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First off, this honestly isn't meant to be a jab at Dark Angels players.

It took me a while to come around to marines in general, but these days I can see the appeal of the various flavors of warrior fraternities. Space Wolves are vikings trying to forge their sagas in a dark universe. Salamanders are self-sacrificing good guys. Blood Angels have the rage issues of an anime protagonist (in a cool way), Black Dragons are mutants in an Imperium that hates them and distrusts them, etc. But what about Dark Angels? As far as I'm aware, their shtick is "a bunch of us fell to chaos a long time ago." Which doesn't seem like it should carry much weight when you have guys like the Mantis Warriors on penitence crusades, the 13th company of the Space Wolves, or the tons and tons of chaos marine chapters that are splinters from other chapters.

So what's the appeal of Dark Angels in terms of their fluff? Other chapters do the knightly/angelic theme. Other chapters have bikes and terminators. What makes Dark Angels awesome instead of just being the last chapter to realize that everyone has some chaos in their closet?

its the intrigue and the mystery of the DA which makes them interesting, that and there is enough DA specific stuff to make good theme specific armies.

They have cool robes. They have a fetish for plasma weapons. Their Primarch's name is a reference to a well-known gay poet. They're very good at keeping secrets.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Asterios wrote:
its the intrigue and the mystery of the DA which makes them interesting, that and there is enough DA specific stuff to make good theme specific armies.

There's no real mystery, actually.

Half their Legion went Chaos during the Heresy and they're doing their damnedest to cover it up to keep the Inquisition off their backs.

The Dark Angels are one of my favorite chapters. They are secretive Knights with a dark past that they want to rid themselves of. They are good at specializing within their chapter with the Death and Ravens wing. And they are very close with their successors making them operate at a larger than chapter size. The Dark Angels are an awesome chapter with a flawed past

It's the hoods, it's always been the hoods.

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
It's the hoods, it's always been the hoods.

That and the whole "goth" thing. Sammael flies around on his Cathedral-bike blasting The Cure and puts the enemy to flight with his existentialist poetry.

 BBAP wrote:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
It's the hoods, it's always been the hoods.

That and the whole "goth" thing. Sammael flies around on his Cathedral-bike blasting The Cure and puts the enemy to flight with his existentialist poetry.

Of course, Sammael had no idea what The Cure was singing about, because the Cure was a band from the 2nd millennium and Sammael was born tens of thousands of years later, and 2000-era English was no longer comprehensible by humans in the 40th millennium due to the natural evolution of language.

Fun story. The word "human" will likely die out and be forgotten many millennia before our descendants evolve into a non-human species.

It's a very intriguing mysterious nature to their tactics and ways. Also as mentioned they're trying to keep the fact that a huge part of their legion betrayed the pro march so the inquisition don't come raining on their parade. Also they have a very futuristic-gothic appeal and that is pretty cool. Plus, who doesn't like flowing robes and plasma weapons?!?!?

 Drummernathan wrote:
It's a very intriguing mysterious nature to their tactics and ways.

...They shoot stuff with plasma weapons until it dies.

That's not intriguing or mysterious. That's not even subtle.

 Pouncey wrote:
Of course, Sammael had no idea what The Cure was singing about, because the Cure was a band from the 2nd millennium

The Cure's message is transcendental and understood by all. Robert Smith may in fact be The Empra.

 BBAP wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:
Of course, Sammael had no idea what The Cure was singing about, because the Cure was a band from the 2nd millennium

The Cure's message is transcendental and understood by all. Robert Smith may in fact be The Empra.

...That's not how language works.

Given your repeated and often spectacular inability to understand the subtleties of what other posters write, I'm not sure you're in a position to explain to us how language works Pouncey!

 Azreal13 wrote:
Given your repeated and often spectacular inability to understand the subtleties of what other posters write, I'm not sure you're in a position to explain to us how language works Pouncey!

Actually, to me, it usually seems like you guys are saying completely absurd and ridiculous things that don't make any sense.

