Battle Report: Valhallan IG vs Cadian/Blood Angels (100 PL)

[Die4Emprah]

My List:

IG Valhallan, 12 Command point (Brigade)
Company Commander (Old Grudges Warlord Trait: Baneblade)

Tank Commander, Battle Cannon, Lascannon, Heavy Bolters

Yarrick
Commissar(2)

Junior Officers(3)

30 man conscript unit (3)

inf unit (flamers) (4)

scout sentinel (1)

scout sentinel (1)

Hell hound (1)

Leman Russ unit of (2) Battle Cannon, Lascannon, Heavy Bolters

Manticore (1)

Heavy Weapons squad (1) Las cannon teams

 

His List (details fuzzy):
IG Cadian, Blood Angel, 6 command points?

Space Marine sicarian captain

blood angel honor guard

razorback (las cannon)

company commander

commissar

30 man conscript unit 

3 death company units in rhinos (all equipped with hand flamers)

bane blade variant of some kind (had the demo cannon etc)

 

Game type:
1 capture point each

 

Deployment:
Front line assault

     -We literally didn't use the left half of the board. I castled my manticore (and objective) behind the single piece of vision obstructing terrain. 

 

Synopsis: 
I deployed my three conscript units as far forward as I could, with an officer and a commissar encased in each. I placed my LRBTs so they could move <5 and fire doubles. 

 

Turn 1:

(E)nemy gains first blood (wisely kills my las cannon teams). Hurts some LR, but Valhallans don't care.

(A)llied blast open a few transports, lay a serious hurting on his conscript squad with 40 shots from a punisher cannon, put 20 wounds on the baneblade (parking that warlord, yarrick near my tanks paid off. Rerolling ones, wounds? OK)

 

Turn 2:
(E) Seriously maim conscript squads with flamers. Morale unshaken. Advances SM captain+company towards Manticore, objective.
(A) Move infantry to block the gap allowing access to mainticore/objective. Fall back from death company, issue orders to fire on them. Destroy baneblade with concentrated fire from Grudged LR, Indirect fire from Manticore, wound a few Death company.

 

Turn 3:
(E) Moves conscripts back to his objective, commences to castle. Kills remaining conscripts of a squad, inflict great casualties on infantry squads. Allied Commissars making a killing. The DCo advance, conscripts die. He eliminates my Punisher cannon LRBT. 
(A) Use valhallan stratagem (Next Wave), return 30 conscripts to defend my objective. Proceed to tarpit his hq/honor squad. Eliminate the captains Razorback with Battle Cannons. Continue to fall back and fire on death Co, use hellhound on them for decent effect. (Sentinels doing nothing useful at all)

 

Turn 4:

(E) Continues to grind on my infantry from remaining death company, uses rhinos to ram one of my LRBTs, denying their shooting  (good play).
(A) Move LR's towards enemy castle, leaving one to block the other from a ram. Finally kill the last of the DCo, order most units to advance, move move move to castle. Move Hellhound to castle. Order nearby units to "Fire on my command" into the tar-pit melee. Order tarpit to fix bayonets, (wash, rinse, repeat)

Turn 5: 

(E) SM HQ /Squad is killing tons of conscripts.

(A)  Move further to castle (currently own objective), move LRBT into firing position, fire hellhound for massive casualties in enemy conscript squad, kill remaining honor guard (HQ still alive)
 

Turn 6:
(E) concedes without a roll for another turn. 

 

Synopsis/observations:

To be fair, my opponent is a better player than me. I know he also didn't pull together the meanest list he could have, but now I'm kind of hoping for that in the rematch. That being said, this is likely my list moving forward, unless I want to get cheeky. 

Placing a "Grudged" hq between all of your "can openers" is sure to have great effect on your toughest of foes, and putting the "1 machine" that is yarrick by them? Awesome. 

I also know that I would have lost this match if I wasn't using Valhallan traits/stratagems/orders, so I'm kind of interested in hearing out other people's takes on their battles using other ones. 

The LRBT is awesome, it's a versatile anti-armor, anti-personnel god of battle. Guard it with a wall of flesh, and it will see you to victory. 

Manticore missile platform, while only firing for four rounds, only needs to. When out of sight, it's a menace, drawing enemy to the trap. I really don't know what I'd do against it without one, because going to eliminate it leads to folly, as does ignoring it. 

 

Hellhound paid off this time, cruising up and blasting after a withdraw, keeping it in the lurches, all unassuming like it's a scared kitten. The kitten becomes a fire breathing lion when the time is right. 

 

Sentinels: thanks for filling out the brigade, you low-rent jerks. 

Infantry units: Flashlight holders, wound takers. As a guard commander I solve my problems with wounds, and usually their mine.

 

I'll probably stay Valhallan until I see if my Krieg update is worth caring about. 

"Valhalla back, y'all!"

[bigmic66]

Seems like all the doctrines can be great if played right. I'm running an armoured company so valhallans have caught my eye but I've been running cadian.

 

Armoured plasma cannon sentinels in cover with cadian reroll ones doctrines working well for me. Give me full armoured saturation

[Guardsman Bob]

I also know that I would have lost this match if I wasn't using Valhallan traits/stratagems/orders, so I'm kind of interested in hearing out other people's takes on their battles using other ones. 

The FRFSRF order on a 9 man lasgun Infantry Squad works for me. I haven’t had a chance to try it with a combined squad yet. Someday it will be glorious.

[Die4Emprah]

Seems like all the doctrines can be great if played right. I'm running an armoured company so valhallans have caught my eye but I've been running cadian.

 

Armoured plasma cannon sentinels in cover with cadian reroll ones doctrines working well for me. Give me full armoured saturation

honestly, If I would have parked them in the huddle near yarrick, the reroll of 1's would have paid off. I felt like I rolled nothing but 1's for those models this match. Not the unit's fault, but was rather annoying.