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Hi all. I continue with my series of noob questions, this time looking for specific advice. I have just started playing 9e with a 2000 pt DA army. I went somewhat fluffy but put some thought I to generate strategy. My list is a vanguard deathwing list with termies, knights, and a chief apothecary to go with a captain for deepstriking. I have some hellblasters (thinking about eradicators), 2 units of bladeguard and a dread hanging back with azzy and ezekiel. I took two units of plasma inceptors to drop in and lay waste to any armor that's a threat and I think I will see long fangs as well.

What adjustments should I make to try to deal with Bjorn? Are the inceptors enough (providing there aren't too many other immediate threats)? I was also thinking I should generally avoid getting locked in with him. Even my knights with a captain won't stand up long to the old Bull, I assume. If he gets close enough to my Azzy gun line I should get a fair amount of shots on him but thats if things work out. Any thoughts on strategy or units would be appreciated.

2000 points went way too fast, esp. given my love for fluffiness.

Thanks in advance. (And sorry to any space pup players out there : )

Normal Inceptors are bad against dreadnoughts because of the -1 damage Dreads get now. DA Inceptors can counter this somewhat with the Weapons of the Dark Age strat, but melta will be better against him if you can manage it. Cyclone Missile Launcher Terminators can help whittle him down too, and are a good general-purpose unit.

A unit of Deathwing Knights should be able to just pick Bjorn (or most other big monsters/vehicles) due to the Inner Circle bonuses against them. The trick there is getting the charge. If you can remove screens the deep-strike option is there, otherwise you'll want to string out your own cheap units of Intercessors/Incursors/Servitors/etc to soak up the charge, then hit them back.

Look into how your awesome psychic tree can help. You may be better off with a Librarian than a Captain to buff one unit of Knights. Chaplains can make deep-striking units much more reliable on the charge and give out full re-rolls to hit.

Your best bet in general is getting the charge with SX2 D3 (or better) weapons. Or shoot him with rocket launchers, lascannon or some form of melta weapon.

Bjørn pays a premium point cost for beeing a character and having the look out sir rule. He costs less then 2 dreadnoughts, but only fight as good as one.

Shoot away his screen and shoot him with the hellblasters.

So take out whatever entourage I assume will be surrounding him first then bomb him with as much high AP and damage as I can. Then let the deathwing beat on him til somebody drops. I think thats the flavour of it ?

DA DW terminators. Eradicators. Melta Bikes. Melta Speeders. Allarus Terminators. Psykers.
Command squads with Melta, dropped in by parachutes. 3 blobs of conscripts with FRFSRF.

Or just you know, in the words of Son Goku, Hit him, REALLY hard.

And throw in some psychic stuff to slow him down and give him a headache too.

Lastly I'll just say don't over-exaggerate the threat that Bjorn represents and ignore the rest of the Space Wolf army. It's one model. It hits hard in combat, but no harder than a group of Thunderwolf Cavalry, Wolf Guard (Terminators or Jump Pack), or Wulfen. He's also relatively slow, so you can look to play around him and just avoid his melee. Bjorn is good, but he pays a lot of points for it and isn't an unstoppable juggernaut. He's just good.

As your Dark Angels are mainly Deathwing. I don't think you would have any problem against Bjorn. Just throw around 180pts worth of BGV or Terminators w SS at him. Then laugh at him as he can only kill 2 models per combat phase.

I play with Death guard so no immediate answers to give but I face Bjorn a lot and he gives me trouble every time. Couple of points no one brought up yet: Space wolves have lots of ways to inflict "fight last" on enemy units so charging him in melee is not as simple as that. He's probably not alone so you gotta face all of his buddies as well with the 6" Heroic intervention range. Shooting him is next to impossible since he can have company veterans with storm shields in cover as bodyguards making him untargettable.

Myytti666 wrote:
I play with Death guard so no immediate answers to give but I face Bjorn a lot and he gives me trouble every time. Couple of points no one brought up yet: Space wolves have lots of ways to inflict "fight last" on enemy units so charging him in melee is not as simple as that. He's probably not alone so you gotta face all of his buddies as well with the 6" Heroic intervention range. Shooting him is next to impossible since he can have company veterans with storm shields in cover as bodyguards making him untargettable.

Yeah. Regular SM codex has Whirl Wind shooting stratagem and the judidicar. SW has the Armour relic and psykick power on topp of that.

Dark Angels have the Mind Worm psychic power which also inflicts fight last. They can balance things out that way.

DA have so many defensive and debuff options with inner circle, the relic banner, and psychic powers that throwing a squad of melee-focused terminators at him will do the trick, even with a fight last debuff on them. You might also want to consider a small ravenwing detachment for some MM attack bikes

Will do guys. Thanks for the advice. I have a lot of plasma anti armor stuff I can use and at least one unit of knights (going command squad for another I think for some shooting) and many of the buffs suggested. The only thing I'm lacking is meters. I stayed away from ravenwing mostly for fluff reasons but may reconsider. My biggest issue with ravenwing, I'm reluctant and embarrassed to say, is that to me the bikes look kinda silly. Stupid, I know but.they give me a lego or Tonka truck vibe. I will consider getting over it : ) Also the.age old debate of eradicators vs hellblasters comes to mind. May switch out some HBs for a unit. So I will learn my strategems inside and out to see what i can surprise him with. Overall I still think I should just avoid him if possible.

Thanks everyone