Ezekiel and Deathwing
8 December 2011 | 5th Edition
Whatever you might think of Dark Angel Librarians' lackluster powers, their unlimited range psychic hood offers a real advantage over the current crop of Space Marine armies (even the mighty psyker Grey Knights only have a 24" range hood) and are undoubtedly useful against an ever widening band of 40K armies out there many of which now wield impressive arrays of psychic ability.
The trend of developing psychic function seems symptomatic of recent codex releases. There an upsurge of psychic activity: Grey Knights (each unit has them) are riding high at present; Tyranids' Zoanthropes; Blood Angels' Mephiston, Dreadnought and jump pack Librarians; Space Wolves' Rune Priests; Eldar, specifically Eldrad; Chaos Marine armies with a Prince or two.
In order to meet that challenge are the Space Marine Librarians. And the Dark Angels' only and best Ld10 Librarian is Ezekiel. Now, as a Deathwing fit he isn't great. He doesn't have Terminator armour meaning he can't Deathwing Assault so he'll need to footslog or be transported. Arguably his best psychic power Mind Worm is treated as being a heavy weapon so he doesn't have the same fire-and-move flexibility of his Terminator brethren. And force weapons (even master-crafted) although still useful are now generally less effective due to so much Eternal Warrior stuff floating around.
But, we are looking at him purely for his psychic defensive abilities and as such he ticks all the boxes. Plus, he's an awesome model and together with Asmodai rank as my favourite DA named character models.
Yes a standard Terminator Librarian might well have been a neater fit due to his armour and costing less, but being Ld9 you stop only around 28% of psychic power attempts, while facing up to many more Ld10 psykers.
The four lists below might seem overkill but all are different in character as much as these kinds of lists can be — but in each Ezekiel is used pretty much in the same way. Defensively. In all cases he's deployed on the table attached to a rearward squad from the off to make use of and offer protection with his hood from the get go. Plus he can confer a good invulnerable save as Ezekiel's Ld10 Force Barrier is statistically slightly better than a 2++ save (provided you aren't affected by any Ld modifiers) to take the heat off some squad members. In effect he isn't really required do that much offensively.
Feel free to use him more aggressively of course, just as long as you don't get him killed off too soon as that equals points wasted on his psychic hood, the only reason he's here anyway.
Interesting psychic hood stats
- There is a 43% chance to block a psychic attack from an equal leadership psyker.
- There is a 28% chance for a Ld9 psyker to block an psychic attack from a Ld10 psyker.
Squad composition
please change to suit your own experience. I go for different types of model to help with wound allocation, and stubbornly hang on to the chainsfist to stop being tar pitted v Dreadnoughts and similar. I also like a mix of weapons in each squad to be able to handle most situations.
List 1: 2500 points
Ezekiel, mechanised Deathwing with Typhoon support
| Unit | Points |
|---|---|
| Belial th/ss |
130 |
| Ezekiel |
170 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 1 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x th/ss [apoth], 1 x th/ss [banner], 1 x th/ss, 1 x sb/cf |
295 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 2 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 3 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 4 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 5 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Land Speeder Typhoon missile launchers/multi-melta |
75 |
| Land Speeder Typhoon missile launchers/multi-melta |
75 |
| Land Raider |
250 |
| Land Raider |
250 |
| Land Raider Crusader |
250 |
| 2455 |
Belial attaches to the Squad 1 to deploy in the Crusader while squads 2 and 3 go into the Land Raiders. Having said that all can either footslog or DWA as circumstances dictate (three squads meaning two arrive on my turn 1), flexibility is all.
But key to this all, Ezekiel attaches one of the squads 4 or 5 to sit on a home objective or initially squat around your deployment zone.
The Typhoons are creatures of opportunity so early in the game they try to remain largely out of LOS but use their TMLs against transports. If they get the chance later as things progress then they can engage with their meltas to pop tanks. But don't be too precious with these — they are the cheapest units in your army after all.
