You'll Have to Use Your Imagination

I never watched Spongebob, but Google says this is 'imagination.'

I'm switching gears in an attempt to get the hobby motor going again by fixing some of the more glaring points of my Blood Angels army.  Two of the missile launcher Devastators are Dark Angels green, something I've been meaning to rectify for a while now.  While pulling them out of my case I also grabbed a handful of other Devastators to work on.  The GW red primer that I used on my older crop of BAs is much redder than the Duplicolor I used on the recent assault squad, so I want to reprime the batch before starting.  I doubt it would be a big difference between the two, but since I need to base the lot as well I decided to get two birds at once.  A new Devastators sergeant has appeared as well, a kitbash from the DC and Command Squad boxes with a prominent auspex.  I've been using a helmetless marine as the sergeant, but I don't really like the bare-headed marines.  I'm letting the glue dry for a bit because I didn't realize I hadn't drilled out the bolter until I had already glued the mini together.  I took some pictures of the new model plus the difference between the two primers, but the different cord I'm using to download the pictures doesn't want to play and I don't have an alternate handy, so you'll have to imagine what they look like.  I'll put them in the next post.



I also did some army list work last night and came up with a minor tweak that I hope will help in the fight against the Plague Marines.  Normally I wouldn't telegraph my punches like this, especially in a place that EV frequents, but since I'm changing my list up to counter his it only seems fair to give him a heads-up.  He could swap the Obliterators for a clutch of Vindicators, which would screw me pretty good, but I'm not too concerned.  In fact while typing this another variant occurred to me which could shore up a possible weakness, but I'll consider that one for a bit.  This list is much the same as the one I've been running, but the few changes also bring a different strategy for the army in general.  First, the list:

125 - Librarian w/ Jump Pack, Blood Lance, Shield of Sanguinias
230 - Sanguinary Guard w/ Chapter Banner
180 - 2 Sanguinary Priests w/ Jump Pack, Power Weapon
  50 - Sanguinary Priest
705 - 3 x Assault Squad w/ 2 Plasmaguns, Power Fist
430 - 2 x Devastator Squad w/ 3 Missile Launchers, Plasmacannon
1750

The Sanguinary Guard gets stripped of all wargear except the banner.  While this means the squad is all but helpless against armor they could still take down a Rhino in a pinch which is the only vehicle I'm likely to face.  The squad is meant to wipe out infantry anyway, so if they're engaged with a vehicle I have bigger problems.  This change also means I get more use out of what makes the SG unique, namely Glaives Encarmine and Angelus boltguns.  The built-in rerolls mean I can also swap Unleash Rage for Blood Lance, which will help the squad with armor if needed.

Imagine the Giant as a Plague Marine.

The points from SG wargear go into converting from melta to plasma.  Plasma kills Plague Marines just as dead as melta and does it from further away or with twice as many shots.  It should also pop a Rhino just fine if needed.  Using melta on a Rhino is overkill anyway.  I also swap a missile launcher for a plasmacannon in each Dev squad.  I'll put the cannon in the squad with the sergeant, then use the +1 BS from the auspex to make for a more predictable scatter.  Losing a foot in range isn't a great thing, but 36" should (hopefully) still give me two turns of shooting, which is all I can really hope for anyway.  I'll be looking to drop the templates on Plague Marines when possible to catch multiple targets with one shot.

All of these changes in gear lead to a change in strategy.  Since I can fire a plasmagun and not get assaulted in the following turn, as opposed to the "If I shoot you you're in range to assault me" meltagun, I'll be looking to keep my distance and soften things up as much as possible.  If I combat squad the assault squads into fist and plasma groups I can hold the shooting parts back while using the fisting parts to screen my guns and mop up small squads or pin squads for the SG to charge.  The Devs and plasmaguns should each be able to pop some transport, kill/cripple a squad, or put a serious hurt on a Daemon Prince each shooting phase, provided the dice cooperate.  My biggest concern is durability.  Having lots of little 5 man squads is great for tactical flexibility, but the losses add up quickly.  More groups also means less groups in the various bubbles, either Libby or SP, that are so important to the army. Hopefully the shooting does enough to make things manageable.

