Warhammer 40,000/5th Edition Tactics/Dark Angels

This is an old Edition's tactics. 6th Edition Tactics are here.

Why Play Dark Angels

Because you have the following fetishes: Land raiders, terminators, and robes. Back in the day, they had access to cheap Plasma Cannons, which were fun-as-fuck and a great advantage to have, but as of the new codex update, they are now painfully behind-the-times. Sadly, since the Dark Angels are not the Ultramarines, they are not likely to see an update until the next edition thanks to this faggot. UPDATE: True enough, their new codex was delayed until January 2013, six months into 6th Edition. So... WATCH THIS SPACE, NEW 6TH EDITION CODEX TACTICS TO FOLLOW SOON!

That said, you do get some cool stuff, and the latest FAQ did give a bit of a boost to deathwing armies, but now with all the newer Space Marine codicies in place, you are underpowered, undergunned, and outnumbered. And they do everything better than you. At least when you get outclassed, you're still looking at least twice as cool as the other Marine armies.

But mostly fluff, robes, and the LAST JETBIKE IN THE IMPERIUM AND IT HAS A FRIGGIN PLASMA CANNON STRAPPED ONTO THAT BAD BOY. HELL YEAH.

Unit Analysis

HQ

-Azrael, Supreme Grandmaster- He's the boss. Like of the Dark Angels LEGION. Not Chapter. LEGION. He controls ALL the Dark Angel Successors. ALL. Because the High Lords of Terra were like "We don't like Legions, you guys break up into Chapters", the Dark Angels being the sneaky little ambiguous dudes they are, loopholed themselves and their pals into remaining as a Legion in command structure.

Like a certain other chapter which never gets called out for it, due to help from a higher power.

On the tabletop however, he costs almost as much as a Land Raider, but give him a banner upgrade, and ta-daaaa... Land Raider pricetag. Apart from 4 Wounds and 4 base attacks his statline is mediocre. However, he is Fearless, comes with Rites of Battle, which lets other squaddies use his Leadership, comes with a 2+ save, and a 4+ Invulnerable Save to him, and his lovely little squad. So you know, that's kinda nice. He also comes strapped with a Str6 Master-crafted Power Sword, cuz he's like...the boss. Oh, and he comes decked with a master-crafted combi-plasma as well. His banner for 15 points gives +1 Attacks to the Standard Bearer's unit, and lets Dark Angels re-roll failed Morale and Pinning tests. He brings a lot, and was useful back when he was great, but in games under 2000 points, it's better to leave him alone. Will utterly wreak things that aren't ICs in combat though.

-Master Sammael of the Ravenwing - He. Flies. On. An. IMPERIAL JETBIKE. Comes with Adamantine Mantle which is basically ETERNAL WARRIOR in wicked flapping cape form. Comes with an Iron Halo, because for whatever reason. He swings a master crafted sword on a Jetbike, because he's just THAT pimpin'. Oh, did I mention, he can bring a FLYING LAND RAIDER to the table? Well...not really, but it's a Land Speeder with AV14 on the front and the side with AV10 in the rear, comes with Twin-linked Heavy Bolter and a twin-linked assault cannon. Course...I'm not really sure why you would pick that over the LAST FUNCTIONAL JETBIKE IN THE IMPERIUM THAT COMES WITH A PLASMA CANNON. Oh, and he makes bikes troops. Tada.

-Master Belial of the Deathwing - On paper he's a vanilla Company Master in terminator armour, but with the latest FAQ/Errata on games Workshop's site he has stepped up a bit. He's armed with your choice of a master crafted sword + storm bolter, a pair of lightning claws or a thunder hammer + storm shield. With any of these he's at a flat bargain price of 130pts. He also lets you take deathwing terminators as troop choices, So, you know - You can look at the FoC, and say BAM! I have 9 squads of Terminators. Half of which can deepstrike on Turn 1.

Lets a single deathwing terminator be upgraded to Apothecary (feel no pain), and another to hold the company banner (1+ A). These do not interfere with whatever you've armed them with. Give Belial the TH+SS loadout and have him ride with a deathwing terminator assault squad (upgraded with the above mentioned) in a Land Raider Crusader. Expensive, but excellent at objective taking and can take a lot of punishment with the 2+/3+/4+ saves.

Does not have a specified model, but that's okay - he's not a "real" special character. As such, he will be utterly curbstomped by "actual" special characters, unless he is riding around with his entourage. Even then, you'll be wanting a blessing from Lady Luck. Convert a model for him using assault terminator and grey knight terminator bits for the apothecary.

