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I played my first game yesterday against imperial guard.

He had a
command squad.
two reg leman rushes
10man strom trooper squad
two platoon command squads each with a lascannon
4 infantry squads with a lascannon each
10 man storm trooper squad with plasma guns

I had
beil
interrogator chaplain
5assault marines with thunderhammer and storm shield with a deathwing company banner
5 terminators with assault cannon
5terminators with cyclone missile launcher

He rolled first turn so he went first nothing happened

On my first turn I deepstriked one terminator squad with beil behind one of his leman russ and the assault squad with chaplain hiding close to his other leman rush behind some buildings.
My assault cannon destroyed his leamn russ leaving a wreck to hide behind.

His second turn he moved the second leamn russ away from the assault terminators. He moved a the storm troopers in line of sight to the 1st terminator squad.
He fired the leman rush at the assault terminators and missed. The storm troopers shot down one terminator from the first group.

I depstriked my other terminator squad behind the leman rush Then I moved my assault terminators closer to the leman rush. Moved the 1st terminator squad closer to storm troopers. I popped the leman rush with 2nd terminator squad. Shot and assaulted the storm troopers one left and passed with double ones.

He shot the heck out of the 2nd terminator squad killing them all in his third turn and killed the last storm trooper in his assault phase.

On my third turn I shot/assaulted an infantry squad with each terminator squad. Both infantry squads were killed.

On the top of the fourth he shot my terminators I lost 2 out of the assault terminators and 1 more out of the 1st squad of terminators. He assaulted everything on my 1st terminator squad and one infantry squad on the assault terminators. I killed the squad with my assault terminators that charged me. He did kill one terminator from the 1st squad. I killed a bunch of them. then he ran off the bored.

I was left with
beil
interogator chaplin
3 assault terminators
2 reg terminators

He had nothing left on the bored at top of turn 4

Can anyone tell me anything me or my opponent did wrong tactics wise.

Guard are best when you have to come to them from across the field. Deathwing is probably one of the harder armies to deal with for guard, along with Daemons and Marine Drop Pod lists. Anything that DS' first turn is a problem for them as the MotF doesn't affect rules that say, "x amount of x comes in on turn one automatically."

What would be the top 5 hardest armies to play against using deathwing?

If I were your Guard opponent, I would have reserved everything.

Then your guys would have dropped in on the first turn with nothing to do. On his 2nd turn, he would be rolling for reserves. He could bring things on the table away from your Deathwing assault, forcing you to footslog them. It takes away your advantage.

I always reserve everything when playing lists like that: Deathwing Assault, Drop Pod Marines, Daemons.

It allows me to choose how to engage instead of my opponent.

What was the mission? The goal of the mission determines tactics.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Deathwing is a difficult list to play at the highest level of competition.

how did termies come in on turn 1???????????

and yes deep striking units are very hard to deal with if you are IG.

The Angry Commissar wrote:how did termies come in on turn 1???????????

That's what I was just thinking...but since it was his first game maybe it was just a slip of the rules.

Lukus83 wrote:

The Angry Commissar wrote:how did termies come in on turn 1???????????

That's what I was just thinking...but since it was his first game maybe it was just a slip of the rules.

It is a DA special rule - Deathwing assault. Half the terminator squads in reserve (rounding up) can automatically deepstrike turn 1.

Its an old gaming group getting back together from 3rd and 4th edition players. It was just annihilation. We both have only skimmed through the new rules quick. So we did miss the reserve rule. To counter this it says that I may choose to drop half the first turn or not. Then I would just keep everything in reserve.

theo2009 wrote:Its an old gaming group getting back together from 3rd and 4th edition players. It was just annihilation. We both have only skimmed through the new rules quick. So we did miss the reserve rule. To counter this it says that I may choose to drop half the first turn or not. Then I would just keep everything in reserve.

Yea, now you are talking theo2009. Your codex says that you choose whether to use the Deathwing Assault "at the beginning of your first turn". So if you are facing an opponent who is going second, and he (like me) says he is reserving everything, then you may opt not to use the Deathwing Assault to keep your termies from warping in prematurely.

