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+++ 1850 DWSF (1850pts) +++

++ Dark Angels: Codex (2015) (Formation Detachment) (315pts) ++

+ Formation (315pts) +

Ravenwing Attack Squadron (315pts)
····Ravenwing Bike Squad [2x Meltagun, 5x Ravenwing Biker]
········Ravenwing Attack Bike [Multi-Melta]
········Ravenwing Sergeant [Bolt Pistol, Melta Bomb, Veteran Sergeant]
····Ravenwing Land Speeder [Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher]

++ Dark Angels: Codex (2015) (Deathwing Strike Force) (1535pts) ++

+ HQ (295pts) +

Interrogator-Chaplain (170pts)
····Terminator Armour [Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer]

Librarian (125pts) [Melta Bomb]
····Psyker [Level 2]
····Terminator Armour [Force Axe, Storm Bolter]

+ Elites (1240pts) +

Deathwing Command Squad (210pts) [Deathwing Apothecary, Deathwing Champion, 5x Deathwing Terminators, 3x Pair of Lightning Claws]

Deathwing Terminator Squad (235pts) [Assault Cannon, Chainfist, 5x Deathwing Terminators (incl. Sergeant), Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield]

Deathwing Terminator Squad (235pts) [Assault Cannon, Chainfist, 5x Deathwing Terminators (incl. Sergeant), Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield]

Venerable Dreadnought Squadron (190pts)
····Venerable Dreadnought [Assault Cannon]
········Drop Pod [Locator Beacon, Storm Bolter]
········Power Fist [Heavy Flamer]

Venerable Dreadnought Squadron (190pts)
····Venerable Dreadnought [Assault Cannon]
········Drop Pod [Locator Beacon, Storm Bolter]
········Power Fist [Heavy Flamer]

Venerable Dreadnought Squadron (180pts)
····Venerable Dreadnought [Assault Cannon]
········Drop Pod [Storm Bolter]
········Power Fist [Heavy Flamer]

Created with BattleScribe

I've run this list for 5 games now and I've won 4/5 with it, its been one of the best all rounder lists I have come up with in some time. Because of the issue with no Deathwing Assault in turn 1 anymore we are forced to take other units. I found this combination works well because of some of the formations rules interacting with each other.

Top priority for the list is having stuff on the table turn 1 so you dont auto-lose. Because the Deathwing Redemption Force over-rides drop pod assault rules you can only do this with the Deathwing Strike Force Detachment. You start the game by deploying your Ravenwing Attack Squadron, now i tend to combat squad this unit down which breaks down into 2 x 3 man bike squads, a single attack bike and a single Land Speeder. Because the Land speeder lacks a teleport homer its one unit you can comfortably hide in the back field at the start of the game. I tend to hang back with the attack bike and LS until turn 2 and if playing a maelstrom mission i'll pop these 2 units on an objective to hopefully score some cards.

Now the rest of this list has obeyed the rule about all starting in deep strike reserve, The Ravenwing element is a formation not part of the DWSF detachment after all, Because a DW strike force does not over-rule drop pod assault you then get 2 of your 3 pods coming in turn 1. Obviously these 2 pods should be the ones you bought the teleport homers on. At the start of your turn you move and turbo boost your bike squads, having already scouted forwards 12", cross your fingers that they survive a turn of hurt giving you more options to bring your teleporting squads down on. Depending on your table set up and terrain density you may even be able to hide a bike squad out of LoS from your opponent making him work harder to deny your teleport nodes.

Start of you turn 2 you then have 1 pod and all your terminator squads that automatically come in because of the Summoned to War detachment rule. This interacts nicely with the Summon the Deathwing rule that the RW attack squadron has giving you the option to deploy your termies within 6" of your first 2 drop pods with no scatter(because of the TP homers) OR within 12" of one of your RW units without scatter. This has been for me so far the most reliable way of getting your units exactly where you want them without having to roll a single die.

Consider also that your terminator squads that arrive can now run and shoot (ala battle focus-ish) because of the Take the Fight to the Enemy rule in the detachment datasheet AND because of the Vengeful Strike rule that is given with Terminator Armor wargear all your shooting is Twin-Linked for the turn.

I build my DW squads with TH/SS on the Sergeant, for Heavy weapon i favor Assault Cannon and I always like to include at least 1 chainfist for solid can opening. I prefer the TH/SS on the Sergeant because there are a lot of armies out there that like to or have to issue challenges and this wargear gives him the best chance of surviving or even winning a challenge not to mention you can put him in front to tank the AP2 and 1 shots on his SS protecting your heavy weapon and chainfist from that fire.

