Upcoming Event 1,500 pts Tanksgiving

[9x19 Parabellum]

So my FLGS is doing a "Tanksgiving" funsy competition on the 17th.

 

1,500 pts, 50% of your list must be in vehicles (or monsters if you don't have vehicles).

 

I don't know what the mission types will be, but I think it will be Eternal War missions.

 

I want to bring Blood Angels, and I have no compunction about bringing Captain Smashypants or whatever I need.

 

What kinds of things do you think you guys might bring?  How would you go about building this?

 

Only other conditions here are that I want a Monolist and I'd really like to use my Stormraven unless someone convinces me it's absolute hot garbage.

[Panzer]

Librarian Dread + 3 Redemptor Dreads = ~780p 

[Xenith]

Does it have to be a legal matched play list, or is it a forge the narrative style game?

 

Bring Libby Dreads. Plenty of TLC razorbacks. 

 

In the spirit of tanks, I'd say Annihilators and Land Raider Phobos patterns would be good. 

[Panzer]

Alright, from a more competetive point of view. Expect lots of anti-tank due the tournament rules. So the armour you bring has to have some way to survive it or else you'd just be throwing away 750+ points.

Possible ways would be:

• character rule (Librarian Dread, Chaplain Dread)
• -1 to-hit (Flyer)
• high Toughness/good Saves (Contemptor Dreads, Leviathan Dreads, Landraider [they're too expensive tho])
• cast Shield of Sanguinius on one of them for a sweet 5++
• instead of a few super tough models you could also go the other way and saturate the board with lots of cheap armour so a lascannon shot or whatever wouldn't be able to deal as much damage as it would against an expensive unit

 

With that in mind Librarian Dreads, Chaplain Dreads with Lascannons, Storm Raven, double Grav-flux Leviathan Dreads, Lascannon Contemptor Dreads, Deredeo Dreads (that one gives your other units within 6" a 5++ even) and such things would probably be your best bet to fill the required 750+ points with tanks/walker that can take the anti-tank hit you have to expect to face while also packing themselves quite a punch against your opponents required 750+ points.

 

The rest of your army should probably be focussed around capturing objectives. You could also just take 6-7 LasBacks and fill them with Tacticals or whatever I guess. Kinda hard to give good advice without knowing what vehicles you have available to be honest. :P

[9x19 Parabellum]

Right, so, to that end, my current Blood Angels roster is:

 

1 Stormraven

1 Land Raider (Crusader or Redeemer, sponsoons are magnetized).

1 LIbby Dread

1 DC Dread

1 Furioso Dread

1 Drop Pod

and I have about 5 or 6 different Rhino chassis which are magnetized and could be various combos of Predators, Razorbacks, Rhinos or Baal Predators.

Depending on what someone suggested, I could easily get another 1 or 2 of anything purchased and painted before the event, except perhaps Forgeworld stuff since I don't think there's enough time for delivery, assembley and painting.

 

I was thinking of another Stormraven and doing a Vanguard detachment consisting of 2 Ravens with:

a Libby Dread and a DC Dread

10 Sternguard or DC on Foot (not sure which)

5 DC jump packs

Captain Smashy (in the Raven)

1 Termie Ancient (if I take Sternguard, to benefit from Banner) or Mephi/Brother Corbs (if I go with DC)

 

That gives me 2 deployment (good chance of going first) and -1 to hit flyers, after I (hopefully) clear out chaff and take down at least 1 enemy tank.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Also, what about Land Raider with the 1st turn cover rule? that's a 1+ armor save, meaning even Lascannon shots are being saved on 4+.  That beats out the 5++ from a Deredeo Pavaise or Shield.  Is that enough to justify Land Raider? Probably not but worth discussing.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Ok my first pass list (Vanguard Detachment)

 

Libby Dread, storm bolter, halberd, fist

Chaplain Ven Dread, assault cannon, storm bolter, dread combat weapon (Artisan of War on close combat weapon)

 

1 termie ancient, lightning claw, banner of sacrifice

5 assault termies, thammer and shield

6 death company jump packs, bolters and chainswords

 

Stormraven 1: twin HB, 2x stormstrike missiles, 2x lascanons, 2x hurricane bolters

Stormraven 2: twin HB, 2x stormstrike missiles, 2x lascanons, 2x hurricane bolters

 

that leaves me 32 points, which I might put 2 more thammers in to death company, but also thinking something like power axes to cut down elite infantry, teq, etc.

