Blood Angels + White Scars VS. Black Templars 1500 Point Battle Report With Pictures.

I am really excited to be typing this battle report up because I had a great time playing the game. This is a tale of two assault oriented armies going up against each other in a chess like match that could only end with one winner. If you are tired of seeing battle reports where two armies just sit back and lob pie plates at back and forth this should provide a bit of fresh air for you.  We ended up rolling dawn of war deployment with The Emperor's Will mission type. Let's move on to the army lists and the report.

                     

Blood Angels: Primary Detachment; Ephraim's Spear

HQ: Reclusiarch in Terminator Armor- 160 points. Warlord with the move through cover trait. 

Elite: 5 Terminators with thunder hammers and storm shields- 225 points.

Elite: 1 Sanguinary Priest in Terminator Armor- 85 points and 1 Sanguinary Priest with jump pack and power fist- 100 points.

Troop: 10 man assault marine squad with 2 flamers, Sergeant has lightning claw and infernus pistol- 230 points. 

Troop: 10 man assault marine squad with 2 flamers, Sergeant has lightning claw and infernus pistol- 230 points. 

White Scars: Allied Detachment; Captain Artimus 4th Light Company

HQ: Captain on a bike with the Teeth of Terra relic- 145 points.

Command Squad on bikes with Company Champion and melta bombs- 150 points.

Troop- Scout Squad with sniper rifles, camo cloaks, and teleport homer- 80 points.

Fast Attack- Assault Marines with Veteran Sergeant and melta bombs- 100 points.

Black Templars: The Diet Crusade

HQ: Chapter Master with digital weapons, storm shield, terminator armor, and The Burning Blade relic- 250 points. Warlord trait gives his unit furious charge in the enemies deployment zone.

HQ: The Emperor's Champion- 140 points.

Elite: Venerable Dreadnought with missile launcher, twin linked las cannon, and in a drop pod- 195 points.

Elite: Venerable Dreadnought with multi-melta and drop pod- 160 points.

Elite: Venerable Dreadnought with assault cannon and drop pod- 180 points.

Troop: Crusader Squad with 5 Initiates with melta gun and powerfist, 4 Neophytes, Sword Brother with two lightning claws, and they are in a drop pod- 575 points.

Troop: Crusader Squad with 5 Initiates with melta gun and powerfist, 4 Neophytes, Sword Brother with power sword, all in a drop pod- 205 points.

Troop- Crusader Squad with 5 Initiates with a plasma cannon and plasma gun in a drop pod with deathwind missile launcher- 150 points.

My opponent won the roll to deploy and go first and it took him a grand total of 0 seconds to deploy since all his stuff is in drop pods. 

For my deployment I thought about grouping all my guys into one corner so that if his drop pods came close to me I would be able to assault his three units with my entire army. I was afraid that if I did that he would deploy his army on the side of the table I was not on which would allow him to martial his forces and prevent me from taking on one unit at a time. So I ended up deploying in a way that would allow me to react to whichever side he placed his drop pods on.

I put my assault squad and bikes on the right trusting in their speed to get them where they needed to be if he deployed on the left but also gave me a solid amount of combat power on the right if he went there.

I deployed my terminators and second assault squad close to my objective which is on the bottom left corner of the crater so that if my opponent went to contest the objective I would be able to drive them back with that combat power.

I placed these guys over here on the far left simply because I didn't want to leave that much open space for his drop pods to come in at. I was also hoping that these guys would be more or less left alone so they could grab line breaker at the end of the game and blow up drop pods with melta bombs to get me first blood.

The scouts were placed in the middle of the board getting a 3+ cover save since we counted it as a ruin. This game was a test for them to see how much damage they can do. I normally use them as a way to bring my terminators in safely but that was not needed this game. I did toy with the idea of placing them on my opponents objective but I didn't want to give up first blood so easily.

Black Templars Turn 1: My opponent decided to bring in the drop pods that have the plasma squad, shooty dread, and the chapter master. 

Diet Coke drop pods.

He brings the plasma guys down right onto my objective. My opponent really didn't like my terminators so he wanted to cause as many casualties to them as possible and they do kill one.

The dread drops down and has line of sight to my terminators and gets a few shots off but I make my invulnerable saves. 

ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT!! I forgot that the chapter master had that ability and drops it on my terminators. His scatter dice loved him this turn because nothing scattered! He killed my Sanguinary Priest with it giving him first blood and I lost out on feel no pain. He also dropped them down right next to his objective.

Turn 1 losses.

Blood Angels Turn 1: I know that I have to take care of every threat that I can or I will not be able to combine my charges to take on his own powerful combat squads.

I bring this assault squad up to try and take out the dreadnought. The infernus pistol on the sergeant was out of range so I would have to settle for krak grenades in close combat. 

I surround the poor plasma guys who are going to die a gruesome death. 

I just shift these guys to the left since my opponent has dedicated to that side. I didn't turbo-boost or run since I did not want to get caught flat footed out of position if the Emperor's Champion dropped on my right. Being down 1-0 really put some pressure on me since I had little confidence of killing his warlord so I had to keep everything out of my deployment zone and get line breaker myself just to tie it.

These guys assault the dread and I get some very lucky rolls and score four glancing hits which kills the dread. I felt very lucky killing it in one round but I will take the breaks when I get them.  

I blow up the drop pod and kill off the five man squad. I lose one marine to the explosion. All around I was very pleased with my turn one since the Chapter Master is in no place to make an impact on the game right now and my army is close together to provide support for any charges. 

Black Templars Turn 2: My opponents turn two was very fast. Two of his dreadnoughts came in and he moved his Chapter Master squad a little bit. He shot and killed a couple marines which sent it back to my turn.

Blood Angels Turn 2: I can only take on one dreadnought this turn so I set up those charges and try to get my guys in position for a warm reception in honor of the Emperor's Champion. 

I promised I would put this in the report. I turbo-boosted backwards a few inches to get out of charge range of his dread and to get a better cover save from the jink save if he shot his assault cannon at them and got some rending hits. 

These guys just shuffle forward. I was planning on using them to just hold my objective since at this point I was confident I would get line breaker and get a tie.

I charge the dreadnought and the two drop pods.

After the assault phase I kill the dread and lose a terminator. Both drop pods survive which became a little bit of a trend. 

Black Templars Turn 3: Once again a very quick turn. He moves his assault cannon dread up to try and charge my bikes. The Emperor's Champ comes on, in a very good spot to get his charge next turn against anyone of my units. His dread fails its charge.

Blood Angels Turn 3: Not many pictures taken for this turn. I wheeled my bikes around to get rear armor bolter shots against the dread. In anticipation for the upcoming combat with the Emperor's Champion I bring my full strength assault squad up for a counter charge instead of going after my objective.

I do end up killing the last dread and lose two terminators in the process. I consolidate back hoping to get out of the charge range of the champion.

Black Templars Turn 4: Huge turn for him. This is one of his big combat units and they need to make a huge impact!

His Chapter Master grabs the objective and we actually roll for the mysterious objective table and it is a skyfire nexus.

He needed a 9 to get into my terminators and he gets exactly that. I am really not feeling very confident about this combat since I only have an AP4 weapon and my terminator sergeant is in a challenge with his Champion. 

The combat goes incredibly bad for me. I lose the challenge which I expected, my guy didn't even get to swing. I forgot that he had a guy with a powerfist in there and I fail my invulnerable save which instakills my warlord...ugh. I am now down 5-0 since the objectives are worth 3 points each. 

On the upside I have a chance to get my revenge next turn.

Blood Angels Turn 4: I bring everything I can against the Champions unit. Through shooting and hammer of wrath attacks I kill off the entire unit except the Champion. My White Scars company champion decides that it is his duty to try and avenge my fallen warlord (apparently he gives really good sermons) and goes after the Emperor's Champion. I have little faith that he is going to do anything but die pitifully.

Holy hell, the Emperor's Champion doesn't do anything to me and I deal a wound back to him in return! That was probably my favorite moment of the game. I also assaulted the drop pod and didn't do anything to it again.

Black Templars Turn 5: He shuffles around his Chapter Master. 

In the combat the Champions fail to do anything and I passed my hit and run test so I broke off from the combat to charge him again next turn with my bikes to get the extra attack and hammer of wrath.

