New Improved Dark Angels Crusade Era List

[TheForgottenAngel]

Hello Battle Brothers!

Its been awhile since I posted my Dark Angels or provided updates. with the advent of the new codex I have decided to rethink my Heresy list inorder to use some of the great Dark Angels bits provided in the boxes. Below is my current list. Inputs are greatly appreciated! I will be adding a Legion Destroyer squad with rocket launchers eventually so that I can use them in regular 40k games.

Dark Angels - 2275

HQ:
Legion Praetor -210 Rite of War: Orbital Assault
Paragon Blade, Digital Lasers, Iron Halo, Legion Jetbike

Consul Chaplain -155
Artificer Armor, Plasma Pistol, Jetbike, Crozius

Legion Command Squad -300
Power Weapons, Jetbikes, +1 Chosen, Banner(Banner and swords from Ravenwing command box)

Elite:
Legion Terminator Squad- 365
Reaper AutocannonX2, CombiweaponX4, PowerfistsX10, +5 Terminators (Gain Deepstrike)

Contemptor Talon -930
Contemptor Luciel -305
Kheres Assault CannonX2, Havoc Launcher, Dreadclaw Droppod

Contemptor Dreadnaught Xerius -325
Twin Linked Lascannon X2, Havoc Launcher, Dreadclaw Droppod


Troops:

Legion Tactical Squad -205
Sergeant w/ Power Sword, Artificer, Legion Droppod

Legion Tactical Squad -205
Sergeant w/ Power Sword, Artificer, Legion Droppod

Legion Tactical Squad -205
Sergeant w/ Power Sword, Artificer, Legion Droppod

5 Scoring Units

The idea is that the legion tacticals Droppod onto the objectives and stay put. Contemptor Luciel supports the tacticals on the objectives and focuses on anti-aircraft duties. Contemptor Xerius will be focusing on the heaviest hitters at the back of the field with the lascannons. The Terminators will Deepstrike as close to the hardest objective with enemy troops nearest and act as a vanguard. The Praetor and Chaplain, and Command Squad will be hunting characters and troop choices. I may put a librarian or Primus Medicae on a bike in the future. I'm waiting to build until the list is finalized. Your input is crucial. What should I add to fill out the list to an even 3000?

[Cmdr Shepard]

Your Contemptor talon is illegal since:

1. You cannot put units in drop pods unless your praetor have the orbital assault rite of war

2. Contemptor cannot take drop pods but dread claws under the effect of the orbital assault rite of war

3. If you choose that rite then ALL the contemptor in a talon must take the dread claws.

NOTE: consider that if you go with the orbital assault rite of war you have to change your list entirely in order to make it legal.

EDIT:

A part from the contemptor talon issue I can give you the following advices.

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the Legion champion. You pay for a +1WS and a master craft weapon for a character that will rarely survive a challange with a power HQ

If you don't want your preator to accept the challange of a sergeant-equivalent model you have your own sergeants for the purpose

Heavy conversion beamer is very cool but the fact the contemptor must remain stationary limit its usefulness. Beside consider you may spend one turn moving the contemptor into position and in the meantime your opponent will come closer. It may be useful against units in the enemy deployment zone but that depends on what list/army you are fighting against.

[TheForgottenAngel]

Hey brother thank you so much for your input! I'm modified the list now to ensure I'm not doing anything illegal. What would you suggest I add to bring it to 3000?

[Cmdr Shepard]

Hey brother thank you so much for your input! I'm modified the list now to ensure I'm not doing anything illegal. What would you suggest I add to bring it to 3000?

I'm gald I helped you

So what other suggestions can I give you?

Well... I really like jet bikes, so I agree with you choice to include them. My next FW will include several jet bikes because I consider them hyper-cool. If you have the spare points I'd even add a sky hunters unit just to "stay close to your army fluff"

Assault squads are another interesting option but if you want to field a hard hitting 20 men unit you will need more then your remaining points.

Personally I wouldn't spend the points for havoc launcher for a contemptor that is tasked with anti-vehicle roles. When you two las cannons will fire at a vehicle your havoc launcher will do nothing.

