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Hi guys,

Newbie to the miniature universe here. I recently began my journey into the 40k world and i have invested in a Dark Angels army.

I wanted to know some tactics that i could use that would be relatively effective. I'm planning on running Belial and a Deathwing army with a Venerable Dreadnought for support and possibly 2 squads of tactical space marines to hold down objectives.

I'd like to have all but one deathwing terminator squad to focus on shooting, so mostly they will run CML. The one terminator squad that won't be shooting will be my deathknights, whom Belial will run with.

Can you guys please let me know or correct me if this tactic sounds ridiculously stupid. Sorry i'm new to this LOL!

Thanks everyone!

Welcome to 40k and to Dakka.

As far as I know, a good way to use Belial is to add him with a big squad or normal terminators.
10 with two big guns and maybe two thunderhammers/stormshields. The first turn they will deep strike without scattering due to Belial.
On the turn they land they will count all guns as Twin linked, and with split fire they can do some serious damage.

Maybe you can add a Dreadnought with a drop pod with a beacoin too. This will also land on the fist turn.
On the second turn the rest of your Terminators will arive. And they can use Belials Terminator homer and the beacon on the pod to safly deep strike.

Some small 5man tactical squads with a heavy weapon in the back to claim objectives sounds nice too.

I dont really think putting Belial with the Deathknights is such a good idea. Belials role in the army is basicly making termies troops, no scatter deepstrike and teleport homer.
If he joins a 10man DW squad you will maximise his power. Safe landing for a big squad. They will keep him alive so reinforcement can land.
And a shooty squad is much better for alpha strike, they can do some harm, Deathknights cant.

Good luck with your army!

On the second turn the rest of your Terminators will arive. And they can use Belials Terminator homer and the beacon on the pod to safly deep strike.

Re-read the rule for Deathwing assault, I don't have it under the eyes right now, but it is along the lines of
"Choose either turn 1 or 2, all your units with this special rules that are in reserve will arrive on said turn"
You cannot split your deathwing assault, Belial's homer is useful only if he starts on the board (then you waste his teleport accuracy)


Apart from that, if you want to run Dreads, don't run only one or he will get smashed by AT fire (mainly high STR, AP3-4 that isn't good enough against terminators)
You might try instead 2 dreads in pods (plus maybe a 2*TL-AC support dread in the backfield) and one pod for a Tac squad that is NOT using it, meaning it gives you 2 pods on the first turn with dreads inside (possibly with beacons for a T2 Deathwing Assault with accuracy within 6 of the surviving pods) and an empty pod later on to contest an objective and annoy your opponent

Vehicles aren't scoring or denial units, so the empty pod would be bet used to give yourself some instant cover.

I am a big believer in full points in use all the time. A lot can happen in that first turn while half your points are sitting in reserve. Also concerning DP assault, I believe you can only have half of them drop the first turn and the rest go into normal reserves. That kind of scares me, especially if you have 250pts in them.

Another worry is for pie plates. If you land with 11 units in a nice tight circle against someone who can drop some AP2 large blasts on you... it's game over before you even start.

Don't stay in the circle you can spread out.
Also if the haver things that drop pie plates land behind those and split fire with a cML could kill 2 in a turn!

Its true, no scatter means you can always get side or rear armour shots at vehicles, I like to rock 2 assault cannons in a 10 man unit and split fire into the side or rear of the nastiest tanks that can kill me.

Well, that's tactics and decision making before you deploy.

Opponent have a lot of Demolishers or Plasma Cannons? Set up normal and max out unit coherency.

See only one AP2 threat? Land nearby and nuke it if you feel like gambling.

Just because you paid points for Turn 1 Deep Strike with no scatter doesn't mean you have to use it. You have good range with your weapons if you deploy smartly.

I would love to see the math hammer of AC vs CML versus armour 10 to 14

Hopefully my maths is correct

To drop a hull point
AV AC CML
10 1 1/3 1 1/9
11 8/9 8/9
12 4/9 6/9
13 4/9 4/9
14 8/27 6/27

To penetrate you simply move the results up one and add th following AV14

14 4/27 Not possible

So the CML is marginally better only against AV11/12 for penetrating and glancing respectively. Otherwise its the same or marginally worse than the assault cannon and can't penetrate AV14 at all (although the AC is so unlikely to do this its not worth gambling a game on...).

Other benefits that the CML gives you though is increased range, better results against higher toughness models and consistent results against 3+ save models, while assault cannon give you a flicker of hope against 2+ saves due to Rending. So there is not much in it to be honest. Agaisnt hordes it would be interesting to see a comparison betwen the 4 shots of the AC versus likely blast results from the CML frag rounds, but I can't be bothered here

If you're planning on keeping some footslogging squads in your deployment zone then give them CML and send them after transports, while the assault cannon squads drop in close and go for rear armour shots on heavier armour (where the squad storm bolters will also be able to help of course).

Addendum - The Deathwing assault twin linked bonus will affect both weapons equally, so only really applies if you want to footslog some units and deep strike others.

Thank you for the awesome replies guys, i think i'm going to go with sticking Belial in a 10 man termie squad and DS'ing him in first turn against any potential threats!

Just make sure to stick them on a flank or back them up with something otherwise your opponent will just drop their entire shooting phase on them and they will die!