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My roommate is going for Dark Angels as his first army, and is starting out small at 500 points. I don't know very much about Dark Angels, but I did help build this list for him. He has the Dark Vengance set, and will probably need to but a box of Tactical Marines and a box of Deathwing Terminators. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

HQ: 65 pts.
Librarian (stock)

Troops 1: 85 pts.
3 Tactical Marines
1 Plasmagun
Sergeant with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword

Troops 2: 85 pts.
3 Tactical Marines
1 Plasmagun
Sergeant with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword

Deathwing: 262 pts.
2 Thunder Hammer/ Storm Shield
1 Assault Cannon
1 Terminator with Combi-Melta
1 Terminator Sergeant with Combi-Melta

Total Cost: 497 points

Overall Strategy: The Librarian will stay back with the Tactical Squads to help hold objectives and provide support. The Deathwing will use their Deathwing Assault to deepstrike in early and wreak havoc in the enemy's rear lines.

Any advice you can give my friend about this list would really help.

I like it, it'll do well against anything not completely jerk-like.

I am looking in my DA codex, I don't see that the Deathwing have the option to take anything from the terminator weapon list (the combi-melta).

It's a decent list that should do well as a semi-competitive list.
Altough I do fear that 5-man Tacs die a bit too soon without cover. And a weapon with 36" range should do good to them.

It's as good as a Marine list can be at this point level.

Thanks for all the feedback.

I am looking in my DA codex, I don't see that the Deathwing have the option to take anything from the terminator weapon list (the combi-melta).

Codex: Dark Angels pg. 91

A model wearing Terminator armour can replace his storm bolter with one of the following: Combi-flamer, -melta or -plasma...

I know that the 5 man tactical squads lack survivability, but it's all I could do at this points level and still fit in the Deathwing that my roommate wants to play. They do, however, have a librarian backing them up. As far as Strength 8 weapons go, hopefully he won't see too many of those at 500 points, and if he does the Deathwing are kitted out to be versatile enough to take them out.

Codex: Dark Angels pg. 91

A model wearing Terminator armour can replace his storm bolter with one of the following: Combi-flamer, -melta or -plasma...

Those are not blanket statements allowing access to the whole codex, models have to be given the options to take items from one or more. Other wise you could give an entire tactical squad plasma guns as all it says is "A model may replace his bolt pistol and/or ccw with one of the following: ..."

Ok first things first, I would ask your room mate if they want to specialize in any particular aspect of the DA, as they more than any other chapter can take a different face depending on your list choices. Obvious the options comes down to Green/Death/Raven-wing, or a mixture of the three.

Greenwing can obviously be done in a number of ways at 500pts, ravenwing in a limited number, and pure deathwing can not as the minimum points cost would be 630.

For greenwing, what you have in the DV box is enough. Librarian, 2 5 man tacs and a DW squad comes in at around 500 points.

For Ravenwing I quite like this list:

Sammael: Bike/Speeder
1x Ravenwing attack squad - 2x flamers, 1 x multi-melta attack bike
1x Ravenwing attack squad - 2x meltaguns, 1 x multi-melta attack bike

For now I'd recommend he just sticks with the DV set until he gets a few games in, as it contains more than 500 pts for him to get a feel for what he likes.


As for the list you posted: You can't take the combi weapons, even on the sergeant.
I would suggest swapping out the sergeants' bolt pistol & chainswords for bolters, to maximize their shooting, you don't want them in CC.

A model wearing Terminator armour can replace his storm bolter with one of the following: Combi-flamer, -melta or -plasma...

Reading the top of p91:

Many unit entries in the army list that follows may include wargear options from one or more of these lists - in each instance, the army list entry will tell you (in bold text) exactly which of these lists you may use

The Deathwing entry does not list Terminator Weapons in its entry.

If you look at an HQ, for example the Librarian, you will see something like:

-A Librarian in Terminator armour may only take items
from the Terminator Weapons, Special Issue Wargear
and/ or Chapter Relics sections of the wargear list.

That is what you need to take those options.

Fine, we have now determined that those weapons can't be used. The next thing is to decide what to do with remaining points (15p).

You lost some of your AT-capability with those Meltas but you propably didn't need it that much at this point level.
I think the best option is to give one Tac Sgt. a combi-plasma and uprgade a single plasma gun to Lascannon. Just my idea.

Thanks for telling me about not being able to take Combi-weapons. It did seem a bit too good to be true.

Here's a revised list with those changes in mind:

HQ: 65 points
Librarian (stock)

Troops 1: 90 points
3 Tactical Marines and Sergeant
1 Lascannon

Troops 2: 85 points
3 Tactical Marines and Sergeant
1 Missile Launcher

Deathwing: 260 points
2 Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield
1 Assault Cannon
1 Heavy Flamer
Terminator Sergeant

Total: 500 points

Hopefully what the Deathwing lost in anti-tank the infantry can make up.

You can't take 2 heavy weapons in a 5 man Deathwing squad. Try dropping the upgrades to the Deathwing - pick only one heavy weapon and add a body to troop squad 1. When you arrive via Deathwing assault your shots are twin linked- try for more shooting attacks and aim to cripple the enemy unit with lots of AP 1 or AP 2 as your priority! Good hunting!

Scratch that I misread.