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I'm needing some practice with my little 1000 point list for Adepticon. My Mantis Warriors which are being run as Blood Angels. My opponent (my 8-year old "Thing 2") is running his Tyranids in an attempt to discover the key to victory.


Mantis Warriors: 1000 pts (BA)

HQ: Captain Tycho
EL: 8x Sternguard - 5 combi-meltas, melta, hvy flamer, srg w/ PF & combi-melta
EL: Sanguinary Priest - PW, hand flamer
Troop: 5x Assault Marines - flamer, srg w/ PW, infernus pistol
Troop: 5x Assault Marines - flamer, srg w/ PW, infernus pistol
Hvy: Vindicator - dozer blade



Tyranids: ~1200 pts

HQ: Tyrant - bone sword & lash whip, heavy venom cannon, paryoxism, leech essence
Elite: 2x Zoanthrope in spore
Troop: Tervigon - catalyst
Troop: Termigants (14) - devourers
Troop: Gene Stealers (10) + Brood Lord
FA: Spore Mines (3)
Hvy: Trygon Prime

Decided that I'm going to start giving Thing 2 some extra points to play with to help him be successful. The spore mines (we're using the FW figs as they're much cooler) are just for fun.




Deployment:

Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Pitched Battle



I win the roll off and have him go first. Not knowing where I'm going to go, he deploys his three monstrous creatures and his Termigants across the board. I deploy in the center behind cover... Vindi flanked by the two assault squads. The green line is an energy barrier that blocks shooting but can be moved through with no problem.

Infiltration: The Gene Stealers find a nice hiding place behind some storage tanks.



Tyranid Turn 1

The Tyranids move forward aggressively, the Stealers play it smart and hang back for a turn letting the rest of the army move up. (He usually charges them forward and they end up getting shot up early. As this squad is smaler, he's playing it a little more cautiously.



Mantis Warriors Turn 1

So.... assaulting this army is suicide, and I don't really have that shooty of an army. If he'd stayed spread out and stranded a monstrous creature by itself, I may have tried to jump in with my sternguard... but everything is well supported so that's out. I decide to mimic yesterday's strategy and go student body left.. using my mobility and one pie plate to let me pick my battles and wear him down. The Tyrants exceptionally speedy move (12") facilitates this by really opening up the left flank. The pod lands pretty much where I want it and for the second game in a row... the sternguard run a whoppig 1" on deployment. A giant ferile beast, suspected of laying waste to the imperial city around it... lies down and deflects a Vindicator shot intended for the termigants into the Tyrant... scoring a wound! Hey... whatever works.






Tyranids Turn 2

The chase is on! Unfortunately the Trygon is bloody fast and manages to catch the Vindi... even through the wall. Amazingly he fails to hurt it in assault... which pretty much sets my strategy for the rest of the game. He rolls on this spore mine group... now... these should have come down right after deployment... but I messed up the rules. Anway, it worked pretty good for him. He was trying to help seal off the flank with them, instead they deviated right into my sternguard, killing 2!



Swing and a miss!


Strike two!



Mantis Warriors Turn 2

As one the Mantis Warriors decide to get the hell outta Dodge. Shot from the Vindi lands (mostly) on target and wipes out most of a the devourer-armed termigant squad (thankfully). Clearly the presence of Felis giganticus subspecies darwinii was affecting the marine gunner's ability to aim.




Tyranids Turn 3

The onrushing tide of gibbering nid-flesh continues onward. The zoanthrope's spore drops on target and the emerge to seal off the flank. A shot from the Tyrant's heavy venom cannon takes out another sternguard and the zoey's shoot OVER the energy barrier and take out one of the assault marines. The Trygon Prime bum rushes the Vindi again, but now that I'm moving 12" per turn, the odds are against him. (indeed, Thing 2 was having terrible dice rolls with his Trygon)




Mantis Warriors Turn 3

Everyone leaps 12" to the left, save the sternguard who are going to try and take out the Tyrant as they've had quite enough of S9 blast markers... they only manage 1 wound however and are now in peril of being assaulted. Assault squad #2 (far left) leaps the energy fence and between mini-melta, flamer fire and assault frag both Zoanthropes. Assault squad #1 advances to the fence in order to protect themselves from fire from the spore. The Vindi tries to pie-plate the last of the devourer-armed termigants but the shot deviates as the feline menace briefly appears in the field of fire. (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)




Tyranids Turn 4

Shooting kills yet another of the sternguard, while the Trygon assaults and rips the storm bolter off the drop pod. The spore shoots at Assault Squad #1 but the shots fail to score a killing wound.




