Battle Report: BA vs. new Tyranids (1’500 points)

Mission was capture & control with a dawn of war setup; the game ended in a draw.

Captain Parcival checked his Tac Com and knew things didn’t look good. The 2nd Company formed a first line of defense in the outskirts of Plethora Hive, the last position the Blood Angels still held on Tenebra IX. The incoming data showed that Class C organisms were moving three klicks NW inbound. Soon there were going to be Tyranids everywhere.

Parcival went through his geotactical situation. In his immediate area of control there was a Dortis Sugar refinery and his own locator beacon. The Tyranids were surely going to feast on the sugar, but if they had a chance to destroy his locator beacon and cut him off from supplies, they wouldn’t let it slip either. Parcival told his troops to hide among the buildings so that the Tyranids would run into a seemingly empty area. He figured they only had a chance if they attacked by surprise and did a mechanized countercharge into the back of the Tyranid wave.

All of a sudden, there they were. A Hive Tyrant was directly charging with Termagants towards the locator beacon. Parcival ordered his very own Razorback and the Rhino of Squad Calrissian to move against these incoming creatures.

On the right flank, the Rhino of Squad Derian and the two Baal Predators rolled onto the scene and went straight for the sugar refinery where Hormagants and a Carnifex were trying to dig themselves in. However, just when the Rhino reached the refinery, the Carnifex charged the vehicle and tore it apart killing the entire squad with the exception of Sergeant Derian himself. Derian ran into the refinery and up the stairs onto its roof so he could take shots at the lingering Tyrandis outside. The Carnifex followed him into the refinery, however, and Derian could hear the brutal noises as this creature was smashing its way through the machines. Derian just hoped that the creature was too heavy to make it to the upper floors.

In the meantime, the two Baal Predators were busy killing Zoantrophes which they successfully did as they were still fully operational. However, mopping up the Zoes took away precious time when the Blood Angels’ infantry was in bitter need for their support.

On the left flank, Parcival and his Honor Guard exited the Razorback and took shots at the Hive Tyrant. The creature produced infernal screams as it felt the cleansing fire of the Emperor, but stayed focused and destroyed the Rhino of Squad Calrissian first. The Termagants quickly fell over the proud Warriors and the Hive Tyrant started to collect a heavy blood toll, too. However, Parcival stood firm in his decision not to yield a single meter to these creatures and let his Powerfist hammer onto the Hive Tyrant until the creature was no more. Parcival felt the stinking scent of the alien when he gasped for a breath of fresh air and tried to refocus, but in this moment a couple Venators came in and a Trygon dug out of the earth. Parcival played his last ace and called in Assault Squad Vincenzo who shocked down on the surprised Tyranids. Parcival’s and Sergeant Vincenzo’s Powerfists continued to do their ugly work, but a huge blow by the Trygon’s tail finally knocked Parcival off his feet and left him with an intense pain in his chest. He felt the warm comfort of Sanguinius wing’s folding around him and in the corner of his eyes he saw how Vincenzo delivered a last and final blow to the Trygon. And as Parcival’s memory was about to fade away, he heard the familiar beeping sounds of a locator beacon delivering its coordinates to some battleship in orbit…

Bug hunting!

Last night we had another Apocalypse game over at the League of Gentlemen. It’s part of Goldark’s campaign about his hive fleet landing on Imperial planets. Once again, the Tyranids won by a sight margin having Goldark win every single game of the entire campaign!

So, here’s what happened during the Apocalpyse to Parcival’s Blood Angels (click for larger pictures):

The 3rd and 4th Tactical Squad dig in in an old industrial ruin to score on the mission objective hidden there. A deepstriking spore mine can be successfully shot before it does any harm and everything is tight for flanking Genestealers.

In the meantime, Parcival and his Honor Guard are fighting a desperate fight in the trenches along with his tanks and Dreadnoughts plus the support of the Inquisition.

The Death Company is doing what they’re best at – dying! (against a swarm of winged Tyranid Warriors. Me: “Gee, the Death Company is easily going to wipe those Gargoyles! What’s that you say? Those AREN’T Gargoyles???”)

In the meantime, the Deathwing is holding the western flank.

On the northern flank, the Tyranids are closing in!

The Landspeeder is teaching a lesson to the Biovore with the remaining Heavy Bolter: it’s being shot into pieces and decides to flee.

With their retinues dead, Parcival and the Inquisitor still hold the trenches against the masses of bugs.

So does Belial at the western front.

The Tyranids finally charge into the factory and the Blood Angels greet them with waves of Bolter fire. Since this was the last turn of the game, both Tyranids and Blood Angels contested the mission objective.

