Blood Angels+White Scars VS. Imperial Guard 1500 Point Battle Report

I was able to get a game in with the same gentleman that I played last time. Both of us changed our lists a bit, since I just got the Space Marine codex I really wanted to try one of the new chapter tactics and the only one that I could do without using my assault marines as tactical marines which hurts their feelings when I do that so I used my Blood Angel bikers as White Scar bikers. We decided on 1500 points because it is a good point limit that allows each player to take a variety of units but not enough to take a bunch of crazy things. We rolled up the relic mission which I feel like gave the advantage to my opponent since all of my units a fast and the relic will just slow them down. Warlord Traits did nothing like every other game. I won the roll to go first and he did not steal the initiative. Continue reading to see both army lists and how the battle turned out.

My Deployment

Blood Angels: HQ- Reclusiarch in terminator armor 160 points. (Warlord)

Elite- Sanguinary Priest in terminator armor 85 points.

Sanguinary Priest with power fist and jump pack 100 points.

My Middle

Terminators with Thunder hammers and shields 225 points. (Kept in reserve)

Troops- Assault Squad with 2 flamers, Sergeant has an Infernus Pistol and lightning claw 230 points.

Assault Squad with 2 flamers, Sergeant has an Infernus Pistol and lightning claw 230 points.

Assault Squad with just 5 guys, no upgrades 90 points.

White Scars: HQ Kor'sorro Khan with his bike 150 points. (Model in gold Armor)

Troops-5 bikers, Veteran Sergeant upgrade with power fist 140 points.

Troops- 5 Scouts with Sniper rifles, camo cloaks, and teleport beacon 80 points.

My right flank.

Imperial Guard: HQ- Colonel Iron Hand Straken (Warlord) with a command squad that has two bodyguards, and 4 melta guns 220 points. (I am copying this off of my friends army builder page and it shows that 14.7% of his points was spent on this HQ configuration.)

Troops (40.7%)- Infantry Platoon; Command Squad has 4 meltas in it and the Platoon Leader has a power axe. Three squads with a plasma gun and heavy weapon, two of the have a heavy bolter, one has an auto cannon 305 points.

Infantry Platoon; Command Squad has 4 meltas in it and the Platoon Leader has a power axe. Three squads with a plasma gun and heavy weapon, two of the have a heavy bolter, one has an auto cannon 305 points.

Fast Attack (9%)- Hellhound 135 points.

Heavy Support (35.7%)- Leman Russ with Executioner Cannon and las cannon 205 points.

Leman Russ Battle Tank with las cannon 165 points.

Leman Russ Battle Tank with las cannon 165 points.

Scout Moves

Infiltrate/Scout

Blood Angels Turn 1: I get my first taste with Khan and am already moving my bikers up with the scout move that he gives them. I also get my scouts in the backfield of my opponents deployment zone with my scouts giving them a nice 3+ cover save in that ruin which should keep them nice and safe to bring my terminators in. 

                                    

I move my bikes and turbo-boost them up into the woods to give them an awesome cover save and they are in perfect position for a charge in turn two. I move up both of my assault squads to try and block some line of sight. I wanted them up here to dissuade my opponent from advancing on the relic and get in position to assault them next turn. I got some good run rolls which brought me even closer to the Guard lines. (Game Note: The only are terrain is the pieces with trees on them and the buildings which we counted as ruins.) 

I moved up my 5 man squad like this out in the open since I really had nowhere else to put them. I could have placed them in the center to grab the objective but I really wanted to be able to put some pressure on the left flank if my terminators don't come in. In the shooting phase my snipers actually caused a wound to one of the infantry squads who then failed their morale test and became pinned which was a nice boost. 

Imperial Guard Turn 1: Because my guys got up so fast there was very little movement to be done. He shuffled his tanks around to get line of sight and better angels on my guys to drop all sorts of blast templates that ruin my day. 

He did run the middle two squads which is his company command squad and a regular squad since they did not have a good angel to do much damage or were not in range with the meltas. He really focused his fire down on my middle assault squads. My feel no pain saved a few of my marines but I suffered some heavy turn one losses of 10 marines in total.

Turn 1 losses.

Blood Angels Turn 2: This is the turn where I get everything into charge range and avenge my fallen brothers. My terminators arrived and came in safely thanks to the scouts. I moved my 4 man assault squad up to assault the infantry squad that got pinned by the snipers and save my terminators from getting shot at. My middle-left assault squad moves up to multi charge one of the tanks and the infantry squad. My goal for that assault is to hopefully not kill off the Guard infantry so that I can't get shot at by the tanks next turn and if I get really lucky get a penetrating hit through with a krak grenade and at least stun it. My middle-right assault squad moved up to charge the command squad and the infantry squad next to it. My bikers move up to assault the platoon command squad and the infantry squad. I may be criticized for 3/4 of my charges being muti-assaults but I really feel like each squad had more than enough combat prowess to win the combat but I am hoping that they won't win them by too much so that I can finish the combats off on my opponents turn and save me from getting shot at which is why I am willing to lose out on my +1 attack for charging.

In the shooting phase my snipers kill a plasma gunner in front of my middle-left assault squad. The flamers in my middle-right squad melt the command squad down to just Straken who is now on one wound. I had no idea that those flamers would cause so much damage since in almost every other game my flamers die before I can use them. My bikes kill a few guys and then I declare my charges.  

