+ First 5E Throwdown +

Saturday night had my first foray into 5th edition, and gotta say the 5E part was overshadowed by the bad dice part ...

Anarchonquistadores vs Blood Angels [2000] - Game was annihilation (kill points) & table quarters, with chaos winning the One Roll and deciding to deploy and go first. The table was quite symmetrical, tall ruined building in each corner, craters between each building, woods in the center. The spiky boys created the trademark firebase in one of the ruins, as the 1k Sons, shooty CSM + deathscreamer and biker prepared to push into a large crater to create a mini-bunker of sorts. Dreads went far left and far right to do their thing. The blood angels brought -

Termi chappy + 5 assault termies (2 hammers, 3 claws) in crusader
Jump chappy + 10 death company with jump packs
2x 10 Assault marines w/ powerfist
2x 5 Tactical marines w/ meltagun + powerfist, in rhinos
Venerable Furioso

- and deployed largely shielded by the woods in the center but ready to rip my face off. The dread hid behind the land raider.

Chaos 1

Dreads kept their cool, with #2 stomping over to get LOS on a rhino and #1 scooting to smash some assault marines. Which he did fantastically, the plasma cannon vaporizing 4-5 and sending them running (though they stayed on the board, they were effectively out of the game, with 5' to get to me. Dread2 shook the rhino, and all my other fire managed to stun the other one as well ... Between the defiler and sundry other fire a couple assault marines fell and possibly 1 death company member, many saved by the 5+ cover the woods were providing in the center. My two lascannons did nothing to the crusader.

Kill Points: Chaos (0) vs Blood Angels (0)

Blood Angels 1

Crusader cruised forward, dread ran up and kept behind it, the mobile rhino overcharged and zipped towards the traitor marines and sundry assault marines hopped forward. The robot firing the crusader gun did nothing that mattered (assault cannon on Dread1) and the rhinos popped smoke.

Kill Points: Chaos (0) vs Blood Angels (0)

Chaos 2

No reserves wanted to play, though both dreads kept it in their pants for a second turn. Dread1 backed up to get away from the crusader but Dread2 mobilized to go beat up on the assault marines that had leapt perilously close. The bike lord also saw an opening and powered through the central woods, prepared to slam into the death company and take 4-5 of the killers down with him. Fire saw nothing done to the crusader, the rhinos' smoke save all the hits on them and the deathscreamer pop one of the assault marines Dread2 was staring at. Speaking of which, Dread2's heavy flamer and frag missile did nothing to the assault marines, their saves being impressively effective.

Tired of this shooting nonsense Dread2 charged the marines and beat two into submission, for no damage in return (the fist flopped), though the marines held. The biker lord charged up the demogauntlet and ... rolled that 1 you were all expecting. He didn't take a wound and the chappy couldn't make it past T5, but the death company did 3 wounds + 1 rend on the main man. Naturally he made the 5+ inv but failed the 3 3+ armor saves, giving the death company a hearty massacre move into the woods and towards my line.

Kill Points: Chaos (0) vs Blood Angels (1)

Blood Angels 2

Crusader tanked forward with the furioso sprinting behind, death company hopped out of the forest (1 hit a tree, but felt no pain) and onto the crater my shooty CSM + deathscreamer were in (1 broke his ankle, but felt no pain), and the marines in the rhino near Dread2's combat got out and readied their powerfist for some can opening. Shooting again did nothing (I don't think he shot his bolt pistols all game, now that I think about it).

Dread2 chainfisted a couple more assault marines, was immobilized by a very lucky krak grenade (6-6-6) and then detonated by the two powerfists. The explosion gleefully took the assault marines down to just the powerfist vet! In a less happy turn of events the death company slammed into the shooty CSM + deathscreamer, furious charge + frags gutting all 10 CSM before they could strike. The deathscreamer accounted for 1 death company marine (with a max 9 attaks!) and then was forced to take 9 No Retreat! saves. Of course he failed 3 exactly.

