9th Ed. Deathwatch vs. GSC (some pics)

[Prot]

As some of you know I had been on the fence about putting in a game with my Deathwatch in 9th.

At this point I'm over 20 games in and still hadn't pulled them out. Part of the issue was the list, and some of the uncertainties in 'potential' rules. I used some of the new units because.... well simply I had to see how they blended with the DW.

I will do my best to summarize the game, and this won't be a blow by blow account like most of my Batreps.

The game was 2,000 points. We played the BRB mission; No Man's Land. This has you deploying on the short edge of the table.

I used a funky list, and took out some of my 'staples' for Deathwatch in order to try new stuff. My belief is I could afford to do this, because of some of the boosts Deathwatch got to units that can do damage to vehicles (my number one nemesis).

So my approximate list:

Battalion:

- New Primaris Capt.

- Primaris Libby

- Watchmaster

- One 8 man mixed squad of Vets: Vanguard w/Heavy Hammer, Termie with Hammer/shield, Black Shield with Shield/Mace, 2 Frag Cannons. Some filler. (This squad went in the Corvus with Watchmaster)

- 10 man Primaris: 5 Hellbasters 5 Boltrifles (one hammer sarge)

- 10 man Primaris: 3 Plas-ceptors, 1 Aggressor, 5 Stalker Bolters

- 5 man Assault Intercessors.

- Corvus w/Las

- 2 x 3 Outrider bikes.

- 3 Eradicators

- Bladeguard

- Apothecary (I upgraded him to Chief apothecary, and gave him a relic, and second heal ability - not sure if legal but I've been doing this with my White Scars and wanted to see how it would play out.)

GSC:

Patriarch

Psyker

LOTS of 10 man squads of mining lasers or Rocksaws/drills. In 'deep strike'.

- 2 squads of bikers, one in reserve with satchel bomb jankery.

- largeish squad of Genestealers

- 2 of those laser tanks

- 2 of the smaller transports with las

- One guy on a bike who buffs shooting (has sniper rifle)

- Sanctus sniper (the one who blows the heads off of Psykers).

I'm probably missing stuff, but we deploy and I put Eradicators, and 10 man Hellblaster squad in reserve. So I start with... 6 command points on T1 after traits/relics, etc.

My Secondaries: I wanted to try something new. I've been playing the same secondaries for about 5 games now. So I tried the mission special secondary which awards points to you if you hold the center table objective. These points are equal to the turn number. I also took Assassinate since he had so many characters, and I took quarters since I had the flyer (and they do count for this, but not objective holding).

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

Deployment:

- Here's my deployment. I'm forced to go first. My opponent knows I am not a fan of going first against GSC, so he gave it to me.

- I am not that conservative with my deployment as he deploys 'blips' which means I can't see anything. I keep some stuff behind Obscurring Ruins.

- I go full tilt with the Corvus, knowing he has to deploy -something- on blips. The Corvus ends up putting 5 wounds on a Rockgrinder (?) vehicle, and killing a small squad of plebs.

- The rest of my forces grab center and prepare for the worst.

- I score a point for center objective, and 2 points for presence in 3 quarters.

GSC:

- His army is still largely intact, but he chooses to push some of his forces, and his other Rockgrinder just into the area terrain so he can see my middle table. I knew this would be a bit of a grind.

- He ignores my Corvus which kind of surprised me. His 4 vehicles do some damage, and with his mixed firepower I only lose 3 of my Intercessors from mid table. And he takes pot shots at my Apothecary. He really rolled terrible though and somehow (with a CP use) I manage to only take 1 wound after the snipers are done.

- I lose a squad of bikers holding my left side objective.

DW:

- GSC didn't score. So I have a minor lead, and I start out turn 2 scoring 15 on the Primary.

- My turn 2 in his zone, has my Watchmaster squad (top left) getting out of the Corvus (off screen) and going to town on his bikers, Rockgrinder, and a 10 man squad of Plebs.

