Sharing some experience

[Kappel]

Hi all

 

I had my second game yesterday. Matched Play, 2000 points. 

 

And I wanted to share some experiences I made. 

 

Pre-game showing off my new Stormraven:

 

http://www.runekappel.com/Filer/figurer/game.JPG

 

 

I played against an experienced player and good friend. He plays Death Guard, and has played a couple of games in 8th, totally trashing Grey Knights and Astra Militarum. 

 

Here is his list:

 

++ Patrol Detachment (Chaos - Daemons) [17 PL, 282pts] ++



+ HQ [4 PL, 70pts] +



Herald of Nurgle [4 PL, 70pts]



+ Troops [6 PL, 80pts] +



Nurglings [6 PL, 80pts]: 4x Nurgling Swarms [80pts]



+ Fast Attack [7 PL, 132pts] +



Plague Drones [7 PL, 132pts]: 2x Plague Drone [88pts], Plaguebringer [44pts]



++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Chaos - Questor Traitoris) [23 PL, 474pts] ++



+ Lord of War [23 PL, 474pts] +



Renegade Knight [23 PL, 474pts]: Heavy stubber [4pts], Ironstorm Missile Pod [16pts], Reaper chainsword [30pts]

. Rapid-fire battle cannon and heavy stubber [104pts]: Heavy stubber [4pts]



++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [76 PL, 1241pts] ++



+ HQ [20 PL, 344pts] +



Daemon Prince with Wings [11 PL, 180pts]: Malefic talon [10pts]



Typhus [9 PL, 164pts]



+ Troops [18 PL, 276pts] +



Poxwalkers [6 PL, 96pts]: 16x Poxwalker [96pts]



Poxwalkers [6 PL, 90pts]: 15x Poxwalker [90pts]



Poxwalkers [6 PL, 90pts]: 15x Poxwalker [90pts]



+ Elites [8 PL, 147pts] +



Helbrute [8 PL, 147pts]: Missile launcher [25pts], Twin lascannon [50pts]



+ Fast Attack [30 PL, 474pts] +



Foetid Bloat-drone [10 PL, 158pts]: Plague probe [25pts], 2x Plaguespitter [34pts]



Foetid Bloat-drone [10 PL, 158pts]: Plague probe [25pts], 2x Plaguespitter [34pts]



Foetid Bloat-drone [10 PL, 158pts]: Plague probe [25pts], 2x Plaguespitter [34pts]



++ Total: [116 PL, 1997pts] ++

 

And mine:

 

Blood Angels



Lemartes 129



Librarian Dreadnought: Furioso fist (Meltagun) 207



Captain: power sword; combi-plasma; jump pack 112



8 Scouts: Scout Sergeant (sniper rifle; camo cloak); 7 Scouts; 7 × sniper rifle; 7 × camo cloak 144



5 Death Company Marines: bolt pistol; 2 × boltgun; 2 × plasma pistol; power sword; thunder hammer; jump packs 138



Death Company Dreadnought: 2 Furioso fists (heavy flamer) 212



5 Death Company Marines: bolt pistol; 4 × boltgun; power axe; power sword; jump packs 109



8 Devastators: Space Marine Sergeant; Armorium Cherub; 7 Devastators; 2 × lascannon; 2 × plasma cannon 201



Predator: twin lascannon; 2 lascannons 202



5 Devastators: Space Marine Sergeant (chainsword); Armorium Cherub; 4 Devastators; grav-cannon and grav-amp; 2 × heavy flamer 132



Razorback: twin assault cannon; storm bolter 102



Stormraven Gunship: twin multi-melta; 2 hurricane bolters 311



1.999 points

 

My plan was to flank him with Deathcompany Dreadnought,  Lemartes and Death Company Squad embarked in Stormraven. All the while suppressing him with a bubble of devastators, scout snipers and a predator. All within 6 of the Captain who gives re-roll to 1's. 

 

I would say it worked better than hoped. Here is what I find worked really well. Maybe and hopefully it could be useful for fellow Blood Angels players too?:

 

I got turn one, and The Stormraven performed fantastic, effortlessly blasting a Helbrute and giving me first-kill.

 

Picture of Stormraven flanking Helbrute who is hiding in building, and giving him a taste of some Multimeltas:

 

http://www.runekappel.com/Filer/figurer/game2.jpg

 

After that I opened up with my 'shooty-bubble' and that was pretty destructive. Plasma Cannons are really good when close to the captain. I used my Sniper Squad for mopping up, when big models had few wounds left. Also pretty effective. As a Blood Angels player I find it a bit sad that the shooting is SO good in 8th. It's not good for my motivation to field a really assault oriented force. I use my Drop Pods as door stoppers in my apartment now - and they suck at that too. 

 

In his first round he rolled 12 shots for the Knights Cannon and blasted the Stormraven pretty bad. After that he charged it with his Deamon Prince and a Foetid Bloat Drone. The Deamon Prince had two Malefic Talons (S7, Ap-2, D2) and 7 attacks. Amazingly the Stormraven survived with just one wound left. Besides that he really didn't do much damage to my army, but used his turn to move his units against me. 

