Warhammer 40K: Death Company Blender & Crackshot Daemon Engines
Blood Angels and Death Guard rules are bubbling out. Here’s why the community is buzzing about both.
This past couple of weeks we have seen some new information about Blood Angels and Death Guard. We know the Blood Angels will be out soon and the Death Guard should follow soon after. I know many of you are excited for one, or both, of these books. The rules we have seen are already causing a bit of talk about the effect these rules will have in the game. I look forward to seeing the rest of the rules once these books are out in the wild. this week we will discuss about the possibility of a couple of the rules, how it may interact on the tabletop, and how this could affect the meta, or at least what you put in your army lists.
Blood Angel Death Company Blender
Just when you think some units can’t get choppier, here comes the Death Company. In one of the previews, it shows how you can get +3 attacks. This is through their Savage Echoes special rule(during the Assault Doctrine), the Black Rage special rule, and the Shock Assault rule. All of these give the Death company model an extra 3 attacks, so each model will have 6 attacks in the first round of combat. Wait, it gets better. On the Bridge of the Vengeful Spirit special rule has the possibility of giving you as many attacks as letters in the name. A Death Company character model, not unit, gains 1 attack for every 5 models within 6 inches, as long as they can see an enemy character or monster. Normally this will get you one or two extra attacks, so you have maybe 8 attacks at most. If you happen to play a horde army, however, it is a different matter. If placed properly, you can add three or four more attacks so that each character model could have almost 10 attacks. With the addition of re-rolling hits, I won’t be surprised if a couple of Death Company characters can wipe out a thirty man Ork Boyz squad.
The question now is whether you take the primaris marine Death Company character or the first born marine character Death Company. As far as I know, you get an extra attack with the primaris marines but the first born get access to jump packs to quickly get into contact with the enemy. This is really the biggest issue with this unit, depending what their cost is. If the unit cannot quickly get into grips with their opponent, then they will be shot to pieces. This is a common issue with assault units and armies. We will soon see if this blender works or dead on arrival.
Deamon Engines That Can Shoot
I love daemons engines. Even in the early days of 40K, the idea of a machine/ daemon hybrid always fascinated me. In those early days the daemon engines, especially the Defiler, were a scourge on the battlefield. I think part of it was the fact that templates were used so the ballistic skill of the model was never an issue. As the editions moved along, the weapon and ballistic skill became more prominent and then, finally, Games Workshop settled on daemon engines, whether in was the main codex or Forgeworld books, hitting on a 4+. This seemed ok but was a still a little sad because they weren’t as reliable as almost everything else in the Chaos Space Marine arsenal. In 8th edition, this trend continued with the codex but the Forge World book actually changed it so that the Forgeworld daemon engines hit on a 3+ instead of a 4+. The issue was still cost, in points and money, but if you had the models you had an alternative to some of the engines that you wanted to use.
What the Death Guard preview just showed us may just bring new life into the use of the daemon engines from the codex. Games Workshop has made the codex daemon engines 3+ weapon and ballistic skill just like the Forge World ones. Again, this will depend on the cost of the models in the end but it looks like I’ll be blowing the dust off a number of my units to put back in my army. This small change, coupled with a low point cost, could see a rise in the use of those units. If you combine this with the Iron Warriors Legion, they could be a potent force. Yes, marines, especially Eradicators, are still a thing for a vehicle heavy force but you shouldn’t play all your games against space marines, if you go to a large tournament. I know I’m getting my Kytan and Greater Brass Scorpion ready, probably accompanied by Maulerfiends and Defilers.
~That’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed the article. Let me know what you think, and what your takeaway is from the previews, in the comments section below.
