Dark Angels & City Fighting

[Psychogasm]

So i'm currently building city terrain for our warhammer 40k games (Work so far in case anyone's curious: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/289747-newbie-attempts-to-make-city-pic-heavyish/) and seeing as ill be playing my brother mostly (World Eaters) i realized i have no idea what tactics to use for Dark Angels in a city fight.

 

I'm going to assume my brother will use the terrain to try to LoS me best he can until he gets into melee and beats me to a bloody pulp. I mostly play Greenwing, though i can field a Deathwing army and have a decent amount of Ravenwing. Any tips on how to use the terrain to the advantage for a player not well equipped for melee fighting?

[Hidicul]

I'd say rave wing with a couple of vindicaters. The bikes should be fast enough to avoid melee and the binds can blow up anything he hides behind and maybe even scatter onto him. Also a tech priest to reinforce one place for you to put a squad of plasma devas could help.

[Grand Master Belial]

As I recall, Flamers and anything that can ignore cover is your friend in this case. Vindicators come into their own as well as their pie plate will paste most of a Chaos force and the terrain will mean it will get some shots off. Remember the objectives and your strategums to confer a bonus on your units.

[aura_enchanted]

As I recall, Flamers and anything that can ignore cover is your friend in this case. Vindicators come into their own as well as their pie plate will paste most of a Chaos force and the terrain will mean it will get some shots off. Remember the objectives and your strategums to confer a bonus on your units.

Indeed

 

What I would probably do is use tanks of all kinds and even dreadnaughts as my heavy support tools, handing out pie plates and violent amounts of shots whenever they go. I'd put as many guys into transports as I could if they didn't have scout/infiltrate

 

Use street corners and intersections to funnel his units around, creating chokepoints. It's easier to defeat a foe that lines up to fight you than a foe that gangs up on you

 

Snipers and Libbys will be in their element here as well

[McFisty]

I would take dreadnoughts and keep them moving within the terrain to get the best lines of sight while keeping their cover saves. Techmarine's bolster defense can become huge in this situation. Remember that our Land Raiders can take dozer blades. If you use your Land Raiders properly they can become a moving wall that you can use to your advantage offensively and defensively. If you think that you will see a lot of close combat, consider Deathwing because they are a close combat army. Which weapon does more damage, their S4 storm bolters or their S8 power fists? Obviously, the close quarters will make template weapons an attractive option. As Belial mentioned, focus on strategums that play to your strengths.

 

McFisty

[shabbadoo]

I'd say rave wing with a couple of vindicaters. The bikes should be fast enough to avoid melee and the binds can blow up anything he hides behind and maybe even scatter onto him. Also a tech priest to reinforce one place for you to put a squad of plasma devas could help.

Difficult Terrain is also Dangerous Terrain for bikes, so that is not a good idea. Also, what if an objective is located on the upper level of a ruin? Bikes can't go up there. Also, open ground (usually roads) serves as a funnel for units like bikes. The enemy simply deploys to cover those firing lanes, and the movement of something like bikes down those paths is all too easily rendered a death wish. Black Knights at least have Skilled Rider, so terrain is less of an issue for them (but they still can't enter the upper levels of buildings).

 

Now, what works well for Cityfight are units in Drop Pods, Scouts, Whirlwinds, and units that ignore Difficult/Dangerous Terrain, like Vindicators (and even our fliers). Any other tanks should be equipped with dozer blades; especially transports. Dreadnoughts are also decent due to being able to get a cover save very often, and they can carry a heavy flamer (and even a twin-linked heavy flamer). A cover save combined with Venerable Dreadnought makes for a tough unit.

[Interrogator Stobz]

Add to that: Jump pack Assault Marines with flamers to allow you to split his effort trying to chase you vertically (like Shabbadoo mentioned).

Also Landspeeders of all kinds (especially Heavy Flamers and MMs) become a major threat when there is plenty of LoS blocking terrain to help keep them alive until they pounce and strike.

More than other less terrain heavy games retaining mobility is the key to victory in City Fighting, being able to pick your fights and maintaining the initiative is awesome.

 

2c

 

EDIT: That guy, 'coz Shabbadoo said Dreads are cool!!! BRRAAAAAAP, Dakka, Dakka, Dakka!!!!

[aura_enchanted]

Add to that: Jump pack Assault Marines with flamers to allow you to split his effort trying to chase you vertically (like Shabbadoo mentioned).

