Prot's DW Celenstine Vs. Mars

[Prot]

Hey guys,

Sorry I don't have a lot of time right now and had a game against a friend's AdMech testing for potential lists in a Highlander format 1500 tournament.

I'm not sure about the DW but St.Celestine was a boss.

We played an ITC mission.

He had everyone's favorite used robot salesman... Belasarius Cawl. He used two formations... tons of Grav, giant Robots with T7 and AP3 shots. Lots of infiltration, etc.

I wanted Celestine to lead my Vanguard but they didn't make the list so I decided to play a CAD as usual. I had my Libby lead a CAD into battle, with a Grey Knight Daemonhunter force of a simple Interceptor squad and a Dreadknight.

I did not get first turn, and had Celestine and a Rhino of Vets hang back for Maelstrom. He didn't have many shots..... I lost a bike which Celestine was guiding through the mid table.

The game went back and forth a lot and I got a lucky roll for reserves. This is the only picture I have of the game:

I basically deep striked everything.

I got lucky, the Dreadknight came down with the Angelis Beacon guided in nicely. As well the Inteceptors came in beside the beacon.

So I unload, turns out his lawnmower robots with Grav all have a 2+ cover save this turn from some Omnisiah made up rule-orium. (It always sounds like the rules can be whatever he needs, and just adds '-orium' to the end to legalize it. ;) )

The Dreadknight is gone next turn. My Libby gets off Invis somehow and lives for one more turn. It's such a smash fest in his zone. I'm denying him points with my ObSec pods and hanging on for dear life.

Celestine is coming in hot, but the Dune Striders and Rangers are infiltrating deep in my zone so they turn back and destroy them... I mean celestine with armourbane was impressive in that case.

He killed one of Celestine's guards, and I had to split the bikes off and grab/prevent points.

In his zone the Grey Knights were all gone by T2. The Interceptors tried charging some goofy looking little rickety robots that -1 WS, etc... they got obliterated by these taser attacks.

The game was tight but I just could only kill one of those stupid Castellan robots... the giant 50's looking goofy robots that look like they'd talk in binary. I unloaded unbelievable Frag Cannon Impact shots... only to have them saved or FnP saved, and one shot flew back at me and killed the poor bugger who shot it... incredible.

Belasarius gave him BS5 so Grav/plasma was automatic. The only thing I had going for me was I had him occupied super deep in his lines.

So eventually Celestine breaks off, charges an objective I pick to take because he needs it as well. She flames these ranger dudes, and kills the rest in CC, while resurrecting one of her fallen buddies... she's a tank and a half guys.

The Bikers take an objective and hold on for dear life... it was something but we had to call it after T4. I don't think I could touch Belasarius.... he make look like a couple of necrons getting busy under a picnic blanket, but he's the real deal. Very resilient.... when his squad smoked HQ vets, and I only had the Libby left, he hit my libby with D3 S10 melta shots... wow. That's a set of terminator armour no one will be reclaiming!

I ended up winning Maelstrom and if we counted end game points I had line breaker, and the Scouring by grabbing enough of he mid table markers and his 3 point one.

Incredibly destructive game. I was sorely disappointed at how little my firepower did in this game though. It took amazing amounts of fire power to do anything.

And one side note... for the shield doubters among you, as always I will continue to sprinkle shields in the army. I had one shield vet stand in front of the LIbby and make 7 shield saves on Grav in a row. Sure it's not always 7... heck not even one sometimes. BUT... this time it saved about 140 points worth!

[Mobius0288]

Sounds destructive indeed! Was it a War Convocation you fought? Or a CAD? Either way, I've seen quite a few BATREPs where Cawl is pretty boss too. As always, love the reports.

[Vel'Cona]

I still appreciate the batreps, Prot, even if they don't get into the detail of the previous ones! This one gave me some insight into how DW plays with a splash of allies.

That said, it seems like you don't really like the AdMech army . . .

[Prot]

Sounds destructive indeed! Was it a War Convocation you fought? Or a CAD? Either way, I've seen quite a few BATREPs where Cawl is pretty boss too. As always, love the reports.

Thanks. No this was for a Highlander Tournament we are attending. This is one of a truckload of test lists I have but it isn't looking like DW will make the cut. So since it is a Highlander ITC format, Warconvo is illegal (thank the Emperor).

I still appreciate the batreps, Prot, even if they don't get into the detail of the previous ones! This one gave me some insight into how DW plays with a splash of allies.

That said, it seems like you don't really like the AdMech army . . .

Thank you for checking them out.

AdMech is so good. It's so flexible. Games at mid point levels (this was 1500) and even with restrictions like Highlander allow for such flexible lists. The only thing Admech is missing is speed.

They assault very well (if they want to). They have very tanky units. They can spam low end firepower, or high end firepower. They can have heavy numbers and be effective or lighter on numbers and be effective.

Add in Cawl and just... wow. Celestine for Deathwatch fills a huge gap. Belasarius takes something solid, and makes it a wrecking ball. Plus the guy is slow as molasses but you don't want to mess with him, and if you do, you better just take him down.

Even when I play them with my Thousand Sons, and they don't use any psychic protection, I can nail him over and over with psychic attacks, and he has so many layers of protection it's absurd. Then the buffs start up and it feels like you're trying to empty an ocean one teaspoon at a time..... He's very good in a very good army.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I don't know where to go with my list. I don't find the Deathwatch are working very well as of late against competitive lists. They get bounced very hard in most my games. I have come to realize that the difference is in 'fun' games my Alpha looks very similar, but hits harder.

In competitive games the alpha strike looks very similar but the opponent is far more resilient or reactive... or whatever.

I think It's worthy of a topic but I do think it's something you start to think about after you've run through the codex and are looking for new options.

[Ishagu]

Great game by the sound of it.

 

The new characters: Celestine, Cawl, are incredibly good. I wouldn't be surprised if they all make their ways in to Imperium army lists.