Hammer of the Imperium; Death Korps of Krieg part 1

This post is all about playing the Death Korps of Krieg Forgeworld army. This post is written by a guest author who will go by the name Tactician Hammer. He has been playing Krieg for a few years now and has also dabbeled in Eldar, Tau, and GW standard Guard. I have played against these guys many many times and they are a thorn in my side but they provide a great army, as well as opponent, to test my own skills against. I will be interjecting my own comments into what he wrote to provide a different side of things. What I say will be in red as well as in parenthasis so feel free to skip those parts if you want to just read his overview. 

Playing Death Korps of Krieg:

The Siege Regiment

                First thing I would like to say is how much I love this army. It was a worthwhile purchase and is so much fun to play. I love the models, forge world has done a great job with them and the fluff is a lot of fun. So as this post will go, I will discuss ideas on how to play the army, looking at both assault brigade and siege regiment, and what to think about buying. Death Korps is a significant investment and you have to really want these guys to be willing to spend the money, but for me there is no army I love more.

                Let’s start with the siege list. This is the first army list to appear for them and is featured in the Siege of Vraks books. Now you don’t need to buy the book to play this list. Since it is outdated there is a 6^th edition update on the Forge World website. This is the list I started with and it has its good points. Starting with HQ you can take a Company command squad with some the same orders as regular IG. Next is a commissar general and the quartermaster. The quartermaster is a medic of sorts and grants feel no pain on a 6+ to those within 6 inches. (I actually like this guy a lot since he is almost like a Sanguinry Priest.) He is cheap, but as far as support heroes go I usually just take the company commander or the commissar.

                Next is elites understand that you can bring a lot of artillery and should. Heavy Mortars and Quad guns are two options and both are elites choices. You can take up to 4 guns in a battery. It is a stationary gun piece and cannot move, shooting in a 45 degree firing arc. They can be moved by Centaur which is a small transport or can move the guns. This takes a turn however and they cannot shoot. The heavy mortar is great because it is strength 6 ap 4 large blast. Not a bad thing to bring worth 50 points a gun and three man crew. (200 points to take 4 guns in one battery that can shoot off 4 str 6 ap4 lrge blast hits on one target can be pretty vicious. Thunderfire cannons are still better I think.) It can take carcass rounds as well which will give you a re-roll on wounds but can get hot. The Quad gun shoots 4 small blast template shots and takes a minus 1 off of the initiative of the targeted unit when taking a pinning test.  Both Siege and assault lists can take them but why they are important is because the siege list can take them as elites and that means the siege list can bring more artillery than anyone else on the field. Next is the grenadier but we can talk more on to them in the assault list. (He is the Death Korps version of a stormtrooper.) Both the Siege and assault lists can take Hydras as an elites choice in a squadron and the very fancy Rapier, which is actually not so worth its points and I would stay away from the rapier. The Hydras though are great if you feel anti-air is important, I feel they are some of the best anti-air money can buy. Four twin-linked auto-cannons with skyfire is nothing to laugh at if you are a flyer and a squadron of them is just nasty.

                For troops, Kriegsman themselves have an increased weapons skill of 4 army wide and have a few nifty traits. (WS 4 guardsmen are such a pain in the ass. Normally a Space Marine assault squad will be able to rip through a guard squad in one round of combat no problem. With Krieg you are hitting less, and getting hit more often which makes winning by large margains harder to do, which in the long run makes sweeping advances less likely.) First being they cannot suffer fear tests. So any daemon who wants to inspire fear has to find new guardsmen to play with because they don’t suffer any penalties from fear. Next they can regroup normally if within range of an officer, no order required. Lastly is that if they suffer 25% casualties from shooting they take no moral tests. The Kriegsman is your back bone and the last thing you should recognize is they come standard with krak grenades! That is right, free krak grenades. I have found myself charging vehicles with these guys when there is not a melta gun in sight and have found great success. The engineers can be taken as troops as well. These fine soldiers come with shotguns and a mole launcher with WS4, BS4 and 4+ save; essentially a type of storm trooper. Don’t buy them however if you don’t have a Hades breaching drill. This is a dedicated transport for them and works a bit like deepstriking but from underneath and when it comes out it hits whoever it’s under with a melta blast template. The turn after it breaches comes the engineers. Engineers can take carcass rounds as well for the shotguns but it can get hot. Re-rolling wounds however is a worthwhile touch for the points. The Mole-launcher itself is not a toy I am crazy about it takes a whole turn to get to its target and while there is no cover save and gives strike down, has a range of 8-24 and Str 5 AP 5, small blast. It is not horrible but the delay causes issue with me. It can be useful though. They can take pretty much any other standard guard weapon as well though and a demo-charge. In the siege list note you can take heavy weapon teams as a troops choice, the assault list cannot do this. The platoon make up is the same as IG, but there are no special weapon teams. No squad with three plasma guns sadly. (Thank the Emperor they can't spam plasma too. They really don't need it since they have access to so much other high strength low ap weapons.) Something to remember is that there is not much in the way of transport for the siege list, Centaurs only take 5 men and there are no chimeras. 

