TACTICA DEATHWING By Matthew Sprange |
This article has been reproduced with kind permission from the author. It is also available at the author's own website and hs been previously published in Citadel Journal # 37. It's use here is not intended as a challenge to the original authors copyright and is reproduced here for the sole purpose of enhancing he Dark Angel spirrit and the warhammer 40,000 experience. |
Deep in one of the most secret parts of the Rock, one hundred members of the Deathwing, fully clad in their Terminator armour, stand in silent prayer. High on an ancient dais, the entire Inner Circle of the Dark Angels, not seen together for over two hundred years, await the arrival of their leader. An hour passes, then two as the flickering wax candles illuminating the hall steadily burn, their light never diminishing. The tension in the air is palpable as, at last, the Supreme Grand Master Azrael steps from a hidden entrance and gazes with pride on these, the finest warriors of his glorious Chapter. He barks a name and a lone member of the Deathwing steps forward from the ranks and approaches his Commander. A new Master of the Deathwing has been appointed and now awaits an explanation of his duties. . . You Now Lead the Deathwing These words must lay heavily upon you. Throughout your centuries of service to the Dark Angels you have performed your duties with the dedication and fortitude required of you, as is right for any Marine in the most illustrious Chapter of the Imperium. I now expect you to do better. You will be responsible for leading the most renowned Company of the Chapter into battle against the most ferocious enemies we face and will be answerable only to me, your Supreme Grand Master. You will be assigned the most impossible of missions and you will be expected to succeed. Throughout your remaining years of service you will be required to exemplify the very core of the Deathwing in everything you do. On the battlefield you must learn from the experiences of all your predecessors which I, as a one time Master of the Deathwing, can relate to you now. . . Command Squads and Leaders As the Master of the Deathwing, it is expected that you lead your troops from the very front line, so they may better learn from your example. The manner of your own personal equipment will be purely down to you. However, in the past it has been traditional for the Master of the Deathwing to be equipped with purely close combat weapons, either the deadly Lightning Claws or the powerful combination of Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield. Ultimately though, the choice is yours and you are free to change your armament between battles to better fit the mission at hand. Following you into battle will be your Command Squad, those few select warriors who have managed to distinguish themselves from the elite. You must ensure that they are armed in a manner that complements yourself, as their duty is to accompany you through the worst hardships of battle. If you are armed for close combat, then they should be equipped likewise, so as to form a tough wedge that can literally cleave opposing forces in two. If, however, you have adopted a more standard Storm Bolter and Power Sword armament, then they should be similarly equipped, together with a heavy weapon or two, with the intention of blasting through an enemy with sheer firepower. You may also be joined in battle by the Chaplain and Librarian of the Deathwing. The Chaplain will always prove to be a most formidable warrior, able to take on great odds and survive. Whether you order him equipped with close combat weaponry or the more traditional Storm Bolter and Crozius Arcanum, his Emperor-given Rosarius will protect him from massed anti-tank fire and huge hordes of alien infantry. Assign him to lead one of your Deathwing Terminator squads and put your trust in his ability to cause a great amount of destruction. The Librarian of the Deathwing is a fearsome weapon to unleash upon the enemies of the Imperium. His Force Weapon allows him to best the toughest of alien monsters and generals in close combat, whilst the use of his Psychic Hood will protect your entire force against the predations of enemy psykers, however powerful they are. In addition his unique psychic powers will have entire units of the enemy fleeing in fear from your force whenever you attack. Deathwing Terminator Squads The most outstanding quality of your Deathwing Terminators is their utter refusal to be cowed by any enemy in combat. They are totally without fear, making them any Commander's dream to field they can be relied upon completely. Whereas lesser Chapters are forced by their millennia old rules into dividing their standard and close assault Terminators into different squads, the Deathwing is renowned for its foresight in mixing the two. Whilst it is rare and not really tactically viable to field close combat equipped Terminators in a fire support squad, the inclusion of a couple of Storm Bolters or, better, a Heavy Flamer or Assault Cannon in a close combat Terminator squad can give an enemy a real shock as your Deathwing close in on their targets. The actual disposition of these close combat 'shock' squads are a matter of personal choice for a Master of the Deathwing. Some prefer to arm their troops solely with Thunder Hammers, especially if they expect to face large and powerful alien monsters or vehicles, whilst others prefer Lightning Claws, particularly if they are to face massed ranks of infantry. Most seem to rely on a blend of the two so a squad is equipped to deal with almost anything found on the battlefield. Regardless, the inclusion of a heavy weapon or two will give a squad like this a real punch. 