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 Kain wrote:

 Dozer Blades wrote:
I am pointing out you might not want to believe everything you read. I apologize for coming across as derisive. Of course your opinions are just as valid as mine if not more so. I feel that Dark Angels are competitive based upon my test games. Azreal is the linch pin making both bikers and terminators scoring. It's kind of like they got clumped in the same group as Tyranids which I think is not fair to either army.

Ravenwing is good.

Greenwing is okay.

Deathwing is one of the worst builds in the game, tied with Synapseless Formationless Tyranids, Mono-Khorne Daemons/Marines, and Joke unit spam Guard for the bottom of the barrel.

That's right, an actually serious build is tied with two joke lists for the worst build in the game.

It is apocalyptically, unreasonably, all consumingly awful.

In other words "WORST ARMY EVER"? thank you, Comic Book Guy...

listen, collect what you like. if you are looking for competitive, troll the sites til you find yourself a nice screamerstar, Tau/Eldar, whatever list. Netlists are fun to play... right?

Don't feel disheartened. Remember you are playing space marines, whether they are green red or blue the tanks and models are all pretty much interchangeable. Use them as DA one day, use them as Imperial fists the next. WYSIWYG is your limitation, not the colour of your guys.

DA are not a bad place to start collecting 40k by any means. You can pick up models cheaply due to spare or 2nd hand DV parts, and DA have 3 distinct forces in one, which is nice when you want to mix things up (personally I hate greenwing, I find them boring. But DW and RW are great, for different reasons). I would say DA were a better pick than orks for you. Whilst Codex DA is not the most competitive codex if 6th edition, it is still a 6th edition codex, so is more up to date and has more plastic models readily available.

Chin up, you didn't make a bad decision.

Edit: I won with my DW today, and it was awesome! It was the kind of game that matched the fluff, my 1000 point deathwing army managed to wipe out and ork horde, whilst only losing 3 terminators in total.
The difficulty of playing them, (and the nerve wracking nature of rolling 2+ armour saves with 49 point models), really does make the win all the more satisfying.

So, the above posters have explained (quite well) that DA are not particularly competitive at high levels.

The flip side of this coin is they're really affordable right now. I personally own several armies and love to switch it up, as such I bought a sizeable DA army for $290 shipped, it was about 90% painted (much better than what I paint) and I love it.

They do certain things differently than any other marines, and I dig that. Even Deathwing (which are not very good I'm afraid) are a lot of fun to play in a casual envrionment. I won't be bringing them to a GT any time soon, but, they have some neat tricks and I just love the models.

I guess the bottom line is, don't buy them looking to win tourneys, buy them because they look fun to play. Unless your local meta is super competitive, you should be able to have a lot of fun with them and you can still win games.

Likewise, don't be like the guy in my store that bought Wraithwing, then Ovessa Star then Screamer star armies, only to lose to myself and others running mid tier, fluffy armies, then give up on 40k. He was a nice enough guy, and I wasn't trying to crush him, but when he intentionally bought the nastier net lists to win, and was blatant about it, playing nice kinda goes out the window and you're punished for netlisting a friendly environment.

The fundamental problem is that even inexperienced players will be able to handle T4 models with one wound that cost 40+ pts per model. Terminators just lack durability so much in this edition, when durability is supposed to be one of their strengths.

I think the point you need to take to heart here is not whether they are competitive but do you like the army?

Ravenwing and deathwing, or Dark angels in general cant compete against Tau or Eldar (or helldrake spam). But that doesnt mean you should stop playing them.


Most importantly is whether or not you like to play them. Good players will wipe you clean with Tau or Eldar, It can be frustrating for new players trying to play DA codex against those, but it'll help you develop better tactics in the long run. Worst case, you can always take allies. =)

My only complain about DA codex is that everything is soo overcosted. =( If only they were slightly cheaper.....

OP!

How ''competitive'' are you looking to get? Do you want to take your army to the highest most prestigious tournies and have the best chance of crushing face?

Or are you playing people who use models they like in fluffy lists ?

Or something in the middle?

Dark angels will only have a fair to good chance of performing well for the last two.

So decide whats more important for you, be it the aesthetics of the game or winning and make your decision from there,
but know this! When an army/model looks good to you and it pleases you to field it, it will always look good. Overpowered units will change from edition to edition codex to codex