Playing Deathwing: Getting in Reps

Hey everyone, Reecius here with another update on playing my new Deathwing army!

I have been playing a lot lately and I got in 3 league games in the past weekend. Here’s what went down and what I have learned.

For reference, here is my current list:

• Deathwing Vanguard
• Starting CP: 4 (lol)
• Belial
• Master of Sanctity: Wise Orator
• Deathwing Terminators x 10: Cyclone x 2, L.Caws on Sarge
• Deathwing Terminators x 10: Cyclone, Assault Cannon, L.Caws on Sarge
• Deathwing Knights x 7
• Deathwing Command Squad x 2, T.Hammer/S.Shield x 2
• Deathwing Command Squad x 2
• Deathwing Command Squad x 2
• Ravenwing Apothecary: Chief Apothecary, Reliquary of the Repentant, Selfless Healer
• Deathwing Champion: Chapter Champion, Martial Exemplar, Key of Achrabael
• Deathwing Ancient: Chapter Ancient, Steadfast Example, Pennant of Remembrance

Game 1

My first game I played my coworker Kevin and his nasty Blood Angels army. Here’s his list form memory:

• Blood Angels Battalion
• Captain with Jump Pack
• Chaplain with Jump Pack
• Sanguinary Priest: Jump Pack
• Assault Intercessors x 5
• Assault Intercessors x 5
• Incurssors
• Death Company x 5, Jump Packs
• Sanguinary Guard x 10
• Death Company x 10, Jump Packs
• Blade Guard x 5
• Impulssor
• Eradicators x 5

Quite a punchy list and as I had not played against Blood Angels with their new book yet, I was curious to see if all the hype about them was justified. Turns out, they’re popular for good reason, lol.

I deployed in my standard formation with 20 Terminators in the front and all the Characters and a Command Squad between them. I made a big mistake though that cost me, forgetting about Wings of Fire. My opponent got first turn and capitalized on that, sending the 10 Death Company behind me and made the charge into my rear, killing my Apothecary and several Terminators top of turn 1. Youch, that hurt. I have never lost the Apothecary in a game so far and was curious to see how I would recover without being able to revive Termies.

In my counter attack, I smoked all of the Death Company (my opponent realized he could have done the same thing with the 5 man unit and not taken so many casualties in return). I then adjusted to stay out of his charge range and laid into him with my shooting phase.

Realizing I would outshoot him, my opponent came at me but wasn’t able to charge so moved forward and hid as best he could. I moved up, used the +2″ charge bubble on the Chappy, finished off the Impulsor and sent the Deathwing Knights into the Blade Guard, beating their butts. I also slignshot Termies on a flank from the Incurssors into the Eradicators to stop them from shooting. Also, that unit is so stupid, lol.

At this point I had middle board and my opponent was in a tough spot. He had to KO me on this turn or get mulched by my turn 3 assault. He sent in the house and did quite a bit of damage to me but the uber tough Deathwing just didn’t take enough casualties and as they pop, they swing due to the Banner and do even more damage. On my next turn between shooting and melee, I was able to destroy most of my opponent’s remaining forces to the point he didn’t have enough juice in the tank to come back.

Meanwhile, my little Command Squads were scooping up mission points. We called it on turn 4 and Deathwing take it 84 to 67.

What I learned was that even without the Apothecary, Deathwing are double tough and can take a beating. But, obviously, you want to protect him and the Banner Bearer at all costs. Also, Blood Angels hit like a truck but don’t take a punch nearly as well as Deathwing can. They run out of gas pretty quick.

Game 2

My second game was against a super nice opponent in the league named Jason with a lovely Ork army. Here’s his list from memory:

• Ork Battalion, Deffskulls
• Warboss with all the fixings
• Warphead
• Painboy
• Shoota Boys x 30
• Shoota Boys x 30
• Slugga Boys x 30
• Flash Gitz x 10
• baby Squiggoth
• Dragsta
• Dragsta
• Snazzwagon
• Deffkopta
• Komandos x 5
• Komandos x 5
• Komandos x 5

This was an interesting match-up. I wasn’t sure how Deathwing would handle the mob of Boys but I was confident in my ability to withstand the damage as they didn’t have a lot of ways to actually hurt an army like mine. I’d have to keep an eye on objectives to avoid losing the missions while winning the war.

My opponent got first turn and quickly moved to grab objectives. Also, hilariously, one of his Dragstas smoked an entire 2 man command squad in one shot, lol. I will have to remember to deep strike them in situations where I can’t afford to lose them early.

I started mowing down Orks with bolters and sending Kraks into the vehicles but my opponent came at me from every angle, forcing me to spread out. As predicted, he really struggled to do damage to me outside of the Flash Gitz. I was moving to center table like normal but was forced to spread out as I needed to keep him from dominating the mission. I made a critical error and moved a unit of Terminators too far, out of range of the banner and paid the price. My opponent focused on them with shooting and melee and got them down to a single Termie! I was able to recover but it was quite painful.

As with most of my games, a familiar pattern emerged. The majority of our armies met in the middle and my resilience combined with hitting power enabled me to take the punches and hit back harder. With the Apothecary bringing back a Termie a turn, eventually the ability of my opponent to fight back was diminished to the point where I was in a dominating field position and then able to take objectives and catch back up on the scoreboard. Even with most of my rank and file Terminators dead, the Knights and Characters are more than able to clean up what’s left of the enemy army.

My opponent had done a great job of forcing me to spread out and keep an eye on objectives with Ork units all over the table but even sending a single Deathwing Character at several smaller units of Orks meant they had very little chance of surviving.

When the dust settled, the Deathwing took it, 90-21.

Game 3

My last game was against another awesome opponent, Frank and his Custodes! Here’s his list from memory:

• Custodes Battalion
• Trajan
• Captain on Dawn Eagle
• Vexilus Praetor: -1 to be hit banner.
• Vertus Praetors x 4
• Custodian Guard x 3
• Custodian Guard x 3
• Custodian Guard x 3
• Allarus x 4
• Allarus x 4
• Culexus

I think I am forgetting part of the list but it was a fairly standard ground pounding Custodes army. I was interested to see how this would play out as Custodes are quite tough and hit hard but they lacked all the extra buffs Deathwing get.

Again, my opponent won the roll to go first and took it, but wasn’t able to do too much with his shooting. He did split up his Allarus to run out and grab objectives.

The game went in a predictable pattern due to the nature of our armies. We basically didn’t have a choice other than to lay into one another and close distance. It turned into a scrum in the middle and the fact that I can only be wounded on a 4+, have a 5+++ and the ability to bring Termies back to life, plus all the re-rolls, bonuses to hit, etc. the Deathwing just out mathed the Custodes. I took casualties along the way but the outcome was evident fairly early and my opponent was trading models at a disadvantage despite making a good show of it and grabbing points where he could.

The extra rules Deathwing get just gave me an advantage that the Custodes couldn’t overcome. Since both armies played the same game, it really just came down to an inherent advantage and the game ended 81-44, Deathwing take it.

What I learned

Deathwing are legitimately a powerful army. I want to take them to a tournament to really put them to the test but so far I feel that they have everything they need to go the distance. My last league game will be against Frankie and his Harlies which will be a very good test of their mettle but generally, it is a bad ass army.

I will likely further reduce two of the Command Squads in points to upgun the Assault Cannon to another Cyclone. While I was pleasantly surprised at how well it did, the Clyclones are just vastly better weapons. otherwise I am quite pleased with the list as it is. I have just enough units to cover objectives, and my main force going up the middle is quite the force of nature. So far nothing has been able to stop it or resist the power of the offense.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you all think about the mighty Deathwing so far.