Chaplain Admetus' New Battle Report Thread - Game 7 added

[Chaplain Admetus]

Having successfully delivered the Widget Of Incalculable Value that his force retrieved from the Tyranids, Mephiston and his forces are dispatched back into a suspiciously similar looking cathedral complex to deal with a daemonic incursion!

Game 4 - Chaos Daemons, 1750 points

Crusade - Hammer and Anvil

I'm running a near-identical list to last week, the sole difference being scrapping the heavy flamer from the furioso as advice seems to be that the melta/frag is a better all-around combination, just means I'm fighting 10 points down. For this game, I don't see much use in Mephy's powers, so I swap them out. After consultation with my opponent, a fellow BA player when not running his daemons, we agreed that Meph should get 3 powers so I rolled them all from Telepathy, getting Terrify (swapped to Psychic Shriek), Terrify (had to keep this time), and finally Hallucination.

Angels Sanguine Forces:

Mephiston (Warlord - Tenacity (FnP within 3" of an objective)); Psychic Shriek, Terrify, Hallucination

Corbulo

Furioso with Frag Cannon and Heavy Flamer

10 Assault Marines, 2 Meltaguns

10 Assault Marines, 2 Flamers

10 Tactical Marines, Lascannon, Meltagun, Razorback (Heavy Bolter variant)

2 Multi-Melta Attack Bikes

Baal Predator (Assault Cannon and Heavy Bolters)

Storm Raven (Assault Cannon and Multi-Melta)

5 Devastators, 4 Missile Launchers

Daemonic Incursion:

Be'Lakor (Warlord), All the Telepathy Powers

Lord of Change - Flickering Fire, Precognition, Prescience. Reward that gives him a 3+ save, but forget his other two gifts

10 Bloodletters, Champion (Axe of Khorne), Standard that lets them charge d6+6" once per game

10 Horrors

20 Horrors, Champion, Aetherblade

5 Flamers, Pyrocaster

9 Screamers

Daemon Prince of Tzeentch - re-roll invulnerable saves, soul eater (lets him gain wounds when he kills things), Iron Arm, Smite, Life Leech

I won the roll-off for table sides and elected to take the side with less overall cover, but had both of the tall towers, denying my opponent the ability to hide his FMCs behind them; we rolled 4 objectives, and no night-fighting on turn 1. I also won the roll for deployment, and elected to take the first turn, hoping to damage the FMCs before they got in the air/got their powers active.

Deployment. I deployed the two objectives denoted by the blue stars, my opponent placed the ones in green. I have 10 assault marines with meltaguns coming down the flank, supported by the attack bikes (hidden by the building in the centre). Then Mephy, the 5 devastators standing on the Aquila, and the Baal (which has scouted) forming my centre, and the tactical marines have combat squadded - 5 in the razor with Corbulo, 5 with a lascannon in the ruined tower holding the objective, which is a targeting relay (re-roll 1s to hit when shooting). 5 guys with flamers deep-striking, 5 normal guys in the raven. My opponent leaves the 10 horrors and the flamers in reserve, deploys 20 horrors on an objective (scatterfield, +1 cover), 10 bloodletters nearby, and hugs the back edge with everything else, to try and stay out of range. The deep-striking squad and the attack bikes succumb to the red thirst. My opponent tries to seize, but fails.

I have two possible angles of approach to this mission. There's about 1000 points tied up in the three FMCs, but everything else is comparatively squishy. I can either try and destroy the big things, and hope that the rest of his army crumbles without them; or I can ignore them, go after the relatively squishy troops, and try for a 1-0 win with objectives by preserving a troops choice. I suspect the latter will be easier.

Turn 1 - Angels Sanguine:

Drop pod arrives and lands dead in front of the bloodletters. Mephiston wanders into the central ruin, and the Baal and razorback both move up to have range to the bloodletters. The attack bikes and assault marines advance down the flank, the latter running. Mephiston runs a measly 2", clearly befuddled by the sensation of deja-vu he's getting from the table. The furioso manages to kill some bloodletters, and I manage to get the squad down to just one survivor after piling everything else into it (and I've stupidly blocked the bikes' line of sight with the pod). I -then- remember that the frag cannon is an assault 2 gun (hazard of only the second time fielding the thing) but my opponent very graciously lets me use the second template, which wipes out the survivor for First Blood. Had I remembered, they'd have died faster and I'd have more shots available for the horrors, who lose 1 to the melta weaponry on the attack bikes and the frag missiles from devastators.

Turn 1 - Daemons:

Be'lakor makes the screamers invisible, rendering them all but invulnerable for a turn. Biomancy prince successfully casts Iron Arm, for +2. Lord of Change gets Precognition. All 3 fly down the left flank, 2 gaining vector strikes on the furioso, which strips it of a hull point. The Screamers move up and turbo, for a 2+ re-rollable, but are careful to stay out of realistic range of Mephiston. Warp storm table does the thing which hurts Tzeentch, but has no effect on either side. The lord of change flickering fires the dreadnought in the back, and wrecks it. The horrors manage to shoot down two assault marines, and Be'Lakor hits them with psychic shriek, removing another 4. The 4 survivors (including both meltas and the sergeant) pass morale.

End of turn 1. I know, my camera-fu is weak... I'm also concerned about the massive Daemon-ball of flying monsters on my flank.

Turn 2 - Angels Sanguine:

I get the Raven on from reserves, but not the deep-striking assault squad - I choose not to re-roll in an attempt to keep them back for later. The Raven flies on from the corner nearest the tactical squad, giving it an angle to get past the building and have line of sight to the FMCs. The assault marines jump out the back as it moves, aiming for the gap between the aquila and the tower, and scatter but pass all 5 dangerous terrain checks. Mephiston attempts to Hallucinate the screamers, but rolls a double 6. Here I do something VERY stupid - I vastly overestimate the threat of the screamers and was hoping to either thin them out with their own c-c attacks or lock them down, and I don't want Mephy taking a wound (though 1 is likely irrelevant) so I burn Corbulo's re-roll, meaning I can't use it at a clutch moment later. To add insult to injury, the Screamers successfully deny the witch against my successful casting. The Razor and Baal retreat, hoping to not get charged by the screamers, and the assault marines, bikes, and Meph advance. I notice that only one Screamer is in range of Be'lakor so I direct all my fire at them from that angle, and am lucky enough to get rid of one between Psychic Shriek and bullets, meaning my opponent can't repeat the trick next turn. On the other side, the Storm Raven fires the assault cannon, multi-melta and one missile at the Biomancy prince, and manages a wound, but also knocks him from the sky, taking another wound in the process. I machine-spirit a second missile at another target, but miss. Now that he's grounded, my attack bikes and assault marines strip a further wound with all the melta, and the devastators finish the job with a quartet of krak missiles.

