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My first outing with the new Dark Angels codex for my Terranwing force. Playing against a friend with Blood Angels. The mission was The Relic so it was either some kind of mis-understanding over a potential Fallen in a stasis pod, or we were fighting over beer and porn as normal

I had a camera, but forgot to actually use it

The armies (roughly):

The Terranwing:
Belial
Deathwing Command Squad with Chapion, Medic, Deathwing Banner, 3xLCs and 1x THSS
Level 2 Librarian in terminator armour with the Mace of Redemption and digital weapons - Acting as Warlord with the handy "gives squad furious charge" trait.

Deathwing squad with assault cannon
Deathwing squad with plasma cannon
Scout snipers with camo cloaks and a missile launcher

Dreadnought with assault cannon and missile launcher
Dreadnought with TL autocannon and missile launcher

Ravenwing bikers with 2x meltas and a sergeant
Multi-melta attack bike
Nephillim fighter with TL lascannon

Vindicator

The Blood Angels:
Chaplain - Warlord with a trait that I can't remember because it gave no benefit whatsoever

Jump pack assault squad - 10 marines with power fist and a couple of melta guns
Another of the same, but with a Sanguinary Priest
Similar Assault squad with no packs but purchasing a TL Assault cannon razorback and with a priest
Full Tactical squad with lascannon and plasma gun
Scout snipers with a missile launcher and camo cloaks

Assault terminator squad with a mix of LCs and THSSs with a sanguinary preist and terminator armour

Devastator squad with 2x missile launchers and 2x plasma cannon
Stormraven (for the non-jump assault squad)

Unit reference:


And setup, indicating the Ravenwing redeployment of futility!


Blood Angels to go first. Pretty much everything bounces forward and then runns in the shooting phase. Well, I say run.. stumble 1 or 2 inches in reality, but its the thought that counts. Snipers and the Razorback are effective in wiping out the Ravenwing bikes for the First Blood VP. Poo!


Terranwing respond by dropping all the terminators in on Turn 1 on my left flank. Concentrated fire from the 2 dakka squads reduce one Assault squad to 2 guys, who then proceed to leg it, preventing them from toasting my Vindicator in the next turn! The vindicator attempts to splatter some Tactical marines, but fails miserably. The two dreads and the attack bike take some pot shots at the central infantry for a couple of casualties. In an amazing turn of events my Scout snipers drop 2 hull points off the Razorback and immobilize the thing. The missile launcher, obviously, doesn;t do anything with his Krak missile


Blood Angels Turn 2. Again with the not much shooting. Having handily hidden my terminators from the Devastators and most of the rest of the BA infantry with short range weapons it fell to the Tactical squad to take off a couple of mooks from my Command squad. The only other ranged casualties were in the Scout sniper squad from the razorback/scout combo. The remnants of the first assault squad redeploy to try and have another go at the Vindicator.


The Ravenwing responds! The Nephillim comes screaming in and opens up on the Razorback with all weapons, and only just scrapes the final hull point off the razorback with a missile. Oh well, at least the thing was dead! The rest of the army concentrates fire on the central infantry squads with the Vindicator explodifying a couple of Terminators and the rest of the firing taking the assault squad down by about 1/3. In preparation for the inevitable combat, the Librarian tries to cast Prescience but gets bitten by a daemon instead, while the "re-roll saves" power gets nullified by a latent psyker in the Tactical squad. Belial and company then charge relentlessly forward and weather the incoming overwatch fire before failing utterly to reach the tactical squad in a ruin. One of the Assault squad remnants also gets toasted.


