I have been playing about a half dozen games now and I have yet to win a satisfactory victory without cheating. I need to raise my win ratio so I can play this game with confidence and increase the number of wins. What are the strategies that maximize victory?

Appropriate times to play cards

Best Teams to use

Efficent arrangements for marines

Best use of Support counters

Any help forthcoming would be great. I would like to compile all the wisdom I can about this game on this thread.

I am sure you will find better advices than mine, but I would say (my humble opinion of course):

-Keep support tokens mainly for defense (unless the marine has more than two) It is way better to ensure a marine´s survival than killing one genestealer.

-The red team is the worst. If you need to leave one out, that one should be it. Their abilities are very situational and even the "Full Auto" is not that useful as it appears to be: you will kill 1 GS almost for sure, but 2 GS only 25% of the time and 3 GS only 1 out of 9 tries. In a 12 marine game Leon is great covering the back of the others (because of increased range) and Valencio charging doors is good too, but in less-than-12 marine games, leave them out.

-When eliminating GS, remove first the ones with the movement symbol that is less frequent in the formation at that moment. That will help to lock the swarms in place when the next event card is revelaled (unless you prefer them to move of course)

-Normally it is better to loose one marine with an special ability from a team, than losing the last marine from other team (and all the order cards from that team) The exception would be of course Zael and probably Lorenzo and Calistarius: they are terribly useful and maybe losing them the last is better even if other teams need to be sacrified in the process.

-The green team can kill GS when rolling 4s in the die. Dont think too much about the special effect of killing 3 in one attack (as nice as it is of course), but consider the 4 as another skull when doing the chance calculation of attack success: the green team has the better shooting accuracy after the flamer.

-Blocking with Gideon Shield, using the force field of Calistarius, using Defensice Stance from the yellow team etc are life savers against the brood lords. However, against swarms with no special abilities, is usually better to try to kill them directly. Blocking them doesnt solve the problem, just postpone it.

-Lorenzo when defending must have the support order card in play and must be facing the swarm. With a couple of support tokens, he will be able to survive very easily against 3 or less GS AND probably kill them in the process.

-Dont use the teleportarium unless you really need to and you can do it safely in the first round after traveling to its location. The risk of losing marines or the certainty of using that many support tokens are normally not worth it.

-When using the move order card from purple team, and deciding if moving the event card to the bottom of the event pile or not, dont consider only the effect of the event card, but also the spawning and movement of genestealers. Usually the cards with "good" effects on the marines spawn way more GS (or move them to inconvenient positions), so sometimes could be better to keep a card with "bad" effect but "good" spawning.

That would be some of the things I found more useful to win. Please feel free to criticize them!

FOR THE EMPEROR AND THE GOLDEN THRONE!

aurax said:

At least their M+A does good, unlike the Green team (more on them later). Red's Support sucks though. However, only team coming close to the crappiness of the Green team is Deathwing Blue (aka New Green). Just throw those two teams out the airlock and your chances go up exponentially.

aurax said:

Only when using their Attack Action, which needs plenty of support from other teams (M+A to get Gideon into place), thanks to Gideon's pathetic 0 range. Worse, if you go up against say 2-3 GS swarm and don't get them all, you're looking at a risky defense roll. To me, if a risk has to be taken (Prometium Tank, Hull Breach), send in the Green team, nobody will miss them even if they die.

aurax said:

Heh, I almost always use it right away, if the formation is empty, absolutely use it. I generally play solo with 6 or 8 marines, on average you lose just one Marine. Spend Support for the special marines, roll for fodder, most of the time losing one Marine if any, that's not bad for skipping around 10GS in the blip piles.

Dam said:

Hehe poor green team The main issue with them is that when they lose one team member, the remaining one sucks big time: either Gideon survives but with 0 range cannot properly use the attack action, either Noctis survives but without blocking shield he is severely impaired.

About the teleportarium, I guess the issue is I dont like to risk ANY marine in a location number 2. And if you spend a support token for every marine (even only for the "special" ones) is a huge investment of tokens. Maybe if you just arrive to the teleportarium and there in no GS to chase you, and all your marines are tokenized, could be a good pportunity to just skip the location enterely, but normally I wouldnt do it.

Another thing to consider as tactic is: if you dont have the expasion packs, 33% of the games you will arrive to the (scary) genestealer lair. Just in case that happens, imho is worth it to plan in advance and keep the flamer either at the top of the formation, pointing left, either at the bottom pointing right, accompanied by the blue team (flamer team with the attack order available and blue team with the move+activate order ready).

If you arrive at the GS lair, then use the blue team engage the brood lord swarms and try to intimidate most of the broodlord´s bodyguards. Remember, if you roll a 4 or 5 in the intimidate, you can scare off GSs from BOTH swarms (up to the number rolled in total) if both your blue marines are engaged with them. Once the bodyguards are scared, Zael, Calistarius, Leon etc have a good chance of inmediately kill the brood lord (a BL alone is as vulnerable as a normal GS)

These are really good posts. I can now appreciate the depth of this game.

