Battle report: The return of Footslogging DW

[Chaplain Lucifer]

Intro:

So, after fiddling with mech DW and mech Greenwing, I decided to go back in time to the 5th edition and see if the footslogging DW is still viable. At the time with the former DA Codex and with 5th Ed it was very viable so an update was needed:

The list.

HQ

Belial - Now with SoS and SB instead of the usual TH&SS

Librarian in TDA - force stave . WYSIWYG or else I would go for force sword. Still having a S6 force weapon isn't necessaerily bad.

Elite

5 DW Knights: New adition

Troops

4x 5 DWT: 1 Cyclone, 2 TH&SS. difference is that before the sgt would get a TH&SS, now he only gets the sword.

Fast

2x3 bikes and AB - 2 meltas, AB with MM. always solid in this list, I was hoping they would still be good.

The opponent was Chaos marines:

Ahriman

Chaos lord in TDA with mark of khorne

20 chaos marines

2x10 cultists

15 berzerkers

2x2 oblits

10 havocs with 4 autocannons

hellbrute

I chose telepathy on the chanc I could get some invisible DWK.. my opponent joined ahriman to berzerkes and chose also telepathy. None of us got it. hahah

Mission was maelstrom 2. My opponent deployed first and setup in order to capture 3 objectives on turn 1. My setup was more conservative, out of sight, with 2 squad of terminators in the proximity of 2 objectives and not far away from each other. Belial and DWK were to deepstrike, bikes in outflank.

My opponet got first turn and a card to capture OBJ6 which he was camped on. Nice!

He moved up his infiltrating zerkes and marines hoping to get closer to other 2 objectives. 1-0 to him after his 1st turn. Ahriman perils himself for a shrouded on zerkers.

On my turn I shuffled the tremies a bit to get Los to zerkers and chaos marines. Belial, LIb and DWK went for a DS on top of objective 6 were he had cultists and a squad of oblits not so far away. Belial snipes the cultist leader with a shot between the eyes.

Termies open fire and some zerkes and some CSM fall.

Next turn my opponent gets closer with zerkers and CSM. hellbrute diverts closer to Belial squad. He opens fire and fells 3 terminators. Draws some objective cards but is unable to do more.

My 2nd turn 2 AB's and 1 bike squad arrive. AB's come in the havoc flank, bike squad come in opposite. Shooting phase softens further the havocs, zerkers and cultists. Bikes assault cultists, AB's assault havocs, Belial and squad assault oblits. Havocs overwatch but don't damage ab's which kill 1 havoc. Bikes take care of cultists and Belial kill one oblits and sees 2 Knights die from overwatch and PF's. I did not use the smite mode since I was hoping to save it for later..

My opponent turn comes and after movement and another perils on ahriman that inflicted a wound and sucked the remaining dice of the pool, the hellbrute charges DWK's and gets smited. Oblit remains untouched thanks to inv and 2+ saves. another Knight falls.

The glorious AB's are charged by the cultists kill 2. Havoc put a wound on an AB. AB's win combat and both cultists fail Ld check, being promptly run down by the ferocious AB's!!

In my turn I get a lot of cards because I was controlling more objectives and my opponent cards are still unfulfilled. Bikers and termies finish the berzerkers. One oblit gets killed.

My opponent suffered damage but he's dtill in the game. shooting kills 2 bikers from on squad and around 15 CSM assault 2 termies... My champ kills his champ and a DWT dies and combat is tied. Chaos lord and termies fail to assault bikes within 6"...

Next turn sees me charging 2 termie squads into the CSM, killing enough of them to make the 3 remaining run away. In the menatime I shuffled stuff to collect a few more objectives and reclaim a few cards.

Chaos around and he guns down a AB... I just sit back and relax, sitting on objectives and bidding my time. Both chaos marines and oblit were far way from my termies... And game is over with a 8-1 win. Line breaker, first blood and 6 objective cards.

I think my opponents list was not the greatest around but he's unexperienced so I can't take too many conclusions for the game.

Mobility wasn't a big, big issue. Terminators can DS and they can move and shoot so albeit slow it's not a static army. The bikes really make a difference caping objectives on my opponents deploy zone, so teh termies don't have to necessarily move away much.

DWK were not exemplar, but that was mostly my bad luck and my opponentgood luck on saves. They did kill a hellbrute just like that with a S10 smite.

If anything I'm going to drop some TH&SS (if not all) so I can give lvl 2 to the librarian and more shooting to the terminator squads by gaining 2 SB's back per squad. I could probably put up a PC and an AC instead of a couple of cyclones, for some more anti infantry.

