Tuesday, January 6, 2009

List tweaking WD 348

Okay, WD 348 features a large Apocalypse battle of orcs versus a combined force of Ultramarines and the Blood Angels. 5000 pt battle, so the SM players split is 2500 a piece.
I am going to focus on the Blood Angels here.

WD list:
Mephiston
Chaplain (with Legion Relic asset)
Terminators (5)
Death Company (6) w/ Jumppacks
Furioso Dreadnought with Drop Pod
Scout squad (5 I think)
2 x Tactical Squad (10)
2 x Assault Squad (10)
Devastator Squad (10)
Whirlwind
Baal Predator

For reference here are the Ultramarines forces
Chaplain Cassius
2 x Tactical Squad (10) w/ Drop pod
Combat Squad (5) w/ Razorback
Land Speeder
3 Whirlwinds
Land Raider
Terminus Ultra Land Raider Redeemer
Sgt Chronus
4 Vindicators

The objective in white dwarf is to damage this huge gun much like this:

Except bigger. MUCH MUCH BIGGER!

Okay given that the Space Marine player keeps what they have laid out, lets work on the Blood Angel player.

First they need to focus on the fact that the gun is the target. Next that there are going to be Squillions of orks on the board. To me it looks like the Ultramarines have plenty of ordnance. Lets provide some support.

Okay, to critique this list:
1- Mephiston is good BUT I would always give him an honour guard to back him up, and possibly throw them in a Land Raider.
2- Should have chosen assault terminators rather than regular ones. The storm bolters are a drop in the bucket during the shooting phase of this battle. AND Power fists are slow. Those Terminators are going to get assaulted, and most likely by guys with Choppas. The Lightning claws would be much more effective.
3- Should have 1 more Death Company.
4- Less tactical, more assault. You are not taking and holding objectives in this mission, you are killing orks and a gun. The bolters aren't going to put a dent in a 30 ork mob like a well pulled off assault. In one phase, you stand a good chance of eliminating a whole squad with assault if you over run them. Can't do that standing and shooting. Plus, the orks are going to be trying to assault, so you should have the best CC available.
5- There is plenty of ordinance in the Ultra list. Either double his or focus on something else.
6- One dread alone is going to die. Redundancy is a better plan.

With that here is my list:
Dante
-Blood Angel Standard
Mephiston
Honour Guard (5)
-Jump packs
-2 x Plasma Pistol
-2 x Power Weapon
-Melta-Gun
-Sanguinary Priest w/ power weapon
-Company Champion w/ plasma pistol
-Tech Adept w/ plasma pistol
-Standard Bearer w/ Blood Angel Standard and Power Weapon
Terminator Assault Squad (5)
-3 x Lightning Claws
-2 x Thunder Hammer and Storm Shields
Veteran Assault Squad (5)
-3 x Power Weapon
-2 x Flamer
-5 x Combat Shields
Death Company (5)
-Jump Packs
Assault Squad x 2 (10 ea)
-3 x Plasma Pistol
-1 x Power Sword
-Melta-bomb
-Combat Shield
Tactical Squad (10)
-Power Weapon
-Plasma Pistol
-Flamer
-Plasma Cannon
Attack Bike Squadron (3)
-3 x Multi-meltas
Baal Predator
-Sponson Heavy Flamers
-Pintile Storm Bolter

Scoring Units: 3-6. Kill points: 11 or 23 (using 3,2,1 system) Points: 2475
Free 25 Pts. Spend as you wish.

Tactics of this list:

Dante and Honour Guard- Attach Mephiston here or to the Veteran Assault Squad. Either way, he keeps up. The point is to concentrate your assault squads around the BA banner and just cut through the hordes of orks, the Ultra marine land raiders driving up behind. Once you arrive at the gun, there are melta weapons distributed through out in the form of guns and bombs.

Terminator Assault squad- Better against the orks. The 2 thunderhammers are to deal with the big gun or vehicles. Mount up in a Ultramarine land raider.

Veteran Assault Squad- Kills Orks. 'Nuff said.

Death Company- I know what you are thinking. There is no Chaplain. I'll tell you this. Not needed this time. Keep close to the BA banner for +1 attack. The only thing the Chaplain would do is give re-rolls on failed to hits on the charge in this case. Get them bogged down in the largest horde and kill and kill again until they all die. They should always be moving forward here, so a Chaplain does little in that respect.

Assault Squads- Go forth and kill. Try and reach the gun with the sarge. The 1/2 without him can stay behind and kill.

Tac Squad- Plasma Cannon to kill most swathes of orks with its blast and will destroy ork vehicles just fine.

Assault Bikes- Move as fast as possible and shoot that cannon with those multi-meltas. Then maraud around killing Ork vehicles and such.

Baal Predator- I have a poem for this one
Ultramarines are Blue
Blood Angels Red
Flamers kill orks
Dead Dead Dead

So there you go. Critique my ways if you wish (except my poetry skills). BUT the goal is to get the gun, not the orks, so take the list with that in mind.