It seems that many people have different opinions as to which teams are the worst. The Green team gets no respect, but I was surprised to see the Red team get a bad rating. I have also heard that Blue and Yellow Teams are underpowered. Which teams have got a reputation for being powerful? In addition, I got the impression that the two teams in the POD expansion (before Deathwing) seemed more powerful than the original teams. Which teams have a reputation for being the best ones?

The red team is very good in a solo game with three squads. Their problem is that they get weaker the more squads you play with.

The Grey team (lexicanium) is the best of the base squads. Each ability is pretty good, but the psionic attack with support tokens is just so powerful. +1 expected kill per support token, plus the more you have the better your odds of seeing a hot streak.

Green team is better than they seem at first, but still the worst of the base game overall.

In the Marine pack 1 expansion, the Orange team was very powerful, but not too far ahead of the squads in the base game. The black team (Chaplain Raziel) is actually pretty bad because they don't have any attack bonuses (see the comment above about the importence of slaying versus defending). That said, they do have two powerful defense abilities, and the ability to change marines' facing can be a really nice utility.

The Deathwings are in general a bit weaker than the marines who came before them. They have a couple powerful abilities, but alot of their abilities eat support tokens and rely on special die rolls that you can't reroll. The result is that you have to rely on luck alot more with them. Definately better to use them with a group that likes a challenge.

I have got the best results with purple+grey team.

Purple's strategize with grey's force field can merge some swarms into a larger one. Bonus points for placing them in range of Zael or Lexicanum (or both), where you have quite a chance to wipe them out. Of course it does not work all the time. Also both teams' move+activate abilities can help you with the events or shrinking the blip piles respectively.

Also I tend to use blue team for extra defense (counter-attack has saved my sorry arse quite a few times) and I grew fond of black team too. Sure, they don't have much offensive power, but Litany of Hate helped me to counter (or lessen) the effects of Chaos of Battle event card.

I found that the Cyclonic Marine is a real boost. The ability to destroy 3 genestealers at will is great. I want to match him with the flamer marine in a future game.

How is the intimidate ability for blue team? I found it is great for keeping the number of genestealers on the map to a minimum, but sometimes you are just recycling them and delaying the inevitable. Should intimitate be used as much as possible to throw the genestealers back in the mix and destroy them piecemeal? I found that sometimes you get event cards like "the swarm" which will make your blip piles huge.

I was disappointed to see that Deathwing Marines are not better than the base marines. I was hoping that they would be more powerful. I would like a POD which would give the player the ability to be a powergamer (bring on the power creep!). Having a dreadnaught would be a nice addition.

How is the Tyrannid pack? I had the feeling it would make the game harder but some posts suggested that the Tyrannids actually made the game easier. Which is true?

Cyclonic Volley works alot like Heroic charge. On the up side, it can strike at greater range, and rolling a zero doesn't kill the marine. On the downside, it can only hit one swarm, and it doesn't kill anything when it fails (which usually means a marine gets killed anyway).

Intimidate is a good ability, though I think counter attack is the strongest of the three. You definately need to be careful that you don't slow down travelling too much by putting genestealers back in the blip piles. However, if the blip piles are close to even or you are using the teleportarium, then it is as good as a kill.

I don't think the Tyranids make the game any easier. Depending on when they pop up, they might make the game only marginally harder, but if you get alot at the beginning they can make it much harder. This also varies with number of players. With smaller spawns, it is easier to slay the more dangerous tyranids before they do anything, but with large swarms they can get alot of protection.

The Tyranid pack also comes with new final locations (the Hive lords), and I think these might be easier than the original final locations. Death Leaper in particular has a tendency to get picked off fast.

klaymen_sk said:

I agree with all the above but wish to add Brown team from PoD expansion (not orange) is incredible with Cyclonic Volley as well my bigger favorite, Target Lock.

However, I've switched over now to Lord of the Rings living card game and I wonder if I will come back to Space Hulk. Much variety in that game if you have the money and stones for it, as most of those quests are so very hard you beg them to print more cards to have even a chance at winning, but overall very fun time. Constantly thinking about combos to get an edge over such a merciless game. If you thought Space Hulk was a challenge, LoTR towers over SH.

Personally I enjoy all the PoD packs except the new Blood Ravens, Dark Angels… whatever they call themselves. Biggest waste of 12 bucks I ever spent. The core teams and the small Space Marine Pack 1 with Brown and Black team is excellent and Tyranid killing is mighty fun too, if you do not have already.

Space Marine Pack 1 comes with Black and ORANGE teams, there is no brown!

I own both this and LotR LCG, but Death Angel will always have a spot in my collection because LotR's combat is too mathy, not enough randomness. Die rolls in DA can make or break you, in LotR, you're heroes total up their attack and that's it, there is no chance to miss, you pile up enough attack and auto-kill .

I just found the mother of all strategy guides for Death Angel. If you go to gameboardgeek there is a strategy guide available for download by some spanish guy to made a deep 39 page guide to Death Angel. Seriously, this guy claims to have a 90% win rate out of 100 games and goes into amazing depth about everything. I will spend the next day reading it on the way to work in order to master it like this guy did.

