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Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum and am new to 40k. I am thinking about starting a DA army, but with buying the Dark Vengeance set to get myself started. I like the background story of the DA and their general lore. The problem is I do not know if they are any good. All of the post I have looked up are all from 2013 regarding the DA. Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated. Are the DA a good army to play? Are they at all competitive? Also does GW even support the DA anymore, because on one post a guy said that GW had dropped the DA from "official" army list. Once again thanks for any and all help. Sorry for being a noob regarding this material as well.

DA's offer some specific things.
We are the chapter that has access to personal force field generators, we have probably the toughest Land Raider around.
We have the best Termies (the best of something bad is still bad though) and we have some good bikes.
So, DA in itself are a mediocre codex that can't hold water to Eldar or Tau, so competitive... rather no.
If you like the lore and the models, go for it. These are the only things you should go for when choosing an army.
If you want to be more competitive, go with another flavour of marines with C:SM or, maybe SW with their new dex?

Yeah man "are they good" is kind of a bad question.

GW seems to play a different game altogether, one in which you rotate attention to different armies and units where good and bad goes in cycles. If you only want your army to be good you'll be buying up models in an endless cycle. running around like a chicken with your head cut off for the newest all star army or unit.


its much better to have an army you can relate to on some kind of personal level. A primarch that relates to your personality, or a color scheme that you enjoy. Anything intangible really. Don't let GW dictate to you what you should buy based on their rule scheme.

I appreciate the response, and I should of been more specific with my questioning. I will for sure go with them. Like I said, I got the codex and could not put it down. It was a awesome story, and the primarch Lion is a awesome individual. Thank you for the help and reassurance that this is the army for me. I take it that Dark Vengeance is the best entry point into a DA army?

DV gives great bang for buck... especially if you know someone buying it too and they want chaos, you can swap the bits round. Or just stick them on ebay. Plus you get the cool little rulebook

No need to be sorry for being a newb. We all were there. Here is my little rant. Rant in a good way.

I am a Dark Angel player. I play Dark Angles because I love their fluff. I love the stories. I love the DA miniatures. I love there so many different ways to play them. We have Deathwing. We have Ravenwing. We have Greenwing and Ironwing. (Ironwing is not played in the codex but you can make one if you like).

I don't need to win with plastic toy soldiers. We may not have the best rules. We may not have the easiest rules to use. But I have fun. I enjoy playing with what we have. I don't need to switch to flavour of the month or what ever army is powerful or strong to play.

I may loose a lot. I still have pride. I have pride playing with my toy soldiers. I don't worry what Tau can do, or what Eldar can do, or even what Space Marines have.

I am Dark Angel and that is all that matters.


Now with that being said, Dark Angels are not for everyone. You play Dark Angels because as I said, you love or like the fluff. You like or love the miniatures. Everything else after that is just a bonus.

Playing DA is not easy. Lots of people have a hard time playing DA. We don't have the best rules. Can we win. Yes. Can we loose? Yes. It happens a lot. There is no shame in wanting something else easier to play. I know nobody likes spending all the time painting and collecting and spending all that money to keep loosing.

Maybe DA is not for you. That is why you are asking and that is a smart choice. If anything, start small. You are on a good start with Dark Vengeance. Play games with "counts as" if you don't have the minis or might want it but try them out first.

Use your regular marines as "counts as" terminators if you want more Termies. Use some Lego or what not and "counts as" flyers or Speeders before you buy them. Lots of people say they are no good. All that matters is if you like them, and enjoy modelling them and having fun with them.

If all you want to do is win, then DA is not for you. You will regret the choice really fast. Nothing wrong with that, all that means is DA is not for you.

For me, I don't play no more. I still collect and still consider myself a DA player. When I did play, I played when we had a very bad dull codex in 4th edition. People told me to use the SM 5th edition book. I am stubborn. (No pun intended, but ironically is a DA trait) and stuck with the DA codex and kept loosing. Doesn't matter. I had fun. I enjoyed playing with my toy soldiers. So not being powerful didn't matter.

