Warhammer 40K Deathwing Assault Box Review - Lumbering Power

This week, we're taking a look at a brand new box set to boost our Dark Angels Space Marines forces. Games Workshop provided us a copy of this new release, so read on for our thoughts in our Deathwing Assault Box review.

What's Included in The Deathwing Assault Box?

The new Deathwing Assault box includes a small but mighty fighting force for the Dark Angels Space Marines chapter. The box contents are as follows:

• Codex Supplement: Dark Angels
• Datasheet Cards: Dark Angels
• Dark Angels Transfer Sheet
• Assembly Guide
• 10 Terminators
• 2 Dark Angels Upgrade Frames
• 5 Deathwing Knights
• Belial
• 3 Watchers in the Dark
• 3 Teleport Homers

Deathwing Assault Box Review - A Look At The Units

Let's take a moment to really dive into the three different types of units included in this box, before exploring what it all means to put these together in a force.

Belial

Grand Master Belial is an Epic Hero leader, who can be attached to the following units: Deathwing Knights (more on them in a moment), Deathwing Terminator Squad, Terminator Assault Squad, Terminator Squad. His stats are:

• Move: 5"
• Toughness: 5
• Save: 2+
• Invulnerable Save: 4+
• Wounds: 6
• Leadership: 6+
• Objective Control: 1

Armed with his Master-crafted storm bolter (Precision, Rapid Fire 2), and The Sword of Silence (Precision), when he leads a unit, each time a model in that unit makes an attack, if a Critical Hit is scored, the attack has the (Precision) ability. What's the Precision ability? It's a cool rule that allows you, when attacking an enemy unit with a character attached to it, to ignore the normal rules of how wounds are assigned (usually it goes everyone else gets wounded first, then the character) and deal damage directly to the character.

Belial also has the Strikes of Retribution ability, which gives him the chance (with good dice rolling) to deal back 1 mortal wound for each melee wound assigned to him.

Deathwing Terminator Squad

When you think of Dark Angels and the Deathwing, I would hazard a guess that it's these big, stompy baddies you're thinking of! The Deathwind Terminator Squad has the following stats:

• Move: 5"
• Toughness: 5
• Save: 2+
• Invulnerable Save: 4+
• Wounds: 3
• Leadership: 6+
• Objective Control: 1

Armed with a storm bolter and a power fist, players have the opportunity to upgrade 1 in every 5 Terminator models' weapons, swapping out the built-in options with things like an assault cannon, heavy flamer, plasma cannon, or chainfist.

But what makes Terminator units so special isn't just that they're heavily armored super soldiers, it's that they can teleport onto the battlefield with a homing beacon. Add to that that Deathwing Terminators also come with a Watcher in the Dark that gives them the Feel No Pain 4+ rule against mortal wounds until the end of the phase.

Add to all that their "Deathwing," ability, which allows you to ignore all modifiers to your Weapon Skill or Ballistic Skill, and adds a 1 to the Hit roll if you're targeting your Oath of Moment mark (that's a special ability granted to all Space Marines).

Deathwing Knights

I love the look of these models, carrying their mace of absolution, or their sword (a power weapon), while draped in cloaks. Their stats are (and keen eyed observers will notice a trend):

• Move: 5"
• Toughness: 5
• Save: 2+
• Invulnerable Save: 4+
• Wounds: 4
• Leadership: 6+
• Objective Control: 1

Touting only melee weapons (you can opt for a sword or a mace), and with many of the same abilities as the Terminator Squad (teleporting in, Watcher in the Dark) they also have the "Inner Circle" special rule, which is powerful! And states:

Inner Circle: Each time an attack is allocated to a model in this unit, subtract 1 from the Damage characteristic of that attack.

Is this for real!? They're already a 5 toughness, so to automatically subtract 1 damage from all attacks sent their way means they're here to hang around for a while, chopping through the battlefield.

Deathwing Assault Box Review - Tactical Thoughts

With all that being said, I think the smart move here is to build out a nasty little corner of your Dark Angels forces with this crew. And to do so, I would definitely recommend attaching your Belial to the Deathwing Knights. Doing so will give all Critical Hits (a to-hit roll of 6) from these Knights the Precision keyword.

So beam them into the middle of the battlefield with their Teleport Homer, and then go character hunting! Think how nasty that would be!

Deathwing Assault Box Review - Final Thoughts

The power on display here is no joke. Points-wise, this box (without upgrading) is worth 785 points - nothing to sneeze at. If you're building out a Dark Angels army, this is a quick and efficient way to add some serious heft - if the MSRP ends up being more than you're looking for, however, you can always pick up individual units from this box.

Also Out This Week For Warhammer 40K

Also releasing this week, to coincide with the release of the Deathwing Assault Box as described above, is the Dark Angels Codex. Releasing separately (as well as boxed with the Deathwing Assault), this Codex Supplement has all the lore, datasheets, special rules, and more you could want for your Deathwing Squad.

Also coming out this week is Crusade: Pariah Nexus, a 120-page campaign book for Warhammer 40K. This book covers the most recent events in the war in the Nephilim Sector, and provides rules for running a campaign there. With new enhancements and battle plans, Crusade: Pariah Nexus is a great option for the thematic, story-driven player out there.

Are you excited for the Deathwing Assault box? Will you bring Belial onto the battlefield? Let us know in the comments below!

The products used and referenced in the creation of this review were provided by Games Workshop. All images courtesy Games Workshop.