XBA: The Spear of Telesto

[Xenith]

Thanks!

 

I'm super excited that the infiltrators/incursors are finally getting released. While not a melee focussed unit, they can still deploy close and get stuck in asap, which is how I see my angels fighting. I already have the shadowspear infiltrators, so will likely pick up some incursors to match, and an invictor because infiltrating 12" toaster is too good to pass up.

[Panzer]

I like the tactical options infiltrating units give us and the mine is pretty cool too. If I weren't going for a specific theme I'd definitely pick some up, however since I do and that means having only a very limited amount of sneaky Marines I'm rather going with Eliminators instead. ^^

[Xenith]

So I had my second ever game of 8th edition last night and it was quite fun, despite feeling out of my depth and super rusty on the rules, I still had a blast.

Long story short, despite facing down the sinister forces of the Ordo Xenos, the Blood Angels came out on top thanks to playing to the mision objectives, and sheer bloody murder.

Deathwtch army:

Watch Master - Warlord, guardian spear, 6+ ignore wound trait.

Watch captain - jump pack, infernus, relic blade, beacon angelis

Corvus Blackstar

5 vanguard - stormshield, 3 plasma pistols, thunder hammer, fist, power axe

death squad 1 - 4 frag cannon, bike, 3 storm shields, power maul (In corvus)

death squad 2 - 3 heavy bolter combis, 1 frag cannon, 3 storm shields, terminator w/storm bolter power fist

Primaris death squad - 4 heavy plasma incinerators, aggressor with lame fists, dudes with staler rifles.

The Mighty 4th Co

Furioso Librarian Balthasar - Halberd, fist, heavy flamer, warlord (ignore wounds on a 6) relic - veritas vitae

Chaplain Diabocca - jump pack, infernus pistol

5 tacticals - plasma, combi plasma

5 tacticals - storm bolter, grav cannon

10 scouts - pistols and ccw's power fist

10 death Co - Packs, 2 fists, axe, maul

5 Vanguard - packs, 2 shields, fist, axe

Kaspar the Destroyer, Death Co dread - blood talons, melta, storm bolter

Brother Borgio, Dreadnought - Assault cannon, storm bolter

Stormhawk Interceptor - 2 assault cannons, typhoon launcher, icarus cannon

Razorback - Twin asscans

Rhino - stormbolter

We had both forgot our rulebooks, so we just put an objective in the centre of the table and played short table edges. 1 point if you controoled the objective at the end of the game turn, plus linebreaker, slay the warlord and first blood.

The death company furied forwards, got a T1 charge, then bounced off storm shields on the non corvus death squad. He seriously made like 12 saves. Abysmal rolling from me saw the death co wiped out end of his T1.

Librarian dread jumped forwards, wings'd and engaged the vanguard T1 but also bounced off shields. Seriously. My razor moved up and took the objective, stuff generally moved into assault cannon range...and did nothing. I think I killed one intercessor by the end of my T1.

His T1 - Shooting happens, the deathsquad beacons out of combat and shotguns my asscan dread leaving him on 3w. Plasma pistols from the vanguard overcharge and cause 4 wounds on my librarian (!), death co get wiped.

He gets first blood, I get a point for objective.

My T2. Death co dread moves to eat the primaris death squad rerolling everything with a stupid number of attacks is great. Vanguard deepstrike behind the watch master and wings of fire into him getting off 2 wounds, and getting unlucky with storm shields.

I've figured out the storm shields now and the interceptor pours all its shooting into the squad that just beaconed. I roll high and get 10 shots with the typhoon, 25 shots from this thing in total. The 8 man squad is reduced to 4 after the storm shields save most of the asscan shots. Razor charges his captain.

His T2 His captain infernuses the razor, then fails a charge. Frag squad jumps out of the corvus and auto hit shoots my Stormhawk - 8D6 shots autohitting, and 1 wound I think. Thanks to the rerolling 1st due to the halo launcher. Death co dread wipes out the primaris death squad, Libby wipes out the vanguard finally.

