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A friend wanted to try out the BA List he's thinking about taking to BoLSCon and asked me to bring something tough at 2k. So I decided to take a break from the Necrons and pull my daemons out, but tweak them around a little to add some more assault capability.

The Blood Angels (13kp)
HQ
Librarian w/ jump pack

Elite
1 Sanguinary Priest w/ power weapon (joins the plasma devastators)
1 Sanguinary Priest w/ power weapon, jump pack (joins one of the assault squads)
Corbulo (joins the assault terminators)

5 Assault Terminators, 1 twin lightning claws, 4 thunder hammer & storm shield

Troops
10 Assault Marines, 2 melta guns, sergeant w/ infernus pistol, power fist
10 Assault Marines, 2 melta guns, sergeant w/ infernus pistol, power fist
5 Death Company, 1 infernus pistol, drop pod
1 Death Company Dreadnaught w/ blood talons

Heavy Support
6 Devastators, 3 las cannons
6 Devastators, 4 plasma cannons
Storm Raven w/ lascannon, multi-melta (assaul terminators, dreadnaught, corbulo, go here).

The Daemons(16 kp)
HQ
Herald of Tzeentch w/ chariot, we are legion, master of sorcery, bolt of tzeentch
Herald of Tzeentch w/ chariot, we are legion, master of sorcery, bolt of tzeentch
Herald of Tzeentch w/ chariot, we are legion, master of sorcery, bolt of tzeentch
The Masque

Elite
3 Flamers
3 Flamers
6 Fiends, unholy might

Troops
5 Horrors, bolt of tzeentch
5 Horrors, bolt of tzeentch
5 Horrors, bolt of tzeentch
5 Horrors, bolt of tzeentch, changeling
10 Bloodletters

Fast Attack
9 Screamers

Heavy Support
Daemon Prince w/ mark of tzeentch, bolt of tzeentch, daemonic gaze
Daemon Prince w/ mark of tzeentch, bolt of tzeentch, daemonic gaze
Daemon Prince w/ mark of tzeentch, bolt of tzeentch, daemonic gaze

Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Dawn of War

I win the roll off and let the blood angels go first. He deploys the scouts forward in some trees, and brings everything else on in his first turn except for the storm raven (to avoid me trying to seize and wiping out an unsupported assault squad).

Blood Angels Turn #1: The devastators move on and run, sanguinary priest supporting both units. Assault squads are in front of the devastators with the librarian and other priest covering them. He drops his death company pod in front of his forces.
BA KP: 0 Daemons KP: 0

Blood Angels Turn #1


Blood Angels are close in assaulty sorts of guys. So I figure if I land just close enough he will come for me. Plus he's kind of left the death company out to dry. So I select mostly ranged stuff, and some of my close combat heavy hitters in the first wave. I'm going to try go peel out 2 kp right off the get go by downing the death company and their pod. This should force him to play a bit more aggressively. I've got a few more kp than him, and some of mine are real easy to get.

Daemons Turn #1: I get in my preferred wave which is the 3 chariot heralds, 3 daemon princes, fiends, and screamers. Things deviate all over the place but I get no mishaps. Worst thing is one of the chariots deviating a little too close to the death company. I proceed with my plan and the proceed to whiff a large number of my night fight rolls I end up stripping the gun off the pod, and killing 3 of the 5 death company.
BA KP: 0 Daemons KP: 0

Daemons Turn #1

You got to play it safe sometimes. And this was one of those times.

Blood Angels Turn #2: The assault squads move up, the storm raven comes on the table and zooms up the middle. Death company get a good dt roll and are poised to assault my chariot. His plasma and las cannons shoot into my front daemon prince causing 5 wounds, I fail 4 of the five 4+'s and down goes a daemon prince. The assault squad ends up being just out of range of the horrors, but the death company make it in. He gets 8 attacks, causes 2 wounds, and I fail both of my no-retreat saves leaving the chariot with one wound. The Storm raven puts a wound on the back daemon prince.
BA KP: 1 Daemons KP: 0

Blood Angels Turn #2

And here they come.

