Showing posts with label Dark Angels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dark Angels. Show all posts

Monday, February 28, 2011

Battle for Stones River!

 Battle for Stones River was great this year! I think the final tally was 52 people, great diversity in armies. I also saw a lot of new faces, which is cool because I played that tourney last year and also go to Murfreesboro a couple of times a year to play in tournaments at Grand Adventures.









So here is the list I brought:
1863 Guardians of the Covenant (Codex Dark Angels)
Belial with twin lightning claws
3 Venerable Dreadnoughts with Twin-Linked Lascannons and Heavy Flamer
1 Deathwing Command Squad - all had TH/SS, 1 Cyclone, 1 Apothecary, 1 Standard Bearer
3 Deathwing Squads - 4 TH/SS, 1 Twin Lightning Claws, 1 Cyclone
3 Landspeeder Typhoons with Multi-meltas.
 I walked around before the tournament to see what kind of armies where there. As you would expect, there were several Space Wolves, Blood Angels, and IG armies. However I expected many more Dark Eldar armies, there where only 4 out of 52. My biggest surprise was the number of Terminator armies, I think there were 2 deathwing armies and 3 Wolf Guard Terminator Armies, and several SM armies had big units of termies!

On to Scenarios and Matchups. I didn't take any pictures, sorry, but I will run down each scenario and my opponents army list as best I can.
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Round 1: Phillip using CSM

Slaanesh Daemon Prince with wings and Lash of Submission
Chaos Sorceror in Terminator armor, combi-plasma, Lash of Submission
7 Glory marked Terminators, 6 combi-plasmas, 1 chainfist, 1 Reaper autocannon
2 Noisemarine squads, each with 6 NM with sonic blasters, 1 champion with doom siren, Rhino with pintle mounted combi-melta
1 Chaos Space marine squad, 2 melta guns, champion with power fist, Rhino with pintle mounted combi-melta
3 X 2 Obliterators

Guh, my army is all foot sloggers and have 2+ saves, his army punishes foot sloggers, and has tons of AP 2...great first draw...

Mission was secret objectives, each player had to write down which piece of terrain in the enemies deployment zone was their secret objective, and then reveal it in the 3rd turn. Primary was holding your objective, Secondary was holding the bridge with a troop choice, Tertiary was kps. Our game was bloody as hell. I got first turn, setup my army holding Belial and his Deathwing command in reserve to deepstrike towards my secret objective. Then Phillip seized the initiative, wretched bastard! That really made things tough for me, as if the first turn would have stayed with me I could have wrecked all 3 rhinos and probably killed the daemon prince easily...instead my first round of shooting did nothing, and belial and his squad was forced to land in a maelstrom of shit...right infront of all of phillip's combi-plasma termies....

Second turn saw phillip shooting the piss out of belials squad, 7 combi-plasmas, 1 reaper autocannon, and 2 twinlinked plasma guns from oblits later...I have lost 1 terminator! Wow! I felt sorry for the guy, my entire unit should have been gone! He forded his CSM squad and a Noisemarine squad over the river towards his secret objective and obilts shot at some termies to little effect. His termies, sorc and the 2 oblits then charge into my terminators with belial....after the dust settles I have won by 6! He rolls his morale for the termies (oblits got pulverized by THs) and fails, but that Mark of Chaos Glory wins the day as he re-rolls and makes his morale!

Third turn was bad for me in many ways. First he positioned his CSM to make a break towards his objective and tried to block my shooting/assaulting with a smoked rhino, positioned his Noisemarines to be able to fire tons of shots at my termies closing on the CSM and jumped his other NM out to rally towards the bridge. My turn saw my venerable dread charge into the CSM and die to a pf...my shooting fail to kill the Deamon Prince (who only had 2 wounds left, and I shot 3 speeders and 1 termie squad at...), at least I killed the sorc and termies with my TH right? The damn Sorc only got hit one time and he passed his invul....ouch!


Turn 4 saw him move his CSM closer to his secret objective, do a ton of shooting, he assaulted my termies that lived thru the hail of NM shots with the NM and the daemonprince, who was wiped out as expected. His 2 rhinos blew up my speeders, those combi-meltas had scopes! My turn saw Belial and his squad rush over and squat in the objective terrain, a ven dread move towards the bridge and the other Ven dread moving towards his secret objective. My Deathwing squad that is near his objective spreads out to see if the bridge is more important or the objective is.

