Round 2 and I'm back for more...

So the Deathwing are gaining momentum in this summers’ WH40k League at my LGS. I have played three games league so far and I am ranked in the top five out of eighteen players. I’m really hoping that I can keep up this up as my goal is to finish in the top ten or higher. Now I will be the first to admit that my last two games have been played against younger more inexperienced players but at this point I’ll take what I can get.

We started Round 2 of the league this past weekend and I played a 1500pt. game against and new player to our store. I believe he has been playing for a while now as he had most of his Space Marine army fully painted and table ready. He had an interesting list which included Scouts, Landspeeders, Tac Marines, Rhino’s and Razorbacks. He even brought along a Land Raider and a Librarian in Terminator armor. My army was the same one that I mentioned and play tested last week.

The mission was Secure and Control with Dawn of War deployment and this time I didn’t make the mistake of leaving a squad on the objective to be sniped all game. I deployed first and setup two squads with Belial right on the line across from his objective marker. He setup his troops along his table edge but not completely out of Stormbolter range. During my first turn I walked/ran the Dreadnaughts towards my objects from the table edge and had the Land Raider Crusader go flat out to be in a better position next turn. I deepstriked (Deathwing Assault) my third squad onto his left flank and then all three squads opened up into his two squads. I wounded quite a few models but he made most of the save and only lost six models between the two squads. On his turn he brought in everything else but was forced to spread out his models which caused his to place the Land Raider, a Rhino and a Razorback within closing distance of my new arrived Terminator squad. He opened up on my squads and even had the librarian try a psychic attack but I only lost one man in Belial’s squad.

On turn two, I moved two squads up and annihilated the Librarian and his squad in a combination of shooting and close combat attacks. The Venerable Dreadnaught fired his Missile Launcher and Lascannon but didn’t crack the Land Raiders armor. I moved the LR Crusader up took a shot at the Razorback but that didn’t do much either. The third Terminator squad opened up and then assaulted the Razorback and turned it into a crater. My opponent opened up on my two squads and killed one more from Belail’s first squad but I made saves on the guys wounded in the second squad. He tried to shoot my third squad but didn’t do any damage. His Land Raider opened up on my Venerable Dreadnaught and caused a Shaken affect for the next round. He also Deepstriked a five-man squad of Assault Marines near my third squad but there shots were easily saved by the Terminators.

In turn three things changed drastically as my LR Crusader and third squad eliminated the Assault Marine while Belial’s first squad eliminated a five-man Scout squad. They shot up and then assault the scouts but stayed locked in CC until his turn. At that point they wiped out the unit and moved closer to another Tac squad. My second squad shot into his Stern Guard squad and then charged into them killing several but they remained locked as well. I lost one member of that squad to a powerfist so they were down to four men in that squad. During his third turn, he brought in a Landspeeder and tried to take out my LR Crusader with a multi-melta but it failed to hit. He piled in another Tac squad into to assist his Stern Guard and ended up taking out the Sergeant and Assault Cannon Terminator but not before he lost his remaining Stern Guard members. Belial’s squad finished off the scouts and advanced toward his second squad to assist.

Turn four, the LR Crusader and regular Dreadnaught eliminated the Landspeeder while the third squad took out the Rhino. He didn’t move it last turn so they auto-hit and blew that one up as well. Belial’s first and second squads eliminated the remaining Tac squad and began moving towards his objective marker. The Tac squad took several of the Terminators with them so both first and second squads had only two Terminators apiece remaining. On his turn, he moved the Land Raider towards his objective and too a Lascannon shot at my Venerable Dreadnaught blowing it to pieces, thankfully nothing was close so no additional wounds were caused. He bought in his second Landspeeder and tried to take out the LR Crusader again but again his dice failed him.