[Panzer]

I think I'd rather give the Chaplain Dread a Lascannon instead of the Assault Cannon. 4 Lascannons on your Storm ravens seems a bit little to deal with 750+ points of vehicles/monsters but their Heavy Bolter and Hurricane Bolters should be enought to deal with chaff.

 

I wouldn't really go with Terminators if possible considering that Terminators are still simply bad but it looks like it's a decision you made knowing that fact so if you want them I won't try to talk you out of it.

 

Just be aware that once your Storm ravens are gone you're basically defeated. They pack almost all of your anti-tank and anti-chaff while also are the only things standing between your opponent and your character dreads aside from the Terminators and DC which shouldn't be too hard to deal with.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Hey panzer thanks for the response!

 

My thought on the Chaplain Ven Dread was that I might need the Assault Cannon to burn through any remaining chaff standing between him and a tank once he got on the ground.   He wants to get into CC, obviously, with that 4 damage dreadnought combat weapon.

 

I'm actually NOT sold on the termies, but having the 3++ stormshields and 5+++ SoS seemed to give me some much needed durability once I hit the ground. I'm open to other suggestions, though. What would you put in the second bird? I have almost any/every type of infantry that one can put in a Stormraven available.

[Panzer]

Honestly I'd leave the birds empty. They're already the biggest targets your opponent has in your army even without anything in them. Scouts would provide some much needed board control for your list and with Heavy Bolter you could use the Mortal wound Stratagem even.

You could also probably make it a Battalion detachment that way and have more CP to play around with instead of just a Vanguard detachment.

[9x19 Parabellum]

So, several points (that you couldn't have known about). 

 

-Board control will be less of a thing. There are no objectives, tactical or otherwise, for this event. It's pure shoot-em-up.

 

-2 Stormravens, fully loaded, means 2 deployments, which means I have a good chance of going first.  Given the number of tanks, I imagine that a lot of models will be able to reach out and touch me first turn (long range) so I'm banking on going first.

 

-The more i looked at BA, the more I realize that so much of our CP dependancy is contingent on dropping in from deepstrike.  If you don't have to do that (ie, embarking from transports), the need for CP's becomes much less.  So I'm going to try this and see what happens. I'm sure I'll die horribly regardless.

 

-I know this is a mental block, but paying for vehicles that have transport capacity and not utilizing it makes me think I'm paying for something that's not being used, and thus, less efficiency.  Which gives me indigestion.

[Majkhel]

2 drops gives you a 'better' chance, not a 'good' chance. You can still roll a 1 ;)

And if that happens you're screwed for sure as enemy will be sure to line up the biggest guns against your only 2 units. If you want to utilize transport ability, sure, just don't be too obvious.

You can still load up only one Raven taking huge pressure off the second one. Or don't load them fully. For example Captain Smash is easy enough to hide and has great threat range on his own. And you can Forlorn Fury him. Also he is the one that has the ability to chew through most of your CP and deep strike has nothing to do with it :)

Scout sergeant can take thunder hammers and with their deployment they can often charge turn 1.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Well brothers I"m happy to report that much glory was brought to the 9th legion today.

 

I went for 3 for 3 today (3-0), winning the Tanksgiving event (in terms of kill points/victories).  I tabled 2 opponents (both eldar, no less)  and beat IG including a Shadowsword.

 

My final list was (battalion, thanks SFPanzer for talking me into it); 8 CP.

