GrimDark Blood Angels Blog 24/09/19 *new warlord conversion*

[neonmole]

Hey Guys!

 

I wanted to post this after I got back, but what with the forum being down there has been a bit of a hiatus! Nevertheless, here is my brief report of my performance / experience at No Retreat 7!

 

For those not following the thread, I was playing my new army, that I have dubbed "Speartip of the Novus Sanguine", or colloquially, "The Repulsor List of Doom". It consists of the following.

 

Primaris Captain (Warlord, Artisan of War)

Primaris Lt (Archangels Shard Relic)

Primaris Ancient (Standard of Sacrifice Relic)

5x5 Intercessor Squads (Grenade Launcher / Power Sword on Sgt)

3xRepulsor (4 Las Loadout)

 

Pre-Games.

 

I played 2 games in advance of the main tournament, one against Sean's Harlequin army, a really lovely guy from Ireland, and the other against Simon from Sweden, and his Ynnari army.

 

Sean's Harlequins. 

 

Roughly his list was:

Solitaire

Troupe Master

Shadowseers

Approx. 5 Starwevers with Troupes in them

5 Bikes with the Haywire gun

 

I managed to win this one quite convincingly in the end. Ultimately it came down to me being better off in a war of attrition, while he definitely but some dents in my army, ultimately the remaining Repulsors were too much for him by turn 3-4, and began to take over the game while my remaining infantry cleaned up the objectives. So far so good!

 

WIN!

 

 

Simon's Ynnari

 

Roughly his list was:

Yncarne 

Farseer on jetbike

10 Wraithguard

5 Wraithblades

3x5 Dire Avengers

Hemlock

Wraithlord

 

I have never played against Ynnari so this was a real steep learning curve of a game for me. It was incredibly close, and ultimately, Simon won due to a few (one really) game breaking mistakes on my part. Basically he managed to quicken his Wraithguard up the board, who promptly one shot a Repulsor, they then Soulburst off this, and shoot a second one, crippling it in the process. Not a good start. I did manage to recover from here though, and actually get into a winning position. Then game my big mistake... I won't explain how the Yncarne works here (its really complex) but basically I got in a position where I had it dead to rights, however I made a mistake in the sequence of my shooting attacks, which allowed it to relocate to a safe position... meaning I couldn't then kill it. From there it dominated the game and I lost unfortunately. I really was kicking myself after this won, and swore vengeance upon Simon, hoping I would meet him in the tournament to have my satisfaction!

 

LOSS!

 

 

On to the tournament itself...

 

Game 1 - Stig's Admech

 

Techpriest Dominus

Enginseer

3x5 Rangers

2x40 Elecropriests

5x Dragoons

5x Lascannon Ironstriders

 

Ah my old nemesis Stig! Not really of course, we just played last time too. This was an interesting game, and one that I had been thinking about in advance, since we knew the first round pairing for a couple of days. For those that don't know, this kind of Stygies list basically wants to infiltrate the Electropriests, and Dragoons, for a simple turn one charge (not anymore post FAQ of course). My trump card here though is that Repulsers have "fly" meaning I can deploy my whole army on top of tall terrain, where they cannot be charged turn one. So thats what I did! Ultimately the game went more of less how I thought it would if I went first (which I did). Stig was able to kill a Repulsor pretty easily each turn with his Laschickens, but before they were all dead I had successfully eliminated his all star units, the electropriests and dragoons. From here its relatively straightforward case of me walking down rangers to claim objectives and win the game. When it concluded he had one Laschicken left, and I had won all the objectives. Good Start!

