Wrasslin' by the Horns - Trials and Tribulations of the Blood Rodeo Pt 1

So here's a gamer's log on a path to more success and better gaming with a new army.

As I stated in my Battle Report I have begun modelling and painting Kirby's...love-child?...of a list he likes to call the Blood Rodeo as a Lamenter army.

While not a trademark yet, Kirby hopes to make the Blood Rodeo one just like BoLS's Leafblower. Silly men and their toy soldiers. I have you know, I much rather pull one-liners from movies like Escape from LA while playing my games of 40k, so I find it fitting I have named the two Librarians Snake and Plisskin.

We all know Kirby loves fluffing his own idea, but this is one series I felt a need to start for personal gain as well as informing people into how I think. After all, the best way to get better at 40k is by playing (Proxy or otherwise) and by asking others opinions while criticizing yourself to drive yourself to get better.

So modelling & painting aren't my strong point to present yet as I have not a camera to show off my...I would consider average...painting skills. So we'll focus on the army list, tactics and performance.

Issues that people might find in the list and it's usage -

1) Your Movement Phase is key! Do not waste it!

You want to abuse the Sanguinary Priest Bubbles as much as possible while still keeping yourself survivable from massed blasts and artillery. Thankfully, other than Imperial Guard Deathstrike Missiles, most other artillery that would ignore your Armour Save while denying your made method of Cover (Screening with the bikes) are Basilisks. These are on the decline as of late as well as having a piss poor min-indirect range.

Playing so far, never have I imagined my opponent so annoyed that my precise unit movements actually matter now, and thankfully they understand. And while I pointed out to Kirby when I first saw the list that it hates Tank Shocks (Lash can get Hood'd, hopefully.) the list has more than enough melta to make tanks second guess doing so.

Also, don't really bug yourself silly about ANY kind of blast if you are bunched up. I played against Tyranids with 2 Harpies with TL Venom Cannons and 2 Tyrannofexes deck'd out to be Gunbeasts (Cluster Spines, Larvae, & Rupture Cannon IIRC)And though he caught a lot with each successful hit, he scattered off with plentey others and the fact that none of that artillery ignored my Armour, I could be confident that Space Marine Power Armour could carry the day.

So keep tight and keep as one as long as possible to help get enemy target priority out of whack.

2) Combat Squads - In my games so far, I have nearly always Combat Squadded everything in the army that can. This is to give you sacrificial units overall and I don't like shooting melta AND flamers at massed infantry when I could be shooting just the flamers and use the melta on more juicy targets. Smaller squads also make it harder for enemies who expect to shoot and charge your units for a follow up, as every unit needs only 2 casualties (1 for the Bike Combat Squads with Attack Bikes) before it's called to take a Morale Check. Now, you may not have Combat Tactics to choose to fail this check, (Which would make this list way too silly if it could.) but it does give you to do just the same with some "bad luck" As explained in the Battle Report, this can prevent multi-charges on your units, help bait enemies where you want them to go, and gives your opponent more targets to wet their pants over.

3) Furious Charge - I know I have it, I just under-utilize it with my ASM so far, am afraid my Jump Packs are that much more fragile than the Bikes. But just last night against the said Tyranids, they ganged up on a 4 Tyranid Warrior + Prime unit all with Boneswords (Prime with a Lashwhip) and they chewed those sorry sods up well! Course he killed a few in the process as well back, but it balanced out. Fists help vs. Nids, kill 2 Warriors and gain 6 Combat Res instantly, lol.

4) Deep Striking - As noted I nearly always Combat Squad, and in doing this I most often leave 2 5 Man - 2 Melta ASM, and a 5 Man - Melta, Hand Flamer & Infernus Pistol Sarge ASM in reserves for very reliable, on position, meltas to take out key threats in the opposing force. Be bold, as the codex says, that Descent of Angels rule kicks serious arse for these kind of uses. Terminators...let's get to those now.

5) "Come With Me If You Want To Live" - Understatement, perhaps, on just how useful the six Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield Terminators (added by Stelek) to the list are. They provide a huge boost in CC power, a awesome deterrent to tell the enemy "Get away from my army/objective", and a awesome method to get firepower that would be detrimental to the list off the majority of it. Plus, since they're so hard they usually survive the enemy's "Oh lord no!" reaction with some luck, they just go in and stick it more to the enemy in a very, boot-to-face kind of way.

So that's the beginning of my thoughts so far. Will keep you posted and any questions/comments while I practice and model it are welcome!