Help with DA

[blind aggro]

So I've been playing the DA for some time now, first and only army I've ever been interested in. I spent a good amount of time trying to run a successful list for them that doesn't require meta gaming to a great extent. Most of the games I play anymore are strictly for fun/casual and Im starting to get disheartened seeing so many other armies that run the gambit from circus's of flying monstrous creatures to tons of heavy weapons fire and flying hell drakes turning the board into an easy-bake oven.  

 

All this cynicism being said, I have a competent RW list that does well but in my opinion is both too expected for DA and in my opinion FAR to broken for casual play. As it stands I'm looking for a new list that can competently run two Land Raiders, and/or Terminators without having to ally.

 

I am up for suggestions of any kind. My total inventory includes at least one unit of everything the DA can offer besides the whirlwind. In all I have about

8000 pts. of DA. Again I am not looking for just another variant of the RW.

 

Thank you.

[Retaliation]

Land raiders and terminators eh? I think March10k is the guy you want to ask in that case ;o.

[march10k]

You rang?  Hang on, I'll roll out my 1850 list and strategy, but it'll take a minute.

[march10k]

Okay, my mech/DWA army consists of two elements.  The first is two melee squads mounted in deathwing crusaders.  One squad has one pair of claws, one sergeant, two thundernators, a heavy flamer/chainfist, and Belial with SoS.  The second crusader has five knights inside.  Behind one of them is a librarian with prescience, power field generator, and bike.  The DWA element is simple.  Two five man tactical terminator squads with no upgades except for an assault cannon each. 

 

The idea is very simple.  Always go second.  Always DWA on the bottom of turn two.  This does two things.  First, it lets you place your three models on the board after seeing the enemy's deployment.  You want your two tanks side by side inside the shield bubble as far from the enemy's best short-range antitank (chainfists, melta, whatever) as feasible, but close enough for a second-turn assault against one or two key units in the enemy army.  The second benefit is that you deny the enemy, for all intents and purposes, one third of his shooting by giving him absolutely no targets in turns one and two except for two venerable AV14 tanks with a 4+ invulnerable save on them.  On the bottom of turn two, you DWA the ten shooty termies using Belial as a beacon, and using his crusader to screen enemy return fire against the shooty termies,  Make sure you place them where the crusader will block LOS for them AFTER it moves, not when they drop before it moves!  Light the  enemy up with four hurribolters, four twinlinked assault cannons, ten (eight twinlinked) stormbolters, and a heavy flamer, then sweep in with eleven mean white fighting machines.  I've wiped four full squads of marines in one turn this way once or twice.  The idea is to focus 1850 points against 4-600 points before the enemy gets a chance to target anything but the two tanks.  After that, you might still be outnumbered, but you're playing 1800 points against 1200. 

 

Things can go spectacularly wrong, of course.  But 19 times out of 20, you're going to get at least one melee unit and both shooty units on target unscathed, while anything that deepstruck to take out one crusader is now somewhere behind you getting mauled by the other melee squad.

[elphilo]

Land raiders and terminators eh? I think March10k is the guy you want to ask in that case ;o.

Its like playing bloody mary. Look into the mirror and say "Mechanized Deathwing" three times and suddenly March shows up and explains his list.

 

Also I'll just point you to his signature about my feelings towards the list :)

[whiteraven17708]

Ok so I used to play DA , haven't in a long time (4th ed.) but I am getting back into it, so I am looking for a list that has minimal amounts of models that i have to buy, and still be competitive, but not necessarily WAAC.  this list seems a bit low on the model count? or is 6th that much different that I don't need to worry about losing models?  i have a natural talent for rolling ones.  what about the flyers?  I thought they were the new shiny must haves in any list?

[march10k]

Wyoming?  Where?

 

Anyway, model count is still a concern as much as it ever was.  The issue for terminators these days is high volumes of small arms fire.  Throw enough lasgun shooting at them, and they eventually roll ones.  That's why my tactics are focused on denying the enemy the opportunity to focus shooting against my terminators.  First two turns, they can't see anything but the crusaders (unless they open one up).  After that, the crusaders position themselves to control how much of the enemy army can see the termies.  Preferably, the only thing that can see me is the unit I'm shooting at...but as long as 60 firewarriors or 100 guardsmen aren't all able to target one terminator squad, I'm moving in the right direction!

 

Fliers are shiny new expensive models.  Very few of them are particularly useful to you or particularly dangerous to your enemy.  It's a gimmick, and there are enough counters in the metagame that few people should be selling out to flier spam...meaning that you don't need any fliers of your own, and the amount of thought and points that you need to put into defending against fliers is...limited.

[whiteraven17708]

I'm in Gillette march10k, are you from wyoming?  I moved here from north dakota about 10 years ago :) not much for wargamers here in town though :(

[march10k]

Well, I lived in Laramie for five years in high school and college.  I feel your pain.  Even in Laramie, there was only one game shop, and it was small, with few clients.  I was in there playing magic one night in 1998 and saw some kids playing bretonians versus lizardmen...the rest is history!