Deathwing Tactics 101 -- The Basics

Posted by Ranillon on 30. November 2008 21:26

So, despite everything you’ve decided to play a Deathwing army.  Good for you, but now comes the hard part – actually winning.  No one can guarantee that you will, but here at least are the basics you need to know. 

First thing to keep in mind are the advantages and disadvantages of your army (assuming a “pure” Deathwing force that potentially includes only Terminators, Dreadnoughts, and Land Raiders): 

Advantages:   

1)  Rock-hard Infantry:  Terminators are the best infantry in the game.  Great stats, decent firepower, and fantastic armor.  However, don’t get too carried away with them.  They may be nice, but can wither quite quickly in the right (er, wrong) circumstances.

2)  Rock-hard Vehicles:  Dreadnoughts are arguably the best class of walkers out there and Land Raiders the best tanks.

3)  Flexible Deployment:  With Deathwing Assault you can land your forces most anywhere and thanks to Drop Pods your dreadnoughts can come along as well.  You also aren’t limited to this all or nothing approach – some units can setup normally while the rest teleport down. 

Disadvantages: 

1)  Fewer Troops:  Given how expensive your forces are get used to be outnumbered – usually greatly – every time.  It’s important to do what you can to negate this problem whenever possible.

2)  Limited Firepower:  You get less firepower for the points.  In the past when terminators could take two heavy weapons it wasn’t nearly as bad, but now you are scraping the bottom of the barrel.  This is especially true if you play ultra-pure and only take infantry.

3)  Limited Mobility:  After landing, with the exception of Land Raiders, you are stuck moving six inches a turn.  That means that if you find yourself out of position getting back where you should be will be difficult if not impossible. 

Putting this all together you get what I would call the five most important imperatives when playing Deathwing: 

1)   Keep Track of Your Objectives:  Every scenario has some and they are obviously the key to victory.  This straightforward requirement for all generals is all the more important for Deathwing – you simply don’t have the resources to waste.  Figure out what you need to do to win the game and focus on that.  Nothing else matters, not even per se the survival of your troops.  So, unless it’s an objective don’t get caught up hunting down your opponent’s biggest unit or mindlessly increasing the death toll.  Also keep in mind what the minimum objectives are for victory.  Sometimes, the most basic win is the only practical win.

2)  Location, Location, Location:  It is vital to setup your forces as efficiently as possible.  Tactical redeployment isn’t going to be an option – you need to make sure your units start and end where they are best needed.  Take a few extra moments before you start to think through this.  Mess this up and you’ve likely already lost.

3)  Split up the Battlefield:  What I mean by this is to use terrain and even your own troops to dominate one area of the battlefield and leave as many units of your enemy standing around with little to do.  For example, if there is a large terrain piece in the middle of the board deploy (if the objectives allow it) all to one side and use the terrain to screen your troops from attack.  A related possibility to do use dreadnoughts with drop pods to setup an artificial screen – all your troops go in the same direction leaving only relatively valueless pods for the enemy on the other side to fire on.  The aim here is to gain local superiority, if perhaps only for a turn or two.  All your troops take on only a fraction of the enemy’s total force.

4)   Avoid Attrition Battles:  It’s a simple matter of the rules – in 40K all things being equal quantity tends to trump quality.  Therefore, don’t put yourself in situations where you’ll be swamped by numbers early or often.  Against horde armies this likely means setting up normally and giving yourself more turns of firepower to hopefully even up the odds.  Alternatively, you may have to sacrifice one unit as a speed bump while the rest of your troops secure objectives.

5)  Make Firepower your Friend, not Enemy:  Remember that you’ll tend to have less firepower than your opponent so it is important to use what you have well.  Don’t waste shots on low probability efforts unless the objectives require it (this is something that proper deployment can mitigate).  This might literally mean shooting at a more distant target while other units are threatening to charge down your throats.  You have to go for the win, not just the survive so sometimes units need to sacrifice themselves to take out high priority targets.  The need for firepower is why I like taking a dreadnought or two over pure infantry forces as they provide a wider range of heavy weapons. 

That’s all for now.  Later on I’ll go into specific applications and troops choices.