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Pretty much the title. I'm considering getting Dark Angels to be my Marine army and am looking at snagging a couple of the Dark Vengeance box sets. What would be your recommended next purchase? For those who don't know, the DV box set comes with a Company Master, Librarian, 10 man Tactical Squad, 5 man Terminator Squad, and 3 man Ravenwing Biker Squad.

If you can still find them on ebay or something, a set of Assault on Black Reach marines would be a good deal. Nets you another tactical squad, another terminator squad, and a dreadnaught.

If you use the captain that comes in DV as Azreal, then the entire DV box set becomes scoring, so you aren't hurting for troops choices. I'd suggest going with either the AoBR set or a Devastator squad. The AoBR termies could be upgraded later to look more "dark angelly" if you get a copy of the Deathwing Knights set.

Pick Deathwing or Ravenwing and buy either terminators or bikes. Don't bother with basic tactical marines since you're just throwing away the whole point of the DA codex.

 Peregrine wrote:
Pick Deathwing or Ravenwing and buy either terminators or bikes. Don't bother with basic tactical marines since you're just throwing away the whole point of the DA codex.

Somebody is stuck in 4th edition...

Nivek5150 wrote:
Somebody is stuck in 4th edition...

Not at all. It's exactly the same in 6th: DA tactical squads exist for the same reason BA tactical squads exist, because every marine army has tactical squads or an equivalent. You're not actually supposed to use them for anything.

(And maybe I should clarify that by Deathwing/Ravenwing I'm also including the relevant HQ/elite options, not just the two specific troops units.)

Well, the DV box gives you a decent start. You could expand by adding 10 Tacticals, 5 DW Termies, and 3 RW Bikers (from ebay). This would give you a good core:

Captain
2x 10 Tacticals
10 DW Termies
6 RW Bikers.

I expanded mine by getting two of DV's worth of models (straight trade with a guy for my chaos set) leaving me with:

2x 10 marine tacticals
2x Termis
6 Rw bikers

I expanded that with a kit bashed Belial
A Venerable Dread
A Mortis Dread
and an attack bike

The only things I really want to add to that are a pair of rhinos to scoot the tac squads around to camp objectives and eventually another 10 termies.

I like the feel and the way I use the force. That's just me personally though.

I bought the DV box, then another DV termie quad from Ebay. Best to have at least 6 RW bikes. I recoommend the Knights. One of the best CC units around atm, especially with Smite mode (one turn of S10 AP2 fun!) and they get Hammer of Wrath.

Plus, with the other bits you get in the box, all you need is some more termie body backs, legs and bases and you have enough bits to make a second DW squad. 10 termies from one box is pretty good I(granted you need some bits)

Then some landspeeder typhoons are very useful. One think DA tend to lack is AA, because DW/RW have little of it. Typhoons give you something there at least. Or a Landraider.

 Peregrine wrote:

Nivek5150 wrote:
Somebody is stuck in 4th edition...

Not at all. It's exactly the same in 6th: DA tactical squads exist for the same reason BA tactical squads exist, because every marine army has tactical squads or an equivalent. You're not actually supposed to use them for anything.

(And maybe I should clarify that by Deathwing/Ravenwing I'm also including the relevant HQ/elite options, not just the two specific troops units.)

Space wolves and MSU GH spam would like a word

Not sure if the guy ripping on tacticals has looked at the DA codex yet. DA tac squads are dirt cheap now, and at 5 guys can get a heavy weapon. These are far from useless units.

If you go the devestation/bolter route, a bunch of 10-man barebones tac squads with bolters is awesome - 140 points for either 20 bolter shots moving, or 40 bolter shots stationary (when near the banner) is awesome.

I ended up with the ravenwing battleforce to add on to my DV set. Not sure on the points yet as I just started putting everything together but seemed like a decent start for someone looking to do ravenwing. Using the Captain as a stand in for Azrael so that the entire set is scoring. Plus the melta attack bike and the Typhoon from the battleforce, I should be having good times. Still plenty of bits leftover to make Typhoons out of ebay speeders. Cheap fun and hopefully effective. I'll find out this weekend how good it really is.

And for the record, I think that your standard tacticals in this book are an excellent choice. They did a great job imo on giving you plenty of list options.

Don't forget that Azreal also makes the attack bike scoring when you Combat Squad that Ravenwing Attack Squadron!

milo wrote:
Don't forget that Azreal also makes the attack bike scoring when you Combat Squad that Ravenwing Attack Squadron!

Azrael is more a liabilty. Too expensive and rather worthless game-wise.

 Peregrine wrote:

Nivek5150 wrote:
Somebody is stuck in 4th edition...

Not at all. It's exactly the same in 6th: DA tactical squads exist for the same reason BA tactical squads exist, because every marine army has tactical squads or an equivalent. You're not actually supposed to use them for anything.

(And maybe I should clarify that by Deathwing/Ravenwing I'm also including the relevant HQ/elite options, not just the two specific troops units.)

Given that tactical squads in DA are the exact same as vanilla tactical squads except a couple of points per model cheaper, presumably you conclude that no one should ever take tactical squads?

I would get either of the following.

Belial, 3 Deathwing Command squads, and Rhino.

or

Sammael, Ravenwing Command squad, 2 Ravenwing Bike Squadrons, Rhino, 2 Attack Bikes.

Heavy weapons in a squad of 5 is not something to just dismiss IMO