Battle Report - Blood Angels v Salamanders

Time for another batrep. I was able to sneak out of the house for a few hours and got a game in vs. a new friend at the FLGS. He is relatively new to the game, and he is still learning some of the basics of the game. I helped him out a bit as we went, giving tips etc. I think it is really fun to teach new people the game. It is great to watch them pick up on the nuances as they learn.

I went back to my roots for this game, switching up my army list back to one I really like, the dual LR list with Mephiston. Only this time I took out the DC Furioso dreads, and put in another Terminator assault squad. My, what fun to drop that combo out of LRs on another army. The list I had concocted was a 1750 list, but it was pared down to 1500 to accommodate the newer guys smaller model count.

My list was this:
Mephiston
Corbulo
2x 5 man assault Marines in Rhinos
2x LR crusader
2x 5-man Terminator Assault squads (3x LC, and 2x TH/SS)
I only put on 2x DC models, just now realizing there should have been 4 of them, lol

My opponent had:
Vulkan
1 squad of TH/SS terminators
2x Tac squads, flamer/ML and melta/plasma cannon, each with a Razorback, one with h. bolter and one with TL lascannon
1 Dread with MM and H. Flamer
1 Ironclad Dread in Drop pod
Predator Annihilator
Thunderfire cannon with Techmarine.

I believe that was all of his army.

We decided to play annihilation for simplicity's sake, and he won the die roll and chose to go first. He spread his whole army out across his board edge. I then deployed everything in my right corner. This took his dread w/ MM out of play for most of the game, along with Vulkan and the attached tac squad guarding the opposite side of the board for a few turns. I love castling in a corner and then plowing into a flank and mowing them down in assault. It just feels right to me :) And with only half his army on that side of the field, none of it assault oriented, it was ripe for the picking.

So first turn I have all my tanks behind cover for his shooting that is coming my way, but I couldn’t really block off my LRs from his podding in Ironclad. I could have sacrificed my rhinos for that, but I didn't think about it at the time. I should have made a wall with my rhinos 4 or so inches from my LRs to block him out of landing within melta range of my LRs. I never used the troops this game, so that would have been a good trade. So he drops his Ironclad not too far from my LR next to the board edge in a gutsy move, and sticks the landing. His predator and las razorback open up on me and don't accomplish anything thanks to my cover saves. His Ironclad then tries to melta my LR and fails to harm it. Lucky for me he rolled poor on his penetrate.
On my side of the turn I only move 6" with my LRs to be able to melta his dread. And nothing of his was in assault range so there wasn't a point in going flat out. I fired on his dread and the first shot it and destroyed the poor dread left sitting there. Lucky rolling for me! End of turn 1.

Turn 2 he unloads on me again with all his lascannons, and manages to stun my LR with Mephiston and a squad of termies in it. And that is all he has accomplished. His techmarine had been firing at my Rhino behind cover but never managed to do any damage. Bottom of turn 2 things start going downhill for him. I dump Mephiston out of the stunned LR he was in, and jump pack him 12" forward to get into the mix. My DC close on his Las razorback, and my other LR advances up the left side of the board towards his razorbacks and Techmarine. My DC assault the las razorback manage to get a don't move/shoot roll result and my LR shoots the other razorback with the MM. I pen it and blow it up. The marines take no casualties, but are subsequently pinned down in the wreckage. End of turn 2.

Turn 3 he continues to run Vulkan and his squad and the dread towards me from the opposite side of the board. His one combat squad hops out of the stunned razorback and shoots up my DC to no effect, those DC are tough buggers. His thunderfire cannon still fails to do any good, and his Predator manages to maybe chip the fancy paint job on my LR. No luck for the poor guy. On my turn I unloaded death all over his flank. Because of bad luck, or poor moving or who knows what, but I manage to make a triple assault on the pinned marines, the stunned razorback, and the combat squad that just hopped out of their ride with one squad of termies. The DC assault the combat squad as does Mephiston. With Corbulo hanging out in a nearby LR, things got messy with furiously charging termies. I wrecked everything of course. Mephiston smears the combat squad all over the side of the razorback before anyone else attacks, then my TH terminator wrecks said razorback just to add insult to injury. The pinned squad was torn to shreds by the LC termies. End of turn 3.

