Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dark Angels Tactics
Dark Angels Tactics
[edit]
Do you like to shoot enemies dead and keep shooting the ones dumb enough to assault you? You
hate the traitorous heretical scum, like really really hate? Great, you're in the right place HERETIC
BATTLE-BROTHERS LOYALIST BATTLE-BROTHERS! We are to shooting what Blood Angels are
to assaulting and Space Wolves are to bestiality! Because you want to field an entire army of
Terminators (harder to do now) without being teased about being a powergamer or a furry, or entire
army of Bikers (with re-rollable jinks now). The 7th Edition update boosted
both Ravenwing and Deathwing builds with said jinking fuckery, and "Battle Focus" by another name
with lots of deep striking goodness. Oh, and you have the last Jetbike in the Imperium. Did we
mention it comes with a Plasma Cannon? Bitches love Plasma Cannons. How about a flyer that
thinks he's a Vindicator? We got one of those!
In a nutshell:
You want a flyer with a S10 AP2 Vortex-causing cannon on it's nose with a re-rollable jink
save! Now that's sexy!
You want to use awesome models, damn we have the best looking EVERYTHING (bikers,
land speeders, flyers, veterans, color scheme).
You're a Terminator lover. You can go ALMOST all Terminator in a Battle Forged army (you
need at least one Ven Dread in a drop pod, and be using the Deathwing Strike Force
detachment, better yet take lots of bikes and landspeeders with meltas, re-rollable jink saves
and teleport homers).
You like the idea of wearing robes over your power armor.
Speed is your need, and Dark Angels are the best marine army for players who wants to use
bikes in support of your army. You are the only Biker Army which can go toe-to-toe with the
White Scars and have a chance at coming out on top:
1. Ravenwing can still outflank without the need to add a special character,
2. 7th Ed Jink saves now cause the rider to snap-fire, so having whole armies of Skilled Riders
is no longer as epic as it used to be. If you really want cover saves take Dark Shrouds.
3. You re-roll your failed jink saves. This statistically kicks more ass than Skilled Rider
alone, and Black Knights have Skilled Rider too.
4. Ravenwing work better with others by having Teleport Homers and some rules interactions
with Deathwing, while their own formations radically support each other in a manner that any
Tau player would feel familiar with.
5. Black Knights are the best bikers in the game.
6. Sammael beats Khan, whether he's on Corvex or inside Sableclaw.
Codex Marines now cost (more or less) the exact same points as Dark Angels do. So you
have to decide if you want to have better flyers and a bigger choice of combinationsfor your
army or a bunch of terminators, fancy bikes, and bonuses against Chaos Marines.
Newfags: Just picked up Dark Vengeance? Welcome to the next step in GW's long-term
upsell scheme.
You are to codex chaos space marine as Grey Knights are to Daemons, with Hatred (Chaos
Space Marines) conferred onto each of your units with the Deathwing rule and some vehicles.
Heldrake spam? Meet the new Nephilim Jetfighter. Some of your weapons even have special
bonuses against the fallen TRAITOR MARINES
With Allied Detachments, DA would make a nice ally army to anyone that needs a strong
beatstick to defend themselves from CQC, or to help drive around the board/camping behind
cover by sending a lot of dakka to make a tough shooty army.
On the downside:
Your aerial game is subpar (forget transport and dogfights, our flyers are for infantry
slaughter). Way better than what 6th Edition Codex gave you, but it still pales in comparison
to sturdy transport fliers, while Forgeworld does have units that can fix this (Caestus Assault
Ram, Storm Eagle), it may not be everyone's cup of tea.
Let's face it, the heretics have a nice layout on their tactica; no reason we can't use it and say they
got it from us. Other than the fact that they don't exist. So we came up with this layout. With no
inspiration from anywhere else.
Ranged Weapons[edit]
Due to weird wording you can take two ranged weapons if you want, which you really shouldn't,
unless it's two combi-weapons for a non-veteran dakkasarge or maybe twin pistols if you like
the cowboy look.
Bolter - Business as usual, you know what it does. The loss of the Standard of Devastation
is sad and shall be mourned.
Storm Bolter - It's only 5-pts, so why not? Better on an Assault-based character.
Combi-weapon - Tried and true. One-shot melta, plasma, Grav-gun, or flamer is always
handy, if you use them wisely.
Plasma pistol - The most expensive and the least popular choice. The main reason why is
pistol range, which make it useful only to lay some dakka before charge - and on a terminatorarmored model Combi-plasmas do this job better for less points. Still fluffy especially for Dark
Angels and still a decent pick for fluffy games.
Grav-pistol - As expensive as the Plasma pistol, and as unpopular as it is. Still it can help for
dropping a heavily armored foe to I1 before combat. Combo with characters that have unwieldy
weapons (i.e. Powerfist) to strike at the same time.
Melee Weapons[edit]
Remember that your named HQs can't take these, and usually have some sort of special melee
weapon anyway. Also, the new Codex removed the "one weapon with the following", so now you can
Claw/Fist combo for days.
Chainsword - It's a free extra attack. It has nothing else going for it unless you don't have
the points to spare for the options below.
Power Weapon - Come in 4 different flavors: Axe, Maul, Sword, Lance...but only the former
3 actually have official models from GW. The Power Sword is the most reliable, striking at AP3,
base S and base I. The Axe drops you to I1 but you are now S5 and AP2 - good, but only if you
can't get or justify the cost of a Power Fist. The Maul is great against Imperial Guard and Xenos
scum, since the +2S gets you to S6, which is Instant Death for T3 enemy characters. It even has
Concussive, which, along with the +2S, helps against big, tough gribblies. The Lance is only S+1
AP3 on the charge, then in subsequent rounds is only AP4, AND you'd have to convert your own
from Fantasy or other armies. Stick with Corvus Hammers, baby!
Lightning Claws - Not so useful on sergeants due to only one attack base, and not useful
on HQ units, because they need something to pierce through 2+ armor to have a chance of
winning in challenges. Carefully consider power swords instead, or an axe if you're expecting
Terminator Equivalents. Use only if you need to cut up thousands of cultists.
Power Fist - Not recommended on non-veteran sergeants. Otherwise either this or power
axe are obligatory choices for your warlord, as long as you face marines or orks. They continue
to make great surprises for overconfident vehicle commanders...
Eviscerator - A fuck huge Chainsword that Assault Marines can take. S:x2 AP2, Twohanded. Armourbane. This makes the Eviscerator a great can-opener. Does require that you
give up both CCW to have, so you are committing to the model having one chainfist style attack.
Buy a flamer or two to offset this if you go for some Eviscerators.
Thunder Hammer - Paying extra 5 points for a power fist with concussive. Generally not
worth it as with S8 AP2, few things can survive to suffer from concussion. However concussion
can mean between life and death if a combat drags on such as with MC, T5 or up models, and
models with Eternal Warrior.
Force Weapon - Available to your Librarians for free. Power Weapons with Force essentially.
The Axe makes you S5, AP2 but I1 and the Staff at S6 but AP4. The Sword is the most reliable
as with Force and striking first means even one wound can lead to Instant Death. Axe does
provide a benefit of ignoring all armor saves and wounding most MC on 4s to 5s and with Force
it's nothing to sniff at.
Relic Blade - S+2, AP3, Two-Handed, but only accessible by Company Masters both in and
out of Terminator Armour.Provides your captain an additional tactical option against MEQs or
Monstrous Creatures that doesn't require you to strike last. More useful/reliable than the Monster
Slayer sword.
Note: Don't purchase a Relic Blade without Terminator armor as for a few more
points you get the superior Maces of Redemption, unless another HQ is already wielding it.
Blade of Caliban - A Dark Angels-flavored Relic Blade. S+1 AP3 and no longer Unwieldy.
Canny Wolf players may notice that these are now the same as Frost Blades now.
Relics of Caliban[edit]
Shroud of Heroes - Got a huge price drop down to 10 points! Gives the wearer FnP and, if
they're not in a squad, Shrouded. At 10 points for FNP, it's now a bargain. Hilariously troll worthy
on a level 1 Interromancy Libby on a bike going solo. Use mind worm on your opponent's special
snowflake character or monstrous creature, then drive around the board laughing as they throw
retarded amounts of firepower towards your 2+ jinking psyker and he just refuses to die. Unless
you're fighting Tau, of course, in which case you just gave up first blood.
Foe-smiter - S4 AP4 Assault 4 Shred, Master-crafted storm bolter. Three times the cost of a
Storm Bolter, but rightfully so.
Lion's Roar - Master-crafted Combi-bolter with combi-part being assault plasma cannon.
Yeah that's right,a mother-fucking master-crafted assault 1 one-use plasma cannon of rape.
Mace of Redemption - One of the greatest weapons forged by the Dark Angels. +3 STR
and AP3 (AP1 against the CSM faction). It also inflicts blind and concussion. The same cost as a
Thunder Hammer, and against most things other than Termie wearing Loyalists and the odd HQ
choice here and there it is a superior choice. Excellent on an Interrogator-Chaplain and his buff
against Chaos Space Marines.
