Club Night 17th February

I played new club member Dan (yes, another new club member, we have gained three new members since the start of the year, which is great) in a game of 40K. Dan is still learning and getting going and had played some smaller games against Mike last week, so we decided to play a 1,500 point game, with him using my Tau and me my Blood Angels.

The Tau army I provided was fairly balanced, a commander and his bodyguards and another unit of crisis suits, backed up by two fire warrior squads and some pathfinders in devilfish, a sky ray and two units of sniper drones for some serious anti-marine fire-power. Against this I used the same list as I sued for the club league as it was fairly balanced, and other than a couple of landspeeders is all jump pack equipped which makes for a terrifyingly fast attack force.

We set up the terrain with a big ruined fort in the middle at an angle with small hills, a crashed ship and some palm trees scattered around the outside. This reduced lines of fire, but not too drastically and also should restrict where I could deep strike, so should be an even set up. The mission was take and hold with objectives in opposite towers if the fort, one in the supply dump in the middle and one on the crashed ship. With diagonal deployment, Dan choose to gab the zone with two objectives in it and one near it, leaving me with the opposite one, with an objective just outside and having to hunt down the rest.

Dan deployed a unit of fire warriors on each flank supported by a unit of sniper drones, with the pathfinders in the middle and the sky ray set back for fire support. The battle suits loitered more centrally, but could easily move to support wither flank or attack in the centre. In my zone I set up just two full strength assault squads with sanguinary priests and a supporting landspeeder, each group hugging cover to avoid being shot up by the Tau. But then Dan had his first bit of bad luck, I seized the initiative and was able to start advancing before he had been able to deploy into a firing line. Each of my groups moved out to the opposite flanks, continuing to hug the cover. Dan then started to deploy the Tau warriors and moved the battle suits forward centrally.

This fortunately played into my hands as it meant that I was able to engage the Battle suits in melee and avoid getting shot at. A quad attached each unit, the Tau commander falling relatively easily over a couple of turns, but the other quad proved much more troublesome. As my reserves began to arrive I started to overwhelm the Tau warriors on close combat, taking relatively light casualties and demonstrating the ferocity that the Blood Angels are renowned for.

With Assault squad rolling up each flank and the Death Company and veterans chewing through the centre, Dan conceded the battle. This was a fun game, although quite a steep learning curve for Dan. I gave him as much advice as was sensible, and he really only made one small mistake in putting the battle suits where I could charge them. The only other thing that really cost him was my seizing the initiative, which is the first time I have ever managed to do this. I look forward to my next game with my Blood Angels who I really enjoy using. There is even a rumour that Ken has been painting figures for his Grey Knights...!*

*Ken is known at the club for owning masses of figures for his Grey Knights, but only having a small army painter, which I did for him about 8 years ago!