advance into the cover-line. Shooting exploded the Drop Pod and more shooting killed all but 3 GH. The Lone Wolf charged the remaining three and kills them all.

End of Turn 1: BA 3 VP, SW 1 VP (because my Lone Wolf is alive…)

SW T2: Only one of the 2 Drop Pods passes reserves roll. He chooses... to drop in the same exact crater as the first one. Yep. Canis continues to sit still. He moves all the speeders forward, two squadrons flat-out and one squadron cruising. That one squadron put 4 MM wounds into an attack bike squad, but cover and FnP means only one bike goes down. For the GH facing my whole army (2nd time), the squad takes aim at the single attack bike… and only put one wound on it. He has amazing sportsmanship, despite the dice being so cruel to him twice. Long Fangs can range the cover-line, so he aims at attack bikes as well but whiffs, cover, and FnP means no effects.

BA T2: Libbys cast Prescience on two squads of Attack Bikes, DC move to line up a 1” charge on the newly dropped GH, Lone Wolf exits cover to head towards Canis looking for death, and the 10-man RAS make a bold move and leap out into the open on my left flank headed for the cover his speeders are hiding behind to flush them out—they end up running 6” more inches, safely getting them behind the cover. My shooting from attack bikes kill two speeders, and left-flank GH use bolters and plasmaguns to bring down another speeder. 5-man RAS use meltagun and explode the 2nd droppod—the explosion kills the single-wound attackbike the GHs failed to kill (so I gave him his first kill point…) Shooting takes down the enemy GH to 7-left, and DC charge-in led by TermyLib. DC deal 17 wounds, then my opponent makes 16 3+ saves and I’m like :huh: Haha. The GH swing back heavily but the TermyLib tanks all of the wounds no sweat. Then the TermyLib’s axe and the PF DC kill 4 more; the surviving 2 break and since TermyLib can’t sweep, they fall back 10”… right next to the Lone Wolf.

End of Turn 2: BA 5 VP, SW 2 VP (Lone Wolf alive)

SW T3: Final drop-pod turns up, and this time lands conservatively in the defense-lines back in his own deployment zone. Canis’ wolfpack decide it’s time to move forward and one of the speeders fails its dangerous terrain and immobs—my opponent decides to split them into two new units and cruises the freed one over to the cover on his left. One MM speeder pings its shots off the Lone Wolf’s stormshield, the other speeder pings its shots off my Corbulo-Assault Terminators’ shields, and the last Speeder whiffs. One Long Fang pack kills 3 of the 10-man RAS hiding behind cover, and the other LFs finish the remaining single-attackbike for his 2nd KP.

BA T3: The JP-Lib separates from the RAS and they jump out towards Canis’ wolfpack while the Lib hides from LOS behind cover--- those RAS are bait for Canis, because Corbulo leads the Assault Termies over the cover-line and into the open, end up running 5” more and perfectly in range for a countercharge. I’m ok if Canis kills the RAS (sacrificing 1 KP so I can gain 2 KP since Canis is the Warlord). DC with TermyLib get hung up in cover but run forward as well, moving 7” total. GH in my backfield use 24” range to kill the 2 enemy GH who had survived combat from DC. The other GH use plasmaguns to kill a speeder and my last attackbike squad only glance another speeder. Lone Wolf fails a 9” charge against the wolfpack, and I remember that I forgot to cast any of my Librarian’s powers. Sadly, this game is pretty one-sided at this point so it doesn’t matter.

End of Turn 3: BA 6 VP, SW 3 VP (Lone Wolf, still alive)

SW T4: Canis moves in on the RAS—looks like he’s taking the bait. The GH in his deployment zone move into the defense lines and then everything he has targets the Corbulo-Assault Termies. Total of 8 bolters, 4 multimeltas, 4 lascannons and 6 missiles launchers…. nothing gets past the 2+/3++. Corbulo failed one of his LoS, but Far Seeing Eye let me re-roll it so he was fine through it all. Wow. For assault, Canis’ wolfpack charges the RAS who have 7 guys left—the naked Sgt challenges Canis, dies, and the wolves kill 4. The 2 still alive use ATSKNF to keep fighting—those assault termies are only 5” away….

