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This is my first time using my new Blood Angels: A standard 1200 point 3 objective match versus Imperial Guard. As I hadn't played Blood Angels before I have had no experience of their tactics: because of this I was aiming for a draw at the least.

My list

Captain with Thunder Hammer, Storm Bolter and Jump Pack
5 Assault Marines with Flamer, Power Weapon

5 Man Death Company with Hand Flamer, Power Fist and Power Weapon
Death Company Dread with Blood Talons

5 Man Tactical Squad with Power Weapon
10 Man Tactical Squad with Plasma Gun, ML, Plasma Pistol and Power Weapon

Dreadnought with TL Lascannon and Drop Pod


His list
Colonel Straken with Company Command Squad, with Heavy Flamer, Astropath, Medic and 2 Bodyguards
Captain Al'raheim with Platoon Command Squad with Plasma Gun

3 10 man Infantry Squads combined, with 3 Flamers and a Comissar
10 man Veteran Squad with 3 Meltaguns, Sergeant Bastonne, Grenadiers, Demolitions, with all remaining Vets with shotguns.
10 man Ratling Squad.

Vendetta Gunship


Deployment.
Terrain is quite spread out. There is one ruin in the middle, slightly to the east, with a large statue to the west, and a large bastion further to the west. There is also a small forest to the north east of the map, with a few small craters dotted around the middle. There are 3 objectives, Obj1 in the bastion, Obj3 in the ruin, with Obj2 situated in a crater between the other two.

He deploys first, placing his CCS and Vendetta on a small hill to the north. His Veterans are embarked in the Vendetta, and the Infantry Platoon is kept in reserve.

I split my 10 man Squad, deploying one half south (Alpha) of the ruin, with the other squad (Beta) keeping south of the bastion with the DC Dread. The Death Company and 5 man Tac Squad (Gamma) are placed south of the ruin too. The Dread and Captain with Assault Marines are kept in reserve.

He Infiltrates his Ratlings to the forest in the north east. His Vendetta hovers over Obj 3 during it's Scout move.



Turn One
His Veterans instantly claim Obj 3 and hunker down, while Straken and the CCS move south to reinforce their hold. The Ratlings fire upon Gamma Squad, felling 3, and the Vendetta destroys the DC Dread, taking a member of Beta Squad with it. The Veterans kill 2 Death Company with their Meltaguns.

On my turn, the Death Company move towards the Vets, while Alpha and Gamma Squads move follow them towards the Obj 3. The Drop Pod lands to the north, behind the CCS.
Beta Squad fires their ML at the Vendetta, shaking it, while the Dread roasts a member of the CCS. The Death Company wipe out 6 Veterans with the Hand Flamer, while Alpha Squad runs towards Obj 2.
The Death Company assault the Veterans. They manage to wipe out the remaining members except Bastonne, who kills one DC in return, but remains locked in combat.

IG: 1
BA: 0



Turn 2
No reserves arrive.
The Vendetta moves to the east, to avoid Beta Squads ML, while Straken and the CCS head south towards Obj 3. No shooting occurs, but Straken charges into the Death Company with Bastonne. The DC kill Strakens 2 Bodyguards, but Straken wipes out the last of the DC. Bastonne consolidates onto Obj 3.

None of my reserves arrive. I move Gamma Squad north into the Obj 3 ruin. Alpha Squad remain on Obj 2 and Beta Squad hide next to the Obj 1 bastion. Gamma Squad kill Bastonne with their pistols, while Alpha Squad kill the Astropath in the CCS.

IG: 0
BA: 2

Turn 3

"Sir, auspex arrays show a large squad of traitorous infantry heading west towards the objectives. Alpha Squad is pinned down by enemy sniper fire and are requesting additional support"
"Ready the Assault Marines, prepare landing co-ordinates at grid 873104."

His 30 man Infantry Squad outflank thanks to Al'Rahiem and arrive at the east table edge. Straken heads into the Obj 3 ruin. The Vendetta moves north towards the Dread. In Shooting, Straken fails to kill the remains of Gamma Squad on Obj 3. The Ratlings kill a member of Alpha Squad, who fail their pinning test and subequently go to ground. Straken assaults the remains of Gamma Squad, and promptly wipes them out, although he suffers a wound from the power weapon.

My Assault Marines Deep Strike to the south east of the map, close to the Infantry Squad. Beta Squad claims Obj 1 and Alpha Squad remain pinned at Obj 2. The Assault Marines roast 4 Guardsmen, while pistols account for 3 more members. Beta Squad fire at the CCS, killing the Standard Bearer and the Vox.

IG: 0
BA: 2

I was pretty pleased with that turn. I knew that Gamma Squad would get wiped out, as my aim was to kill Bastonne, denying their chance to hold that objective. I'm hoping that the Infantry will be distracted from the objectives and focus on the Assault Marines.



Turn 4:
"Captain, move towards the bastion, scanners show that the area contains multiple Blood Angels, proceed with caution"

Captain Al'Rahiem and his squad arrive at the west side of the board, while the Infantry squad head south towards the Assault Marines (just as planned). Straken begins to head west towards Obj 2 as he is unable to hold Obj 3. The Vendetta flanks behind the Dread and destroys it, and Beta squad and the Assault Marines lose a member each, from the PCS and the Infantry respectively, although Al'Rahiem takes a wound from his Plasma Pistol.

