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Hey all, New-ish (returning to the hobby after a 20 year hiatus) and I am slowly building a Dark Angels army. Question is, I recently received 2 lieutenants, a captain in Gravis armour, and an Ancient from a friend of mine. Along with a 5 man squad of hellblasters. I cant seem to pin down the use of the lieutenants...Can I attach one to the hellblaster squad,(either with the sergeant or alone) or are they like an autonomous character, and they can attach to any unit you feel they would benefit? Again, new to this so please don't thrash me too hard!! thanks! I did check the forums and the index and I didnt see a very clear answer on this

All are characters and are their own units, but give bonuses to units near them. So while you can't attach them to a unit like previous editions, having them hang out near your desired squad(s) has the same effect. Give the core rules another good look (particularly for characters and aura abilities), along with their entries, and it should be a little clearer.

Characters (like lieutenants) provide a 'buff' effect to units within 6". They can't be 'attached' to a specific squad like they used to. In this case, lieutenants provide a different buff to captains/chapter masters. They're cheaper than a captain, and fulfil FOC requirements.

Awesome, thanks for the replies! So, not trying to get anyone to do the hard work for me, but! here is my current army. the dark angels models from dark vengenace: 1 company master, Librarian,10 man tac squad with sergeant, 10 man tac with rhino, 3 man bike squad, 5 man termies, 5 man assault squad, 5 man hellblaster. 2 lieutenants a captain and an ancient. I think i scored them around 1295 points? Is this a good flexible base to start with or am I all over the place?

As was said, Characters work very differently in this game than they have in previous editions. I'd recommend looking up the character rules in a rulebook when you get a chance to fully understand them.

Specifically, Lieutenants in the Space Marines army allow for re-rolls of 1 to wound. This is in the Fight and the Shooting phases. Coupled with a Captain (which gives you re-rolls of 1 to hit), those Hellblasters can become quite accurate and deadly.


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johnny_shortstaxx wrote:
Awesome, thanks for the replies! So, not trying to get anyone to do the hard work for me, but! here is my current army. the dark angels models from dark vengenace: 1 company master, Librarian,10 man tac squad with sergeant, 10 man tac with rhino, 3 man bike squad, 5 man termies, 5 man assault squad, 5 man hellblaster. 2 lieutenants a captain and an ancient. I think i scored them around 1295 points? Is this a good flexible base to start with or am I all over the place?

This does look like a fantastic start to a Dark Angels force. You'll be able to easily play games around 1250 points and will only need a few other things to get up to 1500. You have a lot of characters, so getting more doods/tanks on the table will probably be the main way that you grow your army from here.

Putting the Hellblasters, Ancient, Captain, and one of the Lieutenants close together will give you a very powerful unit. Their plasma guns are 30" range with rapid fire at 15". The Captain allows them to re-roll 1's to hit (which can save them from overheating when you supercharge) and the Lieutenant will allow them to re-roll 1's to wound. The Ancient is very important as well. When a model dies (even if it was from overheating plasma), you roll a 4+ if it's within 6" of the Ancient. On a 4+, it gets one last chance to shoot its gun (or fight in the fight phase if it's in range). This means that you can get one or two extra, free, supercharged shots out of those Hellblasters if they start dying.

johnny_shortstaxx wrote:
Awesome, thanks for the replies! So, not trying to get anyone to do the hard work for me, but! here is my current army. the dark angels models from dark vengenace: 1 company master, Librarian,10 man tac squad with sergeant, 10 man tac with rhino, 3 man bike squad, 5 man termies, 5 man assault squad, 5 man hellblaster. 2 lieutenants a captain and an ancient. I think i scored them around 1295 points? Is this a good flexible base to start with or am I all over the place?

From a competitive point of view, Tacticals are pretty weak right now. They just don't have any oomph. Man for man a devastator squad can do almost everything they do, but do it better. Assault squads are also pretty weak, unless you're talking the veteran version. Stormbolter Termies are ok, but they're more fragile than you might think and quite expensive. None of those units are really bad though, (some people would say you should just throw your tacticals away, but that's a minority opinion). Bolter rounds are just kinda bleh in the current meta.

Hellblasters are awesome. One of the best new primaris units.

Dark Angles don't have a codex yet. It remains to be seen if they play any different than normal space marines.

Wow, Thats pretty amazing. yeah I think I need to dive into the rule book deeper, but Im glad I asked here! Hellblasters I thought were a potent unit on paper, but the way you're describing the use of them (and characters) here takes them to a new level. Thanks again! Already feeling the community spirit!

johnny_shortstaxx wrote:
Wow, Thats pretty amazing. yeah I think I need to dive into the rule book deeper, but Im glad I asked here! Hellblasters I thought were a potent unit on paper, but the way you're describing the use of them (and characters) here takes them to a new level. Thanks again! Already feeling the community spirit!

You and me and Bobby G.

In general the buff from a Lieutenant is statistically the same as the one from a Captain. Rerolling 1s to wound will net the same percentage increase in kills as rerolling 1s to wound. Lieutenants are cheaper than Captains but have weaker stats.

In general, if you are looking for a buffing character to support shooty back-line units, a Leitenant is more cost effective than a Captain.

One exception is plasma weapons of all varieties as you do not want to roll 1s to hit if you are overcharging. If you are taking Hellblasters (and they are indeed excellent) then you really want a Captain nearby so that you can overcharge without blowing yourself away too often as he allows a reroll of 1s to Hit.

johnny_shortstaxx wrote:
Wow, Thats pretty amazing. yeah I think I need to dive into the rule book deeper, but Im glad I asked here! Hellblasters I thought were a potent unit on paper, but the way you're describing the use of them (and characters) here takes them to a new level. Thanks again! Already feeling the community spirit!

Man its hilarious fun with an apothecary and the ancient.


Burn them down with overcharging, any that die gets to shoot again on a 4+ or 3+ with a relic banner with no real risk for overcharging.

next movement phase try and bring em back on a 4+