Wargames Con: Reflections of a Fluffy Army in a Competitive Environment

So, Wargames Con has come and gone and with it my short lived desire to play ‘fluffy’ armies in tournaments. Granted, I still feel that I can never fully let go of what an army stands for, after all I did decide to play my Blood Angels for the fact that I love what they are and what they stand for. That being said, I also enjoy the fact that they are competitive, if played in a preticular way (IE, Razorspam). Lets examine the hard lessons I learned in 10 games over 3 days…

My List:

This is a straight forward list, and very fluffy in that it’s exactly what you’d expect a Blood Angel army to look like if it was taken directly from the stories… lots of jump troop, all jump troops to be exact. Decent of Angels in their truest form. Not to say that a DoA army is unplayable at a tournament, but that it’s very unforgiving for a player that’s been out of the competitive scene like me. I have served the last 3 years on active duty with the Army, and as such am quite out of practice, especially when it comes to the metagame much like Dragoon 6.

Oh right, my list… this was what I brought to Wargames Con:

Dante

Libby (JP, Sword and Shield of Sanguinius)

2 Sanguinary Priests with JP & PW

Sanguinary Guard- Banner, Fist, and 2 Inf Pistols

Vanguard Vets x5- Assorted weapons and Storm Shields

10 Assault Marines- 2 Meltaguns, SGT w/fist

10 Assault Marines- 2 Meltaguns, SGT w/LC

10 Assault Marines- 2 Meltaguns, SGT w/PW

10 Assault Marines- 2 Meltaguns, SGT w/PW

This list, as I have written about, is quite fun to play. Despite this, it is also quite the challenge to win competitive games with. It works, or it doesn’t, and it often depends highly on what your opponent brings to the table.

So how did I do, a game by game of the solo tourney:

Game 1: Grey Knights -

This army is a true nightmare for the DoA… Warp Quake is utter BS in my opinion. A power that instantly enables you to have a 1/3 chance of totally killing a unit out right and a guaranteed chance of a roll on the mishap table.  On top of that he had the Inquisitor that gets to shoot at any unit that deep strikes within a 12” bubble… every single one, who he pared with a psyker squad that coulde drop a STR 8 AP1 large blast and 3 servitors with Plasma Cannons. Needless to say I was tabled game 1 and a distain for Grey Knights grew. Yet, despite that, the man I played, Eric from the Hogs of War guys, was awesome and he gave me a lot of great pointers.

Result: Grey Knight Massacre (tabled)

Game 2: Blood Angels (mech)

This was a close game, well fought on both sides, and really fun. I deployed my whole army via deep strike, and he used his armor to castle around the Objectives in the center of the table. I dropped my army on a single flank in an attempted force flank. He had a few dreads as well as Mepheston, and I was tied up in a number of assaults with the cursed dreads, which my fists seemed to be able to do very little against. Dante had cursed Mepheston and was able to drop him in a single round of combat (go Dante!). In the end I was able to keep my objective by hiding a single surviving marine from an assault squad on my objective and doing a bold move into his center to not only kill the squads he had hold his objective but keep any other of his units far enough away to contest.

Result: Minor Victory (he got secondary and tertiary)

Game 3: Dark Eldar

This was my third game in a row on the same table, so I had the terrain down pat. This was a Kill Point mission, and I knew I’d have far fewer then he had, but my relative lack of mobility compared to so many Venoms and Raiders meant that I’d have a hard time with this one. He maneuvered his army so that I couldn’t bottle him up, which wasn’t a bad tactic, and I dropped in on one side of the table with the intent of killing as much as I could be for it zoomed away to relative safety. We did quite a number on each other, his wyches holding up a few squads while his raiders and venoms harassed my unengaged units. In the end I was causing more damage than him, but I just didn’t have the numbers to hold out. He tabled me the end of turn 5… had even 1 marine lived, I would have won, as I had something like 4 or 5 more kill points then him at that point.

Result: Dark Eldar Massacre (Tabled)

Game 4: Grey Knights (again)

This wasn’t as bad a list as the first I had fought. It was Dawn of War, so I deployed my army on the field. He had a purifier list and 2 Storm Ravens with the usual double autocannon dreads and a vindicare. Things in the battle would have gone much better had in not been for my horrible dice (and the utter cheese that is Grey Knights). I had 2 assaults squads, full strength and a priest try to charge a libby and 10 purifiers… low and behold, he gets off sanctuary. One of my squads fails to reach combat and the other squad losses both its Sgt with power weapon and the priest to dangerous terrain tests… awesome. On a positive note, as single sanguinary guard held out against a dread and assassin in the bottom floor of a ruin till the end of the game, what a champ.

