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So I really need to clean this thread up and make it less disorganized and stuff. So in here you will find: 40k Grey Knights Adepta Sororitas Inquistion Exorcists Chapter Deathwatch Militarum Tempestus Adeptus Mechanicus Imperial Knights Raptors......No longer have this army Thanks GW 30K Raven Guard Adeptus Custodes Sisters of Silence Necromunda Redemptionist Completed models/ squads HQ Terminator Librarian Reynald de Vichers Inquistor (Interigator) Abygayl Selene Brotherhood Champion Landry de Lauzon Techmarine Talus ELITES Venerable Dreadnought Draper TROOPS Strike Squad Tancrede de Hautville Strike Squad Gaiwan de Monglane Strike Squad Godfrey de Caux Termnator Squad Tibauld De Gaudin FAST ATTACK Interceptor Squad De Plessiez HEAVY SUPPORT Purgation Squad Des Barres FLYERS DEDICATED TRANSPORTS Razorback "Long Swords" Kill Team Octarius Hand of Titan Raptors Hqs 10th Co Chaplain Arthurus Phobos Libraian Hes Elites Chief Apothercary Chraddas and Apothecary La Rocha 5th Scout Squad led by Veteran Sgt Helios Troops Fast Attack Heavy Support Dedicated Transports Flyers Lord of War Terrain Other Project Back to Badab Kill Team- Raptors Team 7 909th "Hell Rain" Charlie Company (Inquistorial Strom Troopers) Hqs Ordo Malleus Termiantor Inqusitor Lord Martyn Odum Ordo Malleus Inquistor Lord MyKel Westen with his Alcolytes Commissar Lord Kiera Lynx Elites Troops Alpha Squad Fast Attack Heavy Support Dedicated Transports Flyers Lord of War Terrain Order of the Valorous Heart Hqs Elites Troops Fast Attack Heavy Support Dedciated Transports Flyers Lord of War Terrain Completed Grey Knight Group Shot (12/05/2021) Raptors Completed Group Photo (02/23/2021) Order of the Valorous Heart Completed Group photo (11/07/2021)

So I recently received some of my Old Deathwatch models (primed and unbuilt models/ bits) from my friends. So I now I am building Deathwatch along with My Grey Knights, Adeptus Mechanicus (very Slow build- Forgewrold Deimos), Huge Imperial Agents/ Inquisition (Hereticus, Xenos, and Malleus), Militarum Tempestus (54th Psian Jakals) and 2 possible Adepta Sororitas armies (Order of Valorous Heart and Order of the Martyred Lady) . In my gaming group, our battles take place in the Khymara Section in the Ultima Segmentum and a lot of Battles on the Planet Praxia. With that being said the closet Watch Fortess is Furor Shield. So I started on my Count as Artemis: Furor Shield Watch Captain Rey Rojo (Mk 1) Mk II will have a helmet, Bolter and Xeno Phase blade (Master Crafted Bolter and Relic Blade) Mk III will have bare head, Plasma Pistol and Power Fist (Mainly for Angel of Death Kill Team) I have 23 Kill Team Veterans, Jensus Natorion- to be a Death Specter, Chaplain Cassius- staying Ultramarine, and a Watch Master to convert....heavily and making him a Space Wolf. Plus building my Angels of Death Kill Team (all non Primaris but using their rules)

Attn Deathwatch Fortresses: WarComm "The good news is that you absolutely can field a whole army of Deathwatch Space Marines. You’ll require a copy of Codex: Space Marines, and can use any of the Detachments picking Deathwatch units through the Assigned Agents army rule found in the new Codex. This retains the thematic flavour of the Deathwatch with versatile veterans and airborne transports, while also granting access to the rest of the Space Marine armoury. The Ordo Xenos and regular Space Marines can make use of the Deathwatch Legends datasheets in narrative games too. These include Kill Team Cassius and several highly adaptable Kill Team variants which mix and match a wide range of Space Marine units. These datasheets have the Deathwatch keyword – exactly like those in Codex: Imperial Agents – so they get full use out of the Ordo Xenos Detachment."

Title says it all really. I've got 5 stalker Bolters from veterans boxes and trades but I fancy a squad of 10 of them (mainly cos they'll look cool) Anyone have any great hints for converting them?

Are Deathwatch allowed to take forgeworld tanks in a CAD? I'd love to use Deathwatch rules to represent Shattered Legions from 30k but the many restrictions keep getting in my way.

Greetings Fraters, Some of you may know me from painting plogs such as the "Cadian 82nd Special Operations Group" in the Guard forum, and "lets paint silver for ETL" in the Grey Knights forum. However recently my hobby butterfly has settled on the Deathwatch and I've been enjoying reading this forum and snipping and sticking some models. No paint on anything yet but I thought you might like to see my models so far. In the main I am picking chapters played by my local play group and Club (First Founding in SW London: drop by and say hi!) Veteran Team 1 (Blood Raven, Exorcist, Salamander, Space Wolf, Dark Angel: Yes I know that's a Rubric Marine head. Long story short, my Blood Raven playing chum is convinced his Primarch is Magnus. Veteran Team 2 Cyclone Missile Terminators Melta Fist Terminator Thanks for looking. varchilde

Love them or loathe them when it comes to the rules its hard to deny that Black shields give us a very nice chance to add character and uniqueness into our kill teams. So in light of that lets see what Black Shields we've managed to come up with oh, and please lets not let this devolve into the argument over exactly what equipment Black shields can take, theres plenty of places for that already. Heres two of mine: Brother Ignotius A recent arrival to the watch, while his origin is officially unknown it is strongly rumored that he was exiled from the Minotaurs after showing mercy to a witch-child. He is attempting to atone for this moment of weakness through his service. I've modeled him hunched down as if he is about to deliver a huge uppercut with his hammer, perhaps to the jaw of a carnifex. Brother Red So named after a ferocius slaughter on a Hrud battle ship left him stained head to toe with gore. Brother Red's true name is unknown even by the current watch master. He has served longer than any other surviving brother in the watch. It is thought that he is a loyalist member of the World Eater legion as, although he normally covers his head with a hood, he appears to have butchers nails implanted into his skull. (By the way i completely plagiarised Duymon's awesome conversion with the claws, many thanks for the inspiration) Anyone else got some cool Black shields to show off?

Hi all, As you may have seen earlier I spent the day at warhammer world (holy its awesome) buying and building their exclusive command tanks. I've built the Rhino Primaris with forgeworld Inqusition doors and panels and i'm thinking of painting it up as an inquisitor's command tank as I will have some inquisition forces scattered through my deathwatch army. I think that would be nice and fluffy so now I have to work out a color scheme that compliments/contrasts the deathwatch black and silver. Anyone got any ideas? does the Ordos Xenos have anything approaching an official color scheme or similar? Here is the Primaris For anyone who is interested here is the LAnd Raider Excelsior from the same box. I did add deathwatch shoulder pads/heads but it is mostly left with the usual doors etc it comes with as they were too damn cool to pass up

I'm not sure if this post belongs here, or in the painting page, but here goes... I just got a Kill Team box set, and I'm thinking of using the Raven Guard shoulder pad as a Hawk Lords pad - and there's my problem. What Citadel paints do I use? My initial take is Screamer Pink and Averlund Sunset for the icon and shoulder trim. The thing is, due to my impaired colour perception, I'm just not sure! Any thoughts or tips would be very welcome...