There is very little movement during my turn, although the Assault Marines relocate slightly to get the maximum template coverage for the flamer. They then proceed to kill 5 Guardsmen instantly, before dropping another 4 from their pistols. Alpha Squad remain hunkered down in the crater and fire at Straken, killing the medic, while Beta Squad go to ground, giving them a 3+ cover save from the PCS Plasma weapons. The Assault Marines charge the Infantry, killing 4, with the Captain taking out 3 more. They remain locked in combat.


IG: 0
BA: 2

My plan has succeeded: if he had ignored the Assault Marines, he would have been able to claim Obj 3. However, Alpha and Beta Squads will have to survive a couple of more turns on their objectives.


Turn 5

Al'Rahiem continues to move south east towards Obj 1, while Straken heads to Obj 2. The Ratlings fire at Alpha squad, scoring a rending hit, of which the Marines make the cover save. Straken's squad fires their Heavy Flamer at Alpha Squad, killing one marine. His infantry continue to attack my Assault Marines, scoring no wounds, at which point 3 more are killed by the Captains "Bloodhammer". Straken assaults Alpha Squad, who are wiped out, but score another wound on him. Straken consolidates towards Obj 1.

Very little movement occurs during my turn. Beta Squad repositions in the bastion to get a better shot at the PCS. They fire at the PCS and kill the Vox and the Standard Bearer. The Assault squad kill the last Guardsmen and consolidate towards Obj 3.

We roll for one more turn and it comes up a 5.

Turn 6

Al'Rahiem and Straken converge on Beta Squad. There are 3 members left, of which one is killed by Al'Rahiem's Plasma. Straken charges Beta Squad, wiping them out, but subsequently dying as well. Obj 1 remains held by Al'Rahiem.

My Assault Marines jump north west towards Obj 3. They settle in the ruin, claiming it. No other actions occur.

We roll for another turn, and roll a 2. The game ends, at which point he believes he won, until he realises that BA Assault Marines are Troops choices, allowing them to claim Obj 3.

We finish with a solid draw of a very enjoyable game.


Afterthoughts:-

Overall I enjoyed the "hammerblow" tactics used by the BA. The swift assault from the Captain really tipped the battle in my favour, distracting the Infantry Squad from the Objective in the ruins.

Captain with Assault Marines: Best unit of the army, distracted the Infantry and claimed the objective at the last minute. Would definitly be using these guys again.

Death Company: These guys did a great job of wiping out the Veterans, allowing the Tac marines to claim the Objective. I think I may consider giving them a Rhino next time, to avoid losing too many before they get into combat.

Death Company Dreadnought: Destroyed in the first turn. Could have defended Obj 1 from Al'Rahiem. I think I should have taken that in the Drop Pod instead of the regular Dread.

Tac Marines: These guys did pretty well. They were able to hold the objectives securely for a lengthy period of time.

Dreadnought: Worst unit of the match. It did absolutely nothing during the match apart from roasting one one Guardsman. For the rest of the game it was either shaken or stunned. I may consider changing it in the future, maybe for a squad of Devestators.

You will get a lot more mileage out of Dev squad over the lone dreadnaught.

G

Yeah, I was thinking that a 2 Las 2 Plasms Devestator squad will be adequate.

Anyone else care to comment?

Valkyrie wrote:Anyone else care to comment?

lol. Why does the imperial guard have no tanks???? Quote from fluff "If the Space Marines are the sword of the Emperor the Imperial Guard would be equivalent to a SledgeHammer".
Or it goes something like that.

Good draw, but a few comments;

1) your list is ALL OVER the place... and you had no sang priests! Sang priests are a MUST in any BA army; FnP and FC to all squads in 6" is great!
2) How did the IG guy keep getting the charge on you? If you'd assaulted strakens squad you remove their FC... meaning they need 5's to wound
3) Plasma pistols are the suck... your better buying infernus pistols or something else for the points
4) Normal dreads are terribad UNLESS you give them TL autocannons for their arms... "riflemen" dreads do well popping things like vendettas

Good first game tho!

Good report. In the future, just remember it is never a good idea to only have one vehicle on the field. Like you saw, it will be shaken/stunned constantly until destroyed.

Not a bad match. Let me put it this way though.

You stuck the monster Dreadnought that eats anything in melee combat to trudge across the field.

You stuck the dreadnought with the 48" range primary weapon in a drop pod.

Switch them up and you'll do much better. Better yet, give them both pods and close range weapons, and take a third pod somewhere so they drop at the same time.

Cadichan Support wrote:

Valkyrie wrote:Anyone else care to comment?

lol. Why does the imperial guard have no tanks???? Quote from fluff "If the Space Marines are the sword of the Emperor the Imperial Guard would be equivalent to a SledgeHammer".
Or it goes something like that.

Well the guy's army was made very closely fitting the fluff he had created. He had based the army around a Gaunt's Ghosts type of fluff, with few vehicles. I have to say that the amount of thought this guy had put into the fluff was impressive: he used a Thunderbolt as his Vendetta, saying that the Thunderbolt contained Teleport Homers which allowed it to "carry" troops.

Zid wrote:(2) How did the IG guy keep getting the charge on you? If you'd assaulted strakens squad you remove their FC... meaning they need 5's to wound

Well like I said, as this was my first game with BA, I was aiming for a draw, so by that I was happy to remain hunkered down in cover holding the objectives. I know it's a very odd tactic, but it was for the first game.