It will reduce the chances to lose a las cannon when you suffer a weapon destroyed since your destroyed is chosen with a dice roll but consider if this chance is worth it cost.

If you have spare points and you haven't anything else to buy do it, otherwise I'd suggest to look for more cost effect wargear.

Plasma blasters are nice but they have a considerable drawback, and I'm not only talking about their cost, which is superior to the Kheres, but to the gets hot! rule.

With 4 shots per turn the chance to roll 1s is not very low and everytime it happen you remove a HP (you still have your 5++ invul, though)

I heard many players have positive feedback on the graviton gun. Not very "wound effective" on MEQ, since it's AP4 and force the model hit to roll equal or under their S or suffer an wound, but it has the haywire rule and most importantly once you resolved the shooting attack you leave the marker in place and consider that area difficult and dangerous terrain for the next turn.

There are two things that worry me with this list:

1. first you lack dedicated anti-air weapons/units. So maybe you could add some flyer, possibly Imperial fighters via Lord of War choice because it seems you don't have the points available for a storm eagle

2. Land Raider Spartan. Your contemptors will fill the anti-spartan role but consider your Las Cannons will problably only glance it if they shoot at its front side due to flare shield.

While your Kheres will have to roll a 6 then a 5 or 6 just to glance it. You could try to shoot at it side/rear but if your opponent keep its front trained on your guns you will have problems.

This limitation depends on local gaming community. If you don't face flyers and/or spartans then you don't have to worry about them

[TheForgottenAngel]

I see what you're saying about the havoc launchers and I could probably take them off the lascannon dread. I didn't think about the hull point issue with the CCW dread. I chose them since it seemed the coolest thing to do and the graviton weapons were confusing. Now that you've explained it like that they could be somewhat useful albeit counter productive on the charge. Ill have to test it out to see how it works. I think I'll go with more jet bikes with multimeltas eventually as I don't have the models on hand. I've noticed with heresy era there is little antiair options. A storm eagle is definitely doable if I slim out the terminators.

 

Or thing I noticed that could carry over into the new dark angels codex are the missile launchers with flak on devastators. I could take two squads of them instead of a dreadnaught.

[Cmdr Shepard]

I see what you're saying about the havoc launchers and I could probably take them off the lascannon dread. I didn't think about the hull point issue with the CCW dread. I chose them since it seemed the coolest thing to do and the graviton weapons were confusing. Now that you've explained it like that they could be somewhat useful albeit counter productive on the charge. Ill have to test it out to see how it works. I think I'll go with more jet bikes with multimeltas eventually as I don't have the models on hand. I've noticed with heresy era there is little antiair options. A storm eagle is definitely doable if I slim out the terminators.

Or thing I noticed that could carry over into the new dark angels codex are the missile launchers with flak on devastators. I could take two squads of them instead of a dreadnaught.

The nice thing is the Graviton shouldn't affect your charge. The rule says "for the next turn", not "until the end of the next turn", so RAW it will affect only your enemy's unit.

However if you want a melee contempt I'd suggest to not spend a lot of points with in-built weapons. "Keep it cheap" it's the best approach for melle contemptors, in my opinion.

Heavy flamers may be a good choice, or perhaps 1 flamer and 1 melta gun, if you don't want to send him on the field with combi-bolters

Legiones Astartes armies have access to anti-air but sadly your chosen rite of war prevent you to use most of them, like fortifications and hyperios whirlwinds.

10 men heavy support with auto cannons are a cheap anti-air option. Not a dedicated one but still useful.

Heavy support with flakk missiles are more expensive and the auto cannons should be enough to deal with most of the flyers but if you want to be sure you will score many hits go with flakk missiles.

Consider you will glace storm eagles on 5+ and you can only glace caesstus on front and side.

Dual Kheres contemptor is also a threat to flyers. With 12 S6, rending shot you should deal some damage, with some luck.

Dual autocannons contemptors and/or common dreads (depending on the available points) are usually good at fighting flyers.

If you are lucky and hit with one of your las cannons you will have a good chance to deal some damage to most flyers; but you have to be very lucky with only 2 twin-linked BS1 shots.

