First Tournament with Blood Angels

And it finally happened. I put these bad boys to the test, through fire and ice, toil and trouble, so I can see what they are made off. Turns out they are made of Raspberry fluff but that's a different story...

One very positive thing of the day was that a lot of people turned up for the event. It's always good to see new people picking up the hobby and participating actively in the 40k community as well as the usual faces of the tournament goers. In fact there were maybe a bit too many people (18 to be exact) so a couple had to go and play in a different store (across the street) each round. Fortunately it wasn't me because I don't like to move my bulk around too much.

First game was against a guy I knew already and we were stationed in the same camp during our army service as well. He was using Grey Knights with Mordak and 5 Ghosts, Librarian, 2 Strike Squads with Psycannon in Rhinos, 10 Purifiers with 4 Psycannons and two Dreadknights with the Jetpack thingy. We played Kill Points in Dawn of War and he got the first round. After keeping most of his stuff in reserve and said they are going to be deep striking into the board I asked him if Mordrak had any specials rules. He told me about the Ghost popping special rule. What he failed to mention was that he could deep strike on the first turn without scattering at all.

Without knowing that, I placed my Sanguinary Guard and Honour Guard on the left flank in order to advance and kill his strike squads. They were very close together (one unit behind the other) since I thought I had no templates to fear on the first turn. By the way I think GK are a terrible match-up for DoA BA. They pretty much take away their strengths (mainly I5 on the charge and FnP) since they got power weapons at I6 and also Warp Quake is particularly nasty since it almost forces your units not to deep strike. Anyway, I was very surprised when he told me about Mordraks deep striking rule. He brought him from reserves with the librarian and placed them near my SG/HG. Librarian unleashed his template attack and engulfed 9 of my models. I then proceeded and lost 5 initiative checks. The SG was almost depleted (Power Fist guy survived) and I lost a meltagun from the HG. Not a good start and it was what cost me the game since I needed the Honour Guard to kill his stuff in close combat.

I don't think I took the best decisions for the rest of the game. I got both of my Vanguard Squads to attack Mordrak and his ectoplasmic cronies. It was a long and drawn out combat that ended on turn five and really it was a waste of my resources. Not cool. Dreadknight landed near the Honour Guard and killed one more meltagunner and the Sanguinary Novitiate with the its heavy psycannon (talk about unlucky save throws). I tried a gambit and move the remaining 2 meltagunners near his SS and their Rhino. I hoped I could pop it and get a kill point before they died but they failed to do that and their sacrifice was in vain. One of the assault squads  charged a dreadknight and killed it but then died to the Purifiers shooting and then assaulting them. Overall I didn't play very well and lost the game by 1 Kill Point. MVP must have been my Librarian with his psychic hood cancelling so many of the GK powers.

Next game was against a personable young dude of about fourteen years of age. He was using GK as well with a tad unfocused list. It was also illegal so I  spend some time and to write a new list for him, a bit better I think but most importantly, perfectly legal. Since I lost my first game and there was no way I was going to win first place (keep in mind that clubbing baby seals is not one of my favourite past times either) I decided to take the game easy and try to help him a bit with his tactical decisions. Most of my units spent the game hiding behind terrain (it was Spearhead deployment with Seize Ground and 4 objectives) except for the Vanguard Squads and the Honour Guard that deep striked in his quarter of the table and did a bit of sabotaging. The game ended in a draw with each of us claiming 2 objectives and we were both very happy with the result.

Last game was against a friendly guy from Spain. Hear, hear, Greek mini tournaments are becoming international, ladies and gentlemen! He was using Eldar with an autarch, 2 guardian jetbikes squads, 10 Bansees in Falcon, 5 Fire Warriors in Falcon, Warlocks with Farseer in Wave Serpent and some Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent again. We played Capture and Control in a Pitched Battle setup.

He won the dice roll and told me I was going to play second. Score! That's what I wanted anyway. I obviously kept everything in reserve and they would be arriving by deep strike. He moved his skimmers a bit on the first couple of turns and place them near terrain so that I couldn't melta their vulnerable back armour. Almost everything (bar the HG) arrived on my second turn. Vanguard charged one of the guardian jetbike squads and cut them down with no losses in return. HG landed withing close range of the Wave Serpent containing the Dire Avengers but their four meltaguns failed to destroy the vehicle. The other VV charged it but failed to do much again having to hit on "6"'s.

His next turn the HG died to a lot of shooting and the Vanguard Squad that previously assaulted the WS got charged in return by the Banshees. Amazingly non of them died (only two were left after the shooting they received) and they even managed to kill one but unfortunately the girls didn't break. In my turn I camped one of the assault squads near the objective inside some terrain and the other killed the Wave Serpent but didn't manage to assault the Warlocks inside due to a failed difficult terrain test. The VV still held in their brutal battle with the Banshees. In his turn his Falcon starting moving near the objective I was holding in order to deny it from me but it wasn't even anyway near. Warlocks charged my assault squad but lost badly and the VV finally perished after an heroic last stand. We then realised we didn't have much time left so the whole game depended on one roll. How close my SG could land near his objective. They did land spot on and denied it from him so I won the game even though he got more victory points from killing my stuff. I did win this game totally ninja style!

I didn't do very well but keep in mind I am still learning how to play with this list. It's very different to my IG so there is a lot of playing to be done before I feel comfortable with the army. I had 3 good games and great fun though so it's was a win for me anyways. I am going to another mini tournament this Saturday and I hope to do better. I finished 8th out of the 18teen people that attended and here is a list with the standings:

Edit: Go check out Markador's blog. He has a nice report of the tournament (in Greek though) along with some neat pictures. Go on, what are you waiting for?!