Personally, I find LOTR to be much easier than Death Angel. It seemed tough a long time ago. But after several expansion packs there were enough cards to make decks very powerful. In addition, the game gets easier if two or more people play. ( more people that or, the more people one person would control for solo games). I find Death Angel tough simply because the parameters are still very set. Many scenarios in LOTR are at the 4 or 5 level range which is pretty easy to beat. Even Conflict a the Carrock is actually really easy if you do it right.

Dam said:

Really!? It looks very muddy brown to me. When I think orange, I think the color that I find on the fruit.

And true about comparison but there is always the randomness of the draw too, to be fair.

peterstepon said:

Impressive. Yeah, I am still struggling to find good combos to win at solitaire. I have definitely noticed the difference in the more people play the easier it is to win.

peterstepon said:

If you've ever run into my posts here or over on BGG, you'll know I consider Carrock the second easiest quest in the game, barely above Passage Through Mirkwood. Never ever will I take Carrock being DL7 seriously, it's DL2, maybe 3 on a bad day.

peterstepon said:

Hi, this is the "some spanish guy" speaking

I wrote the guide 2 years ago, but I think most of the tips are still valid. Some of the essential ones have been quoted by Aurax in his first reply (although I don't know from where came the statistic about Leon having a 25% of killing 2 genestealers on Full Auto).

The english version of the guide doesn't display the analyze for the terrain and location cards, though (which is important). Take a look in the spanish guy for a quick reference on the % of the genestealers being spawned and how often in a major or minor spawn. You'll find interesting surprises concerning the green terrain.

On a side note, I didn't save an accurate register for the wins and loses, it is mainly an estimation. Altough nowadays I don't play as much as I used to, I've played now more than 2 hundred games, my win ratio keeps the same, and I can't remember having lost a single game with neither the Space Marine Pack 1 or the Deathwing (simply BROKEN). The problem is, selecting the Orange Team (cyclonic voley) or most of the Deathwing for an "easy level" won't allow you to improve your gameplay and jump to "normal level": they simply allow you to make mistakes you can't afford with the rest of the teams. If you don't know what did you do wrong because you weren't "punished", you'll never improve.

Good hunting, have fun!

PS: if you need any clarification about the guide, feel free to mail me.

Freeman said:

It is great to have comments from the creator of the most comprehensive guide currently available for this game

The calculation is indeed wrong, should be (without tokens): Leon firing full auto: chance of killing at least 1 GS 87.5% (around 8/9), of killing 3 just 12.5% (around 1/9), of killing at least 2 GS must be something around 33%. But someone good at probability calculus will know better Anyway the point is, Leon is not very good in killing lots of GS, but it is great to cover other marine´s backs and ensure than any missing GS is (probably) going to be destroyed by him.

One thing I specially liked about Freeman´s guide is how to plannify the formation facings. Before reading the guide my marines were moving and re-facing as "response" to the traveling and spawning - totally reactive. After reading the guide, I plan the facing in advance including potential swarms movements, potential event cards, and potential new locations, and the marines take good care of others´s backs as often as possible -much more proactive.

I am very curious about the Deathwing Teams being broken, as most people think they are underpowered compared to original marines. More details please?

I agree with the Brown Team being a bit OP: they have a brutal "AoE-ignore facing" attack, a support that gives you two tokens for the price of one, and a double movement. They are as good as the Flamer ones…

Thanks again for a great guide Freeman!

Freeman said:

Hello Freeman! Thanks for writing this guide. I was surprised to see that you were on these boards and that you responded so quickly. I was able to read it to and from work and I am impressed by the depth of knowledge that you have of the game. I am sure to put together a yellow, black, violet team quickly to implement your strategies. Honestly, your English is great in writing this.

I would like you to come up with another guide addressing the 4 POD expansions. I know that is alot of work, but I would like to hear your input about the effect that the expansions have on the game, and how the new Space marine teams rank and should be used. Also, I am curious to hear your opinion of the Tyrannid pack missions.

aurax said:

The calculation is indeed wrong, should be (without tokens): Leon firing full auto: chance of killing at least 1 GS 87.5% (around 8/9), of killing 3 just 12.5% (around 1/9), of killing at least 2 GS must be something around 33%. But someone good at probability calculus will know better

You can do this with calculus, but you can also just enumerate the possibilities. There are 8 possible outcomes of equal probability, 1 where you kill zero, 3 where you kill exactly one, 3 where you kill exactly two, and 1 where you kill three. When you start factoring in support tokens that's when it gets a bit more complicated.

The probability of 1 or more is 7/8 = 87.5%

Probability of 2 or more is 4/8 = 50%

Probability of 3 is 1/8 = 12.5 %

dypaca said:

Very good explanation! Thanks!

Quoting Freeman, one very interesting fact about terrains is that every bar in the "dangerousness rating" of a terrain card means a 20% cumulative chance of spawning GS during the event phase (so the red terrain is 80% per turn because it has 4 bars), but the amount of GS is not always the same.

The green terrain (20% of chance per turn of spawning GS) will create a major spawn more frequently than a minor (66% majors, if I remember right) So if after a few turns no GS have been spawned at the green corridor, you should probably prepare for an incoming major spawn.