This list works well growing upwards in points value but I wouldnt comfortably shrink it down much more than 1850, you could possibly drop the librarian and the attack bike but the 3 ven dreads are too important to remove even 1 because it messes with the whole deployment strategy. I've run this at 3k points with Belial in place of Int Chap, 6 terminator squads and 2 RW attack squadrons and its performed very well.

I like the list overall, it's synergistic (which is what the DA codex tries to force you into with a shovel), has enough units reliably on the board not to lose T1, and is interesting without being overpowered (in my opinion at least).

My only concerns are the Chaplain's loadout - you're paying 30 ish points on TH/SS kit when that's enough you buy you three times that amount of TH/SS on normal DW. I can sort of understand wanting the extra punch for challenges, but if he's with the command squad the champion is forced to issue / accept challenges anyway. Honestly I'd use those points for more TH/SS in the squads or some Heavy Flamers (on dreads or command squad).

But that's my only niggle. What discipline do you go with on the librarian?

What discipline do you run your Libby on?

Also do you run both the Libby and the chaplain in the same unit?

Lets be honest the TH/SS combo on the Chaplain is only there because he needs some AP2 Melee, Crozius just doesnt cut it. Why not power axe? because i'd rather be S8 than S5, Power fist vs TH if i'm paying 25 points i'll have concussive rather than not.
SS 5 points for 3++ vs his standard 4++ is a no-brainer really.

I choose to build my terminator squads with only a single melee guy in them specifically because i want the ability to be able to shoot and or melee not just steam roll at melee with no shooting. Vengeful Strike is too good a rule not to make use of by removing all your shooting weapons thus making a turn of twin linked shooting superfluous.

Besides, a single melee guy in a Deathwing squad is actually fluffy, most squads assign one guy to *Squad Guardian* duty as the nominated Storm Shield carrier (Legacy of Caliban Trilogy book 2 Master of Sanctity & book 3 The Unforgiven).

I prefer the Assault Cannon/Heavy Flamer combo on my dreadnoughts because it gives a good balance between number of shots and still having the ability to hurt vehicles on a 6 with Rending from range and not just having to melee vehicles with your D'naught CCW.
I have run the first 2 Dreadnoughts with T-L Heavy Flamer/Heavy Flamer combo in the past when facing Orks and Tau to give a better turn 1 alpha strike by podding in and roasting a squad of Lootas or Pathfinder team.

you can pretty much cater the loadout of the Dreadnoughts to suit what opponent you are going to face.

The Librarian i usually run with either Interromancy or Pyromancy and he goes with the command squad same as the I-Chap. I prefer to use a Librarian offensively rather than as a blessing bot because Deathwing is all about getting up in your opponents face and forcing him to deal with you, throw in some Leadership wrecking maledictions or flaming roasty goodness and its even more fun. My favorite thing to do is to Mind Worm that snowflake character your opponent was trying to bubble wrap and make them worse than a tac marine at everything. If you get lucky and roll mind wipe then its double the fun of nerf batting an important IC and a hard hitting unit in one psychic phase depending on rolls of course.

Overall i wrote this list with balance in mind, it might not do any one thing perfectly but the strength of it is being able to react to almost anything an opponent throws at you.

 Benedict wrote:
I prefer the Assault Cannon/Heavy Flamer combo on my dreadnoughts because it gives a good balance between number of shots and still having the ability to hurt vehicles on a 6 with Rending from range and not just having to melee vehicles with your D'naught CCW.
I have run the first 2 Dreadnoughts with T-L Heavy Flamer/Heavy Flamer combo in the past when facing Orks and Tau to give a better turn 1 alpha strike by podding in and roasting a squad of Lootas or Pathfinder team.

Honestly, I meant AC/HF, just missed it because battlescribe had shown the heavy flamer upgrade under the drop pod! Ignore that bit of my comment then.

I've just finished Master of Sanctity and just started on The Unforgiven, so I understand the guardian bit, but I wouldn't put that much stock in storm bolters pulling their weight - even standard terminators need to get stuck in to make their points back.

How are you putting 2 HQ choices in this list? I am looking at the book and it says for the formation that you can only choose one HQ: Belial, Ezekial, chaplain or librarian.

Deathwing Strike Force not Redemption Force pg 158, Redemption Force is a formation, Strike Force is a detachment like Combined Arms or Lion's Blade.

As Dark Angel's you can run 4 different detachments in non apocalypse games. Combined Arms Detachment (CAD), Lion's Blade Strike Force (LBSF), Ravenwing Strike Force (RWSF) or Deathwing Strike Force (DWSF).

Not to be confused with the various formations in the book which are not detachments but can be played on their own without being part of a LBSF.