So as always my creative juices are flowing far too much and I'm finding myself wanting many more models for deathwatch than I thought. Power armour is not a problem as I've got loads of deathwatch shoulder pads for power armour however I am completely out of termie shoulder pads and I still have plenty of terminators I want to build. I'm thinking of repurposing grey knight terminator shoulder pads as deathwatch shoulder pads How do you guys think we can best go about doing that? Here's what we have to work with: http://megabitzshop.com/bilder/produkte/gross/Warhammer-40k-Bitz-Grey-Knight-Terminatoren-Schulterpanzer-I.jpg

I asked a while back about whether Rhino Doors could be fitted to the Corvus Blackstar so that the Blackstar can have some representation of non-Deathwatch chapters. There were many answers and a fair bit of confusion. I took the plunge and did the thing myself. The short version is: The front troop doors on the Corvus Blackstar are exactly the same size as Rhino doors. However, there is no easy conversion. Because the Corvus Blackstar's doors are set into their frame as a single plastic piece, with an additional hinge and lighting attachment. Basically, even though the doors are the same size as a rhinos, the Blackstar doors are permanently attached to a frame. If you want a conversion involving rhino doors, your options are basically to fit rhino doors into a scratchbuilt frame of the same size or file off the inquisition insignia and the teeth on the doors and just glue your new doors right on top (imperfect, but easier) or gluing rhino doors directly into the space where Corvus Doors would normally go, at which point you'll have some empty space that needs filling to make it look authentic. I did a conversion for myself and simply carved off the inquisitorial seal, cut off the teeth and did some hacking away with a knife and smoothing with sandpaper. Then I just glued the doors right over the old doors and called it a day. It's lazy, but unless you've built a kit yourself and know it inside and out, you won't really notice the imperfection much. The fact that I chose a dark colour scheme helps mask any evidence of a conversion, probably. So below, you have my Raptor Wing formation without the ridiculous flying toaster Stormtalon, which I substituted for a craft that's just a bit more... looks-like-it-could-fly. Images below. http://i.imgur.com/WG9BlVV.jpg http://i.imgur.com/uvwriWE.jpg http://i.imgur.com/P1b8wRT.jpg http://i.imgur.com/70Nvfwq.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Y7LpgXR.jpg

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/924/tHyu2a.jpg http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/673/ZpNTyv.png Brother Skeya Icefist, Third Talon, seconded from the Space Wolves Chapter: http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/924/kn8GbV.jpg http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/921/yCd7Rt.jpg http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/923/MxL01u.jpg http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/922/pvTQ7A.jpg http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/924/OMmsmV.jpg http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/923/a1igC3.jpg http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/921/b5p9Jd.jpg