Another interesting fact: after just 4 attacks using the heroic charge, the expected outcome is have lost Brother Claudio (52% chance of being dead after 4 attacks if calculated it right) As Freeman mentions in the guide, normally is better not to use the heroic charge till the locations 3 or 4, and use the awesome movement and support actions instead - the yellow movement card with only one team member loses a lot.

For the red grail!!

aurax said:

First of all, thank you very much for your praise, you made me blush

Most people think Deathwing teams are underpowered? I wasn't aware of that, I didn't surf often the forums after the PoD releases. Anyway, if that's the case I can see why: out of the 6 teams, I think 3 of them are totally broken, 2 are more or less on average and 1 sucks. I seldom play solo, and when I do, most of the times I pick 4 teams instead of the 3 recommended. If you happen to play with Sergeant Zaltys, Sergeant Arbalan and brother Hephaestus, you may be in serious trouble (although I wouldn't say it would be harder than playing with the original green, yellow, and green (or the expansion pack 1 chaplain). I feel I must warn you: I haven't played with the Deathwing as much as with the original marines, but I wouldn't pay attention to what most people say about this game (some examples: the game is impossible to beat, the green team sucks, use the purple M+A as much as you can, etc.).

I am looking forward to have time and write a guide for all the PoD expansions, but I have a lot of work lately. I hope this summer I'll be able to steal a couple of hours and have at least the Space Marine pack 1 and the Tyranid deck guide. But if you can't wait, here you have some thoughts:

Deathwing ranking: (Sorry if I don't list the teams by coulours, but I'm colour blinded)

1. Librarian team. The vanilla guy wields an assault cannon. Not enough? Ok, the librarian attack is simply DEVASTATING. If you have at least one support token on the Librarian, I see few reasons not to use the Hellfire instead of the standard attack. Better than the Flamer (although it has one con: it can't be rerolled), because it reaches everywhere in the formation, and ignores facing!!! Com'on!! Are you serious? It could be a risky move if the librarian were the last marine to attack, but HIS TEAM GOES FIRST when attacking, so even if you roll a 0 or a 1, you may select which genestealer (if any) you want you slain (the one flanking, the one on the biggest swarm, etc.) and leave the less dangerous for the rest. When playing against the tyranids, the librarian is a pain in the ass for the Lictors. Ok, let's see now the move order: Mind worm: choose a swarm, distance 1 (this time considering facing, they didn't go that wild), and give any marine attacking this swarm a free reroll. So… a move order that boosts the attack power for the rest of the attacking teams??? I can't think of a better move order when compared to the original teams (with the possible exception of purple's scout forward). But here in the Deathwing, sure there are: Trail of Destruction is just absurd. Ok, read carefully now: one reroll per attack (not per team ). Now think what happens if you place Sergeant Arbalan next to the Librarian and you manage to put 2 or 3 support tokens on the Sgt: combining "librarian move + arbalan attack" you get one free reroll for every attack and a extra attack with a free reroll for each support token. First combo found (but not the best one, as we'll see). Onto the Support order: Force Barrier: spend a support token BEFORE the genestealer attack to make them automatically miss. Ok, sound like a balanced defensive ability (after all, you have to spend a support token, when Gideon doesn't have to, and it doesn't affect both marines, like the Defensive Stance from the yellow team). IT IS NOT. First, Defensive Stance doesn't work from behind while Librarian Menelaus may activate the Force Barrier EVEN AGAINST FLANKING GENESTEALERS (and I would say specially against them, which are the biggest threat in this game and thus nullified twice by the Librarian team: with the attack order and with the support order). Menelaus may activate this ability twice. It doesn't benefit the vanilla one, ok (remember, that "standard guy carrying an assault cannon", range 3, I think Boreas was his name (as if the team was below the average and needed a boost)), but the problem is not the ability is more or less balanced when compared to the Defensive Stance (yellow team) or the Block (green team), the problem is YOU CANNOT GIVE THE SAME TEAM ÜBER OFFENSIVE AND ÜBER DEFENSIVE ORDERS. The original teams are balanced because some of the excell in defence but are nerfed on offence (Gideon has range 0, Claudio has range 0 too and may die when using the heroic charge, Lorenzo's attack has nothing special except for the support token, but in terms of casualties his team is mediocre). Other teams excell in offence but don't have particulary good defensive abilities (purple, gray, red). This Menelaus team is both A KILLING MACHINE AND A WALL, AT THE SAME TIME. TWO (!) of its abilities ignore facing. And wait, his move order looks like a support order… Let's not talk again about the "vanilla guy". Do you want me to put it in "two words"? BRO-KEN.

If you play any game with this team and you add to the lot the oragen team (missile launcher from the PoD marine pack 1), you simply cannot lose unless you suffer from heavy brain damage.

