White Scars vs Blood Angels 1000 points

Today's game relatively quick, in that we actually finished it. We played a kind of 'ITC light' mission where we set up four objective markers and then only scored on killing units and holding said objectives.

We set up some terrain then rolled for standard deployment and got number 5, I believe, one of the speartip type.

Deployment presented a little bit of a problem for me, because he had scout snipers and a couple of squads of Eliminators. I wasn't really going to have any cover to put characters in, so I ended up putting them near units to buff and resolving to either charge to kill snipers right off the bat, or to use Prepared Positions and hope for the best. I had a couple fewer units to deploy, so I got to add one to my roll for first turn, and rolled a 7, against his 6. He tried to seize but failed, so I went first.

This first couple of pics will show the board setup and deployment. The first pic wasn't actually taken until after I'd begun movement (thus the scout bikers being out of coherency for a second while I snapped the pic).



So, a quick breakdown of armies. I had a basic list of:

Gravis Captain
Primaris Librarian
Phobos Lieutenant
Intercessors x 3 units (one with Auto Bolt Rifles, two with Bolt Rifles)
Primaris Ancient
Reivers
Scout Bikers
Predator

He had a highly optimized competitive list of:

Jump Pack Captain w/TH
Terminator Catain w/THSS
Captain on Bike w/THSS
Eliminators x 2 squads
Scouts x 4 squads
Sanguinary Guard (6 models)

In my first turn, I begin by declaring Devastator doctrine, then go into movement. I have decided to go after his snipers as the first order of business, not knowing where his Jump Pack or Terminator smash Captains will deep strike into, only that it will be outside of my deployment due to my screening. I advance my Scout Bikers over near to the woods where he has two units of Scouts in cover. I advance my Reivers up the board toward the near squad of Eliminators. My Librarian advances more or less alongside them. I advance my Assault Bolter Intercessors up to a spot kind of between the near Eliminators and the Scouts in the woods. The Primaris Ancient advances with them. I advance my Gravis Captain up toward the woods also, and the squad of Intercessors on the left side of the board, too. The Phobos Lt. and the Intercessors on the right flank stay put, because they are on an objective.

In Psychic Phase, I Smite his far unit of Eliminators and one model takes one mortal wound. I also put Storm-Wreathed onto my Reivers so they will be able to charge without fear of Overwatch, and also potentially do mortal wounds when they slam into the enemy unit.

Shooting, I begin over on the right. The Lt. can't reach anything. The Intercessors on the point shoot at the far/high Eliminators and manage to get a wound through, so that's one of them dead, now. Of my Reivers, only the Sgt can shoot, but fails to do anything. My Assault Bolter Intercessors should take -1 to hit, but I play the 'Flamer in your face' stratagem for 2CP (down to 6) to autohit 15 shots at the Scout Snipers in the woods, and I think three of them die at this attack. Librarian and Ancient can't shoot. Scout Bikers have advanced, and so can only shoot shotguns. They do that, into a unit of Scouts in the woods, and I think four of them (non-Sniper type) die in that volley. Gravis Captain can't shoot. My Intercessors have advanced, so I play Steady Advance (down to 5) to let them shoot as if they had stood still, into the Scout Snipers in the woods, and either nothing gets through, or they kill one of the guys I said got killed previously. I also shot my Predator, but I don't recall what it did. Not a ton, I think. Maybe it accounted for one other model from above I may have mis-credited elsewhere.

Charge Phase, I get my Scout Bikers into the woods to fight his Scouts. My Gravis Captain gets in there, too. My Assault Intercessors don't have room on the woods piece to be able to charge into it, because apparently the whole unit has to be able to get onto it? So, they don't charge. I get my Reivers up onto the terrain in the middle of the board, Charging his Eliminators. Come to find out, I did this illegally, because Grapnel Launchers only let me ignore vertical movement in the Movement Phase, but here I did it in the Charge phase. We wouldn't discover this until later, though. Here's a pic of a bit later that shows some positioning. I think this was early in his turn. Ignore whatever he's doing with the Sanguinary Guard in this pic; they never went up there, and his Eliminators didn't actually move down from there, either. Not sure what was going on in this pic...



Anyway, fighting ensued, and crazily enough his scouts got a couple of wounds in on my Gravis Captain. Big, crucial mistake here. I forget to consolidate my Captain, so he's twisting in the wind out of combat going into the next turn. Not good! Here's the body count after my first turn:



During his movement phase, he uses his remove-and-deep-strike stratagem on the Jump Pack smash captain:



And moves up his Sanguinary Guard:



As well as Smash Captain on Bike:



Here's a nice pic of the state of things here:



During his Shooting Phase, he uses both squads of Eliminators to kill my Gravis Captain. I had even played Transhuman Physiology (down to 2CP), but he rolled 5s and 6s. Lame!  Then the guns on his Sanguinary Guard (which are fucking mean) to kill half my Assault Intercessors, which both get to fire back because of banner proximity. I don't think anything dies, though. I lose another three wounds on that unit (now just the Sgt left) to his distant Scouts in his backfield.

