Help with sons Dark Angels

[stev]

Hi all, 

 

This is a follow on from my previous post that I was advised to ask here.

 

To summarise quickly, my 3 boys have recently gotten into the hobby and started armies, I haven't really played the last 5 or so aditions so was hoping for some advice as they build their armies).

 

We have Chaos Space Marines, Orks and Dark Angels. Ideally trying to get the all to 1000 points, while keeping things fairly balanced.

 

The 9yr old DA player was the instigator. He got the Levithan box for Xmas and a few other units for his Birthday. At present his army is:

 

 

Captain in Terminator Armour [95pts]: Relic Weapon, Storm Bolter, Warlord

 

Librarian in Terminator Armour [75pts]: Storm Bolter

 

 

Deathwing Terminator Squad [360pts]

 

. Deathwing Sergeant

. 3x Deathwing Terminator: 3x Power Fist, 3x Storm Bolter

. Deathwing Terminator w/ Chainfist

. Deathwing Terminator w/ Heavy Weapon: Assault Cannon, Power Fist

 

Infernus Squad [80pts]

 

. 4x Infernus Marines: 4x Bolt Pistol, 4x Close Combat Weapon, 4x Pyreblaster

. Infernus Sergeant

 

 

Firestrike Servo-Turrets [75pts]

 

. Firestrike Servo-Turret: Twin Firestrike Las-talon

 

Redemptor Dreadnought [210pts]: Icarus Rocket Pod, Macro Plasma Incinerator, Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Twin Fragstorm Grenade Launcher

 

++ Total: [895pts] ++

 

Created with BattleScribe

 

 

What would you add? He doesn't have alot of points left to fill. My thought was a tactical squad or the primarily equivalent (that's stuff is all new to me). Or a transport for the infernus marines? More maybe a landspeeder for something fast and ranged?

 

What are your thoughts?

Thanks

[LameBeard]

As beautiful as the new terminators are, I’m struck by how few ‘boots on the ground’ these Leviathan starter armies have.

 

If you think he’s got the painting stamina, then massed troops looks great on the tabletop, and the dark green scheme isn’t too hard. So that would be intercessors, or assault intercessors with jump packs if you want a bit more mobility.

[crimsondave]

Dark Angels love plasma.  I think I’d go with a squad of Hellblasters.  They are 230 points for a 10 man squad but he could always run 5 instead of the whole 10.

[stev]

Is there a lore reason as to why Dark angels love plasma? Did it used to be related to them being the first?

[Grotsmasha]

Honestly I don't recall if it started as a Rules thing that they got easy access to Plasma, or it's always been a Lore thing (I started in 2nd Ed.).

It most definitely is both now though.  It is almost certainly a 1st Legion thing, and Caliban was a Forge World too. 

[ValourousHeart]

Tell your son that warhammer is the one place in life that it pays to be shallow. Go 100% on what he likes the look of. The rules are guaranteed to change with time. So base purchases on things that change much slower, things they find beautiful and inspiring. 
 

At this level your kids won’t be losing based on list construction. Wins and losses will be based on ability to focus on mission and threat assessment of things that will disrupt that focus. 
 

This is where you can shine as a parent. Keep your kids away from the competitive scene. Help make their foundational memories around warhammer be positive and uplifting. Not surrounded by people who hate games workshop. 
 

Your kids will have plenty of time to meet those people later in life. 

 

As to the plasma connection with Dark Angels… that is the result of a marketing blurb for a DA themed tactical squad that was released in 4th edition. DA were the first chapter to get to take a plasma cannon in a tactical squad.
 

That lasted for about 3 months when the SM codex was released. At that time SM also got plasma cannons in tactical squads but also got grav weapons throughout their codex. DA wouldn’t get access to Grav weapons until the next edition. 
 

For some reason everyone remembers DA getting plasma first, but doesn’t remember DA getting snubbed on Grav weapons for several years. 
 

Hope that helps. 

[Helias_Tancred]

11 hours ago, stev said:

Is there a lore reason as to why Dark angels love plasma? Did it used to be related to them being the first?

 

Yes. Going back to their origins as the First Legion, they were heavy users of plasma weapon technology (among others they used too). Ancient stronger and reliable plasma weaponry that the Imperium can't really reproduce in the current times of 40k genre-lore.

 

 

[LameBeard]

10 hours ago, Grotsmasha said:

Honestly I don't recall if it started as a Rules thing that they got easy access to Plasma, or it's always been a Lore thing (I started in 2nd Ed.).

It most definitely is both now though.  It is almost certainly a 1st Legion thing, and Caliban was a Forge World too. 

I agree with @Helias_Tancred on the longstanding plasma lore, not sure if I can prove it predates 4th edition, but didn’t Azrael and his combi-plasma predate that? And Samael has big old plasma cannon on his jetbike, so definitely the designers have had a lot of “Dark Angels like plasma” for a while, even if not baked into rules all the time.  But I’m not sure about Caliban being a Forge World, it was a forested Death World, surely?