What flyers do you think you will face? Will you play this list versus other Legiones Astartes or will you play versus Xenos/ standard 40k armies?

I ask because at my local gaming group we decided to treat Legiones Astartes armies like any other army list, since we all agree about the fact they are very balanced, much more balanced then many of the "standard" codices

So if the average AV of your enemy flyers in 10-11 S7 weapons are quite good; if you face a lot of storm eagles (or standard storm ravens) and Caestus you will struggle to seriously damage them.

[TheForgottenAngel]

So I have recently purchased a few more things. The biggest of the order being a Felblade tank! I will be adding a Pride of the Legion list to this soon. I also purchased another group of MKII marines and 4X special weapons packs to make the legion veterans. I have also purchased a Storm Eagle for air support and 2 Ravenwing Battleforces. WIth this I should be done with any further orders in my lifetime! With this I will probably be able to field close to an entire company of FW armored tacticals, a good chunk of the 2nd Company of Ravenwing and some terminators.

 

Right now I have 5 Cataphractii terminators with all available weapon options to them. I'd like to make a more CC oriented group, possibly do all Lightning Claws and put them in the Storm Eagle?

[Cmdr Shepard]

So I have recently purchased a few more things. The biggest of the order being a Felblade tank! I will be adding a Pride of the Legion list to this soon. I also purchased another group of MKII marines and 4X special weapons packs to make the legion veterans. I have also purchased a Storm Eagle for air support and 2 Ravenwing Battleforces. WIth this I should be done with any further orders in my lifetime! With this I will probably be able to field close to an entire company of FW armored tacticals, a good chunk of the 2nd Company of Ravenwing and some terminators.

Right now I have 5 Cataphractii terminators with all available weapon options to them. I'd like to make a more CC oriented group, possibly do all Lightning Claws and put them in the Storm Eagle?

You acquired very good kits. You should post some pic in the WIP forums and show the growing march of your army, if you wish ;)

I like the Felblade but I never bought it because at my local gaming community very few persons play games beyond the 2000 pts limit and even less play Apoc

How is the model. Is it as big as the baneblade? Is it a model worth on its own a part from its use on the table?

Didi you already play the Stormeagle? If so how did it perform?

Anyway you made good purchases

[TheForgottenAngel]

Hey mate! I'm actually doing some reworking of the list for this army. However I am having Worthy Painting paint it for me because I'm too scared of messing up such a large investment! Anyways about the Storm Eagle and Fellblade. The Storm Eagle I've proxied in my black templars several times to the point its an auto include. The TL Lascannons absolutely will down any flier you point them at each turn. I usually take the TL Multimelta because of its ability to guarantee death to some nasty machines out there and having the vengeance launcher with it means death Space Marine blobs as well if you are finished killing the heavy armor and fliers. Then there is the added benefit of it being a FA slot (Pro or Con depending on your setup, pro for me as I have very little) and its an assault vehicle. Personally I love them and already want a second.

 

As for the Fellblade, it is an absolute Beast! The turret is literally the size of a rhino and is pure resin, its hefty, the barrels are very well cast and are believably powerful. With the kit you get essentially half of a Baneblade to build off of for the undercarriage only. Everything else is resin. The Space marine crew was very detailed and a nice touch to the kit as well. In game I haven't been able to test it but I have a feeling this will be a force to be reckoned with and I will build a list around this being on the field. If I had the money I would by a second Felblade and a second Storm Eagle. However the power of two Storm Eagles in a 2000pt game would be terrifying during the HH. 

 

Have you asked your club if they would allow you to play HH lists in normal Apoc games? My group has allowed me to play 1500 point games with my proxied army and its very balanced (they were very surprised). The Jetbike Praetor and Retinue absolutely will kill everything they get into assault with and the Heavy Bolters help soften up harder targets. I have yet to lose my Praetor in CC, its only after the combat is over that he dies due to overwhelming firepower.

 

Hope that helps! I like your lists a lot, very thought out. I need to build a legal 2K list soon. How are you building your terminator squads? 10 man or 5 man? I have 15 cataphractii that I'm trying to figure out how to set up. I may try the outrider squads for a FA slot and see how it goes though. They have some nasty loadouts.