The Imperium lost against the Tyranids 10:12.

Battle Report: Another BA vs DA (2000 Points)

Intro

Brother Sergeant Standing Wolf stared at the ruins. The Fallen stood stoically with the electrocuffs around his wrists knowing that any attempt to change his fate had become futile. “Avenger, this is Death Wing One, do you copy?” – “Loud and clear, Death Wing One.” – “We are ready to teleport back into orbit with our freight.” – “Negative, Death Wing One, negative. Teleporting is currently not possible because of a solar storm, Brother Techmarine Rondran is adjusting the signal matrix. Please stand by.” – “Aye, we are standing by. Death Wing One over and out.” Standing Wolf had been watching the horizon for the entire conversation with the ship in orbit because he was expecting someone to arrive. And there he saw them. Red shapes bouncing from the earth as if they were human rubber balls. They were the Blood Angels who originally found a trace of the Fallen when he got too imprudent dealing with his stolen artifacts. The Dark Angels managed to sneak into the orbit and trace the Fallen while the Blood Angels were still busy exchanging formalities with the local authorities. Everything would have been perfect and gone unnoticed. This solar storm really happened at the worst possible moment – one could almost think that Chaos was behind this all. Yet Standing Wolf readied his Storm Bolter for the secret of the Chapter had to be kept at all costs. “Please, God Emperor, please don’t let this happen.”

“Capture the Fallen” Scenario

For this game, we played the homebrew scenario “Capture the Fallen”.
The game is being played over the long table edges.
The terrain is a city fight terrain that provides a lot of cover.
The Fallen is being placed with a Death Wing Squad in a bunker in the center of the table. As long as there is at least one Death Wing Terminator in base contact with the Fallen, the Fallen is captured. If the Fallen is free, he walks 2D6 into a random direction in every movement phase.

The Death Wing wins, if they manage to teleport back into orbit before the game runs out.
The Blood Angels win if the Fallen is still on the surface of the planet when the game runs out.

The Death Wing rolls a D6 at the end of its movement phase. The teleport is successful if the rolled dice beats one of the following conditions:

Turn 1: no roll
Turn 2: 6+
Turn 3: 5+
Turn 4: 4+
Turn 5: 3+
Turn 6: 2+
Turn 7: 1+
The Blood Angels may carry a jammer in a vehicle that worsens the Death Wing roll by -1 if it’s within 12 inches of the Fallen.

Army Lists (2’000 points each)

My Blood Angels list:

(all infantry has Jump Packs)
Lord Dante
Chaplain Lemartes

Death Company (10 strong)
2x Veteran Assault Squad VAS (8 strong, Thunderhammer & Stormshield, 2 pairs of Lightning Claws, 2 Flamers)

2x Regular Assault Squad RAS (10 strong, Powerfist, 2 Plasma Pistols)
2x Land Speeder (Multimelta, Assault Canon)

The Death Wing list:

Death Wing Squad (Apothecarius, guarding the Fallen in the bunker)
Land Raider Redeemer with Death Wing Squad and Grey Knight Psychic Johann Kraus
Land Raider Crusader with Death Wing Squad and Captain Belial
3x Venerable Dreadnought

Battle Report

Turn 1:
The DA get to move first. The Land Raider Redeemer and a Venerable Dreadnought are flanking the bunker on the left.
The Land Raider Crusader is flanking the bunker on the right.
The other two Venerable Dreadnoughts move into cover behind the bunker.
The Blood Angels move everything they have towards the bunker. The Death Company is in the center, a Land Speeder on every flank. The Land Speeder on the right flank is in fire range and shoots at the Death Wing Squad in the bunker, but doesn’t do any damage.

Turn 2:
The DA fail their teleport roll.
The missiles of the Death Wing Squad in the bunker manage to shoot the Land Speeder on the right; it explodes. Unfortunately, this Land Speeder also carried the jammer.
The Land Speeder on the left manages to shoot the Land Raider Redeemer with the Multimelta and destroys it.
The Death Company is landing in front of the bunker and is running into the room on 1st floor level (the Death Wing and the Fallen or on the 2nd floor).

Turn 3:
The DA succeed in their teleport roll with a straight 6 on the dice.
The Fallen and the entire Death Wing Squad guarding him are removed from play.
We decide to keep playing, however.
Belial and his Death Wing Squad exit the Land Raider Crusader and charge Lemartes and the Death Company in the bunker. They kill 6 Death Company Marines, but the Death Company is taking 3 Terminators with them on the journey over Hades.
The RAS on the left charges the Venerable Dreadnought, but only inflicts a shaken result.

