GENERAL STRATEGY & TACTICS |
HOW TO BUILD A DARK ANGELS ARMY By Unknown Master |
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The New Dark Angels The Dark Angels are the most secretive of all Space Marine Chapters in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Driven on by the shame of a terrible mistake made millennia ago, when half their number turned against the Emperor, they have deviated from the normal organization of Marine Chapters and now have very specialist formations within their armies, dedicated to their most secret mission of capturing renegade brethren known as the Fallen, for purposes only the highest ranks of their Inner Circle may truly understand. Across a thousand thousand worlds, the presence of their two most infamous Companies, the Deathwing and Ravenwing, bring terror and retribution to the enemies of their Emperor. Why Dark Angels? I started collecting my Dark Angels army when I first began playing Warhammer 40,000, for no other reason than they looked the easiest of the four main Chapters to paint! However, once I started collecting more models and began reading the background behind this army, I immediately became hooked by their zeal and need for secrecy. Throughout all the material that Games Workshop have published about the Dark Angels, they have always kept an air of mystery about this Chapter, never explaining too much and this has done more for maintaining their mystique and awe than an entire encyclopaedia could have done. So I had no little excitement when I received the newest Games Workshop publication, Codex: Dark Angels. Written for the latest edition of Warhammer 40,000, this book details all an aspiring Dark Angels Commander needs to know about fielding his army against the aliens and traitors that constantly plague the Imperium of Mankind. More importantly for the player, it includes the latest army list for the Dark Angels, complete with new rules for their unique units, the forces from the Ravenwing and Deathwing companies. I will take you through the process of building up and playing a small 1000 point Dark Angels force, which is really the minimum you should be looking at when planning a new army. This limit will give you a fair variety of troops, but should not put too much of a dent in your bank balance. There are two points to bear in mind first. To begin with, the army list is rather large with a great many units that are powerful, or simply look good on the tabletop, or both. There is no need to over extend yourself to begin with. I have seen far too many armies where people have just bought everything they could, glued everything together and. . . left it at that. It is far better to have a small but reasonably well painted army than a huge one that just consists of bare metal. Remember the old wargaming adage victory to he with the best painted models! Secondly, Codex: Dark Angels has the rather unique appeal that it is actually three army lists in one. You can field a 'normal' Dark Angels army, which is where I recommend you start and is what we will discuss here. But you also get the option of fielding pure Deathwing or Ravenwing armies. The Dark Angels normally have very dark green armour and livery, but the Deathwing, consisting purely of Marines in their heaviest Terminator armour, are all bone-white. The Ravenwing are all mounted on bikes or other fast attack craft and are pure black. The 'normal' Dark Angels army consists of their standard troops, but you are permitted to use forces from both the Deathwing and Ravenwing, providing an easy way to begin building up these armies without having to worry immediately about how to play such specialized units. Planning the Army Under the new edition of Warhammer 40,000, you are required to use certain types of basic troops before purchasing Elite and Heavy Support units. The whole purpose of this is to avoid people fielding wholly unrealistic armies comprising of all heavy weapons troopers, or tanks. For most missions you will play, this will mean you have to take two Troops choices and one HQ, which will be the leader of your force. These three units will form the core of your force for many games and will provide the basis for you to expand when you start adding more units to your army. There are three types of HQ that the Dark Angels have access to a Hero, a psychic Librarian and the zealous Interrogator-Chaplain. For small games, I normally take the Chaplain, as he is very well armed and armoured as standard, with the type of weaponry the other HQ characters have to pay through the nose for. His Crozius Arcanum will penetrate any armour an enemy may wear, whilst his Rosarius can protect him from even the heaviest artillery shell. For all these characters, you get the choice of taking a Command Squad, which gains you access to very specialized troop types, such as Apothecaries that can heal your troops, Standard Bearers that will get them fighting even harder and Techmarines that can maintain your vehicles. However, whilst this can form a very powerful close combat unit, all the specialist equipment can be very expensive, so under normal conditions, I would only