Chaplain Admetus' Battle Report Thread - Game 32 added

[Chaplain Admetus]

So, given that my 10 game challenge seemed to go down quite well (for those that missed it and want to read, it can be found here - http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=255884 ), I've decided to do a battle report thread. The starting army involves changes and tweaks based on what I learned from the 10 games, and I'm going to playtest and evolve it with the ultimate goal of taking it to October's Throne of Skulls tournament.
So, without further ado, the new list:

HQ:
Librarian with Jump Pack - 125 points
Really need to get round to picking powers for this guy since I have to, but I've been having too much fun with rulebook powers. Unfortunately the Epistolary upgrade had to be scrapped

Dante - 225 points
The lord of the Angelic host himself! I needed a third troops choice, and he seemed like the most entertaining way to get it

Troops:
10 Man Tactical Squad, Meltagun, Power Fist, Missile Launcher, Rhino - 225 points
Proved its doubters wrong in the 10 game challenge, still a solid choice

10 Man Assault Squad, Thunder Hammer - 220 points
Always solid. I'd like to find the points to put a special weapon of some kind in here though

5 Sanguinary Guard, Infernus Pistol and Power Fist - 220 points
The Rhino assault squad has been unceremoniously removed from duty, and replaced with these fine gentlemen. More damage output, can take more, and only give away one kill point instead of two.

Elites:
Sanguinary Priest, Jump Pack, Power Weapon - 90 points
With the foot squad going, so does the foot priest - a pack priest should do the job nicely

7 Man Sternguard Veteran Squad, Power Fist, Meltagun, 3 combi-Meltas, drop pod - 255 points
Oh, how I have missed these guys... Not having them on hand was really big during the 10 game challenge, and they're straight back where they belong

Heavy Support:
5 Man Devastator Squad, 2 Missile Launchers, 2 Plasma Cannons - 140 points
I reached this point with a few more spare points than I thought, so decided to upgrade them with a few plasma cannons.

The biggest flaw with my previous list, I found, was the lack of AP2. With the melta sternguard back in, 2 infernus pistols that will land -exactly- where I want them to, and a pair of plasma cannons, that particular weak spot should be covered. Anything that underperformed is out, and there's some shiny toys to play with in their place. I'm a bit lacking in ranged anti-armour, but I think my close-range is solid enough to compensate, as I'm almost never going to be the defensive army.

Game 1

Mission: Big Guns Never Tire

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
First game with the new list, and I'm playing against a familiar foe. The low-model count GK army from the 10 game challenge is back, but with a few upgrades dropped to squeeze in an extra paladin. Much like last time, its another Big Guns mission, only difference is deployment, so its a straight up rematch.

His list: Draigo, 2 Dreadknights with teleporters, large-blast psycannons, and incinerators, techmarine with stuff, 3 paladins (mostly FnP), and a mastery level 2 pyromancy librarian. Each of his characters tagged with a paladin. I can't remember Dante's warlord trait so it wasn't important, Draigo got an extra VP for everything he kills in a challenge (note to self: decline challenges). The GK librarian got molten beam and the fire cloak thingie, my librarian got prescience and the 4+ invulnerable. I won the roll and elected to take the first turn. Sternguard and Devastators succumbed to the Red Thirst, whilst Dante hexes Draigo with his mask.


Deployment. Green stars mark the objective. The techy and his paladin are hiding at the back behind the rocky outcrop. Librarian and pally are deep-striking, draigo and pally are outflanking, Dante, Priest and SG are deep striking. There's a tactical combat squad on the right objective, and the devs are on the left.

Turn 1 - AS: The librarian kicks off proceedings by giving the Assault Squad a 4+ invulnerable save. The Sternguard drop in and slag a dreadknight, taking it down to one wound. One of my plasma cannons overheats and blows himself up (great start...), the other one hits but the Dread passes its invulnerable save. The rhino and assault squad both advance.

Turn 1 - GK: Paladin and Techmarine come out of hiding to start having a go at the Sternguard. The wounded one shunts down my side of the table, and the safe one goes towards the sternguard. Shooting from the dreadknight sees 3 assault marines fall, 3 rending hits bounce off the invulnerable saves otherwise there's a good chance the Thunder Hammer would have fallen. They pass morale. The Techmarine and Paladin fail to charge the Sternguard after two die in the shooting phase, and the Dreadknight makes it in. 5 attacks is enough to bin the squad, so to ensure not giving away first blood I feed it my sergeant. Being fearless, I stay in combat.


End of turn 1. I've already managed to do more damage to the Dreadknights than I managed in the entirety of the last game. Good start.

Turn 2 - AS: Everything moves up a little. Librarian casts prescience on the Devastators before moving off, and find out that the mysterious objective in the centre is sabotaged (its the only one thats relevant). I ponder whether to drop Dante near the Dreadknight to make sure, but decide my plasma cannon and meltagun can probably handle it and dump them down the back near the paladin and techmarine. In the shooting phase, my decision is vindicated as I drop the Dreadknight for two Victory Points (First Blood and a dead heavy support choice). Dante misses with his infernus pistol (the start of a -very- slippery start for his lordship...), whilst the Sanguinary Guard hits and kills the paladin with his, and Angelus Boltguns shred the Techmarine. In combat, the Dreadknight fails and only hits twice, squashing two Sternguard, and I can't wound it.

Turn 2 - GK: Everything turns up. Draigo and his boy come on near the Sanguinary Guard, and the Librarian and Paladin land right between my units. The librarian casts molten beam, failing to wound my sergeant, killing a missile launcher, and the plasma cannon passes his cover save. Holocaust is attempted on my tactical combat squad, but I successfully deny the witch. The Dreadknight fails miserably, missing with all 4 attacks (annoying, since now I can't shoot it).


End of Turn 2. Dante and SG are facing down Draigo up the back (he's blocked by the pod), Sternies are still holding up the Dreadknight, and that librarian and Paladin are waaaay too close for comfort.

Turn 3 - AS: The assault squad makes themselves invulnerable, and decide to get away from the exploding objective in favour of one that won't try to kill them. The rhino potters around looking for something productive to do. Shooting manages to wound the paladin down the bottom. Dante and the SG line up facing Draigo, and shoot at him and the paladin. For some reason I don't charge...I think I wanted to get value by overwatching and hopefully doing more damage with that, followed by hit and run. Combat sees the dreadknight killing one sternguard, and the remaining one fails to wound again. Still, done a fantastic job of tarpitting it.

Turn 3 - GK: The Paladin and Librarian decide to go solo, the paladin going after the tactical squad and the librarian going for the devastators. Shooting accomplishes nothing of note. In combat, the paladin easily beats the tactical squad, killing two, and three flee; the dreadknight finally finishes the sternguard, and the librarian takes my devastators down to just the sergeant, after wounding himself casting hammerhand. Draigo makes it into combat, and challenges, Dante ducking out. Draigo does manage to precision strike out my priest, and I fail his look out sir, and his feel no pain. I do, however, get the paladin with my powerfist. Dante attempts to hit and run, but rolls a 6 .


End of turn 3. Apologies for the ludicrously blurry photo.

Turn 4 - AS: The librarian sticks the invulnerable save on the Sanguinary Guard, in case the Dreadknight decides to gatecrash that particular party. The tacticals rally and come back for another go at the paladin. The assault marines move out to be away from the Dreadknight, but still in control of the objective. The meltagun pops out the rhino's hatch, and pings off a wound from the Dreadknight. I can't kill the paladin, sadly. Draigo and the Sanguinary Guard continue their slap-fight, whilst the librarian finishes my devastator sergeant.

