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Hey guys! As promised here is a battle report with a list that Matt Defranza put together using the new Astra Militarum, or IG book, vs John parsons and white scar bikes. They were both playing one of the test missions for NOVA, that was used at this past weekend's De-La-Warr open. Those missions can be found here http://www.mediafire.com/download/1wt18i88dzum6qs/DeLaWarr+Mission+Packet.2.0.pdf

Matt used a blob heavy list for AM as he was excited to try out some of the new support that is in the codex for the blobs. So here is the game, check it out any questions or comments please leave below. Like us on facebook subscribe on youtube, and follow on twitch, all the links are below in my signature!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bKE5BxCzXA

I love that overhead camera view.

Thanks alot, we got a go pro that does the job so well!

What is the early feedback on the maginot mission? To me it looks like a terrible idea where an IG player can just squat fearless blobs on three objectives for turns 2-4 and then not give a gak what happens afterward because they already got max points. It also forces me to go rushing into the teeth of his firepower early in the game while it's still at full strength. That's not a tactical way to play, but I don't have a choice.

Looking at it does seem to be in a blob flavor, you can try to tie them on primary and get things like line breaker to pull ahead, but it does seem in a blobs favor.

Also, the mission encourages me to take an unkillable death star so I can charge into that and not get my teeth kicked in by the wall of firepower I am about to have dumped on me. The purpose of these asymmetrical missions was to curb that.

slaede wrote:
Also, the mission encourages me to take an unkillable death star so I can charge into that and not get my teeth kicked in by the wall of firepower I am about to have dumped on me. The purpose of these asymmetrical missions was to curb that.

I partially disagree. I think the best way to combat this type of guard army is msu. Three blobs can only target three things a turn. The biggest challenge is the center for sure, but he could have flat out the land speeder turn one if it was deployed and used it to block the conscripts movement, that then also forces him to deal with it. But that marine list was outmatched anyway, you don't beat that many bodies with expensive troops.

You are right though, maginot (wtf naming convention) for sure makes this guard book very good, very very good. But thats 40k in a nutshell, new books shake it up. As an aside, I still think rather then limit sources, they should be eliminating battle bros. It balances 40k so much better and it's so much simpler.

Awesome report!

I'm for making all battle bros like CSM/Daemons where they can't join each other, but can benefit one another such that there is a reason to take them over a less friendly option. Also, the warp storm table would hit my CSM buddies.

Then NOVA mission pack makes my brain ache to read.

Edit: Also, sending a land speeder to the center would not have blocked the blob in any way as he could have charged it and got a free move out of the deal. It would only have sped them up.

The Space Marine player made some poor decisions early from which he could not recoup... He should have played more aggressively.

 Dozer Blades wrote:
The Space Marine player made some poor decisions early from which he could not recoup... He should have played more aggressively.

He couldn't. He had to squat on objectives and rack up points because he chose the maginot mission and he had to keep up. Had he gone charging into that mess in the early game, he would have been obliterated. Had he chose Blitzkrieg, he would have had to be able to get the IG player's fearless units off his two objectives before he racked up 9 points, and then finished controlling three objectives of his own, plus get more secondaries. Not a lot of armies are capable of doing that.

Fair point ! Not a well designed mission. Still I would have played more aggressively and hope for good dice. The IG army was your standard blob list.

Standard blob list yes, however I think the blob list is even better then it was in other iterations because the support is in the book naturally, so you are not being forced to ally for support and instead being able to ally for more punch. That being said from watching some in-store gameplay I am guessing Wyverns will be getting the call to put some work in!

Wvyerns look promising for sure !

I dunno i think as the marine player you choose Blitzkrieg and try to force him off the middle objective or one of the side objectives. I think you send both characters at the middle objective trying to charge the conscript blob before it ever gets to the middle objective. Then use the Thunderfires to try to blow of the blobs on one of the other objectives. I dunno it's an uphill battle and hind sight is 20/20.

Wyverns are fantastic. They kill a unit a turn.