So think long and hard. Go to Bolter and Chainsword and then go to the Dark Angel forum there. We are a good family there. Maybe you can gain more knowledge to see if DA are right for you.

Sorry for this long ramble but I hope it helps.

Thank you for the great response. I will be sure to go over to that site as well, and check out the DA community over there. I have yet to buy any 40K stuff other then the main rule book so I have not made any commitments yet. Winning does not bother me all that much. My main concern was that they are a "fun" army to play. As I said above I love the lore in the codex. Every model I have seen is really awesome and neat. Although I have heard the nephilm jet is really bad it looks really cool! Thank you for taking the time and giving me your input from someone who stills collects DA.

Davor wrote:
No need to be sorry for being a newb. We all were there. Here is my little rant. Rant in a good way.

I am a Dark Angel player. I play Dark Angles because I love their fluff. I love the stories. I love the DA miniatures. I love there so many different ways to play them. We have Deathwing. We have Ravenwing. We have Greenwing and Ironwing. (Ironwing is not played in the codex but you can make one if you like).

I don't need to win with plastic toy soldiers. We may not have the best rules. We may not have the easiest rules to use. But I have fun. I enjoy playing with what we have. I don't need to switch to flavour of the month or what ever army is powerful or strong to play.

I may loose a lot. I still have pride. I have pride playing with my toy soldiers. I don't worry what Tau can do, or what Eldar can do, or even what Space Marines have.

I am Dark Angel and that is all that matters.


Now with that being said, Dark Angels are not for everyone. You play Dark Angels because as I said, you love or like the fluff. You like or love the miniatures. Everything else after that is just a bonus.

Playing DA is not easy. Lots of people have a hard time playing DA. We don't have the best rules. Can we win. Yes. Can we loose? Yes. It happens a lot. There is no shame in wanting something else easier to play. I know nobody likes spending all the time painting and collecting and spending all that money to keep loosing.

Maybe DA is not for you. That is why you are asking and that is a smart choice. If anything, start small. You are on a good start with Dark Vengeance. Play games with "counts as" if you don't have the minis or might want it but try them out first.

Use your regular marines as "counts as" terminators if you want more Termies. Use some Lego or what not and "counts as" flyers or Speeders before you buy them. Lots of people say they are no good. All that matters is if you like them, and enjoy modelling them and having fun with them.

If all you want to do is win, then DA is not for you. You will regret the choice really fast. Nothing wrong with that, all that means is DA is not for you.

For me, I don't play no more. I still collect and still consider myself a DA player. When I did play, I played when we had a very bad dull codex in 4th edition. People told me to use the SM 5th edition book. I am stubborn. (No pun intended, but ironically is a DA trait) and stuck with the DA codex and kept loosing. Doesn't matter. I had fun. I enjoyed playing with my toy soldiers. So not being powerful didn't matter.

So think long and hard. Go to Bolter and Chainsword and then go to the Dark Angel forum there. We are a good family there. Maybe you can gain more knowledge to see if DA are right for you.

Sorry for this long ramble but I hope it helps.

Then you will be just fine then. Lots of people say DW doesn't work great. High price, low model count. Lots of AP2 weapons to negate their armour.

Nephilm fighter lots say it's no good. As you will see on the B&C DA forum if you dig for it, lots will say it's garbage, others will say it's ok, and a few say they like it. Not as great as other fighters, but still good.

So don't go what the Net says and go for what you like.

DV is a great way to start. Only thing it doesn't have is the codex. Other than that, you are on your way to a great start.

Good luck.

Good thing about DA is that you can play a variety of styles. Ravenwing(lots of bikes), Deathwing(lots of special terminators), Greenwing(lots of power armor Regular marines)Or a mix of all the above. they work great together, kind of a hammer and anvil. They are a lot of fun to play. Since they are half the Dark vengeance set, they can be had relatively cheap. 2 or 3 dark angel sets will land you just about everything you need.