Dark Angels Mk.II - Ravenwing & A Little Deathwing

Table top::most of new army
Table below: so many more bits to add!

Hi All,

I'm finally getting back into the hobby swing of things here at the Grotto. After my 'quick' Deathwing project ground to a halt over the last couple of months I've finally had another couple of games.

Getting the dice back rolling is always a good boost to anything gathering dust on the work bench.

With a mixed bag of results under my belt from the Deathwing I'd built up it's time to take a step back and see what I can change with plenty of time before ToS rolls round in November.  

The gist of it is - add more bikes!

After the break check out where I'm at with a few conversions and general plans...



So, why did the Deathwing fail? Here's the list:

Belial
10 Deathwing, cyclone, assault cannon 2 chainfist
5 Deathwing, cyclone, chainfist
5 Deathwing, assault cannon, chainfist
3 Ravenwing, plasa gun, melta attack bike
3 Ravenwing, plasa gun, melta attack bike

I think that was all of it. So where did it go wrong?

I played Tau.

Or t-OW! as I like to call them now. It's one of those match ups that'll always hurt the DW. I was pretty much tabled both games turn three. I also played my friends Chaos Marines with Daemon allies. That ended a very close draw after we rolled and the game ended turn 5, here's what was left on the table:

Yep, that's one Terminator about to face down a Maulerfiend, Plague Marines,
Havocs and two rhinos (Forgefiend is dead).

Luckily (I'd say tactically) that one man held Linebreaker! Oh yeah. Emperors finest right there.

The biggest let down? Belial failing to kill 5 Fire Warriors over multiple rounds of combat. He's out of the new list. Fool.

Three versions of the same pussy Awesome Hero of the Imperium

So the bikes were sleeper highlights of both Tau games, despite me not using them too well. So, with Belial out, in comes Sammael:

Quite chuffed with this conversion.

The new list will look something like:

Sammael
5 Ravenwing Command Sqd (maybe RW banner)
6 Ravenwing, 2 flamers, melta attack bike
6 Ravenwing, 2 plasma, melta attack bike
10 Deathwing, cyclone, assault cannon, 2 chainfist
Ravenwing Darkshroud

It's not a million miles from my other army - still has terminators (love the models, fluff etc) and is still nicely themed around the scouting force. I could optimise it without the DW and adding in more bikes or Knights but that's a) boring net list and b) requires shopping.

I did go out and buy a battleforce and the Darkshroud. Which leads me nicely to the next conversion photo - I HATE the Darkshroud forward turret. Hate it.

First plan was to keep the ornate bits but it was still very chunky.

Here's where we're at now having trimmed the uprights to make it into a
self contained mini turret. I like this but not the cupola - it's too
detailed compared to the rest of the model.

That's about where I'm up to. As I mentioned earlier I still have over two months so I'm really hoping I can have these looking good for the weekend of ToS, especially given the pretty simple RW scheme (black and black and black and maybe some red). I also have the week before the event off so I'm hoping I can turn up with a cool army. I have some quite interesting conversions planned for, at least, the flamers, an attack bike, a plasma gunner and a regular guy.

I'll update this soon once I've chopped stuff up!