Librarian with Shield and Lance
4 x Assault Squads with meltaguns and infernus pistols in Las/plas Razorbacks
2 x Baal Predators with Heavy Bolter sponsons
2 x Land Speeder Typhoons in a squadron
2 x Vindicators with siege shields
1 x Combipred
One of the Razorbacks has a Twin-linked Assault Cannon. 1 Assault Squad also has a power weapon for the Sgt.
Basically, I wanted to test drive a list with paired Vindicators. Knowing that just one Vindicator in a list like this would stick out quite conspicuously and probably get nuked without firing a shot, I decided to field 2. The carnage would be magnificent!
Since I didn't actually have 2 Vindicators in Blood Angel colours in my possession, I proxied with a spare, half-painted Baal Predator and this from my Black Legion:
Today, I took on YH's IG. Turned out he was experimenting with funny list ideas, too. Just looking at those gun barrels pointed my way had me thinking twice...
CCS with 4 plasmaguns, 2 bodyguards and an Officer of the Fleet in a Chimera with heavy stubber
Sly Marbo
2 x Veteran Squads, each with 3 meltaguns and in a Chimera with heavy stubber
2 x Leman Russ with pintle plasma cannons and hull lascannon
2 x Leman Russ Demolishers with pintle plasma cannons and hull lascannon
Leman Russ Vanquisher with hull lascannon, ridden by Knight Commander Pask
Mission: Capture and Control. 4 Objectives, mostly scattered around the centre of a fairly open board.
Deployment: Pitched Battle. YH won the roll-off and chose to go first.
Actually, I wasn't planning to write up a whole batrep, so I didn't take any pics, except for one... which I'll show later. Highlights of the game...
Turn 1:
YH deployed in a cluster, the Vanquisher flanked by the LRuss squadrons and Chimeras to the fore. I more or less matched it, placing my Vincators directly opposite his mass of armour, with my Razorbacks behind. One Baal Pred was on each flank. The one on the right scout moved right in front of my lines and popped smoke giving cover to the bulk of my forces, the other moved at full speed down the left board edge to start getting into position to harass the flanks.
YH's opening salvo was predictably lethal. His first shot with the Vanquisher blew my proxy Vindicator sky high. Some abuse from his Demolishers destroyed the main gun of the other Vindicator (the one in Black Legion colours). And so, my experiment was rendered useless right off the bat without me firing a single shot of Demolisher goodness. The Chimera moved forward at full speed and popped smoke, no doubt to let the Veterans have a chance at bringing their meltaguns to bear on a suitably juicy target. This would later prove to be grave mistake on YH's part...
My return salvo was, frankly, abyssmally bad. If I recall correctly, I didn't do any damage whatsoever, other than shaking a Chimera full of veterans. I have to admit, I really didn't fancy my chances of winning at the end of this turn. I did, however, have 1 advantage over YH: I had more Troops choices, and this was an objective game...
Turn 2-5:
I figured my only chance at this was to be a bit bolder with my army and surge straight forward to bring my melta weapons into play, or at least kill his 2 Veteran Squads and deny YH any possibility of victory. And so the tide turned.
I hurled my useless Vindicator forward, intending to use it either as cover or a battering ram or, at the very least, bait. 1 Veteran squad went for it, piling out and promptly wrecking it with a volley from their meltaguns. They paid dearly when the left Baal Pred shredded 4 of them, and another 4 went down to another twin-linked assault cannon from a Razorback. The carnage was all too much for them and they were sent packing off the field. That Razorback was later attacked by the other Veteran squad, which had piled out of their Chimera (shaken earlier), and blown up. The Assault Squad inside were unharmed, and promptly dusted themselves off to charge into the Veterans, who were promptly wiped out.
Meanwhile, the other Razorbacks attempted to advance further down the centre, and got an extremely lucky break when a battlecannon shot from the Leman Russes scattered off course and into a nearby Leman Russ Demolisher, wrecking it!
The CCS's Chimera didn't fare any better, blown up by a nearby Razorback, allowing the Land Speeder Typhoons and a Baal Predator to tear into the squishy squad inside.
By the end of Turn 5 (I think), this was the board:
I had 2 objectives, YH had 1 infantryman still standing (Marbo) and there was way, way too much wreckage between me and YH's big guns for him to have a chance at winning. By the end of Turn 6, we called it a day, did the end-of-game epic handshake and that was that.
Post mortem:
That went a LOT better than I expected! That having been said, there were a couple of flaws in YH's list. First, there were only 2 Veterans Squads worth of Troops choices. 2nd, I think they were thrown into the scrap and exposed to abuse a bit too early in the game. I think things could have gone very differently if they had held back a little longer to let the main battletanks pummel my army a bit more.
The other, I think, was Pask in a Vanquisher. That's 220 pts right there! Lose plasma cannon sponsons on 1 tank and you could have 2 Vendettas prowling the skies for some much more reliable anti-tank shooty.
As for how I did, well... I think I did the best I could, given the list I was playing. I'm just a little vexed that I didn't get the chance to do some damage with the vaunted Blood Angel's fast Vindicators. Maybe it's just me and my luck with proxies. Proxies in my armies tend to die horribly. I'll definitely have to try this list again soon...
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