Mantis Warriors Turn 4

Everyone moves left... except for Assault Squad #1 which joins their brothers in obliterating the myotic spore with flame and melta fire. The Vindicator lands another direct hit on a spawned termigant squad, killing all but 2 of the little buggers. The sternguard head for the hills in the face of the Tryanid onslaught.




Tyranids Turn 5

The surviving termigants scramble into the cover of the ruins while the rest of the army moves forward. The Trygon finishes off the pod for an easy KP, and the Tyrant *finally* gets his quarry into hand-to-hand... killing 2 sternguard. I elect to voluntarily fall back... figuring I'd get out of range and then re-group and fire my next turn... however I only roll 4" and it looks like 3 KP will be falling back off the board for the rest of the battle.




Mantis Warriors 5

Desperate... I'm down 4KP to 2KP with the potential final turn looming. My commanders fall back, and everything else beats feet to the left. All except Assault Squad #1 which makes a last desperate effort to snag some cheap KPs. They leap the the edge of the ruin and hose down the remnants of the two termigant squads within... then successfully charge them, mopping up the survivors. The Vindi... to prove a point... lands another perfect shot on an advancing termigant unit.. blasting most of them to tiny pieces.



Desperate times call for desperate measures:



My son rolls the die and our fate is determined....



GAME OVER!


Score:
Mantis Warriors: 4 Kill Points
Doom Eagles: 4 Kill Points

Victory Nobody! (Draw)


Another fun little battle, this time with my youngest son. I've been trying over these last two games to come up with alternate ideas for using my Sternguard rather than just dropping them into the suck in turn one and watching my most expensive unit get annihilated soon thereafter. I don't know how successful this was as they didn't really accomplish anything... but wow... the rest of the army worked pretty darn well. Has me thinking about alternate builds now that focus on what's working best... but that's for future armies. I am seriously considering switching out Tycho for Astorath (sp?) though. Blood rage on a 3- is huge for both me and my team mate... and having 4 kill points concentrated in that one squad + drop pod could really be a disadvantage. It'll cost me though (list-wise)... have to put some thought into it. The little one did great. Stuck through it even when things weren't going well. Tried to cut me off several times but things just didn't gel for him and my Vindicator fire was deadly. I need to paint up his Hive Guard... he really needs those S8 shots to be able to deal with any Mech.

Had the game gone one more turn I think he could have mopped up on the squad in the ruins and won!

Thanks for reading!

Cool game, and well done units!

I fell apart when I scrolled down into the cat. The Maddenesque play doodles put it over the top.

I am over the moon man. Between the paintjobs, the cute armies, you're giving the lad a handicap and the darned cat, I gotta say this has made an evening otherwise full of paperwork and editing.

Good show!

I'll admit it, I lol'd when I saw the cat.
Nice battle report, I actually liked the arrows showing what had moved how. Hopefully your son sticks with the hobby, could be a fun father/son thing for years to come!

"The assault squad moves over here and then.... (waves hands)... BOOM!"

(my best John Madden impersonation... in type)

Glad you like it guys. They're a lot of work to put together, but the comments make it all worth it.

love the cat, most adorable

A nitpick, as this is tournament prep: Why could the Sternguard voluntarily fall back? Blood Angels don't have Combat Tactics, and I'm not aware of Tycho having any sort of special rule that would allow it either.

That would be an error on my part... I'm used to playing my MW as vanilla marines and I had a brain fart. Good catch MrE.

You mentioned that you'll be playing in a tournament; are you open to constructive criticism on the list? It looks like you're just starting running a BA army.

I am MrE... but with the tournament looming I'm not sure how many changes I can make.

That being said... I would love some good advice on how to improve the list... if for no other reason than to help me become a better player.

Good batrep, i guess the youngling will still be waiting on a victory lol

Yep. He got close yesterday... but we drew. We keep rolling the game ending in turn 5. If they'd go longer I think he'd have some victories.

Great report. I enjoyed it. Thanks for taken the trouble to add all the blastmarks and action lines. I was giving some thought to your army. I built it using AB and it came out to 975. Did you forget to post some other equpment? Anyway using your posted list I fiddeled around and came up with this.

HQ:
Chapter Master Seth

Elite:
Sang Priest, powerweapon
Sternguard x8, 3x combimeltas, metagun, heavy flamer, Sarge, PF, combimelta, Droppod

Troop:
5x Assault squad, flamer, sarge, infernus pistol, PW
5x Assault squad, flamer, sarge, infernus pistol, PW

Fast:
Landspeeder, mutimelta

Heavy:
Vindicator, dozerblade

Thats 1000 points on the nose.