Okay that was a ton of failed saves but both the dc and the assault squad are within charge range of my fiends. No more night fight means I should be able to get in a good round of shooting. I roll for my reserves getting 2 horror squads, 2 flamer squads and the bloodletters. I want to toast the plasma devastators with flamers and hopefully kill off their sanguinary priest, and then use horrors to shoot up the devastators and scouts. The bloodletters will drop in the center behind the building to avoid plasma shots and support the fiends. I'll use the screamers to protect the bloodletters from assault.

Daemons Turn #2: Both flamer squads drop in and deviate away from their intended target, but not by a whole lot. Bloodletters come down more or less on target as do the horror squads. The fiends move up, the chariots move back and the daemon princes shuffle a bit to guarantee they can't be combo-charged. Shooting starts off well I blow up the drop pod with a chariot, I then proceed to miss with every single other bolt shot in my army (thats 2 that hit on 3's, 2 that hit on 2's, and 2 that hit on 4's). Well so much for stopping the blood raven. My luck picks up a little bit with the flamers. My opponent did a good job of spacing so I'm not getting a whole lot of guys under the template. 3 guys from the assult squad are covered and I roll a bit over odds killing 6, I'm only able to cover 2 from the devastators for 6 hits, and I manage to kill off 4. It was okay damage, but both squads of flamers will die next turn. The horrors manage to down a single scout. The fiends combo charge the assault squad and the death company. They kill off the death company and 3 of the assault marines, he does no damage back and passes morale. The chariot is not actually able to get into hand to hand so is freed up.
BA KP: 1 Daemons KP: 2

The Fiends assault the assault marines


Flamers drop and cause a bit of damage, their braverly in the face of all those marines is duly noted.


Blood Angels Turn #3: The storm raven moves up 6 and drops off the death company dread. The raven then unloads on my daemon prince and I get some good saves and only end up taking one wound. The lascannon devs peel off a couple of screamers and the 2 remaining plasma cannons don't do any damage. Here's the part I'm dreading the dc dread then charges into my fiends. He whiffs 2 of his to hit rolls on the initial set causing three wounds, I fail all of my saves, he then fails two more and only get's 1 more wound throught, which I save (I pull the fiend in base to base with him). I put all my attacks into the assault marines but don't do much and end up losing combat and I'm now down to half size on the fiends. The fiends hit and run out of the combat towards the devastators. The other assault squad kills off both unit's of flamers with no casualties.
BA KP: 3 Daemons KP: 2

Blood Angels Turn #3


Fiends hit and run

We had to pause for a brief commercial here. Mainly verifying that when you hit and run you can run through the unit you were in combat with, and the answer is yes!

I've got pretty good positioning now. He still hasn't committed the terminators but I have plent of other targets to go after. Screamers at the storm raven, daemon prince at the dreadnaught (if my shooting doesn't take it out) blood letters at the assault squad with the librarian, and fiends at the squad the flamers decimated. My reserves give me the masque and another unit of horrors. I'm going to try to pull the scouts out of cover and move the lascannon devastators away from the sanguinary priest and try to shoot them down with horrors.

Daemons Turn #3: I move the screamers up to attack the storm raven and the bloodletters to attack the assault squad. I line up a daemon prince to take rear shots on the dreadnaught and all of my chariots hang back out of assault range of the storm raven. I proceed to have another bad round of shooting, 5 bolts later and I haven't even gotten a penetrating hit on the dreadnaught. The horror squad shoots it in the back and finally causes a glancing hit that rips off a weapon. The bloodletters charge in and kill the librarian and his assault squad. The screamers immobilize the storm raven. A daemon prince charges the dc dread and immobilizes and rips off it's other arm. The fiends charge the assault squad killing two and assassinating the priest I take a couple of wounds but don't lose another fiend. The masque pulls the las devastators away from the priest but I only kill one.
BA KP: 3 Daemons KP: 5

Daemons Turn #3

Now we wait to see where the terminators go.