 Pouncey wrote:

 Drummernathan wrote:
It's a very intriguing mysterious nature to their tactics and ways.

...They shoot stuff with plasma weapons until it dies.

That's not intriguing or mysterious. That's not even subtle.

Read the rest of the comment maybe? They are very mysterious with all their hiding of their past etc...you seem to love nitpicking so I assume this reply will be chopped up as well...

Gothic Knights in hoods.

Thats all you need to say to get me interested in anything.

Dark Angels were the first to get the terminator treatment. They were the first to actually get the biker treatment. They were the first to get plasma cannons in tactical units. This is what set them apart way back in the day when all that Space Wolves got was long fangs that could shoot 2 different things, the ability to 1 handed shoot bolters, and better scouts. Back when all blood angels had was fast rhinos and space marines who get FNP for wearing black. It was a simpler time.

But this has been expanded for Dark Angels like it has for many chapters. The plasma theme has been expanded to show the Dark Angels have more older technology and relics than other chapters. They still have the best bikers and terminators in the game.

The background is also more than your typical zealotry for the Emperor that gets a lot of chapters by. They have the fallen that they're always hunting and the secret shame they represent. They have the underlying theme that they don't truly adhere to the Index Astartes and are effectively still at Legion strength much like the Space Wolves. They have the fleet based angle that some like.

There's tons to the Dark Angels and if you're the type that likes the anti-hero type characters, than Dark Angels are probably for you.

 Drummernathan wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:

 Drummernathan wrote:
It's a very intriguing mysterious nature to their tactics and ways.

...They shoot stuff with plasma weapons until it dies.

That's not intriguing or mysterious. That's not even subtle.

Read the rest of the comment maybe? They are very mysterious with all their hiding of their past etc...you seem to love nitpicking so I assume this reply will be chopped up as well...

I cut out the rest of your comment solely to clarify which portion I was responding to.

For me it was because they are the knights templar in space. From the orders within the legion, to the rituals, to the fact that the secrets they keep could damn or save the imperium. I also appreciate the Irony of the first legion being green army men.

I could take or leave the Lion, he is brilliant, tenacious, prideful, loyal to a fault, but without any of the social graces of Horus, or the humility and moral centering of Roboute Guilliman. I'm not saying he is mary sue (well at least not more than the other primarchs), but he wears his flaws on his sleeves, and doesn't really evolve as a character, which makes him kind of boring.

 Pouncey wrote:

 BBAP wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:
Of course, Sammael had no idea what The Cure was singing about, because the Cure was a band from the 2nd millennium

The Cure's message is transcendental and understood by all. Robert Smith may in fact be The Empra.

...That's not how language works.

The Cure's message transcends language, space and time. It is understood on an instinctive level by all who hear it. The message is "I'm sad and want to wear a big trenchcoat". It is a good message.

 BBAP wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:

 BBAP wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:
Of course, Sammael had no idea what The Cure was singing about, because the Cure was a band from the 2nd millennium

The Cure's message is transcendental and understood by all. Robert Smith may in fact be The Empra.

...That's not how language works.

The Cure's message transcends language, space and time. It is understood on an instinctive level by all who hear it. The message is "I'm sad and want to wear a big trenchcoat". It is a good message.

Okay.

But my comment was about Sammael being unable to comprehend the lyrics.

The message is made clear not by the lyrics, but instead the effects that their notes have on the human brain.

I come from a time when, despite minor fluff and army list changes the difference in Chapters was really little more than a few special characters and the colour of the armour. I don't think anyone needs to love the fluff of something if they just like the way they look.

The whole hooded/secret society schtick is relatively new to the Dark Angels. The first one I recall was maybe the Asmodai special character from late 2nd and the Chapter Master of the time.

They're Space Marines who wear dark green armour. Their terminators look pretty cool in bone-white armour and their bikers like black. I suppose that's all you need to like them and collect them.

Also, since the HH Novels we now have stories of multiple Loyalist legions having their share of inner conflicts and traitors, but before that we only had the secret of the Dark Angels.

