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Made arrangements with dajobe to have a nice little 1000 point game at my FLGS after work on Friday. When I arrived, a buddy (who also helps run the store) introduced me to a newer player hazrd who also had a BA army and asked if we might be able to work him into our game. We accommodated gladly and dajobe wrote up a 2000 pt. army for the two of us to face. What ensued was a very entertaining little battle...

Note: I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures... didn't have my camera with me so they were taken on a rather outdated camera phone.

Mantis Warriors (Blood Angels)
HQ: Tycho
EL: Sanguinary Priest w/ PW & hand flamer
EL: Sternguard (8) w/ 5 combimeltas, hvy flamer & melta, Srg w/ combi-melta and PF (in drop pod)
TP: Aassault Squad (5) w/ flamer, srg w/ infernus pistol & power sword
TP: Assault Squad (5) w/ flamer, srg w/ infernus pistol & power sword
Hvy: Vindicator, dozer blade
1000 pts

Blood Angels
HQ: Astorath the Grim
EL: Furioso Dreadnought w/ blood talons
TP: Assault Squad (10) w/ flamer, PF
TP: Death Company (5)
Hvy: Stormraven, TLMM, TLLC
1000 pts

IG:
HQ:
Company Command Squad:, Grenade Launcher x3, Officer of the Fleet……110

Elite:
Stormtrooper Squad: 10 troopers, 2 Plasma Guns………………………………… 195
Troops:
Veterans 1: Melta x3, Demolitions…………………………………………………………130
Veterans 2: Melta x3, Demoltions…………………………………………………………130
Veterans 3: Plasma x3, Demolitions………………………………………………………145
Veterans 4: Plasma x3, Demolitions………………………………………………………145
Veterans 5: Melta x3, Demolitions…………………………………………………………130
Chimera x4…………………………………………………………………………………………220

Fast Attack:
Vendetta……………………………………………………………………………………………130
Devil Dog: Multi Melta………………………………………………………………………….135

Heavy Support:
Manticore……………………………………………………………………………………………160
Leman Russ Demolisher…………………………………………………………………………165
Leman Russ Battle Tank: Lascannon, Plasma Cannons ……………………………205
2000 pts


Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: DoW
First Turn: Blood Angels


Opening Gambit/Deployment
After a little discussing, we figure that we need to be crawling all over them as quickly as possible. So we deploy the big assault squad with Astorath and my smaller assault squad in cover at mid-table. We spread ourselves out a bit so that there's no where on the table he can come in and blast us with impunity... my small assault squad on the left, the big assault squad in the middle and my sternguard coming down in their pod on the right. dajobe decides to roll everything on in his turn 1.


BA Turn 1:

My pod comes down on target and my troops move into the drainage canal for cover. Both of our assault squads move forward and the remainder of our forces roll on from our back edge. God I love fast vehicles. My second assault squad shadows the vindi on the right, providing obscuring cover from that angle.




IG Turn 1:

It's about now that I realize the futility of our "get in their face ASAP" strategy (which was my brillian idea BTW). The guard roll on in full force with two nice juicy targets in close range. They avoid the sternguard by deploying on the opposite flank... rendering half my points useless for the entire game. The large BA assault squad is nearly wiped out (only the sergeant survives) and my small assault squad in the ruins is wiped... though they did absorb an astounding amount of fire power before the last marine snuffed it.




BA Turn 2:

The Mantis Warrior sternguard starts is long, slow, futile march towards the battle while the Storm Raven and surviving Mantis Warrior elements move forward. My vindicator exacts some revenge on the vets that did so much damage to the BA assault squad by killing several and immobilizing the chimera. The Storm Raven downs the Vendetta with multi-meltas and stuns the IG missile platform with it's las cannons. The last remaining assault marine leaps over to the nearest Russ and knocks out the turret and a plasma sponson. Good man.



Here's a better shot of the action.




IG Turn 2:

The IG move forward aggressively. An elite command squad deep strikes behind the remaining Mantis Warrior assault squad fully expecting to wipe them out with their nasty AP3 weapons. The Storm Raven is brought down, the big gun is knocked off the Vindi by las cannon fire from the damaged Russ. Fire from the commandos only kills 2 assault marines... there's hope yet! I believe the last of the BA assault marines meets his demise this turn as well.




BA Turn 3:

The marines see their chance to act and move aggressively. The DC from the downed storm raven jump the wreck and shoot/multi-charge the immobilized chimera and her unit... knocking out the chimera and reducing the unit to one soldier. The 3 mantis warrior marines shoot, then charge the commandos, killing all but the sergeant, suffering no casualties in the process. The Blood Claw dread eats the Russ.



First blood for the new assault unit...




IG Turn 3:

The Guard continue to move forward and once again unload a barrage of pain. Shooting nets the dreadnought and the drop pod with a couple of sternguard thrown in for good measure (darn artillery). Assault sees the MWs finish off the last commando and consolidate ever so slightly towards the IG lines. Can't be sure but we might have lost a DC marine to shooting here too.