Turn 4 - GK: The Librarian and Paladin team up again, and go tactical marine hunting. The Dreadknight comes close to the assault marines (7" charge). Shooting from the paladin/libby does nothing, but the dreadknight kills several assault marines who pass their morale test, and the charge distance is now a whopping 11". Naturally, the Dreadknight fails. Draigo is taken down a peg in combat, to two wounds. I try for hit and run, and its another 6. Good job, Dante. The librarian and paladin kill 2, the remaining tactical marine flees.


End of turn 4. I was doing very well on turns 1 and 2, but bad dice rolls (rolling 6s to hit with SG rather than trying to wound that Dreadknight, and Dante refusing to disengage) have put this right back on a knife edge.

Turn 5 - AS: Night falls (not that it makes a colossal difference at this stage). The librarian and assault squad make themselves invulnerable, and head for the exploding objective, whilst the tacticals hop out of their taxi and go for the furthest away one (in an attempt to make the Dreadknight choose). Meltagun shoots off another wound, and the last tactical marine can't scratch the paladin/librarian. The Draigo/SG combat continues, with Dante getting to fight now (no challenges). Can't do much though.

Turn 5 - GK: Predictably, the librarian and paladin take down the last tactical marine and lay claim to the objective in my deployment zone. The Dreadknight shoots the tactical squad, and I lose my sergeant, and end up running away (near the assault marines). The Dread charges them anyway, kills them, and consolidates back near the objective. He now has 2 to my 1. The fight goes on, and I've got Draigo down to 1 wound, whilst still holding on to Dante and 2 SG (priest and Infernus). I don't really care about the Dreadknight on the objective, as Dante can hit and run out to contest it. Of course, my dice decide that this is the perfect time to give me yet another 6 (yes, that's 3 consecutive hit and run failures from Dante. I believe the odds are 1/216). We roll for turn 6, and fortunately, the game continues.


End of Turn 5. At this point, the Grey Knights are winning with 2 objectives, linebreaker, and a heavy support kill (a total of 8 Victory Points) to the Angels Sanguine's solitary objective, linebreaker, first blood, and a heavy support kill (total of 6).

Turn 6 - AS: The assault squad consolidates further onto their objective, after giving themselves a 4+ invulnerable. Every bullet I have goes into that Dreadknight, but I can't drop it. In combat, the power fist finally finishes Draigo, and my consolidation move is enough to take me onto the objective that the Dreadknight has.

Turn 6 - GK: That's swung things. Now the Angels Sanguine are ahead by 7 victory points to 5. We think it through, and come to the conclusion that the Grey Knights need another turn to win with (if he shunts to the open objective, it gives me the contested one and changes nothing. If he goes for the assault squad, I challenge with the librarian. If he goes for the Sanguinary Guard, I challenge with Dante). So, having to play the long game, he charges the Sanguinary Guard after shooting and killing the power fist. Dante challenges. I survive the hammer of wrath attack, and only one regular attack wounds, but Dante makes his Iron Halo save (finally, he does something right!). We roll for turn 7, but the game ends.


End of the game. Angels Sanguine Victory, 7 victory points to 5. Surviving models are Dante, a Sanguinary Guard, a drop pod, a rhino with 2 hull points, my librarian, 3 assault marines, and a Paladin, GK librarian and Dreadknight, all on one wound each. I had this in the bag anyway, I think, as if Dante had died and it had gone to turn 7, I'd have barrelled the librarian over and sacrificed him to hold the Dreadknight up from killing the last Sanguinary Guard in the final turn.

Well, putting in the AP2 stuff certainly seems to have helped my cause. I'm definitely happier with this list than I was with the old one - it was too balanced. Dante may have failed miserably but I think this was a rare case, the Sanguinary Guard were definitely solid. Pleased with the way one of the plasma cannons performed, and the Sternguard for denting one Dreadknight and holding up the other one. C&C appreciated, and I'll update tomorrow with a second game I played against Eldar

[Knaru]

A thread of CA batreps without any sort of definitive end?

 

You just made my day!

 

Thank you!

[TrentL]

Awesome report, I've had some great luck with SG + SP + Dante I find them very killy. My next project was some Sternguard something I haven't bothered to do yet, but now your convincing me I should :P

[Chaplain Admetus]

Thanks :). They're so good....just act as a "No" button to whatever's on the board that I don't like. Their special ammo combined with the meltas means there isn't anything that they can't remove, or make a severe dent in. If you fancy getting some cheap(ish), do what I did and kitbash the Dark Angels veteran squad with the Death Company box - the robes look fantastic on veterans and you get tons of cool bitz.

Game 2

Mission: Purge the Alien

Deployment: Dawn of War

This game I'm facing Eldar...my opponents final game with this list, as he's trying to decide what to leave in and take out. Unfortunately we're playing on a table without much terrain, and its night fighting for the first turn, which will let me get close quickly. His list: twin fire prisms, 5 Dark Reapers (these will die first as they can absolutely slaughter marines), 2x 5 pathfinders, avatar, farseer with runes of warding, 3 jetbikes, 10 striking scorpions, and a large unit of warp spiders. Both the Avatar and Dante roll the extra VP for everything killed in a challenge. Only the SG succumb to the red thirst, and I choose to take first turn (in Kill Points, its the only sensible way to go). Librarian rolls up super-guide, and the ignores cover power.

Deployment. He's bunkered everything in that piece of terrain. Whilst it does make for a solid firebase, it -also- makes it practically impossible for my plasma cannons to miss. The prisms, jetbikes, and scorpions are in reserve.

Turn 1 - AS: Naturally, the pod lands right next to the Eldar firebase. Librarian super-guides the devastators through runes of warding, and the assault squad advances as far as it can. The rhino pulls the same trick down the far left flank, including its turbo boost. Thanks to super-guide, the devastators wipe the dark reapers off the table despite their good cover save, and kill one pathfinder from the left hand squad (2+ cover save? pah!). The sternguard proceed to be incredibly rude with their ignores cover ammo, and remove the right hand squad of pathfinders.

Turn 1 - Eldar: The warp spiders come round the drop pod to exact vengeance, and the avatar advances. The farseer moves to join the remaining pathfinders. The warp spiders kill all but 1 sternguard, the remaining one is unceremoniously shot by the avatar. Pathfinders manage to kill one of the plasma cannon devastators.

End of Turn 1. I'm ahead by 3 VPs to 1 at this stage, but most of the Eldar shiny toys have yet to arrive.

Turn 2 - AS: Dante and the Sanguinary Guard turn up (didn't want this to happen, you'll see why). Librarian again manages to sneak a power under runes of warding, super-guiding the assault squad. They advance towards the pathfinders. Combined shooting from the devastators and sanguinary guard removes the warp spiders from the table. The assault squad makes it into combat with the pathfinders, and kills them and the farseer.

Turn 2 - Eldar: Everything bar the jetbikes comes on from reserves. The scorpions can't do much, but the fire prisms sure can, and my Sanguinary Guard are in convenient blast template formation (I wanted them to turn up -after- the fire prisms). The avatar comes to have a go at the assault squad. One fire prism scatters wildly, the other scores a direct hit and removes my sanguinary guard and priest. Fortunately, Dante lives (one failure to wound, and Dante passed the LoS saves). In combat I decline a challenge and lose 4 guys to the avatar, but pass my break test.

