Battle Report - Ultramarines vs Black Legion - 1750 points



You can find the armies we used here.

The mission was Narrow the search, and we were using a modified Detachment (seen below):



The Battlefield:



The Deployment:


I went second as I got to choose the deployment type (rather than rolling for it) with no Attempt to steal.

My opponent setup very aggressively for an early game rush. Something I had not expected!

I setup probably a touch too far forward but mostly in hiding.


First Turn:



In the opening turn he advanced with pretty much his entire army, barring 1 Greater Possessed and a squad of Chaos Space marines. 

He summoned in a Slaanesh Mirror daemon to give me issues falling back and then with his shooting managed to kill a grand total of nothing, with only 2 wounds off my Contemptor.

In my turn he realised that all three of his venomcrawlers had strayed within 12" of the no Inv save bubble. This meant that my opening salvos manged to kill all 3 of them outright (a massive boost), with minimal damage to the rest of his army. 

It scored me first blood and i edged in on total models within 18" of the objective.

End of turn 1 scoring: Black Leigon: 0, Ultramarines 2


Second Turn :


In the second turn he continued his aggressive approach getting his Greater Possessed & Warlord in charge range, bringing his  terminators in from deepstrike as well. His Great Possessed also summoned in a Daemonic Herald. 

His shooting was more effective killing 1 of the Centurions, 2 Hellblasters and 5 of the Auto Bolt Rifle intercessors.


In the assault phase he made every charge he went for (including two 10" charges!), this resulted in me losing another Centurion, my Apothecary and 3 more intercessors. The Intercessors then, despite the modifiers refused to fail their morale, and being surrounded it meant his terminators would be safe from shooting as i couldnt fall back! 

The Contemptor died as you would expect, exploding to take a couple of wounds off of the Warlord & Calgar. Despit overwatch and full re-rolls and a stratagem I did very little damage to the warlord on his way in.

My turn 2 and I fell back from combat everywhere i could to maximise my shooting, but I could not get anything in range to contest the objective this turn. My Inceptors & Suppressors arrived, but on the fringes of the fighting as his unit positioning had not left me a lot of choices for where to go! 

In the shooting phase I managed to kill the Warlord, Great Possessed, and then three seperate characters from my Inceptors shooting (my dice were on fire!).

End of turn 2 scoring; Black Legion: 1, Ultramarines 3

Third Turn: 
The third turn saw Abaddon and the Terminators advance on the tattered remnants of my Gunline. He took the decision to ignore the Inceptors and head for the Centurions, while his backfield possessed setup a charge on the Suppressors. 

The shooting was a lot less effective as he was beginning to run out of units this turn, but Abaddon and the terminators made their charges (although the Terminators did double 1 their 4" charge! A reroll saved their embarassment. 

He chose to fight with Abaddon first, finishing off the Centurions, and then Calgar interrupted to hit the terminators, he managed to kill 5, failing to roll less than 2 wounds on most of his attacks. This left the terminators unable to respond effectively doing no damage back to him.

In my turn I fell back from combat, spending my last command points on allowing Calgar the option to shoot and charge without penalty, this was perhaps my most effective turn as the shooting from my army finished off his last 5 Chaos Space Marines, the two Terminators and Abaddon (30 shots from Inceptors that wounded 16 times was too much for the Warmaster). 

Calgar did not need to charge, and no one was contesting the objective this turn. 

End of turn 3 scoring: Black Legion 1, Ultrmarines 3

Fourth Turn:
At this point with only a single Great Possessed left my opponent conceded the game, although in a tournament I am sure he would have made me play it out

The Result
Ultramarines win

End of Game Analysis
Despite having nearly a week to get myself across my opponents list I missed how quickly I would be in combat, and even picking the long deployment type I didnt appreciate that the mission would stop me being able to benefit from that! 

My dice were rolling well, and a few mistakes by my opponent meant I was able to capitilise on those (the Venomcrawlers all dying in turn 1 was huge!)

I think I was lucky to not receive more charges in turn 2, and had I screw my positioning up I could have been in combat in turn 1. 

I didnt screen my Centurions very well, and that could have been much more costly! 

Star Unit
My Intercessors with Stalker Bolt Rifles were pretty decent, that flat 2 damage made a big different in the opening turn as between 6 of them and the Auto Bolt Rifles they managed to pretty much kill a venom crawler. 

The Inceptors were also up for it as they killed Abaddon, but I already know these guys seriously rock! 


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