Battle Report: Grey Knights + Deathwing vs Space Marines

So today got a game in with Vince so decided to take some pictures. Acotez + Deathwing against Lysander Marines. We rolled a random mission and got Relic with Vanguard deployment. Night Fight in effect Turn 1, Warlord trait useless for Vince, Move Through Cover within 12" of my Warlord. Lists are below.

Deathwing (Dark Angels) as Allies within light of new Rumors

Dakka

We've just got a nice new batch of Dark Angel rumors in what is supposed to be a two month old playtest copy. Yes, Games Workshop does playtest and yes they do make changes (I'm sure most people say the 36" range Psycannon Grey Knight test leak - complain about Psyfledreads now!). Anyway, currently one of the best Allies out there is Dark Angels thanks to scoring Thunderhammer/Storm Shield Terminators who can take a Cyclone Missile Launcher. Not only are they durable and very scary in combat but they come with good shooting. What's not to love? Their special character is also a decent challenge man and at 130 points + 235 per Deathwing squad (215 base + 20 for CML), you can get three squads + Belial for a paltry 835 points (600 if you don't want the Elite squad).

Thunderfish - Tau & MEQ Terminator Allies

Escape Theory

Let's start looking at some Ally combinations. We'll start with Tau - an army which has some serious perks but serious weaknesses, too. The goal of the Allies is to obviously cover those weaknesses as best as possible whilst minimising the impact upon the perks. Tau have excellent shooting but lack in two key departments - scoring and close combat. Most Space Marine armies have excellent scoring units - they are all MEQs after all and some excellent combat units (TWC, TH/SS, etc.). Can we combine the two and make a half-way decent list?

Email in: Pure Deathwing with Forgeworld options

"Kirby,

First, let me say how much I enjoy your blog.  My employer has lost hours of productivity from me due to you fellas.


I am building a 2000 pt. pure deathwing army for casual 40k in my nerd cave. I've read all the threads about how doublewing is the way to go to be competitive and I agree but speeders and power armor just don't fit in with the fluffy theme I'm going for here.  I'm basically trying to limit myself to terminator armor, land raiders, and dreadnoughts.  My friends and I allow Forgeworld units in our games because, let's face it, the models are too cool!  So what I would love to hear your opinion on is, could Forgeworld units (Contemptor, Land Raider Achilles, Storm Eagle, Mortis Dread, etc.) provide the necessary tools to make a pure deathwing army work?


Below is what I'm currently considering:

Email in: 1850pt DeathwingStar

"Kirby, I've been thinking about going to a RTT toward the end of June, and I've been trying to come up with a list based around the concept of a Deathwing deathstar. I know a lot of people have problems with deathstars, but I'm looking for a fresh new way to play my deathwing. The problem is, I'm having trouble fitting everything I need into an 1850 pt list (I'm actually not entirely sure that's the point limit for the tournament, as they still have not posted any details other than the date but that's what it was last year.). I'm stumped as to how to make this concept work effectively, so I'm turning to you for help. So here's the basic setup for the DeathwingStar.

Email in: 2000 points Deathwing!

"Hey Kirby-

I've been following your blog for a few months now and really like the content that you and the other contributors have posted. I find your tactics and army list articles to be top notch along with some of the most detailed and professional-looking battle reports out there! Recently my roommate purchased about 15,000 points of 40k (legit 15,000 points- true story) for a ridiculously low price ($700) from a guy who just needed the space in his apartment. In the lot is a collection of 20 Deathwing Terminators (with DA Forgeworld shoulder pads). My roommate will be selling me these at a deeply discounted rate since my birthday is coming up soon. I already play Mech BA's and Tyranids but I can't pass up such a good deal! Especially with the rumors of a DA codex soon (although rumors are rumors...). So here is a list I came up with for 2,000 points combining Deathwing with a bit of Ravenwing.

Game 4 Video - Chee Wong (DA) v Rupert Pupkin (Necrons)

Deployment/First Turn

Dawn of War
Table Quarters
Kill Points
Objectives

Email in: 2K Deathwing

Dakka

"Hi!

First off love the blog and it is now almost daily for me to check and see what you guys have to say about my favorite game. So Thanks! Now my local shop has seen an influx of Grey Knight players and I wanted to some input on my Deathwing list. The Grey Knight players locally don't use any melta what so ever so I was thinking of running a dual Land Raider Deathwing list to take advantage. It is as follows -

NOVA - Round 3 Bat Rep

Well, school has kept me busy so I am a bit behind on Bat Reps. But Kirby's "sickness" has given me motivation. Plus, I can post my new Belial conversion shown at the left (he has a cape that you can't see here. It is my first big conversion, so I am pretty happy with it. I'll be using it this weekend at the Blobs Park GT.

