The perks of playing Dark Angels

[angelblade]

With the wolves at our door and the panic of codex creep setting in its often hard to see the perks of our older codex over the shiny stuff given to the newer dexs, but i will try now to "show off" if you will some of the perks (and belive me they are good) that playing the unforgiven offers.

first i will start at the top with our HQ's

azreal : in my opinion he is the best chapter master out there atm, its possible when combined with a command squad and his banner to get 7 attacks out of him on the charge and at strength 6 there is very littel that will stand in his way, also the benifits he gives to his squad with the lion helm (4+ invun for all hes squad m8s) mean that you can take down targets such as faster striking eldar nastys without to much worry as you can garantee there will be some of your squad left to make them cry his pointscost is high at 225pts but worth it in my opinion

Belial: people knock him alot saying hes underpowerd for a special char, but lets take a different look at him lets see him as a captain, if you tryed to make the same guy in the SM or BA codex he would cost alot more than his meager 130 points + the ability to talor him for free to any situation "that demon prince worrying you well give him TH/SS befor the game, lots of gribblys to kill well give him twin lightning claws" but that is nouthing when he lets u take the ausome deathwing as troops "try shifting terminators off your objective after they have deepstriked onto it on T1" + the terminator banner is amazing in a unit full of lightning claws 5 attacks each on the charge and the apothicary being in the old style is amazing ignore 1 faild save per turn (any save!!!!)*small print: dosent work aginst stuff that would cause inst death but its still ausome

sammael: plasma cannon wielding jetbike riding insane biker dude of death thats immune to instant death dont think i need to say any more oh and bikes + attack bikes + landspeeders as troops

Ezekiel : im afraid im beaten on him he isnt worth his points im afraid

interigator and normal chaplain : our chaplians are still WS, BS and I 5 so there actualy good in assault unlike our rarly seen cousins in the SM codex

company master: can have twin claws a combi weapon and a plasma pistol on the same guy for 150pts nuf said in my opinion its a bargin compared to the SM codex

librarian: there a bit to random for my tasts with no invunerable save there flamer power is nice when it works though

next lets talk about our elites

we have the deathwing the big boys sure SMs can deepstrike T1 but not like us there just somthing far more scary about deathwing assault than the drop pods, not to mention if you have taken belial then you can capture almost all the objectives on the board on T1 + DW termies are fearless normal termies arnt and we can mix wepons in squads giving us great utility

are dreadnoughts are a bargin at 125pts with all but the lascannon weapon upgrade being free plasma cannon dreds do rock the realy do

company vets are a bit exspensive for my tastes but 3 power weapons when applyed correctly can turn a game around

scouts are elites for us but we do get the bs4 ws 4 versions which does make a big differance when theres 10 of them with sniper rifles

our troops are pritty bog standerd only deviance is our 5 man squads can still have a special weapon so are actualy worth taking

now our fast attack the men in black them selves the raven wing
we have possible the most amazing fast attack ever if you dont take sam for 1 fast attack slot u get 6 bikers 1 speeder and 1 attack bike that can be all broken down through combat squads thats 18 bikers 3 speeders and 3 attack bikes for 3 fast attack slots, in the SM codex that would be 9 slots

+ the bikes are fearless and have scout

a few over view points
our comanders still ahve rites of battel this sint such a big deal as alot of our stuff is fearless which combines to make darkangels a very tough army to break

sorry if ive made any spelling mistakes or punctuation errors im dyslexic it took me forever to write all this lol :P

[Diagnosis Ninja]

Nice to see someone making Lemonade from the DA Codex, instead of biting into the lemon and complaining

At the end of the day, I still prefer the DA Marines, even if they're 20 points more expensive per squad. So what? The battle is decided with tactics, not list efficiency, averages and math hammer. On top of that, we still get Rites of Battle, have nice Librarian powers, even if the offensive one is pretty random, and still have Combat Squads and ATSKNF. Good stuff ^^

[Aenir]

I would have to disagree about ezekiel, it actually happens that other than belial, ezekiel is my most used character, i plop him behind some cover, and when a big monster comes out, you hit 'em with mind worm, Ive gotten rid of a carnifex, and the Nightbringer that way. I will admit as a normal character hes a bit weak, but the ability to instantly remove a model is gold.

Oh, you have a unit with a nasty character charging me?

well *rolls dice* make a test or you no longer have that character

[Inquisitor Soren]

I gotta admit I'm in love with Ezekiel, in the few small games I've played with my few DAs he's absorbed more fire power than a land raider, twice over, passing numerous saves while killing a Emperor's Champion, Necron Lord (without scythe), and a Battle Suit Commander, in admitidly different games.

The DA codex still has a few tricks the special weapon in a 5-man sqaud actually being fairly useful in smaller games, my only gripe happens to be with the ravenwing in the lack of assault cannons, though I can't say they are bad I wish I could have more than a handful.