End of turn 2. I'm miles ahead on kill points, but both my best units are gone and those fire prisms could cause problems if I let them live.

Turn 3 - AS: The rhino moves and disgorges the tactical squad, and Dante moves up beside the fire prisms. I manage to stun one with Dante. Shooting sees the scorpions vastly depleted, including the exarch getting sniped by the sergeant. The avatar kills a few more marines, and I again hold.

Turn 3 - Eldar: The jetbikes turn up and blast down the left hand side of the table, hiding behind some rocks. They play no real part in the game. Shooting, and Dante dodges a fire prism blast. In combat, the avatar kills yet more and this time I break, whilst the scorpions charge into my tactical squad and are reduced to one man.

End of turn 3. Avatar's just got one wound left.

Turn 4 - AS: The assault squad rallies and goes after the fire prism behind the pod. Dante fails to kill the fire prism nearest to him, instead taking off a shuriken catapult, so the devastators have to finish it, wounding Dante in the explosion. The last scorpion is killed, and the assault squad makes it into combat and blows up fire prism 2.

Turn 4 - Eldar. The jetbikes don't accomplish a huge amount, and the avatar meltaguns Dante, killing him. I suppose he had it coming...

End of turn 4. There's a wounded avatar, and the 3 jetbikes.

Over the remaining few turns, I manage to pick off the avatar's last wound with boltgun fire, and kill 2 of the jetbikes. We call it a day with a fairly comprehensive victory for the Angels.

Both got to learn what works and what doesn't in the lists. My opponent is working on a new list involving 3 wraithlords and some dire avengers, as there are some units he's not happy with (the fire prisms are underperforming, and the reapers are the world's biggest fire magnet) - his current list struggles if it goes second, and a 3 wraithlord list could be very tough. I'll hopefully get a game against it at some point.

I'm already considering tweaks to the list...I'm not sure if the librarian is strictly necessary, so there'll be a modification for game 3. I'll drop the librarian (-125), the power weapon on the priest (-15) and downgrade the hammer to a fist (-5) in order to fit in a Baal with Heavy Bolter sponsons (145), and see if that adds more firepower to the list.

[elithren]

Mind explaining to me why you wouldn't want to challenge Draigo with Dante? Statwise, he hits you on 4 (curse coming in) with 3 attacks at str 5. You get your 2+ armor as he has an unusual force weapon so it's ap3. Yes, he can insta kill but only if you fail a 2+. And, if you are playing that mastercraft is not a special rule, you strike back at str5 ap2, which means he has to pass his SS save or be wounded. My guess is you wanted the Sang guard hitting him as they have lots of hits, but I'm curious what you were thinking.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Ah, should have explained... we were playing S4 AP3 (as we agreed that by the wording of the rules, master crafting is an additional special rule therefore Dante and Sanguinary Guard are S4 AP3).

 

The reason I didn't challenge or accept the challenge was twofold. Firstly, I'd get more attacks through with the SG, with better chance of them hitting (4 guys with 2 attacks and a single re-roll each versus 5 attacks with just one re-roll), and more chance of wounding him with the Power Fist, but more importantly, Draigo's warlord trait was the one that nets him an extra VP for every character killed in a challenge. I didn't want to risk having Dante go and give up two victory points in the process, not to mention losing my ability to hit and run (not that that made any difference in the end due to Dante being a colossal failstick in that regard...). I figured the risks outweighed the benefits, as one failed save and I'm in a very bad way. If we'd been playing that Dante was S6 AP2, I'd probably have gone for it due to the high likelihood of being able to kill Draigo in two turns.

[TrentL]

Thanks :lol:. They're so good....just act as a "No" button to whatever's on the board that I don't like. Their special ammo combined with the meltas means there isn't anything that they can't remove, or make a severe dent in. If you fancy getting some cheap(ish), do what I did and kitbash the Dark Angels veteran squad with the Death Company box - the robes look fantastic on veterans and you get tons of cool bitz.

 

Not to derail the thread: My plan is using Death Company box + the Umbra Ferrox bolters I bought to make them (Guns Link I want to stay away from Robes of any kind in my army.

 

As for Game2, do you find the Libby that bad? I found that he got picked out by Snipers pretty quick and LoS! just wasn't enough to deal with it. I was very unhappy with his performance in the games I've played. But at the same time, when things go right he's a beast... I'd be worried that that Baal being a single target would be eating quickly.

[Chaplain Admetus]

I don't find him bad per se...I just wanted to try a list without him and see how it did.

Game 3

Mission: The Emperor's Will

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

Same Eldar player, with his new list. This is my first real experience squaring off against everything the new rules has to offer - its Eldar, allied to Dark Eldar, with a fortification and a flier in the mix. His updated list:

2 Farseers, one basic on foot, one a little better on a jetbike (the latter being his warlord)

Dire Avengers - Reasonable unit size with exarch. Foot farseer went here, I -think- there were 10, might have been one or two more.

3 jetbikes

Fire Prism

2 Wraithlords, both with whatever gun mix gives them 7 shots

And from the spiky side of things:

A unit of reaver jetbikes with two of the melta things, the jetbike farseer went here

A unit of kabalite warriors with a haemonculus with S6 gun

3 Kabalite trueborn

A void raven bomber

And an Aegis defence line, that was manned by the kabalite warriors.

My list was the same as before, with the librarian, power weapon and thunder hammer making way for a fist and the Baal.

We both rolled the furious charge in enemy deployment zone trait. I won the roll and elected to go first. It was night time on turn 1.

Deployment. Blurrier than it looked when I took the pic... the combat squads are on my objective and in the rhino respectively, and the devastators are hugging cover in the rocks, with red thirst. Everything else is in reserve. The Eldar have the trueborn hiding in the defence line, the kabalite warriors manning the quad gun (cunningly disguised as a lictor for this game since he hasn't finished converting the whole defence line). The dire avengers are behind the defence line section on the far left; the wraithlords - one behind the dire avengers, and you can just see the other one peeking out next to the temple. No initiative seizure, the eldar objective does nothing and mine is a Skyfire nexus (and there's finally a flier for me to shoot with it! huzzah!)

Turn 1 - AS: The pod attempted to land near the wraithlord but scattered 11 inches, putting it right in front of the defence line. In retrospect, its better positioned where it ended up, as it blocks line of sight down that end of the table. The rhino and assault squad advance to get up in his face. Under normal circumstances, I'd put the sternguard into a wraithlord and weaken it, but I get the feeling that since we're playing the draw scenario, first blood is crucial. With that in mind, I make sure of it by unloading the ignores cover ammo into the 3 man squad, taking them out of the game. Ranged shooting from my back field does nothing thanks to night fight. The rhino turbo boosts to help hide my assault squad.

Turn 1 - Eldar: One wraithlord doesn't need a wraithsight test thanks to the farseer, the other one passes. Precious little movement. The kabalite warriors and wraithlord pummel my sternguard into the ground, and the quad gun knocks a hull point off the drop pod. The wraithlord destroys the rhino, and the Dire Avengers bladestorm the squad that was inside, killing two (as my opponent knows that they're about to get hit with the Angelus Boltguns).

End of turn 1. Heavy reserves on both sides mean the battle hasn't really taken off yet

Turn 2 - AS: The Baal decides it would rather sit at home, and Dante turns up right behind the dire avengers. Both the 3 tactical marines and the assault squad advance, the tacticals towards the avengers, and the assault squad towards the kabalite warriors. Shooting, and the plasma cannon devastators roll snake eyes, followed by a 1 and a 2 for their armour saves. Stellar job, lads, go keep the Sternguard company in the dead pile. Shooting from the Sanguinary Guard and the Tactical squad kills the dire avengers, but not the farseer sadly. I charge the warriors, take no casualties, and win by 7 (leaving 3 guys and the haemonculus), but he rolls a double 1 for the break test. Hi wraithlord...

