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On a sweltering day, game #4 is on. This is a continuation of the escalation league I'm in, this time against a blood angels player.

THE CHALLENGER: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD.... angels...
1850 pts.

Librarian
- psychic hood, sanguine sword, blood lance, jump pack, etc.

Furioso Librarian
- psychic hood, wings of sanguinius, shield of sanguinius, blood fist, etc.

Furioso Dreadnought
- extra armor, magna grapple, blood talon, etc.

2x sanguinary priests
- jump pack, hand flamer, power weapon, blood chalice, etc.

2x assault squads
- meltaguns, red thirst, power weapon, meltabomb, hand flamer, etc.

vanguard vet squad
- red thirst, heroic intervention, jump packs, power weapons, 2x thunder hammers, fist.

Baal predetor
- smoke, flamestorm/HBs

"Rifleman" Dreadnought
- 2x TL/AC

THE DEFENDER: Foleran First
1850 pts.

I used list 5-1850-a, same as last time.

The mission played was called "convoy". The map has two rhinos moving down a road that crosses the board. The defender needs to defend them. The attacker wins if he blows them up. Bonus points for occupying the rubble. We rolled for pitched battle deployment.

Thank the emperor, I rolled for attacker, as defending rhinos against a drop pod marine list would have been a no-go straight from the start.

At deployment, the field looked like this:



My opponent popped smoke on his predator and fast moved him forward.

TURN 1

Report concerning the action on: 16 Ouros
Daxos Line

The morning of the 16th saw my line taken from its positions for a very important special assignment. According to imperial intelligence, a blood angels company had recently gone rouge. The most traitorous of marines had stolen some items, or perhaps persons, of great value to the imperium over night. Intelligence had found the rhinos they were using to transport the top-secret goods to a location for their flight off-world. I was ordered to set up an ambush with my men to destroy the enemy transports and reclaim the classified cargo.

With great haste, my men and myself were transported to the outskirts of a city through which the enemy was predicted to go. While the hours crept by, the sky began to cloud. I did very much hope that I would not be required to fight in the rain. Such inclimate weather always dampens the spirits of the men. While waiting, I continued to work on a short minuet for lute and pipe that I have been working on for quite some time. It is a saucy ditty that should quite enliven the listener. However, I had little time to put pen to page before I was alerted to the incoming presence of our intended target of assassination.



Unfortunately, the enemy seemed to have anticipated our position, and was suddenly upon my men. I can only blame the line's scouts who failed to alert us earlier while we had more pressing things to attend to.

As if from nowhere, the enemy hurled a demonic flame tank at us. Oh the tragedy!



So, for obvious balance reasons, the defender got to go first. His turn begins with his angry, close combat dread plopping in and his other, empty drop pod landing near my other stuff (his drop pods had some sort of a homing beacon that let him deploy deepstrikers near his drop pods without scatter).

In shooting, his baal predetor does some unkind things to my power blob, but, being a power blob, the unit just sort of shrugs it off.

After this point, the field looked like this:



In return, I throw my human melta wave forward. Lots of running and "go go go"ing. Nothing is in range this turn, but next turn, unless he drops more stuff right on those rhinos, they're toast.

In shooting, my center thicket of meltaguns blows the baal to charcoal before I even get a chance to throw the eviscerator in there. Meanwhile, my three artillery pieces manage to down one of the objective rhinos and shake the other.

After this point, the field looked like this:




TURN 2

Drop pods, most foul! It seemed that my opponent had left reinforcements in the wings in order to prevent my timely extermination of his traitorous cargoes. I swore then and there that he would only stop me over my dead body, and over those of all of my men!

Unfortunately, some of my troops would see that fate earlier than others.



So his turn begins with lots of bad rolling for reserves, bringing in only one of his squads along with the librarian. For whatever reason, he decided to drop them about as far away from the objective as possible.

Over on the right, his librarian rolls a successful lance which kills the manticore, and assorted pistol and hand flamer fire takes down the rest of the squad. Meanwhile, the mortars were massacred by the dreadnought in one way or another.

Otherwise the only damage is his rifleman plinking away a few guys.

After this point, the field looked like this:



My turn begins with the astropath working it's magic again. Rhamael shows up right on time, right on target. With the general advance of the rest of my troops, his lone remaining objective rhino is pretty well screwed.





The grand assault was on. The men ran forward sprightly and eagerly, loud whoops and cries rising through the ranks. Artillery pounded from close range. Charge forth, brave knights of Folera!