 

1 Smash Captain (Thammer, Stormsheild, Artisan of War, Angel's Wings)

1 LIbby Dread (melta gun, Smite, Quickening, Wings)

 

5 Tacs (combi-melta, power fist, plasma gun)

5 Tacs (combi-melta, power fist, plasma gun)

5 Scouts (combi-melta, power fist)

 

DC Dread (furioso fists, melta gun, stormbolter, magna grapple)

3 Company Vets with Jump Packs (2x stormshields + chainsword, stormbolter and power sword on sgt)

 

Stormraven 1 (twin heavy bolter, 2x lascannons, 2x hurricane bolters, 2x stormstrike missiles)

Stormraven 2 (twin heavy bolter, 2x lascannons, 2x hurricane bolters, 2x stormstrike missiles)

 

The plan was 2 be able to load everything into 2 Birds and thus limit deployments to 2. It worked, cuz I got first turn all 3 games.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Here's a link to the one photo that the store owner got of my dual birds the round before they dumped some angry sons of Sanguinius on top of CWE.

[9x19 Parabellum]

My 3 opponents' armies (as best I can remember):

Eldar 1:

1 Farseer

1 Warlock (I think? some psyker dude with wings of assuryian?)

10 Guardians

10 Guardians

10 Dire Avengers

2 War Walkers

5 Rangers

3 Vipers

5 Wraithguard with DScythes

2 Wave Serpents

 

Eldar 2:

Avatar of Khaine

Wraithlord

2 Fire Prisms

3 Wave Serpents

1 Hemlock

 

Imperial Guard (as best I can remember):

2 Company Commanders

4 Squads of 10 Guardsman

2 Squads of 5 veterans with 3 plasma guns each

1 Shadowsword

2 Tauroxes with various autocannons, heavy stubbers, heavy bolters

2 Scout Walkers w/Lascannons

3 Chimeras with various autocannons, heavy stubbers, heavy bolters

1 Leman Russ with Demolisher Cannon

1 Leman Russ with Battle cannon

[Jolemai]

Thanks for the report :)

 

Could you go into some more detail on the matches please? Perhaps a rundown on how your list choices did? Only you've got the classic case of too many eggs in one two baskets which the internet warns about running. How was your first turn generally?

[9x19 Parabellum]

Right, so my deployment/units and all that was a gamble on first turn, and I figured with only 2 drops I had a decent chance of going first (I think someone has figured it out to be around 62%).

 

I got initiative all 3 games.  In the 2nd game vs. Alatoic Eldar I failed the first roll but managed a 6 on seize initiative.

 

My gamble payed off, but I don't deny that it was entirely that; a gamble (then again, this game is entirely about weighting the percentages, right?)

 

Game 1 vs. Eldar.

 

Based on where my opponents deployment and psykers were, I decided to drop Libby Dread turn 1 left of center. He moved up the board, Wings'ed himself and then got a turn 1 charge off on a Wave Serpent which didn't kill it but mangled it pretty badly.  My Ravens both went straight ahead and butchered his infantry units pretty good as well as popping a War Walker first turn for 1st blood.

His turn 1 he was not able to shoot libby with everything he would have wanted based on the positioning of the Ravens, which were closer to many units, so he had to target them.   This forced him to spread out his shooting, and because of that he wasn't able to focus fire and none of my 3 units in play got taken down).

 

Turn 2 everything deployed, and this is where the blood really started to spill. I don't remember a lot of the details, but just that I was able to disembark my guys right where they needed to be, and I seemed to have the right answer for everything. Dreadnoughts tore wave serpents apart, scouts went into a unit of Guardians and between shooting and CC attacks just ripped them apart.  Libby dread charged into Wraithguard turn 2 or 3, I can't remember, and I know he was hoping to do a bunch of damage on overwatch, but that's what the Company vets were for, to tank those hits. So he made it unscathed and butchered them.

 

I ended up tabling this opponent Turn 4, I think, and I had lost only a Stormraven, 1 unit of Tacs and my Company vets.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Game 2.

