Hammer of the Imperium; Death Korps of Krieg Part 2

Playing Death Korps of Krieg

The Assault Brigade

               

Now on to the second post on the Death Korps of Krieg. This will be about the Assault Brigade. This is a different list and plays differently too. The Assault brigade really takes the concept of your best defense is a good offense to a new level. While with the siege list it is about your artillery, and slow advancing under their fire, this list you have to get to your enemy and you have the tools to make it advancing guard frightening. “The Death Korps of Krieg are infamously resolute and grimly determined soldiers, able to fight on where others would flee or break down in terror. They are hardened by the bleak conditions on their birth world, fortified by iron faith in the Emperor and subjected to a brutal regime of indoctrination and military training from infancy” (Fall of Orpheus page 173).

The Assault Brigade list can be found in the Imperial Armor book, volume twelve, the Fall of Orpheus. The first things to look at are the traits and skills the assault brigade brings to the table. The first being they still have their WS 4. This has not changed. Kriegsman are still immune to fear, don’t take moral checks from losing 25 % shooting casualties and can regroup normally within 6 inches of an officer regardless of casualties. “Death Korps officers have no fear of death and will gladly lay down their lives in the name of the Emperor, and will demand and expect nothing less from those they command” (Fall of Orpheus page 173). The assault brigade also comes with a neat new trick for those commanders who do not fear throwing their guardsmen into the meat grinder, and that is Forlorn Hope. You declare this at the beginning of the game if you chose to take this. It will give you two abilities: Unstoppable advance and Death Korps Assault Objective. The first being that if any platoon of yours is completely wiped out or falls back off the table, a fresh new one arrives that is identical. Yup a whole new platoon if you happen to be losing casualties fast. Next there is another objective placed on the field by you in your enemy’s deployment. If you get this you get two points at the end of the game, but if you fail your opponent gets one. Your opponent does not have to hold the objective either to get that point just stop you from getting it.

     

Next the Assault brigade has new orders that can be given: Duty unto Death, Dispersed Advance and without mercy. They also can issue Bring it Down, Get back into the Fight and First Rank FIRE Second Rank FIRE! The new orders are pretty useful when used correctly. Duty Unto Death basically means until the next shooting phase of the controlling player the unit my re-roll any failed moral checks or leadership tests of any kind and on a roll of double 1s, it becomes fearless. Dispersed advance gives your unit the ability to move through cover until the end of the next shooting phase. So the next turn you can move through cover, not a bad order but you just have to be thinking ahead to use it right. Lastly, my personal favorite is Without Mercy. This will turn your ordered squad’s lasguns and las pistols into assault 2 range 12 weapons and grants you Crusade special rule for the remainder of the controlling players turn.

           The two big new wargear options to mention that were not in the Siege list are the Regimental standards and the memento Mori. The Regimental Standard has three options: Icon of Righteous Spite, Banner of Martyrdom, and the Ossuary of the Blessed Dead. The first gives any DKOK within 12 inches the hatred special rule for all Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Daemons, Psykers and models chosen from the Renegades and Heretics army list. The Banner of Martyrdom will give you an extra victory point if the unit bearing the banner is wiped out in an assault. The Ossuary of the Blessed Dead gives models in a unit bearing the standard a +1 toughness. Plus the Regimental standard like the Platoon Standard, grants the ability that any unit within 12 inches counts as scoring and additional wound when doing the results of a close combat. The Memento Mori will grant the bearer Eternal Warrior rule for a single phase of the game.

                The Assault Brigade also gets new warlord traits table. The traits are as follows Co-ordinated Assault: the Warlord and all Death Korps units within 12 inches add +1 to their results when rolling for a charge distance. Shattering Bombardment: while the warlord is alive, select a single weapon on a unit within 6 inches of them in the shooting phase that has the ordnance special rule, that weapon counts as being twin-linked for this turn. Only in Death: the warlord and any DKOK unit they are with gains the Fearless and Feel no Pain (6+) special rules while within 3 inches of an objective. Smoke Barrage: the Warlord’s controlling player may choose to use night fighting rules in the game. If they do there is no need to roll for this as it is considered night for the first turn. Blood of Martyrs: the warlord and any DKOK units within 6 inches, gains preferred enemy (infantry) special rule when in an enemy deployment zone. Siege Master: At the start of the game, after deployment but before the game begins; nominate a single piece of terrain in the enemy deployment zone. The cover save provided by this terrain is lowered by -1.

                Alright so on to the units. As far as HQs go you have some changes. First being the first named character in the Death Korps of Krieg. Marshal Karis Venner. He his 165 points, including a company command squad. He comes with WS 5 BS 4 3 wounds 3 attacks and 4+ save. He comes with Carapace armour, hot shot laspistol, power sword, frag and krak grenades, a refractor field and memento mori. He also has the Rules Stubborn, Bitter Foe, Implacable Command and is an Independent Character. He automatically comes with the warlord trait Blood of Martyrs. The Rule Bitter Foe is when fighting in a challenge Venner may make an additional D3 attacks at initiative step 1 of the fight sub phase. Implacable command means that friendly models within 12 inches may use his leadership value rather than their own. He is not a bad option for an HQ can be pretty tough actually but kind of pricy at times. Next are of course the company command squad and the quartermaster. No Commissar-General.  

