So I rocked on up to the LGS, Deathwing in tow, prepared to play 1500 to 2000 - with various options and schenanigans - in the end we just decided to keep it nice and simple and 1500 points for me to get used to my Tourney list, speaking of:
THE LISTS
Dark Angels 1500:
Belial - LC
Command Squad - TH/SSx3 - APOCTH/SS - CML/TH/SS
Regular Squad - TH/SSx3 - SB/CF - CML/TH/SS
Regular Squad - TH/SSx3 - SB/CF - CML/TH/SS
Regular Squad - TH/SSx3 - SB/CF - CML/TH/SS
Ravenwing - 3x Bikes 1x Attack Bike - MGx2 MMx1 Melta Bombs
Ravenwing - 3x Bikes 1x Attack Bike - MGx2 MMx1 Melta Bombs
Blood Angels "Drop DOA"
Captain - PF/JP
Libby (Sword/Lance)
Chaplin JP
SPx2 - JPx1 LCx2 (1 w/ Chaplin, 1 with Libby)
Furisoso - Drop Pod / Blood Talons
RASx10 - JP's PW/MGx2 (w/ Chaplin)
RASx10 - JP's TH/MGx2 (w/ Captain)
RAS x10 - PW/MG (w/ Libby) - Drop pod
Death Company x5 - PW / Infernus / PF
Again he's not gone for full on optimisiation - but he's beefed up his RAS's - going with 3 10 men strong (though 1 coming by DP) and added in the DC. He made a couple of list mistakes - he actually had the 10 man strong RAS in the DP as honor guard (with not much gear) so had to tell him that HG cant go above 5 men, so he swapped that to 10RAS guys (not that it made much diference). Second was that he was going to give the DC x3 pistols - but again told him they can only get 1 per 5 - otherwise I'd be using them as dropping melta lol (imagine x3 DC dropping w/ 3 infernus pistols, FNP/FC, Fearless, you'd have to deal with them lol).
THE MISSION ETC...
He'd pre-set up the table before the game, but he was originally going to bring orks which would have been great to get a game in, as truely they are my mosty worrying race atm with Deathwing - though I am NOT AS worried at 1500, I still think the green tide would have been nice to play against today. However thats not the case.
MISSION: Kill Points
DEPLOYMENT: SpearHead
1ST TURN ROLL: I win and defer to him to go first.
I was farily confident to start with. Spearhead is not my best deployment - but vs drop armies I can "bunker up" and try and force bad places to choose - also there were tons of craters on the board (see pic's) which meant I could use the term squads large foot prints to limit drops - even with 1D6 scatter.
KillPoints I feel this army has a good advantage - I have 9 in total at 1500 - and the bikes can reserve and turbo boost / move into charges and what not to avoid giving up easy KP's to shooting. Going 2nd was obviously to let him drop down that auto 1 drop pod - shoot it to hell if I can and try and take 1 or 2 easy KP's.
So I deploy pretty much with that in mind - I use quite a large foot print of my quarter, with my command squad in the middle - so it could react to where ever the most killy or threatening squad lands (its not all that much more potent in combat, just a I5/5 Attack guy extra, thats all) - but counter charge with this squad would hurt marines.
THE GAME
TURN 1:
His T1 and he comes down w/ his Furisoso - which surprised me - it gave me a good chance to suppress it rather than have me get locked up in combat charging a 10 man squad and then counter charging later in the game with it. He put it down about 20" or so from me, but it scattered a full 12" in my direction. Terrible luck really.
My T1 and I know I can get 2 KP's here with half decent rolling. I had 1 squad near the Furioso and 1 squad that could charge the drop pod (if needed) if it gets half decent run through terrain rolls. I readjust my force accordinly and shift it all up a few inches north. I thought about leaving "kill zone" in the heart of my force that would have been really tempting to land in, if he did I'd have closed in on him, however I dobut many people would fall for that and could just deploy on 1 side and pick away at 1 squad - hense me shifting the "pockets" up - knowing from T2 not only does he get his reserves, I get mine as well - so I can use the bikes to help/counter charge if needed. In shooting I manage to destroy the drop pod - no need for the CF to go into it- however the Furioso did need a charge - and the CF and TH did their jobs (I think it was the CF that did it, but both a CF and TH penetrated anyway).
