Played a pure Deathwing army last night...

[Angel of Solitude]

...and I had a blast!

 

To first put things in context, I recently played a semi-competitive tournament, and so wanted something a bit more chilled. Thankfully, a 'nids player at our club wanted to do the same, and so we agreed to recreate the original Deathwatch origins scenario - i.e. a small force of terminators holding off a genestealer / 'nids attack.

 

In my list I had 10 Deathwing Terminators, 10 Deathwing Knights, 2 venerable dreadnoughts, a Land Raider Crusader, Apothecary, Ancient, Champion, Belial, Librarian, regular Lt and techmarine.

 

Facing me was 58 genestealers, a Swarmlord, Broodlord, Hive Tyrant, Tyranid Prime, 2 Exocrines, a Tyrannofex, and some ripper swarms.

 

Essentially, I castled everything up, and just let him come at me. I got first turn, but all I was able to do was to fire my dreadnoughts, as they were the only things with anything more than 24" range. By the time that we got to the end of round 4, I had 5 terminators, 1 dreadnought, and all characters except the Ancient left. He had his Exocrines, Tyrannofex and Tyranid Prime left.

 

Given the bad rep that terminators have this edition, I was surprised that I survived. However, I'd say that the following things probably made the difference:

• Deathwing Ancient adding +1 attacks to everybody. Belial now gets 5 attacks, a 5 man squad of DWK now gets 16 attacks. even the champion could have maxed out at 7 attacks had the dice rolled favourably
• Belial. This guy is a massive force multiplier for two reasons. First, re-roll all hits. My DWK were able to wipe through genestealers because all but 1 or 2 of their 16 attacks missed. Second, he's a beast in combat too. 5 S5 attacks, hitting and wounding on 2's (with re-rolls from a Lt), AP-3 and 2 damage each shot, and he's also -1 to hit thanks to his Parrying Blade ability. He dealt a lot of damage, and survived a lot of damage too!
• Librarian. I took Aversion for the -1 to hit. Worked a treat when his Swarmlord was trying to take down Belial, as it put him at -2 to hit. Righteous Repugnance was not as successful as I thought it might be because all the units were in range of Belial and the Lt.
• Fortress of Shields stratagem - put the genestealers on 5's to hit, and also prevents the AP-4 on the rending claws (not that this matters with a 3++).
• Inner Circle stratagem. For 1 CP, I made the LRC Deathwing. Why? Belial re-rolls! Mostly relevant when the LRC eventually had to move. But another potential use is to make a close combat dreadnought Deathwing, so that it can benefit from the +1A from the Ancient.
• Apothecary...wasn't able to resurrect a DWK, but kept Belial alive.

 

Some things didn't work as well as I thought. Mostly, the LRC didn't perform as well as it could have done. The firepower over 12" is equal to 3 storm bolters and 2 assault cannons, and when I tried to use it in turn 3 to take my remaining DW to the Exocrines, all 16 wounds got taken out in 1 turn of shooting. A plain land raider with 4 lascannons may have been a better option, as it would have given me more options to take out the Exocrines.

 

The other thing that didn't work...command points. I had a twin-vanguard force, giving me a grand total of 5 CP, 1 which I spent on Inner Circle. I spent 1 on Fortress of Shields, 2 to interrupt the first fight, and 1 for another re-roll. If I had more, then I think I would have interrupted the fight phase far more often.

 

As well as having fun, the game was a good lesson. It made me understand the strength of Deathwing, which is as an immovable force where you can benefit from the various different buffs. However, the reason why they suffer in competitve play is because there is no reliable delivery mechanism and you're paying too many points. I'd love to deepstrike Belial, an Ancient, 10 DWK and a librarian. But as soon as you fail that first charge, then you're utterly powerless.

Also, it's a shame that taking Belial doesn't make DW troop choices - those extra command points would have been oh so nice. Oh well!

 

 

[Interrogator Stobz]

For The Lion!

[G8Keeper]

Interesting notes there.  I had/have a 5k game setup that keeps just getting kicked down the road against my friends nids with pure DW. I was thinking of either going with a CP mod of take what you want, no force org charts and we each get 20 CP, or taking lots of Scouts if my opponent doesn't agree.

 

I do find Lascannon Land Raiders perform a lot better and can still carry that 5 man squad into the enemies face, it's just quite an easy target to kill even at T8.  Sounds like you did pretty well and I'll take note of the castling tactic you used to good effect as I was planning on a mount up and go at them kind of approach.

[Chaplain Lucifer]

I always have a blast with DW because it's challenging to manage so few models. What I learned is that land raiders work better in pairs but the price usually puts the brakes on smaller points games.

 

Glad to hear you had fun. I hope you continue playing and enjoying!

[sneakybamsen]

Good to hear the boys in bone got some tabletop action, and more importantly that you had a good time with them.

 

Thing is, I'm afraid, it only worked because you decided to reenact the classic DW vs 'Nids poster action. If your opponent had made a pure shooting army, which I think nids can do to a decent standard if they want to, you would have been in big trouble. It worked because he was willing to come to you with at least part of his army, instead of roasting the terminators from a distance (wouldn't have been the classic game that way, but it's the state of terminators nonetheless)

 

Since you have a couple of non-DW HQ, I'd include just 3 scout squads to get some much needed CP as the list technically isn't deathwing. With Deathwing Assault you could have had those 10 termies blasting 40 shots after deepstriking, and then again in the shooting phase. Sprinkle in Cyclone Launchers as points allow.

 

When I can free up some time to get more paint on my deathwing, I'd love to be able to do something like what you have done. I seem to enjoy both casual games and rather competitive ones these days.

[Angel of Solitude]

@sneakybamsen you are absolutely correct - this only really worked because there was little ranged fire and I let them come to me. Also, had we been playing any kind of objective-based game, then I would have been equally screwed. But like I say - understanding what it was that made the Deathwing so effective in this game allows me to understand what - if anything - they could actually bring to a more competitive game. For example, I've been toying with the idea of a 10-man DW squad, with 2-3 TH/SS termies mixed in. You may reduce your shooting effectiveness, but you exchange it for a bit more survivability.

 

As for the non-DW units...the techmarine was really there to make up the points, but the Lt is a necessity. I know there have been other discussions elsewhere on this forum about the need for a DW Lt.

 

@G8Keeper - I don't think the mount up and go approach really works for a number of reasons. First, it's still just a second turn army as you can only disembark at the start, and not the end, of a vehicle's movement. That means that you need to survive at least one turn of shooting. If you go first, then you have the option of smoke launchers for -1 to hit, but at the expense of firing your weapons. If you don't go first...

 

Next, you actually don't have the best threat range. 10" + D6" advance is max 16" move in the first turn - 8" away from the enemy deployment (assuming Dawn of War). Then 3" deploy and 5" move to get you just on the deployment zone. Does this get you closer than 9" for the charge? Go below half damage turn 1 and your movement drops to 5", then 3" if down to 4 or fewer wounds. I'd be tempted to take two deepstriking DWK squads, bring a character with the re-roll failed charges trait, and hope that at least one squad makes the charge...

[G8Keeper]

I find around half my second turn charges fail with DS DWK even with the re-roll, maybe I'm just unlucky.  I'm going to run a Crusader loaded with 5 DWK, Asmodai and a DW Ancient in my next outing for maximum attacks.  Not sure what I'll be facing but it's likely to be either GS Cults or Death Guard.