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Well i'm starting a new army and would like it to be one of the different space marine armies, but cant decide which one, I like the blood angels and dark angels. Can someone tell me what they are good at so I can see if the fit my play style.

I was leaning a little more toward the Dark Angels because of the new codex and cool starter set although if the blood angels get a new codex soon then they are both equal, but I don't know when or if a new one is coming for the Blood Angels.

Also I would be playing a ton of orks and necrons if an army is good against them that would be nice to know.

I prefer Blood Angels.
DA is full of plasma-weapons, wich is nice but with too much of them unreliable. Rawenwings are awesome fast attackers and Deathwings are lovely little beasts but that's pretty much everything.

Blood Angels are quick to attack and, if used properly, even quicker to wipe the enemy out in CC. In addition their tanks are faster (and Land Raiders cabable of deep striking). Also their Drearnoughts are pretty awesome.

But if your tactic is more shooting than CC, then DA is more your thing.

Online everyone is crying about BA being bad now since Assault is not as strong as it used to be but where i am playing they still are a serious threat.
I´d say both armies are pretty much on one level so you can really make your choice out of fluff reasons.

Blood angels is assault marine heavy, dark angels is terminator or biker heavy.

So, just pick the troop type you like

Assault marines? Blood angels
Terminators? Dark angels
Biker marines? Dark angels.

But, a good point to note is, ebay has the content's of the dark angels starter set on sale. So you can buy just the terminators, and save a fortune starting an army that way.

£10 for 5 terminators, worth 200+ points, or
£40 for 10 assault marines, worth slightly less than 200 points.

BA will be expensive. And since they were updated last edition, its gonna be well over a year before they get one ill bet.

It´s wrong to cut DA down to just either RW or Dw. With their new banners they became a really threatening shooty army. Thats btw imo the biggest distinction between those chapters.
DA try to get semi-close to the enemy and start boltering them down while the BA go a step further and prefer the hand-to-hand fight. Of course this depends on your build etc but thats pretty much the difference in the end both are some kind of SM chapter and they all have a common style.

Dark Angels have more interesting fluff and are overall cheaper points wise. However Blood Angels have access to Stormravens. I do think Dark Angels are more well rounded but they're less unique now they're the stars of the new starter set.

If you love the combination of absolute force and fast hit 'n' run attacks, go for the Dark Angels, if you like CC prowess, go for the Blood Angels. Personally, I prefer the DA but keep in mind I am biased because I play them. The sacred banners for the DA are incredible and you have cheaper units. For example: A basic 10 man Ultramarines tactical squad cost 180pts, a basic DA tactical squad costs only 140pts. I have no idea about BA though.

I have played Blood Angels pretty much exclusively throughout all of 6th and I can say that they are a dud army right now. Assault Marines with Jump Packs die far too easily even with a Sanguinary Priest giving them FNP. Its a waste because I really love my army, but I can't field it because I know it won't work out too well.

DA are a demonstrably better list right now. BA aren't getting a codex for a long time, I'm afraid.

Dark angels with blood angel allies. DA libby and green wing troops and devastators. BA death company in drop pod furioso blender dred with flamer and plasma in drop pod and some stern or vanguard in drop pod with combi meltas maybe a fortfication with skyfire interceptor weapon on it with the libbys devs. Maybe some scouts or more marines if you can afford them at that point. I faced a list like that it was pretty nasty.

DC and blender dreads are not very good. Neither are the vanguard. I wouldn't use any of that stuff in a DA list. Why ally with an inferior list? Get some IG or Space Wolves.

BA have the king of cheese himself: Mephiston. You can seriously troll your opponent with this guy.

Mephiston is far from cheesy in 6th. In fact, I think he's quite bad in a BA list. He's actually decent in a DA list with a power field.

Martel732 wrote:
DC and blender dreads are not very good. Neither are the vanguard. I wouldn't use any of that stuff in a DA list. Why ally with an inferior list? Get some IG or Space Wolves.

It seemed rather effective to me. First turn dropping the blender dread and the vanguard behind enemy lines in my case the dred fried my gretchin manning my quad gun and a few lootas with the flamer. Vanguard blew up a battle wagon and it killed half of what was inside (not sure why he used vanguard over the sterguard unless it had to do with FoC) then I was forced to deal with the dred as it could wipe out squads of orks at a time allowing him to move up his rhinos without taking fire. They libby was with the devastators manning the las cannon on a bastion ignoring cover and twin linked taking both my aircraft out the turn they arrived with interceptor. 13 armor dred in my backfield that can just continue to reroll wounds was something I could not ignore and still my lootas and quad gun only took a single hull point off of it. To be honest my failure to take that thing out turn one was the end of the game so I do not consider the blender claws on a furioso to be a bad unit. Death company came in last the game was pretty much over but managed to kill all my meganobs (this might have been bad luck rolled 7 consecutive 1's for armor saves) but I don't consider death company to be horrible either. BA can add some nice CC to DA IMO there might be some better choices out there for some stuff but since the original poster was asking about BA or DA I thought why not both.

