First Game: Bat Rep, thoughts, and a bloody chest bump

[9x19 Parabellum]

Yay!

 

Today I laid down the theory-crafting and actually brought my red boys to do battle at my FLGS.

 

I made an all-comers list since my opponent collects just about every army out there.

 

Here was my force (organized into 1 battalion and 1 vanguard for 7 CPs):

Captain Smashypants (once bitten twice shy edition) Artisan of War trait and Angel's Wing relic.

Lemartes

Sanguinary Priest on foot

 

2 Rhinos

1 Baal Predator (full dakka)

5 Devastators with 4 Plasma Cannons and 1 armorium cherub

 

10 Scouts (1 power sword; combat squadded)

5 Tacs, flamer and combi-flamer

5 Tacs, 1 power sword

 

10 DC on foot (1 powerfist, 10 boltguns and 9 chainswords)

5 Sternguard (1 power sword and all with special issue boltguns)

8 DC with jump (2 powerswords, 6 chainswords and 8 bolt pistols)

 

I faced off against a Chaos List (organized into 1 battalion and 1 HQ detachment for 7 CPs)

Ahriman

4 Tzeentch Sorcerors on disc

1 Chaos Lord in Termie Armor

1 Sorceror in Termie Armor

 

4 units of 10 cultist

2 units of 5 terminators, all with plasma

 

 

 

The mission was "Spoils of War".  The deployment method was the lengthways "arrows" deployment zone.

 

My opponent put his Termies into Deepstrike, along with 2 of his tzeentch sorcerors, chaos lord and sorceror lord.  All 4 cultist groups went along the back table edge, deep in cover, either to camp his objectives or provide ablative wound cover for Ahriman and his other characters.

 

I deployed with my 5 devs, baal predator and sternguard forming a firebase roughly in the middle, and smashypants starting behind them for buffs.  On my right were 5 tacs to nullify deepstrikers on my right deployment zone.  5 Scouts went midfield right center creating a nice anti-deepstrike zone, along with a rhino right on the edge loaded with 10 footslogging DC.  On my left was the other rhino with sang priest inside.  The other tac squad I left outside the rhino to help with deepstrike area denial.  My other 5 scouts went midfield left center also to gobble up real estate. Lemartes and jump DC went into deepstrike.

 

I finished Deploying first, but, naturally lost the roll-off and failed to seize initaitive.   Chaos started turn 1.

 

Pre-Turn 1.

Forlorned Fury my 10 footslogging DC up the right side, disembark, move + advance put them 13" up the field and immediate pressure on my right flank (foe's left flank). 1 CP for Death Visions.

Edited December 21, 2017 by 9x19 Parabellum

[9x19 Parabellum]

Chaos Turn 1.

 

Opponent had no good deepstrike options (hehe) so brought them down roughly center-left midfield.   Psychic phase went less good than planned, so he ended up killing 4 footslogging DC with combos Smite and Ahriman's pyschic powers.  Picked off a couple wounds from my left flank's rhino and baal predator, but nothing major.  He got prescience off on 1 group of termies and a buff that gives them a 5+++.

 

Was out of double tap range of anything good, so he ended up shooting at my Devs and kill 2 (sgt and cherub), a couple wounds on Baal Predator and a couple wounds on left-center Rhino.  No charges, and I survived his alpha strike in good shape.  Thank you Tacs, Scouts and Rhinos.

 

His first turn really took wind out of his sails, as he didn't do nearly the damage he was hoping to (and he drew sucky objectives).  (No points scored on turn 1).

 

BA Turn 1.

My turn 1, in response, was pretty devastating.  I drew good objectives. On my right flank, scouts and death company moved up and really put pressure on.  Between shooting and charges, my scout squad demolished his forward unit of cultists.  He was not prepared to get wounded on 2's (str. 4 vs. t3, red thirst, lol).  Death company charged but failed against Ahriman. This turn changed my opponents understanding of the threat that scouts create :-)

 

In the center, my baal predator, sternguard and devastators tore holy hell into his 2 terminator units.  I captain smashypants behind to buff shooting, and overcharged with plasma.

