Struggling with Deathwing in 6th edition.

Hi everyone,

Recently I got to throw down with a couple of games against Dark Eldar, my own up and coming army. I brought the Deathwing out for a try against the speedy evil elves.

It didn't go so well :-)

Both games were pretty big for me (1850 and ~2000) and I was muddling with my collection plus some models raided from the shop's Dark Vengeance copy. In the end I brought something like this:

Belial, Librarian
2x 10 terminators (mix of guns and assault weapons), 7 terminators (TH/SS)
10 tactical marines, 5 sniper scouts

I ran up against a speedy Dark Eldar force that was something like

Archon with Incubi in raider.
2x warriors in raider, wyches in a venom
10 scourges with cannons
2 dark lance ravagers, voidraven bomber
(For game 2: The above + a Farseer, rangers and 10 reaver jetbikes)

I lost both games very badly and felt like I just lacked any kind of good way to deal with the Dark Eldar. I think it's a function of the models I have and how they are tailored more towards assault from 5th edition. Also, the Dark Eldar do love to play against high cost and low model count armies because they seem to kill of specialists quite quickly and easily.

The Good

• I had fun playing and we played fast. Two games in just over three hours is great. I've finally found a good speedy player to go up against.
• The painted armies looked sweet on the tabletop.
• The Dark Eldar look like they'll be a really fun army to play, especially combined with speedy Eldar stuff. 
• I'm excited to play such a dangerous and speedy army in the near future. 

The Bad

• I got wrecked in both games and barely made a dent in his army. Outgunned, out-assaulted and outmaneuvered.  
• My pure Deathwing are really struggling in 6th edition. I've got them geared up for assault but now, footslogging terminators are really going down at a speedy rate. It's frustrating.
• I find I get one bit alpha strike and then it tends to go rapidly downhill.
• I'm lacking the balance in the army list and I'm not keen on spending XYZ euros to add more models.

I'm not sure where to go now with the Dark Angels or if I want to invest more time and money into them. At the moment I'm working more on the Eldar / Dark Eldar. I think that's a combination of the novelty and also a change of painting style that's fun about it all. I have an alpha strike army list that adds three squads of devastators to the mix, which might be fun but it involves a bunch more investment and painting of figures when I already have a lot to work on.

I'm also planning to transition away from GW games as they have stopped being as interesting and varied for me. I still enjoy playing them a lot but more and more I think about trying out new things that have a lower cost of entry and give me new painting and gaming ideas. Currently top of my list is making Hail Caesar from Warlord Games a part of the local gaming group and using 6mm figures from Baccus and Rapier Miniatures to build up big armies without spending a lot of time and money.

Any thoughts on how to best enjoy the Deathwing in 6th edition?

Pete