2K Deathwing vs Black Legion

[Cactus]

My last game of 5th edition was Deathwing vs my friend's Black Legion (a very bloody draw), my first game of 6th edition was the same match-up (a win to the traitors) and now we both have new codexes today was the time for me to reclaim the honour of the first legion.

 

++ WARNING - these forces are not optimised tournament contenders. If that's what you want I suggest looking elsewhere. ++

 

My army:

 

HQ

Belial with terminator amour, thunder hammer and storm shield, teleport homer

 

Librarian Ramiel with force axe, storm bolter, terminator amour, psychic hood, auspex, infravisor, power field generator, mastery level 2. I got the Divination powers of Foreboding and Precognition.

 

Deathwing Command Squad Gideon with:

Deathwing Champion with the Halberd of Caliban

Thunder hammer and storm shield, the Standard of Fortitude

Thunder hammer and storm shield, cyclone missile launcher

2 x Thunder hammer and storm shield

 

Troops

Deathwing Terminator Squad Matthias with:

Storm bolter, power sword

2 x Assault cannon, power fist

Storm bolter, chain fist

6 x Storm bolter, power fist

 

Deathwing Terminator Squad Amadeus with:

Storm bolter, power sword

Storm bolter, chain fist, cyclone missile launcher

2 x Storm bolter, power fist

Thunder hammer and storm shield

 

Deathwing Terminator Squad Mordecai with:

Storm bolter, power sword

Plasma cannon, power fist

Storm bolter, chain fist

Storm bolter, power fist

Thunder hammer and storm shield

 

Deathwing Terminator Squad Shael (seconded from the Consecrators chapter) with:

Storm bolter, power sword

Heavy flamer, power fist

Storm bolter, chain fist

Lightning claws

Thunder hammer and storm shield

 

Fast Attack

Ravenwing Attack Squadron Jericho with:

Ravenwing sergeant and 2 Ravenwing bikers with twin-linked boltguns, bolt pistols, frag & krak grenades, teleport homers

 

He had:

 

A Chaos Lord with the Axe of Blind Fury, leading 9 possessed with the Mark of Khorne and Banner of Rage, mounted in a land raider

 

10 Chaos marines with the Mark of Nurgle, bolters and two meltaguns, in a rhino

 

10 Chaos marines with the Mark of Slaanesh, bolt pistols, chainswords and two meltaguns, in a rhino

 

2 x 10 Chaos marines with bolters and two plasma guns, in rhinos

 

2 x 10 cultists

 

A predator with all lascannons

 

A demonically-possessed vindicator

 

Mission & Deployment:

 

The mission was Big Guns Never Tire with four objectives and vanguard (diagonal) deployment. To my left the battlefield was dominated by a series of ruined buildings, the centre was dotted with dense copses of trees and another ruin, and a river ran across the right flank with a bridge at either end. Three objectives were placed in a line just in front of my deployment zone and the fourth was further away and to my right, in a ruin on a hill on the other side of the river. We'll call them O1, O2, O3 and O4, running left to right.

 

I elected to make a Deathwing Assault on turn 1 with squads Mordecai and Shael. Squad Shael was led by Belial in case I wanted a pin-point strike to make use of their heavy flamer. I won the roll-off and chose to deploy second. My opponent is very good at last turn objective grabbing and I wanted a piece of that action!

 

Facing a predator and vindicator on my left I opted to weight my deployment a little to the right. The ten-strong squad Matthias, led by Brother-Epistolary Ramiel, deployed behind objective 3 and opposite his land raider. Command squad Gideon held my centre, out of sight behind a wood, with Squad Amadeus to their left, also out of sight behind a ruin. The Ravenwing went on my extreme left, threatening to guide my reserves in, and used their scout redeployment to get close to the tanks while hiding behind a small ruin. Focussed firepower is death to terminators so I wanted to impede his lines of fire wherever possible. Especially from that cursed vindicator!

 

Turn 1 - Darkness before the Dawn (night-fighting was in effect for this turn):

 

The vindicator ploughed through the trees to get a line of fire on squad Matthias and killed a couple. One group of cultists ran up the hill to O4 and took cover in the ruins there. The rhinos advanced, two on each flank, as did the land raider straight towards squad Matthias. The predator moved to get a shot at the Ravenwing but with snap-shots and cover saves caused no casualties.

