Corvus's Blood Angels - Command Squad WiP

[The Red Thirst]

Also....

Heavy bolters

I thought the exact same thing, but to each their own

[Corvus_Danseur]

Also....

Heavy bolters

I thought the exact same thing, but to each their own

To be honest I hadn't even considered them until someone somewhere mentioned that they where mathematically the better bet. By that point the autocannons where stuck on...

In the end I kept the autocannons as I normally face a monster heavy bug list, plus Eldar (Iyaden) and a variety of marines. Neither of which have horde like tendencies. My thinking was that the higher strength of the autocannons would be more useful against such things than more shots. Also the autocannons can deal with side/rear/light armour whereas heavy bolters cannot really do so consistently.

That was my thinking anyway! I may well play a few games with the AC and then a few cheeky 'count as' HB to see which I prefer.

[Natanael]

I'll make sure to build a horde-list just to make your fire raptor feel bad =)

Anyway - how are things looking on that second battle report? You have to make sure you are ready for the huge Horus Heresy era battle report that is bound to follow on our battle next week. Better get the 40k ones out of the system before then, eh? Also, I am bored and need something to read for a few minutes to keep my mind off school.

Keep up the good work. =)

[Morticon]

This sounds like sacrilege, but id consider breaking the autos off ><; 

 

Thats how good the HBs are.  

[Corvus_Danseur]

This sounds like sacrilege, but id consider breaking the autos off ><; 

 

Thats how good the HBs are.  

 

*Goes away and seriously considers life options*

 

Will play a few games with both and see... can't quite bring myself to take the clippers to it yet!!!

[Zedrenael]

So I got to ask and maybe I missed it but what are you going to do next when you are done with the Fire Raptor. 

[Morticon]

 

This sounds like sacrilege, but id consider breaking the autos off ><; 

 

Thats how good the HBs are.  

 

*Goes away and seriously considers life options*

 

Will play a few games with both and see... can't quite bring myself to take the clippers to it yet!!!

 

 

 

Cool! At least try play with both ^_^ 

 

And dont forget, you're hitting on 2s!

[Corvus_Danseur]

@Morticon- I played a game with it today, and have to say think will be switching the HB onto based on this first run. The autocannon where pretty underwhelming. Only one game, but still! Hitting on 2s was lovely I have to say. 

 

@Zedreneal- I hadn't actually said, thanks for asking :). Am pretty mentally busy right now, trying find a new apartment before I am made homeless, moving to said mythical apartment, teaching and own research to do... blah. So yes no major projects for the moment. But am focusing on getting done the units that are not yet painted. So devastators plus another tac and assault squad are on the to do list! But to reward myself after these less fun units, I have my eye on an Blood Angel sworn Imperial knight, probably of House Hawkshroud.... 

[Zedrenael]

I have to ask. How does the Fire Raptor hit on 2s?

[Shaezus]

Strafing run. Love it.

[Corvus_Danseur]

BAtrep!

IX^th Legion vs. VI^th Legion - The Angels vs. The Wolves

Praetor Lornael gazed out at the ruined town, the light drizzle so misting his vision for a moment until his super-human eyes adjusted for the visual distortion. The inhabitants of this place were long dead, or had fled into the mountains where even now his brothers of the IX^th Legion where cleansing the last of the resistance. What occupied him now was the line of baying dogs, armoured in dull grey, who had been intercepted by the IX^th’s task force just short of the open ground that would allow them to escape and make contact with their headquarter command once again... something that must not be allowed to happen, they had seen too much... and failed to understand what they had seen.

Come one come all and marvel at the majesty that is a clash of legions! Nathanael and I played our first ever game of Horus Heresy this evening, and boy was it fun! What follows is a jointly written account of events, as I (Corvus-Blood Angels) narrate the events of my turn whilst my opponent (Nathanael- Space Wolves) narrates the events of his. Hope you enjoy this new style and both sides perspective! At the end of each full turn account there is a photo of the state of the table at the end of said turn.

The game is 2500 points, Dawn of War deployment; three objectives placed taking it in turns, worth 2VP each. First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker all in effect.

I just realised, as I write this, that in our excitement at the first game we totally forgot Warlord Traits! I’m sure we also made other mistakes... feel free to point them out! Also note that quite a lot of proxy going on sorry, both of us still new to the HH game and money for the resin super-crack is not easily come by! Particularly when delivering to Sweden and paying in Swedish Krona ;).