This causes Necron players nightmares as almost everything in their codex is Sv3+
or worse and causing blind means two-thirds of the time they are drop to WS/BS1. A
Interrogator Chaplain will wreck pretty much everything without a Sv2+ (Only characters that
get it are Vargard, Nemesor, and Imotekh) in close combat hitting on hitting on 4s (re-rolls),
wounding on 2s, and hitting first before everything in the Necron codex.
Monster Slayer of Caliban - A power sword that grows stronger in the hands of a purehearted wielder, or randomly in game terms. Each fight sub-phase you roll a D6. On a 1 it's still
just a power sword. On a 2-4 it adds 1 to the wielder's strength. On a 5-6 it adds 2 to the
wielder's strength and causes instant death. The weapon's biggest weakness is that none of its
random rolls will let it overcome anything it couldn't already deal with (like terminator armor) and
only has a 33% chance of being remotely decent. Take a Relic Blade over this overcosted
garbage.
The Eye of the Unseen - Grants Fear and Preferred Enemy to the bearer. The most
expensive Relic, but since Preferred Enemy is conferred onto squads if one model has it, put
him in a plasma-equipped command/veteran squad and see the difference it makes. Fear
is meh as always, but you can really force it to happen if you bring along an Interromancy
librarian in your force. Don't forget that PE also applies to your already boosted overwatch
attacks.
Perfidious Relic of the Unforgiven - All Deathwing terminator/Knight units can now take
one of these, so expect them to become more common, it's a pretty cheap upgrade that gives
you Fear (meaning the codex got a fear overload) AND Adamantium Will. If you play people who
go psyker-heavy *cough*Grey Knights*cough* you get an extra +1 to your deny the witch rolls.
Combine with a Librarius Conclave, and watch the Psychic Hood stack with this for a 4+ Deny
on your opponent.
Company Standard - Friendly Dark Angels within 12" of the bearer can re-roll failed morale
checks and pinning tests.
Dark Angels Chapter Banner - Got a big points decrease in the new codex; provides all
Dark Angels models in the unit with +1A. Also provides the normal standard Ld rerolls. Stack
with Ezekiel's Book of Salvation and/or Righteous Repugnance for extra hilarity.
Ravenwing Company Banner - Provides the the standard Ld rerolls to Dark Angels within
12". Additionally, the Ravenwing Command Squad itself automatically passes its Hit & Run
checks and can move an extra D6 with Hit & Run.
Deathwing Company Banner - Almost exactly like the Chapter Banner: Friendly models
with the Deathwing special rule in the unit gain +1A, the difference in wording means that
Sammael and regular Chaplains are the only guys who don't benefit. It also got a huge points
decrease, only 20 points to give a squad of terminators more attacks.
Sacred Standard - Now all Sacred Standards have been condensed into 1 form, no more 4shot Boltguns (boo). In addition to re-rolling all failed Morale, Pinning, and Fear checks, you now
get Counter-Attack and Relentless on your Command Squad. The older individual Sacred
Standards were way better, but at least it is a cheaper option and can be spammed now, rather
than being a one-only deal. Brilliant on a Command-Squad equipped with gravguns: Relentless
means ALWAYS 3 shots on 18 inch (salvo), and Counter-Attack pairs perfectly with the improved
3-shots-overwatch.
Auspex: It's a scanner array thingamajig that allows the user to lower one enemy unit's
cover save by one (also, it can be a different enemy unit than that rest of the unit shoots at). For
5 points, this sounds nice, recommended to give to a Techmarine (who won't be shooting much
anyway), a Chaplain (1 Bolt Pistol shot. Whoop-dee-doo), or a Librarian (because with
Witchfires and such, his damage output won't exactly be hindered). Should be considered if
you're putting a character on a bike as well since you would want to put them with Black
Knights/Ravenwing Command Squad where a Twin-linked boltgun looks silly in comparison to
the Plasma Talon.
Combat Shield - As of this edition and last, 6+ invuln. It's cheap and better than nothing, but
many HQs have much better invuln saves anyway (Rosarius and Iron Halos) and those who
don't have base invulns can take Terminator Armor and/or the Conversion Field below.
Meltabombs: They're melta bombs. You know them, you love them. Dark Angels don't have
many dedicated assault units that would benefit from taking them, so only take them if you have
points to spare and think you might get close enough to an enemy vehicle.
Digital Weapons: - Re-roll 1 failed to wound roll, as before. Useful with getting that lucky
Force/Power Fist Strike on a target.
Conversion Field: A neat little piece of gear that gives a 4+ invulnerable save... for 20
points. In addition to that awesomeness, whenever the bearer passes an Invulnerable save, all
units within D6" (friend or foe) basically get Blind (and friendly units can reroll the Initiative test
for it). This won't activate all that often (you have Power or Terminator Armour, after all), but
when it will, it's a bit of a crapshoot whether you'll take the brunt or your opponent. Still, even if
you get messed up... it's a fairly cheap 4+ Invulnerable save!
Jump pack - Changes model to Jump Infantry (Move 12" instead of 6", gains Deep Strike,
and can opt to not use the 12" movement to gain Hammer of Wrath when charging, as before.)
The following aren't technically listed as Special Issue Wargear, but can be taken by certain units.
Artificer Armour - 2+ Armor Save. Only available to the Company Master. Not a bad buy,
since it allows you to take most transports, and you either have an Iron Halo or a Storm Shield
anyway so your Invuln save is covered.
Terminator Armour - 2+/5++, and grants the Deep Strike and Relentless rules. However,
you cannot attempt Sweeping Advances and are made bulky. Buying this also grants
the Vengeful Strike special rule, allowing the character to twin-link his shooting the turn he
arrives from Deep Strike. If your deep striking a character with terminator armor get a homer
beacon on the ground to get twin linked on that combi-weapon to guarantee a hit on whatever
needs removal.
Space Marine Bike - Grants +1 Toughness, 12" of movement with option to turbo-boost 12"
more, the ability to Jink, the Relentless rule, and brings a Twin-Linked Boltgun. Nice if you're
pairing up with Ravenwing Bikes or Black Knights. Not available to Company Masters, also note
that it still doesn't make the rider Ravenwing so he doesn't reroll his jink saves, but the good
news is the FAQ allows a character on a bike to lead a Ravenwing Strike Force instead of
Sammael.
Storm Shield - 3+ Invulnerable Save, but replaces one of your weapons. May be taken by
Company Masters both in or out of Terminator Armour. Sadly, Librarians and Chaplains cannot
take these. You'll also find them dispersed amongst Company Veteran and Deathwing squads.
Special Rules[edit]
Grim Resolve - Dark Angels' Chapter Tactics part 1. Grants Stubborn, and Overwatch at
BS2 unless they jinked.
Deathwing - Renamed from Inner Circle. Dark Angels' Chapter Tactics part 2. Grants
Fearless and Hatred (Chaos Space Marines).
Ravenwing - Dark Angels' Chapter Tactics part 3. Re-roll failed Cover Saves when jinking.
Deathwing Assault (Deathwing Redemption Force) - All models in the formation must start
in Deep Strike Reserve, so no Land Raider transports. Your whole formation chooses to arrive
from deep strike on either turn two, three, or four. You decide before the game begins. Since this
is now a formation special rule, rather than a squad rule, ALL units in the formation have to deep
strike at the same time, including Venerable Dreadnoughts in drop pods.
Summoned to War (Deathwing Strike Force) - All units in this formation start in Deep Strike
Reserve, but if there is a Ravenwing Attack Squadron, or a Ravenwing Strike Force detachment
in your army then they can choose to pass/fail their reserve rolls. Unlike Deathwing Assault this
doesn't overrule Drop Pod Assault, since the first Drop Pods don't take reserve rolls and show
up automatically.
In you have no Ravenwing at all, then this rule doesn't do anything other than force
you to Deep Strike, where normal rules apply.
Fortress of Shields - Any model in this unit is equipped with a Storm Shield, including
independent character models with a shield, and is in base-to-base contact with two other
models from this unit, gains a +1 increase to their toughness. The new wording prevents you
from bunching up regular termie squads to increase the benefit of the rule, and also means that
unless your independent character has a shield himself, he cannot benefit either. This also have
the side effect of keeping you from spacing your terminator knights effectively, but this isn't
actually as much of a problem as it might at first appear. If you expect plasma cannons, Meltas
and other high-strength low AP shooting, a 3+ Invulnerable will mean you tank it, so scratch that.
If you're fighting imperial guard lasgun hordes, bunch up and watch their pathetic S3 guns fail to
wound five times out of six, and watch Tau Fire Warriors hit and wound on 4s.
Warlord Traits[edit]
1. The Hunt: Warlord has Precision Shots and Ignores Cover. Belial and Asmodai get this.
2. Courage of the First Legion: The Warlord and all Dark Angel units within 12" of the Warlord
gain Fearless. Ezekiel gets this. Better than most people realize as you can do a neat little
trick with this. Since the HQ projects a 12" Fearless bubble with some clever positioning you
can Go To Ground with multiple units and then move your HQ within range with at least one
model and volia, they can act normally that turn. Anyone without ignore cover is going to
rage hard.