Turn 5 the daemon prince decides to tempt fate and fly over the river to assault my ven dread near the bridge. his CSM squeeze between 2 rhinos right beside the objective, his NM abandon the hill near the bridge to move towards belial, his other NM  move towards the bridge. The only shooting that matters is him blowing up my venerable dread with 2 long range melta shots thru terrain...ouch. The Prince cries as he assaults the other venerable dreadnought and gets his face caved in. He consolidates towards the bridge. My turn belial continues to be a squatter, termies move over to assault the CSM squad (only 2 termies left) and the venerable dreadnought moves up the bridge to halt the NM from getting more points for him. I assault the CSM, he causes 1 cyclone termie death (which was the one inside the terrain contesting) and the last TH/SS termie stands strong, smacking 2 CSMs)

Phillip Rolls and the game goes on, he moves NM over to shoot belial, moves the other squad towards the bridge, and we fight assault....My TH/SS termie lives on! He kills no one though. My turn belial considers leaving the confines of the cover to fight the NM, but notices that the NM champ has a power sword, and since he forgot his SS today, he decides to just squat some more. Ven assaults NM on bridge. CSM fights the TH/SS termie...and he lives! He fights back and does nothing!

I roll, praying that the game ends, it goes on! Phillip moves closer to my objective, but didn't manage to get close enough to ensure a good run making it into the terrain. NM on bridge throw a melta bomb and knock imobilze, csm fight the TH/SS termie....and he lives! He kills 2 this time, Phillip rolls, and fails his morale! But damn that Glory, he gets to re-roll and sticks around. My turn I pray the ven dread doesn't die, and he doesn't, the TH/SS termie fights on, lives and doesn't kill anyone.

Points tally, we both hold our objective, tied kps, no one owns the bridge, 11 pts a piece and a helluva game!
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Round 2:  David DuBois using Codex: Eldar
Autarch on Jetbike, mandiblasters, laser lance
7 Guardian Jetbikes
2x6 Fire Dragons with exarch in Wave Serpents (scatter lasers)
2x10 Dire Avengers with exarch in Wave Serpents (scatter lasers)
8 Harlequins, 1 Shadowseer, 8 kisses
3 Vyper Jet Bikes, Scatter lasers
3 War Walkers, 2 Scatter Lasers a piece

Str 6 spam, but not a scary one. I've never played against str 6 spam Eldar without 6 Wave Serpents, so I figure I've got this from the get go. I don't remember the mission, it involved catching an objective that was floating down the river, killing your opponents most expensive unit, and probably getting stuff across the river. Its not worth me going into detail, he won first turn, deferred to me. At the end of turn 5 I held the objective, had most of my army across the river, killed his most expensive squad and all he had left was like 5 dire avengers. Poor guy. He can thank Phillip, lol. 20 points to me.
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 Round 3: Keith Hoffman using Codex: IG

Company Command squad in chimera with random wargear, astropath, fleet officer
DH inquisitor lord, psychic hood, tarot, 2 mystics
Infantry platoon
>PCS in chimera 3 plasma guns, 1 plasma pistol, medic
>2 infantry squads in chimeras, melta, lascannon
Veteran squad in chimera with 3 melta, harker
2 Scout Sentinels with autocannons and hks
Banewolf
Leman Russ Demolisher
2 Manticores

I've played Keith before, last time we played I was 3 models and 1 immobilized chimera from tabling him. He has blocked it from his memory, understandably. Mission was hidden objectives, 5 objectives go out on the table face down, when a unit contacts they flip up with a number, 1-3 on it, thats how many objective points it is worth, secondary is get more units accross the river, teriary is hold the bridge. We roll, Keith gets first turn and deferrs to me. He holds the Chimera vets in reserve to outflank.

My first turn sees Belial drop in, scatter 11 inches and mishap, thankfully going back into reserve, a lot of shaken and stunned vehicles and 1 destroyed Manticore. He fires back and destroys a landspeeder (that was in cover) and blows the missiles off another one.

My second turn belial and company make it back in, even with the fleet officer. This time they land on the other side far away from any units. I advance up to contact 2 objectives (2 on the left side of the board, 3 on the right side) and move 2 dreads towards the bridge, I made a fatal error here, I should have kept 1 dread close to the left hand objective....live and learn. My shooting sees some immobilzed, some shaken and another blown up manticore. Keith's turn sees another weapon blown off the landspeeder and a multilaser wrecking my MVP landspeeder on the right (he killed both manticores!) and he crucially puts enough wounds on my middle termie squad for me to have to take a wound on the cyclone, and he was the only one to die. He also imobilized 1 of my dreadnoughts on the left side of the board.