While this change is a shift in philosophy from my current list, it's not a major departure.  I have a reasonable hope for success with it.  Unfortunately I don't have the plasmagunners ready to go, or even the pieces to make them, I doubt EV will object to me proxying for a game or two to see how things work out.  While I would like to have all options available for all squads, or at least a reasonable selection of them, I'm not quite there yet.  Considering that my BA expansion fund has become my new video card fund it may take a bit longer to makes changes than it would have a few days ago.  For now it's back to basing and priming.

Blood Angels vs. Plague Marines IV: Once More Into the Breach

Am I on the horse this time?

Battle Chronicler looks pretty, but was taking far too long, so I went back to the usual formula for this report to get it done.  I have tried a different layout, with embedded pictures instead of alternating pictures with blocks of text.  We'll see how it looks.

Last week I was determined to beat EV's Plague Marines.  I had a plan going in: shoot stuff.  Shoot it a lot.  I was hoping my Devs would take down a Daemon Prince, or at least give it a real good wounding, before it could hide in melee.  I knew EV would hide them behind his Rhinos, so I formulated a target priority for the Devs: Daemon Prince > Rhino > Plague Marine > Obliterator.  If the assault marines could create a hole in the Rhino screen then I could potentially send 8 missiles into a Prince, plus any remaining melta, which should accomplish my shooting goals.  I wanted to send something after the Obliterators as well.  Ideally this would be the Sanguinary Guard as they should breeze through a pair of Oblits, possible even two pair.  This would also keep the Guard away from the Princes and Plague Marines so they could come in later to clean squads up.  I also wanted to try Unleash Rage instead of Blood Lance on my Librarian and put him in an assault squad so he'd have more bodies around him for Unleash Rage.  I hoped the rerolls would counter the natural resilience of the Plague Marines so that an assault squad could finally kill one of them.  I made no changes to my list and planned around EV doing the same, which he did.  I won't reproduce them, but I will put in a handy link to the last battle report.  We alternated setting out terrain again and ended up with a table like this:

The battlefield.

EV won the roll and chose the edge with the hill.  We were playing "regular" deployment, using the long sides as our zones, with kill points.  This was the first time I played kill points and after hearing all the moaning about them I was curious to see how they worked.  EV fielded 13 KPs thanks to his Rhinos while I had 12 thanks to combat squading my Devs and each Sanguinary Priest counting as a point.

Deployment.

EV put most of his units in the middle, splitting a pair of Oblits and a Rhino to the side.  I thought about going with the refused flank and loading everything on the side of the Oblits, but with no cover or elevation for my Devs it didn't look so great.  Instead I just spread out to avoid templates and had a sort of zone idea for the game.  I wanted to keep the field of fire for my Devs as clear of my own troops as possible, with the very hard to see yellow-shaded area being my prime real estate.  The Guard and one squad would go up the right to deal with the Oblits while the rest of the army moved up and tried to stay out of each other's way.  With set-up complete, I tried to seize the initiative and failed.

Turn 1.

No picture for the middle of turn 1, so this one at the end is pretty hectic to look at.  EV rushed his Rhinos forward, popping smoke on the lead one and hiding the Daemon Princes behind.  His Obliterators shot up my two rightmost assault squads, killing 3 from each.  When he went into the parking lot formation, I started to curse swapping out Blood Lance for Unleash Rage.  Blood Lance would have been perfect for this situation, potentially able to hit all three Rhinos and maybe even a Daemon Prince.  Lack of lance aside, it was still a promising set-up for me.

The plan that didn't work.

  I moved my assault squads to the middle, stringing the one marked for the Obliterators out so that the meltaguns could add in to the Rhino shooting party.  I wanted to pop as many Rhinos as possible while also assaulting all the contents, so I went through my shooting deliberately.  It was for naught though, as all three assault squads and a pair of missiles shot at the lead Rhino and failed to destroy it.  While it had popped smoke, 8 shots should be able to take out a single AV11 vehicle.  Sticking to my targeting priorities I went after the Rhino blocking my LoS to the green Prince and took it out.  The remaining missiles went into the Prince and caused a wound.  I sent in one squad to blow up the smoked Rhino in assault.  This was not how I hoped the turn would go.  Instead of knifing through the Rhinos with melta and crippling a Prince with missiles, I had managed to clog up the central firing lane with a wrecked Rhino and set up my entire army to be assaulted in turn 2.

