2500 Dark Angels beginner army

[Brother Endymion]

Hi all!

 

After about 10 years away from the hobby, I'm slowly coming back. 30K wasn't a thing when I collected, but now it's grabbed my attention and want to at least collect and paint an army. Not having any 30k tabletop experience and not knowing where to start building my army, I saw this list on a YT video as a good DA starter army and after building it in Battle Scribe it looks very appealing to my untrained eye:

 

[HQ] - 605 pts

* Praetor. Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour, Digital Lasers, Paragon Blade

 

* Terminator Command Squad. 4 Cataphractii Terminators, 4x Combi-bolters, 3x Power Swords, 1x Reaper Autocannon, 1x Chainfist

 

* Land Raider Phobos: Twin Lascannon, Armored Ceramite, some more stuff

 

[Elites] - 180 pts

* Contemptor Dreadnought Talon - TL Heavy Bolter with Molecular Acid

 

[Troops] - 615 pts

 

* 3x Tactical Squad:Bolter, Bolt Pistol, CCW, Melta Bombs and Vexilla. Sargent with Calibanite Blade. Rhino Transport

 

[Fast Attack] 405 pts

 

* Javelin Attack Speeder: Heavy Bolter, TL Cyclone ML

 

* Jet Bike Sky Hunter Squadron: 3x Jet Bikes, 2 Heavy Bolters with Molecular Acid, 1 Multi Melta

 

* Outrider Squad: 6x Bikes, Chainsword and TL Bolter, 1x Sargent with Melta Bombs

 

[Heavy Support] 630 pts

 

* Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought: TL Anvilus Pattern Autocannon TL Heavy Bolter

 

* Sicaran Punisher Assault Tank: Lascannon Sponsons

 

* Sicaran Venator Tank Destroyer: Havoc Launcher, Lascannon Sponsons

 

Total: 2480

 

 

I love the list because it has reasonable model count and a bit of everything, looks great to collect and paint. 2 cool tanks (3 if counting the Land Raider, but that no longer awes me ), 2 Dreadnoughts (which on 40k 8th edition would suffer death-by-Castellan on 1st turn so most lists don't use them), 6 of those beautiful Outriders (that can do double duty as Ravenwing Black Knights in my 8th DA army), the Attack Speeder (which again, can be easily converted to count as Sammael on Sableclaw on 40k). Jetbikes, Deathwing, the Cataphractii Preator mini, which I love and 30 tactical marines that can be equipped with tons of swords CCW. .

 

I will probably get another character to run as Champion with a 9 squad of Vets (until rules for Corswain come out, that's it) with swords and combat shields Segismund + Templar Brethen-style, to mix and match with the current list, but I want a solid core before I start with the fancy stuff.

 

I understand it might not be the most point effective army our there, and that's ok. I'm not going to compete with it, I'll be happy enough if I can even find people to play against, but that's not a big worry for now. I just want to know if there's some big, glaring weakness that I should cover or if there's any fundamental problem with the list that I should be aware of before starting to collect it. Or even some minor stuff that should be corrected, like, say, "Heavy weapons on the Terminator squad are pointless", or "chainfists suck, grab a PF instead".

 

Any thoughts and criticism would be much appreciated!

[Pearson73]

Looks nice and mobile, I've got a few general comments, but I'm sure someone who knows the legion better will be able to offer more insight.

 

The lascannons seem wasted on the Punisher, as an anti-infantry tank it surely won't be firing at useful targets with them, the heavy bolters would be much more complementary.

 

I wouldn't recommend the autocannon on the Terminators, as I imagine they'll be jumping right out of their Phobos and straight into combat. Power swords probably aren't that useful, as most of the prime targets for a Praetor and retinue will be rocking a 2+ save.

 

If you're not already running a RoW, perhaps Pride of the Legion would be useful to replace the Tacticals with Veteran squads which are significantly better and also more suiting to the Angels, in my eyes.

[Erren]

Some thoughts:

More AP2 in the Command squad - I think you’re over-valuing the DA bonus to using swords. It’s nice, but a Chainfist or Powerfist will still be better against the things a Command Squad should be targeting. Power Swords are ok on 1-2 of them if you really need the points.

 

I really like the Multimelta on the Javelin. 2 HK missiles if you have the points, too. Deep Strike and unload with all the S8.

 

Don’t bother with the Multimelta on the jetbikes imo. The acid shells are nice and it keeps the unit all wanting to shoot at the same target. If you want MM jetbikes, take the heavy support ones.

 

I have a unit of 6 TL plasma outriders I tried to use for awhile. They took up a TON of points, and were realistically never going to make them back. I’ve since ripped them off and plan to magnetize them with the bolter option so I can make a Outrider Command squad with lots of melee weapons instead. No idea if that’ll work any better, but that’s my experience with them at any rate.

 

I don’t find the Sicaran Punisher to be attractive nor worth its points, but if you like it, more power to you. Just give it Heavy Bolters like Pearson73 said.

 

Don’t put extra weapons on a Sicaran Venetor. It’s main gun is ordnance so you’d have to snap fire everything else.

[Brother Endymion]

Thanks a lot, guys. That was exactly the kind of feedback I was after.

 

I'm more familiar with 8th edition than 7.5, hadn't realized that split fire isn't a thing in 30k, nor I'm yet as used to many special rules/weapons like Ordnance. And I keep thinking about AP and armor saves as it's on 8th. So yeah, all your suggestions make a ton of sense. 

 

Went over to the list and taking all the extra stuff like TL Lascannon sponsons or out of place meltas I was able to upgrade the 3 Tac squads to Veterans (with Pride of the Legion RoW, as suggested) and throw a couple of HB with suspensor web and acid shells. The terminators now have 2 PF, although I have to keep 2 Swords for lack of points (and because I like bladed weapons on Termies a lot ). I was able to put a MM and 2 H/K missiles on the Speeder, and 3 HB with acid shells on the Jetbikes as well.

 

I don't know if the Sicarian Punisher is good or not. The model is sick and 18+3 S5 shots look like a nice amount of dakka, so I'm very likely to get one, but if it doesn't work, I'll have 200 points to play around. That could buy me 2 more Javelins with Meltas and H/K, another Jetbike and and extra PF for the Command Squad, which is tempting as well. 

 

Happy with the list either way, feels like a solid core to start dipping on 30k and wait until proper DA rules do get published.

[Varyn]

Looks like a solid list, lots of good feedback from the other chaps.

 

I think the Punisher isn't awful, the problem is that it isn't as good as the standard Sicaran or the Arcus. Although if you fight lots of mechanicum, solar aux or militia then the punisher would be great. If you like the model, I say go for it, you're going to build a 2500 point army so you should definitely put some models in purely based on their aesthetic appeal, this is 30k after all!

 

i agree on keeping a couple of power swords in your terminator command unit, if the unit takes any casualties from shooting, the chaps with the power swords can take the hits to protect your precious chainfists.

[Pearson73]

Glad we could help, those changes sound good.

 

I thought there might be some split-firing ideas in there, that's one thing I do like about 8th.

[Varyn]

From the sounds of it, the updated rules in book 8 for the sicaran punisher means it can use 'rolling thunder' every turn. This is a substantial improvement :)