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What made you play Dark Angels


Plague Knight

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I started playing Dark Angels because I really like the theme of the army. I love that there are different colors for the first 2 companies compared to all the rest. I also love the back story to the Dark Angels, it is by far one of my favorites. I also play a combination of all companies in my army. Competitiveness is not a major concern of mine, I'm in the game because I love to play and I love the hobby. I just wish I was a better painter/modeler.

Well, it was two thigns really.

 

I'll tell you the second reason first, as it's cooler. Like Cactus, the Deathwing expansion for the original Space Hulk was awesome and had an amazing story in it which influenced a lot of my later hobby (as you can tell from my username!) and it's just made of absolute win.

 

The original reason I switched over to the Dark Angels is a little embarrassing but quite a good one.

 

 

I was a big time player of Space Marine (2nd ed EPIC) and it was around the time of the Armies of the Imperium expansion. In an old WD there were the details for the company colurs (much different now) for the Blood Angels, Ultramarines and Dark Angels.

 

Being a big (!) Epic player at the time (and 14) I wanted what I saw in WD etc, which was Blood Angels. Unfortunately, my painting skills were rather poor back then, and undercaoting was not soemthign I really did - no readily availble sprays etc.

 

Unsurprisingly, Blood Red paint doesn't cover the grey plastic very well. But you know what does? Salamader green (which became Dark Angel green when the Big 4 were established).

 

Suddenly, a colour that meant I could paint decent lookign EPIC mini's really fast and I had the info to boot.

 

Soooo I stayed with the Green and never looked back :HQ:

 

 

Obviously since then I have fully immersed myself into the fluff and development of the legion and am currently working on a fully robed Heresy era army with lots of cool toys, from the Tempus Fugitives expansions and rules.

 

 

So there ya go - I bet we won't see another lame (but quaint!) reason like that!!

When it became obvious that GW was not going to update the Squats for 2nd edition, I checked around for another army to build. I started painting a tac squad of Ultramarines, but then a box of the metal Deathwing terminators found it's way into my hands. A little reading familiarized me with the Dark Angels, who also fielded bikes, of course. Since I enjoyed fielding a Squat Engineering Guild bike contingent, making the switch to Dark Angels was a natural choice.

 

It also annoyed the Space Wolf player that I chose a marine army. Sometimes life imitates art, eh?

The original reason I switched over to the Dark Angels is a little embarrassing but quite a good one.

 

No need to be embarrassed, I took up the mantle of the Lion simply because one of my buddies that got me into the game handed me the codex. I knew I wanted to play a first founding based chapter (the Horus Heresy books helped push me into the game) and I figured I got a free codex, I might as well give them a try. Eventually though the lore and DW especially sucked me in.

 

 

 

Also being a vet, glow in the dark colors, don't seem very tactical ......lol.

You can say that again. The Imperial Fists might as well paint targets on their chests... unless of course they are on a planet full of forests of giant banana like trees.

The winged sword chapter badge! I thought it was cool when I was a kid so tried (in vain) to collect an army. I couldn't paint, didn't know how to play and had no one to play against so I took up other games such as Space Hulk and Necromunda (my mates were into those) so there was some crossover stuff there with the Dark Angels. When the codex came out I gave it a read in the store and loved the new miniatures that citadel were releasing but I was still in the same position with no one to play. Now I'm a fully fledged grown up I can give it some effort and get into it and thanks to the internet and places like this I can find loads of people to play.
Well for me it has to be the fluff. Dark secret and recognizing no authority but their own! That's why I liked Inquisition as well, but not in a full army context. The tri-colored force was also appealing. And then there was Asmodai...
I came over from WFB (now I'm doing both, but for a decade, it was just 40k) in 98...I started with IG, but quickly added the significantly more competitive space marines to the mix...I looked at DA first because that was the one non-vanilla flavor not represented at my LGS. The fluff captivated me immediately, and the idea of spamming virtually unbreakable plas/plas squads as anvils (I had just come over from WFB, so hammer/anvil was still my tactical paradigm) against which "the best termies in the game" (at the time, they were...they're still up there, in spite of some stiff competition) might smash the God-Emperor's foes seemed awesome, too. I'm still, 13 years later, wroking towards completing the 5th company...7 squads down, but now I own six rather large armies between 40k and WFB, so it's pretty slow going, I'm painting individual marines as targets of opportunity instead of buckling down and knocking out full squads at a time...in fact, the FW boarding marine (adepticon-issue) is on my table at the moment...I probably have two squads worth of vets that don't really fit into the company structure...oh, well. Maybe if greenmarines get good again in the next dex, I'll paint the dev squad and two assault squads I'm still missing. For now, though, it's deathwing, vennies, and a splash of ravenwing for me.
And besides that, it looked like an easy colour to paint.

 

I didn't think the red boltgun casings looked...dark enough (not to mention that red+green=christmas), so mine are black...black boltguns over DA green armor (with a black wash) is...awesomely grimdark.

