1500pt battle report - Dark Angels v Craftworld Eldar, Game 2

Game 2 PeteB and his footdar

The low down:

• Dawn of War
• Kill points Blog Wars Maelstrom Rules
• No night fighting, lost deployment, deployed second and stole the initiative :). Amusingly both games 1 and 2 for both tables resulted in stolen initiatives!
• Warlord Trait - Ezekiel - Fearless to all units within 12"
• Psychic powers:

1. Psychic Shriek
2. Dominate
3. Invisibility
4. Hallucination

As per most Maelstrom games I tried to cover as many objectives as possible in my Deployment. Being able to snatch a quick couple of points without having to slog all the way there first is handy. Anyway you should just be able to make out the 6 objectives - the numbered MDF discs.

Having stolen the initiative I drew Secure Objective 5 [2VP], destroy a unit in the assault phase and secure objective 2. I already had objective 5, it was in front of the Basiton but I also secured the centre objective, in case I drew that next time, and moved the Scouts on top of the man-made hill.

Which was an ill-thought out decision as they were promptly shot to pieces by the Warp Spiders, Camo Cloak and all! First Strike for PeteB

Pete drew - kill a character, secure objective 5 and secure objective 3. As I had all the odd numbered objectives he was going to have to dislodge me off them first. Karandras and his boys sprinted across the battlefield.

The Warp Spiders followed up their Scout slaughter with a little Warp jump, having killed the Sergeant in the Tactical squad Pete had also gained a VP for killing a character. The Fire Prism then turned it's sights on the Deathwing Land Raider.

And was able to pen and Explode it with only the Techmarine suffering a wound in the blast.

I had discarded objective 2, it was in Pete's deployment zone and picked up secure objective 4 and 3. Swift was my retribution as the second squad of Terminators arrived and I was able to kill some of  the Warp Spiders. I also moved one member of the Tactical squad out of the watchtower to secure objective 3 in front of it.

Given their exposed position Ezekiel cast Invisibility on the Terminators, as they advanced to secure objective 4. I came away with 4VPs for both objectives.

Pete now had 3 objectives, rolling objective 4, as the new one and still had 5 and 3 to claim. The Swooping Hawks landed right behind the marine holding objective 3 and conveniently out of sight from my Quad Gun.

The ensuing firefight allowed them to secure the objective 3 and cinematically shoot and kill all the Marines standing above them on the grated floor, with only one surviving thanks to the intervening cover of the tower lift shaft.

Over on the far left I've managed to whittle all the Striking Scorpions down to Karandras and even he had not gone unscathed.

Undaunted my troops assaulted but he killed them with ease

consolidating out of sight behind the future container boxes. Now after the game we remembered that Karandras was ObSec [as per Blog Wars rules] so he could have claimed objective 5 at this point but we'll discuss the whys and wherefores at the end.

I now had secure objective 1, 2VPs if I hold any three objectives and still had destroy a unit in assault. The newly advanced War Walkers were just in range of my Storm Bolters and I was able to kill one. They still held objective 4, my remaining Tactical squad member held the centre objective 1 scoring me 2 VP and the Bastion had objective 5 so that was three objectives secured for another 2 VP

The other terminators and Ezekiel managed to wipe out the Fire Dragons in assault, I think they'd suffered in the previous turn due to the remaining numbers. This cleared me of all my Maelstrom missions and won 5 VPs in total.

Pete still had to secure objective 4, but those Invisible Terminators were proving difficult to remove from the board [I see Invisibility is no longer legal at Blog Wars so again that would have been different] He also still had to secure objective 5 and 1VP if he killed Ezekiel. Karandras launched himself at the surviving members of the Plasma Cannon combat squad, killing the remaining marines while spinning up and off the future container crate.

Karandras ended up just out of fire arc of the Bastion and it's occupants with the Swooping Hawk Exarch also supporting. Once again he'd have stolen this objective off me if we'd remembered the rules correctly but it's a bit difficult to work out what we would have done if that objective had already been scored.

My new set of objectives were - kill 1 enemy character, have 3 scoring units in your own DZ and none of your enemy's, and 2VPs if I hold2 objectives and at least twice as many as my opponent. Well I had the two objectives, Pete only controlled objective 6 in the ruins. But I was going to struggle to clear out my Deployemnt Zone as Karandras and the Exarch just wouldn't die. Meanwhile I think the Reapers and War Walker had done the business on my Terminators now that Ezekiel failed to be make them Invisible.

