Battle Report 65- 1850 pts White Scars vs Mechanicus/Skitarii

For this week's battle report, my White Scars take on Raymond's Mechanicus and Skitarii in one of the special missions from the Angels of Death supplement.

 

I've been wanting to try some of the new scenarios from the Angels of Death and Death from the Skies books, and hope to try most of these interesting new scenarios over the next few months. These missions provide some very different ways to play for both armies and should hopefully provide some unusual games.

For my White Scars, this was one of my last games before Caledonian Revolution, so I took a modified version of my army list. My army for the game consisted of:

Scarblade Strike Force

Hunting Force

Khan- Moondrakken (with CS)

Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 grav guns, 4 storm shields, Banner of the Eagle (CS)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with power axe and meltabombs (BS1)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS2)

Attack Bike- Multimelta (AB)

6 Scout Bikers- 2 Grenades launchers, sergeant with meltabombs and homing beacon (SB)

Stormbringer Squadron

5 Scouts- bolt pistols, combat weapons, sergeant with meltabombs (S1)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS1)

Landspeeder- Multimelta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (L)

 

Combined Arms Detachment

Chaplian- Bike, Hunter's Eye, Meltabombs (with CS or L2)

5 Scouts- Bolters, sergeant with meltabombs (S2)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS2)

3 Bikers- 2 meltaguns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS3)

3 Centurions- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricane bolters (C)

Drop Pod (DP)

Stormhawk Interceptor- TL assault cannon, Skyhammer missile launcher, Las-talon (SI)

I dropped the Librarian from my last list and added a bike-mounted Chaplain. This would hopefully give the Command Squad a bit more punch in combat and add an additional character with an invulnerable save.
I also added the Banner of the Eagle to the Command Squad to give my White Scars units fleet and furious charge to help them further in combat. I also added a power axe to one of my bike units to add some much needed AP2 in combat.

Finally, I decided to test the Stormhawk Interceptor to see how it performed in this game.

My warlord trait was fixed with Khan, giving me a morale check re-roll bubble (as well as allowing Scout).

Angels of Death Codex Review- Part 9: Altar of War Scenarios

This final part of my Angels of Death Codex supplement review will take a look at the Altar of War scenarios detailed in the book. These provide six mission for fighting with your Space Marine army and give a nice change to the regular Eternal War or Maelstrom missions you have no doubt played quite a few times in the main rulebook.

Hammer Blow
This scenario represents a lightning attack by the space marines on the enemy forces. The marine player has to force his way into the enemy deployment zone, while the defender must rebuff the attack.
This scenario uses three objectives; one in the centre of the board, one in the centre of the enemy table edge and the last one placed anywhere in the enemy deployment zone by the Space Marine player.
The defender deploys first anywhere in his table half. The space marine player gets the first turn and enters play from the opposite table edge on the first turn. Units can Outflank (if they have the rule) and Space Marine units can deep strike on the first turn.

Players score 3 pts for each objective held at the end of the game. Secondary objectives are Slay the Warlord and a bonus point for whichever player kills the most units during the game. In addition, all space marine infantry units get Objective Secured.

I like this mission. It promises to be a very bloody affair and forces the Space Marine player to be very aggressive if they want to win the game as all the objectives are in the enemy deployment zone, but gain the benefit of access to more Objective Secured units.

Angels of Death Codex Review- Part 8: Betrayal at Calth Forces

Welcome to next part of my Angels of Death Codex Supplement review. This section will look at the new Space Marine forces that were included in the supplement, those based on the models from the Betrayal at Calth boxed set.

 

Terminator Captain

 

Comes with the Standard Space Marine Captain stats, with terminator armour, a power sword and a storm bolter for the same cost as the equivalent from Codex Space Marines. The big bonus here is being able to upgrade to Cataphractii terminator armour for free.