Turn 2 - Eldar: Only the fire prism shows up from reserves. The wraithlords go after the SG and the Assault squad. Not much shooting, but what there is kills some of my sanguinary guard and the priest. In combat, the wraithlord challenges and is accepted by my power fist sergeant, who dies. I take the Haemonculus down to one wound, only winning by 3, but he holds. Dante refuses a challenge up the other side, and my squad is reduced to Dante and an infernus pistol. Hit and run is miraculously a success, and they duck out.

End of turn 2. Dante and the SG are the black and red blur up at the back of the Eldar dead pile.

Turn 3 - AS: The Baal turns up, and comes on on the far side. I start moving things, and we suddenly remember that the wraithlord hadn't taken a wraithsight test. It duly fails, and we rewind so that its not in combat with the assault marines and the power fist is still alive (we rolled his attacks, he wouldn't have killed the haemonculus so it made no difference on that ground, they're still locked there). Dante and the Guard go after that fire prism. The tactical squad advances and goes for the farseer, but can't slap him. The SG kill the fire prism with melta, the Baal wounds a wraithlord, and I kill the haemonculus in combat and consolidate to the left.

Turn 3 - Eldar: Just the eldar bikes turn up from reserve, they hide in the back right corner out of shot. The Farseer goes after the Baal and immobilises it with the singing spear. The grey wraithlord can't shoot Dante after failing a wraithsight test, but the blue one is definitely into the assault squad this time. I challenge with the fist for damage limitation, lose by 1, and break. The farseer assaults and finishes off the Baal.

End of turn 3. Still no flier for me to shoot.

Turn 4 - AS: I bring the assault squad back down the table to try and counter any linebreaker shenanigans the Eldar have planned. The tactical squad goes for the farseer, and Dante goes towards the jetbikes. Shooting gets another wound off a wraithlord, and combat sees my powerfist sergeant kill the farseer.

Turn 4 - Eldar: Now the big guns turn up. The regular jetbikes prat around to get a cover save, but stay in the same place. The voidraven turns up, and it, the deldar bikes, and blue wraithlord menace Dante and his friend. The grey wraithlord goes towards the tactical marines who were hoping to remain unobtrusive and unnoticed. So much for that plan... Shooting kills the Sanguinary guard, but fortunately the heat lances miss, and Dante makes an invulnerable save from the dark lance that hits from the flyer. He takes two wounds from regular guns though. The tactical squad gets shot and loses the melta, and then the sergeant in a challenge. The last marine stands firm.

End of turn 4. Ah, so THAT'S where the DE have been hiding. Bonus quiet contemplation shot of a pensive spectator.

Turn 5 - AS: This is going to be the last turn as we won't have time to play turn 6, so I need to make it count. I move Dante towards the jetbikes in the corner, he's 6" away after his move. The eldar player laments not moving them into the other corner, which would probably have made a huge difference. The assault squad moves up again, trying to get linebreaker in case Dante fluffs it, but a poor run roll leaves them short on distance. I hit the flyer with a missile, but it makes its jink save. Dante charges the jetbikes, takes a wound from overwatch, and then only manages to kill two. He takes a wound in return, but manages to save it (thank the Emperor. That would have been most undignified). On the other side of the table, the wraithlord jumps up and down on the last tactical marine until he's a red and black smear in the snow.

Turn 5 - Eldar: The wraithlord goes after the assault squad, and the void raven bombs them on its way to the combat squad, killing two. The jetbikes move 12, then turbo boost over them, and the damage from that and the raven's dark lances make the last guy fall back. The wraithlord makes it into combat and squashes several assault marines, but I hold. At this point, I have first blood, and we both have linebreaker, but there's still one combat left to fight. Dante, it looks like the games down to you....please, please don't be stupid... he scores 4 hits on the jetbike, none of which wound :) . The jetbike makes his attack, hits, but fails to wound, and a sigh of relief it breathed. The Angels Sanguine have scraped a victory thanks to first blood, 2 VPs to 1.

End of the game. I really don't have an awful lot left, and there's still that flyer and two wraithlords running around. That's Dante up at the back waving his axe and shouting at the jetbike rather than actually hitting it like he's supposed to.

Overall, I think not getting first turn and having awful reserve rolls really hamstrung the Eldar this game. Wraithlords are still hard as ever, and I definitely like this list more than the old one. I think Dante and the Sanguinary Guard are just too expensive to be reliable...once you factor in the priest, that's 1/3rd of my army tied up in 7 models, and S8 AP2 will just ruin them. I think I'd rather get more bodies on the field, so expect an extensive overhaul to the list ahead of game 4. I really thought the game was going to swing against me right at the end there, with Dante being a colossal failstick. I think I'd have been able to hide him from the wraithlords had the game continued, though I'm not 100% sure, and all it would take is a single lucky shot to drop him and end the game. Of course, he'd have had to actually beat that jetbike first....

[Kabal_of_Baal]

It seems to me that, of many of your games that I've followed, your devastators seem to be one of the most red thirsty units. Methinks some lads grabbed the wrong colour of helmet....

 

I can empathize with your seven-model basket of eggs. Dante (and indeed, many of our characters) on paper seem to be great when they're great, but can roll 1s (or sixes, in the case of hitting and running) as easily as a guardsman. Because of this, I've been going for more of a horde (relatively ;) ; they are space marines, after all) approach myself, and it's worked well.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Yeah, I've noticed that trend as well. It goes waaay back to the halcyon days of 3rd/4th edition where failing the roll had you running straight at the enemy. Naturally, the devastators -always- failed, and they've never quite been able to break the habit...

 

Next game will feature a shake-up with a second assault squad replacing the SG, and a different HQ choice (Librarian or Reclusiarch, -maybe- Tycho if I can convert one) in place of Dante. If I'm lucky, there might even be points in there for another priest (I've not run the maths)

[Dragonet40k]

Yeah, I've noticed that trend as well. It goes waaay back to the halcyon days of 3rd/4th edition where failing the roll had you running straight at the enemy. Naturally, the devastators -always- failed, and they've never quite been able to break the habit...

 

Yup, I know just how that feels, nothing more annoying.

[sockwithaticket]

I'm really enjoying your reports Chaplain, you've a very engaging writing style and seem to have some fairly diverse opponents.

[Kabal_of_Baal]

Yeah, I've noticed that trend as well. It goes waaay back to the halcyon days of 3rd/4th edition where failing the roll had you running straight at the enemy. Naturally, the devastators -always- failed, and they've never quite been able to break the habit...

 

Yup, I know just how that feels, nothing more annoying.

 

Empathy. Especially when it was something like two inches; just enough to move them out of cover when there were starcannons nearby.

[CitadelArmyGuy]

Yeah, I've noticed that trend as well. It goes waaay back to the halcyon days of 3rd/4th edition where failing the roll had you running straight at the enemy. Naturally, the devastators -always- failed, and they've never quite been able to break the habit...

 

Holy cow! I remember those days! Blast from the past :(

[Chaplain Admetus]

I'm really enjoying your reports Chaplain, you've a very engaging writing style and seem to have some fairly diverse opponents.

