How to beat Deathwing?

[Stargazer]

As the title suggests how do you beat deathwing bear in mind that my army contains 5 drop pods and i don't really want to change that so its just more about tactics than army build

 

Thanks in advance

[Droma]

Massed fire, massed CC, or highly specialized CC. Counter terminators with terminators also works. I play deathwing and you just need to make them roll a lot of saves. They are 2+ but they are as easy to wound as a normal marine.

[robdark1]

also force your able body deathwing playing into making deep stike mistake by being to close to the table edge or near other unit when he start his turn. the other would be isolate at least two unit a turn and shoot the crap of them, after that assault i you have the ability...

[Sunderheart]

In a game on kill points:

 

As said before: Massed fire, many dice. However: Watch your distances. Deathwings strength of mixed weaponry inside his Terminator-Squads could also be he weakness, when regarding ranged combat, meaning you might face only 2-3 actual stormbolters/launchers/flamers. Be advised, however, that once it comes to close-combat he WILL most likely mob the floor with you.

 

In a game of taking and holding objectives:

 

Reactive strategies can work (no guarantee though) - meaning you let him drop somewhere on the field and try to bring your reserves later, so you will have a positioning advantage, allowing you the aforementioned massed fire. If you field a lot of drop-pods, use them to contest objectives, if possible. That would mean, your opponent will have to divert a fraction of his power to disposing an Armor-12-Stormbolter. This fraction WILL hurt him, since he usually has only 4-5 Terminator squads plus support (usually cybots and tanks). For reactive strategies I would suggest taking Tigurius, because although he is a 230-points-hole in your army, that is most likely not going to last 2 salvoes of fire, he allows you to reroll reserve-throws, gives you the ability to teleport a squad he is attached to and has the very potent (and extremely dangerous for himself) Vortex of doooooom. Granted you hit a freshly shocked Terminator-squad full square, they are most likely toast.

 

Things that work well, if you really have to stop him the painful way:

- Terminator squads with shield/hammer

- Command Squad with meltas, stormshields and power weapons (though damn expensive)

- Van-Guards with honor-blades, granted you have a beacon (not teleport beacon mind you) to get them right into the fray, intervening heroically.

- Stern-Guards with Combi-meltas, meltas or multimeltas (although they tend to be one-hit-wonders, since effective range for meltas is 12 inch; you are bound to get charged next round)

- substitute the word "melta" with Plasmagun in all of the above

- Plasma-Cannons tend to work nicely against freshly deployed Terminator-Squads.

- Devastators with Las-Cannons can work, but are not advisable, due to incredbly high cost and the fact, that they are most likely stationary.

 

Final word: However good this all may sound, you will still have a damn hard time, since a terminator squad, that is determined and willing to hold any objective is quite capable of doing so. I am currently working on a strategy using 2-3 land speeder storms, trying to hamper the shock-abilities of the deathwing. I'll let you know, what happened (most likely next wednesday).

[Seraph1320]

I've found, playing terminators in every list i come up wth, that i am almost always the most worried about bolter fire. Force the armor saves and as many of them as you can. Terminator squads are generally small, and those 1's that come up hurt A LOT.

 

I play against a dark eldar force that can almost wipe the floor with me every time, because he has soo many guns!

 

And always remember you can voluntarily fail your morale check if they do get into combat, presuming a special character didnt change out your chapter tactics. Fall back, and shoot, fall back and shoot!

[Mal]

HERESY!!! BURN THE HERETIC!!!

 

You shouldn't fight against the DeathWing, you should bow and let them do what they will!!!

 

Lol :P

 

Seriously though... massed plasma = dead termies

[Sunderheart]

Okay, I got murdered...forget about Land-Speeder Storms, I'd say. 6 inch radius is too damn small. If you send the speeder alone, he drops somewhere outside the effect and shoots you down, if you send escorts with the speeder, he cannot even enter the effect zone. And transporting scouts is nice, albeit uneffective if you want to hamper his shock-abilities.

[PrivateLucky]

Against deathwing terminators do what i do, massed genestealers out of drop pods.

 

OR

 

You can try my tactic of 3 sternguard units in drop pods each with a sarge w/ Powerfist and 9 have combi meltas

[Mal]

Against deathwing terminators do what i do, massed genestealers out of drop pods.

 

While this would be a great tactic... there are a couple of issues...

 

A unit cannot make an assault move on the turn it arrived.

 

Ok, lets discount this rule....

 

A unit cannot assault out of a vehicle unless it is open topped or is an assault vehicle (vehicle subrule), the drop pod is neither.

 

Ok, lets discount this rule too....

 

Genestealers cannot have drop pods.... ever.

[greatcrusade08]

Against deathwing terminators do what i do, massed genestealers out of drop pods.

 

Yeah someones got some pretty strange house-rules....

 

Wow look at my gretchin, hes got twin lightening claws :tu:

 

To kill terminator armies, take plasma cannons and lots of special weapons....