I get another point for the objective.

T3

Plasma squad jump onto the objective, scouts jump out of the rhino and surround the captain, rhino blocks the frag death squad. Balthasar and Kasper double team the watch master who explodes into a red mist. 10 scouts with a chaplain nearby get 27 normal attacks with powerfist attacks on top. After rerolls there was 26 hits, then lucky rolling saw 16 wounds go onto the watch captain who got shanked to death by 119pts of angsty teenage vampires. Rhino charges the frag cannon squad, overwatch does nothing.

His T3

Frag cannon squad cant kill the rhino in one round, dont fall back. Opponent has to go so we call it there.

I have 3 objective pts, slay the warlord and linebreaker to his first blood.

The game felt a lot closer than it was in the end, but just goes to show play the mission pays off in the end!

Lessons learned: I need to optimise my death co usage and loadout. This is the seocnd game they bounced off invulnerable saves and did nothing.

Same with the vanguard.

The dreads did most of the heavy lifting this game. I might use more.

The Stormhawk was crazy, putting out enough firepower to thin the marines.

Scouts are still great, especially when buffed.

Absolute number of attacks seemed to have a much greater effect than quality. Assault cannons, typhoons and scout shanks caused more wounds than my plasma guns and power fists.

I look forward to the next game!

End of his turn 2 movement phase

End of my turn 3

Edited October 25, 2019 by Xenith

[Charlo]

Really love your Mentor Legionnaire!

 

Have you read Spear of the Emperor?

[Leonaides]

Against invulnerable saves volume of hits has always been better than quality of hits. Given the stormshields in each squad I'm not surprised your special weapons didn't shine but keep on with them. When you catch a unit without a 3++ save you'll appreciate them all the more.

[Xenith]

Reading into it also, if the mission was essentially a suicide one as no ships made it throught the straits intact, maybe the Mentors only agreed to it to appease the inquisition, knowing it would likely fail.

 

That said, the Mentors know full well what happens when someone allows the ]I[ so wouldnt upset them.

Really love your Mentor Legionnaire!

 

Have you read Spear of the Emperor?

 

I have, and it was a great book! My feelings on the Mentors are still the same, though - they're awesome!

 

 

 

Against invulnerable saves volume of hits has always been better than quality of hits. Given the stormshields in each squad I'm not surprised your special weapons didn't shine but keep on with them. When you catch a unit without a 3++ save you'll appreciate them all the more.

 

Yea, it's tricky, I havent played ina while, last time was 7th when they reined in the whole wound allocation shennanigans of 5th. The best way to get around these units is going to be weight of fire, and having my own ones! A multi shield vanguard unit will be in the works!

[Xenith]

So inspired by how cheap Vanguard are, and also by how effective they are for Morticon, I decided to finally make up a unit. I'm sick of magnets, so these guys are glued as they are - I might, *might* magnetise the jump packs. Maybe.

As with my other veteran squads, the Sergeant gets a snazzy muscle suit. 5 guys with 5 shields, 3 fists and 2 swords comes out at a neat 130pts also. Cheap investment for hopefully something very killy and tanky.

[Spyros]

Fantastic poses

[Xenith]

Fantastic poses

 

Thanks! I did take my time with these guys, I think each one really has their own character. I think my favourite is the mohawk fist dude, so grumpy.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Just went through this entire thread, excellent painting and conversions!

[Majkhel]

You used a dreadnought head there as well! I wasn't brave enough to do it myself :D
Nice squad!

[Xenith]

You used a dreadnought head there as well! I wasn't brave enough to do it myself

Nice squad!

 

Yea man, I've been itching to use it for ages. I'm tring to get out of the mentality of a bits hoarder and just use the cool things instead of keeping them for the 'perfect' conversion. The armoured face grille is i think perfect for a walking jet powered tank charging into the enemy. 

Edited November 12, 2019 by Xenith

[Xenith]

Just went through this entire thread, excellent painting and conversions!

 

Thanks Kolgrim, glad you like it!

