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I had originally ignored death company when building blood angels because people said in general that they were pretty worthless. After tinkering with army builder quite a bit, I have found some possible uses that I think would make them quite devastating, and possibly planning on building some into my force.

9 Death Company
Lemartes (or not to save a chunk of points)

Set down a full drop pod of death company turn one nearest the force you need to wipe out, template units, hordes ect. Based on their innate stats they are carrying around a free sanguinary priest with them at all times. They all have relentless, allowing them to rapid fire and assault. The first turn you have to move, you could advance to assault range, full rapid fire the squad, and then assault at WS 5! If you invest in lemartes you have a nice bonus of re-rolling to hit and to wound.

Even without lemartes at around 215 points podded for 10 of them. The combination of a rapid fire and better than average assault would cause heavy casualties out the gate, and then move on to the next. While you cannot control where they would head off to after the first squad wiped, at this point it really would not matter. You have scattered and shocked the other army which must now turn to deal with the wrecking ball in their camp before they can deal with other units. All the while your other assault marines and assault termies (or whatever) freely advance unscathed.

If I missed something here or misconstrued a rule let me know, but it seems like a sound use of 215 points to me. They would last longer and put out more pain than an advancing assault squad alone and cost not much more.

Can Lemartes ride in a drop pod? He has a jump pack.

Nope, no lemartes in a pod. You'd have to take a reclusiarch or an elite chaplain.

Spellbound wrote:Can Lemartes ride in a drop pod? He has a jump pack.

I did some triple checking, and there is nothing to say that he cannot. In fact the most current update of army builder allows it.

Either way, even forgetting lemartes, this attack plan still seems very sound for the cost.

Jump Infantry can't get into transports, unless the transport has a special rule allowing them in. Lemartes is Jump Infantry both because his unit entry says so and because of the jump pack.

Therefore Lemartes cannot ride in a drop pod.

I have used a unit of 8 DC 3 with PW, 5 with bolters + a Reclusiarch in a Redeemer with great success. As long as they get the charge they are devastating. This unit has killed. Pedro with 10 PW wielding HG and a chappy attached, 2 Trygons and a Tervigon, about 50 marines, assorted rhinos and razorbacks, Calgar and 5 Assault termies. All of these kills were on first round of combat with the exception of pedro and his crew (only got the 10 PW HG on first round of CC) The unit comes in a bit under 600 points Redeemer and Reclusiarch included. I cannot decide what is better 5 Assault Termies with priest and reclusiarch in a redeemer or the DC.

I am a big fan of the DC especially with a Raider to deliver them, I just cannot get over WS5 S5 reroll hits AND wounds on the charge they are awesome sauce with a side of Hell Yeah!!

Granted after their majestic charge they can be led around by Rage but if your raider gets em into the enemies lines they will cause shear havoc.

Well, I would stay away from drop podding the death company for two reasons.

A. You cannot assault the turn you come in. When the death company gets assaulted, they don't do to well
B. A simple mishap can take out 200+ points of death company and reclusiarch.

Lemartes, is a Jump infantry, he cannot be in a drop pod.

My current tactics is a squad of 4 death company all with power weapons with a chaplain or reclusiarch to give them reroll on hits and wounds. And have them in a Razorback with twin-linked assault cannon. Death company hops out (RB did not move) while the RB ass. cannons a transport and hopefully a wreck or an explosion and then the DC come in with 4 attacks each at ws. 5 S. 5 I. 5. Averaging 15-18 unsavable wombs per assault.

Death Company = sex machine

Drop pods prevents simple mishaps. It is only going off the board, or starting on Impassable terrain with no scatter that causes mishaps

Nightsbane wrote:I had originally ignored death company when building blood angels because people said in general that they were pretty worthless.

There's your problem. Don't believe the lies on the 40k Forums! Except... this one...

Sometimes being in a Drop Pod doesn't mean you jump onto the table and start whomping faces. It's also an effective way to shape the battlefield to your advantage. Set yourself up for a late game gambit or force your opponent to redirect resources to deal with a non-scoring unit that can be a real pain in the neck if left alone.

If you like DC and want Lemartes, put them in a StormRaven?

JohnHwangDD wrote:If you like DC and want Lemartes, put them in a StormRaven?

Because no model exists yet.


To the above poster about assaults. Well, obviously you aren't going to pod assault troops. I was thinking softer long range and heavy hitter troops. You aren't going to scatter THAT far away.

taking a round of fire before assault is not at all worse than advancing up under fire.