Sunday, October 18, 2009

Death Company

We all love the Death Company. What could be better than some raging space marines who have been overcome with blood-lust and have no care in life besides coming to grips with their enemy.

I absolutely love the Death Company. I find them to be powerful and effective.

I have been playing with the number of Death Company which I get for free. I have not been spending extra points for more Death Company. In my current tourney list, that means 4 members in my DC.

When I first started playing BA, I bought and painted 10 DC. I payed the extra points in order to always have 10 DC.

As time passed, I went down to 7 DC. Even more time passed, and I stopped paying for extra DC. I just ran with the free DC.

Here are the facts: They cost 30 points, if you buy any extras. They have a Veteran stat line, rending, fearless, furious charge, and feel no pain. They require leadership from Corbulo or a Chaplain.

Are they worth it? Do you pay the points for extras? Do you only use the free DC? (Incidently, I know that they are not really free, as we pay for them in the cost of other units.) What do you all think on the issue?

6 comments:

John Stiening said...

they are free if you take terminator squads! I only painted for DC, so I never add that 5th one that never got beyond the primer. I think the key thing for me is that the DC are absolutely murder regardless of number. I have been tempted to paint more of them so I can see what they can do as a larger unit.

Pacific said...

I tend to field them in squads of no more than 7. I find at this size the unit becomes a 'bullet magnet' - your opponent will take great pains to either wipe you out or else plan accordingly depending on where you are sending them - all of this frees up the movement of your other troops.

To be honest I love the power of this unit, it gets a similar response to a unit of genestealers charging in and your opponent will almost always have a look of dread (or grim resignation) on their face. I love the imagery they bring to the game (you know the guys they are attacking aren't just going to be leaving the battlefield with some bruises and hurt pride). Although there is some valid argument that they are expensive, i think overall they have alot more positives than negatives!

SynnerG said...

It does suck that we have to pay a premium on each unit to get a "free" DC, but then again, if we had to pay to field any DC, I'd probably just skip them, and it would ruin the fluffiness of the chapter. I only take the 3 that I get free right now and have them near Carbulo at most times, usually in a Rhino with him, or will walk behind an ASM filled Rhino for cover. Last game I played (batrep to come) 3 of them charged a unit of 8 Plague marines and wiped it because of rending.

I wouldn't want to pay for extras tho. Maaaaybe jump packs if I had them as a shield for Dante or used something like Lemartes (maybe the new codex will entice us to play him more). Just like the rest of the BA army, they look sweet on paper, but can be a quick point sink as all our stuff is super expensive compared to other armies.

Feldmarshal Goehring said...

Good points from everyone.

Pacific really nailed it with the genestealer analogy. I have noticed the same thing in games. Even the most battle hardened close combat unit is afraid of being charged by the DC.

I have had a couple of opponents ignore my DC after they realized there were only 4. The DC ripped stuff up. After the game, they confessed that it was a mistake to think that only 4 DC couldn't do much damage.

Pacific said...

I'm trying out a small unit of DC (well, berserkers) at an event at the weekend, will let you know how I get on!

Pacific said...

Am I allowed to reverse my opinion? :)

I played at an event over the weekend, and of the 3 games the DC were arguably my best performing unit.

In a game against Space Wolves, a unit of 6 led by a Chaplain destroyed 2 units of grey hunters and then almost an entire unit of terminator armoured wolf guard (with 1 berserker and the chaplain still alive at the end!)

In another game they destroyed a unit of ogryns and IG hero in melee, then survived a turn of the population of a small african state shooting at them - then the survivors jetted onto the ramparts, destroyed another IG squad, then jetted onto a tower with a quadcannon and used it to blow the turret off a chimera! It was like something from an 80's action flick..

In each game they took enough fire, and took so much attention from my opponents, that they really opened up the field of play. So, perhaps from the last half dozen games they have yet to dissapoint - worth every single point IMO, even if you have to pay for extras! :)