Middle of turn 2.

EV's second turn almost played itself.  With my squads hanging in the wind he could set his lines for firing and assaulting as he pleased without having to worry about things like ranges.  The one surprise came when he sent the brown Daemon Prince into the assault squad that was, in theory, headed for the Obliterators.  I was also surprised by the double team faced by the squad that assaulted the Rhino, though on reflection the Prince that hit the other assault squad by itself was enough to do the job.  I stopped the green Prince's Warp Time, so more of that squad survived than expected.  The Plague Marines squads double-teaming the assault squad started an epic slap fight that saw little damage caused by either side, thanks to FNP and unenthusiastic power fists.  The brown Prince mopped up the squad it assaulted, save the Sanguinary Priest who was safe from reprisal as the Prince killed everyone else.  I may have caused a wound.  EV also shot at the Sanguinary Guard before all the combat, and probably softened up the brown Prince's target as well.

End of turn 2.

With a large chunk of my force dead, and most of the rest engaged and waiting to die, I didn't have a lot to do.  The Devs shot at what they could to little effect.  Obliterators laugh at krak missiles.  The Guard charged into the brown Prince and cut him down for no loss, then advanced to try and cut down the fire sure to be coming in the next turn.  The green Prince killed his limit thank to Warp Time, while receiving little damage in return.  By now I'd had two rounds of combat with the green Prince where I had two power weapons and a power fist, all rerolling their misses thanks to Unleash Rage, but had little to show for it.  With the mess in the center I sure could have used dice that were at least room temperature, but no love was to be had.

Middle of turn 3.

Like the turn before it, turn 3 played itself in large part.  EV shot up the Guard in the center, but cover kept two members of the squad alive.  He also jockeyed his Rhino around a bit, pulling one back while sending the other forward in the woods.  My Librarian must have died to a Perils of the Warp roll or something as both he and the squad around him died to the Prince this turn, leaving only the Sanguinary Priest alive.  The slap fight trudged on, with each side again killing a single foe.  There were no less than three power fists in this combat, yet three rounds of combat later perhaps 5 models had died.  Epic dice failure.  I won't blame my dice for how this game turned out as I put myself in a bad position on turn 1.  At the same time, bad dice are bad dice and we both had plenty, especially in the slap fight.

End of turn 3.

In the end of turn 3 the Sanguinary Priest the survived the brown Prince's assault joined up with the Guard.  I made a mistake here.  What I did was send this unit behind the Plague Marine lines to charge a unit in the back and then try to roll up the line.  What I should have done was send them against the Daemon Prince.  While they probably would have died in the combat, EV's Prince would have been tied up for another two rounds at least as he could only target one Priest at a time and would have been facing two.  I might even have killed it considering I would have had 8 SG attacks, on the charge, with both Guards having their MC reroll, plus 5 attacks from the charging priest and 4 more from the already engaged Priest, all ignoring armor and forcing the Prince back on it's 5++.  Granted the Prince's higher WS and T6 would have prevented a lot of those hits from wounding, but it had lost a wound or three by this point so it might have gone down.  Instead I cleared out one squad of Plague Marines, freeing up the Guard and the remnants of an assault squad while I lost the Priest engaged with the Prince, who was then free to roam at will.  The Devs may have shot at stuff, but to no effect.  At least my power fist got into the slap fight, killing two Plague Marines while their fist continued to miss.

Middle of turn 4.

Like the rest of them it was pretty obvious what would happen in turn 4.  EV started shooting my Devs, though cover and scatters meant he didn't do much damage.  He also sent the Rhino out of the woods and towards the Devs, popping smoke on the way.  This one had a flamer in the squad and a combi-flamer on the Rhino, so it was about to be a bad time to be holding a missile launcher.  The Prince charged the Guard and wiped them out, while the lone remaining Priest kept the string of futility going.  The slap fight  again produced a loss for each side.  Kindly ignore the extraneous BA shooting lines.  I got my pictures mixed up and thought this was the end of 4, but it's the middle.

End of turn 4.

