Thursday, July 23, 2015

Plasma Miasma, or, playing vs the new Dark Angels

I played my Blood Angels vs the new Dark Angels last night.

I Lost.

I loved it.

It is better to have lost and loved than to never have lost at all?

The cool thing about the Dark Angels is their total access to plasma weaponry - it was so iconic!  It hearkens back to the day in the original 40K artwork where we see hordes of dark green armored Astartes tearing around just pouring plasma fire onto their enemies.  I love it when the opponent's army list is so cool and fluffy. There was certainly some learning to get from this match-up!

On to the pictures!

Here is the 5th Company Blood Angels - Shield of Ball Detachment and Angels Wrath Formation.  we were going to play at 2,000 points, Maelstrom Mission #3 (escalating tactical cards).  My warlord, Angelus, as warlord, rolled up having rampage.  Overall, this list was just what I had lying around for 2,000 points, its not optimum - I'd merely expanded upward from 1850 by adding a DC dread (with no pod) and a melta bomb on a sergeant.  

Here is the OPFOR - its actually three Dark Angel unit groups:

Formation #1 - There are two biker squads of Black Knights (plasma and grenade launcher), a Dark Angel Biker Command Squad (plasma where possible), and Samael's Landspeeder, 2 attack bikes.

Dark Angels demi-company Detachment - led by a Chaplain (acting as the warlord), a plasma gunned (3) command squad in a Rhino, a demi-plasma cannon (3) squad, three tactical squads (2 podded, one in a Rhino) - all with plasma gun / plasma pistol where allowed, and a veteran squad (plasma...) in a pod, and a jump-pack assault squad with plasma.

Formation #2 - Landspeeder a plasma-gunned bike squad.
   

Here we are after deployment...I have too unit groups in reserves - the podded assault squad and the entire Angels Wrath formation plus Angelus and Marus (the Sanguinary Priest).  I set up first - my opponent was to go first.  My deployment anticipated his reserves of podded units coming in to my deployment zone...what I did not know was that his biker units and Samael ALL had outflank...Otherwise I'd have maybe deployed differently (like strong to my right).  I had placed the vehicles to protect their rears and maybe force the opponent back a bit - which was nice for defending against shorter range melta but not plasma...My opponent reserves everything but foot-bound devs and rhino-carried squads.  His Devs were set too far back, and other than acting as a threat played no major combat role in the game.     

Here we are more or less at the end of turn 1.  I was feeling pretty good, the score was 0-2.  The OPFOR's podded units took about 17 MEQs as casulalaties, and I'd lost 3 DC marines and a hull point or so on razorbacks. My biggest failures were missing the assault by the DC on some broken DA tacticals, and that my own podded meltacide squad had deviated away from its intended target.    

Here we are at the end of turn 2.  My opponent's reinforcements had arrived by outflanking and thing went bad quickly!  I lost my Baals, and for all my effort, my opponent survived my responses due to the ability to cook up 3+ jink saves, and ability to overwatch at a 5+ or regular BS per the DA special rules.   

Here is just another shot - Angel's Wrath came down.  Angelus whiffed all of his Psychic powers.  For whatever reason, I just could not take down the solo tac marine lurking in front of my damaged razorback, or the attack bike.  Those little issues became bigger...I did finish off one tac squad - using the DC dread to do it, and shooting took out the DA jump pack assault squad.  

This is around the middle of Turn 4.  The score is about 3-5.  I still cannot kill off the last attack bike, and in a combined assault, I'd wrecked the landspeeder, but failed to take out that last surviving tac marine (who'd wrecked the razorback earlier in the turn).  Off in the distance, my assault squad was stuck in HTH with a tac squad, and Angelus, Marus, and the Vanguard were rushing that way.    

I tried to take out the Chaplain's Rhino, whiffed it, and then got a plasma shower. 

Turn 5 nearing the end.  Angelus and Marus, the Vanguard, were all taken down by plasma fire.  

I called the game at the end of turn 5.  Final score - 9 to 3.  

    My opponent had about 23 different plasma weapons in his list, some twin linked.  Plasma hurts.

Things I could have done better were to recognize how much plasma fire was there and react accordingly.  I might also have been able to use my assault units more carefully to make sure they had cover, or concentrate them better to finish off opponent units.  I wasted a lot of dice trying to address some of his units, either through my bad attack/wound rolls, or his great saves.

I'm already looking forward to the next game!

 


4 comments:

  1. That is a lot of hot sweaty plasma. Good luck against a list so well matched to you (though clearly not tailored.) Still, sounds like you had a blast and that matters the most.

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  2. Yep...there was another DA player there who may have helped generate the list, and he kept coming up and whispering..."get him...get him...burn them off the table....", LOL. I'll have a better 2,000 point list in the stack for next time...in this game, I tried Telepathy as a spell set, and it did not help...the two spells I rolled up both needed 2 warp charges to pass, and I kept whiffing them. What I really needed was invis, or at least spells that granted cover saves or invuln saves. Playing my next game on Sunday...should be way fun!

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  3. Edit...whichever spell set has Prescience...(Div?)...

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