3. For the Lion: Warlord and unit has Furious Charge.
4. Brilliant Planning: While Warlord is on battlefield his force may modify Reserve Rolls by 1.
Perfect if you roll this when having lots of Ravenwing and/or Deathwing.
5. Rapid Maneuver: Warlord and unit add 3" to Flat-Out, Turbo-boost, Run and Charge Moves.
Sammael in both forms gets this.
6. Hold At All Costs: Warlord and unit has Feel No Pain within 3" of an Objective.
Command and Personal Traits also work well if you have a Terminator equipped character as they'll
be in close range most of the time with other squads or stuck in the thick of it.
Psychic Powers[edit]
Interromancy[edit]
In a strike of curiosity (but not an unexpected one considering the Harlequins' Phantasmancy), the
Dark Angels got an entire discipline based upon a previously-exclusive power (Mind Worm in this
case). It works heavily upon messing with leadership and stat lines.
Primaris - Mind Worm - WC1 focussed witch fire, 12" S6 AP2 Assault 1, Ignores Cover; if a
model takes an unsaved wound then it takes -3 to BS, WS, I AND Ld for the rest of the game.
With even just 1 wound, that special snowflake or Monstrous creature just became an expensive
paperweight and now that it has been buffed to Strength 6 it is a much more credible threat
against those tougher models where the debuff will really sting. Even though our Librarius is shit
compared to the new Vanilla Librarius, this power goes up to 24" with it. Yeah. You're still
thinking about taking it.
1. Seed of Fear WC1. All enemy units within 9" make all Fear, Pinning, and Morale tests on
3D6. Remember this codex got a fear overload so this is good against even moderately high
Ld armies with every Terminator squad being able to get Perfidious Relic of the Unforgiven
and Interrogator Chaplain. Note that this does not force those checks, you still have to do
that normally.
2. Righteous Repugnance - WC1. Blessing that grants one unit within 24" Rage. Cast on
those Deathwing Knights or Assault Marines and enjoy the maximum carnage. Drop it on
Black Knights and watch them redefine massacre.
3. Aversion - WC1. Malediction affecting one enemy unit within 24". They may only fire Snap
Shots. Perfect for negating a high threat unit to your army such as a antiarmor squad or antiTEQ. *cough* Tau *cough*
4. Maelstrom of Misery - WC2. Witchfire, 24": S1 AP2, Assault 1, Blast, Neural Shock (Always
wounds on 4+). Good for high toughness squads and such.
5. Trephination - WC2. Focused Witchfire with 18" range: the affected model rolls 2d6+2 then
subtracts the leadership value, taking the difference in wounds with no armour or cover
saves allowed. Psychic Shriek, Fuck that guy edition. Combo'd with Mind Worm wounding
first, it'll absolutely destroy characters.
6. Mind Wipe - WC3. Malediction with 24" range. The target unit is reduced to WS/BS 1 until
end of their next turn. THEN they have to take a Ld test, which if failed makes the debuff
permanent. Cast on a Deathstar unit. Just 1 turn of WS/BS1 can mean so much for you and
throw That Guy's carefully thought plan off balance, even better if he fails the Ld test. Not to
mention that (without factoring in modifiers), on average, an opponent needs 18 Warp
Charge dice to deny it should you successfully get it off with only the required 3 Warp
Charges.
Angels of Death Supplement[edit]
In Angels of Death, Space Marines got 4 new psychic disciplines, possibly to ensure that Ezekiel's
Librarius Conclave isn't full of redundancy and has more variety. Thanks to a note in the book, all
Spehss derivtives including our robed marines, can take these powers if they want.
Fulmination[edit]
Primaris Electrosurge - WC1 S5 AP5 Assault 6 witchfire. Point at hordes and explode them.
1. Electroshield - WC1. The Psyker gains a 3++. An almost free Storm Shield for a turn.
Actually useful for our Codex, since we don't get Storm Shields.
2. Electropulse - WC2. A witchfire Nova with radius of 9", which gives enemies S1 APHaywire hits.
3. Lightning Arc - WC2. Witchfire, S5AP4 assault D6. Jumps to enemy units at 6" of the
primary target on a 4+. Same effect.
4. Fists of Lightning - WC1 blessing. Psyker only, +1S and A. For every hit the psyker lands in
close combat (not wound, hits), enemy units suffer 2 additional S5AP- hits.
5. Magnetokinesis - WC2 blessing, 18". Move target unit by 18".
6. Electrodisplacement - WC2 blessing or malediction, 24". Swap target unit with the psyker's
unit. Can work on allies and enemies alike. This will allow for epic trolling. Oh, that enemy
unit's sitting out of charge range from your Assault Terminators/Death Company? Oh look,
now they're right next to your entire army. Have fun blowing them up and charging the
remains.
Librarius[edit]
AKA we jacked a bunch of powers from the Eldar and Grey Knights. Enjoy creating cheap as fuck
death stars.
Primaris The Emperor's Wrath - S5 AP3 witchfire blast.
1. Veil of Time - WC2. The Psyker and his entire unit re-roll all failed saving throws. You
Ravenwing with re-rolling Jink saves won't notice this as much, but now your Deathwing
Knights truly are unstoppable with T5 and rerollable 2+/3++.
6. Shifting Worldscape - WC3 24". Move a piece of terrain by 24", including models in it,
forces dangerous terrain tests on the unit inside.
Technomancy[edit]
The discipline to use for mechanized armies. Also fares very well with Imperial Guard allies. Heck, a
Librarius Conclave and a CAD of tank-heavy Guard makes this all kinds of epicness. The only
question is, do the blessings affect the whole squadron if a target vehicle is part of said squadron?
Primaris Subvert Machine - 18" Malediction. You Select a weapon on an enemy vehicle. You and
your opponent roll a die. If he rolls higher, nothing happens. If you draw, he can only fire snap shots.
If you roll higher, You take control of said vehicle's weapon for a turn. This will be horrible if your
enemy has a Superheavy of some kind (Lord of Skulls, Stompa, Baneblade variants, Knights), and
given the current meta, it's common to see an Imperial Knight ally.
1. Blessing of the Machine - WC1. Blessing you give to 1 vehicle in 24". It now ignores Crew
Shaken, Crew Stunned, and either gives Power of the Machine Spirit, or +1 BS if the target
vehicle that already has PotMS (So basically every vehicle Space Marines have except
vanilla Rhino-Chassis vehicles)
2. Machine Curse - WC1. Focused Witchfire. Smacks a vehicle with 3 S1 AP- Haywire hits.
3. Reforge - WC1. Blessing that either restores 1 hull point, or repairs either an immobilized or
destroyed weapon result, as well as giving the vehicle IWND.
4. Warpmetal Armour - WC1. Blessing that grants plus 1 AV to all sides for a turn. Or, if put at
a non-vehicle unit, gives +1T. Welcome to AV15 Spartan Assault Tanks/Leman Russes/Land
Raiders. And Gauss Weaponry still doesn't give a shit.
5. Fury of Mars - WC1. A S1 Haywire Beam.
6. Machine Flense - WC2. Focused Witchfire, 18". Target loses D3 HP. For each HP lost,
inflicts D6 S4AP6 rending hits to a nearby enemy unit.
much. Yeah, you might get BS6 but you're still limited by the usefulness of the weapons
themselves.
2. Expert Redeployment - Fighter Ace can move in from any edge when coming from Ongoing
Reserves. Pretty good way to sneak around and strike them from behind.
3. Homing Beacon - It's a Homing Beacon for flyers. DA within 12" of it can't scatter when they
Deep-Strike. Erm... most flyers start the game in reserve without a skyshield landing pad.
Since Deathwing can no longer just choose to come on turn 1-2 (although reserve Flyers
still come on turn 2 or later), this one could now potentially be useful. It is however just
another teleport homer in an army that can get them cheaper on virtually ever Ravenwing
unit, and the most expensive and unreliable one there is to boot. Give it a pass.
Tactical Objectives[edit]
Secret Agenda - A curious rule the Dark Angels get for their Tac-Objectives allows them to
conceal their dice rolls/Cards when generating cards that have the Dark Angels type as seen
above. While it's useless in most cases, when drawing any of these, you get to conceal both the
roll AND the Objective you took until you actually finish it. MIND GAMES!
friendly unit with the Ravenwing special rule during your turn, score D3 Victory Points
instead. If you run a DW Strike Force and a Ravenwing army, this is as good as done.
16. The Path of Redemption
Score 1 Victory Point at the end of your turn if, during your turn, a friendly unit with the Dark
Angels Faction charged an enemy unit that, at the start if the Charge sub-phase, included
more models than their own unit.
Unit Analysis[edit]
HQ[edit]
Notes: Comes equipped with a Psychic Hood. All units within 12" of
the psyker can use the psyker for Deny the Witch rolls. Usually
improves the result by 1, by 2 if your psyker is level 2 and the
opponent's psyker is level 1. If he's inside a transport, he can only
attempt to Deny the Witch for the Transport. (Remember this when
your with your biker/termie boys and want to give them some
psyker protection so place accordingly)
He's also one of the better candidates for taking a Conversion Field
and/or an Auspex since he doesn't have his own invulnerable save
off the bat and giving him an auspex doesn't particularly hinder his
ability to blast things at range.