Kill Points: Chaos (0) vs Blood Angels (4)

Chaos 3

The demons became available, and unfortunately had no available charge target except for the death company, so they summoned and got psyched up for tarpit duty. The defiler saw the chappy's enticing T4 and mobilized for the charge and the 1k Sons scooted forward, having reread the SnP rules and thrilled at getting a charge bonus and not being I1 any longer. The firebase meanwhile braced for the terminator assault to come, as yet again both lascannons bounced off of the crusader. Dread1 was a little more on the ball, firing his plasma cannon across the board at the tactical marines that had crumped his brother. In 5E you no longer consolidate after killing any vehicle, WS value or not, which left the 5 marines in a tight ball ... of which 4 died to plasma, leaving 2 powerfist vets by their lonesome over in that quarter. Other fire did very little, with the death company having 5+ cover and their FNP after that.

Everybody that could pounced on the death company, girls into crazy marines and the chappy, defiler into the chappy and 1k Sons into some more crazy marines. The 1k Sons missed with everything, only 1 robot landing a hit which was saved, and lost two automatons for their troubles. The demons went last (no frags) and lost a couple, only to do nothing in return. The defiler slapped at the chappy but he never rolled less than 5 for his rosarius. No Retreat! wounds meant two more Sons died (3+ ha) but both girls saved (5+ ha).

Kill Points: Chaos (0) vs Blood Angels (4)

Blood Angels 3

The pain train arrived, the crusader vomiting forth the terminators right into the fisty CSM's face. The furioso scampered behind the crusader again, but the game was looking like it would end before he could become an issue. The crusader's robotic multi-melta killed Dread1, detonating him as well but not enough to tag the obliterator.

The fisty CSM disappeared under the rerolling onslaught, all 10 dying (and then some) and so taking the fist before he could strike. The termies consolidated a little and looked up at a four story ruin full of AP5 & 3 guns ... Over in the death company mosh the 1k Sons were wiped out, the demons taken down to 2 and all 3 wounds the defiler put on the chappy were saved 5-5-6.

Kill Points: Chaos (0) vs Blood Angels (6)

Chaos 4

At last the plasma termies became available, striking off the last icon (havoks) and pointing their guns at the enemy termies. The oblit plasma cannon led the charge, cooking the thunderhammers and a claw termi, the plasma trio managed a single dead blood angel and then a mountain of krak and bolt shells descended upon the chappy and his buddy. Which were all saved. It took the noise marines hitting with 11 S4 shots and wounding with all 11 to take the terminators done. Well done noisy boys.

Back against the death company the girls finally put some attaks on the non-FNP-ing chappy, causing 1 wound, but the defiler's attaks were yet again easily saved. The girls were cut down at last, leaving the defiler against a bunch of rending.

Kill Points: Chaos (2) vs Blood Angels (7)

Blood Angels 4

Nothing really happened. Crusader knocked down a havok or two, the melta didn't claim the oblit and the defiler's cuddling of the chappy continued with no result. The death company managed a rend against the spider tank but didn't roll high enough on the D3.

Kill Points: Chaos (2) vs Blood Angels (7)

And we called it game at that, we both had places to be and women to appease for the late-running game. Far behind on kill points, this was a solid ...

BLOOD ANGELS WIN

This felt much more like his hot dice (those armor saves!) vs my cold dice (those armor saves!) than anything else, though I did make a couple mistakes. I really should have devoted all the S8+ AP2- fire into the death company at all costs, 5+ cover saves be damned, and ignored the crusader. I wasted 6 lascannons shots and many bolters firing at the crusader, in addition to a salvo of havok kraks, when I only had a so-so chance of stopping it in the first place. Letting the termies eat a squad and then retaliating (as happened anyway) would have been a better way to go, and let my guns kill those FNP maniacs instead. Also the demons should have pilled as many attaks into the chaplain as possible and not trusted so much in the defiler. If the walker had been killing death co there would have been 6+ of them dead instead of 0 dead chaplains with the 5+ magic rosarius.

The biker lord doomcharge was reckless but not that stupid I think, had a good chance of depleting the squad and holding them for a turn. But the dice, they are bitches sometimes.

Not too much to say about 5E yet. I love no partial on blasts but hate the unlimited No Retreat! wounds, which makes no sense and is also really really painful for fearless characters.

Painting: Ogre Irongut
Building: N/A