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So im starting up again and starting DA which i have wanted to do since i started but all my friends had them.......However im afraid to buy anything because im afraid it may be redone or new models may be coming out for them. I have NO idea whats safe to buy or what has the best chance of being redone. Is the Ravenwing battle force a safe buy? i bought veterans and DV but thats it. any ideas about whats probably a safe buy?

As you say, you're just starting DA. That means you probably have a fair number of models to buy before you're going to run into models that are going to be somehow invalidated by a new codex.

If you want a ravenwing, then get bikes. We don't know how the rules are going to change with them, but they're still going to be space marine bikes, but probably slightly better. If you want to play ravenwing now, you are very, very likely going to want to play ravenwing once the new codex comes out.

The exact same is going to be true for deathwing. Just get some terminators now and paint them up. You're likely looking at at least a few guys with PF+stormbolter, and you're probably going to have at least a couple guys with storm shields. Just start making terminators now, and then, once the codex comes out, you'll already have a terminator force that is going to just require a bit of tweaking (getting a couple of new termies with some of the exact weapon combinations you're looking for).

In this way, you'll be to a point where you have, say 85% of your force complete BEFORE the codex comes out. Then you're just going to make the adjustments once it does. This means that you'll be playing DA within a month or two of their new codex coming out, rather than like a year after it comes out.

In the absolute worst case, just get some tac marines and rhinos and start painting them. There's no way that the DA codex won't have access to those units, and it will give you a nice start with some scoring units.

I think you're overestimating the risk here. When a new codex comes out, you usually still get to use most of your models in the newest competitive lists from new codices.

So ravenwing battkeforce is a good buy for now? I was hesitant for tac squad because of all the rumors of new tac squad and id much rather have those than spend money on the ones out now. I just hope they dont change the bikes around so the ones i buy now dont look outdated

I to am looking at dark angels, although for me its as allies for my other armies as I manged tog get the dark vengence models cheap.

I think the battleforce is a great buy, most of the time, gw will add new units to the codex, not change old ones. I cant see bikes or land speeders getting a big change (if anything points costs) so you should be good getting those, as above, if you just start working on the core of the army now, then when the codex drops, you can then buy all the shinny new toys to go with your army.

i definitely want to get tac sqauds im just really excited for what the new ones are like and im not sure if i should get any now or just focus on DW and RW and wait for the codex to decide about tac marines

The rumours for new tac squads is a long way of though, maybe not even for a few years. You would be safe with one or two squads.

Although you could just go for a pure deathwing/ravenwing list for the moment.

As someone else thats just recently started a Dark Angels army, I want to let you know what I did:

I bought DV, and ended up trading the the chaos marines to another player for their DAs, so now I have two of everything. I also picked up the basic paint kit that gave me 5 basic marines.

To date I've picked up:

a Razorback (deliberately left it so I could convert it into a rhino)
a Devastator Squad
A tactical squad (with this I had the bits to make a second Devestator squad, and complete tactical squad)
An assault Squad

I'm going to be getting a dreadnought friday.

Certain things will never be made bad. your basic tactical squads are going to be one of them, as well as your heavy weapon Devestator squads, and Transports.

I am starting up a pure Deathwing army atm. I just collect up Terminators and DA bits where I can and at most the new codex will only change up the composition of my squads which is an easy fix in the end.

'Greenwing' (not Deathwing or Ravenwing) Dark Angels rely heavily on ranged infantry (Tactical Marines and Devastators) to win games; I field a large infantry gunline supported by a small Deathwing and Ravenwing contingent (six to ten bikes depending on the size of the game and one or two Deathwing squads) who jump in the enemy's face and make a nuisance of themselves, it seems to work rather well.

So to answer your question some mix of Terminators, Ravenwing bikes (yes, the Battleforce is indeed a safe buy), and Tactical/Devastators are your best bet when getting started with Dark Angels.

Thanks Rake, i wanted to go that direction because i like tac and normal marines so much, everyone ive talked to about ti said DA tac marines are too expensive for their cost and the whole pt of DA is RW and DW

All the advise so far has been sound what i would say is adding Ezekial might be a great boon for you as his fearless bubble will help your devastators stay around . Venerable dread have their uses but they will have to stay away from heavy weapons as they can die easily.

The only thing i would not use are Assault squads. (look I love em i have 2 squads of 10 but they never pay back their points. the one time i succeeded in making them do so as a campaign where they all counted as having power weapons.) also keep in mind a fully equipped assault squad runs just short of 300 pts

Its good to hear so much postive info and opinions on having a DA force that has more to it then DW and RW

It is possible. I have 3rd company you just have to know going in that everything is not an optimal unit so anything you can to make them better in the form of good tactics, librarians, and a little luck with the dice to make them work.

However go forth my son and kick donkeys in the teeth with our venerable codex.

(ohh by the way my lists only vehicles are two rhinos. FOOTSPAM FOR THE WIN!.)