Turn 2 - Daemons:

Neither of his units turn up from reserves. Be'Lakor makes the horrors invisible, and the Lord of Change puts prescience on them. Screamers move right in front of Meph. Both FMCs fly off, one vector-striking my 4 assault marines and killing 3, the survivor falling back out of flickering fire range from the horrors. The Warp Storm does bad things to a random character with daemonic instability, the only candidate being the Lord of Change, who has to take an instability test on 3d6, and he passes. The screamers turbo boost over Mephiston, who shrugs off the damage. Be'lakor puppet masters my Storm Raven, firing all its guns (including my two remaining missiles) at the attack bikes, wiping them out.

End of turn 2. Note the fleeing assault marine and distinct lack of attack bikes. Also, the screamers right in front of my army.

Turn 3 - Angels Sanguine:

The assault marines turn up... for all of about 30 seconds, deciding that this really isn't a good time for them right now and they'd rather take tea on the sidelines (read: I put them near the horrors, they mishapped onto said horrors, and went back into reserve). Mephiston attempts to hallucinate the screamers again, but decides he'd rather fail to cast it instead, rolling 11. The last assault marine rallies, and runs back to the objective he just left (another targeting relay), but hides just out of claiming range, where he's invisible to horrors in a corner. The storm raven, crew whistling innocently and trying very hard to pretend they didn't just gun down their own bikers, moves and sits in the gap between the building and the horrors, still within range of the FMCs with its assault cannon (360 fire arc, being a turret weapon). Meph moves out of cover towards the screamers, the assault squad moves 6" up towards them, and Corbulo and friends disembark from the razorback. The Baal takes up a fire lane towards the FMCs. I fire everything at them, starting with the Raven. I do a wound with the assault cannon, but he stays up; I force a second grounding test, which he fails, taking another wound, and once he's down I pound him with everything I have to finish the job, for Slay the Warlord. I believe I'm also able to take a sneaky wound off the Lord of Change. I manage a solitary wound on the screamers; Meph doesn't cast psychic shriek so he can use his force weapon in combat. The assault squad charges in, but Meph fails an 8" charge with fleet. The assault squad, thanks to furious charge, easily wins combat for the cost of a few marines, and the remaining screamers crumble.

Turn 3 - Daemons:

Desperately unlucky with the reserve rolls, my opponent fails both again. Lord of Change precognitions himself and flies over, vector striking the assault marines into oblivion. He shoots at Corbulo's unit with his S8 shot, but Corbulo ducks it onto a tactical marine. The horrors shoot at the side armour of the Baal, but don't get any glances. Of note, however, is the Warp Storm table, which rolls an 11... meaning a random enemy psyker takes a leadership test on 3d6, if he fails he's replaced by a herald. And my only psyker is Mephiston (THIS is the sort of thing I should have saved Corbulo's re-roll for)....Thankfully, Mephy finally decides to do something properly, and passes his test on a 4.

End of turn 3, and looking good. Though there are still more daemons around that I'm only guaranteed to get one turn of shooting against. Raven is actually a bit more perpendicular to the short edges, but was struggling to balance with the drop pod door.

Turn 4 - Angels Sanguine:

The delayed assault squad comes back down, and lands relatively near the horrors. Raven banks around, and comes across to face the right. Everything else takes up position to focus fire on the Lord of Change. I fire the assault squad first, electing to focus fire with the pistols, and kill a few of the horrors. The rest of the force hammers the Lord of Change relentlessly, grounding him the at the second test, and he survives on two wounds. Mephiston finally gets Hallucination off, but rolls the 'pinned' result to no effect. With a discontented sigh at actually having to do something this game, he wades in and hacks the Lord of Change apart.

Turn 4 - Daemons:

The horrors attempt to land near the objective that the lone assault marine is threatening, but scatter back to where the Raven was a minute ago. The flamers bravely land right amongst my units. Warp Storm is Khorne's Wrath (the blast) that only hits the lone assault marine, but scatters away. The big unit of horrors shoots at the assault marines that dropped near them, killing the flamers. They can't flee, so the small squad also has to try and shoot them, but fails. The flamers dump their templates on Corbulo's squad, and I let the nearest three go down (including the sergeant) before tanking the remainder on Corbulo, him and the meltagunner surviving; but they fall back.

The rest of the Daemons have finally shown up, but is it too late?

Turn 5 - Angels Sanguine:

The three fearless assault marines fly back up the board into the terrain in an attempt to claim the objective with a good run roll, but one discovers the hard way that the Red Thirst won't save you from concussing yourself on a roof beam. The Raven goes into hover mode as nothing can hurt it, and turns round, as the Baal and Razor move to pressure the newly arrived horrors. Corbulo and his friend rally, and move towards the objective that I placed just outside my deployment zone, and make it there with a run move (turns out to be nothing of interest). I shoot down most of the flamers and a good number of horrors, whilst both assault squads (2 man and 1 man) move onto the objective. Mephiston wanders across and kills the remaining flamers.

Turn 5 - Daemons:

The horrors can only try and kill some assault marines and go for a defeat with dignity, but fail to do so. We do get turn 6, which consists of me butchering the smaller horror squad and them getting a consolation dead assault marine, but I still retain the objective.

End of turn 6, and the game!

The Angels Sanguine have claimed 3 objectives, First Blood, and Slay the Warlord for a total of 11 Victory Points; whilst the Daemons have managed to hold the remaining objective for 3 Victory Points - an Angels Sanguine victory 11-3. (And Mephiston picking up a personal award in the form of a lifetime ban from the Telepathy discipline ).

That went a lot better than anticipated, despite my abortive attempt at using Mephiston with rulebook powers. I did want to try and use Hallucination to lock down scary units, Shriek to take wounds off the big things, and Invisibility had I rolled it to try and make dudes survivable, but that sort of failed. What I did find out, and was slightly surprised by, is that Mephiston is actually an extremely good -defensive- unit. In part, it's due to the fact that few things want to go anywhere near him, so he's great for area denial/mopping up. I followed my usual tactic for dealing with Flying Monstrous Creatures, which is to focus on one at a time - knock it down with weight of dice forcing a grounding test, ideally from your weak units, then use the powerful guns to finish it off once it's on the floor. Granted, my opponent was unlucky with failing grounding tests, but I just had to take advantage of the fact. Same with the reserve rolls as it meant I had no distractions, though I'd probably have just focussed on the big beasts anyway by that point.

On the list as a whole, it's getting tweaked. Corbulo doesn't add enough, and I need a priest in support for the assault marines, so that's the first switch. Secondly, the lascannon hasn't been much use, so that's also going (it missed every shot this game) in favour of another missile launcher. That leaves 50 points to play with (after removing the heavy flamer), so I'm likely to invest in a magna-grapple, and some upgrades for my assault sergeants, leaving some points for a meltabomb somewhere.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

[sockwithaticket]

Always an entertaining read, particularly when Mephiston is being sub-par/stroppy. I can't remember if you've written a daemons bat-rep since flamers and screamers became less insane, have you found daemons a lot easier to manage? (the overwhelming victory suggests yes!)

