Blood Before The Fall

I haven't managed to get the camera to take pictures of my painting progress (which has incidentally slowed down since my last post) but I did manage to get my first practice game with the list in tonight. Was up against Blood Angels in a 3 objective missions. Objectives were terrain pieces; an impassable building in the mid-west, a large shrine near the centre, and a ruin in my right deployment zone. We had Pitched Battle deployment. His list was roughly as follows:

Astorath the Grim

Librarian
Storm Shield, Blood Lance, Wings of Sanguinus


Chaplain
Power Fist

5x Sanguinary Guard
Standard, Power Fist, Inferno Pistol, 3x Master Crafted Power Weapons


10x Assault Marines
Power Fist

10x Assault Marines
2x Meltaguns, Sergeant with Inferno Pistol in Transport 1

10x Tactical Marines
Missile Launcher, Meltagun

5x Death Company
Power Fist, Power Weapon, Thunder Hammer? in Transport 2


5x Devastators
Plasma Cannon, 2x Lascannons, Missile Launcher

Storm Raven
Multi-Melta, Assault Cannon, Hurricane Bolters


Transport 1: Rhino with Extra Armour

Transport 2: Razorback with Extra Armour

Though maybe not considered an optimal army, the mass amount of bodies on the table coming at me quick would be a problem for my army. What's more, thanks to Astorath both Assault Squads and the Guard got Red Thirst meaning his charges would be devastating (or Furious).

The shrine in the middle really split the board in two and deployment (which I got to do first) was a toss up between going left where I would have better firing lines and give him a harder choice for deployment, or I could go right to be closer to more objectives. I decided for the firing arcs and deployed all the Purifiers and two Dreads on the left, with the other Dread and the Terminators on the right. He put the Tactical Squad (in combat squads) on a hill opposite my Terminators and put the Storm Raven in near the Shrine to try and get some cover. Everything else went opposite the Purifiers. Astorath went with the Assault Squads on foot, the Chaplain with the Death Company, and the Librarian in the Storm Raven with te Guard. The Vindicare Infiltrated in a wood near the Purifiers to get clear LOS to the Storm Raven.

First turn I moved to deny the Storm Raven cover from as many sources as possible and opened fire. In the end I wasted too much fire on it (the Vindicare eventually took it down but the hope was to take it down first so the Vindicare could destroy the Librarian's Storm Shield). I also managed to kill a Guard in the explosion and with the remaining shooting stopped both his other tanks from shooting.

His first turn was simple as he ploughed forward at full speed popping smoke. As a result I took little fire only having my Land Raider stunned/shaken.

To start my turn Crowe came on from reserves and hid behind a Razorback. The Land Raider cast Fortitude but the Librarian stopped it. Everything else shuffled for firing positioned and then let rip. The Ven Dread took down the Razorback to begin followed up by the Vindicare Turbo-Sniping the Chaplain out of the Death Company. Both LasPlasBacks opened up on the now exposed Death Company but they either failed to wound or they passed their cover saves. The other Dreads then took out the Rhino.

In his turn he moved the disembarked Assault Squad up to the Dread in the corner while Astorath led his squad up next to the wreck of the Death Company Razorback. The Death Company themselves ran at my Razorbacks though they would have to suffer another turn of shooting yet. The Guard approached the Land Raider and the Librarian unleashed a Blood Lance on it that hit but failed to damage it. The Assault Marines took out the corner Dread with Melta fire while the Devastators failed to damage the Ven Dread.

With the Death Company so close the Vindicare turned tail and retreated behind the Razorback as Crowe moved out into the forest. The Razorbacks turned all their guns on the Death Company taking out all but one of them. Crowe shot at the survivor but failed to kill him. The Dreads fired upon the Devastators taking out 3 of them, while the Land Raider fluffed its shooting against the Guard missing both TL Lascannon shots.