Karandras managed to punch apart the Bastion but my sole surviving Marine held the objective to contest. Once again this was incorrect as he's a Devastator Marine so if we'd remembered Karandras was ObSec objective 5 would have been Pete's.

My turn didn't amount to much, I rolled objective 6, which was under the War Walker and just didn't have enough models left to kill Karandras and the Exarch or have 3 scoring units to survive in my DZ. I think all I had left was Ezekiel, the Devastator Sergeant and possibly one Deathwing.

Pete's turn 5 and he was also able to kill the last of the Deathwing and finally secure objective 4. He also won objective 6 and Karandras killed the Dev Sergeant to secure objective 5 - 6 VPs

To cap it all Ezekiel stood exposed on the man-made hill.

And was picked off by the last two Warp Spiders giving Pete Slay the Warlord.

So the final score was 13 VPs to me and 11 to Pete. Of course if we'd played ObSec on Karandras we'd have had a different result potentially. We can see what Objectives Pete subsequently rolled, and when we tried to figure it out it still looked like 13-12, but we can't predict whether his actions on the board would have remained the same. Ultimately neither of us played our heroes with ObSec so that was consistent, the only real issue being I was contesting an objective when it would have been lost earlier in the game. Anyways, I was tabled so although I technically won it feels like I lost so I think we called it a draw in the end. It did show me this list was slightly more viable and mobile than I thought but I was really helped by the mission choices.

And on to Game 3

1500pt battle report - Dark Angels v Nurgle Chaos Space Marines, Game 1

Ben suggested we have a mini tournament the other week, using Blog Wars rules. I managed to get it down to 1500pts for convenience and Ben, Liam, PeteB and myself rocked up to see what we could do.We randomly rolled starting match ups and I got Liam

The low down:

• Hammer and Anvil
• Kill points
• No night fighting, won deployment, elected to deploy second and stole the initiative.
• Warlord Trait - Ezekiel - Fearless to all units within 12"
• Psychic powers:

1. Psychic Shriek
2. Terrify
3. Hallucination
4. Dominate

I set up diagonally opposite Liam, using plenty of cover for my Bastion. This was the first time he'd played the Nurgle marines since our pairing at Throne of Skulls but I wasn't about to lose my Bastion turn one like last time! I did cruise the Land Raider forward, with Ezekiel, Techmarine and Deathwing squad inside.

I wasn't able to score First Strike [kill a unit in your first turn] but I did kill 1 Chaos Spawn.

I also killed a zombie cultist.

But forgot to move my Scouts who were too well hidden in Liam's back field that I didn't see them at all!

Not much happened in Liam's turn. I think he managed to kill a marine, but that was pretty much it.

My turn 2 and my second unit of Terminators teleported in. Unfortunately they deviated back towards my own lines instead of within cover of the trees, still, at least they didn't mishap on the cultists who had somehow become aware of the well camouflaged Scouts in the wood - maybe they could smell BRAINS! The Deathwing were pretty rubbish shooting, even with twin-linked 'to hit' on Deep Strike. I must have kille donly one or two, it was pitiful.

Tactical squad in the tower managed to Kill and wound another couple of spawn.

Hell-flies both turned up which would result in a classic display of Liam's 'bad luck'. I intercepted this Hell-fly with my Quad Gun, hit twice, got one penetrating hit of a 6, then rolled and got another 6 for damage! He is cursed, and then I suggested it might have some daemonic save but if it did it failed and then the only thing that would keep it in the sky was a 3+ roll on the imobilised flyer table which he failed, of course! The only silver lining was the fly was punched out of the air backwards and landed on top of my Deathwing and killed one of them.

The other Hell-fly took revenge by burning out the Tactical squad in the tower.

Meanwhile Typhus and his retinue disembarked from the corrupt Land Raider and would set their sights on the Land Raider. The Terminators who'd just lost one of their number were targeted by the Obliterators and promptly obliterated, even sheathed in Tactical Dreadnought Armour.

Armed with melta weaponry the chaos Terminators made short work of Deathwing Land Raider, reducing it to molten slag.

