Water Style Deathwing

[TyrionTheImp]

I've been reading some of the things about the "Way of the Water Warrior" and how Deathwing are the perfect army for it, but there's no Water style Deathwing army lists posted and I haven't seen any discussions about this topic in the Dark Angel forums anywhere. For being "the best army" for it, why is there a lack of discussion, or is it the way we naturally play Deathwing inherently Water style?

 

Perhaps my search-fu has been failing, or maybe it's not viable anymore in modern games, but if anyone can link to some good reads about Deathwing Specific Water Tactics I'd love it. If none exist then perhaps we could open up a discussion on the topic?

[warpstorm]

I don't think DeathWing is neccessarily the best army for Water Tactics, but that's the army I have, and I've been working on using Water Tactics with them.

 

I've been using 2 squads of Terminators: Sgt, 3xSB/PF, 1xAssaultCannon/PF, each in a standard LandRaider and a pair of Venerable Dreads with DCCW/Assault Cannon.

 

I gave Belial a storm shield (even though ours aren't as good as the standard) and a thunderhammer to help against really big nasties.

 

I've found that I have to fight my instinct (long-time Tyranid player) to keep my army together. They work way better when allowed to work on their own. (Also when allowed to die on their own so the others may live.)

 

I haven't had a chance to get in more than a couple of games, and so far I find it easier to do on paper than on the tabletop, but I believe it's got great potential.

[Deathwing]

If you're referring to the Water tactics article written by the the daemonhunter player here on the B&C then I'd say that his experiences would be the best to read. We function similarly in that we are a small elite army who ride around in land raiders (or at least can).

 

From what I understand, the water warrior style is not any particular list. It's just basically your army reacting to your opponent's army. Any army can do it, but others can do it better and Deathwing armies are one of the latter. The ability to move, shoot & assault (all in the same turn) is what allows the Deathwing to use this strategy better than say an imperial guard gun-line.

 

Any pure Deathwing list (terminators, dreads & land raiders) should work with the water warrior style of play and one reason it might not be discussed here often is that there are already a bunch of water warrior articles written elsewhere on the B&C (there was a discussion on the elemental styles in the Tactics forum a few months back if I recall correctly)

[RayJ]

I have been playing a "Water Warrior" Deathwing list for a couple of months now. I took one such list to the preliminary event for 'Ard Boyz and earned myself a 4th place finish (1 point shy of 3rd). I have the fortunate opportunity of advancing to this week's semi-final round because one of the top 3 from my event couldn't make it, so I am running a slightly modified version of the same list.

 

I have two other tournaments this month (next weekend and the one after) each playing at 2000 points, and I will be playing a very similar list in those events as well. I have posted a few articles on the DA Codex on my blog so far, and I'm about to expand that a bit. I will be putting up reports from at least some of my games over the next 3 weeks, but it is unlikely I will get to them all. I will try to put some emphasis on the decisions behind some of my movement and attack choices so you can see this in action.

 

Deathwing needs to mechanize to play the water warrior role very well. The traditional "double wing" list would be closer to a fire style army, though it can also play the water role very well. What going mech does for you is gives you the ability to operate at longer ranges, emphasizing the ability to change your goal and tactics as you go. When operating with the typical deathwing armament, one is limited to 24 inches, almost forcing certain decisions based on operating range. The addition of godhammer land raiders and fire support dreadnoughts gives you the ability to redirect your firepower in one direction while redirecting your models in a completely different direction. Think of backpeddling, but in any direction necessary.

 

Bikes can work in a very water role since their speed makes up for their lack of range a little bit, but I feel ravenwing isn't quite able to be versatile enough to redirect shots properly. The land speeder, attack bike, and plasma gunners will give you these abilities, but at a huge cost premium and without the right amount of durability. Again, RW will push the army towards a fire role (as the Deathwing half lacks the ability to stay mobile enough for most air strategies)

 

I'm sure, with a bit more expansion from the other members we can drum up at least a little more Water style advice. Also, your your full water-style wonder, be sure to watch Aang and Katara in The Last Airbender in just a few more weeks :). If that movie is even half as good as the tv show it is based on, it's gonna be the best movie of the summer.

[warpstorm]

Good points about RavenWing. I am planning on adding a squadron or two of RW bikes to my list as I go up in point values. You are correct that RW would lean more toward Fire or Air, but DW can't keep up for the Air part. My plan is to have mostly DW, with just a bit of RavenWing.

 

Agreed with the above post as far as I don't know that we really need a separate Water topic specific to DW, but I suppose if enough of us are around and interested in talking about it, it'll happen organically. :P