Battle Report - "Angels from the sky" (DA vs BA at 1000 pts)

[Berzul]

Hey everyone!

 

So, yesterday I had a battle at 1000 points versus a Blood Angel friend. I am bringing you a battle report for said combat.

 

It was a battle at 1000 points, playing the Dominate and Destroy mission from Chapter Approved.

 

My list consisted of a Techmarine and a Lieutenant, leading 2 squads of 5 Tactical Marines with Missile Launchers, a squad of 5 Scouts with Bolters, 2 Dreadnoughts with Dual Twin Autocannons, a squad of 5 Devastators with 3 Plasma Cannons and a Heavy Bolter, and an Imperial Bastion with a Quad Cannon.

 

My opponent brought two Chaplains in Jump Packs with Power Fists, 3 squads of Death Company with Thunder Hammer Sgts., a squad of 6 inceptors with Assault Bolters, and a Devastator Squad with 1 Heavy Bolter and 3 Missile Launchers.

 

The battlefield was a ruined city, in a board I have shown here in the forums many times before:

 

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We got Search and Destory deployment, and my opponent deployed first.

 

He placed 2 squads of Death Company, a Chaplain, and the Devastors, on the Shrine of the Aquila to the side of the battle map; right on top of one objective. The other units behind a ruin on the far end, out of line of sight.

 

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I placed my Bastion next to a ruin, with the Devastators and Characters inside. The Tacticals in front, down the sides of the Honored Imperium and over one objective at its feet. One Dread went to each side of the bastion, leaving enough room to then place the characters, of course. My socuts went on top of a building in the middle of the field, to grab an objective.

 

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First turn went to me.

 

On turn one, I fired everything I had at the units inside the Shrine of the Aquila, using Grim Resolve and the Lieutenant to great effect! Despite his 2+ saves while in cover, with the rerolls and the helfire shells and flakk missiles, I managed to take out 3/5 devastators, 4/5 marines from one Death Company, and 3/5 of the other.

 

My opponent then sent his Inceptors into flight, and deployed them behind my bastion. I used Auspex to take out 2 of them, but 4 survived to fire at me. He then moved his marines forward to go after my scouts first. His missiles did 6 wounds to my bastion (that I forgot to repair EVERY TURN througout the battle), and his Assault Bolters did 1 wound to my bastion. He then charged my scouts with all 3 death company squads and both chaplains.

 

Although I DID die horribly, I have to mention that at one point I got 9 wounds out of one round of chainsword hits, and had to roll 9 4+ saves in total to save two scouts, and what do you know...

 

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The inceptos for their part failed their charge, and we moved to my turn.

 

On turn two I kept the preassure on the Death Company, killing the 2 lone and damaged squads, and 1 marine from the full squad. I also managed to take out 3 out of the 4 inceptors left, with the final one running out of the board due to morale.

 

My opponent then moved forward with his nearby Chaplain and the 4 Death Company left, while his warlord started moving up from the back lines. He charged in and slaughtered one tactical squad, and locked the other through consolidation.

 

In my third turn I used intractable to pull back and fire. I managed to barely do enough wounds to kill everything left on the board, devastators, death company and 1 chaplain, all except his warlord, who then proceeded to move even closer.

 

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By then I was about way ahead in points and hadn't lost almost any units, while my opponent was almost wiped out. So, he decided to appeal to my sense of honour and challenged me to charge his chaplain. So, by now, yeah, you may have noticed it was a proxy model... an Ezekiel model, to boot... Which meant I HAD to charge in this traitorous model and crush it hand to hand.

 

I moved my lieutenant close for the duel...

 

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... and charged in with him and both dreadnoughts.

 

So, this may look one sided? But I had underestimated how little damage Dreadnoughts without arms do, so I didn't get to kill him, and in fact he killed my lieutenant!

After such a disgraceful trick from the traitor model, I decided to give myself some room and then throw one deadly fussilade of fire.

 

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Which did work out, and gave me the victory.

[Company Master Holden]

Excellent battle report!

 

Nice use of the Intractable Strategem! I usually forget that one due to my focus on WotDA, SotR, and DWA, but it sounds like that was a pivotal point in the game and a good tactical decision. And you were right to crush that rouge Ezekiel! 

 

A few questions; how did your bastion perform during the game? I have looked into getting a fortification network a couple of times but I wondered about their effectiveness. Also, at the risk of opening a can of worms, did you and your opponent use the Deep Striking Beta rules? If so, what did ya'll think of it? Finally, what kind of board is that? The board, combined with the terrain, looks fantastic!

[Berzul]

Thanks!!

 

I have had to use Intractable in my last two battles, and you know what? I think it is very good! Both times it gave me the upper hand that pushed me (almost) to victory. It can turn the tide of battle considerably, to position a unit for consolidation, tie the enemy up from consolidating somewhere else, then pull back and fire. Its expensive, and situational, but when you can (or have to) use it, it can work wonders for your overall strategy, and save you in a pinch, sure.

 

As for your questions:

 

1) The Bastion: Even though I did forget to repair it every god damned time, it worked amazingly. The quad cannon emplacement I brought because I knew my opponent would have a lot of fliers. And, those extra shots are well worth the 30 pts. The bastion itself is also great. I do not think I would use it without devastators, though.

 

I think most other squads would be a waste inside of it, but as for devastators? It is a great combo. Allowed me to bring a squad without need for ablative wounds, keep them safe throughout the game, and just generally scare my opponent to death. The 4 heavy bolters are great, and even though it is BS5+, those 12 shots per turn are seriously good! Had I had a master next to it, would have been even better.

That does lead to the bad side, which is that units inside do not get aura benefits. So, even though grim resolve gave me shot rerolls, I could not get to wound rerolls on them, which was a shame. But overall, the extra firepower from the bastion itself, and the protection it gives, offset the lack of the aura effect.

 

2) Beta Rules: Yes, we did use the beta rules, which is why he had a max of 3 death company, and didn't use deep strike in his deployment, but rather decided to place everything on the board.

 

The rules themselves worked out fine. I think they do cause some improvement on the game itself. Army composition, and general flow of play.

 

3) The Board: Thanks!!

 

It is a Game Matz pvc mat of 6 by 4, printed as a city scape. The terrain is all official GW stuff, save for one ruin which is 3D printed. I do have a lot of extra scatter terrain that I've printed, but I didn't use it this time.

 

Since I have a 2 year old daughter and my wife is always home late due to her work, I tend to have to play at my appartment. To compensate this with my friends, we agreed to use my appartment as main base of operations, so to speak, but I agreed to provide as much scenery and terrain as I could. So I bought a bunch of ruins and printed a lot of extra stuff, to make sure we can saturate the board with terrain as much as we can.

 

Also, I have to keep my fridge with beer, and the local pizza place on speed dial.... the things you gotta do for the hobby, I guess :D

[Kasper_Hawser]

Good game. Shame about the lieutenant, but it did look like you were smashing him. He had an almost pure melee list, and it was mucked up by your bastion.

 

Speaking of which, how expensive is it? don't tell me the point cost, but what would you replace the bastion with if you had a choice?

[Berzul]

Yeah, it was a bit one sided, but my opponent had fun and that is what matters I guess. I expected a melee list, but not a PURE melee list. In any case, what he did manage to get to my side was incredibly deadly anyway.

 

As for the bastion, I would probably put a Dark Talon in its stead. Or maybe a couple of Twin Assault Cannon Razorbacks, if I had some more points to spare as well.