The Armies

A quick shot of my force taken the night before as I got ready. The landing-pad was a same day purchase as I seek ways of making the most of the Fire Raptor (running with heavy bolters for this battle). The rest of the force consists of:

- Legion Praetor, terminator armour and power weapon.

- Legion Consul, Moritat with two plasma pistols and a jump-pack.

- Legion Apothecary Detachment, two apothecaries, one with a power sword.

- Legion Terminator Squad x8, Indomnitus pattern, one set of lightning claws, the rest power fist and combi-bolter. > With dedicated transport Spartan Assault Tank (Redeemer proxy)

- Contemptor Dreadnought, two Kheres pattern Assault Cannons (furioso proxy).

- Legion Assault Squad, x15 ASM, sergeant has twin lightning claws.

- Legion Tactical Squad, x15 marines, legion vexilla, sergeant has combi-plasma.

- Legion Outrider Squad, x3 bikes with twin-linked plasma guns.

- Legion Heavy Support Squad, x5 marines, with x4 plasma cannons.

- Predator, with flamestorm cannon and heavy bolters.

The SW forces consist of the following:

- Legion Praetor

Master-Crafted Paragon Blade, Power Fist, Digital Lasers, Iron Halo, Space Marine Bike

- Legion Centurion

Artificer Armour, Power Fist, Lightning Claw, Space Marine Bike, Refractor Field

- Apothecarion Detachment

1 Apothecary with Artificer Armour, Power Sword

- Legion Dreadnought Talon

1 Dreadnought with additional close combat weapon, 2 Plasma Blasters

1 Dreadnought with additional close combat weapon, 2 Plasma Blasters

- Legion Tactical Squad

Additional marines x10, Additional Chainsword x20, Legion Vexilla, Artificer Armour

- Legion Tactical Squad

Additional Chainsword x10, Artificer Armour, Power Fist, Legion Vexilla

- Legion Rhino Armoured Carrier

Heavy Bolter

- Legion Tactial Support Squad

Melta gun x4, Artificer Armour, Power Fist, Combi-Melta

- Legion Rhino Armoured Carrier

Heavy Bolter

- Legion Outrider Squadron

Additional Outriders x6, Power Weapon x3, Sergeant with Power Fist

- Legion Outrider Squadron

Additional Outriders x6, Power Weapon x3, Sergeant with Power Fist

- Legion Heavy Support Squad

Additional Marines x5, Missile Launcher x9, Sergeant with Nuncio-vox & Chainsword, Artificer Armour

Deployment

BA deploy first, the Sky Shield landing pad hosts the Fire Raptor and the Heavy Weapons squad. The Spartan takes a central position behind the tall central building, the Praetor with his Terminator bodyguard and Apothecary (with power axe) occupying the interior. The Contemptor, Predator and Outrider squad are placed on the left flank, the Tactical Squad with the second Apothecary are deployed between the Spartan and the Landing Pad. And finally the Moritat and the ASM are in reserve ready to deep strike.

Space Wolves - With the BA spread out I figured I should be able to deny them some of the firepower and deployed in kind of a refused flank. To the far right on the picture is the 20man tactical squad with the apothecary, and then an outrider squad with the Centurion attached, followed by both the Rhinos shielding the dreads. The Heavy Support squad took place in the rubble with good fields of fire on both sides of the central house. Lastly, I put the Praetor and a squad of Outriders on the left to keep his forces there occupied as well as not abandoning that objective to the BA right from the start. I figured the praetor should be able shrug off most of the firepower there, especially with 9 “extra wounds” from the outriders.

BA Turn 1

Movement: The Raptor takes to the air and flies towards the missile toting heavy weapons squad. The Spartan rumbles forwards 6” and the tac-squad shuffles out of the craters and take a path behind the Spartan towards the central objective. On the left flank the only movement is the Contemptor striding forward to get the missile squad in range. The bikes and Predator hang back- waiting for the Wolves to come to them and the left objective.

Shooting: The majority of the shooting in this phase is concentrated either on the missile squad or the rhino containing the special weapons squad toting meltas. Removing these threats removes the only real ranged answers that the SW have to the BA firepower.

