Space Sharks (Deathwing) 1000 pt for 6th Edition

     The FLGS had its first 6th edition even for 1000 pts. I decided to let the Space Sharks swim since they are my only fully painted army. We had 16 players show up and we had 3 rounds of play to allow us to grow used to the changes.

HQ

• Beliel - Master of the Deathwing
  Twin Lightning Claws
• Librarian
  • Terminator Armour
    Storm Bolter

Troops

• Deathwing Command Squad (Troops)
  Deathwing Apothocary, 4x Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
  • Sergeant
    Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
• Deathwing Terminator Squad (Troops)
  Cyclone Missile Launcher, Storm Bolter and Chainfist, 3x Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
  • Sergeant
    Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
• Deathwing Terminator Squad (Troops)
  Cyclone Missile Launcher, Storm Bolter and Chainfist, 3x Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
  • Sergeant
    Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield

1000 points on the dot. I could substitute the Librarian for a squad of 3 bikes with 2 melta, but I am happy that I stuck with the Libby. Prescience rerolls are no joke.

Round 1 - Dark Eldar - 3 Objectives - Crushing Loss
Round 2 - Jumper Blood Angels - 2 Objectives - Crushing Victory
Round 3 - 2 Tervigon, Trygon Nids - Killpoints Hammer and Anvil - Crushing Victory

Props
- The Librarian with the Divination signature spell was more useful than originally thought. Re-rolling Thunder hammers can be huge on the Command squad.
- Hammer and Anvil allowed me to kill a Trygon with Cyclone shots before it could get into combat. Again, rerolls from Divination's Prescience helped immensely.
- My opponents being great and fun
- Mysterious Objectives aren't game breaking at all. The Exploding one was rolled twice and didn't kill a single model in either my or my opponents armies.
- Getting Best Overall! Very unexpected after being crushed Game 1.

Slops
- Round 1 - my command squad deepstriked and scattered 9 inches into a unit of Pathfinders. I rolled a "1" on the Deepstrike Mishap table. Fuuuuuuuu.........Bye-Bye 515 points before the game even begins. By the graces of Odin, I wasn't tabled as I had one Terminator on the field, Captain Ahab the Sargent.

In the end, I won Best Overall and got to take home a sweet medal. Many players loved the Space Sharks and they won Best Painted as well, but one player cannot win multiple categories. The love needs to be shared around. My medal is the gold. My partner-in-crime got Sportsmanship and $20.

The final standings. It's me at the top. Tyler Watts. Gigawatts. Easy right?

I didn't get battle pictures, so here are glamor shots of the sharks.

The butt-kicking Command Squad minus Librarian Dhalsim.

Apothecary bit from Fabius Bile.

Here is the famous Captain Ahab, who has solely survived Tyranids and Dark Eldar now.

\

Squad markings allow me to tell which unit is which with minimal distraction to the base rim.

No army is complete without custom objective markers. A simple finishing touch.

Next tournament is 1500 in a month, so I need to decide to bring more Space Sharks, Kan Wall orks, or Shooty Tyranids. The choices.....

Class Dismissed.

1750 Sharks Fin: Game 1 - Space Wolves

     Game 1 was versus Space Wolves. It was table corners and 3 objectives. It is always scary to play corners with objectives because it is easy to get put in a bad spot, if you place the objectives incorrectly.

His list
Ulric
Rune Priest w/ Living Lightning and Murderous Hurricane
Rhino w/ 9 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer and Plasma Pistol
Rhino w/ 9 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer and ??? (Never got out of its Rhino)
10 Grey Hunters on Foot
Land Raider Crusader w/ 10 TH/SS Wolf Guard Terminators
1 Lone Wolf TH/SS w/ 2 Fenrisian Wolves

     I won the roll off, so I picked the Table corner. I placed chose to place 5 Deathwing in reserve for Deathwing Assault and the 2 Attack Bikes in normal reserves. I deployed the bikes with plans to Scout into cover (shown by the arrows). I mainly wanted the bikes to allow me to deepstrike on top of 2 of the objectives Turn 1, and to help pop that Land Raider.

     I attempted to use Battlescribe to create a battlereport, but it is weak sauce for 40k. The program would be perfect for Warhammer Fantasy, but it is too fiddly for 40k units.

     I think that I played this game well, but I may have drawn if the game didn't end on Turn 5 because his 10 TH/SS were chipping away at my 5 man squads to get at the Eastern objective. It was odd being at the mercy of the TH/SS termies, very eye opening for me. I definitely do not have the volley of fire or attacks to take them down.

     Props
-  Putting the attack bikes in reserves, not Outflanking. The zoomed up and blew up the LR. Amazing because I always roll '1s' for melta to hit.
-  Deathwing Assault. I love deepstriking. It keeps the game interesting and opens the board up.
- Teleport Homers. I have to pay a chunk of points for easy kill points, but the bikers compliment  the termies like Fish and Chips. Also, they are a huge threat to opponents, so they tend to take the heat from shooting off the termie squads.

