Battle Honors - Update (Week 5)
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Warhammer 40,000 - Our first season of Battle Honors moved into week 5 and I faced off against a Goff Mob led by Ghazkill Thraka. Moving through the eternal war mission from Chapter Approved 2018, we played “In the Wind” this week, which makes units with the “fly” keyword faux-obsec, being as my force consists of multiple Land Speeders and jump pack infantry I had a slight advantage. This week we played 2,000 points per side and neither force had units sidelined because of injuries last week.
The first turn was a bit rough for the Orks, even though they went first, as all their shooting was ineffective and the “Da Jumped” Battle Wagon only killed one of the Death Company before being beaten down to one wound. In my turn I moved out of combat so I could shoot the wagon and get at the boyz inside. With all of my Intercessor units within 30” of it and not moving I was able to pump a bunch of shots into in and the two units inside thinning them out for my captain, librarian and lieutenant to make short work of what was left.
After that first turn things evened out with the orks bringing their shooting and assaults to bear and trading back and forth. We decided to only play 4 turns due to it getting late. The final score was Blood Angels 6, Orks 4. It was a fun game that felt pretty balanced once both forces were in the thick of it.
So far I’m really enjoying the new Eternal War missions. The deploy your full army and go first mechanic helped to speed up the game while keeping a tiny bit of uncertainty about who’s going first. Each mission has a unique feel and if you were rolling them up randomly would benefit a person who built a balanced force with a variety of units. Next week we’ll wrap up season one with the final mission before moving on to season two where we’ll play through the Maelstrom missions in order.
I feel like I’ve improved as a player by playing the same force over and over and I’m starting to get a grasp on how to box out units and set up “traps” rather than rush headlong into a fight praying for hot dice.
As of this week my Death Company and Terminators are rank 1, with the Agile ability (re-roll advance and charge), and two of my Intercessor units are marksmen (re-roll 1’s in the shooting phase). With how brutal 8th edition is its’ rare for a unit to survive the game so they need to rack up points during the game to overcome the -D3 points when they die.
