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The Primed marines had another epic battle, well, about a month ago now. You'll have to forgive me if I don't remember the details so well anymore. But it has pictures! Hopefully useful ones, but that's up to the community. Also, due to self-fail, I don't have pictures for every turn... but I have a few different angles on the same turn. Not perfect. Anyway, here's the lists!

Task Force White Gauntlet:
HQ:
Captain Kayvaan Shrike (Counts as my own Captain so I can make up whatever Fluff I want! Needs a good repainting though. And rebasing. Too Large a base, which I realized WAY after I bought him. It's a Scenic Terminator base.)
Librarian - Jump Pack with Avenger and Force Dome
Elites:
Dreadnought - Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod
Dreadnought - Plasma Cannon, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod
Troops:
10 Tacticals - Flamer, Plasma Cannon, Rhino
10 Tacticals - CombiMelta, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Drop Pod
10 Scouts - Power Weapon, Melta Bombs (On Sergeant)
Fast Attack:
10 Assault - Power Fist
10 Assault - Power Fist
2 Land Speeder Typhoons
Heavy Support:
Predator - Autocannon, HB Sponsons
Predator - Autocannon, HB Sponsons
16 KPs



Blood Angels Dreadnought Brigade!
Jump Chaplain - Power Fist
Furioso Librarian
2 Death Company Dread - Talons
Dreadnought - Las, DCCW
Dreadnought - MM, DCCW
Predator - Autocannon, Las Sponsons
Baal Pred - AssCan, HB Sponsons
Baal Pred - AssCan, HF Sponsons
Assault Terminators
Death Company
Sniper Scouts
12 KP


The Captain's Thoughts:
[i]It seems a few venerable ones of our Brothers in Arms have gone rogue, along with a few of their followers. Fallen to the Black Rage, if you ask me. No matter how hard the Chapter Master denies it is a problem. There is much evidence of those fallen to its touch, and it is our duty to purge them of fire and bolter. Let them think they will run over us. We will meet them before they can even prepare....[i]

Pregame Notes: We rolled Spearhead and Annihilation. Essentially this means I have 2-3 KP of Drop Pods I have to effectively sign off to him right now If I want to make those units useful. But if I can lock him up (he doesn't have a lot of shooting) and can deny him 4 KP in my 2 Predators and Tac Squad in a Rhino. We'll see how it goes.

Deployment:
I line up my forces along the river edge, prepared to advance into the adjacent table quarter, eliminate anything there, then move onto his deployment zone. I need to kill those Dreadnoughts fast... There's no way I'm putting an assault squad anywhere near something with Blood Talons.


He deploys between two hills for cover, reserving his Baal Preds, Terminators, and Death Company. I deploy my scouts in range to get into his Predator and Melta Bomb it into smithereens.... at minimum preventing it from shooting at me. His Sniper Scouts infiltrate in a building in a corner of the board.


And then.... HE STEALS FIRST TURN. Alas, I sign my poor scouts off before the game even begins.

Turn 1 - BA:
Alas, I have no picture for this turn. A Death Company Dreadnought charges the scouts, killing 7. My Krak Grenades and Melta Bomb does nothing. He shoots with a few long ranged shots but due to misses and cover saves in the forest where I deployed my Predators, he gets no results.

Turn 1 - RG:
I make it rain. Melta Tac Squad and Melta Dreadnought drop in to poke some holes in some dreadnoughts before they go out. This also served to totally and utterly clog up his deployment zone, allowing me to use my superior shooting to slowly eat away at his vehicles from afar. In shooting... I fail miserably. Multimelta misses, and Meltagun squad do something that gets ignored. My Predators stun his predator. Shameful, and essentially handing him 4 KPs on a silver platter. One shining note of glory is my Scout Sergeant Melta Bombing his DC Dread into smithereens as the squad dies to Blood Talons. Looking back I might have killed his Furioso here too, merely because my notes don't show its death. But look! It's fallen over in the picture! Maybe that Tac Squad DID hit something!

Also, Assault Squads and Typhoons boost up my board edge to get into position and eventually clear out those sniper scouts.


Turn 2 - BA:
A Blood Angels Baal Pred comes in straight outta reserves on his right flank, as does his Terminator squad by his sniper scouts. His Death Company roll to come in but mishap off the board and are delayed. He shuffles around a bit, then proceeds to Multimelta my multimelta Dreadnought (explodes, the first of many craters in his deployment zone), and charge into assault with my Tactical squad who gets splatted over the course of the next two turns (unfortunately passing a leadership test instead of running then being able to shoot.)

Turn 2 - RG: Shrike and the Plasma Dreadnought come in, outflanking and dropping right by his scouts and Terminators. Only shooting of note comes from Speeders, who immobilize and stun his Predator (poor guy didn't get a shot all game.) Some minor shooting chips away at Terminators before a multiassault by two assault squads, a Librarian, and Shrike splatter his scout squad against a wall and knock his terminators down to 1 man at the cost of 5 Jumpers from one squad.



Turn 3 - BA:
Only moves of note here is his completion of wrecking that initial assault, his CC Dreads destroying my two Drop Pods. Other Dreads have ineffectual shooting at my firebase of a Tac Rhino and 2 Predators.

Turn 3 - RG:
Shrike and the Speeders run up the right flank, the Speeders knocking the AssCan of the Baal Predator on his right flank. The Librarian, wounded from the scrum with the Terminators, hides in a building while his remaining 5 Assault Marines charge and punch a hole in his Predator, exploding it and hiding in the wreckage. Shooting from the firebase stuns his LasDread.