BA Turn 4:

The Mantis Warrior Vindi decides it has several juicy targets for a ramming attack, so backs up to cover so it can get a good running start (I was hoping that a weaponless AV13 vehicle wouldn't be that much of a target. My assault marines leap forward to charge the command squad... which they route in combat. The DC charges and immobilizes the Chimera in the back.



Detail of the BA action in the center:




IG Turn 4:

Not to be outdone, the BA go after the Mantis Warriors with a vengeance. A squad of melta vets and the melta wagon go after my poor Vindi. Luckily, nothing but the storm bolter is lost. Everything else opens up on the 3 remaining assault marines, but their saves hold well enough for the sergeant to survive!




BA Turn 5:

Now the critical time of this desperate race for kill points has come to a head. Where to charge? Where to run? In the back, my assault marine leaps out of harms way and tries to get out of sight behind the wrecked Valkyrie. The DC leaps the chimera wreck and smashes into the exposed vets, destroying them. My sternguard finally get close enough to take 3 combi-melta shots at a chimera, but all fail to hit or penetrate.



On the other side of the battlefield, the Vindicator driver puts it into reverse and floors it. There is some debate as to whether the driver actually popped smoke, or if it was just the dust and debris cause by the vehicle smashing through the stone wall. In any case... it sufficed to obscure the tank & helped them get beyond the reach of the melta vets.




IG Turn 5:

At this point we do a quick tally and it appears that the IG are down by 2 kill points. (amazingly... don't know how we managed that) They have 3 juicy targets available... the damaged Vindicator, the solitary assault marine, and the remaining Death Company. Fortunately, only the Death Company has a significant number of eyes on it. They are wiped, but did serious duty accounting for 4 kill points! "Blood for the Blood G....." um... "...Sanguinus!" The melta wagon and Manticore come after my Vindi... but I survive! Other things shoot at my last assault marine..... and HE survives!!



Final Score:

IG: 6
BA: 7

Blood Angels / Mantis Warriors Win! Yippie!


We had SO much fun! dajobe is a fantastic opponent, generous and honorable and able to keep up good spirits no matter what. My teammate Jason was fantastic too. I'm really looking forward to many table-top battles with them in the future. I thought we were completely wiped when their turn 1 was over and we'd lost so many marines and half my army (in points) had been nerfed by the IG deployment (my stupid mistake... should have put them in the center). I guess to put things in perspective... 6 of our 7 points were generated by the 5-man DC squad and my 5-man assault squad. Good going boys! The DC with thunder hammer were animals!

It was fun to get the two assault squads and vindicator on the table for the first time. Army's looking good. I'm starting to finally fill in some of the gaps in my troop selection... have the two jump pack assault squads are really nice pieces of the puzzle.

agreed, a very fun game, i just wish i had been able to kill that one assault trooper, he was one lucky guy lol, and those DC definitely did do alot of damage and only with one hammer...
but great game

The tranquillity veterans had a pretty good survival rate this time around. Thanks for the great battle report!

Yes... it helps if you're not actually a factor in the battle... *sigh*.

nice report. I enjoyed it. Hey I was looking at your army list and it came out 89 points short. So I was wondering what wargear I missed from your list? Or were your short so your team mate could fill in his points?

Thanks Nicorex: You were right... I was just doing a sketch-list... I've adjusted it now. Specified the war gear for the sternguard, sanguinary priest & assault sergeants. Hope that helps. Comes out to 1000 even on Army Builder.

Nice battle report! The arrows really helped illustrate what was going on. I would have loved to see some closer shots of the armies though; I've seen those Mantis Warriors here on Dakka and I know how good they look!

Sorry SRM... camera phone just wasn't up to it. Next time.

As always Gits good battle report. I really would like to get in a game, one that we can finish... I thought Dajob had the game after the first 2 turns, surprised to see the SPES MERINES win the game...
Curse you and your power armour... Just kidding...

The last couple of turns luck was totally on our side. We made a crazy number of saving throws...

I was going over this battle in my head, i think one of the critical moments was taking out the vendetta where you did, because it blocked LOS from the rest of my army and restricted my mvmt for the rest of the game. When i put it there i knew there was a chance of that happening, but it hurt me more than i thought...

You're probably right dajobe... though, with all those blast templates and indirect fire capabilities I'm not sure how much it really hurt you. But yeah... it did muck up the center good, to our advantage.

Too bad IG can't take vectored engines and grot riggers aye...

Gitsplitta wrote:You're probably right dajobe... though, with all those blast templates and indirect fire capabilities I'm not sure how much it really hurt you. But yeah... it did muck up the center good, to our advantage.

my only indirect fire thing was the manticore which is AP4, so it was pretty useless, and i only had one leman russ left which dished out the pie plates at the point when the vendetta went down, otherwise you guys would have had about 6 heavy bolters and multilasers shooting at you each turn which would have destroyed those pesky DC or lone assault trooper...

Looks like a great game enjoyed by all. Outstanding, gentlemen.

i like the way you added arrows on your pics

It's the only way that makes any sense to me. I always have trouble following the action on other battle reports, so at least this way things are clear.