Four of the missile squad go down to the Raptors Avenger Bolt Cannon, the ruins providing insufficient cover to stay its wrath. Meanwhile the Contemptor manages to pick off the sergeant of the squad (only one in range), handily also taking out the nuncio-vox he was carrying. Sadly the squad passes morale. The Spartan easily pops the melta’s rhino, two of them dying to the resulting explosion. And finally the plasma heavy weapons squad on the landing platform let loose... as the plasma cools and the dust clears there are no meltas left standing. A good first turn.

Assault: none take place.

SW Turn 1

Movement: OUCH! Losing more then half my anti-tank right away hurt. I move everything except for the missiles up to make the Raptor have to go off the board in his next turn. The Praetor and the bikes keep out of the threat arc of the flamestorm cannon on the Predator, hoping to get an assault in on both it and the dread next turn. With the power fist on the Praetor and on the Outriders I figured they should be able to tackle both if they managed to not die horribly from the BA shooting. Since the dread was carrying double guns I was not too afraid of him and figured that the Praetor could deal with him while the bikes killed the predator. That was the plan, at least.

Shooting: The heavy squad fired the remaning missiled against the Raptor, trying to take it down but his jink save him from the one missile that managed to do something. Then both dreads tried their luck with the plasma blasters, putting a wound on the Raptor as well as on one of themselves. Overheat... sigh. Other then that I managed to kill a single plasma cannon guy on the skyshield, and not much else.

Assault: Nope, none.

BA Turn 2

Movement: All reserves arrive, the ASM landing neatly on the landing pad, allowing them to safely make it onto the field and in position to support any other units that in get in trouble or exploit weaknesses that arise and seize the right flank objective. The Moritat makes a pin-point drop to the rear of the SW Praetors bike squad... truly the Blood Angel reputation for excellence in airborne assault is well founded! The Spartan roars forward, passing its difficult terrain test, and deploys the terminator squad and the Praetor into the teeth of the enemy. This may or may not be a good idea... Otherwise the tac-squad continues their march towards the central building, making it to the base of the feature. The Predator moves onto the left flank objective and the Outrider squad moves around the left flank of the building behind which they were hiding. The Contemptor moves to protect the right side armour of the Predator and finally, having jinked the previous turn to avoid the Wolves’ missiles, the Raptor flies off the board and goes into ongoing reserves.

Shooting: To warm things up before the Moritat fun commenced; the Contemptor, Preadator and Outrider squad all fired on the SW Praetor and his bike squad. Due to some poor to wound rolls and good jinks only two bikes died. But then... ahhhh the Moritat... here is a before photo...

And here is the after...

Yup, he hit 19 times with his plasma pistols before he finally rolled a one (saved the overheat) and then finally another 1 (took the wound), jinking like crazy the SW just about managed to survive, with one bike and one wound on the Praetor. Needless to say, that was some pretty outrageous rolling on the part of the BA, but hey, clearly the Emperor is on the side of the Sons of Sanguinius!

In other, less dramatic shooting, the plasma heavy weapons squad rolls poorly to hit the SW tac-blob and only kills two. The terminators kill one bike. The Spartan manages only to take one hull point off the right-hand dread.

Assault: Terminator squad charges the SW bike squad, overwatch fails to kill anything. In the ensuing combat the Blood Angels slay the squad with contemptuous ease, but before they go the Wolves make their Primarch proud and manage to kill four terminators with some excellent rolling from the Sergeant and the attached Consul.

[Corvus_Danseur]

SW Turn 2

Movement: Well, dying hurts. Apparently the plan to kill everything on the left flank with the Praetor and his squad failed thanks to the guy with dual plasma pistols. And he didnt even kill himself, hehe. Since the Moritat went crazy I have to do some quick recalibrations and decide to move the Praetor and surviving bike close to the predator for an assault later on. In hidnsight this was probably not the best move. I think that trying to get the dread would have been more efficent, since he was closer to the rest of my guys, and with the 12 shots he puts out each turn he can really make a mess. As it was, the flamestorm cannon frightened me more, and I figured that I could take it out with 7 S8 attacks from the Praetor. The rest of the guys move up, with both the dreads ready to assault the terminators, and the squad inside the rhino getting out into the middle building, intent on capturing the objective.