In his Charge Phase, Fly Smasher comes at my Intercessors:



Biker Smasher comes for my Librarian:



And The Sanguinary Guard come for my Ancient:



Fly Smasher kills 4 Intercessors. Bike Smasher kills the Librarian, and all the Sang Guard kill the Ancient. I had used the last of my CP on Counter-Offensive to fight with the Ancient, but nothing came of it.

The body count after his first turn:



It's not looking good going into my second turn. I also forget to change it up to Tactical Doctrine.



In Movement, my Lt moves up a little closer to Fly Smasher. My Scout Bikers fall back away from his Scouts in the woods over near to his Bike Smasher. The lone Assault Intercessor Sgt with the Thunder Hammer scoots a little nearer the Smasher, too. My Intercessors over on the left advance up to the objective there in the woods with his few remaining Scouts near it. My Reivers edge a little closer to his near Eliminators on the middle terrain piece. My Predator stays put.





I don't really remember what happened during this shooting phase. Not a hell of a lot, since my Bikers had fallen back, and Intercessors had advanced, and I had no CP to effect it otherwise. I think my Predator killed a couple of his Sanguinary Guard, though.

Charge Phase, I sent my Intercessor Sgt and Lt. into his Fly Smasher.



My TH Intercessor Sgt and Scout Bikers into his Sang Guard:



My Intercessors into his Scouts:



And my Reivers into his Eliminators:




I can't really hurt Fly Smasher, who then fights back and kills both my models. I am able to wipe out his Sang Guard and Scouts, though. I also kill another Eliminator.

Now his turn again, and his Terminator Smasher teleports in:



In his Shooting phase, he keeps trying but can't quite kill my TH Intercessor Sgt. The Terminator Smasher also fails his charge at said Sgt. lol. Something he does finally kills that Sgt, but I forget what...

Fly Smasher charges my Predator, but I can't fire Overwatch against him because of a relic he has.



Biker Smasher charges and kills my Scout Bikers.



Going into BR3 here. I do remember to change to Tactical doctrine, finally:



Fly Smasher has my Predator down to 2 wounds after his combat. I fall back with the tank 3" just so I can charge back in with it that turn.

I also charge my woods Intercessors into Bike Smasher. I'm trying to charge my Reivers into the far/high Eliminators, but this is when we discover the Grapnel Launcher limitation, so the Reivers are caught out in the open away from combat.



From here, in fighting, his Smashers wipe out my Intercessors and Predator, which does not explode, and he's able to gun down my Reivers with his remaining Eliminators and backfield Scouts for the table wipe.



His hidden squad of Scouts were on a point all game and did literally nothing else.

So, all in all a big fail of a battle today, but whatever. You can't expect a casual list like mine to stack up to a tournament-tailored one like his. It was still a lot of fun to roll some dice and push some models around and just chat the whole time.

I do have some ideas on how I can improve my list and play, but probably nothing that's going to hard counter a list like this one Will played today. And I'm not really all that interested in doing so, either.

Lessons learned:

Consolidate!
Change combat doctrines!
White Scars should get to Assault doctrine!

Third Quarder 2019 Book Review

My roll has slowed! I've barely read much at all in July, August, and September of this year. It took me ages to finish off Savage Scars, a novel of the White Scars chapter of the Space Marines of Warhammer 40,000. A lot of this delay can be chalked up to how much time I spent building and painting models of said White Scars.

I also read the second in the Siege of Terra sub-series of Horus Heresy novels, called The Lost and the Damned. This one was a quick read, and a real page-turner, with how the siege is escalating at this point. The first traitor legions began to make landfall here, including the Death Guard, Night Lords, and even the Primarch Angron, if his World Eaters hadn't quite landed yet. They will definitely be in the next book alongside Perturabo's Iron Warriors if the cover art is anything to go by.

Another part of the reason I wasn't reading quite as much is because I was busy writing my own BL fiction for their open submissions window that has just passed. I wrote a story about the Adepta Sororitas, and as part of my research into getting the tone and feel correct, I read Danie Ware's newest story about them, called Forsaken.

Finally, I caught up on an issue of White Dwarf featuring a good article about the Blood Ravens chapter, who starred in Relic's Dawn of War series of PC games.

