ElectricPaladin
10-10-2012, 09:26 AM
This is my first win with my new blood ravens list, and I'm very happy about it.
My list:
•*Terminator Librarian w/5 Tactical Terminators
• Hellfire Dreadnought
• 10 Drop Pod Sternguard (3 combi-meltas)
• 2 Rhino Tactical Squads (1 plas/plas, 1 flame/hvy)
• 2 Land Speeder Typhoons
His list:
• Belial
•*4 Five-Man Terminator Squads (various loadouts)
• 2 Three-Man Bike Squads (1 plas, 1 melta)
The mission was kill points, the set up was longwise.
I deployed conservatively, with my rhinos hiding behind terrain and my dreadnought lurking in a ruin. I kept my land speeders in reserve. My opponent deployed his two bike squads in the open, using their scout redeployment to advance them to the midfield, and held everything else in reserve.
On my first turn, I nearly clinched it. My drop pod assaulted, my rhinos moved up and released their squads, and then I opened fire. Vengeance rounds from the sternguard very nearly wiped out one bike squad - a lascannon from the dreadnought finished them off. Combined fire from the rest of my forces reduced the second scout squad to a single man.
Even if my first turn of shooting didn't win me the game, it seriously helped me. Since I killed both of my opponents' sergeants, I eliminated all his teleport homers, making his teleporting terminators a little less reliable.
On his turn, two squads of terminators arrived automatically - some kind of Drop Pod Assault equivalent rule - and opened fire. Between terminator shooting and the remaining biker, I lost a couple of tacs and one of my rhinos was immobilized.
On my second turn, I again nearly tabled my opponent. My terminators arrived, dropping right between his two squads - failing to unload a pyromancy blast - but ripping apart one squad, which dreadnought fire and sternguard combi-meltas and hellfire rounds finished off. One of my tac squads did for the remaining biker, while the other (the plas squad) blasted apart the other terminator squad, reducing it to two members.
On his second turn, two more terminator squads - one assaulty, one shooty, both with cyclonics as well - teleported behind me. Cyclonic shooting immobilized my poor dreadnought, leaving him facing the wrong way! The surviving terminator from his first wave charged at my plas/plas squad, which, to my surprise, killed him in overwatch.
On my third turn... the game bogged down. Everything I had was on the wrong part of the table, and my long range fire was immobilized and facing the wrong way. I was down to one rhino for two squads, and unfortunately there's no way to reel a my stergnuard drop pod back up into the sky and drop it elsewhere. So, everything turned around and started to run towards my opponent, with the exception of my plas/plas squad, which jumped back into their still-mobile rhino. The only lucky thing was that my land speeders arrived and started harassing my opponent with missiles and heavy bolter rounds.
On my opponents third turn, he unsuccessfully tried to kill my dreadnought. Remember how I deployed him in cover? That was a good choice. All he managed to do was blow off a missile launcher. He also maneuvered his terminators up the field, hoping to close with my sternguard.
On my fourth turn, I continued to run towards my opponent, moving my land speeders just enough for a jink save. My sternguard finally got into position to unload hellfire rounds into one of his remaining squads, failing to wound any. Missiles and heavy bolters killed a single terminator, plasma shots from the top of the mobile rhino failed to harm anyone, especially when the plasma cannon scattered into the dust.
On his fourth turn, he advanced again, continued to fail to kill my dreadnought. One of his terminator squads charged my sternguard, rolled too poorly to close, and lost a member to overwatch. The other terminator squad charged my poor dreadnought, but still failed to harm him.
On my fifth turn, my tac squad that was now on foot charged the terminator squad that was in combat with my dreadnought, hoping to keep them tied up and out of the game, as well as distracting them from killing the dreadnought and earning him a kill point. My land speeders killed a single terminator in the unengaged squad.
On his fifth turn, his unengaged terminators charged mys ternguard and wiped them out. The other combat continued, to no effect.
And then, the game ended.
The take-home lessons:
• Vengeance rounds kill marines, really really well.
• Plasma kills terminators. Then again, so do lascannons.
• You know what surprised me? Hellfire rounds also kill terminators. Apparently if you can roll a metric butt-ton of wounds, your opponent is going to sometimes roll those sacred 1s.
•*Overwatch is not, as I'd originally thought, a paper tiger.
• Drop pods are cool - and totally effective for terminators - but it's really good that I've abandoned my whole "all tacs in drop pods" list. Man, would that have sucked when my opponent dropped in behind me. I would have been totally screwed.
•*Dreadnoughts - and their ability to hide in terrain - are really quite good. If I'd had a predator there, it would have been a lot harder to get it those cover saves when enemies teleported in behind it.
• My land speeders are fragile, but fast. Keeping them in reserve is a good way to make sure that they can swoop in and shoot.
• DON'T TAKE TELEPATHY POWERS AGAINST OTHER MARINES. Seriously, they're freaking useless. I didn't even bother to write about my librarian's completely useless attempt to psych-out the terminators (the power succeeded, but it didn't help).
Anyway, then I went on to have a great teaching game against a pair of college students (Eldar and... Necrons? Vs. Space Marines?). Hopefully they'll take my advice and join BoLs.