Do you feel like your assault squad sergeants need their upgrades back or is it just something to stick leftover points on?

[Chaplain Admetus]

Not with my BA against the most recent Daemon book, I don't think. I've faced this opponent before with a slightly different list and used my Dark Eldar against it, which had an easier time on account of poisoned weaponry and a crapton of shots. They're much easier than before, that's for sure, mostly because flamers and screamers aren't broken in half (seriously... those things were obscene)... I find it much easier now that players aren't taking squads of things that can just wipe marines out with literally no recourse. Come to think of it, I think this is only my second or third one-on-one game against the current daemon book. 

 

I think the sergeants would definitely find the upgrades useful as they just lack punch in combat without them (that, and I have a distinct lack of obvious sergeants otherwise)... that and the fact that I don't really have anything else to spend the points on. If I get rid of Corbulo, the heavy flamer, and the lascannon, and get a jump-pack priest, I have 50 points remaining, which isn't quite enough for another unit, so I suspect sergeant upgrades, a magna-grapple, and a meltabomb on either the priest or a random sergeant are the way forward. The only real alternatives are to stick something on the priest instead of a sergeant, or to maybe add a third attack bike. I'm considering an infernus pistol in the melta-squad and a hand flamer/power sword in the flamer squad to really maximise their role.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Game 5 - Necrons, 1750 points

Tournament Mission (see below)

Tournament practice time! Myself and a friend who are both going to the same local tournament later this month decided to have a showdown to test our lists and get used to the tournament format. The tournament missions have three tiers of objectives, with varying amounts of points - the Primary has 10 points for a major win, 7 for a minor win, 5 for a draw, 3 for a minor loss, and 0 for a major loss. Secondary has 6 for a major win, 0 for a major loss, and 3 for minor win/draw/minor loss. A major win is defined as being 3 or more Victory Points.

Tertiary objectives are slightly different, with 5 to choose from, and you must choose a different one in each game of the tournament: Choose a non-vehicle, non character enemy unit and destroy it; have more non-fleeing units in the enemy deployment zone than non-fleeing enemy units; win a challenge; have more non-fleeing units in your deployment zone than non-fleeing enemy units; choose a non-vehicle, non-character unit and have it survive. If you succeed and your opponent fails, you get 4 points, if you both succeed then you both gain 2 points, and if you fail and your opponent succeeds, you get 0 points. These are chosen after deployment but before first turn, and simultaneously revealed.

Any extra victory points (e.g. Legendary Fighter), and First Blood, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord count towards the Primary objective.

We rolled tournament mission #3 to practice with, which has a combination of Emperor's Will/Relic as the Primary, and Kill Points as Secondary. Deployment for this mission is Dawn of War.

I've made some tweaks to my list, but nothing severe:

Mephiston (Warlord - Immovable Object)

Sanguinary Priest, Jump Pack, Meltabombs

Furioso, Frag Cannon, Magna-grapple, Drop Pod

10 ASM, 2 Meltaguns, Power Sword

10 ASM, 2 Flamers, Power Sword

10 Tactical Marines, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Razorback

2 Multi-melta Attack Bikes

Baal Predator with Heavy Bolter sponsons

5 Devastators, 4 Missile Launchers

Storm Raven

The Necrons are using a gimmick Teleport list that may give me some problems:

Zandrekh (Warlord - Legendary Fighter) and Obryon

Overlord, Mindshackle Scarabs, Warscythe

3 large units of warriors, 2 with chronometron crypteks and veil of darkness/AP1 flamer that wounds against leadership crypteks

5 warriors in a night scythe

2x 10 scarabs

6 wraiths

I win the roll for table sides and take the nearest side because I'm lazy and cover isn't much of an issue given his teleport nonsense. I deploy my Emperor's Will objective near the back of my deployment zone in terrain, and my opponent puts his right at the edge of his table half, just over 12" from the Relic (mission stipulation is that Emperor's Will objectives may not be placed within 12" of the relic, but the relic may move within 12" during the game). My opponent wins the roll for first turn, and elects to go second. It is night fighting on turn 1. We're playing cover as anything obscured by wraithbone gets a 4+ save, everything else is 5+.

I see no value in combat-squadding the assault marines, as there's no real target for 2 meltas/5 flamers when I deep strike. Devastators are in that shrubby hill on the far left, with the attack bikes on the far side, then 10 assault marines with melta and the priest. 5 marines are on my objective (which it turns out the Necrons have sabotaged), other 5 in the razor. Then there's the second assault squad, and the Baal, which scouted forwards. Meph is between the near assault squad and the razor. My opponent has just deployed both scarab squads and the wraiths centrally, and then all 3 warrior units in the corner where it's safe.

We reveal tertiary objectives, and we've both chosen Primary Threat (kill a marked enemy unit) - I'm going after the left-hand scarabs from my perspective, and he's attempting to kill my flamer assault squad. The Necrons do not attempt to seize. My attack bikes succumb to the Red Thirst

Turn 1 - Angels Sanguine:

Meph casts wings and moves 12" straight ahead, picking up the relic. The assault squads both move straight forward 12", the razor moves round the hillock, and the Baal just moves 6". Bikes move down the flank. The fragioso lands in front of the Primary Threat scarabs, which is exactly why I chose them as my target. Shooting, and the Fragioso can cover 5 scarabs with his frag cannon - between 10 frag cannon hits and hits off of the melta and magna-grapple, he wipes out 9 bases on his own. Even with cover, it's a trivial matter for the razorback to whittle down the remaining swarm to its last wound, and the Baal finishes it off for First Blood, and secures me at least 2 points for the Tertiary Objective. With those points in the bag, I plan to play for a major win on the Primary objective, as that will net me 12 points and guarantee the win, at the expense of the Secondary objective. The bikers turbo boost to near the fragioso, and the left hand assault marines run a measly 2", discovering that the Necron objective is a grav-wave generator. The flamer squad runs 5", and I put them in front of Mephiston and the Baal, spreading them out to form a screen, ensuring that Meph can't be charged. The devastators don't accomplish much, but the tactical squad downs a wraith with its missile launcher.

Turn 1 - Necrons:

Zandrekh's squad teleports to between my devastators and assault squad, but scatters next to the latter - he mishaps, and goes into ongoing reserve. A second squad just walks forward, and the third squad teleports near the large piece of terrain. The wraiths come forwards at Mephiston's meat-shield the heroic assault squad, and the scarabs also swarm forwards, not taking the Furioso-shaped bait. The warriors kill a few with shooting, and he cleverly charges with the wraiths first, saving the scarabs from overwatch, before they too charge in. Unfortunately, really poor dice rolling from his side plus good armour saves from mine (and a little help from the Feel No Pain bubble) means I take few casualties, and manage to dish out some pain in return.

End of turn 1 - Got the wraiths and scarabs locked in combat.