In my half of turn 4 I shot at the Rhino with everything that could see it, that being 6 missiles.  Once again, a combination of smoke and poor rolls meant the Rhino was unharmed and ready to torch my Devs.  The slap fight came to an abrupt resolution when the Plague Marines decided they were done missing and killed the two remaining Blood Angels for no loss in return.  The Prince also mopped up the Priest.  Four turns later, I had gotten exactly one round of shooting in against the Princes, and that was a half-strength one at best.  The melee in the middle meant my Devs were effectively useless for most of the game as Obliterators were often the only available target.  Now all my infantry was dead while EV still had an untouched squad, a Prince, and the remnants of another squad.  Kill points may have been close, but were about to get a lot further apart.

Turn 5/endgame.

No middle of 5 shot.  See previous turns about the predictability of this one.  EV sent his Rhino squad in, along with the Prince, to wipe out the central Devs.  The Oblits fired into the mass on the left.  After combat, the victors moved up into the teeth of the missiles.  If I had a good turn of shooting, I could take down the Prince and perhaps whittle down the squad as well.  EV hid the pair of Plague Marines in the middle to preserve their KP, so I couldn't have shot at them despite wanting to.  In the end my shooting was as effective as it had been all game, which is to say not at all.  6 missiles into the Prince and still it stood.  We called the game here.

This is probably the worst game of 40k I've played, and certainly the worst since starting back up.  I thought I had a carefully laid plan in turn 1, but lack of shooting prowess combined with forgetting the Princes could fly meant that the game was all one big melee in the middle.  The assault marines and Plague Marines are two tough customers, which results in long combats like this.  Things should have resolved quicker because of all the power fists involved, but in the end all the basic troops did was tie each other down so the hammers could sweep them aside.  EV's two hammers (Princes) beat my one (Sanguinary Guard), and the rest is history.  At least my Psychic Hood worked in this game, which probably saved my Guard from being wiped out when they charged the brown Prince.  The Devs were effective(ish) when they got the chance to shoot, taking out a Rhino and putting a wound on a Prince, but the lone round of shooting before the melee cranked up wasn't nearly enough to get anything substantial done.  The Sanguinary Guard were the lone bright spot here.  They work wonders when they can charge something that doesn't have power weapons, or doesn't have many and goes slower, but they're fragile enough that they only get a charge or two a game before shooting and attrition wear them out.

If I learned nothing else from this game, I learned that assault marines just don't work against Plague Marines, at least not as the main attacking force.  It's hard to believe that I can cut through Deathwing terminators with relative ease but can't do anything against Plague Marines, but the results are convincing.  The B&C has provided a few ideas for immediate use, like Warp Time not affecting armor saves and Blight Grenades not working when the unit is already in combat, but not having the CSM book I'll have to check EV's.  While the lack of armor save re-rolls would be helpful, as is the idea of pinning a squad in place and then piling on, I don't think either one or both of these will turn the tide.  I've said before that I'm convinced I have the tools in my list as it is to beat Plague Marines, but I think I've changed my mind.  Changes are afoot, though what exact kinds I have yet to decide on.  Power weapon spam via either DC or VV is an option, as is meching up, and plasma will be as effective as melta against Rhinos while cutting off FNP and regular armor saves.  Reluctant as I am to change my list to counter EV's, the basic premise of my list (horde of assault marines) is countered very well by Plague Marines, so I can either adapt or continue trying to put the square peg in the round hole.  This sounds a little weird even to me considering this is the best result I've had against the Plague Marines yet, but this high-water mark is well short of the goal.

Blood Angels vs. Plague Marines: The Hat Trick

EV and I had our third round of Blood Angel vs Plague Marines yesterday.  Our lists were the same as last time, but to briefly recap:

Blood Angels
Librarian with Jump Pack, Shield, and Blood Lance
Sanguinary Guard w/ Banner
3 Sanguinary Priests, 2 with Jump Pack & Power Weapon
3 max Assault Squads with 2 Meltaguns and Power Fist
2 max Devestator Squads with 4 Missile Launchers

Plague Marines
2 Daemon Princes with Wings and Warp Time
3 pairs of Obliterators
4 Plague Marine squads in Rhinos with a mix of special weapons and Power Fists

We alternated terrain setup.  I tried to keep my objective close to EV's again, but the best I could do was putting it on the same side of the board as it had to be in my deployment zone.

Those circles sure are hard to see...