My turn 3 I have this game well in hand. My middle termie squad moves up to flip another objective, 1, and Belial and his squad start hoofing it towards an objective in the middle of the table. My dread moves up to the river on the right side hoping to lend some fire support to the command squad. My landspeeder on the left with no weapons just keeps flying back and forth to get a cover save. I shoot 4 cyclone missiles and 1 tlinked lascannon at the chimera with the PCS that is 15 inches or so away from belial and do nothing...that will hurt later. I shoot at some chimeras in front of the bridge and don't manage much. This will be my defining turn, though I don't realize it. Keith's Vets arrive and come on the left side of the table, conveniently where he needs them to be since I have an objective worth 2 points back there. His PCS moves over behind a hill so his hatch is fully within 12" of my command squad. His demolisher moves over to start munching on my command squad. His shooting is fabulous, though in hindsight he was using the wrong BS for his PCS, those guys hit on 4s, but he was hitting on 3s, fortunately it probably didn't matter, as they only killed 1 guy with shooting this round. But the demolisher shoots, sticks its large blast and then fires his lascannon...which hits and wounds, so now I have 5 wounds to take on 4 guys....I should have put 2 on belial and let his ass die...but I didn't so I lose belial and 1 guy, if I had taken 2 on belial I may have managed the 3 3+s. His vets chimera shoot at my termies on the objective and whittle 1 more away.

My turn 4 I am still winning big, I hold 5 objective points, have 3 squads accross the table, and have a terminator that can shuffle onto the bridge last turn for that objective, all I need is a decent turn of shooting and this game is mine. I shoot 2 squads at the chimera that just came in....and do nothing, command squad blows up the chimera that has the PCS and kills 3 guys in side, but they do not get pinned...shit! and I shoot some lascannons at the other chimeras hoping to stun or shake them, and manage to immobilize the other one...shit. Keith makes his run for it, he moves his chimera up so that even if it gets blown to shreds, his 5th turn he will be able to claim the 2 objective. He moves his PCS up on the hill to unleash 2 plasma guns and a plasma pistol on me, he shuffles his banewolf closer to my lines to throw a flamer on my objective holders next turn. Mostly this turn was Keith moving his stuff into position to attempt a draw or a coo, though he forgets that the bridge is worth points too. His PCS opens up on my command squad, 5 plasma shots on 2 guys that are hitting on 3s...(should be 4s) but he still just manages to kill 1. I can't remember any other major events from turn 4.

My turn 5 sees me sweating, I can see how this is going and I need some good rolls to live. I move my landspeeder 24" to squad near my 2 objective. I shoot 4 more cyclones at the chimera near my objective, still doing nothing. I shoot some random las cannons at the demolisher and do nothing....shiiiiiiiit. Keith jumps his vets out moving up to within 3 of the objective, moves his banewolf over to flame my termies, moves his PCS up to within 3 of the objective across the river. and gets his CCS out to shoot at my last termie that was standing on his objective in the middle of the river. Keiths banewolf throws its chemcannon on both my termies, it wounds on 2+ but is only ap 3....I roll 2 1s....his sentinels then autocannon the speeder, get one pen thru and blow it up....his PCS unleash however many shots they have left and cause like 2 wounds and I fail 1...and Keith deftyly used up 20 minutes of clock shuffling random stuff around and shooting at things that don't matter to ensure no 6th turn. But it was a good game, and even with a 6th turn I couldn't have won it, at best I could have got a few points from holding the bridge. Overall a good game, but I was upset the next day when I looked at my IG codex and noticed the PCS are BS 3 not 4. I'm just glad that it probably wouldn't have had any effect on the game. Keith 16 me 0
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Round 4: Dan Peely using Codex Daemons 
Blood Thirster of Khorne, Blessing
Blood Thirster of Khorne, Blessing
1 Blood Crusher
11 Bloodletters (green)
11 Bloodletters (red)
15 Bloodletters (yellow)
15 Bloodletters (blue)
Nurgle prince, rot, touch
Nurgle prince, rot, touch
Nurgle prince, rot, touch

I have played Dan before in a tournament at grand adventures. I won, but it was a close game, he plays daemons super agressive with no shooting. Bloodletters all have power weapons...this could go bad. I win first turn and defer to him, forcing him to drop where I can shoot him. Mission is table quarters. 1 point for the quarter you start in, 2 for neutral quarters, 3 for your opponents. Primary is who owns most quarter points, secondary is modified kps, teriary is most expensive unit. My unit is command squad, his unit is blue bloodletters.