In shooting, I get three meltaguns in range of the remaining rhino, which rattle it around with BiD enough to immobilize it. The basilisk then also hits and only manages a weapon destroyed, but as these particular rhinos have no weapons, the vehicle is destroyed. Meanwhile, the left-side manticore hits his scary dread on the right, immobilizing it (good enough).

After this point, the field looked like this:




TURN 3

Turn 3 begins with the rest of his stuff showing up...





Meanwhile, everything else moves left. With his objectives destroyed, and me basically sitting on them, his only hope is to attempt to wipe my army.

This goal is not hampered by the fact that his dudes can assault straight out of deepstriking.



This angers the blob squad, which, characteristically holds, even doing a fair amount of damage in return. Meanwhile, my left side manticore is utterly destroyed by charging powerfists, and my mortars are wiped away by his incoming assault squad from the right.

After this point, the field looked like this:



In return, I rush basically everything onto the objectives. The only serious exception is my basilisk, a melta SWS and a PIS who hang back to kill one of this super-assault squads.

In shooting, my basilisk misses horribly off the board, but meltaguns and FRFSRF lasguns take down a few.

In assault, my power blob finishes off his other super-assault squad and consolidated back towards the objective.

After this point, the field looked like this:




TURN 4

At this point my opponent goes into mega-mop-up-mode. His super-assaulters charge my basilisk while his librarian dread with jump packs flies over towards some of my meltagunners. The rest of his stuff charges in:



Against the dread, my officer with a meltabomb fails to hit, and, tragically, fails to run away, leaving me with 8 meltaguns immediately nearby who can't hose him the next turn.

Likewise, he seriously fails his attack against my CCS, which means that his squad that's next to 3 plasma guns and 3 meltaguns also gets to avoid being shot at next turn (seriously, he charged in with lots of power weapons and furious charge and basically killed nothing).

Meanwhile, the far-away squad is able to pummel down my very hurt blob squad, striking it down with S5 power weapons at I5 before I even get an attack back in.

That and my opponent blows up my basilisk with a power fist.

After this point, the field looked like this:



To my great surprise, the enemy had attacked me, personally. I bravely stood against my attackers and ordered my men into the fight.

Just then, a fainting spell took me over. The world went dark and I fell before my foe. At least I can say with the greatest determination that I fought on to the limits of my constitution. Would that all men be so lucky!

So yeah, I took some casualties. I've got the blob squad hanging out far away, though, which means the odds of him wiping me are pretty low.

I move my special weapons hedge up and spread it out so as to catch his dudes in special weapons carnage. Meanwhile, my infantry squad in the building fails to down a single marine.

In close combat, I figure that he's going to easily be able to crush my meltabomb officer, and thus be able to tie up another meltagun squad without me getting a chance to shoot at him again, so I split my priest off and charged in:



Despite two eviscerator hits, though, luck seriously fails me, and all I manage to do is knock off its close combat weapon.

After this point, the field looked like this:




TURN 5

In his turn, he charges towards my stuff. It is clear here how very, very poorly I had placed my units as he is able to basically multi-charge my entire army...



And has enough power weapon attacks to completely kill off every model before his initiative phase is over.



Crap.

Meanwhile, my eviscerator once again hits but somehow fails to damage the dread.

After this point, the field looked like this:



so his ~12 dudes that get 4 S5 I5 power weapon attacks on the charge... apiece, had managed to do what I had considered impossible. He basically wiped out my army in a single turn. This left me with a single unit on the field (other than my priest), namely, my blob squad.

Now, my blob squads are great, but last turn showed me that what he has left in the area can kill 17 dudes in just his initiative phase on the charge (not even counting preperatory pistol and hand flamer damage). It doesnt' matter if my dudes are stubborn if I have no dudes!

As such, this pretty much left me with one choice. I needed to stop him from furiously charging. This meant charging in myself:



Basically, if I can take half the furious out of his charge, I stand a chance of killing a fair amount of one of his two squads, and then I should be able to survive against just the other half. All I need is for the commissar to survive to give stubborn to the squad and I can hopefully ride this out to an early game finish.



My troops bravely charge in, but are met with utter catastrophe, as almost none of the powersword attacks kill anything, and every one of my fair number of wounds with regular attacks bounces off FNP...

Meanwhile, his dreadnought attacks my priest, who fails a rosarius test. The other dude runs away.

After this point, the field looked like this:



I roll to end the game now, hopefully before it's too late, but I roll a 3. What I wouldn't give for a CCS advisor that lets you add or subtract 1 to game length rolls...