- The shooting in this turn was devastating. The short version is:

- I deepsrtrike the Hellbaster Primaris into ruins, I deepstrike the Eradicators beside them, and my center table squad is pushing up a bit, with the Primaris Captain as I want to hold the middle but use the Aggresor to thin the numbers, and the plasma-ceptors to take down vehicles.

- The Corvus rips into a healthy vehicle, just taking it down with 9 damage. And takes down his Mortar squad with the Hurricanes (got lucky here).

- When all the shooting is done, I assault his one character (Sniper) that I can. My Watchmaster assaults his bikers... they are all gone. When my turn is done, he has 2 models on the table!

- That sounds pretty impressive but we both know the bulk of his 'nasty' stuff comes in t2 from the shadows.

GSC:

- Here it comes, and I make a bit of an error, but I really did not want to play this game defensively as I normally do against GSC. But I pay for it a bit....

- Partiarch and Genestealers come in: They would go on to destoy all but 2 of the Vet squad with the Watchmaster still alive. (Those storm shields saved me big time, but the -3 ap wounds caught up to me and I lost everything but the Vanguard with Hammer who would score a 6 damage wound on the Patriarch). The Watchmaster took 4 Genestealers down.

- The "Janky" Biker squad with satchel bombs would exploit my aggressive mid table movement and split their bombs against my Apothecary and my bikers. For all intents and purposes my Apothecary should have been dead, but I somehow only took 1 wound after passing 3 5+ invuln saves (relic). Honestly , as usual my apothecary did nothing this game anyway.) The Bikers also got an outrider bike.

- More units came in and took out another outrider bike. This is how center ended up looking:

- He ended up making every legal assault he could! My Bladeguard lost one model from being assaulted from behind, but I had interrupted with them, and they clobbered most of his squad, however GSC have tons of ablative wounds and those rocksaws hurt!!!

- He assaults my 5 man assault intercessor squad, and easily kills them, but he makes a mistake here and consolidates into my 10 man Hellblaster/Intercessor Hammer squad. I pull out everything here because I NEED to shoot with my squad next turn. I take 'exploding 6's' against Xenos Strart, re-roll 1's strat, and +1 to wound strat (I think), and easily killed all 10 dudes as a result.

- End game:

- We realize that I have way too much firepower on the table. The Corvus is limping with 5 wounds, but I own the center, and have 4 quarters yet again, and he's about to get shot off the table. So he concedes.

- I felt bad because it was such a one sided game. My opponent seemed very discouraged by GSC, and had a lot of trouble 'holding' objectives against so much firepower.

- I really feel this army is superior to my White Scars. My White Scars are dying for T3, and just kind of 'hanging around' until then. Although my DW use similar units, with the Eradicators, and Plasma-Ceptors, and the Corvus, I can really threaten armour at range now. And we all know what the Primaris /marines are capable of with poison rounds on massed infantry with poor saves. I've played this GSC army a few times with White Scars and it's never been this one sided.

Anyway, that's it for the test game. (I did use SIA on the assault intercessors but that was a total of 2 pistol shots!) and the Apothecary did next to nothing yet again. :)

[Qui-Gon]

Hey Prot,

 

So, to comment,

 

Deathwatch do not have access to the Faith and Fury "Masters of the Chapter" stratagems, warlord traits, and relics because they are all predicated on being "Space Marine" stratagems which only apply to detachments drawn from the Codex Space Marines 8E v2. Once we get included in the book come October, who knows? I dearly would love to see those things, but until then, at the moment it would not be allowed in mainline tournament play, but in a friendly test game, go for it!

 

Congrats on the win.

