Using Vehicles in your Dark Angels army

[Helias_Tancred]

Hi all.

 

I've taken about a year off from playing, and a good 8 month off from painting.  I'm getting ready to hop back in and I want to focus on my Dark Angel army going forward, especially considering the Lion is returning.

 

I do not play competitively, but with friends for fun. Outside of RW speeders, are there any vehicles you use that go well with Dark Angels? I ask because as I recently got my DA army out (around 12k), I noticed I really lack tanks. I have a lascannon predator and a Godhammer land raider for my Death Wing, but thats it. 

 

Thanks.

 

[WrathOfTheLion]

Welcome back to playing!

 

I don't typically take too many vehicles outside of speeders, but a Gladiator tank might be a useful addition. The Reaper looks to be pretty fun right now for laying down a mass of shots.

[Helias_Tancred]

Thanks! I kinda like that idea. I'm going to hold off on any tank purchases because they are expensive comparatively and I want to see how they're treated in the upcoming 10th edition rules first.

 

I do have a Gladiator Reaper built and base-coated in Mephiston Red that I was intending to use with my BA army ... I could spray it Caliban Green? ;)

 

 

[WrathOfTheLion]

You could, but honestly I'd like it in a BA army first. I built and am painting the one I have for my Lamenters. You may leave it as is and pick something else up another day?

[ValourousHeart]

What is wrong with just more speeders?  You can fit a Talonmaster, 6 Tornados, 3 Typhoons, and a Dark Shroud  in 1000 points.  Plenty of points left for whatever else you might want to take.

[WrathOfTheLion]

1 hour ago, ValourousHeart said:

What is wrong with just more speeders?  You can fit a Talonmaster, 6 Tornados, 3 Typhoons, and a Dark Shroud  in 1000 points.  Plenty of points left for whatever else you might want to take.

Well if they have 12,000 points of stuff without many tanks, may not need more speeders.

[ValourousHeart]

1 hour ago, WrathOfTheLion said:

Well if they have 12,000 points of stuff without many tanks, may not need more speeders.

 

Fair point, but if they have 12,000 points, and not 1,000 points of speeders, then their Ravenwing is in dire need of reinforcements.

 

With 12K points of Dark Angels, I'd expect a mix like this.

• 2000 points of terminators
• 1000-1500 points of non-terminator deathwing units
• 2000 points of Bikes
• 1000-1500 points of of Land Speeders
• At least 3 flyers (600 points)
• 3000 points on Greenwing Infantry
• 2000 points of Greenwing Support units / Motor pool.

[Tacitus]

Tanks are and have been in bad shape for a while.  The switch from AV to AV and HP, to Toughness and Wounds has not been kind.  They're finally starting to work on it if the Points changes to Land Raiders and such are an accurate indication - but they're still mostly in pretty bad shape.  Transporting in general is also in pretty bad shape - 

[Helias_Tancred]

On 3/13/2023 at 5:06 PM, ValourousHeart said:

What is wrong with just more speeders?  You can fit a Talonmaster, 6 Tornados, 3 Typhoons, and a Dark Shroud  in 1000 points.  Plenty of points left for whatever else you might want to take.

 

Good point! I currently have a Talonmaster, and 3 Land Speeder Typhoons with multi-meltas. I could use some more ;)

 

 

[Helias_Tancred]

Are the new primaris speeders worth the increased point cost vs the regular marine speeders?

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2023 by Eilio Tiberius

[ValourousHeart]

3 hours ago, Eilio Tiberius said:

Are the new primaris speeders worth the increased point cost vs the regular marine speeders?

 

I have 2 of the new speeders on my build table.  I picked them up because I wanted a little bit of everything for my Ravenwing collection.

 

• The Hailstrike does what our bikes do with fewer wounds and worse assault.
• The Hammerstrike does what our Attack Bikes do with a larger footprint.  ATV squadrons have significantly more durability than both Attack Bikes and Hammerstrike.
• The Thunderstrike is the only one adds something that our other units don't do.  Bring S9 and S10 weapons.

If you are just starting out building up your Ravenwing units, it will be a tougher call, because you are still deciding how much you want to lean into speeders.

With the newer speeders you will likely pick up fewer speeders and instead rely on other units for heavy damage dealing.

