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Was thinking of running a squad or two in my Decurion Detachment. My only concern is that their range is rather short compared to most snipers. Are they worth running?

Thanks

SG

Honestly from what I've seen Deathmarks are a mixed bag depending entirely on what you're facing. Really from what I've seen they're ok at best but definitely a pain when you pick a GMC or the like as it's target. Besides that you're playing Necrons a far more durable unit than what most other guys have so the range isn't as a big of a gimp.

...then again the guy who usually plays necrons in my group has a habit of rarely failing reanimation protocols so my views may be exceedingly skewed.

Spiritfox22 wrote:
...then again the guy who usually plays necrons in my group has a habit of rarely failing reanimation protocols so my views may be exceedingly skewed.

Sure his dice aren't weighted?

SG

Deathmarks are amazing the turn they come in, and merely ok after that. So how good they are depends on how well you can prioritize targets, and enemy comp. They have two big use scenarios:

Counter deep strike, this is amazing against marines, and can gut a deep strike death star before they ever get a head of steam. As soon as they drop in, you counter deep strike them, and use your 3+/2+ rapid fire, rending to drop units before they can get buffs up. Range isn't really an issue since you are deep striking.

Monster hunters, Thanks to the latest FAQ, Deathmarks are now among the best GMC hunters in the game. They can easily get most/all of a wraith knight on the turn they drop. After that they could have a dance party for the rest of the game and still come out on the plus side of the points.

So the question is, do you fight a lot of marines and/ or tau/eldar, ie the other members of the big 4? If so and you can get a lot of mileage out of deathmarks. This is a case where the shifting meta made a mediocre unit much better.

I feel they are fantastic when they come in and cheap enough (for a necron unit anyway) to be a thorn in people's sides that isn't a huge loss if they get wiped out.

Most of the pluses have been covered, so I'll just add some other Drawbacks.

Going First. Since they can't be held back, going first can make them kind of meh. Anything you might want to use them to kill won't be around yet so their bonuses could be wasted on whatever happens to be around. Zahndrekh gives some control over this, but it's been my experience that your wasting a better WL trait option on T2.

'Trading'. This is where I've personally struggled fielding them. Getting them to do enough damage to justify their cost before they get swept out of existence is the harder thing to decide. Yes, against High T models like WKs, and now GMGs they're great. Putting some hurt on Deathstars before they gain momentum is great as well. I just don't find myself running into either of those scenarios often enough to take them on a regular basis. Against some of the more Mobile units, like Jetbikes or Crisis Suits they're not a bad choice, provided they eliminate those units.

Following Turns. This is where I don't like them since they don't contribute much after they come in. They might hold an objective, or if you're lucky, you'll have them in a position to not die the following turn. In the few games where that's happened, my opponents have just ignored them. I feel they got worse with this Dex, and prefer the last Dex rules. It seems to be an even trade and speeds up the game by not having to track which units are marked or not.

 Grimgold wrote:
Monster hunters, Thanks to the latest FAQ, Deathmarks are now among the best GMC hunters in the game. They can easily get most/all of a wraith knight on the turn they drop. After that they could have a dance party for the rest of the game and still come out on the plus side of the points.

That's how they worked against GMCs before the FAQ, all it did was verified it. And honestly they still aren't great against WKs because even with 20 shots they still only do about 3 wounds on average (even with ap2 on 6s)

I like putting a d lord with them... now and then just to give them perfered emeny and points allowing giving the lord the plasma flamer for the following turn as if you intercept with them they cant shoot next time round.

For me they work as in my area theres alot of podded marines so they nearly always have a target.

Skullhammer wrote:
I like putting a d lord with them... now and then just to give them perfered emeny and points allowing giving the lord the plasma flamer for the following turn as if you intercept with them they cant shoot next time round.

For me they work as in my area theres alot of podded marines so they nearly always have a target.

If a D Lord is attached to the Deathmarks, the Deathmarks won't be able to use the Ethereal Interception special rule.

Yes they can it say 'unit' not every member or some other restriction. The only restiction is deep strike and the d lord has that.

From the Draft FAQ for the BRB . . .

Ok missed that but untill the faq becomes finalized its legit.

Skullhammer wrote:
Ok missed that but untill the faq becomes finalized its legit.

Not exactly. The BRB has this rule.



So there has to be something in the Ethereal Interception rule that specifically confers the ability to the Destroyer Lord. Stubborn has a clause 'a unit that contains at least one member with this special rule' that confers the ability of the special rule to attached ICs.

One thing that caught me off guard once was finding out that the Deathmark's Sniper bolters don't have the "heavy" drawback. I was so used to sniper rifle having the heavy rule that I forgot it wasn't built into the Sniper Rule itself and was a byproduct of every single other sniper weapon also being a heavy weapon too.