TURN 6

In his turn, he picks off my one remaining fleeing guy with a storm bolter from a drop pod and charges the rest into my blob. His power weapons put down about a dozen of the blob (couldn't roll a 1 to wound...). This meant that I had just few enough guys that I HAD to assign a wound to my commissar.

He failed his armor save.

I promptly conceded.


FINAL RESULTS

I completed both objectives, but he wiped my army for a Blood Angels victory.

So this definitely ended differently than I expected. To be honest, after a day to think about it, I'm still rather bewhildered. Yeah, I had some bad luck (my opponent having alternating miraculous good and bad luck with assaults, etc.), but luck only matters if you are forced to rely on it to win. There are a few things I can definitely say to have gleaned.

- This style of play is foreign to me (this is only the 4th game playing with this type of list), and some of my fieldcraft is still off. For example, the fact that I'm still not yet quite certain how to use SWSs was made painfully clear in this game. All the more true given that I'm unused to playing against all-jetpack armies.

- My opponent was clearly a veteran player who had a HARD list, and he really knew how to use it. Meanwhile, it was a stretch for me to get to 1500, and a much more serious stretch to pull it up to 1850 for this league, and it's a list I had little experience with. A part of what happened was me simply getting outplayed by a better list. Hopefully I'll be able to improve my force over time and learn how to use it better.

- Also, I sort of let my eye off the ball after I "won" the game early on. I assumed that there wasn't an army out there that was able to destroy my entire force in just two turns, and so I didn't move well enough to prevent just this. Meanwhile, my opponent carefully approached his objective of wiping my list, which I wasn't in a strategic mindset to stop.

MVP: The left side manticore. Not only did it blow up one of the rhinos, but it also stopped the only single unit he had that could wipe out a full-strength blob squad.

Hero of the Game: This goes to my outflanking blob squad. CHAAAAAAARGE!!!

Some point later in the evening, I awoke from my condition in a medicae, in the very image of health itself. It was here that I learned of the untimely demise of the rest of my men. Brave fighters to the last.

I took a moment to compose a dirge in their honor.

Fighting men of Folera proud,
Spirits high, and shouting loud,
My bosom swells for you with pride,
Even though you all horribly died.

In grateful service,

Sir Daxos P. Clinton III - KAP, EKS, ICM - Foleran Armies in his Majesty's Royal Dictate.
Blood Conquers All

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed game 4. Stay tuned next week for game 5!

interesting report... i also play horde guard (you can check out my gallery for what i run at 2500pts... pretty much all you see there) and i'm deathly afraid of playing them against blood angels (also an army i have) as they seem to be the perfect counter to them. the BA ability to deep strike reliably without deviating on turn two is huge and completely screws horde foot guard's plan of shooting them as they come in. basically, you get one turn before all hell breaks loose (possibly two if the BA player doesn't have flamers). one counter i've thought up for this is to have one or two blob squads with maxed out power weapons and a priest in front of a straken command squad. with furious charge from straken and preferred enemy from the priest, you can actually take out a full tact squad with average rolls when you charge since you're going at their initiative. the other is to sprinkle demo charges liberally throughout the army to discourage deepstrikers; if they deep strike near your lines, they'll have to at least make a choice between firing (and keeping those tight DS formations) or running to spread out. a SWS of 2 flamers and a demo charge can do loads of damage to even terminator squads. i generally field every vet squad with a demo and used to run my two SWS with them also (i ran out of models when i converted more vets over the past month... i use the medic models for demo charges).

edit: oh, and since your opponent was rebelling against the rightful rule of the emperor (and i play a BA successor chapter), i'd like to point out that his guys were painted as flesh tearers and not BA. they're the relative you don't tell your friends about!

warboss wrote:one counter i've thought up for this is to have one or two blob squads with maxed out power weapons and a priest in front of a straken command squad.

So the countercharge+furious charge is nice, but not necessary if I can get the charge in (and if I don't then their furious charge > my furious charge). Plus, he's awfully expensive.

I think my power blobs have the potential, as the center one showed. I think my poor preformance with my other one had to do with me splitting the priest off when I should have kept him on, and from the fact that I wasn't able to get a charge in on his other squad (who was able to get the charge in on me).

