40k 8th Edition 2000 Point Battle Report - Dark Angels vs Raven Guard

2000 Point Battle Report - Dark Angels vs Raven Guard

This will be the first in a series of battle reports in which I try to make a decent go of running an old school Greenwing list.

That’s right, I’m going to go full 40k hipster and try to make do without any of the Dark Angels ‘good stuff’: that means no Darkshroud, no Hellblasters, no Dark Talons, just a bunch of Devastators and some Tactical Marines and characters in transports.

     

The aim is to become familiar enough with the list as to have a good go at Best in Faction at a tournament that I’m attending in January, the Caledonian Uprising at Element Games in Stockport, UK. To that end, I’ll try to get a game in with the list every week against some hopefully tough lists, and report what went well and what can be improved e upon on here.

    

The Caledonian tournaments are also events which reward the hobbyist, so I’ll also have a go at one of the painting prizes. I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to come up with freehand ideas for my Razorbacks. These are the two that I’ve finished so far:

Note: this is a Calibanite Wurm, or something. Label most definitely NOT hastily tacked on after I decided painting a wurm would be cool.

Now without any further ado, this is the list:

Battalion 1

Master with Heavenfall Blade (Warlord: Trait: Fury of the Lion)

Master with Mace of Redemption

Five man Tactical Squad with combi-plasma and plasma

Five man Tactical Squad with combi-plasma and plasma

Five man Tactical Squad with combi-plasma and plasma

Chapter Ancient

Five man Devastator Squad with four plasma cannons and an Armorium Cherub

Five man Devastator Squad with four plasma cannons and an Armorium Cherub

Five man Devastator Squad with four plasma cannons and an Armorium Cherub

Razorback with twin assault cannon and storm bolter

Razorback with twin assault cannon and storm bolter

Razorback with twin assault cannon and storm bolter

Battalion 2

Librarian with force sword (Powers: Aversion and Mind Wipe)

Lieutenant

Five man Tactical Squad with combi-plasma and plasma

Five man Tactical Squad with combi-plasma and plasma

Five man Tactical Squad with lascannon

Razorback with twin assault cannon and storm bolter

Razorback with twin assault cannon and storm bolter

Now who says marines are overcosted?! To my mind that is a lot of units with good saves and toughness for the points. If the basic Tactical Marine body gets a points reduction in Chapter Approved - as consensus says it should - it’ll be even more! (and if it doesn't, of course, the great THEY'RE TRYING TO KILL OFF MUH SPESS MEHREENS  conspiracy is confirmed).

The idea behind the list is to deploy the plasma Devs in a little suicide cluster around the Chapter Ancient and Lieutenant. To avoid this cluster getting immediately shot off the board, in deployment they’ll be covered by the Razorbacks, which will harbour the Tactical Squads as well as the characters. Turn one we’ll move up the Razorbacks, and hopefully give my opponent something more pressing to deal with than the wall of plasma in my backfield.

I can see myself purposely overcharging with the Devs in some games, even against units with -1 and -2 to hit, in order to do some more damage and, upon their unfortunate death, getting to fire again thanks to the Chapter Ancient, who will improve their Ballistic Skill to a natural 2+. It seems unintuitive (and possibly a little heretical) to actively want to kill your own dudes, but sometimes you just have to trade units if the trade is worthwhile.

(NOTE: I used a few proxies for this game, notably some of the Devastators where I used some heavy bolters instead of plasma cannons, and some of the Razorbacks that were without Assault Cannon turrets).

My opponent for this game was Rich, and this was his list:

Rich is currently in process of changing his Marines from Crimson Fists to Carcharodons, which is why you have a sea of grey before you. A couple of smash captains also appear to be photobombing the pic, but they were not in the list!

