2000 points, dawn of war deployment, 5 objectives (forget what it’s called) Blood Angels versus Space Marines. Like last time I have a mini-rant question before I start. I’m thinking it’s time to start looking at some of the alternate game deployment and victory conditions that exist on the web and in some of the GW supplements. I like the 3 in the book, but I wouldn’t mind mixing it up every once and awhile.
BT took, 3 units of Tactical Marines, a Captain with Honour Guard in a Rhino, an Assault Terminator Squad with Terminator Librarian in a Land Raider, a dreadnought, and 2 (yes, 2) Vindicators.
This time, instead of picking a theme or trying out a new unit my goal was to build a very balanced list. Lots of long range firepower, some close range fire power, and some hardcore assault based units. I took Dante with Sanguinary Guard and Sanguinary Priest (they deep struck), 8 Death Company with Chaplain and a Death Company Dreadnought in a Stormraven (twin-linked Las, twin-linked Melta, Hurrican Bolter sponsons) a 5 man sniper scout squad, 5 assault marines in a Razorback (with a lascannon, and plasmagun), an 8 man Devastator squad (2 plasma cannons, 1 lascannon, 1 multi-melta), a baal predator (which outflanked), and 1 Vindicator.
Since it was dawn of war, I didn’t take a lot of pictures (no one had many troops on the board until turn 2). I won the roll off. There were 5 objectives, 2 in each of our deployment zones, and one in the middle of the table. I put my stormraven in the corner of the board and my Razorback parked on an objective. My scouts hid in terrain on the second objective in my zone. BT deployed 1 tact squad on 1 of his objectives and placed the other in the middle of the table with the aim of moving for the objective placed there.
TURN 1
My vindicator and devastators walked onto the board. My Stormraven moved only 6 inches and fired everything it had at BT’s tact squad that was on an objective and in cover. I figured my chicken would get blown up soon, so I may as well use all of its guns once. I also fired my lascannon from my Razorback at this unit. I think I missed or failed to wound with most shots and then BT made most of his cover saves. That tact squad would prove to be nearly impossible to kill. My Snipers managed to cause two wounds to his other tactical squad and they then failed a pinning test!
BT brought everything on except his command squad in Rhino, he was holding it in reserve. Things moved up, shots were fired, but all that really happened was that he hit and stunned my Stormraven with his land raider. The big bird was still in the fight!
TURN 2
I made both my reserve rolls and my Baal Predator and Dante’s squad came in. The snipers continued to fire at tactical marines the rest of the game, they may have cause another wound or two but like last time they just hid on that objective. My Vindicator lined up a nice shot on BT’s third tactical squad and obliterated 5 of them. My devastators got into position and fired a few shots at BT’s middle marines, but didn’t do too much. My Razorback and newly emerging Baal predator all opened up on that tact squad on the objective in cover (let’s call them Tact Squad Alpha). 2 Heavy bolters, 1 twin linked assault cannon, 1 storm bolter, 1 hunter killer missile, 1 lascannon and no wounds caused! A combination of poor rolls on my end and well timed cover saves on BT’s end. Dante and his crew came in right behind BT’s land raider and exploded it with melta pistols.
I was happy with the way things were going, then things swung a bit. BT shot at my Devastators with his vindicator, but it scattered off most of my guys and I made a cover save for the rest. His second Vindicator shot at my scouts, but it scattered off the table. He did manage to stun my Razorback. His Rhino emerged from the table edge and with a single plasma shot he turned my Baal predator to slag (total bummer, this thing usually does great for me). Out of the destroyed Land Raider poured his Terminators and Librarian, the dreadnought also turned his attention to Dante’s unit. They charged in and an ugly fight resulted. Luckily for me Dante had a high initiative. The Librarian went first and killed a Sanguinary Guard (everyone on both sides had power weapons so armor saves and Feel No Pain were useless). Dante killed 2 Terminators. Then everyone else went at the same time. All my remaining Sanguinary Guard died, and all but BT’s librarian died. The dreadnought then attacked Dante, whom I didn’t realize until that point did not possess Eternal Warrior so 1 wound from the dreadnought would kill him instantly. Luckily I saved the wound. The combat was tied, using hit and run, Dante and the remaining Sanguinary Priest left combat. I caused massive damage to BT, but my main assault squad was reduced to 1 dude and his sidekick. The Sanguinary Guard were also 1 of only 3 units I could use to capture objectives. It was at this point I turned my attention to killing all of BT’s tactical squads so he couldn’t capture anything.