 

Jump DC with Lemartes landed deep midfield left of center, behind his termies so that they could charge the plethora of characters behind them. I paid the 2 CP to descent of angel their asses to make sure we could get the multi charges to 2 charcters.

 

In charge phase, my other unit of 5 scouts (including Sgt with powersword) charged into what was left of Termies, and DC charged the Chaos Sorceror and disc of tzeentch sorceror.  My 5 DC, buffed by Sanguinary Priest, finished off his last 2 termies (thanks to power sword from Sgt!!!). That got my opponent pissy (wounding termies on 2 with -3 AP, lol).  DC made charge into and killed Chaos Sorc in termie and 1 tzeentch sorc on disc, but the Chaos Lord intervened into them and did quite a number on my poor DC.

 

I finished turn 1 with 3 VP's, including first blood, and opponent was down both units of termies, 1 unit of cultists, chaos sorc and tzeentch sorc.

 

Chaos Turn 2.

Now I had the fun times of dealing with a bunch of flying sorcerors and the incoming smite spam.  Ahriman got the hell out of dodge, along with his tzeentch buddy. He put more mortal wound nonsense on my footslogger DC, taking them out completely.  His Chaos Lord finished off my jump pack DC in the middle left.  His other 2 discs did a bunch of mortal wound spam and killed my Scout Squad in the middle area (the ones that helped with Termies).  His cultist groups came out from behind their ruin cover and shot up the scouts a bit and some long range shooting against my Tacs.  He scored 1 VP this turn.

 

BA Turn 2.

LeMartes goes in solo and is able to take down another Tzeentch Sorceror on disc.  Right-flank scouts got into Rhino and camped midfield right on top of an objective.  Right flank tacs camp another objective.   Left flank tacs move up, along with SPriest and Sternguard.  Devastators have no good shots this turn based on where his characters are. Smashypants moves up forward and charges (and takes out) another Tzeentch disc Sorc, but I got too hasty with him, and the Chaos Lord was in striking distance for his next turn.

 

I scored another 2-3 VP this turn, taking a solid lead.

 

Chaos Turn 3.

Ahriman and other Tzeentch Disc guy put out a buttload of various mortal wounds on Smashy Pants and Sternguard Vets. Chaos Lord doesn't even need to take down Captain Smashypants, instead goes after Lemartes, but whiffs thanks to Rosarius, lol.  They remain locked in combat.  He scores a lot of VP this turn, assaniate, slay the warlord (standard objective as well as a tactical card objective) and something that allowed him d3 VP's for killing an Amry of the IMperium keyword unit.  Anyway, he basically tied it up this turn.

 

 

BA Turn 3.

Lemartes and Chaos Lord fight it out; I get him down to 1 wound but Lemartes goes down.  I drew a tactical objective that was 14" away from my scouts hanging out in Rhino on my right flank...it was deep in my opponents' deployment area, but we go for it.  Disembark + move + advance, and I was able to get my scouts 12" and seize that objective by using my last command point for reroll to get the result I needed..  Moved the RHino up along with them to be a smite soaker in case he put Ahriman over there.

 

My left flank is quickly thinning down; all I have left is my Tacs, SPriest, Rhino, 3 Devs and Baal pred.  But at this point, we unload all shooting on the remaining tzeentch sorc and ahirman; I was able to take down the tzeentch sorc and get Ahriman down to 2 wounds (he had the invuln save buff up). I score a couple more points this turn.

 

Chaos Turn 4.

Ahriman mortal wounds my spriest and tacs down, and shoots/charges them to take them out.  Chaos Lord (who killed Lemartes) is too far out of range to do anything this round so just moves him up to get back into the fight.  The 10 cultists in his deployment zone near my 5 scouts shoot at them and kill 1.  

 

BA Turn 4.

Once again, my 4 scouts go into his cultist, and between shooting and close combat, they kill 8, causing the remaining 2 to morale-pop.  Dakka baal has to move to shoot at Ahriman (hitting on 4's) but still fail to kill ahriman (down to 1 wound).

