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So, as I have mentioned before, I am in a build and battle league at my flgs. The first period is just 500 point combat patrol games and my opponent was viature54. He is very new the game and has chosen Dark Angels to be his first army.

This will probably be a short batrep because, well, it was combat patrol.

My list:
5 Sniper Scouts, Missile Launcher, Cloaks
5 Choppy Scouts, Power Fist
2x Land Speeder Storms with Heavy Flamers
5 Sternguard (Heavy Flamer, 2 Combimeltas)

viature54 list:
Chaplain with Storm Bolter (the model is termie armor but he doesn't have it for this game)
Land Speeder Typhoon(multi-melta & cyclone missile launcher)
7 Veterans (3 power weapons, power fist, storm bolter, meltagun, missile launcher) in a rhino

Yeah, before anyone says anything, his list isn't legal by Combat Patrol rules (there is no troops choice) but he is a new player and the league is pretty laid back with most of us focusing more on fun style lists than hard core tourney lists (yeah, I know that the two aren't mutually exclusive but in some people's minds they are and that is the focus of this build and battle).

Okay, so we set up the 4x4 table like this and rolled up a Dawn of War style deployment and he won the roll to determine side/first:



I infiltrated the sniper scouts over in the clump of woods to the right and kept everything else in reserve. I chose to outflank with one of the storms and deepstrike the other.

Aren't they sneaky?



Turn 1
viature54 advances his rhino up the flank of the table, putting the building between my snipers. The typhoon zips from the left flank to behind a copse of woods across from the sniper scouts.

The sniper scouts try to take a bead on the speeder but the cover of darkness is too thick.

Turn 2
His speeder pops out from behind the woods and fires a frag missile into the woods killing one of the scouts.

My storm deep strikes near his typhoon and the heavy flamer knocks out the Dark Angel's engine.

The scouts add their fire and destroy the cyclone missile launcher.



On the other side of the table the other storm comes in behind the rhino and the scouts hop off. The scouts fire their bolters into the rear armor and destroy the storm bolter. The scouts charge in and their power fist wrecks the rhino, the dark angels lose one of their brothers and get out angry.



Turn 3
The chaplain rouses the dark angels fury and they charge into the scouts - the chaplain chops them all down for no loss.



Alas, poor scouts, we hardly knew ya.

The storm that was on the typhoon zips across the table and the other falls back a bit, both opening up flaming death upon the veterans killing a couple (side note - viature54 rolled awful for his saves - I think he failed about 60% of the saves he had to make)

The scouts continue to fire upon the downed speeder, somehow the missile detonates before making contact with the speeder but the sergeants sniper rifle accounts for the surviving crew member.

The Sternguard continue to drink beer at the Crimson Fist's bar or some other equally important task that requires them to be elsewhere.

Turn 4
The dark angels move toward the speeders and the melta blows it up showering the Unforgiven with bits of wreckage which plink harmlessly from their ceramite armor.



The sternguard show up on the left flank and get into storm bolter range but fail to hurt him.

The sniper scouts try to get a bead on the veterans but all save the missile is out of range, but it accounts for another veteran thanks to the inferior technology of the Dark Angels' storm shields (they really need to fix that).

The other storm moves to take a nice flamer opportunity felling another of the veterans.

Turn 5 and 6

Sorry I forgot to take a pic for this turn and turn 6.

The Dark Angels destroy the storm with shooting. The missile launcher misses from the scouts and the sternguard rhino zooms forward behind the building and fires its smoke launchers.

The Dark Angels begin to move back toward the building ruin but don't really have anything to shoot out.

Turn 7

Again, nothing really to shoot at for the Dark Angels. It is last turn and to keep things more interesting the Sternguard rhino blasts through the wall like an A-Team van and doesn't get immobilized.

The sternguard hop out and shoot both combimeltas, the heavy flamer and vengeance round bolters. They cause 1 vengeance round wound (though one of them overheats, killing the sternguard), 2 heavy flamer wounds, and 2 ID wounds from the meltas (they all mocked me when I modeled them with heads that have extra targeters but I knew it would help) and in the end it left the chaplain standing there alone.



The game ended at this point, but just for the hell of it we played out turn 8. The chaplain charged the sternguard and cut them down where they stood.

After Action Review:
I hadn't played combat patrols in quite some time before this game. It was nice that the game was done relatively quickly. The problem ended up being that viature54 had a lot of points in a relatively compact area which limited his options tactically. On the other hand I effectively had 6 separate units to play with. This really allowed me to control the flow of the game.

It is worth mentioning again that he is a really new player but has a great attitude and was fun to play against.

Commendations:
Pretty much everything worked well this game - the sniper rifles even managed both a glance and a pen on vehicles (albeit only speeders). The land speeder storm as a delivery option for assaulty scouts was again a great one, as were the heavy flamers on both of them. The heavy flamer is especially good here as it negates the weakness of BS3. It would be nice if they could take a second weapon - I would happily take both autocannon and heavy flamer.

Condemnation:
The only thing I can even marginally criticize is the fact that my Sternguard didn't show up until turn 4. Space Marines REALLY need something like an Autarch or Astropath. I mean, really, you want to honestly tell me that the IG are better at redeploying reserve elements?

Thanks for reading.

He's too many points for this game, but look up Master Librarian Varro Tigurius. He allows you to re-roll all reserves rolls, successful or not. This allows you much more control over reserve deployment than a simple +1 to the roll. +1 just means they come in faster. A Re-Roll means you get real control over what comes in when.

Yeah, I have played a couple of games with him when I was see what librarian powers I would be using most often. I find if you have access to all of them, you get to see which ones work with your style.

But I had forgotten his reserves roll thing... hmmm... I might have to trade him in for the termie libbie I have, I will double check his rules when I get home. thanks for the tip!