Game 2 was vs. Alatoic Eldar. This guy's list was: Avatar of Khaine, Wraithlord, 2 Fire Prisms, 3 Wave Serpents, 1 Hemlock

This table was a fairly open board with a large crashed ship smack dab in the middle. It was pretty big, measuring I'd guess about 18" long, 6" tall, 6" wide, and another 6-8" of cottonball "smoke" rising up out of the top of the ship. It was large enough that my Stormravens could actually get line of site blocked depending on where they were relative to the firer. My opponent start commenting on that immediately, which I ignored. He was not one of the regulars at my FLGS and I had a feeling I was not going to like him based on that.

So I started taking out my minis from the case and said to him "Everything is WYSIWYG except my captain, who has a thunder hammer" (He's modeled with a spear...I call it his thunderspear). "Do you want me to go through my list at all?"

HIM: "Nope, I play a Blood Angels player all the time so I'm very familiar with Blood Angels. Is that a Smashy Captain?"

ME: "Yes."

HIM: "Ok you know Upon Wings of Fire is 2CP now, right?"

ME: "Yep. I even have it crossed out and re-written in pen in my Codex."

HIM: "You marked up your codex? Huh."

ME: "Yeah. This is my working codex, and I also have the collector's edition Blood Angels which is NOT marked up."

(you'll see why this is important later.)

So we go on to deployment. I deploy my 2 birds left and right of center, right on the deployment line, respectively. He spreads his force out fairly equidistantly on his back table edge. His fire prisms are in the further corners of his deployment zone, as far away as possible from each other. Right next to them on either side are 2 of his his wave serpents. Avatar and Wraithlord are pretty much in the middle. Hemlock is off to one side of middle, and the last wave serpent is on the other.

My left bird contains: Capt Smashypants, DC dread, 2x5 Tacs.

My right bird contains: Libby Dread, 1x5 scouts, 1x3 company vets

Turn 1 I rush forward, 24" with left bird and about 30" with right bird. (I stagger their distance so I can make 90 degree turns with each in subsequent turns and not have them run into each other.)

I fire, but my shooting is not terrible effective as I spread my shots out a little too much and forgot his chapter tactic. I score some hits against the Hemlock, and Wave Serpent 2.

On his turn 1, he moves to start spreading out all over the board so that my melee power won't be able to just steamroll from one vehicle to the next. I have accounted for this.

He concentrates all firepower on SR1 (damn twin linked stratagem) and takes it down, I disembark Capt Smash, DC Dread and 2x5 tacs. I lose 2 tacs, I think, to the crash, and he is now poised to charge with his Wraithlord and Avatar. So Turn 1 movement through his shooting looks like this:

Now it's his turn 1 charge/fight phase. He comes in with AoK against the closer Tac squad and Wraithlord against the other Tac. They both make charges. The Wraithlord only kills 3 Tacs, the Sgt lives and he is far enough out of combat that I can shoot with him next turn.

The Avatar of Khaine also goes in to Tacs. Before I can get a chance to Heroically intervene with Capt Smash (and after I bring it up), he goes "Sorry man, heroic intervention is in charge phase, can't let you do that." I was stunned. Ok, whatever, I let it go. So Avatar kills all 4 tacs, and then he decides to consolidate into my dread. He's very pleased with himself and says "You didn't charge with the Dread, nor were you charged, so you don't get Rage or Red Thirst bonuses." Well it ended up not mattering, because Sanguinius did not like my opponent's unfriendly play about not letting me consolidate, so in response I hit and wound with all 4 attacks on my dread, he fails all 4 daemonic saves, and fails just enough FnP saves for my DC dread to cut through him. I then consolidate 6" into HIS wraithlord (armed with bright lances, the overwatch for which I did not want to eat next turn.) and replied "it's not a charge so no overwatch". Here's a close up of the Melee action on turn 1:

[brother_b]

I'm no rules lawyer but I never let blatantly wrong rule interpretations go. Especially against A holes. Good sportsmanship and it sounds like the emperor was protecting.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Blood Angels Turn 2.