So you lose a couple of comi melta shots and a handflamer shot. from the Sternguard and Priest. Tyco is really just a sternguard with a special PW. His biggest loss removing him from the army is the bonus LD. But they are marines so its not a Huge loss. On the other hand Seth is a CC monster and I think would really benifit your sternguard when they get the charge off. The land speeder even though its fragile can be a real nusance if you drop it in your opponents back feild. plus it adds another heavy weapon to your army (witch dosent hurt especialy since its fast).

Just my two cents.. Plus I think you could convert a Seth pretty easy since he just needs a iron halo and a Biggy chainsword. The question is do you have a base level landspeeder?

I like where you went with the list Nicor.... and truth be told my version has changed a bit since the batrep. I haven't tried Seth but I'll definitely look into him... I've always been jealous of those folks who've had a real cc dynamo for an HQ. My tweak was also the realization that while Tycho was very fluffy, he wasn't very functional... so I switched him, the hand flamer & a combi-weapon for a stock libby and another sanguinary priest w/PW. The priest has a jump pack so he can run with the assault squads and the libby has wings of sanguinus as one of his powers so he can deploy with an assault squad if he wants to. This makes the list more flexible, gives me some anti-psycher defense and two FNP bubbles. A significant improvement.

My only issue with your list is, as you so adroitly mention.. the land speeder. I actually have 2 painted but they're 10-15 years old and not up to my current standard. Not sure I have time with my other responsibilities for the team to completely re-paint a vehicle and occupants.

I'll experiment with it though... the BA dex is surely a fun one to use and it matches my playing style well. When I first started discussing what I wanted to to with my MW a lot of people suggested the BA dex but I didn't want to be seen as dex-hopping for advantage. Thinking that might have been a mistake as it really is a good fit with what I wanted to do from the start.

Thanks again for the effort you put into this... I really appreciate it.

Honestly I thinhk Tyco would function much better as a Sarge upgrade for a Sternguard squad than an army leader. Just take away the army wide LD boost and drop his points down to a reasonable level.

I like the sound of the Libby and extra Sang Priest.

I completely understand about time managment, obligations and Hobby. Hell I have tons of time and still cant get my butt motivated to build this new army.

Funny you mention that about Tycho. I was planning on finishing him and using him as a sternguard sergeant when I wasn't running him as the commander.

Still, I appreciate your help Nicorex, I'm just up against it with Adpeticon in less than two weeks and I still have obligations for the team as a whole. I'm very comfortable where I am right now, but if I added a significant load at this point I think I'd be stressing big time... and I really want to relax and enjoy the event this year.

Seth is not a combat monster.
Many people get this wrong
Despite being S8 and Rending, not ignoring armour really limits his combat prowess. Lets face it, you're almost always going to be facing marines, which means 3+ or 2+ saves. Relying on rending to kill stuff doesn't work
WHat Seth is good at is tank hunting and dreadnought hunting
Particularly Dreadnought hunting
Having essentially a chain fist at I5 against dreadnoughts and other walkers is a death sentence
If you really want a combat monster take a librarian with sword of sanguinius, preferably in terminator armour with a storm shield. He will do infinitely better in combat than Seth does. Use Seth to hunt vehicles
Seth, btw, is particularly good at killing fast Eldar vehicles. Run up to a tank that you would normally need 6s to hit, use his Whirlwind of gore special rule to land 1 automatic hit, then chain fist his rear armour


Automatically Appended Next Post:
also, do not charge your stern guard. Sternguard are for shooting. At 25 points a pop, 30 if you give them combis, they are wasted in combat.

I learned last year that sternguard are just too fragile to be run in small groups. A squad of 9 or 10 though has enough sustainability to be a real PITA... as you'll see in my next battle report (whenever I get to it). Helps if the dice are blessed too. I only dropped one combi-weapon from the squad so they still have plenty of fire power.

I'd figured "Wings" and either "Sword" or "Blood Lance". Debating which of the two powers would be the most useful in the long run.

Nice batrep. I can't wait for my eldest to get old enough to take up our beloved hobby.

I think your army looks great.

At 1000 points, you want a list that's really focused, in my opinion. Since it's really hard to cover all possible target types, at least for most armies, overloading with one particular kind of threat should work pretty well. I like the idea of a Jump Infantry based army at 1000, as everyone will be prepared for vehicles, but likely not MEQ FNP armies with good mobility.

