BR1: The Black Buzzards VS Blood Angels - 1000pts

Hi, I'm new to these forums, it's nice to finally find a dedicated Dark Eldar forum!

With out further ado my first post will be a battle report .

The armies:

Black Buzzards (DE)

HQ
1 haem

TROOPS
3 wracks, venom, splinter cannon
3 wracks, venom, splinter cannon

FAST ATTACK
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, power spear
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, power spear
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, power spear

Blood Angels

HQ
Librarian, jump pack, blood lance and sword of sang

ELITE
Sang Priest, jump pack

TROOPS
10 Assault marines, 2 meltas, powerfist
10 Assault marines, 2 meltas, powerfist

FAST ATTACK
Baal Predator, assault cannons

HEAVY
Predator, autocannon
Predator, autocannon
Predator, autocannon

The scenario:

Dawn of War deployment playing purge the alien mission. We both agree that the terrain that was already set up on the board would be adequate. We roll warlord treats, I get master of the ambush: all my outflanking units have acute senses (yay!). My opponent gets Coordinated Assault: +1 charge range. Roll for night fight, nope not this time (yay! again). I lose the roll off for deployment so my opponent chooses to deploy first (sigh). I roll +1 WS for my combat drugs. This does not bode well for the Buzzards.

I decide to deploy my two venoms on the board out of sight and as far away from his baal predator who was on the left flank. I keep my reavers in reserve, one is accompanied by the Haem (half my army in reserve rounding up).

Deployment:



Turn 1(BA):
The blood angels move their assault troops forward, and the baal speeds in from the left. The Predators move forward to cover more of the board in preparation for the reavers.


Turn 1(DE):
I don't move the venoms, as bringing them out to shoot would be too risky.


Turn 2 (BA):
The Assault troops move forward again, the Baal predator rushes forward this time in range of one of the venoms, the assault cannon inflicts one penetrating and one glancing hit fortunately the penetrating hit is saved by the flikerfield. The other predators stay put.


Turn 2 (DE):
Roll for reserves and all three reaver squads come one (finally some good luck!). The Haem leaves one of the reaver units and promptly hides in a bush (I realised this is illegal after writing this report, fortunately the unit with the pain token never got shot at! so it did not affect the game, in future I will just run him with the wracks unless I start with the reavers on the board). The three reavers surge forwar all bladevaning the left most assault squad with the sanguine priest killing 6 marines, despite the heavy casualties they hold. The two venoms flat out towards the enemies back field.


Turn 3 (BA):
The Assault troops turn around to head back towards the reavers, the sang priest joins the larger squad. The baal predator guns down the Haemi. The predators reverse and focus their fire on one of the reaver squads that doesn't have a pain token inflicting 1 wound (go 3+ jink save!)(forgot to show this on the diagram). The Assault troops fire at the venom and take of a hull point


Turn 3 (DE):
Each reaver squad moves towards their respective predator and unleashes the heat. Three explosions later they use their assault move to jet away from the assault squads. The venoms fire their splinter cannons at the smaller of the two assault squads, despite filling the air with splinters they only manage to inflict one casualty.


Turn 4 (BA):
The Baal predator moves forward and manages to take out the damaged venom. Despite the explosion two wracks survive and don't run away. The assault troops move towards the reavers in the corner and shoot, inflicting two casualties, however they fail to make the 10" charge (I completly forgot to use overwatch against them!). The smaller squad assaults the two surviving wracks killing them and consolidate towards the reavers.


Turn 4 (DE):
One of the reaver squads turbo-boosts towards the Baal, bladevaning the small assault squad (Thanks to an L move), killing them off. The second reaver squad baldevanes the large assault squad killing 3. The venom moves back and gets a few shots at the assault marines inflicting a single casualty. The third squads jump towards the large assault unit, fire all their weapons killing 3 and charging the rest (sang priest, librarian, and the 4 remaining marines). The over watch fails to inflict any casualties and the reaver squad slams home. No challenges are made. The wrath hits inflict a casualty and the WS5 S3 attacks inflict 2 more. Finally the S4 power spear attacks inflict another two leaving only the librarian standing. The librarian cast sanguine sword and inflicts a single casualty. He fails his leardership test but thanks "ATSKNF" he doesn't get killed by the sweeping advance.