 

Squad Mordecai teleported into the centre of my line. Belial and squad Shael arrived in a ruin on my left ready to move on O1 next turn. I considered getting in behind his lines but I've been caught out before by leaving my deep strikers unsupported and wanted to make the most of the Standard of Fortitude, so I played it safe and kept my forces fairly close together. Squad Matthias' assault cannons took a hull point from the vindicator but the demon in control was unaffected by the 'crew stunned' result. Ravenwing squad Jericho assaulted the predator with their krak grenades and inflicted two hull points of damage with glancing hits. Ramiel cast foreboding (gives the unit counter attack and overwatch shots at full BS) but suffered a wound from the perils of the Warp.

 

Turn 2 - Tactical Manoeuvres:

 

Chaos marines disembarked into the ruin between O1 and the Ravenwing and both they and the predator poured everything they had into squad Jericho. Amazingly one biker survived! The Nurgle marines parked their rhino in front of O2, using that and the woods to deny line of sight from my troops. The land raider and vindicator crept forwards and fired again, dropping another terminator from squad Matthias on O3. The other two rhino-borne squads advanced on the far side of the river, heading for the bridge to squad Matthias' right.

 

Belial and squad Shael moved onto O1, flaming the traitors in the ruin opposite, killing three, but failing to make the charge. Squad Matthias again fired both assault cannons at the vindicator but failed to even score a glancing hit. This is where I felt the drawbacks of a ten-man squad. Two squads could each have split fire to use their assault cannons on the tank while firing all their storm bolters at the cultists across the river. I felt the vindicator was a higher priority and used split fire to fire a single storm bolter at the infantry. Ramiel activated foreboding again. Squad Mordecai fired the plasma cannon through a small gap in the trees at the Nurgle-marked traitors and roasted a couple, while using split fire to take an ineffective shot at their rhino. This allowed them to assault the transport and wreck it with their power fists, nicely blocking the vindicator's potential line of fire to O2 and giving me 1VP for first blood.

 

Turn 3 - The Traitors Strike:

 

On my left the predator opened up on Squad Shael and, having apparently fixed whatever targeting fault had saved the Ravenwing, dropped four terminators leaving one survivor with a chainfist and Belial. The vindicator moved out of the woods to fire on squad Amadeus but the shell was deflected by the squad's single storm shield - I suffered four hits and passed the first three 3++ saves only to fail the fourth. Truly a noble sacrifice by brother Whatsisname! In the centre the Nurgle marines moved in to shoot and assault squad Mordecai. One terminator was lost to a melta shot but sergeant Mordecai slew the aspiring champion in a challenge and both sides held their ground. Squad Matthias, now reduced to seven men, came under fire from two squads of Chaos marines as they drove over the bridge and disembarked, losing both assault cannons. Meanwhile the Chaos Lord and possessed disembarked from their land raider and made ready to charge. My overwatch fire was better than I expected it to be without the heavy weapons as sergeant Matthias shot the mutated traitor carrying the Banner of Rage! Thanks to this and the counter attack provided by the foreboding power I won the assault, though sergeant Matthias was locked in a duel to the death with the possessed champion. Or was he...?

 

In my turn Belial split from the remaining member of squad Shael, unwilling to drag him into a melee when he was the only model able to hold O1. I was unsure what to do with my last bike so I moved to fire on the marines that Belial was failing to reach. Unfortunately a triple one for Belial's assault move meant he failed to reach the enemy (who hadn't moved other than to spread out across two floors) for the second consecutive turn! Thankfully their overwatch fire had been ineffective, other than to melt one of the plasma gunners. Squad Amadeus split fire to launch two ineffective krak missiles at the vindicator while the rest of the squad gunned down half a mob of cultists. (They'd been lurking behind the vindicator to protect from deep strikes and only now showed their faces.) The last Ravenwing biker managed to wreck the predator with his krak grenades, taking the pressure off Belial, while in the centre squad Mordecai continued to slug it out with the Nurgle marines around the wrecked rhino, reducing them to two. Command squad Gideon moved right and charged the possessed. On seeing the approaching fury of the Deathwing the Chaos Lord made a heroic intervention (or cowardly sacrifice?) and switched places with the possessed champion, easily defeating sergeant Matthias while the possessed were pulverised around him. This scored him a bonus VP due to his warlord trait.

