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Hey all

A friend of mine decided to start playing Orks and so got the Black Reach box set. I decided to go half with him and grab the space marines.

I decided to play Dark Angels as i love the minis and the fluff is great. I however keep looking over at the vanilla marine codex and keep woundering if i should just play my army as normal marines.

What you think? Should i just stick to DA even if im not wanting to play a Deathwing or Ravenwing army?

in short im indecisive and need help

Thanks!

A friend of mine has a Dark Angels army but now plays them exclusively as vanilla Space Marines. The Dark Angels codex is just out of date and underpowered compared to 5th edition SM.

Choosethe painting scheme you like best.

If you like the dark angels fluff and minis, then play them.

But you can use Dark Angels models (which are awesome) and the fluff without having to use the out-dated DA codex.

If you're only playing std marines then the only really difference is a few points. So it really makes no odds imo. The vanilla 'dex does have a few toys no other has, such as the Thunderfire cannon and LS Storm. Just alternate between the two and see which one floats ya boat!

Paint however you like. after that pick up 1 codex if you don't like it pick up another one. you CAN use any of the space marine codices with you custom painted models long as you follow WYSIWYG for weapons etc.

THere's not to much of a difference in how the FOC is constructed. Vanilla has the LS Storm and Thunderfire Cannon, and the DA have Terminators in Troops and Scouts in Elites, if I remember correctly.

Alkasyn wrote:and the DA have Terminators in Troops and Scouts in Elites, if I remember correctly.

Only if you take a special character or they are both in elites. The problem is they stuck way too much in elites, should have kept scouts as troops really...

With the latest FAQ, there is nothing really wrong with the DA Codex anymore, so i;d use that.
But then I am a great believer in fluff, and that not all armies should be the same. DA have a different Codex because they actually are different.

IMO.

But do whichever you have more fun with, thats the point really.

As a long time DA player I have to tell you that they are only worth playing if you want to play Deathwing or Ravenwing. Otherwise play regular space marines. DA pay more points for their tactical marines, and has fewer options that are more expensive than regular marines. Unless you use names characters tactical squads are your only troop choice. You are also very limited in how you can build an army. Models on foot can only be in squads of 5 or 10, bikes 3 or 6. You cannot buy individual guys. You pay for a 5 man squad and pay more to add another 5. There is also no stern guard in a DA army they still have the old Vet squads that were never really worth taking. Also Librarians only have two powers unless you want to take a named character that gets a 3rd, and the two you get are not very good. In a nut shell DA can be very fun and competitive if you are playing Deathwing, Ravenwing, or a combination of the two; otherwise you are paying more and getting less.

Paint them as Dark Angels. Play as regular marines. Likely within a year Dark Angels will have a shiny new codex with pretty much everything normal marines get anyway.

Only total douchebags would hold it against you. In fact they should be thankful you don't bring Deathwing.

The question really boils down to one thing. Do you intend to use a lot of Terminators? If so, then go DA since they will be troops with Belial. If you want to play anything else then go with normal marines. They do bike lists a bit better than DA really and if you want to do a tactical heavy DA list it will be an abomination compared to the same Vanilla list