2-0 Deathwing.
TURN 2:
Turn 2 for blood angels saw him get his deathcompany and captain squad - he dropped them down a bit further back from where the drop pod had been - the DC were about 10" away and the captain and squad about 18" away. He shoots at the nearest squad - but has no luck - I make the saves.
In my T2 I move 1 squad forward to charge the DC - the idea being these would be the buffer to my army - hopefully getting counter charged by the captain while I can re-shift all the other troops around. I get 1 bike squad on and bring it into my table edge and wrap 1 squad of terminators around it as to give them a cover save should anyone drop near them ... how that worked out later!. Shooting I fired a couple of shots from the single squad into the DC and killed 2, and fired off a frag into the capt's squad and took out 3 in total (after a couple of krak misiles) forcing LD - which the passed on a double 1. Charges were left and I charge the x4 TH/SS x1 SB/CF into the DC - losing 1 I think to a PW - and wiping out the 3 easy, consolidate 4" back towards my lines.
3-0 Deathwing
TURN 3:
In his T3 he gets the rest of his reserves - he gets v.aggressive now - dropping 20 marines into my lines basically - looking to use Blood Lance very aggressivily - he gets a great scatter with both squads and could potentially grab a couple of KP's here.
(I've just remembed to take photo's lol) He's getting the rest of his guys here, but the Libby is in the front of that drop pod, and the Chaplin and his squad are about 4" behind my bikes there. He could in essense take out the 4 bikes quite easy from shooting. The captain jumps forward, right in the north of that photo (you can see my squad of 3 lined up there in the very north of the photo, I must have lost 1 other to shooting in T2 ..) And plans to charge them, with his PF's, the TH and plenty of attacks it could happen. This turn could potentially see 3-3. In his shooting however, he gets unlucky and perils his libby, urgh. But I had cover saves vs the lance none-the less. His shooting doesnt fair much better, I think he actually missed with his melta on the bikes, and I saved the TH/SS ones. In combat, his Capt does excellently. I take down a few guys marines, but he wipes out my squad with about 5 wounds from the capts PF and 2 from the TH.
3-1
My T3 and really I can do ALOT in this turn. I have a squad ready to counter charge his captain, Belial and co move towards the drop pod where there is 20 guys waiting. I get my final reserve and the come on to the left of the drop pod. Remembering this is KP's - I do think about the easy KP of the drop pod, and plan on shooting something at it lol. So what I do is line up the bikes so that they have options either way - I wanted to multicharge the terms into both squads but didnt set it up right - no matter, and have belial's CF guy charge the drop pod (as they wouldnt be able to get into any other combat). So I go about working the magic. The CML from belial weapon destroys on the DP via a glance (urgh), so I dont fire the melta at it as I figure I'll prob get it off the CF. The bikes that just arrived shoot at the libby squad - dropping 2 to melta shots and 1 to bolter (I think) and I do the exact same on the chaplins squad. The CML from the other squad about to charge kills another from the libbys squad. In charges, I send x3 bikes and x1 attack bike into the chaplins squad, then the TH/SS into the libby w/ the bikes - the CF gets to the DP. I dont charge the captains squad - as (in a genius ploy) I wanted him to charge me to get nearer to the rest of my army - then use belial and co to counter charge!. In combat the CF imob's the DP and wrecks it, the TH/SS and bikes easily take care of the libby squad, though the sword takes out 1 term. The bikes vs the chaplin ... crazyness, T5 is so hard to shift, even with PW's - you pretty much have to have PF's in there to deal with them - I manage to tie combat, losing 1 bike and 1 wound off the attack bike - but the attack bike had singled out the sang priest and knocked him out.
