Jawaballs Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Ultramarines
I have managed to get in quite a few games lately, and I thought I would share the most recent. On a recent Sunday I had the pleasure of playing my buddy Ultrabob and his Ultramarines.
His list:
Libby
LR Redeemer
5 Th/SS termies
2 Auto cannon preds with Las sponsons
Dreadnought with MM
Two squads of 2 speeders with MM/HF
Two tacticals with Rhinos and Las cannons
One tactical in a pod with Multi melta and melta
My list:
Mephiston
2 priests one LC one PW
2 RAS with razor, melta, PW and Asscan
1 RAs with razor, pw and TL Las
1 Baal Pred with Flame storm and HF sponsons
2 Baal Pred with Asscan and HB spons
2 Auto can preds with Las spon
1 Vindicator
Scout squad with Combi Melt and Fist
My standard tactics have been pretty straight forward. Flank the baals and scouts. Ram the Vindi and Mephiston down his throat, and follow them with the Razorbacks providing cover fire, while the Preds provide sniper las fire from the back. The scouts come on and pop a melta shot at whatever they can, then punch it in the face and die. The flame Pred comes on and scares the crap out of Marines. The Baals come on and provide troop death and suppression fire on tanks.
I knew I was in for a game vs Bob. He is smart and has been playing his ultras for a while. Game on!
Deployment: DoW
Mission: Capture the base
The terrain was a bomb blasted waste land with lots of trenches and craters, all providing plenty of 4+ saves and Difficult/Dangerous terrain tests. With my incredible ability to roll 1s… I was in trouble. I hate this board…
I won the roll, and went first. There was a large tower in the middle of the table that blocked LoS, so I deployed Mephiston behind it supported by a RAS with AssaultCannons. Before any one starts hating on me, yes, I deployed a priest with the squad. I believe that was a mistake. Sue me! 🙂 On with the game.
He deployed two tactical squads and combat squaded them. Two 5 man Las teams on his base. The Rhinos were off the table.
Turn 1:
I came on and began rushing my tanks forward. I attempted to put one of my shooty preds in a nice trench that would possible give it a cover save and still allow it to shoot. But no. I had to roll a 1. The tank was immobilized as it attempted to enter the trench. Not a terrible thing, it still had good LoS on the table… but it just annoyed me. I moved up my Las Razor onto my objective behind a low wall where it would shoot the entire game. I sent my other Asscan Razor up the right side towards his base, and the Vindicator right up the middle to join Mephiston. I attempted to roll out my first Asscan Razor 12″ to go up and lay down some love on one of his Las teams, but NO, how bout another 1 sucka? That Razor would remain in the middle of the table. Grr. Now, with nothing to jump up behind, Mephiston had to wait a turn. (Don’t worry, I rolled more 1s on terrain)
So with night fighting in effect, I was unable to target any thing. Then I had to deal with his drop pod coming down. I think the never mess with rule in DoW when you know your opponent is going to pod melta guns is to take second turn. So much for bucking the system!
On his turn, of course he drops the pod right in front of my base. He combat squaded and prepared to pop off a melta shot. The rest of his tanks moved on, with his LR coming right down the middle. He flew in his speeders 24″ from the edge and set them up to provide a cover wall in front of his tanks, granting them cover saves and saving their smoke.
Time for his shots! The melta hits of course, but in a stroke of luck failed to destroy my Vindicator. Immobilized yes, but that mattered not, it was in range to hit every thing on his table and it was in it’s arc.
The rest of his shots harmlessly fell short due to darkness.
Turn 2:
Now I had decisions to make. First of all, I had reserves. My flame tank came on, and it came onto the side with his base. I wasted no time in moving it 12″ so that it could lay it’s flame storm across both squads defending his base, AND The Dread defending them. That was my only reserve. Mephiston jumped backwards to line up one of the combat squads that immobilized my Vindi. The RAZ team that was moving up the right for his objective got out to deal with the other combat squad.