 

PS: I haven't updated the list but I did try out the Graviton Guns....soooooooo awesome for denying a charge. Its horrifying against light infantry as well.

[Cmdr Shepard]

Hey mate! I'm actually doing some reworking of the list for this army. However I am having Worthy Painting paint it for me because I'm too scared of messing up such a large investment! Anyways about the Storm Eagle and Fellblade. The Storm Eagle I've proxied in my black templars several times to the point its an auto include. The TL Lascannons absolutely will down any flier you point them at each turn. I usually take the TL Multimelta because of its ability to guarantee death to some nasty machines out there and having the vengeance launcher with it means death Space Marine blobs as well if you are finished killing the heavy armor and fliers. Then there is the added benefit of it being a FA slot (Pro or Con depending on your setup, pro for me as I have very little) and its an assault vehicle. Personally I love them and already want a second.

I'm glad to see you found it effective. I really like the model since it is how a 40K SM gunship should look. The Stormraven is alittle "odd" ;)

The vengeance launcher cannot engage flyers (it's a blast weapon) but it very unseful against ground targets. I heard some players complained about the Stormeagle "assembly difficulties". What do you think about it?

As for the Fellblade, it is an absolute Beast! The turret is literally the size of a rhino and is pure resin, its hefty, the barrels are very well cast and are believably powerful. With the kit you get essentially half of a Baneblade to build off of for the undercarriage only. Everything else is resin. The Space marine crew was very detailed and a nice touch to the kit as well. In game I haven't been able to test it but I have a feeling this will be a force to be reckoned with and I will build a list around this being on the field. If I had the money I would by a second Felblade and a second Storm Eagle. However the power of two Storm Eagles in a 2000pt game would be terrifying during the HH.

So the Fellblade main hull is the plastic baneblade one? In that case assembly would be even easier than I thought. The next time I'll buy a superheavy the Fellblade will be my choice. I

always wanted to own a superheavy division but I won't have many chances to field it

Have you asked your club if they would allow you to play HH lists in normal Apoc games? My group has allowed me to play 1500 point games with my proxied army and its very balanced (they were very surprised). The Jetbike Praetor and Retinue absolutely will kill everything they get into assault with and the Heavy Bolters help soften up harder targets. I have yet to lose my Praetor in CC, its only after the combat is over that he dies due to overwhelming firepower.

I do play my HH armies against standard 40K lists. We discovered Legiones Astartes lists are indeed very balanced, more balanced then several standard 40K codices.

The problem is my local gaming community rarely playApoc matches so I usually play 2000 pts matches and that means not Fellblade.

So you are very pleased with your Praetor and retinue on jet bikes... No surprise I think I'll build such unit myself very soon...well as soon as I decide which projects I want to prioritaze ;)

Hope that helps! I like your lists a lot, very thought out. I need to build a legal 2K list soon. How are you building your terminator squads? 10 man or 5 man? I have 15 cataphractii that I'm trying to figure out how to set up. I may try the outrider squads for a FA slot and see how it goes though. They have some nasty loadouts.

Personally I'd say go with the 10 men unit because itmakes your TDAs more survivable. The problem with cataphractii is SaP. It means they will need a transport of some kind and that's not cheap.

Deep striking, with proper rite of war, 10 men TDAit's quite dangerous, unless you have Horus

If you plan to deep strike them I'd suggest to give Nuncio-Vox to your tact squads

PS: I haven't updated the list but I did try out the Graviton Guns....soooooooo awesome for denying a charge. Its horrifying against light infantry as well.

They are quite effective against vehicle as well... if you bring them in good number they will glance vehicles to death....

[TheForgottenAngel]

Hey brother! Thanks for the advice! Definitely helpful and it got me thinking about some tweaks. Your point in the cataphractii is definitely something I'm mulling about right now. However I'm curious if you'd change the makeup of the Jetbike command squad. Should I keep them as is or just do a vanilla Jetbike group with a volkite culvarin or melta? As of now they are my main assault unit for marine slaughtering.