Shooting: My missiled made a red splatter of the Moritat, taking him out before he could do even more damage. I would have wanted them to fire at the plasma cannons since the shield on the landing pad was down, but he was way to deadly to be left alive. Everything else fired at the terminators. Both tactical squads used the Fury of the Legion and shot like crazy (altough we realised later that you actually fire twice, instead of just adding an extra shot, so there would have been at least 25 more shots) and manage to clear all the terminators but one. The apotechary and Praetor also remains, blocking my dreads from charging the Spartan. So I fire them both into the squad, killing the last terminator and putting two wounds on the Praetor, as well as a hull point gone from overheat again, but on the non-injured one. So now they both have two HP left.

Assault: My dread both charge in and squish the Praetor and his medic. The consolidate to get cover from the lascannons of the Spartan. On the other side of the table the praetor goes into the predator and manages a single hullpoint... a glancing hit. Well well. Good job, supersoldier of the future :P

BA Turn 3

Movement: The Raptor screams back onto the board and positions its self to once again take on the missile squad. The tac-squad makes into the base level of the central ruins. The assault squad stays put, wary of the large blob-squad that had so summarily dealt with Praetor and his terminator body-guard. The Spartan inches forward to get line of sight on each dreadnaught with each spnsoon. On the left flank the Preadator (slightly surprised to still be alive after the tender mercies of the power fist wielding SW Praetor), Outriders and the Contemptor position themselves to deal with the SW Warlord once and for all...

Shooting: the Raptor manages to three of the remaining half of the missile Heavy Wepaons squad, and picks off a marine from the SW tac-squad moving in to contest the central building with its ball-turret heavy bolters. The SW missiles fail their leadership test and run off the board. The plasma Heavy Weapons kill another three marines from the SW large tac-squad, but still 15 of them remain... still an effective fighting force. The Spartan fires on both dreads with its machine spirit taking control of one sponsoon. However disaster strikes and only a glance a-piece is put on each machine, things look grim for the tank... In more cheerful news the SW Praetor and his lone buddy are reduced to smouldering craters, leaving the left flank totally controlled by the Blood Angels and the units placed there available to curl round and strike the centre.

Assault: No assaults take place.

SW Turn 3

Movement: With the death of my Praetor (no suprise there really) I have to concentrate on the middle and rightmost objective. I move the large tactical squad more onto the objective they are heading towards, as well as the smaller squad in the middle building up a few floors to claim that one. The dreads split with one going for the Spartan and one going into the large BA tactical squad that is heading for the middle objective.

Shooting: The lone rhino manages to kill two of the enemy outriders, and the dread in the middle building kill one of the enemy marines. Both my tactical squads did Fury last turn, so no shooting from them. They both run to get into better positions on the objectives.

Assault: Both dreads make it into combat, however the tactical marines manages to throw a lucky krak grenade, taking the assaulting dread down to one HP. He then proceeds to not die and kill two of the enemy. They hold, unfortunatly. The other dread only manages a single glancing hit against the Spartan, dooming himself.

Continues in the next post!

[Corvus_Danseur]

BA Turn 4

Movement: With the Spartan very suprisingly still alive, it backs up and readies to deal with the dread who had just scratched the paintwork. The Rapor flies into the deplyoment zone of the SW and turns to face along the edge. The left flank units, Preadator, Contemptor and remaining bike swing towards the centre. The Contemptor moving to the right of the building whilst the ohter two move towards the left and the remainig Rhino. The ASM squad decides that something must be done about the SW blob-tac squad on the right flank objective and leaps from the platform towards the foe...

Shooting: The small tac-squad in the central ruins is the target of the Raptor, Contemptor, bike and Predator, not surprisingly they are killed to a man, notwithstanding the cover afforded to them by their lofty perch. The two remaining plasma devs once again target the large blob, but only manage to kill two. This mostly only succeeds in making the ASM charge into a 9” rather than 7” charge. The Spartan focus fires on the dread not in combat, and wrecks it in a most convincing manner.

Assault: with no marines falling to over-watch the ASM just make the charge with a roll of 10”. Unfortunately their actual performance in the combat is less than stellar, and whilst five Wolves fall, three Blood Angels also bite the dust. Meaning that the SW pass morale and the combat continues... Meanwhile the tac-squad once again fail in a spectacular manner to hit the huge metal object in front of them, and the 1HP dread squishes another two marines, who hold morale.

