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Right now I am at the point of deciding which way I want my DA army to go; however, I am having a hard time making a choice. Both look extremely cool, but I am concerned about which is more effective and has more to offer. Granted, I only play with around 16 friends and up an fantasy shop, but we are all going to start playing in tournaments in the near future. So I'm curious what are the advantages and downfalls to each army? Do any of these armies struggle against any certain army types (ones with lots of flyers, monstrous creatures, etc.) Anything else you would like to add about each army type would be appreciated. Thanks

Both have their strengths and weaknesses, and both have some gimmicks you can do. Do you have any Dark Angels at all, or are just getting ready to start?

Good call. I probably should have mentioned that.
-30 tac
-15 term
-9 RW bikes
-company master
-librarian

I mean, to me that sounds like a good combined arms approach. I like the use of all three parts of the Dark Angel book personally. The only thing is, company masters are kind of the weakest characters, because they can't be put on bikes or given terminator armor to do anything. 30 Greenies are good for camping objectives, since they're stubborn, and you can send them after others. Deathwing are good for attacking enemy objectives, and use ravenwing to contest objectives or reinforce. I'd say get more raven wing, and possibly that goofy shroud speeder, that way they're a bigger pain to kill. Replace the company master with a name character to unlock ravenwing/deathwing as troops, or get a chaplain with the mace of redemption so you have a decent beatstick. I run Azrael and I think he is great. Hes an above average combat character, buffs the whole army, picks his warlord trait.

So anyways, TL;DR. I think get Azrael, run combined arms since you're on the way. If you must have a strictly Ravenwing/Deathwing/Greenwing army, run ravenwing, they're more versatile.

(Greenwing being all power armoured, which is how I prefer my D'angles.)

you have e good basis of a mixwing, (most effective DA imo) if you want to consider that. if not, your models lean more towards being a DW army atm.

Ravenwing is the more competitive build, with a dakkabanner (the salvo boltweapon one) they can put out a huge amount of shots, they get jink saves and t5.

Deathwing would be easier for you to build, a belial model and a dread would give you a 1000 pt army. Deathwing are resilient due to 2+/5++ but fall to weight of fire (you can only roll so many dice before a 1 inevitably show up)

Both are low model count armies that can get in the enemies face quick.

Ravenwing is more competitive by far.

Either dakkawing or knightwing

You could probably make a black knight wing cheaper if that is a priority. Fewer models. I also prefer knight wing because you don't have to do gymnastics to protect the banner while also having it somewhere useful.

Dakkawing is a good spoiler army but the black knights are superior overall. Twin linked plasma guns, T5, 4 rending attacks on the charge, skilled rider and hit and run? Yes please.

If you really want to mix then you could try to do a DW command squad with the banner, scout all the bikes to within 24" of the enemy and leave a gap for the command squad, then DWA them down on the first turn using the built in teleport homer. Don't combat squad the RWAS if you are using the banner though, it makes you too vulnerable to templates as everybody crowds around trying to touch the stick. Take Sammael and a terminator armoured epistolary with double telepathy. Divination isn't super handy for Ravenwing.

Bad word choice, but I regret nothing.

Usefulidiot86 wrote:
Right now I am at the point of deciding which way I want my DA army to go; however, I am having a hard time making a choice. Both look extremely cool, but I am concerned about which is more effective and has more to offer. Granted, I only play with around 16 friends and up an fantasy shop, but we are all going to start playing in tournaments in the near future. So I'm curious what are the advantages and downfalls to each army? Do any of these armies struggle against any certain army types (ones with lots of flyers, monstrous creatures, etc.) Anything else you would like to add about each army type would be appreciated. Thanks

They both work well together. I have 4 units of termies in my force with a single full sized ravenwing squad (6 bikes, 1 attack bike and 1 landspeeder). Charge the ravenwing ahead supported by other units and then drop the deathwing in exactly where you want them thanks to the teleport homers on the ravenwing bikes. QED. You don't have ignore one to have the other. I take Belial as my commander so focus on Ravenwing, but that just means you can't use ravenwing as troops units, but can still include them in the force as fast attack. If you take Azrael as your leader you can use both as troops if you want. I just have issues including chapter masters in my army so don't usually use him, so go the Belial route instead.

Skriker

Choose ravenwing if you would like to win. There are far too many counters to a terminator heavy army. Bikes are far more versatile since they provide fast, durable troops with decent body count.

I'd say Ravenwing with Knights.

Although the Space Marine supplement stole more thunder from the Ravenwing than the Deathwing...I feel the Ravenwing are far more fun to play.

So I seems the RW is the way to go. I love terminators but I run into the problem of them costing so much and I always roll a few ones. At least with the bikes I wont flip the table over from rolling four 1's in a squad of 5 term vs. tau troops ha. How would I build a black knight army? Should I have at least 3 squads of BK 10 deep? Any other suggestions would be great. Also, if you want to argue for the DW go for it! I would not mind building two armies

Yes raven wing is the better of the choices.

It doesn't look like you have much invested in DA though, if you are doing a bike army do white scars, they will live better for you.

I like my Ravenwing (with both Bolter Banner and a unit of Knights) a lot.
They are, at least in my neck of the woods, both competitive and fun to play.

Dat Guy wrote:
Yes raven wing is the better of the choices.

It doesn't look like you have much invested in DA though, if you are doing a bike army do white scars, they will live better for you.

I'm quite enjoying the DA but thanks for the advice on white scare. I have never looked into them. What makes them so much better?

Usefulidiot86 wrote:
So I seems the RW is the way to go. I love terminators but I run into the problem of them costing so much and I always roll a few ones. At least with the bikes I wont flip the table over from rolling four 1's in a squad of 5 term vs. tau troops ha. How would I build a black knight army? Should I have at least 3 squads of BK 10 deep? Any other suggestions would be great. Also, if you want to argue for the DW go for it! I would not mind building two armies

Thats' too many. 2 command squads of 5, and 2 regular squads of 6 are fine. The problem with the big 10 man squads is overkill. I would take a nightshroud in the third fast slot. 3+ cover saves are great. If you are going knight heavy you don't need the dakka pole. You could take Fortitude but its' not really necessary. I'd just take Ravenwing Company banner and leave it at that. I'd take a power weapon on the regular Sarges but don't take the champion upgrade in the Command squads, it's garbage.

Samm
Telepathy Librarian, Lvl 2, bike, PFG
Command Squad apoc, ravenwing banner
Command Squad apoc

6 black knights
6 black knights
Night Shroud

Ravenwing Attack Squad, 2x melta, mmab, typhoon
Ravenwing Attack Squad 2x melta, mmab, typhoon

As many lascannon devs as you can put in with the remaining points

Start the knights on the board, keep the attack squads off. Usually you will want to combat squad them and only use them for objectives.
Camp the devastators in ruins on your side. Try to position the knights so that with scout you will be converging on a single target in double tap range on the first turn. If you don't get first turn, keep as much as you can out of sight then move it forward.

Bring the RAS out of reserve and combat squad them, going for objectives. Devestators and typhoons hunt vehicles, try to avoid using the meltaguns on the bikes unless you have too. Attack bikes are for Linebreaker and contesting. Outflank at least one RAS. Even against another biker lord/ command squad, one of your buffed command squads will probably come out on top after Rad Grenades, Psychic Shriek, the talons, and Sam's plasma cannon hit then the HOW and hammers. Especially if you dropped a stasis shell as well. Remember Rad + Lascannon or Missile Launcher doubles out T5 and below.