The Cataphractii terminator armour gives the Captain Slow and Purposeful instead of Relentless and no sweeping advances that normal terminator armour confers. The big bonus though is that it allows the Captain to re-roll invulnerable save rolls of a 1. So, a Captain model with a 2+ armour save and 4+ invulnerable save with re-rolls of a 1 is going to be pretty durable. Even though the text says the re-roll is provided by the interaction of the terminator armour and Iron Halo, it does not say the re-roll is restricted to the Iron Halo save. I have already faced a Cataphractii terminator Captain armed with the Shield Eternal, so granting a 3+ invulnerable, with re-rolls of 1's. For the free cost of the upgrade, I don't see why you would not do so.

The Captain can also be armed with a Relic Blade, any Terminator Weapons, special issue wargear or any chapter Relics, but cannot be upgraded to a Chapter Master.

Angels of Death Codex Review- Part 7: Anvil Strike Force

Welcome to part 7 of my review of the Angels of Death codex supplement. This will be a short one, looking at the new formation for running a mechanised Space Marine army- the Anvil Strike Force.

Like most formations of this type, it consists of 1-2 Core choices, 1+ Auxiliary choices and 0-2 Command choices.

 

The Core choices are made up of either an Armoured Task Force or Land Raider Spearhead.

 

The Armoured Task Force consists of a Techmarine, 3-5 units of Vindicators, Predators or Whirlwinds, and the option to take up to three thunderfire cannons. The vehicles in the formation get to ignore Crew Stunned and Crew Shaken results if in range of the Techmarine and the Techmarine gets a bonus to his repair rolls. This is a great bonus that will keep your tanks moving and shooting.

 

The Land Raider Spearhead consists of 3 Land Raiders of any kind. The Land Raiders get the bonus of ignoring all but Explodes results on the Penetration damage table if within 6" of another Land Raider from the formation and get to re-roll failed To Wound and AP rolls against Gargantuan and Super Heavy vehicles. This makes the Land Raiders in the formation extremely durable as only destroying them completely will stop them, and Land Raiders can be hard enough to kill as it is.

Angels of Death Codex Review- Part 6: Raven Guard Formations

Welcome to Part 6 of my Angels of Death codex review. This part will look at the formations for the Raven Guard (that can also be used by other Space Marine chapters) that were first introduced in the Kauyon supplement.

Pinion Battle Demi-Company
This formation consists of:
1 Captain/Chaplain (no Terminator armour, but can be replaced by a special character Captain/Chaplain)
0-1 Command Squad
3 Units of Tactical Squad
1 Assault Squad
1 Devastator Squad
1-5 Scout or Scout Bike Squads

The command benefits for this formation are:
Scout Support- Each Scout sergeant (or veteran sergeant) can spot for a unit in the formation if in range of the enemy unit. The unit from the formation gains Ignores Cover. This is a nice bonus for the formation, but will force your Scout units to get in close to the enemy in order to do the spotting, so makes them more vulnerable to charges. This will be very useful for a tooled up Command Squad or Devastator Squad or for Tactical Squads targeting light infantry in cover. This might be more useful for Scout Bikers, enabling them to close with the enemy quickly and for added durability if they are charged.

EDIT- As Nick pointed out below, I misread the rules for Scout Support. The Scouts have to be within 9" of YOUR unit, not the enemy unit. This obviously makes a big difference to the durability issue as you will probably not need to close quickly with the enemy, but will need to stay close to your own forces. Also, check out Nick's Review of the Raven Guard formations (from someone who can actually read the rules before they review them!).

Wayfinders- Each Scout or Scout bike unit can "lead" another unit on from reserve. You only make one roll for reserves, but the led unit can outflank along with the Scouts and gets Stealth if within 9" of the Scouts. This can be a great way for getting in on the White Scars' outflanking fun with your Raven Guard and ensure that your reserves arrive in force. This would be useful for units embarked in a transport or on bikes for added mobility in the enemy deployment zone, as well as giving your led units a 3+ Jink or 4+ smoke launcher save the turn they arrive.

A decent battle company formation for the Raven Guard (or other chapters), though you will want to take a lot of Scouts or Scout Bikers in order to maximise the benefits of the formation, potentially making this a very expensive force. If only this formation gave you Objective Secured as well, it would be extremely powerful.

