Warhammer 40k
Dark Angel Deathwing Tactics

How to build an army of Terminator super Space Marines

Wow, you may think that Space Marines are the super heroes of the Warhammer 40k universe, but playing an army made purely from Space Marine Terminators takes this to another level.

The Dark Angel Chapter is the only Space Marine army that allows you to take a Terminator only army. In this section we will have a look at the super heroes of the Space Marine army, the Dark Angel Deathwing army!

The Dark Angel Deathwing use to have their own army list. These days the Dark Angel Deathwing is part of the main army list. A Deathwing Army list is one that is made up purely from Deathwing Terminators. My personal favourite variation on this though is an army list made from both Deathwing Terminators and Venerable Dreadnoughts.

General Dark Angel Deathwing Tactics

The Dark Angel Deathwing Terminator squads are so expensive you will usually not have the points to fill the 6 troop slots. However in the normal force organization you will need at least two Terminator Squads. With Belial as your leader this mans that the smallest possible force costs 630 points. So you can forget about 500 point games and look at 750 point games as being the smallest practical sized games you can start with.

The Dark Angel Terminators are fairly slow troops. You do not get any bikes or speeders to add pace to the army. Slow armies are easier to second guess and react to. This will leave you at a strategic disadvantage. So focusing on your goals is a must.

Apart from walking you have two options of getting around. Deep Strike and Space Marine Land Raiders. As you can only deep strike once per unit, and deep-striking comes with some risk, this has only a limited advantage. For this reason I recommend taking one or more Space Marine Land Raiders. Also note that the Dark Angel Land Raider can only carry 5 Space Marine Terminators. This means that if you want to add your Characters to the units, you will need to get a Dark Angel Land Raider Crusader. These can hold up to 6 Dark Angel Terminators in one go. The downside of this is that your opponent will be able to spot which Land Raider holds your HQ very easily.

5 Tips For Deep Striking Deathwing Terminators

How Can I Get A Deathwing Army?

The key to a Dark Angel Deathwing army is the Belial, Master of Deathwing. If you have Belial in your army, then you are allowed to have Dark Angel Deathwing Terminators as troops instead of elite choices.

You can still take the Deathwing Command Squad as a HQ choice upgrade, the Deathwing Knights as Elite choices, and Land Raiders as Heavy Support choices.

Deathwing HQ Tactics

You have few choices here (yippee!), Belial Master of Deathwing, Dark Angel Captain in Terminator armour, Dark Angel Librarian in Terminator Armour, and a Dark Angel Chaplin in Terminator Armour. As Belial is a must, this usually means that you have one slot that you can use to take another HQ choice if you have the points.

Each of these HQ choices can be upgraded to have a Deathwing command squad. If you are using the standard organization chart, and two HQ characters would mean that you can have two up to Deathwing Command squads in your army.

Belial Master Of Deathwing

If you are playing a Deathwing only army then you need to have Belial as your first HQ character. As this is the case it just makes sense to make sure that you are very familiar with Belial, his special rules, and how he performs on the battlefield.

Company Master In Terminator Armour

The Company Master is a member of the Inner Circle and can have Terminator Armour.

You could take a Company Master as a 2nd HQ, however thisvis a weak choice as you need to take Belial anyway so having two Company Master type characters leading your army has limited value. I would suggest taking a Librarian or Chaplin would be a better choice if you are taking two HQ choices.

Interrogator-Chaplain in Terminator Armour

 

Librarian in Terminator Armour

Librarians have become much more useful in the 6th edition Warhammer 40k rules.

Deathwing Elite Tactics

You only have one unit choice here, the Deathwing Knights squad!

Deathwing Troop Tactics

You only have one option here, The Dark Angel Deathwing Terminator Squad.

Deathwing Terminator Squad

The basic Deathwing Terminators will form your troop choices. The good news here though is thath the basic Deathwing Terminator squads are quite flexible in thier configuration. Unlike the Codex Marine Terminaror Squads, in a Deathwing army the Terminator Sqads can have both heavy weapons and specialist close combat weapons in the same squad.

Deathwing Fast Attack Tactics

You don't even get one choice here. To create a Fast Attack like unit, you will have to add a Land Raider to a squad. You should note though that you can not use the Fast Attack slots for this.

Deathwing Heavy Support Tactics

In the Heavy support options you can have a choice of either a Land Raider, a Land Raider Crusader, or Land Raider Redeemer.