From a fluff perspective, their appeal lies (as usual) in their backstory and in the conflict it presents. Part of their chapter fell to Chaos during the Heresy. As a chapter with a strong chivalric ideal of honor, the loyalists consider this betrayal a stain that they have to work constantly to make up for. The fact that the part of their chapter which 'fell' may have been living up to the ideals of their order (or at least believed they were) is an ever present, insidious doubt that clouds the issue.

It's not necessarily everyone's cup of tea, but the idea of the questing knight penitent is a staple of fantasy literature, so it's got quite a bit of appeal for some people.

As a side note, I think you're selling the Salamanders short in the complexity department. They are indeed built upon being self-sacrificing good guys, as you say. But they are also Astartes, which makes them inherently superior to the humans they're sacrificing themselves to protect. Add to that the fact that their notions of sacrifice are born from a sense of community native to the Nocturnean culture that their conversion to Space Marines forever isolates them from (without even the comfort of concrete memories to link them to it) and you have a perfect recipe for elitism and resentment, which can bubble over into contempt. (Nick Kyme explores these ideas pretty well in his Salamanders series.)

The last ten years have really seen most of the original legions fleshed out with a much greater amount of depth than once they had, which is really refreshing. Not all of them are going to be to everyone's taste, though. (I'm not a huge Dark Angels guy, myself.

Top Ten Reasons Dark Angels are appealing:

1) First Founding Legion #1. Everybody wants to be #1.
2) Cool name.
3) Got name from a really strange poem, written by a really strange poet who's name is the Primarch's name. Also, got the concept of a don't ask, don't tell secret from the poem.
4) Their chapter color was all black. Then, dark green and white and black. Dark green and white and black are the new black. Literally.
5) Well after Space Wolves, they had one of the first unique to them codicies (well, shared with Blood Angels, but still, not Smurfs).
6) Then, they got nerfed. A guy I knew who slept in DA jammies, but repainted his DA's because the codex was so bad. But, they recovered from these Dark Times.
7) Got a ridiculous "Fallen" mythology from the poem and the mysterious Cypher. OK, a Dark chapter with a Dark secret is very Marvel Comics. But, hunting down 10,000 year old dudes still wondering the Galaxy! C'mon!?
8) Have a ton of DA specific stuff.
9) Got some great, cheap, DA stuff in the Dark Vengeance box. Cheap DA stuff is still available on eBay.
10) Again, NOT Smurfs.

The conflict, internal and external of the chapter, and in previous editions, the ambiguity. Is pretty strong.

Not being a bunch of Mary Sues like pretty much all the rest of the loyalist Space Marines.

Plus the privilege of being able to shout across the gaming store, "First Legion, fool! What!"

Also the Angels are the only confirmed chapter to have their Primarch be alive

What drew me to the Dark Angels was the visual appeal of having a single army with three distinct color schemes, so it was less boring to paint.

It's a few reasons for me

1) they are the most "knightly" faction

2) the Deathwing, favorite thing in the 40k lore

3) they are the most diverse chapter with the Deathwing ravenwing and greenwing.

4) they are one of the few chapters that actually maintain legion size and keep the lords of terra form knowing it becuase rawbutt is a moron for gimping the most powerful IoM force.

5) the lion is a pretty cool guy

6) zaharial- errr I mean cypher


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 TheLumberJack wrote:
Also the Angels are the only confirmed chapter to have their Primarch be alive

Not true, vulkin is alive he is just off doing salamander things.

 Grand.Master.Raziel wrote:
Not being a bunch of Mary Sues like pretty much all the rest of the loyalist Space Marines.

Plus the privilege of being able to shout across the gaming store, "First Legion, fool! What!"

Other than getting away with literally betraying other marine chapters and imperial factions, killing inquisitors, Legion Building, and being giant douche nozzles in general.

They aren't quite space wolf levels of Mary Sue, but they are close.

Edit: Vulkan dies in the beast arises series. Unless he somehow overcame being obliterated in a reactor after having his perpetual status turned off in unremembered empire and Vulkan Lives.