I think I have the tools, it's just I used them wrong in this case.

warboss wrote:the other is to sprinkle demo charges liberally throughout the army to discourage deepstrikers;

Yeah, I was actually thinking of upgrading some melta SWSs into demo SWSs. My list needs to be up-powered a little bit. For example, while the mortars were nice for last game, they did absolute jack in this one, and not ALL that much in the wone before. I'm thinking of dropping them for another power blob upgrade (which trades good against light infantry for good against light infantry and space marines). Also, I'm considering dropping one of the manticores down to a basilik to free up more points for weapons elsewhere (like more demo charges).

But yeah, I've only lost to space marines 4 times in my entire playing career. One was the first time I faced against drop pods, the second time was the first time I'd played against drop pods (or at all) for quite some time (game 1), and the other two have been against blood angels. This guy's list was especially well put together, and he really, really knew how to use it. A scary thing indeed.

Ailaros wrote:So the countercharge+furious charge is nice, but not necessary if I can get the charge in (and if I don't then their furious charge > my furious charge). Plus, he's awfully expensive.

he is but he seems worth it (only used him once so far). you getting the charge helps but not too much in the sense that the marines will still go first at initiative 4; with FC and preferred enemy, you'll regularly beat them down if you charge (even without power weapons). 30 guardsmen blobbed up with a priest and commissar (no power weapons) statistically kill 10 marines after saves with that combo. even with counter attack, you stand a chance of at least giving them a black eye when they charge you. in the end, to each his own. also, don't forget that straken himself is pretty beast in close combat with 5 str6 power weapon attacks at ws5 (but initiative 3).

I'm not saying that straken is BAD, by no means. I'm just saying I can't find the points for him at the moment. By that I mean that he seems a little bit redundant at the moment as rerolling S3 powerswords already do a lot of damage to marines. As for the initiative thing, that's what I have all the bodies wrapped around the hidden power weapons for.

I mean, having S4 I4 powerweapons on guard would be fantastic, but I'm just not completely sold. Actually, I think it's because of Al'Rahem. Straken only works with nearby squads, and 1 of my troops choices is coming onto the board way far away from my CCS. This means that I'm only deploying two squads. In order to get good field coverage, this means that I'd be taking straken to give FC to just a single troops choice. If instead of al'rahem, I spent the points to give my blobs 10 extra points to improve their foot-slogging durability in replacement for their lack of mobility, then we'd be talking about giving FC to two 30-dude squads instead of one 20-dude squad.

Also, there is something else I'm starting to pick up on now. Him deepstriking so far away from the objectives didn't make sense to me at the time, but that's because I'm used to thinking about things by position, which wasn't a factor against his army.

By this, I mean that a regular army couldn't have possibly made it across the board from the exact diagonal opposite corner over the course of a couple of turns. Likewise, I positioned my troops in such a way where a regular army couldn't have possibly multicharged everything at the end. I spread my troops out across the board for the purpose of spreading his troops across the board. I was fighting by space.

But the fact that his entire army was basically equipped with free skimmer transportation (including a dreadnought, loltastic) not only made this irrelavent, but it actually also made it dangerous. My opponent was able to clear huge distances in very short periods of time, making my distance strategy useless (and screw up my special weapons positioning). More importantly, it let him pick off squad after unsupported squad.

Normally, this is just fine. I mean, I was basically throwing meat into the grinder to slow him down under the understanding that it would slow him down so much that he couldnt' possibly make it to my power blob in the other corner. Not so with jetpack S5 infantry with powerweapons to the teeth.

I think the better thing would have been a much more counterintuitive castling up of everything. He still would have gotten multicharges in, but I would have been able to support all of my units with all my other units. Really, it's killing power that you need against these guys, instead of time and space - something which I really didn't understand, much less appreciate.

Y'know, only one squad, the vanguard veterans, can deepstrike and then assault. Anything else did so, your opponent was either very conveniently mistaken, or decided he needed to twist the rules to get back in the game.

That is one of the worst missions I've ever seen. It was simply decided by one roll of the dice. Any army should be capable of taking down two rhinos, so that leaves the opponent with one choice, tabling. I'm amazed that he actually won this mission.

Still, very nice report as usual, can't blame you for the poor mission, and at least your opponent made the battle exciting again

I agree. This is one of the lamest missions I've seen. How hard is it to destroy 2 rhinos? Defender is boned. Kudos to your opponent for the massacre against a very stubborn and fairly tough IG list. Then again, the only real way to play assaulty BA is to go for the table. Because they hit harder than Khorne beserkers and shoot just as badly as them. At least they've got the mobility and meltas that their counterparts don't have.

On a more positive note, I really like your batreps. The photos are clear and the diagrams/notes make it very easy to understand. Interspersed with some fluff, it makes for a very entertaining read. Thanks, and keep the batreps coming.

