Getting around Deathwing Companions

[Xenith]

Every day unveils a new boon for the dark angels - an apoc game last night, my opponents used some DWC's - as Alpha Legion, I have a lot of character assassination shenanigans, and the DWC rules allow you to ignore precision shots, strikes and the sniper rule. 

With 3 of the group playing DA's I need a work around - is there any way to get around it, or is the only way to kill all the companions? They can also take wargear to get an outrageous 4++ against shooting (10pts/model, I think a refractor field is 15pts for a 5++?).

My first thought was lots of High S firepower - maybe a conversion beamer from 42+"away, maybe lots of breaching plasma, but then the 4++ comes into it. 

Is there a decent way to kill these guys to get at the juicy HQ choice, or is it best just to ignore them?

[Dont-Be-Haten]

2 hours ago, Xenith said:

Every day unveils a new boon for the dark angels - an apoc game last night, my opponents used some DWC's - as Alpha Legion, I have a lot of character assassination shenanigans, and the DWC rules allow you to ignore precision shots, strikes and the sniper rule. 

With 3 of the group playing DA's I need a work around - is there any way to get around it, or is the only way to kill all the companions? They can also take wargear to get an outrageous 4++ against shooting (10pts/model, I think a refractor field is 15pts for a 5++?).

My first thought was lots of High S firepower - maybe a conversion beamer from 42+"away, maybe lots of breaching plasma, but then the 4++ comes into it. 

Is there a decent way to kill these guys to get at the juicy HQ choice, or is it best just to ignore them?

Volkite cavaliers or volkite culverins with a MoS is something I highly advocate for. Now, I get to re-roll 1s to hit and wound against IC squads, but the game plan is the same. My 10 man support squad dishes out enough damage to eat even 2+ armor saves. It's all in if you want to make that investment or not.

 

[SkimaskMohawk]

That decapitation strike volkite squad is pretty mean at killing independent character units, but even with 10 culverins, you still don't quite kill all 5 on average. So you need a little bit more on top of those ~310 points before you can start targeting the character.

Imo a battery of scorpiuses are pretty solid as the DWC lack heavy, but theyre just a solid brick of a unit. The elite units with multiple wounds and an invul tend to be pretty tough to crack on the whole these days, and there's fewer ranged choices that trade efficiently. 

[Xenith]

The 2+ is the killer there - 50 culverin shots I work out to cause ~6 unsaved wounds, then maybe another 2 from deflagrate so still not getting near the indy character. The scorpius is a good shout, but it seems to be the hammer that makes everything look like a nail. Maybe it is just that strong?

One of the next units I'm building will be a lascannon HS squad, 10 lasers with MoS should get enough wounds through to cripple the unit. Otherwise a dual gravis plasma castraferrum might be a cheap way to get large breaching blasts into the game? 

[SkimaskMohawk]

If the DWC have the enhanced invul, then both the volkite and las HSS end up averaging about the same. It's still pretty good; 1 or 2 guys left is easy to manage, but the points commitment does sting a bit.

 

[Xenith]

In the apoc game I played on Sunday, one of the DA players brought 10! No invuln, thankfully. I guess with 10 + invulns it sucks up too many points? Though not really much more than a 10 man unit of catas. I had fewer points than most, but I guess at apoc levels I'll have enough to deal with them. Issue is if disproportionate amounts of my firepower are being used to kill them then I'm at a disadvantage. I guess if they're on foot, ignore them, in a spartan, kill the spartan to neutralise them. 

[OnyxUltraKnight]

10 DWC with the Aegis and Terranic Greatswords are only 415 points, which in a 3,000 point game (let alone Apoc) I feel is reasonable for how long they can take to chunk through. And this is before you start bringing along Biomancy Librarians to boost them up to T5 (or more) for extra survivability.

Having used them myself I’d agree with stranding their vehicle being the best way to limit efficacy, they’re not earning points back if they’re not taking shots or wading through units in melee.