So it seems that the Dark Angels have got a new dual-winged attachment. Let's talk about Mighty Deathwing called in by Arrowswift Ravenwing, to break some defences aside and drag any fallen back to the rock. Hello and welcome back to Warspets Tactics, where today we're back to take a look at the second attachment of Grotmus, where it seems that the Unforgiven are the recipients of the second attachment in this calendar.
The Grotmas Advent Calendar has a new detachment for Warhammer 40k every day. It's really quite a big content drop for the game, given that every single faction's going to get a detachment. They're all completely match-play playable, and to facilitate that, have points for all the enhancements actually written within the document, rather than in an updated field manual or anything.
As promised by Games Workshop, it was the Dark Angels won today, we had the Death Guard won yesterday with their fly-blown host, and it seems that tomorrow we've got the Tyranids coming up. Will be interesting to see what options they add in for them. Currently in 40k, Dark Angels maybe seem to be just a little bit lower mid, but not so strong that they're completely out of the running versus the competition. They've got around about a 46% win percentage, usually with the Gladius Task Force, and lists often tend to build around Azrael, Inner Circle Companions, Deathwing Knights, and maybe Lionel Johnson himself.
Probably the biggest issue for the Dark Angels at the moment are that the Codex detachments remain really quite rarely played versus the Gladius. It seems that compared with the other Divergent chapters, they're the last one that Games Workshop hasn't managed to get right. even though they gave some buffs to the Inner Circle Task Force and the Unforgiven Task Force in the last balance pass. Maybe they'll do more when the next balance data slate comes out.
In any case though, the new detachment that they've got today is the Lion's Blade Task Force. This one represents the Dark Angels on the hunt for the Fallen, and perhaps brings together what you might imagine them to do in the lore quite a bit. The Raven Wing are sent in ahead as heavy firepower and tracking down their target, deploying teleport homers, and then calling in the might of the Death Wing to finish the job.
teleporting in in thick Terminator plates to break the enemy's core defences. As a result, this detachment is aiming to support both Deathwing and Ravenwing. So it does feel like it's got a place in with the Codex detachment.
We've got the sort of more generic one that's equally good for Dark Angels that aren't Deathwing or Ravenwing. Then a full Deathwing force and a full Ravenwing force. This one's the one that aims to bring the two wings together with some rules to help out both.
The question really is though whether or not it can beat the Gladius Task Force with its advance and charge and nice stratagems on offer. First up, just as a general rule in their codex, the Dark Angels get certain units to be Deathwing and Ravenwing, which is really quite relevant for this detachment, given that most of the rules key off either Deathwing or Ravenwing. As well as things like the Black Knights and Ravenwing Command Squad in the codex, you also get all mounted units, such as Outriders, ATV and the Bike Chaplain, and also vehicles that get Fly, so Storm Speeders and the Space Marine Flyers.
For the Deathwing's part, their keyword is gained by all the Terminator keyworded units, then the Blade Guard and their Ancient, and the Stern Guard and Vanguard Veterans, even if you might not classically think of Dark Angels as fighting with them as much as Terminators. But it's also given to some heavy firepower as well, Land Raiders and Repulsors, and also Dreadnaughts. In the Codex, Samael gets a Raven Wing, and Deathwing is a keyword for the Inner Circle Companions, and all the Codex characters aside from Samael and the Lion.
It does mean that characters like Asmodai, for example, could join a unit to grant the Deathwing keyword, so you could have essentially a unit of Deathwing Hellblasters. if the rules key off the individual unit and not the individual model. In any case, Deathwing and Ravenwing keywords aside, the core rule for the Lion's Blade detachment is in the Lion's Claws, and this one feels like it's a bit of an attack rule in concert, Ravenwing charging into the enemy and then Deathwing helping them out.
First up, if the unit is in engagement range with Ravenwing units, unless they're a monster in vehicle, they have to take a desperate escape test when they fall back, and get a further minus one to that test if the unit's also battle shocked. That one in itself doesn't really feel like a huge rule for a core detachment rule to me. I guess it could be more disruptive than anything else, essentially giving you a chance of losing around about a third of the unit that falls back.
Though for that to be meaningful, you need to have quite an intact unit that hasn't just killed you in melee or something and then chooses to fall back, rather than say the enemy countercharging you. And there is also some defence against it, as you can command point reroll desperate escape checks, so if one was truly critical then there's a good chance they could pass anyway. Ravenwing in general just don't tend to be super strong melee fighters either.
