TACTICA DEATHWING By Richard Chambers ( Annihilus ) |
TThis article has been reproduced with kind permission from the author. An edited version appeared in the Australian White Dwarf magazine, # 262. 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. |
A final great thing to remember about these last two weapons is that although they are classified as "heavy", the Terminator's awesome armour allows them to move and shoot. The methodical advance with all weapons blazing is a vital tactic for a Deathwing Army and give it a different type of manoeuvrability to other forces. All part of the heavy weapon force multiplier. Now I firmly believe that the place for Deathwing Terminators is right in their enemies' face. All the firepower options outlined above, apart from cyclone missile launcher, have a 24" range or less. In order to roll as many "to-hit" dice as you can you will need quickly get as close to your opponent's forces as you can otherwise you're squandering valuable points for no gain. If you like to keep your enemy at a distance where only those Terminators equipped with cyclones will be able to engage, you may as well start on those conversions of the rest of the squad sitting around playing cards not much of a force multiplier. However, using your heavy weapons like the cyclone to pepper your opponent as you approach, preparatory to a charge, is just a good exploitation of your force multipliers. A few hard troops armed with the right weapons can cause much more damage during an assault than is possible in even the best shooting phase and our Terminators automatically come with power fists, a great weapon. However, power fists strike last in hand-to-hand combat, so we other options to assist our power fist armed marines to survive long enough to strike. We've already discussed lightning claws, another weapon I fell in loved in Space Hulk. Even in the hands of a standard Deathwing Terminator these vicious weapons can literally tear through your opponents squads. Having two of these in a unit combined with your sergeant's power sword makes your squad a death-dealing machine. Consider this, you have a nice small squad consisting of a sergeant, two Terminators with lightning claws and two with assault cannons. During the shooting phase this unit can fire two storm bolter and six assault cannon shoots. Then, when charging in the assault phase, this squad of five gets eleven Strength 4 power weapon attacks at Initiative value (8 of which may re-roll their "to wound" rolls) and then six power fist attacks at the end of the round. By positioning your lightning claws equipped Terminators in base-to-base contact with the same enemy figure(s) as your power fist armed marines you have a great chance of killing any opponents who may have been able to hurt the slower power fist armed Terminators before they can strike. Your power fist Terminators can now punch away with impunity. The other close assault weapon available is the thunder hammer combined with a storm shield. I have to admit that I do not often use these. The storm shield's 4+ invulnerable save against just one opponent during assault has largely been devalued by Terminator armour's new all round 5+ invulnerable save, and the shield does not count as a second close combat weapon. The thunder hammer strikes like a power fist and is an excellent multiple wound character tamer as anything wounded by it may not strike again until the end of the next assault phase. However, I try to make sure my assaults are neatly packed together, so if I was to attack a multiple wound character I would attempt to be do it with at least three or four Terminators. Now if that character survived all those lightning claw and power fist attacks he probably deserves to be able to beat the living tripe out of me anyway. He'll either be mush at the end of the round or my Terminators will be so whether or not he can attack again before the end of the next assault phase seems a moot point. The last weapon I will discuss is the chainfist. This groovy piece of wargear is simply a tank and bunker killer. Think of taking a chain saw to your average family sedan (just think, you know with your imagination don't actually do it). This is the effect a chainfist would have on your average Leman Russ. Mmmm, sliced Leman Russ Not much more needs to be said about the old chainfist. If you can afford it points-wise, take at least one per squad. So the final question on squads. How many Terminators make up a good sized unit. Really that is up to you and the style of Deathwing army you like. Me? I'm a proponent for the five man squad in the majority of circumstances, mainly again for flexibility. As outlined above, five Terminators can deal death with the best of 'em, both in shooting and assault. I'll provide some more support to my flexible five man theory in the remainder of the article. Now we have completed our look at the basic building blocks of the Deathwing Army, we can start to discuss some of the other force multipliers intrinsic to this elite force. The first and perhaps most important of these is being stubborn. Every member of the Deathwing is stubborn, meaning your whole army will automatically pass any morale check they have to take, even in a situation which would normally cause automatic failure. Your five man squad takes a couple of casualties. Run away ? I don't think so. I think we'll just stick around