Turn 4 - BA:
His second Baal Predator comes in Behind Shrike and his Squad while his Death Company DOESN'T Deep Strike this time and instead comes off his board edge Not sure if that's legal or not. A Death Company Dreadnought Claws the mini assault squad into bits, shooting shakes a speeder, and general shooting knocks a few guys outta Shrike's squad. He still fails against my firebase (which this while time has been slowly moving into the other table corner he is not occupying to get better shots. His MM Dread and Death Company Move to get ready to counteract a charge by Shrike's squad.

Turn 4 - RG:
Shrike and folks turn Back and use Power Fist and Krak Grenade to destroy new Baal Predator like it had armor of tissue paper. My Speeders ramp up to the top of the nearby ruin, hoping to take advantage of Cover saves and get lotsa good shots off. Shooting from Speeders and Firebase knock Lascannon off his shooting Dreadnought and a Talon off of his DC Dreadnought. Librarian jumps out of cover to join Shrike's squad and give those nice 5++ saves for the upcoming fight with the Death Company.



Turn 5 - BA:
Only actions of note are slowly advancing units, missed shots, and a Weapon Destroyed on one of my poor Land Speeders.

Turn 5 - RG:
I pull off some moves here that make me very happy. First, damage rolls from shooting FINALLY start resulting in damage, FINALLY killing that damned LasDread. My PlasDread, not having done much all game, charges his DC Dread and puts a stomp down on it, showing why a DCCW can still be better than Blood Talons. AND I pull of my first hit and run, charging in and punching his other Baal Dread to Death with Shrike and co. before consolidating away. Of Course, his DC have Jump Packs and I WON'T be getting away from them next turn. My Libby gives me a 5++ to prepare.

We roll for game and continue. I breathe a sigh of relief, I still need time to get those Killpoints.

Turn 6 - BA:
Only move of note is his Remaining Dreadnought and Death Company absolutely slaughter Shrike, the Libby, and the Assault Squad in CC. It wasn't even bad rolling... Death Company are just GOOD, and he had a lot of power weapons and power fists on the squad. And my power fists always roll terrible. Shrike as always kills some stuff, because he's awesome.


Turn 6 - RG:
All I have left over there is my Plasdread, which fails its shot against the DC. My Firebase has nothing left to shoot at, so this turn ends. Plasdread climbed a building to avoid getting charged or shot, however.


Game continues!
Turn 7 - BA:
Two key events here. 1, his MM Dread fails to kill my Dread, effectively ending that side of the board. Then, his Jump Chappy with the Power Fist leaves the DC and climbs to the top of the building, punching in both of my Speeders.

Turn 7 - RG:
My Shining Moment. With Kill points tied at 10, my Rhino has a shot, the missile launcher within spying a certain Chaplain from nearly maximum range away. I cross my fingers, and fire the shot. It hits... and he fails his cover save. BOOM. SNIPED. INSTA-DEATH.

For the winning kill point, and at the time I didn't even realize it. Only when we counted it all up did we realize the game would be that close.

Victory to the Raven Guard!

Post-Game Thoughts:
My list fared surprisingly well. I utterly wasted my melta drop troops, feeding him free kill points, but in the end it worked out. It tied him up while I shot at him a bit and killed the rest of his army, while getting into position. Drop Pods continue to prove themselves to me as the best transport for marines.... as you can get them into prime range ASAP. My Rhino provided a nice little bunker but against this army they had nothing to shoot at except with the missile launcher.

The Dread List was very scary to see, but the way to beat it was distract him and shoot them to death. With one useful gun on each Dreadnought, there was no way he could even match the firepower of 2 Dakka Preds and a Missile Launcher. Speeders with 4 Krak Missiles are just Cake! (Very Good Cake.)

Once again, sorry for the lite descriptions of the battle... my next one will have all the detail you dakka-ites crave. Until then, White Gauntlet, signing out.

nice report :-) i enjoyed it, didn't know dreads can climb buildings though? look forward to your next report dude, I play Raven Guard too and my best mate plays Blood angels, we haven't played yet but will soon, I actually just posted some pics of my boys in the gallery.

Thanks!

Since any Dread strolls around like he's infantry he can climb hills and such and move into rough terrain like it's no problem. Now if it was an intact building with an armor value he couldn't go in, but since it was a ruin there's nothing that says he can't!

Nice battle report and I also like your gaming table.

and charge into assault with my Tactical squad who gets splatted over the course of the next two turns (unfortunately passing a leadership test instead of running then being able to shoot.)

Don't Space Marines have a rule that let them purposefully flee (a tactical retreat so they say) a close combat they just lost called Combat Tactics?

Very nice report... and I agree with Nemesis... can't SM's voluntarily fail their morale role to fall back? Or does your chapter have special tactics that supersede that?

Gitsplitta wrote:Very nice report... and I agree with Nemesis... can't SM's voluntarily fail their morale role to fall back? Or does your chapter have special tactics that supersede that?

they can if you're using the vanilla marine book (which he was). he was however using the special character shrike that allows him to switch out that rule and replace it with fleet, though. it's optional so jet will have to mention if he did indeed do that.

@jet,

when you place things in reserve, you're supposed to mention HOW they're entering (walking onto your edge, deepstriking, outflanking, or different unit specific kinds like sly marbo or the callidus). the reason i mention this is because you said the opponent's death co just walked onto the table instead of deepstriking. if he said they were deepstriking, they have to deepstrike. your opponent can't change the initial decision after deployment.

First:

Yes, Shrike's ability to give the entire army fleet comes at the price of Combat Tactics. This is the first case where I regret the decision, but in the end, having my Assault Marines with Fleet as FANTASTIC for getting all your attacks in to help you win fights (For example in this game, killing a Terminator AND a Scout squad by forcing him to fail saves.)

Second:

Thanks Warboss! I'd wondered about that and it's good to know the proper rules now... I'll make sure to remind the guy I played of that next time I see him.