Action Report: Berzerkers vs. Space Marines

The Guillotine had their battlefield debut last night against my buddy Brandon's Void Dragon (vanilla) space marines. We rolled for a spearhead killpoints matchup, and I won the roll to go first. I decided to use the list I've described, but to drop a few marines from one assault squad and add in a jump pack chaplain. I joined Dante, the chaplain, and the jump priest to the jump assault squad, and threw the large foot assault squad, foot priest, and furioso in the storm raven. I had decided that I'd deep strike more if I got second turn, but when I got first, I just decided to group everybody together at the front line and go for the throat:



Here was Brandon's list:



Vulkan
5 th/ss terminators
Ironclad dreadnought with 2 missiles
10 sternguard with 3 combiplasmas, 3 combimeltas, fist sergeant, and rhino with hunterkiller
Tactical squad with flamer, multimelta, and TL assault cannon razorback
2 squads of 5 scouts with sniper rifles and missile launchers
Land raider crusader
2 multimelta heavy flamer land speeders
1 heavy bolter assault cannon land speeder
Thunderfire cannon



I moved forward first turn, shot the storm raven at one of the land speeders and stunned and immobilized it. In return, he exploded the storm raven and put a bunch of wounds on the assault squad with the thunderfire. Feel no pain helped, but not all that much. The jump priest died in the initial barrage, too. If I'd have deep struck the assault squad, they would have only had to weather one turn of shooting before getting to assault. As it was, the terminators jumped into them the next turn and wiped out the whole bunch with no trouble at all. Dante needs to stay away from thunder hammers!

We traded punches for the rest of the game. The furioso dropped a second land speeder and a scout squad before getting rended by a land speeder assault cannon. My foot assault squad and the sanguinary guard wiped the terminators with shooting and furious charge, dropped the ironclad with infernus pistols, but were then blown out of the woods by combined shooting from Brandon's whole army. The bikes chopped through one scout squad, then took off across the battlefield to run down one of the combat squaded tac units. The game ended on the 5th turn with Brandon up 9-8. A very bloody game! My MVP was probably the foot priest who enabled his squad and the sanguinary guard to kill the terminators.

Any advice on using the storm raven or deep striking with blood angels in general?

Pre-Primered Guillotine

Pictures as promised of the new gang!

Group shot:


From left: Drahzhad (Astoroth), Lord Grozan and the Skull Brethren (Dante and Sanguinary Guard), and Togg, the Bringer of the Red Mist (Chaplain)


Gragh's Reavers (Bikers):


The 3 Throne Champions (sanguinary priests), with Mortrek the Slaughterer (furioso dreadnought) bringing up the rear:


Turgan's Rain of Blood (jump pack assault marines):


And finally, Raptor One:


Top view of Raptor One:


Bottom view of Raptor One, showing the magnagrapple:

Decollage

I've got nearly all of my counts-as blood angels army together, or at least the first incarnation of it. Once I get my jump packs and last throne axe in the mail, I'll put some pictures up. After further consideration I've decided to use them to represent a specific berzerker warband which I will call The Guillotine. I'm also thinking now the chainfists on the Dreadnought could represent blood talons, with their ability to cut right through several foes with each swing.

The updated counts-as list:

Dante (or Astorath)

Sanguinary Guard - 1 powerfist

3 Sanguinary Priests - 3 power weapons, 1 bike, 1 jump pack

Furioso Dreadnought - heavy flamer, blood talons

10 Assault Marines - 2 inferno pistols, sergeant with powerfist
Rhino

10 Assault Marines - 2 inferno pistols, sergeant with powerfist
Rhino

10 Assault Marines - 2 inferno pistols, sergeant with powerfist

7 Marine Bikes - 2 flamers, sergeant with powerfist

Storm Raven - TL lascannon, TL multimelta

Led by Lord Grozan, the Guillotine has served with distinction, if not sophistication, in many of Abaddon's Black Crusades. Living only to spill blood for the blood god, they represent a loose coalition of former World Eater legionnaires, the only membership requirement being the ability to keep up with the rest of the band. Over centuries of raids and invasions, the Guillotine has amassed an impressive armory of fast assault tech, ancient and otherwise, that allows them to come to grips with their enemy as quickly as possible.