Turn 2 - Angels Sanguine:

I open my turn with a prayer to the dice gods for low numbers, and they answer, rewarding me with a 1 for my Raven, keeping it off-table (I don't want it on until after the Night Scythe shows up). The razorback moves a fraction and the tactical marines disembark into the hillock, freeing up space for Mephiston, who hops inside with his Relic (the logic being that the Razorback is essentially extra wounds). The Baal retreats 6", to gain line of sight to the necrons through the webway arch. Furioso and bikes move round the swamp. I line up the second assault squad for a charge, as this is the best place for them. Shooting accomplishes very little beyond knocking over the occasional space-toaster, with my devastators being unusually sub-par with shooting - I do most damage to Obryon's squad, the one targetted by the Baal. I send the assault squad in to help their brethren, as this a) lets me put some hurt on the scarabs/wraiths, b) helps out the squad that's my opponent's tertiary objective, and c) means I'm not getting shot at. Combat is a grindy slug-fest, but I do beat down most of the scarabs.

Grand Melee midway through the second turn.

Turn 2 - Necrons:

The Night Scythe comes in from the left corner from my perspective, and the 5 warriors come out. Zandrekh returns, and both other squads teleport right into my lines. Think I'm about to find out what this list can do. He manages to wreck the razorback without exploding it, and Mephiston cheekily hops out on the side between the wreck and the hillock, where he can't be seen (and shot). In retaliation, the Necrons shoot down 4 of my 5 devastators, and 3 of the 5 tactical marines claiming my objective - the survivors fail morale and fall back off the table! I finish punching holes in the scarabs and dent the wraiths, but lose several more assault marines.

Bottom of turn 2. Where did all those Necrons come from?!

Turn 3 - Angels Sanguine:

The Storm Raven arrives and flies on at an angle. The Baal retreats 12" to get line of sight on Obryon's squad. Meph casts wings and uses his new jump infantry status to hop 6" over the hillock without resorting to any of that difficult terrain rubbish. Bikes move back round towards the overlord's squad, and the Furioso stomps towards the 5 warriors that came out of the Flying Death Pastry. Shooting manages to finish off what's left of Obryon's squad from the Baal, Tactical Marines and the Storm Raven's assault cannon (machine spirited), and wounds Obryon himself. The Raven manages to take the gun off the Night Scythe, making it pretty useless, whilst the Furioso takes exception to its contents and annihilates the 5 warriors. The bikes shoot down a few warriors and then charge in, holding them up. I continue clobbering wraiths and winning combat, but my assault squad targeted by my opponent is down to just the sergeant (and maybe one other marine). The devastator is so well camouflaged in his shrubbery, I forget he exists.

Turn 3 - Necrons:

Obryon moves down towards the Baal. Zandrekh shifts towards the wrecked razorback, and his squad manages to only shoot down two of the tactical marines (as I've been cheeky, and my priest's last pile-in move got him within range for Feel No Pain). The Night Scythe flies off the table. Obryon charges and wrecks the Baal easily with his warscythe. In other combats, I lose a whole attack bike, but one remains to bog him down further; I reduce the other unit to one wraith, and now my targeted squad is certainly down to just the sergeant.

http://image.bolterandchainsword.com/uploads/gallery/album_9345/gallery_27692_9345_172668.jpg

End of turn 3 - can anyone spot the marine with the missile launcher playing hide and seek?

Turn 4 - Angels Sanguine:

The Raven flips into hover mode and moves slightly. The tactical marines move down, and Meph moves round slightly. The Furioso rages towards Zandrekh's unit. The Raven puts both its missiles and it's multi-melta into Obryon, but fluffs it - the assault cannon is aimed at Zandrekh's unit, and in a moment of purest cheese I focus-fire, meaning that Zandrekh, who is obscured by the Razorback, can't tank any of the wounds. The furioso downs a reasonable amount more, but a fair few get back up (including the crypteks). The tactical marines and Mephiston both fire at Obryon, but because the dice gods are still heeding my low-numbers plea, he ends up on 1 wound (kept rolling 1s with my AP1/2 weapons). The assault marines finally finish the wraith and consolidate away, with the large squad screening the lone sergeant. The furioso charges in which has the side effect of hauling Obryon in to the combat and away from Mephiston, who he might feasibly have beaten with a 2+ save and a warscythe (and I act like I meant to do that the whole time with my tactical genius). Furioso attempts to stomp Zandrekh with his blood fist but he survives thanks to a 3+ invulnerable, and gets a re-roll from the cryptek. In return Obyron lops off the magna-grapple. The attack bike dies to the overlord with warscythe.

Turn 4 - Necrons:

The one free squad moves south towards my Emperor's Will objective, and guns down the lone devastator. The Night Scythe returns and flies around aimlessly for the remainder of the game. I attempt to crush Obryon this time with my Furioso, but a roll of 1 to wound with the blood fist puts paid to that plan. With a flourish, Obryon finally cleaves the Furioso in twain, and my opponent remarks that next time he's going to get rid of that thing a LOT sooner.

End of turn 4 - Necrons are finally out of combat.

Turn 5 - Angels Sanguine:

Raven hovers across towards the Necrons near my Emperor's Will objective. The assault sergeant moves 12" and runs into the enemy deployment zone for linebreaker, and getting him far enough away that the Necrons can't possibly get to him and gain their tertiary objective - this gives me a buffer zone as I now only need to tie primary and secondary to take the game. The big assault squad moves across towards Zandrekh's squad, and the tactical marines and Meph move round. The meltagun finally does its job and downs Obryon (on his own) who doesn't stand back up. The Storm Raven knocks down a decent number of warriors, and the assault marines charge Zandrekh's unit. I decline a challenge and not much else happens.

Turn 5 - Necrons:

Night Scythe continues its pointless circuit of the table. The warriors run to get more in range of the objective, and shoot the raven to no effect. The slap-fight combat continues (Zandrekh is tanking wounds for him, Feel no Pain for me).

If the game ends now I'll have a minor win on Primary, a minor loss/tie on Secondary (there's not many kill points in it), and a major win on Tertiary, but the game continues to turn 6!

Turn 6 - Angels Sanguine:

I spot a way to convert my minor win into a major win. Meph successfully casts Wings, and drops the relic, which the last 3 tactical marines move onto and pick up. Meph himself moves 12" across towards the other Emperor's Will objective, and will be within claiming range with anything above a 2 on his run roll, which he gets at the first time of asking. The Storm Raven hovers around and shoots more warriors from the back. In combat, I finally think to check what Zandrekh has, and it's only a shooty-stick, so I accept with the sergeant, who trades slaps. This frees up the squad and priest to kill warriors, winning combat, but they hold.

Turn 6 - Necrons:

The overlord splits from the unit and crushes the Storm Raven with his warscythe. The challenge goes nowhere, and I win combat again but the Necrons again hold. We roll, but the game ends.

End of the bloodbath!

