XBA: The Spear of Telesto

[Xenith]

So with news of an upcoming codex, I decided to ditch the Chaos and bring my Blood Angels to games night, pitting the might of the 5th edition dex against whatever 7th edition could throw at me.

 

I ended up playing against an AM player at 1500 pts to a hard fought loss. One more turn and I'd have had it, I think.

 

My army:

 

Mephiston

Elite Chaplian - jump pack, infernus

5 Sanguinary Guard - 1 Infernus

5 Death Co - 1 fist jump packs

10 tacticals - power sword, heavy bolter, flamer

10 tacticals - plasma gun, plasma cannon.

5 devastators - 4 ML

2 Attack bikes (mm)

2 Attack bikes (mm)

 

I got lucky, and mephiston rolled Immovable object warlord trait for IWND, Then Iron Arm, Endurance, Life Leach, and the Primaris, Smite. Looks like he was never going to die this game.

 

Opponent had:

 

Yarrick

 

2 Identical blobbed platoons of:

Platoon command, melta

2 squads with autocannon and a special (melta?), serge with bolter

 

Veteran squad - 3 melta, carapace, shotguns, Chimera

Veteran squad - 3 melta, carapace, lasguns, Chimera

 

2 Tank vanquisher squadron (lascannons)

2 Tank Leman Russ squadron (heavy bolters)

 

Stars of the show:

Death company and Chaplain. They managed a T2 disordered charge into both blobs (hehe), and after a crazy amount of overwatch (killing none) killed 13(!) guardsmen. I even forgot the add the furious charge S bonus. They didnt really need it, wounding on 3+ with basic S4 with rerolls. They lose 3 in return from about 17 attacks back (unlucky) but one blob ran and was wiped, the other containing yarrick failed the Ld, yarrick executed one, and they held (damn). The 2 remaining DC and chaplain then ground this unit down until it was just 3-4 guys and yarrick over the course of the next 2 turns.

 

Biggest losers

Sanguinary Guard - Although I did leave them in range of the melta squad, they got wiped in one turn. I think I overestimated their durability

 

Middle ground

Tactical squads. Held objectives. Didn't really do much else. I need to be much more aggressive with these, and get them a transport. The array of battlecannons in front of me meant I kept them in cover.

 

Undecided

Mephiston - He is so slow now. Even with rerolling the run dice, it was T3 before he got into combat. My opponent also didnt take the bait when I left him out in the open in my T2 to be shot at. Nevertheless, he did get into combat, killed both vanquishers in one round (didnt need to roll to damage, 6 attacks all hit at S9 on rear armour killed both outright!) and he is an absolute monster. I can see great benefit in running him, literally, alongside a land raider, to force the opponent to split fire.

 

So far, I seem to come from every game wishing that I had included more death company. I should have really used Lemartes instead of the elite chaplain (brain fart), and had more DC instead of the Sanguinary guard.

[Jolemai]

A couple of questions if I may:

 

How did you wipe the one blob if the DC were still engaged with the other?

How did Mephiston eat two Vanquishers in a single turn? Only you'd need to be in base to base with both which would mean you didn't move the shortest distance to engage...?

 

As for Mephiston being slow, have you a delivery system for him? If you do, give it a try next time :)

[Xenith]

A couple of questions if I may:

 

How did you wipe the one blob if the DC were still engaged with the other?

How did Mephiston eat two Vanquishers in a single turn? Only you'd need to be in base to base with both which would mean you didn't move the shortest distance to engage...?

 

As for Mephiston being slow, have you a delivery system for him? If you do, give it a try next time

 

Good questions!

 

1) Ok, yes, big cock up there. The other squad should have escaped. We started doing this, and the other player didn't pick up on it either, no did anyone else in the store. Chalk it up to experience.

 

2) The vanquishers were squadroned, so the hits were spread through the unit of 2.

 

3) I cant really think of a good one that would maximise his potential. Raven sees him getting into combat T3 at the earliest. He could maybe jack a land raider, but that leaves another squad footslogging :-/ Either way, a raider would get him 12" ahead, vs 6+D6 (with reroll), or 18" if I flat out. Ill try a 5 man assault squad without packs to get a cheap crusader, and stick him in it next time.

[Xenith]

And the 4th Co rampage home to victory against Astra Militarum in last night's game!

 

Big Guns never tire, 4x4 board, 4 objectives

 

Reclusiarch - Power Fist

 

9 Death Company - bp+ccw

Land Raider Crusader - multi melta

Corbulo

 

Assault squad - 2 melta, powerfist

Tactical squad Mercurio - flamer, heavy bolter, power sword, rhino

 

2 Attack bikes - mm

2 Attack bikes - mm

 

5 Dev's, 4x Missile Launchers

 

Against:

Pask- Punisher (!)

HQ tank squadron, 2 leman russes

Regimental command apothecary, standard

Sanctioned psyker, lvl 1 (prescience, misfortune)

 

Enginseer

Platoon command - 3 sniper rifles

20 man blob squad, 2 heavy bolters, melta, flamer, bolter

 

Platoon command - 3 sniper rifles

20 man blob squad, 2 heavy bolters, 2 flamers

 

Hellhound

Vendetta Gunship

 

Deathstrike missile.

 

This game basically boiled down to whether I could get into combat before he killed the land raider. His only lascannons were off board, and seeing as the battlecannons could only glance, I fancied my chances.

 

AM1

Battlecannons open up on the rhino (!) opposite one 20 man unit, strip 2 HP, and leave it stunned and weapon destroyed, also killing one attack bike and reducing the other to a single wound, despite jinking. Hellhound moved up and flames the assualt marines, killing 1.

 

BA1

Everything that could combat squad, did.

Assault marines jump forward, 2 melta squad kills the hellhound (woot, first blood!). Crusader moves 12" up and pops smoke. Takes a PotMS assault cannon shot at the guard squad in the middle, kills a couple. Asm combat squad 2 hides behind the raider. Tacs in the rhino do nothing.

 

AM2

Vendetta comes on, shoots the landraider, 3 hits, 3 fails to do anything. 2 battlecannons shoot it, one hull point gone, and kills an attack bike that was nearby. Blod squad near the tacs move forward to get within RF range of other stuff.

 

BA2

Crusader moves up, drops DC off 1" from the frontlines, corbulo up front to tank overwatch.

Rhino moves up and tac marines disembark, flame and shoot the blob squad for 7-8 kills, they then run away, and as they were strung out, hit the board edge and die.

The cruasder puts the regimental command in its line of sight. I stupidly fire the hurricanes at full BS instead of the asscans, but score 9 wounds. I'm happy with that. All but the captain killed, then the assault cannons snap fire, cause a wound, one dead commander.

The Death co charge and wipe the squad, then conga line up so pask and buddies have no where to go, and Im protected from blasts.

 

AM3

Pask moves a little, but not far enough. The deathstrike goes off! Christ, that's a big template. He centres it on the land raider, scatters, clips 2 assault marines, kills one, and does nought to the LRC (phew) shooting from the russes kills 7 tac marines, and 4-5 death company, after corbulo tanked Pask's heavy 20 shooting (!). The Platoon command charge in to try and deny me charge bonus, but die to corbulo before they get to swing.

 

BA3

Little left now on the AM side. A fired hellstrike, a platoon command, enginseer, vendetta. The tacs re-embark, then the rhino moves 12", then flat outs to on top of the objective the blob was on. Death co move up to the leman russes. LRC multimaltas a russ, fails to do anything, and also fails to do anything to the vendetta despite getting 3 hits! Lastattack bike flanks a russ, meltas it, crew shaken only.

 

Death company. Wow. Corbulo kills a tank on his own (3 rending hits), the chaplain causes another 3 HP damage on pask, killing him, then the DC cause a final 2 HP damage, killing the last russ.

 

Victory BA!

[Xenith]

So, time to make a start on the second assault squad!

The end goal for this army is to reach full company strength. When I started repainting my BA, it was during the pdf codex, and I thought I'd make an entire jump army, so naturally I painted my first assault squad as 8th company. D'oh. That just means I have another 2 assault squads to make for the 4th Co.

In he 'BA today' thread, I said I was refurbishing some of my first assault marines, changing the loadout from the expensive 3x plasma pistols to 2 flamers and 2 hand flamers.

Well, I had a change of heart. I couldnt relegate my original marines, some of the first I bought, to be bolt pistol chumps, the first casualties, so I am going with a 2 plasma pistol, 2 plasma gunslinger sergeant. Inefficient as hell, but hopefully funny when they jump next to a marine serge with a power weapon and plasma him to death before charging (or strip a few wounds from a monstrous creature!)

Here are the 7th squad as they stand:

With one of my first plasma pistol guys


His head has been removed as the original bare head/respirator head was so caked with varnish that it would ruin the new paint job. I removed this with great pain, and located an identical, less painty head!

The sergeant, codename: Risky business gets dual plasma pistols fun the fun of it, and is of course completely magnetised, so I can switch them out if needs be.

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/gallery/image/215432-2014-11-20110847-zps51d30787/

The serge is getting the bionic face from the last tactical squad box (ha!), and also a beaky helm that will be mag-locked to his waist.


Xen

Edited April 8, 2020 by Xenith

[Xenith]

More work and better pictures of the Reclusiarch!

I've since added extreme highlights on the red, but you get the idea.

 

++PHOTOS LOST IN THE WARP (Photobucket)++

Edited April 8, 2020 by Xenith

[Jolemai]

Personally, I'm not really sold on the Corbulo + Death Company + Land Raider combo. Would you use it again?

[Xenith]

Personally, I'm not really sold on the Corbulo + Death Company + Land Raider combo. Would you use it again?

I'd definitely try it again a few more times. I know the Death co Already get FNP and FC, but having Corbs be able to tank all those wounds really kept them alive. I guess I'd try running another 5 DC in his place, but he also provided FNP to everything within 6" of the land raider, which included the attack bikes, which was nice.

 

I do think it has enough variety in and volume of attacks to be able to deal with pretty much anything, but at the cost of almost 700pts for the unit+transport.

 

The next thing to try out (before they get changed) is 5 van vets tp troubleshoot anything that poses a threat to the raider!

[Memento Of Prospero]

Love the chaplain!

[Helias_Tancred]

Good stuff Xenith! Nice.

[Xenith]

Thanks guys! The Chaplain has been wreaking fair havoc on the table now he has the powerfist!

 

The painting has really come together on him, hopefully I can think of summat cool to paint onto the shoulder pad!

[Xenith]

7th Squad finished to just about tabletop standard!

all done bar basing and the metal on the chainswords, but I wanted to update anyway before a game tonight.

Whole squad



The current disposition of the 4th Company is:

4th Company
3rd Squad - 10 marines, plasma gun, plasma cannon
4th Squad - Sergeant Mercurio, Flamer, heavy bolter
7th Squad - Serge, dual plasma, 2x plasma pistols
9th Squad - 5 devastators, 4 missile launchers

So 35/100 marines down.

additionally, I have:

1st Company
5 Terminators - 1 with Lightening claws

2nd Company
10 man Tactical Squad, flamer, missile launcher

8th Company
10 man Assault Squad - 2 meltas
7th Squad - 4 attack bike squadron

Unspecified
5 Sanguinary Guard
Land Raider Crusader
Rhino

So about 73 marines in total.

The goal is to eventually hit full company Strength for the 4th co, then add reserves from the 1st and 10th Co's.

All my 2nd edition marines were going to go into the second company, but depending on how I fill out the 4th companies tactical squads, some may make it in there.

Regarding 4th Co tactical squads, I have 4 more to make. Regarding loadouts, I was thinking:
Melta, multimelta, combimelta
plasma gun, lascannon, combi plas
Any other good ones?

The last 4th co devastator squad will either be 4 lascannons or 4 plasma cannons, and then both bulked out to 10 men each.

Edited August 3, 2017 by Xenith

[Midnightmare]

Nice work on the RAS Xenith :)

 

Your Chaplain is excellent btw

[Angelus Mortifer]

Totally agree. Very cool Chaplain and I'm digging your RAS Gunslinger. More please  

[Xenith]

Thanks guys, it means a lot!


Got a game in tonight v Dark Angels

The Relic
BA:
Reclusiarch - power fist

Corbulo
Furioso, frag cannon, meltagun, magna grapple, drop pod, deathwind

Death Company - 7 men, crusader, multimeltam storm bolter
10 assault marines, 2 melta, powerfist, infernus
10 assault marines, 2 plasma pistols, 2 plasma pistols

3 attack bikes, multi meltas

VS

Belial
Chaplain Seraphicus

5 deathwing knights
5 deathwing, assault cannon

5 scouts, snipers
5 scouts, snipers
5 Tactical marines, missile launcher
Assault squad, 10 man]


2 Whirlwinds
Fire Raptor (!)

Very interesting game, and could have gone either way, although I pulled out a win in T6.

Highlights:
Dread pods in and frags seraphicus's tactical squad, then magna grapples him to death next turn before wiping a scout sqaud.
New assault squad Risky Business lived up to their name and deepstruck in the backfield near the unguarded whirlwinds, almost scattering off table. The gunslinging serge, 2 plasma pistols and a krak grenade killed a whirly on the drop, before they killed the second the turn after, losing one to the explosion. the combat squads then fought and killed the other scouts before claiming the objective.

My opponent's incredible armour saves on terminators. My DC caused 24 wounds in combat, 1 failed save, 3 DC dead in response, before the chaplian smashed 3 with his fist. On the knights, I caused something like another 15 wounds for no casualties. Incidentally, the deathwind Launcher probably accounted for the most Deathwing Knights, as they were all nicely clumped up all game, for their shield wall rule.

Corbulo took on Belial at the end, relying on Belial's AP3 and Corb's 2+ FNP, mainly as I thought it would be hilarious. They initally failed a hail mary 10" charge, but I used corb's reroll on the dice and made it in. They caused one wound apiece by the end.

Final Tally

BA remaining: 6 assault marines, 2 death company, Reclusiarch, Corbulo, Land Raider, Dread
First Blood, Line Breaker, The Relic.

DA Remaining: Fire Raptor, Belial, 1 Knight.
Linebreaker.

Very good game, all in all. I probably should have brought the fragioso on closer to the relic to be able to deal with everything there. I'll definitely be using one again!

Edited April 8, 2020 by Xenith

[Xenith]

Ok, new for 2015 is my reinterpretation of Karlaen. I love the idea of the model, but think the execution is...lacking.

The Storm Bolter arm is magnetised for when he feels lie using a lightning claw or (in the future) storm shield.

And my excellent girlfriend got me a Baal Pred for christmas, which i have spend a good while pimping out. Here it is at 50%...

Since then it has received a dozer blade, additional front scrollwork, modified smoke launchers and some other bits. Oh, and everything is magnetised. Sponson weapons slide on and off, remove the turret cowl and I can swap the asscans for the flamestorm. Even the storm bolter on the master of the armoury can be removed.

I also got stuck into the dread from Deathstorm set #1, making him up as a librarian:

Cut and repositioned legs, modified smoke launchers and searchlight, magnetised banner. With plenty of bare plastic left over for freehand.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Xenith

[deathspectersgt7]

Good Looking Angels Xenith the Chaplain looks Great.

[Xenith]

Thanks Deathspectre!

[GrunTeufel]

Dat Karlaen! I now what I am doing with my spare terminator legs.

[Midnightmare]

Nice work with Karlaen, much better 

 

Libby looks much more dynamic also with the repositioning of the leg and the 'hip twist' (Second photo especially)

[Xenith]

Dat Karlaen! I now what I am doing with my spare terminator legs.

 

Cheers guys!

 

Watch out, if you assemble the torso plus cape, it will not attach to the legs due to the position of the cape and tabbard. I attached the torso, then assembled the thunderhammer and cape separately, they will then be glued on after painting so I can access the inside of the cape.

[sockwithaticket]

Love that post on the Librarian Dread and I'll echo the others in saying way to rescue Karlaen from his dislocated hip.

[Xenith]

Update on the dread!

 

Ive almost gone for a reversed colour scheme, with the main body painted librarius blue. The arms are totally red, as blue arms with red shoulders looked ridiculous on a model this size. I'm still not 100% sure on the blue body. I disliked it until I saw the photos I took, and it's grown on me rapidly! The gold and scroll work will break up the blue a lot, and there is plenty of space for free hand and honour marks.

 

++INCOMING MESSAGE: ORIGINAL PHOTOS LOST IN WARP++

Edited April 8, 2020 by Xenith

[Xenith]

++INCOMING MESSAGE: ORIGINAL PHOTOS LOST IN WARP++

Dread update - Table top ready:

By tabletop ready, I mean 99% of the undercoat has been covered. He still needs a little tidy up, then the blue bringing up to a lighter shade, then for me to decide on Mephiston red with wild rider highlights, or wild rider base.

And then honour markings, dags, scripture etc.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Xenith

[Jønke]

I'm gonna steal your reversed color scheme for one of my libby dreads. Keep up the great work :)