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Winning with the Deathwing Yeah, I finally got some love with my DeathWing list! Those of you that have been playing along at home know that I've been on something of a losing streak with my DeathWing lists. Sure, some of the losses have been close, and some of the unfinished games might have turned out well, but it was definitely turning into a streak and it was starting to bother me. But, things have changed, at least a bit. This weekend I got a chance to play a game of Carpe Ranam! (Capture the Frog) as a two-player game against Adrienne, who is trying out Dark Angels. Typically, when two Space Marine forces play against each other, they refer to it as a training exercise (ie, paintball or laser tag type weapons so that the forces get practice without getting killed.) Given the Dark Angels and their secretive, holier than thou approach, it's entirely possible that the forces were separately assigned to take the objective and not notified of each other's existence, then fought because they were each told to hold it at all costs. Ah, fun and games in the grim darkness of the far future! For those of you not familiar with Carpe Ranam, the gist of it is that there is a mobile objective (the original was a frog that was waist high to a Space Marine!) that cannot be captured during the game. At the end of each player's turn, if anyone moved, shot or assaulted within 6" of the objective, the objective may jump, by rolling the scatter die and 2d6. The game is random turn length and victory is determined by the closest model to the objective. So, Adrienne and I set out to capture the frog with 1500pts each. I decided to use my mounted DeathWing list (roughly 3 squads of 5 Terminators, each squad in a LandRaider.) We were on a heavily wooded field, with the objective in the center. We did sort of a yin-yang set up, with me placing 2 of my 3 LandRaiders (with squads mounted inside) to my Right, while she placed most of her army to her Right. Her army list was a mostly foot-mounted Dark Angels army featuring lots of Plasma and a Devastator squad with 4 Missile Launchers, as well as a couple of Land Speeders. We both started moving out, with my weak side dismounting near the objective in cover, while my strong side started rolling along the flank. Her strong side started shooting the heck out of my weak side, and the objective moved, so I buttoned them up inside the LandRaider and repositioned them, while my strong side moved in for assault. (Her strong side was moving forward as well, but being on foot and having stopped for a turn to shoot heavy weapons, it did not advance as quickly. My strong side quickly tore through her weak side and the objective actually moved toward me. As the speeders could move quickly to be next to the objective, they were a priority target and fell to some concentrated Lascannon fire. At this point, her strong side foot squads were bearing down on me, and getting closer to the objective, so I piled a squad in to hold them. The fighting went well until her Grand Master of the Deathwing with the Sword of Secrets got into hand to hand. Hmm, strength 6 power weapon with lots of attacks? Bye, Bye, Terminators! He personally carved through 4 or 5 terminators, wiping out the squad, then did a sweeping advance (standard assault rules were in force, not trial assault rules) into the remainder of another squad, wiping them out as well (he took out 6 or 7 of my Terminators by himself, and I only had 15 to start with!) From that combat he did another sweeping advance to get closer to the objective (I had a LandRaider nearby.) Unfortunately for him, it was my turn next. All three of my LandRaiders moved to get line of sight to him and his Lion Helm was not enough to protect him. With her other forces a little too far away to assist, and with my units staying carefully outside the 6" range of the objective (so it wouldn't jump away) the game ended. If it had gone on another couple of turns, her forces would have arrived and it would have been a whole new game. So, what was it that gave me the win? Well, having those LandRaiders gave me mobility, which meant I could change my strategy part way through the game (original set up was to all go for the flank, then I decided I wanted one squad/transport to stay near the objective, then the enemy fire got too hot for them, so I moved them away!) That mobility let me concentrate my power on a fairly small portion of the opposing force. It also let me maneuver to chase and circle to the objective. Finally, it let me maneuver so that I could concentrate firepower on the opposing GrandMaster, who had been rampaging through my troops. Mobility Good, Standing Still Bad. So, what did I learn from the game? I learned that I do suffer from a low model count, but I can make up for it by concentrating my power in one area, which gives me a local superiority. I also learned that enemy characters may be my number one threat! The opposing GM took out 6 or 7 of the 12 Terminators that I lost. I have had similar experiences with characters (both Independent Characters, like the GrandMaster, and squad upgrades like Veteran Sergeants or Aspiring Champions) taking out my expensive Terminators with ease. I think this game shows me one way of dealing with such things: firepower from maneuvering LandRaiders. Even if I cannot catch them all by themselves, I may be able to move so that they are the closest target within 12" of a LandRaider, allowing the LR to shoot them directly. Against non-fearless enemies, if I can make them fall back in a close combat, that would be another way to do it. The trick is to make them fall back. It will be quite unusual for me to outnumber an enemy unit, though having two squads of Terminators against a single unit should do it fairly well. I might also try using a DeathWing Librarian at some point, with their Weaken Resolve special power (opposing squad must make a morale check on 3d6, not 2d6) they could be quite handy. Well, I had a good time, I learned a few things about my army and I managed a win, which makes it all the sweeter! I hope that you learned something as well, or at least had a good time reading this. If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |