Sunday, December 2, 2012

Batrep: Blood Angels & Guard vs Chaos Space Marines, 1750pts


Given the resounding success of my Blood Angel & Guard list against Edwin's Tyranids, I figured I'd had enough of that list and would really rather not inflict that level of killiness on anyone, at least no-one without some way to deal with my flyers. That having been said, it's still pretty weak in terms of claiming primary objectives, and 6th ed really is a game of objectives. So, I figured I'd give it one more spin against a list CK was putting together. Regardless of the objective actually rolled, my purpose in playing this game was to see how my list would be able handle a more conventional MEQ list. 

My List:
The Blood Angels
Reclusiarch with infernus pistol and melta bombs
Furioso Dreadnought with frag cannon and heavy flamer
7 Death Company with 2 infernus pistols and 2 power axes
Death Company Dreadnought with Blood Talons
2 Stormravens with twin-linked multimelta, twin-linked assault cannon and hurricane bolters

Land Speeder Typhoon
Land Speeder Typhoon

The Crimson Guard
Lord Commissar
Sly Marbo
Veteran Squad with 3 Grenade Launchers in a Chimera
Vendetta
Manticore

Warlord Trait:Strategic Genius

Nothing new to this list. I've used it before, and it does what it does with startling brutality. The Warlord Trait I rolled made it even more reliable, meaning very bad news for CK in Turn 2.

CK's Iron Warriors:
Chaos Lord with Mark of Khorne, Axe of Blind Fury, Gift of Mutation and Sigil of Corruption, on a Juggernaut
Warpsmith
Hellbrute
Hellbrute
10 Khorne Berserkers with Icon of Wrath, champion with Gift of Mutation and power sword
Land Raider
10 Chaos Marines in a Rhino with 2 plasma guns, champion with power fist
9 Chaos Marines in a Rhino with 1 meltagun, champion with power fist
2 Chaos Spawn with the Mark of Khorne
Maulerfiend with lasher tendrils 
5 Havocs with 4 missile launchers and flakk missile upgrades

*Note: By my reckoning, this comes to 1,791 pts.*

Warlord Trait: Master of Maneuvre

The 5 Havocs certainly caught my eye. I had done the maths before, and a salvo of 4 flakk missiles has a 7% chance of nuking a Stormraven. Fine by me. The Hellbrutes struck me as interesting, and given CK's leanings towards close combat brutality in his previous list, this list seemed pretty solid to me, with sufficient numbers of power-armoured bodies for holding objectives and enough close combat punch to give even the Death Company a run for their money.

Mission: Purge the Alien
Deployment: Dawn of War. I won the roll off and deployed first. Night fighting was active on the first turn.


Well, given the mission we rolled for, CK wasn't too optimistic about the outcome, and who can blame him? My army is designed to kill with almost no regard for taking and holding primary objectives. As such, this was a simple exercise in survival for CK and for me, it was about wiping every trace of his army off the table...

As usual, the Furioso Dreadnought rode in one Stormraven, now dubbed Goldraven since I've given it yellow stripes on its wings. The Death Company elements rode in the other, dubbed Blackraven.  This time, just because I could, I kept a Typhoon in reserve. Alrighty, then, the stage was set, lets roll some dice!



Turn 1:
Angels & Guard: With only a Typhoon, a Chimera and a Manticore on the table, I kept my opening nice and simple. The Chimera lit up the closer Rhino, letting the Manticore and Typhoon spot it and nuke it, killing some of the occupants in the process.


Iron Warriors: The Iron Warriors moved forward at full speed. The Warpsmith split off to keep close behind the nearest Hellbrute and the surviving Chaos Marines from that squad backed away. Shooting from a Hellbrute and the Havocs took 1 hull point off the Chimera.


Turn 2:
Angels & Guard: Thanks to my Warlord Trait, all my reserves arrived. The Chimera moved a little further to the left keeping away from the Land Raider.

Goldraven headed straight for the Havocs and mauled them with its Hurricane Bolters, killing 3 and sending them scurrying off the table. Blackraven fired Bloodstrike missiles into Fluffy, immobilizing it and effectively taking it out of the battle. The Typhoons and Vendetta tried to take down a Hellbrute, but only knocked off a hull point. The Manticore dumped a missile on the battered CSM squad with the meltagun, killing 2 and they, too, skedaddled off the table.


Iron Warriors: The Chaos Lord and his accompanying Spawn arrived. The rest of the army moved forward. A Hellbrute tried and failed to hit Goldraven. The other Hellbrute glanced the Chimea. The Land Raider moved up 6" to unload its Berzerkers and shoot at the Manticore... and miss. Twice.

Later, the Berzerkers and a Hellbrute failed thier charges on Typhoon 2 and the Chimera, respectively. CK despaired.

Turn 3:
Angels & Guard: The Furioso disembarked, gunning for the Warpsmith. The DC Dreadnought disembarked and headed for the Khorne Berserkers, while the Death Company and Reclusiarch lined up to blast the Land Raider with their Infernus Pistols. Elsewhere, the flyers all went into hover mode, marking their targets.

Shooting was particularly devastating for CK, as he lost both Hellbrutes, the Land Raider, a Berserker, a Rhino and 4 Chaos Marines. In assault, the Furioso pulped the Warpsmith and the DC Dreadnought shredded 4 Berzerkers, taking no damage in return.


Iron Warriors: At this point, CK had the Chaos Lord, 2 Spawn, 6 Chaos Marines and 5 Berzerkers to oppose me. I had lost... 2 hull points from the Chimera.We didn't see much point in continuing and stopped the game.

Afterthoughts:
Well, what's there to say? This list I've concocted is an absolute monster to inflict on lists without some serious anti-flyer measures. It's versatile, it hits stupidly hard, and the superiority in firepower and maneuverability afforded by the pair of Stormravens is quite a spectacle to behold. I honestly don't know how to counter such a list without  bringing something like 3 squadrons of 2 Vendettas each. Frankly, unless the opponent has something to combat 2 Stormravens and a Vendetta, this list is hell to be on the receiving end of.

Conclusion: This list pleases me. It is the most vicious bastard of a list I've ever put together, and I daresay there's room for improvement and streamlining. Be that as it may, I think it's time to move on and start searching for more ways to field the mighty Blood Angels. Time to dust off those Razorbacks... Until next time, happy wargaming...

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