DA Chaplins are still wonderful, wonderful things and the look on your friends face the first time they see his stats is enough to brighten your day. The debate between my friends and myself is updating all the rules in the codex to be in line with codex SM, equipment at the very least, though is an interesting concept with TH/SS combo, one that makes me smile, I think we will probably stay the way we are now.

I do thnk Sam is probbly a better buy on the speeder though, AV 14 speeders with 4+ Dodge are the things dreams are made out of...

[Kais10]

I love my DA, but sometimes I wish we had some rules updates to wargear such as cyclone missile launcher (it has 2 shots now I believe? correct me if I'mwrong, don'thave codex in front of me), TH/SS is probably the most obviously debated difference between C:SM and DA wargear, and I am not entirely sure whether I would prefer having the old apoth. rules vs the new ones as FNP is rather scary (especially if you take belial's termi-apoth upgrade).

However, I do love the advantages of DW assault and the fact that our bikers carry around free teleport homers! Also, you have to love the stat line differences mentioned by angelblade. All in all, who wouldnt love to see us get updated rules! but then again we have strengths,in terms of DW and RW, which far outweigh the weaknesses.

[Diagnosis Ninja]

Sammael's Land Speeder/Raider is awesome. I absolutely love it. Usually acts as the centre of my fireline if I play Ravenwing.

Might have to try out Ezekiel if he's as good as you guys say Might be worth a test or two.

[Denzark]

I like this post. I was worried at first - you know the way a long topic displays just the first few words? All I could see was 'the perks of playing dark...' I was therefore worried this was going to be another dark eldar diatribe.

Good to see that you have not whined once about the age of the codex and are just getting on with it bringing death to the emperor's enemies.

The only way you could have improved (for my tuppence' worth) would have been to finish in large point like this:

SO IN YOUR FACES XENOS SCUM I WILL CLEANSE YOUR FILTH IN PURGE FIRES

[Chumbalaya]

Leomonade without sugar is just as sour.

Azrael: WS5, no eternal warrior, command squads are only 5 models with no FNP and the Apothecary doesn't work in combat. Decent with company Vets, but they've got nothing on Sternguard.

Belial: Decent enough, cheap and makes Terminators scoring with an Apothecary to boot. Too bad SW get Termies as Troops supposedly, better Terminators at that.

Sammael: Best HQ in the book, truly unique and quite useful.

Ezekiel: Crap. No invulnerable beyond using up his only power that turn (and it only stops 1 wound), Mind Worm requires him to sit still and just doesn't work since anything worth killing has high Ld. His only use is a Ld10 hood with unlimited range, too bad we can get an allied Inquisitor Lord with that and more.

(Interrogator) Chaplain: Still WS5 and I5, so that's great. Beyond Sammael and Belial, the only good HQ.

Master: WS5, too pricey and too few options. Relic Blade and Storm Shield >> anything he's got.

Librarian: Crap.

Company Vets: Little bit of everything, not good at one of them.

DW: Scoring is nice, but Fearless, small squad size, and crappy versions of cyclones and storm shields hurt them severely.

RW: Fearless is TERRIBLE for them. Why the HELL can't they turbo-boost when scouting? Why the HELL doesn't the Speeder Deep Strike? Why the HELL do they cost so damn much? Scoring is nice, too bad marines get it too.

Everything else: More expensive than vanilla, no combat tactics, fewer options, and in some cases worse rules (Techmarines, Land Raiders, Drop Pods). It's like playing with a handicap.

It's a terrible book from a gameplay perspective and the only reason I've stuck with it is because of Deathwing, but if Wolves get that too I'm just done.

[EmperorEternalXIX]

One boon often overlooked in the DA book is that they can take speeders in squadrons of 5. They can only have one weapon, but with hit allocation rules for squadrons this would be an extremely survivable unit...not to mention they come with free multimeltas or heavy bolters. It's 325 points, but after witnessing my own SM codex speeders last the whole game (and indeed, save me many games, by moving flat out to contest) I would definitely go for it.

The synergy between using bikes and using terminators is awesome in the dark angels book. I used to use Belial and 3 squads of terminators with a biker squad to bring them down early and in the enemy's face. They were hard enough to dislodge but they were always flanked by my three tactical squads and company veterans; won me many games.

I always had a slight shortage of anti-tank, but the idea of using 5 multi-melta toting speeders might have solved that problem, too bad I came up with it after I switched books.

The vets are often overlooked. The DA FAQ added a boatload of options to them. I believe they can now ALL be equipped with special weapons like power weapons or combi-weapons. They are also a lot cheaper than comparable vanguard squads, making them more viable.

[DarkLink]

One guy in our gaming group plays Dark Angels, and won one of our tournaments with them. It was 1000pts (we like the smaller point games, we can get in 5-6 games in a day, and you have to be very careful about what you bring, as you can't splurge on anything), and Dark Angels have the advantage of being able to take 5man squads with a special. He had a few predators, three or four 5 man tacticals with specials in razorbacks, and Sammael. He was able to cram in so many light vehicles with autocannons and heavy bolters, as well as his small squads with meltas and flamers, that it was a better list than could be had in the SM dex.