 

We called it here, since we were both running low on time.  Game ended 13-10 for Blood Angels, including Linebreaker (me), First Blood (me) and Slay the Warlord (Chaos)

Edited December 21, 2017 by 9x19 Parabellum

[brother_b]

Good job. I love scouts, they're just so good. Sorry to see Mephiston fall, he'll be back!

[Diagramdude]

When Lemartes went down to the Lord with 1 wound left, did you have the CP for Only In Death Does Duty End?

[9x19 Parabellum]

Mephi? No, I brought Lemartes. It's ok though. :-)

 

Things I learned today (or, rather, confirmed that which I already knew)

 

-Blood Angels are still space marines. Attendant with all the good and bad that brings, you still need a good shooting base. My Baal, Sternguard and Devastators shot so much stuff. And even just the threat of their shooting was great.

 

-The Baal Predator did better than I expected.  Still seems too expensive compared to an assback, but it's so iconic...

 

-Sternguard with their stratagem are sooo money.

 

-Scouts. Seriously...our chapter tactic takes scouts and turns them into bloodthirsty little monsters.  My unit of 5 ate 2 10 man cultist units for breakfast and lunch respectively, and scored me 4 victory points; between taking 2 objectives and getting linebreaker (basic objective) and the tactical objective version of linebreaker.  Their threat radar was so low that my opponent put all his offense into the DC unit (not that they were cupcakes, mind you).  My other 5 man unit killed 2 (well...1.5 terminators)...though not without a little help from SPriest and Captain.  They bubble wrap. They area-deny deep strike options. They are just soo frekking good.

 

-Death Company...as everyone else has remarked..they will hit like a mule and then promptly get blown away due to the big target on their back...or simply because death company tend to be deployed into very dangerous situations anyway.

When Lemartes went down to the Lord with 1 wound left, did you have the CP for Only In Death Does Duty End?

 

You know, I honestly can't remember...I might have already used the last one at that point so my right flank scouts could advance on the objective. Even so, isn't that stragem 2 CPs?

Edited December 21, 2017 by 9x19 Parabellum

[Diagramdude]

It is 2 CP, i guess that is bordering on unthinkable in a 7 CP list! Sounds like the Chaos Lord was left way out in the boonies and had to hoof it for at least a turn anyway.

 

Did you run your scouts with bolters, shotguns, or pistol and blade?

[Diagramdude]

Also worth mentioning against a smite heavy list the Armour of Contempt stratagem is 1CP for a vehicle to ignore mortal wounds on a 5+ for an entire phase, and you don't have to activate it until after your vehicle suffers one.

[Crimson Ghost IX]

Great write up 9x19 !!

 

Love the first hand hand info.

Very detailed and sounds like you played it very well too.

Go Go Blood Angels Scouts!

 

You said you were playing take all comers.

Do you think you would have been weak if the enemy had brought more armour?

+1 to wound rolls from Red Thirst goes a ways, but you seem to have avoided the heavier guns so thought I would ask.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to write this up =)

[Panzer]

It definitely looks like this list would have a lot of trouble with a bunch of tanks and/or transports, yeah.

[Are Verlo]

It definitely looks like this list would have a lot of trouble with a bunch of tanks and/or transports, yeah.

True, but the BA list is mobile and could try to outscore a mech list.

[Panzer]

Outscoring only works if you are still alive....which is not really a given against a AM tank list for example. ^^

[Are Verlo]

Outscoring only works if you are still alive....which is not really a given against a AM tank list for example. ^^

That is also true, but it can be much easier with decent terrain.

 

Perhaps we should start a new topic with "terrainporn"/show off battlefields? I took pics from my last battle before deployment and I am sure his list would have done a good job vs a mech list on that battlefield?

 

Anyone up for a "show off your terrain" topic?

[Panzer]

 

Perhaps we should start a new topic with "terrainporn"/show off battlefields? I took pics from my last battle before deployment and I am sure his list would have done a good job vs a mech list on that battlefield?

 

Anyone up for a "show off your terrain" topic?

 

For sure!