Battalion

Primaris Master in Gravis armour (Warlord: Trait: Storm of Fire)

Primaris Lieutenant

Five man Intercessor Squad with bolt rifles, auxiliary grenade launcher and power sword

Five man Intercessor Squad with bolt rifles, auxiliary grenade launcher and power sword

Five man Intercessor Squad with bolt rifles, auxiliary grenade launcher and power sword

Primaris Ancient (with the standard that allows models to fire upon death on a 3+)

Six man Aggressor Squad

Six man Aggressor Squad

Eight man Hellblaster Squad

Outrider

Primaris Master

3 man Inceptor Squad with assault bolters

3 man Inceptor Squad with assault bolters

6 man Inceptor Squad with plasma exterminators

Firstly, apologies to Rich if I’ve missed anything of import!

Rich was using Raven Guard chapter tactics for this mission, so would be benefiting from -1 to hit on all of his units from outside of 12”. My all plasma army were delighted. He would also look to make use of the auras his characters can hand out, rerolling to hit and to wound, and getting a little insurance from the Ancient.

I was most worried about the Hellblasters as well as the Inceptors of both types. Assault bolters are absolute murder to regular Marines, and a six man Plasma Exterminator squad could quite easily pop a couple of Razorbacks in a turn. The Aggressors were also formidable, but I felt that if I could have them firing at Razorbacks for as long as possible I’d be able to get the chance to take them out with plasma.

Mission, Deployment Map and Objectives.

The mission we rolled was Cloak and Shadows. Joy! This stipulates that units from more than 18” away are a further -1 to hit, which, again, my mostly plasma-wielding force were sure to be delighted about. There was however, a stratagem attached to the mission costing 1CP, and allowing that -1 modifier to be ignored for all shooting attacks against a single unit for a turn.

    

The other part of the mission stipulated that each player could draw up to and have no more than three Tactical Objectives per turn, and that these must be kept hidden from your opponent until they are achieved.

  

We placed objectives in an even manner, mostly towards the central area of the board. We then rolled for the deployment map, which was Frontline Assault (pointy Dawn of War).

Dark Angels Deployment

The objectives were slightly more prevalent on the right side of the battlefield than the left, so this is where I decided to deploy the bulk of my force (picture one). This spot also gave good line of sight and range onto most of the battlefield for the Devastators. I made sure to set up the Razorbacks - containing Tacticals and Characters - so that they obscured line of sight onto the Devastators, Ancient and Lieutenant cluster. If Rich did get first turn, he would have to go through the Razorbacks to get some shots off against them.

For the rest of my deployment I placed a Razorback with a Master and Tactical Squad inside on the left side, within easy distance of an objective (picture two).

I was happy with my deployment. I felt that if I went second my main damage dealers wouldn't be exposed, and if I went first I'd have a good chance of doing some damage myself. My main concern would be being able to fan out enough to keep the central core of the Devastators well screened against the Inceptors when they would come down in later turns.

Raven Guard Deployment

Rich set up the bulk of his force on his left side, opposite my main blob. He had an Intercessor squad on each of the three ruins in his deployment zone, two of which contained objectives.

Raven Guard - Turn 1

Despite having the +1 to my roll for having set up first, I failed the roll and subsequent seize to get the first turn.

I immediately burned 2CP for the Prepared Positions stratagem, giving all of my units +1 to their saves as if they were in cover.

Rich used the recently nerfed Raven Guard stratagem Strike From the Shadows on his two units of Aggressors, allowing them to make a pre-game move closer to my lines. This increased range meant that one of the squads wouldn't have to move in his turn, and would therefore get to fire twice!

In his shooting phase, Rich fired the Aggressor squad that had to move to get into range into the Razorback on my left side (pictured above). As this squad had to move, they only put a mere (!) seventy shots into it. These Aggressors had reroll ones to hit from a nearby Captain, but combined with wounding on fives and my 2+ save, they only managed to take two wounds off it.

Rich’s other Aggressor squad were a little more fortunate in the tools at their disposal, receiving buffs from a Captain and Lieutenant, as well as the benefit of the Captain's Storm of Fire Warlord trait. These fellows put 132 shots into one of the Razorbacks shielding my Devastators on my right side, reducing it to three wounds remaining. Rich’s Hellblasters promptly destroyed it, forcing the Tactical Squad and Librarian contained within to get out and walk.

Rich’s main force faces down the doomed Razorback.

At the end of his turn, Rich scored three points for First Blood, Secure 3, and No Prisoners.