Luckily all the occupants were too well protected to suffer any harm from the explosion.

With Dark Vengeance™ in their eyes they faced their traitorous foes.

 

What followed was an epic confrontation with Chaos terminators doing little to no damage on the Deathwing, who responded with killing most of them, the Techmarine finishing them off while Typhus and Ezekiel faced each other. As his traitorous bretheren fell one by one to the Dark Angel powerfists he fueled all his hatred into a might attack, killing Ezekiel, the Techmarine and all the remaining Terminators ro become last man standing but not without taking two wounds from Ezekiel as he crushed him underfoot.

The Chaos Spawn attempted to eat the tower but the remainign combat squad of Tactical marines had properly barricaded themselves in, preparing to seek flaming retribution from the firing ports int he door.

Tyrphus stood over the gore-soaked remains of his guard and the might of the First Legion.

But failed to notice the nearby Tactical Squad who managed to find a chink in his corrupt armour with a sanctified and blessed holy bolt shell. He succumbed to this one wound and fell where he stood, his traitorous endeavours forever to be expunged from Imperial records.

The zombies finally managed to catch the Scouts, killing the sergeant as he tried in vain to defend the corpses of his squad from the cannibalistic hunger of the appproaching horde.

 

The game came to a close. I'd lost 1,030 points and only managed 300-500 in return. Liam also got Slay the Warlord and Line Breaker so it was a pretty comprehensive win. However, I had to love those defining moment in the game: 

• stealing the initiative - always makes Liam sad
• one penetrating hit, one immobilised vehicle, one failed crash test on the Hell-fly
• Tyhpus losing his last wound to a bolter round

 So, on to game 2...

1500pt battle report - Dark Angels v Craftworld Eldar

Having promised to take my Dark Angels to BWX I created a list that had most of what I've got painted, plus some other bits that will 'make do' and some I can hopefully achieve in the intervening period. However I found myself in the unpleasant position of having a new army/codex to get to grips with and I need to do it now and I can only achieve that with some part-painted models. So I arranged a game with PeteB and he was actually shocked [as you, good reader will too] to see me turn up with figures that weren't painted.

So I have 2 tactical squads with a Rhino, 5 Scouts with Sniper Rifles and one Missile Launcher. Asmodai as my Warlord with a Techmarine and 5 Deathwing in a Land Raider Redeemer, a Ravenwing bike squad, and a Missile Devastator Squad in a bastion with Quad Guns.

The low down:

• Hammer and Anvil
• Some Maelstrom mission, we only ended up drawing an objective or two per turn, I think we messed the rules up a bit
• Warlord Trait - Asmodai - 3 VPs if I kill the opposing Warlord in a Challenge.
• No night fighting, lost deployment, deployed second and failed to steal the initiative.

Pete B

Missile Devs, in the Bastion.

Combat squadded Tacticals, there's an objective the other side of the tower.

Two Wave Serpents filled with Fire Dragons, Striking Scorpions, Dark Reapers in the watchtower a Fire Prism, some Swooping Hawks amongst other things

Pete's first turn and he manages to wipe out one of the Tactical Combat Squads for First Blood. Typically I fail just enough cover saves to lose all five. He surges the Wave Serpents forwards to pressure the Land Raider.

With the Wave Serpents in my face I had to deal with them. Not having any experience and this being a learning game my immediate thought was just to ram the Wave Serpent in front but Pete gave me some advice, the plan was to hopefully wreck one or both of the Serpents with the Devs, Quad Gun Plasma Cannon and Krak Grenades on the bikers and potentially mop up the contents with the Flamestorm Cannons. However, thanks to Jink only one Hull point was taken off it and I lost my Plasma Gun Tactical to 'Get's Hot' when he fires from the top hatch of the Rhino :( We did discuss later on the merits of the Terminators charging out of the Land Raider and and breaking a Wave Serpent apart, with the view to starting the turn again, to achieve that as a learning experience but I decide to press on with my original tactical choices.

Swooping Hawks arrived in my Deployment Zone in the newly vacated watchtower.

Their grenades targeting the Dev squad in the Bastion, not sure how effective it was.

After quite a while trying to find the Ravenwing special rule in my electronic Codex and being super stoked for re-rollable Jink saves I was then immediately deflated by having my tiny biker squad obliterated.

