Epic League Round 6!

As the new Blood Angel Army Champion, I thought I would playtest my new proposal – teleporting assault marines! Will I be able to demonstrate the shock and awe of the Blood Angels assault with this change?

The Blood Angel List

DEATH COMPANY [300]
Chaplain, 4 Assault Death Company Units

ASSAULT DETACHMENT [300]
6 Assault Units, Captain

ASSAULT DETACHMENT [300]
6 Assault Units, Chaplain

SPACECRAFT [200]
Strike Cruiser

TACTICAL DETACHMENT [275]
6 Tacticals

TACTICAL DETACHMENT [275]
6 Tacticals

TERMINATOR DETACHMENT [350]
4 Terminators

DEVASTATOR DETACHMENT [250]
4 Devastators

THUNDERHAWK [200]

THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [175]
2 Thunderbolts

THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [175]
2 Thunderbolts

LAND SPEEDERS [200]
5 Land Speeder

The Ork List

 

The start of the game. Units and objectives are marked.

For their first activation, the Marines put the Thunderbolts on CAP

The Ork warband doubles forward

The second Thunderbolt formation goes on CAP

Blitz Brigade doubles forward

Landspeeders double behind cover

Warbuggies double forward and grab a Blood Angel objective

The Blood Angels have no more activations.  The garrisoned Ork warband advances and captures another Blood Angel objective.

The Ork Fightas attempt to strafe the Landspeeders, but they are intercepted and forced to jink.  One Fighta goes down.

The next Fighta Skwadron attacks the Landspeeders and are intercepted, but the Thunderbolts fail to hit.  The Fightas do not damage any Lanspeeders.

A very short turn.  This is the state of things at the end of Turn 1.  The Orks are in control of two Blood Angel objectives.

 

TURN 2

Teleport time!  Two Blood Angel Assault formations drop from high altitude onto the battlefield.  One takes a blast marker on the way in.  Terminators appear from nowhere to threaten the Blitz Brigade protecting the Ork Blitz objective.

Marines win the roll to go first, and the Blood Angel captain calls a combined assault against the Big Ork Warhorde.

Furious battle ensues.  The Ork Horde is nearly wiped out, but the marines take heavy casualties in return, losing seven out of twelve stands.

The Ork warband breaks, as does one Blood Angel assault formation.  The remaining unbroken assault formation consolidates behind cover and controls an Ork objective.

In a hot-headed move, the marines retain the initiative and assault the Ork Blitz Brigade with their Terminator formation.

The Terminators break the Blitz Brigade, but it is a Pyrrhic victory.  The Terminators are wiped out.  Orks capture the Break Their Spirit Objective.

Ork Fightas fly in and break the marine assault formation.

The Landspeeders double to fire upon the Warbuggies holding onto the Blood Angel objective.  They only manage to kill one.

The second Skwadron of Ork Fightas fails its initiative check.

Thunderbolts fly in and strafe the broken warband unit, destroying it completely.  Blood Angels capture the Ork Break Their Spirit Objective.

Deff Coptas double forward and destroy three Landspeeders, breaking them.

The second Thunderbolt formation fails to activates and stays in the box of shame.

The Ork warbuggies fail their initiative check.

They elect to regroup and clear all blast markers.

DROP POD ASSAULT!  The deathwind finishes off the broken Blitz Brigade.  The Space Marines capture the Ork Blitz objective.

The orbital bombardment preceding the drop pod assault only manages to spook a couple of Orks.

The Tactical formation camping the Ork Blitz go on overwatch.

The remaining Ork Warband doubles forward and destroys the broken Landspeeder formation.

The Ork Landa strafes a broken assault marine formation and destroys it.

The tacticals that arrived via drop pod sustain fire on the Ork warbuggies, but only kill one.

The end of Turn 2.  The Blood Angels control the Ork Blitz, while the Orks control two Blood Angel objectives claiming take and hold.  Both sides have the Break Their Spirit objective. The marines are significantly outnumbered.

The broken assault formation rallies!  The marines control another Ork objective.

 

TURN 3

But not for long!  A Fighta Skwadron flies in and crushes them.

Thunderbolts go on CAP

Marines retain and the other Thunderbolt formation strafes the warbuggies, breaking them and taking control of the BA objective out of Ork hands.

The Ork warband goes on overwatch.

Blood Angel tacticals go on overwatch and continue to camp the Ork Blitz.