2. Apothecary team. Ok, let's begin with the worst order out of the 3: the attack. In this team you can't know which marine is the star and which the vanilla (one thing that a lot of people critized on the original team (the vanilla marine), but hey! they seem to have adress this complaint by making both marines "the star" of the team). So, Brother Exanimare gets a free support before attacking. And every support on him gives him +1 range. Alright, at first I thought that could lead to interesting tactical choices when attacking, but the clarify: you are not required to check again range when you spend a support token rerolling. So, as a matter of fact, every turn brother Exanimare has (at least, in the worst case) the range of an assault cannon (and it is the second one in the formation, remember our friend Boreas?). But wait, put 4 tokens on him and place him in the middle on a game with 12 marines AND HE CAN GUARD THE ENTIRE FORMATION (but, mind you, you already had that possibility with the Librarian, and for free…). Althought not as powerful as Leon (because Exanimare only has 1 attack), a marine that has this ability is amazing. How about using Exanimare for covering every back on the formation? Forget about unexpected Lictors… Common sense told them to give this marine a base range of 1 (or even 0), but they didn't listen. This team may only take out as much as 2 genestealers per turn (same as the original blue and the Chaplain Raziel), but wait!, (Bugs Bunny voice) that's not all folks! they can kill genestealers WHEN MOVING. As I said, the attack is their worst (not "bad") order. Alright, "Trail of Destruction": after moving, roll a dice: skulls, you slain up to 4 (yes, FOUR) genestealers. What? I hear you saying: yes, but if you roll a 0, the marine on the original position dies. Yes, you are right… Let's compare with the Heroic Charge from Claudio (yellow team). First advantage, ToD is a MOVE ACTION, not an attack action. While the yellow team may only kill every other turn, the Apothecary team may kill every turn (attacking AND moving). Second, Claudio may slay from different swarms: ok, I'll give you that, but… Claudio kills 3 (already a lot), with the ToD you may kill FOUR. Think about any particular spot to place the Apotecary team? Yes, you guessed right: in front of the most dangerous terrains, where a lot of genestealers are likely to be spawned. Third: the Heroic Charge may be used just by Claudio. ToD may be used either with Exanimare OR with the Apothecary Nestor, as you see fit. A lot more of tactical choices (can you imagine Goriel using the Heroic Charge if you wish so? BRUTAL…). Fourth: if you fail with Claudio, say bye bye to him (and his charge). If you fail with the ToD, say bye bye to whoever nameless vanilla marine you were wise to place there (although there are not as many vanilla as before, as we saw…), and you may use it again and again. Fine, to say the truth, Claudio's HC works always, when ToD only has a 50% of success. But I think it is more than worth. Again: 50% of success… Remember which were the odds when using a standard attack? Right: 50%. ToD cannot be rerolled, but again: it is a move order, don't forget that (it's not like it were a "push your luck", what will I do, a standard attack that may be rerolled or this special ability…? No, simply you have no alternative choice, so the move is obvious: either you need it and you make it or you don't need it and you won't). Which marines should be next to the Apothecary team? Brother Jericho (if you thought Gideon was crap, wait to see this one in action), brother Gabriel, and possibly brother Hephaestus. They are the most expendable ones, the rest of the "vanilla marines" have interesting abilities.

Ok, let's check the support order: Narthecium. This one is another clearly broken order. The Apothecary may spend a support token in order to roll the die and he has a 50% chance of bringing back to life a space marine that's being slained. The most obvious choice is to activate for free the Librarian attack (if he rolls a 0, just resort to the Narthecium and save the token on the Librarian, if you have bad luck with the Narthecium (and you may spend as many support tokens as you wish until you roll a skull), then spend the support from the Librarian (although the wording on the Librarian attack makes me wonder if this a legal move). So, you have an optimal position for the formation: Librarian + Apothecary + Jericho. But appart from this obivous use, you may consider the Apothecary as the new (and better) Gideon: is a swarm of 10 genestealers attacking? Nevermind, if you manage to place the Apothecary and the swarm in the right position (and this is not as hard as it seems: First Legion and Baiting a Stealer could do wonderful on the task, even if you didn't plan correctly), and it doesn't matter if you are facing an impossible defensive roll with a regular marine. The poor guy dies against the gargantuan swarm, and you just apply the Narthecium et voilà! Ready to rock and roll again! Yes, you'll remark that I am assuming the Narthecium always works. Why I make such a risky assumption? Because if you don't support massively the Apothecary you are not playing correctly. And because there are abilities from the Chaplain team that allow you to place a lot of extra support tokens on him (in case you don't have a clue at all on how supporting properly the formation). Ow, and remember the very exciting and dangerous Event Cards, such as Psychic Assault? Well, forget about them, they don't matter anymore. You may always make the choice picking one guy next to the Apothecary and save his life with the Narthecium (yes, didn't you know? It's marvelous, it works always, not only attacking nor defending!). That simple.

All in all, the team is broken once again: not only it provides excellent covering fire support, but also works better than Gideon on defence and has a devastating move order. You have to pay attention and place them very carefully, but that's all you have to do: they can almost play on their own.