At least you have to roll dice for it.

As you and your guard friend increase the size of your armies, you might suggest that he invest in some Demolishers. They are excellent for shooting at the recently beamed in Terminators. With their low AP and the tight little group deepstriking forces on you, the Demolisher might tempt you to run in order to spread out instead of shooting on that first turn in.

Just a thought.

rough riders are cheap, and do wonders versus standard terminators....with a demolisher and RR I am sure you can handle them termies (keep them both in reserve, and with an astropath they can come in an do hurt instead of being shot at first..)

I would get some landraiders asap. DWA isn't the BEST thing but can work in some situations.

top 5 hardest?

Melta heavy anything first off (or any army that can put up a VERY high amount of wounds)

1. Eldar - Fast, fire dragons = dead terminators. They can outrun our assaults and take out firepower.
2. Dark Eldar - Same as above except they can snipe you to death.
3. Imperial Guard - So many men so many meltas.
4. Tau - They can have some serious plasma power and tank busting capabilities. Kroot can whither the assault then you can be mass firepowered down.
5. Green Tide (if you're raider spam then you got a chance but foot DW just don't have the firepower) - To many!!!!

BTW putting the DWB in an assault marine squad is a huge huge waste. Put it in the squad Belial is in. Also, make sure to use the terminator apothecary we get.

For your IG friend - maybe move his tanks closer to the board edge? Not sure of the deployment, but you were able to DS 2 units behind them?

That's pinpoint DS at any level.

2nd the Apothecary. I usually run without the banner vs losing the Aothecary.

DWA is good if you go second and your opponent doesn't have much in reserve.

Deathwing is fun, but I run Dreads also just for some more tactical support.

frankly, his army was just very very sub-optimal, even moreso vs. terminator spam like Deathwing. He spent 380 points on 6 lascannons (against no transports to pop, and terminators he would get 1 round of fire against before they charge). He also spent 360 points on 20 storm troopers that can't get through termie armour with their hotshot lasguns, and 2 plasmaguns. He spammed a very large amount of AP3, but very little AP2. He should have been fielding demolishers and vets w/ plasmaguns instead of russes and lascannon infantry squads. This is the list I'd have used, as it looks like you both tailored your lists at least somewhat.

CCS- 3 plasmaguns, medipak 125
Chimera - turret ML, hull HF 55

10 vets - 3 plasmaguns 125
Chimera - turret ML, hull HF 55
10 vets - 2 plasmaguns 110
Chimera - turret ML, hull HF 55
10 penal legionnaire troopers 80

LR Demolisher - hull HF 165
LR Executioner - hull HF, sponson plasmacannons 230

now THIS list is anti-deathwing. Start everything in reserve, then move on all on a flank or move on 12" to make powerfists hit on 6s. The demolisher and executioner make any units that don't run the turn they deepstrike absolutely vanish, while the plasmagun squads can wipe any squad off the table in a volley. You'll lose ALOT of guardsmen to get's hot, but the medic in the CCS will at least keep those 3 guns safe. The penal legionnaires are sort of a wild card, primarily running interference for the russes, but can also become assault units if you roll up knife fighters for rending. Their stubborn lets them tie up smaller units for several turns as well.

Now, this list is obviously stacked very hard against a deathwing army, or any other power armour armies but it makes a point: it can be done.

When I see anti-whatever armies they make me shutter. Making a list and not knowing your opponent and army he/she plays is so much better.

I'm with you 100% on that one theo2009. I show up every week to my FLGS with a take all comers list of one variety or another, with no intention of who I plan to play that week.

I was just illustrating the differences between what your opponent fielded vs. what a specifically tailored list might look like. Ideally, his take all comers would land somewhere in the middle at a happy medium. So his list would have, say, the demolisher and one of the plasma vet squads, as well as a steady supply of flamers, artillery and antitank.