 

If you are like me and have a more established Ravenwing collection with more speeders than you can reasonably field, the new speeders are really only worth it if you just like collecting and painting, and don't mind having models in your collection that will likely never see the tabletop.

 

But take all of that with a grain of salt.  I have a bias when it comes to speeders.  And I love spamming the board with them.

[Helias_Tancred]

Haha love that pic! With the alternate color I've gotta ask if you did a second founding chapter? ... for your reference Valorousheart, here's the Ravenwing I own:

1 Dark Shroud speeder

1 Land Speeder Vengeance

3 Land Speeder Typhoons w/multi-melta instead of heavy bolter

1 Talonmaster

3 Ravenwing bikes with combi-plasma, 2 plasma guns

3 Ravenwing bikes with combi-melta, 2 melta guns

1 Attack bike with multi-melta

1 Dark Talon flyer

6 Ravenwing Knights w/Corvus hammers

2 Huntmasters w/power swords

Sammael 

 

 

[ValourousHeart]

4 hours ago, Eilio Tiberius said:

Haha love that pic! With the alternate color I've gotta ask if you did a second founding chapter? ... for your reference Valorousheart, here's the Ravenwing I own:

 

For the most part I hate painting black.  I've only been able to paint one model black that I liked the look of when it was done, and that model an imperial knight.  I was able to do most of the black with spray cans while the armor plates were not connected to the model.

 

Too many failed starts with my Ravenwing bikes trying to paint them black.  So I ended up making a custom scheme similar to Disciples of Caliban but Zandri Dust instead of black.  Because I started by painting land speeders I had to change up what parts on the marines were Green because I couldn't reach the entire marine.  Ended up with green thighs, upper arms down to the elbows, and the balls on the backpacks.  Finish them off with Red on any insignias and picking out little details here and there like buttons and screens on control panels.

 

That picture is Talonmaster, Sableclaw, 4 Typhoons, 8 Tornados, 2 dreadnoughts and my Dark Talon.

I'm currently working on Primaris Chaplain on bike, 6 outriders, 3 Invader ATVs, 10 RWBK, RW Apoth, RW Banner, Land Speeder Storm, Dark Shroud, and Nephilim.

 

I still have a bunch of bikes and attack bikes that need to be fixed up and queued up on the painting table.  I think I used to have around 36 bikes and 7 attack bikes, but I'm not certain how many of those are in salvageable condition.

 

Not entirely sure what all will be in the next painting round after I'm done with the current batch.  But likely will include my 2nd Nephilim to finish off my flyers, and my 4 Invictor Warsuits.  Part of me wants to jump over to my Blade Guard and Reivers for boarding action games.

[Marshal Mittens]

I think the hammer strike and thunderstrike are both ok. Ultimately the new speeders are not great, but they do look cool. I need to put a bunch together still. In fun games they are really pretty decent and will do pretty well in some matches. Except the hailstrike, unless you play against GEQ spam armies maybe. 

[Karhedron]

Dreanoughts are in good shape still. The Redemptor is solid and the forthcoming Brutalis looks very nice. For older Dreads, the trusty Venerable Dreanought is worth considering.

 

As others have mentioned, Marine vehicles overall are not in great shape at the moment. But 10th edition is only 3 months away and will feature a full reset. Maybe worth holding off on tanks for a while and seeing how the new meta shapes up.

[nusphigor]

On 3/16/2023 at 7:29 PM, ValourousHeart said:

 

I have 2 of the new speeders on my build table.  I picked them up because I wanted a little bit of everything for my Ravenwing collection.

 

• The Hailstrike does what our bikes do with fewer wounds and worse assault.
• The Hammerstrike does what our Attack Bikes do with a larger footprint.  ATV squadrons have significantly more durability than both Attack Bikes and Hammerstrike.
• The Thunderstrike is the only one adds something that our other units don't do.  Bring S9 and S10 weapons.

If you are just starting out building up your Ravenwing units, it will be a tougher call, because you are still deciding how much you want to lean into speeders.

With the newer speeders you will likely pick up fewer speeders and instead rely on other units for heavy damage dealing.

 

If you are like me and have a more established Ravenwing collection with more speeders than you can reasonably field, the new speeders are really only worth it if you just like collecting and painting, and don't mind having models in your collection that will likely never see the tabletop.