-Ezekiel, Grandmaster of Librarians - Only Librarian in the Dark Angels with 3 Wounds. I'm serious. He comes with a 2+ armor save, and a master-crafted force weapon, which is nice. But his master-crafted bolt pistol is a bit confusing. His Book of Salvation makes everything in 12 inches Fearless. Gets to use both Force Barrier, and Hellfire, BUT gets to use Mind Worm. It is a Heavy 1 shooting spell that has a range of 18 inches. Pick a model, have him roll leadership. If he fails, then...the guy falls to the ground gibbering like an idiot and gets removed from the game. Totally worthless unless you made enough sacrifices to the dice god, and somehow make the Despoiler break and down and cry and then subsequently get removed from the game. Course, the real question is, how the HELL DID YOU LET THE DESPOILER GET WITHIN 18 INCHES OF YOU. The thought of telling your opponent: "Hey, Abaddon just realized how much of an armless failure he is, so he's going to cry in a corner for the rest of the game" is hilarious though.

-Regular Dinky Librarians- Comes in 1 flavor, with 3 powers. Oh, and they only have 2 wounds. Force Barrier lets you make an invulnerable save for one thing, though attacks that ignore Invulnerable saves cannot be stopped by Force Barrier. Hellfire, the ONLY useful skill this guy has is a Strength 2d6-2 AP D6 flamer. Occasionally you get an awesome roll like Str 9 AP 2 Flamer template on something. Generally you are going to roll probably Str 4 to 5, AP 4 flamer template. Upgrade to Terminator. Or you know...leave him at home. Or on the shelf.

-Interrogator Chaplains and Chaplains - One has 3 wounds, the other has 2. One can become a Terminator, the other can't. Both can wear Jumppacks and ride bikes. 20 point difference. 1 Wound difference. Get the Interrogator.

-Company Master - Vanilla Master. Comes with a free Iron Halo. Apart from that...not many choices available. If you want a 2+, get Belial. If you want to fly, get an Interrogator. If you want to ride a bike, You obviously should have picked Sammael. If you wanna eat people in CC, you pick Azrael. There is no REAL reason to make a Company Master, unless you are trying to be fluffy or something, or just happen to be the one Dark Angels player who spams Tactical Squads, since Leadership 10 is golden. on a side note, according to the latest FAQ, he can take twin lightning claws, a storm bolter and a plasma pistol in one build.

-Techmarines - Technically not a HQ, but also technically not worth the points.

Elite

-Deathwing Terminators- You came here for the following reasons: Fearless, Deeptriking on turn 1, counting as scoring troops Terminators that can swap Powerfists and Stormbolters for Lightning Claws and Thunderhammers all willy-nilly. Aw yeeah. You can only have 5 in a squad though. Strangely. You can stick them in Land Raiders, stick them in Drop pods, just deepstrike them, have them footslog, you'll be outnumbered, outgunned, and most likely outclassed these days, but hey. Fearless Terminators squatting in cover on an objective, all carrying Lightning Claws, Thunderhammers and Powerfists? Yeah, good luck with that. Oh, and Dark Angel Thunderhammers strike at Initiative 1.5. The wording on the Thunderhammer entry allows Powerfists and Thunderhammers to hit first whenever a Thunderhammer has already whacked something. Good times. Now 6th Ed. has hit, my friend told me something very helpful; Power Swords are AP3. OH SHIT NIGGA, TERMINATORS FOR THE MOTHERFUCKING WIN.

-Dreadnought- Eh. IF you want to make your opponent hate you, because the Dreadnought is SOMEHOW the easiest thing to kill when you field a Deathwing army, be my guest. Be sure to bring the Venerable upgrade. Re-roll your penetration 6? Hmm, what's that? You rolled a 1? Maybe next time. However, they serve as an example of how dark angels are outclassed by current SM codicies, as the venerable upgrade DOES NOT increase it's base WS or BS (FAQd to now use the Spacemarine Venerable stats). One thing to note, however, is that a Venerable Dreadnought for the Vanillas is 165pts basic, while a Venerable Dreadnought with a Plasma Cannon and Missile Launcher for the Dark Angels is 155pts. Good times.

-Mortis Dreadnought- Used to be Dark Angels only, now anyone can field a rifleman dreadnought, some better than others. However, the Mortis clocks in at a scant 105 pts. and comes with two missile launchers, which can be upgraded to (two of each) twin-linked heavy bolters, autocannons or lascannons. Can also take extra armour and/or a drop pod. Take 2.

-Company Veterans- Imagine if you could crossbreed Vanguard and Sternguard, and then take away their special abilities. You get these mooks. Sure half of them can wield Lightning Claws, while the other half run around with combi-weapons, but for an extra attack, I'm not sure they are worth an Elite slot, nor the ability to pimp them out to crazy levels. In a non-Deathwing list, these guys are actually decent counter-charge units when outfitted correctly and not over the top.

