I done played me a game!

On Thursday, I got a text from one of my gamers at the comic shop.  He challenged me to a 2000 pt game against his Black Legion, no flyers.  It was ON!

I was going to bring Eldar, but I decided not to.  I had the rules for the new Dark Angels and I built a Deathwing army.  I loved everything I'd read so far and I just happened to have a Deathwing army lying around (and much more ready).  I wanted to see how they actually fared.  So today I strode into the shop with this:

1995 points Deathwing

• Belial with Sword of Silence and Storm Bolter 190
• Command Squad with Deathwing Standard, Apothecary, and an Assault Cannon  315
• Deathwing Squad with Assault Cannon  240
• Deathwing Squad with Cyclone, 3 LC and 2 TH/SS  255
• Deathwing Land Raider with extra armor  290
• Deathwing Squad with Cyclone, 3 LC and 2 TH/SS  255
• Deathwing Land Raider with extra armor  290
• Venerable Dreadnought with twin Lascannon and extra armor  160

This army without the Librarian

Then I got to see his army and suddenly felt not-so confident.  It was something like this:

2000 points Black Legion

• Abaddon 265
• 6 Chosen with different weapons, Mark of Tzeentch, VotLW c.220
• 5 Terminators with Reaper, 2 combi-flamers, 4 Power Fists, Mark of Tzeentch, VotLW c.270
• Land Raider with storm bolter and Havoc c.250
• 5 Terminators with Reaper, 3 combi-meltas, 5 Chainfists, Mark of Tzeentch, VotLW c.280
• Helbrute c.105
• 10 Marines with 2 plasma guns, Icon of Vengeance, VotLW c.240
• 5 Havocs with 2 M. Launchers and 2 Lascannons c.145
• Forgefiend with 3 ectoplasma cannons 200

Let me tell you, the battle started off outstanding.  I even played rather dumb and it went well.  I forced him to deploy first, then placed my two Land Raiders with Assault Squads behind ruins and far from the flank where the Forgefiend and Havocs were.  I even brought the Dreadnought and tossed him on top of bunker.  I then deployed my last two Termie squads and Belial in Deathwing Assault Reserve.  And then I seized the initiative, obviously not thinking about it.  I had also chosen to bring the Assault down turn 2.  Stupid.  

But that's okay.  I started off by blowing up his Helbrute and knocking a hull point off of his Land Raider.  He did little back.  Then my Command Squad and Deathwing Squad deep struck directly behind him and destroyed the squad occupying the ruins.  One Land Raider rushed up and dropped some Thunderhammers into his face.  By now, Abaddon's Chosen squad is half destroyed and he's footsloggin' across the battlefield towards my flank attack.  

And then it all turns.  The Chaos Terminators show up and the undamaged Land Raider simply backs up and drops off the other Chaos Terminator squad, only to smash my Dreadnought and an Assault Squad to pieces.  I learned a valuable lesson here:  

LIGHTNING CLAWS NO LONGER WORK AGAINST TERMINATORS!!!

The rest of the game saw me simply trying to get away and not let Abaddon or those Chainsaws touch my Terminators.  I had killed the Forgefiend just as it got into range and I had killed one Terminator squad by chasing the remaining champion off the board.  But he had done a number on me by that point.  

I called the game at the end of 5.  We called it a draw but I was up in victory points.  However, had the game continued (and we rolled so that it would), my Deathwing would have been wiped from the table.  I only had 8 models left by the time we stopped.  It was obvious.  Game over, and know I'm thinking of my impressions of the Deathwing...

• I love Terminators.  Everyone loves Terminators.  And now I get to play an all-Terminator army.  I don't care how obvious this is, it bears stating repeatedly.
• All of the special rules are difficult to remember.  Vengeful Strike, Inner Circle, Split Fire, all built in?  Thank you!  But it takes some getting used to.  And that's not even the special units.  I have to admit, it feels nice having a boatload of special rules (like the other, more well-liked forces out there) for once.  
• Deathwing Assault is BOSS!  I chose to deep strike at the end of turn 2 (before I stole the initiative, like a moron) and had a specific plan.  First, they're all storm bolters and an Assault Cannon, so I get to take advantage of all the nifty shooting rules.  Secondly, Belial and his Command squad came down automatically with Precision Strike, within 6" of the first squad, and shared that extra attack.  I feel like this is a very convenient rule.  
• I don't know if you saw it up there, but LIGHTNING CLAWS NO LONGER WORK AGAINST TERMINATORS!!!  I figured I repeat that.  I did actually know that before-hand, but I had little choice and I had never felt it happen before.  
• The Mark of Tzeentch on Terminators is the worst thing ever to have to face.  I shot so much 'rending' and Lascannon shot at his guys only to see no effect.  That Mark even worked well on his Chosen, but that didn't hurt as badly or as often as those damned Terminators.  
• Land Raiders are still difficult to deal with.  And Power of the Machine Spirit is a broken rule when you get to see it in direct comparison to the lacking Chaos Land Raider.  In any case, that armor 14 profile is really difficult to crack.  That is until you start seeing Chainfists...
• Belial's Sword of Silence is a joke.  Fleshbane is great, and fighting Chaos Marines means Belial can almost never fail TO WOUND, but only being AP 3 is a terrible hindrance.  It makes no sense and really hurt Belial's chances in killing a Terminator or ten.  
• Dark Angel Deathwing Terminators are designed to shoot.  The storm bolters are to take advantage of the rules and the Power Fists are to kill everything.  And a Terminator has become mighty survivable of late.  LOVE the 'basic' Terminator. 

Other than that, the game wasn't out of the ordinary in any real way.  I didn't notice anything crazy and I didn't think the armies were broken.  Abaddon scared me and the Chaos Terminators owned me, but my Terminators were beasts and my army was smart enough to minimize that threat as long as I could.  Most of all, I just REALLY liked playing my Deathwing again.  They felt awesome.  In fact, they felt so awesome that I'm going to drop some Land Raiders and start squeezing some more Deathwing squads in...

"...and that's what I'm thinking..."

Happy Gaming!