[Xenith]

I managed to get aother game in, which is great, but leaves me with some questions on army building posted here.

 

I got a draw against the perifidous eldar, which was kind of down to me messing around at the end, and came down to literally a single roll. Close, very bloody game and thanks to my opponent. I'll give a quick write up at some point.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your models are well-posed. I like how they look like they're hurling themselves towards the enemy, arms raised to deliver the killing blow.

[Xenith]

Excuse the awful image. My camera skills need some work!

I managed to get a game in last week, 1750 Eldar vs my BA. I only had a 1500 list written, but it turns out the vanguard squad I made was 130, a smash capt was 120 something, and I had 5pts remaining from my previous list to stuck them in!

My list was:

Balthasar, Librarian Dreadnought - Veritas Vitae, heavy flamer

Chaplain Diabocca - Jump pack, infernus pistol

Smash Captain - TH/SS/JP, Death visions, ignore wounds on a 6 trait.

Squad Solon: 5 tacticals - plasma, combi plasma, power fist

Squad Jovor: 5 tacticals - grav cannon, storm bolter, power maul

10 scouts - bp+blades, serge with powerfist

10 Death co - Jump packs, 2 fists, axe, maul, 6 with Cs+bp

10 vanguard - 7 shields, 6 fists, relic blade, 2 swords.

Brother Borgio, Dreadnought - assault cannon, storm bolter

Kaspar the Destroyer, Death Company Dreadnought

'Thunder's Echo', Stormhawk Interceptor - typhoon missiles, assault cannons, icarus stormcannon.

Razorback - TLAC

Rhino - Storm Bolter

Perfidious Eldar:

Farseer, jetbike

autarch, phoenix gem, power sword, hawk wings, pistol

warlock, jetbike

jain zar

5 avengers

5 avengers

5 rangers

5 Howling Banshees

3x Shining Spears.

Vyper, 2x shuricannons

Vyper 2x Shuricannons

5x Windriders, 2x cannons

Fire Prism, stones

Fire prism, stones

War walker, shuricannon, EML

War walker, shuricannon, EML

War walker, shuricannon, EML

Wave serpent, 3x shuricannons

Looking at that list now, I dont know what force org chart it used. My opponent said double battallion, or so i thought, but it's lacking troops choices for both that and a brigade. I'll have to check. Somehow he had like 12 command points.

Opponent deployed a bit back, but didnt count on the speed of the BA and deployed in cover, but with key units exposed. I had fewer drops and started first so was more likely to go first. Scouts deployed 9" away, death co deployed as far forward as possible, everything else straining at the edge of my deployment zone. Vanvets started in reserve.

DeathCo furied 15" forwards, then used a 12" JP move managed to multi charge a unit of avengers, autarch, and fire prism. Took the autarch down to 1 wound, knocked 5 off the prism and wiped the avengers T1. I then honoured the chapter to knock another wound off the prism and kill the autarch, who then phoenix gemmed and killed 3 DC. Death co was then wiped next turn via fire prism smite barrage.

Scouts moved forward and charged a vyper and the spears, denying them the charge. Killed 2 spears leaving the exarch, knocked wounds off the vyper.

Dreads moved up and obliterated a war walker, using the charge and consolidate to slingshot up the field.

Vanvets descent of angelsed into the last avenger, fire prism, and jain zar, knocing some wounds off her, bouncing off the prism. Jain killed 1 in return (storm shields). The vanvets then died to mass smite and executioner barrage.

Balthasar moved up, sliced the wave serpent in half, then wingsed over the banshees and splatted the farseer beore claiming an objective

Smash cap crushed a war walker, before beating jain zar to death - eventually caught in the open as I chased down the last skyrunners, and got killed by the fire prism - literally came down to one roll. 3 wounds remaining. Prism inflicted 3 damage. 3 5+++ saves to make, rerolling 1's. failed all 3.

Diabocca didnt do much until the end. Got charged by a vyper, pistolled it in overwatch. Then chasd the second and infernus pistoled it to death.

Stormhawk didnt kill much but applied pressure throughout and survived until the end. I forgot about the +1 to hit models with FLY so it should have been a lot more effective, essentially ignoring the -1 to hit from moving. My opponent moved forward to engage me, leaving his characters clustered around where the DC used to be. The hawk flew 30" into that space and unloaded on his autarch, prism, and farseer, killing the warlord. The typhoon did squad last game, but the krak missile were ok this game. Tempted to try out the heavy bolters to make it cheaper.

Plasma tacs still rocked, as they have since 3rd ed. Safely overcharging near the captain, they nuked a war walker before Solon punched a wound off JainZar.

Overall the game was a draw:

I had first blood, warlord, linebreaker, 1 objective

He had: linebreaker, warlord, 2 objectives.

Things I've learned:

• My army arrived piecemeal. I should have started with the vanvets on the board to draw fire from the DC. As it was, I fed a nasty combat unit to my opponent one at a time. This will also save me CP.
• I need more mobile scoring. I was definitely outmatched on the objective game.
• Quantity > Quality of firepower. Shuriken catapults were knocking wounds off my rhinos and dreads, while my krak missiles were bouncing off invun saves. I think a lot of S5 AP-1 firepower would be effective.
• Librarians are great toolboxes. I've had trouble with invulnerable save dudes in the last 2 games. I was shown that smite dont care. I need to maybe add another libby, or find a way to get the flakk missile/hellfire strat into my lists. One fire prism was down to 1 wound and all my firepower bounced off it. I tried that once, then just smited it. Much more reliable.
• I need to work on my positioning/restraint. The DC raced off ahead, my chaplain didnt bring his rerolls into play until T3, and smash capt couldnt keep up with the DC and vanvets. Maybe I should have UWoF'd him into my opponents deployment zone to suppor the DC and cause another distraction?

Looking at these points, I think Inceptors solve a few issues. Mobile, voluminous -1AP shooting. I'll have to make some!

Edited November 19, 2019 by Xenith

[Lynnean]

Yeah theres no way he couldve had that many cp with that list.

 

Cheers, nice report!

[Xenith]

Battle report v Dark Angels

1750 points

Mission: Supply drop from CA:2018 (4 objectives that move around, FLY units have ObSec instead of troops).

Deployment: Cleans and Burn (quarters, no one closer than 9" from the centre point).

Before (at the start of his move phase, after he advanced the black knights):

After (end of my turn 4):

My list was unchanged from before:

Balthasar, Librarian Dreadnought - Veritas Vitae, heavy flamer

Chaplain Diabocca - Jump pack, infernus pistol

Smash Captain - TH/SS/JP, Death visions, ignore wounds on a 6 trait.

Squad Solon: 5 tacticals - plasma, combi plasma, power fist

Squad Jovor: 5 tacticals - grav cannon, storm bolter, power maul

10 scouts - bp+blades, serge with powerfist

10 Death co - Jump packs, 2 fists, axe, maul, 6 with Cs+bp

10 vanguard - 7 shields, 6 fists, relic blade, 2 swords.

Brother Borgio, Dreadnought - assault cannon, storm bolter

Kaspar the Destroyer, Death Company Dreadnought

'Thunder's Echo', Stormhawk Interceptor - typhoon missiles, assault cannons, icarus stormcannon.

Razorback - TLAC

Rhino - Storm Bolter

Dark Angels:

Master - storm bolter, sword,forgot the trait.

Sammael on Covex

Ezekiel

5 scouts, bp+ccw

5 scouts bp+ ccw

6 intercessors, bolt rifles

5 black knights - 4 plasma 1 grenade

4 black knights, 3 plasma 1 grenade

3 ravenwing - bolters, 2x plasma gun

Ravenwing standard bearer

5 devs - 4 plasma cannons

5 hellblasters - heavy plasma incinerators

Ravenwing Dark Talon

Something like 9 CP's. I think there was a batallion and vanguard detachment with sammael.

I chose the deployment zone and my opponent deployed. I'd positioned my objectives pretty aggressively and was keen on taking them.