The Servo Harness is really up to you if you want to take it. Dark
Angels techmarines are far less likely (especially on bikes) to be
accompanied by Servitors. So on his own the harness becomes
viable if you still expect him to fix things. Where Vanilla marines
might take techmarines as challenge takers and use the harness to
make him more threatening, Dark Angels tend to use them as
support character so it's better to keep them out of combat. If you
want to go into melee weapon with him, forget taking Power Axes
or Thunder Hammers, take a Lightning Claw instead, which
negates the need for a servo harness, since his servo-arm is a
specialist weapon.
Space Marine Command Tanks - 400 points nets you two awesome
command tanks that the Dark Angels can use due to a designer's note!
The new Rhino Primaris is MUCH better since even though it's over
triple the cost of the Damocles Rhino, it also gets an uber-Land
Raider, while both give out insane buffs even after the Orbital
Bombardment and Reserve shenanigans are over.
Special Characters[edit]
Troops[edit]
Tactical Squad: One of two troops choices. These men will be your
main force for the most part and are versatile at the cost of excelling at
nothing. Being durable and with stubborn, they won't run most of the
time and can tie up enemy units in melee forever even with a few
models left. Also make use of that rapid fire as if the enemy tries to
assault you get another round of bolt shots at BS2-4 depending on the
detachment. Use them to capture objectives and hold the line while
Deathwing/Ravenwing take the fight to the enemy.
They are also equipped with bolt pistols if you need to assault.
Recommended to assault units that main strength is shooting but is
weak in melee(Tau, Guardsmen, Guardians, etc.) or low Str units
as their T4 will keep them there. Take a Veteran SGT if you go for a
melee weapon and going to be aggressive or close proximity to
enemy units.
Loadout depends on what you want and need; anti-horde, antitank, or anti-TEQ/MC. Remember to forgo a heavy weapon if you
want them mobile and generally keep your combi-weapon the
same as your special weapon. Or combat squad to keep the heavy
weapon on the objective and while the rest file in a transport.
However a 6 man Tactical Squad with a Grav-Cannon in a rhino for
extra cheese against most armies is a good build as well.
Elites[edit]
Angels are a shooting army and these guys can take combi-weapons,
but don't have the benefit of Sternguard extra bullets, and can take a
heavy and a special weapon at 5 guys and an extra special at ten. If
you're feeling really mean, tool them up with combi-plasmas, take some
plasma guns and then once per game, unleash a shit load of plasma
fire over the enemy scum. Useful for most applications. Or you can give
everyone Plasma/Grav Pistols instead of Chainswords to make a
Cypher Squad for close-range shooting and gain both shots due to the
gunslinger rule. This is one advantage Dark Angels vets have over
Sternguard but gets expensive fast. Also, unless you are using
Greenwing, ignore CC for the most part as your terminators and bikes
should be getting into hand-to-hand, not vets, so don't get tempted by
that extra base attack (Still, remember it. It might be better to exchange
the extra turn of rapid fire shooting so you charge rather then be
charged, however any opponent who charges a squad of AP2 weapons
at BS2>4 is in for a shock).
Another advantage that Company vets have is that they are easier
to take in formations than their equivalent codex counterparts. As
part of a demi-company they gainObjective Secured and and aren't
competing for Elite slots, nor are you forced to buy a minimum of
three squads like the 1st Company Task Force. So instead of
committing a large portion of your points allowance to them, it's
easier to take them as an afterthought.
For 175 points (ie: cheaper than Deathwing) you can get five guys
with Meltaguns and a Drop Pod. Codex Marines can do this too,
but Dark Angels can drop in, erase enemy vehicles/TEQs and are
less fearful of a counter-charge due to better overwatch, and that
Drop Pod can summon in other shooty Deathwing/Land Speeder
squads with its locator beacon.
For a bit more, take 5 grav-guns and a Sacred Standard to get the
full number of shots at full range, then have them arrive from a
Drop Pod and erase units from existence. Made even deadlier
when your opponent considers charging your unit to get a face full
of improved grav overwatch and counter attack. Give them storm
shields for some decent survivability.
weapons the turn they arrive from Deep Strike. Any model can trade
their basic weapons (including the sergeant again) for Thunder
Hammers/Storm Shields and Lightning Claws. Able to up to 10 of these
guys (Note they CAN'T Combat Squad so be aware of that) PLUS you
can give 1 in every five termies an assault cannon, a cyclone missile
launcher OR a fucking plasma cannon! The main strength of Deathwing
Terminators is sheer versatility, being able to mix and max range with
melee means they can handle damn near anything. With split fire one
model can shoot a different target while letting the squad charge
another target. The only thing they shouldn't be equipped for is all out
melee as that is the Deathwing Knights job with their slew of special
rules and awesome melee weapons. Get a heavy weapon with two or
so TH/SS to protect against high AP weapons and you'll have a
dangerous squad against different enemies.
Note that split fire doesn't require two different weapons in 7th. A
unit of 5 terminators where all have TH/SS and one is additionally
upgraded with a cyclone missile launcher is still able to target two
units - this doesn't mean they actually fire at two targets, but they
are able to charge a different target than they actually fire at. That's
cool and all, but remember you cannot Assault the turn you arrive
from Reserve.
squads. If you want a character model to lead the squad and take
challenges then have a Champion instead.
Deathwing Champions are fantastic, they get +1WS and can take
the Halberd of Caliban (+2S, AP2, 2-handed), and now they must
auto-issue and auto-accept challenges. They do hilariously well
against most other single-wound champions like vanilla Chapter
Champions and the like, who are compelled to get into a fight that
they will lose.
Alternate opinion: sure, they are not as strong as before, and only
attack once, but the maces are still wonderful. The previous poster
missed an important aspect: strength 8, AP2 AT INITIATIVE.
Regular chums need to go down to I1 to get this, even HQ (outside
uber-special snowflakes like Calgar and Dante). You take a bit of a
gamble, yes. But in most cases a single wound will instagib the
unfortunate sod you were charging at (unless it has eternal warrior
or T5, but most things that have 2+ save are T4, barring warbosses
on mega armor)
Dark Angels are all about synergy and that also goes for Deathwing
Knights. One thing they can't do is sweeping advance which is why
there is Ravenwing who can swing behind the enemy once they
break to block their retreat and cut them down for the Deathwing.
Rending) and one really weird grenade launcher. Just like the others,
you can have an apothecary, banner bearer and a company champion
who must now auto-issue and auto-accept challenges, but like DW
command squads, these guys are a one per army choice. Enjoy! The
squad is 3 knights but you can add three more guys. If you're taking a
character on bike and you plan on taking a smallish squad of black
knights, you would be better served taking them as a command squad,
so you can save yourself a FA choice and a few points.
Other Notes: These guys are now really good at melee with their 4
attacks and with WS 5 they'll hit most things and can rip apart tanks
if they survive after drop podding. If you want anti-infantry a good
loadout for infantry mulching is assault cannon, heavy flamer, and
powerfist lets you rampage through most squad without trouble and
with I4 you strike before most other walkers and MC.
Ignore Venerables if you want them to sit back and shoot as almost
every Dreadnought weapon is twin linked wasting their WS/BS 5.
Let their less experienced Dreadnought brothers sit back and
provide fire support.
been moved back and forth from slot to slot, IA2:2nd moved it back to
Elites and took away its BS5, presumably to balance out the sickening
build recommended above, still rapes things even at BS4 though.
Also this is EASILY the best anti-air model you can take in Codex:
Dark Angels. If you are struggling to win games against Chaos
Daemon Flying Circus or Chaos Space Marine Heldrake spam,
brining one of these guys is usually enough to single-handedly turn
the tide against their stupid OP-as-fuck flyers and you'll only spend
slightly more points going double Kheres-Pattern assault
cannons/TW-LasCannons + Cyclone Launcher as you would on
your own overcosted Nephilim Jetfighter.
Fast Attack[edit]
1). 10 man squad with Meltabombs: Can take on units like Kroot,
Cultists, Pink Horrors, and the like, and can go after vehicles after
they have done their job. I also wouldn't advise dropping their Jump
Packs at all, since they can't take a Razorback instead, and Rhinos
just makes them worse, having to waste a turn in order to assault
the said unit.
Ravenwing Bike Squadron - You start with 3 Bikes, with the option of
buying 3 more. Unlike most other space marine bikers (except white
scars) these guys all have hit & run, but they also have the scout USR
meaning either extra movement at the start of the game or the ability to
outflank them and ruin your opponents shit, especially if you want to
deep strike your Deathwing close to a board edge using your teleport
homers, which each guy comes with as standard. You can also buy
yourself a single attack bike which does it's own thing if you combat
Other Notes: Probably the best loadout for these bikers is grav
guns or melta guns. Flamers are okay but with twin linked bolters
and Hit & Run you can pick your engagements and do some
damage to blobs. Plasma shouldn't be used either as Black Knights
have twin linked rapid fire plasma guns already and one thing those
badasses don't have is anti tank. Grav guns are great for dealing
with TEQ and such while a fast squad with melta can easily get in
range to one shot some tanks. However, it's better to take a squad
of Attack bikes if you want a all melta squad as they multi-meltas
which are longer range.