Hey guys, I hope this one can be done a little more briefly than some of my longer reads as I have little time to do this.... I wanted to do a Battle Report on this game because it features an army that smoked me in T1/2 the last time I used Deathwatch against it. (Actually most ITC style lists have). And I knew I was up for a crazy test again. Once again, please be aware I don't know who my opponents are going to be beforehand. (no list tailoring) The Game: Maelstrom 1850pts My List: Basic CAD: Termie Captain Libbie lvl1 10 Vets/Frag/meltaguns/Shotguns/Pod 10 Vets/Frag/gravguns/Shotguns/Pod 5 Vets/Frag/Shotgun/stormshield/Pod 1 Terminator Assault cannon 1 Terminator Cyclone. Allies: Ultramarines Skyhammer: 5 Devs, 4 Grav cannon Pod 5 Devs, 4 Multimeltas, Pod 5 Assault Marines flamer 5 Assault Marines flamer/Eviscerator Smelly Fish: Drone'mander (Warlord) w/lots of drones Pathfinders + Some dude that has 3 wounds and lets all units within 12" get extra shots. Breacher squad (I can't believe I don't see more of these) in a Fish tank (can't remember the transport name) Stormsurge , fully loaded Riptide Wing : 2 Riptides Kroot infiltrating Stealth Cadre: Ghostkeel + 2 Units of Stealth teams with Fusion/Plasma. Game Type: Precious Cargo: + You can't discard "secure Objective X". Your opponent can steal any "secure Objective X" card from you. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Deployment + Opening Turns: + Looking at my opponent I roll on Telepathy simply for Psychic Shriek and on the outside hope that I get Invisibility. (ITC variant) I do not get Invis, and it was the regroup power. :/ So I pitch it and just stick with Shriek on my ML1 Libby. + Unfortunately he wins the roll for first turn. I decide to play the deny game, and hold back my entire army except for two solo Terminators who are completely hidden. + He infiltrates Kroot (which are a cheap throwaway for Objectives) right in the center of the table to slow me down. + Tau Turn 1: He is doing the ol' castle maneuver. Kroot are forced to lay down their lives for a shiny objective in the center. Off to the Eastern back fringe he has his entire Stealth Cadre + Early Turns: + He takes the early lead, but without me having anything he can see he simply charges his junk up with Invulns, etc. And earns an easy objective point but no First Blood yet.... + I declare Skyhammer coming in T1. He drew an objective that would force him to zoom a Stealth Team out from their hiding spot on the Eastern Flank towards a grey building. + I decide I must Steal this objective from him, and this is my first mistake..... I drop in one 5 man assault squad and I scatter off the objective a ton. So I am forced to dump a second Assault squad into this bad idea and they stick on the objective facing off against one Stealth suit who just finished short of the objective even after his Jet Pack Move. I fail to kill them with pistols/flamers, and fail to get the charge range. Note the amount of fail used in that turn. But at least I'm on the board with a Stolen objective. + Here's where all the fail took place. Again, sorry for all the proxies. These are assault marines. They don't assault, and they're hardly marines, but there you go. + + Meanwhile, at the same time in the Tau deployment zone, my Deathwatch HQ and 2 Pods come in along with the rest of Skyhammer: + Oh I love the taste of Interceptor in the morning. + +++ I apologize for all the proxies I'm still re-assembling my army +++ + The grey marines are supposed to be Grav Cannons. The Blue Marines are MultiMelta. In the middle my Captain, and Libbie strategically place around the pod, (*We are playing official FAQ Pod Rules). + This is a pretty big moment. I roll 5 dice on Psychic Shriek of course targeting the Storm Surge. This guy rolls high and he takes 3-4 wounds from Shriek. Even after FnP rolls. Wow. + But now it's time for everyone's favorite game: Interceptor! + A picture form the Tau edge of the table: Note the Interceptor annihilates most of Skyhammer before it gets to fire. Back to the Black Fortress for more anti-xenos tech??? While your there, somebody hand me that Ork Warboss lucky stick. I could use it right about now. + + So Grav Cannon squad takes an amazing amount of firepower. The pods to obscure some Riptides/etc from getting some primary targets, but the Wipe out of the Grav Cannon squad (his number 1 target priority of course) nets him FIRST BLOOD! + Nothing like relinquishing First Blood to your opponent on your own turn! So he knew the Grav Cannons were going to probably finish off the Stormsurge and once they were gone he picked off a few Deathwatch, but then focused REALLY hard on the Deathwatch HQ squad. + The Deathwatch HQ squad gets a few cover saves but not many. The squad is wiped until we get to the Libby. He takes one failed save, then Look out Sir's 6 remaining wounds onto the Termie Captain. Thank you Librarian. Middle management really is useless sometimes. The Head honcho takes 5 saves, before losing a wound. Not bad. He's still breathing. + Finally I get to shoot in my own turn! + The 10 man Deathwatch split into combat squads and hammer away at top targets starting with the Stormsurge. I keep using 12" Impact Frag Shots and lucky poison hits (basically NONE), but after 8 or so Frag Cannon/Melta/Multimelta shots, the Stormsurge goes down! Wow. + With what little I have left I take poison rounds at a Riptide, but 2+ then FnP is immensely hard for me to get through. I maybe put one or two wounds on a Riptide with the rest of my army. + The termies roll up on objectives, and I score 2 points and we're tied. Tau T2: + He takes some pot shots at my HQ, and isn't too worried about them, and tries to dilute my Frag Cannon count. Which he does. + He is trying to reinforce his Stealth cadre at Eastern / Mid, but has trouble killing all of my one squad there so my Assault Squad rushes him and loses Close Combat to a SINGLE STEALTH SUIT. This shall not be recorded back at the Black Fortress!!! + I drew an objective on his side last turn, and he steals it. He kills a squad off getting another point. For some reason his Riptide assaults my remaining Multi Melta team. I believe he was afraid of me assaulting his Drone Comander, which I would have tried, but probably died to the gobs of Overwatch. + His Riptides shot me up pretty badly and his Pathfinder squad with HQ had an amazing amount of shots. I knew they'd have to be widdled down. + Riptide assaults? Deathwatch T2: + He drew a card on my side of the table which I stole... + The Kroot are fried by Frag Cannons. Chicken for supper. + Another bolter squad concentrates heavily on the Pathfindes and kills half. + My libby takes another shot at Shriek. He almost denies it, but fails. I get 2-3 wounds on a Riptide, but none of my shooting can do anything else to it. The Termies try to help but no go. + Our 2 Turns of Close combat against the Riptide slowly kill off my Ultra Multi Melta's. + I take two more objectives. Turn 3 : + He realizes my Obsec has hurt him here. He hasn't killed me fast enough. The Stormsurge dying T1 is huge. But I threw everything at it. + The Ghost Keel moves out and my two assault squads are now down to one squad, and they kill the 1 dude he has left there. But it's a final 10 man Deathwatch Drop Pod that fries them with Frag Cannons (no 2+ Stealth for the Stealth Suits!) . + His Breacher squad steps into the Deathwatch that just killed his Kroot and he annhilates them with that High Strength /AP3 shooting. + I complete a few big objectives at this point and he's Rick Rolling my army to nothing at this point, but yet I scramble odd squads and try to maintain my army. + With the combination of Marker Drones, and Riptides he annihilates my Libby, Hq Termie and the squad they had just joined. + I am now forced to pick my next moves very carefully as my army is pretty beat up.... I grab another couple of objectives, while trying to find cover. + A remnant squad of Deathwatch have to kill a vehicle to net a point.... I destroy the Fish Tank, but the ensuing explosion kills two of my guys. OUCH. One is a frag Cannon. + Pointswise I take the lead in bottom of T3 with a 3 Point turn, but it is costly as I had to sacrifice a lot. Now to see if I can keep the lead and not get tabled at the same time... Turn 4: + Tau realize they have to be a bit bolder to 1) catch up in points, or 2) table me. + The Tau shooting is still devastating. He starts advancing a Riptide from deep in his lines, I still can't seem to kill these stupid things. They both have wounds but 2+/3++/5+ FnP is sick. I poison the crap out of one of them with my fragile line, but he still has one wound left. + Tau wipe out the Deathwatch squad that just killed a fish tank. Aside from Pods I have only 2 solo deathwatch marines left at mid table. + Tau wipe the rest of the assault squads which were largely doing nothing. Breachers wipe one out, the Ghost Keel wipes the other out. + By the end of his Turn 4, the table starts to look really bleak for me.... + Tau fire power has nearly eliminated anything I had in his zone. The Pods still block his passage though, and the pods have been plinking away at Pathfinders and drones. + Turn 5: + I lead the game, the Termies are being rushed by the Riptide still. +I manage to wipe the Pathfinders and their HQ for a point with Drop Pods and the Cyclone frag missile rounds. + For the sake of movement and in case we go to Turn 6 he starts shooting at Pods. He gets one down, the rest miraculously survive. He doesn't want to waste high volumes of shots at my solo guys running around. But he still manages to kill one with drones. now leaving me with ONE marine at mid. + I am retreating my last 4 marines on my side of the table with 2 Grav guns as I know his riptide is breaking for an important point which is being held by my Terminator! + Here the Riptide has one wound left! I throw poison at it with my last mid table marine. The Riptide destroys the Assault Cannon Terminator seen here protecting the edge of an Objective with is life on the line. + The Riptide ends up stealing this objective, but on the other side of this grey tower is 2 Grav guns and they destroy the Riptide, netting me a point. Turn 6: + The Tau destroy a pod, and my last mid table marine. But can only get a point, and I have 4 marines, and a Terminator left on the table. The destruction is immense on both sides but I'm hanging by a thread. + He finishes his top half of the turn and can only score one point. We add up the points to be certain and I have the lead 13-9 so he cannot come close to a tie at this point and he concedes to the Deathwatch. + Many fishsticks and rejoicing is had by the 5 surviving members of this game. Thanks for checking the batrep out!

