Death Company Army Builds And Tactics

Hi readers,

Today I'm going to have a quick run through the builds that I will be playing Death Company with and discuss the tactics that I would utilise with these builds along with their respective strengths and weaknesses. I'm not going to profess that I am an expert on any of this subject matter so if you disagree with something I say, please do comment below with your opinion as its always good to see how someone uses a unit differently (just try not to state your opinion as fact if you don't mind!).

Fun Army Build

So the list I am about to describe is more of a "fun" army build that utilises unique aspects of the Blood Angels with a focus on the Death company and their ability to be inherently tooled up ba***rds of destruction.

Firstly, I will be using the Baal Strike Force detachment in the Blood Angels codex. This is because marines are the most common army to encounter out there, so with all things being equal (such as weapon skill and strength without any special weapons) that additional point of initiative (providing you didn't perform a disordered charge) means you will strike first over almost all other marines and at the same time as almost all Eldar. This means that you will be facing less attacks back from marines and that you will actually get your chance to hit the wily xenos scum before dying. Obviously any I1 weapon like thunder hammers ignore this benefit.

So in this 1850 point list I will be taking the following:

HQ - Astorath the Grim 

Elite - Lemartes, Guardian of the Lost

Elite - 10 x Jump Pack Death Company (4 x Infernus Pistol, 2 x thunder hammer, 2 x power fist)

Elite - 10 x Jump Pack Death Company (4 x hand flamers, 2 x thunder hammer, 2 x power fist, 2 x power sword)

Troop - Cassor the Damned

Troop - Raphen's Death Company

Heavy Support - Baal Predator (Flamestorm cannon and 2 x heavy flamers)

Heavy Support - Storm Raven ( lascannon, typhoon launcher, hurricane bolters)

Now obviously this has 2 very expensive units that are the heart of the army and they will make or break any game you play, it also focuses on these units being led by the buffering Astorath and Lemartes, but I will discuss that later in the tactics section. 

Fun Army Build Tactics

So this army relies heavily on two things. The first of which is the two large death company squads surviving, both to get into contact with the enemy, but also that anything swinging before initiative step 1 doesn't kill of those thunder hammers and power fists first and secondly the storm raven turning up in a timely fashion of sorts.

The Death Company squads have fire power to thin out cover camping squads (albeit at strength 3 but there are 4 of them which makes up for it) and take on 2+ armour save (if within 6 inches) and obviously you need to direct these to their targets as appropriate with the infernus pistols going for either mech or terminator equivalents. The flamer squad can still deal with 2+ saves and mech thanks to the thunder hammers and power fists but softening something up with shooting is always a big bonus. Hug cover and get in the enemies face as fast as possible, these guys belong in combat not being shot at. 

Raphen's death company are designed to hide and claim objectives, they are too small to be a threat and will die very easily to sustained fire power, so keep hidden and score points is the name of the game.

Cassor the damned can run in the Storm raven, he is an absolutely superb mulcher of elite units for 2 fantastic reasons. Firstly he can put out 6 attacks on the charge (3 base + 1 for 2 x CCW and +2 for rage) and these will instant death anything that is T5 or lower because they are S10 (maxes out at 10) or S13 on the charge with furious charge EDITED following Westriders points in comments :). So multi wound models will fall beneath his wrath leaving only invulnerable saves to keep them alive. Secondly, he is a character. This allows him to challenge anything initiative 4 and strike at the same time, or anything initiative 5 on the charge because of the detachment. He is a character slayer and can bag you vital points or kills because of it.

The Baal predator is used to manoeuvre the enemy around to avoid its flamer templates and thus aid in the Death Company squads getting into combat as they are hugging cover and closing as rapidly as they can. 

Finally we can consider the benefit of Astorath and Lemartes. Both of these guys have zealot, so you will be re-rolling all failed to hit rolls in the first round of combat. This is huge with death company and will allow you to deal out a huge amount of hits immediately. Astorath also has Liturgies of Blood which allows the unit to re-roll failed to wound rolls in the first round of combat. Whichever squad you decide to place him with, they will murder everything. Astorath hits at I1 but will instant death anyone not eternal warrior on a to wound of a 6, but he only has a 4+ invulnerable so is susceptible to instant death himself. Lemartes is a great horde thinner with his +2 strength AP 4 6 attacks on the charge. 

