I've already written this post twice,
but on both occasions my phone as lost it. So I'd like to jump
straight into it. The news, first off, I have my Chaos Daemons Codex
and it is ready to be analysed.
I'm actually really excited about
this one, so Dark Angels needs finishing, some motivation for me
there. Anyway, next. On the 28th February the blog hit
10,000 views. Horrah!
And that's enough of that. Onto the subject of
today's post. Dedicated Transports in the Dark Angels Codex.
The 3 most widely available Dedicated
Transports in the Dark Angels Codex are the Drop Pod, the Rhino and
the Razorback. So starting from the top.
In 6th edition, with the
presence of the Scouring mission and the inclusion of Linebreaker, it
is really important to be able to get into your opponents deployment
zone, and a Drop Pod is a way to achieve this. You can put a squad of
marines inside (assault or tactical), jump them out and contest
objectives whilst claiming Linebreaker. I do this in the Space Wolves
Codex with my Jaws bomb. The question then comes to, 'how does it
work for Dark Angels?'
The tactic itself works ok provided
that you can throw out a decent number of shots or have a special
kicker in there (like Jaws) or are particularly durable. The Dark
Angels version of it probably isn't the best, as the optimal version
will be maxing out Marines, but it does ok. The reason why you are
unlikely to take it is due to the alternatives.
The Dark Angels Codex certainly isn't
lacking in ways to get into your opponents deployment zone. Here are
2 examples: Firstly, Deathwing units are fantastic for doing this.
They can match the Drop Pods ability to come in turn 1, but are not
restricted in the way that they are forced to do so, and they take
the incoming fire from reacting backfield units much better.
In addition, Deathwing Terminators are
capable of putting out more damage on the Drop than 10 Tactical
Marines in a Drop Pod. They can take much better heavy weapons such
as Assault Cannons, are not forced to get in close to get the shots
out as their weapons aren't rapid fire, and they're twin-linked on
the turn that they arrive. They also don't need to purchase a vehicle
to do this, and if Belial is in the squad making them scoring then
they won't scatter when they arrive, making the Deep Strike even
safer than that of a Drop Pod. Finally, they will cause your opponent
much more of a problem after the first drop than Tactical Marines due
to their increased close combat capability.
The Ravenwing also have the ability to
do this much better. For example, a small Ravenwing Biker squadron
can hide until, say, turn 4. Before speeding up in the late game and
contesting objectives on your opponent's side of the board or taking
Linebreaker. They too are more durable than Tactical Marines, and a
lot cheaper for a small squad as well.
So the problem with using the Drop Pod
as a mechanism to Transport units into your opponents back field is
that you simply don't need it. There are other units in your Codex
that can contest objectives and gain Linebreaker much more
efficiently.
The alternative use for the Drop Pod
then is to aid in an initial Alpha Strike, by dropping shooty yet
short ranged units into your opponents face. The 2 most common
variants of this are the Dreadnought with Melta type and the squad
full of Plasma type. Starting with the former.
The Dread with Melta essentially
involves dropping a Dreadnought with a Multi-Melta close to one of
your opponents vehicles in the hope of wrecking it, and then
attracting a large amount of attention afterwards. I'm going to be
brutally honest with this one, I find it overrated, and here's why.
The only people that I ever see running
this are people who are preparing to go to their first Throne of
Skulls (myself included if you look back at May-July 2012 posts). The
reason that I have never seen this at any higher level than that is
that it simply isn't a very efficient way to spend points. If you
want to spend 140pts on a worse than 50% chance of wrecking a
vehicle, go ahead. The fact remains that at least half of the time
this is going to do nothing for you other than attract attention, and
what kind of attention is it going to attract?
Krak Grenades will kill your Dread if
you have enough attacks, maybe a few Meltas or Missiles will be
pointed in your direction, but none of the anti-infantry stuff. The
fact is that it's not that big of a threat. Plus, it having a chance
of being useful is predicated on your opponent having vehicles, and
then your opponent making the mistake of not bubble wrapping the more
valuable ones to prevent you from getting into Melta range.
So what's next. The squad of Company
Veterans in the Drop Pod covered in combi-plasmas is actually not
something that I've seen yet, which tells you about its effectiveness
in a way. Whilst 20 Plasma shots coming out of a squad in 1 turn will
be absolutely devastating, again you need to be within 12”
rapid-fire range of a valuable target to get the most out of it, and
those valuable targets are likely to be bubble wrapped by less
valuable units, but you're still going to cause a decent to excellent
amount of damage to your target depending on its and your position.
The problem really is that this squad
costs a lot of points, and it really is a 1 hit wonder, as afterwards
it's basically just a tactical squad as far as its shooting
capability goes, so if your rolling is bad for that turn, again
that's a large boat of points under performing. As I say though, this
last one is all theoretical, so I'd recommend that you go out and try
it, and if you have any experience with this type of squad, I'd like
to hear it. Just drop them in the comments section below. Thanks.
Anyway, onto the Rhino. The problem
with the Rhino is the same as the problem with the Drop Pod. Dark
Angels don't really need any help getting into the opponents
deployment zone or getting forward, and that is what a Rhino is best
at really. Sure, it forms good bubblewrap, but this was mainly needed
against Flamers of Tzeentch coming down turn 1, and with the new
Daemons Codex this is not really needed anymore. They also make good
pieces of moving cover, but then when they're wrecked (and they will
be wrecked), they will block line of sight restricting your own
shooting. In essence, Rhinos are not really needed as far as Dark
Angels are concerned.
As for the Razorback, the thing that it
has over the Rhino is the heavy weapon atop its hull. So if the Rhino
as a Transport isn't particularly useful here, neither will be the
Razorback with its smaller capacity, the only other way then being as
a gunboat.
It's still a relatively cheap vehicle.
The problem with Razorbacks is that they are so flimsy, so in order
to get the most out of them you need saturation, and to get this you
need to take as many Razorbacks as you can. Then, in order to take as
many Razorbacks as you can, you will need to take as many squads of
Tactical Marines as you can, and although they're quite cheap in
comparison to Marines from other Codecies (Vanilla), they still don't
churn out very much damage, and so all of the points that you pump
out in unlocking those Razorbacks will be on what are essentially,
deckchair units, and so aren't really contributing to your damage
output. Unfortunately, you don't need 6 units of Tactical Marines to
sit back and hold your objectives.
So, some food for thought there. I'm
tired though, so this will have to continue tomorrow, moving on to
Special Characters.
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