I feel that I got off pretty lightly this turn. Writing this now, I feel that Rich should have perhaps used the mission stratagem to remove the -1 to hit on the Razorback shielding my Devastators. He could then have safely overcharged his Hellblasters into the Razorback, destroying it, and leaving the Aggressors to take out a squad or two of Devastators that were hidden behind it.

As it was, the Prepared Positions stratagem came to my aid, forcing Rich to put multiple resources into the Razorback, resources that, pre-FAQ, would have gone elsewhere.  (I fail to understand why people are so underwhelmed by that stratagem!)

Dark Angels - Turn 1

My aim for this turn was to take the teeth out of Rich’s list. With their thousands of shots, the Aggressors were particularly scary to my Marines, so I decided that they were top of the list of targets. The Hellblasters were a pretty close second.

A further aim was to expand my board, pushing out in all directions away from my Devastator plasma blob to protect them from the incoming Inceptors on Rich’s next turn.

This is how my board looked following my movement phase (aside from the Librarian bottom centre, who I remembered to move after taking this photo!)

The Tactical Squad with lascannon stayed where it was in the building on the left, keeping the incoming Inceptors away from the Devastators blob. I did the same with a plasma Tactical Squad on the right, disembarking from the furthest right Razorback to go camping in the woods. I disembarked another plasma marine squad, as well as my warlord Master from a central Razorback. This was so I could lend rerolls to both the disembarked plasma Tacticals as well as the Tacticals who had been unceremoniously dumped from their Razorback in the previous turn. I pushed the three central Razorbacks up to fire on Rich’s main force, and charge to tie units up if needed. And on the far left I had a massive brain fart, coming up with the bright idea to charge the Aggressors and tie them up, forgetting that Aggressors are armed with power fists!

In my Psychic Phase I cast Aversion on the Hellblasters, to further discourage them from overcharging if they survived the turn, and to make them less accurate if they fired on my turn because of the Ancient. I also cast Smite on the central squad of Aggressors, killing one.

In my shooting phase I took out the central squad of Aggressors, as well as the squad of Hellblasters. Many models in these two units were in range of the Ancient, so they were able to take out a Tactical Squad, as well as do four wounds to a Razorback in return.

With the Aggressors and Hellblasters gone, the Razorback prepares to charge the Intercessor Squad.

In the charge phase I managed to get one of my Razorbacks into the Intercessor Squad, and another into the Aggressors on the left side:

The Razorback on the left - as should've been foreseen - promptly got punched to death! A further oversight on my part was forgetting that a Captain was hidden in the ruins, and he managed to consolidate into the Razorback to further pile on the misery by buffing the Aggressors. My non-Warlord Master and Tactical Squad, who were in the Razorback, disembarked and prepared to die for the Lion on Rich’s turn.

Aside from this, I felt that I had a pretty good turn. I had expanded my board to push away the Inceptors, and had taken out two of Rich’s dangerous units.

At the end of the turn I had scored Overwhelming Firepower. Rich had scored Defend Objective 1, to take a commanding lead on points.

Raven Guard - 5

Dark Angels - 1

Raven Guard - Turn 2

The Master, having just foolishly sent in his Razorback to be punched to death by the enemy, now not so bravely stands at the rear of his freshly disembarked Tactical Squad. Their death is a sacrifice he is willing to make!

Rich had some work to do here, having lost some of his list’s teeth. He was surely buoyed, however, by his incoming six-hundred-odd points of Inceptors.

In his movement phase Rich withdrew his Intercessors from a combat they couldn't win with the Razorback, and moved them on to a nearby ruin. They called in the help of daddy, so he prepared his Captain in Gravis Armour to give the Razorback a good beating.

The Captain in Gravis Armour, second from the right, vows to crump the Razorback for running over an Intercessor’s foot.

Elsewhere, his Aggressors stayed stationary in order to put around four million shots into a Tactical Squad.

Lastly, both squads of bolter Inceptors came down, either side of the Tactical Squads that were screening my Devastators. Rich neglected to bring his plasma Inceptors in on this turn, perhaps reasoning that my screens needed removing first.

