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What's up everyone! I just wanted to get some of your thoughts and feelings on a DA Command Squad load out I know some people use. It would be in a Lion's Blade with double demi for the free transports. It will look something like this:

Command Squad - 215 points
5 x Grav, Apoth, Sacred Standard
Drop Pod

Company Master - 130 points
Eye of the Unseen

Basically the idea is to attach the CM to the Command Squad giving them preferred enemy, the standard gives them relentless, and they come in turn 1 to wreck shop. I wanted to see if I can't get a few sample opinions/experiences in either fielding this or having someone use it against you. I'm a little hesitant to use it for a few reasons. 1. That's a lot of points. 2. They still only have a 3+ save, there's a lot out there with interceptor that can potentially wipe them before they even fire (looking at you Tau). 3. That's a lot of points...

Anyways. I know this could be really effective obviously but wanted to see if anyone out there uses this, how often, and how successful it is? How did it work against armies with intercept? Is it a staple in your army or situational? Is it better just just but that 255 points elsewhere?

Thanks!

Imperial dude. Builds a 340 pts unit dropping 1st turn without roll, with reliable deepstrike, featuring 5 relentless grav guns and preferred enemy, effectively wipes out the enemy's biggest threat in a single go. Complains that this is a lot of points.

Meanwhile in the actual armies' campsite......


On a serious note, this unit is stupid strong. 340 pts is NOT many, just ask armies like Tyranids, Thousand Sons etc. Also you are going to drop and kill way more than 340 pts in a single go. Ask your friends before you play it or you may find yourself with no friends. Unless they play other such stuff.

I think just drop the company master, or keep him barebones with a combi-grav. Eye of the Unseen isn't that good for this and makes the suicide unit really expensive.
The damage the unit can do is pretty good, but its a lot for a single turn of shooting

topaxygouroun i wrote:
Ask your friends before you play it or you may find yourself with no friends. Unless they play other such stuff.

Haha thanks! Yeah I would definitely only play this in tournaments or make sure my friends know it will be a competitive list game.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

StevetheDestroyeOfWorlds wrote:
I think just drop the company master, or keep him barebones with a combi-grav. Eye of the Unseen isn't that good for this and makes the suicide unit really expensive.
The damage the unit can do is pretty good, but its a lot for a single turn of shooting

This is what my initial thoughts were. its 40 points and grants re-roll to hit and wound but with 15 grav shots already I wasn't sure if they actually need it. Then again, I shot the same amount at a wraith knight once with grav cannons and it limped on with 1 point for 1 more turn and they could re-roll to wound period. I felt that that they may need it for stuff like that. Then again, I may just have bad luck haha

First off, with a DA command squad, you either take 5 grav guns or 4 and an apothecary. I think your better off putting a librarian and go for a defensive psychic spell.

For that many points you can have 3 squads of RW bikes with 2 grav guns in each and a combi grav on the sergeant.
I like using all melta on command squads honestly. 175 pts gets you five melta guys with a couple of storm shields, and a launcher on the drop pod.

So go with both. Grav gun command squad AND grav gun bikers

topaxygouroun i wrote:
Imperial dude. Builds a 340 pts unit dropping 1st turn without roll, with reliable deepstrike, featuring 5 relentless grav guns and preferred enemy, effectively wipes out the enemy's biggest threat in a single go. Complains that this is a lot of points.

Meanwhile in the actual armies' campsite......


On a serious note, this unit is stupid strong. 340 pts is NOT many, just ask armies like Tyranids, Thousand Sons etc. Also you are going to drop and kill way more than 340 pts in a single go. Ask your friends before you play it or you may find yourself with no friends. Unless they play other such stuff.

Actually no, not unless your oponent is a bit of a jackass and made a deathstar, in which case this thing is good. But not many units are worth 300+ points. And the moment they deepstrike they are dead meat or else you're doing it wrong. At best they are taking down 200 points. At best. Then they'll fall down as they are T4 Sv 3+ guys without invuln save. Yeah, the CM is 2+ save and has a 4++ invuln. But then there's ways getting around it. Posting overcosted armies doesn't make your point valid, so don't go around scaring people. This is far from the worst offender. Skyhammer brings in 10 more shots, better range, and "shred". All for 80-100pts less.

Lord Kragan wrote:

topaxygouroun i wrote:
Imperial dude. Builds a 340 pts unit dropping 1st turn without roll, with reliable deepstrike, featuring 5 relentless grav guns and preferred enemy, effectively wipes out the enemy's biggest threat in a single go. Complains that this is a lot of points.

Meanwhile in the actual armies' campsite......


On a serious note, this unit is stupid strong. 340 pts is NOT many, just ask armies like Tyranids, Thousand Sons etc. Also you are going to drop and kill way more than 340 pts in a single go. Ask your friends before you play it or you may find yourself with no friends. Unless they play other such stuff.

Actually no, not unless your oponent is a bit of a jackass and made a deathstar, in which case this thing is good. But not many units are worth 300+ points. And the moment they deepstrike they are dead meat or else you're doing it wrong. At best they are taking down 200 points. At best. Then they'll fall down as they are T4 Sv 3+ guys without invuln save. Yeah, the CM is 2+ save and has a 4++ invuln. But then there's ways getting around it. Posting overcosted armies doesn't make your point valid, so don't go around scaring people. This is far from the worst offender. Skyhammer brings in 10 more shots, better range, and "shred". All for 80-100pts less.

