Blood Angels V. Imperial Guard 1500 point Battle Report With Pictures.

This weekend I drove down to a new game store called Pair-A-Dice Games to play some 40k with a friend I had not seen in a long time. Before I get to the battle report I want to say a few things about the store. It was a very nice place that has far more than just 40k, if you are into any role playing game, card game, or miniatures battle game they have stuff for you there and it won't take long at all to find an opponent. The store itself is very clean and well organized, no pressure to buy something from the people that work there. I liked it a lot and look forward to going back there sometime in the future. My friend and I both knew which army the other was bringing just not the full fist. We deployed on the long table edge which was good for me, I actually won the roll to deploy first but I let him go first so I could set up a counter deployment to that and avoid some of his shooting. The mission type was Purge the Alien.

 You can see how he has deployed here on the right side of the board, ignore the left side for now since I was just getting my models out of the box at that point. We had a great battle with lot's of death and carnage on both sides. Continue reading for the rest of the battle report and army lists.

                                                                           

Imperial Guard: HQ- Colonel Iron Hand Straken with command squad composed of a Lord Commissar and 3 Vets with melta guns inside of a Chimera with multi laser and heavy bolter.

His Right Flank

Troops- Platoon command squad with 3 melta guns. 

6 infantry squads with a plasma gun and either a heavy bolter or auto cannon in it.

Heavy Support: 2 Leman Russ tanks with a Battle Cannon and las cannon along with 1 Leman Russ with the executioner cannon that shoots out a bunch of plasma.

Left Flank The yellow tank is the plasma tank.

Middle

 While he was deploying I kept thinking that it may have been a mistake to let him go fist since his big guns have insanely long range so there was no real hope of evading the fire that could do real damage to my guys. Still it was too early in the game to be considering mistakes so I figured I would rely on cover and speed to get me into the fight.

Blood Angels: HQ- Reclusiarch in terminator armor 160 points. Librarian on Bike with blood lance and fear the darkness 135 points.

Elite- Terminators with thunderhammer and stormshield 225 points. Sanguinary Priest 1- in terminator armor 85 points, 2- on bike with power sword 100 points, 3- Jump pack and powerfist 105 points.

Troops- Assault Squad with 1 flamer, sergeant with infernus pistol and lightning claw 225 points. Assault Squad with 1 flamer, sergeant with infernus pistol and lightning claw 225 points. Scout Squad with sniper rifles and locator beacon 100 points.

Fast Attack- 4 Bikes and Sergeant has a powerfist 140 points.

 This is how I deployed. My bikes are on my far left with my characters out of line of sight. Also a mistake in letting my opponent go first because now I can't get that awesome cover save for my bikes since they are just sitting there. One assault squad is hiding in the building with the other one out in the open. I left them out there because I felt their chances of survival were a lot higher than if I had them on the right flank by them selves. With all my scout moves and everything factored in I got my scouts up to a pretty solid position. My fear at this point was that he would move to intercept the scouts and try to kill them through shooting or even charge them an get them off the board preventing a safe deep striking appearance from my terminators and also granting him first blood. However this is what Space Marines are all about, high risk operations in order to pin an enemy down for a devastating charge from an unstoppable unit, that's what my version of the codex astartes says anyway.

Top of Turn 1 Imperial Guard: During his movement phase he moves his vehicles up to get better angles on my units. His infantry move up on his left flank since it was out of range to shoot at anything, orders were also issued to move them up faster with 'move move move!' He also did the smart thing by shuffling his infantry models around to get better shots but kept his heavy weapons where they were in order to get the most out of them. I did a good job deploying my forces so only one squad was in range and line of sight. After all the shots fired I lost the majority of one of my assault squads but through some good look out sir rolls I was able to keep my priest and sergeant alive, but the Imperial Guard was in very good position for turn 2 shooting. 

Turn 1 losses.

