Death Company

[Montuhotep]

Quick question - since I love deep striking Land Raiders into people ;) I have been pondering the idea of a 15-strong DC bunged into a Land Raider Crusader.

 

The only thing that puts me off is the horrendous amount of points that could potentially be wiped right off the board in one go. 500 + to be exact.

 

So, is it a case of the more the merrier or should there be a realistic level above which I should not go?

 

Or, indeed, is this a dumb idea and I should drop it entirely?

[Zedrenael]

Well depends on how many points you are playing. A ten man squad is pretty reasonable.

[Brother_Angelus]

The worst part is that your DC won't be able to assault until turn 3 at the earliest, later if your reserve roll doesn't come up.

 

If you're spending 1/3 or 1/4 of your points on a single unit, you want them to make as much of an impact as possible as early as possible.

[ulllyssies0110]

I would test it out in a friendly game with a Land Raider or Redeemer. Than go from there

[Morticon]

You know that if your land raider moves within an inch of an enemy it mishaps, yeah?

 

Waaay too risky if you're striking it.

If you're riding up- all good.

[Brynjolf Irontooth]

Personally I think a landraider should always be deployed immediately.

 

All 3 variant have 1 or more weapons that can be useful from turn 1. Deepstriking such a big model might also not be that easy. I also wouldn't know what's the benefit of deepstriking it compared to deploying it preturn 1. But if you do a locator beacon or 2 might be needed to make this tactic at least a bit reliable.

 

On the DC squad size thing. I already field DC since our first codex (unless you count the one with DA as the first one). First codex, pdf codex, still used them in 5th with our latest codex, and 6th adds no difference. I think though DC are now an option, to me they have always been a 1+ choice.

 

So in 5th I fielded them 5DC (2PW) + Recl in a Razorback. These 6 models (thanks to those rerolls and power weapons) could handle anything. Transport was needed to control their rage.

 

I believe that in 6th these 6 guys would still be just as good (even with an extra attack now on the charge, and no more rage problems) at killing things. They have a bit more trouble with Terminators than before, but with all those attacks and the rerolls (combined with Furious charge and Ws5) terminators will have to take so many saves that these DC are still something they should fear.

On the downside though, their survival skills have dropped. Let me explains this. If you field them in a rhino or razorback (both options I wouldn't recomment anymore), droppod, footslogging, or even with jump packs, they will more than likely receive one turn of shooting. This wouldn't happen in 5th as they would have been in their transport until they charge out. In addition they now receive overwatch as well. These two shooting turns means you might need some extra bodies to make up for the casualties you take from these shots. Next to this, with the loss of the initiative bonus on the charge, I5 enemy models will already kill DC before they can hit back (I'm especially thinking about Daemon Princes, Slaanesh CSM, ...) so also in CC versus these units you'll need even more additional models to make up for possible casualties. Also versus I4 you now will take casualties, while in 5th all those I4 enemy models would have already been dead. This isn't that important for this specific combat (well most of the times, it does matter versus lightning claw termies for example), but will definitely matter in case you'll end up in CC a second time. As now you will have lost another couple models to the previous enemy squad's I4 attacks.

One (partly) solution is ofcourse using an assault vehicle (landraider, stormraven) so you already rule out the extra shooting phase you'll receive the turn before your charge.

But in the end you need a couple more models than in 5th to keep performing.

Also precision shots and attacks (of characters for example) mean your power weapons might already been targetted. So an extra power weapon might be usefull too.

 

Therefor I think that fielding 8 with 3 PW might be the way to go these days. Which power weapons? I'm going for swords now. Swords are good versus everything except 2+ armour save models, but versus these models/units I'm relying on my attacks in numbers (+ especially consideirng the rerolls). As I'm expecting casaulties, I'm not a big fna of taking powerfists and poweraxes, as soon they'll drop to a small squad an then I don't want to hit last. But experience in 6th might change my mind. We'll see.

 

 

Greets,

BI

[SamaNagol]

Give them Axes or Fists. They liquify targets.

 

One squad of 8 in a Drop Pod is a wonderful deterrent lol

[undeadfilth]

I'm toying with a max sized DC unit with bolters marching on foot:P Think that could be a fun unit in my no vehicle foot soldier list. only 600 points too lol:P

[Taranis]

This is purely a gut feeling: No mathhammer or extensive playtesting. Just personal guess work.

 

8 DC with 2 fist and 2 power swords. Add 3 DC per round of shooting to endure. Pod is +1 turn, jump/mech is +2 turns and walking is +3 or 4.

 

So 8 + 12 worst case.

 

My 2 cent. :lol:

[SMcaptainAurelius]

How many is too few?

 

What realistically do you think a squad of five with no upgrades could achieve?

[DominicJ]

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