     Slops
- Belial: Somebody buy this guy an Invuln save...His best stat is his Initiative, so I don't want to use TH/SS. Also, I love using the FW Tyberos model for him. That model inspired this army.

    Closing: The game was fun and it started off solidly in my favor, but extra turns would have made it a MUCH different story. Space Marine armies (Not Razorback spam) are my favorite to fight because they usually don't have the volume of shots to put down 20+ TH/SS terminators.

Space Sharks Terminators: Gettin' Jawesome

     I like to imagine the Space Sharks as a fleet based chapter out on the edges of universe kicking Xenos bootay. They take the fight to the enemies of the Emperor. I also wanted them to look feral or tribal, with a Polynesian influence. Thus, I got the idea from StillFrosty at White Scars Blog to incorporate Ork bits on them. I also have to give props to Sons of Taurus for motivating me to finish this army and giving me the cheeky name, The Sharkfin a.k.a. Deathwing.

      The red head stripe really makes the model *pop*. Before they just looked like a grey/black unpainted blob. I got the stripe idea from the Rogue Trader paint scheme. Plus, my wife approved of it while watching Dexter. The serial killer, not the boy genius.

     Personally, I love the chubby Space Shark chapter badge and I am half-way tempted to use it over the Carcharodon one.

    Notice the bayonet that I placed on the end of the stormbolter. I wish that I had the cool FW chainsaw ones, but the ork bit is suitable.

     Tyberos model gave me the idea that there should be chainblades all over the army. Iron Chef Ingredient: CHAINSAWS! I imagine that the Sharks could use them for boarding actions onto Space Hulks and such. Plus, the image that they paint in my head is gruesome and brutal, very shark-esque.

     I like the pose on this chap.

      I cut Ork Choppas (the ones not attached to hands) in order to make "fins" to place on some of their backs. The Hammer is from Maxmini. Early on while collecting this army, I was looking for cheaper TH/SS, so I picked a set of those up for the Command Squad.

      I HATED painting white on the Apothecary. His needle is from a friend that had an extra Fabius Bile bit. The syringe is full of magical FNP sauce, which is obvious green. Duh.

     A W.I.P. Shark Sargent, I am using a Ogre gut plate as a "jaw shield" to work in more Shark iconography. The hammer head is a dwarf bit that I chopped up a bit that happened to look shark-ey.

     Tyberos had to get his head stripe to fit in with the rest of the squad. I am enjoying trying little bits of freehand to learn new skills. The army revamp is driven by my need for people to see that I am playing Space Sharks. Many people thought I was playing Space Wolves due to the blog of grey. Unacceptable, as goofy as they are, the fins and other gubbins will make it much easier to identify my Chapter. It was either this or splash blood effects on everybody.
     I love this army MUCH more now and I took up the mantra that I am making this army for me, not others, so I need to have fun with them. This is looking to be my first finished 40k army.

Space Shark Terminators - Knock...Knock...Land Shark

     Space Sharks were the first Space Marines that got me into 40k back in 2008. I love terminator armor, deep striking, and dreadnoughts, so they are a perfect match to my tastes. Forgeworld's release of Tyberos the Red Wake forced me pony up to make a Deathwing army.

      I picture them as an isolated fleet-based army out on the edge of the known galaxy tearing up heretics and Xenos with chainsaws. My Iron Chef ingredients are Polynesian themes since they admired sharks and chainblades ala Tyberos. I decided that every squad must have a chainfist for my shark fluff. I imagine them tearing through the bulkheads of space hulks to assault in a surprise attack.

     I converted this model up on a whim a few nights ago to pass some time. Oh, look I have some dreadnought leg armor those look sort of like some Pre-Heresy-esque shoulder pads. Hello, Mr. Big Choppa meet my friend the thunder hammer. Challenge: How many skulls can I fit on this guy before he starts worshiping Khorne? I plan on running this guy as a psuedo-bodyguard to Tyberos(Belial) in the Command Squad or as Belial if I want to run TH/SS, which I don't see ever happening. Maybe at 1000 and below, I would run TH/SS Belial due to a dangerously low model count. Belial's best stat is his initiative in my playtesting.

     My Space Sharks just looked like grey Deathwing, so I decided to add more shark-y bits. Thus, the Ogre gut plate as a "Jaw-Shield" and the...Maw-hammer? Tsunami-Hammer? I don't know a name yet. Space Sharks are out in deep space, so this thunder hammer is meant to look ragtag. It is a Power weapon arm with a big choppa staff topped with a Dwarf Command sprue bit. A dragon? I shaved off the back fins of the "dragon", so that the singular fin would look like a shark's dorsal fin.

     I am a bit bored with my paint scheme. The FW scheme is all grey and black. I tried to splash some red in to jazz it up, but it is still boring to look at. Maybe basing and finishing touches will improve it? Add ridiculous amounts of blood effects on all weaponry?