DC Loadout

[Cain Tiberius Kondrad]

Hi folks.

 

I know this will have been asked and answered somewhere. But my Search-foo has fallen out with me I think...

 

According to the DC entry in C:BA, every man in the squad may have a Power Weapon, Power Fist or Thunderhammer. While doing this would make the squad inpossibly expensive weapon wise, obviously we would put some in. My question(s) are:-

 

In a 5 man DC squad, how many of these weapons would you take? And what composition?

 

And the same question in a 10 man DC squad?

 

CTK

[Morollan]

5-man squad I take one fist or hammer. In 10-man I also include a power weapon or another fist/hammer.

[JamesI]

5 man, 1 fist or power weapon.

 

10 man, 1 power weapon, 2 fists (or hammers)

[christheodorou]

not much to say really agreed with the above comments,

 

Dont forget when you are charging vehicles, DC come with krak grenades (D6+6) when attacking armour and always striking the rear so the rest of the unit is not redundant

[Mr.darkness]

i put a lot more pW in mine. 2 or 3 in the 5 man and 1 fist. for ten i would have 4 or 5 PW, 2 PF and a chaplain/reclusiarch

[Morollan]

I'm a bit wary of doing that sort of thing due to a) cost and :tu: possibility of wound allocation shenanigans.

[JamesI]

I'm a bit wary of doing that sort of thing due to a) cost and :tu: possibility of wound allocation shenanigans.

Yeah, DC (especially with a chaplain) probably don't need too many power weapons. Helps keep the cost down.

[Liberame]

I personally never put power weapons on my DC, its fist/hammer or nothing. With a chaplain to give them reroll hits and wounds, that is alot of saves the enemy has to make, especially with FC. So after the enemy is reduced to a small few, the fists clean up.

[Morticon]

I run 9 men in a Rhino - 1 Hammer, 1 Fist and 1 Power Weapon. I also have bolters on the hammer/fists and 2 bolters for wound allocation.

[breng77]

I have seen 2 ways really.

 

1.) Smaller squad 5 or 6 guys with all power weapons (takes advantage of high initiative, high strenght PW)

2.) Just a fist or hammer (regardless of squad size), this make the DC basically Khorne Bezerkers with Feel no pain.

 

I would probably lean toward the second option just due to the points cost. What I would never recomend is 1 or 2 Power weapons in a larger squad, DC will put too many wounds on the opponent causing the PWs to get stacked on fewer models.

[Drachnon]

I run the same configuration as Morticon. If you're really starved for points you can turn the hammer into a fist but the hammer is 5 points well spend if not for reducing MC's to initiative 1 its for the wound allocation.

[Morticon]

2.) Just a fist or hammer (regardless of squad size), this make the DC basically Khorne Bezerkers with Feel no pain.

 

8 DC with a fist in Rhino only comes to 235. Thats a STEAL in my books. If you dont have the points, then this is the way to go.

[knife&fork]

Depends on your meta and if you want to include a chaplain or not. I find that that they don't hit hard enough vs MEQ unless you have a few power weapons in there. Even guard units can take a lot of regular attacks if there's a medic in there granting FNP.

 

I've only used them a couple of games since the codex came out so take that as you will.

[breng77]

The issue with only a few PWs (unless you are running a small squad) is that against many squads you will kill maybe 1 additional model due to wound allocation. Lets look at 10 DC with 2 Pws and a fist charging 5 Marines with a sargent and special weapon.

 

The PW (8 attacks, hit 5.33, wound 3.6ish times (so lets say 4), the rest of the squad ( 7 guys) get 28 attacks wound 12.4 (so say 12 times) for a total of 16 I 5 wounds against 5 models (3 wounds per model), A smart player stacks 3 of the PW wounds on the Special weapon (who is likely to die from 3 regular wounds anyway), then Puts 1 PW and 8 regular wounds on the standard marines (which likely kills 3, but so would 9 regular wounds), and then 3 on the sarge (which should kill him), so given the odds you have done no better than you would have regularly for 30 extra points. Against 10 marines you end up a little better (given 3 special wound groups) The 4 PW wounds kill the 2 specialist troops, then Every other model takes saves (11 on regular guys kills 3.6ish) the sarge is likely to live through his own save and you end up with an average of ~6 dead marines. Without PWs against 10 marines you end up about the same as 16 attacks kills an average of 5.33 marines, so you have paid 30 points for about 1 kill more on the charge.