We rolled the double objective mission along with Dawn of War.   EV set out a single squad in a rhino, while I held everything off the board.  He rolled on in turn 1 strong on the side with the objectives.

EV after 1.

Everything runs on for me.  Because I love coming around terrain, I decided to return to my strategy from last game and attempt to roll EV's flank.  I placed the Devs in cover as best possible to try and keep them out of the Obliterator's field of view.

My turn 1.

EV shoots a couple of my troops in his turn, but mostly stays put.  I start swinging my jumpers around while the Devs shoot.  Coming into this game the thing I wanted to do most was shoot those Daemon Princes with my missiles.  Krak missiles are as perfect a weapon as there is for taking them out.  Considering how much trouble they've caused in the past I was willing to take any shot possible, regardless of cover saves or juicier targets.

What kind of daemon prince hides behind a rhino?

Of course this plan required me to be able to fire on the Daemon Princes.  Since EV hid them behind the Rhinos, I couldn't shoot at them since I couldn't see them.  With no better option I shot up the Rhinos instead.  I blew two up, but they stayed on the board and kept the Princes hidden.

I demeched things, huzzah.

I underestimated the charge range on one of the Princes, so an Assault squad took one for the team.  EV chewed a pretty good hole in the squad, but they didn't break.  I had a bit of a ponder in my half of the turn.  One of my Assault squads could have mostly cleared the center woods, a jump that would put them in the middle of the Plague Marines.  I decided to keep them in line because I didn't want to lose troops to a dangerous terrain check and also didn't want to strand them in the middle of the opposing army.  Instead the other non-engaged Assault squad leapt over the combat to shoot and charge the Plague Marines behind.  A spectacular round of shooting and combat saw the Plague Marines rout my Assaulters for little loss.  I also unloaded every missile I had into the other Daemon Prince only to watch it come away unharmed.  Not the best turn ever.  At least one of the Daemon Princes was still locked up with the remains of the last Assault squad.

End of turn 3.

EV advances of the objectives this turn.  One of his Rhinos continues its push forward, while a demeched squad comes up on foot.  His unengaged Prince charges into the fleeing Assault Squad.  Warp Time sucks a lot, but fortunately I have a Psychic Hood in my army.  Unfortunately it never worked.  EV did take a wound or two from Perils of the Warp though, and through general wear and tear his Princes were a little banged up.  Since it was turn 4, I started thinking about the objectives.  With two Princes and a bullish squad of Plague Marines on the left of the woods, I didn't think I'd have anything getting out of there to contest.  Fortunately EV didn't have any scoring units close to his objective, so I figured I could run Devestators up to contest my objective and get a draw.  EV finally breaks the squad that's been holding up one of his Princes, which leaves him stranded and staring down a lot of melt and power weapons.

EV turn 4.

I send the Sanguinary Guard after the Plague Marines and the Assault squad to the Prince.  The Guard are great against things they can demolish, but if they start taking power weapon hits they disappear.  Since the Prince would strike before them, so I'll let him eat Assault marines instead.  Both units do their job and finish their targets, which is quite the victory for me.

At the bottom of the board I send the lone Assault Sergeant over to the Rhino, along with the Priest who babysits the Devs.  I didn't think the pair would do too well, but they would at least hold up the advance of the Rhino.  I stunned it with a couple missiles, while a couple more were ineffective against the remaining Prince.  The Sergeant pops the Rhino in the assault, but has to stand and watch the troops pour out of it.

End of turn 4.

Coming into turn 5 the best I can hope for is a draw, but I think I have a good shot at it.  EV charges the Sanguinary Guard.  He attacks the squad, which takes out the Chapter Banner.  The Priest and Librarian do a wound or two, but still lose.  The Librarian runs, but the Priest stays and denies me the chance to shoot it with meltaguns.

EV turn 5.

I finished off the second Prince in my turn, and my Priest survived through the end of the turn at the bottom.  These were hollow victories though.  EV moved a squad onto his objective in his turn from a Rhino I had completely forgotten about.  He contested mine at the least and probably held it outright.

End of game.

