Getting the hang of It

Our local FLGS, Crossroad Games, is asking we experiment at playing for now using Power Levels as we all get the hang of the new 8th Edition rules.  They plan for a July 80-point tournament for the new Warhammer 40K, and we have about three more weeks till then.

In the mean time, its has been interesting!

I've played three games now as Blood Angels - two on opening day and one this week.  Here is a rundown:

Game 1
Essentially right as I walked in the door!  Picked up my book and walked into a game.  80 Power points of Blood Angels vs Mechanicus. I basically quickly cobbled together what would be a 78 point list - Battalion Detachment (6 command points)

Dante
Sanguinary Priest
Sanguinary Guard
Assault Squad
Assault Squad
Death Company
Tactical Squad, Razorback
Tactical Squad, Razorback
Tactical Squad, Razorback

My opponent had a Kastellan Robot list supported by a crab, snipers, and some real nasty electo-priests.  In this game we were each fighting over an objective placed in each deployment zone.  We were fighting toward a draw, until the last player phase when his Kastellans and Walker took the last wound off the rhino, it exploded, and then he basically through hot dice to put mortal wounds on the character and assault squad there, eliminating the units.  Game ended with my loss, 4:1.  I could not advance on the Kastellans.  72 dice or so in firepower (4 robots, buffed to doubling their firepower). Big mistake for me in the game was that the Electropriests got a charge off on a small depleted tac squad and wiped them out - changing their invulnerable save from 5++ down to 3++.  It then took alot of effort to get rid of them!  My opponent also forget a unit he'd held in reserves.  He had been hoping to get them in on my home objective for the straight up win.  IIRR his Kastellans killed a razorback, death company squad, and sanguinary guard, just by weight of fire.  It just goes to show, LOS blocking terrain is very important.

Game 2
Same day, same list, vs Orks.  This game was alot of fun.  4 objectives, you get points each round for holding objectives.  My opponent started off with a big lead, using cheap grots to hold objectives while our larger units battled each other.  At the end, the Orks had a Morkanought, Battlwagon, and psycher on the table.  I had about half my units remaining but depleted.  I lost the game by 1 point. The score was about 14-13.  Again in this game, in a key combat phase - I had three units of 5 marines plus a razorback in assault with a 30-boy mob.  I took a few losses of infantry, gave a good bloodletting in return, and then the Nob killed off the razorback.  It exploded on a 6, and after the rolls for mortal wounds on each unit - I was down to one sergeant vs 14 or so Orks. Another highlight was the battlewagon literally grinding its deathrolla on another Razorback blocking its way. Somehow that lasted for about three combat phases.  The game also had my razorbacks shoot down a DakkaJet.  The Razorback was blocking the short route to an objective I was holding.  As you may recall, in setting up a game, I always state that tracked or wheeled vehicles cannot climb vertical surfaces - which I think is important.  My opponent COULD have just backed the Battlewagon up and gone a different route, or led with the Morkanought.  

Game 3
The Relic.  Same list.  Vs a Chaos Marine Player.  The relic was on the top of a large pyramid, very thematic.  The deployment had us buth 9 inches from the objective.  My opponent led his demon prince from the front.  I got to go first, and a Sanguinary Guard got the relic.  The game was a slog, and I was able to kill off the Chaos demon prince (shooting), defiler (assault), and mobs of cultists (flamers, shooting, assualts, and chaos bikders (assaults), and psycher character (shooting). We ended after three full turns with me continuing to jump away holding the relic.  My opponent had just a landraider, chaos champion, and a depleted chaos marine squad.  I had just a bunch of depleted squads plus Dante and the Sanguinary Priest. Blood angels for the win! At least in this game now vehicles exploded.

Dante was a pretty good buff and a beast in CC. He survived all three games.

The Sanguinary priest was good, gives a great buff, and actually doubled his value in healing marines each game.  He was toast in Game 1.

Overall, as we were playing using power levels, I got smarter on wargear each game.  By game three, the razorbacks were sporting HK missiles and PMSBs, which clearly helped.

Lets see how tonight goes!

Overall I'm bummed that Blood Angel Assault squads don't have access at the moment to meltaguns. I have to create a bunch more flamer marines though!

All for now!