They're not awful, but they aren't the powerhouse melee troops like the Deathwing are. But I guess it could certainly up their annoyance factor, even for cheaper units tagging things, perhaps stuff like Invader ATVs now they're so cheap. Otherwise though, perhaps the more intimidating part of the special rule is that the Ravenwing can essentially summon the Deathwing, and get them some really quite easy charges out of Deep Strike, but the caveat is, again, that they have to be within engagement range of the enemy units. So if you've got a Deathwing unit charging a unit that's within engagement range of Ravenwing, they get a plus 2 to their charge roll, probably most relevant for being a 7-inch charge out of Deep Strike, which is odds-on to pass in the first place, and then if you budget a command point reroll, you've got an 83% chance to make that charge. only failing around one out of six times.
This one definitely does feel powerful. Getting the guaranteed charges out of reserve isn't something that most armies can do, though I do feel like the setup for this one is kind of big. You need to have a Ravenwing unit, which is at least going to cost at least some points, and then throw them into an enemy unit that's worthy of a charge from the Deathwing, so probably something quite scary.
And even if you do that and also budget a command point reroll, you've still got a one in six chance to fall short. It definitely feels like there's enough value there to make the setup worth it. but I feel like it'd be really quite a big thinking game. It's just a lot easier in 40k where rules just impact the units that use them, and you don't have to compromise the position of other stuff to try and make them work. It just means that you'd have a lot more decisions to make as to where you move your units and what you prioritize.
Moving on to stratagems, and first up we have armor of contempt. I think no one would have expected that one not to be there, worsening AP by one when you attach this phase. It's really quite strong here as it is for most space brain armies. I feel like both the Raven Wing and Deathwing can make good use of it against the right targets. Always handy to either survive a bit of shooting or tip the balance in a melee and survive with enough models to strike back hard.
Next up we've got one called Overpowering Exaction. One unit in the engagement range must test Battleshock either in the command phase or in the fight phase and you grant a minus one to the test if the thing in combat with them is either Raven Wing or Deathwing. In general handing out Battleshock tests isn't exactly the best use of a stratagem in 40k though I feel like this one is a bit better than most. The ability to trigger it in the command phase is at least kind of interesting. It means that you could trigger it in a command phase to have a reasonable chance to stop an enemy unit claiming an objective.
Say for example if they outnumbered you on a midfield point, you could throw a battle shock test into the midst and that might stop them getting some victory points. Or the other way around, if they're denying you a victory point in the midfield, you could have a chance to make them fail. You'd also have the option to have a go at it at the start of the fight phase as well and try and stop some important stratagems.
Again potentially that can be big, but the downside to all of this is that it's not going to be a good fight. is that they just might just pass the Battleshock test anyway. Even if you had a Leadership 7 unit debuffed to Leadership 8, they're still going to pass 42% of the time. So unless it's going to be absolutely game critical and really quite a big thing, it just might not be worth the command point if there's a good chance that it could do nothing.
It definitely doesn't seem useless, but it is a bit of a gamble, and you might have to judge whether or not just having the chance to deny those victory points is going to be better than plugging it into something else. Before we move on, I'll just give a quick shout out to today's video sponsor in Imperium Miniatures. They're a gaming store based in Sellersburg, Indiana in the USA, who reached out and asked to sponsor a few videos for their Black Friday sales, which at this point they should have around about 12 hours left until they finish. As those are great gaming stores out there, Imperium does all the things that you'd expect of one. They sell Warhammer 40k at 15% off Games Workshop prices, they've got nationwide free shipping on orders over $100, and if something doesn't appear on their website, They can do back orders on request from Games Workshop if there's anything else you want them to get in stock.
They sponsored a few videos on the channel this past week for their Black Friday events. They're only a touch low on 40k stock, but will have a big order coming in in two weeks. I wanted to thank everyone who checked them out and made it a success for them. For the next 12 hours or so, they still have the Black Friday deals, plus their Cyber Monday sale, where shipping's free for any order no matter the size.
Could be of interest to some of you, and they've got plenty of stock of other ranges, including Necromunda, Legion's Imperialis, and more. In any case, a big thanks to them for sponsoring the video. There'll be links down in the video description. Getting back to those Dark Angel stratagems though, and next up we have Strength in Unity.
This one's one command point, and it's essentially a fight phase damage debuff. Minus one to hit if there's a Raven Wing unit in engagement range, and also a minus one to wound if there's a Death Wing unit in engagement range. Basically it means that you could have either one of the buffs, but if you happen to have the two wings fighting side by side, then you'd get both. It applies to the one enemy unit, so there potentially could be minus one to hit.
and then minus one to wound if the strength is greater than your toughness. And they also state that you can't stack this with armour of contempt as well. So I guess it's one or the other.