[Brother Bahram]

Nice report and cheers to the win!

And nice to hear that footslogging DW still works

[Isiah]

Agreed. Good result :tu:

 

~ I

[Darkangeldentist]

Nice battle report and good to see these things put to the test. Interesting thoughts in your review of the game and potential changes to the list. In fact fascinating to hear that you might drop all your thunder hammer and storm shields. I've never been one to field that many of them personally but I know how popular it's been to equip them ever since the storm shield got bumped to a 3+ invulnerable save and to see someone review them so objectively is welcome.

 

I agree with many of the ideas you've thrown out about changes, I'd probably see if you can keep the odd thunder hammer in one or two squads simply because they can make so much of the difference when people bring a sprinkling of low AP guns to try and wipe out units. Also keen to see how you get on with different weapon options.

 

Since you were playing chaos space marines, how much did the preferred enemy from inner circle crop up? Bane of the traitor as well for that matter, it makes the knights a lot better against MEQs and the master would have been effective against those obliterators, well at least forcing them to make invulnerable saves. I know you mentioned that he did have good luck with his saves but our extra bonuses against chaos marines are often forgotten so I'm always curious whether they are remembered and what impact they have (if any).

[Prot]

Your opponent definitely had a weird list... Was his intent to infiltrate with the Zerkers? Did he have a spell familiar (this is a must for Chaos)?

 

He still had numbers over you which is so common when playing DA, but it sounds like you pretty much wacked him. Was there an agreement on no flyers? Or does he not take the Bale-drake? Because that would have been another potential game changer.

 

Out of curiosity did your opponent discard a card a turn? (It kind of sounds like he was stuck with stuff he couldn't do.)

 

I agree, go ML2 on the libby.... the bikes are indeed nice aren't they? In maelstrom they have the best of both worlds being survivable yet fast enough to grab those early game points.

 

It sounds well played on your part. Killing a champion is always fun, and even though people rag on the Helbrute, they're always a threat if you ignore them.

 

Nice batrep. More please. ;)

[Chaplain Lucifer]

Darkangeldentist: I recon it would be good to still have some TH's around, I do need to test the list against someone with more AP. In this particular game the DWK SS were invaluable because they were in CC, the other SS on the other squads disn't have the chance to shine due to sparse low AP.

Preffered enemy did crop up alot. In the DWT vs CSM brawl it came in very handy to kill a couple more CSM and in the DWK brwals the re-rolls showed up, alas my opponent wasspot on with his saving throws. I know in other situations it can shift the balance to inflict those casualties to turn a deat into a win. The squad problem was that without AP2 was difficult to defeat 2++ saves even with extra hits and in smite mode, sheer luck keep the oblit alive by 5++ inv. It's odd but I feel the DWK need an extra attack to be efficient. I have to look into making it a bigger squad... or just plain replace them for a command squad.

 

Prot: Opponent was a novice at Chaos. Ahriman could infiltrate 3 units so I guess he chose the biggest units to keep me under pressure and pinned in place while his other units came in 2nd wave.

No drake was there but IMHO other than the bikes the drake would achieved nothing.. and even it could avoid the bikes alpha attack. They're "suicide" units anyway so once they done their job they're disposable.

I also asked my opponent about discarding but he did have nice cards, like kill a psyker, kill warlord, which he felt he could have achieved. Unfortunately for him his army was getting smallerr and he got less chances for achieve those cards.

 

I reviewd the list and by dropping 4 thunder hammers  (1per squad) I can fit in the lvl2 for the librarian. But it's very tight on points and not a big margin without a great restructuration. If I drop a bike squad and attack bike I loose 3 AP1 weapons but I can replace the DWK for a DW command squad with some bells and whistles.. or maybe just the AB and get a command squad with just whistles...

[Polythemus]

Nice report, how did you feel about the force stave. Functional non-functional, did you even get into combat with him? Where are your pictures of this so called battle? :)

[[TA]Typher]

Great report. Glad he didn't get invis. Watching 20 cultist defeat your whole army would have been tragic.

 

I've been making gentlemens agreements with people before the game to not use telepathy. It's alot more fun without it.

[Chaplain Lucifer]

I like the force stave.. S6 is nothing to sneeze at and can at least force saves. Can come in handy. In the battle the libbie actually took the last wound on the oblit. I didnt miss the power sword... maybe power axe is the way to go. As fir pictures.. i did have much time so i skiped pictures. Maybe i can sketch a vassal next time..