Death Company Allies

[Jarl Deathwolf]

Hi. I'm Jarl Deathwolf, from the Space Wolves. I'm in the process of getting things together to make a pack of 13th Company Wulfen, which will be represented by the Blood Angels Death Company. As I have no idea whatsoever as to what works with the Blood Angels (never even faced them before, though I do have the codex), and I don't want to waste more time and money than I have to, I want to get the squad right the first time around.

 

How is a well-balanced Death Company armed (# of power axes, fists, swords, etc.)? How many models is the optimal number? Who should they be lead by (the compulsory HQ has to somewhere...)?

 

Can you help me out?

 

-JDW

[Snejk]

Can't speak for the optimal number, but probably between five and ten. You can have up to 30. The minimal number is three.

The basic DC Marine has Relentless and Furious Charge as two of their special rules, and you can add power weapons, fists or hammers to all of them if you wish. Replacing their Bolt pistols and CCW. Keeping the Bolter.

 

And in my opinion they should be lead by DC Tycho. Just for the hell of it.

 

As for tactics I can't help you since I have just started my own Flesh Eaters army and have not lost my BA cherry yet.

[MrSocks]

Can't speak for the optimal number, but probably between five and ten. You can have up to 30. The minimal number is three.

The basic DC Marine has Relentless and Furious Charge as two of their special rules, and you can add power weapons, fists or hammers to all of them if you wish. Replacing their Bolt pistols and CCW. Keeping the Bolter.

 

And in my opinion they should be lead by DC Tycho. Just for the hell of it.

 

As for tactics I can't help you since I have just started my own Flesh Eaters army and have not lost my BA cherry yet.

 

Death Company Tycho isn't an independent character and therefore can't join DC, I really wish he could because it would make him far far far far better ( and would make sense!)

 

I agree 5-10, lead by a chaplain which gives them rerolls to hit and wound in the first round of combat. I usually use 5 with bolters (1 with a powerfist) and 5 with CCW and Bolt Pistols (1 with power sword/axe) to make the most of the fact people can't challenge them and they can cut through basically any squad they come up against. I used to use this in a LR Redeemer in my mechanised/armoured list. Now I run them in a stormraven with a few less bodies but with a death company dreadnought (purely for entertainment purposes)

 

Edit: I used them as a pinprick to the heart of the enemy force which distracts the opponent enough (and kills enough) that it allows my other units to move in and engage without threat of retalition.

[Snejk]

Can't speak for the optimal number, but probably between five and ten. You can have up to 30. The minimal number is three.

The basic DC Marine has Relentless and Furious Charge as two of their special rules, and you can add power weapons, fists or hammers to all of them if you wish. Replacing their Bolt pistols and CCW. Keeping the Bolter.

And in my opinion they should be lead by DC Tycho. Just for the hell of it.

As for tactics I can't help you since I have just started my own Flesh Eaters army and have not lost my BA cherry yet.

Death Company Tycho isn't an independent character and therefore can't join DC, I really wish he could because it would make him far far far far better ( and would make sense!)

The outrage! You are absolutely correct. What good is he if he can't join a DC???

My nerd rage knows no bounds.

[DominicJ]

Depends what you need.

Ten with bolters and a fist are a good late game surprise, hold them mid table, bolter until turn four and then throw them into an objective, a close combat, or whatever.

 

15 with a chaplin in a crusader wrecks anything, but it expensive as hell.

[MrSocks]

The outrage! You are absolutely correct. What good is he if he can't join a DC???

My nerd rage knows no bounds.

I know

I used to run him purely for lols, it was always entertaining

[Jarl Deathwolf]

Depends what you need.

 

My Wolves have huge amounts of big guns (11 heavy weapons) behind an Aegis Defense Line, I have a generous amount of troopers (30), but I want a unit that can simply wipe another unit off the board. Something that can replace my Thunderwolves and the Jarl. I thought about putting them in a droppod so they can get into cc quicker. Or are the Jump Packs more effective?

 

I use 5 with bolters (1 with a powerfist) and 5 with CCW and Bolt Pistols (1 with power sword/axe)

 

Okay... so two special CCW weapons, and an equal mix of BP and Bolters. Anything else?

[tomjoad]

I think they should all have bolters (they can rapid fire and still charge; this is killier). I prefer a Divination Libby to a Reclusiarch, too. Reclusiarch is more expensive and only allows rerolls the turn you charge. Librarian allows rerolls on those bolter shots as well as the 40-ish attacks you get on the charge. If you get charged, you still get rerolls and you save 30 pts for the privilege.