As a result, I suspect you'd be having to weigh that up versus armour of contempt each time you are attacked. On paper it feels like it's probably going to be more useful for the Deathwing, maybe if you just have a unit of them in melee, and they're going to be fighting on their invulnerable save either way, so armour of contempt won't matter, the extra minus one to wound could be pretty handy, and I guess that'd be quite nice on top of the Deathwing Knights'already good defensive profiles and their damage debuff. I feel like it does get extra good if you had both the effects active at once, but that does mean that you'd have to have the setup of both the units fighting side by side, and it definitely feels like it could happen naturally in this detachment, that doesn't really seem so good that the plan should be...
to get your Ravenwing and Deathwing all into melee with something that they can't handle and let them hit you. I feel like the boost effect with both options would probably be the one to keep in mind if it just happens opportunistically. Next up we've got Knights of Iron for one command point. This one's really quite a nice one for the Ravenwing as it basically means they get to move through terrain either in the movement or charge phase if they're moving, advancing or making a charge move. For bikers and mounted units this one's really quite a big deal.
They generally want to be hiding out of line of sight behind terrain. it means they could take up a threatening position in a ruin, and then rather than having to go all the way around the outside of that ruin, they can just zip straight through. And this really does give them a massive threat range to be able to get those plasma talons to work and then getting into melee.
I guess it could be handy enough for utility as well, maybe smaller Ravenwing units like Outriders, ATVs, or even Storm Speeders, trying to make it from one cover to another and having to go directly. I guess it feels like it could be quite a good one if you say wants to get a Ravenwing unit to charge something specific. You could have them ghost through the ruined walls to get an easy charge on their target with this, and then hopefully call in the Deathwing to get the boosted 7-inch charge.
Next up, we've got Illuminating Fire for one command point. A Ravenwing unit shoots a target within 12 inches, and then until the end of the shooting phase, Deathwing units get plus 1 to wound against that target with their firepower. I feel like the first thing that people think about with Deathwing are the Deathwing Knights, which don't have guns, but actually the Deathwing keyword applies to a whole bunch of things in the Codex.
Perhaps the most obvious one... are the Redemptor and Ballistus Dreadnoughts that get the Deathwing keyword. You also have Lamb Raiders like the Lamb Raider Redeemer that could have plus one to wound Flamestorm Cannons. And it should also apply to Stern Guard veterans or even Hellblasters led by Deathwing characters such as Azrael.
For sheer value, this one actually seems kind of nasty. Say, for example, if you had a couple of Redemptor Dreadnoughts stomping up, they could both get plus one to wound against one target, which with those Macro Plasma Incinerators is really quite a big boost. They're often wounding tough stuff on fives. Perhaps the biggest criticism is that it feels like the majority of the other rules want you to focus around bikes plus Terminator's deep striking, so I'm not sure exactly how many Dreadnaughts you'd be wanting in an army list like this. In terms of increase to firepower though, this could easily be worth it for one command point, for multiple big scary Dreadnaughts or Hellblasters trying to take down something tough.
Finally for the stratagems, there's a fairly scary one called Inescapable Wrath. This one's a big investment to command point 1, though it's kind of unusual within 10th edition. It applies to Deathwing Infantry or Walkers. And you can basically charge something within 6 inches at the end of the enemy charge phase. At first glance, this kind of sounds like heroic intervention, but the difference is that you can do it against anything.
It doesn't have to be something that's just charged itself. Anyway, it kind of feels similar to the heroic intervention type rule that was in 9th edition. A lot of armies got a 6 inch version of that, and it basically meant that if the opponent doesn't want to wind up in close combat with your unit, they've got to get a healthy exclusion zone and stay greater than 6 inches away from you. which would mean not just walking onto an objective to contest it with some chaff troops for example, unless they want you to just use this and just give them a good kicking with Deathwing Knights or something. In the same way to Heroic Intervention, you don't get your charge bonus, so you don't get to fight first, and you can use this to multi-charge lots of units if they're in range if it makes sense.
So potentially a squad of Deathwing Knights could declare on a transport and the unit that got out of it, if they both happen to be within 6 inches at the end of the charge phase. This one does feel like really quite a big and scary one. and might be a stratagem that more has problems for your opponent's thinking as opposed to actually how many times it comes up. It just means that the opponent might have two put units further back than they'd like otherwise you might well use this. But on the flip side it does cost a big two command points which has a lot of value elsewhere.
I feel like sometimes it might genuinely be kind of borderline whether or not it's even worth destroying a light enemy unit for two CP if you really needed them the next turn for one of the other stratagems here. It's definitely an interesting one though and if you kept two command points in the bank your opponent would have to play KG. Then finally we've got the enhancements.