 

WIN! 28pts (max)

 

 

Game 2 - Jussi's Harlequins

 

Roughly his list was:

Solitaire

Troupe Master

Shadowseer

4 (I think) troupes in Starweavers

12 Bikes with the Haywire gun

 

So on paper this looks really hard for me, but ultimately I was able to pull it out. My experience against the harlequins in my practice game proved invaluable here, and armed me with the insight that I needed to play a good game. In reverse, Jussi I think would play this very differently in a rematch, but that is one of the advantages of my list, you have never seen anything like it! Ultimately I went first, and killed 10/12 bikes, crippling his ability to kill Repulsors at range. This meant he had to close in and fight me with his clowns in melee. Intuitively you probably imagine a bunch of clowns with Solitarie etc in tow win that brawl... not so. Yes he puts the hurt on me, but everytime I hit him back (including when models die due to the banner) I am wounding him on a 2 (re rolling) and forcing a 4+ save. Everytime he fails that its 25pts~. That is not a sustainable fight. So ultimately, I was actually able to win this in a punch up, and prevail in a war of attrition, which as it turns out is a common theme with this list... In the end he managed to draw on the secondary mission, denying me a couple of pts.

 

WIN! 24pts

 

I only took a single picture of my games this time, but heres a shot of this one, which is pretty representative of how this army tends to look on the table!

 

 

 

Game 3 - Mikey's Raven Guard.

 

His list roughly was:

Gabriel Angelos (he's playing blood ravens with raven guard tactics)

Lt

2x non blood angels smash captains

3x 5 scouts

2x forge world gun turret things

2x Leviathan with dual storm cannon

5 Agressors

 

So his basic plan is of course to infiltrate the captains, and the aggressors, and in best case go for a turn one charge to sabotage any hope you many have of dealing with the insane damage output of the 2 Levithans.... and that is basically how it went down! This was a massacre. Mikey went first, got off all his turn 1 charges, and just mauled me. Hindset 20/20, I could have deployed better to make it a much closer game, but going 2nd in this one really made it hard for me. Hey ho, I guess I feel vindicated since the FAQ basically killed this! But really, hats off to Mikey, great player, and gave me a really thrashing!

 

LOSS! (0pts) 

 

Game 4 - Simon's Ynnari (again!)

 

Well, well, well! I get my wish for vengeance! So this is the same list I played in the practice game above. But this time, I knew what I was doing a little bit! This was a pretty long and complex game (for a variety of weird reasons) but basically, now knowing what Ynnari do, and the capabilities of some of the units, I was able to play around it much better. This resulted in a big win for me, basically because I denied him the ability to get at my Repulsors in the way he did in our practice game. Once I had then eliminated the threats to them, it was pretty straightforward cleanup as he couldn't then really contest the amount of mobile firepower I had on the board.

 

WIN! 28pts (max)

 

 

Game 5 - Chema's Tzeenth Daemons

 

Im not going to try and tell you what he had. But basically it came down to a load of screening blobs of Horrors, which were standing in front of a bunch of characters. Exalted Flamers, Daemon Prince, Changling. All that stuff. He also had a couple of units of normal flamers which he deep struck.

 

So, this was a wierd one. I have never ever played against Tzeentch Daemons, and have literally no clue whatsoever what they do. This was not ideal, as despite being a really lovely guy, Chema is Spanish, and doesn't speak the best English (and I don't speak Spanish at all!). This made it quite hard for me to play a "good game" as I wasn't really sure what to do! With all that said, I don't think Chema knew what hit him here! His list is basically trying to screen all those characters with 3+invul horror blobs. You do this with strats/powers, not exactly sure what combo but anyway... He was visibly distressed at the volume of bullets my list put into him! Most lists probably can even think about getting through a screen like that, but this one can, simply due to the volume of dakka it puts out, and how hard the intercessors punch T3 in combat. In the end, I actually managed to table him pretty convincingly, and take a final win!

 

WIN! 28pts (max)

 

 

So in the end, I won 4/5 games, and played 5th/42 players! I was really thrilled with this result. As you guys know from following the blog, I did this for the modelling opportunity, not because I thought it was a good list, but it actually turned out to be a bit of a sleeper! The list is deceptively good!

