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Well, here goes. I'll explain choices as questions come up.

Company Master
-Power Weapon
-Command Squad (5 Marines) w/ 2 Plasma Guns
-Drop Pod
300 pts

Tac Squad (10 Marines)
-Power Fist
-Melta
-Missile
-Drop Pod
260 pts

Tac Squad (10 Marines)
-Power Fist
-Melta
-Missile
-Drop Pod
260 pts

Dev Squad (10 Marines, to be Combat Squadded)
-2 Heavy Bolters
-2 Plasma Cannons
245 pts

Dev Squad (10 Marines, to be Combat Squadded)
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons
275 pts

Vindicator
-Dozer Blade
130 pts

Ravenwing Support Squad (1 speeder)
-Assault Cannon
100 pts

Ravenwing Support Squad (1 speeder)
-Assault Cannon
100 pts

Dreadnought
-Heavy Flamer
-Drop Pod
180 pts

1750 total pts.

Why the Command Squad. They aren't even tricked out like they could be. They all have 2 attacks, trick them out for cc and include the company champion and apothecary. Dropping the Vindicator for a Pred w/ Autocannon and Heavy bolters should free up the points.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Stupid computer...

I agree. Dark Angels Command Squads tend not to do shooty that well - too many wasted points. Get a Powerfist in there, a Company Champion and Apothecary. Maybe a standard too - for looks.

Otherwise just have the Master join a 5-strong Tactical Squad and save a bucket of points.

The Vindicator doesn't really need a dozer blade. Most games don't feature terrain dense enough to make one worthwhile. I would keep it though. It's a much better MEQ killer than a Pred Destructor and it can one-shot Mephiston (useful since he appears in about 1/3 of total 40K armies now).

300 Points for one unit is far too much, especially when that unit is 5 models large. I don't like it on sheer principle.

I've done hybrid stuff before with pods and to sum it up, it doesn't work. Your dev squads, for all their glory in the DA list, will sit on the table and either hide till pods arrive (not shooting, bad) or face 1750 points worth of your opponents army while you wait for pods to show up (also bad, MEQ's aren't THAT tough).

If you expose the speeders before the pods are out, they'll die. Not bad if you can hide them and spring em in conjunction with a pods arrival. I can see it being somewhat decent at forcing an opponent not to castle up in the face of pods, but I just don't like it that much.

When contemplating competitive DA builds, Pods came to mind as an option. I'd go almost strictly for 2 10 man tac squads with melta and Fist in a pod, elites would be filled by Company Vets with dual weapons and probably dual fists in pods. A venerable dread in a pod may be a good idea, but I dunno if it's worth it over veterans (though it'd be cheaper).

Problem is that you're light on terminators + assault cannons to do a lot of heavy lifting in the pod army that it'd normally do for Codex Marines. You could use one squad to try it out with just one cannon, but I don't see it being all that great.

Your best approach would just be as many podding marines as possible and a character in terminator armor to deepstrike in since the command squads really aren't worth it at that cost.

You could take a Command Squad or Vet Squad and attach a character in Term armor to it and drop them together. I know that they have to roll separately, but if you take two squads you have a good shot of getting them on the same turn.

I think I have to agree that you might want to drop the pods in favor of Rhinos or Razorbacks. They are cheaper/same cost and will allow you to have your force on the board from the start instead of hiding and waiting for the pods to come in.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

As I said on 40konline I really shy against using plasma guns with a command squad simply because it negates the already inherent 2 attacks for the squad. Give them plasma pistols, that gives them 3 attacks base, and four on the charge, then add an apothecary and the other good stuff. The dreadnaught seems like a waste of points when you can just buy two razorbacks with TL lascannons for 10 points less. Also the vindicator seems overkill for downing marines. If you want to do that, you have two plasma cannons and missile launchers assault cannons and the plasma pistols. Instead swap out the vindicator and add in two more razors(TL HBs) (freeing up points for upgrades in the Command Squad)

You could also lose the lascannons in the Dev Squad, add in two HBs instead, and take the two TL HB razorbacks I talked about above and make them lascannons as well. Which is great because then you have 4 TL Lascannon shots (increasing the effectiveness much more)

This list just isn't utilizing the great parts of the DA codex such as really cheap razorbacks.

Drop pod DA armies seem to be only effective with lots of troops. But with only 3 squads drop podding the opponent will be able to react to the pod quickly, dismantling the effectiveness. I'd recommend razors or rhinos for that. (They are much quicker since they are turn one, and if you are good, you can get them at least halfway down the field on turn one with a smoke)

Having played a few games with them last night, I'm very dubious on the usefulness of a Dark Angels Command Squad.

Unlike Codex Marines, you can't add extra models to the squad. This means that you're going to start losing key components (Apothecary, Company Champion, Standard) after the second wound you take. It just doesn't have the size to viably make it past the fire the enemy will inevitably pour onto it. The fact that you can't directly assault out of a Rhino is salt in the wound.

It's a nifty concept and I love my Command Squad for how it looks on the field, but it's rarely going to be practical.

Better to save some points and just put Belial in your gunline to counter-charge.

Thought up a new list just now:

Company Master
-Power wep
-Meltabombs
(120)

Vets
-2 Power weps
-Power Fist
-Chainswords on the rest
-Razorback w/ HB
(205)

Tac Squad
-10 Marines
-Combat Squadded
-Melta
-Power Fist
-Missile Launcher
-Razorback w/ Lascannon
(290)

Tac Squad
-10 Marines
-Combat Squadded
-Melta
-Power Fist
-Lascannon
-Razorback w/ Lascannon
(300)

Tac Squad
-10 Marines
-Melta
-Power Fist
-Heavy Bolter
-Rhino
(245)

Devastators
-10 Marines
-2 Missile Launchers
-Lascannon
-Plas. Cannon
(265)

Landspeeder Tornado
(100)

Landspeeder Tornado
(100)

Vindicator
(125)

What do you guys think of that? Feel free to tear it apart.

I don't mean to be a post whore, but I just came up with another list.

Company Master
-Power Weapon
-Meltabombs
-Command Squad (5 Marines) w/ 2 Power Weapons, Power Fist
280 pts

Tac Squad (10 Marines)
-Power Fist
-Melta
-Missile
210 pts
Rhino
35 pts

Tac Squad (10 Marines)
-Power Fist
-Melta
-Missile
210 pts
Rhino
35 pts

Dev Squad (10 Marines, to be Combat Squadded)
-2 Heavy Bolters
-2 Plasma Cannons
245 pts
Razorback w/ Heavy Bolters
50 pts

Dev Squad (10 Marines, to be Combat Squadded)
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons
275 pts
Razorback w/ Lascannon
80 pts

Vindicator
-Dozer Blade
130 pts

Ravenwing Support Squad (1 speeder)
-Assault Cannon
100 pts

Ravenwing Support Squad (1 speeder)
-Assault Cannon
100 pts


1750 total pts.

Lemme know what you think.

I think you need transport for the comand squad and HQ.

Yep, give them one of the Razorbacks from the Dev Squads (which shouldn't need it much anyway).