                           

I make all my charges which was expected since the longest one I had to make was about 7 inches. My 4 man assault squad won their combat but failed to sweeping advance but the squad will run off the table. My middle-left assault squad does nothing to the tank but does win the combat with the infantry squad, his sergeant challenged mine but got stabbed through the chest with lightning claws before he could swing his axe. In the combat with Straken and the regular fellows versus my assault marines it goes very well for me. Straken challenges and my sergeant accepts since I am not willing to risk my priest and feel no pain. Showing the true mettle of an Astartes Sergeant he kills Straken giving me first blood and slay the warlord. The Guard lose this combat and actually get ran down. Khan gets in a challenge with the platoon leader who has a power axe since he is the only guy in the unit with an invulnerable save. Even with the strength 5 hammer of wrath attacks I only take off two models and Khan gets 1 hit which fails to wound which was a bit of a bummer since I was hoping he would run the PL over with his bike. In the end the bikers win the combat but fail to run down the heavy weapon squad who will run off the board later. (WOW that was a lot of action on turn 2!)

                            

          After consolidation movement. My Terminators ran in the shooting phase. 

Imperial Guard Turn 2: After a mauling in the Marines turn my opponent knew that he had to take some big risks to try and push me back. He places his tanks so that my squads are in a cross fire increasing the chances of my guys being hit even if it scatters, the only thing he risks is some infantry that is retreating and possibly hitting his own tank. Remembering the relic he also pushed a squad to get near it to try and hold it next turn and get the win my walking it into my deployment zone for line breaker for a total of 4 points. 

In the shooting phase he aimed his battle cannons at the assault squad nearest his battle tanks and killed all but two of them which happened to be the guys with the flamers, they really wanted to make an impression this game. My assault squad with the Sanguinary Priest gets taken down to just the priest and sergeant thanks to some look out sir rolls. He aimed his melta-cannon at my Reclusiarch but it scattered off. Trying to hold up my bikes he shot at them with a squad and then charged them. He also charged my priest and sergeant with the remnants of a squad that he used an order to get back in the fight. Feeling furious the platoon command squad charged my blue and yellow assault marines but lost the PL due to snap fire, sometimes leading from the front is a bad thing. 

                                                                           

After running in turn 2 the Guardsmen are in shape to grab the relic!

My bikers won their combat, Khan did a great job and killed about 4 guys by himself. My blue and yellow marines won their combat and ran down the command squad. My priest and sergeant fluffed their attacks so the combat was a draw. 

Blood Angels Turn 3: I need to take out the tanks since they are really causing serious damage to me so I move everything up to assault them. My terminators take one tank, my surviving assault marines get in range to try and slap some krak grenades on the Hellhound, and my bikes move up to assault the Executioner and Battle Tank. I jump my two flame marines to roast the Guardsmen who are inches away from the relic.

                                                                           

 
                                                                          
In the shooting phase I flame down all but the Sergeant and heavy bolter base. In the assault phase my Reclusiarch rips apart the tank by himself which seems to be his specialty lately. The biker sergeant kills his tank after the guys fail to do anything with krak grenades. Not to be outdone by the Reclusiarch Khan also destroys his tank rolling two 6's to penetrate and then a 6 to explode it. The blue and yellow marines fail with krak grenades, the sergeant and priest finish off the guardsmen, and my flamer marines fail to kill anything in combat, and  I lost one to snap shots. The guard actually won a combat!

Imperial Guard Turn 3: It was a pretty quick turn but very rewarding. 

The Hellhound kill my sergeant and priest with a well aimed shot.

After the sergeant died the heavy bolter guys got very upset and bashed the assault marine over the head with their weapon until he died. This also continues a long standing tradition where my opponents heavy weapons do something rather unexpected in close combat. (The most (in)famous of their exploits being wounding Logan Grimnar in combat.)

Blood Angels Turn 4: Terminators kill the Hellhound and the bikers form up in parade ground execution formation and shred the heavy bolter team into little meaty scraps ending the game.

End Game Thoughts

1. The White Scar bikers are amazing! Khan is awesome and easily worth his 150 points. They are just so fast, so though to kill I really expect to see a lot more people experimenting with bikes in the near future. 

2. Scouts are now an official stay in my army thanks to the new codex. 80 points for a terminator delivery system that has a 2+ cover save if they go to ground in a ruin is too good to pass up. 

3. I sorta felt lazy taking a bare bones 5 man assault squad but it did a really good job for me. If there was many objectives I could have them sit on one leaving my heavy hitters to do the killing, I think they just add a little bit of tactical flexibility for me. 

Notes on my opponent: I would like to extend a big thank you to my opponent for playing and being a good sport as always. Also a big thanks for allowing me to put the battle report up. I would like to remind anyone that leaves a comment that constructive criticism is more than welcome, any other sort of "advice" will be taken down. 

Edit 9/15/13: After reading through Khan's rules some more I should not have given the bikers the scout move. They only get to do that if Khan is my armies warlord which in this game he was not. In the grand scheme of things I still would have been able to get where I need to be at the end of turn 1 but it is always good to know your rules.

Thanks for reading, hopefully you enjoyed it. Have an Emperor blessed day.