Angels of Death Codex Review- Part 5: Raven Guard Rules

This part of my Angels of Death Codex review features the rules and formations for the Raven Guard. These were first released with the Warzone Kauyon book and have now been grouped together with the rules for the White Scars and the rules for the other Space Marine Chapters.

The masters of Stealth and planning get some nice rules to help bring their unique flavour to the battlefield. I plan to use this post to cover the rules and Relics and take a look at the new formations and detachments in another post.

CHAPTER TACTICS
The chapter tactics for the Raven Guard are Strike From the Shadows and Winged Deliverance.

Strike From the Shadows gives all Raven Guard models that are not vehicles or embarked in vehicles with shrouded until the start of turn 2. In addition, you may add +1 to the roll for Night Fighting (so will get it on a 3+). This is a really nice bonus for an army. If you can get Night Fighting (a decent bet with a 1 in 3 chance), your infantry units will get a 4+ cover save in the open and could easily get a 2+ cover save in cover for the first turn, plus jinking bikers will get a 2+ cover save. This should greatly increase the durability of your army against all but Ignores Cover weapons.

Winged Deliverance provides a nice boost for your Raven Guard jump infantry. This rule allows them to use their jump packs in both the movement and assault phases (essentially getting fleet in the assault phase) and even allowing them to re-roll failed Hammer of Wrath wounds. This should provide a great bonus for any jump infantry, helping to ensure that they get into combat and helping with more of their automatic hits to wound.

I really like the Chapter Tactics for the Raven Guard. I don't think they are as good as the White Scars, but they certainly provide a great bonus for your army during the first turn of the game. The bonuses to assault marines (and Vanguard veterans) are useful, but assault marines are not seen as a competitive choice for many players.

Angels of Death Codex Review- Part 4: Salamanders

Welcome to part 4 of my review on the new Angels of Death Codex Supplement. This part will look at the rules and formations for the Salamanders.

CHAPTER TACTICS

The Chapter Tactics for the Salamanders are Flamecraft and Master Artisans.

 

Flamecraft gives all Salamanders models 4+ feel no pain against flamer weapons and allows them to re-roll all to wound and armour penetration rolls when using flamers. A nice bonus and thematic to the army. No doubt a standard Salamanders army will contain a lot of flame weapons to benefit from this.

 

Master Artisans allows each of your characters to master-craft one selected weapon for free. Again, a really nice bonus, particularly for characters wielding combi-bolters as they are more likely to hit with their one shot.

 

Unlike the Imperial Fists and Irons Hands, the Salamanders don't get any rules for modification of the force organisation chart.

Angels of Death Codex Review- Part 3: Iron Hands

Welcome to part 3 of my review of the Angels of Death codex supplement that was recently released. This part will focus on the new rules and formations for the Iron Hands chapter.

 

I think that Iron Hands are regarded as one of the more competitive chapters in the Space Marine codex (along with my favoured White Scars) thanks to the improved durability of their forces through access to army-wide Feel no Pain (6+) and It Will Not Die. I think the new rules and formations detailed in Angels of Death will help make them an even more competitive choice for marine players.

CHAPTER TACTICS AND RULES

The Chapter Tactics for the Iron Hands are The Flesh is Weak and Machine Empathy.

 

The Flesh is Weak provides infantry with a 6+ feel no pain roll. In addition, if they have access to another source of feel no pain, they get +1 to their roll (so a Narthecium would provide a 4+ feel no pain roll).

 

Machine Empathy gives Iron Hands vehicles It Will Not Die. It also gives Iron Hands techmarines +1 to Blessings of the Omnissiah rules.

 

Angels of Death also gives the Iron Hands a couple of new special rules for army building. March of the Ancients allows Dreadnoughts to be taken in a Heavy Support slot, while Scions of the Forge allows you to take up to 3 techmarines for every HQ choice (who don't use up a slot in the force organisation chart themselves). This allows you to load up on Dreadnoughts and Techmarines if you wish to better utilise the Iron Hands' special rules.

 

I like the bonuses that the Iron Hands get. If it wasn't for the White Scars, I would consider using these as my regular marine army.

