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Deathmarks, now viable?

Started by Arguleon-veq, November 24, 2013, 08:07:11 PM

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Arguleon-veq

Deathmarks have always been pretty rare and people tend to get caught up with the silly ability they have to deep strike in your opponents turn which most of the time is just a bad idea.

With the introduction of big monsters like Wraithknights, Riptides and Nids on the horizon I think there is now a serious place for them in competitive play. We have a unit with rapid fire sniper rifles wounding on 2's against a chosen target on very durable bodies.

Against Tau your not going to want to deepstrike as you will lose the whole unit to intercepting Riptides but against Eldar? If you drop in a 10 man squad they strip 5 wounds off a Wraithknight with their rapidfire and then they kill it with their overwatch as it charges them. Against Tau you still have an effective 30'' range and they will need to close to be killing your AV13 reliably.

I really do think this unit has a serious place in todays meta. Anybody had much experience with them?
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Narric

Too me a moment to reckognise the unit from the Necron Codex :P They were what I made with the new Immortal/Deathmark box :P

I'm surprised they aren't more widely used alrerady, considering they can essentially Character hunt any enemy Character in a small squad. pretty much garaunteed "Slay the Warlord" victory point in my mind.

Their use against Riptides/Wraithknights/Dreadknights and similar is interesting, and I reckon it would be an excellent trick tactic for a necron player, suffering from MC spam Meta.

But as I said, I'd personally use them as Character and Walord hunters, rather than MC/Big Target hunters. Leave those for the Bigger guns ;)

Arguleon-veq

Im not sure its so easy for them to take out enemy warlords to be honest, the problem with sniper rifles are that once you do get that hit to pick out an enemy character, they just pass it off on a 2+ to some poor regular soldier.

Ive seen Kroot and Scouts taken a lot lately to deal with MC's but I think Deathmarks do it better thanks to that wounding on a 2+ and being so much more durable.

I certainly wouldn't like to see them across the table if I was using my Eldar against them and they would be receiving all of my Wave Serpent firepower.
X-Wing Tournaments;
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Ibsalot

Well.. Deathmarks are really good. Pop 5-10 of them in a Nightscythe along with 1-2 Crypteks of Despair and watch termies melt away. 1-2 AP1 flamers that wound on 2+ is just crazy. You can even add in a Destroyer Lord if you want 2+ re roll.
Add to that that they are in a nightscythe they can pretty reliably strike where ever you want them to.

Chicop76

I still rather my sniper drones with triple rapid fire with MC hunter with bs 5 that I can make twin linked and ignore cover. The fact you can jsj out of cover is just crazy.

I have faced the deathmarks and they fail to do anything since I blast the crap out of them. I am more worried about armour 13 spam and dem leadership based flame weapons. However vs Eldar they are probably good. I just never seen them do what they are supposed to do due to them being a prority target.

I think its ironice to snipe them with the sniper drones. I think even with no Ethereal or the buff commander the sniper drones are much better. Simply due to bs 5 and if deployed right the only thing that can kill them is barrage weapons.


Arguleon-veq

Sniper Drones are great, but Necrons cant take them  ;). Plus it takes a lot of extra stuff to get them as effective as your saying and they still die very easy when up against enemy Markerlights or Wave Serpents.

At least Deathmarks dont need support and are pretty durable against Wave Serpents Shields.
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Chicop76

Quote from: Arguleon-veq on December 06, 2013, 11:46:38 PM
Sniper Drones are great, but Necrons cant take them  ;). Plus it takes a lot of extra stuff to get them as effective as your saying and they still die very easy when up against enemy Markerlights or Wave Serpents.

At least Deathmarks dont need support and are pretty durable against Wave Serpents Shields.

Actually they are really hard to kill hiding behind los blocking terrain where they can jsj and snipe away. Always grab buildings with no floor and no windows.

Even without ethereal and commander they still shoot 48" with bs 5 and have rapid fire and really cheap.


CoffeeGrunt

You might as well tell him how great Riptides are at Termy hunting. He can't get Sniper Drones, he's Necrons, this is a Necron discussion. Yes they are great, though I mainly use them for Markerlights.