Turn 4 he turns his Thunderfire cannon on my termy + Mephiston squad and manages to kill one with the shot, and forces them to all make dangerous terrain tests next turn. Luckily Corbulo was close enough to ignore the failed armor save for the poor terminator. His Predator was able to knock a gun off my LR this turn, but not much else. Vulkan was getting close in range, and the tac squad he was attached to was able to fire their plasma cannon. It scattered onto his own Thunderfire cannon! And of course I fail to wound it. I guess the dice gods don't hate him too bad after all. Vulkan flamed one of the DC down, then assaulted and killed the other. My turn I overran his thunderfire cannon, but not before another of my Terminators failed a dangerous terrain test, that Corbulo subsequently ignored for me. My last MM shot and killed his dread that was threatening with multi-melta shots and str 10 attacks next turn. I had unloaded the second squad of termies to assault the dread just in case. They were left twiddling their thumbs after the explosion. End of turn 4.

Turn 5 he moved Vulkan back into the safety of the tac squad. And his Termies finally arrived from deep strike. His shooting killed one of my terminators, and that is about it. My turn Mephiston scored his second perils of the warp and took his second wound, the first time I failed to gain extra attacks on the Cannon. So Mephiston was out of range to assault the Predator, but he was in range for the Termies who had just landed. I unloaded both of my crusaders on his termies and killed 2 of them with storm bolters, then assaulted and wiped them with Mephiston alone. End of turn 5. Die roll showed a 4 so we went into turn 6, even though the game was already over for him. All that remained was his tac squad with Vulkan, and his predator. I had lost the assault cannons of my land raiders, and my 2 DC models.

Turn 6 he assaults Mephiston with Vulkan and the tac squad. Big mistake. Mephiston goes first and kills 6 tac marines. Vulkan puts one wound on Mephiston, and then my remaining termies kill all but his sarge. His serge fails morale and books it away. On my side of the turn I finish everything else off, finally getting his predator and the fleeing sergeant. Game over, Salamanders annihilated!

It was a fun game overall, although more resistance would have made for a more fun and challenging game. His starting turns had some poor dice rolling, but that happens to everyone. Mephiston was MVP of this game hands down. This guy wrecked nearly half of the opposing army single-handedly. Stick him in a terminator squad and his survivability goes up exponentially. This guy just needs an Iron Halo and he will be so tough, although the rumors are not pointing that direction. MVP runner-up was Corbulo. Corbulo + LC terminators = win. Strength 5, Initiative 5, reroll to wound attacks are so strong! And this game I was finally able to use his exsanguinator. My last few games with him in I either forgot about the ability, or was never able to use it. And this game he was saving terminators, well worth his points.

I am getting way excited for the codex. Mephiston will cost a crap load of points, but I will still take him. This guy smashes nearly everything in front of him. Power weapons are his doom, but with the rumored psychic power to stop a single models attacks, he will plow through squads. I can’t wait!

Pics and WIPs

Time for an update around here. I got some pictures taken of some of my mostly painted minis. Also a few pics of a conversion I just began working on. So if you haven't noticed yet, everything I have is a work in progress. I have painting/modeling ADD I'm pretty sure, so little ever gets completely done. But at least is doesn't look too crappy on the table. Right?

So here is my Land Raider salvage job. I bought the hull from a friend for 5 bucks. Best deal of my life. I then got the Redeemer/Crusader sprue from the local store and put all the weapons on. I wanted a different looking tank than the others I have painted, and I got some inspiration from the DH codex. Turned out all right.

By the way, I take craptastic pictures with an incredible camera. It belongs to the wife and I am blundering through trying to figure it out. So try to get past the shoddy pics and enjoy the minis.





And here it is with my other LR. I magnetized the sponsons on this one as well. If you are interested there is a tutorial here.



