Thoughts after my first game of 6th Edition - How do the Deathwing fare?

So, sixth edition....what's it like?

I got to play my first game yesterday and it was against the new kids on the block - Chaos.

It was fun to get involved with a local gaming group and I'm sure that I'll be back again to enjoy some wargaming with them. Thankfully most people spoke at least some English though a lot of the games were narrated in Slovak with the amusing bits of English thrown in. Here's my example to give you an idea.

"Oni budú ist tam...náročný terén.  potrebojem štyri plus. Psychic test. Ma leadership deväť tak..."

"They will move there...difficult terrain. I need a four plus. Psychic test. He has leadership nine so..."

The game was a ~1750 point game. I think I was underpointed as I didn't tally up my list fully and if I recall correctly it comes to 1535. 

• Belial. Librarian in terminator armour.
• Command squad. All TH/SS, cyclone, apothecary and banner.
• 2 assault squads. Sergeant with LC, 4xTH/SS and cyclone.
• 2 shooting squads. Assault cannons and one chainfist.

The chaos forces were (off the top of my head)

• Huron Blackheart. Chaos lord with jump pack, LCs and various bits (invul save, FNP)
• 12 raptors, PF champion, FNP, 2 meltas
• 15 noise marines, blastmaster, doomsiren champion, FNP
• 9 marines in a rhino, melta, mark of nurgle
• Defiler
• Forgefiend with two ectoplasm cannons.

Here's the forgefiend model....being fiendish. My opponent had the whole

thing magnetised so he could swap configurations easily.

It's a nice kit but not as big or impressive as I first thought it might be.

I'm not sure I'd feel happy about dropping 40 quid on it.

My opponent got to infiltrate a lot of units due to Huron. It was a bit of a challenge to deal with so many things right in my face at the start of the game. Unlike normally, I didn't deep strike much. In fact, this is when I learned that you can only reserve half of your army in this edition, which does take some wind out of the Deathwing assault sails.

The deployment zone. That Fortress of Redemption is really big. I have to

say though that when injection moulded kits get so big the detail seems to get

a bit less impressive. The angel statues are very plain when unpainted.

Here is one squad about to get shot to pieces by the Noise marines. 

Basically on the left flank, the 15 noise marines with fearless and FNP just put a brutal amount of firepower down against the terminator squads and torrented them badly. It took two full squads to advance and get close enough to make an assault move. We slowly ground them down in assault but by then Huron and his crew had moved up to wipe out the survivors. The forgefiend spent some time blowing up terminators with his plasma cannons then moved back to avoid the assault.

The command squad and another group ready to enter the fray.

About to contact the raptor squad. This is the start of my command squad

being tied up for the rest of the game because of a challenge. Not my 

favourite rule to be honest.

On the other side we smacked the Raptors around but due to the new challenge rules it ended with Belial (2+ save & FNP) fighting the Chaos lord (4+ invul. & FNP) while three TH/SS terminators and the librarian kicked their heels and watched. Instead of smacking the lord's head in with a thunder hammer they had to cheer weakly (you don't even get a bonus unless you have five or more models watching. It was my fault in a way for getting the challenge going but then again it is a new rule so I wasn't quite aware of the repercussions.


6th Edition and Deathwing

Generally speaking the game hasn't changed too much but it did feel a bit unusual for me. Shooting is a lot more powerful now, especially since assaulters can be overwatch shot as though they had run forwards even though they won't move from their spot. That's one thing that bugs me more now than in 5th edition. I try to charge, I get shot at and hurt, then my guys don't even move from their spot so that next turn my opponents move back and I'm in the same boat again. I guess I've just not adapted to the methods yet and the Deathwing will have to be altered.

I noticed that my lack of firepower is really a problem in a lot of ways. I can't reliable put multiple hits on a vehicle enough to take it out. A couple of times I considered taking pot shots at the defiler/forgefiend but it didn't seem worth it since a glance knocks off a hull point rather than having a chance to wreck a gun like 5th edition glancing hits. If I had more long range guns it could help out so that may be the way to expand in future.

Challenges are a bit of a funny beast. I think that if you have a killy character it can be a really great way to take out special character on the other side or deny them attacks if they refuse the challenge. That said with a leader who is fairly average (like Belial) and is just carrying a basic weapon you can end up with a whole unit tar-pitted simply because the combat isn't getting resolved either way. In this case we had two characters with ok weapons, good saves and FNP who just couldn't take each other out fast enough. Perhaps it'd be better to give Belial a Thunder hammer but I don't really want to hack up a nice model.

I was a bit lost with the warlord traits and psychic powers. The randomness and having to remember them was new and they slipped my mind in game. I didn't really plan and take advantage of them properly. I think that in many ways this game was a bit in at the deep end and so I didn't use the options available to me in quite the best way. Still, that's to be expected from the first couple of times trying out a new ruleset. I was a bit annoyed at this game, or at myself for not being up to speed yet, but no biggie :-)

Thanks for reading

Pete