Rich fought back with gusto in his shooting phase, easily destroying the Tactical Squad and Master who had been in the Razorback. He also removed nine out of the ten Tactical Squad members that were screening the Devastators, with one squad being completely destroyed, and another being reduced to one man remaining. I was a little annoyed at this, as if I had kept one squad member alive on each side, that would have been enough to screen the plasma Inceptors out on Rich’s third turn, and he would have been forced to place them out of range of the Devastators.

You'll have to just imagine the empty shell casings up to the Aggressors’ knees.

In the fight phase the Captain in Gravis Armour promptly punched another Razorback to death.

This was a good turn for Rich, in which he had destroyed around five hundred points of my models. 8th Edition is brutal! (Especially if you play Marines).

At the end of his turn, Rich scored Lighting Strike as well as No Mercy, No Respite. I scored Defend Objective 6.

Dark Angels - Turn 2

I was fearing the worst at this point, having just lost a large chunk of my army and being pretty far behind on points. However, I felt that if I could deal with one thing at a time, I'd have a pretty good chance of outlasting the Raven Guard.

The chief task for this turn was to remove the Inceptors that had just dropped down. I really didn't fancy them shooting up and charging my Devastator blob next turn. I would also attempt to off the Captain in Gravis Armour, who was Rich’s best means, alongside the Aggressors, of getting rid of my two remaining Razorbacks.

I ummed and aahed about zooming a Razorback back to my deployment zone, to screen the Devastators on their left side against Rich’s incoming plasma Inceptors, but decided against it. Instead I would let them drop in, and look to trade by purposely overcharging my own dudes and firing again with the Ancient. Like the Master with his Tactical Squad, the death of the Devastators was a sacrifice I was bravely willing to make!

This is how the outward moving part of my force looked following my movement phase (the Devastators remained stationary in my deployment zone).

In my Psychic Phase I cast Smite on the Intercessors, removing one, and Aversion on the Captain, slightly reducing his Firepower should he fire back upon his death.

The plan in the shooting phase was to remove the Intercessor screen on the ruin, before unloading into the Captain (and other characters if I had the firepower). I made sure to position my Master within 6” of all the units to hand out his reroll 1s buff.

I also had Defend Objective 2 in hand, which his Intercessors were on, so my plan was to charge the Razorbacks into any characters that remained and sit it on the objective until my next turn.

Things went exactly as planned, with the Intercessors dying under a hail of Assault Cannon fire and the Captain going down to plasma. The Razorbacks also made their charges:

The Razorback on the left charges into the Ancient and the Lieutenant. It sits bang on top of Objective 2, while the other sits 3” away as insurance.

In the rest of my turn I managed to just remove the two bolter Inceptor squads using my Devastators. I failed to record exactly how I did this at -2 to hit in most cases, but I imagine some combination of Weapons of the Dark Age, the stratagem ignoring the -1 to hit, and some enforced sacrifice on behalf of my brothers did the trick.

At the end of my turn, I scored Scour the Skies, Master the Warp and Slay the Warlord.

Raven Guard - 7

Dark Angels - 6

Raven Guard - Turn 3

I'd say the game was pretty even at this point. We were at near parity in terms of points and number of models. Rich had two Intercessor Squads on backfield objectives, as well as a squad of Aggressors, some characters, and a large squad of plasma Inceptors, who were yet to come in. I still had my plasma Devastator blob, two Razorbacks, a few characters and a couple of Tactical Squads.

There was an utter failure on my part in terms of taking photos this turn, but the meat of what happened concerned the plasma Inceptors and the Devastators. Rich managed to split his attacks in such a way as to wipe out my remaining plasma cannons. I got very lucky on my rolls to fire back with the Ancient, however, and killed five out of the six Inceptors. To my delight, the remaining Inceptor then ran away in the morale phase, making our exchange a nice clean trade.

I did feel I'd done pretty well out of this trade, however, as I still had the three Devastator sergeants left from each squad - these were not going to put any hurt on to Rich, but could prove useful in mission terms, being able to to spread out on objectives, and representing hideable targets to avoid being tabled. I have also lost many games due in large part to piddly little units like this and their ability to provide screens and deny deep strikes. This wasn't going to come up here, but isn't to be underestimated also. The fact that they don't appear to represent a worthwhile target for your opponent's guns can come in handy at times.