So, maybe something like this:

HQ: Librarian with Jump Pack, Unleash Rage, and Shield 125
EL: 2 Sanguinary Priests with JPs 150
TR: 10 Assault Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Power Fist, Infernus Pistol 250
TR: 10 Assault Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Power Fist, Infernus Pistol 250
TR: 10 Assault Marines, 2 Flamers, Lightning Claw, Hand Flamer 225

It's short-ranged, but your current army is short ranged, and this army is more mobile and nearly doubles the model count. You lose the Vindicator, but it isn't reliable and gives the enemy a target for anti-vehicle weapons. The Librarian will do more damage than Tycho will, since he buffs a squad, plus you get Shield and a Hood to provide some defence. Finally, you lose the Sternguard, but you gain a lot of S5 I5 attacks. You do lose 2 Melta shots, but none of the remaining ones are one-shot.

It seems like the main obstacle is lacking the models, but this might be a goal for the future.

By the way, I love how the current army looks (well, the painted parts, anyway). I especially love the Jump Packs.

Thanks for the suggestions MrE... I'm not quite sure how my army got where it is... it isn't what I intended to build... but for this year I'll have to run with it. Switching out Tycho for the extra apoth & the libby was a good choice, but for now the sternguard and Vindi will have to stay.

I really like the army you suggest & I also the way the jump pack models look. I'd love a full-on jump pack force... just a little put off by what it would take to build and paint it all. I'm not exactly fast. That being said... it's a cool idea and might be on the table for next year. Especially if I can get say... 5-10 more assault marines done between now and then.

Where is the S5 I5 coming from? Unleash Rage?

Gitsplitta wrote:Thanks for the suggestions MrE... I'm not quite sure how my army got where it is... it isn't what I intended to build... but for this year I'll have to run with it. Switching out Tycho for the extra apoth & the libby was a good choice, but for now the sternguard and Vindi will have to stay.

I really like the army you suggest & I also the way the jump pack models look. I'd love a full-on jump pack force... just a little put off by what it would take to build and paint it all. I'm not exactly fast. That being said... it's a cool idea and might be on the table for next year. Especially if I can get say... 5-10 more assault marines done between now and then.

Where is the S5 I5 coming from? Unleash Rage?

Furious charge! Don't tell me you've forgotten!

I do worry about your vindicator, I guess it probably eats a lot of fire early on that cannot be pointed at rhinos. I guess that isn't so bad as you don't have many great targets for an auto cannon anyhow. I also worry about how little of your units are being useful every turn. Has your drop and assault squad timing together been working out mostly? Also you have a lot of assault and dedicated short ranged fire, do you find you have to make any tough choices regarding that? Have your assault squads been able to handle themselves well at so few men?

Hey Lucre!

Keep in mind that mine is only half of the army that will be on the table. Each of my 3 potential teammates also has vehicles and some also have podded troops. So in a tournament scenario, the vindi will only be part of the vehicle equation.

The timing is a little problematic as the pod has to come down first thing turn 1, however... in the practice games I've done so far that hasn't really been an issue. I've played the sternguard for well over a year now in a vanilla marine version of this list and have gotten pretty adept at getting them into positions where they can have some impact. Not always of course, but more often than not. In a vanilla list I run them with a libby with gate as it allows me to re-deploy them after the drop, unfortunately the BA don't have this option. I don't as a matter of course DS in my assault squads... too risky at their size. Getting them on the table and mobile has been effective and I've been really surprised as to how bloody useful those little squads can be... and at their size they're easy to hide too. So to answer your question... yes, the assault squads have proven to be far more useful and resilient than I thought they would be.

As to the Furious Charge... that only comes with Red Thrist right? That's a 1-in-6 chance... not much to depend on.

Lack of long range fire-power is an issue... but so was having no S10 weaponry, especially with the likely popularity of GK armies in the tournament. So I opted for speed and a pod to compensate for my lack of range.

DOOM KITTY IS BACK

haha it was good to see him again! Great battle report yet again. The kid almost had you that time

Keep it up! look forward to more to come and to see the DOOM KITTY enter yet another battle for control of the Galaxy

Yes, well... we can't have a battle without Darwin getting booted off the table several times in the process. He just need to get better at picking spots we're not fighting in.

Sanguinary Priests give Furious Charge and Feel No Pain.

In an infantry based BA list, don't leave home without them. For mech lists, they're a solid option but not mandatory in my opinion.

I'm going to have to start paying you for all this free advice.

Dang it MrE.... now I'm all worked up over finishing a bunch more assault marines... I HAVE OTHER THINGS I NEED TO PAINT!

... dagnabbit....

I like how you used the line that blocked shooting, but can be moved through with no problem. I may try using that in my next game.

Oh, well... just something I made up on the fly. Consider it the energy field equivalent of a Nutonian fluid... if you remember that from physics class.