Angels of Death Codex Review- Part 2: Imperial Fists, Crimson Fists and Black Templars

Welcome to the second part of my review of the new Angels of Death codex supplement. Part 1 looked at the new Psychic powers that were released in the book, part 2 will look at some of the new rules, Relics and formations for the Imperial Fists (plus their successor chapters).

As siege specialists, a lot of the new rules and wargear for the Sons of Dorn focus on maximising the damage output on buildings.

 

CHAPTER TACTICS (IMPERIAL FISTS)

The Chapter Tactics for the Imperial Fists are Bolter Drill and Seige Masters.

 

Bolter drill allows models in the army to re-roll to hit rolls of a 1 when using bolter weapons such as boltguns, bolt pistols, storm bolters, etc. It also includes Sternguard special issue ammunition. This is a nice chapter tactic for slightly improving the accuracy of your army, assuming you take lots of tactical squads and other bolter-armed units. It will come in very handy for the Sternguard using Vengeance rounds to help reduce the chance of them killing themselves with Gets Hot rolls.

 

Seige Masters allows Imperial Fists to re-roll armour penetration rolls against buildings and adds +1 to rolls on the building damage tables. Devastators and Centurion Devastators also gain the Tank Hunters rule. The bonus for building damage is nice, but I so rarely see buildings and fortifications being used in my local gaming club, so not sure how much use it would be. Gaining Tank hunter on devastators is a great bonus, ensuring that you will be able to damage enemy vehicles. It will also prove useful for Centurions armed with lascannons and missile launchers.

 

A new rule introduced in the Angels of Death is Centurion Warsuits. This allows you to take Centurion Devastators as elites and Centurion assault squads as fast attack. This could prove useful for freeing up elites slots for more Sternguard or Terminators, but in most cases you will probably want the free heavy support or fast attack slots. In theory, you could use this to take 6 units of Grav cannon Centurions, but good luck with your new life with no friends.

Angels of Death Codex Review- Part 1: New Psychic Powers

Welcome to my review of the new Angels of Death Codex supplement for the Space Marines (quick as a flash, I only picked it up this morning). The supplement combines the special rules for various chapters of Space Marines, some previously published, and adds new rules for psychic powers and scenarios.

 

I picked the Codex supplement up today and had a look through the new rules. I tried to avoid most of the leaks and spoilers that had appeared online before it was released, so this review will be from my initial thoughts that I had while checking out the rules. As such, these are only my own opinions on various aspects of the new rules and have not been through any playtesting yet (though I'm sure they will do in the near future).

 

First up, I wanted to focus on the new psychic powers that are now available to Space Marine Librarians and review each of the four new decks. Subsequent reviews will focus on the different new models, chapter-specific special rules and scenarios that the marines will now have access to.

 

Initially, I was not going to pick up the book, just the psychic cards for the new powers. But when it came time to pre-order them, I simply clicked on the book and cards bundle and got both. I figured I could review the new rules in the book for the blog and if I liked it, I would keep a hold of them (I already have the White Scars formations and new rules from the last supplement, so wasn't too bothered about the new ones). The softback book is nice. I do like the new hardback codices that you can buy now, but the reduced weight should come in handy when transporting all the rules I need in one bag. It would have been nice to get a small discount for purchasing the book and cards together, but it is not a deal breaker.

 

The box that the cards come in is not the thick card I am used to with other card sets such as the previous psychic power decks, the tactical objective decks and army specific decks. That's a shame as I quite like the sturdy quality of these boxes. The cards themselves also feel a little bit thinner than normal. Odds are I will probably put these new decks with my old Divination and Telepathy decks for transport (I rarely use the other 4 decks anyway).

 

Anyway, on to the new decks and rules. Each section will give a quick run down of the new psychic powers and my initial thoughts on them.

 

LIBRARIUS DISCIPLINE

This deck seems to focus on the manipulation of saves, boosts to the Librarian and a couple of shooting attacks.

 

The Emperor's Wrath (WC1)

With the range of a grav gun, S5 AP3 and an assault blast, this is a witchfire power that is ironically really good at killing marines. A decent primaris power, the blast helps as there is little worse than successfully manifesting your power and then missing with the shot.