and keep on fighting! So just toss out that section of the rulebook. Well no, don't do that as you'll need it to know how far your enemy will flee after you've stomped all over them. This is simply a game winning ability, making this army rock hard. The second ability that all your Terminators have is the option to deep strike if the mission allows it. The United States Marine Corps perfected this force multiplier with helicopters and called it vertical envelopment. Rather that walking or driving into an engagement along a front line, they would use air power to attack where ever they wanted including the enemy in its flanks or rear. Teleportation gives your Terminators the same option to drop in from orbit and attack from some unexpected direction. It is not the most predictable of tactics, so I don't know if I'd want my whole army to do it, but its great fun and sometimes I just have to leave a unit in reserve to drop in at some later stage of the battle simply because I can. No other higher reason than that. If it works, it can really work well, if not you can land in a whole heap of trouble. Taking risks is one of the really enjoyable aspects of the game. Now, let's talk about another force multiplier, vehicles. You only have two basic types available; Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts. But let's face it, these vehicles are as good as it gets. The standard Land Raider is the preeminent tank in the 40K universe. Armour 14 all round, two sets of twin-linked lascannons and a twin-linked heavy bolter. On top of all that it can carry that magical number five Terminators. I like to call my standard Land Raider a one hit/one kill weapons platform. Even if I move 6" my lascannon will invariably be able to hit and kill one valuable target. Sometimes, particularly at the beginning of the game it may be necessary to completely forgo shooting in order to deliver your Terminator passengers into combat. Move 12" and then your Terminators can jump out a further 2", firing their weapons. Making sure the Land Raider has a pintle mounted storm bolter adds that little extra bit of firepower. Then the Terminators can make a 6" assault move and you will find your ponderously slow marines have just managed a 20" assault. Yes, yes, correct use of a force multiplier! If you place your vehicle and Terminators correctly, you can make the sweetest of assaults possible for the Deathwing. After annihilating their opponents the Terminators, who may not pursue and must consolidate, move 3" back towards the nearest access point on the Land Raider. As long as you can get everyone with 2" of that point (which is why I prefer the large forward ramp) all your Terminators can get back on the bus ready to drive to the next fun-filled destination. Again, multiplying the effectiveness of your force. Now if all that wasn't good enough, the nice gentlemen at Chapter Approved have recently made some significant changes to the Transport rules. No longer can your Deathwing Terminators hide in their ultra armoured behemoth firing their weapons out with impunity (a previously valid but extremely cheesy tactic). To shoot they must now jump out of one of three access points, with the handiest again being right in the very front the way all the big weapons are facing. Nowadays your new improved Land Raider, using its seemingly very cranky Machine Spirit, can continue to move even when the crew is stunned. Also if one weapon can shoot under the normal rules, the Machine Spirit may fire another, even at a completely different target. Although this is done using a Ballistic Skill of 2, when you use twin-linked, multiple shot weapons, you will often score hits. Good force multipliers. The most recent addition to the Deathwing Army is the Land Raider Crusader, of which you are allowed a maximum of one. This is a must-have asset. It comes equipped with hurricane bolters, amongst other things, which combine to count as six twin-linked bolters that can always fire, regardless of what the Crusader has done. As these weapons can always fire, the Chapter Approved rules allow the Machine Spirit to fire another weapon. My choice would always be the twin-linked assault cannon (as befitting my weaponry bent). If you have armed the Crusader with a pintle mounted storm bolter as well it means that after moving 12" you can fire a hell of a lot of shots with the majority having "to-hit" re-rolls. Combining this with up to eight Terminators jumping out and firing, then assaulting under the cover of the Crusader's Frag Assault Launchers, this vehicle can in the right circumstances prove the line-breaking, force multiplier of your army. I like to place that Master of the Deathwing in my Crusader, as both should be in the thick of the action and it seems the appropriate command vehicle. I support him with a five man close combat oriented Terminator squad. Land Raiders are big. Very big. In fact pretty much every heavy weapon in your opponent's army will be pointed at them. Which is one reason I always take two, making up a whopping 35% of the army!! But seriously this can also be a good thing. For one, they can take a great deal of punishment meaning many shots are wasted on them. The other is that while every weapon is trained on the big unfriendly Land Raiders, your small happy-go-lucky, wouldn't hurt a fly Dreadnoughts can rove around the battlefield freely. |
TACTICA DEATHWING |
