Conquest GT - Vancouver BC Canada

...I fielded a themed Blood Angels army - the Baal Light Infantry Company - an elite strike force that is very easily transportable..

Commander Dante with an honour guard with jump packs, melta guns and storm shields.
Mephiston
Sanguinary Priest
Sanguinary Guard with banner, infernus pistol and power fist
Assault squad with 2x Melta guns and Sarge with power fist and melta bombs
Assault squad with 2x Flamers and Sarge with power fist and melta bombs
Devestator squad with 4x Las Cannons
Devestator squad with 4x Plasma Cannons

GAME 5.

My fifth game was against the one army I thought would be my toughest opponent of the tournament - a 6 Vendetta army belonging to Christopher Frye (7th of 18 generalship).

Company command squad, 4x flamer, Astropath, Officer of the fleet
Veteran Squad, 3x flamer, demo charge, melta bombs, demolitions, sarge with melta bombs
Veteran Squad, 3x flamer, demo charge, melta bombs, demolitions, sarge with melta bombs
Veteran Squad, 3x flamer, demo charge, melta bombs, demolitions, sarge with melta bombs
Veteran Squad, flamer, 2x melta guns, melta bombs, demolitions, sarge with melta bombs
Vendetta Gunship Squadron (2), Extra Armour, Twin Linked Lascannons x3
Vendetta Gunship Squadron (2), Extra Armour, Twin Linked Lascannons x3
Vendetta Gunship Squadron (2), Extra Armour, Twin Linked Lascannons x3
Medusa, heavy flamer
Medusa, heavy flamer
Manticore rocket launcher
Guardsman Marbo

The mission: Take and hold (2 objectives) with spearhead.

Christopher won the deployment roll and placed his artillery on the table in his quarter. Manticore was right at his rear and the medusa's spread apart and forward. He kept his vendettas in reserve.

I placed all my jump guys in reserve and my las cannon marines in a building in the centre of my deployment area. My Plasma devs covered the lower areas of the building. The Sanguinary priest stayed with the Plasma devs.

How the game ran:

I fail to steal the initiative.

The IG move the medusas up and the manticore takes a shot at the building containing my las devs, shacking it.

The blood angels plasma devs shoot one of the medusas and get a weapon destroyed, taking out the main gun.

Two vendettas arrive from reserve, one dropping a squad of veterans by my plasma devs who shot and took out two. The vendettas shoot up the building containing the las devs shaking the building. The other medusa is still too far away to help out, but seems perched over the objective on his side of the table.

The BA plasma devs shoot at a vendetta squadron attacking the las dev building and shake one.

The IG veterans shoot up the plasma devs and kill two more. The other vendetta squadron arrives and moves toward my objective. The manticore once again shakes the building withthe las devs. Marbo arrives and appears in the ruins by my objective.

My melta gun assault squad drop in by the intact medusa and destroy it with melta fire. The sanguinary guard drop by the manticore and fail to destroy it with their infernus pistol. Dante and his honor guard drop in and immobilise one of the vendettas by my objective. Mephiston arrives on my table edge and moves into the ruins with Marbo, assaulting and killing him before he can cause any trouble.

The veteran squad shoots up the las dev squad and kills the Sanguinary priest and the las devs with him. The sanguinary guard lose one to the heavy flamer of the manticore. The vendetta by my objective drops their veterans and they shoot up dante and his honour guard, killing 3 melta troops and the sanguinary initiate, leaving one guy with storm shield/melta gun and dante. My melta assault squad takes three casualties due to vendetta lascannon fire.

My flamer assault squad shows up and drops by my objective and flames the veteran squad. Dante wipes the survivors out. The sanguinary guard kill the manticore. Mephiston attacks the vendetta with sword of sanguinius and immobilises the vendetta. The melta assault squad jump towards his objective. The Las and Plasma devs do nothing.

The lurking vendetta squad drops his veterans near his objective but they move back from it, out of assault range of my melta marines. The remaining vendettas shoot up Dante and kill him. The veterans by my Las Devs wipe out the remaining plasma devs.

My last remaning honor guard explodes the vendetta by my objective, but died in the ensuing explosion. The melta assault squad moves up to capture his objective. Mephiston assaults the weaponless medusa to prevent it from contesting. My flamer assault squad moves up and secures my objective.

The game ends on turn 5 with Blood Angels holding both objectives.

General tactical notes for the B.L.I.C. (Ball Light Infantry Company) in tournie play

B.L.I.C. doesn't have the toughness to hang around under fire for very long. From this tournie I learnt a couple of things.

Low cover battlefields against big shooty armies:
If there aren't any buildings to move into or LOS blocking terrain you'll need to go for a deep strike strategy. Either keep your non-jumppack infantry off the board at first or deploy them into what cover is available.

It is best to not reroll unsuccessful reserve rolls until turn 4. The lower required roll plus the ability to reroll from descent of angels will help most of your jump guys arrive together. This will maximise the chances that you'll get all your troops onto the table at the same time. This helps limit the amount of damage the enemy can do to it by first allowing you to take out powerful shooting vehicles, and give your enemy more targets to shoot at in their turn rather than arriving piecemeal. Due to the D6" scatter you can likely place an overwhelming number of troops by your enemy and will be able to clear out the forces immediately by the objectives. You'll have at least one turn in which to assault the enemy and clean up.

Don't be afraid to combat squad your assault marines. This will maximize the number of marines you'll get onto the table on turn 4 and further frustrate your opponent's shooting, especially against big shooty armies that have single units capable of inflicting more than a couple of AP3 or under shots or a mass of weaker firepower.

High cover battlefields and sheep-herding:
You can afford to deploy your main forces on the table and use your assault and sanguinary mobility to effectively coral your opponent. Often stopping some of the forces from moving even a single round can make the difference between winning and losing.

Mephiston - his best use is psychological. Any enemy aware of his awesomeness is unlikely to move forces near enough for him to assault. This gives you another puppy to use herding the enemy.