Bottom of Turn 2 Blood Angels: This was a very important phase for me since I desperately needed to try and avoid as much shooting as possible. I was forced to make some decisions that made me try and preserve my force than trying to get up in my opponents face as fast as possible. I moved my scouts up into the ruin to get them a 4+ cover save and get the locator beacon closer to where I wanted it. My bikes were able to shoot up 12 inches then I turbo-boosted them to get a very nice cover save. My weakened assault squad jumped into a little piece of cover that blocked line of sight and my other assault squad jumped out into area terrain. No shooting happened because the longest range weapon in my army is 24 inches and they turbo-boosted. Just like no shots were fired there was also no assaults.

Top of Turn 2 Imperial Guard: After backing his units up to make charges a bit more difficult but still get as many shots off as possible he ended his movement phase looking like the picture below.

I was prepared for a vicious turn of shooting but got insanely lucky only losing 3 assault marines. Most of the plasma weapons either got hot or simply missed. Veterans were sorely missed in this army due to the mass of shots that never hit their target. I also got incredibly lucky with cover saves and template weapons scattering off. I suppose the guardsmen were shaking in their boots and couldn't shoot straight ;). 

My turn 2 casualties.

Bottom of Turn 2 Blood Angels: After a lack luster turn 2 from my Guard opponent I knew I had to inflict as much damage as possible before their luck came back. My terminators came in and because of the locator beacon from the scouts I had no trouble in bringing them into the line of fire, other than that all my guys moved up 12 inches.

In the shooting phase I cut down a few guys with my twin-linked bolters and that is it. In the assault phase I declare a multi-assault on one of the platoon command squads and a squad of guys and made it into combat. I also declared a charge with my weakened assault squad but failed that charge. My bikes did a great amount of work through hammer of wrath and normal attacks that I won the combat and ran down whoever was left. 

This is what everything looked like after I consolidated. I purposely staggered my characters; Sergeant, Librarian, and Priest between normal guys to take advantage of the look out sir rule and to prevent against blast templates from getting too many of them in one shot. This turn I grabbed first blood and two kill points.

Turn 3 Imperial Guard: Backing up again and reforming the line a lot of shots came at the Blood Angels this turn. My friend did the smart thing by leaving those two squads where they were and not backing them up and getting less shots it, the only thing he might have wanted to do differently was scoot them up to give me less distance to move forward which brings me closer to his other units in future turns. 

In the picture above you can see that I added a lot more marines to the gene seed pile. I lost three bikes, my look out sir plan worked but I did take a wound on my librarian. He finished off a full assault squad and killed off a sanguinary priest bringing him up to 2 kill points. Over all he had a great shooting phase this turn that greatly weakened my armies ability to be effective in combat. 

Bottom of Turn 3 Blood Angels (3 VPs): In the movement phase my terminators lumber up to one of the IG squads and my assault squad jumps up to try and kill the other squad. I was having difficulty deciding what to do with my bikes. Option 1 was to move the up to the super command squad blow up their transport and then assault them, or move to one of the tanks and try to blow one of them up with the blood lance. I went with option one figuring it would get me the most amount of kill points and if I was lucky I would stay in combat and not get shot to death.  In the shooting phase bolt weapons killed a few guys, yippie, and my librarians blood lance cracked open the transport allowing me to assault the soft fleshy targets inside. 

In the assault phase my terminators and assault squad charged their targets and won easily. After fighting weapon skill 4 guardsmen (Death Korps of Krieg) for so long I had forgot how nice it is to cut through a squad of guys who are weapon skill 3. My bikes charged into Stracken's command squad and the librarian and Stracken decided to get in a duel. My hammer of wrath attacks did great placing one wound on Straken and another on the commissar. 

The Librarian took a wound from shooting.

I got very lucky and put the rest of the wounds on Stracken from my librarian and killed him before he could attack me with his ignores armor fist of death. We killed a few regular guys and I lost my priest in return. With the commissar alive the guys stuck in combat for another turn which was great for me. I got another 4 kill points this turn; 2 from killing regular squads, and 2 from killing Stracken warlord and Independent character bringing me to a total of 7.