Result: Minor Loss (tied primary, he got secondary and tertiary)

So, after day one I was feeling a bit deflated about my list in general. It performed well, just not that well. As I commented to a fellow Coloradian that I had traveled down with “I can either keep playing tomorrow, or take a running kick to the junk… I think it’d have the same effect.” Needless to say, I went to the Rogue Trader bracket, as I didn’t make the cutoff for the championship one.

Day 2:

Game 5: Orks

This was an epic game, by every sense of a fluffiness. The only thing I put in reserve was my Vanguard Vets. My line charged forward toward his three battle wagons and destroyed 2. By turn 2 almost 50 Blood Angels were locked in a deperate hand to hand battle with dozens of vile green skins. It was a scene straight out of the books! My Vanguard dropped behind enemy lines to take a hill occupied by lootas then turned around and saved my Librarian from certain death to a horde of ‘Ard Boyz. Dante epically lost to a warboss in close combat (of 7 dice rolled to hit, 6 were ‘1’s). We weren’t able to finish the game, but it was a blast. Thanks to Caleb Gordon for a fantastic game that put me back into a good funk again, despite it technically being a loss for me. Had the game played out, who knows who would have held out!

Result: Minor Loss

(The Epic Clash of Armies!)

(Vanguard Prepare to Take the Hill!)

Game 6: Dark Angel Deathwing

After playing his son in game 5, I went on to play the dad, Bill Gordon, in game 6. This was quite a fun game, and Bills Army was beautifully painted! We both choose to deep strike everything, and right away I knew it was going to be interesting. In the end my mobility seemed to win the day as his army came in piece meal and my Vanguard vets ran amuck in his back field (go meltabombs!). Needless to say it was a fantastic game and a lot of fun to play both a father and a son in the same tourney. Bill Gordon ended up getting my “players choice” vote.

Result: Major Victory

(Bill Gordon's Beautiful DA Deathwing!)

Game 7: Black Templar

I finally had a strong grasp of my DoA list by now and this was exactly the kind of army I had made the list to fight. He had 3 units in Rhinos, and a Raider with Termies inside as well as other assorted support units. I dropped in using a refused flank. His raider was popped right away, and my other squads faired just as well hitting their targets. He was never able to bring his army to bare cohesively on me, and I was able to sweep across his army. To make it worse, his dice had failed him and mine were on fire. He was a good sport, and I offered to buy him a beer, but he didn’t drink. All in all, it was a good end to the Con that had started rough.

Result: Massacre

All in all, I had a good time. I learned a lot (mostly that Grey Knights are a pain), and felt I am one step closer to getting back into the swing of things. I defiantly plan on attending next year, as I made a lot of good friends and contacts and felt the event on a whole was great.

(My Battlefoam 720 bag, Artwork by Goatboy)

Now, as an add-on to this article, I’d like to quickly outline the way ahead for me. On the way back to Colorado I decided to change up the list and bring my mech back… don’t worry, it’s not Razor-Spam or Blood-Wolves.

Here’s what I’m thinking:

Reclusiarch Chaplain

Librarian (Unleash Rage & Sword)

2 Priests

5 Assault Termies (3 TH&SS, 2 LC)

10 Assault Marines: SGT w/LC, 2 meltaguns and a Land Raider Redeemer

5 Assault Marines: SGT w/Fist, Meltagun, Razor w/TL Asslt Cannon

5 Assault Marines: SGT w/Fist, Meltagun, Razor w/TL Asslt Cannon

5 Assault Marines: SGT w/ PW & Melta bombs, Flamer, Razor w/TL Las Cannon

5 Assault Marines: SGT w/ PW & Melta bombs, Flamer, Razor w/TL Las Cannon

Storm Raven w/ TL Las Cannon, MM

(http://www.scuzworks.com/SL40K/ART/SR.jpg)

I plan to run the Chappy, a priest and the Termies in the Raven, and the Libby and other Priest in the raider, meanwhile I’ll use the 5 man squads for fire support, capture objectives and provide addition assault support. This list, in my opinion is still somewhat fluffy, as the army is still designed to run forward and hit you in the face, but unlike my DoA, it has fire support and armored protection to help get it there.  

I’d love to hear comments!

~Immortal