Anyway, on to round 3 bat rep.

Yet again, difficult terrain was a huge issue, but not just because of the terrain. His Night Spinners proved to be a tremendous annoyance to my already slow army (Night Spinners shoot a weapon that forces difficult/dangerous terrain checks on any unit it hits).

NOVA - Round 2 Bat Rep

Round 2 vs. Fareed's Vulkan marines
Table Quarters, Objectives, Kill points
Spearhead

My List:
Belial w/ LC
Librarian Terminator
DW squad - 4 TH/SS, Apothecary, SB/PF
2 x DW squad - 5 TH/SS, CML
DW squad - 2 TH/SS, 3 SB/PF, CM
DW squad - 5 SB/PF, CML
3 Bikers - 1 melta
2 x Land Speeder Typhoon w/Hvy bolter
2 x AutoLas Pred

NOVA Bat reps - Round 1

Below is a bat rep from my first round at NOVA. I lost the notes to round 1, so I am doing that one on memory. The layout for all bat reps will be Deployment photo, turn 1 summary, followed by an End of Turn 1 photo, etc, etc.

All thoughts are welcome and I already know that I made a lot of mistakes throughout the tournament, which I will detail later. You will note, in my complaints about terrain, is that you couldn't move anywhere without making a difficult terrain roll. This, really hampered my already slow army.

Collect and paint an army in 3 weeks (Part 4). Finally got pics taken!

So boys and girls, once again, it has been a while!

What to tell you? Well, I finished painting the army on time and then took it to the Mayhem Mayfest Tournament in Tolworth! Once I'd been to the tournament I had one of my MSc case studies to do (in only four days, which was not good), I got that done and since have had my feet up!

The photo to the left is the "Team" I am a part of and we are familiar faces on the tournament circuit, particularly in the South of the country, Team: Not Arrogant, Just Better (for this tourney we renamed ourselves Not Arrogant, Just Morphed).

Email in: Hi 40k comp army build

"Hi I heard from a friend you are pretty responsive to emails and from looking at your site I see lots of experience posted throughout. So that said it brings me to my questions, I need one of my armies to be competitive in 2000 and 2500 point areas as long as on a national level. I will learn the tactics but the army build needs to be as competitive as can be call it cookie cutter if you want but winning is winning in my book and thats where the fun is for me. I have 2 options with lots of routes in my eyes....

Countdown to NOVA - Army Lists and WIP (22 days)

I have been playing pure Deathwing for a long time, but since the DA FAQ came out in January I have branched out a bit to include some Ravenwing and DA heavy support. I have three lists that I am trying to decide between. They are all pretty similar, with the major differences being with or without the librarian. Unfortunately, DA libbys are only leadership 9, but they have unlimited range on their force hood, so they can sit back with a shooty unit and use their hood. This is NOVA and I think force hood defense will be important (and people always forget my unlimited range).

Countdown to NOVA– 35 days

Hi everyone, Gramps is here to impart his years of wisdom (all 27 of them). Kirby has graciously allowed me to be a guest author for a while as a lead up to the 2011 NOVA Open GT (40k). I played in last year’s NOVA Open and had a blast, despite my average record with my Tau. This year is going to be much larger with 256 40k players, so I will be taking a slightly more competitive army, Doublewing.

My vision for this series of posts is to chronicle my journey to NOVA culminating with real time battle reports and a final NOVA summary. I use the term real-time loosely because I do not know if there will be any WiFi in the tournament area. If there is not, I will have to run up to my hotel room during the longer breaks to post. Either way, my goal is to give those that cannot make it to NOVA an opportunity to follow along with the fun.

Collect and paint an army in 3 weeks (Part 1). The sleeper has awakened!

Hi again folks! It’s time I did a new army!

Last year I had a pretty solid year tournament wise and ended the year ranked 18^th in the UK (more by luck then skill in my opinion) but nevertheless I’m hoping to try and emulate that level of success this year.

I have the Mayhem tournament which is in Tolworth South London/Surrey which is being held in association with Heroes and Legends Games just around the corner (3 weeks I believe). As always I’m thinking about new armies and as always I can’t decide what to take!

