Deathwing goes undefeated!

[littlbitz]

Hey all, what a day I had yesterday!

 

I played in a 1500 points Tournament finishing up our Army Builder series of Tournaments.

 

1st Game was against Eldar, with the Deathwing earning a 15-5 win

2nd Game was against Chaos Marines (Death guard) with a 13-3 win

and the 3rd game was against Deamons (Khorne and Tzeentch) with a 12-8 win.

 

I ended up 3rd in Battle points out of 14 players. I think I am starting to get the hang of this Deathwing thing.

 

I will post more details on the day later, and also a full battle report with some pictures for one of the games.

 

Oh, and I finished 2nd over all for the entire league. I must admit though, that I didn't play Deathwing at the 500 or 750 point levels.

[Tanhausen]

Congratulations :tu:

 

Are there any DW players in your area?

 

If the answer is no... then expect a few taylored surprises for the next one :(

[EPK]

Well done!

 

I'm interested to read the battle reports. I tend to use a Greenwing/Deathwing combo and have never fielded an all DW force. my attempts at Deathraven were not so successful.

 

I'm also curious where the tournament was? I live in Gibbstown, NJ... not too far, albeit not too close either, to you.

[Gillyfish]

Congratulations! That's a very impressive result. The last two match-ups may have worked in your favour a little bit because Daemon players often find the concept of another army that can deep strike virtually everything a little alarming, as it removes their favoured trick. Similarly, plague marines usually rely on their higher toughness - something powerfists generally remove. Is that what you found to be the case?

 

Anyway, that certainly doesn't detract from your performance at all. I'm just intrigued!

[SeattleDV8]

Well done, looking forward to a battle report.

[littlbitz]

Thanks for the comments guys!

 

@Tauhausen: I am currently the only one crazy enough to field Deathwing in my local gaming group. They were making fun of me for quite sometime about my new choice of army, saying I pay an awful lot of points for "Fluff".

I think I am getting them to change their minds.

Oh, and I am sure that in 2 weeks when I go to the 1850 Tournament, that the AP2 and S10 will be everywhere! :to:

 

@EPK: I typically play at a local game shop (by local I mean about 35 miles north of me) called Jester's Playhouse located on Route 9 in the Northfield area, about 15 minutes outside of Atlantic City.

 

@Gillyfish: I have played in more Tournaments than I care to count Gill, and I have found that three things greatly influence how an army performs at a Tournament. 1. Match-up 2. Mission and 3. Terrain. So, certainly in all 3 games actually there were things that went my way.

 

Now for some after action comments:

I am finding the Deathwing to be the most challenging army I have ever played. Really, one mistake and it can be game over.

I am also finding that it is going to be very difficult to score a massacre in any given game. This hurts me locally, as the local game store that I play at only scores Battle Points for over-all with the Paint score being a separate award. Not a bad thing I guess, but unless they incorporate "soft" scores, I don't see the Deathwing as able to pull it off.

 

This particular tournament had an interesting mix of armies that is not the norm for here. It was roughly:

2x Eldar

2x Tyranids

Dark Eldar

2x Deamons

Space Marines

Space Wolves

Chaos Marines

2x Tau

Ork

Oh, and of course my Deathwing

 

A couple of players were trying different Armies than they normally play, dusting off some oldies, and a couple others were building new armies. Some players just couldn't make it, a couple IG, a Blood Angels player, and a Vanilla marine player.

 

This was the list I used:

Brother Captain Vindicis (Belial)

 

Squad 1 with Heavy Flamer and Chainfist

Squad 2 with Heavy Flamer and Cahinfist with Standard (Close Combat oriented)

Squad 3 with Assault cannon

 

Dreadnought with Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer and Extra-Armor

 

Landraider

 

Land Raider Crusader

 

Game 1 was against the Eldar, I will post up the mission and his approximate list along with some game highlights as soon as I am able.

[Tanhausen]

What are your squad's builds besides the sarge? I mean, is the HF also carrying the CF or a normal PF?

 

Also, I'm actually surprised you went 15-5 to an Eldar... either he wasn't all that meched or you had some really sweet rolls.

 

Last, how does scoring go? I mean, 15-5 sounds weird to me.

 

In my area its:

 

Victory - 30 points

Draw - 10 points

Lose - 0 points

 

Anihilation - 0,5 points per KP

Bases - 1 point per base

Objectives - 1 point per objective

 

Paint - 0-15 (normal score is 5). The only person I know to get full score is a GD winner.

Fluff - 0-15 (normal score is 5). It relies on conversions and background and so.

 

With this system, if you "not win" 1 game, its VERY hard to finish top 4.

[littlbitz]

The Scoring system used around here for battle points is a bit different, but I see it more and more at Indy GTs

 

Its a 3 teir system with a primary objective worth 10 battle points, a secondary objective worth 6, and a tertiary worth 4. Drawing on any particular objective typically splits the Battle points, and there are usually some bonus points calculated at the end of the game, (i.e. plus 1 Battle point for killing the enemy HQ ect.)