[9x19 Parabellum]

It is 2 CP, i guess that is bordering on unthinkable in a 7 CP list! Sounds like the Chaos Lord was left way out in the boonies and had to hoof it for at least a turn anyway.

 

Did you run your scouts with bolters, shotguns, or pistol and blade?

 

Pistol and Combat knife of course!

[9x19 Parabellum]

...

You said you were playing take all comers.

Do you think you would have been weak if the enemy had brought more armour?

+1 to wound rolls from Red Thirst goes a ways, but you seem to have avoided the heavier guns so thought I would ask.

 

 

It's certainly possible, Ghost.  I thought that overcharged plasma and captains smashypants would be enough (along with, as you said, the natural +1 to wound of red thirst).  But you make a good point. Mostly, I like playing WYSIWYG models, and I probably need to swap out for a few more thunderhammers on my DC.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Ok, so, posting a new Battle Report after breaking my 8 game losing streak.

The Mission/Game:

1500 pts

Maelstrom of War: Stolen Cargo

The Armies:

Me: Blood Angels Battalion + Vanguard (7 CP)

Captain Smashypants (stormshield, thammer, ANGEL'S WING, gift of foresight)

Jump Librarian (force sword, storm bolter, Smite, Shield of Sang, Unleash Rage)

5 Tacs: Plasma, Combi Plasma, Power Fist

5 Tacs: Grav, Combi Grav, power sword

5 Tacs: Combi Grav, power sword

5 Scouts: bolt pistol + blade

6 Devastators: 4 missile launchers, armcher

5 Devastators: 2 grav cannons, 2 multimeltas, armcher

Brother Corbulo

1 Company Ancient: Stormbolter, power sword, astartes banner OF SACRIFCE

3 Company Veterans: 3 plasma guns, 3 stormshields

5 Death Compnay: on foot, 2x power swords

1 Drop Pod: stormbolter

1 Rhino: stormbolter

1 Razorback: stormbolter and twin lascannons

____________________________________________

Jeff: Primaris Blood Angels Battalion (6 CPs)

1 Primaris Captain

1 Primaris Lieutenant

5x Intercessors

5x Intercessors

5x Intercessors

5x Reivers

5x Reivers

5x Reivers

3x Inceptors with Uzis

3x Inceptors with Uzis

5x Hellblasters (the ones with Rapid Fire 30")

5x Hellblasters (the ones with Rapid Fire 30")

5x Hellblasters (the ones with Rapid Fire 30")

I finished setup first and won the initiative, my opponent failed to seize, so Deployment finished looking like this:

I'm using Orange to represent his forces, and red for mine, because mine were painted. :-)

You may notice that my footbound Death Company are not on the board. That's because I completely forgot to unpack them from my box after making my list. They were "sir not appearing in this film", and so I started the game down 93 points :-)

Green-outlined stars represent tactical objectives 1-6 respectively.

Edited February 23, 2018 by 9x19 Parabellum

[9x19 Parabellum]

BA Turn 1.

I advance with my Rhino on right flank to be in scoring position on Obj 6 and, later, to get linebreaker if they live.

Tac squad behind barricade stays put to limit deepstrike options

Lazback shoots back hellblasters, along with adjacent dev unit, they kill 3.

Tacs in the middle advance left to limit deepstrike options.

Other Missile launcher devs + drop pod devs pour fire into his left flank hellblasters and kill 4.

My plasma vets are only able to reach his intercessors. Overcharge (captain nearbye), and they kill 2.

Scouts form an anti-deepstrike perimiter while staying in cover and are also able to pounce on objective 5 should it come up.

Pretty good first round of shooting, as I cut his hellblasters in half and I'm happy with my deployment to limit his deepstrike options. I don't remember what objectives I drew, but I think I got 2 victory points on my turn. End of BA turn 1 looks like this:

Edited February 23, 2018 by 9x19 Parabellum

[9x19 Parabellum]

Primaris Turn 1.

Lands 1 reiver squad in front of my Rhino on right flank.

All of his other stuff deepstrikes in a semi-circle around my drop pod.

