Help with the Death Korps Assault Brigade List

[Rommel44]

Hey mates, currently I am in the process of building my Mechanized Infantry list, and while I was initially planning on doing a veteran list from the Astra Militarum Codex, I came across the Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade list in Imperial Armor 12. Reason I like the feel of this one more is that I believe I can actually run a more effective Storm Trooper list than the one from the Militarum Tempestus Codex, as I have access to LRBT,'s as well as other options, granted at a higher price than the regular Astra Militarum Codex. That being said, I am still not sure what to add to my list to make it effective. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for anything super competitive, but i would like a list where I would be able to compete against most opponents. At the moment, this is what I definitely plan to have: A Command Squad, 4x Grenadier Squads w/Plasma Guns, and a Thunderbolt Gunship. And all my squads are mounted in Storm Chimeras w/Autocannon Turrets and Hull-Mounted Hvy. Flamers.

At the moment that totals up to 1265 points, so I still have points that I have left to spend. As the Assault Brigade varies when it comes to choices, here is what I could spend the points on:

* ELITES: Engineer Squads (aka Cheaper Grenadiers w/Shredding, Gets Hot Shotguns), Griffon Tanks, Hydra Tanks, Rapier Laser Destroyers, Super Expensive Leman Russ Varient that acts as a Forward Observer for artillery units w/Barrage.

* FAST ATTACK: Hellhound Varients, Salamander Recon Tanks, DKOK Rider Squadrons.

*HEAVY SUPPORT: Leman Russ Varients (A bit more expensive), Field Artillery Units, Ordnance Tanks including Medusa's, and the Thunderer Siege Tank (basically a Demolisher with no other weapons but the Demolisher Cannon).

At the moment, I am leaning towards 2x LRBT'S, possibly the Annihilator Varient, as it would give me some much needed Anti-Tank w/a Twin-Linked Lascannon Turret and a Hull-Mounted Lascannon, or just keep it simple with a Demolisher or a Medusa. I could always run more Grenadier Squads, but I am willing to listen to other suggestions and appreciate and tactical advice you can give me.

[CyderPirate]

Rapier destroyers are fantastic for anti-tank and are cheaper than the tanks. They're lascannons are Ordnance and Twin Linked as well, so they're pretty reliable.

 

The Death Riders would also be a great addition to your list. Their speed would let them keep up with the armour and their lances do a pretty good job of clearing out any MEQs.

 

Apart from that, the only thing it looks like you could use some more of is horde-clearance, both the Heavy Mortar and the Quad are pretty good at that. I wouldn't have a full battery of either, though. If that first pie-plate misses, you don't want to waste the other shots. Maybe 2 batterys, one with two heavy mortars w/carcass and one with two quad guns?

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

In my view you need some extra anti armour. Plasma is great for heavy infantry but not so much tanks. The auto cannons and heavy flamers on chimeras can thin hordes. Even the hotshot lasguns can too.

 

Unfortunately Vanquishers are their old expensive selves in the DKoK assault brigade but I think your proposed Leman Russ variants could work or how about some Thunderer Siege Tanks for cheap Str 10 Ap 2 pie plates? Or Devil Dogs are cheaper than in the new AM codex and they'd work well adding more AV12 armour saturation to the field.

 

You may want to give meltaguns instead of plasma to one or two grenadier squads (or the command squad) and don't forget DKoK grenadiers can take a heavy flamer in addition to their two specials. Some added insurance against horde plus even against heavier targets could add a few extra wounds. I like the versatility myself with my own grenadiers (I find 2x mg 1x heavy flamer can handle any job).

[FashaTheDog]

I disagree CyderPirate.  If he takes Field Artillery he should take full batteries.  Missing with that first shot is not catastrophic as you can often walk the templates into something, especially if facing a horde.  Heavy Mortars with carcass shells simply make 4+ saves go home.  I swear by mine and they usually do all the hard work.  Large cover ignoring barrage is no joke, especially if you get to drop four of them in a go and they are insanely hard to kill with shooting.  Think of it this way, a hit can be placed anywhere touching or overlapping a template and you are using 5" templates, so the times you do miss badly and do little are far outweighed by the times you are covering everything you want and large Thudd Gun batteries do the same through volume of 3" templates.  If the full battery Thudd Gun fails to hit anything, your rolling was so terrible that no weapon in the game would have done better; it is barrage 16, you could theoretically walk templates across the entire table with that.  Just from my experience, the larger the battery the better.

 

Now the Command Squad can benefit from all three of the Advisors as they all have some reasonable role to play.  Also consider Ossuary of the Blessed Dead for T4.  Death Rider Platoons are worth it; sure they are one shot weapons, but they come in platoons and the officer can take a demo charge.  Score one for gas mask wearing horses!  I would steer clear of the Thunderer unless you are looking to save points from taking Demolishers.  I am not telling you to not take the Thunderer, but to consider it as an alternate choice rather than a primary.  Think of them as discounted demolisher cannons and run them like you would a Vindicator and you get the role they fill in the list.  Speaking of Leman Russ tanks, the forward command tank's ability to spot for barrage weapons is not as important as you would think since many times the extra scatter distance is only 3", but the fact that they are BS4 should make you take notice and pair this Elite tank with weapons that roll to hit like Exterminators as that is what the extra points are really factoring in. 

 

Rapiers, as said by CyderPirate, are pretty good anti-tank solutions.  Note that they have Engineers as crew, so they are BS4.  Do yourself a favor and buy the extra crew for each one you take.  You increase the wounds the unit can suffer by 33% for a small cost.  This is not as important on large Field Batteries as they come with three crew each, but if you have the points left over, extra artillery crew is always a good place to spend them. 

 

You mentioned you wanted to use the Thunderbolt fighter.  Generally speaking, the Avenger is superior and cheaper.  It does lack the amazing Dan Abnett fluff of Double Eagle so I can understand your choice here.  You could run both in separate units, I suppose.

 

You might also want to give thought to allying in Siege Regiment Krieg as the Krieg orders specifically goes out of the way to say it does also affect them.  For this allied detachment, you take a Commissar-General as the HQ and a unit of Engineers as the Troops.  Then you get access to two units really worth having in your list.  The first is the Heavy Support selection Artillery Battery.  Getting artillery unit versions of Basilisks and Medusae is really good, especially once you start ordering them to be twin-linked against vehicles and MCs.  The other unit is a Fast Attack choice, the Cyclops.  For 90 points you get a full unit of three.  The operators need to remain in coherency, but the little remote controlled demo charges just need to stay within 4' of an operator to function, but otherwise can head off on their own.  Hiding three Guardsmen is easy since they do not need line of sight to the Cyclops and each of the bomb tanks is cheap enough to not care about if they fail to help, although most often they will attract far too much shooting or be ignored and get to charge and detonate.  Remember they are small so it is easy to hide them out of line of sight behind low walls and other terrain.