Thanks, will do.

I-bounty-hunt-the-elderly wrote:Y'know, only one squad, the vanguard veterans, can deepstrike and then assault. Anything else did so, your opponent was either very conveniently mistaken, or decided he needed to twist the rules to get back in the game.

He combat squadded them. I could have made that more clear.

Illumini wrote:That is one of the worst missions I've ever seen.

jy2 wrote:I agree. This is one of the lamest missions I've seen. How hard is it to destroy 2 rhinos? Defender is boned. Kudos to your opponent for the massacre against a very stubborn and fairly tough IG list. Then again, the only real way to play assaulty BA is to go for the table.

Yeah, I had heard of this mission last week and immediately thought that whoever was the defender was screwed straight away.

You know, I hadn't thought of that, though. Even in regular objectives missions, BA would have a really hard time. They only work when you pop up next to your opponent's stuff and start hacking away. Having to sit a squad of assault marines on an objective would compromise a serious part of his army.

As such, yeah, I guess I'd agree that BA don't exist to play missions - they exist to go for the wipe every game and hopefully pick up some other stuff if they don't.

Ailaros wrote:You know, I hadn't thought of that, though. Even in regular objectives missions, BA would have a really hard time. They only work when you pop up next to your opponent's stuff and start hacking away. Having to sit a squad of assault marines on an objective would compromise a serious part of his army.

As such, yeah, I guess I'd agree that BA don't exist to play missions - they exist to go for the wipe every game and hopefully pick up some other stuff if they don't.

they don't technically hold objectives any worse than other marine armies... it's just that having assault squads as troops makes rushing forward to charge quite tempting. they have the same workhorse tactical squads that every marine army use for that purpose as well as the scout squads but it generally suits the aggressive player more if they take assault squads for troops choices. personally, i plan on using one of them to hold my objective while the assault squads go after my opponents.

Illumini wrote:That is one of the worst missions I've ever seen. It was simply decided by one roll of the dice. Any army should be capable of taking down two rhinos, so that leaves the opponent with one choice, tabling. I'm amazed that he actually won this mission.

Still, very nice report as usual, can't blame you for the poor mission, and at least your opponent made the battle exciting again

Was using my old DC models as Vanguard Vets... Full squad, fully tooled out, comes in ~ 500 points...

Not a great mission for either of us, both armies could destroy a pair of Rhinos pretty much at will, so I basically deployed for the only chance of winning, on the technicallity of being the only ones left...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Yes, playing BA (Fleshtearers, if I ever get the rest painted up, etc...), we have a very difficult time holding objectives. Really, only the Scout squad I sometimes bring can sit on an objective, with a Medic nearby, FnP rolls and cover saves mean we might even survive... Until someone remembers to hit them with a heavy flamer or any of the "no cover" weapons... DC can never hold an objective, and Assault squads only do one thing really well. Sitting still isn't it. Now, taking an objective? No problem... It's the "hold it" part we can't do. My Wolves do that quite well....

Honestly, I feared this army the most... I suspected you'd deploy the Artillery and keep enough bodies around to deny me the ability to put a drop pod anywhere near. I sent my Librarian and one assault squad off to deal with the far Manticore and then hopefully sweep through your back lines. You had the Artillery deployed pretty far apart, so it did take some risky moves to get them. Have to admit, the mortars are "eh" against Marines, and useless against Wolves or BA... With Autocannon you'd have had decent shots against the DN's at least.

The sheer number of meltas in the list meant I'd either get off a jump pack assault or simply get shot to pieces. Not sure if you had more melta guns than I had troops, but it sure looked that way from my side of the table :-) My "big scary" Furioso got itself immobilized early, and lacking mechanics, that was every bit as good as a kill. Pretty typical for him though. My DC DN does sometimes make it to combat and destroys the squad he hits, then dies on the spot to the counter fire... Plasma rifles as a special support squad might also be nice, sitting still for the 24" range?

I think if you'd have simply spread out more, I never would have caught the bulk of your force in time... As it was, I still needed a few lucky rolls. Not sure if I4 power weapons would help you if I get the charge... With furious charge, all of my folks are at least I5, and power weapon or no, the Guard don't have very good saves. Now, if you charge, it's simultaneous and your lads would do much better... Just hard to get that charge off...

warboss wrote:they don't technically hold objectives any worse than other marine armies... it's just that having assault squads as troops makes rushing forward to charge quite tempting. they have the same workhorse tactical squads that every marine army use for that purpose as well as the scout squads...

pchappel wrote:Was using my old DC models as Vanguard Vets... Full squad, fully tooled out, comes in ~ 500 points...

