Dark Angels - The Eskaton Imperative - 2500 points, no LOW

[CaptainKael]

So I have finally built enough destroyers to run the Dreadwing ROW, The Eskaton Imperative. Here is what I was thinking for my first trial list; I have a lot of WE, SoH and NL in my meta.

 

Farith will go with one unit of Destroyers while the Siege Breaker goes with the Interemptors. Every squad will have rad and stasis grenades.

 

The 3K version of this list drops one of two Vindicators and adds a Legion Glaive with Armored Ceramite.

 

Please provide CC on both lists.

 

 

++  Crusade (Legiones Astartes: Age of Darkness Army List) [2,497pts] ++

+ HQ +

Farith Redloss [200pts]: Magaron pattern Atomantic Pulse Pistol, Scion of the Dreadwing, Warlord

Siege Breaker [182pts]: Chainfist, Dreadwing, On Foot, Phosphex Bombs
. Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour: Terminator Armour
. Combi-weapon: Combi-weapon: Meltagun
. Consul
. . Siege Breaker

+ Elites +

Quad Launcher Support Battery, Legion [270pts]: Phosphex Canister Shot, Rapier, Legion, Rapier, Legion, Rapier, Legion, Shatter Shell

+ Troops +

Destroyer Squad, Legion (Compulsory) [350pts]: 8x Destroyer Space Marine, Legion, Hardened Armour, Melta Bombs, Missile Launcher with Suspensor Web and Rad Missiles Only, Stasis Grenades (Eskaton Imperative)
. Destroyer Sergeant, Legion: Dreadwing, Thunder Hammer
. Rhino Armoured Carrier, Legion: Dozer Blade, Multi-melta

Destroyer Squad, Legion (Compulsory) [385pts]: 9x Destroyer Space Marine, Legion, Hardened Armour, Melta Bombs, Missile Launcher with Suspensor Web and Rad Missiles Only, Missile Launcher with Suspensor Web and Rad Missiles Only, Stasis Grenades (Eskaton Imperative)
. Destroyer Sergeant, Legion: Dreadwing, Thunder Hammer
. Rhino Armoured Carrier, Legion: Dozer Blade, Multi-melta

Dreadwing Interemptor Squad (Compulsory) [480pts]: Dreadwing, 4x Interemptors, Missile Launcher with Suspensor Web and Rad Missiles & Status Missiles, Stasis Grenades (Eskaton Imperative)
. Land Raider Proteus (DT): Armoured Ceramite, Dozer Blade, Explorator Augury Web, Extra Armour, Multi-melta, 2x Twin-linked Lascannon Sponsons

+ Heavy Support +

Leviathan Siege Dreadnought Talon [330pts]
. Leviathan Siege Dreadnought: Armoured Ceramite, Cyclonic Melta Lance, Heavy Flamer, Heavy Flamer, Phosphex Discharger
. . Leviathan Siege Drill

Vindicator Siege Tank Squadron, Legion [150pts]
. Vindicator Tank, Legion: Combi-Bolter, Demolisher Cannon, Dozer Blade, Machine Spirit

Vindicator Siege Tank Squadron, Legion [150pts]
. Vindicator Tank, Legion: Combi-Bolter, Demolisher Cannon, Dozer Blade, Machine Spirit

+ Allegiance +

Legion and Allegiance:    I: Dark Angels, Loyalist

Rite of War: The Eskaton Imperative

+ Use Playtest Rules +

Use Playtest Rules Errata 1.0 (From FAQ 1.1 Feb/2019): Playtest Rules Errata 1.0 On

+ Warlord Traits +

Warlord Traits

+ Dedicated Transport Restictions +

Dedicated Transports Restrictions: Dedicated transports are part of the parent unit

++ Total: [2,497pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe

Edited June 30, 2021 by CaptainKael

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

I like it, but I am under the impression that you can't field Rapier support batteries with the Eskaton imperative unless you have them in transports given that the crew members count as infantry and thus demand a transport. Other than that my planned Eskaton list is rather similar, I just have my destroyers in termites to get them to clearing out the enemy deployment zone even faster and I have a Legion medusa to throw around some more phosphex.

[CaptainKael]

I had debated that too. But according to the AOD book, pg 65:

"The Unit
Artillery units comprise a number of crew models and the gun models themselves. These units can include several different types of models."

 

And the ROW requires that:

"All infantry units and Independent Characters included in this army must be deployed embarked within a Transport vehicle [...]"

 

So by my logic, Rapiers are good to go because they are artillery units with infantry models. The rite only talks about infantry units, not models. Difference lies in the unit vs model designation. If they had said infantry models, I would agree.

 

Besides, it makes perfect narrative sense for the Dreadwing after all. Angels of Caliban actually had a section describing the Dreadwing using Rapiers on Ultramar.

Edited June 30, 2021 by CaptainKael

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

I hope your reading is right, because I feel like some Rapiers raining down additional phosphex would be more than appropriate for a Dreadwing army. I guess we can't know for certain until we get an FAQ ruling on this (it would also impact the Praevian consul given that he is also an infantry model in a unit that is actually monstrous characters).

[Gattopardo]

I'd be very interested to know how you get on with this. I'm (very gradually) building towards an Eskaton list myself. What I'm planning is something like:

 

- Praetor in Cataphractii (could be replaced with Redloss or a Praetor in artificer armour - not sure)

- 5 or 6 inner circle Knights in a Spartan

- 10 Destroyers in a Dreadclaw

- 10 Interemptors in a Termite

- 6 Interemptors in a Proteus with Explorator Augury web

- Deredeo with Heavy Lascannons and Aiolos missiles

- Leviathan with siege drill, melta lance and phosphex in a dreadnought drop pod

 

The basic idea is that the Termite and one of the pods will come in turn one, and the Proteus can help get the other one in early (or alternatively disrupt enemy reserves) so there's a solid chunk that are coming in ignoring the difficult terrain to threaten the enemy deployment zone, while the Spartan and Proteus plus contents move up to contest / take objectives in the middle of the board. I do wonder whether entirely ignoring ground based transport and putting everything in pods / drills would work better. Even if you put dozer blades on everything you're still taking a fair few dangerous terrain tests if you want to get to the enemy's deployment zone. I also wonder whether a load of Legion Terminators in Dreadclaw (or maybe Kharybdis) would be better than the Inner Circle Knights in Spartan. I've got the Knights and the Spartan though, so will stick with them for the moment at least.

 

I can see the Rapiers doing great things for you but while using Rhinos keeps things cheap, I can see you maybe having difficulty threatening / clearing the enemy deployment zone, which is important in the Eskaton. You could get shot out of the Rhinos fairly easily I reckon, and then you've got to foot slog across all that difficult terrain. Personally I've not planned on including Rapiers - although the argument you make above does make sense, it's not free from doubt for me. Obviously the Quad Launcher with phosphex is otherwise a good fit for the Eskaton thematically.

Edited July 1, 2021 by Gattopardo

[Lucien Eilam]

The unit entry doesn’t give one unit type precedence over the other:
 

Unit Type

• Rapier Carrier: Artillery
• Legion Space Marine: Infantry

That’s no more “Artillery with Infantry” than it is “Infantry with Artillery”, and either way the point of the rule is surely that Infantry can’t get to this battlefield with this RoW by walking?

If the RoW precluded phosphex artillery, that would seem like a weird oversight, but you can put a full strength Rapier squad in a Kharybdis and meet all the requirements.