Dark Angels

Hey, this is a bit premature, as the codex is coming out soon, but figured with all the news and leaks some stuff about them should be shared.

Intro to the Dark Angels
Let me start by saying that I really don't know what to do with them. Personally, I think their models are cool, and they've got some awesome abilities, but I don't like their back story  and their play style is...weird. Allow me to explain. The Dark Angels are one of the founding Chapters (also one of the few that use the Codex Astartes for tp. That gets them cool points.), but didn't take part in the Heresy on either side, because they were slow to move. Their Primarch is named Lion'El Johnson, and he's a crappy leader. To further the whole crappy leader image, when the Heresy broke out, he decided to go, but stopped at home to leave his corrupt second-in-command (which there is question of whether he knew or not about that), and pretty much all the disloyal troops on his home planet. Missed the Heresy, came back, and Luthor (his #2 man) took control of the planet. So Johnson blew it up, big climatic sword fight, Johnson gets mortally wounded, blah blah blah. Now they hunt down the traitors that escaped. It's pretty cliche, and I'm not really a big fan of the story, because it comes down to Johnson being either a jerk, or incompetent, with his choices.

Force Composition:
Now, forces are usually spearheaded by either their 1st company, Deathwing, or their 2nd company, Ravenwing. Deathwing is Terminators. Ravenwing is Space Marine Bikes and Land Speeders. My issue is that they have 2 almost completely diametrically opposed methods of use, both are fairly expensive (points wise), and very little middle ground. But they do have perks. In previous editions, you could use Belial or Sammael, and they would make Deathwing Terminators or Ravenwing Attack Squadrons, respectively, as Troops. The rumor mill is saying the new codex will allow Deathwing or Ravenwing Commanders. Now to get into the rules and such. Keep in mind, with the new codex coming out, this may all be subject to change.

First off, the units mentioned will only be the ones with significant difference from Codex: Space Marines. As of writing this, they still get normal Dreadnoughts, Techmarines, Scouts, Tac squads, Assault squads, Dev Squads, Tanks, and Dedicated Transports. They get Company Veterans Squads, but I'm going to assume that's going to be replaced with other, more fan-service units, and generally not worth discussion. Second, Deathwing Terminators and Ravenwing Attack Squadrons may use the Combat Squad rules. Third, Dark Angels are, from what I see, supposed to be used with either Belial or Sammael.

Deathwing Terminators:

• They act as either Terminators or Assault Terminators on a model-by-model basis.
• Fearless
• Deathwing Assault: you may put them in Reserve, and Deep Strike half of your units (rounded up) on your first turn, just like Drop Pod Assault rules.

Combine all this with the ability to make them Troops choices (and therefore take and hold objectives), this is a huge improvement on the classic Terminator squad. They have greater tactical flexibility, and, as objective holders, give you a defense that's going to be pretty tough to get through. The downside is that they're very expensive.

Ravenwing Attack Squadron:
They're the same as a regular SM Bike Squadron, but with a few differences:

• Scouts (rumor states they'll get Skilled Riders, unsure if this will happen, or if this will be in addition to, or will replace Scouts)
• Fearless
• Maxes out with 6 regular bikes, 2 Attack Bikes, and a Land Speeder. When they Combat Squad, that allows them to break up into 3 separate entities (2 Squads of 3 Bikes/1 Attack Bike, and a Land Speeder)

This one is more of a significant departure from their Codex counterpart. The extra Attack Bikes and Land Speeder, while creating a significantly more expensive unit overall, give you much more firepower. As Troops, that gives you 3 very able, small units, to hold down the fort. Especially with good backup. I've stated before that Space Marine Bikes are a bit of a glass cannon, these guys definitely bring more to the fight.

