More Dark Angels, And A Battle!

Today was pretty good, wargame-wise. I finished (well, apart from the bases - still undecided about those) the Deathwing squad, and painted up a Dark Angels Tactical Marine from the 4th Company (him and his squad will be for sale once they're all done). Then, JY came over with his Tau and some Terminators and we had a 1000 point game. We'd been giving each other talk about smashing each other's armies, but as it turned out... well, read on:

Mission 2 (6th Edition 40K Rulebook):

Tau:

HQ1:
Commander with twin-linked plasma rifles, drone controller
Bodyguard with twin-linked missile pods
Bodyguard with twin-linked fusion blasters
Missile drone, 4 marker-light drones, shield drone

HQ2:
Fireblade with marker-light and pulse rifle

Elite 1:
Stealth Team with fusion blaster, marker-light, target-lock
Missile drone, shield drone

Elite 2:
Stealth Team with marker-light, target-lock
Two marker-light drones

Troops 1:
12 Firewarriors with pulse rifles, marker-light

Troops 2:
12 Firewarriors with pulse rifles, marker-light

Fast Attack 1:
Piranha with fusion blaster


Fast Attack 2:
Piranha with fusion blaster

That came to 1,052 points. I had:

Deathwing Strike Force:

HQ:
Grand Master Belial (unpainted) with storm bolter and sword of silence

Elite:
Venerable Dreadnought (Sentinel) with two twin-linked autocannon and extra armour

Elite:
Deathwing Knights (Assault Terminators) with Perfidious Relic

Troops 1:
Deathwing Squad with assault cannon and chainfist

Troops 2:
Deathwing Squad with cyclone missile launcher (based Terminator) and chainfist

Totalling 1,053 points!

I lost the roll to choose table edge, and lost the roll to deploy and the roll to go first. Bah.

The battlefield, seen from my deployment zone. I elected to 'Deathwing Assault' with my two Deathwing Terminator units, as Belial had a Teleport Homer... but he needed to be on the board prior to my squads' arrival in turn 2.

Deployment: the perfidious xeno scum have clustered together to minimise my Deep Strike advantage.

Tau Turn 1 - marker-light hit! The Dreadnought is immobilised! But it should have been destroyed, so that was a relief.

 End Tau Turn 1: No casualties apart from an immobilised Dreadnought. Hmm.

Deathwing Turn 1 - the quad autocannons opened up to no effect (thanks to the Piranha's Jink save), and the Knights moved up in lockstep, trusting to their 2+/3+ save and the God-Emperor to protect them from harm.

Tau Turn 2 - the Dreadnought is targeted for destruction. Four marker-light hits mean that Piranha is hitting on 2s and ignoring the cover save granted by the ruin. Result? Weapon destroyed.

Tau Turn 2 - a bucketload of dice later, and two Deathwing Knights are dead - and Belial is down to one wound!? Arrrgh!

Deathwing Turn 2 - Reinforcements arrive! I'm feeling a bit more confident now.

Deathwing Turn 2 - "Open fire!" The new arrivals blaze away at the command squad, killing both bodyguards and a shield drone.

Tau Turn 3 - Return fire kills four of the First Squad, and the Piranha again fails to kill the Dreadnought.

 Deathwing Turn 3 - The Dreadnought explodes the Piranha. KABOOM.

Deathwing Turn 3 - Elsewhere, the Knights and remaining Terminators move up and shooting from the Cyclone squad kills seven Tau from the roof. The chainfist-wearing survivor of First Squad gets overwatched to death by the nearby Stealth Team as he tries to charge the Piranha. Oops.

Tau Turn 4 - Still not dead! Down to one hull point, needing only a 4 to destroy the Dreadnought, the Piranha rolls ... a 3. On 2d6.

Tau Turn 4 - On the other hand, the Deathwing Knights are very dead. Very, very dead. Marker-lights are nasty!

 Deathwing Turn 4 - the Dreadnought knocks a hull point off the remaining Piranha, and the Cyclone Squad - now joined by Belial - legs it to the gate of the house. An attempt to move into the garden and thus into assault range of the Firewarriors fails when I roll a 1 for their run distance. Bah!

Tau Turn 5 - Potentially the last turn of the game, and we are tied at 2VP each. The Piranha moves away, its Fusion Blaster gone, and targets the Terminators (along with everything else). The result is inevitable. They absorb the shooting of the whole remaining Tau force and only Belial and the Cyclone Terminator survive.

Deathwing Turn 5 - HA! The Dreadnought wrecks the Piranha, putting me on 3VP to 2, and (after completley ineffectual shooting from the Terminators, made worse by forgetting to fire the Cyclone), Belial and his remaining marine charge the Stealth Team...

...only for overwatch to kill the Cyclone Terminator and the Shield Drone to save two of the Stealth Team from certain death. Belial survives the nine return attacks, and with that, the game ends - a draw. 3 VP each!

So honour was satisfied and a rematch in order. 1,100 points of Deathwing versus 1,100 points of Tau. Who shall prevail? Frankly if I'd had my head on properly I wouldn't've made so many silly mistakes. The 2+/5+ saves really helped me a lot, but footslogging towards Tau is always a Bad Idea. Next time I should just risk the scatter and drop on top of the little blue swines regardless...

Anyway, I also painted these fellows up - bases, as is the fashion at the moment, remain to be done:

Currently I am thinking of basing the Deathwing as if they are on a truly alien world - maybe a cobalt desert or a Martian-style surface? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

One of the Tactical Marines from the Dark Vengeance set. A lovely model that painted up easily and well. One down, nine to go... they will be based in my standard earth/grass style for sale.

Painting Points: 2
2013 Total: 134 (89x 28mm, 2x 54mm, 3x tanks)