Lord Grozan was once Captain Keer, a senior World Eater who was among the host sent to hunt down the surviving loyalists on Istvaan V. His archaic bronzed armor, and that of his chosen retinue, can always be seen at the spearhead of any assault, absorbing withering enemy fire as he surges towards the front line. His peerless reputation for tracking and butchering the most senior enemy commander in every engagement sends even the most stalwart heroes skittering for an off-world shuttle.

His only rival in such feats is Mortrek the Slaughterer, who was entombed in his brazen sarcophagus after being very nearly immolated to death at the Battle of Skalathrax. Mortrek is known for his aerial assaults, his bladed limbs hewing a path through the most dense enemy infantry before his massive bulk has even hit the ground.

The most skilled Guillotine champions carry the sinister Axes of the Throne. These wretched fusions of demonic steel and bone from Khorne's skull throne were forcefully pried from the clutches of bloodcrusher champions on the demon world Gora, and their mere presence drives all those nearby into an unstoppable frenzy. The largest and most powerful Throne Axe is Deathsfall, carried into battle by Drazhad the Sunderer, a psychopath of matchless malificence, whose personal tally of skulls inspires all those around him to feats of martial greatness and monumental carnage.

Battle Report:: Imperial Guard vs. Eldar 4/8/11

The ambush elements of the Catachan XIV were dug in along their front line, each man scanning the horizon for any indication of the enemy. It was still dark and despite their sharp, battle-hardened eyes, there had been no contact as of yet. Still, details were hard to pick out in the distance, and the guardsmen could not shake the feeling that they were being watched. When a private from bravo squad's head suddenly exploded without warning, a different feeling entirely surged through the men of the Fighting Fourteenth. Bravo squad hit the dirt while the other units squinted into the darkness, still unable to find a target. An orange glow slowly suffused the skyline and the air in the valley grew palpably warmer, as if heated by the fires of some hellish forge. A horrible alien battlecry pulsed over them - through them - and each man felt the rise of terror in their guts. The Eldar had returned to Tra-El in force and with sinister purpose. Would reinforcements arrive in time to save the failed ambush?

Shaun and I played a 2000 point dawn of war annihilation matchup that turned out to be a blast. I was playing with a command HQ in a chimera with 2 plasma guns and a lascannon, a lord commissar leading 5 ogryns in a chimera, Harker veterans with 3 grenade launchers and an autocannon, an infantry platoon consisting of a command squad with 4 flamers and three grenade launcher/autocannon infantry squads, a missile launcher squad, a mortar squad, a vendetta, 3 scout sentinels, a hellhound, a manticore, a medusa with camo netting, and a leman russ with heavy bolter sponsons and a pintle heavy stubber. Shaun's Eldar consisted of Radeld Ranulth (Eldrad), 5 warlocks including 3 with destructor and 3 with spears and embolden, the Avatar, 6 wraithguard, 2 squads of 8 pathfinders, a squad of 5 dire avengers, 10 warp spiders including an exarch with twin power blades and withdraw, a falcon with a scatter laser, and 3 war walkers with scatter lasers and rocket launchers. I rolled to go first, but Shaun seized the initiative and just like that, the hunters became the hunted!

Turn 1

Shaun moved up the rest of his forces to support the seer council and pathfinders that had started on the board. The pathfinders picked out a guardsman dug in around the bunker and sent the squad to ground. The warp spiders teleport up and form the eldar front line. I also moved up my firing line and tried to put some heat on the warp spiders. A blast from the leman russ drops a single warp spider.



Despite being pinned, sergeant Taylor of bravo squad picks out movement behind the forested hill in the distance and manages to direct ordnance fire. Unfortunately, thick cover reduces the effectiveness of the barrage and only one of the loathsome aliens is brought down.

Turn 2

Radeld and his buddies fortune up the warp spiders and guide the pathfinders. The warp spiders teleport forward and combine fire with the two pathfinder squads, reducing the guard infantry squad to two pinned guardsmen who continue to survive all kinds of fire for another turn. The Avatar and wraithguard kill a couple from the other guard squad. In return, my command HQ lights up the avatar with plas and las fire but inflict only 3 wounds, just short of killing the ancient demon. My missile launchers join them on high ground. The hellhound covers the warp spiders in burning fuel and the manticore drops a single rocket blast on them, but the prescience of their thrice damned farseer allows them to survive relatively unscathed and only one dies. Harker and his squad come wading up the river on my right and pour fire into the spiders as well, but the alien magicks are strong and no further casualties can be inflicted.