Both units of inceptors and 1 unit of reivers put all fire on my Drop Pod, bringing it down to 2 wounds.

His other unit of reivers puts fire on my middle/rear tac squad, killing 1.

His 3 man unit of intercessors, now in double tap range, kill 2 scouts. (forgot to put an arrow showing fire)

All of his center hellblasters and intercessors cluster around the barricade for the +1 cover save and pour fire into my unit of Devastators. Thanks to 2+/5++ (shield of sang)/5+++ (banner of sacrifice), he only kills 2. I opted for the multimeltas to die since the grav cannon were better suited against primaris. Both of those multimeltas triggered the astartes banner, however, and both of them shot and wounded (captain nearby), kill 1 hellblaster and 1 reiver behind me respectively.

On the right flank, he pours all shooting into my rhino carrying tacs. Overcharges his hellblasters cuz his captain is there. Thanks to the -1 shooting from pop smoke, he only brings it down to 5 wounds instead of blowing it up.

In charge phase, he attempts reiver charge against my rhino, but it fails. He attempts both reiver charges against my drop pod, but fails both, and both inceptor charges agianst my drop pod. One makes it , the other does not. The inceptors do 1 wound to drop pod, putting it down to 1.

I can't remember what objectives he drew, but I think he also got 2 VP's on turn.

At the end of turn 1, board looks like this:

[9x19 Parabellum]

BA Turn 2.

So, I distinctly remember this turn drawing 2 objectives: Defend Objective 5 and Defend Objective 6. Defend objective 5 would be tricky since it was out in the open, but I moved my scouts out there. At least it would require my opponent to put fire on cheap scouts rather than shoot at something more valuable.

For Defending objective 6, i decided on a gamble. I disembarked my tacs, putting them in the ruins on the right flank. This was a 3 story ruin, and I set them as far back within the ruins as possible, and also on the higher levels. This would require his reivers to come after me, which I was certain he would do. Thus, I ignored the reivers for shooting, hoping he would charge me, and thus getting him "off" objective 6. Instead, the rhino moved up to claim it, and I poured all my fire into the intercessors behind the reivers, and the 2 hellblasters behind them. Everyone did their work perfectly, and there was no wasted wounds or shots. The 2 hellblasters died by laz-cannon razorback + 2 missile launchers, and the combined fire from 2 tactical squads with grav and combi grav killed all but 1 intercessor. He then popped due to morale.

On the left/middle, I poured fire into his cluster of dudes in the center, killing several more hellblasters and intercessors. He was down to 3 hellblasters at this point. Company vets overcharged rapid fire plasma and with some help from captain, killed all 3 inceptors. Did some random wounds to the other 2 reiver squads. Libby smited the inceptors that had charged, but then periled on Shield of Sanguinius, giving himself 2 mortal wounds in the process. Captain charged inceptors but only killed 1 thanks to a lucky save. My bottom middle tac squad tried charging the reivers at the bottom but failed a 5" charge. Company vets did likewise but I was fine with that.

Corbs tried to revive a fallen Devastator, but failed, so he sat around and just provided his buff.

I think I picked up 2 VP this turn, (1 for a tactical objective and 1 for first blood) with the possibility to score 4 more if I could keep the 2 "Defend Objective" x. Here's the board at end of BA Turn 2.

Edited February 23, 2018 by 9x19 Parabellum

[9x19 Parabellum]

Primaris Turn 2.

At this point, my opponent was beginning to Tilt.

At the top, he brought his 3 intercessors into rapid fire range and lit up my unit of scouts that was trying to defend objective 5. Oh well, worth a try.

With the right flank collapsing, he advanced his Captain over to support his shooting base in the center. His reviers took the bait on the right, moving up into the ruins and shooting/assaulting my tac team. I lost 3 guys but we held. He was now solidly off objective 6, and my rhino claimed with for 2 victory points for me. He decided to put his middle hellblasters into my missle launcher devs, finally realizing the real threat, but it was too late. He killed 2 guys, I opted for the 1 extra and the sgt, still leaving me with all 4 missile launchers in place. Since they were unlikely to move, I figured I didn't really need the signum. His intercessors shot into my grav devastators, killing one and the sgt.

