Here is my list:
IMPERIAL FISTS CAD:
Lysander
Tactical Squad (10) in Rhino with flamer, combi-flamer
Scouts (5) with boltguns and land speeder storm
Devastator Squad (5) with 4 rocket launchers
Thunderfire cannon
DEATHWING REDEMPTION FORCE
Librarian in terminator armour with axe
Deathwing terminators (5) with assault cannon
Deathwing terminators (5) with assault cannon
Deathwing terminators (5) with cyclone missile launcher
A few quick points. You can't play pure deathwing anymore because the entire formation has to arrive from reserve (sad face). Deathwing benefit tremendously from Lysander because of his 4W and eternal warrior (and FNP!) because he can tank low AP high STR wounds for them, preserving valuable power fists, so I took him instead of Belial. This was also part of my desire to use fists and continue experimenting with the awesome power of the tank hunter devastator squads. I basically hoped to hold the backfield and not die turn 1 and 2, with a tactical squad and scouts to surge forward and grab objectives if necessary; then the terminators would arrive for fun times before dying and me losing, which is actually what I wanted because I always beat down on this guy and that can't be fun.
Deathwing terminators have split fire, which means you don't go wasting half your shots. You can hit a tank in the rear with your heavy weapon and chip some wounds off an infantry squad with your storm bolters. The Deathwing formation allows you to run and shoot or shoot and run the turn you arrive from deep strike, and guarantees that ALL your guys arrive on turn 2, 3 or 4 (write down secretly before the game commences).
I was expecting my opponent to bring his usual mix of plague marines, 3 sorcerers on foot with nobody to buff, some vindicators, a heldrake and maybe a predator. Instead he rocks up with some Horus Heresy stuff. This includes 2 vindicators with laser destroyers or some shit, which is basically a large blast lascannon, including range 48". This makes them at least 3 times as good as regular vindicators. But wait, there's more! They also have power of the machine spirit, so they can move 12 and still shoot! But wait, there's more! They have overcharged batteries or some shit, so they potentially shoot 3 times in one turn! Gimmeny wilikers Batman! He also has a chapter master equivalent on foot with an AP2 at initiative sword and rad-grenades leading a squad of 2W deathguard terminators with power scythes (axes). He has two ten man tactical squads with re-roll LD sergeants in two Rhinos, a Sicaran (!) and a lightning strike fighter or something, which has a twin-linked lascannon and 6 melta rockets, and strafing run! Uh oh.
The mission was tactical escalation (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc) with short table edge deployment. We put the objectives pretty close to the middle, which was in both our interests (he had no back or front field troops, though I think he should have deep struck his terminators).
I chose to go second, which was probably a mistake but I didn't know the vindicators had 48" range at that point. He put everything up at 24". He kept measuring long distances, so I asked him whether the vindicators were indeed vindicators. I discovered they had bigger guns. Oops. I failed to seize. My deployment was very conservative. We must survive! The terminators and scouts in reserve. I couldn't really do a refuse flank because there wasn't enough cover in my deployment zone so I bolstered a hill in one corner with my techmarine and stuck the devastators behind it, then the cannon deployed in a copse of trees on the other side. My Rhino hid behind a building.
His turn he nuked the techmarine with a triple shot from a vindicator. I did not know they could do that...My devastators survived another pie plate thanks to scatter and my Rhino cover saved the shots from his Sicaran. He scored a secure objective card.
My turn the devastors did that amazing thing imperial fists devastators do and destroyed the front armour of the closest vindicator like it was paper mache. 3 hits, 3 penetrations!My Rhino moved to screen the rocket launchers from his Sicaran. His turn he managed to imobilise his Sicaran trying to re-deploy it over a bunker. Later he would describe this as an unlucky moment that turned the game. It certainly turned the game because it allowed me to slingshot Lysander forward, but I thought he made a silly decision trying to drive backwards and around instead of towards me in open ground. His vindicator used PoTMS and killed 2 of my rockets and the sergeant. Sicaran failed to harm my Rhino. We live! he scored another card.
My terminators and scouts arrived. I placed them conservatively in the middle, except the scouts, who outflank and hide behind cover waiting to claim objectives later. This meant they survived the deep strike but didn't have much to shoot at. I tried to run them into cover but didn't manage with one squad. Lysander was pretty far from the action in the bottom half of the map. My devastators take 2 hull points off his Rhino.
