Yesterday I played my first game with the new Dark Angels codex. My aim was to test as many types of units as possible and try to get a good feel for the army.
Mission: the Scouring
Deployment: Vanguard strike
Dark Angel forces: Azrael (Hold at all cost Warlord trait), Librarian with Prescience, 5 Deathwing knights with Perfidious Relic of the Unforgiven, Two 5 man Deathwing terminator squads each with a Cyclone missile launcher, Two 3 man Ravenwing Attack squadrons with a meltagun, Two 10 man Tactical squads, one with plasmagun and lascannon and the other with meltagun and missile launcher with flakk missiles, a 3 Land speeder squadron with two heavy bolters each and a Land raider crusader with extra armour and multi-melta.
Necron forces: Necron lord with resurrection orb, 4+ inv, 2+ save and Warscythe, 7 Immortals, two large units of Warriors, two units of Destroyers, three Ghost arcs, one Night scythe, two Doomsday arcs and one Annihilation barge.
After scouting with the bikes I seized the initiative and deep striked the Deathwing terminators as close to the enemy as I could. Then I moved out with the Land raider and the Land speeders. My shooting was a bit limited, managing only to take out a hull point on each Doomstay arc. The only thing that prevented my fist turn gamble from being the end of the game was my opponents inability to hit with his large pie plates. That trend would continue the whole game.
Azrael took up position with the tactical squads. With his 4+ inv save and feel no pain while within 3” of an objective I had good hopes for holding the ruin while waiting for the deep striking Destroyers and flyer. The ruin was strategically positioned with one objective on top of it and with one additional objective at each of its sides giving me great late game options.
The mysterious objective in the ruin at the Necron centre granted the unit holding it +1 cover save. The ruin proved impervious to shooting so I assaulted it with my Deathwing knights. Boosted with prescience the unit took out eleven Warriors during the charge, leaving only one left standing. The Librarian valiantly took on the mind shackle scarabs and stabbed himself to death. The Necron lord and the last Warrior fled and then promptly rallied the next turn only to get charged again by the Knights. In the background a Deathwing squad moves to assault an Annihilation barge after having smashed a Doomsday arc to pieces the previous turn.
Turn four the long awaited Necron flyer finally turns up shooting at a Tactical squad and managing to kill one Space marine. Azrael and his squad, including Flakk loaded missile launcher, had by then tired of waiting for the flyer and had moved out to challenge incoming Destroyers. I didn’t shoot one flakk missile during the whole game…
At the finishing moments of the game Azrael proved his worth by single handedly slaying four Destroyers.
The game ended 13-4 to the Dark Angels.
Lessons learned:
- I really like Azrael as a HQ. He is able to soak up lots of incoming fire and boosts the unit he joins. He is no pushover in close combat and helps with the scoring part of the army. Also you always have a usable Warlord trait.
- I really liked the Ravenwing bikers supporting the Deathwing. The squad managed to use their teleport homers and make one round of shooting before they got fired at. Luckily a a single biker survived in each squadron so I could retreat with the squads and reuse them for late game objective grabbing.
- I really like the resilience of the army. With Deathwing terminators deep striking close to the enemy, forcing him on the defensive, he never had a serious chance to move out of his deployment zone until the last turns. At that time my surviving bikers and the unscratched Tactical squads had been able to move into some really good positions and most of the objectives were mine.
