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So, in at least 50 games of 40k with my Mech IG, I've drawn several times, but I've only lost twice. Once was to Kan Wall orks before I'd optimized it to allcomers, and once was to Deathwing.

The Deathwing army gives me more trouble than anything else. I suffered a minor loss to a DW army in 'Ard Boyz and it knocked me out of the top 3. Needless to say this problem must be rectified.


In short, I typically run (@ 2,000)

CCS w/ 4 Meltaguns in Chimera

4 squads of Veterans (2x plasma gun, 1x melta gun, 1x autocannon) in Chimeras (people will probably knock me for this loadout but it works for me, and a couple more plasma guns won't change things)

Power Blob w/ Flamerboat PCS (PCS w/ 4 Flamers in Chimera, 20 Guardsmen w/ Commissar, 2+1 Power Weapons...these guys are the meat shields)

8+1 PBS in Chimera

2x Vendettas

2x Hydras

2x Manticores



It's worked great as a TAC build, but it doesn't seem that I play it right vs. Deathwing. The CMLs are of dubious effectiveness against AV12-spam where pretty much everything is getting cover, I just can't seem to kill enough Terminators before they close the distance and start going to work with the Thunder Hammers.


Generally speaking, does anyone have any tips and tricks for fighting Deathwing with this kind of build? I'm really not open to changing it, as it's worked spectacularly against pretty much everything else out there FWIW. Thanks in advance.

I would think with the manticores dropping plates on squads you wouldn't have much of an issue. What did the DW guy do in the 'ard boyz game? DW assault?Foot slog across the board? Some LR tossed in?

Hückleberry wrote:I would think with the manticores dropping plates on squads you wouldn't have much of an issue. What did the DW guy do in the 'ard boyz game? DW assault?Foot slog across the board? Some LR tossed in?

36-46 footslogging TH/SS Terminators are no joke if your opponent's dice are hot. Manticores eat gak against Deathwing anyway...properly spaced you're hitting a maximum of 3 guys. They have a 2+ save and they're fearless so they don't have to worry about Pinning.

In 'Ard Boyz I dropped 1 Manticore for a pair of Plas sponson Demolishers. In one round of shooting, 4 PCs and 2 Demolisher cannons did literally nothing to a squad of DW Terminators. Again, if your opponent's dice are hot there's literally nothing you can do. I need tactical tricks for when shooting them just isn't enough.

I've found blocking their advance with sacrificial vehicles to give myself a turn or 2 of shooting to work best. You are right though 3++ on a whole army is a pain the arse.

Yarrick + Ogryns can slow down terminators.

heres how I handle them with my tau...

The army itself is VERY slow after its initial drop/surprise can easily be avoided.

focus fire on 1 unit at a time, kill them to the last man. If they are down to 1 -2 models in a unit, charge them with 2 larger units of your own (overwhelm them!)... at the NOVA I ran 2 units of kroot into a unit of 2 termies and didn't lose a model...

Killing 1-2 of their units per turn tables them in 4-5 turns... just don't stick too close to them.

I think deathwing is devastating at 1500pts.

The higher the point total, the less devastating it is.

At 2500 mech IG should be able to have enough gas to stomp them.

With the current meta being heavy 2+ saves, plasma has started to make a come back, but there isn't enough room to bring enough to deal with 20-25 terminators at 1500.