"Competitive" Army Build

So this list has an actual "competitive" focus about it, though I frame the word in quotation marks as the events I attend are, in general, fairly heavily comped and so not really a measure of true competitive meta as they actively encourage a more friendly environment that doesn't ban Win At All Cost (WAAC) lists but certainly limits and frowns upon them.

That being said this 1850 force can deliver a lot of nastiness itself if played well. It also relies on the Baal Strike Force Detachment though this takes advantage not only of the extra point of initiative but also the extra elite slot that it grants allowing you to really max out on the Death Company goods.

HQ - Captain (Artificer amour, storm shield, Valours edge, Veritas Vitae, Jump pack and melta bomb)

Elite - 10 x Jump Pack Death Company (1 x thunder hammer, 1 x power fist, 1 power sword, 1 x hand flamer, 1 x infernus pistol)

Elite - 10 x Jump Pack Death Company (1 x thunder hammer, 1 x power fist, 1 power sword, 1 x hand flamer, 1 x infernus pistol)

Elite - 10 x Jump Pack Death Company (1 x thunder hammer, 1 x power fist, 1 power sword, 1 x hand flamer, 1 x infernus pistol)

Elite - 10 x Jump Pack Death Company (1 x thunder hammer, 1 x power fist, 1 power sword, 1 x hand flamer)

Troop - Cassor the Damned

Troop - Raphen's Death Company

Fast Attack - Drop pod (storm bolter)

So as you can see, a much more balanced build that repeats the same squad build 4 times (with the exception of one infernus pistol) incorporating both duality and redundancy across the army. The one big glaring omission in this list is any ground to air or air to air attacking capability, but this is a deliberate choice and has thus been equipped appropriately as I will discuss below.

Competitive Army Build Tactics

This army does away with any mechanised vehicles beyond the drop pod and relies entirely on multiple threats with jump packs moving up the board as fast as possible to engage the enemy.

The captain is quite expensive but comes with a few handy trinkets. The most important of these is the Veritas Vitae that allows you generate an additional warlord trait from the strategic table. So you can have two from that table if you wish or chance your luck on two different tables. A good roll can be a game winner. He also has Valour's Edge, an at strength and at initiative AP2 power sword, however this is strength 5 and initiative 6 on the charge in this detachment so it can be very good. The shield is for survival and the melta bomb allows him to tackle armour as well. 

The Death Company Squads are tool kits. Ignores cover templates? Check. Melta gun? Check. AP2 weaponry at x2 strength for 2+ saves and armour? Check. Power sword for at initiative AP3? Check. 7 other guys pumping out 35 attacks on the charge at strength 5 PLUS the possibility of hammer of wrath attacks? Mother flipping check all over that.

Four of these squads ensures that either you will lose a few from all or maybe one whole squad. Remember these guys have Feel No Pain so they can shrug off a lot of Strength 7 or lower shots a third of the time enhancing their survivability. Utilise the cover and punch everything to death.

Raphen's Death Company have exactly the same role as described above.

Cassor the Damned now comes in a drop pod on the first turn, he is designed to be an angry distraction in the backfield, maybe score an objective first turn BUT also don't forget he has a meltagun (12 inch range so 6 inch for melta) and so can help take out some armour in the enemies back line as well. 

As mentioned in the build section, this army lacks any anti-flier capability unless they are in hover mode. But the point of this army is to be engaged in combat thus preventing them being shot at. These guys have a 12 inch move and up to a 6 inch run on the first turn and if the enemy has moved towards you or has been forced to as they need to claim maelstrom objectives then a turn 2 charge (or if you're lucky a turn one charge if you went second) is very much achievable. 

Null deployed armies like a Nemesis Strike force will hurt this army but then you should be facing off against an equally elite army so it balances itself somewhat as long as you take down the Dreadknights early on.

Conclusions

Anyway, well done if you have made it through the wall of text to get to this point! I do appreciate anyone reading all the way through my drivel on tactics in a game that I play narratively more often than not but I do attend tournaments on an at least once yearly schedule and don't do to badly at them (that's a lie!).

I would love to hear anyone else's experience of using Death Company heavy lists or just shared tactics for relatively small elite armies as well, I love to swap and debate ideas, just be friendly about it (partly because I can be very slow sometimes...).

Let me know if you enjoyed this article and if there are any other tactics either as part of my armies (past and present or even future) or just general theory hammer tactics that you would like to see.

Thanks as always and

Peace out,

Rob

Blood Angels - Are we that Bad? Part 5 - LoW, Relics, Psychic powers and formations

Hi readers!