 

Oh, one more reason for DA: FIRST LEGION. Nuff said?

When I first started playing it was because I loved the paint scheme (I spent a while when I was a kid picking out the perfect one until I eventually decided everything I came up with didn't look half as cool as their's). Later it was because I really came to love all their background. Even after all these years and branching out into dozens of other minis games I still see Dark Angels as my first home in minis gaming.

 

And for the record I am still a fan of the red bolters on them, but then I like mine being a little bit loudly coloured and I use a lot of whites, reds and golds in my units alongside some black accents.

I wanted to start marines but i didnt want the regular marine look.I was between BT and DA.I didnt like the brutish and rash tactics of the BT.I liked the mysterious fluff/look of the DA plus the fact that they are portreyed (to me at least)as master strategists.

Cuz i really liked the hooded and robed figures alot... and dark green is the best color for power armored (IMHO) and easy to paint too for my limited paintjob l33t skillz :)... now if only Bone White is easy to paint *sigh*. Fluffs too our chapter is the best.

 

We're not the shining paragon in a grimdark world like Ultramarines, where they have a squad called THE IMMORTALS which has MORE glories and no deaths from combat (They prob too busy spending time on parade grounds and polishing their armor & weapons rather than actual fighting to still not lose a guy). We're not frat house kids too busy whoring and drinking like Space Wolves. We're not "Doom to us boo hoo hoo..., whatever shall we do with our fates" like Blood Angels. We HUNT the fallen and make them repent instead of sitting around brooding. We're not overzealous like Black Templar where when you got shot... instead of tactically took cover... you RUN towards the big guns.... We're not a heretical chapter claiming to be most devout & incorruptible of all chapters like Grey Knights when all they did were using daemon weapons and killing innocent SoBs to smear some blood for protection in their armor. And they kept a daemon too as pet to brag about their victories. HERETICAL.

 

What we are though.... are Marines that know NO FEAR. No other space marine chapters that i know of that can, in one way or another, make their whole squads FEARLESS. Ours have lotsa ways to do so. Ezekiel, Deathwings, Ravenwings, Sacred Standards. The other marines can only make a claim that they SHALL know no fear.... but us... we KNOW no fear. Our Company Masters are master of battlefields, capable of feats that only the big boys from other well known chapter can do (Rites of Battle). And these are honed for our singular goal of hunting down the fallen... and nothing deviates us from our goals... and a few worlds getting ransacked is a cheap price if a fallen is captured. Consider it collateral damage. That's what we are... Professionals. We always took care of our jobs utterly and completely, collateral damage & complaints be damned. And you'd better have no stinking muties sullying the race of Mankind. Being professionals.... it's only natural that we are feared and respected, unlike other tree hugger chapters like Ultramarines, Salamanders, and Space Wolves.

 

In the end though.... to answer your question... What is it to be a Dark Angel?

 

It is to be the First, the Honoured, The Sons of the Lion. PRAISE THE LION.

Well said, Brother. As for painting bone, I'd suggest army painter desert yellow primer, bleached bone over the whole model, then sepia ink in the crevices (not over the entire model, but targeted where it would naturally pool anyway, so that you don't darken the bone unnecceesarily), then skull white (mixed with bone, if you think it's too stark) highlighting, before going on to paint the weapons and such. Other than the highlighting, none of it requires much skill or attention to detail, and the result looks like you put many hours into each model!
I started out with a DiY chapter that focused on using bikes, was red and yellow and used the Fleur De Lis as its symbol... check page 117 in the Codex: Space Marines... even took the concept of a Black Templar successor....It was purely coincidental but it shot my view on Marines in general. So a freind of mine saw me brooding over it and gave me a copy of the Dark Angels Codex. I read the story of Asmodai "talking" to a Fallen and I never looked back. After reading all the lore and the rich story of how we are the Bad-good guys I got hooked and now I cant imagine playing any other chapter.

Reading some of this I think for a lot of us it's the whole package. It's how they play on the table top AND the fluff AND the look of the army. Dark Angels just scream grim dark in every aspect.

 

I mean just look at my forum avatar. That guy just looks freaking dangerous and in any other setting he'd be a horrible villain. But this is 40k and we're the good guys, emperor have mercy on our foes for we shall not.

Reading some of this I think for a lot of us it's the whole package. It's how they play on the table top AND the fluff AND the look of the army. Dark Angels just scream grim dark in every aspect.

 

I mean just look at my forum avatar. That guy just looks freaking dangerous and in any other setting he'd be a horrible villain. But this is 40k and we're the good guys, emperor have mercy on our foes for we shall not.

 

Fully agree. The fluff has to speak to you big time. Otherwise there are other Chapters out there with much more straight forward imagery and equally interesting minis...

 

Btw Droma, isn't your avatar Astelan? (you Chaos worshiper you :):);))

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