[Debauchery101]

Gsc took a huge hit with the blast rules and points hikes but there is a couple builds that they can use that wreck. Like 9 ridge runners with lasers. 210 points for 3d3 laser shots and 18 hvy stubbed shots. 24 t5 wound with 6+FNP with flares or take spotters to have 42" ranged weapons. They can easily screen the backfield while providing effective firepower. They definitely benefit from the modifier cap. Maybe suggest to your friend to try out this tactic. Which I think the light-medium vehicle spam, including dreadnoughts are going to be very popular in 9th

[Prot]

I will do that. Thank you. He is fairly disheartened with the state of GSC.

It's very weird because they are an army that essentially 'breaks rules' to be effective and they are super annoying to play against. I basically play differently against GSC than any other army. And a lot of aspects of their strengths include 'gotcha' moments. Knowing all of these tricks is huge.

 

But I do know very good GSC players are making that sort of list (the one you mention) work. I don't think he wants to do the 9 Ridgrunner build, and I understand why, but I'll pass this along. Thanks

[Debauchery101]

Mixing Guard in is really good too. They get access to really cheap psykers, special weapons and vehicles.

[Prot]

Mixing Guard in is really good too. They get access to really cheap psykers, special weapons and vehicles.

 

Yes I have heard that as well.

 

I will add that I am getting in about 2 games a week on average with different opponents/lists. 

 

I really think that Deathwatch look very valid. I find the combination of key units, with strong infantry and SIA make for a really potent combo. I can only guess/hope that the codex will tidy up some issues (honestly many codexes are facing similar issues).

[jpwyrm]

That's nice to hear. Honestly, I was really inspired by your list since it feels Elite enough for Deathwatch, yet it still gets a lot going on for it in terms of flexibility, hitting power, even maneuverability. I'm considering trying it out soon and then choose if I go Deathwatch or Space Marines for this next edition.

[Debauchery101]

 

 

Mixing Guard in is really good too. They get access to really cheap psykers, special weapons and vehicles.

Yes I have heard that as well.

 

I will add that I am getting in about 2 games a week on average with different opponents/lists.

 

I really think that Deathwatch look very valid. I find the combination of key units, with strong infantry and SIA make for a really potent combo. I can only guess/hope that the codex will tidy up some issues (honestly many codexes are facing similar issues).

DW are looking to be really good. Not sure how it's going to shake out with them after the new marine codex but I would bet we get points increases.

 

My buddy brought this list against me today to fight my Necrons. I got stomped haha. He brought basically no hth. Maybe you're friend needs some ideas. This list would do well vs marines. It would be a tight attrition battle. I forgot the warlord traits, relics and brood rules.

 

He took a GSC Brigade

Acolyte Iconward

Jackal Alphus

Patriarch

 

1 locus

2 sanctus

 

4xNeophyte Hybrids with laser Squads

2x5 Acolytes - lash whip, rock drill

 

2x3 weapons teams w/mortars

1x3 wepons teams w/missiles

 

2x3 ridgerunners w/lasers/flares

2 Scout sentinels w/saws and autocannons

 

Astra Brood Vanguard Detachment -

 

Tank Commander-master mechanic, battle cannon, plasma cannon sponsons, las cannon

 

1 guard squad - flamer

 

2xAstropaths

1 Ogryn Bodyguard shield,plate,Maul

 

1x6 specialists w/3 plasma guns

 

1x3 Hvy Weapons teams with Missile launchers

 

This is actually a scary list if they go first

The sanctus get free double tap stratagem

The astropaths cancel cover saves for 1 unit each turn

The Jackal Alphus has basically a marker light almost everything has that ability to become meat shields to soak up damage for characters..like the tank commander and potentially for the Ogryn body guard who auto intercepts but can use the peons to intercept those wounds on a 4+

...not sure if that was FAQ'd but because it seemed clever I let it ride

[Akrim]

 

 

Mixing Guard in is really good too. They get access to really cheap psykers, special weapons and vehicles.

Yes I have heard that as well.

 

I will add that I am getting in about 2 games a week on average with different opponents/lists.

