Second Tournament with Blood Angels

After only one week from my first tournament with the red boys, it was high time to put them back to the test. I didn't do too well previously but now I had more games and experience under my (quite large) belt with the army. So how did I fare this time? And most importantly, what excuse can I use now that I'm not that green anymore.

First of all, do yourselves a favour and go check out Markador's excellent report over here. He has some really cool pictures and this time the text is in English so non-Greeks can read it too. You still here?

Anyway, on with my first game! I played Antonis and his Deathwing army. I never really thought about it but that's a very tough customer for DoA Blood Angels. They are very durable with their improved storm shields (now with 3++) and all their attacks ignore armour saves (so FNP goes to waste). He had 4 units of terminators with a mix of Lightning Claws and TH/SS (mostly TH/SS though), 2 of these had Cyclone Missile Launchers and the other 2 had one Heavy Flamer and one Assault Cannon, one tooled up termie squad (with banner, apothecary, CML) where Belial hanged out and 2 units of Devastators (2 ML, 2LC and 2ML/2PC).We played Spearhead with Seize ground and 4 objectives.

I went second and fortunately there was a big LoS blocking piece of ruin in the middle of the board. He deployed his Devs inside some terrain (one squad on the top floor and the other one in the bottom) and two units of termies. Rest of his stuff would be coming from reserves. I deployed most of my guys behind the central terrain piece (so that they could avoid most of the Devs firepower) except from the Vanguard squads that would be coming from reserves. 

First turn he moved the two termie squads closer to me and opened fire with their CML. One melta wielding Honour Guard and one Assault Marine died from the incoming projectiles. I spread out my units a bit but didn't move them too much since I was waiting to see where his units were going to arrive via Deep Strike.

Surprisingly, all the termie squads arrived on the second turn. Flamer squad scattered too far away to be a threat but now I had 4 tough as nails units to remove from objectives. That was not going to be an easy task. The Sanguinary Guard (who has FC from failing The Red Thirst) with the Librarian closed for the kill on the tooled up termie squad but failed their charge by literally 1/10th of a inch. They were going to be in a world of pain next turn. Both Vanguard squads showed up fortunately and each one assaulted one Devastator squad. The dispatched them easily enough and starting to make way for the termie quad situated in the central terrain piece. My two combat squads and the Honour Guard opened fire on the terminator squad that deep striked on my side of the board and managed to kill two. 

On his third turn Belial and his posse assaulted the Honour Guard and beat them to the ground. Ouch! Nice way to lose 355 points! Rest of his squads were still far away but I think he killed one or two assault marines with shooting but nothing too important. Both Vanguard squads assaulted their already chosen target and managed to beat them in two rounds of close combat. Two of my combat squads (with one priest) charged the previously depleted termie squad on my side of the board and killed them to a man before they even manage to strike a single blow back. The other two went for the squad with the heavy flamer and killed a couple of guys with the help of the other priest.

On his next turn he multicharged both Combat Squads with his uber unit and cut them down but my other two managed to beat the last remaining "normal" terminator squad. It was a matter of sending my two remaining combat squads to claim the objectives and staying the hell away from Belial. So, I won the game but since we were keeping Battle Points (something that I don't really like) and I had suffered heavy loses too, I only got 15 points.

Next game was against Mandragoras and his sneaky, disgusting Dark Eldar. Okay, I don't have a beef with his army but with his dice. I am going to remember this game for a while but mainly because of how bad dice rolls for both of us. He had Lord Byron (that's how I am going to call the Baron now since my friend Charis misspelled his name on a forum thread), Haemonculus (not sure on equipment), 14 Helions (as troops obviously) with a sergeant (don't remember the fancy DE name but you get the idea) guy that had an agoniser, 3 units of 5 warriors (Blaster and Sybarite with Blast Weapon) inside Venoms (double Splinter Cannons), 3 Beast Masters with 4 Razorwings and 5 Khymeraes, 5 Scourges with 2 Heat Lances, 6 Jetbikes with 2 Heat Lances and 3 Ravagers with Flickerfields. What a boring, internet list :P Oh, and mission was kill points in dawn of war.

I went second again (that was the last lucky roll for that game I think) so he had two turns to spread his stuff out and avoid the worst that my army could offer (multicharging with the Vanguards and shooting the Blood Lance mainly). One vanguard squad arrived on my second turn (and they "failed" their Red Thirst roll so had Furious Charge) and were about to charge the jetbikes but managed to scatter the full 6'' towards the unit and suffer a deep strike mishap. Unfortunately I rolled a 6 for it so they went back to reserves. Honour Guard was about to land next to one of the Ravagers but again scattered 6'' inside terrain and managed to fail 3 of the dangerous terrain test with the meltagunners. The last remaining one missed so the Ravager remained unscathed. 

