Why Dark Angels?

[Captain Laavain Sunder]

Hey guys, I'm seriously considering starting a Dark Angels force, due to the fact that that I like the models the most and their story.

 

I'm due to go into the store to pick up a copy of the codex any day now... But I was just wondering if you guys could just help me out.

 

What makes Dark Angels so different to other marine chapters?... Not necessarily better. Just different in the way that you can play them... Their positives and negatives?... What really makes them stand out?

 

Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks.

[Spaniard]

The first thing that makes them different from the other chapters, is that you have 3 forces to chose from when it comes to the Dark Angels. Greenwing, Ravenwing, Deathwing, or mix all three.

[Aegnor]

Sounds like you're familiar with the fluff differences, which to me is the best difference between us and vanilla marines.

 

We have a specialised first and second company (terminators and bikes) with options to field armies entirely made up from either, or a mix. They have lots of nice special rules that change how you use them a bit in fun ways.

 

We also have lots of goodies that boost our units or de-buff an enemy unit, compared to vanilla marines. Lots of potential if you like orchestrating coordinated tactics among your units.

 

The consensus on the new codex is that we're a pretty competitive army without being over-powered.

[GreenwingsFTW]

Dark Angels are exceedingly shooty, more so than other Marine armies. Our unique units are like the best things of other SM forces, only better. 

No. 1: Deathwing Termies. Same as normal, but get to do better Deep Strike. No. 2: Ravenwing Tricycles. Best. Bikes. Evah. No.3: Land Speeder Vengeance is just an excuse to stick more guns onto a Land Speeder, and a Ravenwing Darkshroud just sits there going "Meh-heh-heh". No. 4: DEATHWING AND RAVENWING KNIGHTS ARE ABSOLUTELY EYE-MELTINGLY AWESOME!!!!!!! No. 5: Our spec. characters make them TROOPS!

Fun fun fun.

[Eulfein]

Here's my 2 cents:

 

what makes the Unforgiven so different?

- As Spaniard mentioned you have 3 wings with varying strengths. We've got the well-rounded Greenwing, The Deep-striking, hard hitting, Terminator armor-wearing, butt-kicking Deathwing and my personal favorite..the blazingly fast Ravenwing. Our Termies have Vengeful Strike and Deathwing Assault which the other Chapters don't. Our bikes have hit and run as well as other fun rules that other Astartes lack.

- The backstory. The DA in my opinion has a rich fluff that doesn't paint them as spit-polished heroes of the Imperium. They've got a sinister streak to them which is a big draw for players.

- A Dark Angels force is a great army to start with since all three wings provide a new player with tons of options to explore.

[WatchCaptainAzrael]

Our Primarch is called the Lion. Where everyone else was a peacock, or a mythical monster of antiquity, our guy was named after an actual apex predator. Said Primarch lived up to his name by becoming the apex predator of a hellish death world, and his gene sons carry a measure of that calculated ferocity in their hearts. This overrides every other negative if you like big cats.

[Spaniard]

If you like deepstriking units in the heart of the enemie's line and casuing havoc. Belail and his unit can deepstrike and they do not scatter. On top of that all there shooting for that turn is twin linked.

[Tanhausen]

We are the First Legion.

 

We are Dark Angels.

 

Nothing else matters.

[Spaniard]

+1

[Cod]

+1 to Infinity and beyond

[WatchCaptainAzrael]

+∞

[Brother Immolator]

We are the First Legion.

 

We are Dark Angels.

 

Nothing else matters.

 

This

 

Here's my 2 cents:

 

what makes the Unforgiven so different?

- As Spaniard mentioned you have 3 wings with varying strengths. We've got the well-rounded Greenwing, The Deep-striking, hard hitting, Terminator armor-wearing, butt-kicking Deathwing and my personal favorite..the blazingly fast Ravenwing. Our Termies have Vengeful Strike and Deathwing Assault which the other Chapters don't. Our bikes have hit and run as well as other fun rules that other Astartes lack.

- The backstory. The DA in my opinion has a rich fluff that doesn't paint them as spit-polished heroes of the Imperium. They've got a sinister streak to them which is a big draw for players.

- A Dark Angels force is a great army to start with since all three wings provide a new player with tons of options to explore.

this and the company master miniature.

