TACTICA ANGELUS TENEBRAE By Daniel Custodio ( Chaplain Lucifer ) |
This article has been reproduced with kind permission from the author. 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 the Dark Angel spirit and the warhammer 40,000 experience |
PART II: ARMY SELECTION There are two currents of thought in army selection. The first is to build an army that's flexible and can face all-comers without changes (a tournament style army in most cases), the second is to build an army specific for each opponent. I'll review them both here. Tournament style armies: These require a mix of units capable of dealing with the most diverse situations. Of course there's always that line of thought that reasons that in a tournament you'll likely face more Space Marine armies, so the army selection will reflect this. Remaining true to Dark Angels nature, the army should be composed by a main shooting force with a couple of units capable of hand-to-hand combat. Example: Shooting Core: Tactical one: 6 marines, plasma cannon, plasma gun, Razorback with lascannon&twin plasmaguns. Tactical two: 7 marines, lascannon and plasmagun. Scout one: 8 scouts, 6 sniper rifles, missile launcher. Predator Annihilator - Sponson lascannons Whirlwind Devastator squad 7 marines, 4 Missile Launchers That gives us a total of 881 points. Total: 1500 points. The shooting core acts as an anchor for the rest of the army. The attacking force can move down to a flank or wait in reserve and reinforce were needed. As you can see all units on the Attack part of the army are able to move and shoot. The Rhino squad provides a bodyguard for the master and can be able to stand and shoot or move and fight. The Land Speeders can move and shoot the weaker side armour of the enemy, while the dreadnought acts as a link between the both parts of the army, providing firepower on the move and a protection to troops close by. The army itself can face any opponent because it has many solutions, no matter the army you're facing. It has lascannons, missiles and plasma guns to deal with armoured opponents, Whirlwind, bolters and Speeders to deal with horde armies with low armour such as Tyranids and Orks. Opponent-geared armies: These armies will change according to opponents, but will have a common base most of the times. Orks: There are basically two types of Ork armies. One type is composed by many orks (of course!) and a couple or more of fast transport vehicles. Against these armies you've got to tackle the transport vehicles first or else they'll tie your shooty units and buy time for the rest off the horde to approach. The other Ork approach is one that relies on mobz and Dreadnoughts arriving together and swamping your lines. Against these do not try to spread your fire. Just concentrate on the nearest threat and work you way towards the end. Most armies will have a gretchin screen. Open a hole in the screen with the whirlwind and shoots the nastier troops in the back. When fighting against orks you'll want units that provide plenty of firepower and/or have high armour (orks aren't the best anti tank army out there). Preferred Units: Heavy Support: Land Raider Crusader, Whirlwind, Predator Destructor, Devastators with heavy bolters/missile launchers. Fast Attack: Attack bikes with heavy bolter (Orks have few ap2 weapons), Bikes, Land Speeders with Heavy Bolters & assault cannon. Troops: Tactical squads with heavy bolter/missile launcher, Scout squads with sniper rifle, heavy bolter, Razorbacks with twin heavy bolters. Elites: Dreadnought with assault cannon / autocannon / twin heavy bolter, Terminators with assault cannon (yes, terminators! They can move back 6" every turn and put down a hail of fire! They'll kill warboss plus nobz in mega armor by instant kill!!) HQ: Chaplain with storm bolter is Cheap and effective, In alternative a Master with Lighting Claws. Ork Kult of Speed It has a lot of vehicles but they have low armour. To take advantage of the usual Kustom force field which provides hull down to the vehicles they usually are not far from each other so you can take two with one shot if you're lucky. KoS armies are more of a problem because they are fast, in fact they are very fast. My suggestion is to target the vehicles carrying the Kustom force field (coincidently these are the ones with the most dangerous cargo: Warboss and Burnaboyz).The greatest drawback of KoS is low numbers per mob and the fact that they can only fall back into an empty vehicle. If you destroy all vehicles when it's time to fall back they'll simply disappear. Against these Orks you'll need a high number of marines, so to never get caught severely outnumbered. They may not be as numerous as footslogging orks but they can strike fast at unguarded positions. So keep your tactical squads near things like HQ units and Dreadnoughts. Use the scenario to your advantage, positioning yourself in bottlenecks so they can't bring their numbers to bear. Two medium sized Scout squads armed with heavy bolter and close combat weapons will provide you cheap firepower, and a nasty hand-to-hand ability because scouts already have only a 4+ save! Cheap shot: If your opponent has armoured top trukks, according to the new CA2003 rules, they have to unload from the rear. Simply block the rear exit with a land speeder and destroy the trukk and the crew along with it. I find this a very dirty trick, but sometimes we don't have other options! Codex (Vanilla) Marines Let's face it! A lot of us faces Marines more regularly than any other armies. It's like a mirror match, but fortunately DA have some tools to unbalance. Most Marine armies have a shooty approach, having veterans on Rhinos or assault squads to do the close combat work, so as you already know, transport vehicles are number one on the "hit" list. One thing that Dark Angel armies do have in abundance that can stop Marines is plasma cannons. Doing a mathematical approach we find that a Marine army of 1500 points will usually have at best around 40 models. With 3-4 plasma cannons you can pop at lest 6 marines a turn. After six turns that's 36 dead marines, problem is that they do shoot back and targeting is not always optimal. First of all you need a good mix of heavy weapons. At least six or seven lascannons/missiles to deal with the inevitable armour and three or four plasma cannons to deal with infantry and light vehicles. Throw in a couple of melta / multi-melta weapons and voila! The rest will be filled by the trusty bolter. Oh, and if you're playing quarters/objectives, shoot down the enemy's Land Speeders, because if Speeders work for you, they'll certainly work for the opponent too! Here's an example: Assault stuff: Chaplain with Jump pack, bolt pistol; Librarian with bolt pistol and power weapon accompanied by a tooled up squad including a vet sergeant armed with a power weapon, all riding in a rhino.; Dreadnought with plasma cannon acts as anchor, can move & shoot, fight and scare... Shooty Stuff: Tactical squad with Plasma cannon, plasma gun on razorback with twin lascannon 2 x Tactical squad with plasma cannon. Tactical squad with missile launcher and plasma gun Land speeder with multi melta 2 x Devastator squad with 4 missile launchers Predator annihilator with sponson lascannons As you can see there's a whole lot of missile launchers and plasma cannons, because both can fulfil a double role. |
TACTICA BATTLE FORCE |
Now to the attack/counter attack part. Grand Master Plasma pistol, Iron Halo, SoS Tactical three: 9 marines, missile launcher, meltagun, Rhino with extra armor and smoke launchers Dreadnought with plasma cannon and extra armor Ravenwing land Speeder with multi melta. Ravenwing Land Speeder with Heavy Bolter. |
