Death Company Honoured Death

[Sanguineone]

Thought of this and as I haven't seen it started a build. You guys tell me if you've seen it before and if it's worked or not. I think it'll be fun to play against even if someone tries to counter build. Some of the games could be very quick though I would say.

Ok, so what you arm them with doesn't really matter as it's the concept behind it....the sky going dark, the fear your opponent feels as screaming death desends on..... lets face it, anything....because it just doesn't care.......
No, lets face it. It's what they are armed with that makes the Death Company the versitile and self contained 'Does not play well with others' unit of the Blood Angels.

This is what I have put together at the moment

'Aye, we are indeed the Angels of Death'

Dante
Epistolary with Jump Pack, Infernus Pistol, Sheild of Sanguinius, and Fear of the Dark
Sanguinary Priest with Jump Pack and Power Weapon
Lemartes
15 x Death Company with jump Packs
* This is all one unit*

Let me break the composition of the Death Company down for you as this is where your points are going. In a 1500 game you could probably only squeeze in either a Death Company Dreadnought or a 5 man Assault Sqaud in dedicated transport, this stays in line with the FOC (Force Organisation Chart).

7 DC with Bolt Pistol and Chain Sword
1 DC with Hand Flamer and Chain Sword
3 DC with Power Weapon and Bolt Pistol
1 DC with Infernus Pistol and Chain Sword
1 DC with Infernus Pistol and Power Weapon
1 DC with Power Weapon and Thunder Hammer (you can only use one though)
1 DC with Power Fist and Bolt Gun.........hold on.....Bolt Gun?!?!?!?!
I figured that as I wouldn't be getting the extra attack because of the Power Fist anyway that I would rapid fire the Bolt Gun. Versitile.......or rather Relentless allows them to rapid fire and assault.

Ok. So what does this unit have to offer aside from the 4 Melta Weapons, 7 (potential 8) power weapons, a Power Fist, a Thunder Hammer, and a Force Weapon? Things to consider.....

Death Mask - 'an enemy' (assuming this means each model) assaulted by a unit with one or more Death Masks must take a leadership test or be reduced to WS1 for the duration of the Assault Phase.

Feel No Pain - the whole unit doesn't. Nothing worse than being took down by massed fire, the bane of the assault army.

Fear of the Dark - if they aren't heading that way already, and lets face it they should be. The potential to have even the mighty Thunderwolf Cavalry turn tale and run.....especially if they have Canis with them.

Sheild of Sanquinius - when Feel no Pain just doesn't cut it. Effective against the long range high strength fire you are likely to receive on the turn that you deep strike in..................

Deep Strike?!?!?!?!?! Well Duh, Blood Angels. As you can re-roll reserve rolls and with Dante's no scatter rule it would be rude not to.

Stick with it, the good part is coming up. Now I have always been a fan of the fluff, and really you would be hard pushed to find anything more steeped in 40k lore than the final battle between the arch traitor and the angel, and by extension the fate of the Death Company. The desire to give them an Honoured Death. By reputation Dante has lead from the front for over 1,100 years, so it seems only natural that he would want to see this honour fulfilled. Yes, I'm a fan of the fluff. But I'm also a big fan of fluff based rules. Rules that can display the strategic genius of the longest serving Chapter Master.........I'm talking Surgical Strike.

Big wow you may say, you can break off from an assault. Handy I guess.
Now the part I like, taking what could be potentially a point and click unit and making it part of a thought out plan of action that befits the Chapter Master of the Emperor's Honour Guard.
Remember that other unit you have points left over for? Well get them into assault with whatever unit you want to crush. Are you mad? you may ask. Shouldn't he be painting his battlegear black?!?!?! Well that is the point after all isn't it?
The point is you want the very pricey unit you have just paid for to destroy units wholesale. You want people to see this unit and remember why they feared them so much in their earlier incarnations. Because at the end of the day you can't touch the Death Company! .................................................. .....................NO REALLY YOU CAN'T TOUCH THEM!
Stop. Here comes The Hammer
If you are already locked in combat at the start of a turn and are then assaulted by another unit you can only direct your attacks toward the unit that you were 'engaged' with at a the start of the turn(******note an 'engaged' model is a model either in base contact with or within 2'' of a model in the same unit, that is in base contact with an enemy model ---- unengaged models may still defenders react and therefore attack who they like*********) . So make that second squad a tough one or get that priest near them for Feel No Pain. The unit only has to survive the initial few turns and you will never take have to take a hit on the Death Company. Scary I know. One word is scarier though.