                Fast attack is limited as well, you can take hellhounds, devildogs and the like; as well as the death rider. These are great models and have a feel no pain on 6+. You can re-roll failed dangerous terrain tests with them as well and have 2 wounds. You can even take a platoon of them if you are feeling really WWI. They are fun and when used correctly can be decent. My success has been limited however seeing even with WS4 and a 4+ save. I recommend using them as forces to either to push troops off an objective or protecting your rear from deepstrike. (Another tactic would be to put them in reserve so they don't take unnecessary losses. The siege list is very vulnerable to getting out maneuvered since their big guns are mostly stationary. The Death Riders will help prevent sneaky assault squads from slapping melta bombs on artillery units.)

                Heavy support includes heavy weapons, leman russ tanks, thunderer siege squadron, a bombard battery, and the stationary medusa and basilisk. The medusa and basilisk work the same as the heavy mortars or quad guns and have the same stats as the regular guard ones. A big difference between regular guard and Krieg however is your flyers. No vendettas here it’s a thunderbolt, lightening or avenger squadron. These are fine pieces of equipment, my personal favorite is the Avenger with the front armor of 12 and strafing run.  It has a lot of weapon options with missiles, bombs, auto-cannons and multi-lasers; but what I love the most is it comes with its bolt cannon and two lascannons standard. The Bolt cannon is strength 6 ap 3 Heavy 7 and with certain upgrades this bastard is tough to kill. All three of these flyers come with deepstrike and armored cockpit. The sky is no friendly place when it comes to facing Krieg. Now these can be expensive with the cheapest being without upgrades 140. You can get to 200 pretty quick with any of these fine machines. The Thunderbolt is more for bombing and missile strikes, the lightening is similar with mostly missile and bomb options but the avenger can handle air and ground.

                Your best options with the siege regiment are to remember you are the king of artillery; troops and as many artillery options as you can take can be very effective. I bring as many troops as I can muster, and heavy mortars with medusa and or basilisks. You can be dropping as many as 7+ large blast templates a turn. The big things you truly have to worry about is deep striking and outflanking. I choose to deal with these usually by leaving back a heavy weapons team or two. They usually have the range to help support an infantry advance (please advance, static warfare will get you beaten pretty easily especially against a fast moving army like blood angels) (hehehe)  and can turn around and open up on any deep strikers or outflankers. Your medusas and basilisks will be the scariest thing you put on the field and your opponent will be afraid of them. Another good option is the Aegis defense wall for those of you who want to give cover saves to your crew men. Your deployment will be your most important step with this army. You have very little room to adjust if you mess up your deployment because you have to be aware of the 45 degree arc your artillery shoots in and what they will be able to hit. Be prepared to deal with night fighting as well. It can truly hinder you in some ways but with a little creative list building you should be able to stall and still give your artillery plenty of time to strike. Don’t be afraid to lose your artillery as well. In Objective based games your opponent will have to focus on your artillery giving your guardsmen a chance to take objectives and win the game. If they don’t pay attention to your artillery well than they will be lucky to hold an objective for more than a turn. You are playing Krieg, you will lose lots of models so get used to that idea of having a big dead pile. This is an aggressive army, use artillery to support an advance and try your best to outnumber your opponent. When you can’t, bring tanks. If your opponent wants to take to the air then be ready and willing to bring hydras and your flyers. Your guardsmen are tough and good at making your opponent’s job difficult. 

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Next article from Tactician Hammer will be on the DKoK assault list. Have an Emperor blessed day and as always please feel free to leave any comments.