Originally Posted by
Nimor
I have seen this argued all over the place and am looking for an answer.
Simply, Can i put my entire army into Deathwing assult?
Answers i have been given at my local store:
-Only half your army can be put in reserve so only half can use the DW assault.
You know, I was all prepared to say that of course you can do a 100% Deathwing Assault (if you have the right models and gear for it), but I'm not sure that's actually true. Argument follows:
Deathwing Assault reads:
Units of models with both this special rule and Terminator armour can make a Deathwing Assault. After determining Warlord Traits, tell your opponent which units are doing so and make a secret note of whether it takes place on turn one or two. All units making the Deathwing Assault automatically Deep Strike at the start of the chosen turn with no Reserves roll.
So first, to answer your question, yes, making a Deathwing Assault includes being placed in Reserve. This can be seen in two ways. First, the Deathwing Assault rule itself notes that you make no Reserve roll, which would only be relevant if the units were in Reserve in the first place. Second, as the Deep Strike rule states, "In order for a unit to be able to Deep Strike, all models in the unit must have the Deep strike special rule and the unit must start the game in reserve." Since a Deathwing Assault involves making a Deep Strike, it follows that the unit making the Deathwing Assault "must start the game in reserve."
Now on to the 50% limit.
The Reserve rule reads, in relevant part, "When deploying their armies, players can choose not to deploy up to half of their units (rounding up) keeping them as Reserves to arrive later. Units that must start the game in reserve are ignored for the purposes of working out how many other units may do so."
So, obviously Deathwing Assault does not force you into Reserves. It's permissive - you may. As always, that means "You may, unless another rule states you cannot."
Contrast this with regular terminator armor. For instance, the Space Marines codex says:
Any model wearing Terminator armour can be teleported onto the battlefield. They may always start the game in reserve and arrive using the deep strike rules (emphasis added).
Deathwing Assault has nothing like that. So it appears to me that an all-Deathwing army follows the 6th edition trend against all-reserve, or even heavily-reserved, armies.
Originally Posted by
Nimor
As this is being done after warlord traits, so by the time you get to where your picking what goes into reserves you have no army to choose from?
That's not true. You pick warlord traits prior to deploying: "Before either player deploys, they must first each determine their Warlord Traits."