Yes, playing BA (Fleshtearers, if I ever get the rest painted up, etc...), we have a very difficult time holding objectives.

Right, this is the thing. If he would have brought some non-scary tac squads, there's no way he could have tabled me. But with only scary squads, you'd have to waste a LOT of points on dudes that don't hold objectives any better than regular squads can do for a fraction of the points, all while taking critical momentum away from the charge.

pchappel wrote:I suspected you'd deploy the Artillery and keep enough bodies around to deny me the ability to put a drop pod anywhere near. I sent my Librarian and one assault squad off to deal with the far Manticore and then hopefully sweep through your back lines. You had the Artillery deployed pretty far apart, so it did take some risky moves to get them.

The thing is that guard artillery are overfeared. With the exception of the basilisk, none of my ranged weapons were really going to do anything to your infantry. I really only take them to blow up vehicles (which, as you saw, they do quite well).

My anti-marine stuff comes through my special weapons and my power blobs...

pchappel wrote:The sheer number of meltas in the list meant I'd either get off a jump pack assault or simply get shot to pieces. Not sure if you had more melta guns than I had troops, but it sure looked that way from my side of the table... Plasma rifles as a special support squad might also be nice, sitting still for the 24" range? I think if you'd have simply spread out more, I never would have caught the bulk of your force in time... Now, if you charge, it's simultaneous and your lads would do much better...

... which I clearly failed to use properly.

If I could have actually SHOT some of my special weapons, or if I could have gotten the charge in more appropriately, I would have done much, much better. As it was, I didn't. These kinds of mistakes don't fly against such a well-trained veteran with such a no-nonsense list.

I'm not certain that spreading out would have necessarily been better, though, as jetpack infantry are fast enough to not care about me spreading out. I think I would have done better if I would have moved in such a way to control what you multicharged and when, rather than hoping that you'd never be able to get a multicharge off at all. You seemed too well-versed with moving your fast infantry, but perhaps that's just a misunderstanding on my part.

:-) My jump troops are the reason I play my FT's.... Used to fall out of aircraft myself, while I do NOT miss that, I do like playing the army... And I'm pretty familiar with Assault based armies...

I think I had 2 squads (with 3 extra IC's) able to engage your entire line with that Platoon you brought in, so 3-4 squads?... Having them deployed more of an "in depth" fashion with a mobile reserve to hit any combat that you can bog me down in, or simply shoot it out of existence if I do kill them... Having to maintain coherency means that if you had a 3-4" space between the ranks of Infantry it would have taken me several turns to clear them. Also, keeping them a bit closer together (within their own squads) would have made a slight difference with the hand flamers, but since I can only charge what I shot at, notice my lads only shot the turn they came into play (when the regulars could not assault)...

Do have to admit, it was a hard game... That is my "A Game" list, the Mech list I played the two weeks previously would have died horribly. I think by now I've experimented and tried everything in the book except the Storm Raven, don't think I need to test that to see it's going to be very powerful, probably a bit on the broken side...

:-) Also inspired me to dig out my ancient Praetorians, though I'm not sure I have a "currently legal" force, especially with heavy weapons now on the big (60mm?) bases...

Ailaros wrote:

I-bounty-hunt-the-elderly wrote:Y'know, only one squad, the vanguard veterans, can deepstrike and then assault. Anything else did so, your opponent was either very conveniently mistaken, or decided he needed to twist the rules to get back in the game.

He combat squadded them. I could have made that more clear.

Whoops, my mistake. That'll teach me to jump to conclusions . . .

seemed like a fun battle fun to read! One thing about the objs. was, i thought they died to easily, if they were so important you would think they would of been in a LR or upgraded AV for the rhinos just to make them a bit tougher to kill, IMO they died to soon.

The Rhinos were provided as part of the scenario, unarmed but with 3 smoke launchers... So, no real choice on either side... And since either of our armies could kill them, smoke or no, pretty much at will I ignored them, more or less... Forgot the smoke on turn one, but doubt it would have mattered really.

Yeah, trying to do static defense of some flimsey transports with a drop pod blood angels army would have been an exercise in folly. They were goners once my first manticore hit the table, regardless of anything you could have done.

I think it's a clear demonstration of how quickly missions can get unbalanced. Highly fluffy, sure, but there are some armies that would have no way of winning this mission.