Belial

And that's how he rolls!

Belial is the Grand Master of the Deathwing, or First Captain of the Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter. While getting less screen time (page time?) than Azrael and Sammael, Belial is perhaps the most popular HQ choice a Dark Angels Army can field. This is possibly because Dark Angels players are as as flagellant as 40k players come, and Belial is the most emo motherfucker in an army known for being emo. That, or terminators are fucking cool and fielding armies of nothing but them makes us all mad fucking Blood Angel spacevampirefags get all the glory in Space Hulk.

History

Belial (which is a Hebrew idiom for a "worthless man", a name which could not be more ironic) has a career that would fill volumes if the Dark Angels kept such records, due to most of it being about hunting the Fallen Angels A LIFETIME OF LOYAL SERVICE TO THE EMPEROR--EXTRA EMPHASIS ON THE LOYAL PART--BEING ITS OWN REWARD. But we shall explore it anyway...

Raised on the Feudal World of Bregundia, born the son of the town magister, he was forbidden from joining the tournaments of hopeful children, competing to earn a place in the Dark Angels when the recruiters came. So he did what any sensible person would do... completely ignore his father and steal the armour of a Knight to compete in the games, where he kicked everyone's asses. Then, when the Dark Angel's chaplain ordered him to remove his helmet and reveal himself, Belial refused (for fear of upsetting his father... WAY to go kid!) and declared he would rather fight the chaplain instead. Surprisingly, the duel lasted for SEVEN minutes before Belial inevitably lost. (an AMAZING feat regardless, as Belial was ELEVEN YEARS OLD whilst the Chaplain was... well... a Space Marine Chaplain).

Thus was a new recruit secured for the Dark Angels anyway. Years later when Belial had completed his induction to the chapter and was promoted to full battle brother, his first act was to challenge the chaplain to a rematch, which he won in under a minute.

Belial steadily raised his way through the ranks and after securing his place in the Deathwing ended up as a Brother-Sergeant in the Third Company, where his squad were renowned as ruthless perfectionists; where every missed bolter shot or parried blow is seen as a failure equal to losing the entire battle. Among his most famous exploits were the destruction of the Black Crusade of Furion, personally killing the Chaos Lord of Khorne in single combat, earning his promotion to Company Master of the Third Company and the Sword of Silence, being given to him by Azrael to honour the Chapter's greatest warrior.

Eventually, the Third Company was on layover at Piscina IV after the Rock had picked up load of aspirants from neighboring Piscina V when WAAAGH Ghazghkull showed up and proceed to lay waste to everything it could find. For two weeks Belial and the Third Company managed to hold off the Beast of Armageddon until the Rock returned with the rest of the Chapter. It was by unanimous decision that Belial was promoted to Grand Master of the Deathwing upon the death of the previous Grand Master, his reputation as a harsh and perfecting taskmaster convinced the Inner Circle that no-one else was suitable for the job.

Tabletop

Belial allows you to convert Terminators from Elites into Troops. Belial is pretty impressive fine-on-paper-but-horrible-in-practice in Close Combat; as the Dark Angels are a shooty army, he usually needs a Deathwing squad to keep him alive, and anyone built for challenges will likely just Instant Death him. He has a rule allowing him to precision hit on a 5+ rather then a 6, and his own version of Mordrak's rule, preventing him from scattering when arriving from deep strike. In addition he comes with a teleporter homer built in, making him perfect for setting up further deep strikes. His base powersword has fleshbane letting him wound with the ease of a thunderhammer at regular initiative. In addition he can switch out his weapons for lightning claws, or a thunderhammer and stormshield for free. With the claws your trading 2+ wounding for re-rolls and +1A. The hammer and shield is usually a safe bet; while the sword strikes faster the hammer lets you instant death a lot of stuff with the safety of a 3++. Belial's big downside is that for 195 points, we were really hoping for something more impressive than a Fleshbane, 3-wound Termie Sergeant. Just a small reminder that a terminator captain doesn't cost a lot less than this though.