My experience so far with DW index

[Feral_80]

After quite a number of games, I can say I'm enjoying DW more than I initially thought. Originally I was pretty pessimistic, and I still believe our KTs are garbage - with one exception. Obviously, our very small numbers due to all infantry being super-expensive remains an issue, which also means board control can be a huge problem.

 

But overall the army works, it is fun and capable of winning. So far I've used my DW against a good variety of opponents, and with the exception of Orks (which seem quite OP to me these days) it has always performed very well. I must say, although I'd like to try one of the SM codex detachments, so far I'm sticking to the Black Spear TF because that's what we are, and I love a couple of its rules.

 

I'd like to share a few thoughts on the index highlights at the moment, after we received a series of changes which are basically all nerfs (DW index update on SIA, some points raise, MW change, Marine codex out). Let me know if your mileage varies.

 

DW rules and Black Spear Task Force:

 

• Mission tactics: 2 are good, Purgatus is often useless. Overall, they can turn 2 critical rounds into a game-changer, so ok.
• Stratagems: poor selection. Of our own 5, Teleportarium is great help and makes transports pretty much unnecessary. The other are quite poor, and all SIAs are massively limited by the general lack of AP to bolter weapons. In a few cases, Hellfire can save the day: I easily killed a C'Tan yesterday with it, but otherwise the monsters/infantry you really need to take down are too armoured to inflict serious damage.
• Enhancements: great. Thief of Secrets on a Gravis Cpt makes him a beast; ok it's not a finesse choice, not a strategic asset, but it is criminally low-priced and it's too fun to pass. Beacon could be good, but we have Teleportarium which is more flexible. The Tome of Ectoclades, which I expect to be changed quite soon, gives us the old Oath of Moment back for a turn, which is simply invaluable in the right circumstances.

 

Characters: 

• Watch Master: expensive, and not so killy. However, he's fantastic as a support leader, and I now never leave home without him. He's ideal to lead a Proteus KT, making it hugely more mobile and threatening. I'm often able to pull out a turn 1 charge with such a unit, and it hurts a lot. Well of course it does, it's almost a 500pt-unit, but it repays itself quite quickly. His Watch Master ability is now less important, but it can still mess up with the dice reroll stratagem which is ok.

 

DW Units:

• Veterans: they are expensive, but they are surprisingly shooty for their points and decently durable. 5-man squad with 2 infernus hb, 2 shields, and a sarge is my choice. They are very flexible as they can camp or move, they can be quite nasty in overwatch vs pesky small units, and in the end they always do or kill something. And if you play vs Xeno, they get even better for 'free'.
• Proteus KT: the only one worth taking, led by a Watch Master (above). I always take 3 vets with frag cannon, 2 with shield, 3 termies with cyclone, 1 termy with hammer+shield, 1 bike. This unit hits on 2+ pretty all the time, because once they're done with their target there is usually no target left at all. With the OoM-like from the Tome they can even seriously hurt vehicles/monsters reliably, with 6 krak missiles, or absolutely devastate anything else. And they hurt in melee too. Decently durable with majority T5, various 4++ and various 2+, but not *so* durable after all and vulnerable to blasts. This is their weak point. But still a wonderful unit, worth its monstrous pts cost.
• Veteran bikers: destined to fade away. For the moment, they are decent for their price and they remain our most convenient way to steal an objective or action. Pretty much useless for anything else, except vs a squad of grots.

 

Non-DW units:

• Aggressors: unsurprisingly, I always find place for 6 of these led by the terrifying Aggressor Captain with fist, relic chainsword, and Thief of Secrets. They rarely disappoint, he never does.
• Gladiator Lancer and Ballistus Dreadnought: standard choice, I tend to take these two together. One is mandatory.
• Storm Speeder Thunderstrike: if I expect a lot of big stuff, this usually adds to my anti-heavy compartment. It's support ability is great, and can make your whole army, with any weapon, wound a monster/vehicle on 5+ or better, which just makes Kraken SIA stratagem redundant and useless. It also means your whole army is a decent anti-heavy if you loose your realy heavy guns. Having at least a fast unit with fly is also great to jump on an objective if needed.
• Razorback: I have two and I like to use them sometimes, obviously with lasers to partially reinforce my anti-heavy. Particularly good to hold a 5-man Veteran squad and grant it full rerolls - mini, custom, old-style OoM which can surprise the opponent and help clear an objective.

 

That's pretty much it. It's a shame 3 out of 4 KTs, and specifically all the 'Primaris' ones, are pretty much useless. Indomitor would be near-to-usable, but its horrible composition limits mean it is not particularly good at neither shooting nor melee, and that is not something we can afford at that price tag.

 

 

So just to give an example, my last 1.500 pts list was the following. I included some new units (instead of more standard Veterans/Bikes/Razorback etc.) just to try them, and they did ok. I tabled Necrons at turn 5. These look like a bunch of guys really, but I liked the 3 characters + 3 infantry + 3 vehicles geometry.

 

Watch Master (WL) + 10-man Proteus KT as above.

Aggressor Cpt with Thief of Secrets + 6 Aggressors (bolt/grenade) as above.

Captain with Tome + Company Heroes.

 

Brutalis Dread

Gladiator Lancer

Storm Speeder Thuderstrike

Edited October 29, 2023 by Feral_80