February Painting Pledge - Overdue... but complete!

Morning folks.

After dragging my heels a bit the last few weeks with painting, I tried to make a final push towards the end of the month to finish off my Dark Angels. I was away for some time over the weekend but managed to get the majority of the Deathwing done over Friday night / Saturday morning and then finished the bases off this morning.

So, I've eaten into March by 5 days, but all my (current) Dark Angels are finished. I've plans for adding a Plasma Cannon Devastator squad in soon but that can wait for a bit.

I think the Dark Vengeance terminators are cracking models, lots of little intricate detail and it's tempting me to get more in the future to split the parts between different squads and give me more ranged fire.

• Paint 10 Dark Angels Tactical Marines
• Paint 5 Deathwing Terminators
• Paint 3 Ravenwing Bikers
• Paint Dark Angel Chaplain
• Paint Dark Angel Captain
• Paint Dark Angel Librarian
• Paint Cypher
• Buy the Dark Angels Codex

That's all for now, but I'll be posting up my March pledge tomorrow and see where we're heading from there.

Cheers!
SB

The Death of "All Reserve" Lists in 6th Edition

Morning folks.


I was thinking about this one after buying the new Dark Angels codex last week and a conversation about it on Monday night. Then on the drive into work whilst trying to think what to do with my Dark Angels, I thought about doing this blog write-up.

For a while, I didn't realise this rules change was even in 6th until I mentioned it in passing about Deathwing and then checked the rulebook.

Changes to reserves in 6th edition were as follows (bear with me if some are wrong, doing this from memory):

• Always a 3+ to show up.
• Only 50% of your units can go into reserve.
• If you have no models on the table, you lose.

So. Those few little changes there make a big change to a few armies that relied on heavy Reserve and Deep-striking choices during 5th edition. I can think of a few examples that have got the shaft now...

• Deathwing Dark Angels
• Descent of Angels Blood Angels forces
• Outflanking / Spore reserve Tyranids
• Duke Sliscus' low orbit raid Dark Eldar
• All Drop Pod Space Marine armies
• And probably more I can't think of...

Personally, I used to really enjoy playing full reserve lists, especially my Deathwing. It meant I could mitigate the slow speed of foot slogging Terminators and could have a pure Deathwing list - no tactical marines, no Ravenwing, etc.

It also meant I could pin-point my strikes around the battlefield dependant on the other player's choices - Can you imagine Belial saying to his Deathwing terminators "Hey, Octavius and Romulus squads... Do you mind standing over here and watching this ruin whilst we Teleport in from somewhere else?". Key to the in-game story, I always felt my Deathwing were a precision strike force, now, only half the army feels like that.

To me, it's like I now have to pay a babysitting points tax and have units start on the board simply for the sake of having them there.

Now...Why was the change to reserves made? Simple...

Firstly, to get more models on the table earlier on, rather than having your 500pt HQ and bodyguard show up on turn 5 and not get to do much.

In addition to this, it's bad game design to have any player with Zero models on the table at any point, hence the "you lose if you have none" rules. I've played some games in older editions where players units came in 1 at a time, that unit got shot / assaulted / killed and next turn 1 more rolls on. Sewer Rats stratagem in Cities of Death springs to mind.

Secondly, my personal view, is to avoid less of the "Alpha Strike" gubbins where Player A would set up entire army, player B would drop a few inches away from them, massacre half an army in a turn, then we play the rest of the game.

On top of this, we have the change to how the reserves arrive. They've gone from being a decreasing dice roll depending on the turn they show up, to now being a 3+ every turn. Combine this with the fact EVERY army now has access to a +1 reserve roll modifier (Aegis with comms relay).

This would mean that there's a pretty decent chance you'd be facing the entire opponents army in Turn 2 teleporting down in front of your face, probably shoot a LOT and then the game doesn't feel fun and reactive. It feels like a sucker punch.

Don't get me wrong... I understand completely why these changes are there. I just think it shafts a lot of the playstyle and options of some armies.