It was ante\her crushing defeat for the Blood Angels, but I think I did better this time.  I took out both Princes and two squads, which is the most casualties I've inflicted yet.  I had a decent shot at a draw, that one forgotten Rhino aside.  My shooting was subpar, the missiles in particular.  I didn't get as many missiles into the Princes as I wanted, but the ones I did were ineffective.  The whole Plague Marine army is a tough nut, but I'll crack it eventually.

Khadoran Ground-Breaking Machine Breaks Sometimes, Like Today

The power armor rematch went much like the first match did: a violent curbstomping of the guys in bloody red by the guys in sickly green.  In a fit of tactical genius, I completely ignored the strategy I laid out earlier today and instead decided to run around and give EV many opportunities to shoot my poor troops.  The Daemon Princes wrecked shop as expected, but the Vindicators were a non-factor.  Of course there were no Vindicators as EV had replaced them with Obliterators, who tore me up real good.    While my dice were out to lunch, in the end I can only blame lack of fire discipline and changing plans mid-stream.  The Plague Marines are a tough nut, despite what the internets have to say about Chaos Marines, but I'll figure them out eventually.

In happier news, I made a video of this afternoon's massacre.  I've seen video battle reports around and thought I'd give it a shot.  While I like the old fashioned text and picture report it's good to try new things.  I had hoped that there would be a time savings, but between editing and uploading I probably spent about the same amount of time doing the video as I would have writing up a traditional report.  Granted some of that time was spent learning how to use iMovie, and a still unfamiliar Mac, so the process may speed up a bit with repeated attempts.  I had to fight the urge to insert paragraphs into the video, but I'm a writer at heart rather than a director.  Enough of that though, on to the show.

edit: The video has a very few NSFW moments, mostly me cursing dice and models.

I played a game? I played a game!

I got in my first game in far too long on Thursday, a re-engagement with 40k.  EV fielded a very nice Plague Marine army, while I dusted off the Blood Angels.  I went with the BAs mostly because I've had a hankering for them lately, but also because my Orks are not assembled enough to field a viable army.  I've been poking around the internets trying to get a handle on how 40k plays now.  I'm trying to avoid just copying a list off said internets as I don't think that really helps you learn.  While you might win your game, just following the instructions on the box doesn't really teach you anything, and as a result you don't grow as a player.  So I'm taking what I "learn" from these various sources and trying it out for myself.  At least that's the plan so far.

With that context set, my list was a bit of a mongrel.  Back in 3rd edition I ran mechanized Blood Angels, so I'm both familiar with the concept and wanting to try something different.  I ran mech back then because I couldn't do a jump pack list, so my only real option to do a fast, combat-oriented army was to stock up on tactical squads in rhinos.  In this brave new-to-me world of Blood Angels with assault squads as troops, the paradigm has changed and the door is open to run a different kind of list.  However, I lack the minis to run an all jump pack list, hence the mongrel list that I ended up with.  It's a mix of jumpers, mech, and fire support.  No detailed lists for this because of the nature of wargear in 40k, but also because this isn't a full-on battle report in the manner that I usually do them.  "Army lists" and more after the break.



Librarian w/ Jump Pack, Shield of Sanguinius, Blood Lance
2 x Sanguinary Priests, 1 w/ Jump Pack
10 x Assault Marines w/ Meltagun, Plasma Pistol, Power Fist
10 x Assault Marines w/2 Plasma Pistols, Power Fist
10 x Jumpless Assault Marines w/ Meltagun, Flamer, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Rhino w/ Extra Armor
10 x Jumpless Assault Marines w/ Meltagun, Flamer, Power Fist, Rhino w/ Extra Armor
10 x Tactical Marines w/ Lascannon, Plasmagun, Power Weapon, Rhino w/ Extra Armor
5 x Devastator Marines w/ 4 Missile Launchers, Heavy Bolter Razorback w/ Extra Armor

The idea was to use the tac squad to hold objectives, put a SP (who stays in the box) in the razorback with the devastators (who get out at a good position), then put the librarian in one jump squad and the other SP in the other jump squad.  I wanted to hit in two waves or assault troops, but wasn't too sure who would get there first.  I had run lists something like this in 3rd edition, so I had a decent idea of how it would work.

