First 40k Solo Victory!!

It's true!  The long series of draws and losses I have suffered is over.  I actually won a 1v1 game of 40k, and I beat Blood Angels with my Blood Ravens.  Blood this, blood that.  Come, sit, and I will tell of the time those loyal to the Emperor defeated the aberrant Blood Angels.

The mission was seize ground, with five  objectives.  Deployment was Dawn of War.  I'll spare you a long batrep, but I only won this game because I was able to kill his only scoring unit (an assault squad) and then run like a scared rabbit from his units of unstoppable killage and hold a single objective at the end of turn 5, when the game ended.

So here are the Blood Angels units that caused me so much pain:

• Death Company w/ Reclusiarch:  re-rolls of 3+ to-hit and 3+ to-wound.  Ouch.  Nothing these guys assaulted lived past the initial Furious Assault-driven wave of attacks.  The only thing that even got attacks back was my captain, and only because he is I5 and struck simultaneously.
• Stormraven: I had wondered how much a "flat out" cover save could do for a skimmer.  The answer here is that it prevented the Stormraven from being destroyed repeatedly.  All I ever managed to do is shake it and at one point knock out its assault cannon.  With the machine spirit is can flat-out and still fire too.  Whee.
• Baal Predator: what's better than a tank with 12 anti-infantry shots?  An outflanking fast tank with 12 infantry shots.  Zoom.  Brrrrraaakkkkkk.  Ugh.  
• TH/SS Terminators: just like your regular 3+ invulnerable save dudes, but with Feel No Pain!  That means your average marine shooting a single boltgun shot will kill, on average, one Terminator every 36 turns.  A marine with a plasma gun stands a much better change, killing a single Terminator every 5.4 turns, and only a 1/18 chance of killing himself each turn!

At the top of turn 5 I was holding one objective with a single sergeant w/ power fist, and was within move/run of two others with a combat squad and scout squad.  He ran the Baal pred up to my pf sergeant, zoomed the Stormraven over near the scouts and moved the Terminators to block the combat squad from getting to their nearest objective.  He had already lost his scoring unit, and all he needed to do is prevent me from taking an objective in case the game ended and engage me as soon as possible to win.  Nothing I had on the table could withstand what he still had.  The scouts and double-autocannon dread were unable to take out the Stormraven, so no objective there.  The Terminators were too scary for the combat squad to get near, so no go there.  The last hope was the lone sergeant (a conversion of the Crimson Fists char Cortez)  who needed 6's to hit the pred.  He charged, rolled enough on difficult terrain to make it to the tank, and made his three attacks.  One six!  Okay, now it's S8 vs. armor 10... glance on a 2, pen on 3+.  Even if I pen I still need 5+ to make the objective uncontested.  I roll.... pen! and on the damage chart...... 5!  wrecked!  (wipe sweat from brow.)

Finally, at the end of turn 5, I rolled to see if the game ended, and it did.  Blood Ravens take the victory 1 objective to 0.  

Rules note:  When jump troops fall back, they move 3d6" and use their jump packs to go over other units and terrain.  I lost a unit of assault marines because they fell back from a tank shock and I didn't apply this rule.  I moved them like normal marines, although I did move them 3d6, so they just couldn't put enough real estate between themselves and death company to avoid getting assaulted.  If I have been able to jump over the DC I would have put myself out of assault range easily and would have survived.