Ravenwing Attack Bike Squadron - Get your own squad of 1-3 attack
bikes, rather than regular bike squads hogging the sidecars. They have
the same basic ravenwing gear and rules but no option other than
Meltas or no Meltas? And to be honest if you've got them running
separately you'll take meltas for swift moving tank popping and keep
any Heavy Bolter bikes in your regular Ravenwing squads.
rollable 3+ through skill rider these guys can tank fire to charge the next
phase or to get in range. Due to their loadout they can take on almost
anything besides heavier armor, walkers, and squads full of power
weapons unless they're low STR thanks to toughness 5. Limited in antitank capability outside of melta bombs on the sergeant they DO NOT
need to be charged or tied up by walker which will do awful things.
Their grenade launcher should be generally avoided as rad-shells don't
debuff -1T anymore, now only granting 2 wounds on 6s which looks
nice but considering it doesn't ignore any armor saves, is a small blast,
and S3. The plasma talon makes the krak and frag grenade irrelevant
too. The stasis shell (-1 WS and -1 I) can be useful for fighting against
high I armies or MEQ to strike on the same I or before in the case of the
latter meaning less chance of retaliation. The statis also combines very
well with Deathwing Knights just like in fluff. Good for making those
scary models with high WS and I get put down a peg. Have fun wiping
out marines before they strike. GL combines nastily with Deathwing
Knights, AP3 combined with WS/I debuff means your DW Knights
will strike before CSM, hit on 3+, wound on 2+ and won't allow armor
saves.
Other Notes:The Black Knights are a bargain for points too. You a
3 man squad with everyone is armed with twin linked plasma guns,
rending corvus hammers, and skilled rider. A 3 man squad of
normal Ravenwing bikers cost 15 more for a Veteran sergeant,
power weapon, melta bombs, and two plasma guns (no twin-linking
so more risk of rolling one's) while being more fragile to fire and
worst in close combat. At lower point games Black Knights shine as
they are cheap for they can bring and do quite a bit of damage for
cost. If you bring them along with normal Ravenwing, equip the
normal bikers with anti-tank as that's one area Black Knights are
weak in.
When taking a Deathwing Army, you're more often than not better
off with these guys instead. Not only do these guys say "Fuck you"
to the whole "Difficult = Dangerous thing" that comes with Skilled
Rider USR (actually, ignoring Dangerous Terrain altogether!) but
they have an improved Jink (extra fuck you), and they're basically
Ymgarl Genestealers that always have the Toughness and Strength
Ravenwing Land Speeders - Land Speeders, NOT just like what the
other chapters get, for two reasons. First, you can take up to five of
these instead of everyone else who only gets three. This makes
speeders a very versatile if somewhat expensive choice. Equip them
with a Typhoon and a Multi-Melta in order to handle hordes and tanks.
Heavy flamers are good but remember that you can't snapfire
templates which means you have to sacrifice do nothing to take
advantage of jink re-rolls. Assault Cannons and heavy bolters are good
to force multiply with Sammael.
It's the cheapest way to field Heavy Bolters en-masse, if you take
the second heavy bolter. A full squadron is 275 points nets you 10
heavy bolters, all that are arguably more difficult to deal with than
they would be mounted on mere power armor marines. 30 S5AP4
shots at 36 inches on highly mobile with BS4 for only 250 points is
massively underrated
IT. 7E made this a whole lot better. Not the best armour to be had at 11
all around, but it does pack a LOT of dakka, as in double hurricane
bolters and a S10 AP2 heavy 1, blinding, blast rift cannon that becomes
Vortex (and therefore Destroyer) if you roll doubles on the scatter dice,
even if you rolled a direct hit. The stasis bomb drops a can of Derp on
your enemy, debuffing them for a whopping -3 to WS and I until the end
of your turn. Also, all enemies must make initiative tests for unsaved
wounds, or be removed from play. And remember this Initiative test will
be taken at the previously modified -3. So you have virtually guaranteed
a kill on anything that suffers wounds, but with that being said, the
bomb is only S4 AP5 so you'd be lucky to get those wounds in the first
place. Couple one of these with a Black knight unit for extra rage and
hilarity. A Stormtalon now has nothing on this son of a bitch, the Dark
Talon can both dish out carnage plus support your army.
Consider the Fire Raptor gunship from Forgeworld, if you have the
points/money; it does exactly the same job, but better, for 50 points
extra.
bolter for a second Lascannon and the missiles are FAR superior. It's
also agile and supersonic. It probably is overcosted, but it is exactly
what you want in a vehicle/aircraft hunting role for an interceptor.
Modelling hint - take your Nephilim and just replace the Heavy
Bolters with spare lascannon barrels and you're good to go. It might
not be the Battlestar Galactica jet, but easily fills WYSIWYG for a
significant $ saving.
Heavy Support[edit]
Fighting mechanized lists? Get one lascannon squad and the other
a plasma cannon squad. Use the Lascannon to crack open the
transport and vaporise the poor grouped up fewls. Works very well
for ID pesky T3 armies.
The new Grim Resolve rules made these guys a whole lot scarier.
Where historically Devastators abhor a melee (and they still do)
your opponent will have to weather a face full of whatever they're
packing before getting that charge. Four krak missiles or
lascannons? Plus all the spare bolters and whatever the sergeant
is packing, all at full BS in a Lion's Blade formation. That would
make even a greater daemon / hive tyrant think carefully before
deciding to charge you, especially if he's been wounded earlier in
the fight. Do the same thing with 5-shot Grav Cannons and your
While this does increase the cost quite a bit, putting a Librarian on
rolling on Divination greatly increases the threat Devastators pose.
Re-rolls to hit along with whatever other power gives Devastators a
decent advantage over Tri-Las Predators.
The Tri-Las is the best way to field Predator(s) as Dark Angels lack
long range anti-tank outside of Devastators with lascannons, allies,
or Forgeworld. While the anti-infantry Predator is outclassed by
cheaper and better options, the Tri-Las or Autocannon/LC sponsors
are solid long range anti-tank for Dark Angels (Not to mention the
only codex option for long range anti-tank). Remember running
three gives Tank Hunter and Monster Hunter which gives a
squadron of Tri-Las predators a boast in larger games.
It's up to you if you want to go with a Tri-Las predator or a 4lascannon Devastator squad. For 10 points less and losing one
cannon for superior durability, no lose of firepower unless it's a
penetrating hit, and one twin-linked lascannon. Devastators do get
cover saves easier and can fit into smaller spots but can't relocate
unless they're given a transport further bloating their cost.
Dark Angels are all about synergy and a full squadron can cause
real speed bumps if you managed to hit the target with Seed of
Fear earlier in your turn. Three shredding pie plates should be
enough to cause at least one wound even on MEQs, so guarantee
pinning them in place and neuter their turn.
Vindicator - This tank features a very scary gun. A very scary Strength
10 AP2 Large Blast gun. This tank is a massive fire magnet, and thus
probably won't get to drop its hot steamy load over an unfortunate
squad. It has AV13 on the front though, so if your Demolisher Cannon
gets blown off it's still great for tank shocking. Can also now be taken in
squadrons of up to three if you'd like to change the shooting from all
three of them for an Apocalyptic blast that Ignores Cover. Yes you'd like
to do that wouldn't you. Be careful because the range still remains 24"
so it becomes a bit of a Danger Close situation, especially since your
own infantry is presumably going to somewhere close to the tank and
the enemy you were shooting at.
Alternate take: You should consider that you aren't just paying
points for one S7 AP2 Large Blast on a chassis flimsier than a
Rhino. This thing fares fine in larger point games where you can
provide much more dangerous units for your opponent to worry
about, use it to grab far objectives when all else fails and dodge
alpha strikes and toy with maximum range like no tomorrow thanks
to Scout from RW Attack Squadron in which it also has the same
target range as a squad of Grav-Gun Bikers so will be granting
them BS5. If your opponent has TEQ then much AV shooting could
be wasted trying to kill it through it's Jink (which could be 3+
rerollable). And altough the Large Blast is almost always better,
don't deny the 3 shot mode capabilities of bursting things like metal
bawkses and other speeders, as well as being able to put some
hurt on Monstrous Creatures from a safe distance. The Speeder
could've at least been 11/11/10 for it's price of course, but try and
think outside the box with it's mobility and targeting versatility and it
might exceed your low expectations.
Land Raider Redeemer - Used for when you need to apply more fire.