I now feel like I'll have to spend points on Scouts, Tactical Marines or Ravenwing to start off on the board so that I can use my Deathwing properly. And I'll never get to use a full Deathwing list without having to sit 2 or 3 Terminator units in my deployment zone.

So... What does this all mean?

It now means you'll need "home guard" elements if you want to play these sort of lists.

• Deathwing require Tac Marines, Scouts, Ravenwing to be on the field or more Terminators to start deployed on foot.
• Tyranids can't go too heavy on the Spores or Outflankers.
• Blood Angels can't go all deep-striking Jump packs. Again, they'll either need ground troops or to deploy the Jump packs on the ground.
• Duke Sliscus' Dark Eldar will have to start half of them on the ground, which means half as many targets for the enemy to shoot at.
• And so on...

Or failing that, you'll need some cheap way of getting around it. Like a tac squad and a Rhino being 2 units for the 50% count, therefore giving you 2 Deathwing that can go into reserve. Although I'm not sure whether Ded. Transports are included on unit count for this.

To me, Terminators aren't the sort of troops I want sitting at the back of the board with a set of 24" guns and the odd heavy weapon. I want these guys right in the face of the enemy providing immediate threat to units.

Deal with it!

As with most stuff in 6th edition, it's just things you need to accomodate for now with these rules changes. It's just unfortunate that these "pure" lists then need help from other units or to hinder themselves by sacrificing their mobility options to deploy on foot.

My old 5th edition Deathwing list looked like this:

• Belial
• Terminator unit with Hammers / Claws and Cyclone missile.
• Terminator unit with Hammers / Claws and Cyclone missile.
• Terminator unit with Hammers / Claws, Apothecary and Deathwing Banner
• Terminator unit with Storm Bolters and Assault cannon.
• Terminator unit with Storm Bolters and Assault cannon.
• Deathwing Dreadnaught in Pod
• Deathwing Dreadnaught in Pod
• Land Speeder with Multi Melta
• Land Speeder with Multi Melta

Out of that list, the only thing I'd be happy with deploying at the start of the game would be the Speeders. The Dread is pretty useless without the Pod so they could make way for some Ravenwing bikers and Tactical marines.

Again, it's just changes that we have to work around in 6th Edition and once I get the Deathwing on the table, I'm sure they'll be fine. Just less "Deathwing" and more "Terminator-heavy Dark Angels".

//--------------------//
UPDATE:
As I say when I wrote this, I was doing it from memory. Apparently units that have to start in reserve (Drop Pods, Spores, Daemons) all ignore this. So it's still an issue for Deathwing and Duke Sliscus lists since they have the option... but it still doesn't answer the question of Marines.

And according to the rulebook units and their dedicated transports are treated as a single unit for this.

On top of that, Independent Characters count as a single unit, regardless of whether or not they're attached to a unit. So for Belial and 2 units of Terminators, you need to have 3 units starting on the board.
//--------------------//
Cheers,
SB.

P.S. If I've got anything wrong then please let me know. I've not looked at the 6th edition reserve stuff in extreme detail and don't have the rulebook with me whilst I write this up... It's just whatever spews from my brain on the drive into work.

Deathwing - My Initial Thoughts

Ello folks,

As most of you can see from the past few months of my painting log, and those that have been down at the club recently, I've been using my Deathwing army.

Over the last 3 games, I've used 3 different lists at 3 different points values.

Game 1 - 900pts
Belial w/ Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
Deathwing Terminator Squad A - 2 Thunder Hammers, 1 Thunder Hammer w/ Cyclone, 2 Lightning Claws
Deathwing Terminator Squad B - 2 Thunder Hammers, 1 Thunder Hammer w/ Cyclone, 2 Lightning Claws
Deathwing Terminator Squad C - 2 Thunder Hammers, 1 Thunder Hammer w/ Cyclone, 2 Lightning Claws
Land Speeder Typhoon - Multi Melta, Typhoon Missile Launcher.

Now this list was to team up with another Marine player with a balanced list of Tactical marines, transports, assault marines and another unit of Terminators.