This means that their sniper weapons can be effective in picking off special weapons users if you can get precision shots, doubly so if you can "rend" with the to-wound roll. With the buff to Rapid Fire weapons and allowing you to shoot at full range even on the move, this can make them quite useful in harassing camping devastators or the like (not obscenely awesome, but still something).

If a D.Lord is attached to Deathmarks, and the unit is in reserve, then an opponent's unit comes in from reserves in their turn,
Can the Deathmarks still enter via their Ethereal Interception ability, minus the Destroyer Lord? Or is it a case of everyone must enter together at the same time if they were together before the game started?

I've found that while they shine brightest on the turn they come in, they can still be a big pain in subsequent turns with still decent weapons, and it can be tough to take them down with RP and 3+ armor sav-- wait, why are you laughing? Lasguns are pretty strong, right?

But yeah, units of 5 can really make you question allocating pie plates or other heavy weapons to remove them once they've already done their best shooting attack. They look fun to run around back lines with if they are left ignored.

They are the type of unit that isn't going to blow you away with extremely impressive points efficiency but they are something I feel that is generally a fairly safe bet for being useful and being worth the points (as long as you don't mishap). They have their interceptor reserves and get to shoot wounding on 2s the turn they show up. Rapid fire snipers are quite decent as they can be mobile on later turns and get more volume of shooting. Drop in, deal damage, and either draw fire until they die or become a thorn in the enemy's side as they keep plinking away.

Keep them lean and be smart about placing them/target priority and they will be fairly reliable.

 ServiceGames wrote:

Spiritfox22 wrote:
...then again the guy who usually plays necrons in my group has a habit of rarely failing reanimation protocols so my views may be exceedingly skewed.

Sure his dice aren't weighted?

SG

Pretty sure seeing as he buys a new set of dice at the store every week. Though he's 99% of the games running with 4+ Reanimation. That and I'm not a guy who's invested in a huge mess of str8+ weapons in my armies. I'm mainly a SW player and I'm not a huge fan of Wolfy McWolferson and his band of Hungry Wolves in more casual games.

 skoffs wrote:
If a D.Lord is attached to Deathmarks, and the unit is in reserve, then an opponent's unit comes in from reserves in their turn,
Can the Deathmarks still enter via their Ethereal Interception ability, minus the Destroyer Lord? Or is it a case of everyone must enter together at the same time if they were together before the game started?

Alright, so they're going to need some other way to make sure they get PE when they fire the turn they come in.

Let's try this hypothetical:
A Destroyer Lord and a Deathmark unit are stuck in reserves, separate from each other.
Luck would have it they both get their reserve roll to let them come in at the same time.
They both deep strike. The player places the Deathmarks and then goes for the risky move of placing the Destroyer Lord close to them. It doesn't scatter, so they're close enough to each other that the Destroyer Lord can run in the shooting phase to get right up next to them. The Deathmarks then shoot at their chosen target.
The question is, would they get PE at that point?

 skoffs wrote:
Alright, so they're going to need some other way to make sure they get PE when they fire the turn they come in.

Let's try this hypothetical:
A Destroyer Lord and a Deathmark unit are stuck in reserves, separate from each other.
Luck would have it they both get their reserve roll to let them come in at the same time.
They both deep strike. The player places the Deathmarks and then goes for the risky move of placing the Destroyer Lord close to them. It doesn't scatter, so they're close enough to each other that the Destroyer Lord can run in the shooting phase to get right up next to them. The Deathmarks then shoot at their chosen target.
The question is, would they get PE at that point?

As long as the D. Lord is close enough to join them by the end of movement he joins them. Unless I'm missing something I'm sure they get PE.

Why can't you attach the D.lord to the deathmarks at the start again? Won't be able to use EI from the deathmarks but you could use deepstrike normally. (the D.lord wouldn't get the wounding on 2+ ability either)

Alright, so they've gotta be danger close before running is even possible.
Gotcha.

It's a just-in-case scenario.
Most likely I'd be deep striking them together, but in situations where i might be facing something where I'd want to make use of EI (drop pods, etc.), I'd want to know what my options may be, even if they're a little ridiculous.

 skoffs wrote:
Alright, so they've gotta be danger close before running is even possible.
Gotcha.

It's a just-in-case scenario.
Most likely I'd be deep striking them together, but in situations where i might be facing something where I'd want to make use of EI (drop pods, etc.), I'd want to know what my options may be, even if they're a little ridiculous.

Yup. If you need a reference btw pg 166 of the brb under Independent character, 2nd paragraph under joining and leaving a Unit first sentence. Cheers and enjoy them death marks.

Space Wolves player.
With a bit of Deep strike luck on their side Deathmarks can completely ruin some of my favorite strategies, like, all the ones that revolve around Deep strike.