GENERAL STRATEGY & TACTICS |
HOW TO BUILD A DARK ANGELS ARMY By Unknown Master |
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For the last unit in your army, it is a good idea to take either a Deathwing Terminator Squad or one of the Ravenwing units, for two reasons. Firstly, this will provide you with a starting point for an all Ravenwing or all Deathwing army if you should decide to do one in the future. Second, these units are unique to the Dark Angels and will give your army a lot of character. Any Marine Chapter can take Tactical and Devastator Squads, or Predators, but when you field Deathwing or Ravenwing forces, you know you are playing a Dark Angels army. So which to choose? This will depend very much on how you see yourself playing your new army. The Deathwing Terminators are an extremely expensive unit, but they are comprised solely of the Chapter's veteran Marines and are granted the most powerful weaponry any infantry can carry. Power Armour will take a lot of abuse from the enemy, but only the heaviest of anti-tank weapons can penetrate Terminator Armour. Their weapons, whilst short ranged, are extremely powerful and are generally geared to clearing away large numbers of enemy infantry in a very short space of time. Once these Terminators reach close combat, things become even more hopeless for the enemy as their blows simply bounce off the heavy Terminator armour, whilst the Deathwing's Power Fists will cave in even the side of a tank. The Ravenwing are mounted on bikes and Land Speeders making them a far lighter force, but also fast and very manoeuvrable. The Ravenwing have the capability to lead an entire flank attack by themselves, using their speed to attack targets from behind cover, then retreating before the enemy is able to respond. Their speed also makes them an excellent force with which to take and hold any objectives that may be important in the missions you fight and it is for this reason alone that many Dark Angels players use them. The Bike Squadrons, like the Tactical Squads, are highly adaptable to the armies they are expected to fight against and have access to much of the same weaponry, though you should always expect your bikers to get into close combat at some point during the battle. Their speed often means that they will be taking the fight to the enemy and so they have to be able to look after themselves for a turn or two before the rest of your army can move to support them. Whether you choose a Deathwing or Ravenwing Squad, their role in the battle will be similar. The key to any victory for a Dark Angels player is to keep your forces close together and supporting each other at all times. You will always be outnumbered by your enemies so you must take all precautions to avoid having your units cut off from each other and destroyed piecemeal. Any other army can easily afford to have one of their units completely annihilated in a single turn's worth of firing. For a Marine player, this would be a tragedy, simply because each unit represents a rather large proportion of your force in points. Whether you chose a Deathwing or Ravenwing Squad, their role in the battle will be similar. They should be tasked with supporting your Tactical Squads as they advance towards the enemy, either on foot, or in a Rhino. Have Deathwing Terminators lead the Tacticals into battle, keeping the Tacticals on foot behind the Deathwing, so as to gain the protection of the heavy armour. The Ravenwing should be positioned far out on one of the flanks, ready to use their speed to protect the Tactical Marines from any unit that threatens to overwhelm them. Your Heavy Support unit will be kept right back, on your table edge and on a hill if possible, to command a good view of the entire battlefield and ready to bring down a huge weight of firepower on any enemy that the other units cannot handle. Last of all, the leader of your army, the Chaplain, should be placed somewhere near the front of the battle line, either with the Deathwing Terminators or one of the Tactical Squads, ready to get into close combat and mete out some of the Emperor's justice to his enemies. Expanding Your Force So, you've built up an army, played a few games, maybe even won a couple. What is next? The Dark Angels army can be almost infinite in its variety of units and even after several years playing, I am still trying out new units or new ways of playing old ones. No wargaming army is ever truly finished and there is always some way that your force can be expanded. The majority of games played at tournaments or in games shops tend to be of around 1500 points, so this is where you should look next when considering new forces. From this point, you will begin to get a feel for the direction you want your army to take. If, for example, you won your last two games because you managed to get your Deathwing and Chaplain charging into the heart of the enemy's force and destroyed them all in close combat, you may decide Assault Troops, armed with close combat weapons and Jump Packs would be the ideal compliment to your force. If your regular opponent is still reeling under the impact of the firepower from your Devastator Squad, you may decide to deepen his misery further and add a Vindicator Close Assault tank, supported by a Whirlwind Multiple Rocket Launcher. Or, you could just do what everyone else does at this point and say 'to hell with tactics, I am going out to buy the biggest and best looking unit there is!' Quite what that unit is, of course, varies from each gamers' perspective. . . The Dark Angels have the advantage of being a very easy army to come to grips with and yet quite difficult to master as there is such a variety in the types of units and the way they can be used in battle. The important thing though, is to have an army you can be proud of when you set it up on the battlefield and one you can enjoy playing. The Dark Angels army always looks just a little bit different from any of the other Marine Chapters and they are fully capable of facing any other army on equal terms. If you are looking for a new army to try, take a look at the finest Marine Chapter the Imperium has to offer you will not be disappointed. |