An Ork Blitz Brigade doubles to contest the Ork Blitz.  They eat heavy overwatch fire on the way in.  The marines kill three vehicles, just one blast marker shy of breaking the formation.  The Ork Blitz is now contested.

The situation for the Space Marines is dire.  It is Turn 3, and the Orks now have Take and Hold and Break Their Spirit, while the marines only have Break Their Spirit.  In a single activation, the marines swing the momentum in the other direction.  The Thunderhawk calls a ground attack on the Blitz Brigade and breaks it, bringing control of the Ork Blitz back into Blood Angel hands.  At the same time, it disembarks a Devastator formation onto an Ork Objective.  The Blood Angles now have Blitz, Take and Hold, and Break their Spirit.

 

An Ork Fighta Skwadron tries to destroy the Devastators, but only kill one stand.

The Ork Landa declares an Air Assault.  Thunderbolts intercept but only put one damage counter on the Landa.  The Big Warband easily destroys the remaining three Devastator stands.  The Blood Angels lose Take and Hold.

The end of Turn 3 and the game is tied.  The Blood Angels have the Blitz and BTS objective, the Orks have Take and Hold and BTS.  The Space Marines are hanging on by a thread, with only two Tactical formations and the Death Company on the ground.

TURN 4

Tacticals march and occupy a building, capturing an Ork objective.  The Blood Angels have Take and Hold again.

An Ork Warband spreads out and manages to come within control range of three objectives!  They contest the Ork objective that the Angels just captured.  Game still tied.

Thunderbolts fly in and try to knock the Warband off of the objectives.  They inflict one casualty.  Not enough.

Ork Fightas strafe the Tacticals camping the Blitz, killing one stand.

The Death Company marches across the battlefield and contests the Blood Angel Objective.  Orks lose Take and Hold.

The second Fighta Skwadron strafes the Marine Tactical formation on the Blitz, but fails to kill a stand!

An Ork Warband doubles and opens fire on the Space Marine Tactical formation contesting the Ork objective, and kills one stand.

The second Thunderbolt squadron strafes the Ork Warband, nearly knocking them off the objective.  One stand of Orks (arguably) remains within 15cm.

The Deff Coptas fly up to contest the Blitz Objective.  They eat overwatch fire on the way in, but none of them go down!  The Ork Blitz is contested.  Both the Marines and the Orks only have BTS at this point.  The game is tied.

The Thunderhawk comes in and strafes the warband, killing many stands.  The Warband is now definitively knocked off of the Objective.

The Ork Landa swoops in to contest the Objective.

The End of Turn 4.  The game is a tie.  The Blood Angels and the Orks only have the Break Their Spirit objective.  Victory Points are added up, and the Orks win with 1400 VP to the Blood Angels 1150 VP.

O rk Victory.

Post Game Wrap Up

What a great game.  Back and forth, back and forth.  Absolutely grueling, however.  By turn 4, neither of us were thinking straight.  The back and forth over that one Ork objective late in Turn 4 was probably moot at that point.  It had been a long battle.

First and foremost, I think the teleporting assault marines made a GREAT addition to the list. It wasn’t so much that they were effective, but they were fun and thematic.  Blood Angels are all about the shock and awe blitzkrieg assault, and nothing says in your face like a bunch of frothing assault marines dropping in on your backline.

From a list balance standpoint, neither I nor my opponent found the capability imbalancing.  In fact, one of my major complaints about the Blood Angel list has been that it is nearly impossible to capture the BTS objective with our lack of tools.  However, as you can see from this battle report, teleporting the assault marines in and calling a combined assault is what enabled me to break the Ork BTS and ultimately destroy it.

I still felt as though I was playing Epic on Hard Mode with the Blood Angel list, but, being able to capture the BTS objective kept me in the fight long enough to have a fighting chance.  I still think the list needs work, but this is a fun, exciting, and balancing step in the right direction.

Thunderbolts are a unit I normally will add as an afterthought, but, I really liked the flexibility that having two formations offered me.  It can be tough to cover the entire table with Blood Angels, however, with the Thunderbolts, you can reach out and hurt someone anywhere on the board.  However, are those 350 points better spent on boots on the ground?  Maybe.  Especially considering I had precious few units capable of grabbing objectives.  Will have to give this some thought.

The Ork player really played a masterpiece of a game.  Feinting, grabbing objectives, attacking the right units.  He had some bad luck on a couple of key rolls in the game, specifically when he sent so many Fightas at my tactical squad camping the Blitz and only killed one stand.  With all of the firepower he sent at that unit, under normal luck conditions, I think it would have been broken.

