Spaguatyrine finally loses to a blood angels player...kinda...

By Spaguatyrine

So I finally got a game in with Dustin from the southside.  We have just missed each other the last 8 months in tournaments and other playing times.   I only had 1.5 hours to play due to an important meeting for work and ....

and had to leave early so had to call the game.  We agreed to play the lists we used last year at a tournament where he and I tied for 1st. The problem is that my list isn't valid because I used 2 x 5 man inquisitorial stormtroopers with 2 melta guns each.  That being said I had to use the same list and make minor changes.  I didn't like this list but agreed to play with it.

I had:

Ragnar
Runepriest with Jaws/living lightning and chooser
2xWguard with combi-meltas
1xWguard with combi-melta and pfist
3 Thunderwolves, 1 TH, 1 SS, 1 BP and CCW
6 Grey Hunters in Rhino with melta gun and wolf standard
5 Grey Hunters in Rhino with melta gun
5 Grey Hunters in Drop pod with melta gun
5 Grey Hunters in Razorback with flamer
5 Longfangs with 4 missles
5 Longfangs with 2 Lascannons and 2 missles
5 Wolfscouts with meltagun

Dustin had
Mephiston
2x 5 man assault marines in Razorbacks. 1 TL Las and 1 TL Heavy Bolters
2 Vindicators
1 squadron of  2 x Typhoon Speeders
1 Storm Raven with TL Las, and TL Mmelta
1 Furioso with 2 x blood talons
1 Baal Pred with TL Ass Cannon and Heavy bolter sponsons

First of all his list is a very good list and has a lot of punch to get up close and do some damage.  He got first turn that was also dawn of war and objectives.  He did a good job of doing what I normally do to other players by rushing me before I could get set in my positions to work my strategy. 

The first big mistake I made was agreeing to rule the center piece of terrain was not area terrain but just the silo's and small round cylinder were terrain.  I should have paid attention to what he was trying to do before I said ok.   In the future we will decide on terrain before we know who gets first turn. This again was a bonehead move and would have changed what he and I did.  I actually forgot 3 times it was not terrain as I rolled to move through cover twice while in it, and then judged wrong his movement through it when he just moved and didn't roll.  I will use the code word "center piece" when describing my rookie mistake. Since he didn't have to take any checks in the center piece of terrain. Anyways here is the report:


He deployed mephiston by himself halfway up the board behind the silo in the center piece and his razorback . I deployed nothing on the board. He moved everything on and ended up in this formation with his storm raven in the center piece. He popped all his smoke or moved flat out.  

After his movement and my drop

My turn 2 I dropped to the right of his vehicle line, moved on the longfangs on either side and of course had to run them due to dawn of war. I moved on as such.  I used living lightning and rolled two 1's.  This would be the start of a bad dice game. I never make excuses for dice on a loss or win, because a good player can overcome either.  Of course I  hit his razorback and he passed his cover saves.  I popped 1 speeder on the drop and whiffed with everything else. I also rolled move thru cover of 3" and a run of 1" with them also making them useless this turn. 


His turn 2 he flew Mephiston out of the center piece towards my GH that dropped on the back line, moved forward with the storm raven through the center piece, and shot both weapon at Ragnar's Rhino.  I failed both cover saves.  Wrecked and they got out.  He shot the razorback behind the rhino and I failed the cover save and was shaken. His baal came in from reserve and outflanked of course on the side of my longfangs. He killed 1 missle.  He dropped both vindicators and killed 1 missle longfang from the other pack on the left. He almost got out the dread, but thought against it.  If he would have, it would have been a dead dread.  Good move Dustin.  He fleeted and assaulted my GH killing 2.  The would be locked for 2 more combats. 

Outflanking Baal!  after 2 turns of shooting I loose the 2 guys towards the edge and they fail their leadership and run away like pansies!

I fail my cover saves and have to bail out of the Rhino.  