Turn 5 (BA):
The Baal fires at the reavers killing two. The reavers roll well and kill the librarian before he gets to swing


Turn 5 (DE):
Everything hurtles towards the Baal and the reavers that were near by destroy it (heat lances are just amazing!). The Blood angels are no more. The Black Buzzards are victorious!


Conclusion

That was a load of fun. My opponent was baffled by the end of the game. Colour me impressed 48" moves, heat lances, FNP, bladevanes and jink makes reavers a great unit this edition. I'm not sold on the power spears just yet as combat often lasts more then a phase against marines. I still think cluster caltrops are only worth it if you plan on bladevaning every turn, which most of the time I don't. Large squads seem a lot more usable thanks to the 4+ jink save for moving, and they help keep lances alive with the new wound allocation rules. Being T4 for feel no pain really helps against autocannons and assaultcannons. The flexibility of being able to do damage whilst relocating, is just spectacular. Furthermore the increased reliability of reserves this edition is such a great I have always felt the need for more reliable reserve rolls as a DE player.

Hope you enjoyed the report!

That's what I call an amazing battlereport, thanks for all the work! Your list Idea was pretty cool and turned out to be awesome.

very nice and good job. Sadly, most of the time, this will not cut it, but Yay! none the less

SleepyPillow wrote:

That's what I call an amazing battlereport, thanks for all the work! Your list Idea was pretty cool and turned out to be awesome.

Thanks, it worked out really well that game.

Enfernux wrote:

very nice and good job. Sadly, most of the time, this will not cut it, but Yay! none the less

I have always liked reaver jetbikes since the 1st DE codex, when you like a unit you try to make it work!

In 5th reavers were viable but a list like this would just fall apart, however they were still good in small groups for getting mobile heat lances into a list. So here I am in 6th playing a weak least just to see what's changed. You should always try running the units you like regardless of what the internet says, chances are it won't work out and the internet was right, but at least you confirmed it yourself.

That was a strong blood angel list. I asked my opponent what he would have done differently. He said he would have kept his army together and castled up, so that the reavers were vulnerable to shooting and assault when they got close to his tanks. He later remarked that being forced to castle like that could have lead to a lot of problems in an objective based mission. One thing was for sure is that he wouldn't advance his army against reavers in reserve like that again. All fair points and I think the game would have been a lot closer if it had played out that way. The victory was only so decisive because he had never faced anything quite like this before.

As he put it:

"I mean a 48" move is fast, but you don't realise how fast until you get cut to pieces like that. And here was me thinking my BA were pretty fast!"

i should use the unites i like...hmm...incubi as troops?? Maybe? Nooo
I'm gay for incubi, gay for sliscus though he would only play part in wyches double roll for drugs.

nice battle report. How was it using such large Reaver squads??? Personally I dont like them that size (although I do think that they are now 100% worth their 22 points now with a 4+ coversave at all times).

Mushkilla wrote:

You should always try running the units you like regardless of what the internet says, chances are it won't work out and the internet was right, but at least you confirmed it yourself.

Excellent advice. I've been put off using units I wanted because the internet says they're rubbish, then had a go with them and found they're actually pretty good for what I want to do with them.

Enfernux wrote:

i should use the unites i like...hmm...incubi as troops?? Maybe? Nooo
I'm gay for incubi, gay for sliscus though he would only play part in wyches double roll for drugs.

Well I'm sure if you take CREED as an ally he will find a way to run incubi as troops.

Shadows Revenge wrote:

nice battle report. How was it using such large Reaver squads??? Personally I dont like them that size (although I do think that they are now 100% worth their 22 points now with a 4+ coversave at all times).

Really fun. Jink and skilled rider are what makes the larger squads usable as it means you only need to consider terrain when trying to prevent enemies from assaulting you. You no longer have to try and fit 9 models behind a ruin to get a cover save so moving them isn't a pain any more. It also makes using heat lances a lot less suicidal. The larger squad means they are less likely to lose heat lances and packing more heatlances means they are lot more reliable against vehicles. In large number the reavers becomes viable in assault and at shooting. Their ability to be anywhere means you can single out vulnerable units. Even basic bladevanes become effective. In my opinion the bigger squads really open up more options.

