BR2: The Black Buzzards VS IG Airborne - 1000pts

Another Battle report.

I changed my list a little adding a WWP, dropping two splinter cannons on the venoms and swapping out the power spears for venom blades.

The armies:

Black Buzzards (DE)

HQ
1 haem, web way portal

TROOPS
3 wracks, venom
3 wracks, venom

FAST ATTACK
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade

Imperial Guard

HQ
Command, astropath, autocannon

TROOPS
10 Vets, autocannon
10 Vets, plasma, 2 melta
10 Vets, plasma, 2 melta
10 Vets, plasma, 2 melta

FAST ATTACK
Vendetta
Vendetta
Valkyrie, multiple missile pods

FORTIFICATION
Bastion, Quad Gun

The scenario:
The mission is Crusade (objectives are represented by shields) using the Hammer and Anvil deployment. No nightfight (awww!). I roll Princeps of Deceit (only useful if I get to go first). My opponent rolls Strategic Genius (...CREEEEEED!!). My opponent wins the roll off and decides to go first. I roll a 1 on my combat drugs (NoOOoo!).


Deployment:
He deploys his bastion 12" away from the centre of the board in a nice central position. The Vets with the autocannon are deployed on top and the command squad is inside. Everything else is in reserve.

I hide my two venoms out of sight. The one with the Haemi slightly more forward so it can hop at out and drop the portal.



Turn 1(IG):
The guardsmen just twiddle their thumbs inside the bastion.


Turn 1(DE):
I move the portal venom towards the objective, the wracks and haemi jump out, drop the portal and hide behind it. The venom then jumps back out of sight using flat out in the shooting phase (This was a mistake. You can't actually do this as a vehicle that has moved before a unit disembarks can't move again). The other venom moves flat out towards another objective kept out of sight by a big space marine statue.


Turn 2 (IG):
All three vendetta/valks arrive (2+ re-rollable reserve thanks to the astropath and strategic genius). One Vendetta moves 18" onto the bottom of the board. The other two move 30" or so onto the top of the board. The Valkyrie fires all its weapons at the wrack and haemi behind the portal killing two. The Vendetta destroys the venom behind the ruin (I should have moved it further back, a bad mistake!). The Bastion can't see the wracks thanks to the portal!


Turn 2 (DE):
I rolls for reserves and get two reaver squads, as they move on the Quad Gun uses interceptor to take some shots, with only a 4+ cover save (as they have not turbo boosted yet) one reaver gets shot down. Both reaver squads bladevane the vets one the battlements, there was debate on how cover works with bladevanes in this edition, we decided that the guard would get their cover save, it didn't make a difference as they still all died (leaving the quad gun unmanned)! My surviving venom tucks itself away.


Turn 3 (IG):
The vendetta near the wracks switches into hover mode to drop the Vets who annihilate the wracks and the haemi, securing the objective. The Valkyrie switches into hover mode so that it can turn around and engage the reavers, however it was too far away to be able to deploy the vets within rapid fire range so my opponent kept them embarked. The last vendetta, switches to hover mode and turns around deploying the vets. The vendetta and the vets fire at the bottom squad of reavers who don't have FNP, despite 2 plasmagun, 1 melta and 2 lascannon hits they inflict 3 casualties (3+ cover really helps!). The other squad who has FNP gets hit by the bastions heavy bolter and the command squads autocannon, inflicting a casualty. The Valkyrie then fires it's multilaser and missile pods (one misses completely the other rolls a bullseye), inflicting 2 casualties (3++/5+FNP against S6/S7 ftw!). Both reaver squads pass their leadership tests (Go... arena champions).


Turn 3 (DE):
The last reaver squad comes out of the portal and moves behind the vendetta, fire their heat lances destroying it and jump behind the rocks in the assault phase (the explosion just misses the Vets). The six man reaver squad moves up to the vendetta destroying it, none of the vets survive as their remains are splattered all over the forest. The other reaper squad shoots and assaults the guardsmen (overwatch didn't do anything) killing them all and getting a pain token.


Turn 4 (IG):
The Vets huddle around the portal for cover and the vendetta switches back to zoom mode, does a 90 degree turn and heads towards the vets. The bastions heavy bolter and autocannon kill a reaver.


Turn 4 (DE):
The 9 man reaver squad does an L bladevane (moving 12" in one direction, to get a better angle for the straight line turbo boost) over the guardsmen killing 6 (as they went to ground) they pass their leadership test. The other two reaver squads move forward and fire all their heatlances into the bastion, a few glance, however the last one manages to penetrate and roll detonation (the command squad does not survive the 4D6 S6 hits). The venom moves onto the objective, however the wracks do not disembark as they are more likely to survive S4 hits from the venom exploding then the S9 hits from the vendettas lascannons.



