This 750 point game was against Ben who is one of my oldest adversaries. It was not played at the fun nights so was on a 4′ x 4′ board.

My forces were a revised version of what I took in my last battle:

Iron Hands CAD

Librarian – Primarchs Wrath (3/5 Salvo Bolter with Shred), Bike

Assault Dreadnaught – Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod

Devastator Dreadnaught – Twin-Linked Lascannon, Missile Launcher

4 Bikes – 2 Grav Guns

5 Scouts- Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons, Land Speeder Storm

5 Tactical Marines – Plasmagun, Combi-Plasma, Rhino

Ben had a Dark Eldar CAD:

Haemonculus – Armour of Misery, Webway Portal, Liquifier

4 Mandrakes

3 Mandrakes

3 Grotesques – Liquifier

5 Cabalites – Blaster, Sybarite with Haywire Grenade, Venom

5 Cabalites – Blaster, Venom

3 Reavers – Cluster Caltrops, Heat Lance

3 Reavers – Cluster Caltrops, Heat Lance

It is not an optimised list but Reaver Jetbikes and Venoms have been the bane of my existence for many years and Grotesques with the Liquifier Gun will chew through all of my troops. No scatter deepstrike is always a concern.

For my psychic powers I chose Biomancy and got Smite, Endurance and Leech Life. We both got the Well Prepared Warlord Trait which gave an extra tactical objective on the 1st turn. Ben got +1 leadership from his combat drugs.

We would be playing the Tactical Escalation Maelstrom mission where the number of Tactical Objectives is equal to the turn order. Night fighting would be in effect which obviously Ben was quite pleased about.

I chose table edges but Ben won the roll to deploy and chose to go first. Ben put both of his Venoms out of sight behind tall terrain and hid his Reavers in ruins. The Mandrakes would be outflanking and the Grotesques portaling in.

I decided to outflank my Scouts and the Assault Dreadnaught would be Drop Podding. As Bens Anti-Tank was short ranged I put my Devastator Dreadnaught on a building with a commanding view of the battlefield. My Plasma Rhino went on the left flank behind some ruins. My bikes went in the centre edging onto an objective. I failed to seize so Ben went first.

Ben drew Hold the Line and Take them Alive which would give him an easy first victory point. Ben moved both sets of Reavers up and shifted his second Vemon slightly in order to pour firepower into my bikes. Fortunately only his splinter weapons were in range but nethertheless 3 bikers died to the onslaught leaving me with 1 Grav gun and the unharmed Librarian. Ben moved his Reavers back into cover and claimed the line to give him 1 vp.

My 1st turn started with me bringing my Drop Pod down on the edge of Bens deployment zone near my bikes. The Drop Pod scattered a not inconsiderable 10″ right into the centre of Bens deployment zone. I moved the Assault Dread out to put some hurt out on one of the units of Reavers who are always hard to pin down although leaving the weak rear armour exposed. I moved my bikes behind cover on the right and shifted my Plasma Rhino up to get in range of the other Reaver unit. I successfully cast Endurance on my bikes which combined with Iron Hands Chapter Tactics would give me 3+ Feel No Pain. In the shooting phase I turbo-boosted the bikes to be secure in cover. The Assault Dread flamed the Reaver unit on the right flank killing two including the Cluster Caltrops/Heat Lance which was lucky. The Tacticals and the Dev Dread shot at the other Reaver unit but to no affect. I didn’t score any objectives and so the 1st turn ended 1-0 to Ben.

Bens 2nd turn started with his small Mandrake unit moving on from my left flank near the Plasma Rhino. His 2nd Cabalite Squad dismounted and surrounded the Drop Pod hoping to avoid getting badly flamed by the Ass Dread. The Venom then moved over to snap shoot at my bike squad. The full Reaver unit on my left flank moved up to within assault range of my Rhino. The lone surviving Reaver from the other unit sensibly turbo-boosted away into cover. The Reavers opened fire on the Rhino which penetrated but only stunned it. The 2nd Cabalite Squad fired at the rear of the Ass Dread but only glanced with thier Blaster which was very lucky. Bens snap shooting Venom was not able to hurt my Bikes. In the assault phase Ben charged the Rhino other his Reavers but rolled poorly for his Cluster Caltrops and did no damage. Ben scored no points and I was lucky not to lose 1st blood.





