Death Company WIP: Bolters Incoming

I do have a certain love for the Death Company. As the 6th edition Rage rules are golden, I have felt free to indulge myself a bit.

These five Death Company Marines with Holy Bolters are my most recent project. I am working on their bases now. They are magnetized to take either the jump pack or the backpack. I look forward to adding their Relentless, Rapid Fire skills to my DC.

Do you have any experience with Boltgun toting Death Company?

Battlefoam P.A.C.K. 1520 XL Product Review

The video contains a review of my Battlefoam army transport and storage system.

I could not be more pleased with it, and I would recommend Battlefoam to anyone who is looking to transport or store an army safely.

Lemartes in 6th Edition II

I have been extremely excited to allow my love affair with the Death Company to continue unhindered by compulsory movement. You will recall that I have been experimenting with Lemartes.

In this past week's game at the club, I continued the table-top experiment with Lemartes. I was playing against an assault dedicated Black Templar army.

I learned a couple of things:

First, my opponent's army was so dedicated to assault, that he had very short-ranged shooting. This fact in conjunction with the DC jump packs meant that I couldn't get a wound on Lemartes before the DC charged into combat. If I had hung around waiting for the wound, then I would have given the charge to the crusader squads. I did manage to get a wound on Lemartes in the first round of combat. However, it was after Lemartes' initiative step. So, his Fury Unbound rule didn't take effect until the second round of combat. It is a little less impressive on the second round. This also meant that I was having to pass wounds off on a 4+ Look Out Sir, which is slightly more dangerous than the 2+ for Independent Characters.

Second, having an AP4 Crozius is a bit detrimental against MEQ. The inability to penetrate power armor means relying exclusively on failed armor saves. This would not have been as much of an issue if I had the 8 str 8 attacks on the charge. You will recall that I was unable to get the wound on Lemartes before the charge.

So, the jury is still out on Lemartes. Is he worth his points? Should I continue to use him? What do you think? At the least, some more play-testing is in order.

Lemartes in 6th Edition

 Lemartes has always been an interesting type of beat-stick character. Throughout the years, editions, and codices, his role and particular application on the tabletop have changed. He has always been one those iconic type of awesome individuals whom everyone loves regardless of whether he ever saw play in their list.

Lemartes made his 6th edition debut in my army the other day. He was amazing. The combination of a few rules really pushed him over the top in game terms.

First, the new Rage special rule makes the Death Company extremely useful. There is no major negative which eliminates them from play. As Lemartes is an upgrade character to the Death Company, you can't take him without them.

Once you put him on the table, you have the Fury Unbound special rule to consider. After Lemartes takes his first wound, his Strength and Attacks jump to 5. So, I placed Lemartes out in front. This takes advantage of the wound allocation. I let Lemartes make saves until he took a wound. After that, I used the Look Out, Sir rule to divert any others which he failed (remember that he is not an Independent Character, so this only works on a 4+). On the following movement phase, I placed him a bit more centrally in the unit.

At that point, I had the S5 A5 base for Lemartes. As usual, he has an extra close combat weapon for an extra attack. We are up to 6. Add to this the effects of Rage, gaining +2 attacks on the charge, and we have 8 attacks. Pretty impressive.

We have more rules to add on. The new rules for his Crozius: Master Crafted Power Maul. A Power Maul is +2 to Strength. We now have a Strength 7 Lemartes with 8 Attacks on the Charge.

We have one more rule to cover: Litanies of Blood. Chaplains give Death Company models re-rolls on hits and re-rolls on wounds for the charge. As Lemartes is a Chaplain and Death Company Model, he gives himself re-rolls for hitting and wounding. So, we now have a Lemartes with 8 attacks at strength 7 with re-rolls to hit and re-rolls to wound on the charge. Pretty Impressive Indeed.

We haven't even considered the rest of the Death Company charging with him. I need to upgrade my Lemartes model.

What have your experiences with Lemartes and Death Company been in 6th edition games?

*Edit: I forgot to mention Furious Charge, which adds a further +1 to Strength on the Charge.