Dark Angels vs. possessed bomb tactics

[Hellunder]

So I will probably soon face my friend's alpha legion possesed bomb with disco lord. He's a tough opponent which I've never won against (in like 30 games at least). But I have an idea to beat his possesed bomb which heavily depends on playing dark angels. Here goes:

 

The possessed bomb:

His main tactic would be a Lord Discordant to run up into the board, warlord trait, chapter tactic, miasma of pestilence and benediction of darkness will give him -4 to hit while making the possessed untargetable unless they're closest. He will probably advance as far up the board as he can with everything.

My units to counter this:

Interrogator chaplain w/ "watched" warlord trait and "recitation of focus"

6 black knights

8  black knights

Talonmaster and sammy. (Impeccable mobility and corvus occulus)

Landspeeder vengeance

1 dark talon

2 whirlwinds

 

Main tactic:

I'll probably let him go first and hide my bikes turn 1. Chaplain will auto deny his miasma of pestilence and give +1 to hit on the smaller BK squad.
They will advance up the board, hopefully within 12" of the discolord, and stand in a formation so they can't be wrapped by any possessed (i think their big bases will help). I might as well try to advance my Landspeeder vengeance into 12" so I also can pop the full re-roll strat. Now the discolord will only be -1 for my BK's and they'll be hitting on a 4+, probably wounding him so the rest of my ravenwing gets +1 to hit. At this point all rw will be hitting him on a -2 modifier with full re-rolls, hopefully taking him down. If not, the landspeeder can make 1 whirlwind autohit with "datalink telimetry" as backup. If the small BK squad doesn't get wrapped his turn, i hope I can take out his possessed then. Thoughts on this?

[The Neverborn]

I've seen "this" a number of times.

 

What "This" is is an unkillable X. Dark Angels had something their own variation at one point, involving Azreal and a guard blob and some other special characters.

 

There are always two answers.

 

1) A Huge financial investment, sometimes involving forge world models to get units that have an extremely exaggerated return for the points value, otherwise know as OP. - That's usually the most fool proof way to deal with it.

 

2)Ignore or Tar-pit the unit and try and win the game on VP.

[Fierce Bear]

Got to say I'm with Battle Brother Abderus' option 2 here Hellunder.

 

Tarpit the distracto-disco lord and counter charge with Sammy and his 2x strength sword and anything that can shave a few wounds off in overwatch (will still hit on 6s)...

 

Primaris bodybags with stalker rifles could do the trick...

[Gederas]

Got to say I'm with Battle Brother Abderus' option 2 here Hellunder.

 

Tarpit the distracto-disco lord and counter charge with Sammy and his 2x strength sword and anything that can shave a few wounds off in overwatch (will still hit on 6s)...

 

Primaris bodybags with stalker rifles could do the trick...

This.

 

If you can kill the characters, the Possessed Bomb gets neutered quickly.

 

[FarFromSam]

Having recently played against a black legion version. I wouldn't recommend charging it. Even with many Deathwing knights and aggressors.

[Hellunder]

Thanks for the advice guys! Tarpitting you say eh? I'm a bit unfamiliar with that, thought it was more of a horde army thing. But it would be a good idea if I could stop him for a while and concentrate on the rest of his army. I have a feeling that stopping 20 possessed with lots of attacks and buffs will not be an easy task though. How would I do that? One idea is to deploy scouts far up the board to block narrow passages if the terrain is in my favour, then he can't move more than 9" even if he warp time. I have to watch out for giving him free charges though, and to avoid him wrapping me so I can't fall back. Any advice on how to pull that off will be appreciated.

 

 

Having recently played against a black legion version. I wouldn't recommend charging it. Even with many Deathwing knights and aggressors.

 

Yes, I've met them too before (without the discolord though), and they will easily wrap you so you can't shoot at them. Charging the discolord with sammael would work if I have infiltrating screens up the board, but I don't want to have that in this game.

My main idea is to keep maximum distance and shoot them off after killing the disco lord.

[Gederas]

Thanks for the advice guys! Tarpitting you say eh? I'm a bit unfamiliar with that, thought it was more of a horde army thing. But it would be a good idea if I could stop him for a while and concentrate on the rest of his army. I have a feeling that stopping 20 possessed with lots of attacks and buffs will not be an easy task though. How would I do that? One idea is to deploy scouts far up the board to block narrow passages if the terrain is in my favour, then he can't move more than 9" even if he warp time. I have to watch out for giving him free charges though, and to avoid him wrapping me so I can't fall back. Any advice on how to pull that off will be appreciated.

 

My main idea is to keep maximum distance and shoot them off after killing the disco lord.

A tarpit is any kind of blob of infantry that's hard to remove. Whether that's due to numbers (guard/tyrannids) durability (Possessed/Death Guard/Rubrics) or a combination of both (Poxwalkers) is side notes.

 

And yeah, the idea of keep them at a distance and kill them before they get to melee really applies here.

[Fierce Bear]

My meaning of Tarpitting would be to allow the Ebil nasty Disco lord to get into combat with say a ten man unit of intercessors, perhaps with transhuman physiology to keep him pinned in combat, then intervene or charge Sammy in on your next turn... Scouts probably are the closest to chaff for Marines I guess

[Get Thokt]

Having recently played against a black legion version. I wouldn't recommend charging it. Even with many Deathwing knights and aggressors.

Why wouldn't those units have a chance dealing damage? I'm not too familiar with the possessed bomb.

[Hellunder]

 

Having recently played against a black legion version. I wouldn't recommend charging it. Even with many Deathwing knights and aggressors.

My meaning of Tarpitting would be to allow the Ebil nasty Disco lord to get into combat with say a ten man unit of intercessors, perhaps with transhuman physiology to keep him pinned in combat, then intervene or charge Sammy in on your next turn... Scouts probably are the closest to chaff for Marines I guess

 

Why wouldn't those units have a chance dealing damage? I'm not too familiar with the possessed bomb.

 

At turn 2 they'll probably be -2 to hit and 4++ with 2w each in CC, so 10 dw knights with ancient and +1 to hit strat and extra attack strat should be able to take down 20 possesed if I'm doing the math correctly.

 

The absolute main problem with the possesed bomb is their damage output though: potential 80 S5 AP-2 attacks with +2 to wound kills everything they touch, transhuman physiology isn't a bad idea to counter that though, but I still think they'll chew through intercessors as the chew through guardsmen in the long run. Tarpitting with guardsmen seems like the best option here, the possessed can kill 100 guardsmen and still not get their points worth. I'd say it's important not to charge them if you can't kill them; you will give them a free 6" move when they pile in and consolidate, just standing still blocking their movement in their turn should be pretty effective though. Here I'm still thinking of bikes thanks to their bigger base sizes (and fast movement so you can block them earlier in the game).

 

I'm still wondering if there's a pure dark angels way to handle them though, If you kill the lord discordant T1 the possessed will be vulnerable without all their buffs, dark talons for example have the mobility to position closer to the possessed. Their hurricane bolters will be suffering without AP turn 1 though.. Eliminators could maybe kill off the dark apostle denying them one of the -1 to hit buffs..

 

Here's a pretty good explanation how they work:

https://youtu.be/JETycNgolly geess