We played against a Space Wolf / Salamander combo army in a Kill Points game, which suits me down to the ground aside from losing an easy kill point in the Speeder. And spending most of the game tied up against Dreadnaughts and not doing much in the way of damage.

Game 2 - 1500pts
Belial w/ Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
Interrogator Chaplain - Terminator Armour
Deathwing Terminator Squad A - 2 Thunder Hammers, 1 Thunder Hammer w/ Cyclone, 1 Lightning Claws, 1 Lightning Claws Apothecary.
Deathwing Terminator Squad B - 2 Thunder Hammers, 1 Thunder Hammer w/ Cyclone, 2 Lightning Claws
Deathwing Terminator Squad C - 2 Thunder Hammers, 1 Thunder Hammer w/ Cyclone, 2 Lightning Claws
Deathwing Terminator Squad D - 3 Power Fist Storm Bolters, 1 Power Fist Assault Cannon, 1 Sergeant Power Sword
Deathwing Terminator Squad D - 3 Power Fist Storm Bolters, 1 Power Fist Assault Cannon, 1 Sergeant Power Sword

In this list, I removed the Speeder due to points costs and added in some "Fire Support" Terminator squads to help out around the place. After playing a Khorne / Tzeentch Daemon doubles list for the past few months, I've found the shooting units to be invaluable.

This list I played against Guard with and did alright. I can't remember the mission or the result, but I can remember 1 Terminator squad spending most of the game in assault with a 30 man Infantry blob that refused to run away and eventually chipped the Terminators down.

Game 3 - 2000pts
Belial w/ Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
Interrogator Chaplain - Terminator Armour

Deathwing Terminator Squad A - 1 Thunder Hammer, 1 Thunder Hammer w/ Deathwing Banner, 1 Thunder Hammer w/ Cyclone, 1 Lightning Claws, 1 Lightning Claws Apothecary.

Deathwing Terminator Squad B - 2 Thunder Hammers, 1 Thunder Hammer w/ Cyclone, 2 Lightning Claws
Deathwing Terminator Squad C - 2 Thunder Hammers, 1 Thunder Hammer w/ Cyclone, 2 Lightning Claws
Deathwing Terminator Squad D - 3 Power Fist Storm Bolters, 1 Power Fist Assault Cannon, 1 Sergeant Power Sword
Deathwing Terminator Squad D - 3 Power Fist Storm Bolters, 1 Power Fist Assault Cannon, 1 Sergeant Power Sword
Land Speeder Typhoon - Multi Melta, Typhoon Missile Launcher.
Venerable Dreadnaught - Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer, Venerable, Drop Pod.
Venerable Dreadnaught - Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer, Venerable, Drop Pod.

I played Guard again with this list most recently, and played Capture and Control. The game ended up a draw due to a combination of things (time restraints ending on Turn 5, a poor Run roll for a unit of my Terminators, etc.) All in all, I was happy with the list, even though in Turn 1, my Chaplain and his Terminator squad Mishapped and got destroyed. So I was immediately 400ish points down.

Anyone remember the Neo v Swarm of Agent Smith's ?

Anywho, that's my run down of the last few games... What have I learnt?

Saving Throws
Whilst Terminator armour fantastic for small arms fire, I've managed to lost most of my Terminators simply to low S AP - fire (Lasguns, Space Wolf psychic Power) than I have to Lascannons and whatnot.

Again, same with the Storm Shields. They've got a big reputation to live up to and it's good for dealing with Lascannons, Meltas, etc. they're still only a 2/3 chance of passing.

What I'm trying to say is, with my shoddy dice rolling, lots of Terminators still die!

Wound Allocations
My close combat squads all have more or less different wargear (aside from the 2 lightning claws) so it means I can mess around with wound allocation a bit, putting the AP2 or 1 stuff on the Storm Shields and using the Lightning Claws to soak up the smaller arms fire. This has come in really handy, and although a lot of people swear by all Thunder Hammer / Storm Shields, I like the mix that the Lightning Claws can throw in there.