T1: My opponent deployed first and I failed to seize. I thought I was protected fromthe black knight plasma talons but didnt realise they were 1) Assault 2, 2) there was a strat to allow advance and fire without penalty. My thinking they were rapid fire 2 like normal plasma saw the entire ravenwing detachment advance and murder my vanguard. Their storm shields absorbed 7 plasma talons, a bunch of bolters and other stuff, for all 10 dead and one dead death co. Dark talon couldnt fly over my guys without advancing so couldnt drop a bomb (that things is lethal, half he squad takes mortal wounds!).

My turn the libby got wings off to be able to charge the dark talon. smash capt moved up death co flanked the bikes to make room for the DCD. Shooting was minimal, tagteting the second black knight unit to thin them out. Scouts killed 4 opposing scouts, but didnt charge as they would have been wiped by return plasma fire next turn. Stormhawk flew over everyone to make ezekiel and sammael the nearest. I shot sammael as he was providing rerolls to all the RW. All the firepower saw him stripped of wounds and deaded, as he can FLY.

Smash capt charged 2" into the talon and black knight large unit to deny all the overwatch. DCD and DC then went intothe BK's, and the libby went into the talon to getthe bonus move. Smash capt put 9 wounds on it, dc wiped out the BK's, then consolidated into the others, as with the DCD. The dark talon, however, crashed and burned after a command point reroll, putting 3 wounds on my captain, 3 on my libby, 2 on the dcd and 3 on the death co. Insane. That really put me on the back foot.

T2:

BK's fell back and popped the fallback and shoot strat. Hellblasters weapons of the dark age overcharged and shot the hawk from the sky. Some other shooting. DC killed.

I assault and charge remaining bikers. killed, consolidate into squad 2 of scouts with the DCD. Razorback shoots the plasma devs and kills 3, massively reducing his firepower.

The rest of the game was me seeing whether I could mop up before his remaining dev castle wiped me from the board. Which they failed to do thanks to a scout charge, and some lucky armour save rolls from the DCD.

The end result was a win for the 4th company. 8 - 4 on objectives, and with only mopping up to do in my last turn. All my dreads survived, with Borgio on full wounds.

What happened:

Balthasar, Librarian Dreadnought - Veritas Vitae, heavy flamer

Murdered a bunch of RW bikes, AP-4 and D3 is brutal. Powers got shut down a coupleof times. Wings is reliable cast on 5+, Quickening not so much. Maybe a smite would more than be similar to the +D3 attacks, but the +2" charge range is needed. Totally forgot to roll for veritas all game.

Chaplain Diabocca - Jump pack, infernus pistol

Reroll all misses is super good. Kept him close to my death co this time. Killed a couple of bikers with the infernus, but generally what he got into combat with was already dead by the time he attacked.

Smash Captain - TH/SS/JP, Death visions, ignore wounds on a 6 trait, Angels Wing.

Smashed the Dark Talon from the sky, murdered a biker, prevented a hell of a lot of overwatch from assault 2 plasma talons murdering my guys, rerolls were super useful. Wings of fired then descent of angels into the devs in my T4, however rolled 5,2,1 on the dice, then command rerolled the 1 to another 1 and failed to get in! Absolutely worth 120 something points.

Squad Solon: 5 tacticals - plasma, combi plasma, power fist

Went in the razor. Nice objective grabber. twin plasma in a list is great, overcharging with captain around puts the hurn on primaris.

Squad Jovor: 5 tacticals - grav cannon, storm bolter, power maul

Held the objective for 4 turns, put out the odd damage. 24" range not great for objective holders. May swap for stalker intercessors.

10 scouts - bp+blades, serge with powerfist

Infiltrated up, murdered another scout squad and 2 bikers, moved up to assault the devs and tie up his castle in the last turn, meaning his only moves were to fall back. 30+ attacks with red thirst puts out the hurt.

10 Death co - Jump packs, 2 fists, axe, maul, 6 with Cs+bp

Survived the initial onslaught, wiped out the 5 bikers then got wiped in return.

10 vanguard - 7 shields, 6 fists, relic blade, 2 swords.

Died T1. Storm shields meant all firepower went into them and saved my DC from a similar fate

Brother Borgio, Dreadnought - assault cannon, storm bolter

Quite slow, asscan only hits on 4's when moving. The weakest dread in the list.

Kaspar the Destroyer, Death Company Dreadnought

KILL MAIM BURN. Charged into the bikers, didnt get to attack as death co killed them all. 6" consolidate was crucial in these games as it allowed me to move and tie up other chunks of his army. Killed scouts, then sent Ezekiel back to hell.

'Thunder's Echo', Stormhawk Interceptor - typhoon missiles, assault cannons, icarus stormcannon.

Underperformed in the face of DA firepower. Awesome range that basically would have let me kill my opponents warlord T1, but he flew over Sammael and annihilated him instead. Still unsure on the typhoon launcher.

Razorback - TLAC

Moved up, protected my dudes, shielded the libby dread from firepower. Underwhelming shooting, but has enough of it.

Rhino - Storm Bolter

As above. General 70pt nuisance that messed with my opponents target priority, especially with only characters left at the end. Stupidly charged the devs at the end and forgot about DA 5+ overwatch.

Thoughts

Star players were the Smash Capt (he really needs a name, originally he was my 4th Co Champion), Balthasar the libby dread, kaspar DCD, and the scouts.

I realised I can actually squeeze and extra CP out of the list by putting the chaplain, death co, DCD and vanguard into a vanguard detachment, giving me batallion+vanguard.

I'm thinking the 5 tactical marines have been relagated to objective duty the last 2 games. A dedicated less mobile unit may be better for this. I'm thinking 5 sniper scouts. Hopefully hard to shift with cloaks and can plink at characters. I'll maybe also try with some stalker intercessors.

The razors I'm unsure about. They're tough, and a nuisance, but dont put out a lot of firepower. Wondering if I can ditch the razor and 12 asscan shots for an equivalent points in heavy bolter devastators, or autobolt intercessors.

Unfortunately, it seems Primaris get all the benefits and have great rules. Poor tacticals.

I really want to get that Stormhawk based. It's kind of embarassing, I'll aim to get at least some sand or agrellan on it by next thursday. Issue is I want to have something bigger on the vast amount of base area, but unsure what. Maybe a tactical marine? Ammo cache?

That's my 4th game of 8th now, with 3 wins and 1 draw, albeit one friendly intro game, and 3 seemingly unoptimised lists (although that's what I bring).

Edited November 22, 2019 by Xenith

[Quixus]

Do you by cance know where the terrain comes from?

[Xenith]

Do you by cance know where the terrain comes from?

As far as I know, this is all standard GW age of Sigmar terrain - this was in my local GW store.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Those are really cool tables you guys are playing on!

[Quixus]

 

Do you by cance know where the terrain comes from?

As far as I know, this is all standard GW age of Sigmar terrain - this was in my local GW store.

 

Thanks I totally missed that AoS had so many Thousand Sons appropriate terrain.

[Xenith]

 

 

 

Do you by cance know where the terrain comes from?

As far as I know, this is all standard GW age of Sigmar terrain - this was in my local GW store.

Thanks I totally missed that AoS had so many Thousand Sons appropriate terrain.

Indeed, I was sorely tempted to use the Sigmar shattered something bases for my thousand sons. I've seen them used like that to great effect, lots of runes and imagery. I may still use them on my Harlequins, they'll pass for wraith one easily!

Those are really cool tables you guys are playing on!

That's all down to Matt, GW Stockports manager and hobby guru. He's been featured once or twice in WarCom.

[Loishy]

I very like the poses of your Vanguards ! Now I almost want to rebuild mine.

[Xenith]

I very like the poses of your Vanguards ! Now I almost want to rebuild mine.

Thanks dude, I appreciate it! I spend quite a long time getting things just how I want them, and it usually involves a lot of pulling them apart as the glue cures...