They Went At it Again! Blood Angel vs Blood Angel!

Librarian Angelus got up from the ground, and scanned the distance.  The "recover" command had been given at the practice field.  Around him, the Sanguinary Guard likewise rose from the ground where they lay, as did their "opposing force" tactical brethren from 6th Company. In the distance, Mephiston could be seen standing in the shade of a drop pod, having a discussion with Dante and gesturing off to where other Blood Angels gathered.  Scouts in cloaks began policing the training ground, leaving no bolt round casings on the ground.  An unmarked black shuttle flew off in the distance, their passengers recovered from the red dusty plain.  Sanguinary Priest Marus advanced toward Angelus from where he had also "fallen".  They saluted each other.  Again, although sorely tested, 5th Company's resources, under the command of Angelus, succeeded, although not without command casualties.  There were things to evaluate, and trainings to be adjusted. Overall, 5th Company was nearing its next deployment, and units had to be adjusted, rearmed, and supplied for the upcoming battles.  A rune was flashing in Angelus's battle helmet.  It was a rune that flashed only on the rarest occasions. Was it a congratulatory message from Dante? Or an incoming tactical missive referred to by the Serfs as a FAQ? Both would be welcome here.

Blood Angels vs Blood Angels, 1850, Maelstrom Mission #1

OPFOR BAs
This is an expanded version of the BA vs. BA game played a few weeks ago - this time at 1850 Points.  You can review the prior game here:

http://defendersofcalth.blogspot.com/2015/04/red-on-red-black-rage-and-red-thirst.html

The opposing force contained for this game:

The Sanguinor (Warlord)
Chief Librarian Mephiston (Sanguinary Discipline)
Dante
Eversor Assassin
Culexis Assassin
Scout Squad, 5, 4 SR, 1 HB
Tactical Squad, 9, MG, FL, Pod
Assault Squad, 5, JPs, FL
Assault Squad, 10, JPs, MG, FL, PS
Vindicator #1
Vindicator #2
Furioso, Pod

5th Company BAs
Epistolary Librarian Angelus, PP, JP, FSword (Biomancy Discipline) (Warlord trait - Rampage)
Sanguinary Priest Marus, Paxe, JP
Sanguinary Guard, 5, 1 PF, 4 Encarmine Blades, JPs
Death Company, 5, 1 PFist, 1 PSword
Death Company Dreadnought, Talons, Magnagrapple
Assault Squad, 10, 2 MG, IP, PF, JPs
Assault Squad, 5, 2 MG, MB, Pod
Assault Squad, 5, 2 MG, MB, Pod
Scout Squad, 5, 5 SR, cloaks
Tactical Squad, 5, FL, MB, Las-Plas Razorback
Baal Predator, TLAssCan, HB Sponsons
Baal Predator, TLAssCan, HB Sponsons
Stormraven (TTLC, TLMM, 4xML)

Deployment
The Battlefield was a collection of large pipe structures and such, mostly giving 5+ cover saves. Objectives were placed fairly regularly,  I tried to keep mine in the open, while my opponent tried to place them in cover.

My opponent won the roll for deployment corners, and chose the upper left.  I won the roll to deploy first and go first. I placed my scouts in cover near the center; my opponent placed his scouts in cover near an objective, and co-located them with the Eversore (sniper assassin).

His other assassin was placed in my backfield...

The Game
We played out 5 turns, and the game carried forward pretty well.

Here we are soon after deployment - my ground forces are arrayed and ready to move forward.  

Middle of turn 1 - I jumped totally forward with everything except the Librarian and Sanguinary guard, and the demi-tactical squad - they all had to stay behind to take care of the Assassin - it took those units and more in order to take her down!  They Libby/Sanguinary Guard are behind the rusted storage silo where the assault happened to end her.  

Middle of turn 2.  I'd been De-Baaled' at this point, and my reserves had failed to arrive.  My meltacide squad had failed to take more than a hull point off that Vindicator in turn 1 (stunning it), and were then wiped out by OPFOR assault marines and the Sanguinor.  My assault squad then jumped forward and killed off his assault squad, consolidating into cover.  They had also been boosted by Angelus with a 4+ cover save.  Like ticks, it was going to be an effort for the OPFOR to root them out!

