Monday 15 April 2013

Blood Angels Deathwatch Contingent


I've never seen the attraction of a Str 3 Ap6 flame weapon, 
however gimme two of them and I might change my mind..........gimme 8 and I'm sold!

OK so I've decided I'm going to reconnect with my fluff and work the Ordo Xenos Deathwatch aspect a little more.  I want an allied detachment of BA to sit as a Deathwatch strike force to partner a GK or IG army.  Now I want these guys to be stand out as Deathwatch with all their flavour and special wargear.  I intend to incorporate either Tycho in DW livery or a DW librarian, I was thinking which units could imaginatively come across as Deathwatch without excessively proxying the BA's DNA too much.  

The challenge is creating a flavour that is beyond the obvious Sternguard vets (who will definitely figure), I want some more variety in the other FOC slots.

Death Co. and Sanguinary guard have plenty of character but are so recognisable as Blood Angels its a stretch for me to proxy them as anything else........I'd considered creating some fluff to explain their special rules away, but I'd just end up telling my opponent that they were Death Company for ease of recognition during a game.

The options I'm looking at then are Honour Guard, none D.Co. Troops and Vanguard vets...... It occurred to me I could take advantage of the "Gunslingers" pistols rule to make a cool unit with enough character and special shooting to allow them to pass as Deathwatch.....

Honour Guard are clearly head and shoulders the most versatile shooting unit in the codex, the ability to take two special weapons is attractive from a conversion and a game play point of view and they're fully capable of fielding four gunslingers too.  

So the Honour Guard are top of the list, not to mention they bring a much needed priest and put extra bodies into the allied detachment without filling up the FOC.  But how about making them gunslingers? Certainly not with plasma pistols, plasma guns can put out that many shots much cheaper, but for infernus you can double the number of shots available, though its not cheap......but where I really get excited is the thought of using hand flamers......8 hand flamer templates and the overwatch potential could be quite a deterrent to opposing charging units......8D3 a minimum of 8 and a max of 24 possible strength 3 auto hits, add melta bombs and you're good to take out MCs and walkers too.....perhaps exchange 1 guy for a melta gun/ flamer combo and escort Tycho into the midst of battle......If I go with a Libby option I might consider doing a prescience/plasma mix with flamers as secondary weapons, this could also be funky.



Tactical squads are out just too vanilla for me, they got a boost in 6th but are only capable of fielding plasma pistols on the sergeant and the rapid fire and one heavy dictates plasma on the special for me too.  Gunslinging plasma pistols just don't make sense when a combi-plas is available for 1/3 of the cost.

RAS: Well these guys can do ok, we can get 1x special and 1x gunslinger for a five man squad, they get a nice discount on a transport, as well as fulfilling the allied troop requirement.  The three to seven guys with chainswords isn't ideal but could work under proxy just fine.  The RAS is one of the cheapest power armoured troop choices in the game when taking into account the 35 point discount for a transport.  If there's value to be had it's here.  

Toting plasma doesn't make much sense though, not just because of the restrictive rapid fire on the special weapons but also in regard to what you get: The extra points for two extra plasma shots, coupled with the higher cost of the special weapon makes this option really expensive, 1x plasma gun and 2x plasma pistols practically adds 50% to the cost of a 5 man squad, making it cheaper to do the same job with Sternguard.  

The infernus gunslinger and melta gun is only marginally more attractive as it answers the assault concern of plasma, however a 5 man unit with three melta shots at <6" costs the same as a Sternguard squad putting out three melta shots at upto 12".  

The RAS infernus gunslinger could be useful    as a cheap alternative jump pack unit to accompany Dante in a BA loadout, but not for this Deathwatch purpose.  

As with the Honour Guard, I like the low cost big effect of taking 2 hand flamers, add a cheap Str4 flamer in the squad and I'm all over it.  Now the Sternguard can't put out 3 templates for 125 so this does bring something different to the table. Yes, the Sternguard have rapid fire dragonfire bolts however, they don't give 3D3 auto hits to overwatch......(hmmm note to self another idea...equip Sternguard with combi flamers for wall of death anti-charge deterrent?!)  

Vanguard vets on first glance look attractive to bring something different, there's potential for upto 4x gunslingers and a pistol/powerweapon combo on the vet sgt,  however Vanguard vets are really expensive!  They're the same cost as Death Company with none of the rules and more expensive than Sanguinary guard once loaded with wargear.....The only way I can ever imagine using them will be for the heroic intervention with melta bombs, now this could be a fluffy Deathwatch style demolitions mission, but I really struggle to know what they do once they've come in and done the HI thing and then get shot to bits.....

So my first attempt at a DW Allies list just for fun:

HQ: 460pts

Capt Tycho 

Honour Guard w/ 8x hand flamers and 1x melta bombs, chapter banner, 
Dedicated transport: Heavy flamer razor back

Elite: 205

5 Sternguard w/ 2 meltas and 3 combi weapons (melta or plas)
Dedicated transport: Heavy flamer razor back

Troop: 150

5 man RAS with 1x flamers, twin hand flamers and a melta bomb on the sgt 
(must check precision shot rules for templates?!)
Dedicated transport: Heavy flamer razor back

Fast: 180

Land Speeder Squadron with twin heavy bolters each (not flamers I know)

All comes in at a whopping 995points....ah well may have to drop the honour guard......they do seem excessive.....I did fancy sneaking in an extra attack for Tycho too...I could scrap 'em and run  Tycho with the RAS instead....perhaps drop Tycho in favour of a Libby for an even lower cost option......

As for the Speeders? They're BS4, can move anywhere and put out 18x Str 5 AP4 shots each turn and get a jink save what's not to love......I sometimes run a double melta version for 240 points but this is about DW and they, like me, like heavy bolters..........and gunslingers are expensive.....








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