Thanks, nice to know I'm not being dry and boring (I'm a historian, its a danger that comes with the territory :devil: ). I have the advantage of being in the same city as one of the UK's largest GW Battle Bunkers, so there's normally quite a few people around. For today's game, we have two of the mightiest heroes of the Imperium clashing across the battlefield of a ruined city...

Game 4

Mission: Purge the Alien

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

My opponent is using codex Space Marines, a fairly solid shooty list. 3 tactical squads in rhinos (ML in each squad, some special weapons), a pair of Vindicators, an enormous 10 man terminator squad with an assault cannon, cyclone missile launcher, and led by Lysander.

My list has been overhauled:

Tycho

Jump-Pack Priest

Corbulo

7 Sternguard, 3 combi-meltas, regular melta, fist, pod

10 man assault squad with fist

10 man assault squad with hammer

10 man tactical squad with fist, melta, ML, rhino

Baal with assault cannon turret, and sponson heavy bolters

When all was said and done, I still had 60 points to play with, so I stuck a pair of plasma pistols into each assault squad. It was that, or downgrade the rhino to a pod and take another JP priest, but that seemed like overkill...

Since we're playing kill points, those vindicators have shot straight to the top of my priority list. Fortunately, I won the dice roll and elected to go first. Tycho's warlord trait gave him and his unit FnP within 3" of an objective (couldn't have been more useless if I'd tried), Lysander made my units within 12" use the lowest leadership value instead of the highest. Straight up conflict with Tycho's Rites of Battle, which just lets me use his leadership of 10 outright - anyone know how to resolve this? We settled for dicing off and I lost (as it turns out, it would never have been relevant during the game), but it would be nice to know if it comes up again in future.

Deployment. Please excuse the unpainted models, to get the right number of assault marines I had to port over a few unpainted ones, and borrow from my small flesh tearers contingent. I've got an assault squad on each flank, the tacticals are set up as a firebase and positioned to essentially be a missile launcher with 10 wounds. The rhino's frankly a liability, so its hiding. The SM deployment is fairly self explanatory...since the termies are on the right, I'm going to try and hug the left if I can. Baal is in reserve, as with Hammer and Anvil it will have a great target no matter where it comes on.

Turn 1 - AS: I try to be cheeky and drop the pod on the building, the idea being to have Tycho leave the unit and have the Sternguard and him slag a vindicator each. The dice gods thought otherwise and scattered me 10" out, landing near the right hand vindicator. I still have the reach to get both, but decide against it, in part because I'm not entirely sure if its legal. The left hand assault squad moves up to hug the wall, and the right hand one cuts across, away from terminators/vindicators. Shooting, and I unload several combis into the left hand vindicator, wrecking it (I leave one spare in case I need it). The krak missile gets exceptionally lucky, managing to hit and penetrate the remaining vindicator, and I immobilise it. Since it only has a limited arc of fire, I use my run move to make sure the only thing that's in danger is the drop pod. Well, that went better than expected.

Turn 1 - SM: The angry terminators move round past the front of the vindicator to have a go at the sternguard. Lysander splits off and decides he wants a drop pod, whilst the right hand rhino moves down the flank. One tactical squad pops out of their rhino and shoots the sternguard, but armour and feel no pain prevent any casualties. The vindicator considers it too risky to shoot anything, whilst the terminators put down two sternguard (including my sergeant). In assault, Lysander rips the pod to bits. The terminators fail their charge on a 6, since their shooting turned a 6 inch charge into 6.5. Sigh of relief...

End of turn 1. One vindicator down, one (essentially)useless.

Turn 2 - AS: The Baal turns up, and appears on the right hand flank. The leftmost assault squad leaps over the wall to hopefully plasma-break his left hand rhino, and assault the survivors. The squad with the priest moves forwards and prepares to assault the squad that's disembarked. In the shooting phase the Baal manages to wreck vindicator #2, and the assault squad takes two hull points off the rhino. The sternguard shoot down most of the tactical squad, and the missile launcher lives up to the first 4 letters of its name. In combat, the assault squad on the left takes out the rhino, and 2 tactical marines die in the explosion (but they aren't pinned), and the other assault squad finishes the tacticals, using their consolidation move to get between the sternguard and the terminators.

Turn 2 - SM: The rhino moves up and drops the tactical squad out in front of mine, and shoots down two. The other squad shoots some assault marines, killing a few. Lysander rejoins the terminators, and they shoot and then charge the assault squad. Lucky dice from the assault squad take down 3 terminators before they can attack, and unlucky dice from the terminators means that they somehow don't wipe me out. I lose by lots and break; the sergeant, one surviving marine, and the priest flee 12".

End of turn 2. There's a whole unit for each side out of sight behind that wall, but there won't be for long. Only two turns in and its already fairly bloody.

Turn 3 - AS: The Baal moves over to take a pot shot at a rhino. Any other game and it would try to whittle down terminators, but I've made my peace with the Sternguard, Tycho and Corbs going to the Emperor and I'm trying to pick off the easy kill point whilst I slow down the deathstar. Tycho's sternguard moves closer to the hidden tac squad, whilst my tacticals advance to lay down some suppression fire into the squad nearest me. The Baal wrecks the rhino, and the sternguard whittle down the tactical squad. My tacticals kill two from his, and both assault squads charge. Some casualties on each side, but I finish off the squad on the left and consolidate.

Turn 3 - SM: Not much he can do other than shoot and charge the sternguard. His sergeant issues a challenge, which Tycho accepts - his power sword can't get through Tycho's armour, and he passes his invulnerable saves from the Dead Man's Hand. The rest of my squad gets killed though, and I don't have a chance to use Corbs's re-roll. He does take two terminators down with rending attacks before he goes under.

Turn 4 - AS: Not much in the way of movement and shooting, all I can do is take the last easy kill point by killing the rhino with the Baal. The assault squad takes cover behind the building, as I want to use them for linebreaker. I advance the tactical squad so they can help in the fight, as I might lose it. They fail their charge though. The assault marines can't finish them; he kills an assault marine in the nearest combat, leaving me with 1 and the priest. Tycho and the sergeant fight to a standstill again, Tycho taking a wound but passing his break test, and he's keeping them tied up.

Turn 4 - SM: Only combat going on, so that's all we do. Tycho and the sergeant continue their slap-fight. I kill some more tactical marines, and the remaining two break.

End of turn 4. With Tycho tar-pitting the deathstar, I'm free to focus on points denial.

Turn 5 - AS: The large assault squad gets right into the corner. I move everything into position to shoot the tactical marines, but can only kill one. The assault sergeant and priest go back in, forgetting its the flamer guy left... overwatch makes two wounds, but I pass both saves and kill him. Careless mistake though, that was an unnecessary risk that could have cost two VPs. Tycho finally puts the smackdown on the sergeant, but remains locked in combat.

Turn 5 - SM: I challenge with Tycho but he refuses on the grounds that the regular terminators will get more attacks. Only two wounding hits get through though, and both bounce off his iron halo.

End of turn 5. Those terminators are the only models left on the SM side of the board.

The game continued into a 6th turn, but all that happened was Tycho eventually getting hammered by Lysander after he finally decided to join the fight. Final score: Angels Sanguine with 10 VPs, Space Marines with 5.