I would recommend that, regardless of what you do, that you do not glue weapon options down until the new codex comes out. Magnetize items, or just use some paper clips for pins to hold the wargear bits in place for now. Poster putty/blue-tack should work as well. While if you stick to basic units it's unlikely that they'll become illegal, it's fairly likely that at least *some* of them are going to become poor choices.

Welcome to the fold, Battle-Brother!

As someone who has also just recently started collecting, I know what you're going through.
Personally I am just going to echo what others have said, RW/DW and the basic choices available are probably not going to be changing all that much.


I usually field the tac squad from DV and a veteran honor guard with my HQ in a razorback, the tac squad is great for knocking out high wound models, because of all the plasma.
Also if you're going the Deathwing route, I like to mix some TH/SS in with my shooty terminators for a jack-of-all-trades unit, put the storm shields in front and you're pretty darn survivable with a 2+/3++

With RW I tend to pack a ton of melta, charge up to a LR or MC and nuke it into oblivion, of course they usually die the next turn, but you've made your points back and if they survive then everything after is just gravy.

Get Cypher....wait, didn't he turn traitor?

As a new DA player I have no use for tacs or any power armor marines on foot from the DV box. If you're playing DA and want to use power armor on foot you're probably doing it wrong - DA tacs are a lot more expensive than vanilla SM and does not have fearless (which makes DA-flavored models special and worth using) nor Combat Tactics that vanilla SM has.

Getting the Ravenwing Battleforce is a good bet.. but make sure that you don't glue in any of the arms just yet because the Ravenwing Battleforce box provides zero special weapons. Be sure to buy the appropriate bits from spikeybits or thewarstore for that endeavor. Don't forget that for your Deathwing termies.

Also, getting more DV Deathwing termies and Ravenwing bikers from the abovementioned bitz sites are a cheap way to bolster your army.

Curses! they've found out about the our secret, how could anyone see past our masterful cover up scheme!?

*Ahem* I mean, I don't know what you're talking about.

i want to get more of the DV termies and RV i just hate how theres no customization, but theyre so much cheaper

 Pwn'd You wrote:
i want to get more of the DV termies and RV i just hate how theres no customization, but theyre so much cheaper

There is customization, but affordable options are there when you look for them. Refer to my earlier post(s).

A lot of players, old and new have started DA (inc. me, and I've been playing 40k since Rogue Trader and this is 2nd DA army).

Just look at the basic kits and build around those. Take DW for example, take a DV DW squad and add in a couple of Thunder Hammer guys. Its that easy and if they stop the mixed units for DW, don't fret, just split them back into shooty and assault units. Be safe by not adding a CML to a Thunder Hammer guy as according to rumours, only the Storm Bolter guys can take them. Its these little things that make it still possible to take old armies.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, I'll put up some pics of my DW army later. Most of it is DV DW, but it has some conversions.

The new codex isn't going to make things worse, so I wouldn't worry too much. The most you're going to have to do is buy a few additional minis to model the weapons you want when the new codex comes out, but for the most part it's going to be the same.

Build the core of your army, things you're going to want anyways, whether that is tac marines, devastators, terminators, ravenwing, etc. Those are going to be fine in the next codex. If you build and paint them, all you'll have to do is order a few bits for new figs to get the new weapons DA may get.

i guess now the decision is to decide what direction to go with the DA. I love tac marines but i feel it would be an injustice not to run some type of RW or DW,

Yeah get some tacs with some melta or plasma options. 2-3 squad of terminator some with SS and some with SB/PF. Devastators should be good as well. They're supposed to get a skyfire option, but I doubt that includes a new weapon itself since that would be weird. If you want to buy an HQ, get a librarian or something that will for sure be good even in the update.

Then, you can decide if you want some bikes, some vehicles, etc.

I play all of the DA builds, except pure Ravenwing. I am here to tell you that Greenwing, will be an uphill battle but still fun. Once I get around to building some models I am going to shift to a plasma oriented version of Rake's list. Glad to have you aboard and the above advice seems pretty good. Definitely will need transports (Be it rhinos or pods) and you can never have enough tac marines!

What the consensus on razorbacks, and pods for da I don't think pods were around when I quit, I just graduated from college so now I have time and money to play again

 Pwn'd You wrote:
What the consensus on razorbacks, and pods for da I don't think pods were around when I quit, I just graduated from college so now I have time and money to play again

Razorbacks are fairly solid (I don't own any myself, not a fan of the play style/carrying capacity), drop pods are great (almost all lists have them)....Except for their cost. They cost 15 points more than C:SM, but this should be fixed with the new book.

To be painfully honest, I would wait on buying anything too crazy. Maybe some terminators and a land raider, but there is a new codex dropping sometime. I wouldn't want to drop a bunch of money into models that may or may not even be feasible.

Just a thought...

Right now is the perfect time to buy. Its cheap.

 sfshilo wrote:
Right now is the perfect time to buy. Its cheap.

Whats cheap right now? i guess ill The RW battle force and maybe a tac for now?