Turn 3

The mighty avatar storms the bunker and wipes out the infantry squad there, while Radeld and the seer council approach behind him. My right flank is threatened when war walkers sneak onto the field and tear into the back of the hellhound with rockets and laser fire, causing a catastrophic explosion. Thankfully, noone is near enough to be hurt by the blast. The warp spiders react to the veterans on their own flank and wipe them out in assault after some softening up. I had a big turn as well: the Avatar was finally brought down in a hail of krak missiles, and the command HQ combined with my ordnance to kill more than half of the wraithguard. My sentinels came in on my right and attacked the warwalkers, bringing two down with their multilasers and emu-kicking the last one down in assault. I also finished off the warp spiders with manticore, mortar, and chimera fire, and killed one of the warlocks hanging out with Radeld. In the haste to join the fray, the ogryn's chimera threw a track and got stuck at the base of the hill.

After days of hunting the eldar walkers through the thick forests of Tan-El, the scout sentinels made their way to the front line, stepping gingerly through the smoking wreckage of their prey. Unfortunately, the attack came too late to save their brothers manning the hellhound.

Turn 4

The wraithguard destroy the ogryn chimera, wounding one of the big lugs in the explosion. Radeld and his crew have a big turn and wipe out the command HQ and one missile launcher team with destructor fire and the bale energies of an eldritch storm. The sentinels, chimera, and ogryns return fire and reduce the wraithguard to a single alien ghost zombie. Marbo emerges from his hiding spot atop the wrecked bunker and hurls a demolition charge into the eldar seer council, killing two more of the pointy-eared bastards. Finally, the vendetta emerges on my left flank and hurries towards the eldar firing line, missing a lascannon shot at the falcon on the way.



Marbo lay flat and completely still on the roof of the burned out bunker. Hidden amongst the blackened corpses of his fallen brothers, he watched and waited as the enemy approached. The alien witch was only 6 paces away now. Slowly engaging the primer on his detpack, Marbo flexed his muscles and prepared himself once again to make what was likely to be his last living act.

Turn 5 and 6

As is wont to happen in the late stages of a game, I rushed from the 5th turn into the 6th and forgot to take a picture. Radeld joined the wraithguard in shooting at the ogryns, to little effect, while the destructor warlocks had themselves a little Mar-b-que. The falcon zoomed forward and the dire avengers disembarked on the next turn, lighting up the mortar squad and killing 2 of the 3 teams. Pulse laser fire from the falcon destroyed the leman russ' battlecannon. The lord commissar and ogryns charged into Radeld and the last wraithguard, but the combat was largely a draw over two turns before the game ended. The vendetta brought the platoon command over next to one of the pathfinder squads, and they promptly immolated them on the spot with combined fire from their flamers. Unfortunately, the lascannons on the vendetta could not find their mark on the eldar skimmer across the table. The medusa was of little help as well, only managing to destroy the tank's pulse laser. Having exhausted its missile supply, the manticore rushed forward and flamed the dire avengers to death. Shaun wins the epic match by 3 killpoints!

As the enemy drew near, Commissar Lenck bellowed the signal to attack and his ogryn kill team roared in answer, the lot of them charging forward out of the wreckage of their former transport. Despite outnumbering them two to one (and probably moreso considering the substantial girth of the ogryns), the assault seemed to falter immediately. Lenck himself struggled to engage the enemy witch, but his sword and powerfist could find no mark as the alien always danced sideways or backwards in time to avoid his attacks. Similarly, the punishing blows from the ogryn bashers seemed to have no effect on the eldar wraith construct, their oversized fists glancing harmlessly from the loathsome creature's thick armor. Then, in a flash, the aliens were gone from the battlefield, leaving only the sounds of groaning men and the smell of burning wreckage. The Catachan ambush had failed, and the Fourteenth had suffered significant losses. Could they recover in time to defend the colonies on Tan-El from what would in all likelihood be a future of unending, uncomfortable, and embarrassing eldar butt probes?

DUN DUN DUN

Kharnte Guisada

Khorne Rhino

After some deliberation, I've decided that my champion model would better represent Dante than the Sanguinor, and I'd love to make my Skull Brethren a scoring unit anyway. I'm going to try to find a better model to represent the Exsanguinator. As a side note, I think the marine Khorne Lord would make a good Astorath once you put a jump pack on him.

On a related note, I've ordered a bunch of the MaxMini jumppack bits for all my jump units, as I think they would look cool and I was too lazy to try the pen method, as awesome as those are.

