Frankie’s List Analysis: Dark Angels and Tau
Today we have two very different lists. One is fighting for the Emperor and the other represents the greater good. How good are they?
List One – Dark Angels
Angels of Death – 1850
Lions Blade Detachment:
Demi Battle Company x2, 10th company support
Company Master: Artificer armor, storm shield, auspex
Chaplain
Company Command Squad: gravgun x5, sacred standard, drop pod
Tac squad x5: melta/combi-melta, drop pod
Tac squad x5: melta/combi-melta, drop pod
Tac squad x5: melta/combi-melta, drop pod
Tac squad x5: melta/combi-melta, drop pod
Tac squad x5: razorback w/ TL assault cannon
Tac squad x5: razorback w/ TL assault cannon
Assault Squad x5: flamer x2, drop pod
Assault Squad x5: flamer x2, drop pod
Dev Squad x5: Lascannon x4, razorback w/ TL heavy flamer
Dev Squad x5: Lascannon x4, razorback w/ TL heavy flamer
Scouts x5
Oathsworn Detachment:
Knight Warden
The aim is to place the company master with the command squad to tank wounds, and have the chaplain/warlord hide in one of the two vacant dev squad razorbacks. With the sacred standard, the command squad gets relentless and that is as close as Dark Angels can get to gravcents. Meanwhile the Knight Warden there to add pressure and relieve focus off of the scoring units.
Frankie’s Advice
I really enjoy the Lion’s Blade Battle Company. It has just as many Marines as the Space Marine version, and is also able to shoot over-watch at full BS. I played against one of these lists at a GT and lost pretty badly, haha. I also really like the Knight add-on, it will give you some more punch and protect your deep striking Marines.
So things I would change would be switch the Heavy Flamers to Heavy Bolter’s on the Razorbacks. I would also switch the Lascannons to Missile Launchers. The Missile Launchers and Heavy Bolter’s will give you some anti infantry firepower and save you some points. With the extra points I would take a full ten man unit inside one of the pods. I would also recommend switching the Warden to a Paladin for the Sword and Battle Cannon. I really like the two Battle Cannon shots as opposed to the Gatling Cannon. However, that Gatling Cannon is very good and certainly not a bad choice!
This is a very good list and think you will do great, just watch out for kill points. Other than that, I honestly don’t have many suggestions as it is a solid list!
List Two – Tau Empire
FSE CAD: (1051pts)
Commander – Iridium, Command and Control Node, Onager Gauntlet, Neuro Web, Drone Controller, Stims, 2x Flamers, 2x marker drones
2x Crisis Team (2) – 2x Plasma, Early Warning Override
StormSurge – Pulse Blastcannon, Air burst, Early Warning Override, Shield
Marker Drones (5)
2x Tetras (2)
Piranha Firestream: (228pts)
4x Piranha (1) – 2x seekers – blacksun filters
Riptide Wing: (570pts)
3x Riptide (1) – HBCannon, SMS, Early Warning Override , counter fire
Frankie’s Advice:
Alright so this list looks neat. The Riptide Wing and Piranha Firestream are amazing formations! And Farsight Enclave is my go to detachment now as well due to the cheap troops options in the form of Crisis Suits.
The changes I would make to this list would be to give the Stormsurge the Pulse Driver Cannon since he will be more likely to sit back in this list. I would get that upgrade by dropping Early Warning on the Crisis suits who will often be deep-striking in and not make as good of use of interceptor. Also keep in mind the Crisis Suits need Bonding Knives since they are Farsight Enclave. I would also drop the Command and Control Node off of the Commander and try to get Stim on the Riptides. Stimulant Injectors have saved my butt in more games than I can count. It is worth every point even if you only make one FnP save on each Riptide. You might not have the points to add Stim to all of them but if you can find it I would recommend it.
Overall I think this is a well balanced list. You have a lot of firepower with the Seeker Missiles, Storm Surge, and Riptide Wing. Plus the Piranha Formation will be great for grabbing those last turn objectives. Good luck with the list and hope it does well for you!
What did you guys think about these two lists? Do you think the Tau list has what it will take to win a tournament? What do you think will be the greatest weakness of the Dark Angel list? Hope you all enjoyed.