                Elites have a bit of a change as well, instead of Grenadiers as Elites, Engineers count as elites but come with all the same fun and costing only 50 points for 5. There is the Griffon Strike Battery. Basically Heavy mortars but in vehicle form, but has accurate bombardment! This fun little toy gives you the wonderful ability to re-roll the scatter die if you want. It’s very nice toy and can do some serious damage. Now a nice new addition is the Leman Russ Forward Command Tank. It is an Elite option and for 35 points extra to the cost of a leman russ battle tank, it makes the tank BS 4 and artillery can draw line of site from its hull not theirs if you choose. It’s great and makes for a great tank hunter. I like to give this thing a vanquisher cannon and a co-axial heavy stubber. This means if the stubber just hits, I can re-roll it’s to hits with its other weapon, for me being my vanquisher cannon. Plus a Leman Russ that runs as an Elite choice is always fun. Next the Hydras, and Rapier Battery (by the way the Rapier has explosive demise meaning on a roll of 1 it explodes when it loses its last wound.)

                Troops have not changed from the siege list except two things. The Grenadier is now a troops choice. The Grenadier is a great troops choice at 120 points for a squad of 10. They have hot-shot las guns WS and BS 4 and a 4+ save,  while being able to take melta bomb, flamer, heavy flamer, heavy stubber, plasma gun, melta gun and Grenade launcher. And you can have a choice of two of these weapons. The watchmaster also can take a power fist and plasma pistol if he so choses. The assault brigade grenadier squad is the only time you can bring a chimera as a dedicated transport. But it’s a storm chimera. Basically instead of a multi-las it has autocannon for its turret and can transport 12 models. Secondly you may not take heavy weapons teams as troop choices in this list.

                Fast attack remains the same except you can now take a Salamander Reconnaissance squadron at 55 points a model. They are front armor 12 open topped and fast. Autocannon weapon and heavy bolter, other than that nothing too special in my opinion but I can see how they could be used in certain armies lists. This being a very mobile list. If you are running griffons, I actually recommend a few of these as some support for anyone who wants to get to close.

                Heavy support had a few changes. First heavy weapons teams can only be taken as heavy support. Second you can take a Thunderer Siege squadron which is front armor 14 and a demolisher cannon.  That’s all your getting with it for 140 points but demolisher cannons can be devastating indeed. Then the Leman Russ battle tanks of course and ordinance tank battery (includes basilisk, medusa and colossus bombard, and none of these are the emplaced guns you get with the siege list). The bombard uses the Colossus siege mortar which is 24-240 range strength 6 ap 3 barrage, and ordinance, ignores cover all for 140 points. Next is the Field artillery battery, just being heavy mortars and quad launchers. Lastly the Imperial Navy support squadron which are the Thunderbolt, Lightening and Avenger as stated before.

                So I am going to let you onto a secret for a good list to run with this army. Firstly HQ is optional for you I recommend a cheap Company Command squad as usual but Venner is not a bad choice either. For elites I would take the command tank and griffon heavy mortars or drop one of these for the engineers and breaching drill or take all three, cannot go wrong all depending on who you are staring down. Next a good number of kriegsman and a squad or two of grenadiers with storm chimeras, I would recommend all grenadiers and storm chimeras but this can get expensive unless you are playing apoc in which case just have fun with that. But you usually want to outnumber your opponent if at all possible while they are kriegsman they are still likely to die easily. For fast attack bring either hellhound or variants (devildog might not be bad for the extra tank killing capacity or hellhound for swarm armies) or Salamanders to stick with the griffons or help support your advance with troops. For heavy support I would bring thunders and Collussus Bombards. Any room left bring heavy mortars, leman russ or basilisks. This is assuming you are not facing a lot of flyers; if flyers are included well swap as needed to deal with them. What you see here is a completely forward assault force. Completely mobile with its abilities to still deal out lots of templates and cover its own advance into enemy territory without having to leave much behind to defend artillery. You can deal with space marines and swarm armies alike and deal mass casualties at that. This is good for kill points and especially objective based games. With Thunderers leading the front with artillery covering their advance with infantry to match, I think you would find that the assault brigade truly knows what it means to assault forward.

                Lastly however I recommend most of all a combination list of Siege and Assault if you can. The combination means you can still bring lots of artillery but a vicious force to push forward as well. There are many options for this concept and I have seen success with the Siege, Assault and combination lists. There is a lot of fun to be had with these armies and I really hope to see more Kriegsman players out there if you got the steel to be a part of the Death Korps. It’s a fun army to play, fun to paint and model and everyone appreciates seeing the variety of something other than Cadians. The models are great looking too, proportional and detailed. They make many games workshop Imperial Guard models just look horrible by comparison. So I hope everyone enjoyed my input on the Death Korps of Krieg and this gives you a good idea for those thinking about starting this army on what to buy. Remember lots of infantry is always a good answer to your problem, and there is nothing artillery can’t solve. 

Having never played against this particular sort of list it sounds vicious. Weapon skill 4 guardsmen already cause me an unproporional amount of grief and now with these grenadiers all over the place with hotshot las-guns my armor save is gone. Combat is still by far the safest place to be if you are in power armor but nothing in this army is a push over by any means. As of right now I am very happy that they are in a different segmentum, far, far away from my marines :D I would like to give a big thank you to Tactician Hammer for his good work and I look forward to anything he comes up with in the future. Thanks for reading, hopefully you enjoyed it, I know I did. Have an Emperor blessed day!