Fire Support Squads
In my earlier games I was running close combat Terminators (with the exception of the Cyclone missile launchers). Now I've added 2 units with Storm Bolters and an Assault Cannon. I find what these guys lack in survivability (when stood in the open), they make up for with flexibility.

As I've found whilst playing with Khorne Daemons, the turn you drop is the harshest part and I like having something to do in the shooting phase. 8 Storm Bolter shots, plus the 4 Assault cannon shots can thin out small squads or wreck a light vehicle on the turn they drop - which is always good!

Cyclone Missiles
Everyone online seems to love these, and I dread to think what they were like as just a 1 shot weapon, but I'm really not sold on them. Part of my idea when making the Deathwing army was to take lots of missiles because I'm then flexible and can target armour / elite infantry or hordes. So far, my Cyclones haven't done very much at all.

Deep Striking
Lastly, it's something I had to deal with whilst playing Daemons, was that the hardest part of my game was deciding on my Deep Strikes. Last game I got really risky with them and ended up with 1 Terminator squad and Chaplain being destroyed, the other being misplaced.

I guess it's something I have to think about a bit more, it's not good enough just to drop close enough to assault next turn, but at the same time, dropping too far away means you end up chasing faster moving units like a dog chasing an ice cream van.

Overall, I'm really enjoying playing the Deathwing. I don't have the bodycount of my Orks, fear factor of my Daemons or the speed of my Dark Eldar. It's a nice change of pace and it also means my games are a lot faster since I don't need to deploy on the board and miss out half of the phases.

My next step with the list is I think to drop the Chaplain and add in another Land Speeder.

Any thoughts on Deathwing folks? Either using them or in what you don't like about them when facing them?

Cheers,
SB

Badger's Log - Venerable Dreads

Morning folks,

Last night I finished off 2 Venerable Dreads for my Deathwing army. They're the standard AOBR Dreadnaught models, painted in a Deathwing colour scheme, to indicate their venerable status. I'm not too knowledgeable on the current Marine codex, but in the Dark Angels book it's just a points upgrade to make them Venerable, so I figured it's worth spending the points.

The thing I enjoyed most about these models was the speed at which I could get them painted. I drybrushed everything with Boltgun Metal, then went over the armour with Dheneb Stone. Lastly I touched up some detailing with Red and Green and then used Tin Bitz to colour the Melta gun barrel.

So yeah, quick to paint and hopefully extremely useful in my army (the only things that have a Melta gun!) next I need to make a start on my Drop Pods for these guys to use.

Next on the paint desk however are 2 Land Speeder Typhoon's ready to go. I'm hoping that since the majority of the Ravenwing is black, they'll also be pretty quick to paint and can add some more Missile shots from those in a support role.

Cheers,
SB

Badger's Log - Deathwing Completed

Morning all,

I planned to do this blog yesterday but was pretty busy all day. I had quite a productive hobby weekend (and last week) for my Deathwing army.

Across the week I did the armour on the 25 Terminators, which I had been moaning about for a while, and then on Friday, did most of the detail work on the gun barrels and insignia etc. Then across Saturday I washed and based them.

Then I remembered that it couldn't really be an army, as I had no HQ units. So Saturday night I undercoated Belial, my Chaplain and Librarian conversions and then over Sunday got them painted up.

Then, while I was on a roll, I decided that I would do all the bone coloured armour at the same time as everything else. So I dragged out my 2 Venerable Dreads. They're just normal AoBR Dreadnaughts, but they'll be painted in bone armour, to "Indicate they're serving with the Deathwing" as per the Codex description.

So here's an in progress shot:

I've got the second one up to the metal stage, but haven't started on the bone armour yet. They're pretty quick going, I reckon once I've painted the bone armour on the other, it's just a few red and green details and a wash, then they're good to go.

That's all for now, but when the Dreads are completed I'll be doing a vote on here on what I should paint next, so keep a look out for that!