For 10 points cheaper than the Crusader, it replaces the hurricane
bolters and four models worth of transport capacity for two Flamestorm
Cannons. The addition of two strength 6 AP 3 templates helps melt
power armored foes. The lack of the torrent rule does mean that you
will be up close to utilize all your guns, but since it's an assault vehicle
just slap some Thunder Hammer Termies inside and drive closer to hit
them with your sword(hammer). For added shenanigans against
mechanized infantry lists, take a multi-melta, use it with Power of the
Machine Spirit to take away their metal bawkses and the Flamestorm
Cannons to incinerate the fewlz inside.
tank makes the Eldar, Harlequins, and Dark Eldar cry. Even Wave
Serpents will fall before this (sadly you can only have one while the
Eldar player will spam Wave Serpents.) The Sicaran can also take
ceramite plating, making it very durable. Being a Relic of the Armory,
you need to take an Interrogator-Chaplain if you want more than 1
Sicaran or a Fire Raptor as well.
single turn and hit almost every time and it's only 45 points more than
the Nephilim = BARGAIN (except for FW prices). It is a relic vehicle, so
if you want to take more than one (or any other relic vehicle) remember
to grab an Interrogator Chaplain as one of your HQ choices.
Rapier Battery - 1-3 Rapier Quad Linked Heavy Bolters (like on the
Prometheus). Two of them are essentially a devastator squad. Though
can be upgraded to Laser Destroyers, which is like a lascannon
devastator squad with a shorter range but are twin-linked and give the
ordnance ability of an extra chance of penetration against vehicles. The
drawback to this is that they dont have the mobility that a tank or
Heavy Support Squad would give you. Youll want to set them up in
terrain somewhere in the backfield and not move them after they are
deployed. Points for points the Rapier will be cheaper than many of the
Heavy Support choices and will probably be just as lethal.
Rapier Quad Mortar Battery - Unlike the other Rapier battery, you
cannot mix and match gun types, but why would you want to? A single
one if these is almost the same as a squad of missile Devastators, each
with four shots analogous to frag/krak missiles. What's different is the
frag version is S5, barrage and causes pinning at -1 Ld. And the Shatter
(Krak) is only AP4 but rerolls penetration against vehicles. That's not
bad at all for only 60 points, so against light infantry like Guard or Orks,
this should be your go-to option over a missile squad. Because you can
take multiples, having twelve S8 rerollable shots against vehicles for
180 points is an absolute bargain. Against TEQs, you've got plasma
elsewhere for dealing with them, but with so much firepower, the Quad
Mortars will always wound something.
Deathstorm Drop Pod - Expecting the drop pod that just landed to
contain troops or a heavy weapons platform you don't have to worry
about until next turn? SURPRISE! Whirlwind missiles! For you! In the
face! There are two different versions though since GW cannot coordinate with Forgeworld: Though Imperial Armour 2 is more recent
than Warzone: Damnos by a margin of a couple of months, Damnos is
a valid core GW product (if your opponent argues with you over
Forgeworld) and uses much the same rules as the Horus Heresy
version which is even more recent than them both.
Space Marine Sentry Gun Battery - From IA:12 you get a battery of
up to three immobile twin-linked Heavy Bolters for the bargain cost of
15 points each and swap them for a Multi-melta for five or pay ten for
TL Lascannons. Being automated, you have very little control over what
they actually do in the battle, they select their own targets based on
pre-set criteria, you basically just get to choose at deployment what
their arcs are: 360 degrees but at 18" range, or 90 degrees at 36"
range, so you're rarely going to be blasting things across the table with
these things. You DO get the ability to deep strike them for a laugh or
give them camo netting for stealth if you can set them up in a good spot
to make them invulnerable to most shooting. (while you can pay the
cost for both, just don't because it you deep strike into cover you are
waiting for a mishap. Set them up behind an aegis defense line with
camo for 2+ cover.
be firing at the same target, which is still the one they select for
themselves...
As a added bonus though, you can instead swap the guns for
Hyperios Missile Launchers, which don't suffer from the firing
modes rules, allowing you to direct the shots at your leisure.
Basically krak missiles with skyfire and interceptor, this
configuration does most jobs you ask it to without complaint, just
don't waste the points (or the money) with the command platform,
as by swapping one of the guns you've replaced the ability to fire
three missiles at the same target with two missiles at different
targets... it should have been a free upgrade or the unit needed to
be bigger than three launchers... certainly not clever.
Lords of War[edit]
Azrael, Supreme Grand Master - The closest thing Dark Angels have
to the traditional "guy who costs as much as a Land Raider", and thus
was turned into a Lord of War with the 7th Edition update in the style of
Calgar, Grimnar, and Dante, yet without the addition of Eternal Warrior.
His statline is the same as the Space Marine Chapter Master, albeit
with a 2+ Save and full blown 5+ FnP nowadays. His Lion's Helm gives
him and the members of any squad he joins a 4+ Invulnerable Save,
which is quite handy, and he also swings an S+2 master-crafted Power
Sword. Oh, and he carries a master-crafted Combi-Plasma (no longer
causes blinding) and a Bolt Pistol for +1 CC attack. Despite not being a
combat monster to match Calgar, Dante or Logan, he's been buffed as
a support character and the entire detachment uses his leadership of
10 (not that this will affect Stubborn/AKSKNF/Fearless Dark Angels that
often, but is still a nice bonus to have), he can choose his warlord trait
from the Dark Angels specific table instead of having to roll and, finally,
he now gets to modify Seize the Initiative rolls by one.
armoury, you will almost never even see one, let alone field more than
one, fortunately, you only need one. The best way to use this vehicle is
to get close combat Terminators right into the middle of the enemies
most dangerous shooting formation, then use the fearsome weapons
on the gunship to destroy enemy vehicles that can insta-kill your guys,
allowing your Terminators to destroy the shooty infantry and keep your
grunts alive. Used properly this vehicle WILL make your opponent shit
bricks, used improperly, it will do nothing but die uselessly as it gets
pummeled by 700 points worth of enemy lascannons, rockets, missiles,
battle cannon and lances, then it will explode and take the most of the
rest of your army with it, because of this NEVER EVER keep it static,
it's tempting to just hang back and pummel the enemies vehicles with
the turbo laser, but don't. If you're a bad person you take two CAD and
put Azrael into a Thunderhawk. This is crazily expensive, but having a 9
HP flyer with a 4++ makes people cry.
Typhon Heavy Siege Tank - It's a giant vindicator. Cheaper and better
armoured than the Fellblade and more reliable than the Cerberus. It
fires off a 7" Blast S10 AP1 weapon, which ignores cover, and so will
erase entire units on 2s unless they have invulnerable saves. Can also
be equipped with sponsons like a predator and pintlemounted options
including heavy bolters, or a multi-melta. And unlike the Cerberus, since
your main gun doesn't fill an uber specialised role you can choose what
you want and split your fire to shoot in all directions and pick your
targets by relevance. Also give it armoured ceramite so it can never be
killed by melta & lances.
Dedicated Transports[edit]
Virtually identical to Ultramarines, so if you understand those then nothing
much has changed.
Rhino - A great transport, and dirt cheap. They can become a shield
wall once you've dropped off the squad riding inside, and can attempt to
repair themselves in the shooting phase. In a Deathwing/Ravenwing
list, these will see very little use.
Razorback - A Rhino with the transport capacity lowered, but with a big
gun stuck onto it to compensate. Great for ferrying around Command
Squads. The cheapest option is to keep the heavy bolter or switch it
with a twin linked heavy flamer. But an extra heavy gun for only 20
points is almost never points misspent as razorbacks can be used in
the same roll as a predator if you have a shortage of points or have run
out of heavy support options. Dark Angels Razorbacks can also be
equipped with a twin linked assault cannon in addition to all the other
gun options you can choose. This gives you a lot of budget firepower
and even more options for this little box. pair up the assault cannon with
a flak missile equipped devastator squad to make absolutely positively
certain that your opponents flying, vector striking, marine melting hell
drake dies on turn one! (If they have a heldrake on the board turn one,
something has gone very, very wrong). Also makes a good addition in
the Lionsblade Strike Force with a full battlecompany. you can get 10 of
these for free or for 200 points if you get a weapon uppgrade. just stick
5 man squads with flamers in them and keep the devastator squads in
the back with that mandatory scout squad.
Drop Pod - Enters play via Deep Strike and only mishaps if it goes
completely off the board. Great for dropping a suicide Dreadnought
behind a tank that needs liquidation. Also to keep in mind, is our Drop
Pods have Drop Pod Assault. Pretty much when a Drop Pod
successfully comes out of reserve, another one can come on the board
without the need to roll for it. Good if you combine Assault Marines with
Flamers and a Dreadnaught, as you can do some pretty good damage.
One often forgotten thing Drop Pods can get is a locator beacon, meaning
precise deep striking terminators afterward. Damn scary and effective for a
second wave to anchor your line and support your more fragile marine
brothers. Throw in some Ravenwing and you can nearly cover the board for
precise strikes with all those locator beacons on Pods and bikes.
Lucius Pattern Drop Pod (Forge World) - big dreadnought drop pod,
the new IA:A put it back into a dedicated transport role and nerfed it
incredibly. No longer can your close combat rape dreads charge out of
it on the turn it arrives, (though oddly, the rules say that dreadnoughts
CAN charge out of it if they decide to remain embarked for a turn,
which it could do anyway since it's already an open topped transport,
but might be a good idea since your opponent will have to shoot their
way through the drop pod before hitting the Dreadnought) and now it
just grants itself and its passenger the Shrouded USR the turn it
arrives, so now there's a slightly lesser chance of having your
dreadnought blown to bits that turn, but only slghtly. Also, this is the
only drop pod you can fit Contemptor in. So what? They only
Contemptor you'd take is the Mortis with 2 Assault
Cannons/Autocannons and the Cyclone Missile Launcher anyway. Who
needs a pod?
