Battle Report 52- 1250 pts White Scars vs Dark Angels

This week's battle report sees my White Scars take on James' Dark Angels army. This would be another practice game for the upcoming Stronghold V tournament I would be attending. I have previously discussed the army I would be taking and my thoughts on its strengths and weaknesses. Based on feedback and another practice game, I decided to drop the attack bike and take some of my Scout Bikers that I had recently finished painting. We decided to play the Contact Lost maelstrom mission as this would be used at the tournament.

My army consisted of:

COMBINED ARMS DETACHMENT

Librarian- Level 2 psyker, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Mantle of the Stormseer, Force Sword, Meltabombs (with CS)

5 Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 veterans with grav guns, stormshields and 2 with meltabombs (CS)

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with power lance and meltabombs (BS1)

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

5 Scouts- sergeant with meltabombs (S1)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus missile launcher (LS)

Drop Pod- storm bolter (DP)

3 Scout Bikers- One grenade launcher, sergeant with meltabombs and locator beacon (SB)

Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, skyhammer missile launcher (S2)
Centurion Devastators- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricaine bolters (C)

My warlord trait was Deadly Ambush (giving me +1 or -1 to reserve rolls), I re-rolled and got the same result. My Librarian rolled on the Librarius deck. These new powers will not be allowed at the tournament, but I wanted to give them a go after reviewing them recently. I rolled on the table and got Fury of the Ancients, Null Zone and Emperor's Wrath. Not the best powers on the table, but could be useful in the game.

James' army consisted of:

COMBINED ARMS DETACHMENT

Librarian- Master Level 2, Force Sword, Conversion Field (L)

6 Tactical Marines- Flamer, Sergeant with Thunder Hammer (TM1)

Razorback- TL Lascannon (Rz1)

9 Tactical Marines- Plasma gun, sergeant with plasma pistol (TM2)

Rhino (R)

Venerable Dreadnought- Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer (VD)

Drop Pod (DP)

5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 Meltaguns, Sergeant with power fist (RB)

10 Devastators- 3 Heavy Bolters, 1 missile launcher with Flakk missiles (D1 and D2)

Razorback- TL Lascannon (Rz2)

Predator- Autocannon, Lascannon sponsons (P)

James' warlord trait gave him Feel no Pain when within 3" of an objective. For his Librarian, he chose to roll on the Technomancy table. This gave him Blessing of the Machine, Subvert Machine and Flense Machine.

Quite a sizeable force for his Dark Angels, lots of mobility and firepower. His Librarian also got a decent set of psychic powers that would be great for boosting his own vehicles or taking down my vehicles.

Contact Lost allows you to draw one card for each objective you control at the start of the turn. Hopefully my highly mobile army would give a bonus to grabbing as many objectives as possible and get more chances to score. James won the roll off for objectives and we placed them as shown below:

James also won the roll for deployment zone and deployment and chose to go first. James chose to deploy his main force on his left flank. He put one combat squad of Devastators with the missile launcher in the ruins on his left. The Rhino and Ravenwing Bikers went behind the ruins on the left, with the Predator and Razorback to the right of the ruins. The other unit of Devastators with the heavy bolters and their Razorback went in the ruins to the right of his deployment zone.

When it came my turn to deploy, I decided to go for a refused flank type formation. I set up all my units opposite his heavy bolter devastators on my left flank. I figured that I could quickly deal with the unit and its transport, then roll up the table to the other units on my right flank. I figured that only the Ravenwing bikers would have the mobility to challenge me as the transport units could not move too far if they wanted the unit to deploy and fire. I deployed the Landspeeder Storm with the main force to discourage the drop pod from deploying near my main army.

I infiltrated the Scout Bikers to the left of the ruins in front of me. They were out of line of sight of the heavy bolters, but could be shot by the Razorback. I figured I had a good shot of surviving a single lascannon shot to allow me to use their locator beacon to bring the Centurions in on my left flank. The Ravenwing Bikers scouted forward towards my board edge.

I failed to seize the initiative and James took the first turn.

TURN 1-DARK ANGELS

James controlled two objectives, so drew Objective 3 and Objective 5 this turn. These two would be pretty easy for his to achieve.

The drop pod carrying the Dreadnought arrived from reserve, landing on target just in front of the Scout Bikers. The Venerable Dreadnought climbed out in front of the unfortunate bikers.

On the other flank, the Ravenwing Bikers advanced onto objective 4, turbo-boosting to get into range to claim it. The Rhino moved up slightly, while the Razorback moved up to grab objective 5.

With nothing in range, James did not use his psychic phase.

