This 4th of July weekend I was not able to paint/model as much as I had wanted too, but I was able to get three games in with my son. We were able to play one game Friday night and yesterday we played one game in the morning and one in the late evening. Since I purchased some boards for a home table, the late night gaming is made easier.
Friday night we played a standard mission from the rulebook. We rolled 'Seize Ground' with 4 objectives and 'Pitched Battle' deployment. My son played his 1500 point Mechanized Eldar army, and I took the 1500 point Blood Angels for a test drive. I have half the models for the Blood Angels, so for the other half I used a mix of Black Templars and Dark Angels to fill in the void.
This was a tight tight game. The Blood Angels managed to hold the Win 1-0. The Sanguinary Guard were ripped to pieces by Asurmen, but Dante was able to pick apart the Dire Avengers and pull them off the objective at the bottom of Turn 7. One lone Blood Angel Assault Squad man was able to hold one of the objectives for the Win. In my list I am running 2 Baal Predators with Flamestorm Cannons, one of them did not do much and was destroyed, the other Baal was able to wreck some havoc on some Guardians. In Turn 6 I decided to make a mad dash with the last Baal Predator to try and contest the objective that the Dire Avengers were holding just in case Dante could not pull them off. That did not work and the Predator was destroyed.
Being the first game I ever played with these Blood Angels, I am still undecided on how I like the playstyle. Having the first turn stolen from me also did not help. I also feel that Dante needs to be a S6 Power Weapon. The S4 does not cut it for such a high priced character.
On Sunday like I said we played two games. Both games we rolled a random mission from the new 'Battle Missions' book. Sunday morning we rolled 'Feigned Retreat' from the Dark Eldar section of the book. My son played 1500 points of Salamanders, and I decided to pull out the Black Templars. It has been awhile since I played them. I made a slight change to my normal list and exchanged my Marshall for a Chaplain with Jump Pack. 'Feigned Retreat' is a Kill Points style of game with a different type of deployment. My son rolled off and got to play 'good' (Dark Eldar) and I was the 'enemy'. The table is divided into thirds and the 'good' side had to deploy 2 units in the central area (Dedicated Transports count as 1 and Heavy Support are not allowed). Then the 'enemy' deploys anywhere in their third of the table and finally the 'good' deploys the rest of their army in their third of the table. Reserves are per normal rules if you decide to use them.
This was a very fun game and the best of the three we played this weekend. One thing I love about playing with my Black Templars is that they are a balanced army for me. No tricks or ponies. I have squads that can assault, squads that can shoot, and vehicles that ca do some damage. The Black Templars got to the early lead, but by the time the game had ended, the Salamanders came back and pulled a Draw 6-6. Very Fun Game.
Once the fireworks were over with last night, we threw down for one more game. Again we rolled random from 'Battle Missions' and rolled 'Mobile Defence' with four objectives on the table. My son played the same Salamander list he played earlier in the day, and I decided to break out my very first Warhammer 40K army, the Dark Angels. Once again we rolled for 'good' an 'evil', and I was 'evil' again for this mission. The table is split into halves, and the 'good' must split half their army and deploy their force. The other half of the army comes from 'reserves', but with the ability t come in on Turn 1. Infantry, Walkers and Monstrous Creatures must go in the first half of the army unless there is a Dedicated Transport. That meant my son's Land Raider Crusader (Heavy Support) that he uses for Vulkan and the Terminators will be coming in from 'reserves' and Vulkan will be out on the table to begin.
All I can say is that my dice were not with me in this game. With all my Lascannon shots and Plasma Cannons it was an uphill battle for me. In the end the game was close with objectives, but the Salamanders did much more damage than the Dark Angels could muster. The Salamanders Won the game 1-0, but all I had left were 2 5-man Combat Squads that were far from any objective. The Salamanders controlled one objective and they were contesting the other three. I managed to kill Vulkan and Company, a 2 Rhino's and a Tactical Squad. Like I said above, I did not have much left. Lascannon's were hitting and penetrating, I just could not roll high on the AP chart. I really with the Lascannon's were AP1.
So not much paining this weekend, very little modeling, but had fun playing three games.
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