Tallying up the scores:

Primary - I have a Relic (3), an Emperor's Will Objective (3), First Blood (1) and Linebreaker (1) to the Necrons' Objective (3) and Linebreaker (1), 8-4 means Major Victory (10 - 0)

Secondary - I've killed Obryon, 2 Scarab squads, the wraiths, and 2 Warrior squads for 6; the Necrons have killed the Razorback, Furioso, Baal, Storm Raven, Attack Bikes, Devastators, and a Combat Squad for 7 (I think we forgot about the 5 man warrior squad last night, but it makes no difference overall), so 7-6 means it's a Minor Loss (3-3)

Tertiary - I've annihilated my chosen unit (success) and my opponent failed to wipe out the chosen assault squad (failure), so that's 4-0

Final Score: Angels Sanguine 17 ; Necrons 3.

For the Emperor! I thought the teleporting shooty-death squads were going to give me fits, so my plan was to get into combat as fast as possible and stay there until as late as possible; even if it meant costing me kill points. The furioso was easily man of the match, it did so much damage with the frag cannon it's unreal. Scoring Mephiston was definitely an edge, even if it did mean that I was effectively playing 1500 vs 1750 whilst Mephiston babysat one objective for the entire game - it meant I always had an edge in the primary mission and wasn't really in danger of losing. Even a minor win would have still been an overall win, though I was pleased I managed to spot the opportunity to grab the third objective and turn a 14-6 into a 17-3. The scoreline doesn't really denote how tight the game was overall, as had my opponent managed to drop the last assault marine from his chosen squad and gained one kill point on top of that (last night we thought it was just that dude that stood in the way) it would have changed from 17-3 to 14-8, with the Necrons picking up 2 points from the tertiary and a major win on the secondary; had that occurred and I hadn't made it to the other objective with Mephy, it would have actually been an 11-9 loss!

I think the list overall is solid and I'm learning how to use it quite well, but I am slightly worried about kill points, as those are thing in all of the tournament missions; but if I play to the primary I should be fine (I hope!). Thanks for reading, and as ever C&C fully appreciated :D.

[ianj253]

Good to see another BA player using ASM. However, I find myself using them a lot different than you. I typically always combat squad them, place them in reserves, and try to hold them off as long as possible. Then I deep strike them onto objectives, where they will cower like girly men to perseve a win haha. 

[Chaplain Admetus]

My usage of them tends to vary depending on the mission and opposition. I'll generally combat squad the squad with the special weapons that's likely to do the most damage to the enemy, and keep the other one whole as a 'hammer' unit. It's very rare for me to combat squad both. Apologies for neglecting the thread somewhat, but have been a tad preoccupied with moving - have two more batreps to go up against Wolves and (new) Imperial Guard, they'll probably appear during the week!

[sockwithaticket]

Eager to read them! As a collector painter I don't often feel I have much to add to this thread, but I always enjoy seeing how you get on.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Game 6 - Space Wolves, 1750 Points

Tournament Mission (see below)

Apologies if this batrep isn't quite up to the standard of some others - I played the game almost a fortnight ago, and have been too busy since then to get it posted. As a result, I may be a bit hazy on the details. This is another tournament practice game, using the same missions as will be in play at the tournament this coming weekend; we're doing the following:

Primary: The Scouring (unmodified from the rulebook), First Blood, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord

Secondary: Kill Points

Tertiary: One from the following list: choose a non-vehicle, non character enemy unit and destroy it; have more non-fleeing units in the enemy deployment zone than non-fleeing enemy units; win a challenge; have more non-fleeing units in your deployment zone than non-fleeing enemy units; choose a non-vehicle, non-character unit and have it survive.

Deployment - Vanguard Strike

I'm playing a modified list from the last game:

Librarian, Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter (Warlord - Move Through Cover Bubble) (Prescience, Misfortune)

Librarian, Jump Pack (Shield, Fear)

Sanguinary Priest, Jump Pack, Meltabombs

Furioso, Frag Cannon, Magna-grapple, Drop Pod

10 ASM, 2 Meltaguns, Power Sword

10 ASM, 2 Flamers, Power Axe, Storm Shield

10 Tactical Marines, Meltagun, Missile Launcher

2 Multi-melta Attack Bikes

Baal Predator with Heavy Bolter sponsons

7 Devastators, 4 Missile Launchers

Storm Raven

The Space Wolves have gone for an MSU-style list - can't remember the exact details sadly. He has:

Wolf Priest (Warlord - Princeps of Deceit)

Rune Priest, Termy armour

2 Small Grey Hunter Squads, 1 with flamers, 1 with melta, both with rhinos

1 Small Grey Hunter squad on foot with a wolf guard

1 Grey Hunter Squad in a drop pod (also wolf guard)

1 Large outflanking Grey Hunter squad (thanks, wolf priest)

3 Thunderwolves, Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer

Small Longfang Squad

Large Longfang Squad

Razorback

Aegis Defence Line with Quad Gun

The wolves win the roll and elect to go first. We deploy like so:

He's got quite a castle, but only one objective in it (worth 3). The fact that he placed an objective near my corner suggests that he'll be making a play in this direction. The longfang squads both are up on top of ruins, and the small grey hunter unit has the quad gun.

I keep my Baal outflanking (there's melta in the drop pod, and I don't want it to get wrecked early on). It also might be key to claiming a late objective. The melta ASM are in reserve, 5 with meltas deep striking, 4 normal and the sergeant in the pod. My game plan will be to try and knock out those rhinos, and get to the objectives in no man's land.

We reveal our tertiary objectives - he's attempting to annihilate my tactical squad; I am deliberately not choosing the same tertiary objectives as I've already used in a practice game and choose to win a challenge, as during the tournament I'll have to do that at some point. I roll to seize and fail.

Turn 1 - Wolves:

The Pod lands exactly where I thought, behind my lines. Both rhinos and the razorback move forwards towards my position, the rhinos popping smoke. He shields his thunderwolves from my shooting. The drop pod squad, complete with meltas, opens up into my warlord's unit (his Primary Threat unit) and kills 6 of my tactical marines (thankfully I have a priest nearby, preventing utter annihilation). I'm ok with this, as I thought he'd have targetted my bikes for First Blood and a Fast Attack kill. Remaining wolfy shooting slays 3 assault marines.

Turn 1 - Angels Sanguine:

My furioso drops in and eyes up his small squad manning the quad gun. The devastators without missile launchers move back to the edge of their ruin, as I cast misfortune on the squad that came out of the pod. The assault squad and attack bikes move down the middle of the table, and the tactical squad moves to the left. The fragioso manages to obliterate the small unit for First Blood. Then I manage to kill all bar two of the grey hunters that popped out of the pod thanks to misfortune and frag missiles, as well as the tactical survivors. The attack bikes manage to stun the central rhino. The star of the show is my librarian who casts Fear of the Darkness on the large longfang pack with rune priest - the runic staff fails to stop me, deny the witch fails to stop me, and the squad fails their morale check, falling back -behind- the ruin. Yes, they're marines, but they'll have to waste a full turn getting back into position.