 

In addition, I also won one of the 5 highly coveted SN awards. These are the 5 best armies as selected by the SN Battle Reports Team (event organisers). This was really the best thing I could have asked for, as my main motivation going in was tom take home some kind of painting award! Success!! This also has the added benefit of netting you an invitation to the next No Retreat event, allowing you to skip the (quite stressful, and very tough!) application process. Watch this space for me to do something for that!

 

 

All in all, a tremendous event, one that I cannot recommend highly enough, and wouldn't miss for the world. It is such a special gathering of people who just love the hobby in all its forms, and it ends up being a truly unique celebration of that.

 

Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoyed the event, and the whole process documented in this thread! 

 

 

Always a pleasure.

Cheers!

Edited October 11, 2018 by neonmole

[Aothaine]

Thank you for the great report! Really enjoyed reading it!

[Panzer]

Congrats on your wins! I always knew that mass Intercessors are better than people think. Tho I do admit the list looks rather boring .. I like some more variety in the unit choices.

 

May I ask how important CP were for you and which Stratagems you found using yourself the most considering that you couldn't pump all your CP into a Captain Smash or Mortal wound spam via Heavy Bolter?

Edited October 12, 2018 by sfPanzer

[neonmole]

I suppose that depends on your definition of boring. I did it because I thought it was cool, thematic, and the way I have always imagined a astartes strike force to look. From a play perspective it’s also pretty dynamic since it moves a lot.

 

Same as other marine armies really, very little use of sexy stratagems. Mostly your basic re roll & fight interupt, armour of contempt when appropriate, and red rampage whenever the captain charges. Honour the chapter a couple times on the captain, or even an Intercessor squad.

[Charlo]

Fantastic results mate, certainly deserved the best painted. Stunning army as I've always said.

 

I had a feeling your list would be deceptively brutal, you don't see many Pure Primaris out there and Intercessors are actually pretty great with some AP and combat bonuses from being BA. The Repulsors get a bad rep but that's because people want them and other stuff in the list, not just 3 giant floating gun blocks :D

[ShibeKing]

Wow. This is how I'd like my Blood Angels to look one day. Wonderful!

[Mostwanted]

Congratulations on the 5th place and well done for the award! As I've said before, it's a truly great looking force.

Could you let me know how you did the No Retreat writing on the banner?

[neonmole]

Thanks guys!

 

@mostwanted

 

It’s a transfer, I found it by chance on an old forgeworld IG transfer sheet that I bought a while back on eBay for the numerals it featured. It just seemed too perfect not to use for this project! Fits too since he has the Standard of Sacrifice! “No retreat” seemed fitting :)

[Mostwanted]

Thanks guys!

 

@mostwanted

 

It’s a transfer, I found it by chance on an old forgeworld IG transfer sheet that I bought a while back on eBay for the numerals it featured. It just seemed too perfect not to use for this project! Fits too since he has the Standard of Sacrifice! “No retreat” seemed fitting :)

Cheers for letting me know. Any plans to add to this force or is it on to something different now?

[neonmole]

Absolutely!

 

I enjoyed doing this so much, and I really love the Primaris range, of which obviously only a pretty small slice is represented here!

 

I’ll be continuing with this force for a while at least, until I have a decent number of all the models in the range represented. First up (which are at present about 30% finished) are a pair of Redemptor dreadnoughts! Following that I’m not sure what I will work on...

[LutherMax]

Congrats on the wins / placement - and the award! It really is a great looking army and I actually like the list. I hope to do another one or two Repulsors one day, and more Intercessors (currently on 20), but I keep getting distracted by shiny things!

[Jolemai]

Congrats on the wins / placement - and the award! It really is a great looking army and I actually like the list. I hope to do another one or two Repulsors one day, and more Intercessors (currently on 20), but I keep getting distracted by shiny things!

... like going on vacation? ;)

[LutherMax]

 

Congrats on the wins / placement - and the award! It really is a great looking army and I actually like the list. I hope to do another one or two Repulsors one day, and more Intercessors (currently on 20), but I keep getting distracted by shiny things!

... like going on vacation?