Only draw back to the Wyvern is the weak armor and being open topped. Other than that it can put a hurting in for sure.

What are people thoughts on leaving it with the heavy bolter or going with the flamer?

I'd go with the flamer. If assault units get near your line, you can make them pay whereas the heavy bolter will not usually add much to the barrage.

 Dozer Blades wrote:
Fair point ! Not a well designed mission. Still I would have played more aggressively and hope for good dice. The IG army was your standard blob list.

Not really, this was simply a case of very poor strategy by the SM players. Properly positioned TFCs would remove most of the threat blobs create. The placing of the ADL clearly showed the strategy of the IG player. It should not have been that hard for the SM player to counter.

slaede wrote:
I'm for making all battle bros like CSM/Daemons where they can't join each other, but can benefit one another such that there is a reason to take them over a less friendly option. Also, the warp storm table would hit my CSM buddies.

Then NOVA mission pack makes my brain ache to read.

Edit: Also, sending a land speeder to the center would not have blocked the blob in any way as he could have charged it and got a free move out of the deal. It would only have sped them up.

You move 12, then flat out 12" to 1" of the middle of the blob. Tell me how that speeds them up? They either have to snake around it, not easy with 50 men spread like he had them. Or assault it, in which case the assault gets you 1" up field because there is no consolidation move after wrecking a vehicle. I think you could use a brush up on your land speeder tactics

Amazing Batrep! I prefer this to the longer ones youve done definitely. One comment/complaint, was that the IG players ADL was made of 6 long sections, basically giving him an extra few inches... That's an odd mistake to make even if it changed nothing. But, the rule book requires 4 long and 4 short sections.

Matt forgot his adl so we had to use that one which is actually from terrain for the report. You are the first person to point it out and I can't wait to tell him he got called out for it lol. I will keep these battle reports rolling out for all of you, as well as our weekly gamecast

 SGnewton wrote:
Matt forgot his adl so we had to use that one which is actually from terrain for the report. You are the first person to point it out and I can't wait to tell him he got called out for it lol. I will keep these battle reports rolling out for all of you, as well as our weekly gamecast

Yes, please inform him that he is a dastardly cheater. But it clearly had 0 impact on the result. Pass on some congratulations with the previous accusations! He played his army and opponent to perfection. Can't wait for the next Battle Report! If you have a local Skyblight swarm, I'd love to see that vs AM!

I think we can handle that. Let me get Mr cooks schedule

 SGnewton wrote:
I think we can handle that. Let me get Mr cooks schedule

Awesome! All of harpies/crones are still in the mail, and I need some entertainment while I wait!

 Red Corsair wrote:

slaede wrote:

Edit: Also, sending a land speeder to the center would not have blocked the blob in any way as he could have charged it and got a free move out of the deal. It would only have sped them up.

You move 12, then flat out 12" to 1" of the middle of the blob.

I don't quite follow this. Put it sideways in front of the blob? Would slow them down by a fraction as the speeder's base is not big.

 jifel wrote:

 SGnewton wrote:
I think we can handle that. Let me get Mr cooks schedule

Awesome! All of harpies/crones are still in the mail, and I need some entertainment while I wait!

I think I might need to scrounge up some gargoyles, but I have access to all the big bugs. I've been meaning to test out the skyblight with a heavy emphasis on the gargoyles, so expect a list that looks like this:

3xflyrant
2 harpies(stranglers)/2 crones
3x20 gargoyles with one of the two upgrades (havent decided which one is better tbh)
10 gants
3 warriors

Since the gargoyles score and potentially come back you dont need as heavy of an emphasis on troops, so they're essentially gaunt squads with wings. 7 fmcs to boot makes a nasty threat overload list, and it'll be intriguing to see what it can do to the new astra book since most lists are typically blob-dependent that you can largely avoid till you can bring everything to bear on them.

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I made a few mistakes (list selection, objective choice etc) but it was a good learning experience seeing what the new guard could do!

