White Scars vs Blood Angels 70 PL

This was shaping up to be an interesting game. My opponent and I both made some mistakes and bad calls, and that was leading to a could-go-either-way mid-game, but we called it after the second full battle round because there likely wouldn't have been time to do a complete third one. I got caught up in playing this game, and so took fewer pics, especially during my turns, but I'll illustrate what I can here.

We were playing at 70 power level, or approximately. I think his list may have been closer to 65, which mine effectively was only 66, because I had a unit (Reivers) that never came in from deep strike limbo.

He was playing what he has settled into as his Blood Angels list, which is a lot of Scouts and Eliminators in cover, and a trio of smash captains. He also brought along a Vindicare Assassin this time, as well. I was playing a Batallion and Vanguard for 9 CP, but I spent 2 on an extra Warlord Trait for my Chaplain, and an extra relic for my Ancient.

We elected to play on a full 6x4 size board, using Dawn of War deployment, and a mission from the core 40K book, but I forget the title. It uses four objective points, though.

Deployment. These shots are actually from a little bit into the first turn, but not too far to see where things began.


Over on my far left, I put a unit of Intercessors to advance up to a nearby objective, then a little to the right of them a unit of Terminators, then to the right of them behind the shipping crate I had put my Scout Bikers and Khan on Bike, then past the shipping crate, another unit of Intercessors, my Librarian, Lieutenant, and Chaplain, then continuing right into the ruins, a Tactical Squad of 10, my Primaris Ancient, my Assault Terminators out front of the ruins, and finally far over to the right flank, my last unit of Intercessors on the yellow Mechanics thing. I set up my Reivers in deep strike, planning to bring them into play near where he had set up a unit of Eliminators and his Vindicare, in order to stab and cut them down as one does.




From the pic of his deployment, you can see that he set up like four units of Scouts in the middle of the board on an objective there, then put Eliminators in a few high spots in cover, a unit of Aggressors in the middle third of the board in some ruins, two smash captains in cover (one in deep strike), and the tall ruins on his left flank where more Eliminators and the Vindicare were.

After deployment, I won the roll off, so I went first.



The first thing I did was to declare Devastator doctrine, then get a Litany going (buffing charges), then move my left side Intercessors up to the nearby objective, move my Terminators up to take shots at the Eliminators up on the AoS terrain piece, move my Khan and Scout bikes up close to the mid-board forest packed with Scouts and his Phobos Librarian. I also moved my Lieutenant up to a spot where he could buff as many units around him as possible, then advanced my Assault Terminators toward the mid-board pack of Scouts, along with my Primaris Ancient, though this turned out to be unnecessary, and I would later bring him back. I had a couple of Intercessor squad and my Tactical squad remain still to shoot at range with Bolter Discipline.



During my Psychic phase, I used Smite and rolled double 6, suffering 3 mortal wounds to Perils of the Warp, but then doing 4 mortal wounds to his nearby Eliminators, removing two of them off the bat. Nice! If I recall correctly, I used a command re-roll on the D6 to determine wounds dealt, because I had rolled a one, which is crap on a D6 Smite! Down to 6 CP.

In Shooting, nothing much of substance happened. I am not certain any models were removed, but I think I may have done a wound to his Eliminator squad on the right side of the board in cover.

Charge phase, I got my Khan, Assault Terminators, and Ancient into his forces in the middle of the board, but sadly my Scout Bikers failed their charge! I was out of range of the Chaplain's buff for them, as well...

When combat began, my Khan  and Terminators pasted one squad of Scouts, and all but one model of a second. Consolidation brought his Librarian into the fight, which he then fought back with, along with the remaining Scout. I used Honour the Chapter on my Khan, to knock a few wounds off his Librarian. Down to 3 CP.



After that it was his turn, and when he attempted to Fall back with his Librarian, I played Butchered Quarry (down to 1 CP), to give all my Terminators a free swing at him, and killed him. Rock! He also fell back with that lone Scout still in combat there. He did some other moving stuff around, namely bringing his Aggressors out of the Ruins they were in, and his Biker smash captain and some scouts up to my left-side objective with my Intercessors, and playing his remove-then-deep-strike strat with his jump pack smash captain:



Here I played Auspex Scan but had no luck with it. Down to zero CP!



In Shooting, he threw everything his Aggressors had at my Scout Bikers but didn't do a single wound. I have no idea how this happened, but there you have it. These are Boltstorm Guantlet and missile pod type ones, mind you. T5 for the win?



His Scouts over on the left side conversely did some work with their Bolt Pistols, accounting for two Intercessors!



Then he shot some Eliminators at my Scout Bikers and missed again!



Next used his Eliminators and Vincidare and shot and killed both my Khan (Executioner rounds from the Eliminators) and my Chaplain (Vindicare with the escalating rolling for mortal wounds garbage)




Then it was Charge phase, so he brought in his Smash Captains:



Honestly, neither the jump pack or biker one did a ton in their first round of fighting. My Lieutenant only took one attack of the five or six aimed at him, so he survived. My Intercessors lost two guys to his biker. My fighting back I think resulted in a wound or two from my Leiutenant, but nothing from my Intercessors. He'd declared charges against my Librarian and other Intercessor unit also, and they had Piled In, and maybe done a wound or two to the jump pack smasher, who was tough to kill though because he had a 3+ invuln and 5+ feel no pain, rerolling ones on that.

Then it was my turn again, and I forgot to change the doctrine, and I forgot to bring in my Reivers, but I did move my Scout Bikers and Terminators over to the left to help out my remaining Intercessor to smash through his Scouts and engage his Biker captain:



In Psychic, I casted Smite on his jump pack smasher, and I think did one wound, which he was able to roll a FNP for. I also put Storm-Wreathed onto my 10-man Tactical Squad thinking that would result in enough Mortal Wounds (potentially one per charging model, on a 6) to finish off the jump pack smasher.

Shooting was uneventful, because many of my units had fallen back out of combat (in order to charge back in for Shock Assault). I don't think any models died in this phase.

I Charged everything back into his smashers. (The pic above and this below)



I finally managed to bring down the jump pack smasher, only just, with everything around him. The Biker was still living, with like four wounds to go yet, if I recall correctly.

And, I charged my Assault Terminators into his Aggressors!



I lost a single Terminator on that charge to his 2x Overwatch, but then in Fighting they killed two of the Aggressors. He fought back with the one, but didn't do anything. His biker smasher fighting back killed my unit of Scout Bikers, I believe.

This is about where we called the game, but he had also brought in his Terminator smash captain at some point, which was near the middle of the board, but that I guess I never got a pic of.

In a final tally of victory points, it came out to 9 to 8, in his favor, though he said he felt like I would have won if I'd moved my Scout Bikers to the middle point instead and kept control of it. Also we both felt the game could have gone anywhere from this point, but alas we had to pack up and leave.

I was a little frustrated by not remembering to advance the doctrine and to bring in my Reivers in my second turn. I guess that's just part of being a good general and being good at the game, though--remembering to do everything.