1250 point Black legion Vs Custodes

[CptSlambo]

First off this is my first attempt at writing a battle report so sorry ahead of time if its missing details or seems like im rambling.

 

Lists-Black Legion 

 Abby

Dark Apostle with Omen of Potency

 

3 10 man tac squads 2 with chain cannons, plasma and 1 just basic with bolter

 

2 obliterators

 

1 squad of havocs with 2 chain cannons 2 las cannons

 

1 venomcrawler

 

 

Custodes

Valorus

Shield Captain on Bike

 

3x 3man squads 2 ss/swords 1 spear in each squad

 

Vexilus Praetor with Vexilla Magnifica(hate this thing by the way)

 

3 Vertus Praetors

 

Couple of things to note very basic lists not really min/maxing very casual game.  Abby with the first among traitors trait is an amazing buff to death to the false emperor. Keeping havocs next to abby while walking up the field feels pretty amazing till a shield captain kills all your havocs..

 

Turn 1 Custodes advance up the board getting behind cover, bikes move up with the captain and immediately unload into a tac squad and somehow the tac squad survived with a couple models.  

Turn 1 Black Legion  After passing leadership thanks to abby my tac squad didnt lose anymore marines so i moved everything up bascially with tac squads out front with abby getting as close to everything for his buffs as i could. I got my havocs and obiterators into a pretty decent position to unload on some custodes.  3 chaincannons with re rolls basically only killed 1 squad of custodes in was actually kinda let down but the custodes player did have pretty good saving throws.  No charges turn 1 for either side

 

Turn 2 Custodes  Continue to move up the board but getting to into range with small arms fire. Bikes contiune to do their thing moving around mowing down as many marines as they can.  Finished off my depleted tac squad then tried to charge my venomcrawler but didnt make the rolls.

Turn 2 Black Legion  Not much moving just trying to reorganize my gun line without moving my chaincannons .  I put abby out front intending to charge into a squad of custodes kinda hoping that he would heroic intervene with his Valorus.  Continue to lay down fire with my chaincannons with abbys re rolls i managed to really hurt his bikes i killed 2 of them and hurt the last pretty bad with some las fire.  I failed my charge with abby unfortunately and left him very exposed.  

 

Turn 3 Custodes again just moving up the field not giving a :cuss his shield captain and last bike kinda fell in formation with the rest of his army to get max benefits from auras.  Started to shoot up a lot of my marines with his small arms fire and a combination of bad rolls on my part and good rolls on his part actually was starting to take a toll.  He got real nice and close to abby before charging him with 1 3 man squad of custodes and Valorus with his Vexilus Praetor.  Somehow abby survived mostly from his rule to reduce wounds.  His shield captain pretty much wiped out the havocs so i was kinda feeling the pressure.  But then abby stepped up and the gods were looking down on him this day.  rolled a 5 for Drach'nyen so a combination of that with the talon saw quick work of that squad of 3 custodes and the praetor(First among traitors is :cussing amazing).  

Turn 3 Black Legion so at this point pretty much everything was in close combat that i could shoot at besides the final bike so the venomcrawler finished him off but barely those custodes are hard to kill.  Moved my apostle real close the combat with abby and moved my obiterators close as well also got the prayer for the apostle.  Combat comes i get all my remaining units into CC only this time abby rolls a 1 for Drak'nyen and somehow only managed to do a couple wounds to Valorus.  In return he killed Abby and used his moment shackle to pile in and attack again which almost killed my apostle.  The obilerators really put some hurt on his shield captain which is was surprised by.  

 

Turn 4 Custodes  Not much left on the custode side at this point just Valorus and this shield Captain He finished off the dark Apostle and piled into the Venomcrawler .  the shield Captain killed 1 of the Obliterators and almost killed the last one but i managed to kill him with the last Obliterator and killed Valorus with my Crawler.  

 

 

Chaos Victory

 

Few thoughts.....Obviously it was a very basic game not much use of Stratagems really just trying to lock down the basics.  I did really enjoy the havocs moving with no penitently to shooting.  Keeping them next to abby is a must with all his re rolling aura and the fearless buff is super nice.  Custodes are hard to kill especially with that damn banner.  Drach"nyen is a fickle daemon.  Chaincannons while amazing and with better use of Stratagems could be even better with my bad rolling left bad taste in my mouth.  I really look forward to playing some more games with the black legion and getting better with the rules if anyone has any advice on where to go next with the army i would really appreciate it.. If you made it this far your awesome :D 

 

[Sception]

Always worth keeping a cp free to slap drach'nyen back into line with a reroll should it start acting up. Otherwise congrats on your victory. I enjoyed your write up, thanks.