Introduction
With the leaks of 8th edition floating around everywhere and the release just around the corner, we couldn’t wait to get a game in. I quickly prepped some of my favorite unites and some stuff I never play, while Will prepped a lot of his newest stuff. Curious about the Power Level system, we elected to use it and built our armies at Power Level 60. In effect I think it felt like about 1850 in 7th edition.
It’s been a while since I wrote a batrep, so I kept forgetting to take pictures of the board setup, and I didn’t take notes of exactly what happened.
We played the basic mission and rather than role the objective, we selected Dominion. We also setup on my smallish dining table with a play space of about 3’x4′. We decided to play along long edges, and since my army was slightly lower power level (2 points difference), I was the Underdog and got to choose whether to go first. So, first I went.
Dominion calls for setting up 4 objectives, 2 per player placed in an alternating fashion. These are scored at the end of each player’s turn. We placed them roughly in the corners of the map. Unfortunately, I placed mine in spots that were hard to control for both of us.
Blood Angels
I hadn’t looked at the rules for any of his stuff so I really didn’t know what to expect. I figured a mix of light and heavy weapons and some strong melee should serve both as an all takers army, and as a good test of many of the new mechanics. Corbulo and Lemartes should help the Death Company stay alive and hit hard, and the Assault Squad in the Razorback should serve as a good anti armor unit. The Scouts should do their job to kill characters, and the Stormraven can mop up whatever is left.
- Brother Corbulo
- Lemartes
- Death Company x10 (Plasma Pistols & Chainswords)
- Assault Squad x5 (4x Plasma Pistols & Chainsword, 1 Eviscerator)
- Razorback (Lascannon, Twin Plasmaguns & Stormbolter)
- Scouts x5 (Sniper Rifles and Camo Cloaks)
- Stormraven (Twin Assaultcannon, Hurrican Bolters, Typhoon Missile Launcher)
Assault Squad embarked on the Razorback, and Lemartes and the Death Company flying around in the air.
Inquisition
Will brought a lot of anti-psyker and heavy armor. The Custodes in particular had me a little worried.
- Inquisitor Grayfax
- Custodial Guard (3x Guardian Spears & Custodes Vexila)
- Sisters of Silence Vigilators
- Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought
- Venerable Land Raider
- Scout Squad x5 (Sniper Rifles and Camo Cloaks)
- Null-maiden Rhino
Custodial Guard embarked on the Land Raider, and the Sisters embarked on the Rhino.
Deployment
As per the “Only War” rules, we took turns deploying our units. I chose my side of the board, so Will got to deploy his first unit.
- He deployed his Landraider in a corner
- I deployed my Razorback in some cover near the middle
- He deployed his Rhino directly in front of the Rhino
- I deployed Corbulo next to the Razorback
- He deployed the Contemptor next to the Rhino
- I deployed my Stormraven directly in front of the Landraider
- Both our scouts infiltrated to towers on opposite sides of the board
Sadly, we neglected to take a picture.
Round 1
Blood Angels
Stormraven shot at Scouts with everything.
Scouts shot at scouts with everything.
Scouts died (sadly, no First Blood rule in this game).
Razorback moved up to within Plasmagun rapidfire range (12″) and shot at the Rhino and took off a couple of wounds.
My scouts were still on an Objective, so I got 1 point.
Inquisition
Rhino shot at the scouts, then charged Razorback.
Contemptor shot at the Razorback, but stayed on it’s Objective.
Landraider moved forward to take an Objective, then shot at the Scouts and the Stormraven.
He earns 2 Objective points.
Round 2
Blood Angels
Stormraven shoots Rhino and pops it, but no Exposion.
Assault Marines disembarked and shot their plasma pistols at the Rhino. The Sisters and Grayfax disembark into relative cover.
Razorback fell back.
Death Company and Lamartes jump in at the edge of the fray. They shoot at the Contemptor and take off a wound. They then attempt a charge into the closest thing, the Contemptor. Even with Lamartes’ reroll, they fail. The Contemptor takes out one marine during overwatch.
Assault marines shoot the Sisters and charge in. Corbulo joins them. They wipe the Sisters, leaving only Grayfax standing with 2 wounds.
Grayfax takes out one assault marine during her fight phase.
No Objectives, no points.
Inquisition
Grayfax falls back to the nearby Objective.
Custodes disembark, shoot and charge Assault marines. Wipe them out and then wipe out Corbulo.
The Landraider and Contemptor each dish out some shots to the remaining Scouts and clear them out.
Landraider puts more beats down on the Stormraven.
Landraider and Grayfax held Objectives, earning 2 points.
Round 3
Blood Angels
Stormraven moves to the Objective formerly held by the Contemptor. It fires one hurricane bolter volley at Grayfax and pops her. Then fires everything else at the Custodes, giving a single casualty. Damn they’re durable.
Death Company move in, shoot all the plasma pistols at the Custodes and then charge them, taking it down to two guys.
Stormraven was holding an Objective, earning 1 point.
Inquisition
Contemptor shoots the Razorback, then charges the Death Company.
Custodes fight the Death Company.
It gets a little fuzzy here, but somehow or another both the Custodes and the Death Company get wiped. Lemartes survives and I believe he is responsible for cleaning up the remaining Custodes in heroic fashion.
It came down to just Lemartes vs The Contemptor.
At one point he had to roll boxcars to survive, and he did! For a time.
The Land Raider still held an Objective, earning 1 point.
Round 4
Blood Angels
Stormraven shot at the Land Raider, taking off a few wounds.
The Razorback charged the Land Raider, doing nothing, but preventing it from shooting this round.
Lemartes valiantly attempted to slay the Contemptor, but ultimately fell.
Stormraven still hovered on the Objective, earning 1 point.
Inquisition
Contemptor moved back to it’s previous Objective point.
Land Raider finished off the Stormraven.
Landraider and Contempter both on Objectives, earned 2 points.
Finale
We finish with the Contemptor and Land Raider still quite functional, and the Razorback with a single wound remaining. To continue on would be silly. 
Conclusion and Thoughts
We really enjoyed 8th edition. It played smoothly and I always felt like my models were either doing something cool, or dying spectacularly. I think we spent less time looking up rules than we would have in 7th edition, and this is still basically a new game to us right now! I really look forward to getting the actual books and playing more games.
Overall, I think the game took us about 2.5 hours, but I’m sure the next one will take considerably less. Playing this size game in 90 minutes might be a bit of a stretch, but probably feasible if you don’t play as slowly as I typically do.
