Evening Dakka! Earlier today I got to play in a Team Tournament for which the entry fee was a toy to donate for Toys for Tots. The tournament used the Adepticon Team Tournament detachment rules and missions, with 1000 points per player (2000 points per team). My teammate and I both ran Dark Angels for maximum synergy, but there were some wacky combos in there as well. A good variety of armies were present. Knights were allowed in the appropriate detachments, forgoing the usual keyword requirements, so there were a few of those running around, both Imperial and Chaos. My team's lists were the following:
So, on to the summaries of the actual games! Opponents' lists are from memory and so may be slightly inaccurate
Game 1
Opponents: Space Wolves and Tyranids
Opponents' lists:
My team got first turn and our opponents failed to seize. We had the Dark Talon fly directly over the Long Fangs and drop its Stasis Bomb, killing 5 of the 7 models. It advanced and used Speed of the Raven to allow it to shoot. Otherwise we mostly just moved stuff up and popped two of the Rhinos with our Hellblasters, netting us First Blood. The remaining Long Fangs failed their morale and fled. We also managed to have our infiltrating Scouts tie up one unit of Hive Guard and the Biovores in combat. Alas, it didn't work out for us, as on our opponents' turn the Zoanthropes just smited the Scouts away, allowing the units they tied up to shoot. The Wolf Lord charged our Scouts in the middle of the table, but he failed to kill all 5 models to activate his Saga. On our second turn, we hit the Wolf Lord with both Mind Wipe and Aversion from my teammate's Librarian. We managed to put down some of the Blood Claws and even a couple of Zoanthropes, and we did lock one of the HIve Guard units in combat with some Scout Bikes, but otherwise we didn't accomplish a whole lot on our second turn. The Wolf Lord and Rune Priest charged and killed some Hellblasters, after the third Rhino died trying to charge them. The Hellblasters fell back and gunned both down thanks to the Intractable stratagem. Our Aggressors managed to pick off some Blood Claws that unwisely piled into them after killing our Darkshroud (our opponents didn't realize they were equipped with basically Power Fists!). By Turn 4, the Hive Guard and Zoanthropes were chewing us up pretty badly, and the Rippers grabbed one of the two objectives. We were unable to pick off any of those units fully even by the end of the game, and we ended up losing by 1 point despite wiping out every Space Wolf model. We killed no Tyranid units completely at all, so our loss was mainly based on the Kill Points part of the mission. Overall it was a close game that could have gone either way.
Game 2
Opponents: Orks and Space Marines
Opponents' lists:
Once again we got first turn, this time because we seized. We didn't actually do very much though, preferring to wait for the Orks to come to us. On their turn, they did manage to kill off some Scouts and the Darkshroud, and they got a turn 1 charge off on another Scout unit, wiping it out. Our counterattack was swift and brutal, using Weapons from the Dark Age on the 10-man Hellblasters to destroy the Morkanaut in one round of shooting thanks to some hot dice. The other Hellblasters supercharged and destroyed the Killa Kans, but 3 of them died to their weapons overheating despite Azrael's rerolls. Our flyer flew over the Ork unit that charged and killed five of them with the Stasis Bomb, then was in a position to shoot at Shrike. It managed to kill him due to some unlucky save rolls on our opponents' part. On the next turn, our Hellblasters got a facefull of Ork Boyz charging in, although several Boyz died to overwatch. They didn't kill many Hellblasters though, and our counterattack with the Aggressors and Intercessors was brutal, wiping out the Boyz and leaving the Warboss exposed. I don't remember who killed the Warboss, but he did die on that turn. We also managed to drop the Knight thanks to using Intractable and WftDA on the larger Hellblaster unit. After that, and managing to lock the Raven Guard Hellblasters up with the Scout Bikes, it was just a matter of mopping up, and we did manage to table our opponents on turn 5.
