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

Why Play Dark Angels

Because you have the following fetishes: Land raiders, terminators, and robes.

Oh, you get some cool stuff, but now with all the other Space Marine updates, you are now underpowered, undergunned, and outnumbered. And they do everything better than you.

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.

Boy, I hope you have lots of disposable income.

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. 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 alot, 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 Admantine Mantle which is basically ETERNAL WARRIOR in a wicked flapping cape. Comes with an Iron Halo, because for whatever reason. Swings a mastercrafted 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 it 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. Ta daa.

-Master Belial of the Deathwing - Just you standard Terminator Captain with a mastercrafted sword, with a +1 Attack Banner. Oh, lets Terminators be counted as troops. 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. Ding ding ding. For 130 points, he's a bargain. Utterly useless against actual "real" ICs but, still useful and cheap.

-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.

-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. Oh, and wait for it...attacks that ignore Invulnerable saves cannot be stopped by Force Barrier. So. It does jack diddly. 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.

-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.

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