Death Company for beginners

[Primarch]

Death Company are one of the cooler units the Blood Angels have access to, but probably one of the hardest units to field.

First of all, lets look over their good points:
Marine stat line with an extra attack and an extra point of WS. They are fearless, have furious charge, relentless and feel no pain. They can buy jump packs, all the models can have power weapons, power fists or thunder hammers and they have access to the new Blood Angel hand flamers and meltas.
And now the bad news:
They can't score (because that would make them WAY too awesome) and they have Rage. Rage is probably the hardest rule in the game to work with as it completely takes away your ability to control the unit....or maybe not.

So DC are hard as nails and very effective in assault. So how do you get them there? Jump Packs seem like the coolest idea until you find your DC have gone in the opposite direction to beat up that small infiltrated scout squad. Land Raiders and Stormravens are the best choices as they have the assault vehicle rule so you can jump out of them and crush something. They're fairly pricey though. Rhinos and Razorbacks are now fast, so they can get you where you need to be. You just cant jump out and assault. It may be best to just drive up and wait to get out next turn. Drop pods are another fine choice, your DC can pop the hatches and enjoy a turn of shooting up enemy units before closing for the kill.

Rage is always going to be an issue for DC though, so how to deal with it? Rage makes you move towards the CLOSEST VISIBLE enemy unit in the movement phase, if you run, the same applies, and if you consolidate AFTER assault, the same again. The only move you can completely control is your assault move. If the enemy is foolish enough to leave units standing close together, go ahead and clean their clocks.
There are two ways to get around the Rage rule. Firstly, leave your DC in transports till you are ready to get out and assault . On the turn you disembark you should be in position to attack your selected target. Rhinos Land Raiders and Razorbacks have side hatches. You dont have to get out of the back/front.
The second way around the Rage rule is, once your DC are disembarked, move your transports FIRST. Use that nice bulky tank to block line of sight from the DC to a unit you dont want them to attack. For really big models this might not always work though.

Other solutions:
Make sure the DC have the weapons to deal with targets they dont want to assault. Melta pistols will deal with annoying transports. Thunder Hammers and Power Fists will take care of any armour they have to fight. (+1s from furious charge makes them S9, enough to punch through a Land Raider or Monolith).
Also, use your other units to create a kill zone around the DC. Shoot the targets you don't want the DC to attack. With the Blood Angels large quantity of Twin Linked Assault Cannons and Melta guns, not to mention their cheaper Devestator units, you should be able to kill any distractions and let the DC get stuck in.

Hope this helps.

[Admiral-Badruck]

Great Post Prim.

I have gone over all the things you have talked about in my mind... there is one more thing that I would like to ask as question... with the DC Dread can I simply turn and face another direction... like the Chaos players are doing with their dreads...

[Primarch]

Let me think about that one.....

A lot depends on how you play the Rage rule. The way I see it, there are two possible ways to follow the rule.
Method A)
You check line of site at the beginning of the movement phase and move towards the closest target.
Method B)
You check line of site throughout your movement phase and change direction if a new target becomes visible.

Imagine this situation.
A DC Dread is standing near a building. Directly ahead but some distance off is a Trukk. The DC Dread rages towards it. As the dread clears the end of the building (lets say 1/2 way through it's move) a buggy previously hidden by the building but closer than the trukk becomes visible.
Does the Dread alter course to attack this new closer target or does it continue to chase the Trukk.

Method A is simpler. It allows for some control over the raging unit as you only check for closest visible target at the start of the turn. It also allows disembarking units to move freely on the turn they get out since the point at which they check for rage is when they are still in the transport, which negates the rage rule.

Method B is more complex since you have to be aware of line of sight throughout the models movement and, especially for large squads this can be a pain to deal with. It does make more sense since the rage rule is all about the crazed warriors going for the closest possible target.

Unfortunately, there is no errata for Rage and no FAQs to check, which makes this one open for debate.
In answer to Badruck’s question about turning the dread so that it cannot see the target (since it only has a 45 degree line of sight from it’s guns), it all depends on which way you play the rule.
With method A, turning the dreadnought so that it was facing a wall or so that it’s front was blocked by something would allow you to retain control over it most turns.
With method B, as soon as the dreadnought saw anything it would go chasing after it.

Also, bear in mind that you’ll be leaving your rear armour wide open to attack.

Of course, I think the idea of the dreadnought raging towards an enemy unit, then turning to stare at a nearby wall for a few minutes is a bit of a cheesy thing to do and does not in anyway sit with the spirit of the rule.

Discuss at your leisure gentlemen.

[Admiral-Badruck]

DC should be ok to look at what ever it can see at the end of the shooting phase

[Sergent Zhyr]

I had a look at the rules and as for the RAW Prime is exactly right.

Badruck is technically right but I think he is not thinking of it in the correct spirit of the rule. I think you and your opponents will have more fun if you play it as the ragged unit must move to the closest visible unit. in this case visible would me any unit that you have the potential of seeing at the start of the movement phase. if the unit showed up behind the DC dreadnought in that unit's turn and did not shoot or assault Anything then I think the Dread should be allowed to ignore them. Other than that he should have to turn and face the enemy. as he turns he will now have to move towards them and attack them.

I am interested in the Blood Angles Army.

I made the 1500 point list

ATGrim 220 points
8 Death company Marines in a Rhino one Marine with a Power Weapon. 225 points
6 Death company Marines in a Razor Back Las cannon Twin linked Plasma Guns one marine with a Power fist 235 points
Death company Dreadnought Blood Talons Melta gun and Mag Grapple 135 points
Death company Dreadnought Blood Talons Melta gun and Mag Grapple 135 points
Baal Predator Flamestorm cannon 115 points
Vindicator 145 poits
7Assault Squad Mareins Jump Packs 1Power Weapon 151points
Chaplin with a jump pack 125

[Admiral-Badruck]

Seems like a very balanced list... but what are you going to do for objectives... I can only see one unit that can hold objectives

[Primarch]

As Badruck says, you're going to have trouble holding objectives with only 1 scoring unit. (and its not a big unit at that).
Using Astorath with Death Company seems good, but its actually a waste of points. Astorath main selling point is the chance to roll furious charge on a 1-3 rather than just on a 1. Death company dont need it. Plus, since your death company are in vehicles, neither Astorath nor the chaplain can join them. You'd be better off taking a standard HQ chaplain without a jump pack and putting him with the death company where he can allow them to reroll hits and wounds. Make 1 squad of DC a 10 man squad (so you can still take your dreads), and use the points you save from the other squad and astorath to buy a Land Raider so that your DC can assault when they are in position. Any spare points can be used to buy more scoring troops.

Well, thats how I would do it.

[me_in_japan]

Listen to Stu, dude. He knows what he's talking about...

(paraphrased from...name that movie!)

[Sergent Zhyr]

Who is Stu?

[me_in_japan]

Sorry, Stu is Primarch. I'm Dave, Badruck is Rob. Gomen - we all live near enough to each other that we game together about once a month. I have a bad habit of using real names and internet names a bit randomly.