Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi, I'm awfully new to 40K and wargaming in general, and after an hour of discussion with the guy at my local GW, I decided to run a Dark Angels army. After skimming through the site and most of the Internet, it seems that Dark Angels (and maybe even Chaos SM) all seem to have the same exact armies as the regular Space Marines. In retrospect, I'm not entirely sure what differences there are
(unless it's just aesthetic and lore) or if there are some gameplay significance or what not. It'd be great if some one were to explain to me the differences or maybe even elaborate on what it is sets them apart from one another.

Just an FYI, I'm running predominantly a terminator-heavy army with Belial as my HQ.

The DA are about to get a new codex. I'll hold off comparisons until it drops.

Chaos Marines are a *lot* different than Space Marines. They both use 3+ armor a lot, have similar stat lines, but there are major differences.

 Red Robin wrote:
Hi, I'm awfully new to 40K and wargaming in general, and after an hour of discussion with the guy at my local GW, I decided to run a Dark Angels army. After skimming through the site and most of the Internet, it seems that Dark Angels (and maybe even Chaos SM) all seem to have the same exact armies as the regular Space Marines. In retrospect, I'm not entirely sure what differences there are
(unless it's just aesthetic and lore) or if there are some gameplay significance or what not. It'd be great if some one were to explain to me the differences or maybe even elaborate on what it is sets them apart from one another.

Just an FYI, I'm running predominantly a terminator-heavy army with Belial as my HQ.

The Main differences are the fact that we can run scoring TH/SS terminators with missile launchers and the termies are fearless. Also Ravenwing bike squads allow you to deepstrike to their position and are fearless.

Also Sammael's Model is awesome.

Also Warseer has a tactica dedicated to deathwing its a good place to look.

However as has been said before we are getting a new codex soon so wait and see.

Not a dark angels player so no idea but I do play csm and the main differences between a squad of csm and a tactical squad are:
Chaos marines don't have they shall know no fear

Chaos marines have to pay for special weapons whereas some are free for tacticals

Chaos marines can all take combat weapons rather than just the champion

The chaos boon table (Champions get a gift from the chaos gods when they win a challenge.)

Also squads for Chaos
Marines can be much bigger.

There's some other differences but I can't think of them right now.

Chaos Space Marines have demons in their list........... and they have themed marine squads like khorne berserkers, for example.

DA are all about fast attack (Ravenwing) or Death by Terminator (Deathwing).

Their regular units like scouts and tacticals tend to be overpriced due to it being an older codex (current dex started in 3rd editon I believe)

As stated above they are due to get a new codex soon, so don't specialize too much before then as the current DA metta may change completely

However, that said, if you buy up a bunch of the new Dark Vengeance Models, you can get a fairly decently sized army on the cheap, all with chapter iconography.

Hope that helps