The Lists
The newest incarnation of my Iron Warriors army list features the inductii as a much more reasonably priced way for me to get a squad of shotguns on the table. Aside from that, the other main difference from the list featured previously is that I'm up to 4 rhinos and one of the tactical squads was replaced with a small melta support squad.
Pitted against the Iron Warriors today is my 'war crimes from the skies' Blood Angels list. These guys take advantage of the master of descent's ability to guarantee a first turn deep strike, letting the inferno pistol squads get in reliably on the back armour of vehicles.
Deployment
This battle is my first time trying the Take and Hold mission. This mission features two objectives that start the game worth 3 points each, but their value goes down each time they are scored. Placing these objectives in the center of the board seemed necessary to keep the game from being super swingy with the Hammer and Anvil deployment zones. Iron Warriors lost the roll, so they deployed first and will be taking the first turn. Blood Angels have the following units in reserves:
- Veteran Assault Squad with Master of Descent
- Veteran Assault Squad #2
- Veteran Heavy Support Squad in Drop Pod
- Xiphon Interceptor
Iron Warriors have their sniper recon squad deployed in front of the inductii rhino. Dreads, vindicators, and the retinue in the landraider hold the center of the board, with the melta squad and a tactical squad with a centurion in rhinos behind them. The whirlwind is sitting at the back of the board. The bottom ruins have the augur command and control squad joined by the vigilator, with the other tactical squad and librarian in a rhino behind them.
Blood Angels fail to seize the initiative, so Iron Warriors start turn 1.
Iron Warriors Turn 1
The Iron Warriors did manage to score both objectives, getting a cool 9 points to start the game.
Blood Angels Turn 1
The Vindicators were able to kill the land raider and pin the warsmith's retinue. Statuses from the rapiers and leviathan made it so they iron warriors couldn't contest the bottom objective, letting the tactical squad score on it.
The reserve units were not that effective. The xiphon did a single wound to the deredeo, and the first deep striking veteran squad managed a penetrating hit, a stun, and a pin on the whirlwind. Luckily, both were able to deploy in such a way that the deredeo couldn't shoot them on arrival.
With two 4 point objectives and the two points from First Strike, the Blood Angels take the lead with 10 points. (This is marked as 12 points on the scoreboard below because I gave some extra points before catching this later.)
Iron Warriors Turn 2
Things got a bit scrappy on this turn. At the top of the board, the inductii swung around to shoot and charge the tactical squad. The Blood Angels tacticals did have an opportunity to exchange fire with the recon snipers, wiping them out before getting pinned and stunned by all the incoming fire. The Blood Angels didn't do as well in combat, with no models dying and both squads getting locked in combat. Also luckily, the vigilator made an across-the-table sniper shot to pin the large assault squad.
In the backline, the melta squad disembarked and shot down all of the inferno pistol veterans, leaving the master of descent alive. In front of them, the vindicators were able to take out the quad-mortar rapiers and one of the heavy bolter rapiers.
At the bottom of the table, the librarian's telepathy abilities pushed the enemy tactical squad off the objective. The rest of the units split fire between the tacticals and the veterans. The contemptor's gravis plasma cannon shot clipped the rhino, finishing it off.
The tactical squad with the librarian were not able to shake their status at the end of the turn, so the Iron Warriors only got a single victory point there due to the dreadnought. This ties the game up at 10 points a piece.
Blood Angels Turn 2
With the large assault squad pinned at the top of the table, there was only the one combat left to resolve up there. The inductii won the battle, which surprisingly caused the tactical squad to fall back all the way off the table.
In the centre of the board, the Blood Angels vindicators managed to take out one of the Iron Warriors vindicators but the other was saved by smoke launchers. The leviathan and heavy bolter rapier both pushed up, getting some more damage on the enemy infantry. This ended up stunning pinning one tactical squad and causing the other to route off the objective.
The tactical squad regrouped with their vox and charged the enemy rhino, pinning it with a glancing it. The veteran tactical squad have also continued to shoot, but their disintegrator rifles haven't really done much worth writing about. Since it couldn't move, the rhino died to the Blood Angels tactical squad in the second round of combat.
Behind enemy lines, the xiphon came in but was shot down by the deredeo. The second veteran squad came on automatically because the master of descent was still alive, but their shooting really didn't do much to the terminator squad. The master of descent looped around the whirlwind before charging it, but his krak grenade didn't get the job done.
The assault squad managed to shake their pinned status, scoring the final objective point of the game. The Blood Angels now have a one point lead with their 11 victory points.