The return attack from the Blood Angels ended up being quite devastating. The Librarian and Guard moved up toward the Land Raider again, blew it up with a combo of Blood Lance and Inferno Pistol fire and managed a 5" assault through terrain at the Terminators inside. The lone Death Company member assaulted and destroyed one of the LasPlasBacks (killing one Purifier inside) while the Assault Marines opened fire on Crowe forcing him to go to ground. Meanwhile, one of the Tactical Combat Squads stated moving in on the ruin objective. In the Guard/Terminator assault, the Librarian stopped Hammerhand, which ended up not mattering as the Terminators totally wiffed hitting 2 out of 9 Halberd attacks and not wounding. The Guard killed the Banner bearer and 2 Halberdiers before the Hammer took down a Guard. The two remaining Terminators did manage to hold however.

The Grey Knights needed a sturdy retaliation in order to pull the game back. The Purifiers in the forest got out of their Razorback and manage to move to the edge of the forest. The Vindicare followed around the other side of the Razorback while the Inquisitor's Razorback moved out East to try take back that flank, popping smoke as it went. Meanwhile the Purifiers in the crate of their former transport moved out and ready to assault the lone Death Company member. The Dreads also moved in to try and support the Terminators with one getting close. The other opened up instead on the Devastators to no result. The Vindicare pulled out the only real shooting for the turn breaking Astorath's Rozarius and wounding him. On cue, the Purifiers charged Astorath's unit. To continue the bad dice the Justicar blew himself up trying to cast Hammerhand followed by only two Marines falling to the Purifiers charge, while the Purifiers themselves got wiped out. Next to them their brothers took down the last Death Company with ease, though the Terminators faired less well and were also wiped out for no damage in return (failing to cast Hammerhand); the Dread had failed to roll a 3 for charging into terrain.

The Blood Angels continued their assault off the last turn's victories with fresh attacks on the Vindicare and Purifiers. The Librarian moved and Blood Lanced the two Dreadnoughts, immobolising the Ven Dread and destroying the other. The Assault Marines moved in and forced Crower to ground again however this time a Melta shots hit home and killed him. The Tactical Squad continued toward the objective. Astorath managed to kill the Vindicare with ease however the Assault Marines was less fortunate only killing 2 of the 4 Purifiers and losing 5 of their number in the process. The Librarian and Guard assaulted the Ven Dread but failed to hurt it.

With time running out the Inquisitor led his unit from the Razorback and over the terrain into the Guard. The Psycotroke grenades led me down by making the Fearless Sang. Guard Ld 2. Meanwhile I failed to cast Hammerhand. In a silly mistake (first time using fun grenades) I forgot about my Rad Grenades and attacked the Guard at 4's to wound instead of 3's which allowed one to survive to kill two Purifiers and tie the combat. The LasPlasBack has shot all its guns at Astorath and wounded with all 3 AP2 shots but despite that Astorath passed 2 cover saves surviving. The other Purifiers near the forest killed 1 more Assault Marine bringing the unit down to 2 men.

The game pretty much ended however with Astorath surviving as he charged the remaining Purifiers fighting the Assault Marines. The add insult to injury they suffered yet another Perils taking out the last Halberd. Astorath then cleared out the Hammer. Elsewhere the Tactical Squad reached the objective and the Purifiers failed to kill the Librarian though they killed the last Guard.

With that we called the game as there was no way for me to win.

Looking back my deployment set me up for the fall. Though firing arcs were poor on the right side, being nearer to objectives would have been more important to my army (which has little mobility) and still may have forced some of his units left around the Shrine. That, and the seemingly constant bad dice aside, I didn't play aggressively enough with the Purifiers or more importantly the Terminators (who should have bailed and assaulted in turn 2 when the Land Raider was stunned). At the very least, at least I was able to easily identify the flaws in my game play and I'm hoping to get more games in to improve before the tournament.

Vindicare was mint. He took down at least twice his own points in only two turns and had the dice not abandoned the Purifiers on the first assault had Astorath set up to die to Force Weapons. I will be trying to get him into more of my 1750pt lists from now on I think.

Comments on the game would be much appreciated (albeit I give it to you that a lack of maps might make this difficult).