Today I am going to cover Blood Angel Specific relics, warlord traits, psychic powers, Lords of War and then a whole (angelic) host of detachments and formations. WARNING It's going to be a  long one but I hope you stick with it as some of the best bits of the whole blood angels codex and expansions sit in this meaty mess! On we go.

Relics

The Angels Wing - Jump pack? Check. Re-roll scatter? Check. Re-roll on mishap table? Check. interceptor units can only snap fire at you? Oh mother flipping check all over that. For 25 points in can really help your beat stick HQ getto grips with a force. This in combination with other scatter reducing abilities from formations can make some good little precision drops.

The crown angelic - causes fear and the test has to be taken at -2 leadership. brilliant against some armies rubbish against most. At 10 points I'd skip unless your tailoring between friends.

Veritas Vitae - an absolute steal for 15 points. Allows you to roll a second warlord trait from the strategic table. Very competitively priced indeed.

Valours Edge - A users strength at initiative AP2 power sword for 20 points. Combined with furious charge and either the quickening or a baal strike force detachment (see below for both) this is actually really good value for a cheap beat stick style HQ.

Gallians staff - re-roll ones on failed psychic rolls but then loses a wound with no saves allowed for each re-roll that is also a one. Its also a +2 strength AP4 force weapon. Costs 10 points as an upgrade for a librarian, too risky for me personally.

Fury of Baal - 25 points for a 12 inch, strength 7 ap2 master crafted plasma pistol without gets hot. For 10 points more than an actual plasma pistol its OK, but in general I don't see it being all that useful and better cheaper options elsewhere.

Warlord Traits

These are fairly meh altogether, with the mediocre ones granting either Rampage, Adamantium Will and a single mastercrafted weapon on your warlord (though it can't be one of the relics!). The next tier up are one that grants fearless to all friendly imperium units within 12 inches. Great if you are running your angels as allies for imperial guard but you can't guarantee your character getting this but helpful if so. 

Then there is a trait that grants + 1 intiative to your warlord, this coupled with the Baal Strike force detachment which grants + 1 initiative on the charge could be the difference between winning a challenge and being a bloody smear on a boot! 

The final and best trait, which is Dante's fixed trait as I mention below, is Descent of Angels which grant re-roll of failed reserve rolls for jump, flyer and skimmer units and allows jump and skimmer units to only scatter D6. This is awesome, but if you really want to theme your force around jump units and your gaming group allows lords of war. Just take Dante, as you'll read below he is the boss.

Psychic Powers

The Quickening - My favourite power here is the primaris so a guaranteed get. it grants +D3 attacks and initiative to a character. Potentially you could have Dante, on the charge, throwing out NINE strength 7, initiative 10 AP2 attacks that could be Weapon skills 7 with a sanguinary priest in tow. Wowzers. This power can be a key game changing moment if you used wisely.

Fear of Darkness - targets a single enemy unit within 12 inches and morale check taken at -2. OK but most armies have a counter to morale shenanigans

Unleash Rage - Grants rage to friendly unit in 18 inches or + 1 attack if they already have. Nice on a Death company squad!

Shield of Sanguinius - grants a 5+ invulnerable to librarian unit. Jump pack libby in death company ahoy!

Blood Boil - 18 inch witchfire - target takes 2 toughness tests and if failed takes a wound no saves allowed. For each unsaved wound a large blast marker is placed on models and all underneath it take a S5 AP4 ignores cover hit. Great Against guardsmen and OK against others.

The Blood Lance - a strength 8 AP2 lance beam with a 12 inch range. OK, an extra 6 inches of range would have done it wonders mind.

Wings of Sangunius - the only warp charge 2 power on the list. Allows a unit within 12 inches that isn't locked in combat to be moved up to 12 inches ignoring intervening terrain but normal rules for landing area. Counts as moving for shooting purposes. Can't charge. This would be a lot better if you could charge or not count as moving for shooting. And wouldn't I think be too op compared to some things we are seeing now. As is it is useful for catching an imperial knight in a melta crossfire

on two front with a total 18 inch move possible.