Blood Angels Turn 5: This turn was when I forgot to do everything. I forgot to charge my bikes back into the combat, I did not run my assault marines back to the objective, so it is not looking good for me. I did run my blue and yellow assault marines into my opponents deployment zone so at least I will have a point.

I decline the challenge the Champ sends out with my Sergeant. He kills a marine or two before my Sanguinary Priest has enough of his high and mightiness and kills him with his power fist. At least I got that kill so I don't feel so bad losing 5-1. But the game continues to turn 6!!!!!

Turn 6 for both armies: I really needed the game to continue to have a chance of doing anything with this game. 

He does very little movement being content to hold his objective and secure his win. I move onto my objective which is nothing of note on the mysterious terrain table which puts the game at 5-4 for the Templars. 

I light up his Chapter Master with my bikes but do nothing to him. With 4 wounds I was not expecting to kill him but doing a wound or two to him would have been very nice. Doing all that I can do the game would end 5-4. We rolled to see if it would go to turn 7 and it did!

Turn 7 for both armies: We both know that I can contest the objective with my bikes which would give me a 4-2 victory. 

In a move that I think was very well played my opponent detached his Chapter Master from the unit to try and charge my bikes. My assault marines also killed the invincible drop pod with the sergeants infernus pistol.

The Stare Down

Being stationary for so long really messed him up because he failed the charge. He needed a 7 and got 3. SO he stood there yelling at my bikers to charge him. 

I did not take the bait and my bikers gave the chapter master the bird as they drove past him to go contest the objective. 

My assault marines accepted the challenge and piled in on the Chapter Master.

Now that Line Breaker is assured by the bikes and the other assault marines these guys go back to trying to kill drop pods.

My bikes charged the Crusader squad and killed them.

I caused a wound to the Chapter Master!!! 

The drop pod dies.

At the end of the game the score stands 4-2 in favor of the Blood Angels. Really hard fought game that I really enjoyed. 

Thoughts on my list: The snipers killed about three guys all game so that was pretty pathetic. I really liked the command squad on bike. Having the Champion is pretty cool, I normally go for survivability before combat prowess but I think I am going to keep him over an Apothecary. If I was to change anything it would be the bike command squad for 5 regular bikes with grav/plasma guns. If I had them I would have put a lot more wounds on the chapter master at the end of the game and I would have been able to capture the Templars objective to give me a 7-2 win. 

Thoughts on how I played: I feel like I played very poorly. If that game had not gone onto turn 7 I would have lost. Losing first blood like that was pretty lucky since I failed my 2+ look out sir roll, but those things happen. I got focused on killing the Emperor's champion and didn't secure my objective. I put my warlord in a bad spot. With the consolidation rolls I got I could have placed him behind my bikes or anywhere in that terrain so if he wanted to charge me he would have had to make a difficult terrain test. Just being down at the start of the game I did not want to give up line breaker and in turn gave up slay the warlord.

Thoughts on the Templar List: This was my opponent's first list with the new SM book and I think it has a fun core but needs some fine tuning. I like the makeup of the Crusader squads and they should stay how they are. I would get rid of the shooty dread, its drop pod, and venerable from the multi-melta dread. That would save 220 points to put into something else. I really don't think the Chapter Master is worth his points. 250 points for one guy in a 1500 point list is a very hefty cost. I would consider getting rid of the 5 man Crusader Squad as well. Maybe invest in some Sternguard or terminators. Leave comments in the section for any list advice you might have for a drop pod themed Black Templar list. I also need to point out there was a bit of an illegal part of the list. He placed his chapter master in with a squad of 9 other guys in a drop pod, because he is in terminator armor it makes him take up two spots in a transport putting him 1 over the maximum limit.

Thoughts on how my opponent played: I thought he played pretty well for playing Black Templars for the first time in a long time. Deployment is very important with drop pod armies like this. I would have put my two combat units and the assault cannon dread in the first wave of drop pods. I was spread out and he could have drove a wedge straight through me. Against another assault based opponent that is faster and outnumbers you you can't afford to send your army little by little against me. You really need to consolidate your combat power and smash into combats that you can win. 

Thanks to my opponent for this great game, I really enjoyed it. Congrats for killing all my terminators, that's a tough thing to do for almost any opponent. Thanks to you all for reading this report and have an Emperor blessed day!