Again, luck played a big part in this game. Taking both vindicators out of commission (effectively) on turn 1 was fortunate, made more so by the fact that I dealt with both before they could fire a shot. I felt really sorry for my opponent, because he'd invested a lot in that big terminator unit and I have genuinely never seen a unit of terminators fail quite so hard at everything they tried to do. Shooting down two men to deny them their own assault, failing 3/5 armour saves from chainswords, 18 power fist attacks not taking down a depleted assault squad, having a sergeant resolutely NOT die to have Tycho tarpit them for way long than was necessary... after a while he realised that using his challenge re-roll (5 spectators) was doing him more harm than good because he was using it on saves.

I think the game went to plan mostly. The Baal was stellar, I'm not 100% sold on Tycho as yet. At the points he is, he's a straight swap for an Epistolary with jump pack, so I might sub them in and out. Decent model count (40 marines, drop pod, rhino, battle tank), and I can't see any glaring weaknesses other than heavy mech. As marines vs marines, I felt the Furious Charge nerf more keenly here, as I'm not used to seeing quite so many return attacks from other power armour. I'm particularly interested in hearing any thoughts on this variant of the list, as its different from ones I've normally used and I'm not sure whether its strong enough, or if I've sunk too many points into my pod unit.

[Kabal_of_Baal]

It seems that your pod unit, while threatening on the turn it comes down, has the potential to not last much longer than the first turn. This battle may have been an exception, but in my experience with my vanilla marine drop pod army, the sternguard get one good round of shooting and then, unless they're very lucky, just get pasted. That's a lot of points to only get one of two turns of action out of or, in the case of the first battle, have a shooty unit forced into cc tarpit role. What about dreads instead? For the same points, I think you could get two (two regular, or one regular and one furious?) Maybe it's just my love for the aesthetic of dreadnoughts (the aforementioned drop pod army has 4 at 1750 pts) but I think they can be worthwhile.

 

On an unrelated note, I'm curious what your Angels Sanguine Dante model looks like. I'm always interested in successor chapter interpretations.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Hammer and anvil is a bit of a love/hate relationship for the reserve elements of my army. The Baal loves it, the Sternguard hate it because there's nowhere safe to drop. I think I'll be dropping Corbulo and the plasma pistols and trying to squeeze in a Vanguard squad (or some devastators) for the next few games. Points permitting (I need to check, my codex is downstairs and I'm lazy) I might use George instead, see if he can be less of a spectacular failure than his last outing.

 

My Dante model is just the normal Dante, but Tycho is a conversion. I'll take a couple of shots of my HQ showcase and stick them in with the next Batrep (which should be up tonight, I'm about to round my stuff up and go purge some heretics ;) )

[SevenExxes]

Dante has initiatve 6. Wouldn't rolling a 6 on Hit and Run be a pass since it's equal to his initiative vaule? 1's are auto failures?

[sp4rky]

Dante has initiatve 6. Wouldn't rolling a 6 on Hit and Run be a pass since it's equal to his initiative vaule? 1's are auto failures?

 

For Initiative tests a 6 is an auto fail and a 1 is an auto pass. p.g 7, Characteristic tests.

 

 

 

Great battle reports Admetus, I'll be watching with extra keenness as I would love to field Tycho but can't find a decent place to put him :blush:

[Chaplain Admetus]

Thanks Sp4rky :). I intended to use Tycho today but as it turns out, I forgot to pack him (he was still sitting on the painting tray), so I made the sub of jump pack epistolary librarian (both cost exactly the same points, I'm really torn as to which to use). Only one game today, unless anyone's interested in a brief report of Bretonnia vs Dwarves (nobody? Didn't think so. Good :P)

Slightly updated list: Wasn't happy with the points sink into the Sternguard squad, so as well as the above straight swap, Corbulo and the 4 plasma pistols got dropped, freeing up 165 points - exactly enough for a bare bones 5 man vanguard squad with jump packs (and the sergeant's free power weapon). So its now a very fluffy BA force - 27 models with jump packs, a tac squad in a rhino, and the podded sternguard.

Game 5

Mission: The Relic

Deployment: Dawn of War

My opponent today was new to the area (having recently moved), and apparently had some bad experiences with Blood Angels in the past (more the player than the army), so I'm setting out to restore our honour. However, I've got to square off against Necrons, and my army's still smarting from last time (tabled, and only managed to take 2 wraiths, a destroyer lord, and a few warriors with me).

His list:

Nemesor Zahndrekh

Vargard Obyron

Illuminor Szeras

Cryptek

Regular Lord

9 Warriors (lord here) in a ghost ark

10 immortals (Obyron and Zahndrekh here)

3 Scarabs (with Szeras and a Cryptek)

5 Deathmarks

5 Praetorians

Doom Scythe

Scary stuff to face. Fortunately, there's only 19 scoring models, and only one objective. Surely I can kill all the scoring Necrons, right? ;)

No useful warlord traits (librarian vs Zahndrekh), librarian rolls up Divination and takes prescience and the 4+ invulnerable (I get the feeling I might need it against that Doom Scythe). I win the roll off and elect to go first.

Deployment. The doom scythe isn't actually there, we both temporarily forgot it had to start in reserve...remembered before it became an issue. Librarian and priest are both joined to that unit that you can just see on the right. His praetorians and deathmarks are also in reserve. I scout the Baal and hide it behind a rock...memories of what happened last time are fresh in my mind. He fails to seize the initiative, and we're good to go

Turn 1 - AS: The pod comes in and lands near the ark. The assault squad without characters jumps onto the objective, and the other one moves to support them. Librarian gave them the invuln save first, and didn't use prescience as there was no real point. The Baal pops out to see the Immortals, and the rhino moves up next to the assault squad. Shooting, and the Baal drops some Immortals (2 of which fail to get back up). The sternguard drop the Ghost Ark for First Blood, and kill some warriors in the explosion (only one of whom stays dead). The rhino turbo-boosts to near the Immortals - it'll probably die, but it blocks line of sight to the assault squad on the relic.

Turn 1 - Necrons: The scarabs move out, and the warriors advance on my Sternguard. The Immortals pull Zahndrekh's funky veil trick, and teleport behind my lines. Didn't see that one coming :D . The warriors manage to drop 4 of my sternguard (the 3 combis and the melta - had to be right at the front otherwise I wouldn't have been in melta range), but I don't flee. The immortals kill a few assault marines - thanks to the priest, damage is limited.

End of Turn 1. Didn't know the immortals had that funky trick up their sleeve, and now I have to fight on two fronts. Getting away from the tesla is going to be a bit harder than I originally thought.

Turn 2 - AS: The Vanguard turn up, and land perfectly behind the warriors. Unfortunately, this also allows the Deathmarks to drop in, which they duly do down near the immortals. Suddenly, I'm very glad I kept my assault squads together. The librarian dumps Forewarning and Prescience on the relic squad. The Baal moves back to have a go at some of the deathmarks, and the tactical squad moves left and disembarks. A lucky snap shot from the missile launcher hits, as does the meltagun, and combined with bolter fire I manage to take down all the Scarabs. The Baal shoots the Deathmarks, but only one of them stays down. I charge the vanguard into the warriors without incident, the librarian assault squad fails to make it to the deathmarks, and the relic assault squad only just makes it into combat with the immortals, despite their re-roll. The Tesla overwatch? 5 6s, translating into 15 S5 hits. Owie. Fortunately, power armour and FnP are on hand to remove the worst of it. The immortals also got counter attack thanks to one of the characters (forget which one), and we went to hitting each other. The vanguard flubbed most of their attacks, but killed enough to win (took no casualties) - the Necrons held. The immortals took down a few assault marines, I killed a few immortals, most of whom got back up. I completely forgot about both my powers, otherwise the combat would have gone better - as it was, it was a tie.

