6th Edition: Death Company and Psykers

 As Rage has changed for the better, no more compulsory movement and 2 attacks added on the charge, the Death Company are back strong. However, there are a couple other changes which also affect the men in black.

Rapid Fire weapon ranges are not hindered by moving anymore. Nevertheless, the charging restriction still applies. This leads us to Relentless. The Relentless rule overcomes this restriction.

Death Company can be armed with Bolters and fire the weapons off to their hearts content at maximum range taking full advantage of the new shooting rules for Rapid Fire. After they finish all that shooting, they can charge. When you combine their base attacks with the buffed Rage attacks, they hit like a ton of bricks without having to sacrifice range on the shooting end in order to take two close combat weapons.

6th edition has given us options. Both ways of running the DC seem good right now. In the future, one of them will probably surface as optimal. However, the DC load-out must be considered in light of the rest of the army, and the role which they will be playing in the greater scheme of the army as whole.

Are you playing a defensive shooting type list? Blood Angels can do this type of list. In that type of list, DC can stand in your lines near a priority unit or objective you are holding. They can fire off those bolters and either charge the enemy before they reach the objective, or counter-charge.

Are you playing with a heavy assault element or looking for a deathstar unit. The DC are the original deathstar unit, before we were in the habit of calling them deathstars. They are the poster boys for such play style. Kit them out with 2 close combat weapons, a transport or jump packs, and watch your opponent cringe when the black power armor hits the table.

I am also pretty excited about the expansion of psychic powers. The Blood Angels codex has access to some pretty awesome librarians from different FOC slots. Combining Furioso Librarians with HQ types (or even Mephiston), we could field 5 psykers in our primary detachment alone. When you think about a second primary detachment and allies. I really need to spend some time thinking and experimenting on the table. I really feel like the psychic portion of the game could be a place where Blood Angels rise to the top of the pile.