How on Terra is a skyhammer coming in 80-100 points less than a DA command squad with grave guns + CM? A bare bones Skyhammer is 380 with no upgrades and is 660 with 8 Grav Cannons. Yes it's better, but you can hardly say it's in the same points ball park.

I run my Command Squad thusly:

5x Veterans w/ Melta guns - 140pts
1x Lvl 1 Librarian (rolling on Divination) - 65
FREE Drop Pod (Lion's Blade)

205 pts

With the Libby casting Prescience for twin-linked melta shots, this is frying almost any unit it shoots at, and for around 200 pts. This unit is designed to knock out Terminator squads, Knight Titans, and anything big, bad, and nasty.

I've used the melta command squad with vanilla marines to great success. They almost always have a target, and there is nothing like wasting an imperial knight on turn 1 of a tournament.

Crazy Jay wrote:

Lord Kragan wrote:

topaxygouroun i wrote:
Imperial dude. Builds a 340 pts unit dropping 1st turn without roll, with reliable deepstrike, featuring 5 relentless grav guns and preferred enemy, effectively wipes out the enemy's biggest threat in a single go. Complains that this is a lot of points.

Meanwhile in the actual armies' campsite......


On a serious note, this unit is stupid strong. 340 pts is NOT many, just ask armies like Tyranids, Thousand Sons etc. Also you are going to drop and kill way more than 340 pts in a single go. Ask your friends before you play it or you may find yourself with no friends. Unless they play other such stuff.

Actually no, not unless your oponent is a bit of a jackass and made a deathstar, in which case this thing is good. But not many units are worth 300+ points. And the moment they deepstrike they are dead meat or else you're doing it wrong. At best they are taking down 200 points. At best. Then they'll fall down as they are T4 Sv 3+ guys without invuln save. Yeah, the CM is 2+ save and has a 4++ invuln. But then there's ways getting around it. Posting overcosted armies doesn't make your point valid, so don't go around scaring people. This is far from the worst offender. Skyhammer brings in 10 more shots, better range, and "shred". All for 80-100pts less.

How on Terra is a skyhammer coming in 80-100 points less than a DA command squad with grave guns + CM? A bare bones Skyhammer is 380 with no upgrades and is 660 with 8 Grav Cannons. Yes it's better, but you can hardly say it's in the same points ball park.

A squad of grav-cannon devastators is 140+70+... 40 was it? 250pts is 90pts less than the afforementioned formation. . Also, you get more than just one unit so I wasn't counting on those. The other grav-nators or whatever loadout you give them will do their gak, so will the assault marines.

Lord Kragan wrote:

Crazy Jay wrote:

Lord Kragan wrote:

topaxygouroun i wrote:
Imperial dude. Builds a 340 pts unit dropping 1st turn without roll, with reliable deepstrike, featuring 5 relentless grav guns and preferred enemy, effectively wipes out the enemy's biggest threat in a single go. Complains that this is a lot of points.

Meanwhile in the actual armies' campsite......


On a serious note, this unit is stupid strong. 340 pts is NOT many, just ask armies like Tyranids, Thousand Sons etc. Also you are going to drop and kill way more than 340 pts in a single go. Ask your friends before you play it or you may find yourself with no friends. Unless they play other such stuff.

Actually no, not unless your oponent is a bit of a jackass and made a deathstar, in which case this thing is good. But not many units are worth 300+ points. And the moment they deepstrike they are dead meat or else you're doing it wrong. At best they are taking down 200 points. At best. Then they'll fall down as they are T4 Sv 3+ guys without invuln save. Yeah, the CM is 2+ save and has a 4++ invuln. But then there's ways getting around it. Posting overcosted armies doesn't make your point valid, so don't go around scaring people. This is far from the worst offender. Skyhammer brings in 10 more shots, better range, and "shred". All for 80-100pts less.

How on Terra is a skyhammer coming in 80-100 points less than a DA command squad with grave guns + CM? A bare bones Skyhammer is 380 with no upgrades and is 660 with 8 Grav Cannons. Yes it's better, but you can hardly say it's in the same points ball park.

A squad of grav-cannon devastators is 140+70+... 40 was it? 250pts is 90pts less than the afforementioned formation. . Also, you get more than just one unit so I wasn't counting on those. The other grav-nators or whatever loadout you give them will do their gak, so will the assault marines.

A devastator squad with 4 grav cannons in a drop pod is 245. A command squad with 5 grav guns and a drop pod is 200pts. No one is arguing that grav cannons aren't the best weapon option in the imperial army (if not the whole game). However, the command squad can take apothecary and storm shields and a variety of other options. Just because the grav cannons exist doesn't mean all other guns are worthless

5 grav guns is potent, but far from cheese. Just for perspective, this unit kills 5 meqs or does 2-3 wounds to a de turn one.

Thanks for the feedback guys! I think I may play around with this. In my lion's blade I usually run a command squad in a drop pod with melta guns. They work out pretty well most the time. Sometimes I even take 2 of them just for fun. I may play test a command squad with grav but if I do put the CM in it I don't think I'm going to take Eye of the Unseen, maybe give him an auspex. I would definitely take the standard and maybe an apothecary or storm shield or two. I'm tempted to just give them the standard though and keep them as cheap as possible.