Lords of War

Commander Dante - he is as he rightly should be, an absolute beast. Not only as an indpendent force that can maraud and wreck face (which he can) but also as a potent force multiplier for certain play styles. Firstly lets look at his stats and load out. He has a chapter masters stats, but has eternal warrior and furious charge making him strength 5 on the charge, but he also has the axe mortalis which grants him +2 strength making him S7 on the charge AND still striking at his high initiative of 6 and weapons skill of 6. If taken as part of the the Baal Strike force Detachment and in a squad with a sanguinary priest you are looking at SIX (4 base +1 for charge and + 1 for 2 x CCW) strength 7, initiative 7 (+1 from red thirst), weapon skill 7 (+1 from blood chalice) AP2 attacks on a toughness 4 2+/4++ 5+ FNP (from the priests nartheciums) eternal warrior frame. As much of a badass as he should be? I think so! But ladies and gents that is not all, oh no sir-ee! 

He also gets Descent of Angels as his automatic warlord trait, this sweet trait grants re-roll of failed reserve rolls for jump, flyer and skimmer units AND reduces scatter to D6 for jump and skimmer units that are deep striking, allowing for near perfect tactical precision drops on a jump heavy force. But there is more! In a tactical objectives mission he also get to roll on the tactical traits table in addition to having descent of angels! Perfect in maelstrom! Oh and he also has a mask that causes fear and all enemy units locked in combat within 6 of Dante must pass a fear test at the beginning of 

the fight sub phase even if they are not locked in combat with Dante, which is cool but situational.

Dante has got everything he needs to really ruin a persons day and all for an exceptionally well priced 220 points. He is the last word in chapter master awesome sauce special characterness to me.

Gabriel Seth - basically take everything I lauded on Dante and imagine the opposite. Flesh tearer fans got a real bad deal with Seth taking up a lord of war slot, he just isn't at the same calibre as any other Lord of War that crosses my mind, even with his cheaper price tag of 155 points. Ok he has a chapter masters stats but only a 3+/4++ and no eternal warrior so any S8 hit will insta gibb him, so a dark lance shot or a power fisting character would leave him with a 50:50 chance of living if he was caught on his own for example, relying entirely on his iron halo 4++. Seth will have 6 attacks 

on the charge (4 base + 2 from rage) that are S9 (4 x 2 from his blood reaver eviscerator and + 1 from furious charge) That are AP2 and rending. To hit rolls of 6 also cause a single additional hit each. he is a brilliant horde smasher but you want to keep him out of the way of anything nasty! Plus for his cost you can get 2 sanguinary priest with jump packs and have 5 points to spare (off the top of my head... correct me if I'm wrong) or thereabouts anyway. Sadly there are better options if not in a themed force. He should either have been beefed or not be a Lord of War, with my preference being the latter particularly given the status of Helbrecht or Pedro Kantor for example. Bah humbug!

Detachments

Baal Strike force - This detachment requires 1 HQ, 2 Troops and 1 Elites and grant an additional elite slot for 4 in total. In addition to that you can re-roll your warlord trait if rolling on the blood angel specific traits which is a bit meh but will hopefully stop you getting stuck with a shit one. Its real benefit beyond the extra elite slot is the Red Thirst.

The Red Thirst grants you that all important +1 initiative on the charge (lost if disordered charge). This is all important with putting blood angels above their brethren as it means you will strike first and strike hard against them reducing the attacks that come back with you. And as mentioned above for certain characters and with certain buffs like the quickening this can result in real serious beatstick characters.

I personally will be taking this with my Death Company as it give me the option of the 4 elites, and its a close combat orientated army so initiative is key here and so is a benefit I cannot turn down.

Archangel Detachments and formation

I'm now going to detail my favourite formations from the shield of baal expansion. I'm not going to go over all of them, just my favourite that are actually likely to see competitive play or come with some excellent bonuses that could be utilised in a fluffy but semi competitive list. I won't be covering the White Dwarf exclusive formations as I don't have them and have very limited knowledge of them.

Archangels Strike Force

This is a detachment whereas the other blood angels ones below are formations. This Detachment has a minimum requirement of 1 HQ and 2 Elites. The HQ has to be a captain, librarian or chaplain and they all have to have terminator armour. Captain Karlaen can be taken if desired. Oh and there is an optional HQ and FOURTEEN elites.

These have to be drawn from Terminators, Vanguard/Sternguard Veterans and Furioso Dreadnoughts. With no more than 10 of the infantry units and 6 of the Dreadnoughts. The command benefits of this detachment are a re-roll on the Archangels warlord table if you use it (don't, its shit) and something called Storm of Angels. This allows you to re-roll failed reserve rolls for any deep striking unit and any deep striking unit only scatters D6 inches. I am unsure whether this effects Drop Pods, as in the BRB it does state drop pod assault means they must arrive from deep strike reserves so as I read it, drop pods also benefit from the reduced scatter and reserve shenanigans.