New Stuff, Rumors, and Leaks:

Ravenwing Support Squadron:

It's essentially a Land Speeder Squadron, but with a couple of changes:

• Maxes out with 5 Speeders.
• May only take 1 Typhoon and 1 Tornado

Whereas the previous squads are usually just improvements on the original, the Support Squadron is more of a mixed bag. the 5 Speeder max gives you more firepower on the move, and more models, but the Typhoon and Tornado limit, well, limits your flexibility. As I have previously shown, there's lots of ways to set up a Squadron, but this kind of forces you to purpose-build it, without much ability for dual-purposing (example: you build a straight tank-hunter Squadron, you are banking on one Typhoon for anti-Infantry weapons). Personally, I expect them to either make them regular Land Speeder Squadrons, change the number of Typhoons and Tornadoes, or reduce the number of Speeders, but allow you to take Land Speeder Vengeances or Darkshrouds. More on that in a minute.

Librarian Powers:

I'm not going over them individually, but they're a hell of a lot better than Codex SM.

Newspangled Stuffs:

Alright, not sure how much of this will change, but here goes.

Deathwing Knights:

• Equipped with Storm Sheilds and power weapons specifically designed to kill Chaos Space Marines.
• Have abilities that allow them to be tougher. No idea how, though.
• There's a rumor about some special S10/AP2 attack that they can do.
• Personal thoughts: cool unit, probably expensive, probably not much of a game-changer, though. Lack of ranged weapons makes me cautious, and I don't trust the Dice Gods more than I have to.

Ravenwing Black Knights:

• Fast Attack, bikers, no idea aside from that.

Dark Talon/Nephilim:

• Dual Kit (I hate these, purely because I think it's laziness in their art team)
• Fast Attack Skimmer/Flyer
• Dark Talon looks to be almost pure Crowd Control, with Hurricane Bolters and other new weapons that aren't being fully revealed
• Nephilim looks Anti-Tank, with Heavy Bolters, and Lascannons that can be replaced with Mega Bolters and missiles

Land Speeder Vengeance/Darkshroud:

• Vengeance is Heavy Support, Darkshroud Fast Attack
• Heavy Bolter/Assault Cannon and some newfangled plasma gun (Vengeance)/something that gives buffs to nearby units (Darkshroud)

My Thoughts on Playing:

I think they already were meant to be played with either with the Ravenwing, and hard and fast, or with the Deathwing, and slow and purposeful. My prediction is that with the new Codex, it's going to stray even farther from the middle-of-the-road abilities, to be focused on one side or the other, with a couple of token units to make up for it. Both would make a pretty decent defensive-to-midfield army. The only problem is you're going to have to be extra careful with your points, as I do predict everything will have a high cost. If you can figure out a good balance between them, you could build a force to be reckoned with.

Thoughts on Playing Against:

This is fairly complex, as there's two styles to play against. With either, I honestly suggest playing numbers. There's a lot of firepower to compete with, so try and play hard and aggressive. Take out the heavier vehicles and transports as soon as possible, and what's left are all usually light Skimmers and Infantry (and small numbers of them, at that). Try to move in quickly for the kill. Terminators and Bikes are tough, but, if you wear them down with lots of focused firepower before going in for the kill with massively superior numbers, they will fall pretty quickly. If they manage to get the objective first, let them have it for a while, while you whittle them down to a more manageable size.

On crazy new stuff for the Space Marines:

Not sure how I feel about this, I just think it needs to be tossed out there. Between the Blood Angels Codex and this one, we're seeing a lot of new, crazy stuff come out for variant Space Marines. I'm still going to complain about the Space Wolves kinda getting screwed on that end, we got the Thunderwolf Cavalry and Lone Wolves, while losing the ability to field Leman Russ tanks. I mean, come on, they're named after our Primarch. Anyways, I'm hoping this means they will move the story forward, and we will see more new stuff throughout the Space Marines either in this edition or the next one. I'm worried that we won't, and the "splinter" Space Marine Chapters will continue to be less and less, well, Space Marine-ey.

Anyways, that's all I have. I will check in again when I can.

JaegerWolf