Hey Game Fans, We’re back with another take on our Warhammer 40,000 army project. Last time we talked about the Deathwing Terminators of the Dark Angels Chapter and our current level of troops in that group. Now there are a couple more loose threads we need to cover, and then we need to talk about what else we need to pick up to flesh the army out and make it better/more interesting to deal with. (You can check back on that article here)
Loose Thread #1
So looking at the traditional other pieces that roll with a Terminator armored first company, there are 2 key resources that stick out. They usually will use Land Raiders as transports (one of the few vehicles capable of carrying Terminators into battle) and every Space Marine company has at least a few dreadnoughts in it. Carrying the remains of a mortally wounded space marine hero, a Dreadnought is a method for the gravely wounded to carry on their service to their chapter, and their Emperor.
Now, I have 4 Land Raiders (all of which are assembled as the standard Twin Lascannon Heavy Bolter version) and 4 Dreadnoughts (with various weapons) that are ready to be painted in Deathwing Colors. The four Land Raiders give me the option of running a Spearhead detachment (since each is a heavy support choice, all i’d need at that point is an HQ choice, and i am sure i can find a Terminator armored HQ choice to send in with them). The Dreadnoughts allow me to fill in my traditional Vanguard detachments around my terminator squads. Further, since both units are incapable of using the Teleportarium, they start on the battlefield, meaning i can put more of my Terminators into Deep Striking Reserves. Both give me some more flexibility and options for moving units where i want them and that i find really handy.
Loose Thread #2
So after looking at my army and the options i had, i noticed that i am missing some potentially useful characters and models. First up, I really should hunker down and pick up the remaining Dark Angels Special Characters I don’t have. This includes Azrael, Asmodai, and Ezekiel. Each one has the Deathwing Special Rule (which is less helpful for them in most cases because they can’t fail morale checks normally). I like the flexibility and options they bring to the table, but i have to remember that they are not equipped with Terminator Armor like the rest of my army. Azrael’s ability to grant a 4+ invulnerable save to nearby units is a very handy for the Deathwing models that aren’t carrying Storm Shields, and if he’s my Warlord he adds additional command points to my pool. Ezekiel and Asmodai have specific usages, but they have to Deathwing Keyword, so i could see using them as HQs in smaller games or for very specific matchups.
In a similar vein, i need to pick up another Terminator Librarian (that would give me 2 of them) because in this edition, said Librarian can take a Storm Shield. The ability to give him a 3+ invulnerable save increases his longevity against anything that’s basically not his own psychic powers is helpful, and having a second Terminator Librarian adds some flexibility and choices to army building. This puts me at needing to pick up four complete models to flesh out most of my army, and then we move on to the last part of today’s update, Spare Parts.
Loose Thread #3
I have amassed a fairly large, fairly deep bits box of parts for Terminators in the many, many years i’ve spent playing Warhammer 40,000. I remember starting with the new plastic terminators that showed up in the army boxes near the end of 3rd edition, and then the much bigger models that rolled in with their 40mm bases and lots of parts. I started inventorying parts last month, and if i had the missing parts, i think i could assembled another 60 or 70 terminators. Would i necessarily want to do that? Maybe, but i want to eventually turn the parts into something. GW Multi-part plastic kits offer a fantastic way of bundling 2 or 3 options in the same kit.
The current Deathwing Terminators box contains all of the parts to make either a Deathwing Terminator Squad, a Deathwing Terminator Command Squad, and a Deathwing Knights Squad. The Downside to all these options is that you can’t make all of them at the same time. The major stumbling blocks for that are a shortage of Legs, Rear torso plates, and Shoulder pads. If you had an extra 5 of each, i think you could probably build 10 terminators out of each box, (you’d also need bases of course). So that’s the current predicament i find myself in. I’m going to need to put together my complete inventory, see what parts are missing, and then order the parts missing to effectively double my army in numbers of terminators.
I know i want to end up building more Deathwing Knights, because the Unit is very hard hitting and i want the option of having more of them. I would probably want to build 14 more Deathwing Knights with maces, and another Knight Master. That would let me either run 2 full squads of 10 (9 knights and a master) or i could run 2 smaller units as needed. The other things i would look at are probably filling out my Heavy Weapons (and i would want to use magnets to drop in whichever heavy weapon i wanted to run that day. The Assault Cannon, the Heavy Flamer, and the Plasma Cannon all take up basically the same space, and fit on the army in the same way). After that i’d take a look at what else i wanted to add in (I have 2 dozen pairs of lightning claws, i suspect more of those are in the build somewhere), and then see what’s left.
The reason i haven’t been so quick to jump on this is that the Dark Angels codex hasn’t been released yet, and i would like to see if anything changes between now and then. If some weapon/equipment options disappear or get radically changed, i haven’t built models i can’t use. Hopefully we get our new codex (and all of the belligerent options it opens up) soon. I’m also one of those guys that sort of hopes it lets us take Contemptor Dreadnoughts and both Tartaros and Cataphracti pattern Terminators.
Tying These Threads Together
So my Deathwing Army for Warhammer 40,000 is solid, but missing a few things that i would like to have because they all add versatility. Because i’m going with a Deathwing themed army, it does effectively limit a bunch of the choices i might otherwise add. I probably won’t be adding any of the Ravenwing units to my list because they don’t add as much to the list as other choices i can already make use of. If push comes to shove, i can run regular Dark Angels marines to fill in point gaps, and to add bodies to the field, but that seems like a lateral move rather than an upgrade. I don’t have super inexpensive troops like the Astra Militarum, Chaos Cultists, or even Ork Boyz to flood the table with. I have to live by the motto that 5 of my troops are better than 30 of yours. The other thing that concerns me are massed superheavy units and other problems of similar stature. I have a solution for that crisis, but i’ll talk about those units next week. That’s all the time we have for today, Game On, Game Fans.
(Yes, we’re working on finishing painting. When that happens we’ll put up a picture gallery.)
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