With a few units of sternguard or dreadnoughts in drop pods to come in turn one you can then pretty reliably deep strike the rest of your army in on turn 2, turn 3 if your rolls are really bad. I love this detachment and I am using it for my none death company portion of my blood angels army. This means that I won't actually have any troop units per se in my entire collection of blood angels... As my troops for my death company are Raphen's death company and Cassor the Damned... Woohoo!

This detachment has many a weakness with flyers being prime among them, but if used well it could wreck a lot of armies days. I don't expect I will use it well, but I KNOW that it is possible.

Archangels Sanguine Wing

This formation consists of two 10 man units of vanguard veterans with jump packs and one 10 man unit of sternguard in a Storm Raven. The sternguard must start aboard the Raven and all units must start in deep strike reserve. A single re-rollable reserve roll is made for all units.

Doesn't sound spectacular, BUT, for each vanguard veteran you can take a single free power weapon or lightening claw, that is for each veteran, therefore if you lightening claw up all 20 that would save you 300 points of upgrades! And for the sternguard you can get a free combi weapon for each sternguard member. That doesn't save you as much but its still 100 points, so a total of 400!

Its funny the internet didn't go as crazy about this compared to the space marine Gladius formation or whatever its called, but its a not dissimilar amount of points. You will have to base your army on this formation due to the, correctly I feel, enforced squad sizes but if you develop a solid static holding gun line with some other form of reserve manipulation perhaps then this would work well as a screaming hammer from the sky.

Cool yeah?

The Archangels

DISCLAIMER: This is not a formation for competitive play. However it is a fun fluffy formation that does technically fit into 1850 points... You HAVE to take:

A captain and a chaplain

4 Furioso Dreadnought

and 10 (yes TEN) elites from sternguard, vanguard, or either terminator types.

This guys have stubborn, roll for reserves from the first turn, re-roll trait on the archangels warlord table and deep striking units only scatter D6 (and if you aren't deep striking here,, clue - you're doing it wrong). Here follows a stupid stupid list I drew up that fits in 1850 points and would get beaten by many many armies but I think it would be so much bloody fun to play and I genuinely think it would do OK in the right hands.

HQ:

Captain with Valours Edge, Bolt Pistol and Jump pack
Chaplain with Jump pack

4 X furioso Dreadnoughts with heavy flamer and storm bolter fists plus magna grapple

4 x 5 man vanguard veteran squads all armed with bolt pistol and chain sword, sergeants each have a melta bomb

6 x 5 man vanguard veteran squads all armed with bolt pistol and chain sword

That is 50 vanguard veterans, 4 furioso dreadnought a chaplain and a captain, 1850 points bang on the nose.

Dreadnought start on board in cover or holding objective, anything gets to close they flame and punch it to death. The vanguard vets start dropping turn one accurate as you like and drown anything in attacks that is there, melta bomb sergeants cover anything that is armour 13 or higher, with furious charge attacks taking care of AV 11 and lower and grenades taking care of armour 12.

Oh I wish I had the models I really really do...

Archangels Orbital Intervention Force 

3 terminator squads assault or regular. All arrive from deep strike reserve on one roll, include some reserve shenanigans in list to guarantee arrival when needed. These guys can run and then shoot when they arrive from deep strike. Its only really useful to normal terminators but if you have them and want to take them then this gives you some pseudo deathwing termies all dressed up in red.


Fleshtearers

I thought I should go over these guys special detachment too very quickly then this post will finally be done! Its probably far too long now but hey ho...

Fleshtearers Strike Force

A compulsory 1 HQ, 1 Troop and 1 Fast Attack with an optional 3 troops and 5 fast attacks as well as the usual others. FIVE fast attacks! People can make great use out of this and their assault squads of old. They also have the added benefit of if they roll over 10 on their charge range (not needing to use all of it to get the benefit) that unit gains rage for that assault phase. Delicious.



The End...

Right, that all folks, I know  said this would go up Sunday but I'm hoping to have some Templars painted and ready for use next week to show you this weekend so I thought I would get this written during my 26 hours of work over Thursday and Friday!

I hope someone made it through the whole way... I may go back and split it up if it really looks too long...

Peace out

Rob