Death Angel Combat Teams

I’ve played a lot of solitaire games of Death Angel lately. It’s sad. Still, I’m enjoying it for the most part. I’ve found a few general strategies to be helpful.

General strategies:

1) Don’t let the game lull you. And don’t think you can take it easy on turn one if only a few Genestealers spawn. Losing a marine early is often what makes a game unwinnable.

2) Use your support judiciously. For instance, in a single-player game, often a marine will be engaged with just a single Genestealer. That Genestealer can be killed by the marine on a 1-3 of the die, a 50% chance. But more importantly, the Genestealer only kills the marine on a 0 or 1, so rerolling the second roll is more likely to yield promising results. Of course, the former does remove a bug from the formation. . .

3) Think several turns ahead. Know that a bigger stack of bugs will likely move during the Event phase of the game, and plan accordingly. Move a heavy gunner into position to fight the menace next turn and have the marine engaging the swarm take a defensive action.

4) Fear the Genestealer Lair. One of the final locations is the Genestealer Lair. When this card is turned up, all the Genestealers on each side of the formation combine into two huge stacks, and a Brood Lord is placed on each one. Make sure you’re ready for that possibility. If you find yourself facing down the two Brood Lords with all your guns facing the wrong directions you’re going to lose a lot of marines.

Team-specific ratings and tactics

Lorenzo/Deino (blue team): Lorenzo’s combat team is really strong, but not always in an offensive sort of way. Their support action might be their strongest suit: Whenever Lorenzo is defending and rolls a skull on the die (50% of the faces have skulls) he kills a Genestealer in the swarm attacking him and it attacks again. With enough rerolls, Lorenzo can do some serious damage or at least hold off a lot of Genestealers for a turn. Their move ability is strong, as after the move they can reshuffle some Genestealers into the blip stacks, depending on a die roll. Their attack might be the weakest part of their overall setup, as they can really only kill one Genestealer (per marine) per turn. If they do kill one on the attack they get to add a support token to a marine, so that’s decent.

Attack: 1.5

Defense: 3.0

Awesome combo-ability: Lorenzo’s power sword attack combos well with moving Genestealers to engage him. The move ability combines well with the Door terrain card. 3.0

I often keep Lorenzo and Deino near the swarms so that in an emergency I can use the move action to push bugs back into the blip stacks and buy me time to regroup. Using Lorenzo's support action to fight bugs is often more effective than simply shooting them.

Zael/Onmio (pink team): Zael’s combat team is one of the best overall, in my opinion. While Zael’s range isn’t as great as a standard marine’s, he can kill a lot of Genestealers with his Flamer Attack. That attack kills a number of Genestealers equal to the die roll (0-5 on a six-sided die). With a few rerolls/support tokens, Zael is one of the biggest bug-killers out there. Oh, and Onmio gets an attack while all this is going on as well. Kickass. Their move action allows them to “scout ahead” and see the next event card (Or “Genestealer spawning and random happening” card). If they don’t like what they see they can put it on the bottom of the event deck. That’s pretty awesome. Their support card is combo-rific, as they can move a swarm of Genestealers up or down a space, or even move them from their current location across the formation. That helps out a lot. Too bad Zael can’t Flamer attack in the same turn.

Attack: One of the best. 4.0

Defense: The scouting ability might be considered defensive, and the support ability is pretty good. 2.5

Awesome combo-ability: The support ability is huge. 4.0

Zael is the deadliest marine in play. Use him well and keep him safe from Genestealers. The support action combos well with a lot of other teams’ plays.

Leon/Valencio (orange team): Leon is the autocannon marine, and his team’s Full Auto attack action lets him fire three times instead of one. This, combined with his extended range attacks, makes the orange team one of the deadliest out there. Their move action is strong if they’re near the Door terrain card, as it allows them to put double the support counters on the Door. Putting support counters on the door is a good idea most of the time. However, their support action is lackluster, and this is sad considering it is the iconic Overwatch action.