My Scouts decided to leave it a little longer before arriving and so didn’t come on. I moved my bikes up to claim objective 2 and turned the attention of my Ass Dread to Bens 2nd Cabalite unit. I managed to cast Endurance on my bikes. In the shooting phase the bikes glanced the empty Venom on my right flank. My Plasma Tacs and Dev Dread shot at the complete Reaver unit but killed none of them due to their superior cover save. In the assault phase my Ass Dread crashed into his Cabalite Squad killing 2 and causing them to run although not off the board. The bikes also assaulted the empty Venom which wrecked it and gave me first blood. The bikes then consolidated back onto the objective to make it 2-1 at the end of turn 2.

Both of Ben’s remaining reserves arrived at the beginning of turn 3. His small Mandrakes outflanked near to my bikes and the Grotesques (and Haemonculus) Webwayed on near my bikes but out of the threat range of my Ass Dread. The large Reavers moved slightly away from the Rhino to have another crack at destroying it. The Venom with Cabalites in manoeuvred to shoot at my bikes. The fleeing Cabalites rallied but would be snap shooting. Ben poured firepower from his Mandrakes, Grotesques, Venom and the complete Cabalites into my bikers. Thankfully the combination of poor AP rolls for his Liquifiers and Endurance on my bikes meant that I didn’t suffer any casualties. Ben also shot the remains of his 2nd Cabalite unit at the Ass Dread doing nothing and the complete Reavers shot their Heat Lance at the Rhino also doing nothing. A very unfortunate shooting phase for Ben. In his assault phase the Reavers charged the Rhino again this time wrecking it. My tactical squad got pinned and huddled in the lea of the wreckage. Ben scored no points in this round keeping him on 1.

My turn 3 started with my scouts getting caught in traffic but promised that they would definitely be there next turn. I moved my bikes away from the Liquefiers of Grotesques and into assault range of the recently rallied Cabalites. The Dev Dread climbed down from the building with the intention of assaulting the Mandrakes. The Ass Dread turned his attention to the remaining Venom. In the psychic phase I managed to cast Endurance again but failed to get Leech Life off on the Grotesques. The pot shots the Tacticals took at the Reavers did nothing but the Ass Dread was successful in shaking the Venom. The Dev Dread and Bikes held their fire so that they would be in assault range and both were successful in connecting with their targets. The Dev Dread mulched the Mandrakes and the Bikes caused the Cabalites to flee the board after causing two casualties. I managed to achieve the No Prisoners Tactical Objective making the score 3-1 to me.



Ben dismounted his remaining Cabalites from the shaken Venom onto the building in his deployment zone at the start of turn 4. His complete Reavers retreated slightly to have another go at killing the Tactical Squad. The Grotesques moved to claim objective 3. The Mandrakes shifted so that they could pepper the rear of the Ass Dread with their shooting. In the shooting phase the remaining Cabalites fired upon the Ass Dread, glancing it with a Haywire Grenade but the shooting from the Mandrakes didn’t manage to glance the rear armour. The shaken Venom and the jinking Reavers both snapshot at the Tactical Squad but to no affect. In assault Ben impacted into the Tactical Squad with his Reavers but once again rolled poorly for the Caltrops and only 1 Marine died. The Marines ran but were caught and so the compact would continue next turn. Ben gained 1 VP to make the score 3-2.

The Scouts finally arrived and turbo-boosted onto an objective. The Dev Dread moved to be able to assault the Reavers and the Bikes and Ass Dread moved up to assault the Cabalites. I managed to cast Endurance again on Bikes maintaining the 3+ Feel No Pain which had served me so well. In the shooting phase the Ass Dread hosed down the Cabalites killing three but the Bikes had no affect on the Venom. The assault phase was more dramatic. The Ass Dread attempted to crush the Cabalites but was hit by the Blaster in overwatch and blown apart. The Dev Dread impacted with the Reavers but generally flailed about only managing to kill 1. The remaining 2 Reavers fled out of reach for now. The Bikes managed very little in their attack on the Venom. I secured objectives 4 and 5 to give me 2 vps and leave the score 5-2 at the end of turn 4.

Ben started his turn 5 by moving the Venom and Mandrakes so that he could have another go at bombarding my bikes with splinter shots. The Reavers rallied and turned to face the oncoming Dev Dread. The Grotesques stayed where they were to claim objective 3 again. The shooting from the Venom, Mandrakes and sole surviving Reaver on my right flank fired at the bikes but once again had no effect. The Cabalites blasted the Drop Pod and caused it to be shaken. The Reavers with the Heat Lance snapshot at the Dev Dread but to no effect. Ben secured objectives 3 and 4 to bring his score up to 4.