His turn the strike fighter comes on and kills 3 terminators. Then his Sicaran kills the other 2 because I roll 2 1s on 4 dice. Oh well; my saves evened out over the course of the game. 2 dudes left exposed by my 1" run move die to boltgun fire, but this is actually a mistake on his part. He disembarks his tactical squad in the middle of nowhere (fine) and then drives the Rhino away for reasons unexplained, stranding them (game changing). His Sicaran fails to repair its immobilised result. His Rhino disembarks and the dudes inside kill a devastator; his mate runs off the board.
I run my remaining terminators at the Sicaran and claim the nearby objective with my land speeder scouts. The Sicaran blows up and takes a Terminator with it, granting me big game hunter - the game is tied. I consolidate the three man squad into cover behind a bunker and the other squad forms up so Lysander is in the front, ready to storm shield eternal warrior the triple blast from the vindicator (!). My Rhino turbo boosts up to where my guys are and away from his tactical squad. Because he is playing Death Guard he can't run or turbo boost, so it is going to take him a while to get his tactical squad back to where all the objectives are.
At the start of his turn I think I'm buggered but that at least I will have a fun turn or two with my terminators dragon punching people. Yeah, terminators! But then Lysander makes takes 1 wound from 7 caused by the vindicator and all of a sudden its game on! Oddly, he ran away from my terminators with his chapter master. I presume he did that because he feared scatter from the vindicator, but if that's the case it was a mistake because the pie plate was deep in the squad. He could have stood near the front and been outside all but a 12" scatter range. He then could have charged and had a big advantage in the combat. Instead I got to charge.
He was struggling to score objectives at this point because of his stranded tactical squads. He kept drawing secure objective 5 which was in the thick of my terminators, but the only objective he could really reach was #4.
My turn I bum-rushed. Lysander and his lads went for his warlord, my other three guys and the scouts went at his stranded tactical squad hoping to hide from the remaining vindicator. Meanwhile I drew supremacy (have 2+ obj and double opponents for D3 points) and because he only had 1 objective I grabbed it with just a combat squad and Rhino and scored 3 points! The combats were drawn out but I eventually prevailed thanks to power fists>power scythes, iron arm and Lysander instant killing his Warlord with the fist of dorn in the 2nd round. After the game my opponent said he didn't like power fists because they didn't swing at initiative. Our warlords each did one wound to eachother. I lived. He instantly died. I can just imagine Lysander standing over the corpse yelling "where is your initiative now bitch!?"
The timings of when his terminators broke was perfect for me to avoid the vindicator and get another charge off, and it brought me into position to get linebreaker. I started scoring a lot of objectives thanks to things like issue challenges and blood and guts (krak grenaded that Rhino that randomly ran away stranding his own guys with a combat squad) and his guys were either stranded or blocked off by my ob-sec Rhino from reaching their own objectives. He mounted a pretty big rally at the top of 6 when his full strength tac squad finally broke through after milling about for three turns but by then it was too late. I had slay the warlord and linebreaker and a bunch more besides. 1 guy who survived from a combat squad made a 2 turn slog to claim objective #4 which I had 2 cards for. This could have been avoided if he hadn't flown his strike fighter off the board for no clear reason. I think I won by 4 or 5 points, which works out to very little considering I got the lucky 3 on supremacy, but I did actually intend to lose. Bottom of 6 I was even going to punch his last vindicator with my remaining 2 terminators and the scouts. He would have had 6 marines, a rhino and a jet with a lascannon (all missiles gone) to my Lysander, Librarian, 3 terminators, 5 scouts and a tactical marine but he scooped because he couldn't win on 7.
I actually wanted to lose this game so I had mixed feelings about the result. I thought I brought a fairly friendly army (though perhaps the fists portion was harsh), didn't play it unsporting or anything and still won. My opponent played a lot better than he usually does but there were still some very odd decisions, notably not only disembarking to shoot my terminators but then also driving his Rhino away for no discernible reason. I felt like he also lost sight of the objectives. I didn't feel heaps bad though at the end of the game because he then proceeded to blame the result on luck, mostly around his Sicaran getting immobilized. He didn't need to put it into that position and it hardly made a difference. The error was getting stranded and not using the warlord at all. If he had charged Lysander's squad after the vindicator shot I would have been decimated by his extra 6 attacks and me not getting those attacks (the turn I charged his squad it was a drawn combat - I only broke through when Lysander instant killed his Warlord) and the game would have ended right there. He then also brushed off a lot of my comments with 'nah that won't work'. I was like, dude, I have beaten you a half dozen times in a row, including with a shit list in a bad match-up - maybe take some advice, like giving your Warlord a power fist!
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