10th Edition Competitive Faction Focus – Dark Angels

With the release of 10th edition now firmly behind us and more than a month of competitive games in the books it’s time to start taking a deeper look at each of the game’s factions. In this series we’ll talk about each faction, what they have to offer, how they play, and talk about a few list concepts to consider.

You can find all the Faction Focuses that we’ve published here.

Today, Stat Check‘s Innes Wilson joins us to talk about the faction he took all the way to the Shadow Round at the WTC Warmaster GT – Dark Angels.

If there’s anything in Warhammer that’s more emblematic than seeing a Space Marine and thinking he looks under-dressed? Dark Angels set out to answer that question by technically being the same Index as the rest of the Space Marine factions, but draping a garment over the top and saying that it’s a wholly different thing.

Many things in the 41st Millennium are secrets, but the rocky performance of Dark Angels in 10th Edition is not one of them

Why Should You Play Dark Angels?

Dark Angels have a wide variety of tools available to them that live along side the core Index Space Marines, broadening an already diverse range with everything from Characters and Vehicles; to sidegrades of existing units and the wildly different Lion El’Jonson. If you looked at the Marines Index and said “where’s all the stuff?”, Dark Angels are for you.

The other reason of course, is because they have some wildly powerful specific units that fill some existing gaps in the core range, that work exceedingly well in Gladius Task Force and can expand you to one of the strongest armies available right now. Unforgiven Task Force rounds out the duo with a very interesting detachment focused around mitigating the impacts of Battle Shock and even providing benefits when failing, which as most people who have played 10th Edition will know is not a common issue.

Five Things You Need To Know to Play Dark Angels

1. You’re better off Playing Gladius Task Force: The Unforgiven Task Force gives you all that fun Dark Angels specific flavour, but many of its abilities are poor imitations of already existing rules in Gladius, and it lacks the mobility conferred by doctrines or the raw output of the stratagem and enhancement suite provided by Gladius. Unforgiven Fury is a wildly situationally powerful stratagem, that would almost be enough on its own to propel some interesting builds, but its condition of having a Battle Shocked unit to trigger Critical Hits on 5+ to go with its Lethal Hits is so difficult as to be actively not worth considering. This holds true for at least half of the specific abilities presented here. If the Unforgiven Task force had all these triggers by default, it would likely be slightly too powerful (especially the Pennant of Remembrance) but the fact that it’s even in question is a strong sign that it’s not worth your time. Bolter Discipline and Combat Doctrines are your meat and potatoes for a reason.

2. The Unique Units are spice, not the whole meal: Many of the most interesting units in the Dark Angels index are upgrades of existing units, like Black Knights, the Land Speeder Vengeance, or the Deathwing Command Squad. While these all provide some interesting options at reasonable points premiums, it’s important that you wanted the role that the base unit would have provided in the first place. If your army wasn’t in need of a fast skirmishing bike unit before, a slightly better specific version of it is unlikely to change that very much. Except….

3. Deathwing Knights might look underwhelming, but have you heard of Synergy?: Deathwing Knights single-handedly spawned an archetype centered around using them with all of the myriad buffs you can contribute to them from Gladius such as Oath of Moment for full rerolls, and Honour the Chapter for the spicy Lance and +1AP while in Assault Doctrine. Which just so happens to solve the mobility problem that is inherent to a M5 model by granting Advance and Charge. One of the few true melee units in the game that can keep pace with how difficult it can be to get to combat as well as how pillowfisted it can feel when you get there. Want to mow down Lychguard? Charge Custodes, have them fight first then chew them up like Pac-Man right after? Deathwing Knights are your unit. -1 Damage. 4 Wounds. Armour of Contempt. Truly they do it all.

4. The Lion isn’t as good as he looks: For 380 Points, it’s very difficult to justify that much on a model that controls as little space as the Lion does. While in Gladius he can advance and charge, and he will absolutely mow down most things he touches, his low wound count and middling resiliency for his points can often leave him on cleanup duty or struggling to cross the board in the face of armies with guns bristling. Definitely a fun unit and one that’s reasonably viable, but not one to expect to see on top tables any time soon.

5. Oath is hard to use for a multi-phased army: Make no mistake, as much as there are many viable combat options present for Dark Angels, this is still 10th Edition. You are going to run shooting elements of some (and often many) stripe. What that is depends a little bit on what you’re trying to build to beat, but Aggressors, Desolation Marines, and Inceptors (as well as some more exotic fare) all show up regularly in well performing Dark Angels lists. Oath of Moment is a resource, not an army wide buff. It’s on you as the player using it to figure out if you need to save it for your melee, or if you can pump up your shooting phase to full effect. In the earlier stages of the game where you’re not charging this is a lot easier, but knowing the breakpoints where you need it to make a crucial combat happen and where you can skip it will improve your performance significantly.

Must Have Dark Angels Units

Dark Angels are Space Marines, and they don’t fall far from the Index’s tree – you can see the Faction Focus for the Core Chapters here which covers the generic information for both Marines and Gladius Task Force.