For my Tactical Objectives I drew Supremacy and Overwhelming Firepower to add to Ascendancy and Sec Ob 6 in my hand. In order to claim the 4 objectives required, I dismounted the Scouts from the Landspeeder Storm and turbo-boosted it on a suicide run straight at the Grotesques. The Tactical Squad huddled around the objective on the left of my deployment zone near my wrecked Rhino. The bikes moved towards the objective on top of the building in Ben’s deployment zone and the Dev Dread loomed towards the Reavers on the left. I managed to keep Endurance running in the psychic phase and the bikes wiped the last 2 Cabalites out with their shooting. My other shooting was ineffective in hurting the Reavers or the Venom. The Dev Dread assaulted the Reavers on my left flank. He pulped them to a mush before consolidating into the ruins. The Drop Pod was also successful in regaining a hull point from It Will Not Die. At the end of the turn I scored 6 vps which made the score 11-4 to me.

The game continued on to game 6. Ben moved his Mandrakes and Venom up to keep on harassing the bikes. The Grotesques moved towards my table edge to guarantee an assault on the Landspeeder Storm. In the shooting phase the Venom was finally able to kill the remaining bike who had been knocking about on his own with the Librarian for almost the entire battle. The Grotesques unsurprisingly pummelled the Landspeeder in the assault phase and made it explode without suffering any damage in return. Ben scored Blood and Guts, Pain in all its Forms and Sec Ob 6 giving him 3 eps and bringing the score to 11-7.

My turn was fairly short. The Scouts moved away from the Grotesques just in case the game should continue. My Librarian also retreated to avoid giving up a point for Slay the Warlord although managed to cast Endurance so it seemed unlikely that he would get killed anyway. The Dev Dread turned his big guns towards the remaining Venom blowing it out of the sky with his Twin-Linked Lascannons. I scored No Mercy and Sec Ob 4 bringing me to 13 vps.

The game carried onto turn 7. Ben secured a couple of objectives with his Mandrakes and sole remaining Reaver as well as getting Linebreaker with his Grotesques. I only got 1 point for Linebreaker in my turn making the final score a 14-10 victory to me.

The game obviously went well for me. I have never used Biomancy before and combining the Iron Hands chapter tactics with Endurance did much to win me the game. My bikes effectively became as resilient as Ravenwing Black Knights without having to jink which absorbed a lot of firepower. Without that spell I am sure my bikes and librarian would have been pin cushioned by the end of turn 2. The bike also made the Librarian much more useful. Not only was he able to buff himself but he was able to shoot around out of trouble and pick on Ben’s weak units of Cabalites. It is hard for me to justify taking a Librarian on foot again (although a Terminator Librarian with some Deathwing Knights would also work). I do need to be more careful with the bikes in general though as they are not as resilient as the Ravenwing and with everything else in the army being mounted or a vehicle they are an obvious target for anti-personnel fire.

I took a big risk with the Assault Dread in flaming the Reavers on turn 1. I left myself very vulnerable to being shot in the back with a blaster. Fortunately it paid off in that I was able to take out the Cluster Caltrops and Heat Lance of the Reavers without losing the Dread. It is hard to say if it was the right decision. Reavers are very difficult to get the drop on and being able to cripple them before they can rush off is always a benefit but the Venom is also fast and is able to put out a lot of poisoned shooting which is always deadly. In the end I would probably attack the Reavers again as they are resilient against shooting that doesn’t ignore cover.

The Devastator Dreadnaught was a bit mixed for me. Most of what it achieved this game it would have done better if it had a close combat weapon and twin-linked lascannon. I liked how it was able to stomp around, anchor my line and mulch anything the came near it but the missile launcher didn’t provide much of a benefit. It also cost me 10 its that could be spent elsewhere. Something to try next time would be to pair up the Dev Dread with the Tac Squad. The Tac Squad got picked on as they were out on their own on the flank. They were lucky to have suffered as little damage as they did. Keeping the two together would combine to make a strong defensive asset but at the cost of board control.

The Landspeeder Storm continues to be one of the very best things in the Marine codex. The whole package of Scouts and Speeder comes in at less than 100 pts but has gained me uncounted number of ups through being Ob Sec. They basically never kill anything but that isn’t really their job anyway.