-Scouts- Yes. I'm serious. Scouts are Elites. E-fucking-lites. Mind boggling right? But hey, these scouts can mix and match bolters, Str4 shotguns and Bolt pistol and Combat Knife. At WS and BS 4. Shocking I know. I never bring these to an actual game because they are hogging up a valuable Elite slot, that I could be using to spam even more Terminators or Dreadnoughts. Maybe in Combat Patrol if you're REALLY bored and don't feel like winning... or want to have a slight advantage in a Scout on Scout battle...

Troops

Tactical Squad - This is your ONLY Troops choice, unless you field Sammael for Troop Bikes, Belial for Terminator Troops, or Azrael for both. Or both for the DeathRaven Hybrid that somehow looks stupid on paper, can work better than imagined on the tabletop. This tactical squad can buy a lascannon for 20 points. It's a bargain considering it's somehow magically 15 points more expensive on Devastators. Must be some discount at the Munitorum. An interesting side note is that it's 5 points cheaper than the Vanilla Codex for a squad of 10 all armed with Boltguns.

Fast Attack

Assault Squad- I don't even know why these guys are in the codex. This is either a Bike/Terminator army. You aren't Blood Angels. Put them down!

Ravenwing Attack Squadron- Ah yeah. 3 Bikes, and you can add an Attack Bike and a Landspeeder, and 3 additional bikes. Because you JUST don't have enough dakka to deal with things amirite? Oh, and 2 of the bikers can bring a Meltagun or a Plasma Gun. Slap on a Meltabomb and a Powerfist on the Sergeant, and congrats. You now have a unit that can chew through infantry through sheer dakka, and blow up tanks by turn 2. Let alone being Fearless, Scouts and being able to split up these squads with Combat Squad. Combine with Assault Cannon loaded Deathwing Assault for extra fun. You can't Turbo Boost when you Scout, however. If you get turn 1, you could always just set up 12" on in order to get to the 24" mark before you commence your muhltiple, simuln-tehneous and devashtehting offensive deep strikes.

Ravenwing Support Squadron- It's a Landspeeder with a Heavy Bolter for 65 points. You can throw in 4 more Land Speeders. You can have a free Multi-Melta, too. A Typhoon for 10 points. Oh, and another Land Speeder can have either a Heavy Flamer or an Assault Cannon. You have 3 fun toys, and 2 leftover heavy bolters. Congrats. Some infantry squadron is about to get mowed the fuck down. For like 400 something points. But you will cause the death of one squad of infantry. Or if you're really bored, a tank.

Heavy Support

Devastators - Yeah, Tacticals are cheaper and you could probably fit a Predator on your HS slot so don't bother with them. It's kinda strange that Dark Angel Devastators aren't given anything special to set them apart from vanilla Devastators, considering the Dark Angels are known for their heavy use of Devastator marine squads. Also, that whole thing where the Lascannon is more expensive to give to these guys instead of the Tacticals...like that makes sense. (actually, it's to prevent Lascannon spam...it's both helpful and hindering at the same time)

Land Raider - Schizo version or Crusader version. Since the Deathwing has no viable concentrated Anti-Tank other than Lascannon/Missile Launcher Dreadnoughts or Lascannon Mortis Dreadnoughts, the Schizo is actually somewhat useful. Although, Crusaders are more entertaining since you can bumrush some poor fool with Thunderhammers and Chainfists and make mincemeat out pretty much anything. Oh, spam these. No take-all-comers list in the world has enough firepower to deal with 3 Crusaders filled with Angry Terminators. That are Fearless. And are Scoring Troops with Belial. Have fun.

Predator - You have options; Lascannon with Heavy Bolters, or Autocannon with Lascannons, or LASCANNONS EVERYWHERE or AUTOCANNON AND HEAVY BOLTERS EVERYWHERE. See? Options! Oh, or you can just run around with a vanilla Pred with no sponsons but a lone Autocannon.

Whirlwind - Your only real arty piece, makes most infantry shit brix. REALLY IMPORTANT to remember is that according to the FAQ, you decide which Missile you're firing each time you fire, as opposed to deciding at the beginning of the game. This ups it's usefulness by about a thousand since you can tailor it per turn.