Here is a speeder I just finished. This guy was one of my MVP's for the recent tournament. Heavy flamer and multi-melta work wonders.



Don't mind the missing flamer, it is coming, lol.

Now for my latest conversion. I love librarians, in the fluff and in-game. They may not be the best HQ's but I totally dig them. When the new BA dex comes out I am going to run Librarian heavy for sure. My list will probably be created around librarians, with some assault vehicles for fast action. As far as models go, I have Mephiston, a generic Librarian, and now I am converting this guy out of the Assault on Black Reach Captain.



This was my first shot at greenstuff work, and I am very happy with how it turned out. I have a ways to go before I can do it confidently, but it was a great start I think.

The banner was shaved off with a sharp hobby knife, then the Librarian skull with horns went up there. I left the scroll on the bottom to write in some cool name. I sculpted a psychic hood on the head to really make the conversion work. I drilled into the sword hand and inserted a piece of metal rod into to make the weapon a glaive, then glued the skull from the pommel back onto the end of the glaive haft. This book is going into the outstretched arm. That skull on the cover wasn't as clean as I would like, but it went well.

There are a few bits I need to clean up where I hacked the mini up, but it is almost ready to prime, assemble, and paint.

Here is a close up of the banner, so all you greenstuff pros can give me some tips.


As always, comments are welcome, and even appreciated.

Business Ethics . . .

Ok, this post has nothing to do with business, but whenever I hear the word ethics it makes me think of Billy Madison . . . what a great movie.

Anyways on to the topic. I played in a local tournament and did reasonably well for my first time. I lost one game to a 20 year 40k veteran. He was playing Space Wolves and had a tough army list with all the options you can throw on there. He knew I was a relative newb at 40k, and he deliberately took advantage of that.

So, to start it all off, my list was in limbo right up until it was time to deploy the first game almost. I had the 2 razorback list, but at the last minute I figured I'd drop the TL lascannons and go for more Rhinos for my combat squaded tac squads. Come to find out, that is illegal. Only one transport per squad, even though you are dividing them up. I didn't know that, and my opponent pointed it out kindly to me. I felt mostly retarded, but then he said, "That's fine, don't worry about it." I told him I could change my list easy enough, but he said again not to worry about it. So I didn't. We played on, and he won solidly, but only because he was cheating. I don't know who would have won in the end had it been a legitimate game, he could have still wiped the floor with me, but I don't think that would have been the case.

He had Logan Grimnar in his list who can give one of a few USR's to the squad he has joined. Fearless, preferred enemy, relentless, and another I can't remember. Strong ability right? Well it's even stronger when you call out the ability you want mid-turn rather than at the beginning of the turn like the rule states. Now you might think, who cares. But he was into combat before he tells me that he wants preferred enemy. Then I shoot up Logan's squad and force a Ld check, and here is what could have turned the game around, Logan failed his check. He starts to roll the fallback distance and then declares, "I'll make him fearless this round." I didn't know he was cheating, but he did. He had to call that at the start of my turn, not after I force the check and he fails.

Secondly, he was cheating with his wolf claws. He would roll to hit me, and if was a terrible roll then he would call re-rolls to hit. If it went well, then it was re-rolls to wound. He had to call that before he started making rolls at all. It pisses me off.

And this is the kicker, mid-game he was trying to get his rune priest free line-of-sight on one of my dreads, and makes an illegal move. He moved right next to my tank, well within an inch, and I called him on it. So he moved his character slightly, and then was in coherency with another of his units, so he had to join. So I told him that, and he said, "Come on, you are playing with an illegal list, and you are trying to call me on this?" And I said, "You know what, you are right, its not that big of a deal, I don't want to be that guy." I let it slide, because it didn't affect the game much, his living lightning failed to hurt my dread and no big deal. But he tried to hang his supposedly wonderful sportsmanship over my head to guilt me into allowing him to bend/break the rules. Had I known he was pulling the BS with Logan and his wolf claw termies, who knows what would have happened. And he was the one that insisted I keep my list the way it was, and not revert to my legal version.