TURN 3
My Stormraven moved up to Tactical Squad Alpha, my Razorback couldn’t shoot, but it could move, so it inched closer. My vindicator repositioned itself to hit more marines in the other 2 tactical squads. Dante dropped back in behind the dreadnought and took aim with his melta pistol...and missed. My Devastators wrecked one of BT’s vindicators, and the combined shooting of all of the Stormraven’s guns probably caused 1 wound to Tac Squad Alpha. That was it for me, Dante couldn’t hurt BT’s dread in hand to hand, so I sat there and waited.
On his Turn BT did some shooting, but was mostly in effectual. He charged in with his Librarian and Dreadnought on Dante. Dante went first and smoked the Librarian, the Dreadnought whiffed all three attacks on Dante. Once again, I hit and ran my ass out of there.
TURN 4
I moved up with my razorback, which fired all of its guns and those of its passengers (and the guns of the stormraven) at Tac Squad Alpha and once again failed to do anything significant. My devastator squad stunned BT’s remaining Vindicator. Dante once again jumped behind the dreadnought, took aim and finally blew that shit up! The tides were turned, but BT still had his hammer unit in that Rhino running around taking pot shots at everything.
Besides Tact Squad Alpha, BT only had 3 guys in 1 tact squad and only 1 remained in the other. However both of those squads were on objectives so BT could claim 3. The lone surviving member in the middle squad used his melta gun to blow off my Vindicator’s cannon, and Tact Squad Alpha blew off the Plasma Gun on my Razorback.
TURN 5
With turn 5 on us, I had my Assault squad leave the Razorback and head back to their objective. With that claimed I had 2 victory points to the 3 BT had. My snipers and the stormbolter from the vindicator killed the remaining middle tactical marine freeing up that objective. Dante headed toward the 3 remaining Tactical Squads on the far side of the table, but wouldn’t make it. It didn’t matter, my devastators vaporized them with plasma. Now BT had only 1 objective and it was held by the legendary Tactical Squad Alpha. My Stormraven dumped out the Dreadnought and the death company, they closed in for assault. The Stormraven and Razorback shot into Tactical Squad Alpha again and once again failed to do any significant damage. After 5 straight rounds of shooting at this unit it still had 5 or 6 marines in it. Finally, I charged. The Chaplain killed 3 outright and then the death company went. With all the re-rolls the death Company caused something ridiculous like 24 wounds (my poor cheater dreadnought didn’t even get to go!). Tactical Squad Alpha was vanquished! I had two objectives and BT no longer had any (nor could he claim any).
After some talk BT decided to call it a game. He may have been able to push me off 1 of my objectives with his hammer unit, but the game would have had to go on another 1-2 turns for him to get into range, plus my dreadnought, death company and Stormchicken were nearby, it would not have been as simple as running up and killing 5 assault marines.
A good game, everything I selected achieved their goal. Dante caused lots of damage and sucked up a lot of fire and energy while the rest of my army slowly chipped away at BT. Tactically I probably would have released my Death Company earlier in order to kill off Tact Squad Alpha.
On BT’s end, he is talking about dumping a Vindicator or two and grabbing another Land Raider. I got lucky blowing up his land raider this game, two of them is a much harder challenge. With two land raiders and if he gets his Captain and Honor Guard into the fight next time, it could make for a hardcore army.
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