Turn 5 (IG):
No night fight. The Vendetta turns 90 degrees and destroys the venom, killing one wrack.


Turn 5 (DE):
One Reaver squad blade vanes the remaining vets killing them all. The second reaver squad moves 9" away from the Valkyries rear armour, positioned in such a way that it would be able to bladevane the vets if they survived the first bladevane attack from the other reaver squad (advantage of turbo-boost being in the shooting phase). The reavers manage to get one penetrating hit despite snapfiring the vendetta the crew is stunned forcing the vendetta to fly off the board in the next turn. The game is called. Victory for the Buzzards!


Conclusion
Another fun game. What did I learn?

-Flyers are not as scary as I thought they would be. DE are very mobile and can force the flyers to waste turns not shooting or go into hovermode.
-Web way portals work really well with reavers and are important for Hammer and Anvil deployment. They also help you threaten vehicles when you come in from reserve.
-Quad Guns firing at models that come on from reserve before they turboboost is something to watch out for.
-FNP against S6-7 is really useful.
-Bladevanes and cover other then area cover can be rather complicated (and probably needs a FAQ)


Hope you enjoyed the report!

One word: Fantastic, beautiful, gorgeous. I'm fallen in love with this stuff.

Funnily with the start of 6th I had a simliar jetbike army idea, but wanted to have scoring jetbikes since I usually go for higher point matches (1500+) where it's unlikely to table everyone, which made me get a lot of eldar ally stuff like 2x6GJB, 1x Farseer on Jetbike, but smaller RJB squads. I got like 2x3 RJB and one 6 man squad.

I love your list but I'm really curios what you would bring for higher point lists like 1500, 1850, ...

Nonetheless, keep your amazing work up!

SleepyPillow wrote:

One word: Fantastic, beautiful, gorgeous. I'm fallen in love with this stuff.

Thanks!

SleepyPillow wrote:

I love your list but I'm really curios what you would bring for higher point lists like 1500, 1850, ...

I have been thinking about that a lot lately. The main reason I'm playing 1000 points is in my opinion its vary unforgiving (especially for DE) so I find it quite good for testing concepts. It also means your lists have to be quite lean, like dropping splinter cannons on the venoms not running caltrops, which in some cases makes you realise you don't need them (my venoms rarely get a chance to shoot) . Normally I play in the 1500 point range,

At first I thought this would be an alpha strike list. However after a few games I realised, I really don't like going first with this list as my opponent can deploy stuff to minimise the bladevane damage (Not that going first means you lose, it's still strong especially with night fight and 2+ cover saves). This army just plays better reacting to your opponent.

I thought about adding more haemies so my reavers can start with FNP, but you can't do this if you come on from reserve so thats a big no no.

Then I was looking through my eldar dex and realised that an autarch would be perfect, he would give a unit a bit more CC crunch but more importantly +1 to reserve rolls (and is now immune to S6 Instant death). Eldar jetbikes are also great, despite being the same cost as a reaver (and terrible in comparison) they bring one thing to the table that reavers don't: they are scoring! (with the change to units inside transports not being scoring this is really important).

So, as it stands I'm going to add: a jetbike Autarch and two squads of three guardian jetbikes. I'm also going to top up the reaver squads to 10, give the venoms night fields and splinter cannons.

Which leaves me with about 200pts to play with (assuming 1500pt army).

Mushkilla wrote:

Another Battle report.

Black Buzzards (DE)

HQ
1 haem, web way portal

TROOPS
3 wracks, venom
3 wracks, venom

FAST ATTACK
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade

To paraphrase my favorite movie, "he didn't get Command's approval; he just thought it up and did it. He was going to fight this war his way. What balls."

Bravo sir. Makes me want to buy the older Battle Force---the one that has five Reaver Jetbikes in it instead of 3.

LTKage wrote:

To paraphrase my favorite movie, "he didn't get Command's approval; he just thought it up and did it. He was going to fight this war his way. What balls."

"...the bullshit piled up so fast in Realspace, you needed a jetbike to stay above it."

No wonder Mushkilla put a weed up Command's ass. The war was being run by a bunch of four star clowns who were gonna end up giving the whole circus away.

Nice report, I really like your army.

Hm Im interested in that L move with bikes. In codex its written that you choose 2 points, and make a line between them. I always thought it has to be straight line. So... you can do such maneuvers ?

Zanais wrote:

Hm Im interested in that L move with bikes. In codex its written that you choose 2 points, and make a line between them. I always thought it has to be straight line. So... you can do such maneuvers ?