Hammer of Caliban
Ravenwing Attack Squadron
Ravenwing Support Squadron
Ravenwing Silence Squadron
Deathwing Redemption Force

The above list uses 1 DWSF detachment and 1 Ravenwing Attack Squadron formation. Have a look through pg 158 - 159 and then take a look back at some of the Ravenwing Formations and you can see the synergy.

Good list

I like it - oddly I was thinking of doing almost the exact same thing and just a week ago purchased a ven dread and dread kit to make 2 more ven dreads.

Nice!

I know I'm still the new guy, but I'm curious (as much for my own sake as for the OP's): how does this list get around the restrictions on the Dreads in the DWSF/DWRF? Both codex entries state that "Units of Venerable Dreadnoughts in this Formation may only contain one model..."

Like I said, I'll be the first to admit, I'm still new, so I'm not trying to point fingers or anything. I just noticed that no one else mentioned that restriction, and I wondered why it did not apply here.


EDIT: I just realized that each Ven Dread is its own Unit in the list above, which would solve that problem. But, as the DWRF only allows *one* unit of Ven Dreads (with one model) that would mean that the DW side of this list could only be run as a DWSF (which allows up to 10 Elites)

Always fun to answer your own questions, isn't it? ...

I really like this list. Seems fairly strong and well-rounded.

Chalked up another victory with it last night Vs Tau no less which made me smile.

Did you run the exact same thing or mix it up a little? I'm thinking of running a variation with some deathing knights and maybe belial instdead of int chappy (just cause I likem)

If you trade out the int-choppy and take a company master with the same load out you save 20 points. The only major difference that I'm seeing is that the chaplain has fear and zealot, and the company master has one extra WS. But if you take the master you can snag Ezekial instead of the level 2 Libby.

Edit: can't do that because Ezekial doesn't have deep strike...

I apologise for the thread necromancy but i've been getting PM's regarding this list so i thought it would be a good idea to give it a bump and answer some of the questions i've been getting.

Belial is an over-priced Space Marine Captain with +1 attack. With the amount of teleport homers and locator beacons in this list the need for his no scatter deep strike is superfluous and with a DW command squad you have to make and accept challenges with the champion so his ability to reroll hits in a challenge is likewise somewhat pointless.

That being said, if you like him, use him.

Unfortunately whilst the restrictions paragraph in the rules for Deathwing Strike Force detachment states that all units must have the Deathwing rule, which Ezekiel does. Under Summoned to War Command Benefit all units must begin the game in deep strike reserve. Ezekiel does not have deep strike special rule which causes a conflict and means you have to omit him from your list.

Fluff-wise power armored characters like Asmodai, Sapphon, Ezekiel and Azrael regularly deploy via deep strike but without the Deathwing rule granting deep strike you cannot do this with non-terminator armored characters unfortunately.

Deathwing Knights are awesome and i love the unit, they are arguably the best (and most expensive) assault terminators in the whole of 40k BUT......i have played far too many games where they have deep struck and been shot to hell and back before they can make it into combat. They are far too big a threat for an opponent to not dedicate an entire turn of shooting at them to erase them.

The only way i play DW Knights now is to play them in a CAD with a Landraider taxi. Having to wait until turn 2 to deep strike them and then wait until turn 3 before they can charge is just too many points tied up in a unit that cannot do its job until turn 3 at the earliest. The cheapest way i have ever played this was still 725 points and that bought an Int-Chaplain in TDA (140pts), 1 unit of DW knights (235 pts), 1 Landraider Redeemer (240 pts) and 2 min squads of scouts (55 x 2= 110 pts). Its still a hefty wedge of points no matter which way you look at it and in smaller games its just not worth it.

If im playing 2.5k and upwards i will normally include 1 or 2 squads of knights. Below that i stick to regular termies and a command squad.

 Benedict wrote:
The only way i play DW Knights now is to play them in a CAD with a Landraider taxi. Having to wait until turn 2 to deep strike them and then wait until turn 3 before they can charge is just too many points tied up in a unit that cannot do its job until turn 3 at the earliest. The cheapest way i have ever played this was still 725 points and that bought an Int-Chaplain in TDA (140pts), 1 unit of DW knights (235 pts), 1 Landraider Redeemer (240 pts) and 2 min squads of scouts (55 x 2= 110 pts). Its still a hefty wedge of points no matter which way you look at it and in smaller games its just not worth it.

I've run this deathstar in casual games, but with Ezekiel thrown in as well for that sweet +1 attack and some psychic powers. Its not too shabby, but it is expensive and slow, relegating it to casual games for me.

I really like this list ... I think I may have to get some drop pods and try this :-)

I've always assumed termies are terrible, but they look sweet in this list. There aren't a ton of models though, do you have issues keeping everything you need alive? Any issues against a particular army?