At the end of his turn Rich scored no points. I scored Defend Objective 2.

Dark Angels - Turn 3

I felt like I was coming back now, and with many (however small) units on the table I would be able to cover the board and win the mission.

Rich had been unlucky on objectives, rolling 1s on every card he had achieved that was worth d3 points (his rolling elsewhere had been pretty atrocious too). Conversely, I had just been pretty lucky with my objectives, drawing Assassination, Blood and Guts and No Prisoners, all which were achievable in this turn.

In the movement phase I moved into position to deal with the Lieutenant and the Ancient, which I believed would score me the above objectives.  

And that's what happened. I killed the Ancient in the shooting phase, and then charged the Lieutenant with the Librarian and Master, who killed him easily.

At the end of my turn I scored Assassination, Blood and Guts, No Prisoners, and Slay the Warlord.

Raven Guard - 7

Dark Angels - 11

Raven Guard - Turn 4

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself at this point, having just taken out two of Rich’s characters, scored a load of points, and (I thought) protected the Master and Librarian against any incoming attacks from the Aggressors and Captain beyond the wall, by using the Razorback to stop them from coming round (pictured above).

I had, however, forgotten that Infantry can move through the walls of ruins:

Rich’s Captain makes me look foolish.

Rich used his turn to off the Librarian and the Master, with his wall traversing Captain and Aggressors. D’oh.

At the end of his turn Rich scored Kingslayer, Honour the Chapter, and slay the Warlord.

Dark Angels - Turn 4

At the start of this turn we were all even at 11 - 11. I knew that I would have to get a good draw, score heavily, then remove Rich’s means of responding or scoring enough in his turn. That would hopefully put the game beyond him.

And inkeeping with my luck throughout the game, a good draw I did get. I got Secure Objective 5 twice, which was inches away from a Razorback, and rolled Objective 6 on Priority Orders Received, which my depleted Devs cluster were very close to.

In terms of killing units, I finished off the Aggressors and Captain, leaving Rich with only his two squads of backfield Intercessors remaining.

I scored all of the above objectives, putting myself three points ahead.

Rich drew his cards to see whether he could claw anything back, but conceded once he'd seen his draw.

The survivors at end of game. Rich had another Intercessor Squad on the board, out of shot.

FINAL SCORE:

Raven Guard - 11

Dark Angels - 14

Post-game thoughts

This was a good first game for the Greenwing, and was all the sweeter being a victory over their taller, shinier brothers!

As mentioned before, Rich was very unlucky with some of his dice rolls, and may have pulled out the victory had he scored higher on some of his Maelstrom card rolls.

I'd say the stars of the show were the Razorbacks. This didn't solely come down to the amount of dakka they put out, but their general role as a utility unit - to keep punchier units safe by transporting them and blocking line of sight to them, to render enemy units useless by charging into them, and to push back deep strikers.

The Razorbacks tie in to an overall strategy of the list, which is hopefully built around doing as much as possible in my turn to neutralise enemy units - this doesn't necessarily mean killing them dead, but can also include touching them in combat, and neutering them with the librarian's psychic powers.

Speaking of the librarian, I will probably upgrade to Ezekiel in my next game. For thirty-odd more points, you get a character with a 4++, who can deny two powers rather than one per phase, who knows three powers rather than two, and who is pretty decent in close combat. To pay for Eazy-E, I'll probably get rid of the Tactical Squad with lascannon, and swap them out for some Scouts or barebones Tacticals.

Speaking of Tacticals, I think that it's pretty obvious that they are a point or two overcosted. They die extremely easily (though what doesn't in 8th?) and their profile is pretty underwhelming. However, I think that taken in numbers they can still do a job. As squishy as they are, a 3+ save will oftentimes just come through for you, and as long as the good guns are still around, they'll likely do some damage.

My next game is against Alaitoc Eldar - knew this good feeling couldn't last! I'll report my woes in the next installment.

Thanks for reading!