In the shooting phase, the Venerable Dreadnought opened fire on the Scout Bikers, roasting two with his heavy flamer and slaying the final member of the squad with its assault cannon. I had forgotten about the Dread when I deployed them, what a waste!

 

The drop pod fired at the command squad, but failed to wound them. The Devastators aimed their heavy bolters at the command squad, wounding them twice, but failing to get past their armour.

The Razorback on the right flank fired at the bikers in front of them, killing one of the squad with its Lascannon.

At the end of the turn, James had scored first blood for wiping out my Scout bikers and scored both of his objectives. A good start for the Dark Angels.

TURN 1- WHITE SCARS

I controlled one objective this turn, so drew a single card and got objective 4. This was held by the Ravenwing bikers and I had no unit in range to get it at the moment.

The turn began with the drop pod arriving. I attempted to land it in front of the Predator to take on the tanks, but it scattered 10" towards the right flank and landed in front of the devastators. The Centurions piled out, moving to engage the Ravenwing Bikers. The rest of the army advanced on the Dreadnought and drop pod. I kept the Landspeeder slightly back to ensure I still claimed one objective.

In the psychic phase, the Librarian cast Fury of the Ancients, striking the Venerable Dreadnought. Amazingly, I rolled a 6 on my AP roll and glanced the enemy walker.

In the shooting phase the Centurions opened fire on the Ravenwing bikers. I hit with 13 of my grav cannon shots and wounded 12 times. Three of the bikers died when their jinking failed them (it hurts to be on the other side of that re-rollable Jink save!). The hurricaine bolters fired, wounding the squad 5 times but failing to get past their armour. The squad passed their morale check and stayed in position. The drop pod fired at the Devastators, but failed to wound.

The Command Squad fired at the Dreadnought. The grav guns managed to wound the Dreadnought once, immobilising it and leaving it on a single hull point. The Librarian threw a krak grenade at the Dreadnought, hitting and rolling another 6 to glance it to death!

 

The unit of bikers on my left fired at the drop pod, wounding it once with their grav guns and leaving it on one hull point.

The other unit of bikers fired at the Devastators, slaying them once with their bolters. The Heavy bolter of the Landspeeder storm fired at the unit, killing another. The squad of devastators broke, falling back 3" from the ruins.

The bikers assaulted the drop pod (just barely, as a rolled a 3 for my charge distance), the sergeant's meltabombs penetrating and destroying the drop pod.

At the end of my turn, I scored no points and discarded objective 4.

VICTORY POINTS:

Dark Angels- 3

White Scars- 0

TURN 2- DARK ANGELS

James drew 4 cards, getting Objective 1, Objective 2, Harness the Warp (manifest a psychic power)and a secret Dark Angels objective (the Dark Angels deck allows you to keep certain cards a secret from your opponent, only revealing them when they are accomplished).

The Ravenwing bikers and Rhino converged on the Centurions, the tactical squad disembarking from the Rhino to target the unit. The other tanks manoeuvred to target the White Scars.

In the psychic phase, the Librarian cast Blessing of the Machine on the Predators, which I failed to block. He then cast Machine Flense on the drop pod, taking two hull points from the transport and wounding one of the nearby Centurions. The Librarian periled in the process, taking a wound.

In the shooting phase, the Predator targeted the Centurions with its Lascannons, wounding them twice and killing one of the elite warriors. The Autocannon of the Predator then fired at the Landspeeder storm, penetrating the Jinking skimmer and blowing it up. Two of the scouts died in the explosion, the rest of the unit were pinned as they disembarked.

The Tactical Squad opened fire on the Centurions, their bolters killing another of the squad, while the Tactical marines' plasma weapons finished the unit off. The task done, the Ravenwing Bikers turbo-boosted back to objective 4.

In a very nice piece of revenge, one of the Devastators launched a krak grenade at the drop pod, hitting the vehicle and glancing it to death!

Both Razorbacks fired at the bike squad in the ruins, one of the Lascannons struck a jinking biker, vaporising him where he sat. The unit passed their morale check.

At the end of his turn, James scored objective 2 and Harness the Warp. He discarded objective 1.

TURN 2- WHITE SCARS

This turn I drew Objective 1. Fortunately, my scouts were already on it, so would be able to claim it at the end of the turn.

The Stormtalon did not arrive this turn (despite needing a 2+, it failed to arrive from reserve). The White Scars bikers advanced on the Dark Angels in front of them.

The bikers on the left fired at the Razorback, but failed to damage it with their grav guns. The Command Squad fired at the Devastators, easily wiping them out through a combination of their grav guns and the Hunter's Eye.

