40K Friday: Blood Angels Holiday Battle 2: 1000 points, "Contact Lost"

No pictures of this one, really, because it didn't last that long! I reshuffled the army significantly and it looked like this:

• Captain (with the tac squad below)
• Sanguinary Priest with a jump pack so he could run with the assault squad
• Furioso Dread in a drop pod
• 5-man scout squad set for assault
• 9-man tac squad in a drop pod
• 5-man Assault Squad featuring Veteran Sergeant Nameless from the first battle
• 3-man Bike Squad (2 grav guns and a combi-grav - see, I'm learning)
• 5-man Devastator Squad with 4 missile launchers 

Starting out I did not accomplish enough on turn 1 and he proceeded to wipe out my devastator squad, my scout squad, and my tac squad and the captain. That meant that 20 out of the 30 figures I had in the force were gone by the end of Turn 2. I was not in a great position, had done very little damage to his force, comparatively, and it was already 3-0 in victory points.

I called it at the end of Turn 2.

Things I did learn though, even with a short, lopsided defeat:

• Captains are not that useful. Other HQ's add Feel No Pain or Psychic ability to your force, but the captain is just a melee boost. He added very little to my force yet took up an HQ slot and cost at least as many points as the other choices. Despite having a nicely painted Captain and options for more, he will not be seeing much table time.
• Grav guns on bikes are every bit as good as the internet says they are. 103 points to put 2 + a combi on a fast, relentless platform is a strength for this army.
• Despite being a codex army in most ways I am not convinced that Devastator Squads are something the BA's really need. Sitting back and shooting is not really what this army is about. I'm still going to build some for the force for the long term but right now I feel like that 130 points is better spent elsewhere. 
• Furioso's in a pod are just too much fun: DROP! Stomp Stomp Stomp! BLAM! BLAM! WHOOSH! That's more than most units can take. If they do, well AV13 is pretty tough and he's more than ready for a scrap if you want one.
• This is where I started to realize that the Baal Strike Force is the One True Way for the BA's for me right now. 
• First up making all of your marines S5 I5 on the charge is the key to beating other marine units. Now the wolves mostly having two CC weapons and having counter-charge dulled this a bit but I was still going first and that matters a lot. It's a reason to downgrade power fists and axes and go for more swords to make sure you take some opponents down before they get to swing. 
• Secondly from a force org point of view the Elite choices are where the real core of this army lives. Dreads, Death Company, Sanguinary Guard, Sternguard - having that fourth choice from Elites makes a big difference. It also means that to afford them you are probably going to need to go light on Troops choices. 

So while it was one of my less effective games in a quite a while, it heavily colored my take on how to play these guys - and that's why we were playing these games.