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First Warhammer 40K game: Black Legion vs. Blood Angels ~1000pts  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
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Made in us
Committed Chaos Cult Marine





I thought I would share my very first game of Warhammer 40K. I am not completely new to miniatures wargames (I have played Dust, Bolt Action, Deadzone, Black Powder, Mechwarrior and few others) but new a full game of Warhammer 40K. I am not completely new to how Warhammer plays as I played through most of the Dark Vengeance boxed set. Those were 7th edition rules, but the frame work was still there.

The Lists

I wasn't sure what they gaming store group's convention was on points, and I am not big on building army lists anymore so I didn't really have a list going. If I was to guess I would say it was going to be 2000 points (which it was) which I felt was way too many points to have for a learner game. I would (and still do) prefer power points, but it appears the group has roundly ignored them. Which was odd when I was talking to some veteran players who said it would make their lists unbalanced but when they added them up in Power Points they were only 7 points different from each other. So my opponent and I agreed on 1000 points. Both of these lists are going to be fairly rough as my opponent did most of my point calculations, and I don't even know what much of his force was since he was using Primaris marines which I don't know at all.

Black Legion (Me)
Chaos Lord with Plasma Pistol and Power Sword (as Murder Sword) Warlord Trait: Enteral Vendetta (I rolled randomly for this trait)
Exalted Champion with Combi Bolter and Power Axe
Chaos Space Marines x10 with 1 Plasma Pistol, 1 Power Fist
Chaos Space Marines x10 with 1 Plasma Pistol, 1 Power Sword
Chaos Space Marines x10 with 1 Plasma Pistol, 1 Chain Sword
Chaos Terminators x7 with 7 Combi-Bolters and 7 Power Axes
Warp Talons x5 with 5 Paired Lightning Claws

Blood Angels Note: This is my best guess to what my opponent was running, didn't recognize a lot of his stuff since it was primaris, and I didn't want to waste time on it as I wanted to just get to the game.
Primaris Captain in Gravis Armor
Primaris Librarian
Pirmaris Marines (Intercessors Maybe) x6 with a 1 Grenade Launcher
Marine Scouts x 6-8 (can't remember how many for sure)
Tactical Marines x 10 (unsure about wargear)
Death Company x10 with 1 Thunderhammer, 9 Bolters and Chainswords
Interceptors x3
Predator Tank with autocannons

The Mission and Deployment
I don't know the name of the mission but it was to capture and hold one of 3 objectives placed roughly along middle of the table. A player gained 1 victory point for capturing/holding an objective point at the end of their turn. Deployment zones were 24" from the short table edges. The game was 3 rounds. I was kinda hoping to just run a good ol' fashion kill mission deploying within 12" of the long table edges, but it doesn't seem this group is about just making stuff up to get in a game. That said, short table edges would create more line of sight blocking areas and along forces to stay supported better.

I placed my Terminators into deepstrike. I would have put my Warp Talons there too, but I wrongly thought you could only have one unit in deep strike without special rules or vehicles (i.e. drop pods). My Chaos Space Marines were spaced pretty evenly Left, Center, Right with my right squad at deployment line, center mid deployment area and left back deployment area. My warp talons were placed backfield center. Chaos Lord was center and Exalted Champion back left.

The Blood Angels player had his Librarian, Death Company and Interceptors in reserves I believe. His scouts were on my right forward deployed backed up with the Predator, his tacticals on my left, and his Intercessors and Captain Center back.

Round 1

I had first turn. I ran all of my Chaos Marine Squads up since 3 rounds wasn't going to be a whole lot of time dilly around. My Center squad captured the center objective (which was the objective closest to me). My right squad hug terrain to keep it safe from everything except the scouts which would capture the right objective and probably get shots on me. My left squad jumped on top of a building to cover my center squad from any deep strikers. I ran my Warp Talons toward the right to cover both my center and right squads. The Chaos Lord followed behind the center squad. I held my Terminators in reserve as I wanted to see what my opponent was going to do with some of his reserves. I earned 1 VP from the center objective.

My opponent moved his scouts up to capture the right objective and take shots on my right CSM squad killing one. The Predator moved up and also shot at my center CSM squad killing 3. His tacticals moved to the left toward the objective (but not capturing it) and shot at my center squad at long range not killing anyone. His captain followed behind the tacticals. He also kept everything of his in reserves. During morale, I loss a marine from my center squad. He earned 1 VP from the right objective.