 

GC08

[Brother Veritas]

Although some may suggest massed bolter fire, I have not so fond memories of my last game vs Deathwing. My opponent made 87 armor saves during the game and failed not a one. On the other hand, his Dreadnoughts and Land Raiders were smoking craters at game's end, but it's hard to win when your enemy doesn't fail a single save.

[night walker]

take assault sqauds you strike first and if you dont kill them well its no longer an issue at that point cuz you can then shot at them with your devastators

[Wrath Angel]

As a DW player myself, I have alot of fear of meltas and plasma, if you can take them, use them. Also concentrate firepower on one unit at a time. Mathhammer says that 1 of every 6 wounds will fail a save, so if firing at a group of terminators with marines using rapid fire weapons (not counting the hopefully 2 shots of plasma or one of melta), you should hit with 8-9 shots for 4-5 wounds, meaning, probably one dead terminator per full strength unit firing, plus another dead terminator or two from your special weapons. At least that's what I tend to deal with. Once you have wittled them down to 2-3 models, engage them in hand to hand, if you have power weapons use them, the termies will die or will be tangled in hand to hand for multiple rounds reducing their effectiveness.

 

The other key is to reduce their mobility, so concentrate anti-tank firepower on those landraiders. If you destroy or immobilise them, great, if not leave them alone after they have dropped off their payload.

 

Overall, the key is to make him take a massive number of saves and focus special weapons on them as much as possible and assault once you have them wittled down.

[Reclusiarch Darius]

I've got a solution that works pretty well against Daemons as well;

 

Inquisitor Lord, psycannon

2 x heavy bolter servitors, plasma cannon

2 x Sages, 2 x Mystics, 2 x Acolytes w/artificer armour

(248 points)

 

Costs about the same as 1 x Deathwing squad, but when paired with Vindicators or plasma-cannon Devastators, can be an amazing force-multiplier. I know the heavy bolters and psycannon seem odd (given your opponent has universal 2+ saves or T5 3+ cover Ravenwing help), but they help in forcing saves (which, aside from AP2/1, is what kills Terminators). Between the Lord and the HB servitors, you have about an 80% likelyhood of killing a Terminator (which, with some more wounds piled on from Sternguard etc, helps in dropping the stragglers who survived your plasma cannon barrage).

 

As your mandatory HQ;

 

Epistolary, bolt pistol, force weapon, 'Null Zone' and 'Smite'

(150 points)

 

Attach him to the Lord squad or a plasma-Dev team, to give them a bit more punch (not only are you detecting then blasting them on arrival with blast of AP2, you're also forcing re-rolls to their mediocre 5+ invul saves). If the Deathwing get close (which is what the assault-orientated Belial retinue will be doing, given they get the Banner bonus), 'Smite' gives you a bit more AP2. Against Deathwing fire, you have the artificer Acolytes; DW do not have anything better than AP3 (their cyclones) in the squads; they need Ravenwing or Dreadnought support to get AP2/1. The artificer Acolytes, Lord and Libby all pack excellent armour saves and thus can absorb a lot of incoming damage.

 

 

The rest of the army list is really up to you. Plasma-cannon Devastators (to camp with the Inquisitor) and Vindicators will be neccessary; I would also consider taking some Bikers with meltaguns/Attack Bikers with multi-meltas to take out his Dreadnought and Landraider support (intelligent DW players usually include some, to make up for the lack of true anti-tank and AP2 of the DW squads). The Lord should force him to either deploy normally (thus denying him the excellent 'Deathwing Assault' ability), or at least Deepstrike conservatively (ie a good 30" away from the Lord firebase, to prevent scattering too far into Mystic range). He's still likely to be in range to hose you down with massed bolter, frag/krak missiles and assault cannon, but you get some breathing space before he hits your lines (Deathwing in close-combat are slow but deadly). Concentrate on his Deathwing squads if you can, you can largely leave the Dreadnoughts and Landraiders alone (or send the Bikers after them with melta weaponry).

 

Keep an eye out for Ravenwing support. They are the alpha to the Deathwing's omega; while the Deathwing are rock-hard shock troops (try to kill the Belial command squad Apothecary, he makes Deathwing insanely tough) that focus on unloading boat-loads of anti-infantry fire (with some mild anti-tank with cyclones and AC's), Ravenwing provide ultra-fast reasonably tough troops that can bring meltaguns and plasma guns to counter specific threats (ie taking out tanks/MC's/other heavy infantry).

 

If it's a pure Deathwing list, you're life is made easier. It's still a competitive and challenging force to face, but the 'Double-Wing' army is twice as difficult to deal with. You're AP2 fire support is attacked by the ever-moving Ravenwing (either head-on or by Outflanking), while the Deathwing walk through your normal firepower stoically, laying down their own volleys before mushing your basic Troops in combat effortlessly (hidden powerfists will claim a few but you'll still lose) and taking the objectives.

[lordsloth]

1 plasma, melta

 

2 anything with rending

 

3 power weapons at initiative (against non-CC termies)

 

4 massed bolters (especially in the hands of battle sisters)

 

5 chaos terminators (combines 1 and 3 with the same armor and deepstrike abilities for 5 pts less. Mark of slaanesh to make it really hurt)