Top of Turn 4 Imperial Guard (2 VPs): Once again my opponent backs his guys up a little bit but not too much deciding to take a stand and spit out as much death at rapid fire range as possible. If it was not for my bikes in combat this turn I probably would have lost a hell of a lot more than I did this turn. After issuing orders and shooting my 6 man assault squad was shot down to one guy. My terminators laughed off any fire that came their way like they always do and that was it. In the assault phase my bikers killed all but one guy and he passed his leadership test! He gained no more VPs but made an assault squad combat ineffective. 

Bottom of Turn 4 Blood Angels (7 VPs): In my movement phase my terminators walk up to assault the auto cannon squad and the tank. My lone assault marine walks up to assault his other platoon command squad. In the shooting phase my lone assault marine throws his frag grenade and kills two guys! In the assault phase my terminators do what they do best and kill the tank and squad gaining me another 2 victory points. My assault marine continues being awesome killing a guy with hammer of wrath and another with his chainsword, the recovery of his gene seed became a priority after the battle. He did die but they guardsmen went under 25% and failed their leadership test and went to flee off the board getting me another VP. My bikes finally killed the lone guy bravely standing against a librarian and a sergeant getting me my 11th kill point. 

Top of Turn 5 Imperial Guard (2 VPs): Understandably my opponent was very happy to see my bike unit in the open and very weakened. He moved his tanks back to get better shots and prevent easy charges. 

In the shooting phase he easily kills my bikes netting him another 2 kill points for killing an independent character and finishing off the squad. He does kill off a terminator which is always a small victory in itself. So my opponent is at 4 VPs but I only have one unit left which if he kills automatically wins him the game.                                                 

Bottom of Turn 5 Blood Angels (11 VPs): I move my terminators up to multi-assault the last two IG squads. That is exactly what I do making it my third successful multi-assault in the game. 

If you look at this picture the assault is clearly illegal because of how many terminators are out of coherency. However if I went back and wrapped around the left side doing everything legally I still would have completed the charge on both units and the result would have turned out the same. The bash in their heads and both squads fail their leadership test and start heading off the board. We rolled to see if it goes to turn 6 and it did.

We also rolled to see if the game went to turn 7 and it did. I will wrap up the rest of the game in this little paragraph. The two squads ended up running off the board and I killed the plasma tank and ended the game in my opponents deployment zone gaining me line breaker for another 3 VPs. 

 The surviving units were 3 termintors, a sanguinary priest to collect the gene seed, the Reclusiarch, and 3 scouts. My opponent had a surviving tank that gets to tell of his survival to the next generation of guardsmen.

Final Score 14-4 Victory for the Blood Angels!

Final Thoughts

1. Snipers: Even though I did not report on what they did throughout the report they did a decent job shooting. They did surprisingly take a hull point off a tank, the Emperor was sure guiding that shot. The reason I took them was a cheap delivery system for my terminators and they filled that role adequately. The only other option I have at this point level is a land speeder and I think that is too easy to get first blood with. I am going to try these guys out again and see if they perform any better or worse before I decide on them.

2. Bikes: This is the first game at 1500 points that I was able to play with them along with the entire core of my army and I thought they were simply fantastic. They are just so versatile and fast that they are going to be a permanent addition to nearly all my Blood Angel assault based lists. 

3. Game Play: I really need to go first if I have the choice. My bikes are vulnerable when not moving because they don't get that incredible cover save so I need to take advantage of that, plus my speed allows me to close in fast even if my opponent castles up in a corner. Precision shots can impact a game sooo much! I did well with remembering to roll my characters separately and I was able to pick out sergeants and special weapons that really made a difference with what was shooting at me. 

In the end it was a really fun game and I can't wait to play him again. Thank's for reading, hope you enjoyed it, and have an Emperor Blessed day!