White Dwarf (July)
Savage Scars
Forsaken
How To Paint Space Marines
The Lost and the Damned

White Scars vs Blood Angels 2000 points

So this game was much better and entertaining for me, at least. It was a little contentious and/or frustrating for Will, though. I'll get into why, but first, the top line details. We called it after the first Battle Round because there wasn't going to be time to do another. Scoring to the ITC method it was a draw of four points each, because apparently you can only ever score two points per turn? Yeah, I don't really know or care all that much, but apparently if we were counting every point actually earned, I was ahead five to four, by his own admission.

My deployment:

So the problem with this game, or at least what was bothering him, was that we were playing 2000 points on a 4x4. It was definitely a little cramped, especially since we got the standard deployment where there's a no-man's land ring in the middle of 9" (which we shortened to 6" because 4x4 and not 6x4), but otherwise you have an entire quarter of the board as your deployment zone. However, by the time he realized it was not optimal, we were well into the first turn. He said we should wipe it clean and grab another couple of tiles to make it a 6x4. The space was open and the tiles not being used, so we could have done so, but by this time it was already like 5:15, I think. Probably right around the time my Assault Terminators advanced 10" to within 6" of his forward-deployed Scouts. We had been setting up and deploying and actually getting into movement for like an hour, so I said no, let's just keep playing. And I think I made the right call, seeing as how we only finished a single Battle Round by 7:30!  But, he kept bringing it up until the time when it was clearly too late to restart, even by his most optimistic estimate. 

His deployment, with scouts and Phobos Librarian in concealed positions:

Now, let me say that I think he was right. For an optimally strategic experience, we SHOULD have been playing on a full size table, or at least with smaller lists. I just wasn't bothered by the fact that it was a crowded board, and everything was in range and chargeable in the first turn. I was having fun. I did get to go first today, but I don't think it was a huge advantage, because he deployed well, everything either out of sight or in cover, and the first charge/fight phase was pretty minimal, too.

So, after the table is set up and we have deployed, ITC rules say I'm going first, but he gets to try to seize, and fails. First things first, I declare Devastator Droctine, and my Chaplain's Litany, Catechism of Fire. I roll a 3, so it's on. Unfortunately, I someone dumbly deployed the Chaplain beside my Predator, which doesn't really need help wounding. Oh, and then in shooting I forget to fire its guns anyway. Oops! 

Movement phase, I advance my Reivers over toward the objective off to my Land Raider's right. Then, I advance the Assault Terminators and the Terminator Captain over toward his scouts and Phobos Librarian which are on another objective in that little bit of ruins. I also move forward my shooty Terminators so they control the middle of the board objective. My Primaris Librarian moves up his 6" so he can better Smite or Might of Heroes a unit. Nothing else moves. To Will's point, nothing else really needs to. It's either in cover or in range or both.

Psychic phase, I get off Smite on one of his two units of scout snipers on top of the grey tower bastion thing. Three mortal wounds, so three of five scouts die. Then, I cast Might of Heroes onto my Terminator Captain.

Shooting phase, my Reiver Sgt has a shot with his Assault 2 Bolt Carbine, and he takes it at the Sanguinary Guard. Nothing happens, as I recall. I think move over to my Vindicator and shoot it into the scout snipers on the bastion thing again. Some of them die here, but I don't recall how many. My Tactical Squad sends a missile over at the Sanguinary guard, and I believe they kill one. Their eight Boltgun shots go at the scouts either on the thing again, or maybe the ones on the nearby container, which we are counting as cover. I don't think anything happens, either way. My Assault Intercessors waste all fifteen shots at the scouts in cover (no AP, damn it), but my normal ones do a few wounds at the ones on top of the thing again. My Lt has his gun that ignores cover. I think he maybe picks off one scout. My shooty Terminators kill more scout snipers, and now they're all gone but one dude with a missile launcher on top of the grey bastion. The cyclone missile launcher goes into the Sanguinary guard but I don't recall any dying to it. My Land Raider kills three of them, though, between its twin heavy bolter and two twin lascannons. I forget all about my Predator, but I'd have shot at the Sanguinary Guard.

Charge phase, and all I have are my Assault Terminators and the Terminator Captain over on the left. They're going to the scouts and Phobos Libriarian over on the point. Overwatch does nothing, and the charges go off without a hitch.

Fight phase, I can't get to his Librarian with my Captain due to positioning, so my first fight is my Asssault Terminators into his Scouts. He's got a unit of eight, and I think five of them die. I forget to Consolidate. He plays Counter-Offensive and fights his Phobos Librarian against my Assault Terminators, and kills one. Then I Pile In and fight my Terminator Captain against the Librarian and kill him real good. He gets to fight the remaining scouts at my Captain, and does a wound or two!

Morale phase, his remaining scouts that fought pass their test, and I think he may have forgotten to take the one for the lone scout on the bastion? Or maybe he did and it passed.

