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Hello all,

Just got back into the game after a long sebatical and my Astra Militarum are sitting at 3000 points and painted! When I got back into the hobby I bought Dark Vengeance for the rule book but I now find myself looking at all those DA on sprue... so I have the following :

The Dark Angel force boasts a Company Master armed with bolt pistol, power sword and combi-weapon, a Librarian who carries a bolt pistol and force sword, a ten-man Tactical Squad, a five-man Deathwing Terminator Squad and a three-man Ravenwing Bike Squadron.

So I'm not looking to spank loads of money on this but would love to take it upto a nice round 1850 take all comers.

So what should I avoid?
Any auto picks?
Anything from what I've got I should build a certain way?

Many thanks,

I'd say look into what you'd want to play first to. Meaning the DA can run an all Ravenwing Army, Deathwing Army, or Greenwing army. The DV box gives you the making of all 3. Obviously you can also run a mixture of any combination.

Ravenwing - if you decide to go with this I'd say there's probably 3 things I'd include in any Ravenwing army. Black Knights, Grav Guns, and a Darkshroud. Black Knights are probably the best unit in our codex. Skilled rider, great jink save, rapid fire plasma guns, and they aren't bad in CC with their +1 star and rending. Grav guns are really good on regular bikers. They are relentless so get their full salvo and max range which is awesome. The Darkshroud is great because it improves their cover save a lot and when you charge within 6 inches the enemy unit can't fire overwatch. I'd do the conversion to put the librarian in a bike, give him shroud of heroes and probably stick him with a command squad for Thai.

Greenwing - I'd suggest this if you want to play something similar to a Gladys strike force. The Lion's Blade can allow you access to free transports if you take two Demi companies, 1 lead by a Chaplain and the other the CM (which you already have). This is my favorite. How you run it will likely be determined by how you want to play it and the meta but I can tell you my general set up. Assault squads in drop pods with 2 Flanders minimum each, dev squads in rhinos with 2 grav each, and I usually have a mixture of melta and grav in the tac squads but lately have sprinkled in some plasma guns. I also like to run command squads with melta guns. Total right now I have 5 drop pods with flamers, grav, and melta. If I take razorbacks I like to run then with TL AC just because they are so versatile. I stay away from dreadnought just because they aren't that great and I like to put the points in else where. I also treat the HQ choices as a tax. It's 120 points stick for both and I unlock double that in free transports so can't complain. You do have a compulsory Auxiliary force you ah e to take. I usually either take a scout squad so I have points to beef up the Demi companies or go with a Ravenwing auxiliary. The RWAS or RWSS. Both are good and the upside is they all fire overwatch at Full BS. And I mean everything including the auxiliary unless it's Ravenwing and they jink. The RWSS is one of my favorites though if I take Ravenwing. A Darkshroud with 3 speeders. They can deep strike, outflank, have dreading run, intercepter, and a great jink save. How you load them out depends on what you want them to do. AC, TML, Melta, just think about if you want them as tank hunters for example or sitting in the back firing missiles. Oh! And everything, including the transports has obsec which is pretty awesome.

Deathwing - I have lots of these models because they look cool but don't play them competively, maybe in fun, fluffy list. Deathwing Knights aren't bad. They get T5 if 3+ are in base contact and have a 2+/3++. Stick an Interregator Chaplain with them so they can re-roll to hit in first round since they don't ever get a bonus attack for extra CC weapons. When they deep strike they can split fire, everything is twin-linked, and they can shoot run or run shoot. You can also guarantee a turn 2 arrival if you take the right Detachments. In the end though they aren't very mobile and there's a lot that will eat through them.

That's my two cents on them. grav is your best friend. Grav Cannons and guns. Just keep in mind that with the grav guns, you only get 2 shots at 9" if they move. I tend to move my squads a lot and have been using plasma more just for range but I'm still testing this out to see if it's making a huge difference. Most people will tell you grav beats only unless you're shooting at low armor save units like demons, GSC, nids, AM infantry, etc. but you still have bolsters to deal with them. I hope this helps. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have questions, list ideas, etc. or ignore it haha. If your aren't wanting to drop loads of money you way want to look at the Ravenwing. Having to buy 10 free transports can get expensive quick haha. Cheers!

Yo if you have all those guardsmen, dark Angels make excellent battle brothers! Librarians grant fearless and buffs, Azrael grants blobs 4++ and your choice of Warlord Trait, and Ravenwing offer hard hitting mobility that Guardsmen lack.

Black Knights are the best unit in the codex and one of the best in the game. You can never have too many. Deathwing, like all terminators, are not worth the points which is a shame because the models are ace. Green power armour dudes are competitive only in a full Battle Company - see Brandon Grant's tournament winning list for ideas here.

Best advice when beginning any marine collection: make up your own chapter and color scheme so you can use those models for any chapter tactics in the future.

The short version:
Ravenwing rocks.
Greenwing can be solid.
Deathwing underperforms.