The bike squad charged the Razorback, managing to glance it once with their hammer of wrath attacks. The squad's grenades finished off the vehicle, clearing my left flank of enemy targets.

At the end of my turn, I scored Objective 1.

VICTORY POINTS:

Dark Angels- 5

White Scars- 1

At the end of the second turn, I was trailing in victory points by an increasing margin and had control of very few of the objectives.

TURN 3- DARK ANGELS

This turn, James drew Objective 5 and Blood and Guts (destroy a unit in assault) and had his secret objective.

Having finished off the Centurions last turn, the tactical squad and Librarian embarked in the Rhino once more, the Rhino moving to the cover of the ruins. The surviving Razorback moved around the ruins out of sight of the White Scars, while still holding objective 5.

There was once again no psychic phase, so we moved quickly onto the shooting phase.

 

The Predator fired at the 3-man bike squad. Both Lascannon sponsons missed, while the Autocannon wounded once, but was saved by the jinking of the bikers.

 

After a very short turn, James scored objective 5.

 

TURN 3- WHITE SCARS

This turn, I drew Big Game Hunter (destroy and enemy vehicle) and Hungry for Glory (issue a challenge).

The Stormtalon arrived on the field, moving to engage the Ravenwing Bikers. The Command Squad moved up to engage the Razorback, while the 3-man bike squad moved and turbo-boosted to grab objective 6. The other bike squad weaved their way through the ruins, turbo-boosting to move directly towards the Predator.

In the psychic phase, the Librarian cast Fury of the Ancients on the Razorback, periling in the process. The psychic attack failed to harm the Razorback and the Librarian was imbued with psychic energy (I rolled a 6 on the perils table and passed my test to power up the Librarian).

 

In the shooting phase, the Command Squad fired their grav guns at the Razorback, but failed to damage it. The Librarian fired his armourbane bolters at the Razorback, hitting twice, but failing to roll 7 or more on 2D6 with 2 attempts! (This brought up an interesting rules query. Getting on a 6 on the Perils table grants the Librarian armourbane. Does this apply to his ranged weapons or just in combat. We ruled that it applied to all his weapons).

 

The Stormtalon fired on the Ravenwing, killing one of the bikers with its assault cannon. The surviving sergeant fled from the flyer, rallying near the Razorback.

The Command Squad assaulted the Razorback in an attempt to destroy it, just rolling high enough for one bike to make contact. The squads krak grenades failed to damage the Razorback. My Librarian decided to attack the transport directly, figuring my 4 armourbane attacks would beat a single meltabomb. The Librarian hit with 2 of his attacks, but yet again failed to roll a 6 or above on 2D6 with 2 attempts! The two veterans carrying meltabombs struck at the vehicle, one of the bombs penetrating it and destroying the Lascannon.

 

At the end of my turn, I had failed to destroy the Razorback and scored no points.

 

VICTORY POINTS:

Dark Angels- 6

White Scars- 1

 

Things were not looking good for the White Scars, I was struggling to score points from my maelstrom cards.

 

TURN 4- DARK ANGELS

James had his two cards from last turn, Blood and Guts and the secret objective.

The lone biker moved up on the White Scars Command Squad, while the Rhino moved to engage the White Scars, the tactical squad once again disembarking. The second tactical squad disembarked from the damaged Razorback and headed for the 5 White Scars bikers in their deployment zone.

In the psychic phase, the Librarian attempted to use Subvert Machine on the Stormtalon, but I managed to block the attempt. He then cast Flense Machine on the Stormtalon, but failed to hit with the power.

 

In the shooting phase, the Predator fired on the bikers in front of it. Once again, both Lascannons missed. The Autocannon wounded, but was saved by the armour of the bikes. The tactical squad fired their flamer at the squad, killing one. The squad's bolters wounded once as well, but the armour of the bikers saved them from harm.

 

The Devastators fired a flakk missile at the Stormtalon. I chose not to jink, hoping to survive the shot. The missile hit, but failed to damage the flyer.

 

The Tactical squad fired at the White Scars command, their bolters causing 6 wounds, but not a single biker fell. The squad's plasma gun managed to slay one of the command squad as the veteran's storm shield failed him.

 

The lone Ravenwing biker attempted to charge the Command Squad, but he was cut down by overwatch fire. The Command Squad struck at the Razorback, but could only manage a single penetrating hit that destroyed its storm bolter and left it on one hull point.

 

At the end of his turn, James scored no points.

 

TURN 4- WHITE SCARS

This turn, I still had Big Game Hunter and Hungry for Glory.