recommend taking the Command Squad in larger games of at least 1500 points. Troops Make an Army Strong After you have chosen your HQ, you are required to choose two Troops units. The Dark Angels only have access to two, the Tactical and Scout Squads. Scouts are useful units that can infiltrate very close to the enemy, capturing objectives and threatening a flank very early on in the game. However, their use requires a fair amount of experience if they are not to be butchered by the first assault unit the enemy sends towards your lines so, again, in small games I tend to avoid them. The Tactical Squads, whilst undoubtedly the most basic troops you have access to, are also one of the finest units you can buy. They are designed to be able to handle almost any situation on the battlefield and whilst they may be masters of no one type of combat, they have a tremendous staying power when attacked and can hold their own against the finest assault troops any army has to offer, tying the enemy down and buying you time to move your other units into position. They have access to a very diverse set of weaponry which can be tailored to suit the army you will next face. For example, if you will be fighting an army with lots of lightly armoured troops, such as Eldar, Orks or Tyranids, then they can take weapons such as Heavy Bolters or Flamers which are guaranteed to cut through huge numbers of troops with each salvo. If you find yourself going against a more heavily armoured foe, such as Chaos or, the Emperor forbid, other Marine Chapters, then the wide range of armour piercing weapons such as Missile Launchers, Lascannon, Plasma Guns and Meltaguns will prove very useful. To reflect their flexibility, Tactical Squads can purchase these weapons much cheaper than any other type of unit, making these troops very valuable to any Marine Commander. As a last point, Tactical Squads also have the option to be taken into battle on board a Rhino APC, an option which is very worthwhile as so many of the missions in the new Warhammer 40,000 rely on manoeuvrability. The Rhino will also protect your Tactical Squads from incoming fire early in the game and if the vehicle itself meets an untimely demise, the Marines' Power Armour often allows them to clamber out of the wreckage unharmed. Unless you are looking to put a serious dent in your credit card balance, you are probably better off just putting one of your Tactical Squads in a Rhino to begin with. You always have the opportunity to expand your army later. Serious Firepower Now you have bought all your compulsory units, you can start looking at the more specialized and powerful units in the Dark Angels armoury. Marines, in general, have very expensive troops and being a Dark Angel often exasperates this problem as their units often tend to have much higher points costs than their equivalents in other Marine armies. The majority of armies in Warhammer 40,000 can usually purchase all their compulsory units for less than 300 points. Depending on the exact options you pick for yours, you may already have spent half of your 1000 points allowance! However, any Marine army can be a very powerful instrument of war when used properly though you will always be outnumbered on the battlefield, your basic troops have the strength and the armour to take a lot of punishment before they go down. Now we will take a look on how to even the odds further. The more specialized units come in three categories, Elites, Fast Attack and Heavy Support. The Dark Angels have access to a great many units and I will not go through them all here. In a Marine army, you are only likely to have two or three of these units anyway in a 1000 point game, so I will concentrate on those that will serve you best in small battles. The first thing you should consider is some very serious firepower to support your Tactical Squads as they make their way across the field of battle and for this we turn to, naturally, the Heavy Support section. In an army such as the one we are building up here, you will not be able to go for the biggest and most powerful tanks around as that will mean you will not be able take anything else, they are simply too expensive. Something more modest is required. A Devastator Squad, all armed with heavy weapons will be able to lay down a withering fire at range that will have your enemy running for cover right from the start of the game. As with the Tactical Squads, the Devastators can be tailored to fight specific armies. If you are expecting to face a lot of Imperial Guard tanks, for example, four tank-busting Lascannon will make short work of any armoured vehicle. On the other hand, a huge Tyranid assault can be stopped in its tracks when the shells of four Heavy Bolters start to tear into their flanks. Alternatively, if you are beginning to get bored painting Marine infantry, a Predator Fast Assault Tank carries as much weaponry as a typical Devastator Squad and is, of course, much more heavily armoured. The only note of caution is that the Devastator Squad has the strength of numbers and can take advantage of terrain for cover. A Predator can be destroyed by one lucky shot. |