Fortifications[edit]
Skyshield Landing Pad: Meh, it's an okay choice for Dark Angels. The
Invulnerable save you can get from it can help, tho for just 30 more pts,
an Aegis Defense Lines with a Quad Gun is better.
Firestorm Reboubt: for 20 points more than the Nephilim you get a
dedicated anti-aircraft building. (though you may change either of the
Icarus Quad Cannons for different weapons if you own them) with four
96" range interceptor/skyfire lascannon shots. While being forced to fire
at BS2 seems like a pain, being twin linked means that you hit
approximately 55% of the time, but you can upgrade it to BS3 if you
want to pay more points on the machine spirit, but then any enemy
aircraft on (or coming on to) the table has to worry about the incredible
amount of dakka heading its way since massed S9 AP2 skyfire is
extremely rare.
Wall of Martyrs: Dark Angels already have Stubborn, so there isn't any
benefit over the Aegis Defense Line.
Imperial Bunker: Cheap, tough with 14 armour, and pretty safe to fit a
squad in. Nothing special.
Promethium Relay Pipes: 4+ Cover save, like the Aegis but with a
special bonus, if a model is armed with a Flamer weapon then it
becomes Heavy Torrent if a non-vehicle model's within 2" of a pipe.
Remember that your Deathwing and Ravenwing units are relentless, so
you they can move and still get the Torrent bonus. Deep strike
Deathwing next to a Promethium Relay Pipe for a twin-linked heavy
flamer with Torrent!
brothers but with The Unforgiven's unique twists added on top. Special
rules are: Everything with Grim Resolve fires Overwatch at full Ballistic Skill.
Also, two Battle Demi-companies may combine into a single formation that
may purchase Rhino/Razorbacks/Drop Pods for FREE (Same as Vanilla
marines). Well harlequins/Swarm Armies aren't winning against these guys
anytime soon.
You need at least 1 of the "Auxiliary" choices, but there's no hard limit
as to how many of them you can take:
Now, as awesome as Supreme Fire Discipline is, Lion's Blade does have
limitations you need to consider. First off, there's absolutely zero way to
take Black Knights, be it the regular flavor or the Ravenwing Command
kind. Second, your options for tanks are very very restrained. You want a
Predator? All you have to do is buy an entire Land Raider and Techmarine,
plus two more Preds, and park the fucking Raider four inches away at all
times. If you actually wanted 5 twin-linked Lascannons, this is great, but
otherwise you have a vehicle squadron of things that were never meant to
be squadded together. Similarly, if you want ANY Termies at all, you must
take a bare minimum of 495 points. Want Deathwing Knights? 730 points
up front. Another one is to use that awesome overwatch you shouldn't take
any weapons with a blast type since you can't overwatch with blast
weapons. While not a huge downsides it is something to consider.
Against Khorne Daemonkin and other assault armies, Lion's Blade is
awesome. But if your opponent is going shooty too then stick to your CAD,
since it'll let you customize WAY better. The problem I have found is that a
lot of Dark Angels rules don't work because as soon as someone sees dark
angels they auto assume Lions Blade and stay away and wont come near
you to benefit from the overwatch that much.
run and shoot in any order. Oh, and a mandatory WT re-roll. The problem
with this detachment is that unlike the BA Archangels detachment, ALL
units (no exceptions) within the DSF must begin the game in Deep Strike
Reserve. So that means no Land Raider dedicated transports since they
cannot Deep Strike, and it also means there is no way to play solo
Deathwing terminators without any kind of support, because you'd have
nothing on the table on turn one, and automatically lose the game.
You could still use this as a solo army though, since half of your Drop Pods
still have the ability to arrive on turn one, so getting your Dreadnoughts on
the table with locator beacons not only becomes a necessity, but also a
viable tactic. Just bring more than two dreadnoughts, otherwise your
opponent will think it's cute when you drop a lone model onto the table in
the first turn.
Others[edit]
your opponents bring him, you Dark Angels players get a few benefits
to even the playing field. DO NOT FORGET THEM.
1. All Deathwing Members get Hatred (Everyone) and are now standin Chaplains and your army got a little bit better in melee. Also this
Hatred is not lost if Cypher is defeated.
2. If Cypher goes down anywhere within D6" of one of your Dark
Angels, you get Three Victory Points at the end of the battle,
possibly a game winner. Most of your special characters can
comfortably take him down in close combat (especially with
Hatred). If you're not aiming directly for him you are obviously a
TRAITOR AND MUST BE PURGED.
3. Do not forget that your opponent's Warlord's leadership is reduced
by one just for including Cypher. This can be extremely important
for things like Perils of the Warp, Officer Orders or simple
Leadership bubbles. Unfortunately now that you know the
weaknesses of the fallen, the Deathwing will be at your door
momentarily to either purge or recruit you.
on 3+. The downside to this is the other librarians under his area of
effect cannot cast powers at all, so can cause problems with respect to
power ranges and actually being able to cast things. As a final added
bonus, Mind Worm doubles its range so long as there are librarians
within 12" of Ezekiel, with the retooled Mind Worm, this is extremely
deadly. This is a very good formation because it not only allows you to
take multiple Librarians, but with good positioning, avoiding repeating
disciplines (and accounting for Daemonology & Psychic Focus) you can
have one psyker with knowledge of sixteen different psychic
powers from FIVE disciplines and a pool of up to 17 warp charges
available (not counting non-formation psykers) who can let rip an
absolute torrent of psychic abuse to rival that of any other psyker in the
game... Eldrad/Ahriman/Fateweaver can bite it.
Warzone Damnos[edit]
Warzone Pandorax[edit]
Allies[edit]
Battle Brothers[edit]
Black Templar: Now part of Vanilla Marines, but don't stop there. Black
Templars have gotten better now they have access to the new shiny
stuff Vanilla gets. Plus they still kept some of their traditional feats (Land
Raider Crusaders are still Dedicated Transports to Crusader Squads).
Crusader Squads are the Beatstick, throw in some Neophyte with
Shotguns and they can be both a Dakka and chopy unit. Combine this
with the Flyers they have, it makes them somewhat a versatile ally
choice. Although if you want pure melee punch, Blood Angels can do
this better. Still, Black Templars are not a bad choice.
Blood Angels: Probably the best CQC Allies for the DA. A lot of their
units are fast moving and hits foes really hard and they aren't bad at
shooting. But in all honesty, we have a lot of options to gun
Xenos/Heretics down dead, so you should just focus on stuff that rapes
in melee and shit like that. Sadly, sanguinary priests blood chalice
works only with BA units, so no FNP and Furious Charge to your
Deathwing knights. However Shield of Sanguinius works with all units
and Darkshroud gives Stealth to all friendly units, not only DA ones. So
you can give all your army a nice +4 cover save. FNP Fearless Marines
with 4++ save and maybe pseudo Fleet from Azrael are great also.
strong mobile close combat, ally with sisters and bring Saint Celestine
and some seraphim. The Avenger strike fighter is a good choice, as is
the Exorcist. And lastly who doesn't want to get the Sisters chocolate
flamers all up into our plasma peanut butter? Plus every Imperial ally
wants to get their hands on the Dominions cover-ignoring Meltaguns,
and now we can stick them in a Drop Pod, if a Scouting Multi-Melta
Immoltator isn't good enough for you.
Space Wolves: New allies rules make Space Wolves battle brothers,
and with the new codex we have some new synergies to consider. Lets
see what wolfies offer to us: Jaws of the World Wolf is now Focused
Witchfire, so a stasis grenade or five can help pick off those characters.
Bjorn gives you +1 on the seize, which with Deathwing Assaults and
Scouts moves could be important. Wolves also have cool new fliers,
which have the same schitzoid loadout problems as Angels fliers but at
least have Assault Vehicle. Azrael with 15 Blood Claws with 4++ save,
Fearless and Furious Charge inside a Stormwolf is a thing that exists.
They also have cheap servos with the possibility of taking one special
weapon on 5 man squads, razorspam, scoring terminators with mixed
arms, missile spam, divided fire and giant wolverine steeds. Pretty
solid, but Dark Angels can achieve most of those things on their own,
and instead of wolves have bikes which look less stupid in the future.
Allies of Convenience[edit]
Eldar: The jetbike units and Wave Serpents are FUCKING AMAZING
and make an excellent pairing with the Ravenwing. You could also use
Fire Dragons mounted in a Falcon for some forward-ranging tank or
monster killing power, or to punch out a squad capable of usefully tanktarpitting Deathwing Knights. Not to mention the Wraithbone units got
buffed into the stratosphere with Destroyer Weapons out the ass.
