Tonight I can write.....of a Deathwing battle and some more poetry ;-)

So I took the Deathwing out to play tonight.

After carrying around a big box of models during my teaching course today, the stage was set for a Deathwing battle at the local GW in Cambridge. I got the impression fairly quickly that most people there were playing fairly unfocused lists so I was a bit worried I'd be seen as a power gamer, but I figured that the disparity in codex age between me and my opponent (Space Wolves) should even things out.

We played pitched battle annihilation and my army was simple.

Belial, Librarian, Command Assault squad (with apothecary), 2 assault squads, 2 shooty squads.

My opponent brought (roughly):
- Wolf Lord with wolf claw and storm bolter
- Rune priest (jaws and living lightning)
- 5 Wolf guard in terminator armour, 2 wolf claws, 2 power fists, 1 thunder hammer, assault cannon
- Venerable Dread (AC)
- 10 Grey hunters
- 15(?) Blood Claws led by a Wolf Guard w/ PF
- 5 Wolf Scouts (sniper rifles and missile)
- Vindicator
- 5 Long Fangs (Multi-melta, heavy bolter, plasma cannon, lascannon)


I knew from his armaments that he hadn't really put together the list for killiness, but figured it would be a good first game for the Deathwing anyway. I won the dice off and gave him first turn. He deployed fairly evenly with Grey Hunters and Long Fangs on one flank, Vindicator, WG and Lord in the centre, then Dread and Blood Claws with Rune priest on the other flank. He reserved the scouts for outflanking. This seemed a waste to me since they had heavy weapons but hey ho.

To counter this, I deployed one shooty squad with the Librarian on the flank table edge facing his Dread and Blood Claws. All other squads were deep striking.

His turn 1 had nothing much since he had no targets. He moved forwards with everything but left the vindicator sitting, now separated from his mini-deathstar of lord and WG. My turn 1 brought in Belial and the command squad, and another assault squad. Belial et al. set up in my opponent's rear corner with LOS to, but out of charge range of, the dread. The other squad landed between two buildings with LOS to the Vindicator's flank. A few missiles later and I'd stunned the dread and blown up the tank. My shooty squad also killed some Blood Claws.

Turn 2 he continues to move forward on his right flank, which seemed a waste since my entire force thus far was on his left. His Wolf Guard wheeled around to advance on my guys and the Blood Claws elected to shoot rather than charge Belial's squad. Terminator armour and FNP saved them and the Librarian stopped Jaws being cast. My turn 2 gave me the second shooty squad who I deepstruck in place to block and shoot the wolf guard. I once again stunned the dread and charged the Blood Claws with Belial's squad. He took two wounds and we lost one terminator, but stomped the Claws, making them run, only the WG and Priest still alive. I consolidated so that they would be within 6" and unable to rally next turn

Turn 3 puts his fleeing units almost off the table. He gets to charge the shooty squad with his Wolf Guard though and with some good shooting and wolf claws, pulls them apart before I could fight back. I get my last squad and strike them to the flank I'm rapidly taking. I stun the dread again (damnit, just die), move Belial to escort the fleeing models off the board and get my power hitters in position to counter assault the WG if they get into combat with the assault squad near them. The WG are very killy, but I've got a huge amount of hitting power on offer to overwhelm them if I concentrate it.

Turn 4 lets him just get the charge on one of my assault squads, but the lord and one WG aren't close enough to strike. I get some good rolls with my lightning claws and tear up three of his guys, then the hammers/fists come into play and we're reduced to the cyclone guy on my side, his lord and AC on his side. I then shoot the DCCW off his dread, letting me charge it and PF it to death then my command squad assaults in to kill the lord and remaining Wolf Guard, their 3+ Storm Shields (thanks FAQ) saving them from the wolf claws.

He has 1 kill point (shooty squad), and has killed 10 terminators. I have 6 kills points (7 if the WG leader of the Blood Claws count) and we call the game as it's getting late.


Now clearly my opponent made some major errors and didn't correct them later. The wolf scouts should have been on the table in turn 1 to use their guns, the devastators (whose loadout would benefit from less diversity) needed to be better placed from the start and, when it was clear I was hitting just one flank, should have been moved to counter on turn 1. Instead they holed up in a building with great LOS to my flank that had no models on it. The end result was that I took on around 1000pts of Wolves with my whole army and mashed them. Good opponent though and kept smiling through to the end. If we'd had time I'd have danced out of his range and kept throwing missiles at his remaining troops. Or if I decided to be more casual I would have footslogged over to his scouts, hunters and fangs who'd hunkered down in a few buildings and tried to fight them out, just for kicks.

The Deathwing are nice, no question, but very different to play with. You have to use deepstriking (with Deathwing Assault) in many cases because you can't risk a long range gunfight against most foes. With that in mind, I can see that picking the DS locations can make or break your game from the start. I think this army is going to be very tactical to play and a real challenge when facing a less casual player, or even one who realises I might DS and castles up. Deathwing also suffer a problem of cracking Mech, especially walkers. Against vehicles I have hammers, fists and some chainfists but I have to think twice when facing a Dread that can pulp me pretty badly.

