Dante meets Ghaz

It was a fun game last week or so.  80 power points of Blood Angels vs 80 power points of Orks.  Dante vs Ghazgul Thrakka.

I used the same list more or less as the prior 8th edition versions.

The mission was the Relic.  My opponent actually had fewer units to deploy...and captured the relic with a Nob on turn 1.  I spent the rest of the game trying to get it back...

Here we are soon after deployment...

  
I grabbid da loot hur hur hur....

This shot was in the blood angels turn 1, after charges were accomplished...

This shot was turn 2, orks charge phase...Ghaz was still lounging in the Morkanaught...the Nob with the relic is running away. The death company had died...two other Blood Angel Squads sorely damaged...

And here we were around turn 3.  Ghaz got out of his box, and Dante charged him.

Dante hit 7 times, wounded 7 times, Ghaz' used his invulnerable save to cut that back to 3 d3 wounds...and took 6 damage in total.

Then Ghaz attacked, hitting Dante about 5 times, strength 12+ power claw...2 wounds got through his saves...each doing 3 damage...pop goes Dante.

We called the game at the end of 4 due to time.

The Blood angel casualties were:

Dante
2 5-man tac squads plus 4 additional marines
1 5-man Death Company squad
3 Sanguinary guard
1 5-man assault squad and 3 additional assault marines
1 very damaged razorback.

The orks had lost:

20+grots and a minder
30 boyz mob plus about 18 additional boyz
Wounded shaman
Wounded Ghaz
1 severely damage Morkanought.

At the end of 4, the orks were sounding a fighting retreat with the Blood Angels in pursuit. With the ork with the relic far ahead, it was unlikely the Blood Angels could recover the relic.

Overall, in thinking about the tactics, the outcome was pretty similar to the relic game I played earlier.  The player who gets the relic first tends to keep it and win.

What I could have done differently was to have a little patience.  Whittle down the mobs another turn before charging them. Dropping the assault squads on the flanks to limit the ability of the nob to run away with the relic.  Add other chargers when going against Ghaz.

Things we also forgot -

Buffs - Dante grants to hit rerolls for ALL BA units - not just infantry.  That would mean in turn 1 the Razorback fire would have been more devastating.

Cover.  Apparently there is such a thing as being obscured in cover...(See recent Frontline Gaming video battle reports on Twitch).  Just make sure it is understood and agreeable by your opponent.  For example, if the Morkanought was in contact with that big LOS blocking crag in midfield, he would have been able to possibly get a 1+ cover save bonus.  We could also have essentially created the craggy terrain as "ruins" for clarity.  The "cover save" apparently only applies with the unit on or contacting the terrain and being 50% or so obscured.  it is something for me to look into more.

Enough for now.  No games this week due to other obligations.  I am also in the process of painting up some additional blood angels - sergeants and flamer marines...stuff to make my force more WYSIWYG.

The interesting thing my opponent did, was turn 1 get the Nob to the relic (9 inches away).  Then he advanced grots around and ahead of him and with the Morkanought not to far away gave them all 5++ invuln saves from the Kustom Force Field.  It meant i had to remove ALL of the grots before i could go after the character.  20 grots with 5++ saves are nothing to sneeze at....in fact in overwatch, one tactical marine perished to a grot shot to the face...

Overall, I have to decide quick for the upcoming Konor campaign - Ultramarines, Astra Militarum, or Chaos....vote in the comments below...