Commander Dante's Retirement

Every year, the Sad Muppet Society (my home gaming club) run a tournament called A Small Matter of Honour. This event is the highlight of my gaming calendar. Partly because I started the tournament, but mostly because the event always has an excellent atmosphere, and it is a chance to catch up with some friends I do not see on a regular basis. Like last year, I'm taking my Blood Angels successor chapter, the Order of Sanguinius. Unlike last year, they have a shiny new codex. Last night I played my first game with this codex and it has changed them radically.

First, the Death Company had to go. I tend to play quite tactically (if I'm awake) so I dislike elements I can not control. Before, the Death Company were kept in check by a Chaplain, but now nothing can stop their Black Rage so they are out (for not being team players). Second, all my tanks (Baal Predators, Rhinos etc) are now fast and two of them can outflank; this makes my entire army far more dynamic.

My first plan was to use Commander Dante and Honour Guard as shock troopers and build my army around that. To this end, I finished my Commander Date really quick and finished the rest of a tactical squad that I had been painting for (at least) nine months.

So, how did the game go? Well, I was fighting a small entire 'tech guard' Imperial Guard army with more plasma than... pretty much an thing else I've ever played. We played a Capture and Control mission and despite going first, I opted to keep my entire army in reserve.

The outflanking Baal Predators worked well. The fast Vindicator was appropriately scary and acted as a bullet magnet. Of course, it didn't kill any thing. The fast razorback was great, almost getting one tactical unit onto an objective. And in the end a single scout won the game by not dying, despite the number of plasma templates landing on him.

And what of Commander Dante? Well, he arrived, stunned a vehicle, watched as his honour guard were slaughtered, ate a unit in close combat, and then died to lasguns. While he certainly helped win the game, he was not decisive.

As the honour guard is more of an anti-infantry unit, I've decided to replace Dante with a Reclusiarch (a three wound chaplain). This gets me re-rolls to hit on the change (Dante missed with most of his close combat attacks) and more importantly, saves 70 points. In my 1250 point army these will go towards a dreadnought with lots of autocannons. Unfortunately that means I have more stuff to build and paint before the end of the month...