One of the problems about some special characters is that
they are best left for the largest of games.
I’d never used Dante in a game until last week. The Infernous Bolter keeps falling off the
model. I’m going to have to pin it…
Can you imagine what my 5th Company Leader,
Librarian Angelus, would be thinking when Chapter Master Dante would arrive?
Well, with the issues I’ve had, it might be worth it!
2000 Points vs White Scars
All I did was take my 1750 list (last post) and add to it
Dante (Lord of War), and two tactical marines.
Everything else was the same.
Angelus would continue to draw from Biomancy. For the Battle, Dante would be the
Warlord. He comes stock with his own
trait, plus the second one. For that I
rolled – lead by example. Figures…
My opponent had a tooled up White Scars force – basically
two CADs – each pretty much the same, so something in total like:
Chapter Masters on bike, shield eternal, power axe, orbital
bombardment
Chapter Master in terminator armor, storm shield, power
sword
Command squad, 5x Bikes, power swords, 1 apothecary
Command squad, 5 bikes, 5 grav guns
Bike squad, 5+, melta guns, combimelta
Bike squad, 5+, grav guns, combigrav
Dev squad, 5 marines, ML, AA, Rhino
Dev squad, 5 marines, ML, AA
Attack bikes, 3, MMs
Tac squad, 5 marines, melta, combimelta, drop pod
Tac squad, 5 marines, melta, combimelta, drop pod
More or less.
I did not take photos.
We were playing the scenario where you get 1 more tactical
mission card per turn. Hammer and Anvil.
My opponent deployed first, determined to go first. He pretty much deployed as a mirror of
himself, devs right and left, rhino centerline, bikes split right and
left. The Pods in reserve also held the
Terminator Chapter Master.
I deployed strong along the center, behind LOS blocking
terrain, spread out a bit due to the incoming orbital bombardment. I needed to see where he’d commit his
forces. I hold the Furioso (w/pod), DC,
DC dread, and Stormraven in reserve.
Turn 1
The White Scar bikers advance near evenly right and
left. The drop pod for Turn 1 drops
right in front of my left flank. In
shooting, his meltaguns hit and damage the Baal Predator “Crimson Blade”, while
grav/multimelta fire wrecks a razorback.
The orbital bombardment drops in on my assault squad plus
Dante/Angelus/Marus (Sanguinary priest).
I lose three assault marines and do not break. My opponent scores like 4 points including
first blood.
In response, Dante is in charge range of the podded tactical
squad. He sets the tone and advances
left, taking his attached squad and HQ characters with him. With that pretty much I’m committing to a
left flank attack. My Furioso Pod drops
between his left rear devs and rhino. The dismounted tac squad from the wrecked
Razorback sets out a right flank picket.
In shooting, the surviving Razorback and Baal Pred “Crimson
Hammer” kill a few jinking bikes from the left most biker squads. “Crimson Blade” fired at bikers advancing up
the center, getting them to jink. The
Furioso frag-cannons and flames the dev squad, taking down 4 of 5 marines. In assault, Dante leads the charge on the
White Scar pod squad. I roll short and
can’t combined assault on the pod. I
settle for near happiness when Dante singlehandedly at WS7, S7, I7 wipes out
the squad. However, that leaves me
exposed to a White Scars shooting response.
I roll low on consolidation too, but spread out what I can. I might have scored a point for holding an
objective.
Turn 2
The second White Scar drop pod arrives, about 18 inches
forward from Dante, to shore up the White Scars on my left. Everything else advances, with his other
Chapter Master and command squad bikers heading towards my right flank
picket. (Tactical note – I wanted him to
take that bait – I needed him delayed down there to allow me time for my
reserves to arrive). My opponent, warry
of Dante, line up to shoot at him and his retinue. The second orbital bombardment hits and
deviates, so I lose 3 more assault marines.