OK so I always figure if I log stuff then I'm more likely to finish these projects Load outs can vary I bought a large built army 2nd hand this is just what I've decided to paint up 1st On to my 1st Kill team painting project the pain train starts here (all transports are courtesy of the Dark Angels Squad Name - ????? (dunno yet) Sgt - Auspex, Storm Shield 2 Shotguns 2 Frag Cannons 1 Terminator - Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield 1 Vanguard Veteran - Storm Shield Power Weapon

Though it's more of the Plog and less of the ramblings Anyway this is my first time posting anything I've painted before and the first time in 3 years I've actually painted , sooo I'm a little rusty. I've finished 3 VV and 5 Veterans so far and am working on 3 Termies and 5 more vets right now, before I do Kill Team Cassius and my chaplain. More to come! Now onto the pictures... My 3 Vanguard Vets. Still need to do some touch ups as you will see... Close up of the Space Wolf and Minataurs VV. I like how the SW eyes came out...my main issue is I cannot paint yellow for the life of me so his shoulder pad is...meh. I've given up on it for now. Close up of the BA VV. I need to touch up his shoulder pad and eyes (it became obvious once I see the photos up close). Also he and the SW have magnetized arms to play around with different load outs...he has a TH, the SW has a Power Axe My Blackshield with his assorted magnetized options. My first attempt at edge highlighting...need some more practice I feel.... 2 DW Marines...The FT eyes and shoulder pad need some touch ups.. My FC and IHB Marines. Overall I think they came out nicely. My current squad project...3 Termies and 5 Vets My WIP AC/CML Terminator. I kit-bashed his CML from an old landspeeder I had. Personally I like the look of it, as it has a very Mech-Warrior feel, as if the second launcher is moving up into place to fire. HF Termie with a magnetized auxiliary melta With the melta in place My Aquila KT Vet Sarge who will lead the Stalker equipped KT. I kit-bashed his Stalker from a DW boltgun and a Scout Marine Sniper rifle. I took the suppressor off and did some careful shaving and gluing to get it to fit. As for his sword, I wanted it to be a unique and very large dagger so I sliced some "teeth" into it to give it that combat knife feel. That and he's armed with a CCW in my list so I wanted to make it clear it wasn't a PW. More to come as I do armor and left arms today!

So I had my first game with my army. Been waiting this long to field a fully painted army. In all the excitement, I forgot my camera... Anyhow, my first draft army list includes: Watch Company Captain Artemis Aquila Kill Team 9 members (two assault marines 2 Frag cannon, various minor upgrades Artemis joins here Aquila Kill Team 1 Frag cannon, 2 terminators, 1 librarian, minor upgrades, beacon of angelis, drop pod Aquila Kill Team 2 Frag cannons, 2 plasmas, 1 librarian, tome, minor upgrades, drop pod Aquila Kill Team Stalker unit with a librarian Militarum Hellrain Brigade Commisar Command squad with hot shot volley guns Scions with 2 meltas Taurox with missile launcher ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAOS CAD Belacor 2 psykers on bikes 1 Nurgle character guy with nurglins, giving -1 ld army wide on enemy. Another psyker guy with a torrent AP3 flamer Rhino with basic guys, plasma Bike squad, joined by both biker psykers Chaos Drop pod thing from FW, with chosen marines 3 obliberators It was a really psyker heavy list. And he got "all" the powers he wanted he said. Invisibility two times, summoning power etc etc. There were so many powers I lost count. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Setup Terrain. We play on a table with a lot of ruins and some other 5+ cover save terrain pieces. Its pretty much a city fight environment. He went first with deployment. Deployed his obiberators, bikers and rhino on one flank, and Belacor among them. The Nurgle unit was in the centre of his deployment zone. On my side I had my Tempestus command in a ruin holding an objective and out of line of sight from his army. The Artemis unit stayed behind the ruin with the command, and so did the stalker unit and next to it was the Taurox. And bunkering up from the Chaos drop pod with the torrent Ap3 flamer/chosen, and out of sight and out of range of his Obliterators who would get a power casted on them. Allowing them to see through terrain and ignore cover... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turn 1 Chaos He deep striked his drop pod next to an objective on my left flank. Putting priority on that one instead of a "death and glory" attack on my units who were all cluster up (there were very few good pots to land and get a decent attack out on them). The bikers went for the centre of the battle field. Rhino move along towards the centre. Obliterators saw nothing, and could reach anything. So the just moved up Belacor flew across the table to my clusters units. Psychic phase... invisibility casted on the bikes. Belacor tried to scare off my stalker unit from the battle field (they were standing next to the edge), and also succeeded on casting dominate on them. But nothing of interest happened really. The Nurgle character guy summoned 10 deamonettes in his deployment zone. Shooting nothing of note, the deamonettes ran towards the Nurgle unit to protect them from drop pods. Chaos completed one objective ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turn 1 Deathwatch I came in hot. Putting my self as close as possible to the nurgle unit as possible. The deamon units were the only things pretty much I could take care of in the first turn. The bikers were protected by invisibility, and the rhino was protected by ruins and good placement (a risk for me to go there) I pulled in Artemis and he slingshotted behind the nurgle unit. And of course the second drop pod came in too. My psychic phase I casted prescience on the stalker unit. And that was it. My other power were pretty worthless for this fight... bad draws. Cant even remember now, because I didn't use anything except the primaris powers. The drop pod units and artemis took out all the deamon units. Actually... two units did. And only two frag cannons from each unit handled it by it self! All the rest were just standing there... 