So far the pics have shown initial deployment. Here's one after my first turn:

On his turn, he moves his two units of two models of bikers up to the melee at the point where my Terminators are dominating. Two units of two models? Huh? Yeah, that's what I was thinking. We'll come back to that in a minute. Then he moves more bikers and infantry and his Librarian Dread out of the ruins they have been hiding in. I think he did it wrong with the Dread. It moved through the doorway, but previously we had said the doorway was solid, not shootable. I made him take the bikes around the ruins, but let him walk the Dread through as if it was infantry (who can move through walls at least in ITC), not wanting to press the matter, and not really knowing for sure either way. he also moves his Razorback with six Tacticals inside it over to the point where my Reivers are, and the Tacticals hop out. His Sanguinary Guard come down from the ruins, closer to my shooty Terminators. Now he resolves his smash captain's turn one off-the-board-then-deep-strike thing, but spends a while trying to find a hole in my backfield. Well, there are none, so he finds a spot between my Assault Terminators and the shooty ones, and drops him there, about 10-11" away from my Tacticals and Intercessors.

During his shooting, he uses his Razorback and Tacticals along with some Intercessors to kill 4/5 of my Reivers. Then he uses his Sanguinary Guard pistols, which are like Plasma pistols, I guess, and kills one or two of my shooty Terminators. He also shoots his bikers in that area's twin boltguns into the same Terminators, but nothing happens, if I recall correctly. Now, his other bikers over by the melee begin shooting and I think they do one wound on my Assault Terminators. Two units of two bikes, right? Well then he starts talking about shooting their Heavy Bolters and I have to stop him to ask who's on bikes with Heavy Bolters? Turns out he has the models for Bike Squad but is running the datasheet for Attack Bikes, and is confused further by the fact that the Bike Squad datasheet lists Attack Bikes as part of the unit, and of course the Heavy Bolters. I'm OK if he wants to play them as Attack Bikes, since that's what's taking up points in his list, but he wants to stick with WYSIWYG, and so takes his lumps and does not fire any Heavy Bolters. 

Now it's his charge phase. First, his smash captain goes into my mess of characters, with the help of a stratagem that lets him roll 3D6 to charge instead of 2D6. He's going for my Warlord again, of course. My Gravis Captain.

He also charges bikers and scouts into my Terminators:

And, hilariously, his Razorback into my Reiver Sgt:

Those Tacticals have been reduced a little by my Land Raider's Overwatch, for a charge roll that then failed to reach the 9" he needed.

He's also charged a crapload of stuff into my shooty Terminators in the middle of the board:

Now that his charges are all done, I make sure my warlord Gravis Cpt. does a Heroic Intervention and gets right up on the smash captain, which is his warlord. This to trigger The Imperium's Sword.

In the Fight phase, he chooses to fight first with the smash captain. He has seven attacks that he divides up like two into my Primaris Ancient, two into Librarian, two into my Assault Bolter Intercessors, and one into my Lieutenant. The Ancient dies, the Librarian takes one smash and loses three wounds, the Intercessors take two smashes and lose two guys, and the Lt gets lucky somehow and doesn't get hit. Or, I think does, but survives because he has enough wounds.

Anyway, I play Counter-Offensive and kill his smash captain with my Warlord. I have seven attacks of my own between base five, shock assault, and The Imperium's Sword, and only one target.  So, he plays Only In Death... and goes for the Librarian with two again and for the Lt with two this time, and now goes for the Warlord with three. Well, now I use Transhuman Physiology! Warlord takes only one smash and loses three wounds, the Lt takes two smashes and dies, and the Librarian takes another and dies. I briefly consider using my own Only In Death... at this point, but there's nothing nearby to fight! 

In the middle of the board, all the stuff that charged my shooty Terminators make pretty quick work of them:

His bikers that have charged my Terminators over on that flank lose 3/4 bikes. Also that unit of scouts had charged my Terminators also, and they all die, save one.

His Razorback is unable to run over my Reiver Sgt, but the Sgt fights it and scratches a wound off it for the most unlikely result of the game:

That's about it; it's getting to be time to wrap up now. We forget about Morale, so my Reiver there doesn't take a test, but I'm sure he'd pass it. I mean, look how crazy that bastard is, fighting with a tank.

Final body counts here. You can see we both savaged each other pretty well. 

And well, I had fun, at least! 

Takeaways:

I still need to be faster! Having a 20-page printed off list is real cumbersome. I found a setting in BattleScribe that I think will help with this, to group profiles for all units and weapons in a single table for each. That will be a really good resourse. The bad part is that it does the same thing for abilities, and puts them in alphabetical order, which is not really ideal, but is workable. I may print off both versions of the list and frankenstein them together for the best of both worlds.

Screening for Deep Strikers works!

Make sure every unit has shot and fought!

Best play games larger than about 1250 points on a full size table.

Probably best to play smaller games until we can crank through them.