On another note, Deathmarks IMO are very effective, even as a psychological tool. Remember that Hunters from Hyperspace targets are Wounded on 2 by any Deathmark squad. You can force an enemy to start hiding or retreating just by marking a dude and threatening a flank with some others.

Adding to that, they do anti-Monstrous Creature fire damned well.

The only constant in the universe is change; the Wise adapt.

Chicop76

He was saying that they was the greatest snipers in the game. Just saying I thought Tau Snipers was, especially since they can get a ton of buffs on top of them.

I seen them. I think they ok, but if they are near a target they can really hurt I take them out. Also they are not as cheap as other sniper units which makes them ok.


Narric

Tau Snipers may be better/more cost efffective than Deathmarks, TSs still take a Heavy Support Slot iirc, so will only be taken by those who already know their versatility.

DMs on the other hand have a changing role, which is what this thread is about Chicop, not which race has best snipers ;)

I don't have my Necron-dex to cheeck, but I don't remember their SR saying that if you select a target for one unit, all units get the bonus. That just seems broken, even for a pre-6th codex. I'm assuming CoffeeGrunt has mis-read the rule, but without being able to check it myself, I can understand if I'm the one that is wrong.

Chicop76

I agree with more mcs on the field it favors sniper heavy armies. Gosh the Neff on pathfinders for Eldar. The snipers for tau do take up a heavy slot, but that is what O'Shiva as allies come in :*).

I'll double check their Sr, but I thought it only applied to them and maybe any IC that joins them.

The problem with the cost effectiveness is it limits how many you can field. 2-3 squads to me would seem viable to deal with the abundance of MCs on the board. The problem with one squad is anyone playing with MCs will try to take them out, gravity guns are a pain since you can spread them out throughout an army.

My second gripe about them is they are really effective against one target and you have to declare what that target is. If it was hidden than they would be much better. Since as an opponent I will know they would be strong against me I would stay away from them.

However they would be rather good if you have them back field with a crypt with a veil of darkness.  That way you cannot deep strike and possibly rapid fire your desired target. Depending on how the creek is geared they can do some damage that way.


CoffeeGrunt

I got the information on their Hunters From Hyperspace rule from a Necron friend. More to the point, a player in a Kill Team tournament scored high by having a force made up of individual Deathmarks, all tagging and wounding the enemy on 2s. I assume that if it's legit enough for tournament rules, it's legit enough for casual.
The only constant in the universe is change; the Wise adapt.

Narric

Quote from: CoffeeGrunt on December 22, 2013, 02:42:35 PM
I got the information on their Hunters From Hyperspace rule from a Necron friend. More to the point, a player in a Kill Team tournament scored high by having a force made up of individual Deathmarks, all tagging and wounding the enemy on 2s. I assume that if it's legit enough for tournament rules, it's legit enough for casual.
Sounds like it was a single unit split up, which iirc isn't what the "Battle Missions" book version of Kill Team doesn't do. Thats more-or-less 4th ed Kill team rules. In short, it wasn't a selection of Deathmark units getting a bonus because one dude had the "HfH" rule, but a single squad with the same target.

Did that make sense? :-\

I'm going purely from memory, but for regular games of 40k one unit of Deathmarks do not gain benefit for targeting a unit/model "Marked" by another unit of Deathmarks. Otherwise, you could choose three models/units in your opponents army that your three units will always wound on a 2+.
Going by the rule that I remember, only one DM unit can wound one Marked unit on a 2+, not one DM unit can wound three different models/units marked.

Arguleon-veq

I didnt say they were the best Snipers in the game at all, simply that they now make for an effective choice in todays meta. A year or so ago they were a pretty poor unit but with the abundance of monsters they are now quite tempting. I think an army with 3 units, 2 barge lords, 3 annihilation barges and 3 flyers with warriors in would make quite a nice army.
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11th - 33

CoffeeGrunt

I'll have to grab the Necron Codex next time a friend brings it to check, but I rarely see more than one anyway.

Our local meta doesn't deal in spam or fliers, which is nice because it's been steadily collecting lots of fluffy gamers and a nice variety of armies. I don't tend to use Sniper Drones much because I rarely see Monstrous Creatures, and that's all they're really great against.
The only constant in the universe is change; the Wise adapt.