BA T4: Corbulo leads the Termies towards the beleaguered bait-RAS (who I thought would have been completely wiped out, but the Sgt challenging Canis is the only reason they weren’t). The JP-Lib jumps over and actually joins the Assault-Termies as well. The DC move and run towards far-away enemy GH, and the Lone Wolf moves and runs towards the Speeder atop cover near him. My attackbikes kill a speeder, so only 1 left out of 6. For the assault phase, the Corbulo-JPLib-AssaultTermy squad charges in and lays complete waste to the wolves, rescuing the 2 RAS men. Now, I *tried* to pull my punch using the following tactic: I used the Lightning-Claw AssaultTermy Sergeant to challenge Canis himself. I figured he’d lose, then I’d be tied in combat and safe from shooting next turn before I finish him. Weirdly, Canis did not roll any rending so AP3 claws bounced off his 2+… then I swung back for 3 wounds, and surprisingly Canis only has 3+ and no invuln! Oooof once again. Combat is a massacre, I took no damage but I only got 2” consolidate so Corbulo is suddenly at the back.

End of Turn 4: BA 9 VP, SW 3 VP (Lone Wolf still alive)

SW T5: Night Fight does not kick-in. Everything alive shoots the Terminators- 4 Lascannons, 6 missile launchers, 2 multimelta, 1 meltagun, 12 boltershots. 3 Terminators die this time, since Sergeant with 5++ was closest and Corbulo was in the back so I couldn’t LoS to delegate wounds to the 3++ shields.

BA T5: Terminators move towards the GH, and the Lone Wolf moves towards the last speeder. The 2 survivor RAS go hide their KP behind LOS haha. No shooting at all. Then I remember I started moving before I cast Libby-powers again… that’s twice. :) Well… for charging, the Lone Wolf chainfists the Speeder to death, and the Corbulo-JPLib-Hammernators charge the GH but I whiff tons of attacks and only kill 4 of 10 (really wish I had remembered to cast Prescience), who fall back bc again I can’t sweep. We roll, and the game ends.

Final Score: Blood Angels have 11 VPs (9 KP, Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker), and the Space Wolves have 3 VPs (2 KP, my Lone Wolf is alive).

I’ll post my final thoughts in a comment later today. Topics: Foot-heavy Army, Timing Countercharges & Naked Sgts, 2+, Melee Units, Attackbikes, Foot-DC

[JamesI]

Looks like a good game. Look forward to seeing the additional thoughts.

 

A libby can't cast the same power twice a turn, I believe only Ahriman (and perhaps Eldrad) have rules to get around that.

[Chaplain Admetus]

I believe he had two librarians with prescience, and I'm assuming each cast on a different unit?

 

How did you find the alliance - did the Wolves give you anything especially exciting, or did you feel it wasn't really worth it and you could have kept to pure BA?

[CitadelArmyGuy]

Looks like a good game. Look forward to seeing the additional thoughts.

 

A libby can't cast the same power twice a turn, I believe only Ahriman (and perhaps Eldrad) have rules to get around that.

 

AH see I should have grammar checked, I should have said Libbys not Libby's-- I have two Mastery 1 Libs, and no Epistolaries. They each can cast Prescience, no?

[JamesI]

Looks like a good game. Look forward to seeing the additional thoughts.

 

A libby can't cast the same power twice a turn, I believe only Ahriman (and perhaps Eldrad) have rules to get around that.

 

AH see I should have grammar checked, I should have said Libbys not Libby's-- I have two Mastery 1 Libs, and no Epistolaries. They each can cast Prescience, no?

Yes, they can each cast it. I misunderstood the report to say 1 librarian casting it twice.

[CitadelArmyGuy]

Final Thoughts: Foot-heavy Army, Timing Countercharges & Naked Sgts, 2+, Melee Units, Attackbikes, Foot-DC

 

@Chaplain Admetus: I absolutely feel the SW allies brought important additions to this list. Having 2+ armor on a JP-Libby is awesome, and made me far less afraid to commit him to battle. That runeweapon as psydefense ain't hurtin either. Also, to foot-slog DC and Hammernators requires supporting units, and if I'm going to use Tacticals then I want the 'best' Tacticals in the game-- GH. For a counter-charge army, if they had to, then they can screen the army's front, moving up-doubletap-get charged, overwatch doubletap- counterattack w/banner. Hopefully between all that they did enough damage so that whatever's left get's cleaned up by RAS/Hammernators/DC. ALSO the Lone Wolf is an AMAZING spoiler-- he's a pesky yet deadly fly in the ointment of the opponent's plans. Opponent HATES to shoot him, he hates even worse to melee him. LoneWolf can hunt monters, tank AT fire, chainfist vehicles, and generally solve a lot of problems for you in your quest to kill him. ;) Mine will be modeled as a Death-Company Terminator, which I have always wished for! ;)

 

I really was hoping to try this Army with an objective mission-- that being said, my opponent made this match extremely easy by feeding me his army piecemeal.