Overall I had a blast playing my new army and the GW store here is really cool. The staff were excited about Finecast but didn't try to sell me anything and just loved to talk about the hobby. It made me feel like I was in the GW that I grew into the hobby with and not some of the more sales-focused ones I've been to recently.

Thanks for reading all.

To finish off we have poetry.....it's good for you


I think this is my favourite poem I've yet read. It was shown to me be someone who I was close with and resonated with me deeply then, and still does as I look back on things. I hope you enjoy the flow, words and emotions too.

I'll culture you gamers yet ;-)


Tonight I Can Write

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, 'The night is starry
and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is starry and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

The poetry of the Space Marine First Legion

For those who haven't seen this before, let's have some poetry. This poem is by a poet called Lionel Johnson and is titled The Dark Angel. Read to the end, it's a very good piece and discussion follows afterwards.

None of this is my work but it is very thought-provoking and so hopefully people enjoy. Please visit the links given at the end.

Pete


The Dark Angel
DARK Angel, with thine aching lust
To rid the world of penitence:
Malicious Angel, who still dost
My soul such subtile violence!

Because of thee, no thought, no thing,
Abides for me undesecrate:
Dark Angel, ever on the wing,
Who never reachest me too late!

When music sounds, then changest thou
Its silvery to a sultry fire:
Nor will thine envious heart allow
Delight untortured by desire.

Through thee, the gracious Muses turn,
To Furies, O mine Enemy!
And all the things of beauty burn
With flames of evil ecstasy.

Because of thee, the land of dreams
Becomes a gathering place of fears:
Until tormented slumber seems
One vehemence of useless tears.

When sunlight glows upon the flowers,
Or ripples down the dancing sea:
Thou, with thy troop of passionate powers,
Beleaguerest, bewilderest, me.

Within the breath of autumn woods,
Within the winter silences:
Thy venomous spirit stirs and broods,
O Master of impieties!

The ardour of red flame is thine,
And thine the steely soul of ice:
Thou poisonest the fair design
Of nature, with unfair device.

Apples of ashes, golden bright;
Waters of bitterness, how sweet!
O banquet of a foul delight,
Prepared by thee, dark Paraclete!

Thou art the whisper in the gloom,
The hinting tone, the haunting laugh:
Thou art the adorner of my tomb,
The minstrel of mine epitaph.

I fight thee, in the Holy Name!
Yet, what thou dost, is what God saith:
Tempter! should I escape thy flame,
Thou wilt have helped my soul from Death:

The second Death, that never dies,
That cannot die, when time is dead:
Live Death, wherein the lost soul cries,
Eternally uncomforted.

Dark Angel, with thine aching lust!
Of two defeats, of two despairs:
Less dread, a change to drifting dust,
Than thine eternity of cares.

Do what thou wilt, thou shalt not so,
Dark Angel! triumph over me:
Lonely, unto the Lone I go;
Divine, to the Divinity.

Lionel Johnson



"As far as I am aware, 'The Dark Angel' and the sin it refers to specifically concern dissident sexual desire and the poem was probably expressive of Johnson's struggles with his homosexuality in a Christian setting..." [Professor Jane Wright]. Johnson's conversion to Catholicism in 1891 was the primal drive for his later repressed state, there is a streak of angst and self-loathing running through the poem, a plea for understanding both at a personal level and the greater issues of acceptance within the context of his religious beliefs. The polarity of his poition was almost impossible to reconcile and this is reflected not only in The Dark Angel but in other works too.

So what can we deduce from this and are there any links (real or imagined) to 'our' Dark Angels and what of the influence upon the game designers of the day?

In many ways we can see echoes of the poems sentiments within the psyche of the Dark Angels Chapter. They are engaged on a crusade to atone for their own deep-rooted catastrophe of so many falling to Chaos, and to ultimately find redemption and forgiveness reflecting the need for them to wipe the slate clean – by becoming even purer, even single-mindedly more loyal.

But these were not merely internal struggles of conscious as Johnson, like the DA, needed to physically hide their "sin" from those of higher authority too. Johnson for legal reasons (homosexuality was only decriminalised in the UK in 1967, and in Scotland in 1980), the Dark Angels to keep themselves out of the gaze of the suspicious Inquistion. It's basically self-preservation which drives the motives of both – a common human condition.

Despite there being no official acknowledgement as such, we must conclude that the poem did influence the backdrop of the Chapter, and Lionel Johnson is indeed the first Dark Angel. The combined coincidences not only of both names but motives too are just too great to pass off as mere chance. Interestingly and possibly in an attempt to 'hide' this literary connnection, the original founder of the Dark Angels was once named "Lyyn Elgonsen".


Poem copied from poet's corner, scroll down for The Dark Angel.

The points of discussion I posted are taken from an excellent piece at The Dark Fortress and are not my own work. Please visit this site for all of their excellent Dark Angels background, tactics, photos, artwork etc.