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So, I'm thinking of putting together a brutal, tournament-level Deathwing army, and am looking for advice. I've been told that pure Deathwing is just Terminators & Drednaughts - is this right? If so, is such an army viable, and how should I build it? How does it play - I'm assuming it all deep strikes in and smashes people at close range, so I'm going to have to work on my deep strike tactics, right?

Deathwing doesn't have to be just Terms and Dreads. While fluffwise, it would ideally be only Terms/Dreads and Landraiders, Deathwing can always call upon other Dark Angels forces to support them, so any unit makes sense.
If you are looking for a more competitive oriented answer, I wrote an article about Deathwing on my blog. Take a read if you would like.

http://www.3forint.com/2011/06/deathwing-original-terminator-army.html


A few more comments, based on the experiences I have had playing that list.
Speeders, while awesome for their points, seem to be a weak point in the list in that they can be reliably harmed by lighter AP weapons like Heavy Bolters and Autocannons, while the rest of the list kinda scoffs at those. I have decided to retool it a bit, possibly with Ravenwing Attack Squads or with Land Raider Crusaders. That being said, it still was highly effective.

There are 3 Deathwing players at my FLGS who run pretty much the same list: Belial and a Command Squad w/ Apothecary, 5-6 squads of 2x CML or 2X AC (heavy on CML) all with TH/SS, and option Ezekiel and/or 2 Land Speeders with multimeltas.


It's absolutely brutal for low KP games.


How does it play? There are really two ways to run it. They either deploy normally and walk across the table slinging CML rounds at you (if facing off against armies low in AP2 weapons), or DS as close as possible, run to disperse, then give it to you next turn in assault.


It's fairly difficult to screw something up. The problem is, you've got 35 models on the board at 1,850 points. Every 1 you roll is a punch in the face. So it's simple to play but unforgiving in terms of crappy dice.

Belial
Deathwing Terminator Squads
Venerable Dreadnoughts
Land Raiders and LR Crusaders.

These are the units allowed by a pure Deathwing list per codex canon . Any introduction of either Ravenwing and/or standard codex options and the list loses Deathwing status. Most players also do not consider it a violation of pure Deathwing if a Terminator Armoured Chappy or Libby is included. Although it technically is, the violation is not fundamental and thus I, like others, consider an army with such characters to still be a Deathwing force for all intents and purposes.

There are two primary ways to run DW: mech and foot.

Mech list example (1500pts):
Belial
Terminator Chappy (Preferred imho) or Libby
3xDeathwing Squads- the two landraider squads get TH/SS and Lightening Claws mix, the unmounted squad gets all TH/SS+CML
2xLRs / LRCs
extra upgrades as you can fit them
Have the unmounted squad Deepstrike in on an objective and blast away. The LRs blast away until the proper moment for the squads to assault out.


Foot list:
The benefit with foot is you can get more termies on the board. People disagree with the loadout of the DW squads in a foot list. The classic was primarily stormbolter squads kitted out for wound allocation benefits. With the FAQ'd storm shields, people did the same, but included one TH/SS termy to catch AP2 wounds. Whittle the enemy down with bolters while keeping them at range and then assault at the opportune moment.

Now many argue that all TH/SS+CML is the only way to go with walkers. Simply walk up the field, blast away with the CMLs and then bonk the enemy on the head with the hammers. You can DWA, too, of course.

IMHO VenDreads are only viable in a walking list. In a mech list their lower AV attracts a lot of fire, as it provides a viable target for all missile launchers and the like which wouldn't have as good as a chance against the AV14 LRs. In a walking list, you can take more which will increase their survivability a bit. IMO their best use is MM, flamer and Drop pod. Have them deepstrike and take out armor, tarpit, etc. Just remember DA do not have the Drop Pod Assault rule, so always take enough VenDreads to make sure you will get some early.

If you open up to including other elements of the codex, the bad news is you lose the bad , fluffy Deathwing status. However, Doublewing (Deathwing and Ravenwing combined) can provide some more competitive opportunities. Particularly, squads of speeders with MMs are extremely cheap and effective. In general, most Doublewing lists have Ravenwing fill out an anti-armor role, allowing the Deathwing elements to cover other bases.

The bottom line: Pure Deathwing is very, very cool imo. It can be difficult to win with, however.

The other key benefit to taking a ravenwing/deathwing mix is, of course, that all ravenwing bikes come with teleport homers.

This allows you to tool the bikes up to go tank hunting, while allowing your first turn Deathwing Assault to come in with pinpoint accuracy on your scouted bikes. The only annoying bit is that Ravenwing bikes can't turbo boost in their scout move :(

Also fluff-wise, Interrogator Chaplains and Librarians are all part of the Inner Circle, and therefore part of the Deathwing by definition. Normal DA chaplains can't take terminator armour.

Flinty wrote:The other key benefit to taking a ravenwing/deathwing mix is, of course, that all ravenwing bikes come with teleport homers.

This allows you to tool the bikes up to go tank hunting, while allowing your first turn Deathwing Assault to come in with pinpoint accuracy on your scouted bikes. The only annoying bit is that Ravenwing bikes can't turbo boost in their scout move :(

Also fluff-wise, Interrogator Chaplains and Librarians are all part of the Inner Circle, and therefore part of the Deathwing by definition. Normal DA chaplains can't take terminator armour.

I thought the Inner Circle is chapter command and Deathwing is equivalent to the 1st Company. Under the Deathwing heading in the Chapter Organization, it only lists "Master, Apothecary, Standard Bearer, DW squads, Dreads, LRs, and LRCs".

I have faced them a couple of time with a non-optimized IG list. Lost both times, badly.

The player in my meta fields about 25 models of terminators TH/SS and missile launchers, plus a couple of predators with autocannons in the turret and heavy bolters or lascannons in the sponsons. He also puts dozer blades on one of the predators.

He deepstrikes the terminators, survives one turn of shooting, then simply rolls up my flank and rips my army apart. My commissared blobs can survive only a couple of assault phases before just being killed off to a man. Since I am nice and take only one Executioner and only 2 vendettas, I just cannot kill enough of them before they shred my army and my artillery to bits.

If I am to win against them, I have to run a customized brutal army, e.g. 2-3 Executioners, 2-4 vendettas, and maybe 2 medusas, with minimal infantry. I just don't find that kind of list fun or fluffy enough, although I am sure it would be murderous. I guess I am not competitive-minded enough.

snake wrote:

Flinty wrote:The other key benefit to taking a ravenwing/deathwing mix is, of course, that all ravenwing bikes come with teleport homers.

This allows you to tool the bikes up to go tank hunting, while allowing your first turn Deathwing Assault to come in with pinpoint accuracy on your scouted bikes. The only annoying bit is that Ravenwing bikes can't turbo boost in their scout move :(

Also fluff-wise, Interrogator Chaplains and Librarians are all part of the Inner Circle, and therefore part of the Deathwing by definition. Normal DA chaplains can't take terminator armour.

I thought the Inner Circle is chapter command and Deathwing is equivalent to the 1st Company. Under the Deathwing heading in the Chapter Organization, it only lists "Master, Apothecary, Standard Bearer, DW squads, Dreads, LRs, and LRCs".

No, the Deathwing have all been told of the existance of the Fallen and their quest. Librarians and Chaplains(especially chaplains) are Deathwing too in the sense they are aware of the Fallen.


all DAs who know the secret are 'Deathwing' and have the honor of painting their armor in the Bone white of the 1st company.