One of the assault squads that arrived landed near one of the Venoms but only managed to blow up one of it's weapons. Librarian got on the table on his own and hit both a Venom and a Ravager with Blood Lance but didn't do anything (that was kind of a stupid idea now that I think of it, letting him out on his own like that). The Sanguinary Guard was the only unit that didn't fail. They scattered on target (with an accompanying priest) and wrecked a venom. I did hope for an explosion though so that the unit would take a couple of casualties and maybe fail the Ld check. To no avail. Now they were amongst a forest of dark lances and ready be be served some paincakes.

I think Mandragoras third turn is the proof that there is some kind of Karma (at least in 40K). His rolls were almost as abysmal as mine. He targeted the Sanguinary Guard with no less than 10 dark light weapons but only managed to kill one. And I wasn't even getting cover saves. He failed to hit and/or wound in nine rolls! The haemonculus left the Helion unit leaving them with his pain token (cheesy, sneaky bastards) and assaulted the Sanguinary Novitiate (the last meltagunner died from the Reavers' shooting). Fourteen Helions and they couldn't even kill a single Blood Angel guy. Doesn't matter much though since they felled him on the next turn. Now that I think about it it would be better for me if he died on the turned he got charged since now the Hellions did a pile in move plus a consolidation move. Damn!

In my next turn the FC Vanguard charged the Jetbikers and made them flee (with only two remaining which meant that they wouldn't be coming back). Sanquinary Guard multicharged a Ravager (which they destroyed) and a Warrior squad that forced them to flee (bloody cowards, I was hoping they wouldn't break so that they could stay one more round in close combat). Assault squad charged the scourges and made sort work of them. The other vanguard charged the beastmasters squads and did...nothing. Absolutely nothing, not a single wound. I think one of my guys died in return but I am not sure. The other assault squad landed near a venom and blew it up with their two meltaguns (hooray!). 

In his turn, mandragoras shot a lot at the sanguinary guard but this time they were in cover so only one died. He otherwise had an extremely good round of shooting though and managed to dispatch the Assault Squad that came in round two with a lot of poisoned and dark light weapons. Helions charged the Vanguard squad that previously had killed the Jetbikes and finished them off. Some more of the Vanguards died in the combat with the beasties. What was I doing so wrong?

I went to cut down the warrior squad that survived on the previous turn against the SG but managed again to fail two of their dangerous terrain test so the squad was wiped out. The remaining priest charged and killed two warriors but the last remaining one stood his ground. The assault squad finished their job and killed the warrior squad that was embarked on the venom that they had previously destroyed. 

On his fifth turn Mandragoras charged the beasties on my last remaining assault squad and killed all but one. His 5 strong warrior squad assaulted my priest but failed to do much and he in return killed two. The game fortunately ended on turn five since I only had 2 models remaining. I haven't been this close to being wipe out since my Necron days.

For a moment it seemed that I had won in the kill points but we later realised that it was a draw. He had more victory points than me (argh, this crap has to end sometime) so I only got 8 points for the game. I shouldn't complain though since if we continued for one more turn I would have certainly be massacred. I think that if I wasn't so unlucky on the first turn I could have won the game but I don't want to delve too much into theoryhammer. I think that most of my choices were correct and it was a close, competitive and fun game, certainly the kind I enjoy most.

Last game was against a new opponent (i.e. someone I've never seen before in a tournament) that had daemons. His list seemed a bit messy to be honest. 4 heralds of Slaanesh on Chariots, 4 x 15 daemonettes (one with banner), 2 x Flamers, 2 x Daemon Princes of Tzeentch with Bolt. I got to go second and after I realised that his chosen wave (4 Heralds, 2 Princes) wasn't coming I chose to...deep strike everything. I mean...WHY? That was obviously a huge mistake but I was tired at the time and I think my brain was half working. If I just deployed everything normally (and knowing that the flamers weren't arriving on later turns) I could certainly get the charge on most of his units (with some shooting too). I really don't know what I was thinking.

As a result my assault squads got charged by daemonettes and died. The Sanguinary Guard stayed in combat for ages against 2 Heralds of Slannesh. I couldn't kill them due to them being tougness 5. Of course I realised later that they were only toughness 4 but I was back at my house at the time and way too late to change anything. Another good example of how one should double check with the opponent's codex if something seems fishy.  Anyway I got my butt kicked and lost. Only got one point in the end. This puts me nicely on the tenth place:

The best part of this tournament for me was that the young dude I played against in my last tournament, came fifth this time. I don't know if it was my list tweaking or the little bit of coaching I gave him but I hoped I helped in his improvement, even just a little bit. It was also a good excuse to meet with friends and have some geeky fun!