Desperate Allies[edit]
Tau Empire: Not a bad choice, especially since they just got a new
codex. As usual, their basic philosophy is "extra fire power that can help
wreck shit at long range". The Crisis suits are golden, and goes well
with a Ravenwing list, as they're both mobile and shooty with Plasma
Rifles and other useful weapons. Hammerheads are also a worthwhile
choice if you choice the Railgun option, and fire warriors with their
Pulse Rifles will prove to be better than the Boltgun. Play them
correctly, and the enemy won't be alive to get close enough. They
should be too occupied to be dealing with Fire Warriors, at the least.
Unless you're going plasma-heavy, as they are probably the one army
with more plasma than you (take a Hammerhead with tau Ion Cannon
and disruption pods. Do it!). Ion has been introduced, and it is soooo
much better. Ion Cannon now has a new trick up its sleeve. At S8 AP3
Large Blast when overcharged, nothing short of a TEQ will get an
armour save. They also have the best long-range anti-tank in the game,
so they can provide fire support for your Spess Mehreens. (Look to
Riptide if you're interested in Long Range Support).
Dark Eldar: They are really speedy, but you also potentially have
Ravenwing, so One Eye Open is a little more pronounced working
alongside the emo relatives of the Craftworlders. However, if you're
running Deathwing lists then use these guys as distractions while you
get your Deathwing into position!
Necrons: Another shooty list aside from Tau and Guards. Necrons can
provide you a catacomb command barge beatstick, something
sufficiently terrifying to keep your enemy from moving into assault for
an extra round or two (especially if they're using an expensive HQ
choice). Necron troops choices can serve as highly efficient response
groups, combining four haywire shots and ten rapid-fire gauss zaps
with one of the most universally effective fliers in the game for a
meager 190 points. Would you rather have two terminators and one
assault cannon, or one annihilation barge (90 points for a tesla
destructor, tesla cannon, and AV13 until they start beating on it)? To put
the cherry on top, none of these units really need or want to be close to
the rest of your army, so you can easily step around the one eye open
rule. Want an ally that can give you your daily doses of speed, antiarmor, and AP2 melee without stealing all your thunder(points)? Look
no further than these badass space Egyptians.
Orks: Want a horde? The orks love pushy melee fighting. Though they
might be slow, a footslogged group of standard ork boys can shield
your more powerful and expensive units with a wall of cheap meat.
They'll provide a screen against assaults (which your troops can then
jump in on, if you so desire), and a 5+ cover save. The one eye open
rule is pretty irritating here, but 6th edition's premeasuring rule should
let you keep that separation, and even if you can't... well, it's only a 1/6
chance anyway, and it doesn't occur in melee combat.
Tyranids: If you want a horde army, Orks just do it better. The new
releases for Tyranids means that One Eye Open isn't as much of an
issue as you can just deepstrike all your Tyranid stuff in with their bioorganic drop pods and shit.
Other Detachments[edit]
Inquisition (Battle Brothers)[edit]
If you don't care about the fluff, why haven't you taken it yet? Seriously, you
get 3 Elites Choices (Read: 3 units of Inquisitorial Henchmen) and each of
them can take a transport like a Rhino, or a Chimera or a Land Raider or a
Valkyrie. That makes it worth it right up front, but with the right load out, they
can fill holes in your army, so this should be your first choice right here.
a 2D6 jump, and limited space to escape with given how they'll be hiding at
the back like sissies. Plus, they're shit at killing the Knight.
Legion of the Damned (Battle Brothers)[edit]
Because it is now a Codex in its own right, Dark Angels can troll themselves
by taking mysterious Astartes who appear out of nowhere and disappear
just as quickly. You couldn't take them before, so now this is a treat. Like
the Inquisition codex, the LotD can be taken as an additional detachment
separate from the Allied detachment. More over, the detachment has a min
of 1 elite, so there is no unit taxes, as you pay for exactly what you want.
You only have one unit, but you can bring up to 4 of them. You get Fear,
Fearless, Slow and Purposeful, 3++, and all shooting Ignores Cover. Yes,
all of it, including any special or heavy weapons. They are also one of the 2
units that can take Heavy Flamers. As a Dark Angel you will be used to
things Deep Striking, meaning you can one-two punch a combination
following a Deathwing Assault. On the downside they can't be joined by
Independent Characters (not that you'd need to) and you don't care about
chapter tactics, since that is a vanilla thing. Unfortunately everything these
guys do, your Deathwing can also do and in some cases do better, and in
many cases your terminators can score while 3++ is just as vulnerable to
high volumes of high AP fire (lasguns/bolters) as Greenwing are. The big
draw here is Ignores Cover, which when coupled with the flexible armament
of a tactical squad essentially makes them just that: A very good alternative
to a Tactical Squad.
then again, what in this game doesn't?) but can tank low volume high
power hits. Sure, you can minmax a list and leave them at home but
how many of you are playing in world class tournaments and need
1d4chan tactics? They are good, but not uber. Most of all, they are fun.
Pro-Tip: You can use them as mobile cover for any troops and/or
assault screens, especially if they have the Animus and/or rolled
Spectral Bulwark.
Do you like Plasma Spam? Do you hate how your opponent always hug
cover against your Plasma guns? These guys can take Plasma
Cannons and ignore cover. Have them come in when your opponent
scurries their heavy infantry into cover, then as he gloats about your
cannons becoming expensive frag missiles, poof these guys in and
remind him of their Ignores Cover ability.
Linked Heavy Bolter and Assault Cannon, modelling the passenger guy with
a Sword to represent Sammael.
Tactics[edit]
Greenwing is now so much more attractive thanks to the Lion's Blade Strike
Force and the benefits a Demi-Company gives you (BS3/4 overwatch?
Well, shoot my monkey!).
Ravenwing are awesome, with Relentless Grav-Guns and re-rollable
Jinking. Shares the spot with White Scars for the most badass bikers in the
Imperium, and they still have all their old tricks from the last Codex (Teleport
Homers everywhere, a Land Speeder granting your units mobile Stealth).
As a standard ravenwing boilerplate start with an Interrogator Chaplain on a
bike with a shroud and mace of redemption. Then add a Ravenwing
command squad at 6 men strong. Boom. A nice unit for moving around the
board making plasma vapor and looking for a fight while your troops move
into position.
Deathwing are the only part of this equation that probably lost more than
was given with the current Codex, no more Turn 1 Deepstriking, nor the
ability to choose when you Deepstrike without rolling for it. You now have to
take the Deathwing Strike Force detachment and the Ravenwing Attack
Squadron formation or the Ravenwing Strike Force detachment for the
latter ability. Still, the old stratagems work.
Psychic[edit]
The Dark Angels have access to almost all rulebook powers, their unique
Interromancy discipline, and the 4 new disciplines from the Angels of Death
Supplement. The final 4 are overpowered bullshit to get sales for GW,
hm...that sounds familiar... Good choices are:
Geokinesis: You can fucking move any piece of terrain around. This
allows you to juggle objectives over to you. Thanks GW.
Librarius: It has a power that lets an entire unit re-roll saving throws. A
T5, 2+, 3++ unit with that power on it will not go away and will kill
everything in its path. Thanks GW.
Sanctic Daemonology: If you luck out and roll Sanctuary, you just may
be able to get a 3++ with a Conversion Field, or cast with a unit of
Deathwing Knights for a T5, 2++ unit.Hammerhand is good too.
However, beware of rolling Perils on any doubles when trying to
manifest powers!!!
Army Variants[edit]
Land, Sea, and Air: A classic set-up from the 6th Edition Codex. 2+
squads of Ravenwing Bikes (1 Scouting up the field, the other
Outflanking), some Deathwing Terminators, and Tactical Marines and
Devastators lining up for long ranged support. This approach gives you
speed and resilient units, precision deepstriking from Ravenwing
Teleport Homers while your Devastators back you up with Missile
Launchers, and your Tactical Marines take the objectives and dare the
enemy to dig out BS2 Overwatching, Stubborn SPEHS MUHREENS.
Hit them from the land (Greenwing), Sea (Ravenwing), and Air
(Deathwing). A really good optional thing to do is to give 2 Bikers Gravguns, and your sarge a Combi-Grave in each of your Ravenwing
Squads since Bikers have Relentless. For 8 Melta bombs extra per
squad, 9 shots that hit on 3s wounding on 3+ or 2+ and Concussing a
Monstrous Creature before charging is damn well worth it. Even better
if you concussed the MC as it was charging thanks to BS2 Overwatch.
with Dark Talons and an Imperial Bastion with Comms Relay to hide
behind. Pray your Librarian survives while staying out of LoS with a 2+
Cover Save. Keep the Techmarine on the Comm's Relay. Hopefully
once you've survived to turn 2, roll some dice, look up, and smirk.
Watch as fucktons of flying Vindicators that can potentially dish out the
big "D" fly on and pulverize the shit out of the enemy. This is by no
means tactically sound, and any enemy with decent AA (Tau) or
Gunships (Vendetta Squadrons, Storm Talons) will smash your face in.
Remember to play this if it works.
Speeder Spear: 6th Edition tactic, made surprisingly delicious with the
Ravenwing Support Squadron formation.