The Lions Of Harlech vs. Deathwatch

 "Inquisitor, the Xenos archeotech have been located in the Askaye System. However there is a problem,"

The ancient Inquisitor looked up from the viewer of his cogitator, annoyed to have his entertainment interrupted.

"What problem?" He murmured sharply.

The adept responded fearfully, "Adeptus Astartes. A group from the Lions Of Harlech chapter have already reached the planet and are attempting to retrieve the items."

"What? They were rumored to be lost in the Imperium Nihilus. Well, this can not come to pass, they know not what they are meddling with! Dispatch the Deathwatch, have them bring back the xenos archeotech!"

"It shall be done my lord!" The adept hastily left the chamber while the Inquisitor return to his entertainment. 

+++++++++++++×

Kushail returns to Johnson City with a thousand points of Lions of Harlech in tow. This is his first game of 40k since the early days of 8th edition. So we spent a good amount of time reviewing the rules and catching each other up (I'm not rusty but I'm not a sharp tack either). We decided for fluff reasons that our forces, being both from the Imperium, would be at odds with each other due to the importance of whatever the objectives really are.  The Open War mission Stand Off worked good for this, and we thought it would make for a good "get back into the groove" mission for Kushail. The Deployment and Twist cards were randomly chosen. Although I think we ended up ignoring that Twist card ultimately. 

The game to be played. 

And here are the armies, both at 1000pts each. The Deathwatch featured some models in their battlefield debut. The Chaplain (the army Warlord), Landraider, Venerable Dreadnought, are fighting for the first time along with Killteam Neverness, Killteam Chroneth and a Squad of Deathwatch Terminators. Chroneth and the Terminators are still WIP units in regards to their painting, but battle-ready enough. 

Deathwatch Force, 1K. 

I should have asked for Kushail's list. Oops. Well, I will do what I can to recall what he had in this list. I know the Captain had an awesome relic blade. The Leviathan Dreadnought is the much hyped Doom Of Neverness. The Contemptor Dreadnought, two squads of Tactical Marines with  a Plasma Gun in each one and a Devastator Squad with Heavy Bolters. 

1k of Lions of Harlech. 

And here is our table layout. The three Killteam objectives are already placed. 

The field is set. 

Here is the Lions Of Harlech deployment:

Lions of Harlech deploy. 

And the here is the Deathwatch Deployment. I had a Ruse card that allowed me to deploy three units outside of my DZ, so the Landraider, Squad Neverness and the Chaplain took advantage of this. The squad and Chaplain were embarked inside the Landraider. 

Deathwatch deployment. 

The Lions won the roll off to go first and  the shooting took a few wounds from the Landraider, the maneuver of the turn was the Contemptor Dreads successful charge into the Landraider! Thankfully the Landraider didn't take too much damage, but it's now on the edge of dropping down a stat step. In return, the Landraider hits back well, it just couldn't get past the Dreadnought's armor.

Contemptor charges the Landraider. 

The Lions first turn was spent wisely moving up their units to get within reach of the center Objective while holding onto the one in their DZ.

The Lions advance. 

Deathwatch Turn One. Believe it or not, this is my first game of 9th using a vehicle that was engaged in this manner (usually their just landed like a boil on turn one). Reading the rules it seemed I could get the embarked troops out of the vehicle so long as they didn't end up within Engagement range. Out the side hatch they all went. I had them fire at the Leviathan (I don't think they even scratched it) then charge the Contemptor. They put a few wounds on it but the ability to reduce incoming Wounds by one point made this thing very tough! The Chaplain took some wounds but made the saves needed to stay alive. Honorable mention must go to the Heavy Bolter guy who scored a wound on the Contemptor with just his fist

My other units, Squad Chroneth and the Venerable Dreadnought targeted the distant Devastator Squad. I used Special Issue ammo, the Kraken Bolts, which extended their range by 6" and added +1 to their save modifier. It was enough to put a hurt on them from afar, with the Venerable Dreadnought contributing to the kill count.

Disembark and charge!

Turn Two, and the Lions in the center of the field advance on and claim the objective. And the Leviathan Dreadnought wanted in on the action and charged into the melee. 

Quagmire on the left flank. 

Unlike the previous game I chronicled on here, my ability to make my saves was uncanny. Although the Landraider was taking some damage and the Chaplain was a punch away from death, they held on!

At the start of the Deathwatch turn 2, I spent the points on a Stratagem that allowed me to shift my Combat Doctrine back to Devastator. I had the Landraider fallback as it was essentially useless in combat and I needed it's firepower elsewhere. I brought the Terminators in who blasted away some of the Tactical squad on the middle objective, and that Devastator Doctrine really helped with that. The heavy bolters of Kill Team Chroneth also benefited from this and I kept their Special Ammo load out the same as last time to get that extra 6" advantage. The Lion Devastator Squad was really starting to feel the pain now and they lost a few more models in the Morale Phase. 

The Chaplain lives, thanks to a Command Point Re-Roll!

The Chaplain and Killteam Neverness focused their fury on the Contemptor and they took out. Much to Kushail's disappointment the Contemptor failed to explode. 

The Contemptor falls. 

The Terminators made their charge  and was locked in combat with the Tactical Squad in the middle of the table, fighting over that 2 point objective. On Turn 3, the Lions Of Harlech Captain (surely this guy has name?) Charged into the fray and sliced down a Terminator with his relic blade. 

The Terminators crash into one of the Lions Tactial squads. 

Back on turn 2 the Deathwatch Venerable Dreadnought had charged into the other Tactical Squad and that fight continued on into the turn 3. 

The battle is in full swing. 

Having the Contemptor gone the Chaplain and the members of Killteam Neverness continued their focus on the Leviathan. They whittled a few wounds off of it while surviving the hits thrown at them. The guy with the powersword was wounded and yet he was the one who was performing the best. Seems to be luck. Maybe I should've keep these guys with their standard loadout? 

Tarpit tussle!

Turn 3 and the tussle continued. No units were killed in this round, but the Deathwatch whittled down more of their opponents than the Lions did. 

Venerable Dread vs. Lions Tacticals. 

The Terminators were unable to wipe out the Tactical Squad but they did outnumber them which earned them the tie-breaker for Objective Secure. 

The Captain vs the Terminators. 

We decided to end the game at the end of the third turn. It was clear that our units were grid-locked in such a way that the Deathwatch would continue to reap an advantage on objective points. Even if the the Lions had scored some wins with some of the units they were engaged with (I believe they could have), they wouldn't have a way to catch up on points.

And it was getting late and we were tired. So we agreed to call it. Here is how the point broke down: 

• LIONS OF HARLECH: 3
• DEATHWATCH: 7

This is the end of things.  

Now, this was a 'get back into the groove' kind of battle to get Kushial acquainted with the 9th edition rules. It was a good exercise I think and it gave us a measure of what some of these things could do. Looking back on it, Kushial would rather have held back the Leviathan to capitalize on it's shooting capabilities. I felt the same in regard to the Landraider. It was all fun in the end, and it was nice to push little figures around with Kushial again. Hopefully we'll see him and Lions get some more games in. 

In other news, I think we got the whole account issue sorted out and hopefully we'll see some posts from Kushial again soon. 

Until next time, 

-Neverness