Saturday 22 January 2022

There Will Be Blood

I've been wanting to get in some games of 40k but Pete and I have not been able to match up schedules.

We're both coming back to the game after some years away, so it was time for a training mission.


We decided to go for an Incursion game of 1000 points to keep things manageable, but opted to try out the Matched Play rules, to have a go with objectives.

I opted to use my Blood Angels rather than my Daemons, mainly because I've already bought two Codexes for them and wanted to get some use out of them.


My retro Firstborn Blood Angels army was a Patrol with the following line up:

HQ
Chaplain with Jump Pack
Librarian
Troops
10 Tactical Marines
Elite
Dreadnought
5 Death Company with Jump Packs
Fast Attack
5 Assault Marines with Jump Packs
Fast Attack
2 Attack Bikes
Transport
Razorback

For secondary objectives I chose Relentless Assault, Raise the Banners High and Thin the Ranks. My intention was to hold the line and kill Pete's troops as the advanced, then have my Jump Pack units  attack from deep strike into his back lines to land a devastating blow.

That was the plan, anyway.


Pete's shiny and intimidatingly large Primaris Space Wolves were also a Patrol:

HQ
Primaris Master of Sanctity
Primaris Chief Rune Priest
Troops
6 Assault Intercessors
5 Intercessors
5 Intercessors
Elite
3 Aggressors
Redemptor Dreadnought
Heavy Support
3 Eradicators

Pete chose Raise the Banners High; Engage on All Fronts; and Warrior Born (I think) as his secondary objectives. His plan seemed to be to shoot the crap out of me and then run up and smash me in the face.

Space Wolf Turn 1


Pete got first turn (which is becoming a worrying trend) and then enacted the first phase of his plan, advancing his horrifically overloaded left flank up to unleash what appeared to be all the guns in the world on me.


Meanwhile, on the other flank, his Assault Intercessors rushed forwards to seize one of the centre objectives.


After the smoke cleared, the Razorback was on 4 wounds and the Tactical Marines on my objectives had been reduced to just two men.

Fortunately, I'd combat squadded the Tactical Marines, so I still have 5 more wildly out of position on my left (I need to work on deployment).

Now it was my turn to unleash he'll...

Blood Angels Turn 1


I whiffed. 

With everything.

Multi-Meltas from my Attack Bikes and Dreadnought, and the Razorback's Lascannons all failed to have any impact, inflicting a combined total of one wound on an Assault Intercessor. To add insult to injury, my Librarian also failed (twice) to cast Psychic Fortress to protect my beleaguered Tactical Marines.

Things looked grim.

Space Wolf Turn 2


Pete picked up 15 vps for primary objectives and advanced again. Another barrage of fire tumbled out of the Redemptor, Aggressors and Eradicators.


However, this time it was Pete's turn to whiff, as he only managed to take out a single Tactical Marine, leaving me control of my objective. He did damage my vehicles, but fluffed the damage rolls leaving the Dreadnought barely scratched and the Razorback on just a single wound.

He did, however, get points for Engage on All Fronts.

Blood Angels Turn 2


It was time for the hammer blow.

My Chaplain, Assault Marines and Death Company dropped into his deployment zone (guaranteeing Relentless Assault for the turn). 

The Chaplain took advantage of the Commanding Oratory strategem to reduce the charges they would have to do to hit the Eradicators and the Intercessors in Pete's back line.

This was going to be epic...


My shooting also found it's mark and combined Multi-Melta fire dropped the Aggressors to a single model with a single wound left. The Librarian also managed to successfully cast Psychic Fortress for some added protection.


I then proceeded to fail the charge rolls for everything except the Chaplain. The Death Company even rolled twice.

The Chaplain ploughed into the Intercessors alone, killing three but lacking the hitting power to take them off the objective.

Bugger!

Space Wolves Turn 3


With another 15 vps in the bag for primary objectives, Pete executed the least surprising move of the game when the Redemptor turned round and obliterated the exposed Assault Marines.