Captain Smashy moves back to charge Hemlock.

Tac Sgt moves back to shoot Hemlock (combi melta) but not so far as to not be able to charge Wraithlord, which he does, locked in combat with DC Dread.

Stormraven dumps out cargo and beelines to Fire Prism 1, dumping all firepower into it, but not destroying it.

On the right flank, scouts surround Wave Serpent, shoot it (also combi-melta) and charge it (power fist on Sgt), but don't quite take it down.

On far right, Libby Dread disembarks, moves, Wings himself, Quickens himself, shoot and charges Fire Prism 2. Company Vets follow behind and eat overwatch.

Blood Angels turn 2 kills: Wraithlord, Hemlock and Fire Prism 2.

Wave Serpent 2 and Fire Prism 1 are both damaged but not dead.

End of Blood Angels Turn 2:

Eldar Turn 2

He continues to fan himself out to minimize the risk of my melee units. Wave Serpent 1 on left flank moves deeper toward center, also pushing for a Linebreaker if he lives. Wave serprent 3 does similar on right flank. Wave serpent 2 disengages from Scouts and shoots at them, killing 3 if I remember correctly. A company vet dies, can't remember if it was from Libby's overwatch on his charge of if the Wave Serpent fired at them directly. DC Dread, having consolidated after finishing off Wraithlord, dies to fire from Wave Serpent 1 and/or Fire Prism. I believe the Stormraven also took some damage from the Fire Prism on this turn. Here's battlefield after his turn 2.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Blood Angels Turn 3

Stormraven finishes off Fire Prism 1.

Captain Smash makes a long distance charge to Wave Serpent 1, along with Stormraven for the Lolz.

2 Scouts, including Sgt, shoot and make charge to WS 2, but one dies to overwatch. It lives through close combat.

Libby Dread and 2 Company Vets make charge to WS 3 but fail to destroy it in close combat (I think I had Red Rampage AND Quickening on the FIre Prism), but I remember failing to cast Quickening this time and I only had 2 CPs left and I remember wanting to Upon Wings of Fire Capt Smashypants on my next turn.

Eldar Turn 3.

WS 2 disengages and kills my Scout Sgt.

WS 3 disengages and kills another company vet. both are busted up pretty good at this point, so shooting was not as effective.

Blood Angels Turn 4.

No need for graphics here; Captain Smashy pants used Upon Wings and charged Wave Serpent 2, finishing it off. Stormraven and Tac Sgt both busted into his deployment for linebreaker. LIbby Dread quickened/Wings'd himself into WS3 and finished it off, tabling my opponent on Turn 4.

Final Score:

Blood Angels: 8 kill points + slay warlord + linebreaker = 10

Eldar: 4 kill points + first blood = 5

[9x19 Parabellum]

So yeah, that's my 2nd game, as best I remember it. Some of the details/distances may be off by a little bit (the game is almost a week and a half old at this point), so if I messed anything up, I apologize.  If I get up the fortitude, I might post game 3.

[Xenith]

 

 

ME: "Yeah. This is my working codex, and I also have the collector's edition Blood Angels which is NOT marked up."

 

(you'll see why this is important later.)

 

 

Did I miss why this was important? Having a marked and non marked codex?

 

Guys sounds like an ass. I'm generally not too argumentative, but I'll argue a wrong rule, and enforce RAW if my opponent starts being pedantic. 

[Jolemai]

Thanks for posting so far, it's refreshing to see an insight into an unusual setup. Looking forward to game 3 :tu:

[Panzer]

 

 

 

ME: "Yeah. This is my working codex, and I also have the collector's edition Blood Angels which is NOT marked up."

 

(you'll see why this is important later.)

 

 

Did I miss why this was important? Having a marked and non marked codex?

 

Guys sounds like an ass. I'm generally not too argumentative, but I'll argue a wrong rule, and enforce RAW if my opponent starts being pedantic. 

 

 

Yeah I was waiting for a continuation of that story as well. :D