So what's the point of my rant? That's a good question, and I'm not sure I know the answer. I'm not going to confront the guy over it. If it happened again, I would call him on the rule at that time. I had an "illegal" list to begin with, but he was fine with that. If you all were in a similar situation where your opponent gave you a favorable call, do you then allow them to walk over you with their rules violations? I'm not going to let it happen again, that is for sure.

To top it all off, he was a nice guy after the game. He is apparently a Blood Angels fan, and showed me his list and how he runs it. He talked tactics with me after the game, and told me all the things I already knew, but just didn't do in deployment. I don't dislike the guy in the end, I would play him again. I just need to make sure I know the codex well enough of each of the armies to know when they aren't following it.

Chime in with your thoughts, ideas, etc. I'd really like to know how others feel about this.

And on a personal note, I passed part 2 of my national licensing exam for my Optometric License!!! WOOT WOOT! I am so stoked. Just 4 more months and one more exam to go and I will finally have some disposable income for this hobby! :)

Tournament Results

The tournament was a total blast for me. It was the first one I had ever played in. and it went pretty well. After the advice I got on the blog I decided to take my own list, with a few changes. Here it is:

Librarian
2x Death Company Furioso Dreads w/ HF and meltagun
2x Tactical squads w/ flamer and Lascannon and rhinos
3x Baal preds
2x Attack bike squads with MM, 2 bikes each
1 Landspeeder squadron, 2 speeders with HF and MM, and one with a typhoon ML

The list worked pretty well I thought. I was pleased with each of the units in the end. Although, I would drop the lascannon from the tac squads without too much hesitation. With all the moving I had to do, they just didn't get fired enough to justify the points, although in one game, one of them stopped an annihilator pred.

So on to the games! The point of the tournament was to mix it up a bit, so they used 3rd and 4th ed scenarios. I began playing with 5th, so they were new to me, and I thought they were pretty fun.

Game 1 was Cleanse, control table quarters with troops. I was matched vs a nice guy named Luke who proceeded to kick my teeth in with his drop pod wolves. He ran a tough list, but I played terrible. I didn't place anything in reserves like I should have, I deployed poorly, I didn't even pop smoke on my tanks and dreads at the end of the first turn before he dropped on me. It was abysmal to say the least. Even had I played well, his list was tough, and I don't know if I could have beaten him. Wolves are tough, and they have an answer for everything in each squad it seems. Melta and chainfists for vehicles, 3-4 attacks on the charge, and counterassault. So, he beats me in table quarters 2-1, and mostly destroyed my whole army. I did get more than half of his army, but I still lost.

Game 2 was vs a cool kid named Brett playing foot slogging orcs. Mission was to get into your opponents deployment zone for bonus points. He had about 150 models on the table and things weren't looking to wonderful. The game went well for me though. I had lots of shooty, and the flamers on the dreads and the speeders took their toll heavily on the poor orcs. He deployed first and had to be spread out, so I took one side of the board and rolled his flank. He got a few of my preds, a speeder, and a bike. Everything else of mine made it into his zone and I scored major points for all the units and the rhinos. He had a few squads in my zone, but I won the game squarely.

Game 3 was against a fellow named Aaron. He was a good opponent overall, but his Chaos Marines list could have been better. It was Fabius Bile and a load of his enhanced plague marines. 3 squads in rhinos, and one 20 man squad with a predator annihilator. The mission called for me to defend a 2'x2' square from him. I had a building right in the middle of it, so I parked my bikes and speeders right on top and fired at him as he advanced towards me. I popped his rides so he had to get out to fight me, and the combats just didn't go too well for him. He had a really bad time with his powerfists against my dreadnoughts, and I ended up grinding him down. Fabius took out my Libby in an epic assault on top of the building. I gave him 2 wounds and he gave me 3, I failed one of the 3+ saves and that means ID against Fabius. Too bad. I won the game pretty solidly. His 20 man squad was down to about 15 marines and locked in assault with my dread, and his predator was immobilized. I had lost one baal pred to massed Lascannon fire, on baal was immobilized from meltagun fire, and lost 3 attack bikes and Libby. It was a fun game overall.

