Dark Angel HQ Review by Heretic Steve

Dark Angels review by Heretic Steve

Let’s talk about everyone’s favorite secret keeping, dress wearing dudes in power armor. The new codex brought new units, wargear, and fluff. All in all I like the codex but I have some likes and some major dislikes. We will break it down by HQ, Troops, Elites, Fast Attacks, Heavy Support, psychic powers, warlord traits, army special rules, and wargear. Today we will start with characters and command squads.

The codex brings back all of the favorites except Vet Sarg Namaan and Cypher. (Strike 1)

Azrael is pricey at over 200pts. He does not have eternal warrior or an AP2 weapon but does have FnP6+. He retains the ability to give his unit a 4++ which does not help with high rate of fire armies. His combi-plasma also has the blind ability like a few other units in the codex and you will see combos with this and items which reduce Initiative values to make sure they fail the blind save and become WS1 BS1. He also unlocks Deathwing and Ravenwing as troops if they are the primary detachment. He is a pass for me.

Ezekial is pretty good at under 150pts and a level 3 with mindworm, artificer armor, fearless, gives nearby models +1WS, and also can reduce a model’s WS, BS, and I by 3 at a time. He starts out at WS6 with the book, I5, 3A with mastercrafted Force weapon. Not too shabby for the points. We will see Ezekial on the table tops.

Asmodai has no AP on his blades of reason but does cause instant death with 1 wound. He has zealot which gives him fearless and hatrid. Not terrible but he won’t make the table top in tourneys.

Belial is a beast with WS6, precision shots/hits on a 5+, no deviation when deep striking, and a mastercrafted, fleshbane sword of silence. He is under 200 and can change his stormbolter/sword for thunderhammer/stormshield, or dual lightning claws for free. Of course he does make basic deathwing terminators troops. He should see a lot of play. He is better than Dante and can precision strike a 10 man terminator scoring unit without a roll. I like him as well.

Sammael is one of my faves. He has eternal warrior, fearless, T5, S6 AP2 Ravensword, jetbike with plasma cannon and twin stormbolter, 4++, hit and run, skilled rider, scouts, teleport homer, and rapid maneuver. Oh, and he unlocks basic ravenwing bides and is an independent character now. Be ready for him. He can also upgrade his jetbike for an AV14 speeder tornado with twinlinked weapons and a 4++.

The company master is under 100pts with an iron halo and can take any wargear options except banners. We should see some cool custom leaders this way.

Librarians are 65pts. They can be level 2 at 100 even. They are fearless, can take any powers except biomancy, and can upgrade any options just like the company master. So…yes you can give them an invulnerable save. You will see these guys a whole lot.

Interrigator chaplains and chaplains get to pick some cool options but will be forgotten in this book like Asmodai will due to the use of unique characters and the librarian.

Techmarines are HQs which do not use up a slot and are standard issue plus fearless like all characters. Once again, you will not see them except in allies to make more allied units fearless.

The company, deathwing, and ravenwing command squads allow you take some very useful banners but the models and unit will be very pricey and force your army to have an even lower model count. I personally will stay away from these due to their low model count and abilty to kill the banner bearer rather easily. The banner abilities range from Feel no Pain, to 2/4 salvo bolters, to hit and run, crusader, rerolling morale and pinning checks. All are useful but major points sink to get those abilities. I would only consider the 2/4 salvo banner due to it being a force multiplier.

Stick with Ezekial, Belial, Sammael, and librarians here and avoid the command squads. Bells and whistles are great but there is no way to keep the command squads alive effectively.

I hope the review the entire codex this weekend and post them periodically. Keep checking back for updates and PLEASE leave comments.

Also posted on the 19th Legion.

What would you take with a double force organization Dark Angel army of say, 2000-2500 points? I really do think that as 6th edition matures, double force organization will become more accepted.

He needs to look at the DA FAQ seems the author did alot of typos in the codex. Belial has an Iron Halo which the author forgotten to put into the codex and GW quickly threw out there, Azrael has a bolt pistol also so does asmodai.

Also he didn't mention in the review that Azrael can pick a warlord trait. Ezekiel, Belial, and Asmodai have the warlord trait of the hunt which give them 2 points for slaying warlord instead of normal 1.

like mentioned earlier for azrael's ability to pick and choose warlord traits, i find that it can be very useful, able to give a da player a small advantage over certain armies

and his 4+ inv to a unit is pretty useful with the right allies, prime example being ig power blob squad

It is a review fellas...not a total reprint.