Turn 2 - Necrons: Both other units arrive - the Doom Scythe flies on near the tactical squad, and the Praetorians land near them as well. Eep. Shooting is all focussed over there (the deathmarks don't do much of note): the Praetorians remove 2 hull points from the Baal, but only shake it. Lances from the two characters over there explode my rhino, and the Doom Scythe's big line of death goes over two tactical marines, but fortunately he rolls a 1 to wound, so I don't lose too many guys. Both combats don't go very far; I'm now down to 5 guys in the squad holding the Relic. My vanguard are all still there, but are taking far longer than I'd like to chew up the warriors. Still, at least if they're in combat they can't shoot me.

End of turn 2. I hate Necrons...whenever I kill anything else in the 41st Millenium, it at least has the decency to stay dead. These guys don't.

Turn 3 - AS: The librarian's squad tools themselves up and aims for the fight with the immortals. There's only 4 immortals left now, thankfully, but that's enough to cause problems and I really want that unit dead. The Sternguard wade in to show the Vanguard how its done. The tactical squad manages to drop a couple of Praetorians, who actually stay down. The Baal reverses, and is able to score a few hits thanks to the Assault Cannon being twin-linked, but it doesn't do much. I charge the praetorians, immortals, and warriors. Hammer of wrath puts down two immortals, and the librarian bins the remaining two. My attacks wound Zandrekh, and I only get one miss against Obyron, and he can't scratch me in return even with that boosted attack. Fist and hammer go afterwards, and put down both characters, and I consolidate so that they can't get back up as there'll be a guy within 1" (they can't get back up and into the fight because there's no fight left to get into). The veterans are due for a demotion, as they can't finish the warriors properly, and the combat continues. The praetorians kill several tactical marines, I kill one back, and hold.

Turn 3 - Necrons: The two characters with lances go after the Baal, and the Doom Scythe comes after my assault squads. The characters either miss or fail to glance (phew), and the tank lives to fight another day. The Doom Scythe does its line of death across two assault marines from each unit (spaced them carefully) - I lose 2 from the relic squad, but none from the librarian's unit (thanks to the 2+ save). I do lose some in his unit from the tesla guns, but on a 6 it affects each other unit within 6", friend or foe, for d6 hits. The other assault squad isn't affected, but the deathmarks are. They take 6 hits, lose two, and start running. Hah, now you know how it feels! ;) (one gets back up and joins them...it didn't make sense to us either...). In combat, the veterans finally finish the warriors, but can't slay the lord. There's now two tactical marines versus two praetorians.

End of turn 3. I'm feeling confident now - all the Necron units that could take the relic are dead. I have first blood and slay the warlord, so I can't possibly lose without being tabled.

Turn 4 - AS: I take cover behind the Doom Scythe (fliers do have a weakness after all - they have a blind spot), and move the relic-toting squad into cover (not that the relic is of any importance now...I practically forgot it was there). The Baal tries its best, but can only manage a glancing hit to take a hull point off of the thing. The relic squad assaults and finishes off the deathmarks. The veterans kill the lord and split up, and the praetorian vs tac squad battle sees no hits from him, and no unsaved wounds from me. My librarian's unit attempts an ambitious full range charge to join against the praetorians, but failed (I needed 11, but it was worth a shot).

Turn 4 - Necrons: Everything goes after the Baal, including, bizarrely, the Doom Scythe. Oh well, not complaining about that. The lances put it out of commission, leaving the Scythe with nothing to do.

End of turn 4. Not many robots left, but I want them all. Blood For The Blood God Sanguinius!

Turn 5 - AS: The tactical squad makes it across and into combat with the two Necron characters...they can't take the punishment and drop.

Turn 5 - Necrons: Doomscythe, the last remaining model, shoots round and drops its line of doom across the tactical marines, removing them from the table. We roll for turn 6, and get a 1.

End of the game. Victory the Angels Sanguine - 6 VPs to 0, and almost a wipeout.

Unlike the last game against the robots, I really enjoyed this one - there was much more of a 'game' aspect to it, rather than one side chucking dice and the other removing models. We both made a fairly hefty mistake on turn 2 - I forgot my re-rolls and invulnerable save against the Immortals, and he forgot to teleport them out of combat and to safety on his turn. The doom scythe is absolutely brutal, but I don't begrudge it that because its such a nice model to see on the tabletop. At least this game I got to play against a flier for enough time to figure out how to fight it - trying to manoeuvre yourself into its blind spot is key. Tesla is still ridiculous, but the best way to beat Necrons is to get in combat. Yeah, they're tough to bring down, and won't :) ing stay there if you do, but at least then they can't shoot you. Just make sure you hit the Tesla squad with as many models left in your unit as possible, and try to thin them down first. Nowhere near as scared of them as I was before.... bring it on, rustbuckets! The Sons of Sanguinius will send you back to the scrapheap ;)

[Kabal_of_Baal]

Congrats, Admetus! Sounded like a well fought battle. Read like one, too; you've got a good writing style.

 

One thing I noticed: you mentioned Zahndrekh trick in Necron turn 1, but your opponent played it wrong. The immortal's should've arrived in your turn when the pod came down, not at the beggining of his turn. They arrive "in the enemy's turn...immediatley after any enemy has arrived from reserve". It wouldn't have made a difference to their shooting, but it would've allowed you to counterattack them right away, if you'd wanted to, since it happens "during the enemy's movement phase". Not sure why he remembered this detail in turn two...

 

Either way, it apparently didn't have an impact. Good win!

[sp4rky]

If a Necron unit flees then any Resurrection Protocol markers (i.e. not-quite-dead Necrons) are lost... No getting back up for those ones.

Vargard Obyron has a Veil of Darkness that allowed him and his squad to teleport. It looks like the Immortals are deployed from the beginning so Obyron is the guy that teleports them around.

 

And it's Nemesor Zahndrekh that can opt to give a Necron unit the Counter Attack rule. He can also remove Furious Charge from a Blood Angel unit too (doesn't look like he did this though).

 

 

Another good Battle Report!

[Chaplain Admetus]

Thanks guys. I see where you're confused, Kabal, but Sp4rky's cleared that up - it was their veil of darkness thing they used to get behind me, they were already on the table. I would assume for other stuff appearing he thought the drop pod didn't count as coming in from reserve. Zahndrekh did nick Furious Charge from one of my units - that's why I charged in with the Relic-holding assault squad, because he removed it from the other one. He can only do it to one unit a turn, so whichever one lost it I was always going to hit with the other one.

 

I didn't know that if the unit fled then the stuff couldn't get back up...wouldn't have made a colossal difference this game, but its handy to know for the future. Definitely think the way to beat the space toasters is to get them in combat so they can't shoot you, its just getting there that's the tricky bit...

[the jeske]

Nowhere near as scared of them as I was before.... bring it on, rustbuckets! The Sons of Sanguinius will send you back to the scrapheap

IMO its the starting/not starting thing . GW realy droped the ball on this . getting first turn was most of the time , better , but with first blood and how flyers enter from reservs it changes the game too much in favor of the first gunline army going first .

 

the tycho thing from the SM battle gave me an idea for a counter deathstar unit . fast moving , but cheap[something like 5 assault marines] a loyalist cpt with ss/art armor and as a weapon... a chainsword . you could realy hold a unit for quit some time . If one would take bikers and a EW SW lord the unit could realy root someone for 2-3 turns even if challanges are not accepted . Not something to do in every army , but man chaos is going to hate stuff like that or what[cant decline challanges].