 

The storm eagle I've heard is prone to warping but I'm having Worthy Painting build and paint both the FellBlade and storm eagle. The FellBlade looks very simple to build though with the baneblade undercarriage. I was the same way as you, always wanting a super heavy but not wanting to start a guard army to make one.

 

A little that I'm building now is a pride of the legion army for apocalypse. Suspensor web rocket launchers on all the vets and of course the terminators. FellBlade as the centerpiece of course.

 

I really wish I lived in the UK because I'd LOVE to play against some other hardcore HH legionnaires! I'm just hoping Portland OR has a few.

[Cmdr Shepard]

Hey brother! Thanks for the advice! Definitely helpful and it got me thinking about some tweaks. Your point in the cataphractii is definitely something I'm mulling about right now. However I'm curious if you'd change the makeup of the Jetbike command squad. Should I keep them as is or just do a vanilla Jetbike group with a volkite culvarin or melta? As of now they are my main assault unit for marine slaughtering.

 

 

 

I'm glad I have been helpful ;).

About the Jet Bikes:

You asked a very good question. The Command squad is designed for combat and allow you a high degree of CCW customizations. Invest the righ amount of points and you can be sure everything they wound, dies (depending on weapons AP and enemy armour, of course ;) ) and they are all character preventing your Praetor from becoming involved in challanges he doesn't want to fight. They also have 2+ save.  However if you buy a upgrades for all of them the unit becomes quite expensive.

 

The sky hunters unit gives you superior firepower but is less equiped for CC and has a worst armour save. There is also the "sergeant issue". Is the sergeant considered a character? If not the Praetor have no way to avoid undesired challanges, unless he renounce to all of his attacks.

However you should be able to field sky hunters in larger numbers.

The general consensus is to use bikes' mobility to provide fire support and charge the weakned units and the Praetor alone should be able to deal a lot of damage on his own.

I'd say to play test both units and see which you find more useful.

 

 

The storm eagle I've heard is prone to warping but I'm having Worthy Painting build and paint both the FellBlade and storm eagle. The FellBlade looks very simple to build though with the baneblade undercarriage. I was the same way as you, always wanting a super heavy but not wanting to start a guard army to make one.

 Thanks for the info

 

 

A little that I'm building now is a pride of the legion army for apocalypse. Suspensor web rocket launchers on all the vets and of course the terminators. FellBlade as the centerpiece of course.

It sounds a very good and fun plan ;)

 

 

I really wish I lived in the UK because I'd LOVE to play against some other hardcore HH legionnaires! I'm just hoping Portland OR has a few.

I live in Italy so it's even more difficult to find HH legionaries... there are a lot of standard 40K players but very few HH armies...

[Elazar The Glorified]

If it helps, Sergeants in Legion squads are characters. FW have confirmed this quoting pg 63 of the main 40k rulebook :)

 

I really like the idea of a Jetbike Command Squad. Mostly for the 2+ save as it keeps an expensive mini alive longer but the safest place for these is probably getting stuck in with WS5 T5 and a 2+ save. I don't think the regular squad provides enough extra shooting to justify taking them instead so it'd really work on whether the cost in points is worth it for the command squad.

 

I reckon with the cost in money for such a squad that the cost in points is probably fairly welcome to keep the points to pennies ratio up! :D

[Cmdr Shepard]

If it helps, Sergeants in Legion squads are characters. FW have confirmed this quoting pg 63 of the main 40k rulebook

Really?! The FAQ does not mention it...

That's a wonderful news and honestly it makes a lot of sense. In my local community we decided to consider Sergeants characters since every Squas leader in the entire game is a Character. The fact they have different profiles makes it clear, in my opinion.. common sense is often very helpful ;)

[Elazar The Glorified]

It was on the Forge World Facebook page (they're quite good at answering rules queries on there). They quoted pg 63 of the 40k rulebook as it says something about Sergeants with different profiles are characters in there.

[Cmdr Shepard]

It was on the Forge World Facebook page (they're quite good at answering rules queries on there). They quoted pg 63 of the 40k rulebook as it says something about Sergeants with different profiles are characters in there.

Wonderful! It made sense but it's always nice to have a sort of official answer. Thank You fro sharing it