First up we've got Calibur Knight Armaments. This one's 15 points and it's just a plus 1 damage to the bearer's melee weapons. That was quite a nice, simple and effective upgrade there.
Making a Power Fist go from damage 2 to damage 3 is quite a big difference. It means that a character leading a unit is going to be a big punchy threat and it'll be taking down things like Terminators with ease. I wonder if that could be interesting enough with, say, a Judicia and some Inner Circle Companions perhaps. Next up, we've got Lord of the Hunt for 15 points. This one's a Ravenwing one.
It allows you to fall back, shoot and charge, and re-roll desperate escape checks. I guess if you've got a big investment Ravenwing unit, like say a command squad with a maxed out squad of Black Knights to throw into the fray, this one probably makes sense with that. There's a couple of incentives for getting Ravenwing into combat, including triggering the main detachment rule.
So if you wound up in any sort of protracted fight, that'd be quite nice just to be able to jump out and out completely normally. and the opponent knows they'd actually have to destroy the unit if they don't want it to be doing nasty damage. The Desperate Escape thing could actually be kind of useful for positioning, just electing to Desperate Escape and move straight through enemy units, if they'd otherwise be blocking your way. Next up, we've got Stalwart Champion. This one's a Captain, Chaplain, or Lieutenant, and it grants plus 1 OC to their unit if the Bearer's unit isn't Battleshot.
That one's a great big 25 points, and while it's not useless, it just seems like a big ask for that much, particularly as unlike Ancients and things, it doesn't guarantee that you still get one OC even if you're battle shocked, and that felt like one of the best advantages of that rule. Finally, we've got Fulgus Magna. This one has 20 points, and it applies to Deathwing models only, so I guess that's models in Terminator plates.
Once per game, if your unit's not in engagement range, you can return it to Strategic Reserve, so basically you could have Terminators blink off the board and come down somewhere else if it made more sense to them, something that's far more viable if there's a way to get them 7-inch charges, which this detachment does have. This one seems interesting enough, though maybe gambles that your unit that's got into the thick of the fighting is going to have a free moment where it doesn't just make sense to stay on the board and charge something else there and then. A lot of the time that might be the case, and committing to this pre-game seems a little bit questionable perhaps. I guess in theory this one could lead to a turn 1 charge threat if you really wanted. If the opponent goes first, then you could pull the unit from the board and have them come down from deep strike turn 1, which seems nice.
That should only be applying one in every two games though. otherwise they'd be dropping turn 2 as normal. Overall for these ones, I feel like all of them but stalwart champion at least seem usable for the points cost. I'm not sure any of them are so standout that they're absolutely all to include though.
Overall I definitely find it an interesting detachment for the dark angels. The core rule seems at least usable, but perhaps the biggest downside is throwing expensive raven wing to set up charges and disrupt the enemy. Feels like it could be one to think about using things like cheap invader ADVs now that they're only 60 points.
They feel like the right combo of fast, tough and expendable to just justify expending them for using your rules. Otherwise for the biggest things I feel like the Ravenwing move through walls one could be kind of enormous with a big squad of Black Knights. The stratagem for the 6 inch charges reactively for the Deathwing could be really big and might make people back off.
I feel like you are going to want at least a fair few Deathwing Terminators deep striking in this one. The plus one to wound could make Redemptors or Azrael with Hellblasters an interesting choice in the army. And as mentioned the enhancements all seem usable enough. Maybe they're not going to matter literally every game, but occasionally they could be really big.
I think the biggest question for this one is whether or not it's going to beat the utility of the Gladius Task Force. Being able to advance and charge with scary Deathwing units is really quite big. You can get a fire discipline combo on the go there, plus having things like Lance Melee and reactive movement stratagems. All that's really quite a lot of direct benefits, so I'd probably say that this one isn't going to be quite as strong as that.
And perhaps partly because I feel like a few of the stratagems and synergies want to pull you in different ways. whether you're taking big Ravenwing units or small ones, or taking some Dreadnoughts for some firepower. I certainly feel like it'd want at least a fair bit of Deathwing melee though.
At first take though, I feel like this one's got enough interesting stuff to be one of the stronger Dark Angel's unique detachments. I'm not sure whether it'd be beating the Inner Circle with its big plus one to wound. I would rate it stronger as the core Unforgiven Task Force detachment though. There are a bunch of interesting things here, and both some genuinely good incentives to run certain Ravenwing and certain Deathwing units and put them all together. I'll be interested to hear what you guys have to say though.
Would you be tempted to put this dual wing Lion's Blade force on the table, or is it going to stay on the shelf? In any case, I'll leave that one there. As mentioned, a thank you to Imperium Miniatures for sponsoring the video.
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