[Demoulius]

While Liby is cheaper and has powers (a usefull trait no doubt) it would be fluffwise be far more logical if they were accompanied with a chaplain no? Werent the chaplains accompanying the wolfen in the 13th company list?

At any case hes more usefull in challenges as well. If your opponent has an hq or whatever chances are he will be ignoring armor. The chaplain has a 4+ invul save and while he wont be ignoring 99% of the time he will allow reroll to hit AND wound for the DC, who will just murder whatever squad that your charging

Libies are nice for synergy with the rest of your list though and can full in a gap that you might otherwise have. But theyre less fluffy and tend to die quikly in combat...

[tomjoad]

Against enemy HQs I have no problem refusing a challenge. The Librarian allowing rerolls on anything beyond CC, on the turn you charge only, is far more valuable than rerolling wounds for one turn of combat. Especially if your DC is in a pod/rhino/on foot, they aren't likely to be getting the charge anyway. They should be in a Land Raider or Storm Raven.

 

If your main concern is fluff, though, then give them jump packs and a chappy, for sure. They'll still be dead killy, if a bit overpriced.

[SamaNagol]

8 with 2 Power Axes is the best value.

 

Death Company aren't designed to wipe things off the board though because of their mobility. And giving them Jump Packs or a Crusader is a bit too costly.

 

If you play behind a defence line, putting 9 in a Drop Pod with 2 Axes and a Reclusiarch with a Fist is going to be good for your theme. Personally I would run 8 with a Power Axe and a Fist and a Librarian with a Force Axe, Storm Shield and Terminator Armour in a Drop Pod. Not too expensive and very useful to drop in and reinforce your lines

[MrSocks]

My two pence:

 

Jump packs:

Personally no, at 15 points a model they're far too expensive on death company

 

Reclussiarch v Librarian:

I only ran a chaplain because I LOVE chaplains, but actually what you're saying makes sense, librarians are better and cheaper (especially since chaplains have been nerfed with their ap4 mace :'(.

 

Fluffwise:

13th company are lead by rune priests as far as I can remember (I used to have a unit or two of them, back when they were just genestealers in power amour =D). So it would make sense to have them acompanied by a librarian.

[SamaNagol]

Fluffwise, the Wulfen packs are accompanied by a Wolf Priest.... ie a Chaplain.

 

13th Co. still have Wolf Lords and Rune Priests too

[MrSocks]

Ah fair enough, sorry, Wolf this and Rune that, I never know where I am with space wolves

Edit: I seem to remember 13th company rune priests were able to teleport the squad in the white dwarf they first started in, and that rune priests were more prevelant in the ranks of the 13th company because of something that enhanced the gifts of those within its ranks. Might have to check the lexicarnum.

[SamaNagol]

Yeh the Rune Priests are their only means of traversing the warp I do believe.

[MrSocks]

Yeh the Rune Priests are their only means of traversing the warp I do believe.

That's pretty cool, I hear from the those Space Wolves in the heresy era that space wolves don't use the warp to get their psychic powers.......

.... ......I'm not sure how they got the other legions to believe them!

[Kickrock]

If you're gonna take a Death Compnay, they can be geared towards whatever you need. Bolters alone still make for a mean CC unit. This is the most popular way right now. I've been building them in 10 man squads with Bolters and a Thunder Hammer. In 5th edition I would gear them as 10 man squads with 10 power weapons and put them in a Rhino or 5 man Power Weapons squads in Razorbacks.

 

Now, I'm not telling you Jump Packs are bad. You're going to need a means of transportation. But if you put jump packs on a 10 man squad you're looking at an extra 150 points. Its not worth it! Thats a transport and 5 more Death Company!

 

As for who leads them? Thats an answer up for debate. A Chaplain is meant to roll with Death Company. Thats how his rules are designed. He allows all the rerolls in CC ON THE CHARGE. If you get stuck in an Assault, you're losing out with that Chaplain. A Librarian will only allow you to reroll hits (With Prescience). The bonus to this is that it affects not only CC but your Bolter Fire too (remember, they have Relentless, so if you're not shooting before you charge you're doing it wrong). Unlike a Chaplain, the Librian can cast Prescience in your next movement phase, even if you're locked in CC, unless I'm mistaken. Death Company never really go on this long, but it is a possibility. And, if you're taking multiple DC units you have to take Astorath. Otherwise, you're cheating. Dreadnoughts don't count.