End of turn 1

Turn 2 - Wolves:

The longfangs rally and waste a turn getting back in front/on top of the ruin. The outflanking unit comes in, right in my deployment corner. The Thunderwolves contemplate charging the Furioso, but I point out that I have a S10 AP1 combat attack that goes faster than his hammer, and 2d3 S6 hits on the way in (that have rending). They instead move round behind the ruin. The mobile rhino moves and sits near the 4 point objective, as the few surviving grey hunters that came out of the pod move up and sit on the hill. Shooting manages to take down my tactical squad for his Tertiary objective, but the librarian remains unharmed; attempts to get the furioso in its side armour are unsuccessful.

Turn 2 - Angels Sanguine:

The Raven comes in (excellent), the Baal does not (also excellent). The assault squad comes down but mishaps, and my opponent places them in the far right corner. My warlord misfortunes the surviving grey hunters, including a wolf guard, and moves towards them. The Raven blasts on and aims at the rhino that went for the 4 point objective. My bikes move into the swamp, and my jump-librarian joins them, as the assault marines and priest move towards the rhino. I manage to wreck both rhinos, and my librarian attempts to Fear the squad on the 4 pointer off the table, but fails (in fact, I think he might even Perils here). My warlord guns down the last grey hunter, leaving just the wolf guard surviving - perfect. The assault marines charge the grey hunters in the wreckage of the rhino, the furioso frag-cannons and then gets stuck in with the longfangs, who hold, and my warlord charges the wolf guard. I issue a challenge which can't be refused, and cut him down, securing my own tertiary objective.

End of turn 2

Turn 3 - Wolves:

The thunderwolves finally do something useful and move up towards the middle of the board. The grey hunters move to claim the 4 point objective, and fire down into the bikes, doing a single wound. The outflanking unit barely moves, and guns down my terminator librarian for Slay the Warlord. The small unit of longfangs shoots at my assault squad that got dumped in the corner, but thanks to awful rolls to hit only kill 1. The thunderwolves charge in and start hacking lumps out of my assault marines.

Turn 3 - Angels Sanguine:

Still no predator (good). The Raven hovers and disgorges it's assault marines, who then charge in and join the grand melee in the centre. My deep-strike squad moves up and runs, trying to get somewhere helpful. The storm raven shoots down some hunters claiming the 4 point objective. The devastators put down some of the longfangs in the ruin, and my bikes and librarian once again fail to do anything with Fear, and also fail a charge. The Grey Hunters finally lose combat and use Our Weapons Are Useless to get away from the furioso, who rotates his back to the ruin so as not to get shot in the rear.

End of turn 3. At this point I'm not hugely confident, as I need to dig out the squad on the 4 point objective, and I'm rapidly running out of troops. I think the Baal is the only thing I have that can main realistically turn the game.

Turn 4 - Wolves:

The warlord's squad move into the ruin to claim the 3 points. The grey hunters on the 4 pointer shoot at my bikes/librarian, taking one attack bike out and dropping the other to its final wound. The longfangs move across the table, getting away from the furioso, and the 2 remaining longfangs in the other squad miss again. The thunderwolves continue blending their way through my assault marines.

Turn 4 - Angels Sanguine:

The Baal turns up, on my left flank. The Raven remains hovering, and moves back slightly, shooting down some longfangs. I split the librarian away and move him into the ruin to contest the 4 pointer, an act which is made moot by the Baal annihilating all that remains. The attack bike, riskily, turbo boosts along my opponent's board edge, finishing near his rune priest and surviving longfang. The assault marines make it to the 2-point objective unscathed, and the combat in the middle ends with my priest squaring off against 2 thunderwolves.

Bottom of turn 4. At this point, the Wolves are ahead on the primary with a 3 pointer, linebreaker and warlord vs my 2 point objective, first blood, and linebreaker; meaning I need at least 4 more points to get a major win on Primary.

Turn 5 - Wolves:

Not much of note. His bullets do little, and he doesn't get my attack bike or my jump-librarian. Everything else is too far away to make a difference. The longfangs shoot a devastator out of spite. The thunderwolves kick my priest's teeth in for another valuable kill point.

Turn 5 - Angels Sanguine:

It's go time! The attack bike swerves its way around the back and goes for the 3 point objective behind the Aegis... at this point something becomes apparent. My opponent's game plan of smashing my troops to hades has worked perfectly (I have 3 assault marines left) but he's forgotten about the Fast Attack elements. The Baal moves and can't quite get within range of the 4 point objective, but that's what moving Flat Out is for! The fragioso and Raven move out and annihilate the thunderwolves to prevent any nasty accidents on turn 6, which we get.

End of turn 5, fairly secure now with the Baal claiming the 4 pointer.

Turn 6 - Wolves:

I've been careless and left my attack bike visible to the longfangs - my opponent shoots it, but can't bring it down thanks to my jink save.

Turn 6 - Angels Sanguine:

The Raven turns back around and the furioso moves out - between them and my devastators, I'm able to finish off the Razorback, the longfangs near his table edge, and the rune priest, netting me another three kill points.

Game Over!

The Angels Sanguine have 4, 3 and 2 point objectives, a Fast Attack Kill, First Blood and Linebreaker for 12, and the Space Wolves have Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker, 3 points of objectives, and a Fast Attack kill. 12-6 means it's a Major Victory for the Angels Sanguine on the Primary Objective. Kill points - I have lost a librarian, a priest, a tactical squad, an assault squad, and a combat squad (5 total). The wolves have lost three transports, a longfang squad, a rune priest, 3 grey hunter squads, and the thunderwolves (9 total). That last turn netting me 3 extra kill points was enough to turn that into a major victory rather than a minor victory. Finally, we've both achieved our tertiary objective.

Angels Sanguine Victory, 18-2!

A lot of things went right there - not least my opponent's slip on the Fast Attack choices. Had he remembered, the attack bikes would have gone faster and he'd have preserved the Thunderwolves, leading to a very different game. The Baal not turning up until the bottom of turn 4 was helpful, as I was always planning on using it to pinch an objective, and I wanted to mitigate the Space Wolves' chances of taking it out. I'm not certain how the dual-librarian list performs compared to the Meph list, I think it works but I need to test it more. I also think I maybe shouldn't have launched my assault squads straight across the middle of the table, I think I fixated too much on that Grey Hunter squad and I threw away 2 of my scoring units to deal with 1 of his.

As ever, C&C welcome, and look for my final tournament practice game going up in a few days, as I take on the shiny new Imperial Guard!

[Captain Idaho]

Liked that battle. You used some sneaky psychological warfare to convince him not to charge your Furiouso which made me smile!

[Chaplain Admetus]

I'm not so sure it was psychological warfare; only the Thunder Hammer can hurt me (AV13), I've got a decent shot of taking out one thunderwolf on the way in, and with my Blood Fist swinging faster than the hammer...regardless, last week's game!