Round 2
I shuffled my center squad around the objective to get better cover from enemy fire. My left squad ran up toward the center to better support the weakend center squad. I also made sure that my Chaos Lord was within 6" of both of those squads. My Exalted Champion ran up behind the left squad, but didn't roll nearly as well as the squad so he was pretty far away. My warp talons ran to the right to support any of the CSM squads and prevent deep striking into that area. I also deep struck my Terminators within 9" of the Intercessors and the Predator (this turned out to be a mistake on my part as I wasn't going to charge the predator and due to the terrain pushed many of my squad outside of 12" of the Intercessors for shooting. During shooting, My center marines shot at the tacticals but didn't do anything. My right squad wiped out the scouts to a man (I was hoping to have at least one there since it would have only been something like a 6-8" assault which if I won (likely) I would also capture Objective right. My Terminators shot into the Intercessors and killed one, injured another. During assualt, my Terminators failed charging the Intercessors by an inch after a command point was spent. (I gained another victory point for score of 2 to 1)

My opponent moved his tacticals to capture Objective Left supported by the captain and Interceptors who dropped from the sky. His death company also appeared on the left side poised to attack my left CSM squad. The predator had a clean shot to my right CSM squad (I had to move them into the open to get shots on the scouts). The Intercessors moved toward my terminators and the librarian appeared on a building behind the Intercessors and near my terminators. The librarian smote one of my terminators before using Wings of Sanguinius to move between the Intercessors and Predator.
During shooting, the Predator reduced my right squad to two men. The tacticals chipped away at my center squad, but the cover they took kept them from being crippled and prevented the Interceptors from finding shots. The Death Company unloaded into my left squad reducing it to half strength. In the assault, the Death Company charged my left squad losing one to Overwatch. I spent 2 command points to interrupt taking down 3 before they wiped them out. The Death Company then followed through to my Chaos Lord who summarily wiped them out with his Murder Sword. During Morale, I didn't lose any additional men. My opponent gained a point from Objective Left tying things up at 2 VP each.

Round 3
I Captured Objective Right and held Objective Center (for an additional 2 more points). My ran my Warp Talons to screen my center squad as well as my Lord and Champion who also moved to make sure I could hold Objective Center. My Terminators shot into the Intercessors again bringing them down to three. During Assault, my Terminators did a multi assault on the Remaining Intercessors and Librarian. This time, the Blood Angels interrupted the Black Legion. However, they only managed a single wound. My Terminators injured the Librarian and killed another Primaris. I scored another 2 VP for a score of BL: 4 to BA: 2).

My opponent moved up his tacticals to get everything in Rapid Fire range of my Warp Talons which they promptly shredded in the shooting phase. The Librarian flew away from the fight with the terminators. I can't remember if did another smite (I think he did). The Predator unloaded onto the two CSM on Objective Right but did nothing. During Shooting, as mentioned the Warp Talons were wiped out. The Interceptors killed a few more of my center squad leaving only the Aspiring Champion. During assault, the Predator rolled into my remaining left side CSM but again couldn't shift them. The Librarian and Intercessors attack the terminators killing two and injuring 1. They swung back killing all but one of the Intercessors. On the left none of the charges had enough distance to reach anything. Again, Morale so no losses on my side. My Opponent scored another VP off the left objective.

Final Score: Black Legion: 4, Blood Angels 3.

After Actions
For me, I want to say having my Warp Talons on the table was a mistake, but at the same time, they did provide counter deep strike protection. I want to say that my left CSM was too far behind to do anything worthwhile, but they also provided me rear area protection from my opponent's reserves. I really should have had my Exalted Champion in better position as he didn't do anything all game. I do feel that my deployment of my terminators was all wrong. I should have focused completely on the Intercessors and not kept an option open to attack the predator. It cost my nearly 10 shooting dice because of it which could have made the melee much easier. Perhaps doing that slowed the predator from moving forward, but I don't think so. I also should have probably made better use of my special rules which I basically ignored to focus on the fundamentals of the game.
As for the things I did right, I think I kept my squad close enough together to keep them support with the obvious exception of the terminators which were meant to be a distraction in my opponent's backfield. He would have been much better off leaving them alone and moving toward capturing the objectives. I also think me basically ignoring the Predator worked in my favor since while it was basically invincible to my force, it couldn't really deal enough damage to justify it inclusion in this particular game.