Lemartes.

The fact that as a Chaplain he allows DC to not only re-roll hits but to re-roll wounds brings Surgical Strike into it's own. Not to mention that the whole unit will now benefit from Furious Charge time and time again. Not that you will need to.

As I mentioned at the start of this, and thanks for bearing with me . But some of these games could be very short. The rolll of a dice can make or break this unit and when you have all your eggs in one basket.......well you know........but really this is intended to be a fun list and at the end of the day that's what it is all about.

Time to remember why you are afraid when the lights go out...............

What's a Nubian?

*********************************************Updat e************************************************* ***********

So who got the Kevin Smith joke?

After consideration I've decided that I'm going to base my 3,000 point army around this theme. I already have everything I need except for the additional Death Company models to make my unit up to 30 plus lemartes. I assume that I can add Lemartes on too taking the DC up to 31 as there is no squad cap only a limit to the ammount of additional models you can buy and for what price.

The idea behind the unit Death Company Honoured Death is that over the 1,100 years that Dante has lead the Blood Angels he has seen some of the greatest heroes in the chapters long history. Sometimes these heroes succumb to the Black Rage and as they are of such magnitude it's not uncommon for warriors of their level to survive the following battle. Normally the task would fall to the High Chaplain to grant them the Emperors Mercy.........normally.
That great heoros such as these should end their service to the Emperor and Sanguinius in this way is intolerable to the Lord of the Angelic Host, having mentored most of these great champions personally.
So it is that in a grim reflection of the Emperor and his Custodes that Dante has aquired over the years his own companions through the ages. Awoken from stasis these heroes accompany their lord to battle in search of an Honoured Death.

Ok, so there are two variations to this list but I have worked out that my Death Company and all the IC's I mentioned above before I buy the Death Company weapons (jump packs are included in the following) will come to a massive 1705 points. I have allowed myself 300 - 450 points to buy weapons and upgrades army wide.


1st Variation

Death Company Honoured Death (34 models)
2 x Sanguinary Guard
1 x Assault Squad (5 man)
Razorback
Brother Corbulo and The Red Grail

2nd Variation

Death Company Honoured Death (34 models)
2 x Sanguinary guard + 2 x Sanguinary Priests with Jump Packs
1 x Death Company Dreadnought


I've given myself a lot of flexability here with the points and overestimated so once I have decided how I am going to upgrade the additional 15 DC I need I may find I can Squeeze in another unit and possibly if i'm conservative add in a Vanguard Veteran Squad.

Constructive comments welcome..........

***********************UPDATE********************* *****


Ok.........so they died. But was it with their honour intact or did they give in to the Thirst?


So as a little test run to see if I could base a viable force around the Death Company.......or really just for the idea of a really 'fluffy' Blood Angels force I roped in my friend to test the 1,500 point version on a couple of variations to the standard army. To keep with the theme I decided to go with the Death Company Dreadnought.
The first game was against a Footslogging list, the second a Mech list, and the third........well I would have to say was a Mech/Elite list.

I'll get this out of the way....................ALL THREE GAMES WERE A DEFEAT.
They died, but oh my did they die with style.
Lets take a quick look at the Footslogging game.
Very impressive Space Wolf list that included Ragner Blackmane, Arjak rockfist, a Rune Priest, Bjorn the fell handed, and a Venerable Dreadnought. Looking back I think with the 'Bjorn factor' this would have made a fun 3,000 point game, perhaps with a no vehicles except walkers stipulation.
Now for this game I elected to start with the Dreadnought on the table to enhance the fear, with the Honoured Death in reserve. As I recall the fear was short lived in this game as the Dreadnought bought the big one in the first turn.
My turn two saw the arrival of Dante and the boys behine LOS (Line of Sight) blocking cover. They then proceeded in turn three to move up the table and cut apart a Grey Hunter Squad with Ragnar and Arjax rockfist. Think this took us both by surprise, they didn't stop for breath. They proceeded to then take out a small thunderwolf squad, and while finishing off a Grey Hunter squad finally got bogged down as they were charged by Bjorn and his Venerable buddy,and another Grey Hunter Squad. The Dreadnoughts slowed and stopped the masacre on the field. With the star of being Bjorn. With his initative coming in before most of the weapons that can hurt him it makes for a very fun turn of assault when you are locked in assault with three units. A truly epic end to a game.
I need to add at this point that this was an objective based game. Who needs scoring units anyway?
At this point I decided that no matter the outcome of the other two games, this list would be added to the roster. It was just too fun.
So what did I learn?

