new to DA

[hauk thunder-kraken]

hey all, thinking of starting a DA army, how do they play, whats their main strength(eg cc, shooting ect). any advice accepted

[Tanhausen]

You're so lucky! There is SO much wealth of information!

 

RayJ's Tactica

 

Doing all terminator?

 

Solid RW ideas

Doublewing Ideas

VanSan's Impressive army

Tomevans beautiful models!

 

You're so lucky...

[breng77]

Awww... Tanhausen I'm so flattered you linked my thread for RW ideas :drool:

 

That said, DA are a tough army to play, and their "strengths" tend to be doing things that other codices cannot do.

 

The strongest Builds tend to be

 

Multiple-small unit bikers.

 

Pure Deathwing

 

Doublewing

 

Others have had success with a greenwing list with scoring bikes or termis mixed in. For the most part though at this point if someone is not taking either Belial or Sammiel in some capacity their list seems to be easier to build in another codex.

One of my biggest recomendations would be to get the space marine codex in addition to codex DA (I would actually say that you should get all the power armor codices but that is quite pricey) observe the differences between the 2 codices and this will really help lead you in building a stronger DA army. You really need to leverage what we can do that others cannot (old smoke launchers, first turn termi deep strike, scouting bikes, cheap venerable dreads, special weapons in 5 man tactical squads) , and avoid using lots of units that other codices have access to for cheaper (10 man tactical squads, Assault squads, devistators, razorbacks) That is not to day don't run these units, just that if they are going to be the basis of your army it would be a better idea to look elsewhere. It is not that those types of builds are "bad" it is just that they are better in another codex. That is the main issue in the current codex DA, while we can do what other can do we either do it worse or for more points.

[Tanhausen]

No flattering: hard facts!

 

This might be a big community but, lets face it, 90% of the replies belong to a reduced number of members. That's fine with me and I understand that when someone has read "Why should I play DA" for the umpieth time... you just keep on scrolling. In this case, I actually took the time to look up what I believe are significant threads for the common issues DW have (DW build, RW build, DA tactica and a couple of great painters).

 

In my previous "era" I was lucky enough to read a lot of atra angelus looooooong posts (way too long in my opinion :tu:) and this guy had some solid numbers and thoughts... but he still went back to the key of this game: experience.

 

Belial212, breng77, RayJ and a few others (I'm not good with names, no offense meant if I leave out some of the regular posters) are those who help shaping the current DA meta in this board. Caution: I'm talking gaming wise, not fluff or codex-update wise, where many BnC memebers are making a BIG effort.

 

And if someone gets A LOT of games with a specific build, its normal to consider him/her as a solid build player.

 

I hate quoting my own thread but... it had A LOT of participation and if you read all of it, I think it sums up most of the issues you'll face when dealing with DW. I'm no pro player by ANY standars... but I do know that when I started out this year with pure DW I repeatedly ended in the low 10% of the tournaments and got bashed by an Imperial Fists buddy.

 

10 months later, I finish 7/24 playing my 3rd game in table 2, have efectively run off the table Blood Angels and Plague Marines and have gotten MUCH more confident of what I can and can't do. Heck, I even had a game vs Nids where I lost only 8 terminators to him loosing close to 80 models!

 

Am I a good 40k player? No way, I still have a lot to learn, mainly about OTHER codex. Am I a good DW player? I'd say I'm above average... specially when in my meta-are DW are despised and rarely perform above low 10%.

 

That said, I'm not saying I'm kick ass or that I hold THE truth... but lets face it, this game is actually quite simple:

 

- Pick a codex you like, for whatever reason.

- Get a general idea of the codex.

- Build models/proxy and get GAMES. And don't change the list. Play 3,5,10 games! Find out what the weaknesses are... then tweak with 1 or 2 squads. Get 5 more games. Tweak again. If you change your list completely EVERY SINGLE GAME, there is no way in the world you'll learn how to play your army

 

Final rant: if you want help because you have tried/are trying builds and need advice or (even better) want to share experiences, I'm in.

 

If you're just a net-player, who basically builds lists for fun (which I accept and respect), you'll either get 0 replies or, in the best of cases, a bunch of links of where to look up stuff.

 

Note: all these opinions may not be endorsed by BnC and are solely responsibility of the wrecked mind that signs the post ;)

[breng77]

I do have to agree that there are a select few on the board that give most of the advice. I also agree that a person should not scrap their list each time they play (win or lose). You need a lot of experience against a number of different types of armies and players. The only reason to scrap a list is that you just are not enjoying playing the list at all. In my won case I started off as a DW player, and I won a lot early (against other new players), as I moved into the tournament environment I began to find the weaknesses in my list and I lost... a lot. I actually moved over to ravenwing not because i did not like the DW, but because I had aquired the models and was going to play in a team tourney with 1k points per player (not enough for DW) so I played RW had success and enjoyed the list. After that I went back to playing DW, played a little better than 50% wins (lots of close losses) as I learned more about the army. Then I went to a 1250 tourney, and decided to take my RW and again did well. Over time I just found that the speed of RW played into my style of play better than DW was (I still have my DW and play them occasionally) and I have since set out to perfecting my play with my RW list.