Primary anti-heavy armour hitters are the Land Raiders. The combination of two with a single Crusader suits the way I go about my Deathwing business and combined with the newer Typhoon interlopers give me good capability and flexibility.
List 2: 2500 points
Ezekiel, Deathwing and Ravenwing bikes with Vindicator support.
| Unit | Points |
|---|---|
| Belial th/ss |
130 |
| Ezekiel |
170 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 1 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x th/ss [apoth], 1 x th/ss [banner], 1 x th/ss, 1 x sb/cf |
295 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 2 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 3 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 4 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 5 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 6 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Ravenwing Attack Squadron (6 bikes, 1 Attack bike) Power fist and 2 x multi-meltas Attack bike with multi-melta |
315 |
| Vindicator Dozer blade |
130 |
| Vindicator Dozer blade |
130 |
| Vindicator Dozer blade |
130 |
| 2500 |
Footslogging or teleporting onto the bikes. Ravenwing can be unleashed with outflank to take out a vital tank on a flank. Vindies provide close-up fire support for termy units — and three are hard to ignore.
Ezekiel can be set back with a rear squad well out of harms way.
List 3: 2500 points
Ezekiel and Deathwing with Typhoon and Devastator support.
| Unit | Points |
|---|---|
| Belial th/ss |
130 |
| Ezekiel |
170 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 1 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x th/ss [apoth], 1 x th/ss [banner], 1 x th/ss, 1 x sb/cf |
295 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 2 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 3 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 4 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 5 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 6 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x sb/pf, 1 x sb/cf, 1 x th/ss |
240 |
| Land Speeder Typhoon missile launchers/multi-melta |
75 |
| Land Speeder Typhoon missile launchers/multi-melta |
75 |
| Land Speeder Typhoon missile launchers/multi-melta |
75 |
| Devastator squad (10) 2 x missile launchers, 2 x lascannons |
275 |
| Devastator squad (10) 2 x missile launchers, 2 x lascannons |
275 |
| 2490 |
Devastators provide much of the high strength firepower. Both squads could be combat squadded into 2 each of the same weapon. What I've always like about the set up is the reach of the weapons, 48" minimum on cyclones, missile launchers and lascannons. Covers a lot of ground.
List 4: 1500 points
Ezekiel and Deathwing with Ravenwing support.
| Unit | Points |
|---|---|
| Belial th/ss |
130 |
| Ezekiel |
170 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 1 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x th/ss [apoth], 2 x th/ss, 1 x sb/cf |
270 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 2 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x th/ss, 2 x sb/pf |
235 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 3 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x th/ss, 2 x sb/pf |
235 |
| Deathwing Terminator Squad 4 1 x pw/sb, 1 x cyclone/th/ss, 1 x th/ss, 2 x sb/pf |
235 |
| Land Speeder Typhoon missile launchers/multi-melta |
75 |
| Land Speeder Typhoon missile launchers/multi-melta |
75 |
| Land Speeder Typhoon missile launchers/multi-melta |
75 |
| 1500 |
In order to squeeze Ezekiel in sacrifices need to be made to keep a half decent force. The Company banner has gone — ok no big deal. But most of the chainfists have had to be stripped out too which is a shame on many levels, not least wound allocation.
I'm being lazy, maybe it could have included a Dreadnought for less points instead of two Typhoons to keep the chainfists in place. But I'm making a point: at this game level 2 HQs are pushing the limit to be honest — especially if one is 170 points.
Conclusion
Ezekiel is great if you know you're up against Ld10 psykers and you need to be on an even playing field. He is expensive and one of his powers (if used) really slows him up. His Artificer armour, mc'd force weapon and bolter are great tools and are force multiplyers in a DW army. Force Barrier is effectively an Inv save for either himself or a squad member he's attached too.
It all boils down to this: is he worth the additional 25 points over a standard termy Librarian and to fit him in at all are you effectively nerfing your army by removing vital units or wargear? In an army of 1750+ I'd say yes, if you're going for anti-psyker defence then use him. In an army up to 1749 points — no. Stick with the standard termy libby and trust to your dice.
Or prove me wrong.