So the results came in and I had tied a few people in battle points. There were 3 of us tied with 2-1 records. But my victory points were the highest of anyone else at the tournament. I had gotten loads of bonus points for fulfilling the objectives during the missions. So I came in second! I was stoked over it. The guy I lost to was the first place winner, so that was a little consolation for me.

I'm glad I stuck with my own list in the end, rather than borrowing from Stelek. I had played similar versions of this list before and was certainly more comfortable with it than I would have been with the razorback spam list.

Long report I know, but hopefully worth the read.

I'm just waiting now for the next time!

Tournament List Help . . . Please!

Ok, so my first ever tournament is coming up. It's a 1750 shindig at my local store. I am way excited to get out and play some "competitive" 40k. Who knows what the actual competition will be like, I'll likely get crushed. But no matter, it'll be a fun time to at least get out and play some games.

Point of the post really is to get some input on my lists. I have two that I would like to run. One is borrowed mostly from another site, and the other is a list I made up myself. I'd like input on both of them. Which list I should run, what changes to make if any. Any comments or criticism are welcome.

List 1:
Librarian-Plasma pistol, Null zone and Gate of Infinity
Rifleman dread x3-2x twin linked autocannons
Dakka pred x3-Autocannon and heavy bolter sponsons
5 man tactical squad with Razorback w/ Lascannon and twin linked plasma gun x4
Attack bike squad w/ 3 bikes w/ multi-meltas
Landspeeder w/ heavy bolter and typhoon missile launcher x2

So that is some serious long-range firepower. It looks like a great list on paper, but I dont know how well the razorbacks will do. It's much too easy to pop armor 11. But I think the list will put out loads of wounds to force saves and take out light armor pretty easily. This is the borrowed list by the way. My lists certainly don't look that strong on paper.

List 2:
Corbulo
Death Company Furioso Dreadnoughtx2-venerable, melta, heavy flamer
Death Company marine x2 w/ rhino
Baal Predator x3-twin linked assault cannon w/ heavy bolter sponsons
Tactical Squad x2-Flamer and lascannon w/ razorbacks w/ twin linked lascannons
Attack bike squad x2- 2 bikes w/ multimeltas
Landspeeder Squadron- 2 speeders w/ heavy flamers and multi-meltas

This list still has lots of shooty, but the Furioso dreads are there for some close combat love. They work pretty well in tandem with Corbulo.

So I just can't decide which army to take. I want to stay true to my Blood Angels, but I don't want to be gimped in the tournament by a sub-par codex. So please, please chime in with your ideas on which list to take and how to improve it.

I'd be ever so grateful.

Merry Chistmas . . . To Me!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas out there. I know I certainly did. And to top it all off with a week off work is even better!

I did get the best Christmas present ever this year! My wife surprised me with tickets to Austin come the end of July, and registration for BoLSCon 2010!!! I am still nearly speechless. She has always been supportive of me being a nerdy gamer, but this goes above and beyond. I have the best wife ever!

Enough gushy for now, that can wait till later. I am looking for a doubles partner for the Friday doubles tourny. If anyone is interested then drop me a line.

Now its time to finish mechanising my army, and start praying for the new Blood Angels codex to drop in time and be the best ever!

Battle Reports-condensed versions

So I had the chance to get some games in recently down at the local store. I'd love to do some detailed batreps, but I always forget a camera, and I don't make notes of the game in progress. Suffice it to say, it makes remembering the pertinent details difficult. But there were some salient points that I remembered from each of the games that I think are worth sharing. Hopefully none of these things are earth-shatteringly new to the people reading this, but they sure would have been to the people I was playing. Anyways, let's get into the games.

Game 1 was against an ork player. Mistake number one was to bring orks. Just kidding (mostly). I think orks are underpowered personally. I know a lot of people like them, and can do well with them. I just haven't seen too much of it personally.
My army list was my standard blood angels list.