Turn 4:
Belial and his Terminators continue to kill Death Company Marines.
Grey Knight Johann Kraus assists the Dreadnought on the left against the RAS, but sees himself cut up by their Chainswords.
The Death Wing Squad previously walking with Johann Kraus moves into the bunker to assist Belial.
Dante an his RAS land on the roof of the bunker.
Dantes Inferno Pistols has the Venerable Dreadnought behind the bunker explode.
The RAS on the left manages to destroy the Venerable Dreadnought’s close combat weapon.
The VAS on the left attacks the 2nd Venerable Dreadnought, but only gets a shaken result.
The VAS on the right attacks the Land Raider Crusader, but only gets a shaken result.

Turn 5:
The Death Company is finally being wiped out.
The Land Raider Crusader shoots at the VAS. They fail their morale check and fall back.
The Blood Angels on the left fail their moral checks as well and fall back.
Dante and his RAS descend to the 1st floor of the bunker and attack Belial.
They manage to kill all remaining Terminators except Belial. However, Belial kills Dante in return.

Turn 6:
The Dreadnoughts and the remaining Land Raider Crusader manage to kill all Blood Angels infantry models as they are falling back.
The remaining Land Speeder takes a shot at the Land Raider Crusader, but fails to do any damage.

Turn 7:
The Crusader kills the Land Speeder. The Blood Angels model count is down at 0.

Critical Review

Although it’s pure madness to fight Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts with such a Blood Angels list, it did a lot better than I expected.
After my last game, I wanted to balance my squads better by giving each VAS a Thunderhammer and Powerclaws. Also Dantes Inferno Pistol definitely was worth its points.
In the end, it was one factor that broke my neck: the Death Wing charging my Death Company instead of my Death Company charging them. The Death Company heavily relies on the Furious Charge and the Chaplain’s rerolls.
If I had had Dante and Corbulo nearby whenever I fought Terminators, I would probably have won.
Finally, this game has also shown that it’s pointless to fight Dreadnoughts and Land Raiders in close combat. A sergeant with Powerfist/Thunderhammer is hitting with 2 attacks (more or less) in every turn. This just isn’t good enough to get a lot of rolls on the vehicle damage chart.

Outro

Lord Dante moved with his men towards the bunker. Brother Lemartes and his doomed angels had already slipped into it. Dante was looking forward to finally questioning that shadowy character who may know something about the whereabouts of the Amulet of Sanguinius. Suddenly, the screams of the Death Company changed into some supernatural frenzy. They must really have hit a terrifying enemy. Dante landed on top of the bunker and his reflexes placed a clean shot on the giant standing behind it. He didn’t trust his eyes as he saw that he just fell Brother Dreadnought Bethor and all his honorable insignia. Dante rushed down the stair to the bunker’s first floor where the frenzy suddenly had stopped. There was black and bone colored armor all over the floor. “Belial,” Dante hissed, “what treachery is this?” The answer came back in form of a pair of Lightning Claws digging deep into his armor.

Battle Report: BA vs DA (2000P)

The game is a Dawn of War setup in a Capture and Control mission. The mission objectives are (more or less) diagonally in opposite corners of the table. I want to test what happens when I deep strike everything and let the other player go first.

My list features all airborne Blood Angels:

Lemartes
Mephiston
Death Company (10 strong)
Veteran Assault Squad (3×2 Claws, Flamers) => infantry hunters
Veteran Assault Squad (2 Thunderhammers & Stormshields, Doublefist, Flamers) => tank hunters
2 Assault Squads (Fist, Plasma Pistols)
Land Speeder (Assault Canon)

Semmel-MEHL’s list is something like:

Azrael and Veterans in Land Raider Crusader
2 Tactical Squads in Rhinos (one combat squaded to guard his mission objective)
2 Vindicators
2 Venerable Dreadnoughts (one in Drop Pod)

The game ends in a draw.

Turn 1:
Semmel’s forces roll onto the battlefield.
Parcival keeps everything in reserve.

Turn 2:
Semmel’s forces keep rolling. He’s guarding his mission objective with one Combat Squad, a venerable Dreadnought, and one Vindicator. His Land Raider stays in the center of the table to assist wherever needed. Two Rhinos and one Vindicator are rolling towards my own mission objective.
The Land Speeder, the Veteran Assault Squad (VAS) with Lightning Claws, and one Regular Assault Squad (RAS) arrive from reserve. The Land Speeder suffers a deep strike mishap and is being destroyed. The VAS manage to land in the 10 inches corridor between the bunker with Semmel’s mission objective and the edge of the table. The RAS move in from Parcival’s own table edge to capture his mission objective.