SW Turn 4

Movement: Things are looking pretty grim for the Wolves of Fenris. Only the rhino moves, edging out of sight from the Spartan.

Shooting: The single heavy bolter that is able to fire managed to put a wound on the remaning bike, but power armour holds and the passes. Into combat, then!

Assault: The combat with the Assault Marines continue, and a few die on each side. The Wolves hold once more. I have yet to remember that this squad actually has Feel No Pain from the Apotechary. The tactical marines finally manage to kill my dreadnought and move to claim the middle objective.

BA Turn 5

Movement: With the dreadnaught successfully removed the tac-squad move up into the ruins to claim the central objective, the Legion Vexilla bearer proudly leading the way (having happily hid in the middle of the squad whilst fighting the dread). The Raptor goes into hover mode behind the remaining rhino whilst the bike drops back to hold the left flank objective. The Spartan just chills out in the craters and admires its handiwork with the dread from the previous turn.

Shooting: The Raptor blasts a hurricane of large calibre shells into the rear of the Rhino... which survives! Only joking, it dies. And with that the Blood Angels shooting phase is over as the only remaining SW unit is locked in combat with the ASM...

Assault: once again the Wolves and Angels engage in ferocious, but largely harmless, combat. Two more wolves die and one Angel. Wolves pass morale and the combat continues...

SW Turn 5

Three Space Wolves remain... facing off against 10 Blood Angels... the SW strike, slaying three Angels in a fit of pique at the destruction of their force. The Blood Angels reply with one dead Wolf. Somehow the ASM have lost the combat, the dice rolled, and they come up 10!! The ASM try to make a break for it, the Wolves roll 2 for initiative... and the Angels... also 2! They are caught and wiped out to a man! The battered survivors consolidate onto the right flank objective.

At this point we roll to see if the game continues... and it does. However the Wolves conceded the game here. As Nathanael said... ‘they are dead, very dead’.

Post-Game Analysis

With the game ending as in the photo above, the Blood Angels have recorded a convincing win. The force that I put together for this game is essentially the majority of the models I own, so there is limited chance right now to change the list much! But it seems to have generally worked quite well, the ASM proved to be as useless as various internet sources suggested, but maybe throwing them at the strongest remaining Space Wolf unit wasn’t the most sensible choice (but it was the most FUN one!). I definitely left the Terminators and the Praetor out to dry, in the middle of the Space Wolf force. However they did the job required of them, which was to take out a very dangerous unit. Perhaps the Praetor should go in a different unit/have a different role to avoid too many eggs in that one basket.

That all being said- I had an absolute blast playing 30k! Destruction seems to be the name of the game and I for one am all for it!

Post game – SW point of view:

Well, that was that. I died horribly. Lessons learned are that the Dreads should not have plasma weapons that fire lots of shots. I will probably go with meltaguns next time, just to make them able to open tanks and then charge the troops inside. I also realise that 30k seems to be about rate of fire, or at least amouth of shots. A single unit of meltas and a single unit of missiles is not really enough. I think that Attackbikes, Land Speeders and other fast units that can pack anti-tank will be the name of the game, together with large tactical squads with FnP. The large PW-bike squads are fun, but quite fragile and expensive. That said, I will probably run them again if I am up against a more infantry-heavy list.

30k is a lot of fun, and this game was a blast. There will probably be a lot more reports like this as we expand on out collections and learn what works and what we want to play. We have a few other guy with HH-era armies in out shop as well, so there might be some Iron Hands, Alpha Legion or stuff like that from time to time as well.

Wolf Lord Björgvin had trouble to breath. He had realised some time ago that his legs were missing, probably to the same blast that had thrown him off his bike. The Blood Angels had made short work of them, bringing some heavy firepower to it's full effect. Now the Allfather might never hear of the monsters hiding in the midst of the Sons of Sanguinius. Warp-spawn and worse, they might be. With another ragged breath Björgvin could hear someone approacing, and turned to face the thundering sound of power armoured boots. He tried to spit as the red boots stopped in front of him, but nothing came out but a string of saliva mixed with blood, trailing down his beard. The Blood Angel looked down on him, and drew his bolter.

- I am sorry, brother. This should not be.