 

 

 

as the list goes , corbs/tycho are choices one does have to pick one or the other . but I cant imagine an army without a Baal or a libby , both are just too good. Psykers in 6th are huge game changers , they and flyers will be the decide how meta game will look like this edition.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Game 6

Mission: Big Guns Never Tire

Deployment: Vanguard Strike

Got a final game today against my semi-regular Space Wolf opponent, who's off back to Glasgow later this week. His list from memory: Divination rune priest, 2 squads of longfangs, 1 5 man grey hunter squad, 2 8 man grey hunter squads in drop pods, a 10 man GH squad in a rhino, and a 5 man wolf guard squad all with combi-plasmas in a rhino. All the squads had wolf banners, and there was an Aegis defence line with quad gun. Oh, and a lone wolf terminator with fist and storm shield. I kept the same list from the last game. Made a decent amount of notes, but true to form I can't find the piece of paper... librarian rolled the stealth/move through cover in ruins trait, and for powers took prescience and smite (tried rolling one from each and got rubbish powers, so went for the basics). Full 5 objectives, I won the roll and elected to go first. No night fighting on the first turn.

Deployment. The 10 man assault squads are supporting each other. The Baal has scouted to that rock pillar in the left (can just see it) - combat squadded the tacticals; 5 on the building with an objective, 5 in the rhino next to it. Vanguard and Sternguard are in reserve, Vanguard getting Red Thirst. He castles with the defence line along the back. 5 GH man the quad gun, and there's a long fang pack behind the other two sections, rune priest in the nearest one. The squad in the far corner is actually in a rhino.

Turn 1 - AS: The drop pod lands in between the 5 man squad and the nearest long fangs. I advance the rhino to the objective in the rocks, and durdle around with the assault squads. The Baal moves out, and somehow manages to drop the ENTIRE grey hunter squad manning the quad gun. First blood! The sternguard, rudely deprived of their target, shoot and kill two of the nearest long fangs. They pass their break test (unfortunately, I would have loved to see the others and the rune priest run off the table).

Turn 1 - SW: Both grey hunter pods land on the left flank. The rhino moves up, and the lone wolf stumps through the ruins. My rhino loses two hull points and is immobilised, and two sternguard are killed, the remaining 5 fleeing (handy, since now they can't be killed by the lone wolf). One Grey Hunter squad slags my Baal with their combi-melta and meltagun, whilst the other kills some assault marines. A long fang in the corner squad blows himself up with a plasma cannon, whilst the other one misses.

End of turn 1. Looking fairly good at the moment.

Turn 2 - AS: Vanguard turn up and land right next to the depleted long fangs. The (now automated) quad gun takes a few pot shots and kills one. The sternguard rally and go to help against the same squad. The tacticals get out of their rhino and into the rocks near an objective. The librarian casts prescience on his own squad, and they move to take care of the lower GH squad, whilst the depleted one goes after the higher one. Shooting is mostly uneventful, killing 2 long fangs with the sternguard, and the librarian smiting the grey hunters. In combat, they take care of the unit, wiping it out. My other squad fares less well, being reduced to one assault marine and the sergeant, whilst killing only a few. The break, but fortunately are caught and stay locked in the fight. The vanguard charge in and wipe the long fangs, the sergeant slaying the rune priest at the cost of his own life in a challenge.

Turn 2 - SW: The remaining pod is a no-show. The rhino advances, and disgorges the squad. The plasma on the sergeant overheats and kills himself, and I lose a few models of my own. Shooting from the longfangs is tame (He can't hit the vanguard with the plasma cannon due to poor scatter, and they shrug off frag missiles), and the lone wolf makes it into combat with the sternguard (I roll 7 5s with overwatch, but not a single 6. Sad times). He kills my sergeant but loses a wound to the power fist. In the other combat, my assault marine kills one, and his Grey Hunters deal out no damage. Our fists deal one casualty each, meaning I win by one, and he breaks and gets away. Result.

End of turn 2. Really bloody game already. I think at this point I have the left flank, but my right hand side is weak - I've spent too much time over here and my assault squads won't be able to support it properly.

Turn 3 - AS: The vanguard fly up to get to grips with that last Long Fang unit (complete with TDA wolf guard with cyclones). The power fist sergeant goes to break a pod for lack of anything more constructive to do with his Thursday afternoon (there's still an objective on this side of the table, after all). The large assault squad flies up and goes after those fleeing long fangs. My tactical squads stubbornly fail to do much. In shooting and combat, I easily clear out those grey hunters. The vanguard make it in, but fluff their attacks. Still one left though, and he's fearless. Loses a turn of shooting. Sternguard are reduced to two, and can't scratch the wolf.

Turn 3 - SW: The last pod comes down near my assault squad. The grey hunters advance into the rocks, and shoot 3 of my tactical marines (down to 2). The combi-plas opens up and destroys the assault squad, leaving the characters alone. The quad gun offs my assault sergeant. Aw :(. In combat, the last vanguard vet dies, the sternguard and lone wolf shout at each other, and the grey hunters fail their 5 inch charge on the tactical marines.

End of turn 3. Not looking so hot right now.

Turn 4 - AS: At some point here we're reminded by an onlooker that automated weapons have to fire at the closest target (in this case, the pod), so the assault sergeant re-appears. The librarian and priest move out and lay the smackdown on the wolf guard - smite and then assault finishes them, though the priest gets downed by overwatch. The lone wolf and sternguard still struggle.

Turn 4 - SW: The now free longfangs fire at my lone assault sergeant, but he makes his cover save. The grey hunters finally deal with the tactical squad and move out to go after the others.

End of turn 4. Not a lot left on either side.

Turn 5 - AS: Night falls. That's handy; means his longfangs can't shoot across the board towards my objective stuff. I have a choice to make on the left flank: I can try and break the pods and hope for another turn, or I can stick the sergeant on the objective and hope he doesn't get shot. I choose to go for the pods and hedge my bets (also, major brain fart...for some reason I thought I could consolidate back after busting it, realised my mistake after I was committed). Shooting is uneventful, I do manage to stun the pod nearest me with the missile launcher. In combat, the sergeant breaks his pod, and the librarian glances the other one (down to 1 hull point). The last sternguard miraculously brings down the lone wolf!

Turn 5 - SW: The grey hunters advance towards my combat squad, and choose to run (their assault would need triple 6, so they choose to contest). The long fangs come out of cover and snap fire missiles at my tactical marines but all miss, the terminator has a go at my sternguard but poor dice rolls and cover saves mean he lives. We roll for a 6th turn, and don't get it.

End of the game.

We total up the points... he has one objective and linebreaker, for 4 VPs. I have no objectives thanks to that mistake with the assault sergeant, but I have all three secondary objectives, and killed a heavy support choice - also 4 VPs. Game's a draw.

Aside from a couple of massive mistakes (still annoyed over that sergeant one), this was a really close game. Luck on both sides...I had a lot of it early on, but then the planets stopped aligning and it all went downhill. I think I passed 2 feel no pain saves all game. Got quite lucky to escape with it in the end, as the last sternguard falling would have denied me linebreaker and handed the game to the Space Wolves - though if I'd been sensible and gone for that objective I could have won. That's the way it goes sometimes...next time I'll be braver. Looking back, going for the objective was always the correct play, as the chances of dying to a pod are minimal. The only way it would have gone wrong is if he'd died to the pod AND we'd got a sixth turn, allowing him to boot me off the objective I held from the start.

As always, thanks for reading, and C&C welcome!