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Thoughts of a BA noob - expanding deathstorm


marvmoogy

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Hi guys, 

 

Although not new to 40k by a long shot, I am new to BAs.  I guess I am GWs ideal hobbyist... "oooh, Deathstorm looks nice...dammit, two more new armies...."  but that's buy the buy (see what I did there?)...

 

I started to think about expanding it to a 1500-2000 point force.  I've looked through the codex and, as the various sections (excluding Troops) are pretty jam-packed, it gave me a bit of a headache!  

 

With fast Rhinos and Razorbacks, the BA's offer a tempting mechanised list.  However, to my mind, there are problems with this.

 

Rhinos

+ can hold 10 Marines

+ 2 shots from the top hatch in addition to the storm bolter

+ cheap!

+ repair

- Shots fried from the top hatch lack range when transporting Death Company

- Not an assault vehicle - Death Company need to weather a storm of fire / risk getting assaulted after they have disembarked

 

Razorbacks

+ heavily armed for the points

- only holds 6 marines

- Not an assault vehicle as above

- no repair

- too expensive to just carry 6 marines

 

Drop pod

+ Drop pod assault

+ Deathwind Launcher (good anti-horde)

- Immboile

- Not an assault vehicle

 

The biggest problem with all of these to my mind is that they don't allow the unit using them to assault when they disembark.  For this you need an assault vehicle and, from our 'dex, that means a heavy support choice.   Land raiders are, to my mind, too slow.  Storm Ravens are, to my mind, too vulnerable....and that's before we mention cost.  Even without any upgrades, you can get 7 Rhinos for the price of a raider.

 

So, do you play as fluff intended and take a mechanised / drop pod force and stand around for a turn before assaulting, or do we go down the jump pack route?  Can we go and get the best of both worlds?  This is going to be the big question for a lot of people and, for me, I see myself building an army along the lines of the below:

 

I, as a large number of others have bought Deathstorm.  This will be my core:

 

Captain Karlean 

Terminator Squad

Death Comapny

Cassor the Damned              Total points 725pts

 

Tactical Squad (PF, inferno pistol, meltagun, heavy flamer) & Rhino      245pts

Tactical Squad (MB, inferno pistol, meltagun, multimelta) & Rhino         230pts

Librarian Dreadnought  (ML2)   Drop pod                                               210pts

Death Company (10 men, 10x Jump Packs)                                            230pts

Dedicated Drop pod for Cassor the Damned    (locator)                          45pts 

Empty pod (for drop pod assault)                                                             35pts

 

This gives me a force for 1720 points that would work pretty well where I play (none of my usual opponents play flyers, so AA is irrelevant).  If you did need AA, then a ADL would probably fit the bill in this role.  

 

The logic here is that the tactical squads will split into two, 1 half taking a home objective and the other half racing forward.  The Death Company would move as one unit and bound forward up the board and the Terminators could deep strike using the locators in the pods.    2 Libby's in the opponents deployment zone will cause some havoc and allow the res of the army to move up before they get destroyed (with any luck).

 

Over to you guys - what do you think?

 

Cheers, 

 

Marv

 

Looks solid enough. However, I am not a fan of the Rhino. If you want to abuse fast vehicles, then go Razorbacks and Baal Preds. Both have very decent guns to use after moving 12". I would also get rid of the Inferno Pistols on the Tacs. Too expensive and they rarely have the means to get within 3" of a vehicle to make the most out of it.

 

In my opinion, go easy on the upgrades and get a 1500 force first. Get a few games under your belt to get a feel and then see in what way to expand.

Problem with Corbulo is delivery with the termies.  It seems a waste for them to footslog and Corbs can't deep strike with them.

 

Immersturm - thanks for the comments.  To be honest, I just didn't see the Razorback as value for points.  I could spend the extra to upgrade 2 of them and buy a third though....interesting...

 

Baal pred could be a nice addition too.

 

Not sure why I put an inferno pistol on the PF sgt....one or the other would be a better bet!

If death storm came with assault terminators it'd be an instant buy for me, sadly it does not...

 

Buy New BA terminator boxed set (or indeed the assault terminator set). Put spare assault arms on Deathstorm terms. Get 10 assault terms.

 

Sell cyclone missile missile launcher bit for £6 

....DAMNIT Marvmoogy my wallet cant take this! But your kindness is awesome. Maybe I might just do this...

 

If death storm came with assault terminators it'd be an instant buy for me, sadly it does not...

 

 

Buy New BA terminator boxed set (or indeed the assault terminator set). Put spare assault arms on Deathstorm terms. Get 10 assault terms.

 

Sell cyclone missile missile launcher bit for £6

Oh of course it comes with two full weapon sets.... I still need to buy a box of sang guard too!

Regarding the use of a Razorback as a transport. When I run with Codex: Space Marines (my main army), I use one for my main HQ and command squad. Results are a bit mixed for me, but that's more down to me needing a lot more games and experience (haven't played seventh yet).

 

Just a thought.

Don't get me wrong, Razprbacks are useful - I run 2 in my Space Wolves list.  Their use then is as DT for 6 Long Fangs and a small pack of Grey Hunters.  They give them a lift to home side objectives and pack a punch if needed.

 

However, with the BAs, the Fast aspect makes them ideal for charging up the board an deploying assault forces.  Unfortunately, the fact you can't assault from the tank makes me think that they are a bad choice for this.  I suppose they are also good for last turn objective-grabbing....if they are still alive....

 

I guess it comes down to personal play style.  You could quite easily play a gun-line style army with the BA dex (which would do away with most (if not all) of our best units) but, there are Astartes armies that do this better.  You could play a drop pod assault army, incorporating a lot of nasties (not a bad shout, but if I was doing this, I'd probably use my Space Wolves).  To me, I want to play BAs as a Mech force.  But the fact that the fast transports aren't assault vehicles makes this difficult.

 

How do you get around this?

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