Björgvin tried to spit again, and managed a cackle of a laugh.

- Sorry? You are warp-tain....

He was cut short by the roar of a bolter. The Blood Angel shook his head sadly and returned to his bike. The Wolves would have to learn not to dabble in the secrets of other legions...

(end fluff by Nathanael, the start by Corvus).

Well that's all folks. A long one so congrats for getting this far (and blimy Mort on the fastest like I've ever seen, not even finished posting the whole thing!! :P). Hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading :)

[Natanael]

Indeed a fun game. I am already preparing for and looking forward to the next one. 

[Corvus_Danseur]

Command and Control

Apologies for the protracted absence. Moving apartments is quite time consuming and stressful it turns out! However all that is done now and I am slowly managing to get some more hobby time into my week. For your delectation and delight I have Dante and a WiP Damocles Command Rhino. Apologies for slightly blurred photos in places... I dropped my camera on a visit to Amsterdam and broke the focusing ring on the lens a wee bit :(.

Dante's paint job was finished just before I started moving. Probably my best work to date, I made my first truly custom base so as he has a display position more worth of the Master of the Blood Angels. Yet to see the table top, maybe the imminent codex will see him deployed.

And secondly, having been looking for ways to improve the reliability of Fire Raptor fire support, I have cannibalised my one Rhino (it rarely/never sees the table due to its solitary nature), and put together a Damocles Command Rhino from the contents of my bitx box, some plasticard and bit of greenstuff. Pretty pleased with the results so far, few more tweaks and then will get some paint on it. Considerably cheaper than ordering from Forgeworld ;).

That's all for now. Thanks for looking!

[Memento Of Prospero]

Awesomd stuff brother ;)

[Praefectus Invictus]

now... just have to figure out ho to convert one of these! 

 

nice work!

[Xenith]

Great damocles conversion! Is that just the standard satellite dish from the SM tank sets?

 

The apocalypse vehicle command sprue also has a nice aerial or two!

[knife&fork]

I was going to convert an old rhino to use a dedicated damocles, but after seeing yours I think it's better to just use a set of spare hatches and doors with comms-themed  bits on them.

[Corvus_Danseur]

@Xenith- thanks! Yeah I had seen the Apoc sprue and was planning to get it for this purpose but got impatient/realised I could also do it out of my own resources! I think so, although it is larger than the dish you get with the Land Raider... and can't remember exactly where I got it from. But it is indeed from one of the marine vehicles (one that comes with the Baal now I think about it maybe...). 

 

@Knife&Fork, fair shout! I had tried to do something like that, but couldn't get it looking quite as I wanted. So went for a dedicated one in the end, also I loved the (slightly comic) guy I made for the hatch, which really only works with a permanent fix sadly!

[Corvus_Danseur]

Calistarius

Just a quick post. I finally finished my terminator in Librarian armour, Brother Calistarius (aka Mephiston pre emotional issues). Love the model. And fairly happy with the paint job. Can't wait for all the new BA goodness, and here is hoping for a new Mpehiston model to match his previous life!

[Corvus_Danseur]

Hey folks!

Been a while since I posted, apologies. Away from home for essentially a month, so not much done and not even much lurking time! I have a shoulder operation on Tuesday so unlikely to get much more any-time soon... however I did manage to grab some hobby time this weekend. And using the left-over Death Company from the Deathstorm box (I already have 20 so decided to do something else with them), I put together a melta-command squad. Actually bothered to magnetise these guys, so come with both jump-pack and normal-pack options! Also included a pic of a Captain with jump-pack that I have been meaning to do something with for a while :).

Also, got a few games in with the new codex in past week. Got to say I am loving it. One game with a semi-good list led by Dante... very handily dealt with some Space Wolves. Second game was more of a 'take it and have fun' approach- using the Archangels Strikforce from Shield of Baal: Exterminatus (the all elites detachment). Much fun was had, and in the end only lost by single point to the same mechanised Wolf list in the first game.

> Veteran with melta-gun and power-fist. Fist mostly just for fun but > Company Champion.

could be WYSISWG if I have the points.

> Sanguinary Novitiate > Veteran with melta.

> Veteran with melta. > Captain with jump-pack, lightning claw and plasma pistol.

Apologies for photo blur in places. Broke my lens in Amsterdam and have to get a new one still...