What was left of his assault force, he shot and charged into my company veterans. He killed 2 in all, but between my overwatch, fighting, glorious interventions of brother corbs and the company ancient, and the astarted banner allowing another attack, I was able to kill 4 of his dudes. Captain Smashypants finished off the other Inceptor in his round of close combat.

I believe he scored another 2 victory points this turn, bringing the total at 6-4.

Here's the board end of primaris turn 2:

Edited February 23, 2018 by 9x19 Parabellum

[9x19 Parabellum]

BA Turn 3.

I remember drawing "advance" and "Secure objective 2" this turn. So I advanced 3 units (2 teams of tac squads, plus the libby). I still had defend objective 5, so I decided to give it another shot using my librarian to "upon wings of fire" onto Objective 5.

Libby Smote the 3 intercessors, killing 1.5. Corbs was able to bring back a devastator so I gained back one of my grav cannons. They both shot up and killed the remaining 2 intercessors.

My missile devs picked off another intercessor in the middle, and, combined with my laz-back and rhino, killed 3 reivers on the right flank. The tac squad that had been engaged in combat fell back and embarked on the rhino which had backed up to collect them.

In the left flank scrum Captain Smashy, brother corbs, the company ancient and the remaining company vet finished off the 2 reivers.

I was able to score 2 more VPs this turn (sec obj 2, advance) and was 1/2 way to Defend Objective 5. Score 8-4.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Primaris Turn 3.

My opponent used what was left of his center shooting to mop up several unfinished jobs. I can't remember exactly what shot where, but he was able to kill my librarian (denying me Defend Objective 5 again!), thanks to the 2 mortal wounds I had done to myself on perils in turn 2. He was also able to pick off my last 2 grav devastators as we were out of reach of the company ancient at this point. And he got a lucky shot off with something that destroyed the Drop Pod.

On the right he shot and charged my tactical squad, killing 2 (big difference not having cover makes). But my sgt with power sword killed one of his guys in return.

I think he scored 1 VP this turn. 8-5 Blood Angels.

[9x19 Parabellum]

BA Turn 4.

At this point the game was starting to go into mop-up mode. But there were still VP's to be had, so I didn't give up or go into coast mode just yet.

I fell back with my right flank tac squad, and they also jumped into the Rhino, which then proceeded to move downfield for linebreaker.

That left my laz-back and missile devs to kill his last reiver, which they did.

2 other missile devs and all my remaining shooting shot into his center, killing a couple intercessors and/or hellblasters. Smashy moved up behind the barricade and attempted a charge, but failed it.

I scored another 2 VP here, and finally gave up defend objective 5. :-( 10-5

Edited February 23, 2018 by 9x19 Parabellum

[9x19 Parabellum]

Primaris Turn 4.

 

He moved back with what he had left behind the barricade, and proceeded to shoot everything at my Rhino, hoping to prevent me from getting linebreaker. He got it down to 2 wounds!

 

I don't think he scored anything this turn, but he had drawn Big Game Hunter.

 

Blood Angel Turn 5. 

 

I advanced my Rhino one last time downfield, I was now firmly in his deployment zone.  Even if he blew up the rhino, I'd be ok unless everyone inside (5 models) rolled "1's" on their disembark.

 

I was going to move up Captain Smashy and assault, but decided against it as I had no objectives that would have benefitted from that, and risked giving my opponent VP's if something went wrong and he got killed. I didn't score anything else this turn but as long as he didn't take all my tacs down, I'd get linebreaker for 1 more VP.

 

Primaris Turn 5.

 

He managed to blow up my Rhino (1 vp for big game hunter), but all the tacs inside were fine.   We decided to end at turn 5 since the game store was closing.  I scored linebreaker and game ended 11-7.

 

VICTORY FOR (PURE) BLOOD ANGELS!

Edited February 23, 2018 by 9x19 Parabellum

[Blackcadian]

Wow, great victory, thanks for taking the time to post the report! What would you say were your MVPs?