Broadly units that are good in Space Marines are good here. Expect to see Desolation Marines and Gladiator Lancers solving your armour problems, and providing withering indirect in the case of Desolation Marines. Inceptors, Land Speeders and Scout Sniper squads provide close range 3″ deep strike, fast moving scoring, and units with in-built Lone Operative respectively to contribute to your scoring game, while still punching up on damage (especially with Oath of Moment) and Infiltrators, Thunderfire Cannons and similar will give you units to hold space, hold your backfield, or stop Genestealer Cults getting overly familiar with the objective in your deployment zone. Much has been written on these units, including in the aforementioned article.

Much more interesting then, are the units that Dark Angels improves significantly, or work well paired with the Dark Angels.

Azrael is a very efficient little package of Sustained Hits 1 and a 4+ Invulnerable Save for his unit, as well as a command point every turn allowing easier stratagem use and less punishing play on Fixed Objectives. Consider him with Sternguard or Hellblasters for an efficient secondary shooting unit that doesn’t require your Bolter Discipline Enhancement to fire on almost as many cylinders and does it while being much more resilient to boot. He’s also not too bad in a scrap himself.

The Ravenwing Land Speeder Vengeance has a neat trick where it can fire back at enemies who destroy a friendly model within 6″ once per turn, which at D6+1 9/3/3 and Twin-Linked is a nasty prospect to take from up to three of them, while being a reasonably mobile platform with an inbuilt invulnerable save.

Deathwing Command Squads get to bring a model back every command phase, and have a native +1 to Advance and Charge, making them a menace with Assault Doctrine. Being able to mix in some heavy weapons also enables them to be a multi-dimensional threat, and they act as almost pure upside upgrades to the base Assault Terminator Squad for not many more points.

Ravenwing Black Knights and Command Squads are the most terrifying units you can attach a Chaplain on Bike to, making powerful use of his Devastating Wounds ability with their Plasma Talon shooting. A high cost keeps these units down at the moment, but it wouldn’t take much of a change to make these a very interesting option.

Lastly, I could say a thousand more words on Deathwing Knights than what was covered above, but simply put they’re one of the best datasheets in the game and are well worth your time. Add a Captain in Terminator Armour with Adept of the Codex to keep them in Tactical Doctrine when they don’t need to go supersonic, and consider an Ancient in Terminator Armour to bump up their low OC, and go to town.

The last unit that I want to cover isn’t super Dark Angels specific, but it does benefit heavily from working alongside such a heavy pushing unit as the Deathwing Knights, which is a Land Raider Redeemer filled to the brim with 6 Aggressors and an Apothecary Biologis with Bolter Discipline. Piloted by great success by Lesiu of Team Poland on their way to a WTC victory, this behemoth of a unit with insane damage output courtesy of “Lethal Hits, Sustained Hits 1, Critical Hits on a 5+, +2 AP and Ignore Cover with Oath Of Moment” is capable of crunching through a Wraithknight with around 16 average damage and a lot of room to spike high. Delivery is manageable through the resilience of the platform, and Squad Tactics allows the unit to do some shenanigans if anyone tries to get close.

Overall the Dark Angels have a wealth of options that they add to a fairly generic Gladius Task Force through their units.

How to Score Points with Dark Angels

With Dark Angels general prevalence towards anvil units and Lone Operatives, holding objectives is fairly trivial. Jam some Deathwing Knights or a Land Raider onto the ones closest to your opponent. Hold the sides with Scouts or Infiltrators with a Phobos Librarian. Do the same on your deployment objective, or put some artillery there like Desolation Marines or Whirlwinds/Thunderfire Cannons. Need to take an objective off your opponent? Inceptors are perfectly capable of doing so with their 3″ deep strike, or charge them with the a unit that will remove them with extreme prejudice.

Armour of Contempt will allow most units to hold their own against non concentrated fire, and will help your biggest units survive all but the biggest guns.

Tactical and Fixed objectives are catered for with the standard suite of small Lone Operatives and fast units that play your primary game. Scouts, Scout Snipers, Land Speeders (of any kind) and Inceptors will do just as fine a job jumping onto an objective to die, or Deploying Teleport Homers in the middle or your opponent’s deployment zone to keep a solid grasp on your secondary scoring options.

How does Dark Angels deal damage?

Gratuitous Violence comes easily to the Dark Angels. Having the option of a real melee presence diversifies the threat profile of the army and makes you very hard to deal with. Desolation Marines and Aggressors both do indiscriminate damage to almost any target with Oath of Moment and Bolter Discipline, either as a constant source over the game, or in one explosive volley depending on your choice of Caddy.

Any unit is capable of punching up through Oath of Moment, especially when supported by the fairly ubiquitous Grenade stratagem to chunk through anything skirmishing on a flank. The question then as always with Marines is how do you kill things without Oath of Moment?

