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Hello fellow Dakka users! It's been a long time since I posted a full battle report of any kind, so I'm happy to fix that! We had a small local tournament at Magelings Games here in my hometown of Columbia, MO. We had a total of 8 players, with the following armies: Dark Angels (me!), Tau, Tau Farsight Enclaves, Space Marines (Ultramarines CAD), Space Marines (Iron Hands CAD with allied Imperial Knight), Space Marines (Ultramarines CAD with Skyhammer Annihilation Force), Astra Militarum, and Space Wolves w/Blood Angels. In other words, mostly Astartes of various flavors. We played missions straight out of the book, 2 of which were Maelstrom of War. My list was the following:

Now, on to the detailed report of the first game-against fellow DakkaDakka user SQRT(-2)! The fact that I was facing a fellow Dakka user is the reason I took pictures and am posting a full report of that game here instead of a summary.
GAME 1
Opposing Army: Tau
Opponent's List:

The mission was Spoils of War, so we were able to score each other's Secure Objective X cards. We also were counting Kill Points, so the mission wasn't exactly straight from the book I guess. My Warlord Trait was Hold at All Costs (from the Dark Angels table). I rolled Righteous Repugnance and Aversion, also getting Mind Worm due to Psychic Focus. I ended up going second and failed to sieze the initiative. Here are some pics of the table at the start of turn 1:



I chose to outflank the bike squad without the tooled-up sergeant. As seen in the photo, I hid the other bike squad behind some convenient LOS-blocking terrain. I neglected to Scout move my bikers. My opponent started everything on the board. On his turn, he moved up his Crisis suits and his drones, as well as the two Devilfish. He put some Markerlights on the Rhino and then shot it with one of the Hammerheads, but only managed to get a Crew Stunned result. The Devastators inside passed their Leadership test and did not have to snap fire. His other shooting did force my Command Squad to jink. On my turn, I moved up the Command Squad, the hidden Bike Squad, and the Razorback. I let the Scouts camp one of the objectives. I dropped the Drop Pod in the backfield right next to a Hammerhead. In the Psychic phase, I cast Aversion on a Marker Drone squad, forcing them to snap fire in the next turn. I also cast Righteous Repugnance on my Command Squad deathstar, granting them the Rage rule. In the Shooting phase, my Grav Devastators, conveniently not moving, unleashed their Grav Cannons on the 3-man Crisis team (without the Commander), wiping them out and netting me First Blood. My Command Squad snap fired into the other Crisis squad but only managed to down one suit. The Grav bikes killed a couple of gun drones in one unit and forced said drones to jink, and my Sniper Scouts managed to kill a couple in the other unit, which failed their morale check but stayed on the board since they were far enough forward. My Melta marines fired and hit the Hammerhead they had landed next to, but thanks to jinking they failed to damage the tank. In the Assault phase, my Command Squad attempted a turn 1 charge against the Crisis unit they had shot at, but they failed to make it into combat. Oh well. I did score one Maelstrom card (forgot what it was). Here are some pics of the start of the second game turn:

My opponent deviously unloaded a squad of Breachers right in my Command Squad's face. He also unloaded the other squad of Breachers right next to the Tactical squad that had jumped out of the drop pod. The drone squad that was falling back failed to regroup but only fell back a couple of inches, remaining in play. 2 Markerlights lit up the Command Squad, negating their Jink save. The Breachers gave them both barrels, eliminating four of the bikers. Other shooting from my opponent managed to drop a couple of the bikes from the grav squad. A second Hammerhead round penned the Rhino, but only managed a Crew Shaken result this time. The men inside failed their leadership test and would be snap firing next turn. The other Breacher team wiped out the helpless tactical squad in the backfield. On my turn, my Outflanking grav bike unit came in, ready to put some Grav into the Breachers that had shot at the Command Squad. The Command Squad moved close to the Crisis commander's unit but did not shoot, as I needed them to consolidate onto a nearby objective to claim it for a Maelstrom card. My Plasma tactical squad unloaded from the Razorback. I moved the Rhino, risking an Immobilization that would have wrecked it (but it didn't happen ), in order to put the Gravcannons in a better position for next turn. I cast the same powers in the Psychic phase as before, and at the same targets. In the Shooting phase, my Plasma tactical squad shot at the Breachers, killing a couple with their plasma weapons. The outflanking Grav unit killed a few more. A couple more died when the Razorback exploded their Devilfish right behind them. Those Breachers (having obviously had enough) cut and ran. The Sniper scouts forced a Marker drone unit to jink but did not down any of them. In the Assault phase, the Command squad charged and wiped out the Commander's unit, netting me Slay the Warlord and allowing them to consolidate into the objective. I then scored the card for controlling twice as many objectives as my opponent, and I got 3 points from the d3. Here's some shots of the start of turn 3:


On turn 3, my opponent's Breachers regrouped. His falling back drone squad also finally got it together and regrouped as well. The other Breacher team (minus one man courtesy of the Drop Pod) piled back into their Transport and moved up the field. The marker drones tried and failed to light up the Command Squad. It got mostly left alone. I don't think I lost much if anything on this turn. One of the Hammerheads shot at the Drop Pod but missed it. On my turn, my Command Squad moved up toward the Breachers that were falling back. The outflanking Grav bikes moved toward the Sky Ray, ready to kill it with their Melta bombs and grenades. My other grav bike squad (having been reduced to just a sergeant in a previous turn, I can't remember exactly what happened) moved close to a Hammerhead to try to get a Melta bomb kill on it (I had drawn the Big Game Hunter card this turn). Between all my shooting, I killed the Breachers, a Gun Drone squad, a Marker Drone squad, and some other stuff, but no vehicles (my Razorback failed to kill the Sky Ray due to jinking). In the Assault phase, I still didn't kill any vehicles as the Melta bombs only managed Crew Shaken on the Hammerhead and Crew Stunned on the Sky Ray. I did score a card for wiping out a unit during the shooting phase, and I did score a Secure Objective card from my opponent, so not a bad turn, but I would have to wait for Big Game hunter. Here's a couple of pics of the beginning of turn 4:

In this turn, we were really just cleaning up. My Command Squad got lit up by markerlights, and for the second time this game got a Breacher surprise in the face. This time the unit got wiped out to a man, netting my opponent Slay the Warlord as well as three Kill Points. Not much else happened for my opponent other than repositioning some vehicles. In my turn, I managed to kill the Sky Ray with a Melta bomb, but still failed to kill the Hammerhead with my lone biker on the other side of the table. My Razorback blew up the other Devilfish, and the rest of my army managed to avenge the Warlord and killed all the Breachers. At this point we were out of time and had to call the game. I was somewhat ahead on Maelstrom points and ended up with 13 kill points to my opponent's 4 (he only killed the melta Tactical squad and my command squad with its two attached characters; all my other units had at least one man still standing). I also had my Drop Pod alive for Linebreaker. It was a very enjoyable game, and it was a great deal of fun to play with a fellow Dakka user (who I already had known before but had never faced in a game). My thanks go out to SQRT(-2) for a great game!

GAME 2
Opponent: Ultramarines with Skyhammer
In this game we were playing Crusader objectives only. I won the roll and chose to go first, probably my first mistake in this game (out of many). My opponent had only deployed stuff in a bolstered (thanks to Techmarines) ruin. In there, he had a Librarius Conclave and two Thunderfire Cannons. He was rolling on the new psychic powers, specifically Geokinesis. On turn 1 I didn't accomplish anything except to move up some of my stuff and take a few potshots. My drop pod came in and the men inside accomplished precisely squat. In my opponent's turn his Skyhammer stuff came in. He blew up the Razorback with his Multimelta devastators, and his Grav devastators managed to kill two of my Command Squad bikes in spite of the good saves. The two Thunderfire cannons, boosted by Psychic powers, managed to kill a couple more of those bikes. On my second turn I got some revenge, killing most of the Skyhammer marines. Things really went south after that, with me failing to kill very much and getting a lot of my army killed. In the end I only managed to hold on to one objective.