Attack: 3.5

Defense: 1.5

Awesome combo-ability: Other than Leon’s autocannon, these guys aren’t helping the team out that much. 1.5

Leon is probably the second-deadliest marine to play. Try to keep him out of harm’s way, and try to keep him or Valencio near a Door terrain card if it’s available. Their support action isn’t so good, but getting support tokens on Leon so that his three attacks per round are more deadly is pretty good strategy. His range is mighty.

Calistarius/Scipio (grey team): Calistarius is the resident psyker for the marines. The grey team is pretty strong overall, because each of their actions does something awesome. The attack allows Calistarius to continue attacking as long as he’s killing bugs. Their move discards a card from a blip stack, essentially “killing” a bug. And their support action puts a swarm off Genestealers in stasis, so that they can neither kill or be killed until the next turn. This is huge, as it allows other teams time to prep for a massive swarm and to ready their flamer/autocannon/sword.

Attack: 3.0

Defense: 4.0

Awesome combo-ability: 3.0

Calistarius and Scipio might be the best team to play, overall. Their move action removes bugs from blip stacks, their support action also freezes a swarm, and if Calistarius can get some support tokens for rerolls, he can kill a fat stack of bugs on his attack turn.

Claudio/Goriel (yellow team): Claudio’s team is a strange one. I’m a bit conflicted about their overall worth. On the one hand, Claudio’s Charge attack allows him to kill three Genestealers without rolling a die, and they can be anywhere within a range of 1 and on any side of him. That’s friggin’ awesome. Their move action allows them to swap places with any marines, which is the best way to reposition guys in the game, and can set up Zael for a flamer attack or Lorenzo for a sword defense. Their support action makes it incredibly difficult to kill the marines on the yellow team, because if they spend a support token for a reroll on defense (during their support turn, natch) they can only be killed on a 0. That’s all amazing.

On the other hand, after Claudio does his cannonball he has to roll the die, and on a 0 he dies as well. That’s a big gamble. I find their support ability decent, but as it doesn’t help when they are flanked it isn’t as awesome as it could be. It also requires a reroll/support token to be useful at all, so it spends some resources in the process.

Attack: 3.0

Defense: 2.5

Awesome combo-ability: 3.5

The yellow team is a gamble, but as long as it pays off they are awesome. Claudio’s facing-defying cannonball charge can be a real marine-saver, and this team moves better than any other. The support action helps keep them both alive, but burning tokens to do so irks me.

Gideon/Noctis (green team): Ah, poor Gideon. I’ve derided the Thunder Hammer Sergeant in other areas of this blog, but as it turns out he’s pretty good in the board game. Not as much here in the card game. In theory the green team is decent. In practice they’re difficult to use. Their support action might be their best. While Gideon is defending on their support turns, he can’t be killed when a skull is rolled. That’s pretty amazing, as a swarm of 15 Genestealers still only has a 50/50 shot at killing this Sergeant on defense, and it works whether he’s being engaged from the front or the flank. However, 50/50 isn’t great, and he’ll need some rerolls to survive against the biggest stacks.

Their move action allows them to burn a support token after moving to make an attack. I’m not a huge fan of actions which require burning support tokens in order to get their special effects. I’m extra-skeptical when they allow me to burn a token for a single attack, and the range on one of the marines is friggin’ zero, so Gideon is rarely in range to be useful unless he’s moving.

Their attack action is interesting. They kill a Genestealer upon rolling a skull, like everyone does, but when attacking with Dead Aim, they also kill 3 Genestealers if they roll a 4 (which normally doesn’t kill any). Both of them receive this benefit. In theory it’s pretty awesome. In practice it’s a lot riding on a 1/6 chance (better with rerolls, I guess). And again Gideon’s range of zero is a huge disadvantage here.

Attack: 1.5

Defense: 3.0

Awesome combo-ability: 2.5

Perhaps I’m just playing Gideon wrong? I’ve been favoring using him on the defense to block massive swarms and buy me time, and maybe I should instead be using his one turn of usefulness (if the bugs move he’s out of range. . .)to gamble on killing three bugs with his hammer. I’m not sure. I’ve played the team both aggressively and defensively and when the gamble pans out they’re awesome. When it doesn’t they’re dead, and when they’re dead they’re endangering my other marines as well. I think this is the weakest combat team.

-Merlin out