I deploy castled with Vens up front. He rolls for his preferred wave...doesn't get it, so he has to drop all his bloodletters and the 1 crusher. The bloodletters all land in front of me, crowding to drink the blood of their enemies. The Crusher lands hidden all the way across the board.

My turn 1 I flame, frag, and spit all over as many bloodletters as possible, charging 1 dread into a unit (green) and a termie squad into a whittled down unit (yellow). The dread will be there forever, the termies lose a few but kill the squad, but they don't consolidate away enough to stay out of charge range.

His turn 2 he sees only 1 prince and 1 thirster come in, I opened up my notebook and wrote "game over" my shooting means I can easily kill 1-2 MC a turn. His blue squad charges my termies, they slap and tickle leaving me with 1 guy left. My turn I charge a dread into the blue guys, kill the blood thirster with shooting.

His turn 3 2 Princes arrive, but since he is so aggressive, one mishaps and goes back into reserve. His nurgle prince charges the ven dread that is fighting the green squad at the bottom of the table. Bunch of slaps and tickles. My turn Belial leaves his squad and joins another behind him. The command squad moves to to kill another squad of letters (red). I shuffle around so one squad of termies can join the ven dread vs the blue if needed but can also shoot the prince that just dropped. The other Ven dread moves down to join the fight vs the prince and letters thats at the bottom of the map. My shooting kills the nurgle prince. I wipe out the green squad at the bottom, so now I have 1 dread with no arms and a fresh dread fighting a prince.

His turn 4 gets the prince...We go on but I end up killing everything but 1 wound on the prince in combat and the crusher because he hid the whole game. Bad matchup and worse reserve rolls for him....GW fix daemons!!! Please! Dan 0 me 20.

I ended up finishing 7th overall. If only I could have not lost to Keith...now I will hear about it forever lol. I voted Phillip my favorite opponent, mostly because he was super cool under pressure and we talked all day after our game. I hope his club makes it down for Maul in the Mall.

Well enough Deathwing talk, time to start painting Dark Eldar!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Hobby Time!


Ok, so I've allowed myself to get into a mad rush about trying to finish my Guardian-wing up for Battle for Stones River.

These things happen...I guess.

I am still reeling after Chris and I pulled the rug out from under the guys in the last team tournament. Dicehead Games really stepped up the scenarios and it was tough to get max points in any of the 3 rounds. Going into the last round we were down by 14 points, and our stuff was unpainted, so best we could figure we had to table and the guys ahead of us (who were fully painted) had to get 0-3 points...We ended up winning it all!

Anyway, here is the list I have decided on for BFSR:

1863 - Guardians of the Covenant

Belial armed with two lightning claws
Belial Command Squad (5 Deathwing Terminators)
1 Apothecary
1 Standard Bearer
1 Cyclone Missile Launcher
All have TH/SS

3 X 5 Deathwing Squads
1 Twin Lightning Claw
1 Cyclone Missile Launcher
4 have TH/SS

3 Venerable Dreadnoughts with Twin-Linked Lascannon and DCCW with Heavy Flamer

3 Landspeeder Typhoons

I already owned all of these models, but I haven't played them together in a long long time, mostly because Deathwing was hard to do well with since they were over priced, had crappy storm shields, and after I played a pure Deathwing army at Adepticon last year and tabled him in 45 minutes, I figured out just how bad they are...it hurt my feelings...a lot...but now with the new FAQ the Deathwing have risen from the ashes!

These are pictures of my progress. (Click the Thumbnails for bigger pictures)



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Moving along nicely, I just hope I can finish. I still have to cast about 12 40mm round bases, 3 60mm round bases and 3 landspeeder sized bases.

 

Monday, January 17, 2011

Angels of my heart...the Dark Angels FAQ and you

It should be no secret to any of my friends or opponents that I am a Dark Angel fan. My marines are painted as a successor chapter, The Guardians of the Covenant, and I use Dark Angel Iconography throughout their design.

