Recent tournament results

As I have other sites where I post my models Im going to be using this blog more to talk about blood angels and eldar (Since those are the armies I play)

Much has been said about the state of Blood Angels as an army. A lot seem to think it's a bad list or a boring list or most likely a misunderstood list. I agree on two of those points, which are its fairly boring and its misunderstood

As my tournament results keep confirming they are NOT a bad list and infact can be quite powerful if used correctly. What this means is that you generally use the combination of Dante + Corbulo, rhinos and some hard hitting units such as death company.

Last week I played in a local 1850 tournament and took my Blood Angels once again. I didnt quite know how I'd fair against new imperial guard but luckily no one brought them for some odd reason

As usual we had a bunch of marine players and a mix of other races like eldar and orks. Some were experienced, some werent and some *thought* they were experienced. Having played 2 armies for all of my 13 years of 40k experience I like to think I know how to play my lists regardless of rule changes

For this tournament I took my standard template list.

HQ
Dante
Corbulo

Elite
6 man veteran squad - 2 meltas, power fist, power weapon
8 death company - jump packs

Troops
Tactical squad - melta, power fist, rhino
Tactical squad - melta, power fist, rhino
Assault squad - power fist, rhino

Fast attack
attack bike - MM
attack bike - MM

Heavy
Land raider crusader

-------------------------------

At first glance it doesnt seem like a "wowzer" army but played correctly Blood Angels can be asbolutely devastating. The overall strategy is to keep your units close to one another as you advance, keeping Dante and the DC out of los if possible by using the land raider. Once you reach the enemy you branch out and attack as many units as you can while remaining within the 12" bubble of the two characters. People who dont understand how lethal this is get demolished by a multi-unit charge which ends up entire wiping them out with a ton of LD modifiers or they suffer massive amounts of no retreat

However, Blood Angels are a tier2 list to be sure so new IG is difficult however Orks arent that bad because BA can pump out tons of wounds

Game 1

I faced a mech eldar player who was using what i remember as..

HQ
Autarch - warp generator
Farseer

Troops
10 man wraithguard
guardian squad
2 10 man dire avengers - wave serpent

Elite
2 6 man fire dragons - wave serpent

Fast attack
9 man warp spiders

Basically his strategy was to hold objectives with his guardians and wraithguard and out flank you with the avengers, dragons and spiders. To be said it was a decent list. I personally don't like 10 man wraithguard units because they're a bit too slow for my taste

Deployment - 5 objectives, table quarter deployment
He won first turn so he set up with aggressively with his serpents in front with the wraithguard and guardians behind. The warp spiders and the autarch were kept in reserve.

My deployment was fairly defensive with my rhinos upfront (the empty rhino closest) with the land raider, jump troops and attack bikes hidden behind them. I also combat squadded 5 bolter marines to hold and objective in my deployment zone. I was worried about the warp spiders deep striking backing there, but my fears were unfounded

Summary of the battle

I stole the initative and was able to use it to blow up a wave serpent with fire dragons on the first turn. In return he destroyed my land raider but was unable to destroy my rhinos before they got to his line. On turn 3 all my assault units charged his wraithguard, guardians, and a squad of dire avengers and wiped them out on his following turn

By turn 5 nothing was really left alive except for the autarch, some warp spiders and an empty wave serpent. To the Autarchs credit he did kill Dante when I failed all my invulnerable saves but then was cut down by the veteran squad on the final turn

At the end of the game I had 4 objectives controlled and he had 0

Game 2 - dawn of war, capture and control

This game was against an Ork Army played by someone who I rarely get along with during games.

His list was something like this..

HQ
Ghazghkull
Big mek with shokk attack gun

Elite
Mega nobz - battle wagon

Troops
Shoota boyz - 30
Shoota boyz - 30
Slugga boyz - trukk
'ard boyz - 30

Heavy
killer kan - mega blasta
deff dread

He won first turn and deployed his big unit of 'ard boyz in the middle of the board, a unit of shoota boyz at his objective in the rear and his big mek with them

I decided to not deploy anything and force his hand.

Summary of Game

After much taunting about my strategy being stupid he moved his units on, but didnt move the 'ard boyz up at all.. I came on with all my forces and moved slowly, killing a few of the 'ard boyz here and there

The only thing I was really worried about was a lucky shot from the shokk attack gun which did manage to destroy a rhino but did nothing else

For the 2nd turn I moved up slowly again, putting my rhino within charge range of his 'ard boyz (which were in a large piece of terrain). This is a very classic tactic of delay because I was trying to bait him into commiting his units

Taking the trap he tried to charge my rhino with his huge 'ard boyz unit (why he did that I will never know).. and failed to make it to me. On my following turn I counter charged with every unit I had except for the assault squad in the land raider. The 'ard boyz were dead and I consolidated so that my tactical squads were in front

Ghazghkull and his mega nobz charged them next turn, wiping out a full squad (no surprise) and he called the waagh as well. However he made a massive mistake and charged his shoota boyz unit at my death company AND the tactical squad thus locking them into a complex assault.

YOU SHOULD NEVER DO THIS when you have one GOOD unit and a unit that is total liability like shoota boyz are. I managed to do around 7 more wounds, which caused ghazgkulls unit to take no retreat damage and left about 6 shoota boyz AND made the mega nobz unengaged

On my turn I jumped my veterans right next to the nobz and unloaded the land raider.. After many melta guns and bolt pistols 4 of the 6 mega nobz were dead and I charged, killing the other 2 while suffering a good amount of deaths in the process

Ghazghkull failed his LD test and was run down. Note, he was fearless but the ork player insisted he was not (I knew he was because of his special waagh but this guy was really annoying during the game)..

KNOW YOUR OWN RULES..

Anyway after that point I was able to move my remaining units up and capture his objective as well on the last turn via consolidation

Victory - 2 objectives

Game 3 - kill points, pitched battle

I faced a sisters of battle army that was definatly not high tier

HQ

Saint celestine (lol)
Canoness

Elite
celestians

Troops
20 man sister
10 man sisters
guard platoon - chimera

Fast
Dominion squad - immolator

Heavy
2 exorcists
retributor squad

His list was at a massive disadvantage because it was not mech and basically had to wait for me to hit his lines. Now, he did benefit from those super annoying acts of faith which stopped his celestians from dying and actually killed my veterans

He deployed extremely defensively in a box at the back corner.. and I deployed aggressively with everything in a line.

Summary of the battle

I won first turn and moved everything up and popped smoke. On his next turn he only managed to stun a single rhino (which was the empty one) and another rhino made 4 cover saves in a row. On my next turn I moved up another 12" so I was right infront of his lines with 2 rhinos, the land raider and the death company charged saint celestine who was hiding behind a building, killing her.. The veterans and another tactical squad moved to engage his celestian and dominion squads

Basically, he failed to stop my assault units and when they assaulted I killed all the guard infront, then a tactical squad died to return fire and then the entire sister army vanished when the death company and assault squad charged on turn 4

However, as stated his celestian squad killed my veterans and really was the only thing left alive. To make matters worse, the rhino that passed 4 cover saves was only rendered immobile on the next turn and on turn 6 repaired itself!

Victory - tons more Kps

I went on to win best overall due to my painting scores and highest battle score.