Turn Five would prove to be very interesting for both of us; my LR Crusader destroyed his Landspeeder in a hail of bolter, assault cannon and multi-melta fire. He had a Rhino and Land Raider left and first, second and third squads were able to wreck the Land Raider; got to love those power and chain fists. It looked as I if had won the game at this point but my opponent decide to tank shock his remaining Rhino into my three squads. This caused both of us to scratch our heads and review the rules because he was attempting to hit three different squads. Now the Rhino had no weapons and all my Terminators were fearless so with a little assistance in rules clarification from another Veteran player, we moved on to the carnage. So the first squad was unable to stop the Rhino as the first squad had no powerfists and they didn’t get a ‘6’ on their armor pen test. They moved aside and second squad made their attacks. They had both a power and chain fist and they were able to get two Immobilized results which wrecked the tank and stopped it about four inches from the objective.

It was a great game and I think I learned two valuable lessons in that I shouldn’t have ignored the Rhino earlier in the game and that I should have spread out my units to surrounds the objective a little better. Because had I done either, he would have been in a position to Tank Shock the units so close to the objective. It was hairy there for a bit because a Draw result would have bumped me lower in the rankings and it would have caused me difficulty in the later rounds.
I’m looking forward to next weekend so that I can get another game in and hopefully come out ahead in this round as well. I know that as the league escalates, I’ll have a much harder time in dealing with the newer army’s and their various Death Star units.

Cheers…

It’s always fun until someone loses an eye or gets sucked into the warp…

This weekend the weather sucked so I headed over to the LGS earlier than usual and got in a couple of 1500pt. games. I put together a new list for Round 2 of the league and wanted to try it out in case I needed to make changes before next weekend. The list included all of the components from my 1000 point list but I added another Dreadnought and a Land Raider Crusader. I adjusted the three Terminator squads so that they all have Assault Cannon and Chain Fists and I added Extra Armor to my existing Dreadnought.

My first game went really well in that I played the same Space Wolf player from last week. Again like last week, the game was really fun and I had a great time playing him. The game was interesting this time around in that I lost Belial and Sergeant to the ‘Jaws of the Wolf’ spell on our first real round of shooting. I again focused my fire onto single units in an effort to remove them completely before moving onto the next one. This seemed to work really well throughout the game in that I was able to eliminate a squad of Long Fangs, two Rhinos and half a squad of Grey Hunters in my first shooting attempt.

I did my best to remain focused and not get too excited or frustrated and in the end I won that game 7 – 3 KP and I still had a Terminator, the LR Crusader and both Dreadnoughts on the table. My efforts were successful in nibbling away at his army because he only had a single Wolf Guard and six-man Grey Hunter squad left at the end of the game. The Deathwing army is really performing pretty well in the lower point games but I’m a little concerned about what happens when we get to the bigger games.

My second game didn’t go exactly as planned in that I ended up losing that game but I learned a valuable lesson about how best to play my army in a Secure and Control mission. I learned that I should have held two units in Reserve instead of setting up a squad of Terminators on the objective and just sitting there as my opponent picks them off with his long range heavy weapons. If I had kept them in Reserve I could have walked them onto the table in a latter round and dealt with some of his units before they got to my objective. I also learned that in a Spearhead mission, units can walk onto the table from your long board edge not just from the long edge of your table quarter.

Sadly, I also learned that I should have kept Belial with the squad mounted in the Land Raider instead of trying to Deep-strike him behind enemy lines. You see, he scattered off the table and then I rolled a one on the mishap table which resulted in wiping him and the squad out completely. So I ended up playing the game with a LR Crusader, a Dreadnought and one Terminator squad but still managed to take out 40 Guardsmen, a Dreadnought and part of a bunch of marines.