In my shooting, I knew I had to deal with his speeders. They would make short work of all my armor. So I shot every thing I could at them, and Ultrabob had some hot dice! All I managed to do was take off a Multi melta. Drat. My flame tank was awesome though. It lined up a lot of marines, killing most of one combat squad and torching one member of another. It did not hurt the dread, but the target squad failed a leadership test and ran for their lives and a beer off the table. Oh, and I fired my Vindicator at his Land Raider but failed to hurt it. I was hoping to at least glance and immobilize. The assault was over quickly. Mephiston smoked the first combat squad while my RAZ boys took down the other on the Furious Charge. Mephiston consolidated behind the Vindi and the RAZ got behind their transport.
On his turn he knew he had to do some damage. One of his sniper tanks shot at one of mine, but failed to hurt it. His speeders moved up, and exploded my Vindicator but whiffed on their other target. His Rhinos moved up and popped smoke while his LR moved up and popped smoke as well, the guys inside were going to be too short on the assault trying to get through all the craters and dead armor so they chose to stay inside. His dread shot at my flame tanke with the MM and stunned it, then assaulted. But missed it’s attacks due to my moving 12″.
Turn 3:
Both of my Baals came on, but the wrong side of the table. I decided to gamble with Meph. I jumped him up and landed him right in front of one of the enemy rhinos. Why? Well, at this point the one thing I was fearing now was his Terminators. I had to get them out of the LR and on his side of the table. I figured he would absolutely take the bait and get them out, closer to his side of the table. Then they would own Mephiston, and be stuck in the wind while I mowed them down with concentrated ass can fire and Las shots. That was the plan at least.
My RAS on the right waited behind their transport for the coast to be made clear by Mephiston while the ones in the immobile one in the center disembarked and snuck around the tower in the middle to line up the LR for a melta shot. They would shoot at the damn thing all game, dodging flame storm cannons and assault cancon shots. One thing I was sure of this turn was that all of his speeders had to die. They would not survive this round. I killed them all, leaving 3 of them as dangerous wrecks right in front of my base. He would have to run through lots of jagged steel to get to me. But, it took a lot of shots to do it. My sniper tank that was in a duel with the one on his side knocked off one of the las sponsons, while my Preds came on and knocked off the other and stunned it. Their goal was to line up his base with torrent of fire, and spare some for the Terminators after they kill Mephiston and turn to advance on my base. I knew they would be slowed by the terrain and was counting on boltering them to death!
Mephiston fired his plasma gun at the Rhino… but it over heated with a 1. 🙁 He made his save. The assault squad advancing on the Land Raider shot it, but only immobilized it. Then they assaulted it on the left side. At this point, I kinda hoped he would get out on that side and assault them, leaving them open to a LOT of Baal shots. However, I knew he would not pass up the chance to charge Meph.
Mephiston charged the rhino but missed it on all swings due to it’s moving 12″ the previous turn.
On his turn, Bobby sure did go for Mephiston with his termies! They got out and charged him on the assault. On the shooting though, he was running out of guns fast. His dread backed up a bit and shot at my tank again, missing this time. His gun fire would take the assault cannon off my immobile Razor, and destroy the other, exploding it. My marines inside Felt no Pain though, even though they failed 2 armor saves. I love Sanguinary Priests! He killed two of the Marines that Immobilized his LR with the Flamestorm cannon. The Rhino that Mephiston assaulted tried to move away, but immobilized itself on the terrain… Wonders never cease! On the assault, the Terminators dealt 4 wounds to Mephiston and he failed to deal any in return. He lost combat and fell back. Not being fearless, he ran, and the Terminators were unable to try to catch him, and the libby lacked the initiative. Mephiston fell back about 8 inches and was now actually out of LOS behind dead speeders. His dread assaulted my immobile flame tank and this time did the trick, exploding it.
Turn 4:
It was getting down to the nitty gritty. This is the time we start sizing up our runs to contest bases and what not. I knew I had two Baal Preds that could move 18″ and maybe get in to contest, but I wanted to take advantage of their dakka. They moved 6″ each to get into LoS to clear his base of marines, doing just that. My scouts lined up their melta on his pred I had been shooting at last turn, to clear it out of the way for my Baals to make their run. I destroyed it, leaving the hulk of steel. My scouts came on and I placed them near his base. They ran on and shot their melta at the dread, shaking it. My assault squad on the right, lead by a priest, charged the Terminators. The priest attacked the Libby with his claw, but failed to kill him… Grr. BUT the Sergeant managed to kill one of the Terminators! 4 to go. His return attacks were not all that accurate, and he managed to kill a couple marines, tieing the combat. Mephiston continued to fall back, and at the end of his turn, was still within 6 of the pod. He would continue to fall back turn 5.
