Angel's Keep: A 40K Dark Angels Blog

 Attending a GT will really give one a chance to get some experience with a list, and I think after Winter Assault and the RTT I attended just before, I can say a few things about the Firestorm Assault Force and make some judgments about what parts of my list worked well and what parts didn't work as well as I'd hoped.  For starters, I'd like to talk about the Firestorm a bit. I think it may be a detachment that requires a higher skill threshold to do well with than some of the other detachments available, such as the Ironstorm, or a Stormlance full of Thunderwolves. My first argument in support of my point is that the Firestorm is a detachment focused on short-ranged firefights, but it doesn't offer any mechanisms for shooting after falling back. That seems like a pretty significant failing for a detachment that wants you to have your units shoot from within 6" of their targets. That obliges you to blank a turn of a unit's offense in order to get them out of t...

 Welcome to my account of my second day at the Winter Assault 2023 GT! If you haven't seen the post about my first day,  you can find it here. Day 2 of Winter Assault had me harboring hopes of going 3-2, or possibly even 4-1, but I knew I was going to have to work for it. Alas it was not to be, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Maybe I should have worn my unicorn socks for luck, but as I wore them the day before, I made do with my Cookie Monster socks instead. My first game was against Peter Melendez' Imperial Guard (or Astra Militarum if you prefer), which was an eminently winnable game, but as I was going up against a 2-1 opponent, I knew it wasn't going to be a walkover. It's not often I play against someone taller than me, but I did this game. Perhaps Peter's superior perspective of the battlefield made the difference in the game! The mission was Scorched Earth, with Dawn of War deployment. I've played Scorched Earth enough to be fairly comfortable with ...

On the weekend of 12/10/2023-12/11/2023, I attended the Winter Assault ITC Major at the Everwinter, an annual gaming convention at the Westin Waltham Hotel in Waltham MA. Close to one hundred players participated, including some top players, such as Brad Chester and Sean Nayden. Yours truly is not nearly the player those gentlemen are, but I do appreciate an opportunity to get in a lot of games in a short period of time, and I like to strive to do honor to the First Legion. So, I put on my unicorn socks, brought my Firestorm Assault Force and dove into the fray. Here's a picture of my army, more nicely staged, and with the multimelta Devastators painted! I'm not losing the Battle Ready points this event! My first game was against Sam Pope's Endless Swarm Tyranid list. The list is well named, because it just keeps throwing 20-strong units of Gargoyles and Gaunts at you. It's not so much designed to kill your stuff as it is to hem in your army and play board control. I ha...

I enjoy attending 40K tournaments when I can fit them into my schedule. I do tabletop RPGs and LARP, so that doesn't tend to be as often as I'd like. I also have a hard time getting in games between events, as I live in a kind of rural area and it generally takes an hour to get to the places where I might seek them out. Also, GTs tend to be a bit of a stretch for me, as they take multiple days and often occasion hotel stays, which is not insignificant money. All that said, an opportunity to get free registration to the Winter Assault ITC Major at the Everwinter in Waltham MA fell into my lap, so I decided to go for it. Winter Assault is a 100 person event, making it easily the biggest I've been to since I went to Battle For Salvation in Nyack NY a couple years ago. I thought I would share my list going into the event and talk a bit about what I'm using and why. My first couple games of 10th edition, I messed around with a Ravenwing heavy list to see if they had much pla...

Edit: Kit got another high placement with this list this past weekend, taking 7th at the Rise of the Empire GT in Houston TX. The list looks unchanged from the one he took first place with at the Iron Cage GT. I'm scrolling through the Meta Monday page, and to my surprise a Dark Angels list took 1rst at a GT this past weekend! Kit Smith Hanna's Dark Angels laid low all who came before them at Iron Cage GT in Bedford Texas. Let's have a look at the list that took the top prize at that 54 person event! +++ Oh is that just a TTS thing (Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition) [1,995pts] +++ ++ Army Roster (Imperium - Adeptus Astartes - Dark Angels) ++ + Configuration + Battle Size: 2. Strike Force (2000 Point limit) Detachment: Ironstorm Spearhead Show/Hide Options: Agents of the Imperium are visible + Epic Hero + Azrael: Lion's Wrath, The Sword of Secrets, Warlord + Character + Ravenwing Talonmaster: Master of the Machine War [Aura], Power weapon, Twin Assault Cannon, Twin heavy bo...

Being a Dark Angels fan, I like to browse Goonhammer's Meta Monday page and see what First Legion lists did well the previous weekend. Today, the first list I noticed was Kyle Lamperez's Ironstorm Spearhead, which placed. with which he placed 4th out of 59 players at the 5-round Feliz Exterminatus in Saint Robert, Missouri. He went 4-1 with this list, scored 80 points on his loss, and his next lowest score was an 88, so clearly there's something to be said for both the list and the skill with which it was played.  Here's the list, copied direct from the Best Coast Pairing entry. iron angels (2000 points) Space Marines Dark Angels Strike Force (2000 points) Ironstorm Spearhead CHARACTERS Azrael (105 points) • Warlord • 1x Lion’s Wrath 1x The Lion Helm 1x The Sword of Secrets Techmarine (95 points) • 1x Forge bolter 1x Grav-pistol 1x Omnissian power axe 1x Servo-arm • Enhancement: Target Augury Web (Aura) Techmarine (75 points) • 1x Forge bolter 1x Grav-pistol 1x Omnissia...