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I finally had a chance a few weeks ago to make it back over to my old haunt and get in a local RTT this year. I had a lot of success there last year with my 3rd edition BA and was really itching for a chance to field my new mech BA. All three of the Florida Ard Boyz finalists were there. Here is my army list:

Mephiston
Chaplain

5x DC

2x (10 Tactical Marines w. plasma gun & powerfist + rhino)
10x Assault Marines w. 2x plasma pistol & power fist + rhino

2x Baal w. HB sponsons

2x (Attack bike w. multi-melta)

As luck would have it I was up against the top Ard Boyz finalist from Florida the first round. He was playing a genestealer shock list:

Broodlord w. full retinue of genestealers

3x (Zoanthrope)

5x (full unit of genestealers w. scuttle, carapace, flesh hooks)

2x (superfex)

This was a loot counter mission but it soon turned into a blood bath and neither of us were wasting any time with the loot counters.

More to follow!

- G

So the first mission was for loot counters. You had an L shaped deployment zone up to 12" along your table edges, which was good for me since all those genestealers had to cross more open ground to reach my line. Still with scuttle and fleet each turn the five packs of stealers moved quickly across the table. My two Baals did awesome, easily killing two packs of genestealers. I really wanted to see what Mephiston could do against the Broodlord as well. When you are up against a genestealer shock force you have to kill as many of them as possible before the close combat begins. Note that all three Zoanthropes had the psychic power that drops your leadership by 1. The LRC also did very well shooting genestealers and I got in as much shooting as possible before the first blow was struck. When it was time to assault every unit of Blood Angels was able to charge except for one that broke from shooting and fled off the table. By the end of the game here is what I had left:

Chaplain
2x rhino
tactical squad under 50%
2x Baal

Here is what was left of the Tyranids:

2x Superfex
Zoanthrope
genestealer pack under 50%

I thought it would end in a draw but my opponent told me the points he had left and he just got the minor victory. I could have swung the battle with Mephiston charging the Broodlord and a lone genestealer in cover but unfortunately Mephiston completely whiffed. He did manage to kill three genestealers the next turn, but that was it for our Chief Librarian before he was rended off the table. One of my tactical squads did manage to bring down the Broodlord though, mostly with blows from the squad members and I thought that was fitting for our Chapter. So in the end for the first round I still had scored a decent amount of battle points with two more rounds to play.

- G

Some more notes regarding the Tyranid genestealer shock list...

Both of the super Carnifexen had the following:

5 wounds, 2+ armor save, +1 BS, regeneration, barbed strangler, venom cannon

The three Zoanthropes had the tooled warp blast shot and the psychic power that lowers your leadership by -1 for each one. My opponent set them up out of coherency so I am guessing you can take three as one heavy support choice and field them separately. The negative modifier to my leadership hurt Mephiston as this prevented him from successfully passing his leadership tests for psychic powers most of the time and one tactical squad that broke from shooting was unable to regroup and fled off the table. Other than that the negative modifier to my leadership did not pose any other problems for me. It was a very tight game overall and I as I said in an earlier post the game ended in a minor loss for my Blood Angels. It was very close down the stretch and we were only able to play four complete turns. I tried to kill all of the Broodlord's retinue but as fate would have it one genestealer survived and this was the one I charged with Mephiston since it was the closest model... amazingly Mephiston failed to score a single wound against the lone genestealer and was killed the next turn after being charged by the remnants of another genestealer pack. I had split off the Chaplain and DC from the Librarian to engage as many units as possible... it worked very well except Mephiston whiffing... oh well. I had planned to kill the Broodlord's entire retinue so that Mephiston could charge the Broodlord (in cover) and take out the patriarch with his force weapon.

The second round was a straight forward victory point mission against a relatively new player fielding IG. It was an easy win to be honest and again we were only able to get in four turns, which prevented me from scoring a massacre. It was a fun game though and the mechanized BA list performed as planned, plus the two attack bikes did extremely well... one was living a charmed life, making all its many armor saves and my opponent always missing when he shot at it with guns that ignore armor saves. This attack bike kept stunning one Leman Russ which kept that flank of my battleline intact. The other attack bike got into close combat the first turn against an inflitrating storm trooper squad toting a couple of meltaguns that had setup behind intervening cover 12 inches from my landraider Crusader. Slowly over the course of the game this attack bike whittled down the storm troopers and eventually swept them at the end of a close combat round. Again all my BA units were always able to charge... which has me considering whether or not Corbulo would be the better choice than the Chaplain... it is a tough call and I think the next time I play I will field Corbulo to see how the army fares. Still the ability to reroll all failed hits for the DC the turn they charge (and Mephiston if does not leave them) has proven to be very powerful.

- G

The last round was versus a veteran Necron player. Again it was a victory point mission with the L shaped deployment zone except this time they only came in 10" from the table edges. You also had to hold everything in reserve except for your two compulsory troop choices. My opponent was running a list something like this:

Lord w. ROB & VOD

10x Immortal
10x Immortal

12x Warrior
12x Warrior
12x Warrior

Monolith

3x (6x scarab)

I started the game with two rhinos full of tactical Marines and successfully used OCE to skirt across the table and make a rhino wall to block all enemy LOS through the middle section of the table. My opponent had two Warrior squads that stood around and waited for their reserves to appear. The second turn in came everything for me except one attack bike. The rhino full of assault Marines also used OCE. I should say that all my units came in along my short edge of the table, while the Necrons stayed back along their short table edge. This made for a very fast game as there was not much to shoot except the two rhinos plugging the 'hole'. Two units of scarabs did turbo boost up to my perimeter and were assaulted by the assault squad and one squad of tactical Marines. The power fists made all the difference against the scarabs and by the end of the game I had killed both of these units while both of squads were still above 50%. Towards the middle of the game the Lord veiled into the center of my gun line with a squad of Immortals. They shot at the LRC but failed to do any damage. I then unloaded everything I had into the Immortals (2x Baal, tactical squad rapid firing, LRC, 2x attack bike, plus Mephiston, Chaplain and DC). My last shot killed the last Immortal so I could not assault the Lord, which promptly veiled far away. My Baals then made a short run to the far table edge and brought a squad of Warriors below 50% just as the game ended. I finished with a minor victory and ended up with the award for Best Army.

- G

Tactica to follow.

Do Blood Angels no longer have the "And They Shall Know No Fear" rule? If they do, your squad would have auto rallied, penalty to Ld or no.

They still do and it sounds like I missed that one. Thanks for the reminder.

- G