Game 7 - Astra Militarum, 1750 Points

Tournament Mission (see below)

Exact same list as last week for me, except I swapped the axe/shield sergeant into the melta squad to see if he did better.
Librarian, Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter (Warlord - Co-ordinated Assault) (Prescience, Perfect Timing)

Librarian, Jump Pack (Shield, Fear)

Sanguinary Priest, Jump Pack, Meltabombs

Furioso, Frag Cannon, Magna-grapple, Drop Pod

10 ASM, 2 Meltaguns, Power Axe, Storm Shield

10 ASM, 2 Flamers, Power Sword

10 Tactical Marines, Meltagun, Missile Launcher

2 Multi-melta Attack Bikes

Baal Predator with Heavy Bolter sponsons

7 Devastators, 4 Missile Launchers

Storm Raven

My opponent is trying out the shiny new Imperial Guard codex with the following:

Company Command Squad (Warlord - outflank D3 units)

Inquisitor (Prescience), 3 servo skulls

Priest

Primaris Psyker (Scrier's Gaze, Prescience)

30 Conscripts (Inquisitor here)

Big Blob Squad (Priest and Primaris here)

Platoon Command Squad

Veteran squad, much plasma, autocannon

Veteran Squad, can't remember special gear

2 Heavy Weapon Teams (autocannons)

Militarum Tempestus command squad, 3 meltaguns

Militarum Tempestus Squad (both taken from the IG book)

Leman Russ, battle cannon and 3 heavy flamers

Leman Russ, battle cannon and 3 heavy flamers

Aegis defence line with quad gun

The mission is the first mission I'll be playing at the weekend, with Crusade (4 objectives) as primary, Kill Points secondary, and then choice of tertiary objectives. The Space Humans won the roll for table sides, and the roll for first turn - they elected to go first, with night-fighting in effect.

Deployment. The Guard have mostly lined up behind their defence line near the back edge. Conscripts with inquisitor on the near side, vets behind with quad gun. The platoon command squad is in the central ruins (just 5 dudes), and the Company Command with his warlord is right at the back. The blob squad with priest (fearless) is on the far side, and the veterans are in the crater. Both stormtrooper squads are deepstriking, and the leman russes are separate and outflanking.

I counter-deploy with a refused centre. Assault marines and tactical squad hold my left flank, Baal on the right (scouting up to behind that ruin). Just out of shot are my devastators in a small ruin, they have my warlord as Ignores Cover missile launchers are more useful than getting +1 to my charge distances. The 5 ASM with flamers are deep-striking, the 5 with sergeant are in the Raven. I've kept my attack bikes in reserve to (hopefully) bring them in AFTER his russes outflank. My opponent deployed the green objectives (unsurprisingly) and I placed the red ones in midfield, trying to bait him out.

My opponent chooses to go after my 5-man deepstriking unit as his tertiary objective. I choose the slightly risky option of having to have more units in my deployment zone than the enemy does even though I'm moving forwards, the plan being to clear out the russes and stormtrooper squads, and still have something to get back with. I roll to seize, and succeed!

Turn 1 - Angels Sanguine:

The Furioiso deep strikes in and lands right in front of his platoon command squad (and gets rid of a servo skull). Librarian casts Perfect Timing. Baal moves round the building 6" (getting rid of a second servo skull), and the assault squad and tactical squad both advance (popping his THIRD servo skull). 3 assault marines fail their dangerous terrain test, one of which also fails his armour save, and the priest decides he's too stupid to be kept alive. The frag cannon from the furioso easily destroys his 5 man platoon command squad, getting First Blood and, more importantly, removing a source of orders. My cover-ignoring missile launchers care not for his 2+ save and obliterate one of his heavy weapon teams, and the Baal guns down several veterans on the far flank. I try and Fear the squad manning the quad gun, but they pass their morale check.

Turn 1 - Astra Militarum:

The veterans with plasma get prescience'd from the inquisitor. The Primaris gives his veterans prescience, and moves to join the blob squad with priest as they advance. Conscripts also move up. His veterans and surviving heavy weapons team put a LOT of fire into my furioso as left unchecked it will completely destroy him, and they wreck it, as I roll one too few cover saves to keep it alive. Blob squad runs, and the conscripts shoot down two assault marines.

End of turn 1 - much better picture!

Turn 2 - Angels Sanguine:

The Storm Raven arrives, the bikes do not (hurrah!). The deep-striking squad goes after his command squad, but mishaps onto the blob and goes back into ongoing reserves. I get Ignores Cover again on the devastators. The assault squad moves into the ruin, and the tactical squad up behind it onto the objective. The Raven comes down my right flank to keep it safe from the quad gun. The Baal advances, and shoots several holes into the blob squad. The raven fires at the veterans, who go to ground and all live. The devastators knock a second heavy weapons team out of commission, and my librarian once again tries to Fear the veterans off the table, but rolls boxcars... fortunately, my chain of 6s continues and he makes his Feel No Pain save. Tactical marines lay down some dakka into the blob squad as well, to little effect.

Turn 2 - Astra Militarum:

The Primaris psyker casts Scrier's Gaze successfully. As a result, my opponent gets all his reserves - a Leman Russ from each flank, the stormtrooper command behind my Baal, and the stormtroopers themselves, which scatter just too close to my tactical squad to finish the second group, and they also go back in reserve. His advance and shooting continues, with the meltaguns wiping out my Baal. He gets a bad scatter from the far Russ that shoots my devastators, and only gets two hits - my librarian is closest and ducks both shots, and I make both cover saves. Conscripts shoot down assault marines (Twin-linked BS2 is scary) and the last russ guns down even more of the assault squad.

End of turn 2

Turn 3 - Angels Sanguine:

My attack bikes come in and I move them down the left flank towards the russ. The assault squad comes back in and scatters away again, landing near the defence line. I successfully get Perfect Timing once more. The Raven hovers and the assault marines disembark, the raven spinning on the spot to face the Russ. Finally, all my characters leave the assault squad: Priest joins the tactical marines, the assault marines (still with 2 meltas) move off at the Baal, and the librarian stays put. He casts fear at the veterans, who pass again. The devastators gun down all of his Company Command Squad except for the warlord, who doesn't flee. The Raven destroys it's russ, but the assault marines and attack bikes fail horribly... 4 Melta shots, all in melta range, and I get a mighty single glancing hit. Poop. Fortunately, the tactical squad shoot down several members of his blob. The assault marines attack the Russ to no effect, and the other assault marines charge and wipe out the stormtrooper command, consolidating into cover.

Turn 3 - Astra Militarum:

The stormtroopers arrive, and eye up my assault marines. The blob squad moves back and prepares to charge my assault squad. The warlord moves away, and the veteran squad moves along the defence line, and shoots my assault marines. The conscripts advance, and the russ goes after my tactical marines. I hit the deck, and that combined with a low number of hits means I only lose a few marines. (4+ save in the open thanks to Shield of Sanguinius + go to ground). On the other side, I make out like a bandit by rolling way too many cover saves against the hot-shot lasguns, which rolled poorly to hit to begin with; 3 survive. My deep-striking unit gets charged by the priest and bogged down.