[tommy2drops]

i look forward to putting my thunderwolves againts it and grimnar ragnar rune and wolf priest and eleven wg with frostblades booling out of my landraider should be messy

[Sanguineone]

I dare say that even they would die a horrible death.
The Death Company will have to seek Honour elsewhere.

[Sanguineone]

So this weekend should see The Honoured Death making it's second appearance. The first was as the stars of my first game with the new codex a while back. But they were only ten men strong and to be honest I had no idea of the potential of the synergy of rules.
Under the assumption that these games are going to be quick we are hoping to get in at least 3 games against 3 very different Space Wolves lists.
Footslogging, Mech list, and the mass destruction that is the Grimnar, Ragnar, Rune Priest, Wolf Guard, Landraider unit.
The outcome of these games could be decided by who gets the first turn. The Rune Priest anti jump infantry power can be a nightmare.
My gut tells me that such an elite list has no possible chance of working..........but my heart tells me that it's going to be fun to watch especially as the casualties start to mount up.

'The Inquisition and Administratum say we are weak because some of us have given in to the black rage - they are fools! The black rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!'
- Blood Angels Chaplain Argastes

[Wolfshade]

Just becareful running heavy Death Co., they are not scoring units and if your opponent is careful with their placement can have the DC chasing around all game without getting into combat because of Rage.

[Hive Mind]

Have you seen the Fly Lord's Army of Death mini-dex?

[Sanguineone]

I'm hoping to get at least one unit before it becomes a game of cat and mouse with the no scatter deep strike I'm hoping that through careful placement that at the most it'll be only one turn of chasing if it comes to that and with any luck if it is an objective game we roll then I'll claim the moral victory by killing everything! We can only hope. Thanks for the heads up though Wolfshade, it's made me think more about what stratergies I can put in place to combat rage. Do you know if rage affects hit and run?
I'd heard about that a while back Hivemind but never got round to seeing what it was all about. I'll be sure to check it out now though, thanks for the reminder.
I was considering instead of running 30 DC in 3,000 point games that I might just use the 1,500 list with the addition of Sanguinary guard units and two Stormravens with Dreadnought support and if points allow a couple other troop units thrown in. I do want to try the 30+ man squad at some point though simply because it's in the codex.
Do you think that baiting could be a solid tactic?........maybe if I start talking about Grimnar's mom he won't run.......
Thanks again for the advice guys.


************Edit****************

Just to clarify. Space Wolves don't run. They stand their ground or they charge into battle, but they never run.

And everyone knows about Grimnar's mom...............

[Wolfshade]

Rage doesn't work very well, it forces you to pre-measure distances of the enemy if they are in line of sight; and then Rage only works in the movement so it forces you to move at the enemy but doesn't make you charge them ([url]http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/09/editorial-bad-mechanic-part-2-rage.html[/url])

In 2nd edition I ran a 30 man death company, I never got round to converting them to assault marines during 3rd and 4th and now in 5th I can run them again! With handflamers! without templates!

[Sanguineone]

Without Templates. Do you mean the Hand Flamers?!?
Honoured Death is made up of 3rd and 5th edition Death Company. But my, so far 9 man squad of Footslogging DC are made up of 2nd edition guys. They aren't totally up and running yet but I'm throwing in some of the new stuff.
Hmmmmmm so as Hit and Run isn't a consolidation move then it can move 'in any direction' as the rule states.
Basically the Blood Angels rage workes like this........''you done P'd off the wrong mother''........not running at you like a fool but you know you've done wrong(Horus)? Makes sense considering that it reflects the last moments of a Primarch.

[Wolfshade]

In 2nd ed (last time we saw hand flamers) they had a tiny little flamer template. Every template weapon had a different sized template there were hundereds of them! It was a nightmare.
Yeah its strange because rage makes you move at the nearest enemy during movement, then you can choose to shoot or run at the nearest enemy, but nothing means that you have to charge. I once suggested, that instead of assaulting a sacrificial empty chimera that they could scoot around it still staying 1" away to get close enough to the fire team to assault. My opponet and I felt that that wasn't in the spirit of things though.
If you are running elements of 3rd have you thought about bringing tycho to the party?