Vindicator - Its S10 AP2 Large Blast is scary, and rightfully so, since even Terminators shit bricks when targeted by it. Unfortunately, it suffers the disadvantage of being 24" range. Thankfully, this is a 4th Ed. Codex, therefore, you get 4th Ed. Smoke Launchers rules. Say goodbye to being destroyed on turn 1 thanks to all penetrating hits becoming glances(smoke launchers have been errata'd to now provide a 4+ obscured save). You'll have to protect the sides somehow, but it still makes a great distraction. As with all vehicles, take 2.

Building your Army

Dark Angel Battleforce box if they still sell them, or the Ravenwing Battleforce if you want to go Ravenwing.

If they don't, figure out which you like better; Fearless Scoring Terminators or Fearless Scoring Bikes.

If you dare add in Tactical Squads, or Assault Squads, you are playing the wrong army, and bought the wrong Codex, because all other Space Marine Codices do everything better and cheaper than the Dark Angels.

Yeah, and sometimes you'll see shit like, "Hai guys I'm a Dark Angel. I'm using this here Space Wolves Codex. Those aren't wolves those are canine-ish lions! Yeah!" Smack those people for me.

Other times you just see people playing Dark Angels with the Vanilla Codex. These people are heretics.

Tactics

Land Raiders and Assault-y Termies. They see me rollin' they hatin'. Its cuz I'm bone white and termy.

Footslog spam Terminators, slap on Cyclones, laugh.

Mass Deepstrike on Turn 1, gun down everything in sight. Repeat on Turn 2+.

Bike rush with speeders, nuke the shit out of tanks and gun down as many infantry you can before they return the favor.

Combine both, do both.

This army is all about force multipliers. If you're going the Hammernator route with Land Raider Crusaders everywhere, take a Terminator Interrogator-Chaplain with Belial's "Command" squad, preferably with a Banner, if you have the points. Apothecary is mandatory. It may be overkill, but sometimes, overkill is nice. Especially when you're punching a Matt Ward army in the dick with 30/31 (30 with Banner, 31 if you took Belial with Twin Lightning Claws, which you should, because the extra attack at I5 is nice) Thunder Hammer attacks, which according to the wording on Thunder Hammer rules in the Codex strike first in the next Assault phase if a Thunder Hammer wounds a model but doesn't kill it ("...any model wounded by it and not killed may not attack again until Initiative 1 blows are struck in the next Assault phase..."). And good luck getting rid of a squad with 2+ saves and 3+ invuns, with Feel No Pain.

Keep a Librarian around somewhere if you happen to be facing Grey Knights, Eldar, Tyranids, etc. You'll be wanting that Psychic Hood.

Treat your squads like scalpels, NOT bludgeons.

If you're going the shooty Deathwing path, pick your targets carefully, and NEVER charge unless you know you're going to win, or if it's absolutely necessary; this is an army where even one casualty can make a difference.

If you win scream "OH DUDE WHAT A NOOB! HAHAHA I WON WITH THIS UNDERPOWERED AS SHIT CODEX AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA LOL DUUUUUUDE LOOOOOOOOOL HOW DID YOU LOSE?! LOOOOOOL" or remarks along those lines. In tournaments, "sportmanship" is a lie. You don't get no stinkin' trophies on sportsmanship. Hey, as a Dark Angel you ain't gonna win a trophy in the first place. Might as well celebrate the only damn game you probably you in the last 7 months. So in summary scream the above statement. Only if you win against Chaos Marines, or any Loyalist Marines. Dark Eldar and Tyranids too actually. Let's add Imperial Guard too. Hmm...Eldar too actually. Oh and Tau. ... I guess everyone. Except your fellow Dark Angels using the Actual Dark Angel Codex. Oh and Daemons. And maybe be nice to Sisters. Scorn the traitors who are playing with Vanilla Codex or the Space Wolf Codex.

If you lose simply state "yeah dude, this army book is just isn't cut out for competitive play, hell this was a casual game and I got creamed. Man I wish GW would get off their ass and do something about this."

An Alternative View of Tactical Squads

You can spam Marine squads in METAL BAWKSES with your choice of 1 heavy/special weapon (not 2, you get no free stuff here). A basic 10 man squad with Boltguns costs 165pts. Add in a Rhino, 200pts. Add in a Meltagun, Heavy Bolter, or Multi-Melta, that's 210pts. You now have 10 men in a Metal Bawks with a decent shooty upgrade that's ready to dig in on an objective, and providing you took a Company Master (Belial and Sammael included) or Azrael, they're Leadership 10. Now, Leadership 10 Marines camping on an objective with a Heavy Bolter could probably take some time to shift, what with the fact there's likely a Rhino blocking view of them. It's only 5pts less for the Vanillas, but they don't get Leadership 10, and it's worth paying 5pts for that. While we may be outnumbered, outgunned, etc, we can still be competitive in some form.