24 models looking at 4 frag cannons guys taking care of all the deamons. First blood secured and the -1 ld army wide spread was gone. A note here, he had a small theme going on here. Lots of terrify, and ld based stuff. So I felt happy about getting rid of the -1 ld character The stalker bolter unit opened fire on Belacor. Re-roll to hit really helped vs a the flying monster. Scored an unhealthy amount of hits, and with the watch company rules I had re-roll to wound too. I scored 5 wounds from 18 shots on the flying monster. Luckily for him, he made 4 saves on his 4++ (I used no cover save ammo, so he couldn't jink) Next up was the command squad with hot shot volley guns. Scored one hit, and one wound. Belacor jinked, and failed :D So he took another wound. My first misstake came next. With my Taurox I forgot I had twin-linked hotshot volley gun and a heavy 2 missile launcher. I should have tried to take those shots at Belacor. Because the only thing I could see was the rhino in cover... score one hull point on it though. So turn 1 saw two deamon units dead, and I completed 2 objectives, and really scared the pants off Belacor ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chaos Turn 2 Belacor flies towards my deployment edge next to my stalkers and command squad. Chaos drop pod floats towards the centre ruin where an objective is that he needs. Deploys his torrent flamer character. Rhino moves 6" and deploys its marines. Bikers move in closer towards the action Obliterators moves close towards centre too. Psychic phase... invisibility again on the bikes. Lots of failed powers and minor stuff happened. Belacor casted dominate again. And that was pretty much the only thing that effected me. Shooting, Belacor boosted off the edge. Didn't want to risk another round of shooting from the stalkers. Obliterators got the see through terrain power and made three plasma cannon shots at Artemis unit, who were cramped together for a perfect blast opportunity. Only one went through though :D And my storm shield couldn't even tank one hit... So I lost 5 guys to that one blast. Some random shots were made, and a few marines fell. This turn he claimed 2 objective points ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turn 2 Deathwatch The empty pod came in, and the scions. Scion landed next to the Obliterators, and the pod next to an objective. Moved my deep striked (from turn 1) units into a bracing position for the next turns onslaught. Moved the stalkers into the Taurox and repositioned them more centrally. Psychic phase, I used the Fulgurim primaris power with two librarians, and pretty much took out the marins from the rhino. The remaining 2 where shot down by the other marines. The rhino was destroyed by the taurox. Scions scored only one wound on the obliterators, due to lucky saves :) Scored two more points, one hold objective, and destroyed one unit (rhino and marines... needed one more unit to get more points). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turn 3 Chaos Sadly we decided this would be the last turn. The local game store was going to close up... Bikers moved in for the kill against my veterans in his deployment zone. Obliterators turn around and targeted the Scions. Drop pod moved towards my command squad and deployed the chosen. Belacor flew in, keeping his distance from the stalker unit. Invisibility was cast again. I cancelled it once on the bikes, but Belacor was there to back them up with a backup invisibility spell... *sigh* A lot of shooting for once. Killed 5 marines from one unit with 2 frag cannons. One frag cannon, 2 plasmas, sergeant with shield (not able to tank any plasma hits...) and the black shield died. Funny part was that the black shield died last of them all. Flamers and boltguns shot down 4 of the command squad. I had gone to ground to survive that attack. The Scions... well they were burnt to crisp by the obliterators Assault... even with re-roll he failed to assault with his bikes. He needed 8, but only scored 7... So I was lucky. In the end, he scored 3 points some how. Cant remember the things he did. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turn 3 Deathwatch I re-entered my scions, thanks to the formation rules. They deep striked next to the centrally located objective. It was of big importance as it was worth two points for me (2 mission cards pointing it out for various reasons). My stalkers, riding the Taurox went after the chosen who had killed most of the command squad. Now, given is that I am using the rules as written at the moment, meaning I have boltguns and stalker boltguns on my marines in this unit. So I deploy, and within rapid fire range. Take out all but one chosen. One unit of veterans went for another objective, limping towards it with its 4 members remaining. The other units made some shot versus the bikes, as there was nothing else to shoot at. Killed two or three of them. In the end I took 3 points. Final score 9 - 7 to the Deathwatch After math Now, if it would continue, I would be in deep derp against the remaining bikers. They were not many, but the invisibility that they had going was going to tip in their favour. My stalkers pretty much could walk around my deployment zone undisturbed. He didn't want to go close to them, but I was closing in. We figured if the game went on, he would slowly win the close combats versus my units, but it would take time. And, if he did, he would forgo hunting for objectives. Final thoughts I really underestimated the importance of my Tempestus detachment. The Scions, though small, had their purpose. First they put the pressure on armoured vehicles with their meltas. And they can't be ignored due to this. And if they are, they will charge in and perhaps stall a unit or get them self killed in the process. Either way win win for me. As they come in for free once they are dead, they can re enter over and over again. I saw this really good opportunity in this game, and it was when I got two mission cards indicating I should hold the centre objective. Since they died to the Obliterators, I could now reenter and claim the objective. With this in mind, the deathwatch, with limited units on the board, this is one way of getting to objectives. The command squad, though it didn't perform super well, is fairly cheap and can dish out a lot of damage. The invisibility and tons of ruins made it hard for them today to do anything. The Taurox... the ability to relocate the Stalker unit was really good. Its weapons were decent and I am overall happy with the use of it. Frag cannons... two were enough in this game in each unit. My friend was overwhelmed over its power. He was happy he had invisibility on his bikers, otherwise they would have been toast. Librarian with divination powers in a Stalker unit. While I didn't get a good power, the primaris proved really useful. Against the flying Belacor it really helped a lot. This is really situational of course, but I felt that a terminator with cyclone missile (similar price) doesn't add the same utility as a librarian. Overall, the stalker unit didn't really bring back its points in full in this game, but scared the living hell out of Belacor and kept the enemy at bay. Drop pods, I hate and love them. Of course, facing them is not something I like, but using them my self... well then I love them. First pod I dropped was to get the Beacon of Angelis up. The other tow pods I used more "tactically". The second one to block the direct path to my veterans. This prevented the bikers to reach me in turn 2, and gave him difficulty in turn 3 (as it turned out he failed his charge). The third pod I used to claim an objective. As it was empty I didn't really care much for it at that point. But... in future games it will be used as a blockade for my small force. Either to shield me off, or to close the enemy escape paths.