[Grotsmasha]

42 minutes ago, LameBeard said:

I agree with @Helias_Tancred on the longstanding plasma lore, not sure if I can prove it predates 4th edition, but didn’t Azrael and his combi-plasma predate that? And Samael has big old plasma cannon on his jetbike, so definitely the designers have had a lot of “Dark Angels like plasma” for a while, even if not baked into rules all the time.  But I’m not sure about Caliban being a Forge World, it was a forested Death World, surely?

The metal Azrael is 2nd Ed, he's in the AoD codex.

[ValourousHeart]

Azrael was in 2nd with the combi-plasma. But 2nd was very different to the structural changes to DA that would happen in 4th. 
 

In 2nd the difference between DA, BA, SW, and UM was the veteran squads. UM got a veteran tactical squad, SW got a veteran devistator squad, BA got veteran assault, and DA got veteran bikes. 
 

When 3rd dropped all of the silliness from 2nd was stripped away and completely new game system was launched (kind of like 10th). 
 

You could run DA using all of the elements, but if you wanted to run Ravenwing or deathwing you were put into a very restrictive chart. 

 

There wasn’t much flexibility for anyone for most of the 3rd. Marines did rhino rush, until BA codex, then it was BA rhino rush.  BA got extra movement from vehicles. 
 

Chaos were one of the first to get a 2nd codex in 3rd and that gave them the opportunity to theme their list for a certain chaos god. They were pretty much the only codex in 3rd with that flexibility and flavor. 
 

4th gave that flexibility and flavor to everyone. SM got chapter traits. Ork clans were more than color choices. Basically everyone got the chaos treatment. 
 

Within that flexibility certain characters could move units around the force org chart. Sometimes it was just giving a character a bike to make bike squad troop choices. Other times it was taking a named character. 
 

DA at this time (4th) introduced the Ravenwing Attack Squadron … 6 bikes, 1 attack bike, and 1 land speeder tornado as a single troop choice if your warlord was corvex (Jetbike) or sableclaw (speeder). The bikes could combat squad into 2 units of 3 bikes. 
 

Black knights would be introduced in 5th alongside deathwing knights. 

[Helias_Tancred]

On 3/29/2025 at 3:29 AM, stev said:

Hi all, 

 

This is a follow on from my previous post that I was advised to ask here.

 

To summarise quickly, my 3 boys have recently gotten into the hobby and started armies, I haven't really played the last 5 or so aditions so was hoping for some advice as they build their armies).

 

We have Chaos Space Marines, Orks and Dark Angels. Ideally trying to get the all to 1000 points, while keeping things fairly balanced.

 

The 9yr old DA player was the instigator. He got the Levithan box for Xmas and a few other units for his Birthday. At present his army is:

 

 

Captain in Terminator Armour [95pts]: Relic Weapon, Storm Bolter, Warlord

 

Librarian in Terminator Armour [75pts]: Storm Bolter

 

 

Deathwing Terminator Squad [360pts]

 

. Deathwing Sergeant

. 3x Deathwing Terminator: 3x Power Fist, 3x Storm Bolter

. Deathwing Terminator w/ Chainfist

. Deathwing Terminator w/ Heavy Weapon: Assault Cannon, Power Fist

 

Infernus Squad [80pts]

 

. 4x Infernus Marines: 4x Bolt Pistol, 4x Close Combat Weapon, 4x Pyreblaster

. Infernus Sergeant

 

 

Firestrike Servo-Turrets [75pts]

 

. Firestrike Servo-Turret: Twin Firestrike Las-talon

 

Redemptor Dreadnought [210pts]: Icarus Rocket Pod, Macro Plasma Incinerator, Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Twin Fragstorm Grenade Launcher

 

++ Total: [895pts] ++

 

Created with BattleScribe

 

 

What would you add? He doesn't have alot of points left to fill. My thought was a tactical squad or the primarily equivalent (that's stuff is all new to me). Or a transport for the infernus marines? More maybe a landspeeder for something fast and ranged?

 

What are your thoughts?

Thanks

 

Units I'd consider getting for this list would be a regular terminator squad to build/paint up as Deathwing terminators, that way each of your terminator characters could have a unit to be embedded with if you ran both deathwing terminators and the deathwing knights?

 

I'd definitely consider a box of intercessors, a box of hellblasters, and a box of Inceptors. Azrael and a Lieutenant would also be good characters to add if you get the previously mentioned units. 

 

[Tacitus]

On 4/1/2025 at 12:03 AM, stev said:

Is there a lore reason as to why Dark angels love plasma? Did it used to be related to them being the first?

They were the First Legion.  Meaning they've been collecting toys longer than anyone else.  The archaic good stuff Mars can't make any more.  Like the good Plasma.  That's how it started.