Freebootaz Open Report - Part 6 - Bloody Wolves vs Space Marines/Blood Angels

We were chatting to the guys from Claws and Fists after the third game and we agreed that the most worrying armies to fight were the Imperial Guard because of the sheer amount of fire they can throw out. We were convinced our final fight would be against IG but to our pleasure we wound up fighting more marines!

Gareth Humphreys and Rob Shaw were perhaps the nicest guys we fought all day. The blood angels were a darker red than Matt's which made for easier identification and the marines were a really nice metal and blue scheme. For the final battle we'd be playing Capture and Control or as Gav from C&F called it "roll dice and tie". Here's Gareth and Rob's list:

750pts of Blood Angels

Reclusiarch (Jump pack)

Tactical Squad (full strength, flamer, missile launcher, sgt w/ melta bombs & chainsword)

Drop Pod

Death Company (Jump packs)

Assault Squad (full strength, sgt w/ melta bombs & power weapon)

Land Speeder (multi-melta & heavy flamer)

750pts of Marines

Librarian (terminator armour, Might of the Ancients, Avenger)

Terminator Squad (sgt w/ power sword)

Tactical Squad (full strength, flamer, multimelta, sgt w/ chain sword & plasma pistol)

Rhino

Scout Squad (camo cloaks, sniper rifles)

Vindicator

Again we'd have to deal with the vindicator early on and the land speeder was an obvious threat to contest our objective at the end of the game. Luckily they're normally pretty paper thin so we were optimistic. The scouts and terminators could be a problem for Mephiston since it'd only take a couple of rending hits from the snipers to worry him and a squad full of power fists is his worst enemy. The drop pod was clearly going to splash down right next to our objective so fingers crossed we could deal with it when it happened.

Our photographer for (most of) the game was Gav from C&F who'd not had any opponents for the final game. 

Report

We won the roll off and decided to again base our deployment around where the long fangs could get the best fire lanes. We'd played on this table in battle 2 so we placed the veterans in a similar position right on our objective. To their right we placed the Rune Priest and his hunters in their rhino. The blood angels again went right in the centre with the razorback tucked in behind. The remaining rhino went down our left flank.

Knowing we'd most likely be going first our opponents placed most of their army behind the large terrain piece on their right. The land speeder unsurprisingly went opposite our objective and the drop pod was of course in reserve. We reminded each other to roll for red thirst which their tactical squad and one of our squads got. The scouts infiltrated right onto the top floor of the structure in front of their comrades.

The blood angels piled forward straight towards their lines. The rhino on the left was right behind them revving it's engines and racing forward in a cloud of smoke. The long fangs opened up on the land speeder and the vindicator. In another miraculous set of rolling the same krak missile guy blew up the vindicator with a full 6" blast radius (I'll have to paint that launcher gold or something!). This covered most of their army in the blast but only a couple of marines were claimed by the blast. Somehow the land speeder survived unscathed, I think we just stopped it from firing!

Their drop pod slammed onto the ground right next to our long fangs and the tactical squad marched out rapid firing their bolters at the long fangs. Despite causing hits on all 6 of the heavy weapons team they only claimed a single lascannon. We did point out, however, that they'd been the first to actually kill any of the long fangs. Their land speeder sped down the left flank and into the cover of a building. The rest of their army lay in wait in cover (with the exception of the death company who's rage meant they had to come toward us). The scouts opened up on Mephiston scoring a rending hit and therefore a wound.

The assault marines engaged their tactical squad bringing them down to the last man who held his nerve. The psychic hood of the terminator librarian prevented Mephiston from using his sanguine wings to attack the scouts so he hugged the cover and moved towards our left flank. We fired at the land speeder but despite it failing it's cover save we did little damage to it except to immobilise it. Obviously this prevented it from contesting at the end but it would still be an annoyance. The grey hunters on the right piled out of the rhino to defend the long fangs. They avoided shooting to ensure they'd be in combat but the Rune Priest opened a chasm below the tactical squad which claimed a marine or two. The grey hunters then charged in to finish the job consolidating back into cover.

Our opponents blood angels counter charged killing a few on each side. The terminators came forward to deal with the rhino full of grey hunters. The secound wave of our blood angels flew into combat and finished off their assault marines. Mephiston engaged the terminators and still managed to get a couple of powers off despite the psychic hood. He killed off the librarian and most of the terminators but the struggle cost him his life (much to the joy of our opponents). By this point both the death company and grey hunters were involved but the Sons of Russ came out on top.

Our opponent was now left with just the scouts, the drop pod, land speeder and a single marine who had fallen back from the melee in the centre. The marine boarded his rhino and sped towards their objective. Our blood angels followed him blowing up his transport and finishing him off for good. The grey hunters on our objective melta'd the drop pod. The long fangs made valiant attempts to deal with both the scouts and land speeder but after firing an ungodly amount of high strength shots into the speeder it did nothing but shake or stun it! The scouts were reduced to 3 men but held on. 

Final result: We held both objectives netting us 5 battle points and despite our best efforts we only killed enough for a further 3 giving us a rather nice 8 out of a maximum 10. This brought our overall total to 20.

Conclusion

Knowing that we'd not tabled anyone during the tournament we were pretty optimistic early on when we wiped out a lot of his squads and that jammy vindicator kill. How so many of the long fangs surived I'll never know because by rights the majority of that squad should've been toast. The blood angels did their job as ever with a good dose of wulfen fury to help Mephiston finish off the terminators and death company.

So why didn't we table them? That pesky land speeder really cost us the points on this one. The cover meant that we were losing a couple of shots on it but most of the saves were failed it. I had some atrocious damage table rolls. The razorback even helped out but couldn't seem to get anywhere. Had it died in the initial volley in turn 1 then long fangs could easily have dealt with the scouts (despite their 3+ cover save). Quite a good effort from a cheap addition to their army. I might have to reconsider taking one but I doubt I'd be soo lucky with my opponents rolls.

Our opponents were really good sports despite a heavy beating. Since they aren't far from us we'd like to play them again. They were thrilled that they'd managed to kill a long fang more than anyone else! The death of Mephiston was certainly a high point for them. They went on to claim the Sportsmanship award and it definitely went to the right people.