 Red Corsair wrote:

slaede wrote:
I'm for making all battle bros like CSM/Daemons where they can't join each other, but can benefit one another such that there is a reason to take them over a less friendly option. Also, the warp storm table would hit my CSM buddies.

Then NOVA mission pack makes my brain ache to read.

Edit: Also, sending a land speeder to the center would not have blocked the blob in any way as he could have charged it and got a free move out of the deal. It would only have sped them up.

You move 12, then flat out 12" to 1" of the middle of the blob. Tell me how that speeds them up? They either have to snake around it, not easy with 50 men spread like he had them. Or assault it, in which case the assault gets you 1" up field because there is no consolidation move after wrecking a vehicle. I think you could use a brush up on your land speeder tactics

You were talking about using the speeder to block the center. You didn't say anything about stopping 1" in front of the blob. And it still speeds them up because they can lap around and get 2d6" free movement out of the deal rather than having to run. If you now your rules for moving charging models, this is very easy to pull off. Say I roll a 10. I can lap farther models around it, then use the closer ones to go 10" upfield so long as they finish their move in coherency with a model that has already moved.

@slaede it would have been a good move for John to have done that. I would not have charged him to get the extra movement though. I might suffer an explosion result and get wounds on all the models within D6 and, since you can't consolidate after engaging a tank, I would have been tightly packed for his thunderfires.

However, I would have had to shoot at the speeder with ignores cover from the autocannons, and then issue the order to the blood to shoot at the scouts and then run. Either way, he may have contested the objective for a turn and I would have lost that point. This would also have stopped the blob from shooting the unit at his objective and he could have gotten a point.

Naw wrote:

 Red Corsair wrote:

slaede wrote:

Edit: Also, sending a land speeder to the center would not have blocked the blob in any way as he could have charged it and got a free move out of the deal. It would only have sped them up.

You move 12, then flat out 12" to 1" of the middle of the blob.

I don't quite follow this. Put it sideways in front of the blob? Would slow them down by a fraction as the speeder's base is not big.

You have to stay outside an inch of the HULL. which gives a storm a 6" footprint for blocking and a normal speeder about a 5.5". Thats a big deal in an objective mission.

I have done it before with two and that full stops a mob basically for a turn. With one I have set it up, and it slows them by about half if they "U" around it which is enough to keep them from pig piling center first turn. Or you can block one side and it forces them to funnel which makes butchering the lead guys way more effective. I am not saying this alone will win, just that it is an effective tactic when KP aren't an issue.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

slaede wrote:

 Red Corsair wrote:

slaede wrote:
I'm for making all battle bros like CSM/Daemons where they can't join each other, but can benefit one another such that there is a reason to take them over a less friendly option. Also, the warp storm table would hit my CSM buddies.

Then NOVA mission pack makes my brain ache to read.

Edit: Also, sending a land speeder to the center would not have blocked the blob in any way as he could have charged it and got a free move out of the deal. It would only have sped them up.

You move 12, then flat out 12" to 1" of the middle of the blob. Tell me how that speeds them up? They either have to snake around it, not easy with 50 men spread like he had them. Or assault it, in which case the assault gets you 1" up field because there is no consolidation move after wrecking a vehicle. I think you could use a brush up on your land speeder tactics

You were talking about using the speeder to block the center. You didn't say anything about stopping 1" in front of the blob. And it still speeds them up because they can lap around and get 2d6" free movement out of the deal rather than having to run. If you now your rules for moving charging models, this is very easy to pull off. Say I roll a 10. I can lap farther models around it, then use the closer ones to go 10" upfield so long as they finish their move in coherency with a model that has already moved.

That doesn't work like you suggested at all, you need to move closest first by the shortest distance then pile in as close to fighting guys as possible, your a bit mistaken if you think your going to gain movement even with a 10" charge which is unlikely. To top it off now your all packed in for those T-fires as you don't get a consolidate. Whats worse is since Yarrick is in the back he and only he can hurt it, you won't even kill the speeder lol.

EDIT and I'm beating a dead horse, Sons of Adam answered it well already. Sorry.