 

The only thing that could compete with that mini was grimaldus but Seraphicus kicked him to gonads for coolness factor :)

[Rizara]

Ok.   Other marine chapters have first companies that field terminators.  However they are not always fielded in terminator armor, and often include powered armored vets such as sternguard and vanguard.   Most other chapters have bikes as well, however their bikes are often either fielded in one of the reserve companies, or a tactical squad changes up and gets equipped to ride bikes instead of going in on foot, same with their land speeders, as the pilots are often times tactical marines who are spread out or reserve marines from the tactical companies to fill in as speeder pilots and bike riders.  In game rules this means that terminators are often fielded as tactical or assault variations, meaning stormbolters/fists and ranged weapons, or lightningclaws/thunderhammers.  Bikes are fielding as 3-10 strong, attack bikes are seperate units, and speeders are seperate units and fielded in 1-3. 

 

In dark Angels, our first company are nothing but terminators.  They wear nothing else but, and we have dw squads which can have any combination of terminator weapon loadout we require for said unit/mission.  This means we can basically mix the stormbolters/fists with lighting claw models, or take an assault oriented unit and still throw in a heavy ranged weapon like an assault cannon.  We also are currently the only terminators that can take a plasma cannon.   We also have deathwing knights, who run around with storm shields, and maces, so strike at initiative yet get the durability that is the storm shield.  They are also really nasty against chaos, their preferred enemy.   Also if you want, and you choose to field one of two special characters, your deathwing terminators can be fielded as troop choices, while knights remain elites.   We also get terminator command squads to accompany our terminator armored characters.  

 

Our second company conists of nothing but bikes. attack bikes and speeders (and the new flyers).  No other company in the dark angels has access to bikes or speeders, only our ravenwing.   Our 10 man units conist of 3-6 bikers, 1 attack bike, and 1 speeder if we wanted to max it out.   We can also field our speeders in units of 1-5.   We also have specialist veteran bikers known as the black knights, who get plasma weapons on their bikes, not bolters.  We also can take a command squad, and again if you choose 1 of two special characters, you can field ravenwing bike squads as troops.  This means we can have our bikes, and attack bikes as scoring units.   Also ravenwing bikes are mounted with teleport homers, no other bikes in the game have this option.  

 

Then we have what is known as our greenwing.  This is basically the normal battle companies that other marines get.  We get tactical squads, assault squads, and devestator squads.   We also have company veteran squads, which are basically veteran marines who fill the role of tactical or assault squads within the company.  They aren't as impressive as sternguard, as we don't get the specialist ammo, however they can be mixxed and matched and combat squaded, and can get 2 special weapons and one heavy weapon in the unit.  

 

So as mentioned above, we can field 3 distinctive armies, or mix and match these to create a characterful army.    Also not mentioned, we have access to some wargear options that currently no other marine codex has options too, such as displacer fields and conversion fields, wargear that hasn't really seen the light of day since second edition.  So for now, we enjoy that benefit as well.  

[Chaplain Lucifer]

Keep this clean, constructive and on topic, gentleman. 

[WatchCaptainAzrael]

You have to admit it's a very beautiful poem, and one that can easily be read from an Unforgiven perspective. Unless you're ill-intended.

[Chaplain Lucifer]

You have to admit it's a very beautiful poem, and one that can easily be read from an Unforgiven perspective. Unless you're ill-intended.

No question about that, but this isn't a poetry forum nor is the poem part of DA lore. Furthermore I was detecting too much disruption and very few feedback on OP's question.

[Aromir]

Ohh come on Lucy.

 

The question was why Dark Angels. What makes us different from other Chapters. Lionel Johnson and his poem Dark Angel is part of that.

 

We can all talk hours about the tiny rule differences that makes us just sligthly different to play from the other chapters. But for my own sake at least, it is not the rules, makes me keep coming back. It is that special feel that playing Dark Angels gives you, the Dark and Tense nature of the Chapter, that represed feeling, that dark shadow that lurks behind every Dark Angel Player out there.

 

Like Lionel Johnson struggled with his own repressed homosexuality, we struggle to repress our own true nature. While one half of us have embraced that nature (the Fallen) the other half have become fervent in our hatred of what we have been told is a weakness; just like how a repressed homosexual might be fervently homophobic. We Hunt Chaos like it was an obssesion and we are immensely xenophobic, but deep down we all know that this is not our true nature. What is truly scary, and most Dark Angels players will always try to deny is it possibility that, one day, just one day, we might so to say "come out of the closet" and go over to other side......

