Playing Deathwing: Tuning the List

Hey everyone, Reecius back with another Deathwing update!

I played a league game against a great opponent playing a very interesting Tzeentch Daemon list which he was 2-0 with in our Vegas 40k league. From memory, here’s what he was running:

• Changecaster
• Herald on Disk
• Pinks x 30
• Pinks x 30
• Brims x 10
• Flamers x 3
• Flamers x 3
• Flamers x 3
• Summoning Points: a ton of them, can’t remember the exact number but enough to do the full split form Pinks to Blue to Brims.

My new Deathwing list is largely the same with some minor tweaks which I think have made it quite a bit stronger.

• Belial
• Master of Sanctity: Re-rolls in combat, +1 to wound in shooting, +2″ Charges
• Deathwing x 10: Cyclone x 2, L.Claw on Sarge
• Deathwing x 10: Assault Cannon x 2, L.Claw on Sarge
• Deathwing Knights x 7
• Command Squad x 2: T.Hammer/S.Shield
• Command Squad x 2: S.Bolter/Fist
• Command Squad x 2: S.Bolter/Fist
• Ravenwing Apothecary: Upgraded with Reliquary of the Repentant and upgraded to super Apothecary
• Deathwing Ancient: Upgraded to Chapter Ancient with Pennant of Remembrance
• Deathwing Champion: Upgraded to Chapter Champion with Key of Achrabael

The new list loses the Outriders for the Ravenwing Apothecary whom is easier to keep hidden to ensure the delivery of the Deathwing Knights via the Combined Assault strat. He is also faster than the Deathwing Apothecary, and has some awesome abilities like the -1 Invul aura relic, and a 6″ healing bubble.

Also, the splitting up of the Command Squads into 3×2 gives me the ability to cover objectives effectively which I struggled with before.

This was an interesting game as my opponent’s army was insanely durable with the units of Pinks expanding to maximum size making them incredibly difficult to destroy. I thought I may be facing challenges with the mission but thankfully we rolled up 5 objectives where all of the objectives are fairly close to the middle of the table. That made covering them much easier for me.

I also got first turn which was useful for allowing me to get up the table a bit before my opponent jammed me up with his big, durable units. The shooting of the Deathwing is impressive, the units with Storm Bolters do work due to all of the layered buffs you can apply to them. Re-rolls to hit, +1 to wound, +1 to hit, +6″ range, etc. etc. etc. It actually gets difficult to remember all of them at times, lol. The end result though, is some seriously impressive firepower for so few models.

My opponent was able to take the shooting and assaulting fairly well and was beating me on objectives early game but simply had no way to really hurt me. He relied on Mortals via psychic powers which did indeed do a ton of damage (I think he did in excess of 15 mortals by turn 3) but with the insane durability of my army giving a 5+++ and the Apothecary healing, it resulted in a single dead Terminator.

As we ground into turn 3, my opponent was running out of models despite me having to chew through 300+ horrors. After they lost their ability to move block me, there wasn’t much to be done. The Flamers came in to make a game of it but I had tagged several with the Deathwing Knights so that they were the only viable target and with Storm Shields were able to tank the shots without much hassle.

As his ability to contain my movement faded, my ability to take objectives increased and I started to catch up on the Primary rapidly which is something I notice is a common theme with this army. I lose on the Primary initially but as my army does so well at beating up my opponent, I tend to catch up later in the game.

The two small units of Command Squads were great for holding objectives. They’re tough enough to not be easy to remove and can sit and put decent shots downfield with their Storm Bolters. If anything gets close, they can hold their own in melee as well.

Overall, I still need reps with the army but I am really enjoying playing it and feel it’s a pretty serious contender at this early stage. Their speed is their biggest weakness but with the smaller board size and objectives often being closer to the center of the table, I find it really isn’t that bad. Combined with +2″ charge ranges, it hasn’t felt like the setback I initially thought it would be. Plus, it’s an army of Terminators and what’s not to love about that?

Thanks for reading! More updates to come.