Cheers,
SB

Badger's Log - Deathwing Progress

Morning folks,

It's been a bit since I posted on here, and to be fair, it's been a slow few hobby weeks for me. I've been tracking the Necron rumours online and was planning on doing a post compiling them all and posting my thoughts, but I've not had chance to do a big write-up and it'd probably just end up being a few hundred Ctrl+V's of "I AM DISSAPOINT".

So, in other news, I made some serious headway with my Deathwing army over last week, chipping away at the bone armour on the 25 Terminators, a few at a time each night.

Now I'm trying to find the time to get the red and green detailing done, so I can add some extra detail to the command squad (Apothecary and Banner bearer mostly) and then finish them all off to make a start on the characters.

So yeah, that's where things are going. I'm hoping to get the Deathwing finished over this weekend whilst catching up on some TV and then get the characters done over next week. Then hopefully I can get some more of the Dark Angel army progressing.

The hope is that I can have all the Dark Angels bits painted up before the end of December, then have some progress done on assembling the Dwarf boxes I have piled up. Which should be fun during the Winter months.

That's all for now folks, I'll do another when the Deathwing Termis are finished or when I summon enough energy to write a new Necron codex thoughts.

Cheers,
SB

Badger's Log: Deathwing Test Model

Morning all,

It's been a while since I got my paints out, between end of project overtime at work and various family goings on, I've not done much hobbywise, save assemble some Bloodcrushers and play some practice games for a doubles tournament in November.

But at the weekend, I got a few things done - painted 3 Bloodcrushers, assembled a Daemon Prince and then bought a fair few new paints as I'd run low on most.

As a non-Daemon treat I decided that it was about time I got myself into gear with my Deathwing army, so I figured I would paint a tester model to try out the scheme.

I'm really, really pleased with how it looks. Even more so with how the picture has some out on my new phone's camera.

The only problem I had was the sheer amount of time it took to get a good solid coat of Dheneb Stone on the armour. My concern is that I won't be able to breeze through these as quick as I normally would with an army.

I think overall, it took me about 1 hour 30 to get the model done, sticking to a basic colour palette of Dheneb Stone, Mechrite Red, Boltgun Metal and Knarloc Green. Then for assorted piping and the eyes I used Ice Blue and Camo Green. Top it all off with a Badger-Trademarked Badab Black wash and I'm really pleased.

I also had to be very, very careful with the application of the black wash this time. On other armies, I've just slopped it on and for all those it looks fine, but the Deathwing army needed to look battle worn and aged, rather than flat out dirty or patchy.

Make a start on the rest pretty soon I hope. I suppose the time it takes to paint them isn't too problematic as there's only 25 models in the entire army!

Peace,
SB

Badger's Log - Deathwing HQs

Ello all,

Blogs are like buses, you wait ages for one and then two show up together. I've been mega busy at work over the last month (still am) but I thought I'd chip in with some info and pics of what I've been working on at home.

First up, I've been hanging fire on getting a Space Marine army for ages, despite how many people said I should. I've never really liked the background of the poster boys of the Imperium and they've never really had a chapter that I liked. I toyed with the idea of Space Wolves for a while, but then there's 3 people at MAWS who have Wolf armies and I don't fancy making it 4. Then I thought about how I can make an elite army on the cheap - Deathwing.

If I was going to do Marines, I'd do them properly. Always being vastly outnumbered, but the hardest guys I can get onto the battlefield. Luckily, a bloke from MAWS was selling a LOT of GW stuff, so I picked up some stuff on the cheap ready to go.

I've assembled everything I've currently got (pictures over the weekend maybe?) but I thought since Col.Straken talked about conversions yesterday, I'd show off my Deathwing HQs in an unpainted state.

Belial with Lightning Claws - Magnetised on the arms to swap weaponry out.

 

Belial with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield

Belial with Storm Bolter and the Sword of Silence

Chaplain with Storm Bolter and Crozius Arcanum

Librarian with Force Weapon and Storm Bolter (Lots of Grey Knight bits used!!)

So yeah, they're all made from plastic assault terminators with various bits of I've bought or pestered to be given off other MAWS members.

Really excited to get painting these guys now though and get them used in games!


Peace,
SB