At the end of my turn, things were thinning out. I had two Baals moving up the left flank, and an assault squad running amok with a melta gun. I had a scout squad charging a dread with a fist near his base. I wiped out all but a couple of the marines holding his base. He had one active Rhino with troops inside, and one immobile with troops serving as insurance that he could hold his base if he had to. Mephiston was still running and I had an assault squad locked in combat with Terminators. I had another RAS in a razor shooting a TL las on my base, and two fully functional predator tanks in the back line sniping with their ranged death.
On his turn, he killed another of my melta squad in the center and they failed LD. (but we rememberd that they were fearless on the next turn due to Red Thirst, so I consolidated them then). He tried taking down Mephiston with Storm Bolters but failed. With very little left to shoot, and what could shoot was fireing through a whole table of dead armor, nothing else took damage.
The assault was brutal. He killed all but the Sergeant, who managed to kill his Librarian. The Sgt fell back and was trying to catch up with Mephiston. He immobilized his second Rhino, cant remember if it was my shooting or what… They were on the wrong side of a lot of dead stuff to try to capture my base. He assaulted my scouts with the dread who defiantly raised that power fist. 3 scouts died and the dread was stunned. The sgt passed leadership.
Turn 5:
Now I could move my Baals up to try to clear off the rest of his marines on his base. But nope, Blammo, shazaam! Another 1 would immobilize one of them. So I decided to rely on their fire power rather then take a chance at him Death or Glory blasting my contesting Pred. I killed all of the marines on the objective! The pod forced Mephiston to drop back once again as well as the Sgt. The Terminators were now drooling for their next target in the middle, but I would mow down two of them with my sniper tanks. Only two left! TL Las defending my base exploded the pod that was contesting, and forcing Mephiston to fall back. He would be good to go next turn!
On his turn, he moves up a combat squad to contest my objective, and failed on the terrain test to get his Terminators into range to assault. The scout and dread were locked in fierce combat. The dread missed him twice, but the scout managed to rip off the DCCW, making it a more even fight! He sent back yet another squad to defend his base.
At the bottom of 5, my base was contested, and Bobby owned his. All he had left was a couple of marines on his base, a badly damaged dread locked in combat with a scout, 2 immobile rhinos, some tactical marines contesting my objective and 2 termies. The die roll? A 1. The game would end. Victory to Bobby.
We played out the next turn for fun and I wiped him out. Mephiston took down the last two termies and my defending squad slaughtered his tactical. My Baal tank shocked his base, and they fell back off the table, and my scout destroyed the dread. But it mattered not! When the dice fell on turn 5, Ultrabob was the victor.
Great game!
Yet another slug fest blood bath. My casualties were light though, 2 priests, 12 marines and a few scouts compared to his 30 Marines, 3 Termies and a libby plus lots of armor on both sides.
This game shows off one of the true strengths of the BA dex. More for less. Priests make 5 man squads survivable, as I must have made 7 or 8 FNP rolls. Also, they multiply their numbers by granting Furious Charge, and lending another power weapon to the fight.
Mephiston was not as effective in this game, as I suspect will be the deal with him vs most experienced players. He is a definite noob hammer though! It remains to be seen if he deserves a spot in my ‘Ard Boys list. More play testing with him must be done.
The star of this game? My pair of Predators. Those las and auto cannons shooting all game did a LOT of damage. Most importantly, they cleared his base of marines twice. Nothing like being able to reach out and touch some marines hiding in cover from across the table. That is something I have been sorely lacking in previous lists and is entirely welcome. Bob’s star was his termy squad. Forcing Meph out of the game, and killing an assault squad were huge. This stopped me from making a serious push to take his base, and eliminated my major threat.
A great game against a fine player. Bob is one of the best, both sportsman wise and tactical. The biggest sore spot for me? My cursed ability to roll 1s. Immobilizing half of my fast vehicles… What are the odds?? 🙂 Oh well. More to come!
Jawaballs
So how has the new dex been shaking down for you? We all know about the strengths of the Blood Angels, but what about glaring weaknesses? That fact that Mephiston and Dante are not fearless is one. What else?