 

But take all of that with a grain of salt.  I have a bias when it comes to speeders.  And I love spamming the board with them.

Hey man, maybe do you have a closer pic of your minis somewhere? They look killer! 

Also, what kind of base size do they have? I kinda want to do that woth my speeders too

 

Sorry for the deviation of the thread op, but these minis just look sweet! 

Edited March 26, 2023 by nusphigor

[ValourousHeart]

Sorry to take this off topic.  I'll try to be brief.

 

This is the first speeder I painted in my current color scheme.  I ended up changing the formula slightly when I moved on to paint the rest of the speeders.  This one has a wash of Seraphim Sepia and Agrax Earthshade over Zandri Dust spray.  I also think I did the dry brush of Terminus Stone before the wash, or between the 2 washes.  Even though I'm not happy that the Seraphim Sepia makes this on stand out, it is the one that I spent the most individual attention on.  I think for this model I ended up using multiple drybrush colors over each different color, and then wiped out all but the brightest drybrush once I added the Agrax wash.  So for the batch painting I ended up skipping most of the extra work.

 

 

This speeder was painted once I settled on my formula and done in assembly line with the intent of just being table top quality.  The main armor color is Zandri Dust spray, Agrax Earthshade, and then a drybrush of Terminus Stone.

 

Bases are from the Sector Imperialis line.  My first born and RWBK use the 75 MM ovals.  Attack Bikes, Outriders and first born Land Speeders use the 90 MM ovals.  I also based by Invaders on 100 MM round bases (same size the Armigers come with).  https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Sector-Imperialis-65-75-90MM-Oval-Bases

 

For the bases for the speeders I used some spare bits I had from older building kits I had.  They connect securely to the base with plastic glue.  I use a flat head wood screw into the hole on the bottom of the speeder that the plastic flight stands fit into.  That screw connects to a magnet on the base.  If I had to do it again, I'd include a washer held on with that screw on the bottom of the speeder just to create more surface area for the magnet to attach to.  As is the magnet and screw are about the same size, so if they don't line up the model tips over.  But I'm so much happier with these than I am with the flying stands.  Bases store easily in my case, laying on top of the trays my bikes are in, with the pegs down.

[nusphigor]

On 3/27/2023 at 12:11 AM, ValourousHeart said:

Sorry to take this off topic.  I'll try to be brief.

 

This is the first speeder I painted in my current color scheme.  I ended up changing the formula slightly when I moved on to paint the rest of the speeders.  This one has a wash of Seraphim Sepia and Agrax Earthshade over Zandri Dust spray.  I also think I did the dry brush of Terminus Stone before the wash, or between the 2 washes.  Even though I'm not happy that the Seraphim Sepia makes this on stand out, it is the one that I spent the most individual attention on.  I think for this model I ended up using multiple drybrush colors over each different color, and then wiped out all but the brightest drybrush once I added the Agrax wash.  So for the batch painting I ended up skipping most of the extra work.

 

 

This speeder was painted once I settled on my formula and done in assembly line with the intent of just being table top quality.  The main armor color is Zandri Dust spray, Agrax Earthshade, and then a drybrush of Terminus Stone.

 

Bases are from the Sector Imperialis line.  My first born and RWBK use the 75 MM ovals.  Attack Bikes, Outriders and first born Land Speeders use the 90 MM ovals.  I also based by Invaders on 100 MM round bases (same size the Armigers come with).  https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Sector-Imperialis-65-75-90MM-Oval-Bases

 

For the bases for the speeders I used some spare bits I had from older building kits I had.  They connect securely to the base with plastic glue.  I use a flat head wood screw into the hole on the bottom of the speeder that the plastic flight stands fit into.  That screw connects to a magnet on the base.  If I had to do it again, I'd include a washer held on with that screw on the bottom of the speeder just to create more surface area for the magnet to attach to.  As is the magnet and screw are about the same size, so if they don't line up the model tips over.  But I'm so much happier with these than I am with the flying stands.  Bases store easily in my case, laying on top of the trays my bikes are in, with the pegs down.

Many many thanks man! 

Thank you op! 

Edited March 28, 2023 by nusphigor

[Helias_Tancred]

No worries guys .... great information presented.