My turn 2 I moved my thunderwolves and got a whopping 2"move and 1" run again.  Yeah!  My missles wrecked his stormraven. My lascannons and missle launchers stunned his dread and Speeder.  My living lighting penetrated his las razor which all I did was stun  and shake him.  This turn I had 5 penetrating hits and had 1 destroyed result and 4 stuns or shakens.  Nice!!  Scouts fail to come in.

I move towards the storm raven to shoot and assault it but am left in the open due to the missiles wrecking the raven and run to get into cover in the center piece. :{

His turn 3 he moves to plate my thunderwolves but misses, he shoots and kills 1 longfang and I fail my leadership and run a good distance off the board.  Uggh!, he shoots at my razorback again and I make my first and only cover save of the game.  8 of 9 failed.  Things are still ok as I am still contending with everything.

My turn 3 my scouts still don't come in, my thunderwolves finally get moving and blow up 1 vindicator, I move into the center piece rolling for difficult terrain and blow up his furioso with Ragnars meltagun grey hunters.  I am just enough away where Mephiston shouldn't get me in the center piece.......anyways.  I shoot living missles and penetrate and glance his Las razorback and of course he makes the cover saves again.   Mephiston kills the last GH.

Dead Vindicator and dead Thunderwolves next turn

Still Moving thru terrain in the center piece. 

His turn 4 mephiston flies out of the terrain, fleets, and assaults the 5.8" thru the center piece to make contact with Ragnar's group.  He does 1 wound, fails his strength 10 psychic power and do 2 wounds and he loosed combat.  So I had 15 attacks from the grey hunters with 3 from a power weapon and do 0 wounds. Ragnar does 2 with his frost blade.  Ugh! He moves and shoots the back of my razorback and stuns it with his predator. His vindicator moves and clips the center piece, but gets enough movement to get a direct hit on my thunderwolves.  He wounds all three, I can't pass my invol save and they all go away. 

He shoots the the Rhino and does nothing.

My turn 4, my scouts come in and roll a 1 to outflank on the side with the predator.  This is the worst side I could get as each other side would have helped with the actual battle. Still, they come on and destroy the predator. I fight mephiston and do 0 wounds but stick around for another turn. My missles do nothing to the predator again.  Nice cover saves Dustin. :) My priest shoots living lightning at the speeder and explodes it. My razor moves 12" toward my left objective. 

His turn 5 he murders most of the Gh squad.  They will be dead in my turn.  moves around and shoots but really doesn't do much. I call the game at this point as I have 20 minutes to pack up and get to my meeting. 

What I would have done in my turn 5.  Loaded back up in the rhino with the RP and GH and moved 12" either towards his objective on the right or my objective on the right.  Moved my Razorback 12" towards his left ojective to contest his. Since I had already moved mine towards him I would have made it.  I would have moved my scouts towards his objective.  I could have contested if gone to turn 6 or 7 depending on run moves if he hadn't killed them.  I would have shot my 3 missile's at the Las razorback and hopefully wrecked or exploded it.  If the game ended on turn 5 could have either been a win, draw, or loss depending on the longfangs.  Most likely the game goes to 6 and I am in more trouble due to Mephiston being able to move in a variety of directions. Going to turn 7 would actually help me if he wouldn't be able to pop my vehicles.  But I called the game and lost to a great player in Dustin.  All beware Dustin also know as Nemisis on the blogs has arrived.

There will be a proper rematch as we have discussed. Dustin earned his striped and played a great game. I look forward to playing him again soon.    

So what I learned:

Mephiston can be tough, but ensure he gets hit with low ap weapons before he gets to you. 
Don't play games when you have a work meeting in 2 hours! 
Drop the drop pod in the first place you wanted to. (Next to the razorbacks)
Start the Thunderwolves where you normally do or don't roll 3" movements and 1" runs.
Move the runepriest close to the center for psychic defense instead of 6" agianst mephiston.  Or just 
       actually roll a 4+.  I failed every runic weapon roll except 1, out of 12!

Dustin is a great player which I already knew!  Good job man!