6-1 after 3
TURN 4:
His T4 and consider I had 6 KP's already and only have 9 in my entire force, its pretty much a forgone conclussion, however, he still had a few KP's up for grabs, so fair play for continuing. He moves his captain forward and shoots and charges the terms - he manages to take out a couple - the CF and CML if I remember rightly, but my TH/SS attacks in return (since he was doing all his dmg with his PF/TH I was getting full attacks back at same init1), deck a large part of his squad, he passes all his no retreat saves, or loses 1 or something - he has 3 guys plus the captain left anyway. In the Chaplin/Bike combat hilariously he fails to do much, takes out another bike (leaving it as a unit of 1) but doesnt kill the attack bike - I make my fearless saves as I lost by 1.
My T4 and I can pretty much table at this stage. Belial and Co line up to hit his Captains squad as I want to get the LC's into play. The TH/SS and other bike squads go to back up the remaining bikes. No shooting so straight to combat:
I use movement to make sure I can get everything in - the terms cant fit in past the bikes - so I they just line up behind (still close enough to attack) and it allows me to get all the bikes in attacking as well. Belial and Co line up vs the rest of his the captains squad.
Captain combat: Belial goes first and takes out 2 guys and he takes makes the invul save on his Captain (though I dont think he could allocate it to him - since Belial was no where near the capt) the TH/SS terms in the original combat hammer the captain, and the new guys finish off the remaining TH guy - I think I lose 1 guy in the return hits.
Chaplin Combat: I let him "go first" and he manages to take out both the single bike and the remaining 1 wound on the attack bike, and did nothing else. My bikes take out a couple of guys (did suprisingly well today in combat) and the TH/SS proceed to deck the Chaplin - insta killing him.
Hilarious picture from the TH/SS attacks on the Chaplin I think:
Thats how you roll to hit! Other 2 dice were 1 and a 2 lol.
Tabled 11-3 in KP's.
CONLUSSION
Well thats not bad. I lost something like 8 terminators of 21, 3 bikes and 1 attack bikes over 4 turns. - all pretty much in combat. Heavy hitting PF/TH attacks can hurt - so I need to be careful that if I do need to fight the likes of a combat captain I dont leave myself vulnerable to being mopped up by AP1/2 shooting the next turn which would have hurt - also on the would allocation front I am thinking about the odd squad having a SB/PW in there as well - to get the extra couple of I4 attacks - but I am not sure about this.
DoA/Jumper list certainly play into my advantage I believe - they are pretty much the same as my army except faster w/ the troops / support (unless they are misile dev's - then they are v.static). I think the best counter is to start on the table and use cover to advance up - I'd try and pepper w/ Frag or Krak and bolter fire, but at least a DoA army could be more sure of getting off the charge. Sang Guard - even just a couple of squads - could hurt though, especially with S5 attacks if it got the charge.
I definatly feel a good bit more comfortable with this list for some reason than I do with my Mech - I just like that the majority of my army allows me to have control - despite having cover saves on the tanks there are a lot of occasions were its literally the other guy rolling and tell me how badly he's done my tank in (typically, "yup my S6 spam has taken out 3 razors and done 10 wounds to your dudes inside ...).
Next game is Thursday - 1500 or 1750 - I dont care who I play - hoping either for Mech Marines (with nullzone), Demons or Nid's. I'll probably end up vs Space Wolves again lol. We'll see what happens!
I should have added some more thoughts, but will put em here:
ReplyDeleteBikes - Reserving them served well this game. Knowing that he would have to engage me, rather than scouting or outflanking (and risking them being out till T4 or worse still T5), reserving and allowing them plenty of options - which ultimately was coming on, firing and supporting the charge.
The T5 is not to be under rated - especially with fearless on the charge. These boys will certainly tarpit down MSU units w/ no power weapons.
So much so - that going to 2k I might not add a 3rd MSU bikes - but extend out the 2 squads to 6 bikes each and add in a PF or Plasma pistol/PW (for combat squading options) - and giving a speedy unit that can tarpit "people giving me the run around" while my terms "catch up".