 

Now, I play an Alpha Strike drop pod style list. Alomst something you'd see Space Wolves play... which is funny because I'm building Space Wolves as an ally right now (and they're turning out AMAZING!). That said, the only time I ever use DC is in a Drop Pod with bolters. What you will run into as an Ally is if you put the HQ with them, it'll limit you to 9 DC. Another option is a Land Raider Crusader (thats the Hurricane Bolter, right? I get them mixed up so much..). You can fit 15 DC and a Chaplain in there! If you go the 15 route, I'd say 5 Power Weapons / Bolt Pistols (Swords), 2 Thunder Hammers / Bolters, the rest Bolters. Remember, Blood Angel Land Raiders can Deep Strike. Not that you'd ever want to do this as risky as it can be, but it does give you a lot of fexibility. Rhinos are good, but remember, you won't be able to assault till turn 3! Razorbacks give you a fire base, but to protect that investment you keep the DC out of harms way.

 

Just remember, above all else, Death Company can not score! If they could we would probably be the best Codex, the FotM, no one would care about Dark Angels, everyone would be running Death Company.

 

Good luck to you! I can't wait ti finish and field my Space Pups.

[spafe]

Depends on points limit, and on rest of your wolves. If the rest of your list is standard wolves, then possibly unit of death company in raider, led by libby. it deepstrikes (representing the 13th teleporting out of the warp to help your battered defenders), can them move turn after it lands, and unit assults out, giving you charge, and best odds of 'wiping something off the board' where it suits you. course if you land too close to melta tyou may lose raider, but then the enemy is close and your nutters inside are going to rip face.

 

Only downside is its very very expensive...(by my estimate, 600 points (unit of 10 with fist and 2 p/weps, raider, libby), 700 if you go libby then elites slot chaplain for even more hurt)

[JamesI]

Have you considered not running an IC with teh DC? You could add a BA Libby or other HQ to another of your wolf squads instead of beefing the DC more.

[Paulochromis]

... unit of death company in raider, led by libby. it deepstrikes ..., can them move turn after it lands, and unit assaults out, giving you charge,...

are you saying that the land raider's assault vehicle rule trumps the no assault after deepstrike/outflank rule? Or that the unit will be ready to assault on the next turn?

[fivepointedstar]

Have you considered not running an IC with the DC? You could add a BA Libby or other HQ to another of your wolf squads instead of beefing the DC more.

I thought BA HQ, etc could only provide benefits to BA codex units?. So the main route to add in a character would be a chaplain. Or you could take Seth, he's also pretty decent attack wise in a group of mad men. But you'd do better with a re roll mod'ing Chaplain.

[ianj253]

Ba Librarian's powers can also be used on space wolves because they are battle brothers. While, Jump pack DC can seem pricey they can do their job. They can deepstrike if you want/need them too and the turn after this they can use their packs to move 12 inches. If using Jump packs I take 8 DC with 1 axe and 1 sword. This unit with a Libby with force axe and jump pack comes out to 435. If this is to expensive you can run them in a drop pod as others have suggested. My only problem with drop pod DC is they lack mobility once the pod touches down.

[spafe]

Sorry no, I meant, land the raider turn 2 then move/assult turn 3. I prefer this to pod if you can as it means you keep some mobility after you've landed, and also can make a impact much greater when you land (shooting multimelta, plus assult cannon etc from riader)

 

With the whole buffing other units, well things like fnp bubble from apoc only work on blood units, but libby casting powers, as you afre battle brothers you count as friendly units, so could cast on them.

 

also, how mech'd is the rest of your list? if its not at all then raider is bad, but things like jump pack death company may give you some extra mobility.

[Israfel]

I would consider a Stormraven for the transportation of the DC. The Wolves are lacking AA capacity and Stormraven would plug that hole nicely. 6 to 8 DC with a few power weapon distributed in the squad would do nicely accompanied by a divination librarian. The Librarian can also prescience the SR for the first round of shooting to increase the alpha strike and then the DC in assault and shooting.

[MrSocks]

I would consider a Stormraven for the transportation of the DC. The Wolves are lacking AA capacity and Stormraven would plug that hole nicely. 6 to 8 DC with a few power weapon distributed in the squad would do nicely accompanied by a divination librarian. The Librarian can also prescience the SR for the first round of shooting to increase the alpha strike and then the DC in assault and shooting.

 

This is basically what I run in my 1500pts of blood angels. However I'm not sure about the librarian anymore as they seem pretty steep at 100pts for a level 1 mastery. Might be better purchasing another HQ and using your rune priest to do the job?