 

That is already a distant memory

 

I meant Reivers, Aggressors and Forge World planes and tanks!

[neonmole]

Cheers Luther!

 

While I really wanted to do the armoured speartip list, I have also been really tempted by the “shinier” options, had to maintain disciple to ensure I actually got the army ready for the event tho!

 

Speaking of shiny things...

 

I have really wanted to build and paint a redemptor since I started the army... and if one is good, two is better!

 

Was planning on saving these to share when they are done, but I couldn’t resist a quick WIP! They probably about 70% complete, held together with blu tac at the minute. All the edge highlights, weathering, and a few details still to be applied, but very happy so far!

 

 

Like the rest of the Primaris range, just... great, great kits. So much detail, possibility, etc. Really enjoying them!

 

I will be using them in a 2k list that I am playing in the Alliance GT im Amsterdam in mid Nov! While clearly not a competitive unit, I think they can do some work for me, and hey, people thought you couldn’t win games with Repulsors too right? ;)

 

Cheers!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Redemptor Dreadnoughts look most promising.

[Pearson73]

The Redemptors look amazing all ready.

[Majkhel]

I must say I'm not convinced to the way each flat surface is darker in the middle and brighter on all the edges. Almost on each one. But your colours are beautiful and I love the way you posed the Redemptors! Their stride feels heavy and porposeful. Good job as always! :)

Can't wait to see them finished.

[neonmole]

First big boy finished! Hope you like him!

 

Just a quick (not great) pic off the side of my desk I wanted to share upon finishing :)

 

 

Cheers!

[keeblerartillery]

Looks fantastic.  The only thing I could critique about your primaris army is that you should consider using some weathering powder/pigment to tie the feet of your minis into the bases.  The clean, bright red just looks like it is resting on the base, rather than striding on the ground if that makes sense.  Otherwise, simply gorgeous!

[neonmole]

Thanks mate, I have heard that before and thought about it a lot.. I actually tested it once. The problem is that the powders over the red (as oppose to the grey) don’t end up looking like the same as they do on the base.. meaning it doesn’t really tie in... it just looks a bit odd.

 

That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be done.. but I would probably need to find an entirely new colour powder that provides the right tone over the red!

 

Cheers for the feedback :)

[keeblerartillery]

Absolutely!  I use dark earth pigment from secret weapon minis (I think) - both on my bases and on the minis.  I have found it to work well, and since we use the same red, it might work for you too!  

[neonmole]

Finished up my dreads today, so I thought I would take some better photos to share!

 

Hope you like them!

 

Brother Astael the Wise

 

 

Brother Muspael the Wrathful

 

 

Different Angles

 

 

 

 

Ancient Brothers in Arms

 

 

 

I also played a game today with these boys against space wolves!

 

I was able to pull out the victory, with the dreads doing quite well -so a good start for them, avoiding new model syndrome!

 

I took a couple of pics, enjoy!

 

 

 

Epic duel!

 

 

 

Cheers!

[Canadian_F_H]

Jeez... I need to get an airbrush...

[Charlo]

I absolutely hate the Redemotor dread but... I LIKE yours so that shows how well they are painted mate!

 

How did the game go against Wolves? Anymore details?

[neonmole]

Hey Charo, yeah it went well! It’s my brothers army actually! He was playing -

 

Battle leader

Rune priest

Björn

3 Intercessor squads

Lascannon longdsngs with terminator sgt

Leviathan with dual storm cannon

Wulfen

Terminators

4 las pred

Maybe a couple other bits?

 

I had

Primaris cap

Primaris LT

Smash cap

3 Intercessor squads

3 Repulsors

2 redemptors

 

Good game, but I was able to eliminate his main threats to my armour early, and his Levi with my smash captain. In the end I was just able to grind it out. There were some hairy moments in the mid game when Björn (such a weapon) and some of his deepstrike/outflank came in, but ultimately I came out on top!

 

Thanks for the compliments and feedback! Always really appreciate it.

 

Cheers!