Fearless
Deathwing Assault
FNP (banner/apoth)
Preferred Enemy: Chaos
fearless terminators are great. there are certain issues that you will avoid. still, it’s not much different from Ld10ATSKNF. it might be a boost, but it isn’t a significant alteration from a normal strategy. it might actually cause you to play a little more boldly, but conservation of bodies is still a significant issue, so this is actually a detriment.
Preferred enemy is great too, but hardly changes strategy. you can really cut your way through chaos, but unless there are chaos players in your meta, it’s not terribly important.
you have access to Feel No Pain. the key is a command squad. you can either add an apothecary in the squad (which you can join to Belial, to a Librarian for added protection, to a chaplain for use with effectiveness of assault), or you can take the banner that affects units close by. one possible tactic is to join Belial to a command squad, deepstrike multiple 5-man units into enemy territory, then plunking Belial and his command squad down into the middle of said units to guarantee maximum coverage. while with Vindicare access, this strategy is less effective and certainly not reliable, it is a partial solution to Aegis firebases by allowing multiple squads of twinlinked terminators to choose their firing angle, then resist retaliation.
the above is a great way to take advantage of the other -- most important -- specific rule that the Deathwing have… the Deathwing Assault. this rule really has two parts: first, that you choose the round they come in (either round 1 or 2, as written down before the start of the game); second, that any Deathwing Terminator coming in from deepstrike counts weapons as twinlinked.
this is the reason some people want to play Deathwing. it’s commonly referred to as an “alpha strike,” as a reference to the old Mechwarrior games… it is a surprise show of force where you let an enemy unit have the full force of all your weapons at once -- specifically, an important enemy unit such as a retinue (command squad including a character), a dangerous dev/havoc squad camped on an objective, a deathstar, or the like is on the receiving end of suddenly being surrounded by twinlinked terminators.
some math… let’s say you have one fully-kitted ten-man squad with belial, and two five-man squads on its flanks. one model in each is prepared with a close combat spec. four have special weapons (we will make the math easy and focus on just assault cannons, often the choice all-purpose anti-infantry anti-light-vehicle weapon). 18 storm bolters don’t seem like much, but they have the advantage of choosing better line of sight and potentially circumventing cover. four assault cannons added to the mix add some serious weight. some people prefer to throw a CML onto a combat-kit so they can shoot as well (i really like the idea of missiles on a model with a storm shield to boost survivability), but you’ll find that you develop a preference for certain weapons as you play, and i most definitely favor the assault cannon.
17 SB = 22.66 hits… tl = about 28 hits.
Belial 2 shots =1.7 hits, balanced out with his ability to call the shot on 5s and 6s.
assault cannons ... 16 shots = 10.66 hits… tl = about 14 hits… about 2 will be rending
44 hits. at once. without cover. even a unit with a 2+ will lose 9 models. that command squad, that tau firebase, that horde of orks, that unit of 5 paladins, squished. that’s 44 less shootas/rail rifles coming your way when you cannot assault them to stop their shooting.
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