Blood Angels Turn #4: The terminators come out and charge into a daemon prince and horror squad, killing off the daemon prince, but some good saves on my part leaves two horror's standing, which means the terminators will be within assault range of the bloodletters. His scouts shoot and assault the masque, causing one wound and the masque dances out of combat. His Sanguinary priest with the lascannon dev's assaults the horrors I just dropped in and obliterate them. His plama cannons shoot at the bloodletters, killing one letter, and 2 screamer's, one of them dies to a plasma overheat. My daemon prince gets 3 hits, and 3 pens on the dc dread causing it to blow up, I lose 2 more bloodletters in the explosion. The screamers blow up the storm raven, losing two more in the explosion. The fiends kill one more guy and then hit and run out of combat.
BA KP: 5 Daemons KP: 7

Blood Angels Turn 4

Okay well I knew this was going to hurt

Blood Angels Turn 4.1

You can see all the red wound marker dice here, I'm barely keeping stuff alive.

Okay well this is going to be my best shot at killing the assault terminators so I decide to commit the bloodletters and a daemon prince. The fiends are left with the tough choice of going after the 2 man assault squad, or the devastators or both. I decide to hit the devastators with the fiends and the masque and then use the screamers to assault the assault squad and then tie them into the devastator squad scrum. I'll put in the last horror squad and try to shoot down the 2 assault marines.

Daemons Turn #4: I move up the chariots, but they are out of range of the assault marines. The masque manages to move the scouts out of cover but fails to move the priest away from the assault marines. The horror's cause no damage. The horror's shoot at the scouts who go to ground and lose 2. The fiends, masque, and screamers create the giant scrum. A fiend assassinates the priest and I kill off a couple of the devastators. The screamers manage to pull down one of the assault marines since they no longer have feel no pain. Nobody runs away but the last assault marine dies to no retreats. The bloodletters and daemon prince charge the terminators. I get something like 26 attacks hitting on 3's and wounding on 3's. I deal out an impressive 12 wounds, he puts 3 on the lightning claw which dies, and then passes 8 of 9 on the thunder hammer storm shield terminators, ouch. Corbulo finish's off the horror's, and I'm taking 4 no-retreats, at the end of the combat I only have 3 bloodletters and 2 wounds left on the daemon prince.
BA KP: 6 Daemons KP: 9

Daemons Turn 4

Ouch not quite the outcome I was looking for.

Daemons Turn 4.1

A bit better for me on this one.

Blood Angels Turn #5: He puts one plasma cannon round into the horror's that just deepstruck, hitting and I fail 4 out of 5 saves leaving one horror standing. In combat I only kill one devastator, I try to hit and run out with the masque and the fiends, the masque fails but the fiends make it out. Corbulo kills off the bloodletters, he makes all his saves against the daemon prince and the prince survives the round with 1 wound. Corbulo now has to move into base to base with the daemon prince.
BA KP: 7 Daemons KP: 9

Blood Angels Turn 5

Is it just me or are there less and less daemons in this picture.

Blood Angels Turn 5.1

This one makes up for the lack of daemons in the other picture.

The daemon prince is going down to give up one kp, i have 2 one man squads, and one 2 man squad left to kill besides the terminators which I won't be able to touch. So the plan is to give the terminators a wide berth and kill everything else.

Daemons Turn #5: I turbo boost the chariots away from the terminators. The horror's gun down the last two scouts. The fiends charge and kill the plasma cannon devastator, and the masque takes out the last lascannon devastator. The daemon prince gets 2 hits on corbulo, but only gets 1 wound, and then gets pummeled by thunder hammers.
BA KP: 8 Daemons KP: 12

Daemons Turn 5

I swear if you look closely enough Corbulo is high fiving the terminator in the middle.

Daemons Turn 5.1

Here's whats left of the assault element of my army.


We are running low on time so decide to call the game. He has 3 assault terminators and corbulo, I have 3 chariots, 6 horrors, 3 screamers, the masque, and 3 fiends left. It leaves me with a 4kp advantage for the win another turn would have probably seen me suicide the fiends in to try and kill Corbulo . A bloody bloody affair!