GAME 3
Opponent: Ultramarines CAD
My opponent for this game was a friend of mine, running a slightly less hardcore list than usual for him. He had Marneus Calgar and some Honor Guard and two Librarians in a drop pod, as well as some tactical marines and a command squad in pods. He also had two barebones Assault Squads with melta bombs, and a Predator Destructor (Autocannon/Heavy Bolters). I got first turn. I had scout moved my bikes up, so I moved them up and shot stuff. I wiped out one Assault squad (getting me First Blood) and killed all but one of the other squad. My Drop Pod came in next to the Predator, but sure enough I missed both melta shots. That Predator proceeded to shoot up my one Grav Bike squad, killing one biker. The unit passed leadership and stayed put, which is good because they would surely have run right off the board. Marneus and Co. came in and disembarked from their pod into a ruin. One of the Librarians was running Telepathy (thankfully did not get Invisibility) and cast Shrouding on the unit, giving them a 2+ cover save. His command squad (sporting 5 meltaguns) popped the Rhino that was full of Devastators, killing one of the Gravcannons). Calgar's group killed three more of that squad, leaving only the hapless sergeant. On turn 2 my outflanking bike unit came in, but didn't accomplish very much. The other grav bike unit killed the Predator, which was good because the lone surviving Assault marine had tangled up the melta tacticals in combat. My Command Squad decided to shoot and then charge Calgar's unit. Probably a huge mistake, but...eh. The Chaplain was like a boss and used his Zealot to cause plenty of hits and wounds, but Calgar's merry band took it like champs and only a couple of guys died. They killed a couple of Ravenwing in return, resulting in tied combat. On my opponent's second turn his other two drop pods (full of Melta tacticals like mine) came in. One of the squads blew the Lascannon off of the Razorback, and the other forced one of my Grav bike squads to jink. The two combats continued, with a few more Ravenwing casualties and all but one of the Honor Guard, and the Telepathy librarian, falling on Calgar's side. My Librarian took a wound as well. I decided to hit and run and succeeded, getting out of the fight so that I could shoot Calgar's unit. On my turn, I disembarked the plasma tactical squad from the Razorback and shot at Calgar's squad, actually managing to wound Calgar himself (after having taken one wound in the combat, he was now down to 2). I positioned my units to hold 3 objectives for a card, and I charged my damaged Bike unit into one of the melta tac squads. One of the bikers died to overwatch, but that Lightning Claw proved to be pretty nasty and killed two of the tacs. One of my cards was the Dark Angels one that required me to manifest an Interromancy power. I did accomplish that, but then I had to tempt fate and try to get another power off. I ended up getting Perils and lost my Libby's last wound. That sucked. I also shot at and charged Calgar's unit again, taking down the last of the honor guard. Calgar and the Chappy were fighting in a challenge, but my Apothecary (the last of the Command Squad) fell to the second Ultramarines librarian, who had rolled on Biomancy and had Iron Arm active. My chaplain ultimately proved unable to beat Lord Macragge and died to his mighty fists, although he did put a third wound on him. In the end, I ended up winning the game, mainly due to some good luck on my Maelstrom card draws (and crappy luck especially at the end for my opponent on his card draws). I had gotten First Blood and Linebreaker as well. This was a very good game that could have gone either way.

So, I went 2-1 for the tournament, which is my best record yet! Unfortunately, in battle points I ended up fourth place overall, keeping me out of the prizes. Oh well, winning isn't the point. I play to have fun, and I certainly did!

My takeaway:
-Tau Breachers are VERY nasty, especially with markerlight support. They can absolutely murder MEQ or less. I think we may see some people bring Fish of Fury type setups with them, especially in less competitive local tournaments.

-Ignores Cover is a death sentence for Dark Angels, as they rely on rerollable jinking for their famous durability. Take that away, and you are left with some very expensive regular bikes, essentially.

-The Dark Angels Tactical Objectives are a lot of fun, as they keep your opponent guessing as to what you need to accomplish. In that third game, I got 3 points for not failing a morale check for two turns. That won me the game right there.

-Interromancy is a cool and fluffy discipline for Dark Angels. I think the best powers are Righteous Repugnance and Aversion, as Rage is powerful on a Ravenwing Command Squad (especially with Zealot from a Chappy), and forcing enemy units to snap fire is just awesome!

-The new Psychic powers for marines are VERY powerful, in fact I might say they are at least slightly broken, especially in a Librarius conclave. Of course, I said "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" and bought myself a set of the cards for my Dark Angels to use in future if I decide not to use Interromancy.

Thanks for Reading!

Remove cover is not a death sentence for dark angles, it just makes them mortal.

Example:
I would need 144 fire warriors to take out a singe bike without marker light support. OK, 72 if you are within rapid fire, but that is still 648 pts of army to take out one guy!

 SQRT(-2) wrote:
Remove cover is not a death sentence for dark angles, it just makes them mortal.

Example:
I would need 144 fire warriors to take out a singe bike without marker light support. OK, 72 if you are within rapid fire, but that is still 648 pts of army to take out one guy!

If you have AP2/3 weapons, why spent 2 ML token on firewarriors? I think Ion Ripetides and Crisis Suits with plasma Rifle or Fusion blasters should always have higher priority in using Marker Light token to benefit from ignore cover. That effectively make only invulnerable saves work.

I don't think you understand what I was stating with the example. I was trying to illustrate how without ignores cover those bikes are effectively invulnerable.

In case you are wondering: Without marker lights it is 54 dbl plasma crisis suits to take out one bike. (27 if in rapid fire range)

Yeah, Ravenwing are pretty bonkers without ignores cover, but if you can negate their crazy cover saves they die just like any other marine. The things I've had trouble with are template weapons, especially ones with Torrent, and psychic powers that cause a unit to ignore cover (such as the new Geokinesis power Phase Form), as well as markerlights. The best way to take down the Ravenwing Command Squad deathstar is to find a way to kill the Darkshroud first (crafty Guard players use Wyverns for this). This reduces their rerollable save to a 3+, which is still tough but much less so than the 2+ rerollable. The other good way to take them out is with a strong melee blob.