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1: Belial
Is it better to give him TH/SS, or his items he comes with, SB and Sword of Silence?

2: DW
DW terminators in an assault squad. All with TH/SS, or do you mix in LC?

3:RW
Is the RWGL really a better choice than the Talons?

4: DA Vet squads
I know I'm not the only DA player that has said "Damn, I really want to run some dudes in power armor with a Moo-Moo over it, but not at that price!"?
Am I? The models are great, but do they really ever justify their price?

I'm sure I'll think of more, but these have been bugging me lately.
Thanks for any input.

For versatility, Belial is better with his storm bolter and power sword with fleshbane. He has an iron halo, so he's essentially just dropping his storm bolter for a +1 to invul if he takes a SS.

Lightning claws aren't particularly effective, having a storm bolter is typically the better choice. If you're rolling with a full squad of 10 assault termies, it might not be necessary to kit out more than half of them with TH/SS and it's a good idea to give them two heavy weapons.

For vet squads, you can kit out a few of your tactical marines to have robes, simply for aesthetic purposes. The Dark Angels Upgrade Frame is $19.75 and gives you 5 veterans w/ extra bitz, whereas the Dark Angels Veterans Squad is $33.00 and gives you 5 veterans w/ extra bitz and a set of special weapons. Personally, I don't consider a plasma pistol, gun, melta gun and missile laucher to be worth $13.25, so I think the more cost efficient purchase is obvious.

If you want Assault Termies, go with DW Knights instead. The main benefit to standard TH/SS termies is you can put them at the front of otherwise shooty units to tank any AP1 or 2 shots coming in.

Grenade launcher really isn't worth it on Black Knights...they're best used in an anti-AP2 role and changing the talons only weakens that. You already have plenty of other tools for general anti infantry.

Veterans can be taken as normal Marines or even as Sergeants or squad leaders. But if you want to run Veterans and have (or can convert) the bits, they're best kitted out with special weapons for a specific role (for instance, meltas and combo meltas). Think of them as Sternguard without the special ammo.

 Super Ready wrote:
If you want Assault Termies, go with DW Knights instead. The main benefit to standard TH/SS termies is you can put them at the front of otherwise shooty units to tank any AP1 or 2 shots coming in.

Grenade launcher really isn't worth it on Black Knights...they're best used in an anti-AP2 role and changing the talons only weakens that. You already have plenty of other tools for general anti infantry.

Veterans can be taken as normal Marines or even as Sergeants or squad leaders. But if you want to run Veterans and have (or can convert) the bits, they're best kitted out with special weapons for a specific role (for instance, meltas and combo meltas). Think of them as Sternguard without the special ammo.

I like the rad 'nade as instead of shooting str7 plasma at t4, you can now be shooting them at t3 models, so any characters or mutli wound t4 models are pretty darn screwed when facing a big squad of black knights!

Speaking as someone who plays against Black Knights, Rad Grenades are the scariest thing they're packing. It's like enfeeble, only I can't deny the witch and you can cast it after movement. It synergizes so well with the plasma.

Ohhhh, I COMPLETELY forgot about rad grenades. That does change things.

Thanks for the input!
One question about the DA Assault termies. I have enough DWKs to make a 5 man sqd, and enough Command Sqd/regular termies to make 5 DW Assault temies. Is it better to run DW Termies with a SB and PF if I can't make them DWK?

It sure is. With other Chapters, you have a trade off. Since thunder hammers and power fists are roughly equal in power, you're trading off survivability from the storm shield against having any kind of firepower at all.
With Deathwing, you have the option to put storm shields front and centre in an otherwise shooty unit. This way you get the close combat punch, survivability AND firepower. There's really no reason not to do it!

Typically you want one or two TH/SS guys, as many heavy weapons as the squad size will allow, and fill the rest with storm bolters.

This would seem to make Knights useless... but the bonuses they get over normal Deathwing, particularly that first round of uber-powered weaponry, makes it worthwhile.

1) Neither. Skip Belial and throw in Azrael in a pod with a command squad. But if you're insistent about Belial, give him the hammer and shield.

2) All hammers, all the time. Since your terminators don't have grenades, you're going at I1 any time you assault into, out of, or through terrain, which a smart opponent is going to make you do almost constantly. In addition, Lightning Claws are really only good for killing MEQ bodies, which are increasingly rare in competitive 40k.

3) A few grenade launchers in among a squad of Black Knights is huge. The rad grenades are really what makes the unit tick, though the krak and frag are essentially worthless.

4) Not really. They don't do anything that RW bikers or DW terminatators can't do better.

I will concur with the Grenade launcher being an auto-take. You get stupid levels of utility out of it. Even moreso in armies that use the Standard of Devastation; shifting the To-Wound roll against anything with a base Toughness of 4 or higher is huge, and even against T3 you can now ID stuff.

Just to provide an illustration, if you can drop a Rad Grenade on a mob of 30 Boyz, you go from needing 90 BS4 Bolter shots to kill them all to only needing 67.5. That's a 33% increase in firepower.