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I believe the title says it all. My friends have been playing for over a year now and have been trying to get me to play. I have resisted because I did not feel like dropping the money into the game; however, a deal came along that I would not pass up. A hobby store was selling Dark Vengeance sets for 50% off. Two of my friends were going to buy two sets (one wanted all the Chaos and the other wanted other stuff in there). Neither of them wanted the Dark Angel stuff though. So, for $40 I got all the Dark Angel stuff from two Dark Vengeance sets. Problem is I got no idea what to do with them. I have been searching online for good blogs, sites, videos, etc, about Dark Angels, but because I am new I do not know what good or bad information looks like for DA. So, I was hoping that someone could recommend some sites or videos on DA. At this point anything would be helpful. Also, if you have any general suggestions or information to a guy just starting the game please feel free to post it here. Thanks in advance.

miniwargaming.com has many videos

Best suggestion for someone just starting -
Get a rulebook. Since you pitched in on two DV sets see if you can have one of the mini-rulebooks (has all the rules, none of the fluff).
Get the codex. This is a must as it lists what upgrades your guys can take and point limits.

Next, ask your friends to play some small games while you watch. Keep the rulebook handy and ask questions. If you are not sure on something ask them to explain. Then (or you could just skip to this step), play some small point games (approx. 500 pts). Don't use vehicles, don't use bikes, just use Infantry. Once you have a basic grasp on the rules, start adding things in. Borrow things to proxy. And as you get the hang of things you'll eventually learn how the army works. Finally (and this is the most important thing) don't get upset if you lose a lot when you first start out. Your buddies have been playing and know how their armies work, so don't get frustrated.

Check out the Tactics and Army List sections. People often discuss these sorts of things there.

All that being said, welcome to dakka, welcome to 40K, and Happy Gaming.

and dont forget eventually the codex since DA cameout early ebay has many cheap DA codexs i got mine at 25 dollars buy it now the site i prevously mentioned has tutorials for playing as well as DA batreps

From two starter sets, you should already be on a good start for a DA army. 20 tacticals, 10 Terminators, 6 bikes. Definitely get the codex next to see what you can do with them.

 Wilytank wrote:
From two starter sets, you should already be on a good start for a DA army. 20 tacticals, 10 Terminators, 6 bikes. Definitely get the codex next to see what you can do with them.

plus you can get rid of the extra hqs for something else

Thanks for all the advice. I have been reading a little and see there are two typical builds I can go with DA: Ravenwing or Deathwing. If I am reading correctly one is for speed and the other is just tanky. What are the advantages of each? is one better against a certain army? Which would you play and why? Again, thanks ahead of time. I know it takes time to answer questions and I appreciate it.

Welcome to Wargaming and WH40k. It seems that you got the DA codex already. You are going to want a copy of the rules, if you have not gotten one. The Rulebook + your army's Codex are 2 most important books to have. Then after you get a feel for your army, you may want to pick up some of your "regular opponents'" codexes as well. Knowing what your enemy can do is just as important as knowing what your army can do.

The Deathwing tend to be Heavily armored troops that can do some damage once they get into range and they are really tough to take out.

The Ravenwing is more about manuever warfare. Which is to say you should have a mobility edge over you opponent. You would use that mobility to set up 2-on-1 engagements where the odds are in your favor. Strike the models of your opponents army that are vulnerable to your Ravenwing attacks and ignore the models that are too tough to take down.

Hope that helps.

You can use the Dark Angel Captain as a count-as Azrael who will make both the bikes and terminators troops in addition to the tactical squads.

So you have:

HQ
Captain x2
Librarian x2
Troops
Tactical Marines x20
Elite
Terminator x10
Fast Attack
Bikes x6

From this you can make a good range of legal armies that won't be horrible so long as your mates don't use fliers or run really competitive lists:

445 points (smallest list basically... could drop down to squads of 5 still)
- Company master w/ power sword and boltgun
- 10x Tactical squad w/ plasma gun and plasma cannon
- 10x Tactical squad w/ plasma gun and plasma cannon

1150 points (biggest army you can field, could drop any of the extra 5 units and still be a legit list)
- Company master w/ power sword and boltgun
- Librarian
- 10x Tactical squad w/ plasma gun and plasma cannon
- 10x Tactical squad w/ plasma gun and plasma cannon
- 5x Deathwing Terminators w/ assault cannon
- 5x Deathwing Terminators w/ assault cannon
- 3x Ravenwing Attack Squadron
- 3x Ravenwing Attack Squadron

As mentioned above, you could use your HQ models for "counts as" named characters which will change how the model plays substantially, the codex will give you the different rules for them. You could merge the termies into 1 squad, and/or the bikes into one squad but probably better as multiple units. You could easily have fun running these armies against your mates, but ask them to build reasonable power lists against you. I'd suggest you immmerse yourself into the 40k fluff, especially dark angels. There are some good books about them, can't hurt to start reading about their founding in the Horus Heresy series.

The extra HQ models you have might be good "conversion fodder", as in once you get into the hobby some more, you could modify them to be modeled accurately for some of the named characters so you could run them properly. The other option is, once you reach 2K points, you can run "double FOC", which means you go from a limit of 2 HQs, 6 Troops, 3 elites, 3 Fast attack, 3 heavy support to double that, which would allow you to take all 4 models as HQs. Until then though, you can only take 2 HQs.

Edit: Do librarians take a HQ slot? Can never remember.