 

I really think that Deathwatch look very valid. I find the combination of key units, with strong infantry and SIA make for a really potent combo. I can only guess/hope that the codex will tidy up some issues (honestly many codexes are facing similar issues).

DW are looking to be really good. Not sure how it's going to shake out with them after the new marine codex but I would bet we get points increases.

 

My buddy brought this list against me today to fight my Necrons. I got stomped haha. He brought basically no hth. Maybe you're friend needs some ideas. This list would do well vs marines. It would be a tight attrition battle. I forgot the warlord traits, relics and brood rules.

 

He took a GSC Brigade

Acolyte Iconward

Jackal Alphus

Patriarch

 

1 locus

2 sanctus

 

4xNeophyte Hybrids with laser Squads

2x5 Acolytes - lash whip, rock drill

 

2x3 weapons teams w/mortars

1x3 wepons teams w/missiles

 

2x3 ridgerunners w/lasers/flares

2 Scout sentinels w/saws and autocannons

 

Astra Brood Vanguard Detachment -

 

Tank Commander-master mechanic, battle cannon, plasma cannon sponsons, las cannon

 

1 guard squad - flamer

 

2xAstropaths

1 Ogryn Bodyguard shield,plate,Maul

 

1x6 specialists w/3 plasma guns

 

1x3 Hvy Weapons teams with Missile launchers

 

This is actually a scary list if they go first

The sanctus get free double tap stratagem

The astropaths cancel cover saves for 1 unit each turn

The Jackal Alphus has basically a marker light almost everything has that ability to become meat shields to soak up damage for characters..like the tank commander and potentially for the Ogryn body guard who auto intercepts but can use the peons to intercept those wounds on a 4+

...not sure if that was FAQ'd but because it seemed clever I let it ride

 

 

@Debauchery101: Unfortunately your opponent was playing an illegal list and not playing the rules properly --

 

-GSC Brood Brother detachments cannot take Tank Aces

 

-GSC can only take one of each character type per detachment (ie cant have double Sanctus)

 

-Tank Commanders are not <Cult> and do not have the Unquestioning Loyalty rule, they cannot have units soak any wounds. Not even same detachment Ogryn Bodyguards (intercept damage from infantry only).

 

-Jackal Alphus note that his Priority Target ability only applies to <Cult> units like Neophytes, Acolytes, etc. Brood Brothers units like Mortars, Russes, anything Astra etc cannot claim it.

 

Maybe suggest to him to use Battlescribe - it would have caught those list errors.

[Prot]

Thanks for clearing that up.....

 

Maybe you can send your buddy over to the appropriate forum Debauchery... this isn't the best place for all this filthy Xenos talk. ;)

[Debauchery101]

I dont think he used the jackal alphus for the weapons teams or brood brothers. Ill jam him up on the double characters. I didn't know that but I just put this list into Battlescribe and zero errors come up from choosing the tank commander or 2nd sanctus. He probably knows better on the sanctus. I thought only the Patriarch and Abominant were 1 each per army. We looked at the errata and didnt see anywhere that it says you can't use a tank commander.

[Akrim]

I dont think he used the jackal alphus for the weapons teams or brood brothers. Ill jam him up on the double characters. I didn't know that but I just put this list into Battlescribe and zero errors come up from choosing the tank commander or 2nd sanctus. He probably knows better on the sanctus. I thought only the Patriarch and Abominant were 1 each per army. We looked at the errata and didnt see anywhere that it says you can't use a tank commander.

Tank Ace, its the Psy Awakening upgrade for Astra Tank Commanders (eg the Master Mechanic upgrade)

 

*Im assuming you are playing matched play? If so reference the Gene Sect rule on pg.199 GSC dex.

 

Anyhow, mods have spoken - pm me if its still hazy, it is a pretty complex army.

[Debauchery101]

I dont even care honestly. Dude gets bent over by marines 80% of his gaming