Played Jons Blood Angels last night., I thought Id write a quick batrep.

Lists BA Libby epistolary jump pack 10 jump pack asm meltagun, flamer, fist sarge 10 jump pack asm meltagun, flamer, fist sarge 10 Death co. 2 power axe Stormraven 5 asm in a lazerback 5 scouts Sanguine priest Pred, AC, hvy bolters

Sisters/ marine allies Celestine 10 sisters 10 sisters Aegis line + quadgun 7 seraphim, 2 inferno pistols 7 seraphim, 2 hand flamers Exorcist 10 tac marines in a drop pod 5 termies, ML, chainfist Libby jump pack

We rolled the hammer and anvil deployment (my favourite) and [I think] the emperors will (1 objective each, with the usual secondaries). Jon won the roll to go first. This battle tyook place on a frozen wasteland (reserves in the white band at the top):

Our warlord traits didnt hugely influence anything. My psyker rolled on the biomancy table and got the feel no pain power (score!). Jon took 2 BA powers one to give his guys a 5+ cover save and another one preferred enemy? SO the BA libby unit was looking strong as it also had a sanguine priest (FNP) and rolled furious charge on the blood lust table! We got night fighting on turn 1.

In Jons turn 1 the Death Co ran into cover, BA beta started a flank move and the pred tried (and failed) to take out the aegis-mounted quad gun.

In my turn the marine pod scattered off on to a flank. I concentrated my fire on the DC as they were really the only thing in range. I killed around5 of them (exorcist rolled 6 missiles!), reducing them to half strength:

In jons turn 2 his raven failed to come on lucky for me. Since night fighting was gone, his lazerback had a pop at my quad gun and missed twin linked, eh?! The pred did the same and took a wound off. The DC marched up to the sisters and.. not much else moved. Interestingly, Jon hadnt moved his alpha unit up, as he was using them as his insurance against my deep strike. In my turn 2 both my reserves turned up. I tried to get celestines flamer unit on BA beta.. but scattered to mid table-just in range of the DC. The inferno sisters did better, and appeared behind the pred. The libby cast FNP on the tacs again, and jumped over to lead them. Shooting went pretty well I wiped the DC and got first blood they had 2 units of sisters, termies, seraphim flamers and and an exorcist shooting at them! I decided to try and whittle down squad beta rather than melt the pred and killed 3

marines. At the time this looked like a bad decision. The tac took aim at the scouts on the ride and took out 2 with some accurate bolter fire. End turn 2:

It all kicked off in turn 3. In jons turn the raven came on. The sisters tried to take it out with AA bit only one hull point was lost. It set its sights on the inferno sistrers. BA alpha closed on the same unfortunate unit. The combined fire reduced the unit to 1 sister, who fled for the table edge. Squad beta continued their flank move hugging cover. The pred advanced on the sisters lines. The lazerback found its range and wrecked the quad gun! Oh dear! In my turn 3 Celestines unit closed in on BA alpha and flamed them. Their emperors deliverance act of faith let them re-roll to wound resulting in 15 wounds. We math-hammered around 3 casualties. Jon took 6, including his powerfist sarge. I needed an 8 on a difficult terrain to charge the unit. I got.. 8. You get the idea! Elsewhere the termies switched to frag missiles and managed to take out 4 of BA squad beta. They fled 9 inches ready to auto rally next turn. In the assault phase, the libby separated from the tac unit and tried to assault the razorback, but fell an inch short. The tacs tried for a double 6 and also failed. In the big combat, Celestine issued a challenge which the libby accepted. Celstine cut him down

but we did forget about FNP saves which was a bit of an oversight. The rest of the combat went badly for the BA seraphim killed a further 3 guys for only 1 seraphim in reply, but the BA held. End turn 3:

Having disposed of a seraphim unit Jons turn 4 started with his storm raven annihilating the exorcist. This caused a massive explosion which slew 3 sisters. The dakka pred targeted sisters squad 1 but they craftily went to ground for a 2+ save behind their aegis line. The BA beta flank move neared completion, though they were out of assault range due to the crafty sisters having backed off last turn. The phoenix brothers libby, Fabian flame, took a lazerback las shot to the head and was vapourised paying the price for his failed charge goodbye FNP! The assault unit in the razor disembarked and craftily hid behind the ridge, as did the scouts, who were still scoring. I will put objectives on the next map!!! Jons assault phase was a disaster. Firstly Celestine chopped down the sanguine priest in a challenge no FNP. Then the remaining seraphim did a wound while Jons rolling was atrocious and he failed to kill any in return. There were 3 assult marines left in alpha, so the sisters took the sensible option to perform hit and run. The remaining 3 seraphim went for the scouts, while the marines consolidated towards the objective.

My turn 4 was quite fast tacs moved round towards the objective, Sisters and termies tried and failed to kill the last 2 members of unit beta, really the assaults were key. The remaining seraphim flamed the 3 remaining scouts, killing one. They assulated the 2 remaining members, taking a casualty from overwatch. In return they killed another with hammer of wrath hits. But they bounced off the scouts in the assault phase the 1 reamining sister fled for my table edge oh dear. Celstine did better, assaulting the last of squad alpha, who failed a morale check and fled off the table. End turn 4 triangle objectives:

In Jons turn 5 the remnants of squad beta flamed the nearby sisters squad and assaulted them, resulting in a drawn combat. The storm raven continued its acts of brutality, killing 5 sisters from the second squad, and forcing them to flee. The lasrback took aim at the recently-consolidated Celestine.. and missed! The assault squad and remaining scout charged the tac squad, who overwatched the scout and killed him. The combat again went terribly for Jon, who called the game at this point. At first this surprised me as he was a dead cert to score the line-breaker bonus because of his flyer. At the time we called it my objective was contested by the 2 assault marines, but the termies were in charge range and probably would have made short work of the remaining brave blood angels. In jons deployment zone I had Celestine on 2 wounds ready to charge in and swing the mechanized assaul BA/ tac marne combat.

Had I won that I could have consolidated onto the objective and secured line breaker. So it was probably game over after all.

Post-thoughts. This was an interesting game. I felt the deployment suited me best because of the deep striking element of my army. Night fighting also helped me in turn 1. Biggest turning point was probably Celestine and co killing 6 assault marines with feel no pain and then killing their librarian in the assault phase. Not only did this get me slay the warlord, it blunted jons ability to defend his own deployment zone. In retrospect I wondered why he didnt play more aggressively with his alpha-uber unit of doom them + the DC would have been too much for my lines. Of course that would have left him more open at the back field..

In terms of my list I was quite surprised that the termies did little. Their ML had 1 good turn against the flanking marines but that was it really. I think for my army they are best as baby sitters, hopefully hammering anything that gets into my deployment area. I got lucky with my librarioans powers and again using him in backfield rather than the vanguard kept him alive for longer.. I actually quite like my use of the psyker being determined by what he rolls.. quite fun.

I had thought of taking more regular marines to ToS in march but I reckon I might stick with the termies. They give me something quite lacking in my sisters army, plus they are made of metal, which is important. <end batrep>