Great game, lots of fun, and lots of great material for list development!

The Mighty Blood Angels take on Da Blue Bandit’s War Horde in the latest Epic 2014 League game.

The Blood Angel list

DEATH COMPANY [450] 
Chaplain, 4 Assault Death Company Units, 2 Furioso Dreadnought

THUNDERHAWK [200] 

ASSAULT DETACHMENT [375] 
6 Assault Units, 2 Assault Units, Chaplain

THUNDERHAWK [200] 

PREDATORS [375] 
4 Baal Predator, Blood Angels Hunter

DEVASTATOR DETACHMENT [400] 
4 Devastators, 2 Land Raider

TACTICAL DETACHMENT [675] 
6 Tacticals, Supreme Commander, 3 Stormraven Gunship, Blood Angels Hunter

LAND SPEEDERS [200] 
5 Land Speeder

THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [175] 
2 Thunderbolts

The Ork list

BLITZ BRIGADE [150] 
2 Flakwagon, 2 Gunwagon

BLITZ BRIGADE [150] 
2 Flakwagon, 2 Gunwagon

BLITZ BRIGADE [150] 
2 Flakwagon, 2 Gunwagon

MEKBOY STOMPAMOB [670] 
3 Stompa, 4 Killa Kan, 2 Dreadnought, Supa Stompa

WARBAND [250] 
2 Nobz, 6 Boyz, 2 Grotz, 2 Boyz + Grotz

FIGHTA SKWADRON [300] 
6 Fighta Bomba

LANDA [200] 

WARBAND (BIG) [630] 
4 Nobz, 12 Boyz, 4 Grotz, 8 Battlewagon

KULT OF SPEED [200] 
8 Warbuggy

BLITZ BRIGADE [150] 
4 Gunwagon

BLITZ BRIGADE [150] 
4 Gunwagon

Da Blue Bandit’s Kustom Landa

Da Blue Bandit’s Big Stompy Toys

The Battlefield

Ork objectives

Blood Angel objectives (the gold coins)
The Blood Angels set up strong left

The Ork deployment

The Orks win the roll and elect to go first
The Big Mob moves forward and occupies some ruins

The Thunderbolts go on Combat Air Patrol

An Ork Blitz Brigade doubles, gleefully firing their guns in the air

The Devastators double and occupy the Imperial Building.  They open fire on the Big Mob, but fail to do any damage

Anuvva Blitz Brigade doubles!

Blood Angel Land Speeders march over to the right flank in an act of deception (and activation burning)

Another Blitz Brigade advances…

Baal Predators advance and take cover, another Blitz Brigade moves (top right), and the Blood Angel command squad flies forward and opens fire on a Blitz Brigade, doing no damage

Aaaaand yet another Blitz Brigade advances, fires, but does no damage

Thunderhawk assault on the right flank

The marines easily mop up the small Blitz Brigade and consolidate

The Mekboy Stompa Mob doubles and shoots at the Blood Angel command squad,
laying down two blast markers but otherwise doing no damage

An intimidating (and loud and smelly!) Ork presence in the center of the field

Ork Warbuggies zoom up and shoot, doing no damage but putting another blast marker down

And the Fighta Skwadron flies in and wipes out all of the Stormravens

In a bold (foolish?) move, Da Blue Bandit sends his Landa on a strafing run against Blood Angel command. The Thunderbolts intercept and shoot it down, killing the warband inside

End of Turn 1

The Marines win the initiative roll and the Assault Marines engage a Blitz Brigade, wiping it out

The Marines retain the initiative and the Devastators go on overwatch

The Ork Warbuggies move into flanking position and open fire, but do no damage

“I GOTZ A KUNNIN PLAN”, says the Blue Bandit.  “YOUZ BOYZ IZ GUNNA CROSSFIRE DEM BEAKIES”  The Orks retain, the Blitz Brigade doubles and opens fire, killing two stands and breaking the squad “AN’ DATZ WHY I’Z IZ DA BOSS!”, proclaims the Bandit.  “NOW MY ‘EAD ‘URTS THO”

Blood Angel command beats an, ahem, tactical retreat to the cover of the AA umbrella

The Thunderbolts fail to activate and stay in the box of shame!

