Blood Angels List: Three Land Raiders and a Blob (and a RTT Report)

I have always like land raider redeemers. The idea of AV 14 bringing a payload of S6 AP3 flamers is far too awesome to not like. I decided to start playing Blood Angels at the tail of 5th strictly because they could bring more redeemers than anyone else. I tested my old list out right when 6th drop, and after it did not perform I put them in a box for eight months, taking them out to play in an 1850 point tournament with only 90 minute rounds because I knew I would be able to play fast. Chaos was giving me much to focus on so I forgot them again. After being disappointed by the abundance of bad matchups for daemons I decided to start looking at the old raiders again. Something was missing though. with changes to FNP in the new edition the assault marines were not cutting it for me. I have always wanted to play with an Al'Rahem outflanking IG blob...and finally the opportunity had presented itself.

Librarian
5 Terminators (5 Thunder Hammer and Storm Shields)
~Land Raider Redeemer (Melta)
5 ASM
~Land Raider Redeemer (Melta)
5 ASM
~Land Raider Redeemer (Melta)
Vindicator (Dozer)

Company Command Squad (Astropath)
Infantry Platoon
~Al'Rahem Platoon Command Squad (Chimera/Vox/2 Melta)
~Infantry Squad (Axe/Vox)
~Infantry Squad (Axe)
~Infantry Squad (Axe)
~Infantry

 Find out how this list is supposed to work after the jump:

All of my armies are hyper aggressive - Dark Eldar, Orks, Daemons, Tyranids - but this might be the most aggressive list I have ever made. 98.6%, all but 80 points of the list, literally charges at the enemy and kills as much as it can. The best part is that I get to put all of the objectives one one side of the table. The look on people's faces when you start putting them on their side of the table is priceless. the four tanks start on the board, roll up, and deliver their payload of pain! With so few units target priority is key, so lascannon devastator teams and haywire cypteks need to go asap! the astropath makes it more likely I get my blob in and more likely they turn up on the side I want. Outflank mixed with first rank fir second rank fire typically yields about one hundred shots. Mix in the divination librarian in the future turns and you get quite a combo that actually is the true workhorse of the list.

There happened to be an RTT the week after I made the list, so I headed over there for a little gaming action using the Adepticon missions despite having worked an overnight shift the night prior. There were ten players there including Hulksmash who would end up winning with 10 TH/SS terminators with a Gate Librarian and a FarsightBomb. In round one I faced off against John and his new Tau. There was an Aun'Va, three fire warrior teams, a deep striking suit team with the upgraded Iridium commander, the Longshot hammerhead, and allied Space Marines with a tac squad and librarian who rode with five thunder hammer storm shield terminators.

After my turn two.

The big thing that mattered in this game was that being it was only my second time ever playing with a blob of guard, I outflanked the PCS and the blob as two separate units, meaning they ended up on opposite sides of the table, halving the effectiveness of the blob. I was far more afraid of his terminators as I should have been and focused fire on then rather than other targets. In the end I only had one immobilized land raider in terms of mobility, but was able to shoot him off an objective on the bottom of the last turn as the blob squad won a combat and consolidated onto another objective. We each won won primary (me objectives and him KP) and each had one secondary (him first blood and me linebreaker) and thus we had a straight tie.

Round two I played against Sam. While Sam is a younger player, he is really good and has a great handle on the rules. Sam had watched me play with my daemons and admitted some of his list building had been influenced by what I did. He had a bloodthirster, lord of change, two tzeentch princes, several bloodletter squads, a CCS, a veterans squad, and an artillery unit with a medusa and a basilisk. He took max upgrades on the princes. There was an objective in the center of each quarter and the relic in the middle.

Just after he passed all his grounding checks.

Sam went first and swooped with all his monsters, scoring a glance on one tank with something (I believe the greater reward that is a lance). I got my terminators out hoping for a grounding. He took three grounding checks but passed them all. On his turn he got one unit of bloodletters in, they had mishap and I placed them in the same corner as his guard. That way at worst they would only score that quarter and at best my platoon would kill them.

Sam was able to kill all my land raiders, but not before they killed the lord of change (before he could drop the portalglyph) and a daemon prince. My vindicator took over most of the blood letters that had not mishapped while in the end my platoon did come in on the side I wanted, killing all his IG and shooting down the second to last flying monstrous creature. The game ended on five with me winning objectives 1-0 and with the relic never getting touched. I think I still could have won in later turns as my PCS and the objective were properly bubble wrapped by the blob.

My last game was against Nate and his army of mostly original Rouge Trader era models. He had some tac squads, scouts, assault marines, Cassius and a librarian with shooty terminators, a land raider, vindicator, and a thunderfire. We placed objectives and it was also kill points. I actually thought the matchup was pretty good, but Nate equalized things by spreading the objectives out. He went first and wrecked my vindicator even though he only had front armor showing. I moved my army up, and rolled pretty horrendously, doing nothing.

Nate used his shooting to stun most of my vehicles, and also used the thunderfire to make movement difficult for one land raider (which I actually am not sure is legal since the thunderfire can't hurt the raider). Not having slept for nearly 36 hours at this point I decided not to argue it or the fact that his terminators were charging through terrain to get to my land raider, which resulted in the center one dying. On my turn even with the astropath the blob did not come in and my left land raider immobilized itself on the difficult terrain it was in. I should not that of eleven shots I made with BS4 mutlimeltas over the course of the game, I only hit once. Things were looking grim. By the end of turn five though the blob had pushed its way onto one objective, and the two surviving ASM from the center raider had gotten to an objective on the right out of LOS. I was winning the game on kill points too. The was five minutes in the round, and clearly the game should have ended (which would have actually gotten me second overall as there was no soft scores), but not having slept, I said we should play another round. Nate's dice went hot and at the end of his turn I was losing kill points and objectives with no way to catch up.

I also got another game in with the list with a dark angels triple flyer, scout, and tac squad list and did quite well, with him only having two models left on the after my fourth turn.

Lessons learned;

1. Land Raiders are not indestructible. Of the combined 36 hull points I had in all three games, I had only two total combined at the end of the games. I also only got to use my flame templates three times all day.
2. Play aggressive. In my games at the tournament I was hugging cover and moving very reserved in order to get more shooting. In my other game I turbo boosted further forward even though he had melta guns. This list needs to be absolutely on top of people.
3. Stick to the plan on objectives. I can't let the other player or their army get in my head by counter placing objectives. I need to stick to the plan I line once corner with objectives. Make them play my game in their house.