Game 3
Opponents: Orks and Craftworld Aeldari
Opponents' lists:
Once again we went first after our opponents failed to seize. The Dark Talon flew over one squad of Boyz, dropping the Stasis Bomb and unloading all of his shooting into them, but not killing the entire squad. Our units didn't do a whole lot else, as we were waiting for the Boyz to come to us (one of the units was in reserves (Tellyporta thingy), as were the Fire Dragons (Webway Portal). On our opponents' turn, the damaged Boyz unit used Green Tide to come back to full strength on one flank. The Dark Reapers got out of the Wave Serpent and into some ruins, where they then shot down the Dark Talon and used Fire and Fade to go to the bottom floor. The Wave Serpent itself moved and advanced up to take some potshots at the Hellblasters, but failed to cause any unsaved wounds thanks to Azrael's invulnerable saves and the Darkshroud making them harder to hit (nice to see Alaitoc getting a taste of their own medicine!). Another unit of Boyz got into a unit of Scout Bikes and the Intercessors, but didn't kill very many, leading to a drawn out combat that lasted a couple of turns. The Boyz that used Green Tide charged into two Scout Squads, and thanks to my teammate choosing to interrupt, moving the Scouts closer to them to force them to swing and kill them instead of wrapping them, killed both units, leaving the Boyz open to shooting. On our turn, the Aggressors moved into some ruins on the upper floor. The Hellblasters popped out from behind the wall they were hiding behind. The Libby used Aversion on the Boyz that had locked up the Intercessors and Scout Bikes, causing that combat to continue since the Boyz couldn't kill them as easily at -1 to hit. One unit of Hellblasters supercharged and used Weapons from the Dark Age to pop the Wave Serpent, and the other shot into the third unit of Boyz on the table, killing many of them. The Talonmaster, second unit of Scout bikes, and Darkshroud shot into the squad that had just wiped the Scouts, killing enough of them that the rest fled due to morale. Azrael's rerolls really helped with that. The third unit of Scouts managed to charge the Dark Reapers, preventing them from shooting on the following turn. That scout unit was in turn wiped out by the Autarch in close combat on our opponents' turn. The combat with the Intercessors and Scout Bikes finally ended when our units died, but that was in our opponents' turn, and in our turn the Aggressors double fired into the Boyz, wiping them to a man. Before that, the Boyz that were in reserve arrived, but were Auspexed by the large Helllblaster unit, taking several casualties. The Wierdboy rolled his second Perils of the Warp of the game and exploded, doing mortal wounds to the Farseer, Dark Reapers, and the newly arrived Boyz. By time those Boyz actually charged, they had been pretty well shanked by those events and some nasty Overwatch, so they fled to morale after the turn. On our next turn (the one where the Aggressors wiped the other Boyz unit), Azrael charged and killed the Dark Reapers, and two of the Ranger units (which had arrived the previous turn but failed to inflict any damage on anything) were wiped out by the Talonmaster and one unit of Hellblasters. On our opponent's half of the turn, the Fire Dragons arrived and took out the Darkshroud, but after that our opponents conceded, as they were about to be tabled at the bottom of turn 4. We got maximum points for that game.
Overall we went 2-1 and ended up in third place (out of like 18 teams). Our prize was a Sector Mechanicus terrain kit for both myself and my teammate. It's probably only the second time I've ever actually placed in a tournament, so it felt good, especially since I was fielding my beloved Dark Angels, who are still my favorite army despite not being the strongest of my armies. The whole atmosphere of the tournament was friendly and fun, not totally stressed and crazy like some tournaments are when there is serious prize money on the line. I had a great time, and I look forward to attending this same tournament next year.
My takeaways:
-I may revise my stance concerning the Azrael gunline. Competently piloted, it can be extremely nasty. My teammate really showed me some things that may help me up my game in future events.
-Ravenwing Dark Talons are solid gold, especially if facing horde opponents. Their sheer volume of dice helps them become very killy, and the fact that they can produce mortal wounds helps them hurt even hard targets.
-The Talonmaster was another solid performer. With Orks becoming popular in the meta, their utility is only going to go up. I may end up trying a Supreme Command of Sammael and 3 of these guys at some point. That could be hilarious.
-Dark Angels have three major stratagems that you should budget some
CP for: Weapons from the Dark Age, Intractable, and Speed of the Raven. These are what really give them an edge compared to most other Space Marines.
Overall, I think Dark Angels are a solid army, although not top tier by any means (they ARE Space Marines after all, and have many of the same shortcomings as far as competitiveness). I think once Chapter Approved drops they are going to get better. I'm probably going to use them for most if not all of my tournament play in 2019 and see how far I get in the ITC faction ranking. We'll have to see how many
GTs I'm able to attend, as I am dependent on others for transportation due to not owning a vehicle. It should be fun.
FOR THE LION!
Thanks for reading!
~15000 Astra Militarum: 
~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: 
~1900 | Imperial Knights: 
~2000 | Sisters of Battle: 
~3500 | Leagues of Votann: 
~1200 | Tyranids: 
~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: 