3. Speaking of the devil… The Chaplain Uriel team. I will go straight to the point: Broken, too. The only con they have is the limited range of the Chaplain. If you take a look at its attack (both marines may use it at the same time), if you have a swarm of 2 at range 1 and no support tokens at all, you risk nothing when you resort to the Deathwing Assault ability: your chances of hitting are exactly the same (50%), and you gain the additional benefit of slaining 2 genestealers instead of 1. Again: both marines on the same team with an very powerful attack. And last but least, THIS ABILITY IGNORES FACING (third one on the list, as if two weren't enough. Seriously, if flanking is one of the biggest problems in the game, why people think the Deathwing is nerfed??? They nullify every flanking with different abilities from almost every team, facing is now less an urgent issue to deal with…). This team, nevertheless, offers very interesting tactical choices, not always obvious ones. Will you push your luck targeting bigger swarms, or will you go for the smaller? Will you assure one kill with the support tokens for the standard attack or will you take the risk of having a better chance but no reroll if you miss? Anyway, this choices would have been a lot more exciting if the Chaplain team were the first or the second one to attack. Sadly, it is the last but one, so choices are reduced to "what the other teams left for you". Biiiig mistake in order to give the game more tactical depth . You don't open paths for different strategies with this team, but merely make a "nearly final choice" (then goes Exanimare and the Apothecary, and over with the attacks). Tips: this team is again excellent when it comes to covering others backs. My advice is to place Uriel and Charon surrounding one the most valuable marines (Librarian Menelaus, Exanimare, Raphean, Boreas, the Apothecary if the situacion calls for it), or next each other: this way you have twice the opportunity of getting ride of dangereous genestealers flanking this brothers or even the Chaplain team (it's not like a reroll, but not bad at all). In other words, "Uriel + Raphean/Boreas/Menelaus… + Charon" is a great combo, and "Valuable marine + Uriel + Charon + Valuable marine" is a good one too. Again, remember that they may ignore facing with their attack, so that gives you a very powerful tactical flexibility. As always, I don't recommend to push your luck and attempt impossible rolls (kind of "roll a 5 and save the day"), but to use them to guard every marine around them, as if they had a "killing aura". Remember the lesson about "rolling the hard 6 err… "four" with the green team. That's the same: if you don't have rerolls and play against the odds, don't blame the dice, don't blame the game, blame yourself for bad tactics.

Stubborn Devotion: at last, one ability that seems on average and not totally broken. It is interesting for "redeploying" support tokens: this should be used without doubt to charge the Apothecary (if he is playing), or to charge the "Joker" (aka Sergeant Zaltys) when he is supporting. Any combination is good as long as it's called. Probably the Librarian will need support tokens, surely Exanimare has some extra tokens he doesn't need, etc. It is a helpful ability when you are planning defensively and need massive support tokens on specific marines (or on the Apothecary). On the offensive side, you may guarantee as many kills as your support tokens if you choose brother Raphean and his attack Secrets of the Brethen (spectacular combo against particularly nasty genestealers if you play against the tyranids or the Broodlords). In sum, good ability, but not great (because you have an incredibly combo with the next order, as we'll see right now). This order is on average, like most M+A orders from the original teams.

Support order: Interrogation: if the Chaplain spends 1 support token (for any reason), it goes to another marine (the one you wish) for free. Alright; if you didn't play with the Apothecary, don't worry: do you have the Chaplain and Sergeant Zaltys? Yes? Well, your troubles are over. Against any swarm containing 4 or less genestealers, you have an auto-win defence roll: place the Chaplain on the hot spot, make him support and choose support too with Zaltys. Guess what? Every time the Chaplain uses a support token to reroll the defence, it goes to Zaltys. Now Angel's Watch is put to work and look! you may use this support token on Zaltys as if Chaplain uriel were using it! So, in case you fail again, the token goes back to Zaltys and so on. Repeat until you roll the 5 you need (or the 4, etc.). If that's not broken, I don't know what it is…

4. The Technomarine team: this team is on average (I would say as good as the original blue, gray or yellow team, although completely different). The attack ability, if it were on any original team would be balanced, but playing with the Deathwing teams, and being able to reallocate support tokens (as we just saw), it becomes unstoppable. Place properly brother Raphean, make him have in range the hot spots, because at any time you may convert all the support tokens you have into dead genestealers at range 2. If you don't play with the Chaplain team this ability loses a lot of punch but it is still good. I recommend saving this procedure for the final locations, where the formation is swarming with genestealers and you need a break. Using it in order to take out a single genestealer for sure is, generally, not a big deal unless it's imperative to slain the genestealer because the cost of leaving it alive would be huge (flanking, etc).

I won't describe in much detail the Gun Servitor nor the Servo Arm: the Gun Servitor may come in hand a lot of times, but it depends too much on luck for what it gives: a single roll for killing a single stealer, and it requires having a support token (not spending it). Once again , it ignores facing so again great for trying to get ride of one pesky genestealer (as if you had no other means to make it). The Servo Arm is clearly better than the M+A order from the original red team (but this means nothing): it's not very much circumstancial because you may activate any terrain, not just a door. Good for strategic planning when deploying your marines: Hephaestus may stay in one spot or in 2 other positions, but it only applies to him (it would be thematically wrong if brother Raphean could use it too, as he has no Servo Arm, but remember Power Field + Calistarius dead?) and the advantage you get it's nothing spectacular at all. In other words, when a mediocre ability could apply to both marines in order to be balanced, it is restricted. When the team possesses an incredible ability, usually both marines may use it, making it unbalanced. This is a serious problem with the Deathwing marines: either they are übermensch, way better than the Blood Angels from the base game, or they are absolutely crap, really a lot worse than the original (wait to see Zaltys' team).

