Best allies for Dark Angels?

[Aegnor]

As per the title.

 

I'm running a mixed wing, with a heavy emphasis on Deathwing (and therefore normally Azrael or Belial).

 

Interested overall, but also in what people would suggest out of the eligible armies I have, which are vanilla Space Marines, Eldar, a few Space Wolves.

 

One area that occurs is better anti-air. Although not sure whether any of the options I have would be better than an Aegis defence line.

 

Some cheaper bodies are always good. Although Eldar are probably the only ones who'd be notably cheaper.

[Skylar D'Forge]

Impierial guard? If your looking for anti air and got a couple hundred points to spare, A command squad and a small infantry platoon for cheap bodies and then a valkary squadron?

[Onisuzume]

As per the title.

 

I'm running a mixed wing, with a heavy emphasis on Deathwing (and therefore normally Azrael or Belial).

 

Interested overall, but also in what people would suggest out of the eligible armies I have, which are vanilla Space Marines, Eldar, a few Space Wolves.

 

One area that occurs is better anti-air. Although not sure whether any of the options I have would be better than an Aegis defence line.

 

Some cheaper bodies are always good. Although Eldar are probably the only ones who'd be notably cheaper.

Well, we got the Mortis for AA, which is pretty good at it (either TLAC or TLLC).

That way you don't even need to use allies.

 

And if you do use allies, you can use it to get some big guns instead (IG with Medusæ).

[Brother Immolator]

Id say none of the above.

 

We do it better than both marines and wolves.

Eldar, only if you want to shut down deamons. The runes hurt Tzeentch lists and their pathfinders snipping their instruments will cause them nightmares on the warp storm table but thats it.

[elphilo]

Id say none of the above.

 

We do it better than both marines and wolves.

Eldar, only if you want to shut down deamons. The runes hurt Tzeentch lists and their pathfinders snipping their instruments will cause them nightmares on the warp storm table but thats it.

Basically this. Marines Allying with Marines isn't really ideal because you aren't filling in the weakness that Marines suffer from (generally low body count). So if you're not up for collecting a new army, then I would suggest trying to go solo for a bit. Otherwise I'd follow suit as everyone else and say Imperial Guard.

[Isiah]

Tau (awaiting the new Codex to check long-range fire support potential).

[elphilo]

Tau (awaiting the new Codex to check long-range fire support potential).

I think Stobz said it right in his thread Isiah

Suffer not the alien to live....BLAMMMO!

[Isiah]

That's fine ... but we BLAMMMO them after they've helped us

[Upstartes]

Well, the one thing Vanilla space marines have going for them is the Stormraven. They also offer a Librarian with guaranteed Gate of Infinity, which pairs well with Azrael (for moving his 4++ squad around the table) or with Belial (for non-scattering Gate action).

[MadMek83]

I've found that Eldars are pretty good. Fire Prisms add heavy and flexible firepower. 

 

Scoring Guardian jetbikes can keep up with almost anything you can throw them and 36" turboboost and scoring makes them pretty good unit for contesting enemy objectives at final turn. But when I take eldars as allies I usually take 10 dire avengers with shimmer shield & power weapon with defend and farseer with fortune and guide with runes of warding and runes of witnessing with spirit stones. Re-rolling missed shots and re-rolling failed saves makes them annoying unit to remove. Shimmershield helps My Dire Avengers survive in close combat against terminators, thunderwolf cavalry and other hard hitting wrecking balls.

 

Another choice for big games is 10 wraithguard with spirirt seer stick farseer there with guide and fortune and pretty much create immovable objective that slumps 6" per turn with t6 and 3+ re-rolling and 5+ cover even in open if you take concealment for spiritseer makes unit absorb insane amount fire.

 

And heavy choice is 3 warwalkers in squadron with scatter lasers. Outflank them on turn you come out you'll unleash modest 24 s6 shots on enemy. I've usually ran firedragons in wave serpent as elite chocie if my points allow but recently I have shifted for striking scorpions outflanking and I pretty much have had good luck them taking out heavy weapons and / or HQ's with retinues.

[shortysl]

Allies? Wait, what?

[IndigoJack]

Fluff-wise? I'd say probably IG work the best.

 

Competitive-wise? Probably IG. DA's biggest problem is lack of AA. A vendetta works really well to fill that role. For about the price of a squad of DW, you can get a decent power blob to sit on an objective as well, that'll hold up to some of the nastiest stuff in the game (I had a blob hold off two dread knights for 3 game turns.) Add in some backfield artillery to support your mid-range shooting and you've got yourself a decent ally.

 

Given the flexibility of IG, they're pretty good to have around to ally into just about any army.

[Finn]

Imperial Guard, period. If you have the points, the cheapest HQ, a Vendetta, two Leman Russ Battle Tanks or Basilisks and a small platoon is all you need. AND it's still fluffy, not like those filthy xenos.

[Upstartes]

Well, sure, IG is good if you're diving into something new. But if the OP wants to stick with armies already at his disposal, I vote marines for the codex-approved fliers alone. I forgot that in addition to the Storm Raven, the Storm Talon is also available as an option that uses fewer points.