All in all, this the weekend was a good one in that I decided that my 1500 point list should do well in the next round provided that don’t make any deployment mistakes and remember to keep focusing my fire.

and pounced on some Space Pups…

Well, the summer WH40k league kicked off this past weekend and I did fairly well for someone that hasn’t been playing that often. This initial round consisted of two games ranging from 750 to 1250 points and each round lasts for two weeks. This allows players enough time to get in both games before the next round while not pressuring them to be there every weekend. So a player could play both his games in a single weekend and then skip the following weekend to go out and enjoy the nice summer weather; granted not a normal activity for many gamers ;)

I elected to play both of my games this Saturday, they were in the 1000 point range and both went really well and I admit that I had a lot of fun. My first game was against a Space Wolves player and I have to say that I’m very proud of my Deathwing terminators. I fielded three Terminator squads, Belial and a Dreadnought for each game. The squads each had a heavy weapon, two AC and one CML, a Chainfist and a Twin Lightening-Claw terminator. The dreadnought was outfitted with a default kit consisting of an AC and CCW to keep the points down. This army list worked out really well and allowed me to keep on task with countering my opponent’s movements and attacks.

As this was the first time that I had played against Space Wolves since the new codex was released, I wasn’t quite sure of what I would be facing. He took three six man Grey Hunters with Rhino/Razorback and a squad of Long Fangs. His Wolf Lord was armed with a Storm Shield and a special weapon and mounted on a Thunder wolf. He also had a Dreadnought mounted in a Drop Pod. I was lucky to setup and go first and I put everything out there on the board as I figured that I would need as much firepower early as I could get. I opened up and focused fire into one squad and took out the Rhino and then the squad with my shooting. On his first turn he charged his Wolf Lord up and then took out an entire squad of Terminator’s on Close Combat which really shocked the hell out of me; hadn’t realized just how powerful they made the new Wolf Lords.

During my second turn, I shifted all of my forces to the left and opened up on the Long Fangs with my dreadnought and one Terminator squad and then popped a few rounds into the Wolf Lord with the other. The Long Fangs lost a man and the Wolf Lord took a wound. On his second turn, his dreadnaught arrived via drop pod and promptly took out my dreadnought with a Multi-Melta. He charged another Terminator squad with his Wolf Lord and took out only two of them this time. The squad attacked back and caused another wound on his Wolf Lord but I lost combat and took three extra wounds which thankfully I made all of the saves so we remained locked in Assault.

The third turn, I charged and destroyed his dreadnought and then was lucky enough to finish off his Wolf Lord. On his turn he moved a Rhino up and rapid fired into my second Terminator squad taking out one more in Belial’s squad. He fired into my first Terminator squad with is Long Fangs but they miraculously made all of their saves. The fourth turn, I moved my first squad over to assist Belial’s remaining squad and they fired into his second six-man Grey Hunter squad wounding all but one. Belial’s men opened up and then charged the other Grey Hunter squad and wiped them out during the Assault phase but not before his Grey Hunter took out one more Terminator in Belial’s squad.

At this point, I was down to five Terminator models total and he had four Long Fangs, a single Grey Hunter, a Rhino and a Razorback left. On the Fifth turn, I began moving towards his Long Fangs and Grey Hunter and I fired off a few rounds at the Long Fangs, wounding one but during his turn he opened up on my first squad and I lost another model. He moved his Grey Hunter back behind the Rhino for cover and out of view from my Terminators. On the final turn, I opened up on the Long Fangs but he was able to make all of his saves and then he then was able take out all but one of my Terminators before the game ended.

I ended up winning the game and I must say that it was one of the most enjoyable games that I have had in a long time. The game was fast paced and very enjoyable and it didn’t hurt that I was able to make most of my saves during the game. I did play another 1000 point game that afternoon but that ended in a Draw but I realized afterwords that I had messed up at the beginning by forgetting to Deathwing Assault a Terminator squad that was held in reserve. That mistake put me in a position where I was forced to keep running around the table to try and hunt down a Deep Striking Necron Lord; kind of irritating. Good thing is that I won’t be forgetting to perform the Deathwing Assault anytime soon.

On that note, I’ll continue to play games to help the others get in their two games this coming weekend and I’ll be creating a few new lists to deal with the increased point levels in Round Two. So far the league is off to a good start and I am having a really good time playing again. Hopefully, this trend will continue and I’ll learn more about Fifth Edition and improve my tactics along the way.