5. Arbalan team is a bit worse than the Technomarine's. People who found the range 0 from Gideon an insurmountable obstacle, will find Arbalan useless too. But this leads to serious trouble, because unlike the original green team, Arbalan is not vowed to the defence: on the contrary, his specific ability his offensive. And Arbalan lacks any "Run and Gun" in order to make up for his short range. That means that by now you must have learned the lesson about how genestealers move, in which direction, on which probability they are going to move, where they are going to appear, etc. Arbalan must be wherever he can attack, save me the excuses and tears, this is the Deathwing, not the Blood Angels. Also, see above the "Librarian Move combo" in order to get the most out this attack.

Fury of the Lion is a bit mediocre when compared to the old psyonic attack from the original Librarian (you got an extra attack every time you hit), since this ability forces you to spend a support token in order to get the extra attack. Again, not balanced : if you are designing such an ability, at least the marine should have range 1 or 2. If not, you are just making him look like a ***** when compared to Calistarius: less range and less effective.

Baiting a stealer is not the more useful of the M+A orders: it may serve his uses (get dangerous swarms into range of Raphean, Uriel or Charon, for instance. Undo flankings… If you want to try and combine this team with some of the originals, it could work great with the Power Field or the Counter Attack in more or less the same way the Purple Strategize worked, but much more limited. In other words, they couldn't come up with a balanced ability and they copy-nerfed the Strategize. This should be a support order in order to attract a genestealer and have a support token to defend. As you move, it lacks power and verstatilty.

Beachhead: (support) alright, this is the reason why this team is not rubbish and why it should be supporting every other turn. Its attack is nothing remarkable, its move order is clearly below the average, but its support shines if you know how to use it. First: place your marines properly (as I said in my previous guide): At least one of them should be in front of the orange (or the yellow or green, or even the red) terrain. "Fantastic tip, very clarifying!", I hear you say. Ok, I meant you must know where they should be at any moment, wether it is the red or the green terrain, any of them, it doesn't matter. Why is it? Simple: because it depends on the situation and because once you may avoid the genestealer spawning, YOU CAN PRETTY MUCH CONTROL WHEN AND WHICH BLIP PILES ARE DEPLETED, MAKING TRAVELING EASIER (that usually means with fewer genestealers on the formation). Having in mind how much blips are on each pile and the probabilities of getting a spawn on the red, orange, etc. terrains leads you to travel having depleted one blip pile and having the other one pretty much intact: you are saving yourself a lot of trouble in the form of genestealers in one side of the formation. Try, as a rule of thumb , to block the terrains on the opposite side from the red terrain (the red terrain is going to be activated a lot, so no sense in trying to block it just every other turn, but if you manage to block once or twice a major spawn from the orange or yellow terrain (or maybe the green one), you did well). But wait, there is more! Remember that Event Card, Out of Thin Air (forces you to choose one marine and spawn 2 genestealers behind him)? Well, choose the marine from the Arbalan team that spent the Support token and no spawn is made at all (yes, you have to draw the card the same turn this team is supporting, but don't worry: there are 2 copies on the deck, just in case the first one missed XD). If you play with the Orange team (missile launcher, Marine Pack 1), they team-work great in order to move, load a door, move again and place one of them in front of the door, making loading doors a safe task at risk zero. Anyway, if you place both marines in front of terrains, you have twice the options when deciding which terrain you want to block. Not having at least one of them in front of a terrain is clearly giving the game away ruining your victory chances and not having a clue.

6. Zaltys' team. Fine, no excuses here: this team is a total wreck. I said it as soon as I watched it on BGG. Its attack seems at first a good idea, since it would allow you to attack twice in a row, but hey, in the end you just made a standard attack with just one marine in order to get 2 more attacks the next round (if you don't want to restrain yourself anymore). All in all, you get 1.5 standard attacks per turn (1 standard attack the first turn, 2 standard attacks the next one). The original red team makes 4 standard attacks every other turn, so on average gets more standard attacks per turn (2). Although keeping the card back into your hand gives you more tactical flexibility, one attack more or less may give you the edge or be a waste: impossible to know when the Chaplain goes next and finally the Apothecary.
- Well, what are you talking about? That's want you wanted when you spoke about the Chaplain attack (attacking earlier in order to take bets), so fine, isn't it?
- Not the same case at all, my friends: the decissions on the Deathwing attack concern bets that can be fixed (or exploited) by the rest of the teams, and could lead to different scenarios depending on a lot of factors: range to the swarms, number of genestealers in the swarms, genestealers flanking… That's why I wanted to attack first with the Chaplain, to keep open options and not automatically make an evident choice. Alright: this is not the case when you have to decide if you make two attacks or just one with Zaltys' team. First of all, because the Chaplain team doesn't get the same kind of reward for taking a risk: here the only thing you get is having back a crappy order. The reward is so insignificant that you should know for sure if you should keep the card or go for the "all in" because you are going to need the two attacks. Nevermind, a lot of times you don't have to make a choice at all because Brother Jericho is the only retarded who thought that an Assault Terminator Armor was worth it against the stealers instead of a Storm Bolter and a Power Fist (Yes, Gideon thought the same, but hey, he could pull off some nice tricks, such as blocking with the shield, running and gunning, and he had a lethal aim. Which ace up the sleeve has got Jericho? Well, I'll tell you: NOTHING AT ALL. The words "Cannon Fodder" were specifically invented for him. The shame of the Space Marines and we could go on all the evening whining about him, and this time totally called). Plus, thematically, with the name "Swift Sword", the special ability of the order should apply only when you attack when the Sergeant Zaltys (who is the one wielding the sword) and not with Jericho, but anyway… This order is great when the Event "Jammed Gun" appears and you have the three orders in your hand. Quite all about it.

