I'd like to know what you folks have come across as the DW lists that were damned hard to bring down and the ones that seemed to be 'shooting fish in a barrel'.

-Brother Erekose

I've only ever played my DW list once, and it was mediocre. Then again, I rarely win, I'm not a good tactician and I only really play for the social side of the game, especially if beer is involved

I think any DW list has the potential to go either way. I've seen what I thought was an OK 2000pt DW list get completely and utterly flattened by a Necron army using the Deceiver - the Deceiver would tie up a termy squad, and then wait for Pariahs to come in and wipe them out while he went off to tie up another squad. Really nasty position to be in when you have so few squads.

With my current set up, I've won 2, lost 1.

The loss was against a las cannon heavy Abbadon force that popped my LRC which cornered/pinned my other land raider in a place that it couldn't shoot from. The long range dread died turn 1 also. That left 3 termie squads in the lurch and dread #2 ate Las Cannon death after it killed may 2 Chaos SMs.

Other 2 games I did well: Beat orks in CoD and flattened nurgle marines rather decisively.

My list:
LRC
LR
Ven dread with LC/ML/Tank Hunter
Dread - Standard
6 pack of termies with 2 ACs
Chaplain
6 pack of assault termies - foolish, I know, but wow, they actually survived to count as scoring against the chaos marines.

1500.

Anyone face something similar?

-Brother Erekose

Well, although I have only played a few games with my deathwing, they are as of right now unbeaten. We usually play 2k points but occasionally 1.5k too. Here's what I'm liking to take...


Grand Master (or force commander or whatever the hell they call him now) 152
terminator armour, stubborn, storm bolter,
auspex, sword of secrets

Terminator Command Squad 265
5 terminators, two assault cannons

Terminator Squad 310
6 terminators, two assault cannons

Terminator Squad 310
6 terminators, two assault cannons

Terminator Squad 320
6 terminators, two cyclone missile (or 2 more ACs & 2 chainfists)

Dreadnought 143
TL lascannon, smoke/extra armour,
missile launcher (or CCW & Heavy Flamer)

At 2k points, I add another dread and another 6 man termie squad with 2 ACs. Beyond that, my usual tactics are to keep my force together and concentrate their fire as much as possible. I've found that even though marines get a really good save against my shooting, a 6 man squad putting out 16 shots at 24" is really effective.

Usually (in my experience) a single termie squad can cause enough casualties at that range to make a full marine squad either fall back or become ineffective. At the very least 2 rounds of shooting will reduce a tactical squad to so few men that they have little effect even if they get within their optimal range of 12" or less.

I don't really like deepstriking as it is so unpredictable. However, in one game, it did allow my to force my opponent to split his forces to deal with the threat behind his lines. They didn't arrive until turn 4 though.

In addition, although I own two landraiders (a standard one and a crusader, damn those sponsons!) I've never fielded them in my Deathwing. Really, for the points, I can have almost another 6 man squad with ACs or a Termie Assault Squad. I HAVE used a Terminator Assault Squad, but since they are so slow, my opponents just avoid them and they rarely make back the points.

I'm looking forward to the new codex and hopefully new models; maybe then I'll field a Libby in place of the Master. Hope I didn't ramble too much...

Deafwing.

Deafwing, your reply is *not* too long. Quite informative, in fact.

I don't wish to dilute the topic just yet; about whether it is the 'General or the List' that wins the battle (that'd be a different thread) and most of us are probably on the "General" side of things.

But, Deafwing, how "few" the number of games? Under 10? Closer to 20?
---------------------------------
I'd still like to hear from some other folks who've had the fun of facing off on 16 to 20 termies.

-Brother Erekose

Glad to share my experiences Any help or even just points to think about I can share with a fellow Dark Angels player is time well spent!
To be exact, I've only played 8 games with my Deathwing. The very first game was the absolute worst with my army suffering more than 50% casulties (in fact it might have been more like 70%).

My most regular opponent is a Blood Angels player, who has a lot of trouble getting his units close enough to actually do anything (despite the fact we play on a board with a fair amount of terrain).

I've also played a couple of games against a Sisters of Battle force and it caused quite a few casulties with a flamer-heavy Dominion squad. And the exorcists...just...owch.

One big tactic I tend to use is view the dreadnought(s) as fairly expendable. Now while I don't go out of my way to get them killed off, if its a choice between a deadly squad hitting my termies or hitting my 'dread, I'll try to force the 'dread to take the shots/charge. Usually, I'll have the rest of my army far enough away that, while they can support the dread (counter charging if necessary), an enemy can't consolidate into another target. This is much easier to do at higher points with more than one dreadnought.

I really do want to try using a Librarian to see how effective some of his powers can be but my command squad tends to end up in melee a lot and having a strength 6 master (woohoo Sword of Secrets!) can really deal it out. A cheap Chaplain might be another way to go, too, freeing up points for skills like tank hunters or furious charge.

-Deafwing.

For theh cheap poitn value of the dread, you might have something there.

Using it to tie up other things, like HQs without meltabombs or PFs.

Interesting.

-Brother Erekose

Whenever I have used a Deathwing army the oponent takes an army full of plasmas, lascannons, and demolishers. This makes it very hard. I have been very sucessful 750 pt army. That included something like a chaplain, 5 lightning termies, a drop pod, and around 10 normal ones with 2 assault cannons.