Matters made worse by the now de-bussed Fire Dragons destroying my Land Raider. It survive the initial fusillade from the Dragons on the right, only one pen, but the second squad melted it and one of the terminators in the process.

I'm now left with only the two Devastators, which became none! At this point I realise I've made no mention of objective, well in fact it doesn't really matter, most of mine ended up being unobtainable, Pet was scoring with objectives in his deployment zone and I think the Land Raider scored him a point so he was well up on me at this stage.

I get an objective to destroy a unit outright but if I destroy 3 I get more VPs. I split Asmodai and the Techmarine from the Terminators. The Deathwing head for the Fire Dragons on the right they shoot them and assault losing one of their member but killing the dragons outright. I take a gamble to get my three units, the Techmarine assaults the Wave Serpent, I take two hull points, but fail to destroy it with my pens. Meanwhile Asmodai assaults the remaining Fire Dragons, which are down to just two thanks to some lucky shots but he fails abysmally in assault, but thankfully so too do the Dragons.

Pete's War Walkers turn up.

I'd had the Scouts in the really tall tower on the right but moved them towards my deployment zone and the central tower. There were actually quite effective with some shooting, or did they capture the objective in front of the tower? I can't quite recall what it is that they did, I think they wrecked the Wave Serpent but they became a target for Pete this turn and I was happiest with their performance, which says a lot as they didn't really do much else!

As the War Walkers finished their movement  my Quad Gun Intercepts and kills one.

The second War Walker wrecks my Rhino which had been moving round the back to get away from the Swooping Hawks and deploy my combat squad of tacticals.

Warp Spiders move up, into the position previously occupied by my Deathwing so I'm guessing they ate them or something.

My Tac squad assaults the War Walker.

The Techmarine joins Asmodai who was only able to kill one Fire Dragon in the previous assault phase, seriously if you can kill a Warlord with this guy then you deserve more than just 3VPs, he is absolute rubbish and I'm thinking Ezekiel for 5pts more may be a better choice for BWX, although my Librarian is a proxy whereas this is the proper character model..

The central tower gets wrecked but my scouts stand fast in it's smoking ruins.

The Scouts prepare to go down fighting, which is more can be said of the slightly more experienced units that have fallen like dad leaves around them.

The last Fire Dragon succumbs to Asmodai and the Techmarine [well probably the Techmarine] and they consolidate.

My Tactical Squad manages to destroy the War Walker, they really are quite vulnerable to almost anything.

And the final insult - Pete 'claims' my Bastion for his own, no VPs awarded, just bragging rights.

I think the final score was 5:1 to Pete, but I only had the Scouts, 4 Tacticals Asmodai and the Techmarine. I'm thinking back to when Dawn of War II came out and they said that reduction in unit numbers was to give you the impression that every Marine matters, a single loss is a huge loss. Of course no one wanted that sort of game and ultimately the expansion increased the numbers significantly to levels similar to the original DoW. Well I certainly mourned every lost Marine here. I was genuinely disappointed about how fragile things were. I expected Power Armour to shrug off all sorts but it was the cover saves I was reliant on. The Land Raider was more vulnerable to the Fire Dragons some of my Tyranid MCs, just one Pen will kill a Land Raider but it takes 6 to kill a Tervigon!

In all honesty when I see the amount of figure I'm putting on the board then this is actually how I imagine the outcome is going to be but I know on paper they should be more durable and effective but I actually felt my nids are superior and that's despite me often bemoaning their ineffectiveness. It's early days though so I shouldn't throw in the towel just yet. I am thinking though that the Dark Angels will be more a show army, that is unless I go Ravenwing which really do look quite durable and effective, that is if I can actually paint up some bikers to deploy.

But it does make me appreciate my nids a little more, I did have an epiphany a few months back when seeing my MCs all aligned about how chuffed I was not to have space men in vehicles, even if it did have a Tervigon or two transporting  gaunt embryos. I was just pleased just to have an army of creatures, no tanks or giant robots to cover weaknesses Anyway, I've a game with Otty coming up where I'll take the nids because as a fellow nid player it's nice for him to see how I approach them, maybe share tactics and theres a chance he may take nids too which is always an interesting match up. Then my next game against Ben will be Dangles again so I can get in some more experience.