First Legion (Move order): before moving, move 1 other space marine 1 position (but no facing change). We have already more or less spoken about its uses: place Arbalan Team or the Apothecary in the right place (and yes, poor Jericho), it helps redeploying on the first turns, etc. Nothing to write home about, again. This team blushes out of shame when they see the Orange team moving or the Yellow team redeploying. VERY much preferable over this is the Chaplain Raziel (Marine Pack 1) Lithany of Hate, that allows you to change the facing of two marines (well, in fact this one is broken, which was my main complaint about Deathwing, so just forget what I said). Not very much circumstancial (you usually want to move one marine to another position), but I've seen better and more balanced.

Angel Watch: the only ability this team can display without shame. Leads to broken strategies when combined with the Chaplain Uriel, as we have commented. Use it as much as you can in order to get some out of this team.

And that's it, guys. I could go on greater tactical depth forever talking about specfiic scenarios, but I really don't have more time, so I hope this may help a bit.

In general, I think Deathwing is broken, specially if you play against standard genestealers or even against the Adrenal Genestealers from Mission Pack 1, because, as we have seen, flanking is now less a concern: a lot of their abilities nullify the flankings. They are not balanced at all, as the original teams were, positioning and covering each other is really easy, they don't offer a lot of interesting tactical choices and when they do, it's usually "push your luck or not". On the other side, the Deathwing lacks the mobility of the yellow team and orange teams and a bad initial deploy could prove it a challenge. They don't have neither any control over the Event Deck, but I think their combos, firepower and range attacks more than make it up. If you play the way I suggest on my guide about Death Angel, you should have no problem at all to beat it. If you play your own way, and you draw the worst teams… you're in trouble, yes.

And I almost forgot: thematically almost no image displayed on the orders corresponds to the right marines (probably they messed up the images, I doudt they didn't care about this on FFG). This is a serious flaw in a game that relies a lot on theme.

PS: sometimes I tried to be sarcastic or hyperbolic, I hope you've had fun reading this and that nobody took offence. Cheers!

peterstepon said:

My pleasure on writing the guide. To say the truth, a friend from BGG told me you were talking about the guide, so I came here to see if the insults were everywhere ;-) Thank you for excusing my English, I did my best but it was a hard time because the guide is not about the usual vocabulary you deal with when you speak english

Of course I'd like to write a similar guide of all the PoD expansions, but for the moment, I fear you'll have to make do with what I just posted above Maybe this summer we'll see more about this!
The tyranid deck is great to a greater challenge, but not as difficult as some may think. It adds a lot of flavor and it should always be added when playing with the Deathwing, otherwise the game gets too easy (at least for me, but I don't want to sound pretentious).

Thanks for comments, see you!
PS: report if the tips were helpful or not at all, most people don't comment anything except "F**king long guide!"

aurax said:

Precisely!
Green terrain: on 6 Event Cards. 20% chance of spawning, 66% chance of major spawning.

Yellow terrain: on 12 Event Cards. 40% chance of spawining, 50% chance of major spawning.

Orange terrain: on 16 Event Cards. 60% chance of spawning, 61% chance of minor spawning.

Red terrain: on 24 Event Cards, 80% chance of spawning, 54% chance of minor spawning.

I haven't though consider how the terrains combine with each other on the Event Cards every time they are drawn. It could be interesant in order to know exactly where to place Arbalan's team…

Here I have the numbers about terrain combinations:

Red + Orange appears the most: in 12 Event Cards.

Red + Yellow apperars in 9 Event Cards.

"Red + Green", "Orange + Green" and "Orange + Yellow" appear 3 times each one.

Yellow + Green is a combination that never appears.

So we can conclude that putting Arbalan and Gabriel in front of the green and yellow terrain is a bad move, as it minimizes your options if you wish to decide which spawn you want to block.

Anyway, you'll place them more than not in front of the terrains on the opposite side of the red terrain, that's usually your best move.

Just a reply to get the "new" tag off this thread. Don't edit your posts after a new reply has been posted people.

Oh, and random teams FTW.