Corbulo in a rhino with the Death Company
Mephiston with Assault Termies in a LR Crusader
2x Death Company Dreads with HF
2x 5-man Assault squads in Rhinos
2x attack bikes with Multimeltas
Baal pred, or dakka pred as points allow
And sometimes another LR crusader, points willing. I go back and forth with this tank, whether to take it or not.

My opponents list was the green horde. 5x 30 boy foot squads with nobs. He had Ghazghul also, and some other named character. Mad doc something or other. He also had a stormboyz squad with the named character in there.

So he won the roll-off and chose to go first. He lined his whole deployment zone with boys with ghazgul in the middle. Poor deployment really, but he had no other choice with that many models. But it set me up to play a denied flank and roll his army one squad of boys at a time. And that is what I did. First turn he advances all the way forward with all squads and then runs at me, putting himself in easy assault range. So my turn I charge him with Mephiston into one squad of boyz and the termies into another with Corbulo supporting them with Furious Charge. It was a slaughter from there on out. The termies wiped the squad bottom of his turn 2, Mephiston soloed the other squad by the top of my next turn, all the while my tanks are whittling his other squads down. His stormboyz drop on one of my LR's and fail big time, then die to the Furiosos flaming them horribly. The furiosos then get into combat with Ghazgul and his flunkies, and hold for a turn for Meph and termies to show up and turn the tide. By that time he had one or two squads still trying to get at me from the other side of the board, so I tank shocked him with my LR and effectively closed off his only lane of assault to me.

It was an all out massacre. I lost one Furioso, one termy, and 3 wounds off Mephiston. That is it, and I tabled his army, all 150 models. The kid was dumbfounded, and had said earlier that no one had ever been able to kill all his army before. Moral of the story here is don't set yourself up to be assaulted on one flank by a better assaulting army. His deployment was forced by his army selection, but he could have set up better. Kept more central, and kept squads closer to each other so they could charge into assault with only one turns' worth of movement. Also, it is entirely possible to table the green tide. I have a subpar blood angels army, and I got the job done pretty easily. Bring a competitive army to the table and it should be even easier.

Side note here, I hope the new dex makes Mephiston even better. Some may say he sucks, costs too much or whatever else they can think up. And it may be true in comparison to other named characters, but I love the guy. Absolute monster in combat. Eternal warrior and an invul save should make him one of the best characters in the game. I don't know what will be done with his psychic powers, but I imagine they will only get better, although I love the ones he has. Denying about 6 attacks per combat with transfixing gaze was way cool vs the orks, and surely saved some wounds. I just hope he gets even better in the new dex ;)

Next game was vs a Tau player. I played a similar list and he brought a static Firewarrior gunline army, with a serious crisis suit squad to deepstrike with O'Shovah, and some deepstriking stealth suits, and a lone piranha. It was a free for all for me. He couldn't harm me with his firewarriors unless I got out of my tanks, so I didn't. I rolled his army in about 4 turns. We called it at that point. I lost my Death Company models and my DC rhino and my 2 attack bikes to his suits, and that was it. Mephiston once again killed 3/4ths the army.

Point here is that mech is way too powerful to not take advantage of. Nothing new here I hope for all of you reading. This should be common knowledge by now. Apparently this kid was limited by his models, but the lesson is still the same. A good portion of his points were tied up in firewarriors that couldn't harm my army if I stayed in my mobile bunkers. I almost felt bad playing the game when I saw his army on the table after deployment. I knew exactly how the game would end, barring me rolling 1's every single time. I tried to talk to the kid afterwards and tell him about what he could have done better and so forth, but he told me he was selling the army and going for 'nids. At least I tried to educate him a bit . . .

I have another batrep to write up. Killer game vs a Nurgle demon army. Tough buggers to kill. I took a vanilla marine force because I forgot my death company dreads at home. And I forgot to put on the table a rifleman dread (2x twin linked AC's) so he was 125 points up on me before the game even began. It was a nail-biter. Granted I list hammered him a little bit, but I was going with the models that I had brought with me combined with a list I had been cooking up in my head for fun. Details to come soon.