The List
I was invited to take part in the Independent Characters' summer campaign. This was my first throwdown with an 1850 point list. I decided to take a mixed Deathwing/Ravenwing list for the campaign; the Ravenwing adds a level of mobility and precision to Deathwing Assault, as well as the ability to add meltaguns to the list for non-melee tank busting. My campaign list is as follows:
- Belial: Thunderhammer & Storm Shield
- Sammael: Land Speeder version
- Deathwing Terminator Squad:
- Thunderhammer & Storm Shield
- Two Lightning Claws
- Cyclone Missile Launcher, Storm Bolter & Power Fist
- Storm Bolter & Power Fist
- Deathwing Terminator Squad:
- Thunderhammer & Storm Shield
- Two Lightning Claws
- Cyclone Missile Launcher, Storm Bolter & Power Fist
- Storm Bolter & Power Fist
- Deathwing Terminator Squad:
- Thunderhammer & Storm Shield
- Two Lightning Claws
- Cyclone Missile Launcher, Storm Bolter & Power Fist
- Storm Bolter & Power Fist
- Deathwing Terminator Squad:
- Thunderhammer & Storm Shield
- Two Lightning Claws
- Assault Cannon & Power Fist
- Storm Bolter & Power Fist
- Deathwing Terminator Squad:
- Thunderhammer & Storm Shield
- Two Lightning Claws
- Assault Cannon & Power Fist
- Storm Bolter & Power Fist
- Ravenwing Attack Squadron
- Veteran Sergeant with Power Fist and Meltabombs
- 2x Meltaguns
- 3 regular bike marines
- Attack bike with Multi-Melta
The Scenario
I don't know what kinda crazy stump hooch they imbibe around Carl's neck of the woods, but I want some! I was pretty jazzed with the 'special mission' we had been provided (which you can read if you follow this link).
Using a Spearhead deployment, we would be grabbing objectives as we raced against the clock using Random Game Length. A favorite from my days running Eldar! I wonder how the Dark Angels would fare in this scenario though, what with no transports to get them there...
The objectives were five bastions, one in the center of the table and another in the center of each table quarter. Each bastion was an AV14 buildings with fire points all around and a single door and energy fields that prevented any ranged weapon from being used against them beyond 6". The game would be won by whichever army claimed the most surviving objectives when the game ended.
There were additional rules involved; "The Cold Void" makes all weapons of strength 4 or greater Rending, and any weapon which already has Rending now rends on a 5 or 6! Additionally, pinning Blast weapons can throw models off into space. Ouch!
The Cold Void could only be an advantage to me with my massed 2+ armor saves, and there aren't so many Blast weapons with Pinning out there that I had much to worry about.
The Game
My opponent for battle was none other than Dave, my old orky nemesis! I've played Dave a number of times, so I'm somewhat familiar with his list. The rules of the campaign require full disclosure of our army lists, so there should be no surprises at the table.
Dave won the roll off and chose to go first, putting two deffrolla-sporting battlewagons (one with a Big Mek and KFF, the other with warboss and both full of boyz), 2 buggies, 5 deffkoptas, a looted wagon and a deff dred on the table in his quarter. He kept two trukks full of boyz in reserve.
His line was pretty much committed to a push directly across the table to my right; the center bastion was a movement-hampering Fortress of Redemption. If he wanted to swing to his right and approach my left flank, he'd have to do it with his deffkoptas, reserves, or a bunch of boyz on foot.
I chose to put only the Ravenwing into action, splitting it up into two combat squads and the attack bike, split between the far left, far right and center-most corner of my deployment zone. My hope was to use Deathwing Assault to sow a line of terminator squads, taking down incoming vehicles and creating patches of difficult and dangerous terrain for them to cross through.
Dave threw a wrench in my plan by swinging wide with his deffkoptas to take out my lone attack bike while the rest of his army rushed into my line.
Overall the plan worked. I dropped 3 units of terminators between the edge of the central objective and my right objective, pouring fire into the wall of vehicles. The buggies were the first to drop, followed shortly by the deff dred.One of my combat squads swung left to harrass the deffkoptas, stoping a neat 6" from the central bastion to unleash a torrent of melta fire.
This is when it was pointed out to me that you can't shoot unoccupied buildings. Doh! Major mistake #1: I should have read that section of the rules more closely; I could have kept all my bikes in reserve and brought them out via Outflank, forcing Dave to spread his army out.
A Deep Striking Sammael landspeeder came in behind the warboss' battlewagon and poured fire into the rear armor, immobilizing the vehicle. The next round both Dave's trukks came in and unloaded their guns and cargo into Sammael, destroying him.
Belial, my HQ, came in the next round and i chose to place him and his squad in the center of the ork position. My hope was to tie up the main force of the foot-slogging orks to keep them away from the center objective, though the entire unit was now subject to 3 simultaneous assaults.
This ploy payed off! Sort of. The first round of combat left me with Belial at 1 wound and the rest of the unit gone. The remainder of his forces scrambled to the nearest bastions, but the restricted terrain around the center objective prevented him from getting the entire unit to within the embarkation radius by the end of turn 5! Whew! I still had a chance!
At the end of the game Dave pulled a particularly sly maneuver, zipping one of his trukks full of boyz over to his right side bastion, towards which my last unit of termies were lurching in a frantic attempt to score an end-of-game objective.
He parked the trukk directly in front of the bastion door, blocking my entry. My sole recourse was to assault it, which I did, and destroy it, which I did. In fact I wrecked it, so it didn't explode, and his orks fell out the back safely since I couldn't completely surround the vehicle. Sad face! Then during his next move, he ran the orks INTO the bunker through terrain; the shape of the wreck kept my terminators 2 inches from the entry point, allowing him to slip through. ARRRGG!
It was at this point that I lost the game, though I hadn't yet realized it. I assaulted the now-occupied bastion with the terminator unit, scoring 4 glancing hits. I rolled a weapon destroyed and immobilized result, and went "YAY" for the win! See, the building was already immobilized and had no weapons; I thought it would then be upgraded to a wreck and become non-scoring.
Of course then someone informed me that damage results against buildings are NEVER upgraded. Mistake #2: I skimped on chainfists to bring an extra assault cannons. And that will be my very first edit made to this list, once I'm allowed (rules of the campaign prevent you from changing your list until you have lost two consecutive games).
Overall, a very hard- and sneakily- fought game by my opponent Dave. And even though I didn't win this time, I still had a better time of it as a first time Deathwing player than I'd ever had running Eldar!
And now you know everything. Go forth and fail no more!
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