I knew this one was going to be tough, since Jeremy is a crafty veteran. He decided not to field his infamous Guard army (which has won several tourneys for all you prospective guard players out there – including me) and brought his Blood Angels. I have played BA several times and the games have always been…bloody.
Looking over at his army (7 vehicles including Death Comp dred), I had two main focuses: I would have to silence the 2 Baal predators (with HB sponsons) quickly since they could put out a lot of fire (rending) and not let the death company and dred do too much damage (yeah right). The death company would have to be set up with a combination punch. I would have to feed them a unit or two and counterattack hard the next turn with several units. There is really no way around situations like this when your army is based around close combat. Someone has to die, so make they die on your terms.
Nids were on the attack swinging around the left flank with half my army while slowly advancing up the middle with the other half. Blood angels deftly maneuvered (to his left) trying to thin the herd with two baal predators, two attack bikes, 2 termy squads and 2 LC razorbacks before mounting counter-charges with his three assault squads, death company and DC dread. The inevitable collision came in the middle of the table with the death company and chaplain and dreadnought against genestealers, dakkafexes, zoanthropes and dakkatyrant. The death company dred got MVP taking out a dakkatyrant, unit of genestealers, zoanthrope and dakkafex (which even got the charge but fell into the dread’s power claw instead - ouch!). The death company didn’t fare as well as they were overrun by rending from a genestealer unit. I will point out one magnificent display of crappy dice rolling. A Dakkafex (not the one who failed miserably against the dread) had to make four saves against massed bolter fire and rolled four 1’s. Died like a chump – just like his bro. Mental note to the spawning pools, dakka fex’s may need a few more brain cells in the future. When people are shooting at you, don’t expose your soft parts!
Jeremy tells me he felt like he came to the battle with his guns only half loaded. I assumed he felt like he didn’t have enough fire to deal with my army. Funny thing was I felt like I was sending my nids into a meat grinder – meaning I didn’t think I had enough to make it to his lines. That’s one of those things about the game. You always feel a little intimidated when you line up against someone that puts it all out there for you to see. Part of that psychological warfare, I guess. Nids had more models on the board at game end, but it was all about kill points. (Nids got 11, marines got 9).