The Deathwing Assault army set goes up for preorder today, containing an almost absurd number of terminators. Six of these terminators are brand new, consisting of Belial and a squad of Deathwing Knights, while the other ten terminators are the new-ish multipart plastic kit we’ve previously reviewed, plus an upgrade sprue. Before we get too far into the review, we’d like to thank GW for providing us a free review copy.

Belial

Belial is the headline character of this box, and is appropriately beefy. He’s on the same 50mm base, but with a somewhat more upright pose is about half a head taller. As he’s going to be surrounded by other terminators, this makes him stand out nicely while not looking out of place. Assembly was generally straightforward, with minimal mold lines or complex joints, but there is a fairly large seam on the left shoulder of his cloak. I hid it fairly easily with plastic glue, but it’s still worth watching out for. There’s also no good way to subassemble him, and with two layers of cloaks it’ll be hard to get paint on the inner robe on his back side.

If you’re not playing Dark Angels, he still works well as a generic terminator captain with storm bolter and sword, you’ll just want to find a replacement for the right shoulder pad with the DA chapter insignia. The rest isn’t too bad, particularly given that swords are a motif common across space marines.

Deathwing Knights

These are an all-new multipart terminator kit, with options to build either maces or swords. I think the swords look cooler, but I’m pretty sure the maces are the better game option, especially as that leaves them open to easy use as assault terminators for anyone playing a cooler chapter. The big mace that the sergeant carries is the only real letdown with a somewhat lame pose, though as the weapon choices are “Great weapon of the Unforgiven” or “Relic weapon” you can just give him the sword and call it either.

The arms are cross-compatible with other terminators, so you could put these on other terminator bodies – or more interestingly could use these bodies as a set of sergeants in other squads, as their storm bolters and power fists will fit on nicely. You can also swap the shields with bladeguard vets. Bladeguard shields fit nicely onto the terminator arms, and the terminator shields fit on bladeguard arms with just a little bit of trimming.

There’s also a good variety of heads in here – 6 helmets, 6 hoods, and 3 bare heads.

Dark Angel Upgrades

The third part of this box is a new Dark Angel upgrade sprue, with parts for upgrading intercessors, terminators, and fancying up bikes or vehicles. Most relevant to this box are the parts to upgrade terminators, which are a fancy new power sword and chestplate for the sergeant, a plasma cannon, and a few shoulder pads and other baubles. There are enough pads to equip an entire 5 man squad, which is great.

There’s one big problem though, which is that GW likes the power sword enough to require you to use it on the sergeant, as Deathwing Terminator Squad sergeants do not have the power/chainfist option of regular terminator squads. Unfortunately this is contradicted by the instructions in the box, so it’s fairly likely that people will misbuild their sergeants if they don’t read the codex first and decide to give them power fists.

There are also 6 intercessor/tacticus armor shoulder pads, 5 phobos pads, 3 bladeguard veteran/aggressor pads (with the fancy little rim), and 5 heavy intercessor pads. One of these sprues will go a long way towards covering your shoulder pad needs, and there’s a good mixture of heads in here, particularly with hoods.