Aftermath: Definitley a back and forth game. My shooting was sub par but for the most part was made up for in hand to hand. The manhandling of the dc dread by the daemon prince saved my bacon. As well as the performance of the fiends. The fiends by themselves killed off 2 sanguinary priests, about 5 devastators, and something like 8 assault marines. The screamers took down their target, the flamers probably came out even on points, the daemon princes got punked pretty hard all game and didn't do much damage in return (except the one dread) but they did soak up a lot of shots and charges. All in all everything worked pretty well together. Curses to the thunder hammer terminators, they ate 7 bloodletters, 5 horror's, 2 daemon princes, and a partridge in a pair tree! The only big mistake I saw was him hanging the death company out to dry so early, it gave me some kp's that I could cash in on without engaging the majority of his forces. I also think he should have gotten the terminators out at the same time as the dc dread and try to beat face a turn earlier.

Awesome report - I like how you explained your plan. Well thought out tactics good job on the victory.

Tie's mean you both win to fight another day!

It was a great game and thanks for bringing in a tough deamon list.

I have to say that the fiends were by far the greatest issue I faced. The hit and run capabilities followed by their good toughness and awesome speed made them very difficult to account for.

The assualt terminators again showed their worth. I do not think I can leave home without them.

The primary purpose of this game was to test out the devestator squads and the death company load out. I felt that if nothing else the devestators held ground well and forced him to be very careful in his landing zones. Also in the end he dropped his flamers in to roast them instead of my terminators or assualt squads. From a killy perspective I doubt they killed their kill points but they definitely contributed to the death of 1 deamon prince, 1 unit of horrors, and contributed to death to some other units so a wash and I think I could have playen them a bit better. Frankly with the A load out they are more designed for MEQ armies than deamons.

Luckily he did not have the mask in when the flamers dropped or both squads would have likely been vaporized. It is important to note how brutal that combination is with a willingness to drop those units in tight. He has generally avoided taking the mask in pick up games becuase of that brutality but I expect to see it in full force in tournaments. The only real defense to the tactic is to come in after the mask and make sure you down her quick. Not always easy to do.

For those of you keeping count he had a couple of things off in my army list above (mostly a couple of power weapons that I did not have) but becuase they are useless against him he didn;t really care.

After the game we discussed a couple of items and I agree I could have played a slightly tighter game by deploying the death company closer to my main lines or not even in the drop pod. On the second turn I also should have assualted the chariot with the asualt squad as well as the death company to ensure vaporization instead of leaving it with just one wound. I also should have vaped the fiends when I had a chance. In the end they were the biggest reason for my loss and a strong assualt by the terminators into their line would have helped cement that destruction. I was worried about the blood letters too much and in the end I should have ben more worried about the fiends.

Things I am still on the fence about:
1. The death company dread. Man to get this guy I am currently spending a 150 points on marginally effective death company. I LOVE the fleet, the ignore shaken and stunned and the +1 attack. I am not a fan of rage but in the end the storm raven is such a good delivery method that it doesn't seem to matter and -1 AV to the front. So in the end it is all of those positives versus the extra cost of having to buy some death company. The problem I find is that I am not sure if I were to switch to a regular furioso if I would gain a whole lot by switching to a 150 points of something else. My army is out of elite and heavy slots at this point so it is troops, hq and fast attack and while I would consider the baal pred that is showing up everywhere I just seem to think that my dc will do the job a little better and be a bit more survivable.

I have decided I like the scouts. For a 100 points they seem to do their job well and if he hadn't made so many 3+ saves the mask would have been dead to them. Though after learning about her defensive grenadaes I should have just stod and shot her and stayed in cover hopefully.

I think you would be better off dropping the dc+pod and dc dread and replacing with another 5 man assault squad and a furioso.

Main reason being that otherwise you are always dropping the dc pod on turn one, even if you want to try to leave stuff in reserve. If you swap it out for the small assault squad you can reserve them and come in on two with the rest of your jump troops if needed.

Yeah! Blood Angels FTW! ^^ lol Nice battle report, it was well written and had good visuals.

Very well played and an exciting report.

G