Tuesday Throw Down Recap: 07 29 2011

Real marines deep strike with their helmets' OFF.

So a couple of cool things happened over the last three days: I won a 40K game for the first time, and I was chosen to test Battlefield 3 Alpha and let me tell you even in it's current state BF3 is bad ass.
Following is the list I faced off against Six-Deucer:


Following, my 2000 Point Blood Angels List:

• HQ Mephiston
• (1) Elite Furioso Dreadnought with Blood Talons
• (2) Elite Sanguinary Priest with Lightning Claw
• (2) Troops Assault Squad 9 marines; melta gun x2, Sgt. with Power Fist
• (3) Assault Squad 4 marines; melta gun x1, Sgt. with Infernus Pistol and Power Weapon, Razorback with Twin-Linked (TL) Heavy Flamer
• (1) Land Speeder with Multi-Melta
• (2) Predator Tanks with Autocannon, Las-Cannon sponsons
• (1) Storm Raven with Multi-Melta, Extra Armor

Our game was Dawn of War (bleh), seize ground. There would be five objectives that Six and I would vie for. This game was a knock-down, drag-out fight that lasted the full seven turns. Each turn beyond five allowed for me to make more mistakes and Six to capitalize on them. Fortunately for my sake, Six made a couple of mistakes as well, which led me to hold one objective with a troop choice. Six contested another objective where my second surviving troop choice sat.
Gonewild: 1 objective
Six-Deucer: 0 objective

Recap:

• Ohhh ho, ho, ho. I was painfully reminded that Hydras' are designed to take down fliers with extreme prejudice! Fortunately, Mephiston and my Furioso only experienced a bruise ego as a result of my Storm Raven exploding in a hail of flames!
• Six used allies effectively, locking down Mephiston's psyker powers roughly 45% of the game. The big one? Denying Meph unleash rage against his Straken unit.
• Tank shock AWAY from meltas' and power fists. Expect 'Death or Glory' to succeed at your most inopportune time(s).

Things I may change:

• I may drop one of the three Razorback(s) for a second Land Speeder equipped with a Multi-Melta. The Land Speeders are wonderful agro-magnets and excel at flanking armor for side and rear armor shots. I would retain my five man assault squad, giving them jump packs and equipping the Sergeant with an Infernus Pistol and Melta-Bomb. That would make this unit well suited to suicide armor, or support my two 10-man assault squads. 
• My priests with their amazing weapon skill of five are just too tempting to leave in a Razorback in order to confer a wider chalice aura. I'm still on the fence about stripping each Marine of their lightning claw, so for now I'll leave those as-is.
• I really enjoyed the long-ranged support of my two Predators. Someone suggested trading the autocannon and las-cannon sponsons for a twin-linked las-cannon turret. This would effectively increase the mobility of each Predator at the expense of firepower.

In conclusion I really liked the way this list played. For the first time I felt confident in my list composition- I don't know how much of that was a result of the actual units, or perhaps me growing accustomed to 40K. Mephiston is fun, but I don't want to become reliant on him.