Hey everyone. I present to you all an Index Astartes article I've written for my Deathwatch army (part of which I'm painting up for the 2016 Deathwatch Painting Challenge): members of the Deathwatch Watch Fortress Fort Excalibris. I'm looking for some feedback on this, in particular the believability of what I've laid out here. In the past I've mentioned that I dislike "special snowflakes" (being someone that absolutely has to feel special, usually by violating some core tenet of whatever project they are participating in) and that continues to this day. In 40k, being a special snowflake tends to manifest itself in things like, "Oh, he's the only Grey Knight who's ever turned to Chaos" (despite background stating that NO Grey Knight has ever turned to Chaos). I'm concerned that I might have gone a little too far in some of the things I've described here so I'd like some other people to take a look at it and tell me if that's the case. I'm also a little... I guess "scared" is the term, seeing as I've taken two actual GW places/Chapters and given them a history of my own (Fort Excalibris and the Imperial Stars). Please let me know what you think. ========== Index Astartes: Fort Excalibris Origins The facility that would eventually become Fort Excalibris was founded in the 34th Millennium as a joint venture between the alien-hunting branch of the Inquisition, the Ordo Xenos, and the Adeptus Mechanicus to capture and study the tools of the alien. The Ordo Xenos provided a complement of Deathwatch Kill Teams to investigate alien activity and retrieve xeno-artefacts whilst the Adeptus Mechanicus pledged a cadre of Tech Priests and their servants to study anything captured, as well as the space station Er Kontor that would be their base of operations. Non-military members of the Ordo Xenos would oversee the running of the facility and provide additional aid to help the Adeptus Mechanicus in their research. Less than a century after the establishing of Er Kontor, the Fabricator-General of the relatively-nearby Forge world of Mezoa discovered the pro-xenos leanings of the Tech Priests doing research there and declared them Hereteks. Unable to directly assault them for fear of reprisal from the Inquisition, Mezoa engaged in a secret cold war with the unknowing space station. Whilst Er Kontor’s initial research was extremely promising, over time as their resources dwindled and former allies removed their support they produced fewer and fewer usable results to the point that the Ordo Xenos was prepared to scrap the project altogether. But, on the cusp of victory, Mezoa tipped their hand and accidentally exposed their actions to the Inquisition, who were swift to take action. Cold war exploded into open warfare. With all pretence of subterfuge gone, the Basilikon Astra of Mezoa was despatched to blow Er Kontor out of the stars. The Ordo Xenos responded in kind, sending a flotilla of Imperial Navy ships to defend the research facility. The flotilla arrived just in time to intercept the Adeptus Mechanicus ships bearing down on the space station. Massed rows of torpedoes flew across the ever-decreasing gap between the fleets before slamming into their targets in blossoms of red and yellow. Weapons batteries on both sides blazed white hot as they spewed their fiery payload upon their enemies. Lance fire sliced open ship hulls, exposing their innards to the void of space. As the Imperial Navy flotilla drew closer, the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet attempted to outmanoeuvre them in the hopes of accomplishing their assignment then retreating without paying too heavy a toll in destroyed vessels. But the ships loyal to the Inquisition managed to draw close and launched boarding actions against almost the entirety of the Mechanicus vessels. Few of the Legiones Skitarii had been deployed to the fleet and soon their ships started to become overrun with troops of the Ordo Xenos. In a last ditch effort to succeed in their mission the Adeptus Mechanicus’s flagship, a Retribution class battleship whose name has been lost to history, fired its final complement of torpedoes at the station before signalling the withdrawal of their fleet. The deadly missiles closed the distance with Er Kontor, the salvo large enough to obliterate the already-damaged facility. At the last moment, a Sword-class frigate named Excalibris flew headlong into the spread of torpedoes. The Excalibris was utterly destroyed, ripped asunder by a full half-dozen of the plasma warheads igniting as they impacted its hull. The remaining torpedoes continued on their path and hit Er Kontor, crippling the station as secondary explosions rippled throughout its structure. As the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet limped home to Mezoa, it was clear that their gambit had failed. Er Kontor, though crippled and listing in space, was still whole; the noble sacrifice of the Excalibris and her crew had saved the station from the majority of the torpedoes at the dear cost of the ship and their lives. In the aftermath of the battle, the Inquisition censured the forge world of Mezoa. Assuring them that the Adeptus Mechanicus personnel aboard the station had been wiped out in the explosions caused by the final torpedo impacts, the Ordo Xenos claimed the research facility as being solely theirs, renaming it Fort Excalibris in honour of the vessel that had sacrificed itself. Mezoa gladly let the Inquisition claim the facility, knowing it was a small price to pay and that they could have been forced to repay far more. Homeworld As with all Deathwatch Watch Fortresses, Fort Excalibris does not recruit new Space Marines but instead draws from the best xenos killers amongst the Adeptus Astartes. Fort Excalibris itself is a sprawling complex located in the eastern portion of Segmentum Obscuris, almost on the border with Ultima Segmentum. The initial space station has been built upon numerous times into a multi-hulled space fortress, surrounded by innumerable minefields and other defence emplacements. Whilst the basic goal of the venture of Fort Excalibris hasn’t changed over the millennia, the contingent of Deathwatch Kill Teams initially stationed there has evolved over time into being a fully fledged Watch Fortress. The research portion of the facility, initially staffed by the Adeptus Mechanicus, is now fully crewed by the Ordo Xenos and their servants. As one of the few Watch Fortresses to have a facility exclusively dedicated to xeno-tech research, Fort Excalibris has a reputation within certain circles for being at the forefront of Imperial research into alien technology. As a result of this, Kill Teams from all over the Imperium deliver numerous pieces of xeno-tech to the experts at Fort Excalibris in the hope that some vital information can be gleaned for use in the future. Deep within the depths of Fort Excalibris lie a great many relics and articles of war, some of which are so dangerous they cannot be used lest they annihilate all life on a planet’s surface. The Black Vault of Fort Excalibris is one of the most diverse in the Deathwatch, allowing its castellans to be armed with the deadliest weapons known to the enemies of Man. Combat Doctrine As befits a research centre such as Fort Excalibris, its Kill Teams are usually armed with the best equipment available to the Deathwatch. In some cases this means brand new, barely-post-testing weapons whilst in others this means ancient artefacts dating from before the Horus Heresy. The Kill Teams of Fort Excalibris are well-armed and equipped to face any foe on the battlefield. Whilst capable of making quick insertions into hostile territory, they are also fully able to wage war on a longer term basis, particularly in circumstances where xeno-tech acquisition is highly likely. In such cases specially adapted Corvus Blackstars and Thunderhawk Gunships are used to airdrop varying forms of forward command posts including Aegis