Auto-includes are practically anything Ravenwing. The units are solid on their own merits, and have some good formations based around them. Top of the list is Ravenwing Black Knights, with Ravenwing Command Squads being the preferred flavor, but to offer an analogy, Ravenwing Knights are your favorite flavor of ice cream, Ravenwing Command Squads are your favorite flavor of ice cream with whipped cream on top. Either way, it's a winner. They have killer shooting, are good enough in assault to own all but the most dedicated assault units, are fast, have good durability, can leave combat practically at will, can drive through non-impassible terrain without worry...it's hard to say enough good about them. Regular Ravenwing Bike Squads offer fast Relentless platforms for grav guns and meltaguns. Attack Bikes are good platforms for multi-meltas. Land Speeders have all kinds of uses. The Dark Shroud is an excellent support unit. Even the flyers aren't terrible. The Nephilim is competent as an interceptor and decent at ground attack, and the Dark Talon is hilarious. The only turkey among the Ravenwing units is the Vengeance. To be avoided, but the same kit makes a Dark Shroud, and you'll definitely want at least one of those.

Greenwing tends to be the foundation of most lists. By necessity - if you're making a CAD, you have to take those compulsory 2 Troops choices, so they may as well be able to do something for you. Plus, I find some Greenwing handy to support the Ravenwing. You can let the Greenwing stand on objectives while the Ravenwing go kill things. If you're making a Lion's Blade, that's based on a lot of Greenwing. The LB is the basis of our good tournament lists, so if you have any ambitions of doing decently at a tournament, you'll want more of this stuff. Tac and Dev squads are your bread and butter here. If you're making CAD lists, you'll most likely not use Assault Squads, as Ravenwing will be taking your Fast Attack slots. If you do make a Lion's Blade, Assault Squads are compulsory, but the smart way to take them is with two flamers in a drop pod. So, you pretty much won't be using jump pack Marines regardless.

Auto-pickups are Tac Squads, Dev Squads, Scouts, Razorbacks, Drop Pods, and Company Vets. Tacs and Devs for the obvious reasons. Scouts have handy utility and can be used as a cheap Auxiliary choice for the Lion's Blade. Razorback kits can make either Rhinos or Razorbacks, and if you don't glue in the pieces that go in the big rectangular opening on the top, you can swap between the two vehicles by swapping what goes in there (gravity holds them in place well enough in games). Company Vets you buy for the sweet robed Marines - using them as sergeants gives your force that First Legion flair. I like to kit out my sergeants with combi-weapons that match the special weapon carried by the squad, Opinions vary on what's good for heavy weapons, but grav cannons are generally seen as best, with lascannons and multimeltas having a place, and missile launchers, heavy bolters, and plasma cannons generally not making the cut. Support vehicle to taste - I usually like to take at least one, but the tanks in the codex are pretty meh. Once I got my Forgeworld Relic Sicarian assembled and painted, it became my go-to choice.

If GW ever makes a plastic Sicarian with 40K rules, if those 40K rules stay consistent with the current Forge World ones, absolutely do pick one up. Heck, pick up the FW one if you're willing to spend the money.

Deathwing you can pretty much just avoid picking up entirely until such time as GW does something to make Terminators worth their points on the table. Don't hold your breath. I've been waiting for that since 3rd edition.

HQs: The Interrogator Chaplain is the best single choice. Librarians are solid. Company Masters don't usually get taken unless you're playing a Lion's Blade. Ditto regular Chaplains. On a bike is usually better than not on a bike, which is a strike against Company Masters, because they don't have that option. Of the named special characters, Sammael is the pick of the litter, because of his jetbike, an AP2 sword, and being able to confer Skilled Riders on a unit he joins. Ezekial you might want to pick up so you can field Ezekial's Conclave (which was the prototype for the Librarius Conclave), but it's worth noting that the Dark Vengeance Librarian is a WYSIWYG stand-in for Ezekial's official mini. Ditto the DV Company Master and Azrael. Almost like GW did that on purpose.

I'm not usually big on taking Allies, but overpowered psychic nonsense is becoming a bigger and bigger thing, so you might want to consider picking up some Sisters of Silence or a Culexus Assassin to hard-counter that tomfoolery. I've rebased and am currently spiffing up my old Culexus, which hasn't seen the light of day since 3rd edition.

I have to agree with most of the main points above I have a full battle company of green wing and love switching it up on how to play and run them similar to normal marines. Ravenwing I love because the re rollable jink and the fact that my ravenwing force made a necron player rage quit!! And then Deathwing look cool and have some pretty solid units but as an overall force they are to expensive and got nerfed hard. Originally my 2000 point Deathwing army did great I won about 60% of games played but now it doesn't perform as well anymore. I would highly suggest doing a green wing with ravenwing support the darkshroud and black knights are the hardest hitting part of my army with the special rule for flag our re roll 2+ jink (due to dark shroud with 3+ Re roll) and than full BS and charge pretty much first turn they are a thorn in my opponents side plus sammael and my command squad have Always taken all game to Widdle down.