Most don't know that when I started playing 40k (again) it was just as 5th edition was coming out, and it was using the codex Dark Angels. Many of you know the troubles that Dark Angels have faced since their initial release, but for those that don't, here is the skinny; Dark Angels are one of the last codices designed for 4th Edition. So their point costs and flexibility (high and none) were reflective of that. In fact chances are if you have only been on the scene for a few years, you have never seen anyone using Codex: Dark Angels, instead you have seen dark green marines with robes using the Codex: Space Marines. So sad...but I was one of those guys...

Flash Forward to the end of December 2010....the DA get FAQed, but in a good way! (See  Dark Angels FAQ  for details) Dark Angels get upgraded equipment! Dark Angels get Feel No Pain! Dark Angels get good POTMS! These things make us rejoice, not for our power armored brothers, but for our 1st and 2nd company!

Why do they care?

Dark Angels are unique in that they have special characters that open up Terminators and/or Bikes to be troops. The next caveat is Dark Angels Bikers (referred to by their proper 2nd company title Ravenwing) are slightly more expensive than standard SM bikes, but they gain Fearless and a special form of Scout. Oh and they also have another small addition that Terminators may care about.....all Ravenwing Bikers are armed with Teleport Homers. Thats right kids, not only do they scout but they all Terminators to not scatter if they want to land within 6" of a bike.

Now time for the next caveat, Terminators in the Dark Angels (referred to by their proper 1st company title Deathwing) are slightly more expensive than their smurf cousins, and can only be taken 5 to a squad. However, they have discounted cyclone missile launchers and can mix their weaponry within the squad, so you could have storm bolters, lightning claws, thunder hammers and power weapons all in the same squad, and still take a cyclone on one of them. Oh and they also have another small addition that you may care about...Deathwing have a special rule called "Deathwing Assault" which replaces Drop Pod assault for the Dark Angels Army, which allows half of your Deathwing squads held in reserves to arrive on the first turn!

So now you are probably trying to process this information...let me throw another wrench into the wheels. Taking the Deathwing Special Character Belial not only opens up the ability to have Deathwing as troops, it also opens up allowing one of those Deathwing Squads to be a command squad opening up the options for an apothecary (FNP) and a standard bearer (units within 12" may re-roll failed morale and the unit gets +1 attack).

Those scouting bikers dropping in terminators with cyclones on the first turn probably has your mouth watering a little, and it probably should. But remember, those are probably going to be smaller bike squads and those are definitely only 5 man terminator squads that are dropping. Even a 2+/3++ will fail from time to time.

Sample 1863 list for an upcoming tournament.
Guardians of the Covenant - 1863

1 Sammael, Master of the Ravenwing (HQ)    
Land Speeder TL Assault Cannon; TL Heavy Bolter

1 Belial, Master of the Deathwing (HQ)
Twin Lightning Claws

5 Deathwing Terminator Squad (Troops)
Cyclone Missile Ln.; Lightning Claw (x1); Thunder Hammer (x4); Lightning Claw 2 (x1); Storm Shield (x4); Terminator Standard Bearer

5 Deathwing Terminator Squad (Troops)
Cyclone Missile Ln.; Lightning Claw (x1); Thunder Hammer (x4); Lightning Claw 2 (x1); Storm Shield (x4)

5 Deathwing Terminator Squad (Troops)    
Cyclone Missile Ln.; Lightning Claw (x1); Thunder Hammer (x4); Lightning Claw 2 (x1); Storm Shield (x4)

2 Ravenwing Attack Squadron (Troops)
Meltagun (x2);
1 Ravenwing Sergeant @ [60] Pts
1 Attack Bike
Multi-Melta (x1)

2 Ravenwing Attack Squadron (Troops)
Meltagun (x2);
1 Ravenwing Sergeant @ [60] Pts
1 Attack Bike
Multi-Melta (x1)

2 Ravenwing Attack Squadron (Troops)
Meltagun (x2);
1 Ravenwing Sergeant @ [60] Pts
1 Attack Bike
Multi-Melta (x1)

1 Ravenwing Support Squadron: Landspeeder (Fast Attack)
Heavy Bolter (x1); Typhoon Missile

1 Ravenwing Support Squadron: Landspeeder (Fast Attack)
Heavy Bolter (x1); Typhoon Missile
1 Ravenwing Support Squadron: Landspeeder (Fast Attack)
Heavy Bolter (x1); Typhoon Missile

Models in Army: 32
Total Army Cost: 1860

Bonus: Some pictures of my Guardians. This reminds me....I need more pictures...


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