 

Turn 4 - Hammer Time:

 

With most of my forces now locked in close combat the Chaos marines to my right began edging around the swirling melee on O3 to make for O2 in the centre. The land raider turned and took down the last biker. In hindsight he would have been better-off turbo-boosting in the previous turn to stay alive for the linebreaker objective. The vindicator moved out of the woods to find a line of fire to squad Amadeus but the shot scattered, killing one of its intended victims but also one of the two surviving Nurgle marines! Squad Mordecai easily dealt with the last. The Chaos Lord bellowed a challenge which I declined. Brother-Epistolary Ramiel was excluded from the fight but this enabled me to pound the lord with squad Gideon's thunder hammers. Due to Ramiel's power field and the Standard of Fortitude (and my lucky Deathwing dice, thanks Paul!) his 8 S6 AP2 attacks were not enough to kill the last survivor of squad Matthias so the enemy warlord was dead and O3 was still under my control!

 

Belial finally managed to charge into the ruins and easily beat the unit's aspiring champion in a challenge. The terminator holding O1 moved off the objective to destroy a rhino with his chainfist, which unfortunately exploded and left him exposed to the vindicator. Squads Mordecai and Amadeus fired on the bolter-armed Chaos marines to the right who had helpfully bunched up to maximise their own firepower, killing four with the plasma cannon and a couple more with frag missiles and their storm bolters. Ramiel cast precognition before he and the survivor of squad Matthias assaulted the bolter squad. while command squad Gideon fired krak missiles and charged the pistol and chainsword squad, who broke and ran across O3 towards the land raider and their own lines. Ramiel's targets all came under the protection of his power field and survived my attacks, failing to cause any damage in return thanks to the re-rolls granted by precognition.

 

Turn 5 - Victory is at Hand:

 

The fleeing Chaos marines regrouped around O3 but their snap-shots caused no damage to squad Gideon. The land raider surged forwards to take control of O3 but failed a dangerous terrain test and was wedged in the ruins too far from the objective to be any use. The vindicator moved again to fire on the last member of squad Shael and missed! The close combats on either flank ground on with the traitors taking casualties but refusing to flee.

 

Belial despatched the last of the enemy on my left while Ramiel did the same on the right. Command squad Gideon crushed the traitors on O3 and squad Mordecai destroyed another rhino in close combat. Sweating from his brush with demolisher-death the last scoring terminator on my left moved back to claim O1.

 

The dice dictated that the game should end there, with objectives 1 and 2 held by the Deathwing and objective 4 still under the control of the cultists. In addition I had bonus VPs for first blood, slay the warlord and wrecking the predator while my opponent had a bonus VP for his warlord defeating sergeant Matthias in a challenge. I should have had objective 3 too but I had consolidated poorly with squad Matthias in my last turn.

 

Final score: Deathwing 9, Black Legion 4

 

Throughout the battle only Belial, Deathwing squad Shael and Ravenwing squad Jericho ever strayed from the Feel No Pain bubble provided by the Standard of Fortitude. I had a lot of luck with those 5+ rolls and I think this, coupled with smart placement of objectives and not getting carried away with rash deep strikes, won me the game. I did suffer in the early turns from a lack of serious anti-tank firepower but when it came to close combat the Deathwing were impossible to shift.

[facmanpob]

Great report and congrats on the win :)

[Polythemus]

In the game i played i also suffered from antitank. Do you think simply having matthias having only one asscan and two meltas on the ravenwing would have been sufficient to improve this? Saving 8 fnp throws seems pretty lucky to me, but im happy to see a termie army do so well!

[Cactus]

Phew! I'm glad somebody read this because it took a lot longer to write than I expected.

 

Polythemus, shaving a few points on terminator heavy weapons to get a meltagun and/or melta bombs for the Ravenwing could have helped. I doubt that they would have taken out more than one vehicle anyway, but they could have done so faster and saved me from a painful lascannon volley. I came away from the game feeling that what I really needed was some lascannons of my own - more chance of scoring a penetrating hit and +1 to the damage rolls. Before I settled on the librarian and Ravenwing I toyed with the idea of a dreadnought in drop pod with locator beacon, the idea being that he comes in on turn 1 and starts shooting vehicles in the flanks/rear. That's two vehicles behind enemy lines that need dealing with, one causing mayhem and one threatening to guide my DWA onto the same spot in turn 2. Belial and the 5 Deathwing squads came to 1750 points, and we have a lot of options now for what to do with those remaining 250 points.

 

However it was in close combat that this army really shone, and once I was locked in combat the Chaos big guns struggled to find juicy targets. There's something to be said for just weathering the storm over turns 1 & 2 before defeating everything with a power fist to the face/engine. It certainly felt like a very Dark Angel victory - never wavering, never retreating and eventually grinding the enemy down with resolute determination (and power fists). We often describe the storm bolter & power fist setup as a "shooty" Deathwing squad but 2+ armour saves and power fists are the kind of close combat ability other armies would give their right arms for.