For my opponent, I felt that he didn't have the right units in the right places. I was a little taken back that he didn't start with his reserves as his first deployed units as to not show his hand. I even asked him if I could use my Terminators as my first deployment unit placing them in deep strike as it seems a good tactic to try to get your opponent to show as much of their hand as possible. He also went very strong on the left objective which given where I deployed and the way the terrain was setup I was never really going to be able to take. If he would have placed his scouts there instead of the much more terrain heavy right side, he could have made better use of the rest of his force as long as the intercessors to could get over to them to support them should I have used my Terminators or Warp Talons to reach them. If this was a killing mission (or had kill Victory Point conditions) my opponent would have easily won. At the end of the game, he had wiped out more than 3/4s of my force. In fact, if the game would have gone for another round he may have been able to at very least tie it up or moved ahead. However, I don't think he took the mission objective nor the need to cover ground quickly as important as killing off my force. I feel this is understandable as this game was an obvious departure for what this group usually plays where I have done these sort of game where you really only have a couple opportunities to fight instead move. Finally, my opponent had a lot of key areas where luck was not with him. My Chaos Lord shouldn't have wiped out the Death Company and his Predator should have cleared the right side much faster. My risk of throwing caution to the wind to capture points and see how long I could hold them until I could get reinforcements paid off well this game. It could have easily gone the other direction.

First Impressions of Warhammer 40K

The rules are okay. Not my favorite by a long shot, but I don't mind them too much. The biggest issue I have at the moment is 2,000 points seems like way too much given all the load out options and special rules. I think I would be fine with say 1500 points. Although, I like this 1,000 point level with a heavy focus on infantry like we did. I don't really like having more than 14 units or 60-80 models in game which it where I look like I will be landing. I am okay with the I-Go-U-GO manner of the game. It the first one I play like that (Dust Warfare and Black Power are that way), and it makes writing battle reports much easier. I can't say that I am fan of the 3 dice rolls (Hit, Wound, Armor) which seems like 1 roll too many. Additionally, it didn't take much to be rolling over 20 dice even with an elite army (as opposed to a horde one). I don't really like buckets of dice games typically. Compared to many of the systems I saw in 7th edition, I much prefer this as I don't want a little mini game for every little thing. At least, not at point totals Warhammer 40K players play at. Like with 7th edition, I think given the option, I would rather play a skirmish version of the game more than what is typically played. My first game took about 2 hours which is about the game length I want. The other tables looked like they had an hour or two more to complete at the pace they were playing. I don't mind the occasional 4 hour slog, but typically I want a game over in about 2.5 hours.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/03/17 17:01:53


 
   
Made in us
Rotting Sorcerer of Nurgle






Jacksonville, NC

Thanks for sharing!

As you learn the rules for your army and models, the more you play, the faster games go. A typical 2k point game (assuming a moderate skill level with working knowledge of the rules) takes 2 hours. Of course, some armies take a bit longer, especially hordes if the player doesn't have movement trays.

I take around 3 hours for a 2k game right now and I'm at about 6 games played. Often I'm the reason the game is slowing down because I have to check my rules often; so I've taken to making photo copies of the unit rules that I actually use. I keep the books on me, but its better to have a quick reference listing versus thumbing through 3 books.

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Made in us
Committed Chaos Cult Marine





I can't say my game was slow. We didn't really check the rule book (I don't have one yet, the shop was out of stock) and only occasionally looked at unit stats/abilities. I was thinking of my opponent that looked like he wanted to get in another game, but was kinda out sequence to the rest of the group because our game was so short due half the points and game rounds.

It is more of the fact that I think 2,000 points is too much for my preferences. Time is one aspect of that preference, but the other is frankly unnecessarily minutiae that is still in 8th (such as I really don't think the game needs to differentiate axes, mauls and swords). Although, the biggest thing is I like point totals where you can't bring everything you want. I am still putting together my 2,000 point list and at 1700 or so points I got everything I really want in the list (more actually) and will probably just take a bunch of chaos terminators to get close.

I understand I am in the minority. I honestly would prefer just to play using Power Points and wysiwyg the models since I have a very limited supply of models built to be fairly standard weapon load outs. However, I am pretty sure I am the only one that would like that where I am gaming. Which is fine, I like the game well enough to continue and play bigger and perhaps longer games than I really want to.
   
Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User




You left one Chaos Tactical Marine at Terracrux.

Source: That BA Player
   
Made in us
Committed Chaos Cult Marine





Yeah, I picked him up the following day. Thanks for the game, I really think you would have tabled me if we would have gone one more round. Also, I did the murder sword completely wrong which would have also drastically changed the outcome of the game. After re-reading it, it isn't nearly as good especially in that case.

I just finished a 2,000 pt list. If you want to see it, I posted it in the army list section. You were right, I had plenty of stuff to make a decent list to that level.

I hope to get in another game with you in the future and not drastically screw up the rules.
   
 
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