Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Orks 750 points

I found someone in my local area who plays Warhammer 40k. In actuality, I found a lot of people. He is a teacher at a local school, and he has an after school program for gamers. There are middle school age kids playing Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh, etc. The Holy Grail is that there are a dozen or more young 40k players. They are at various stages in building and painting their armies. So, they currently run 750 point games.

I went in for the first time today and met my new 40k friends for the first time. I am happy to have the occasion to help some young guys learn the game and learn painting and modeling. The teacher, the Dark Saint (dakkadakka handle), is my newest 40k friend. I think he is happy to have another adult to help with the young 40k folks.

On to the battle. We played a friendly 750 point battle. Dark Saint's Orks vs my Angels Sanguine.

I ran the following list:
Librarian-Jump Pack, Meltabombs, Shield of Sanguinius and Unleash Rage
2 Sanguinary Priests-Jump Packs
Assault Squad-10 Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Powerfist
Assault Squad-10 Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Powerfist

My opponent ran the following (from memory):
Warboss-AoBR wargear and 3 Meganobz in a trukk
3 Killa Kanz
2 units of 20 Boyz plus Powerklaw Nob and Rokkit Launcher (or two) in each

Dark Saint's Deployment

Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Spearhead

I won the roll-off and chose to go second. Dark Saint selected a table quarter and plopped down everything. I reserved everything for Deep Strike. Nothing was effected by Red Thirst. I attached a Priest to each Assault Squad, and I attached the Librarian to one Squad.

He moved toward the center of the table for the first two turns. Both of my Squads arrived on turn 2. One of them via a descent of angels re-roll. He had positioned his trukk and kanz in the center of his force, flanked on either side by a unit of boyz. So, I dropped everything in on his left flank in such a position that terrain and the size of his boyz unit would eliminate anything else from engaging me (that was the plan at least). I ran to spread out my squads as he had the grotzooka with a blast template on one of his Kanz.

As the top of turn 3 rolled around, I realized that I failed to account for the Waaaggghhh. The trukk drove around the intervening terrain and out popped the Warboss and Meganobz. However, they rolled a 1 on their Waaagghh fleet. As a result, the slow and purposeful roll kept them from charging (plan successful so far). His boyz took advantage of the fleet roll and charged my librarian assault squad (plan was for me to get the charge). This assualt lasted two assault phases (his and mine) with the result of one dead Marine and the Orks cut down in sweeping advance.

Bottom of Turn 3

In the bottom of turn 3, I assaulted the warboss and meganobz with the non-librarian assault squad. This Assault lasted two phases. I cut down all the orks, and had about 6 Marines left: Priest, Sgt, and 4 Marines.

Well, the Assaults turned out well. So far, I had 2 or 3 Kill Points to Dark Saints 0 KP. His army was trying to come over to help out. Kanz followed by the other unit of boyz. So, I was free of hand to hand in Turn 4. I jumped over the terrain to use the trukk and terrain to keep the Kanz out of Assault Range. My plan was to meltagun the trukk and assault the boyz. I wrecked the trukk with the meltaguns in one squad (it was too far to assault the boyz), and my lead squad assaulted the boyz.

When the top of turn 5 rolled around, I had made a mistake. The Kanz assaulted my librarian assault squad. This kept them from being able to reinforce the weaker squad (which had a tough battle with the meganobz and warboss). This turned out to be the turning point of the battle. Dark Saints Kanz killed a lot of marines and the squad broke. My marines regrouped and jumped over to support the other assault squad should the game last.

The game went to turn 6. I had made the same mistake again. One Kan was able to get into assault. It was close. Dark Saint and I both looked at the measurement. He was in range. His boyz managed to kill off my non-librarian squad, and the Kanz killed off my librarian assault squad (all that was left: librarian, priest, sgt).

I had gathered 4 of his 6 available Kill Points, but it did not mattered. Dark Saint had tabled me in turn 6. It was a good game with a good opponent. It is nice to meet someone who is a good sport and fun player. Also, he is giving back to the community by hosting an after school club.

Lessons learned:

-Descent of Angels style army worked very well here. I was able to attack on the flanks and keep my opponent from engaging with his entire force.

-Priests are very awesome. The Feel No Pain rolls made a huge difference in this game. I cannot stress enough how valuable these characters are for supporting assaults.

-The librarian was awesome. Unleash Rage proved to be quite useful. There was not a lot of shooting going on. So, having Shield of Sanguinius had no effect on the game.


-Tactical Error: I should have jumped into position to fire on the Kanz. I still had 4 Meltaguns at the time. The other group of boyz would not have been able to get over in time to help them. Instead I tried to avoid the Kanz. My plan was to ignore them and just jump right by. Even if I had stayed farther away, the Kanz would have come over to counter-assualt after I engaged the boyz. Meltagunning the kanz would probably have been the better play.