A few tweaks, and another game

Today I was able to get off work and head down to my local Nerd Store to play yet another game with my Blood Angels.  This marks Game 4, where I should start understanding how the army should work in general, and start feeling the strengths and weaknesses so I can begin really maximizing my lists.


My opponent was Mike, one of the guys I played against in my first game (the weird Planetstrike game where Tau and Orks were allied).  He had a Tau list that he sort of just threw together, and we played a mission from the 'Battle Missions' book, where we use the short edges of the board to deploy in.  The attacker gets two units in the 'middle' region anywhere he wants, and deploys everything else in 'his' 24" section.

Here's the list I played:

Librarian w/ 5+ cover and Preferred Enemy
Reclusiarch w/ Jump Pack

Honor Guard w/ 4 Lightning Claws, 4 Melta Guns, Rhino w/ EA

Assault Squad w/ 5 Extra, 2 Melta, Power Fist
Assault Squad w/ 5 Extra, 2 Melta, Power Fist
Assault Squad w/ Melta, Power Fist, Rhino w/ EA
Assault Squad w/ Melta, Rhino w/ EA

Sanguinary Priest w/ Jump Pack
Brother Corbulo
Furioso Dreadnought

Baal Predator w/ Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolter Sponsons
2 Melta Attack Bikes
2 Melta Attack Bikes

He had something like:

Shadowsun (or whatever her name is)
3-wound HQ with cyclic ion cannon and plasma rifle

2 small Pathfinder squads w/ 1 Rail Rifle that can shoot at a seperate target and causes pinning

2 Hammer Heads w/ Rail Guns
2 Broadsides w/ sheild drones

2 big Kroot squads
2 6-man Fire Warrior squads in Devilfish

Pirana

... I THINK that's all he had.


I was aided this game in the fact that he didn't have a ton of AP2 and better.  4 Railguns is far from 'tame' but on the other hand, not a ton of stuff to kill lots of marines (easily) with.

I was far enough away from his line that I decided to drop in my jump troops behind his lines, and let the fun begin.  My rhinos survived a small amount of shooting from his army (since my furioso and an attack bike squad took most of his attention as my 'advance party' for the scenario) and were able to go 18" up and in his face right away.  Reserves came in and he had too many threats too close to be able to recover.

My list is a pretty standard 'rhino rush' sort of list, trying to take advantage of the faast Rhinos, but I also wanted a little bit of tactical diversity.  The 'descent of angels' special rule for the assault squads gives me a lot of options- combat squad into a fist squad and 2 melta squad, deepstrike, run behind the rhinos using them as cover, whatever.  Lots of versatility, and really tough to hurt.  It's also worth noting that they have the re-roll to come in, making them much more reliable as reserves.

I also took a Furioso WITHOUT a drop pod.  Maybe that seems little dumb to you, but here's the rationale- a lot of times, if I just have a combat squad sitting on an objective in the background, they'll usually get owned by whatever outflankers/ deepstrikers my opponent has.  Enter the Furioso.  It can sit back on that objective with the squad, and tip the scale in their favor.  Not much can outflank and take on a squad AND a furioso.  Not much is gonna shoot at an AV13 guy when it's not threatening them, so it should be safe from stray las cannon fire.

It also has the benefit that if I'm playing an assault-oriented enemy, he's gonna rock, since he doesn't have to 'keep up' with my army.  He isn't so many points that I feel I'm wasting them when I'm playing against shooters (usually it's gonna be an objective game anyways, and they'll have to try to deal with him one way or another) and against melee, like I said, he's gonna be money.

Think of it in terms of this:  what is a lone Furioso's main weakness?  Probably his mobility (or lack thereof).  If you know someone is going to be going out of their way to get to the spot he's at, then you've essentially removed the weakness.  He (almost alone in the entire codex) operates super efficiently by himself if you know that he'll FOR SURE get to be used.  He doesn't need FNP or FC, and he's pretty damn cheap if you factor in he'll make like hell for someone trying to claim the objective in the back he's sitting on.  In pure KP missions, he can always just footslog behind the rhinos- it only takes 3 turns to cross the board if you run.  Still plenty of time to get in a couple late-game assaults or objective contests.  I guess we'll see how it pans out, but I have big hopes for the little guy.

The Baal is probably going to go away- he just doesn't seem to add much to my list.  I have anti-horde with just about every other squad I have, same with anti-vehicle.  It just doesn't add much.  Baal Preds don't do much vs. MEQs either.  I'd rather have another rhino + assault squad, which is what I originally had in my list to start.  Maybe I'll try out a Flamestorm Baal sometime soon.

So far, the main strengths I want to play on in the army are Feel No Pain on a LOT of models, Speed, and Versatility.  Furious charge helps, and so do the rerolls to hit by the Librarian and Chaplain, but in the end, being able to react to any threat and have a lot of survivability is going to be what wins games- I want to play against a combat-oriented army now, as well as plasma-heavy shooting armies.  FNP makes you awesome vs. everything else, but Plasma... plama might mess with my gameplan a little bit.
It's also going to be a balancing act trying to get the right mix of 'elite' troops, with mass of bodies to take full advantage of FNP and FC.  I guess we'll see what happens.  This has by far been my favorite list so far though.  Tell me what you think!