Turn 3 and the Blood Angels make a move! The Chaplains assault squad jumps into the Autocannon dreadnought and pummels it into dust, for the loss of 1 marine in return before shifting to threaten the Scouts. The terminators march up to the por... I mean the "Relic" and take it (cue dramatic music).The remaining power fist guy from the first assault squad jumps toward the Vindicator and then stumbles badly on landing to fail his charge (faceplant!). The Tactical squad opens up again on Belial's mob, for no effect. thank you Feel No Pain! The scouts take pot shots at the Nephillim for one hull point lost (Scouts had kind of a good day so far on both sides) while the devastators cause a wound on the attack bike. Just the one, mind


Things turn ugly for the Blood Angels now with some concentrated deathing happening. My terminators and the Vindicator wipe out the Assault teminators and the priest holding the Relic (I think the vindicator's sole inclusion here was a single storm bolter round passing over the top of a storm shield and through the eye socket of a THSS terminator! The cannon missed by miles), however this leaves the Nephillim poised in the wrong place so it takes out a tactical marine at long range (In hindsight, probably better to have turbo-boosted at this point...). The remaining dreadnought caps another couple of assault marines and the scouts wound the Chaplain. In combat, Belial and co finally reach the crunchy tactical squads and massacre them for no losses before re-forming in the direction of the Devastators.


Turn 4 and the Blood Angel reserves stop drinking tea and get their ases in gear. The Stormraven show up and annihalates the Nephillim. Damn. The Devastators really don't live up to their name by firing all and sundry at Belial and co and only causing a single wound on the man himself. The Chaplain and his remaining mob munch on Scouts for no losses (only the Chaplain actually needs to do anything).The BA scouts have no targets.


In response my Vindicator smashes a couple of Devastators, the Assault cannon dread caps the rest o fthe Chaplains squad, except for him, and the rest of may army fails to scratch the zooming Stormraven. Belial and co are a bit more motivated this time and eat the remaining devastators for lunch, yum yum!


The turns are getting quicker now as well

Turn 5 leads to the Stormraven killing 3 terminators in the plasma cannon squad while the Scouts plink shots off my command squad armour. The Chaplain decides to rally his command through the expident of running away like a girl and hiding behind a tin can so my dreadnought can't muss his hair


As a follow up the plasma cannon squad edges toward the Relic while everything else moves in on the Stormraven, except for Belial and co who decide to fail to reach the Scouts in cover.


Turn 6 see's the Blood Angels last gambit for victory with the assault squad dropping out of the Stormraven and seizing the Relic before wandering over to the remains of the Plasma cannon squad and offing them. The Stormraven wanders over to his back line and misses spectacularly with pretty much everything. The Scouts finally get throguh to Belial and he keels over in histrionics.


Turn 6 for me has the assault cannon terminators advancing on and charging the remaining assault squad for a bunch of kills for 1 lost terminator (nice). The rest of my army opens up on the Stormraven and finally explodiies it. I had the command squad moving in that directiona s well, but it wasn't needed in the end, so they bounced into the Blood Angels' deployment for a Linebreaker point.


Is this the end for a Blood Angels win????? No, it isn't. The game goes on to a final turn!

Turn 7 is pretty short with the Blood Angels not having terribly much to do, other than fight in CC, where they lose another 3 dudes for no Terminator losses.


In my turn the only thing really to do is to complete the combat over the relic. The remnants of the assault squad try their best to do something, but to no avail. The remaining terminators in Blue squad munch the remaining marines for the Relic to fall at their feet.

Unfortunately Terminators apparently can;t pick things up very easily, so this results in a draw. First Blood to the Blood Angels (apt, I guess) and a Linebreaker point for me. I'd like to take the moral high ground of controlling the Relic, but apparently the school bell had rung and the Termi-wurmies had to leave off where they finished up.

So, an enjoyable game (for me at least). There were some truly awful dice rolls, but thankfully they were mostly by my opponent, so the Terranwing were able to weather the storm reasonably well. The Nephillim? Well, It has some nice weapons and the Strafing Run rule was useful. I needs me some more practice with flyer tactics methinks! I'm rather happy about the Terminator plasma cannon and I think my Scouts did above and beyond, certainly with their first turn awesomeness, even if they did get munched in the end. Belial and his death star got stuck in a couple of times and well and truly massacred their opponents, but then that was the point. If possible I won't use this unit to hunt enemy death stars, but rather to munch rear echelon units on objectives. The other 2 terminator squads and the Vindicator get to try and shoot the enemy death stars off the board

It's criminal there aren't photos of the battle, given the gorgeous conversions we've seen you complete for it.

All in all an entertaining battle. I look forward to seeing the Terranwing in action next time.