Questions? Comments? Advice?
My list:
•*Terminator Librarian w/5 Tactical Terminators
• Hellfire Dreadnought
• 10 Drop Pod Sternguard (3 combi-meltas)
• 2 Rhino Tactical Squads (1 plas/plas, 1 flame/hvy)
• 2 Land Speeder Typhoons
His list:
• Belial
•*4 Five-Man Terminator Squads (various loadouts)
• 2 Three-Man Bike Squads (1 plas, 1 melta)
The mission was kill points, the set up was longwise.
I deployed conservatively, with my rhinos hiding behind terrain and my dreadnought lurking in a ruin. I kept my land speeders in reserve. My opponent deployed his two bike squads in the open, using their scout redeployment to advance them to the midfield, and held everything else in reserve.
On my first turn, I nearly clinched it. My drop pod assaulted, my rhinos moved up and released their squads, and then I opened fire. Vengeance rounds from the sternguard very nearly wiped out one bike squad - a lascannon from the dreadnought finished them off. Combined fire from the rest of my forces reduced the second scout squad to a single man.
Even if my first turn of shooting didn't win me the game, it seriously helped me. Since I killed both of my opponents' sergeants, I eliminated all his teleport homers, making his teleporting terminators a little less reliable.
On his turn, two squads of terminators arrived automatically - some kind of Drop Pod Assault equivalent rule - and opened fire. Between terminator shooting and the remaining biker, I lost a couple of tacs and one of my rhinos was immobilized.
On my second turn, I again nearly tabled my opponent. My terminators arrived, dropping right between his two squads - failing to unload a pyromancy blast - but ripping apart one squad, which dreadnought fire and sternguard combi-meltas and hellfire rounds finished off. One of my tac squads did for the remaining biker, while the other (the plas squad) blasted apart the other terminator squad, reducing it to two members.
On his second turn, two more terminator squads - one assaulty, one shooty, both with cyclonics as well - teleported behind me. Cyclonic shooting immobilized my poor dreadnought, leaving him facing the wrong way! The surviving terminator from his first wave charged at my plas/plas squad, which, to my surprise, killed him in overwatch.
On my third turn... the game bogged down. Everything I had was on the wrong part of the table, and my long range fire was immobilized and facing the wrong way. I was down to one rhino for two squads, and unfortunately there's no way to reel a my stergnuard drop pod back up into the sky and drop it elsewhere. So, everything turned around and started to run towards my opponent, with the exception of my plas/plas squad, which jumped back into their still-mobile rhino. The only lucky thing was that my land speeders arrived and started harassing my opponent with missiles and heavy bolter rounds.
On my opponents third turn, he unsuccessfully tried to kill my dreadnought. Remember how I deployed him in cover? That was a good choice. All he managed to do was blow off a missile launcher. He also maneuvered his terminators up the field, hoping to close with my sternguard.
On my fourth turn, I continued to run towards my opponent, moving my land speeders just enough for a jink save. My sternguard finally got into position to unload hellfire rounds into one of his remaining squads, failing to wound any. Missiles and heavy bolters killed a single terminator, plasma shots from the top of the mobile rhino failed to harm anyone, especially when the plasma cannon scattered into the dust.
On his fourth turn, he advanced again, continued to fail to kill my dreadnought. One of his terminator squads charged my sternguard, rolled too poorly to close, and lost a member to overwatch. The other terminator squad charged my poor dreadnought, but still failed to harm him.
On my fifth turn, my tac squad that was now on foot charged the terminator squad that was in combat with my dreadnought, hoping to keep them tied up and out of the game, as well as distracting them from killing the dreadnought and earning him a kill point. My land speeders killed a single terminator in the unengaged squad.
On his fifth turn, his unengaged terminators charged mys ternguard and wiped them out. The other combat continued, to no effect.
And then, the game ended.
The take-home lessons:
• Vengeance rounds kill marines, really really well.
• Plasma kills terminators. Then again, so do lascannons.
• You know what surprised me? Hellfire rounds also kill terminators. Apparently if you can roll a metric butt-ton of wounds, your opponent is going to sometimes roll those sacred 1s.
•*Overwatch is not, as I'd originally thought, a paper tiger.
• Drop pods are cool - and totally effective for terminators - but it's really good that I've abandoned my whole "all tacs in drop pods" list. Man, would that have sucked when my opponent dropped in behind me. I would have been totally screwed.
•*Dreadnoughts - and their ability to hide in terrain - are really quite good. If I'd had a predator there, it would have been a lot harder to get it those cover saves when enemies teleported in behind it.
• My land speeders are fragile, but fast. Keeping them in reserve is a good way to make sure that they can swoop in and shoot.
• DON'T TAKE TELEPATHY POWERS AGAINST OTHER MARINES. Seriously, they're freaking useless. I didn't even bother to write about my librarian's completely useless attempt to psych-out the terminators (the power succeeded, but it didn't help).
Anyway, then I went on to have a great teaching game against a pair of college students (Eldar and... Necrons? Vs. Space Marines?). Hopefully they'll take my advice and join BoLs.
Questions? Comments? Advice?