DA Alpha Strike

[BatMarine]

So has anyone else thought about running Belial with some death wing with heavy flamers, and a drop pod veteran squad with some melta/combi melta?

Seems to be a decent option, ten terminators that score and don't deviate with twin linked heavy flamers showing up is pretty much first blood promised to you on an infantry squad, and then you still have 10 terminators and Belial up in their face turn one. And the same goes for the Veterans with melta, who also get first turn arrival promised and safe drop at least. Give em a couple power weapons and they're a solid threat after as well with their multiple attacks...

So first turn this shows up and you've removed the two biggest threats to you, and have 11 terminators and however many vets up in their face as well, sounds pretty solid to me. There are of course still problems, not the least of which is cost, but it seems like a solid choice anyhow... Or you could even do it as an allied contingent with Belial and a command squad, the vets, and then take two 5 man marine squads with flakk for some cheap scoring/flyer bait.

[dvs1]

sounds good. In my experience though, Azrael and command squad in a drop pod work better. Smaller numbers, but they benefit from Azzys 4++ and can take regular special weapons instead of combis. Not to mention one of the shinny new banners(fortitude). Combine that with some scouting ravenwing (with teleport homers) sporting plasma/melta to take on the AV duties, and some termies to do the melee thing. Personally, I dont care for deathwing knights. They come with all kind of rules, but TH/SS costs only 10 pts more and are ap2 all the time. Assuming you filled up on the above, everything but your command squad is scoring, and definitely a threat. Not much for anti flyer, but thats the DA's lot from the new codex. 2+ termies and carefull placement should keep you safe from the heldrakes. Hope that helps :D

[BatMarine]

While the command squad might be a nice choice over the veterans, the other changes you propose kinda miss the whole point of the alpha strike, to the point of changing the concept entirely. I wasn't talking about deathwing knights, I wasn't asking about an entire list, I was wanting to talk about the specific little combo that could easily be plugged into an ally slot as well, and to see what people thought of the viability of that.

[Mr Mystery]

Word!

Not sure if you've clocked this, but Deathwing have Split Fire.....

Makes a well positioned alpha strike even sexier....

[BatMarine]

Yeah, I've thought about making them 10 man with 1 heavy flamer and one plasma cannon, so the Plasma Cannon can fire at something harder if I wanted. An Assault Cannon or Cyclone could also work out there...

[Mr Mystery]

I'd be tempted to double up on Cyclones for 10 man units, simply because they're so ubiquitous, and have the greatest range. With split fire you can send 4 krak missiles to bother a tank showing side or rear, and still pour on the Dakka to a nearby infantry unit via the 8 remaining Storm Bolters. The 48" range can be really nasty!

[BatMarine]

My understanding of Split Fire was that one model may fire off target, not two or more.

[iamian]

i'd like some clarity on that too

[JMichael]

My understanding of Split Fire was that one model may fire off target, not two or more.

Yup, only 1 model in the unit may split fire.
pg42
...one model in the unit can shoot at a different target to the rest of his unit.