Detachment Review: The Lion's Blade Task Force
Detachment Rule: In The Lion's Claws
Right out of the gate, the detachment rule emphasizes a mixed-Wing approach. It has separate effects for Ravenwing units and Deathwing units, meant to represent the Ravenwing pinning enemy units in place for the Deathwing to come in and smash.
The Ravenwing mechanic requires opposing units (excepting Monsters and Vehicles) in Engagement Range with a Ravenwing unit to make a Desperate Escape attempt if they fall back, with a -1 penalty on the roll if they're Battle-shocked.
The Deathwing mechanic grants Deathwing units +2 to Charge rolls against enemy units in Engagement range of a Ravenwing unit.
The Ravenwing part of the rule is kind of mediocre, and if that was the whole detachment rule, we'd be justified in being bent out of shape about it. The Deathwing part is spicy though - it makes sticking a charge out of Deep Strike much more reliable and actually worth building around. In particular it's got me looking at attaching Captains to Deathwing Knight units
Enhancements
Calibanite Armaments: 15 pts: +1 Damage to the bearer's melee weapons
Lord of the Hunt: 15 points, Ravenwing model only. Bearer's unit can shoot and charge after Falling Back, and reroll Desperate Escape tests
Stalwart Champion: 25 points, Captain, Chaplain, or Lieutenant model only. When not Battle-shocked, bearer's unit gains +1 Objective Control per model
Fulgus Magna: 20 points, Deathwing model only. Once per battle at the end of the opponent's turn, the bearer's unit can be removed from the table and placed in Strategic Reserve, subject to the usual terms and conditions
There are definitely some spicy options here. It can be challenging to not wind up with 20ish points left over during list-building, and some of these are worth planning on taking right from the start. I'm definitely looking at attaching Lord of the Hunt to a Ravenwing Champion as part of a big Ravenwing Knight brick, and Fulgus Magna will let you lather-rinse-repeat on the Ravenwing-Deathwing deep strike one-two punch. Calibanite Armaments gives us the ability to have a character swinging 3 damage attacks, which is not something we generally have easy access to. Stalwart Champion can mitigate the low OC of Deathwing Knights, and I had some fun thinking about a DWK squad with a Terminator Ancient and a Captain with this.
Stratagems
Overpowering Exaction: 1 CP
Play in the Command Phase or start of the Fight Phase.
One enemy unit in engagement range of one of your units makes a Battle-shock test.
-1 to the test if the unit is in Engagement range of a Deathwing or Ravenwing unit.
Armour of Contempt: 1 CP
You know what it does.
Strength In Unity: 1 CP
Play in the Fight Phase after an enemy unit selects its targets
If played on a Ravenwing unit, the enemy unit's To Hit rolls get a -1 penalty
If played on a Deathwing unit, attacks whose Strength is greater than the Deathwing unit's Toughness get a -1 penalty on Wound rolls
Can't play this and AoC on the same unit in the same phase
Knights of Iron: 1 CP
Play in the Movement or Charge phase
One Ravenwing unit can make move horizontally through terrain features when moving, advancing, or charging.
Illuminating Fire: 1 CP
Play in the Shooting phase after a Ravenwing unit has targeted an enemy unit
Deathwing units get +1 to Wound against an enemy unit the Ravenwing unit targeted (the attack doesn't have to hit) and within 12" of the Ravenwing unit
Inescapable Wrath: 2 CP
Play at the end of opponent's Charge phase
Target Deathwing Infantry or Deathwing Walker unit may declare a charge against an enemy unit within 6" as though it were its Charge phase, but does not receive a Charge bonus that turn.
The stratagems start off lackluster with a Battle-shock effect, but boy do they get spicy by the end! I've found one of the biggest limiting factors to running the big Ravenwing Knight bricks is they have to go around terrain, and Knights of Iron presents a solution to that problem. I wasn't initially impressed with Illuminating Fire because it struck me as an attempt to make standard Deathwing Terminators usable, but then I remembered that Dreadnoughts and Land Raiders get the Deathwing keyword. Ballistus Dreads that can get +1 To Wound seem like they can do some work. Inescapable Wrath really complicates opponents' decision making and is likely to tilt games in your favor even if you never use it. It's worth pointing out that between Inescapable Wrath and Heroic Intervention, we can have multiple units charge opposing units in their own turn.
I'm actually excited to try a Lion's Blade list, but there are a couple of downsides. First and most significant, there's very little that benefits anything that isn't either Ravenwing or Deathwing, and a considerable amount of the better units from Codex: Space Marines falls under neither category. Second, annoyingly, Lion Dad gets no benefit from being in the detachment named for him specifically, because he's got neither of the relevant keywords. Still, we've all been wishing for a bespoke Dark Angels detachment that can be reliably competitive. Experience may show differently, but currently the Lion's Blade is looking more like that detachment than the turkeys we have in our codex.
I wrote an initial Lion's Blade list. This isn't necessarily the best list one can make with this detachment. One of the considerations with this list is that it be made of units I can put on the table in a relatively short period of time, because I'd like to try it at an RTT this weekend.
Azrael - Warlord
Captain in Terminator Armor: Calibanite Armaments
Chaplain in Terminator Armor: Fulgus Magna
Ravenwing Command Squad: Lord of the Hunt
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky stay-off-my-lawn boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Invader ATV: chonky melta quad
Invader ATV: chonky melta quad
Ravenwing Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Storm Speeder Hammerstrike
Clearly, Azrael is getting attached to the Inner Circle Companions. The Terminator characters each get attached to one of the Deathwing Knight squads. It just now occurred to me I can't start both in Reserve with their attached characters, but the squad with the Chaplain attached can bop up into Reserves off the table. I'd actually prefer to attach Captains to both DWK squads, but I'm not confident I can produce two suitable captains on short notice, plus I've got the Chaplain who I recently painted and hasn't had a chance to hit the table yet. He also makes me a little more confident using the sword Knights, who are my best looking squad of DWKs, being the newer models.
The Ravenwing Knights brick can bang through walls and tie up opposing units so the DWK squads can drop down and exploit the detachment rule to get stuck in. The Hammerstrike can be used to trigger Illuminating Fire, can strip cover from targets with its datasheet rule, and has brings not-insignificant firepower to the table. It could also go in reserve and hit the table via Deep Strike. If I'm not happy with its performance, it may get swapped out for a third Ballistus, which at the moment is an almost points-neutral change, but at the moment I only own two Ballistuses. The ATVs are the action monkeys, and can be used to trigger the detachment rule or the Illuminating Fire as needed.
The Intercessor Squad is just there to move up and hopefully sticky objectives so I don't have to tie up other units sitting on them.
That, esteemed battle brethren, is what I've got. Follow my blog for more such content, and I recommend Dank List Wargaming on YouTube for Dark Angels-centric videos. I'm optimistic about the new detachment and looking forward to giving it a spin. I'm sure I won't be the only one taking it to the table this weekend. May we command our armies to victory! For the Lion!
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