More Turn 2 - Mephiston arrives with the 9-man podded tacticals.  He landed there to score on an objective, and try to make me react to that quadrant.  The OPFOR is deploying from the pod to shoot the poo out of Angelus and the Sanguinary Guard, who were getting cover from the nearby storage silos from his Vindicator.  In this shot, you can see the Sanguinor (wounded by biding his time)...Dante and his entourage will begin moving towards my assault squad.  

More here - in shooting, I lost one of the Sanguinary Guard.  But I had a bad plan for a response.  

Middle of Turn 3.  The Stormraven Arrives!  The DC dread dropped off to score on an objective, while the flyer kept zooming forward - and the Sanguinor was eliminated for a Warlord point and a tactical card payout!   The far Vindicator was stunned again (the other had been immobilized).  

More of the Middle of Turn 3 - I'd tried shoot up and then assault the remnants of the OPFOR Tacticals + Mephiston.  Angelus was challenged by Mephiston, who dropped Angelus and killed off another Sanguinary with wound-pool overflow.  The remaining Sanguinary Guard overall had won, and Mephiston and his sole tactical entourage survivor had run back...to regroup...apparently Mephiston is...not...fearless...  

Middle of Turn 6...I'd missed a shot of Turn 4 and Turn 5...Basically Dante and his squad got after my Priest-led tactical squad and it took two rounds of CC to eliminate them.  His reserved Furioso had arrived in Turn 3, only to be immobilized by the Stormraven at the top of in Turn 4...Also in Turn 4, my meltacide squad had dropped in and finished off one vindicator in the backfield, and the DC squad had jumped out to shoot up and assault the hiding assassin and remaining OPFOR scout.  I started losing a marine a turn to the assassin...th DC dread finally made it to combat with the Vindicator, wrecking it.  It took maybe 4 rounds of assualt and adding in more marines to finally get rid of the last assassin!  Mephiston had jumped forward to assault and kill off the remaining two Sanguinary Guard in turn 4...then the demi-tactical squad in Turn 5, and now had his sights set on the scouts contesting the objective at his Furioso/pod...eliminating those last two scouts was worth another point!  

End of the game...I finished the game with the Stormraven, 3 DC marines, 5 meltacide marines, 2 scouts, a pod, the DC Dread and a razorback remaining; the OPFOR had Dante, 3 assault marines, a immobile furioso, Mephiston, and two drop pods...

I actually got 4 points on my first turn, and the Opfor stayed within a point or so for the remainder of the game.  We both had Warlord.  At the end, the score was basically 13 to 11, with my force getting linebreaker on conclusion of the game.  If the scouts had been eliminated on Turn 6 in shooting, Mephiston could have run across by objective line to draw the game...it was that close.

Lessons learned
I was using a "new" quickly cobbled 1850 list, modified from one I had drafted in Army Builder a few weeks or months ago. I found I still had a few wasted points in there...I'm still not getting full use of the MBs, for example.  Also, in this case, I was a sniper scout short...so I borrowed one from my Ultramarines collection.  My opponent had a HB in his scout squad, which seemed more useful in the long run. Overall, I think I can squeeze a few things here and there and slightly upgrade further, but not much without changing some things!

This will end my experiments with Biomancy - I'll try some other discipline in the next set of games.  Bio was OK, overall, but, even with the blessings it yields to the Librarian, it sometimes falls short. As usual, the Librarian suffered a perils, and then was finished off by Mephiston in a challenge!

My opponent could have been alot more aggressive with some of his characters - I think overall he won't use the Sanguinor as his warlord - its better to leave that to Dante or Mephiston!  I think the Sanguinor is better as a counter-assault unit or distraction.

The Vindicators were awesome.  Each ate a Baal on Turn 1...I think having a third one in the list might be cool...can get alot of the points by dropping the Sanguinor entirely!  In combination, I spent the efforts of both meltacide squads, a DC dread and the Stormraven to react to them!  One thing we also remembered for future use was that the Vindicator shell ignores cover...

Oh, and for the points, assassins are great!  My opponent needs more practise with them, but I can see how they add value!

All for now, have a great weekend!