At 4x WS2+ 6/1/3 attacks from the generic models in a Deathwing Knights squad, accompanied then by Lance, +1 AP and the Various Characters, not a lot likes getting hit by them, even without Oaths. Generally they’ll only need it to punch up into the biggest targets in the game like Imperial Knights, Magnus the Red or Lychguard. Should your opponent fail to be one of those, and you’re not trying to kill three things at once, you probably don’t need it here.

The same applies to smaller (or bigger and fragile, damn blast) units targetted by Desolation Marines, Aggressors or your vehicles of choice. Gladiator Lancers bring their own Re-rolls, as do Inceptors through Twin-Linked. Always be thinking about if you need Oath here or if you can have something smaller punch up a weight class.

Overall Dark Angels play a little bit like a rolling freight train. You’re trying to push through your opponent with powerful melee, and divert anything that could cause a problem to that off the tracks by shooting it before it becomes one. Whether that’s scoring units, or something that could actually hold you up is up to you.

Sample Lists

Both sample lists here come from the WTC, one was played by myself in the Singles and the main event, the other by Team Poland in the main event only. Both show some very different takes on the support provided to a Deathwing Knight core, one focussing on the traditional Desolation Marines, while the other goes heavily into the Land Raider Redeemer to create a crushingly powerful midboard.

Innes Wilson – Warmaster GT 5th Place – Dark Angels: Gladius Task Force

Army List - Click to Expand

Łukasz ‘Lesiu’ Leszkiewicz – WTC 1st Place – Dark Angels: Gladius Task Force

Army List - Click to Expand

Jason Watts – Capital City Clash 2nd Place – Dark Angels: Unforgiven Task Force

Unforgiven (1995 Points)

Space Marines
Dark Angels
Unforgiven Task Force
Strike Force (2000 Points)

CHARACTERS

Azrael (120 Points)
• 1x Lion’s Wrath
1x The Lion Helm
1x The Sword of Secrets

Chaplain in Terminator Armour (110 Points)
• 1x Crozius arcanum
1x Storm bolter
• Enhancements: Heavenfall Blade

Lion El’Jonson (380 Points)
• Warlord
• 1x Arma Luminis
1x Fealty

Primaris Apothecary (70 Points)
• 1x Absolvor bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
1x Reductor pistol
• Enhancements: Stubborn Tenacity

OTHER DATASHEETS

Deathwing Knights (235 Points)
• 1x Knight Master
• 1x Flail of the Unforgiven
• 4x Deathwing Knight
• 4x Mace of absolution

Desolation Squad (120 Points)
• 1x Desolation Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Castellan launcher
1x Close combat weapon
1x Vengor launcher
• 4x Desolation Marine
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Castellan launcher
4x Close combat weapon
4x Superkrak rocket launcher

Desolation Squad (120 Points)
• 1x Desolation Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Castellan launcher
1x Close combat weapon
1x Vengor launcher
• 4x Desolation Marine
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Castellan launcher
4x Close combat weapon
4x Superkrak rocket launcher

Devastator Squad (120 Points)
• 1x Devastator Sergeant
• 1x Astartes chainsword
1x Close combat weapon
1x Storm bolter
• 4x Devastator
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
4x Grav-cannon

Devastator Squad (120 Points)
• 1x Devastator Sergeant
• 1x Astartes chainsword
1x Close combat weapon
1x Storm bolter
• 4x Devastator
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
4x Lascannon

Drop Pod (70 Points)
• 1x Storm bolter

Hellblaster Squad (250 Points)
• 1x Hellblaster Sergeant
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Plasma incinerator
1x Plasma pistol
• 9x Hellblaster
• 9x Close combat weapon
9x Plasma incinerator
9x Plasma pistol

Scout Sniper Squad (75 Points)
• 1x Scout Sniper Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
1x Scout sniper rifle
• 4x Scout Sniper
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
4x Scout sniper rifle

Thunderfire Cannon (90 Points)
• 1x Techmarine Gunner
• 1x Bolt Pistol
1x Close combat weapon
1x Flamer
1x Gunner’s servo-arms
1x Plasma cutter
• 1x Thunderfire Cannon
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Thunderfire cannon

ALLIED UNITS

Callidus Assassin (115 Points)
• 1x Neural shredder
1x Phase sword and poison blades

Final Thoughts

Dark Angels have taken a while to find their footing, coming off to a rocky start on the edition and sporting a win rate in the low 40s. It appears however that it’s just taken a while to settle on a build that really works for the faction, and with an upcoming Balance Dataslate that is aimed squarely at the faction’s one true predator in Aeldari (Deathwing Knights have a bad time with Nightspinners slowing them down), it wouldn’t be surprising to see Dark Angels start to take one of the top spots due to their very good match up into things like Custodes, Necrons, and Genestealer Cult that are also in and around the upper echelons.

Thanks to Innes for all the tactical insight, and make sure once again to take a look at Stat Check. Tomorrow, it’s Xenos time once more as we delve into another melee faction – Orks.