Iron Warriors Turn 3
At this point of the game the priority has fully shifted to winning the secondary objectives. The warsmith's unit is finally able to move, and when they pushed up the center of the table the large assault squad reacted to move away. A decent amount of fire was focused into that assault squad, killing nearly half of them. The surviving vindicator swung back to try to take out the veteran assault squad but missed his shot. The melta squad had some bad rolls and only killed one of them. Then the tactical squad behind the deredeo shot them, triggering the Blood Angels advanced reaction. This let the still mostly unharmed unit fly down towards the bottom of the board, threating some nasty repercussions for the next turn.
In the centre of the board, the warsmith's unit attempted a charge on the leviathan that did not go very well. Three terminators were killed between the volley fire and the close combat damage, and only two wounds were dealt to the leviathan. Luckily the warsmith passed his leadership check so that combat will continue next turn.
At the bottom of the board, concentrated fire and a contemptor charge finished off the veteran squad. The Blood Angels tactical squad was pinned by shrapnel cannon fire. The librarian and tactical squad sergeant did manage to regroup at the end of the turn.
No points were scored this turn.
Blood Angels Turn 3
The final reserves unit automatically came in due to the master of descent still being alive. The heavy flamer squad reduced the inductii to 3 men, causing them to route. In the backline, the master of descent continued to ineffectually try to beat up tanks with his faulty krak grenades. The surviving veteran assault squad attempted a charge on the tactical squad but lost the combat and were routed.
Back to the center of the board, the vindicators took out the deredeo and have now established complete dominance. The rapier heavy bolter fired at the augury c&c squad, but the return fire from the vigilator sniped the big gun. The other rapier crew has hidden behind the ruins to try to preserve units for Last Man Standing. The Assault Squad charged in to help the leviathan out, but that combat didn't go very well for the Blood Angels. The praetor lost the challenge to the warsmith, and not much else died. The leviathan broke and routed, but the assault squad stayed to fight.
No points were scored this turn.
Iron Warriors Turn 4
At the top of the board, the vindicator turned his gun on the veteran heavy support squad and killed three of them. The inductii fell back and regrouped at the end of the turn. The melta squad and rhino weren't able to kill the master of descent. The Whirlwind tried to lob a shot at the enemy vindicator, but missed.
The warsmith's unit routed the assault squad in the middle of the table, pursuing them to continue the combat.
At the bottom of the board, the Iron Warriors tried to finish off the blood angels tactical squad but one of them survived.
No points were scored this turn.
Blood Angels Turn 4
The Blood Angels needed to get Last Man Standing to win the game, but weren't able to get there. The heavy flamer veteran wasn't quite able to finish off the inductii. The master of descent got a charge off against the melta squad and caused them to route. The assault squad lost another round of combat and continued routing, but were able to regroup at the end of the turn. The vindicators and the large rapier crew focused fire on the augur c&c squad, killing them all and routing the vigilator. Finally, at the bottom of the board the leviathan charged the contemptor. It wasn't able to prevent the death of the final tactical marine, and didn't quite manage to finish off the enemy dreadnought.
With that, Iron Warriors are able to get the bonus points for Last Man Standing, with 13 units to the Blood Angels' 9. Iron Warriors then win the game with 16 victory points!
Conclusions
This was another dramatic and fun game. I quite liked the mission, having the objectives in the center of the board gave a great reason for the armies to push towards each other and it was cool how the game changed once the objectives went away. I do worry that if the objectives were placed back in the deployment zones it would make for a much more static battle.
The Blood Angels list mostly worked ok, but there were a couple of units that were underwhelming. The disintegrator rifles were fairly useless, and I think that veteran squad would have been much more effective as a different unit. The inferno pistols being damage 1 was also fairly limiting. Having small squads meant they were able to drop in behind terrain and avoid reaction fire, but it did limit their effectiveness quite a bit. They might be better as a single 10 man unit instead of two 5 man units. On the plus side, the leviathan with assault cannons was very nasty. It's shooting was very effective, and the extra toughness and wounds over a contemptor made it very survivable. The rapiers and vindicators were also a very effective fire base.
I think the Blood Angels had a real shot at winning this game if their rolls had went slightly better in turn 3. The warsmith was a single invulnerable save away from death in the challenge against the praetor, and the veteran assault squad losing combat to a tactical squad (with a centurion) was fairly unlucky.
One thing that surprised me about the Iron Warriors list is how nice it is to have the techmarines tanking wounds with their 2+ armour saves. I didn't point it out much in the report above, but having techmarines or characters in three of my squads meant that they were surprisingly resilient to shooting.
Overall, this was a great game. With this, I've now done solo runs of each of the three missions from the main rule book, each with a different deployment style. I'm now quite convinced that the terrain and objectives should be set up to match the deployment zones, but aside from that I think the missions are very good. Four turns continues to feel like a very good spot for mission length.