 

 

BTW Corbulo leading Hammernators is everything people say it is: Grade A++ level-unit

 

Foot Heavy Army: As far as speed, I did not feel too slow for this mission at all. If instead it had it been only 3-4 objectives, with 2 in his deployment zone I might have felt different-- but then I'd have deployed terrain and my units far differently too. 'Run' rule for foot-melee units came in 5th ed, but transports were good then. Now, Run for foot-melee units is better since transports can entangle them up and mess with their threat-timing, and the average longer charge range helps them out too. IDK this could totally be personal experience and then the fact that I need to find harder opponents to fight, but there is so so much emphasis on speed and melee-unit delivery in most lists-- I decided to build counter to that and take more bodies rather than "pay" for mobility since the majority of opponents are more than willing to use their speed to come to you. Will that always work? Certainly not! Jetbike Eldar would cut this list apart-- and flyerspam would too. Versus a static-gunline, the tanking units (Hammernators, DC, FnP Attackbikes) may be good enough to advance right into them... and if I HAD to, I could deepstrike the JPs and the Terminators, race the bikes across, and leave DC with the GH to hold my own deployment zone.

 

Timing Counter-charges and Naked Sgts: Since this list was designed around counter-charge, but only got to use that tactic once, I still want to feel out viability. My thoughts are that *most* units are packing only one deadly character, and sometimes only one character at all. Countercharge list hopes to use Naked Sgts to abuse this by presenting 'bait' targets for the enemy to slam into-- then use the naked Sgt to absorb tons of death while the squad attempts survival. Works really well when RAS are the bait and a FnP chalice is nearby as part of the counter-charge unit. Now, the countercharge Unit should have a naked Sergeant and a killy-Character too, or the whole unit must be good (hammernators). So then the countercharge means the naked sergeant again gets eaten by his Killy character, and you wipe out his unit with your killy stuff-- leaving you locked up and protected against shooting. Then (well hopefully) you take out his Killy character in his assault phase and are free to act in your next phase.

 

2+ Armor: I'm not saying anything new here. Simply repeating what everyone else has found out--- 2+ is simply amazing in melee. Melee-tanking characters are a pure awesomesauce for melee units. Hence, the Runic-Armor JP-Libby allied from SW that joins BA RAS. The vast majority of AP2 melee is initiative1. If you are a character with a 2+, take an Axe. If your character only has 3+, take a sword or nothing (just IMHO, and totally situational towards a unit's role and tasks assigned). If you are not a character (DC, SangGuard, GH) then take a 'hidden' Ax or PF.

 

Melee Units: You need at least 2 sources of 'killiness' (ie AP3 or lower delivery) in any given melee unit-- either 2 Characters or a Character and the Unit itself (Consider this a plus in favor for PW on SangPriests) Otherwise you are potentially a challenge away from getting shunted and countercharged yourself. Very important to setup charges/prepare to get charged paying attention to what can issue and accept challenges for both yourself AND your opponent. Single character-units are in danger—no characters or 2 character units *seem* stronger IMO.

 

Attack Bikes: I think I’ll be leaving Devastators home from now on, in favor of the amazing MM Attackbike. If you hadn’t noticed, I think a list either needs to be ready for flyer-spam or ignore it completely and just do the best you can if you happen to face it. So many lists are compromising power in order to compensate for flyers—I think 40K has developed rock-paper-scissors flavor with the introduction of flyers… but I digress. The attackbike is simply amazing, and holed up in cover with a FnP bubble makes them really really solid… or even moving in the open with a FnP for that matter. They provide the speed to hunt and kill the Gun-Tanks which got a boost in 6th. For running 5, I wish I had ordered them in 3 and 2 (instead of 2-2-1) since they are easier to bonus with Prescience that way.

 

Foot-DC: Again, I didn’t find them too slow this time, and for a countercharge list speed isn’t the priority, but I can certainly see situations where I would wish for more speed. 9 DC w/PF runs at 205pts… 5 JP-DC w/PF runs 200pts, or you can get 7 DC w/PF &Droppod for 200pts as well. Honestly I think if I play this list again I will take the DP, even if I end up dropping it empty to wrench-up the opponent’s LOS. The LibTermy can join them in the DP if he really, really wanted to.

[CitadelArmyGuy]

I really, really hate to self-bump my own thread so I deeply apologize. This was my first battle report I've ever done and I tried to be thorough.

 

However, I stimulated zero conversation. Nada, nothin.

 

 

Please let me know what I did wrong so I can do better in the future!