EV ran something like this.  I don't know particulars, so it's a ballpark thing.
2 x Daemon Princes
3 x Plague Marines in Rhinos
1 Plague Marine squad on foot
3 x Vindicators

As you'll see in a moment, and can probably deduce from the Plague Marine nature, EV set up a gun line of sorts and waited for me to come to him.  His nicely painted marines put mine to shame, which may have affected the outcome.  I'll remedy that situation, hopefully in the not-so-distant future.

Things started bad for me.  I brought the tac squad to hold objectives, and we ended up with the good old fashioned "set up in opposite corners and come out swinging" mission, which meant there were no objectives to hold.  I should have taken a shot of the whole table, but the one below is a good representation.  I had a hill in my deployment zone that had decent fields of fire, so I set my devastators up there and let the SP ride around in style by himself.  I sent the tac squad north to engage one of EV's flanks and sent all the assault troops to hit the other flank.  This was probably a mistake in retrospect as I sent my troops the long way, and across open ground.  In my defense, I did try to screen the jumpers with the transports, but left gaps between the vehicles that the Vindicators could fire through.  One of many lessons for next time.

You can see my plan in action here.  Turn 2ish.

 Things unraveled quickly for me.  The tac squad rhino got mired on terrain (that I could have easily driven around), my drive-by meltagun shots didn't do much, and my assault marines never really got a charge off and were butchered by daemon princes.  I didn't make any headway against the Plague Marines.  As noted, my transport screen was ineffective and resulted in multiple pie plates dropping on my jumpers.  The result was that my desired two waves of attackers was more like 4 trickles of "attackers," who were easily picked off by those (literally) damned princes. 

What is left of my once-proud sons of Sanguinius.

The result was a near-perfect victory for EV.  I made a tactical error, as noted above, and got caught out by a couple mechanics.  The most notable one was that I had managed to misremember the to-wound chart.  I thought it worked like the to-hit chart, where equal numbers require 4s, higher/lower require 3s or 5s respectively, and doubled numbers require 2s and 6s.  That's awfully confusing when I look at it, but it makes plenty of sense to me.  Turns out it works differently, with each step of difference cranking the roll needed.  To put this in plainer terms, my troops needed 6s to wound the daemon princes (who I believe were toughness 6) instead of the 5s I thought they would have.  I also needed 5s to wound the Plague Marines, but I had expected that.  This meant that my regular troopers struggled to wound, and when they did the wounds were generally saved.  My power fists did a lot of missing, and my libby's force sword was ineffective against the daemon princes thanks to their Eternal Warrior.

My casualties mid-game.

I also had an issue with the assault squad in the second picture, who hopped out of their rhino and shot at the Vindicator with the intention of then assaulting it as well as the Plague Marines on the hill.  They blew up the Vindicator, which was nice, but then couldn't assault it, which wasn't nice.  Since they had shot the Vindicator, they couldn't assault a different squad, so they just waited to be cut down like their brothers.  At least they didn't have to wait long.  There were also some growing pains with the new cover system, but I think I got a handle on it quickly enough.  There were certainly learning opportunities all over the place.

EV's losses, plus a rhino and vindicator (not shown).

In the end, my lack of charging doomed my troops.  My various mis-steps didn't help either, but it was good to get a game of 40k in for the first time in years.  The devastators, which I included based on internet reviews, were the stars of my side, for what that was worth.  As such, they'll probably see more table time in the future.  I'm working on a list now that drops the transports for more jumpers and devastators, but it requires some extra pieces.  I think I'll substitute in jump packs on some of the foot assaulters to make a third jump squad, which should help.  I already started digging for more missile launchers and managed another 4 of them, so I'll have another devastator squad for next time as well.  I'm trying to tune the list to fit in as many bodies as I can, while still equipping them enough to get the job done.  I'm also trying to do that without simply copy/pasting a list, and I'm doing it by hand as I don't have Army Builder anymore and I can't find a free one online like Forward Kommander.  I'll need to add another Sanguinary Priest, hopefully as part of an honor guard, and find some special weapons (meltas, fists, that sort of thing), but I think I have the basic pieces already and will just need to massage them into place.  I don't really like the spammy lists that I find everywhere I look, so I'm going to try and build in a little personality, but we'll see how that turns out.  In the meantime, it was nice to get a game in, even if it was a horrific defeat.  I guess I owe EV a couple after all those Uncharted Seas games.