The Mekboy Stompa Mob takes a risk on an advance order and succeeds.  The mob occupies the ruins in the center and blast away at Blood Angels command, killing two stands.  The BA Devastators took overwatch fire, but did no damage

The Baals advance to within 15cm of the Stompa Mob, laying down a blast marker and taking down a shield from the Supa Stompa
(Note – this was a semi-pivotal point in the game.  The idea was I would retain the initiative and Thunderhawk assault with the Death Company.  However, I discovered here that the Supa Stompa was a 3DC War Engine, and that changed the math of the already risky assault enough to dissuade me from doing it, and left my Baals in poor position)

A Blitz Brigade doubles and shoots at BA command, but does no damage

Land Speeders fly up to threaten Ork objectives

The Big Warband doubles and destroys two Baal Predators

The Ork Fightas fly in and finish of Blood Angel command, earning the Break Their Spirit objective

END OF TURN 2

Turn 3, the Marines go first.  Baal predators advance and destroy a gun wagon.  Marines retain, and the Devastators abandon their position in the building and take cover behind it.  They open fire and break the Warbuggies

The Supa Stompa shoots at the Land Speeders, but only manages to put down blast markers

The empty Thunderhawk strafes the Blitz Brigade, breaking it
The Blood Angels are desperately trying to destroy Ork objective grabbing units

The Assault squad moves to capture an Ork objective

The Big Warband reacts, contesting the objective and killing a stand of Marines

Thunderbolts strafe the Stompa Mob with the idea of putting down blast markers for a last-ditch Death Company assault to capture BTS

Realizing that isn’t likely, the Death Company lands on the Blood Angel’s blitz objective, in case any of the broken Ork units rally on top of it
End of Turn 3

End of Turn 3 Status
Orks – Break Their Spirit
Blood Angels – They Shall Not Pass

Unfortunately, the game store was closing and we had to declare the match a tie.

Post-game thoughts:

Hoo-boy.  Where to begin.  Well, it was an exciting and closely contested match.  The Ork player is relatively new to Epic, but he is learning very quickly.  It was a fun and very close game.

Blood Angels Playtesting Thoughts:

Eight-stand Assault Marine Squads – in the past, I have stated that this unit is useless or close to it.  I stand corrected.  They can be useful under certain circumstances.  For coming in via Thunderhawk and mopping up isolated small units and grabbing backfield objectives, they can be useful.  However, a Thunderhawk is absolutely required for this unit to be effective, making it a pretty hefty investment at 575 points.  I’m not sure it’s 575 points useful.

Baal Predators – While I had success with this unit the first time I ran it, I am becoming less and less impressed the more I use it.  I absolutely can’t see what justifies a 300 point price tag for these.  The problem is that they are only useful against infantry, but most infantry stays cooped up inside of their transports, and Blood Angels don’t have a lot of tools for cracking those transports.  So, most of the time, the Baals end up firing on armor, a task for which they are ill-suited.  This unit should be 250 points maximum in my opinion, particularly in the context of the Blood Angel list.

The list as a whole still feels woefully under-powered to me, especially against armor, in spite of the fact that I took Stormravens and more Land Raiders.  The Stormravens are simply too fragile to start on the table with, however, because all of the other Blood Angel units are so expensive, the 200 points that it costs to planetfall them is too much.  I was already very light on activations for this match even without burning another 200 on a spacecraft.  I almost feel as though Stormravens should be 50 points apiece, especially in light of the AT missile nerf.

675 points is an absurd cost for my command squad consisting of six stands of tactical marines, three Stormravens, and a Hunter.  Just too much.  I never want to take that unit again.

The Devastator squad with two Land Raiders performed decently and I will take that unit again.  However, it’s a unit that any Space Marine list can take.

Due to the lack of AT weaponry in the Blood Angel list, the BTS objective is effectively off the table in every game.  There was simply no way I could have destroyed that Stompa Mob through shooting, and I would have had to dedicate at least three or four units to assaulting it in order to win decisively and break it (which still would not have earned me the BTS).  The Death Company with Furioso dreadnoughts, while powerful, just doesn’t pack the punch it needs to reliably break units like this.  As a result, the Blood Angels enter nearly every game with a one-objective handicap.

Even being gifted with the Ork commander’s poor decisions – the Landa strafing run and then the poor placement of the Big Warband (giving me TSNP objective), I only managed a tie.  Had the game gone to turn four, I am nearly certain I would have lost.

I should also note that I was running the Furioso Dreadnoughts at a 50 point cost.

I love the Blood Angels, but I can’t help but feel that justice is not being done for this venerable chapter with the army list as it stands.