Thursday, August 27, 2009

An attempt to make my Deathwing viable again.



Alright, I have been struggling with something for a while now. I have this Deathwing army and it was painstakingly painted, but the problem is that it isn't competitive and it gets stomped even in the funnest of games. I have realized for some time that it is not possible to make a purist DW list these days and while I have seen lascannon preadators work, they suffer the same problem my Death Wing faces in general - Lack of shots.
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Now they have been sitting on a shelf for a while now, gathering dust which is shameful and while I could field them as codex Marines and try to squeeze a decent list out of them, that seems even more shameful to the 1st Legion.
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So, I am trying to put together a Dark Angels army centered aroun the Deathwing that can stand up in a 1750 competitive environment (pick-up games mostly, with some tourney action). Here is what I have:
Belial 130
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Dreadnought, Heavy Flamer, Multi-Melta 130
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Dreadnought, Heavy Flamer, Muti-Melta 130
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Dreadnought, Heavy Flamer Multi-Melta 130
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5 DW Terminators, 1 w/Cyclone ML, 1 w/ Chain Fist 240
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5 DW Terminators, 1 CML, 1 CF 240
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5 DW Terminators, 1 CML, 1 CF 240
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Land Speeder, Heavy Flamer Multi-melta 75
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LS, HF, MM 75
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LS, HF, MM 75
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Predator Autocannon, Heavy Bolters, Smoke SL 95
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Pred AC, HB, Smoke, SL 95
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Pred AC, HB, Smoke SL 95
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I think this list makes up for the lack of firepower brought by a typical purist DW army while making it still feel Deathwingish. The Preds offer a whopping potential of 24 midrange damage shots a turn, which will put the hurt on troop heavy armies. The Land Speeders are great for popping vehicles and can do it all while moving very quickly, but I also feel that not being able to DS them (per the DW book) can be a liablity, though not too many opponents are shrewd enough to shoot them 1st turn vice the preds or the dreads facing them down.
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The dreads will advance and probably run first turn, since they will likely not have too many viable targets 1st turn. The termies will do the same as well to help them get into their sweetspot for damage output.
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My feeling on the termies was to give them Assault Cannons at first for more shots, but the missile launchers I think will help me clear hordes and kill harder MEQ types anyway, while giving me a little more anti-vehicle punch to help the preds and all the flamers get into a position to really capitalize on their damage potential. Let me know what you think. I think I am ready to proxy some preds to see how the do.

2 comments:

  1. The one thing that jumps out to me is that you are a bit short on troops. Even if they're termies, power weapons kill 'em dead. If the enemy can deploy a hard-core assaulty unit at you, you're in trouble.

    On the other hand, you have good support for the army. Dreads + Speeders + Predators are all solid support elements, and help combat the terminator's weaknesses (low volume of shots, anti-tank issues, etc.)

    I'm not so sold on CMLs, but you might have enough support elements to make it moot.

    All I got is test it out, see if it's enough. But, you will have to prioritize anything that can readily hit termies with AP2.

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  2. I have a 1500 point all Terminator list that wasn't that bad for me.

    I think they're a viable force but very "unforgiving" on the tabletop. One slight mistake and the game is over.

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