Turn 3:
Semmel tries to defend his mission objective, but the Vindicator’s and the Plasma Canon’s shots scatter off the table. The RAS on Parcival’s mission objective suffers from the other tanks’ fire, but stand their ground.
The second VAS (Thunderhammers) deep strikes near Semmel’s mission objective as well. The first VAS moves onto his mission objective and instantly kills the Combat Squad guarding it. The RAS on Parcival’s mission objective leaves it alone and moves forward to destroy one of the approaching Rhinos.

Turn 4:
Semmel’s first Dreadnought moves into the bunker with his mission objective and kills the VAS. His Vindicator kills all Veterans in the second VAS except for the two hammer bearers. The Combat Squad from the previously destroyed Rhino is walking towards Parcival’s mission objective.
Parcival’s two remaining Veterans with Thunderhammers move into the bunker and finish off the Dreadnought. From this point on, Semmel only has a Vindicator left near his mission objective to contest it. Parcival’s second RAS deep strikes near his own mission objective, the Death Company lands behind the Rhino and Vindicator still advancing towards Parcival’s mission objective. The massed fire of the Death Company’s Bolt Pistols succeeds in disabling the Vindicator’s Demolisher Canon – hurray!

Turn 5:
Semmel’s second Venerable Dreadnought finally arrives in his Drop Pod right behind the Death Company. The Dreadnought’s Heavy Flamer and Assault Canon don’t cause any significant losses, however. The Librarian exits the Land Raider to finish off the last hammer bearer in the bunker, but the hammer bearer kills the Librarian instead. Semmel also decides to move the Land Raider towards Parcival’s mission objective, but it fails it’s dangerous terrain test and stays in the center of the table. The Veterans exit the Land Raider, walk towards Parcival’s mission objective, and manage to shoot the Sergeant of the first RAS who is the last survivor oh his squad. Semmel’s remaining Rhino and the damaged Vindicator move to Parcival’s mission objective to claim it and block the space.
Parcival’s second RAS charges the Dark Angels and the Rhino on his own mission objective, but causes only insignificant losses. The Death Company follows the Vindicator and tries again to make it explode and clear the space, but only scores a shaken result.

Turn 6:
Semmel’s Dreadnought charges the Death Company and manages to kill Mephiston which produces a satisfied smile on Semmel’s face (Mephiston and his Honor Guard coldly killed Sammael in the previous game ). His Veterans keep on moving towards Parcival’s mission objective.
The Death Company continues the close combat with the Dreadnought and manages to shake it and tear off its close combat weapon. The RAS at the mission objective continues to inflict minimal losses on the Dark Angels claiming the mission objective as well.

The dice says that the sixth was also the final turn in the game.

Review:
To a big part, I was just being lucky with my Veterans deepstriking so well. The Veterans on Semmel’s mission objective didn’t let him focus his entire game on my mission objective alone and the time running out didn’t allow him to bring his adapted strategy to full effect. My list and tactic was very risky and the game could have been over in 10 minutes because of numerous deep strike mishaps. On the other hand, if it works, then a small number of Marines can stir up quite some trouble.
My biggest mistake was that I didn’t spread the antitank weapons more between my various squads. The two VAS should have traded one Marine with Thunderhammer with another Marine wearing twin Lightning Claws from the other squad so they can both fight vehicles and infantry better. A big mistake was also that I didn’t know previously that grenades hit a Dreadnought only on a roll of 6+. Meltabombs have no use when they don’t even hit… I just brought Mephiston for fun, but in the future I’ll definitely take Dante and his Inferno Pistol.

A glorious defeat

From Warhammer

Last Saturday’s fun tournament lived up to its promises as it really was fun. In a comfortable setting we played three games, admired each other’s painting style, and looked up rules in case they were not quite clear.

I for my part ranked on place 9 out of 12, so my stats don’t look that good initially. We played three times the Annihilation Mission that gives you one killpoint for every enemy unit that got completely destroyed. Based on killpoints, I won two games and tied the third. However, for the tournament’s ranking victory points were counted (=a destroyed unit’s actual worth) so I quickly fell behind with my expensive Assault Squads.

This tournament was also a great event to get to know people on a national level as they traveled from Basel, Luzern and St. Gallen to Zürich. Most notably I found that the other Blood Angels player from Basel is also a psychologists, so there definitely seems to be a connection.