There’s a few options on the table, Grey Knights, Deathwing, Space Wolves and I was keen on Dark Eldar but I can’t work out a cheap way to
make venoms (I’m not poor, just don’t like the viper/raider chop shop).

This particular tournament is what is typically referred to as battlepoints, those points being awarded for controlling objectives and as such there is a heavy emphasis on scoring units, as such my 4 TWC lord, 2 troop choice wolves are out of the window, the current list options are:

Email in: Starting Dark Angels: Need help

"OK – I’m struggling here and I need help. I’ve been infatuated with the Biker themed armies for a while, and while I do like the Space Marines/White Scars armies I just keep getting drawn to the FOC breaking Attack Bikes and the cheap Land Speeders of the Dark Angels. With the recent FAQ I’m also inclined towards Terminators and so I’m starting to think a mix of Ravenwing and Deathwing on the field.

I have a Ravenwing battleforce, a crap terminator squad (Powerfist & Storm bolters only – no options o.0), and that’s about it. Thankfully my tax return should come this weekend, so I’ve got some cash that I’m about to sink into models & bits.

You're going to be buying so that's that haha. Ravenwing battleforces are great buys but we'll see what you need first. Doublewing is a great and usable concept but depends a lot on the points value. Deathwing is nearly always better as the Troop choices because they are so hard to remove.

Email In - Doublewing 2000pts

Going to follow Kirby's trend of responses in italics purple, as it seems to be popular

Hi SneakyDan, it appears that you are running the Dark Angels conversation on 3++ so I'm sending you a Doublewing list idea.  It seems to me that Deathwing and Ravenwing were so obviously meant to be combined that it's silly not to.  I mean, one teleports, the other comes with Scouts and teleport homers.  Duh.  The only reason Doublewing wasn't that good till now was the nerfiness of the DWT stormshield and the Cyclone/Typhoon missile launchers in the DA codex.  I'm still not sure that it's the perfect list, but it's much better than it was, and I'm pretty confident that it would work better than pure Deathwing.

It still isn't -that- good, its just not super horribad anymore. Its playable, but nowhere near on par with something like IG or C:Marines. Also, afaik, DA bikers can only scout move, not scout turbo boost, as that didnt get FAQ'd.

Email in: 1500 points Doublewing

"Hi Kirby,

Greetings from Perth

I like your Blog

Have you got any ideas for 1500 points of Doublewing?

I’m thinking of

Belial (with Thunder Hammer)
3 Deathwing Squads (Assault Cannon, 2 Chainfists, 3 Thunderhammers)

Ravenwing squad
2 Meltaguns
Power weapon (my sergeants don’t have power fists)
Attack bike with Multi-melta

Doublewing: Now viable?

The quick and easy answer for pure Deathwing is no. Ya sorry, no. 30+ TH/SS Terminators which can score and have can put out 12+ missiles a turn is very scary and very easy to avoid. It basically becomes a tactic of moving into midfield and sit and hope your opponent doesn't force you to fail 30+ 2+/3++ saves or that my 12+ missiles a turn can do some damage. The real power of these terminators is getting into assault but that's just hard to do on a consistent and effective basis, even with 30+. Without any true mobility people will throw sac units at you and look to pin you in midfield and rush objectives late game in BRB missions. In tiered missions it will be about forcing the game onto a tier the opposing army is comfortable with. What about if we add in, oh I don't know, some support? Ravenwing or the new Typhoons sound good and there are Dreads, Veterans, Preds, etc. to go around! Let's see then if we can come up with anything.

The theme of the day is scoring Terminators and now with 3++ they are actually quite survivable in every game. Before they were also pretty survivable but against anything with some low AP firepower or ignored lots of saves in combat they cried. Now with a couple of 3++ mixed into units your squads are a lot more survivable and thus a lot more scary. Add in the ability to take a cyclone missile launcher and the unit can actually damage and suppress things on the way in. From there they can camp midfield or push into the backfield which the CML and SS allow but by having support elements around the Terminators, they are also capable of sitting in midfield and gaining a win due to the increased firepower across the board. So the basic setup for a squad is going to be five strong (obviously), with a cyclone missile launcher, a couple of TH/SS terminators and a couple of chainfist/stormbolter terminators. Whilst the CF/SB termies aren't as survivable they do help with anti-infantry output and in opening up tanks in combat and those anti-infantry shots at range can be pretty important. You can run pure TH/SS + CML but you can have some issues with anti-infantry. I would run the squad like so: