Posted by Ranillon on 16. November 2008 23:10
Ron over at From the Warp is beginning a series of posts on his Deathwing army, in part in reaction to my earlier post about how I think the Deathwing has been reduced to a non-competitive army. I’m looking forward to his conclusions, but before then I wanted to revisit the subject.
A couple of beginning points:
1) Just to clarify, I don’t think it is impossible to win with a Deathwing army. Quite the contrary, there is no force out there which (with equal points) has no hope of winning. My contention is that with the new Space Marine codex release it is no longer falls within the range of competitive armies in comparison to similar forces. To put it another way, when it comes to winning it now makes so much more sense to use a force out of the new SM book (or perhaps a hybrid army out of the Dark Angels book) rather than a traditional Deathwing that it is hard to justify not doing so.
2) Non-competitive is not the same thing as non-fun. I still plan on playing my Deathwing and adding more models. I’m even painting up some right now. I’m just not expecting to win very often no matter how well I play. Likewise, for tournaments I’ll bring something else.
3) And, frankly, I say this because the new wargear rules are something of a slap in the face to old time Deathwing players like me. This is especially true for the new Cyclone Missile Launchers and Storm Shields. Both really punch up terminators just in the way a Deathwing force needed, yet we don’t get them. It’s almost as if Games Workshop is encouraging us to play something else.
Musing over the shortfalls of the Deathwing got me thinking about what changes would be necessary to bring the army up to snuff. Not to make it dominating, mind you, but competitive enough to be a reasonable choice for a tournament army. So, if I was Games Workshop and writing up the new Deathwing rules I’d come up with something like this:
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HQ: Chapter Master, Marine Captain, Chaplain, Librarian, Techmarine, Command Squads
All characters and command squad members must wear terminator or artificer armor. Any character can take a command squad. Any command squad can have an apothecary using the new Feel No Pain rules. One squad can take a chapter banner. Remember, command squads count against HQ, not troops.
Elites: Dreadnoughts
All types of dreadnoughts – normal, Venerable, and Ironclad – are available. Dreadnoughts can use drop pods.
Troops: Terminator Squads, Terminator Assault Squads
Use new wargear rules. Can be as large as ten troopers.
Heavy Support: Land Raiders, Thunderfire Cannon
All types of Land Raiders – normal, Crusader, and Redeemer – are available.
General Rules: May deploy using the Deathwing Assault rules. Any Terminator Squad or Dreadnought may purchase the Tank Hunters or Furious Charge (not both) abilities for extra points.
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This force closely matches the old formula for a pure Deathwing force. The only really new addition is the Thunderfire Cannon which I included simply because its fluff and rules fit the motif of a teleporting/drop pod heavily armored force.
This army list still has all the classic Deathwing attributes – Good armor, few numbers, high cost per figure, and limited firepower (for the points). Yet, it has enough additional bits to make it competitive. Terminator assault squads now become viable options while the combination of tank hunters and the new Cyclones make Deathwing squads a real vehicle threat. Leaders plus a Command Squad with Feel No Pain actually become scary – which given the amount of points you’re paying is only fair.
What’s sad is that these aren’t really major changes, just tweaks here and there. It’s something GW could do in a White Dwarf article or even a new FAQ. By not doing so they have signaled that they no longer see a Deathwing as a competitive force. I predict that over time they’ll be proven right – without improvements the Deathwing will just fade away as players abandon it for something that works.
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