Is your opponent tailoring to your Ork list? Because what he's doing will not work in a TAC environment. If he tries this vs my BA, I would melta the crap out the blender dread and shoot the vanguard off the table or simply counter assault. It get worse against more competent lists like Necrons or IG.

The fact that the BA can not take Lucious pods and the blender dread can not assault the turn it arrives gimps it beyond redemption, imo. Being stuck there for at least a turn we will ensure that bad things happen to it. BA can't afford to throw points away like that.

This was a tourney which he went on to win (not a huge one just a local) so it was TAC. I would of loved some melta's that game. The Dred being furioso I think is why he went with vanguard over sternguard for the meltas dropped in the back although I am looking at the book now and not seeing combi's as an option for vanguard just the infernus pistols so I will have to ask him about that next time I see him. Vanguard without jumppacks not as expensive and get the drop pod for free but those pistols are not cheap and like I said I don't see combi's listed. Was actually the first time I saw anyone take vanguard =P

Marine lists use drop pod melta combo all the time in 6th edition and 5th edition for that matter. Usually, thought, it is with podded sternguards, so the alpha strike is much more devastating than vanguards.

I know Orks have issues with AV 13 and AV 14 from a shooting perspective, so that makes the blender dread seem far more fearsome to you than it is across the spectrum of all possible enemies. How does the blender dread look vs Necrons? Silly, because it will be Gaussed to death before it can assault. By BA hybrid mech list has a lot of lascannons and melta. No luck against me, either.

I agree that Vanguard is overpriced but without jump packs they're completely useless. IMO the only thing making them useful is (only when used properly) Heroic Intervention.

And yes, don't bring any high AV vechicles against Necrons, that Gaussing is real pain in the ass.

" they're completely useless"

Just stop there.

But high AV in a TAC list has a lot of utility. The world of tailored lists is far different than the world of TAC lists.

So I am liken the Dark Angels which is really what I was looking for

I didn't tell you but I play blood angels and realize they got nailed in 6th edition and last time I tried starting Just a Dark Angels thread and know one came to it

Sorry, I'm not as qualified to talk about DA in a vacuum. I don't own the codex, I've just played against them and heard stuff on here.

so what were they like to play against strengths/ weaknesses

Well the Deathwing and Ravenwing are very different. The Deathwing lists usually employ land raiders covered by power generators. Very difficult to stop before they dump terminator death all over you.

Ravenwing are definitely more finesse. I got bogged down in a lot of ASM vs Ravenwing HTH battles. Ravenwing is more rare where I play, I think I'm 1-1 vs them, both battles decided by 1 VP. Obviously ravenwing are much better against lists like Necrons and DE.

DA, like vanilla marines, still aren't much to write home about in HTH. I suppose that's a weakness. But neither are BA anymore. I think that combat tactics has more utility than stubborn. But the DA have the nifty banner tricks and the properly priced tri-las predator. And cheap level 2 libbies.

The bottom line is that both DA and BA are astartes lists, but the DA tricks are updated for 6th edition and so they work much better in the 6th edition environment. All the astartes marine lists have a lot of similarities.

Well that sounds good and I plan to buy the starter set so I can get a nice selection of Dark Angels to start and army and then decide were I want to go with them

Why not both? They are battle brothers after all. I think DAcwould complement BA nicely, I know I'm considering DA allies for my BA force.

D

lordofthegophers wrote:BA have the king of cheese himself: Mephiston. You can seriously troll your opponent with this guy.

Not anymore. One character w/ an AP2 weapon and a 2+ save and Meph will have a bad day; and for his price tag you cannot afford to let him have a bad day.

BA having fast vehicles has always been a huge boon; and they will make for a more competitive game against Necrons, because FNP will make them about as durable as the Necrons themselves.

That is always a possibility and until I complete my Dark Angels army they will be allies for my Blood Angles

I played a doubles tournament yesterday with a Blood Angels partner and the main thing that did damage on his end of the deal were Fast Vindicators and Scouting Baal Predators with Flamestorm Cannons. Didn't matter how far back the opponent was, they were on them on turn 1. Do not underestimate BA vehicles.

Flamestorm Baals are like ghetto helldrakes. But their side armor gives them a short lifespan.

Just to chime in, I play BA and am also considering adding some DA to my collection. I think the Starter set's value in terms of real-world cash is tremendous, the models are awesome looking, and they DO have a new codex, which means they have been made with 6th ed. in mind. To me those are all good reasons to go with DA right now.

Additionally, DA can do everything BA can do in generic terms (Stormravens aside, but they have 2 flyers of their own that BA can't take) and also have the Ravenwing/Deathwing combo which is pretty awesome in a Fluff sense as well as tactically in a game.

Those "Inner circle" Knights with massive maces are also hard core.