EDIT: I just realised I didn't use overwatch when the assault squad tried to charge my reavers! That's the good thing about writing battle reports, especially when there is a new edition, you realise the mistakes you make.

Great report! Looked like a really fun game.

Mushkilla wrote:

EDIT: I just realised I didn't use overwatch when the assault squad tried to charge my reavers! That's the good thing about writing battle reports, especially when there is a new edition, you realise the mistakes you make.

none the less, you won!
btw those added pics make it really imaginable.

Enfernux wrote:

btw those added pics make it really imaginable.

I'm glad they helped. I'm a terrible descriptive writer, so it was a lot easier for me to put diagrams together instead.

I'm a little late, but very nice bat. rep. thank you very much. You've inspired me to push trough with my Reaver oriënted army.

One little thing though, a small question. I didn't know you could make a L shaped bladevanes attack? I thought you should draw an imaginary straight line from beginning point to end point and resolve hits on 1 unit under that imaginary straight line. Am I wrong?

tlronin wrote:

I'm a little late, but very nice bat. rep. thank you very much. You've inspired me to push trough with my Reaver oriënted army.

One little thing though, a small question. I didn't know you could make a L shaped bladevanes attack? I thought you should draw an imaginary straight line from beginning point to end point and resolve hits on 1 unit under that imaginary straight line. Am I wrong?

Thanks,

You are right about the straight line however check battle report 2 in my signature someone asked the same questions and I posted a picture explaining how the L blade vane works. All the reports in my signature are with similar reaver lists. Hope that helps clear it up.

You're too fast! Just done with Bat Rep 2 and realized you were probably moving 12" in the movement phase first b4 turboboosting now. Jeej 6th! Awesome stuff. Ok, no problems then.

Yeah the best changes in 6th for reavers are:

-48" move meaning you can bladevane anything on the board when you come in from reserve (apart from in hammer of wrath).

-4+ jink save for moving, which makes heatlances a lot less suicidal.

-FNP working against power weapons and anything less then S8 (due to the change on how Toughness on bikes is used), which makes combat, autocannons and S6 less scary.

These three changes have completely transformed how they play.

Yup. Well I only have 6 done so far (am a bit strange and only want to use painted models) and my BA opponent from a couple of days ago was very impressed by the Reavers and didn't want to play with his Orks against me.

I use CCs by the way. Love them on my Reavers to be honest. Do use Heatlances though. Can't think of a better anti tank weapon currently!

tlronin wrote:

I use CCs by the way. Love them on my Reavers to be honest.

In my last report I used caltrops. I just have a tough time making my mind up about them for 6 it's 120 points, and 180 for 9! That being said I can't deny their effectiveness, they really help you get a pain token early on. Though they are pretty useless against a vehicle heavy lists (the debate rages on).

True. But seeing as you're the Reavers nut, I'd say let your boys shine the brightest they can.

I've read the discussion about dissies on Ravagers for less points. But if you follow your battles you see you turboboost over a unit almost every turn. I'd almost advice you to use Ravagers with DLs for primary AT and the Reavers as primary AI, since they are very good at that anyway. But I wouldn't leave the HL home per se, for when you can't bladevane a turn. Your Reavers nééd to do something important every turn, for their points.

tlronin wrote:

True. But seeing as you're the Reavers nut, I'd say let your boys shine the brightest they can.

I've read the discussion about dissies on Ravagers for less points. But if you follow your battles you see you turboboost over a unit almost every turn. I'd almost advice you to use Ravagers with DLs for primary AT and the Reavers as primary AI, since they are very good at that anyway. But I wouldn't leave the HL home per se, for when you can't bladevane a turn. Your Reavers nééd to do something important every turn, for their points.

The thing is I find reavers more reliable as AT then our lances, also I often don't run ravagers (as amazing as they are) not to mention 6 caltrops buys me a ravager (one of the ways I could fit ravagers into the list)!

It all comes down to playstyle. I'm used to hanging back and pounce on the right moment, so I needed my 36" DLs. But if I'd switch my playstyle like yours and be in my opponents face constantly, the Heatlance is definatly king.

I completely agree, it all comes down to play style. Ravagers are one of the best units in the codex without a doubt I just don't normally have space for them and 6-9 heatlances are good enough to make of for not running them in terms of AT (at least in an aggressive list).