Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Problem: I recently acquired 15 deffkoptas from eBay. It was a hell of a deal. However, when they arrived, I doubted the wisdom of my (over-)purchase.

Question: How would you all suggest I outfit these 'koptas, and what sort of lists?

Background: I have a largish army that I don't play: 120 boys, 30 bikes, 20 stormboys, 9 kans, 1 deff dread, 4 trukks, 12 burnas, 10 lootas, 46 grots.

Thanks,

Paul Cornelius
Thundering Jove

Sounds like a kan wall to me. Use a few deffcoptas to scout/outflank ahead of your kan wall to take out armoured targets. TL rockets for side/rear armor shots and maybe a buzzsaw or two. They can also tie up things like a Dev. squad or anything with no power weapons/low attack count.

15 deffkoptas will run you 675 points if you just give them all twin-linked rokkits. While that is quite an investment, it gives a lot of firepower.

That many deffkoptas will perform very well against plague marines, bikes, and 'nid MCs. They will also do great in cracking open light transports to help a footslogger army.

Given the new 'nid codex, and the variety of different armies, you will just need to see how many you want to bring with your army. Try bringing 15 for a game or two, then try bringing 9, then try 6, etc. Play around with it until you find the right amount of deffkoptas vs. the opponents you are playing at your FLGS.

15 will be handy for apocalypse games where you can build apoc formations with them.

You can definitely make use of 2-3 of them, or two squads of up to 2-3, but when you're talking about 15, you're not talking about making them the centerpiece of your army. They *are* two wound models, and they have T4(5) so you can do some magic with them to make fielding them vicious.

Try three squads like this:

1. TL Rokkits
2. TL Rokkits + Buzzsaw
3. TL Rokkits + Big Bomm
4. TL Rokkits + Buzzsaw + Big Bomb
5. Big Shoota

You've got 5 seperate wound groups there, so you can play wound allocation magic to keep them alive. You're going to have a huge advantage in games where you go first - the meta-game has shifted to mechanized lists, and when you can take a 24" scout move, then cross 12" on turn1 and plunk rokkits into rear armor before assaulting with power weapons, you've got an immense advantage. In games where you don't go first, you can still turbo-boost them across the field and sit on a 3+ cover save and use them to soak up bullets that they might otherwise be directing at the rest of your army.

I think you've got a couple of directions you can go:

1. Take those 4 trukks and make a KoS list with your deffkoptas.
2. Turn those bikes into nob bikers and and run them with your deffkoptas.
3. Take Wazdakka and make those bikes troop choices, and....run them with your deffkoptas.
4. Make some of those boys count as kommandos and make an outflanking list with your troop choices castled up in terrain on your rear edge.

None of those options are "min-maxed" to be ultra-competitive, but all of them are competitive enough for an astute player and can offer you the ability to field something that isn't going to make your opponent groan with "Oh...orks again, another kan-wall/nob biker list/blarg"

Side comment: If your opponent has a vehicle lined perpendicular to the front edge of his deployment zone, wouldn't it still be impossible to hit rear armor with a deffkopta? You must remain 12" away from any enemy in your scout move. I suppose if you went way to the side you could get a rear armor shot, but then you'd have a hard time getting the assault off. Just wondering how people say you can always get a rear shot.

Move another 12" after the scout move.

Icehawk18 wrote:Side comment: If your opponent has a vehicle lined perpendicular to the front edge of his deployment zone, wouldn't it still be impossible to hit rear armor with a deffkopta? You must remain 12" away from any enemy in your scout move. I suppose if you went way to the side you could get a rear armor shot, but then you'd have a hard time getting the assault off. Just wondering how people say you can always get a rear shot.

This largely depends on enemy deployment. Honestly, its a win-win.

Scenario 1: My opponent castles up their vehicles, and I can safely skirt into their deployment zone because there's empty space. Rear armor shots galore. Remember: 12" deployment, 24" scout move, 12" move, 6" assault. You've got 54" to play with.

Scenario 2: My opponent spreads their vehicles along the line, presenting a wide front and my deffkoptas can't get in without coming in 12" of an enemy unit. Also fantastic - with that wide deployment I can pick a side, run up a flank and bash into the enemy without fearing reprisal from their entire army. I won't be able to score better than side armor shots here, but deffkoptas have massive bases. In these situations, I'll drop all my shots at a vehicle, hope for a shaken/stunned at least, and then multi-assault every vehicle I can touch (and preferably only one, and not with a buzzsaw into the vehicle I shot at).

Seriously, big bases. You can smack into a mechanized line and wtfpwn multiple vehicles on turn1.

Thanks for suggestions, gang. I'm going to start plotting my conversions today. On that note, how would I want to represent a big bomm on a model? Seems only right to try if I'm to use the wound-allocation cheese.