 

Other interesting options available with SM allies (other than the librarian) are:

* Captain on a bike (DW can't take a Company Master on a bike) - also opens up SM bikes as a troop choice. Good for fielding an army intended to be a successor chapter where, for fluff reasons, you don't want to field Sammael.

* Scout Bikes in the fast attack slots. These can take locator beacons, which are useful if you want to deep strike speeders (like the Land Speeder Vengeance, which seems mostly useless unless you deep strike it).

* Pedro Kantor as HQ + Sternguard Veterans as your troop choice. Put them all in a drop pod and bring them in along side the Deathwing assault

* Master of the Forge with a conversion beamer on a bike. One of my favorite units - maybe not the best use of points in a highly competitive list, but it sure is a lot of fun to drive him back and forth along the back edge of the table and blow the crap out of things from long range. 

* Scout squad as a cheap troop choice with Sgt Telion. Put them beind the Aegis line with camo cloaks and let Telion shoot the skyfire gun. There's some anti-air.

 

I won't argue that adding IG would be more competitive than any of this. But this is what I would do if I were sticking to the OP's existing armies.

[elphilo]

Well, sure, IG is good if you're diving into something new. But if the OP wants to stick with armies already at his disposal, I vote marines for the codex-approved fliers alone. I forgot that in addition to the Storm Raven, the Storm Talon is also available as an option that uses fewer points.

 

Other interesting options available with SM allies (other than the librarian) are:

* Captain on a bike (DW can't take a Company Master on a bike) - also opens up SM bikes as a troop choice. Good for fielding an army intended to be a successor chapter where, for fluff reasons, you don't want to field Sammael.

* Scout Bikes in the fast attack slots. These can take locator beacons, which are useful if you want to deep strike speeders (like the Land Speeder Vengeance, which seems mostly useless unless you deep strike it).

* Pedro Kantor as HQ + Sternguard Veterans as your troop choice. Put them all in a drop pod and bring them in along side the Deathwing assault

* Master of the Forge with a conversion beamer on a bike. One of my favorite units - maybe not the best use of points in a highly competitive list, but it sure is a lot of fun to drive him back and forth along the back edge of the table and blow the crap out of things from long range. 

* Scout squad as a cheap troop choice with Sgt Telion. Put them beind the Aegis line with camo cloaks and let Telion shoot the skyfire gun. There's some anti-air.

 

I won't argue that adding IG would be more competitive than any of this. But this is what I would do if I were sticking to the OP's existing armies.

I agree with pretty much everything you said. But I still think SM allying with SM isn't the greatest idea in general. But since he only wants to play with models he owns, yes SM is probably the best bet.

 

Oh and one thing, Pedro doesn't make Sternguard Troops. He makes them scoring. Big difference.

[Upstartes]

Ah. Good point, re: Pedro. I did not realize that.

 

One thing that can be good about allying SMs with other versions of SMs, is that it is a good way to represent a chapter working with a successor chapter. For instance, I'm working up an allied group of Blood Angels to field with my Dark Angles, but I'm going to paint the Blood Angels as Consecrators. The subtly different rule sets allow you to give the successor units a decidedly different feel from the regular Dark Angels.

 

This is all more fluff-based than competitive-based, of course. And in my case, like the OP, I made this choice because I had the models (specifically, I had a Storm Raven that I wanted to bring along with my Unforgiven). If I was starting from scratch, I'd probably go with IG. Azrael + giant IG blob squad just sounds fun, and Vendettas are made of awesome.

[Aegnor]

Thanks guys. Agree IG make the most sense, and will think about it. Not desperate to play with allies, just curious as to what options there may be. Hopefully in a few months if Eldar get re-done, they might have some nice things.

[march10k]

I like IG as allies for marines of any type, just for cheap bodies, autocannons, and pieplates.  I absolutely reject the idea of going out of your way to spend points on air defense.

[Onisuzume]

That's fine ... but we BLAMMMO them after they've helped us

I'd call it against fluff.

Besides, we used to have a rule outright stating that we can't ally with aliens or lists containing abhumans (ratlings/ogryns).

[Aegnor]

Doesn't seem odd to me that the Dark Angels would make an alliance of convenience with Eldar or Tau if doing so allowed them to get their hands on one of the Fallen. Much smaller scruple to overcome than killing fellow loyalist marines to preserve their secret.

[Brother Immolator]

Suffer not the xenos and the traitor to live.

[MadMek83]

Well, Dark Angels only care that nobody in the Imperium knows their secrets. Fighting with Eldars or Tau is far more likely than allying themselves with Inquisition or grey knights for that matter. IMHO.

[Brother Immolator]

That's fine ... but we BLAMMMO them after they've helped us

I'd call it against fluff.

Besides, we used to have a rule outright stating that we can't ally with aliens or lists containing abhumans (ratlings/ogryns).

This above, the old glory days of 3rd edition. Suffer not even the abhuman to live!