[Brother dean]

^{Deep Aromir, but perhaps not deep enough.  How about we recognise that our basic nature is evil and we have the potential to fall, but we make the choice to stay loyal thus setting up the conflicts that you allude to.  We know that we are flawed but while the Wolves, Blood Angels and others carry their flaws on the outside, ours are internal and we like to keep it that way.}

 

^{I see us as the polar opposite to the Emperor's Children, while they allowed themselves to focus only on the martial prowess and followed the path of Pride to ruin (and the fallen went that way too, after all it was the sin of Pride that ate at Luther) The Lion saw the pitfalls and steered around them as best he could until the inner circle was formed.}

[Aromir]

Well you are right to some degree. But it is important that we recognise that that the Fallen are not just our enemy, they are our brothers... they are us. We are all the same gene-seed, we are the same.

 

That is why we are conflicted, we are at the same time, the greatest loyalists and the greastest traitors, we are the ultimate hunters and the ultimate prey. We are one with the Fallen and they are no different from us. In my oppinion thats what makes us special.

[Isiah]

As alluded to by Chaplain Lucifer – let's keep the sexual side of things out of this discussion. Let's just recognise that the original poem's telling of an internal struggle might well have been the precursor for the DAs backstory, and indeed our Primarch's name, and leave it at that.

 

I disagree that the Fallen are no different from us. Genetically they might once have been our brothers but since then the ruinous corruption of chaos has reworked them (or most of them) into something barely recognizable. They have given their souls to chaos.

 

We are not at one with the Fallen - they made the wrong choice and are paying for it - we are only at one with the Unforgiven. That's to me what makes the DA so special - being a part of the wider Unforgiven brotherhood.

 

Cheers

I

[happybounce]

Ohh come on Lucy.

 

The question was why Dark Angels. What makes us different from other Chapters. Lionel Johnson and his poem Dark Angel is part of that.

 

We can all talk hours about the tiny rule differences that makes us just sligthly different to play from the other chapters. But for my own sake at least, it is not the rules, makes me keep coming back. It is that special feel that playing Dark Angels gives you, the Dark and Tense nature of the Chapter, that represed feeling, that dark shadow that lurks behind every Dark Angel Player out there.

 

Like Lionel Johnson struggled with his own repressed homosexuality, we struggle to repress our own true nature. While one half of us have embraced that nature (the Fallen) the other half have become fervent in our hatred of what we have been told is a weakness; just like how a repressed homosexual might be fervently homophobic. We Hunt Chaos like it was an obssesion and we are immensely xenophobic, but deep down we all know that this is not our true nature. What is truly scary, and most Dark Angels players will always try to deny is it possibility that, one day, just one day, we might so to say "come out of the closet" and go over to other side......

For what it's worth, you just talked me into Dark Angels over Grey Knights.  Like any textual analysis the poem "Dark Angel" can be read a variety of ways, and I do really like the idea that the Dark Angels fervently fear what's inside of them and the association with the taint of Chaos.  

 

Something that really stands out (back in 4th edition and again now, it seems) is that the Codex really allows you to maximize a mixed force; taking Belial in a list that would have included Terminators anyways lets those guys score, which is amazeballs.

 

Fun language fact: Belial means "worthless" in Hebrew.  Less true than it used to be maybe, but back in the day that guy died from a stiff breeze.

[Onisuzume]

On the subject of poems. I think that "The Wanderer" applies fairly well to us Dark Angels.

[twopounder]

Tactical Flexibility. For the most part, other space marines are purely close combat based with a tiny sprinkle of ranged specialists. The general strategy is to line up your marines and just move them as much as you can and hope they don't get shot before making it into close combat.

 

Dark Angels have a very wide and diverse selection of unit types and tactics, which means almost everyone will find an army composition that suits them. We have the hard hitting close combat power houses (deathwing, and especially deathwing knights), hit and run surgical strike specialists (the ravenwing and ravenwing knights), overwhelming firepower units (tactical marines and a standard of devastation. I actually ran 6 full tac squads and 1 banner. It's insane. Completely and totally insane.)

 

You can if you don't want to deepstrike/outflank, that's fine. Terminators can walk through hell without getting warm, and ravenwing can take darkshrouds that renders them nearly immune to shooting attacks until the landspeeders are shot down.

 

You can mix and match all of these to your heart's content, thanks to our force organization shifts.

[Spaniard]

i feel dumb for asking this but where is this poem located?

[Onisuzume]

i feel dumb for asking this but where is this poem located?

DARK Angel is on wikisource somewhere.

The Wanderer is on anglo-saxons.net.