 

So, in the first game I took the Primary for 10 points, we drew on the Secondary with 3 points a piece and I won the tertiary giving me a score of 15 and him with 5. I hope that explains the breakdown better.

 

So, it is possible to do well with this system, but it can be difficult to get the full 20 points.

 

My paint scores are "typically" very high, I always have lots of conversions in my army, and have won best painted at many events. So, that is always a consideration for me when I am building an army, in fact when I design a list, I always weigh the "coolness and eye catching" factors more heavily than game performance.

 

More specifically my squad load outs were:

 

Squad one: Sgt. has a Thunder hammer and Storm shield, Heavy flamer guy has the Chainfist, and the other three have Storm bolter and power fist

Squad two: Sgt. has a Power weapon and storm bolter, Heavy flamer guy has a Chainfist, 2x Lightning Claws guys, and the Standard bearer has the Thunder Hammer and Storm shield

Squad three: has an Assault Cannon, the Sgt. has a Storm bolter and power weapon, and 3x Storm bolter and power fist.

 

There were a number of reasons why I was able to defeat the Eldar. His list was roughly as follows:

Farseer

Prince Autarch special character dude

6x Warlocks (council)

They were in a Wave Serpent

 

2x small Dire Avenger Squads in Wave Serpents (these had Bright lances)

 

3x squadrons of 2x War Walkers with Scatter lasers for volume of fire (man these can pour out some shots)

 

and 3x Vipers all in separate squads.

 

You can see by his list design that while he had a very well rounded list, and with the high volume of fire power he could probably deal with alot of mech lists, he really wasn't built to handle the Terminator armor or the AV 14 of the Land Raiders. (though by forcing me to make alot of saves he certainly did a number on my foot slogging squad)

 

Also the Primary mission was Kill Points, his units, while fast were for the most part much more fragile than mine.

[Tanhausen]

Thanks for taking the time to reply properly :huh:

 

I've seen your dark terminators and you'd probably score 10 or so here... very nice! Same goes for conversions.

 

I like the squad loadouts (specially the banner) and I'd probably throw in a couple hammers for the LR unit.

 

And I agree: the Eldar was loaded up to open up a few transports and just pound the goodies inside... too bad the transports were tough and the goodies had spikes ;)

[Bartali]

An Mechdar list without Fire Dragons in it ? :facepalm:

 

Congrats on your wins !

[littlbitz]

I actually had the same reaction.

 

I am sure he will have them if he plays in the 1850 Tournament in 2 weeks.

[Isiah]

So what are you planning on adding for the 1850 then?

[littlbitz]

I'm a bit torn. I was thinking of doing one of two things,

 

1. I add a 2nd Dreadnought and a 4th Deathwing Squad with a Cyclone missile launcher

or

2. I can drop the Dreadnought I currently have and add a 4th squad and a 3rd Land Raider.

 

I'm leaning towards no.1 currently.

[littlbitz]

So some more details on game 1.

 

I already mentioned his list.

the Missions primary goal was Kill points, the secondary mission was objective based with each piece of terrain on the board being an objective. the Tertiary was a secret messenger, if you killed your opponents and yours was still alive you won this one, any other result in the tertiary was considered a draw.

 

Deployment was Dawn of War. I won the roll off for 1st turn and opted to give the Eldar the first turn. He opted to bring everything on in Turn 1 and I did likewise.

 

Some of the deciding factors in this game were,

1. I felt giving up first turn was an advantage to me this mission. turn 1 was night fight anyway, and on turn 2, I had smoke popped on both Landraiders and the dreadnought. This minimized his shooting, and allowed me to gain good position. It also allowed me to hold last turn for objectives.

2. He came on in turn one with his whole army but came in across his whole board edge in a pitched battle type formation, I brought my whole army in on one side, in a small but strong formation, and concentrated on one portion of the other, causing him to have to redeploy units to respond to my deployment.

3. only 2 Bright lances...once these were gone, and I had engaged his Autarch and Farseer with council in Close combat, his ability to take out my surviving Land Raider was gone.

4. He only had 2 small troop choices. I was able to pop one of his Wave Serpents early on, and cause the Dire Avengers on foot, once this happened and they were gone, he only had one troop left to hold objectives.

5. As I mentioned before, his units were fragile, while mine were more durable. At the end of the game I had 5 and he had scored 2 (he managed to destroy my Crusader, and the foot-slogging Deathwing unit)

 

I am sorry I didn't do a more detailed Battle report on this, but against Eldar I knew I would need to concentrate on the game in order to pull this one off.

 

Next I will do a quick debrief of game 3 against Deamons and then a full battle report with pictures against Chaos Marines from game 2.

[Leethal]

Well done brother!

 

Khorne-Tzeentch?

 

There are times when I miss the old enimity between the dark gods.

[littlbitz]

oh, I agree.

 

the Chaos Deamon list was was roughly as follows:

 

The Fateweaver, and a Greater Deamon of Khorne

2x Sqauds of Bloodletters, a unit of Juggernoughts, 2x units of flamers of Tzeentch, some Horrors with that special character horror, and a Deamon Prince.