Bottom of turn 3

Turn 4 - Angels Sanguine:

The Raven moves over and threatens the newly arrived storm troopers. Both attack bikes and the ASM go after the Russ, to prevent any 'incidents'. This is vindicated, as one pair of meltas promptly misses completely, but the other pair blow it up. The commander is just visible through some windows in the ruins, and is no match for my cover-ignoring krak missiles, which net me their third kill point of the game and Slay the Warlord. I shoot down most of the stormtroopers with my Raven and the surviving assault marines, and the two surviving guardsmen flee. Finally, my librarian gets a successful Fear of the Darkness off on the veterans, and they fail their check and run off the table - that's huge. Oh, and the guardsmen with priest bring down my assault marines in combat to secure their Tertiary objective. How embarrassing.

Turn 4 - Astra Militarum:

The loss of the veterans means that the Astra Militarum will now struggle with the objectives. The priest's squad moves and sits on the one at the far side of the defence line, as the conscripts advance on my tactical marines. The other, long-forgotten veteran squad (thanks to their proximity to the heap of dead guardsmen in the corner) shoot at the Storm Raven, but to no effect. The conscripts manage to stick altogether far too many wounds for my liking on the tactical squad, but I repay this in kind by making all my saves.

Bottom of turn 4. I'm sure there were more Space Humans when I started this game....

Turn 5 - Angels Sanguine:

The attack bikes move up, and the assault squad moves and then runs down the left flank aiming for linebreaker. Storm Raven moves across to the middle. The devastators ignore cover again, and kill the remnants of the veteran squad. The Raven, attack bikes and tactical squad gun down a lot of conscripts, but they hold. I attempt to tie them up by charging with attack bikes, but fail.

Turn 5 - Astra Militarum:

Simply retreating and holding the other objective will do no good as I'll still have a major victory 9-6, as we'd have two objectives each but I'd have First Blood, Linebreaker and Warlord. The guard have definitely lost as I'm miles ahead on kill points, but he can still tie primary by charging my tactical marines, besting them in combat, having me fall back and claiming the objective, making Crusade 6-6. This is what the Space Humans bravely attempt, but after I gun down three of the (ig)noble guardsmen with overwatch, they fluff their charge, and the Astra Militarum call it a day.

End of the slaughter

Angels Sanguine have two objectives, first blood, linebreaker, and warlord to the Astra Militarum's sole objective; 9-3 is a major win on the primary. Kill points... I've only lost 3 squads (my assault squad, Baal and furioso), I've killed 10 (I think) opposing units so that's another major victory. Finally my opponent has wiped out his nominated unit and succeeded in his tertiary objective; meanwhile my devastators are the only unit on the board in my deployment zone meaning I have also succeed in mine.

Angels Sanguine Victory, 18-2

New guard are solid, but not overpowered. They definitely require support and rely on synergy, as their basic units are a tad underwhelming. Buffs from characters and command units really make the list tick, which is why I went after them first. The platoon command squad wasn't going to do much damage, but I felt it was more useful to remove a source of orders than it was to thin out a blob squad (I was all but guaranteed First Blood from the devastators anyway). I tried to keep this approach throughout the game, ignoring his main units until they became too threatening (e.g. Russes, Stormtroopers) and instead focussed on the support elements, hoping the army would fall apart without them.

As for the list, I'm still not sure which is better between this version and the Mephy version - answers on a postcard! I've got another day to decide. That's me almost ready for the tournament - got to practice 3 of the 5 missions, and I think I should be set, hoping to score more than 50 out of 100 possible points, or at least place in the top half; this also means that there's likely to be 5 batreps going up next week, and I hopefully won't get annihilated in all of them!

[knife&fork]

I'm not so sure it was psychological warfare; only the Thunder Hammer can hurt me (AV13), I've got a decent shot of taking out one thunderwolf on the way in, and with my Blood Fist swinging faster than the hammer...regardless, last week's game!

 

TWC have rending, so AV13 isn't safe from basic attacks. Does your group play the fragcannon as 2D3 in overwatch?

 

  Buffs from characters and command units really make the list tick, which is why I went after them first. The platoon command squad wasn't going to do much damage, but I felt it was more useful to remove a source of orders than it was to thin out a blob squad (I was all but guaranteed First Blood from the devastators anyway). I tried to keep this approach throughout the game, ignoring his main units until they became too threatening (e.g. Russes, Stormtroopers) and instead focussed on the support elements, hoping the army would fall apart without them.

 !

 

I find that it goes both ways with guard. Since the support units aren't very good by themselves I say just go for targets of opportunity. Doesn't matter if he has a lot of orders to give if the units receiving them are already crippled.

 

Bunched up blobs are very nice targets for the frag cannon if you have the opportunity to force wounds on characters and special weapons. Same thing if your opponent is sloppy and lets you get a rear AV shot on a vehicle squadron. 

[Quozzo]

I've been reading these bat reps for a while without commenting and I'm surprised how well you did against the newest codex as most people are quick to exploit any OP game changes before the FAQ while it usually takes a while to find a weakness, like targeting their order giver-outerers as you did. It seems the BA are still competitive in 6th, even more so when our codex finally arrives.

The pictures are shocking though Did you try focusing the camera before taking the pic? What about holding the camera for a moment even after the satisfying digital audio "click".

[Chaplain Admetus]

Thanks! In part it was a happy accident - I didn't feel like I could do much to the blobs, so I went after the other things as well. The actual plan was to try and hold two Crusade objectives to my opponent's two, and rely on his large numbers of small units to give me an unassailable lead in Kill Points and win that way - that's pretty much exactly how the game would have turned out had I not Fear-ed the vets off the table. I went for the PCS first as it was the easiest first blood target; then the heavy weapons to gain mech superiority; then worked my way down the priority chain.

 

And yes, I know the photos are cack... the problem is that what looks like an OK photo on my phone doesn't always translate well to PC! I do my best though, and I'm mostly trying not to bog down the game and keep my opponent hanging around.

 

Re: the Frag Cannon - it's mostly been opponents suggesting it gets 2d3 shots on overwatch as it's a 2 shot weapon. Rapid fire guns get to fire twice in overwatch, splinter cannons (a heavy 6 weapon) get 6 overwatch shots, why would a 2 shot template weapon not get its 2 overwatch shots? Something that needs an FAQ to be abundantly clear, but I don't see a reason not to give it. I must confess I -did- forget about the TWC being rending, but it's not entirely my fault... I gave my opponent the full details of what the dread could do and it was up to him what he did with that information!

[knife&fork]

Well RAW the wall of death mentions 1D3 per weapon, but the fragcannon being the only multiple shot template in the game AFAIK makes it feel wrong.

 

(Maybe an Eldar exarch with 'fast shot' could do the same, not sure if there's one who can take a template weapon)