Target Prioritisation: Balancing effectiveness and fluffiness

Time to venture into the Vault once again! As the year draws to a close, I'm starting to think about that glorious Christmas holiday break and the opportunity to indulge in some serious hobby time. I've decided that I'm going to start a new army from scratch for next year's Mayhem tournament rather than just adding a unit or two to an existing force, and the holiday will be a great time to get cracking on modelling and painting.

Choosing an army to build, paint and play is one of the high points of the hobby for me (and probably explains why I butterfly between projects so often!), and I am always torn between effectiveness (how well an army competes on the table top), and fluffiness/attractiveness (how true to the background / how good does the army look on the table top).

Lets explore this a little bit further through the Space Marines of the Death Watch.

The Emperor's Elite Xeno Hunters

The Death Watch are the military forces of the Ordos Xenos; elite Space Marine Veterans drawn from the various Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, formed into Kill Teams and sent to destroy alien threats.

The fluff for these guys are amazing; the best of the best, baddest of the bad, tooled up with the finest weaponry the Imperium has to offer and sent into battle to terminate with extreme prejudice!

I've enjoyed the background and imagery of this faction for years, and when they received their own Codex last edition I jumped in and started collecting and modelling a force. And they are a hobbyist's dream; allowing you to mix imagery from different Chapters  

Ultra Marines & Space Wolves

And throw in bits from other kits:

The infamous kneeling Devestator legs!

And their other units like Bikers, Vanguard Veterans, and Terminators get loads of cool options and upgrades. Take Brother Timmy the Termy here:

Missile Pod nicked from the Imperial Guard Bitz Box

And finally the Kill Teams get to hit the battle field in the sweetest of rides, like Land Raiders: 

Land Raider Crusader: Sooo much Dakka!

And their trademark vehicle, the Corvus Blackstar flyer:

Flies, also packs much, much Dakka!

I've had a lot of fun assembling the army, even going so far as to research the Space Marine Chapters played by friends, club members and local GW staffers, and building members of Kill Teams accordingly (may be I'll list those in another post).

The result of all this is a compact force; all the toys cost a lot of points, and with a standard Death Watch trooper weighing in at nearly 20 points, you do not got a lot of men on the table top.

Armies for the Mayhem Tournament are built at 1250 points, and my Death Watch force for today's "Mayhem practice" game comprised a very elite:

• Captain
• 10 Veteran Kill Team
• 10 Veteran Kill Team
• Land Raider Crusader
• Land Raider Crusader

As I discovered today, the army is very killy (the Special Issue Ammunition rule, and their Frag Cannons are really good), however the army is fragile (they are still only Space Marines), and more importantly lacks the units and speed for board control and movement. All of which are really important for the Mayhem missions.

We can look at some of these elements in play from today's game where the Death Watch took on the Sisters of Battle.

Death Watch deployment: covering one corner, near a couple of objectives:

And compare the Sisters of Battle deployment:  First up two squads of Retributor Heavy Bolter Sisters, lined up opposite my corner. Two units of Dominion Melta sisters in transports get ready to hurt the tanks!

I don't have a decent picture of the middle deployment, but to the right hand side of the large square building are a unit of Seraphim, and Celestine with her bodyguard.

To the far right Battle Sister squads, including a transport are ready to move onto the central and right hand objectives:

The Dominion squads use Scout moves in their Immolators, the Seraphim and Celestine get bonus movement via Acts of Faith, and I'm staring at 8 melta guns (6 at half range), 4 fusion pistols and a very choppy Saint at the end of turn 1.  The Immolators are moving 24 + 2d6" in their first turn (scout plus regular moves), and still get to fire their assault flamers.  The jump pack equipped troops are moving 24", with an optional 2d6" assault as well. Very quick!

Ouch!

My opponent makes some canny pile in and consolidation moves in the assault phase, and I'm barely lucky to have the space to disembark my Veterans in my next turn.

My return fire and assault removes the immediate threats, but the Sisters quickly redeploy units from the mid field and right hand side to reinforce their advance.

Whilst still leaving a Sisters Troop squad to camp the far objective. 

My luck failed on the 3rd turn, having taken out the first attack wave, killing Celestine once, and almost killing her again after she re-spawned, but ultimately a set of bad dice rolls sees my beleaguered forces sent packing from the battle field!

The Death Watch are a lot of fun to play, but I think are ultimately too expensive model wise to play competitively at a tournament, especially at a comparatively low point level. Don't despair, the Ordo Xenos will be seeing the table top in Open or Narrative play; Kanan and I are planning a narrative game involving them and his Dark Angels soon, so they will return to the Vault!

   

So what am I planning to take to Mayhem? I'll leave that as a surprise for a future post, but suffice it to say I'm hoping it will be tough enough to take me to the upper tables and look good whilst doing it!  I'll leave you with a clue though; "Badab Wars".