And I've decided that instead of icon bearers, I'm gonna represent my Sanguinary Guard with Berzerker champions bearing those molded skull axes that look so awesome - surely bone carved from the skull throne itself would drive any nearby khorne devotees so mad with bloodthirst as to provoke them into crushing assaults and ignore bodily injury. And even though it adds points and reduces effective range, I've also decided to only use inferno pistols in my assault squads rather than meltaguns, as no self-respecting berzerker would use BOTH hands to shoot at something.

So all that feeds into my new 2k list, which I think would be effective and fun. I'm going to try my damndest to get it done for BOLS... er, Wargamescon:

Kharnte (yuk yuk) - Dante

Skull Brethren - 5 Sanguinary Guard, 2 infernus pistols, 1 powerfist

The Decapitators - 3 Sanguinary Priests, one bike, one jumppack

Mortrek the Slaughterer - Furioso Dreadnought with bloodfists, a heavy flamer, and extra armor

Laghk and the Lacerators - 10 assault marines, 2 infernus pistols, sergeant with powerfist
Rhino

Nephiragh and the Gorechildren - 10 assault marines, 2 infernus pistols, sergeant with powerfist
Rhino

Turgan's Rain of Blood - 10 assault marines, 2 infernus pistols, sergeant with powerfist

Gragh's Reavers - 7 bikers, 2 meltaguns, sergeant with powerfist

Raptor One - Stormraven with extra armor and twin-linked lascannons and multimeltas

Dante and his buddies are screened by the jump pack assault squad. The bikers, 1 assault squad, and the furioso charge forward in the storm reaver, and the last assault squad can split up between the two rhinos if they want for more scoring skulltaking options.

Tournament: Dragon's Lair 4/2/11

(picture by frank)

Using a 1500 point mech guard army, I pulled off a 1st place win at the Dragon's Lair tournament yesterday and took home a Storm Raven. My list:

Company Commander
4 flamers
Officer of the Fleet
Chimera (heavy flamer)

Veteran Squad
3 meltaguns
lascannon
Chimera (heavy bolter)

Veteran Squad
3 meltaguns
lascannon
Chimera (heavy bolter)

Veteran Squad
3 plasma guns
lascannon
Chimera (heavy bolter)

Veteran Squad
3 plasma guns
lascannon
Chimera (heavy bolter)

Vendetta

Manticore (heavy flamer)

Manticore (heavy flamer)

Medusa (camo netting)

First game was seize ground/pitched battle against Jon C's space wolves, consisting of a wolfrider wolf lord, 4 or 5 mixed loadout wolfriders, another wolfrider wolf lord with 15 fenrisian wolves, 3 small squads of grey hunters with 2 rhinos, and 1 squad of missile launcher long fangs. From the beginning it would be wolves coming across the table and me just trying to shoot the hell out of them before it was too late. My own saturation of fire and Jon's terrible luck with 3+ saves combined to get me a big win.

Second game I played a kill points/dawn of war mission against an unpainted guard army, who seemed much more well versed with the previous codex and rules edition. It seemed like he had a pretty small guard army that he had inflated into 1500 points using veterans and carapace armor: Yarrick, two small ratling squads, four or five veteran squads on foot, a couple heavy weapon squads, 2 basilisks, and a standard leman russ. Now that I write this out I'm not sure how he pulled off the heavy weapons teams - he also insisted he had given the army improved comms and asked if my vets were light infantry, so... Maybe not a big deal for a friendly game but surely a tournament is something just a little bit more than a friendly game? I noticed he was playing a completely different army for the third game, so who knows what was going on. In any case, after losing a couple chimeras early on, I took him apart piece by piece with heavy ordnance and the command HQ outflanking in the vendetta and got full points.

Third game was against Frank at the top table, with probably the most boring combination of competing armies, deployment, and mission: foot marine gunline, mech guard, spearhead, and capture and control. I zoomed around with the vendetta for a few turns, making ridiculous cover saves, before I realized that I'd never be able to contest his objective with it (not being a tank). After the manticores failed to make a dent into the marines holding his home objective, I saw a draw coming and just castled up, fending off outflanking scouts and shooting a couple squads that were within range. The game ended on the 5th turn, just as his librarian was drawing in to contest my objective with a last-minute gate of infinity. Big draw, but my other two wins were good enough to secure first place.