 

In my second turn my Death Company dudes jumped out of the Storm Raven and began pummeling the Deamon Prince and the Drone. Honourable mentions here must be Lemartes who threw a Krak grenade in the face of the Prince giving him 3 wounds. The Death Company Marine with Thunder Hammer finished the job. 

 

After that I jumped my small Devastator Squad with Heavy Flamers and Grav Cannon out of the Razorback, and used the Cherub to give the Grav Cannon 8 shots. This was a game ender. Those 8 grav-shots I aimed at the knight and with some good dice-roll succeeded in giving the big fu!%!"#"!!'er 12 wounds. With some more shooting on the knight, I almost brought it down (2 wounds left) and with the rest I had killed, that turn, my opponent conceded. With most of the bloat drones, the Knight and the Prince out, he didn't really had much left that could hurt me. 

 

So:

 

Devastators with Grav Cannons, and Cherubs in Razorbacks are pretty badass. The razorback moves to a good position. Next turn you let the carnage commence when the Deva-dudes jumps out. Signum and cherub on grav-cannon on big target = pain for you opponent. 

 

The Bubble with the Captain and Devastator Squad/Sniper and Predator is really strong. My predator was the weakest part here. I'm not sure about those Lascannons. They are really hit and miss! And when you finally get that punishing wound through you always seems to roll a 1 or 2 for the wounds - whats up with that!? The Plasma Cannons on maximum power was much more consistent. My Captain was probably MVP. He actually succeeded in giving the Knight two wounds himself with his Combiplasma - but it was the bubble he created, that made the difference. 

 

The Stormraven with the Deathcompany loadout is strong AND fun. Lemartes + dread + 5 guys with jump packs deploying in the flank are really fast and hit like a brick. 

 

My Librarian Dreadnought didn't do much. It's too slow and not destructive enough. And very costly. Don't know if I'm gonna keep this guy. 

 

My newly painted Stormraven:

 

http://www.runekappel.com/Filer/figurer/Storm1.jpg

 

 

My also newly painted devastators:

 

http://www.runekappel.com/Filer/figurer/Devastators2.jpg

 

I hope someone my find this interesting when compiling an army. 

 

 

[LutherMax]

Thanks for the write up, congrats on the win - and beautiful painting by the way!

 

You mentioned the strength of shooting in 8th (it was the same in 7th of course) and that it hampers assault focused armies, but I think we can still be a strong Alpha Strike army - which is possibly more the way the designers see us. In that scenario, firepower is key and those pods might see some use again. Assault units for mopping up.

[Kappel]

Thx LutherMax

 

And I agree on your points about assault. I am never gonna give assault up. But I think it will no more be my only strategy. I think the combination of a semi-hefty Alpha Strike and solid shooting, could be a strong and flexible way to go. 

Edited July 13, 2017 by Kappel

[Karhedron]

Great battle report, thanks for sharing. Your army is beautifully painted.

 

Others have had good results with the Libby Dread although I haven't tried it myself yet. Maybe mounting it on the Storm Raven will get it into battle quicker.

[Tonius]

Nice BatRep !!

 

Hail to the Sons of Sanguinius ! :)

 

So you were not satisfied with the 2 LC of your first dev squad ?

For mine, I intend to play 2 plasma cannons and 2 ML, which can damage heavy and light infantry.

[CaptainHelion]

Damage rolls of 1/2 are prime targets for a command reroll.

[Helias_Tancred]

Thanks for sharing! Grats on the crushing victory! and your army looks great!

[Kappel]

Thx a lot for your kind replies. 

 

Concerning those Lascannons - I haven't given up on them yet. They should theoretically be pretty vital against especially T8 targets. I'm thinking about including a Primaris Lieutenant. That would make a really strong bubble, and I would have a couple of strong characters to babysit my dev's. 

 

On another note I would recommend giving the Captain a Jump Pack, as I have done It gives him great flexibility as the game moves on. Both because he can move out and lock incoming units. But also because he can change the position of the bubble, if for example you need your Storm Raven or another Dev.squad to do some serious shooting. Also - Jump Packs are awesome looking. BA-characters need them!

[Tonius]

Thx a lot for your kind replies. 

 

Concerning those Lascannons - I haven't given up on them yet. They should theoretically be pretty vital against especially T8 targets. I'm thinking about including a Primaris Lieutenant. That would make a really strong bubble, and I would have a couple of strong characters to babysit my dev's. 

 

 

 

To speak about taking Primaris is already Heresy Brother, be prudent !!

;)

[Jønke]

Thanks for sharing. Both the batrep and those incredible well painted minis.

 

Captains with combi plasma does seem to be the go to HQ at the moment.

[Boudan]

Very nice write-up, thank you for sharing. Great painting, that Dev squad is very choice.

[Demoulius]

Nice write up :)

 

About shooting beeing king now, I think it has been so for us blood angels for a pretty long while now... Lorewise we are a codex chapter with specialized units. While we are famous for our jump pack assaults and have vetreran assault marines (before vanguard vets became a thing ) and death company marines they cost a pretty penny. Alot of armies have nastier and cheaper assault troopers which mean that we have to rely on both shooting AND assault to finish them off reliably.

 

I personally always bring both, with a heavier focus on shooting. Something you just dont want to have to end up with in close combat like big monsters and the like so shoot those and assault everything else