In shooting, I lose another assault marine, and Marus takes a
bullet. My right flank tac squad
survives shooting and gets charged. In
the rear, the Furioso dreadnought gets damaged, but the enemy charge distance
fails. The assault on the tac squad ends
with me having two marines surviving and outrunning the bikers. The score is now something like 5-1.
On my turn, the reserve roll brings in the Stormraven. It flies in on the right flank, lining itself
up on the second echelon attack bikes.
The DC occupants are itchy, but I won’t release them! The two lonely Tac marines return to their
picket position. Crimson Blade also
looks to shoot at the attack bikes, while the razorback and Crimson Hammer
wheel around to shoot the command squad.
Dante and retinue advance to get at assaulting the newly arrived Chapter
Master #2. Shooting is largely
ineffective, bikes jinking, and the biker command squad tanking hits off the
Master’s shield. In assault, Dante’s
squad hits home again, while the Furioso hits the bike squad. I issue a challenge, and while the Chapter
Master survives with a wound, his tac squad retinue is dead. The Furioso kills the remaining leftmost
bikers. I score some points for kills and
we are something like 5-3.
Turn 3
My opponent is now on the back foot. His left flank is gone, and I’m heading
towards his rear on the next turn. His
MM attack bikes and the AA ML shoot at the (jinking) stormraven and they don’t
scratch the paint. He decides that
instead of continuing the end run around my rear, the Master and command squad
would pull back up the right a bit, and his central bikes would head after the
Furioso. In shooting, the Furioso loses
its last two HPs to grav bikes. In
assault, Dante kills off Chapter Master #2.
Score is 6-4.
On my turn, the jinked Stormraven goes to hover mode and
deploys the DC marines (to go after the attack bikes) and the DC Dread (to go
after the Master and Command Squad).
My remaining demi-tac-squad dismounts and heads after the
original WS drop pod. It is on an
objective that I want. The Razorback
heads out to hunt down that last left-flank Dev and hold another
objective. Crimson Blade pushes forward
to an objective with LOS on the attack bikes. Crimson Hammer also sits on an objective to
shoot at the Master and Command squad (bikers). Dante and retinue head after
the bikers that took down the Furioso.
In the psychic phase, Angelus casts a spell that wounds a biker and
regains Marus his lost wound. The left
left Dev survivor is eliminated by plasma.
I wreck an attack bike and maybe one or two of the command squad
bikers. In assault, Dante and retinue
kill off their target, the DC marines kill off the last attack bikes, and Titus
the DC Dread gets locked in combat with the master and Command Squad Bikers –
as the Master essentially tanked all the wounds on his shield! The score advances with me having a good turn
to something like 6-8.
Turn 4-5-6
My opponent is losing his army fast. Titus actually is wrecked by a meltabomb from
the Master on Turn 4, which frees up the Master and Command bikers to go on to
other mayhem, including killing the DC marines.
In the meantime, I eliminate everything the White scars have except for
Drop pod #2 and the Master.
Game ends with the White Scars having linebreaker.
Wrap Up
Final score - White Scars 8, Blood Angels 11.
Another great and fun game.
I did forget a few things – IIRR I lost the Stormraven (it got assaulted
by I forgot it was back to flying). Dante
has more special rules to remember.
Although lead by example is a great command trait, it never came up as
Dante never stopped to score an objective.
At the end he was hopping back to go chase down that surviving biker
Chapter Master. That combat would have
happened too except for the game ending.
Overall, I’m feeling a bit more confident in some of these
games. I’m at the point in game play
speed and such that I can make tactical decisions during the game that my
opponents have to react to. They may not
be the best decisions, but I think if
keep the Blood Angels in play for a bit more I’ll get a much better win
streak going!
HOWEVER…
On the back table it was all about demon players thinking about
Magnus…I think I’m headed for a long cold winter. The upcoming 2000 point tournament in 10 days
may see Magnus and Pink Horrors hitting tables in force…Maybe I need to drop
Angelus and two or three tac marines to bring in Mephiston…hmmmmmm
Ming
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