Defence Lines, Imperial Bastions, and even Skyshield Landing Pads to allow the Deathwatch to maintain a mobile front line. The armoury of Fort Excalibris contains some of the rarest vehicles deployed by the Adeptus Astartes. Amongst other things, the Watch Commanders of Fort Excalibris can call upon the aid of motorised behemoths such as Legion Fellblades and Typhon Heavy Siege Tanks. The Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer is a particularly useful and oft-requisitioned vehicle, as it allows the Deathwatch the ability to take down alien Titans at long range; many such massive engines of war have been salvaged as a result of this war machine. Organisation Like most other Watch Fortresses of the Deathwatch, Fort Excalibris follows the standard format of a strategium staff and an armoury supporting five Watch Companies, each consisting of a Watch Captain and four Kill Teams. Due to the nature of Fort Excalibris, historically the Watch Commander has been an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor as often as it has been a Deathwatch Watch Master. In addition to his usual duties, the Watch Commander is also the overall head of the research and development facilities, though a Deathwatch Watch Master holding the post usually delegates that responsibility to a senior member of the Ordo Xenos. The current Watch Commander of Fort Excalibris is Watch Master Arcturus. Originally from the Imperial Stars, a Codex Chapter whose Astartes are all curiously named after the celestial bodies the Chapter is named for, he has dedicated himself towards the extermination of the Enemy Without through a lifetime of dedicated service to the Deathwatch. Arcturus eschews the traditional Guardian Spear wielded by a Marine of his station, instead taking the field with an ornate and ancient Relic Blade of great length and power. The more superstitious members of the Deathwatch whisper rumours that suggest this Relic Blade may have once been wielded by the Emperor himself and that the merest hint of His divine essence still resides within it. The Watch Captain of Fort Excalibris’s Watch Company Tertius is Magnus Blackwolf of the Space Wolves. Recruited from Engir Krakendoom’s Wolf Guard for his part in masterminding and leading an attack on an Ork-infested space hulk, Magnus has served in the Deathwatch with distinction for a great number of years. Distrusted by many within his own Chapter due to inadvertently choosing the name of the Space Wolves’ archenemy as his own following the Test of Morkai, Magnus finds himself more at home amongst his brethren in the Deathwatch than he ever felt in The Fang, the fortress monastery of the Space Wolves. Comfortable with using the wide variety of weapons and wargear afforded him by his station, Magnus leads his Watch Company from the front with a feral grin on his lips. The highest ranking non-Deathwatch member of the Ordo Xenos at Fort Excalibris is Inquisitor Ambrosius Grax. An ageing puritan of the Monodominant philosophy, since being assigned to Fort Excalibris he has tempered his methodology and now freely embraces the idea of using the weapons of the alien against them. Despite nominally having nothing but a desk job, Inquisitor Grax often assigns himself to Deathwatch Kill Teams on their expeditions to retrieve xeno-tech. When asked why, he smirks and replies, “Rank hath its privileges.” Requests from members of his support staff to stop doing so usually end up with said support staff temporarily reassigned to scourge the environmental duct systems of dust, debris, and vermin. Due to Kill Teams from all over the galaxy guarding and delivering new materiel to the researchers, Fort Excalibris is often host to Astartes from other Watch Fortresses, including such famous names as Watch Captain Artemis of Talasa Prime and Ortan Cassius, Chaplain of the Ultramarines. On rare occasions, these outsider members of the Deathwatch are conscripted into Excalibris’s Kill Teams and sent on missions by Watch Master Arcturus. Whilst technically an abuse of power, these actions are usually excused as the experience gained by fighting alongside Deathwatch members from other Watch Fortresses is seen as extremely valuable and are often “overlooked” by those who could do something about it. Beliefs The establishing of Fort Excalibris as a centre of research has led to the Deathwatch Marines stationed there embracing the use of refitted xeno-weaponry readily. Likewise the majority of their Ordo Xenos personnel have at least a slightly radical bent, as any position within the Watch Fortress is naturally attractive to individuals who would prefer to use the tools of the alien against them. The portion of the Adeptus Mechanicus who formed the initial alliance with the Inquisition followed a set of beliefs counter to those of the majority of their associates. Their interpretation of the Xenos Testamenta, one of the Mechanicus’s Sixteen Universal Laws, meant they believed that even though the knowledge found within alien technology had been corrupted from the pure thought of the Machine God, it could still be salvaged for the Quest for Knowledge. As a result, Fort Excalibris has become something of a pilgrimage site for members of the Adeptus Mechanicus who follow similar pro-xenos beliefs, though those who do visit often do so in disguise so as not to be identified. Gene-seed Like all other Watch Fortresses across the Imperium, the Deathwatch is composed of Space Marines from a number of different Chapters, with a variety of nearly identical to little-to-no similarity in their gene-seed. The exact composition of Fort Excalibris’s Deathwatch Marines varies over time, but currently includes members of the Ultramarines, Dark Angels, Crimson Fists, Liberators, and Howling Griffins. There is a slightly higher than average number of Astartes from the Silver Skulls Chapter, likely due to Fort Excalibris’s proximity to their homeworld of Versavia. Battlecry Raising his sword towards the heavens, the leader of a given Deathwatch Kill Team or army calls out, “FOR EXCALIBRIS!” which is echoed in turn by his comrades. Watch Fortress Icon http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a182/Masked_Thespian/Wargaming/TIC%20HPC%202016/17d%20Excalibris%20Icon.png ========== Author's Notes and Trivia The major driving force of the background was justifying certain model choices in-universe. This includes: Wanting to convert the original limited edition Emperor's Champion into my Watch Master, Including a Lord of War and a Fortification choice as per one of the painting and modelling challenges on another site that I'm participating in, Wanting to include the Deathwatch special characters Watch Captain Artemis, Venerable Dreadnought Nihilus, and Kill Team Cassius in my army as themselves, and, Wanting to include a Puritan Inquisitor with a roguish streak. In my first draft of this, Fort Excalibris was initially a Ramiles class star fort, but I couldn't justify why such an impressive installation wasn't considered a Primary Watch Fortress (as per pages 12 and 13 of the codex). The incursion by the Adeptus Mechanicus was originally an attempt to explain why it wasn't a Primary Watch Fortress (due to them maintaining a long-running grudge and starving the Fort of resources and allies), but all my attempts at writing it ended up with the AdMech holding the idiot ball. In the end, I still included the AdMech attack because I liked the inter-Imperial conflict, and I especially enjoyed writing the battle. For anyone paying attention, there are a number of references here. In particular, there are 5 specific references to Arthurian legend (excluding the fact that the name of the Watch Fortress is "Excalibris" (which is where I took the inspiration from) since that's what GW called it) and 1 Star Trek reference (which kind of doubles up to 2 if you look at it in the right light). Bonus points are available for anyone who finds them all