'Standard' Deathwing Terminator squads will be armed almost solely with Storm Bolters, though it is very common to find Assault Cannon and Cyclone Missile Launchers within their ranks to lend the entire squad the ability to cope with far tougher targets. Heavy Flamers are generally reserved for the close assault squads. With a Sergeant armed with a Power Sword and a few Chain Fists granted to the best Marines, you will find you have a squad that has both the capability to put out a huge amount of firepower and still engage in close combat with a high degree of success. In the main, most of your Deathwing Terminator squads should look this way, with the close assault Terminators being used only in the most critical parts of the battlefield where their specialisation may well prove to win the mission for you. As a last note on Terminator squads, at the start of most battles you must make the decision on your ability to teleport your squads directly into the fight. This, more than anything, will mark your worth in leading the Deathwing company as each of your squads represent a huge amount of the Chapter's resources that must never be squandered. Masters in the past have been known to teleport their entire force in, but this is never recommended unless the mission absolutely demands it. Quite simply, there is far too much that can go wrong. The teleporting process is notoriously unreliable and squads may end up in the wrong area of the battlefield, arrive late, or even never at all. We recommend all new Masters of the Deathwing to restrict their teleporting practices to just one squad in each battle as this will both cut down on the risk as well as provide you with a valuable tool in surprising your enemy. A squad of Terminators suddenly appearing behind the enemy line, particularly if they possess a mass of firepower, has been known to break the back of an army in seconds. This is what you need to aim for. As you grow more confident in your ability to pick the perfect area to teleport into, you can steadily increase the amount of squads you bring into battle this way. One tactic many Masters in the past have tried is to fit a Teleport Homer into their Terminator Armour, especially if they are taking close combat weapons. The idea is that an enemy will be all too willing to dedicate a lot of resources into trying to destroy such a hero as yourself and will thus divert a lot of his forces onto your position. When the enemy has brought enough of his force towards you, you can spring the trap by activating your Homer and bringing any waiting Terminator squads directly onto your position, enabling you to overwhelm the enemy at his most critical point through sheer weight of firepower. Two or three Deathwing Terminator squads in a fight will make the most arrogant of enemies back down. Dreadnoughts Pray that you fight well and with pride, Master, and one day you may be taken from the battlefield, mortally wounded and be given the honour of being interned for centuries inside one of our ancient Dreadnought suits, able to continue fighting the enemies of our Emperor for years to come. The few remaining Dreadnoughts of the Deathwing are a precious resource, but they add a considerable edge to your Terminator squads, being in every sense stronger, tougher and even more capable of laying waste to entire units. Within a Deathwing army, it is recommended that you arm your Dreadnought with a close combat weapon and forego the option of a Missile Launcher Deathwing armies tend to fight very close to the enemy and it is almost inevitable that your Dreadnought will get into a position where it will be able to launch a devastating assault on the enemy, with most troops it engages not being able to harm it in the slightest way. If it manages to get this close to a vehicle, then the enemy's machine is almost guaranteed to be destroyed, for the close combat weapons that a Dreadnought carries are fully capable of punching a hole straight through the hull of a main battle tank. The ranged weapons that you fit your Dreadnought with will depend heavily on the enemies you plan to face in battle and this, more than anything, will dictate your choice of armament. Twin-linked Heavy Bolters always work well when facing hordes of infantry as you will find in Ork and Tyranid armies and Multi-Meltas always perform very well when used in conjunction with a Deathwing army. Remember that a Deathwing army will always tend to close quickly with an enemy, so the short range of the Multi-Melta is not as apparent as it might be in a more standard Dark Angel battle line. If you want to be ready for all types of enemy, than you cannot go far wrong with the Assault Cannon and this is a weapon that complements a Terminator squad's own heavy weaponry very nicely. In battle, it is typical for a Dreadnought to march behind advancing Terminator squads, using them to cover itself from the worst of incoming enemy fire whilst at the same time lending a heavy weight of support to their push towards the enemy. When the squads get close enough to assault the units they face, the Dreadnought will not be far behind, where its awesome close combat capability will soon have the enemy routed and running for their lives. |
TACTICA DEATHWING |