You are correct it is a straight line. However in 6th edition you turbo boost in the shooting phase. This means you can move 12" in your movement phase (the blue line), and then turbo boost in your shooting phase (the yellow line). It's worth noting that you can only hit units under the yellow line as that is your turbo boost (and blade vanes are used during your turbo boost).

The diagram (turn 4) is misleading as the arrow makes it looked like they moved straight and then curved over to the right. What actually happened is the reavers (who were behind the rock) moved toward the ruins on the left in their movement phase (blue line), and then in the shooting phase turbo boosted over the guardsmen toward the forest (yellow line).

Similar to a knight's move in chess, that's why I call it an L move.



Hope that clears it up for you.

Ah, great, now I get it, thanks for detailed answer !

Am I missing something? Rules say 50% must be deployed, excluding units which must start in reserve. 2/5 != 1/2. Or am I mistaken?

First off, amazing list. I've been working on something similar at a larger scale (but realized i couldnt afford it). These reps are wonderful, so keep them coming.

@IASGATG. The haemie counts as well, so he is deploying 3 of 6. Also, its half your units, rounding up, that can be in reserves, so 2/5 would be legit anywho.

I meant the guard player. He has 4 Vet squads and 1 command squad, 5. He deploys 2. 2/5. 2/5 != 1/2. The rounding up means that 2/5 isn't legal, or am I really herping on my maths at the minute?

Also, surely the venom's count too, no? There are 8 units in the DE list, 5 of which get deployed.

Sorry about that. Little things like that are why I try not to post from a phone. But 2/5 is still legit. One half the list, rounding up allows him to place up to 3 units in reserve. So 2/5 deployed is kosher.

Depends how you look at the "rounding up". If you're rounding up from 2/5 to 3/5, then yes. If you're rounding up from 2/5 to 2/6, then no. I think I'm going to need to re-read the rules before I'm happy with this.

Roc wrote:

First off, amazing list. I've been working on something similar at a larger scale (but realized i couldnt afford it). These reps are wonderful, so keep them coming.

Thanks!

Yeah bikes are probably the most expensive DE unit considering how little there is on the sprue. I had 18 from 5th ed and 30 of so of the old ones, so it it wasn't too bad topping up to 27 new ones (I always buy online for 20-25% off) I have also been using my old raider and ravager models (terrible I know) but buying all those raider is expensive. On the bright side I have 30 old bikes when I want to field 60 bikes at 2000 points.

IASGATG wrote:

Depends how you look at the "rounding up". If you're rounding up from 2/5 to 3/5, then yes. If you're rounding up from 2/5 to 2/6, then no. I think I'm going to need to re-read the rules before I'm happy with this.

It works because the valks don't count so he has 2 units on the board and 3 in reserve (I'm a daemon player so I have been used to this rounding up deployment for ages).

"players can choose to not deploy half their army rounding up" - BRB page 124

5/2 = 2.5 rounds up to 3 therefore you can keep 3 units in reserve.

As for venoms they count as one choice with the unit they are purchased with (as they are dedicated transports). So I had 3 units on the board and 3 off.

Great bat rep again man. Love the diagrams.

As for the coversaves against bladevane attacks. As I've understood it, those guys are 'in' the bastion for gamepurposes such as these situations (even thought they're on the roof factually) and thus get a cover save. If they would've been right behind the bastion I'd deny them coversaves while using my bladevanes (as they are not hiding inside area terrain such as a ruïn or a fortification). So you played correctly IMHO.

tlronin wrote:

Great bat rep again man. Love the diagrams.

As for the coversaves against bladevane attacks. As I've understood it, those guys are 'in' the bastion for gamepurposes such as these situations (even thought they're on the roof factually) and thus get a cover save. If they would've been right behind the bastion I'd deny them coversaves while using my bladevanes (as they are not hiding inside area terrain such as a ruïn or a fortification). So you played correctly IMHO.

Glad you like the reports, pictures mean I have to write less.

To be honest I hope we actually get a FAQ on how to use cover with bladevanes, because every now and then you get someone claiming the model you flew over 10" earlier grants the target unit a cover save. I think only area cover, and walls (defence line and fortifications) should give you a save. At least there were some clarifications with how to resolve bladevane wounds thanks to the chaos daemon screamer update which said "use the final position of the screamers for allocating wounds" (randomizing was a nightmare).

Yup, tell me about it. Randomizing was really awfull.

Very inspiring, especially since those Reavers are my favourite models. Perhaps I should consider more of them!

Chaeril wrote:

Very inspiring, especially since those Reavers are my favourite models. Perhaps I should consider more of them!

Thanks, if you have the models it is definitely worth a go.

Man I need more Reavers. I've got 12 (older, cooler!) ones which work well, but on this scale they're absolutely terrifying. Absolutely love the Buzzards' reports! Hope there are more to come.