 

 

Did I talk too much, so its a case of TL;DR? Or was it because the game was so one-sided it wasn't interesting?

 

It took me about 3 hours of reflecting, writing and posting to make the battle report... so it was saddening to see nothing come of it. It really makes me appreciate Chaplain Admetus' 10-game Report thread--- it's pretty time consuming to do, and he did 10!

[Taranis]

I found your battle enlightening and very useful. I have yet only played 1 game in this edition so I'm just soaking info from what you guys report. In a month I'll have much more first hand knowledge as I'll be attending a tournament. :)

What I've learnt from my first game is that marines need to bring firepower for both hard and soft targets.

[Mortare]

Thanks for taking the time to put your thoughts and the report down. I haven't had a chance to play with the new rules yet and it is useful to see what is working for people

[earthen]

Great bat rep! PLEASE keep them coming!!!

[BloodReavers]

I appreciate the BattRep, and commend the effort put into getting it up on the forums here. However I don't think its a good indicator of your army's strength or weaknesses because as you said, it wasn't a multi-objective game and he basically fed you one unit at a time. Any army would have done well in that situation.

 

Keep it up though, try 10 games with the same army or with minor variations and give us that information! I've been leaning towards footslogging armies more lately too, I ran vehicles before to give me mobile FNP from the priests and coversaves across an empty board. Now with the first blood always going to some rhino or razorback first turn of the game, I've dropped anything less than 13 front armor from my lists. All I need is some long range anti-tank to force them to come to me and I'll meet them in the middle.

[Morticon]

So many lists are compromising power in order to compensate for flyers—I think 40K has developed rock-paper-scissors flavor with the introduction of flyers… but I digress.

 

been having the same discussion with my buddies now. I cannot make a decent enough list to face all comers with fliers factored in. And when they're factored in, its weaker vs. other stuff ><;

[CitadelArmyGuy]

I appreciate the BattRep, and commend the effort put into getting it up on the forums here. However I don't think its a good indicator of your army's strength or weaknesses because as you said, it wasn't a multi-objective game and he basically fed you one unit at a time. Any army would have done well in that situation.

 

Keep it up though, try 10 games with the same army or with minor variations and give us that information! I've been leaning towards footslogging armies more lately too, I ran vehicles before to give me mobile FNP from the priests and coversaves across an empty board. Now with the first blood always going to some rhino or razorback first turn of the game, I've dropped anything less than 13 front armor from my lists. All I need is some long range anti-tank to force them to come to me and I'll meet them in the middle.

 

Excellent feedback, I will certainly continue to deliver a Battle Report every time I play my counter-charge army. Yes, First Blood VP is a pain so having no 'easy' units in Foot-Lists helps a lot with that. Completely agree about the objectives and piecemeal comments, I will be sure to batrep next time I play an objective game.

 

As a general comment, I'm had four more games since this battle report,. My comment about your opponent usually using his mobility to "come to you" has been continually reinforced. I continue to foot-slog my TH-SS Terminators w/Corbulo and they continue to soak fire for the Army since the opponent sees such an 'opportunity' of "Terminators in the open" (no need for cover, 3++ is better). SO since they never muck about in cover unless they are charging a target into it, they are moving avg of 9" per turn (6+~3"run) since they always run if they aren't charging (no guns). I haven't ever felt they were too slow, I place them next to units that the opponent is already coming to kill, so I'll let my opponent pay for his mobility and I'll continue to out-number him--- but to be very fair, I haven't fought an "all Bikers/Jetbikers" army yet.

 

Despite my comments about paying for mobility, I am currently playtesting drop-pod Death Company. Since the pod is worth only 2x bodies (or 1x if JPs) and they are the only droppod unit (means guaranteed arrival Turn1) I am more inclined to give them a try.

 

 

 

Fun tidbit from a game tonight: Corbulo killed a Broodlord in a Challenge-fight, took no wounds. LOVE THIS GUY!

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Thanks for taking the time to write up this batrep. I am very new to BA (don't actually own any models yet -- just in the planning stage as the BA will be my reward for finally finishing my Imperial Guard) so I, too, am just soaking stuff up.

 

Your commentary on 2+ Armour save characters and the necessity of a power axe was very helpful. I've been stewing about what to give my terminator captain (since when I start building an HQ and 2 assault squads will be my starting point) and I think this batrep has made me reconsider a power axe for him versus the lighting claws. After four more battles, to you still have the same opinion about power axe on a 2+ character?

[elithren]

Side note, Canis and any TWC with a special weapon cant get rending on their attacks as they lose the rending rule using their special weapons, so no rending on canis. All in the FAQ.