The Command Squad moved to engage the Tactical Marines and Librarian, while the Stormtalon turned to engage the Razorback. The bike squad to the north moved to engage the Razorback, while the other bike squad moved up on the Rhino.

I once again forgot the psychic phase and moved onto the shooting phase (twice in one game!).

 

The Stormtalon fired on the Razorback, easily taking its last hull point and wrecking it.

 

The Command Squad fired on the tactical marines in front of them, killing 6 with their grav guns. I knew the squad was fearless thanks to the Librarian, so would be able to assault no matter how many I killed. The 5-man bike squad fired on the tactical squad beside them, but failed to kill any (thanks to jinking last turn). The 3-man squad fired at the Rhino, but failed to harm it with their grav guns.

 

In the assault phase, the Command Squad assaulted the tactical squad. The Librarian was wounded once by overwatch fire as they advanced. The squad's Hammer of Wrath attacks killed two of the tactical marines. The White Scars Librarian struck at the squad, killing the last tactical marine and leaving the Dark Angels Librarian. The Dark Angels Librarian struck at the veterans, but was unable to wound them. The Command Squad struck back. Despite 12 attacks on the charge, they only caused one wound, which was saved by the Librarian's armour.  I had won combat, but the Dark Angels Librarian was Fearless, so we stayed locked in combat.

The three bikers charged the Rhino, one Hammer of Wrath attack glancing it. The squad's krak grenades penetrated the vehicle and shook it. The sergeant tried to finish it off, but his meltabombs missed.

The other bike squad charged the tactical squad, suffering no wounds from overwatch. Both sergenats squared off in a challenge. The Dark Angles struck at the bikers, wounding 3 times and killing two of the White Scars! The Scars struck back, killing one of the Dark Angels. The Dark Angels Sergeant then struck with his Thunder Hammer, wiping out the squad. The Dark Angels consolidated towards the White Scars' Command Squad.

At the end of my turn I finally scored Big Game Hunter and Hungry for Glory for 2 points.

 

VICTORY POINTS:

Dark Angels- 6

White Scars- 3

 

TURN 5- DARK ANGELS

This turn James had Blood and Guts and his secret objective.

The damaged Rhino moved away from the bikers towards the south of the battlefield, while the tactical squad moved to support the Librarian against the White Scars' Command Squad.

The Devastators fired their flakk missiles at the Stormtalon, but failed to damage the flyer. The Predator fired at the Stormtalon, managing to hit and penetrate with its Autocannon, immobilising the flyer. The Stormtalon did not crash and burn, but was stunned instead.

 

In the assault phase, the tactical squad assaulted the Command Squad. The Dark Angels Librarian issued a challenge and my Librarian accepted. Both Warlords struck at one another, but neither Librarian managed to hit one another. (My cry of frustration at this brought a few players over to the table to see what was going on. James was asked "What did you do to Mike? I've never heard him that animated at a game").

The Command Squad struck at the tactical marines, again causing only one wound which was saved. The tactical squad struck back, wounding once, but failing to get past the Command Squad's armour.

 

The White Scars hit and ran out of combat, moving towards the Predator.

 

At the end of the turn, James scored no points and discarded Blood and Guts.

 

TURN 5- WHITE SCARS

This turn, I drew Objective 2 and Overwhelming Firepower (destroy a unit in the shooting phase).

The Command Squad moved towards the Devastators and objective 2, the bikers moved up to support them. The Stormtalon advanced on the Predator.

The Librarian attempted to cast the Emperor's Wrath on the Librarian and tactical squad, but failed to manifest a single warp charge on three dice. He then attempted to manifest Fury of the Ancients, but the attempt was blocked.

 

The Stormtalon fired at the devastator squad, but failed to cause any damage. The Command Squad fired at the Devastators, wiping them out with their grav shots. The other bike unit fired at the Predator, but failed to damage it.

 

The bike squad attempted to assault the predator, but failed to make the charge distance.

 

At the end of my turn, I scored Objective 2 and Overwhelming Firepower for 2 points.

 

VICTORY POINTS:

Dark Angels- 6

White Scars- 5

 

At the end of turn 5, I had managed to bring the score back, but was still losing. We rolled to see if the game would continue and fortunately for me, we played another turn.

 

TURN 6- DARK ANGELS

At the start of turn 6, James had his secret objective (which turned out to be kill a character in a challenge).

The Librarian and tactical squad moved up on the three White Scars bikers, while the Rhino moved away to get Linebreaker.

In the psychic phase, the Librarian cast Subvert Machine on the Stormtalon. I failed to block it, but beat James in the roll off and nothing happened. He then cast Machine Flense on the Stormtalon. The Librarian's aim was true and he hit with his snap shot to bring down the flyer. The pilot of the Stormtalon turned his crash into the path of the enemy Predator, hoping his death would mean something. The Stormtalon struck the Predator, glancing the Dark Angels vehicle.