Also Landspeeders of all kinds (especially Heavy Flamers and MMs) become a major threat when there is plenty of LoS blocking terrain to help keep them alive until they pounce and strike.

More than other less terrain heavy games retaining mobility is the key to victory in City Fighting, being able to pick your fights and maintaining the initiative is awesome.

 

2c

Another idea is to tag team with guardsmen. Heavy weapons teams are a powerful asset for controlling street corners. And autocannon and lascannon teams can pop tanks with relative ease

[shabbadoo]

Dark Angels are insular and distrustful, and do not fraternize with such ilk. Take a BS 5 Venerable Dreadnought with TL Lascannon + Missile Launcher, or with double TL Autocannons, instead. Being able to move and fire (hitting on 2's) is better than not being able to move and shoot reliably (hitting on 4's; 6's when moving). And Dreadnoughts do not run away.

Besides, Dreadnoughts look cool stomping through ruins.

[Chaplain Lucifer]

I would say that in city fight a ven dread could have assault cannon and flamer. The range isn't much of an issue since the LoS is less. The AC really benefits from the BS5.

[shabbadoo]

A BS 5 multi-melta is useful too, and cheap.

[Urael]

...and remember, Battle Brother, we are issued grenades for a reason. ;)

(I have to remind myself often that my Melee kitted out Sergeant can lob one whilst the bolter boys let fly. :) )

[Psychogasm]

Thanks a lot for the help guys i was pretty lost before, definitely gave me some food for though and some decent options. I feel like i'm going to get some dreds in the game, i don't own any yet but i've been looking for an excuse to buy some and this looks like the perfect time!

[Psychogasm]

I made a mock-up 1500 point army list:

 

HQ:

Company Master (Artificer armor, power sword, plasma pistol)

Command Squad (Banner of Devastation, Champion, Apothecary)

Techmarine (servo-harness)

 

Elites:

Dreadnought (venerable, powerfist w/ flamer, multi-melta)

Dreadnought (venerable, powerfist w/ flamer, autocannon)

5 Deathwing Knights 

 

Troops:

10 man tactical squad

10 man tactical squad

 

Fast Attack:

Landspeeder (Typhoon pattern), heavy  bolter

 

Heavy Support:

Devastator Squad (2x lascannons, 2x missile launchers)

 

That puts me at 1430 points so i have room to modify/expand a little.

 

Sort of my idea in my head is to use the two dreadnoughts backed up by a techpriest to go romping through the city toward the enemy wreaking havoc, while thats happening have my Devastator and landspeeder get set up in good positions to lay down some fire on the advancing units. Use the tactical squads to cover objectives put the company master/command squad where the fighting is fiercest and drop my Knights wherever the proverbial "poo is hitting the fan" which will most likely be closest to his HQ. 

 

Where im sort of at a loss is the Tactical squad (hence the lack of  options). I'm not sure which options i should get. Also with the Command Squad having Banner of Devastation should i go straight bolters on all tactical to take advantage of the 2/4 salvo(which then raises the question, should i just mass blob both tactical + command squad together so they all get the buff)?

 

Also the reason for lack of tanks is simply due to lack of funds, i figure i have a choice between dreadnoughts or some tanks and well....dreadnoughts just look like way more fun.

[aura_enchanted]

In an ideal world I'd add some troop transports. Barring that idea I'd probably get a team of sniper scouts with camo cloaks. Urban environments mean maps riddled with cover saves and serious issues with los.

 

When an enemy pokes his head out he's going to get a solid metal slug in his head.

[McFisty]

For your last 70 points, I'd go with scouts as Aura_enchanted just mentioned, or a Land Speeder with heavy flamer and multi-melta. Rhinos for the tactical squads are also worth a look.

[Tiger9gamer]

What do you think of super heavy tanks? you could bring a Typhon heavy tank (count as Ares) to the field. it has a 10" ap2 ignores cover blast that can help dig units out of buildings, and it would mesh well with a tech marine w/ a PFG following it around to fix and shield it.

 

Or if the range bugs you you could try a battle of keylek (blasts ignore cover) Fellblade for a lot of dakka and explosions.

[Psychogasm]

Well super heavy tanks are out of the question simply due to cost...I think i may pick up some scouts though, they may be fun and at very least will be good to have in my army roster in general.