The Eradicators secured the objective and finished off the Razorback, whilst the lone Aggressor incinerated the last Tactical Narine holding my objective.


The Assault Intercessors made it. into my second Tactical Squad and ripped them to shreds before consolidating into the Attack Bikes.

Fortunately, the last Aggressor was cut down by overwatch from my hardy little Dreadnought.


The Space Wolf Chaplain ploughed into his Blood Angel counterpart, but found his blows turned aside by the Armour Indomitus. In return the Blood Angel continued to hack at the Intercessors, but again, one of them survived to hold onto to the objective.

Blood Angels Turn 4

It was getting late and so the photos start to dry up here, sorry.

The Attack Bikes used Hit and Run Warfare to disengage from the Assault Intercessors and cut two down.

Meanwhile the Eradicators were eradicated by the Dreadnought, which then charged the Rune Priest and narrowly missed destroying him.


The Death Company, which had been sheltered from incoming fire, charged the Space Wolf Chaplain and the last Intercessor. Concentrating their attacks on the Chaplain, they brought down the enemy Warlord but again, narrowly failed to kill the Intercessor.

Space Wolf Turn 4


With only a few units remaining, the Space Wolves were on mopping up duty.

The Redemptor ploughed into the Blood Angel Dreadnought and finally brought the plucky little stomper low, whilst the Assault Intercessors moved to take down the banner on the Blood Angel home objective.


In the Fight Phase the Death Company finally finished off the last Intercessor which had held up the counter strike.


The Assault Intercessors charged the Attack Bikes, managing to destroy one, but took damage in return.

Blood Angels Turn 4


The last Attack Bike used Hit and Run Warfare again to back off and blow away two more Assault Intercessors in combination with the Librarian's first successful Smite.

Meanwhile, the Death Company charged and obliterated the last unit of Intercessors (with the help of a failed morale test) holding the midfield objective. I had picked up 10vps at the start of the turn for the first time and wanted to ensure I could guarantee 15vps at the end of turn 5.

The Chaplain was still in the Space Wolves' deployment zone, so I needed to ckear the Assault Intercessors from mine to score Relentless Assault.

The Librarian charged, but fluffed his attacks and only managed to kill one of them. Having taken wounds earlier, he was easily taken down by the remaining Sergeant.

Space Wolf & Blood Angel Turn 5

In the final Space Wolf turn, the Assault Intercessor Sergeant made another charge on the Attack Bike, but couldn't finish it off, whilst the Redemptor opened fire on the Death Company but suffered bad rolls on shots, hits, wounds and saves, leaving three of them still standing.

This meant that in the Blood Angel final turn, another Hit and Run Warfare from the Attack Bike allowed it to finish off the Assault Intercessor and also contest the objective held by the Redemptor, delivering 19vps at the end of the turn.

The final tally was Space Wolves 79, Blood Angels 56, and it could easily have gone the other way. We both had attacks that didn't finish off units when we should, so complaining about dice would be churlish. We both didn't maximise our choices of secondary objectives, Pete had a better spread of points, but I got a lot out of Relentless Assault.

I definitely deployed poorly, and the Razorback is a bit rubbish, but the Death Company, Dreadnought and Attack Bikes were great. I'm not sold on the Librarian, but the Chaplain did his job well.

Really, it was the failed charges from my deep strikers was what really sealed the game, as they would have severely disrupted Pete's scoring. However, I probably should take the relic that allows me to reroll charges, if I want this tactic to be more reliable, although as the Death Company proved, rerollable 7" charges can still fail.

I think we both learned a bit more about the game, and most importantly, we both enjoyed it.

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good game! I'm very much into small retro space marines at the moment. I like your trikes a lot. How were they made?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks. The were done with the old bike kits. Basically you cut off the engine bits at the back and use front mud guards from another bike and turn them round. You can use the engine bits to fill the gap between the wheels. The guns are taken from another model, I think mine are technically Ork or Chaos heavy flamers.

      I did them years ago, but they weren't my idea. If you search Space Marine Trikes you should find a guide.

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