 

In the shooting phase, the Predator fired on the Scouts, killing one of the squad. The Scouts passed their morale check on a double 1 (they were so concerned with their picnic that they didn't even notice their mate was slain).

 

The Tactical squad fired their flamer at the White Scars bikers and command squad, but failed to damage them. They fired their bolt pistols at the bikers, but failed to cause any damage.

 

The tactical squad assaulted the bikers. The Librarian struck at the White Scars bikers, but failed to cause any damage. The tactical marines struck at the bikers, bringing one down. The sergeant swung his Thunder Hammer at the squad, but failed to hit with any of his attacks. The bikers struck at the Dark Angels, but failed to cause any damage. The White Scars failed their morale check, but were caught in a sweeping advance and remained locked in combat. The squad managed to pass their Hit and Run test and moved towards objective 5.

 

 

TURN 6- WHITE SCARS

At the start of my turn, I drew Objective 6, Blood and Guts (destroy a unit in the assault phase) and Behind Enemy Lines (have a unit in enemy deployment zone).

The remaining two bikers moved up on objective 6, turbo-boosting to get into range. The Command Squad moved up on the Predator, hoping to kill it and score Blood and Guts.

In the psychic phase, the Librarian attempted to cast Emperor's Wrath on the tactical squad, but the attempt was blocked.

 

I didn't fire on the Predator in the shooting phase, as I wanted to assault it and possibly score a card. I assaulted the Predator, easily wrecking it with the Krak grenades from the squad.

At the end of my turn, I scored all three objectives for 3 points.

 

VICTORY POINTS:

Dark Angels- 6

White Scars- 8

 

I had managed to get into the lead in turn 6 with a lucky set of cards that I could all achieve. We rolled for the game to continue and it did not. The game ended as follows:

End of the game.

VICTORY POINTS:

Dark Angels- 7 (inc. First Blood and Linebreaker)

White Scars- 9 (inc. Linebreaker)

 

A win for the White Scars.

 

AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS

Thanks to James for a fantastic battle, this game exemplified why I love 40k. It was tactically challenging, very close up to the final turn and funny as hell, with some stand out moments of gameplay.

 

Some of the highlights from the battle for me were:

• Destroying the Venerable Dreadnought with a thrown Krak grenade from the Librarian only for James to destroy my drop pod with a Krak grenade in the following turn.
• Both Librarians on a single wound in a challenge failing to hit one another at all in combat.
• The Dark Angels Librarian snap firing Machine Flense on the Stormtalon to destroy it, the Stormtalon crashing into the Predator and glancing it (I wish it was on a single hull point and had been destroyed).
• Taking the Scout Bikers to see how they performed in the battle, only for them to be annihilated immediately. The curse of a freshly painted unit seeing the table for the first time strikes again!

Despite winning the game (barely) there was a lot to learn in this game.

I'm not sure if the refused flank set up was so successful. I was able to take out the left flank with relative ease, but it really limited the number of objectives I could hold, hence the number of objective cards I could draw. This meant that I fell a few points behind for the first few turns and could only score more points as the game went on with some lucky draws of the cards. I wonder if I would have been better putting the Command Squad on the right flank to take on the bulk of the Dark Angels army with their added firepower and durability.

I have a tendency to suicide my Centurions in most games. They didn't really achieve much in this game, taking out three Ravenwing bikers and then dying (re-rollable Jink saves are totally overpowered! They should not be allowed...... at least until next time I use my Ravenwing). I may have been better deploying them near the centre of the board. This would have limited the number of units that could fire on the Centurions or at least got them into cover to give them a bit more durability.

I did not get to see how the Scout Bikers would perform in the game as they were lost quite easily to the Dreadnought. I might have been better outflanking them for taking out the more vulnerable side armour of one of the tanks. However, I am always hesitant about keeping too many units in reserve in maelstrom games as I feel it is better to have more units on the board and more chances to score. I do feel that the Scout Bikers should perform better than the single attack bike.

I forgot my psychic phase for two turns of the game. This may have been due to my lacklustre powers that I got and should not be a problem at the tournament where I will most likely use Psychic Shriek and Prescience.

I was fortunate that the game did not end on turn 5. The extra turn gave me the chance to grab another 3 points with some good luck on my maelstrom cards and I was able to pull out the win in the end. I'm having a good run of wins in my games recently, with 8 wins in the last 8 games, so am looking forward to the tournament at the weekend.