So here we go again. In an attempt to share some insight and try new things, I'm still trying to do battle reports on some of my games particularly against varying foes of xenos origins! This was a Maelstrom against a friend who hasn't pulled out his Eldar in a while and it seemed like a good match up for this game because I felt my Deathwatch were definitely under performing, and ironically, they have the most trouble with Xenos. But my opponent wanted to just do a medium powered list involving some fun units himself, so that worked out great. He didn't take a Wraithknight (he usually does) and just played that Battle Focus formation from his codex. The heinous Eldar: Avatar of Khaine 3 WC Farseer 3 blobs of Guardians with Exarchs and Missile launchers 1 squadron of 3 Walkers 1 squadron of 3 Vypers 1 Serpent with 5 Fire Dragons inc. Exarch w/flamer 1 squadron of D-Artillery 1 squad of Warp Spiders 1 squad of Dark Reapers inc.Exarch The Emperor's Will: Deathwatch: Black Spear: Watchmaster - Beacon Angelis Watch Company: 3 Aquilas, 1 Malleus (1 Drop Pod) Artemis Bombus Minimus Ancient Dreadnaught: Assault Cannon/Hvy Flamer (Drop Pod) Corvus Blackstar with the sky fire swap out (Blackstar Rocket Launchre) and Infernum Halo Launcher. I did have 2 Libbies in this list too. One in Termie armour is my fave config: ML2/Force Axe/Tome of Ectoclades.(included in Aquilas) THE GAME: Set Up and first turn: - I win the roll to deploy/go first. I take it. I set up my single 3 Frag Cannon Squad in their Rhino. They are in my far Eastern fringe off a hill top for Angelis Antics. - I deploy my second squad; Aquila with 4 Stalker bolters, 1 Terminator (cyclone) and 1 Infernus Hvy Bolter. Xenos Deploy: - Typical. Cowardly. Like every game I play... the filthy Xenos hug the edge of their world, lined up on the back wall as tight as they can with only the D-battery squad on the second level of a factory building. + Xenos doing what they do best: Hugging the back of the world for dear life. + + Half of my deployment: Termie gets ready to tank the onslaught. + FIRST TURNS: - I get Objective 5 right in front of him. I verify he has no Obsec. I get another 2 objectives, but one is right where my Rhino + 3 Frags are. This is where having no models sucks... I can't 'alpha strike' AND hold this objective at the same time and only have one unit coming in. I feel I need to take a risk here, and forgo the sure point and use my Angelis tactics.... - So trying to be aggressive as you can tell I am MASSIVELY out numbered with no clue what to prioritize on. As you can see by the blob formations, anything I may have success against will result in me taking D batteries to the face. If feels like -nearly- all of his shooting can go through my armour so I go for the unit that is easily going to rip me apart: The Dark Reapers. - With the order given, the Watch Master and Termie Lib touch down and do the Angelis teleport of the Rhino squad, leaving their objective behind.... + The Alpha Strike hits hard... but is it enough? + - The Alpha Strike: - Libbies are both in, Pod squad1 has Watch Master. Mission Tactics: Kill the troops?!?! - Libbie 1 rolled on Librarius, attacks an Exarch with his power, and kills him. Take that xenos witch. - Libbie 2 with Artemis doesn't know what to do... fires the Primaris Blast into the Factory to try to take a chunk out of the D-batteries, scatters too far. - Pod Squad 1: Fires all weapons, 2 Frag Cannons tag the Warp Spiders as well due to my positioning. We realize he could have Flickered out, but then I would have targeted the Guardians primarily and hit almost as many spiders anyway. LOTS of cheap guardians die, and all but 1 Spider. - Rhino squad Artemis: 3 Frag Cannons go off on the Dark Reapers and they are most certainly fried. First Blood. The Alpha hit fairly hard but that was a 400+ pt squad and a 357 pt squad PLUS Art and Master. Ouch. - Stalker squad takes pot shots at Avatar, calling poison rounds and the Crack Missles at the Avatar. I forgot his army is fearless unless Avatar goes down.... I take all but one wound off with luck. (A few rends gave him invulns only) - I did okay, but did not kill nearly as many guardians as I hoped because.... he had a single Exarch tank about 5 wounds on a 4+ invuln from the Frag Cannons! - I miss-calculate my alpha slightly and not enough Guardians die for me to claim Objective 5. But I do get first blood. XENOS Retaliation: - He makes use of his mobility here he has to. His Psychic phases were bad... really bad, but he didn't need them really. He positions everything to basically hit the biggest threats on the board; 2 of my alpha strike squads. + The Eldar are hit hard but Fire Dragons and the rest of the army converge on two squads. Talk about a thin black line. + - To be safe, he doesn't get too terribly close with the Guardians to my Pod squad because he unloads the D-Cannons. They get a direct hit. We play modified ITC rules on ranged D, but it doesn't matter. The squad is gone in a blink of an eye. Not enough invulns are made and easily the squad is destroyed. - His Fire Dragons then roll out of the Wave Serpent. It all fires at Artemis' squad. Only Artemis, the Librarian with 1 wound, and the Rhino survive! + All that's left after one turn of shooting.... well at least he couldn't shoot everything at me! + - At his turn end he gets 2-3 points I think. - At this point I honestly lost about 1000 pts of stuff, with 3 units stuck in reserves. I was pretty ready to call it. But I thought this would not be fair to my opponent and decided to play it out. Mid Game: - By 'mid game' I mean.. turn 2. lol - What can I do? I have nothing potent left. I pull cards and have a lot of work to do.... On the plus side with the Flyer rules I do get +1 to reserve rolls and my Dread/pod, Corvus, and Aquila come in. - The Stalker Bolter squad is the only thing I have that's isn't half dead. The Termie was picked off of course. I think he made 3 saves, and died.... oh well. They move up, snapfire, and try to get a point. + The rather limited reserves come in to save the day??? + - I snap fire and shoot the Infernum Heavy Bolter and rip the Avatar apart. At least Fearless is gone! - Now here's where I really don't know what to do.... I have WAY too many targets and far too few models. I take shots where I can, but starting with the Psychic Phase, I try a hail mary shot. I use the Beam Psychic Power and rake through 3 of his Vypers, and the first one has a Pen + explodes, the next one takes the remaining 2 hullpoints and goes down! - The Dreadnaught tries his Heavy Flamer on the backside of the Walker squad, and Heavy Bolter. Two Walkers go down. Super lucky. - The newly arrived Aquila gets a bullseye and doesn't wander, and shoots poison at the D-Battery which has his Warlord/Farseer attached. He gets almost all look out sirs passed, and has his only wound from a previous Perils of the Warp fail. - The Corvus takes pot shots at the Guardian squad, maybe killing 1-2 models. The template deviates far off its mark. Typical corvus! - A big moment... Artemis runs up and with the Libby, they try to assault the Fire Dragon squad that just about wiped them out, they take 2 wounds on Overwatch the Libby dies, it's all up to Artemis! He fails to wound anything, and close combat is a tie!!! (At least I'm tied up) - I steal a few points and am down at the end of Turn2 about 5-3. -Eldar turn involves lots of shooting, the Corvus doesn't jink. And the Dreadnaught somehow loses all but 1 hullpoint! - I take my Rhino and ram the side of the Wave Serpent and strip a hull point. I park the Rhino in an important place, setting up an assault for later... + A long, lonely walk for Artemis as he has witnessed the destruction of his brothers that will haunt him for a good 15 minutes or so... + + But fear not... Artemis makes new friends who promptly run away.+ - Artemis goes for the assault, trying to draw the Guardians away from Objective 5. It works, but he takes a wound. Artemis wins the close combat and I tried to position this so that when/if he breaks the Rhino will cut off his retreat.. it works and the squad can't make it around without doubling back and all must die as a result.... talk about trying to do as much as you can with nothing left. ;) - Stalker squad partially walks to an objective, I snap off a few shots at the D-batter, before my Dreadnaught charges in.... The Corvus fires at the Guardians who are after my Heavy Hammer Aquila squad, but only kill 1 model. (Blackstar blast deviates too much again) - Dreadnaught actually makes it into close combat with 1 Hullpoint remaining, but fails to wound anything. At least I tied up the D-batteries! - I get Objective 5 and tie the game. ELDAR: The Eldar still seemingly have lots left. We go into turn 5 and Artemis was hoping to get into CC upstairs with the D-battery but he is shot to death without making it. (he had to make about 3 invulns on one wound left.) - The Eldar D-battery and Farseer throw a Singing Spear and it destroys the Dreadnaught and he never did a darn wound. My stalker team did kill off 1-2 of the D Batteries but they are now free, and with one shot they get a bullseye on the Heavy Hammer squad that just game in, and vape the squad. - The Corvus is forced to double jink, and with almost no targets on the table it takes a LOT of hits. Eventually a stupid Warp Spider with twin link shoots it down in his end. He got amazingly lucky there with double jink on I essentially lost all 3 hull points and he never had skyfire. - So here's where I lose the game, and I tell my opponent too.... I take my Rhino, which has one hull point left, and I ram the Wave Serpent again.. for no reason. I realize RIGHT after I make this move, that I left the 12" deploy zone of his, thus denying myself Line Breaker. I immediately tell my opponent what an incredibly stupid thing I did. He goes, 'oh yea, you can't score that now because the Corvus just went down'. "But I can score it" he says, and turbo's his wounded Wave Serpent to my 12" deploy and the game ends. He wins by one point... Line Breaker. Post Game: - The good news? I guess I went from wanting to concede at bottom of turn 1 to nearly winning the game (should have tied at the least, obviously with my stupidity.) I am actually quite proud of the fact I took something so incredibly lop sided after turn 1 and put up a fight. The problem was I was trying to do way too much with way too little. Oh well.. hard fought. - The Bad news? Corvus killed about 2 models and took one hull point of a final Walker. Watch Master died as usual doing nothing worth writing home about. Artemis did what any 110 point captain could do. Dreadnaughts.... it's too bad the Black Spear forces one. - My opponent made some bad tactical errors, and I played above my pay grade in that game so I can't take credit for the finish. Also his list was sub-optimal and intentionally so. I can at best... add 2 squads to my list and pull the Corvus and some HQ fat. - The Deathwatch continue to scrape by close games in every outing, but it's always an uphill battle. My biggest blow out was Tau, so this wasn't bad. It certainly isn't like my Ultra's though. This is much more akin to my Grey Knights. - Very fun army though. Tons of character and thematic too!