[BA.Rauk]

Personally, my rule of thumb is I put more power weapons in the unit the smaller I keep them. So in a 5 man, I'd actually have 3 power weapons and a fist with a Chaplain. This way I can feel confidant they'll shred whatever it is I throw them at, quicker then my assault squads would. If in a 9 man, I generally run 2 power fists and 2 power weapons with the PF ones having bolters and half of my non special weapon DC having bolters as well and it has proven well for me thus far. It is more expensive to run it the way that I do- but if I'm looking to save points I simply run an assault squad. My motto for the new codex is if I'm going to pay for a shiny unit, I'm going to pay whatever is required to do what it is I'm paying for.

 

 

Now if I were just to add a DC unit into my list to save points and to represent the fluffyness of them? I'd run 5 with a PF and bolters in a rhino and leave it at that.

[SevenExxes]

I've decided to go with a rather ridiculous set up.

 

10DC, 6 power swords, 2 thunderhammers and 2 bolters.

They run with a Reclusiarch toting a combi-melta and they all ride the most expensive Stormraven loadout.

 

Because I can!

[Liberame]

I assume the bolters are on the death company wielding thunderhammers then? Since they can never receive the benefit of getting an extra attack from wielding 2 CCW weapons, they may as well replace their bolt pistol with a bolter

[SevenExxes]

No. I ran out of special weapons.

[knife&fork]

So what do you guys think about running a Librarian with JP DC? The good thing is that you can take a lot of psychic powers to enhance them, the down side would be cost and the fact that the librarian doesn't have furious cage or FNP.

 

Blood boil: Not that interesting, getting a solid wound can be nice but the dc should hit hard enough not having to worry about that.

 

Fear: Can be useful I guess if you need a shooty, low LD unit to run away. Since it can't be used against walkers or vehicles it's use is pretty limited and offers no obvious improvement for the DC.

 

Might: Extra attacks for your model of choice. Another D3 attacks on your PW or fist certainly isn't bad, but sanguine sword just seems better. Can be used to give Lemartes a ton of attacks which is more useful due to his high I. Early wounds are good wounds.

 

Shackle: Similar use as fear. Many LD test means more opportunities to fail, but not very predictable or useful against high LD armies.

 

Shield: While you shouldn't rely on a 5+ save to protect your investment it's still better than no save. There's also the bubble effect which means that a screening unit (like a RAS) could get 5+ while the DC gets 4+.

 

Smite: Meh, if you need more shooting before assault it's going to be of the high S kind anyway.

 

Blood lance: Cheaper than buying inferno pistols, pretty good average range. However, considering it's going to be your only "long range" anti armour in the DC perhaps it's just better to keep the focus on CC.

 

Sword: Fills a nice gap in the DCs combat abilities. Hits hard at I4 which is super useful versus nasty stuff like walkers, nobz and TWC.

 

Rage: Better than Litanies of blood in that it can be used in every assault phase. On the other hand no wound re-rolls and not many things should last several rounds of combat versus the DC.

 

Wings: -

[BA.Rauk]

Whenever I run JP DC, I -always- run Lemartes and a JP Libby with them, using Shield and Might as his power selection. It gives the DC the much needed 5+ cover against the shooting that ignores your FNP and offers up a well deserved boost to Lemartes in combat.

[knife&fork]

Whenever I run JP DC, I -always- run Lemartes and a JP Libby with them, using Shield and Might as his power selection. It gives the DC the much needed 5+ cover against the shooting that ignores your FNP and offers up a well deserved boost to Lemartes in combat.

 

What gear do you put on your DC marines in that config? Seems to me that sword would usually be more useful since you already have quite many PW attacks on Lemmywinks.

[foster]

In the current list I'm working on (haven't play tested it yet) I plan to spend 700pts for 20 DC with jump-packs and no additional wargear, supported by a reclusiarch for extra re-rolls in cc. I don't know what to expect with a unit like this, but I can't wait to find out :D .

[Morollan]

In the current list I'm working on (haven't play tested it yet) I plan to spend 700pts for 20 DC with jump-packs and no additional wargear, supported by a reclusiarch for extra re-rolls in cc. I don't know what to expect with a unit like this, but I can't wait to find out :D .

 

Personally I'd expect your opponent to find something you can't damage and make sure you're spending the entire battle fighting it.

[breng77]

Yeah, 1 AV 13 or 14 target would make you very sad.

[BA.Rauk]

Whenever I run JP DC, I -always- run Lemartes and a JP Libby with them, using Shield and Might as his power selection. It gives the DC the much needed 5+ cover against the shooting that ignores your FNP and offers up a well deserved boost to Lemartes in combat.

 

What gear do you put on your DC marines in that config? Seems to me that sword would usually be more useful since you already have quite many PW attacks on Lemmywinks.

 

I usually run 2 PF and 2 PW in the DC squad setup if 10 man squad. In a 5 man squad I usually run 2 PF. All these are my jump pack configurations, obviously.