 

His trick was to keep the Fate Weaver within 6" of the Greater Deamon of Khorne to benefit from the rerolls.

 

While I only pulled a minor victory out of this one, I feel I did some of the right things in this game.

 

The Primary mission was a single Objective marker in the center of the board. Being an objectives based mission I opted to give my opponent first turn, even though I had won the roll.

 

I deployed in a tight formation in one corner of my deployment zone, he dropped in aggresively with his Greater deamon, and the Fate Weaver. 2 units of flamers which formed the rest of his 1st wave dropped in a bit further away.

 

My plan was to concentrate fire on the Greater Deamon of Khorne, and then assault the Fate Weaver in a later turn. I fired every single gun in my army at the Bloodthirster reducing it to just one wound (damn re-rolls).

 

His plan almost worked, as his Bloodthirster and the Fate Weaver got into combat. I managed to win (eventually) against both. His flamers did a number on my Crusader immobilizing it, but it still had its fire power and would open fire anytime any of his deamons got too close.

 

I had one really lucky moment when his Deamon Prince entered the board and scattered on another unit and was lost in the Warp. :lol:

 

I continued to concentrate fire on anything that could hurt a Landraider, and once that was cleared, I used my still mobile landraider to take the center of the board.

 

I know this is a short synopsis of the events of the game, but as I am still new to Deathwing, I was more concentrating on my tactics than taking pictures. I did take some of pictures of the second game, and will do a full Battle Report on that one as soon as I get a chance. I only bothered with that game, because I know the Chaos Marine Codex pretty well, and am more aware of thier capabilities so could take pictures and notes with less effort being put into game play.

[Bartali]

Raider Deathwing is always a 'rock' army, and if the opponent doesn't or can't take paper in sufficent numbers (meltaguns, lances) we tend to do rather well !

 

Did the Chaos marines remember their meltaguns ? Don't mean to belittle your wins by the way, after all you can only fight what's in front of you !

[Tanhausen]

Suggestion for the future (although since you won, you'll probably dismiss it :P)... First line target Fateweaver, second line target Fateweaver!

 

Due to T5, its easier to wound and with every wound it looses, it checks LD... so 10+, he leaves the board!

 

Also, as a fellow deep striker, I feel bad when they scatter and are destroyed.

 

How did you deal with juggernauts? and flamers? Because the first are tough as nails and will carve through our terminators... and the later are my bane, due to their "no saves... not even invul".

 

Congrats though :D

[aekold]

Suggestion for the future (although since you won, you'll probably dismiss it :))... First line target Fateweaver, second line target Fateweaver!

 

Due to T5, its easier to wound and with every wound it looses, it checks LD... so 10+, he leaves the board!

 

Also, as a fellow deep striker, I feel bad when they scatter and are destroyed.

 

How did you deal with juggernauts? and flamers? Because the first are tough as nails and will carve through our terminators... and the later are my bane, due to their "no saves... not even invul".

 

Congrats though :mellow:

 

Also the fact that he only has 3 wounds makes a lot of difference.

 

About the flamers: They disallow armour saves and cover saves. No mention is made about invulnerable saves, so these are still allowed. They still remain however rather nasty to play against.

[littlbitz]

Good point Tan, I didn't realize that the Fate Weaver disappeared after one failed leadership check, until after it actually happened! In hind sight, I would do exactly as you recommend.

Next time, the Fate Weaver gets all my fire power first. (this would have taken away the re-rolls on the Thirster as well.)

 

He used the flamers mainly against my Landraider Crusader, attempting to bring it down (quickly immobilizing it). He did get one shot off with them against one of my Squads, but I ended up re-embarking into my Landraider. The combined fire power of the Dreadnought and the Crusader did a number on those squads.

[asmodai650]

Littlbitz,

A few questions if you dont mind.

 

Do you have any close up photos of your figures? I saw the battle report and group photos, but i would love to see some close ups!

 

Also, do you find that the assault cannon does better than the TL-lascannon on the dread?

 

And third, how do you like the tiered objective missions? We have been doing that here locally at our big yearly tournament, but I am curious how people from around the country like it. I know Tennessee is a long way south for you, but we would love for you to come down and check it out and enjoy our southern hospitality!

[littlbitz]

Sure!

The above are all old images, I have since changed the bases.

Here is Angel's Fury, my Landraider

I am currently working on a brand new Captain Vindicis (Belial) that is soooo much cooler and well, less sad looking.

Hmm... I may have over done it on the Pictures, sorry.

I do love the three tier system for the missions. It actually breaks up the ties, and seems to make Massacres more difficult to get. If you pay attention to the mission(s), you have the potential to do well even against some power armies.

Tennessee is a bit far, but I am always in for a Road Trip, and I do love Southern Fried Steak with Gravy...

[asmodai650]

Nah, never too many photos!

 

The tourney is in February and there is a Cracker Barrel about 3 - 4 miles down the road :sweat: Send me a PM if you get interested.