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I am new to Warhammer 40k and recently purchased the Battle for Vedros starter set and want to paint the Space Marines as Dark Angels. Do all Chapters have access to all the same unites (i.e. Captain, Dreadnought...)? I have found that some units are found under Ultramarines while other are under both Ultramarines and Dark Angels. Will I need to purchase a Codex for Space Marines and then another Codex for Dark Angels?

All you will need is the Dark Angel Codex. Both armies share a lot of the same units such as dreadnoughts, captains, etc.. But you will find the Dark Angel version of those units and some unique units in the Dark Angel Codex.

Welcome to the inner circle! Here are some units Dark Angels don't get:

Centurions - these are basically the 'unique' unit for the normal codex chapters, so none of the special chapters have them. But that's ok, because they are pretty awful for their points right now.

Terminator Assault Squad - you have Deathwing Knights instead which are awesome (as awesome as Terminators can be this edition anyway :/ ). Also your normal Terminators can mix and match between normal Terminator weapons and Assault Squad weapons. Which is nice, but not necessarily very useful.

Stormtalon/Stormhawk - you have the Darktalon instead, which is better, and the Nephalim which is ok.

Stermguard/Vanguard - you have have company veterans instead, who are not great to be honest... More flexibility than either vanilla marine squad individually, but not special ammo or jump packs which does kind of hurt.

On the plus side the Dark Angel Company Champion is great! Don't forget you can take 3 of him (or more if you aren't playing rule of 3), and that he is a character so very difficult to kill with shooting.

In addition you of course have completely different special characters, but the Dark Angel ones are generally very good. Azrael has a 5+ invulnerable save aura that affects all infantry in 6", Asmodai gives everyone nearby rerolls on all fight phase hits and +1 attack in the fight phase (which stacks with the Deathwing Ancient!), and Ezekiel and Sammael are both pretty solid for their point. Belial is probably the weakest... He's ok.

TBH not getting special bolt guns doesn’t matter. Storm bolters are better anyways.

 Jaxler wrote:
TBH not getting special bolt guns doesn’t matter. Storm bolters are better anyways.

True! And if it was AP you were after just take Hellblasters. The Dark Angel mantra is that all problems can be solved with plasma :p

 Crimson Devil wrote:
All you will need is the Dark Angel Codex. Both armies share a lot of the same units such as dreadnoughts, captains, etc.. But you will find the Dark Angel version of those units and some unique units in the Dark Angel Codex.

This might be a premature/noob question then with not having seen the Codex yet. Would I be able to use the generic Captain from the Battle for Vedros set (picture hopefully below), paint it in the Dark Angel colors and say it's Ezekiel or Azrael, or would I need to buy specific kits for them?

As long as WYSIWYG is done you're fine.

ColonelDSanders wrote:

 Crimson Devil wrote:
All you will need is the Dark Angel Codex. Both armies share a lot of the same units such as dreadnoughts, captains, etc.. But you will find the Dark Angel version of those units and some unique units in the Dark Angel Codex.

This might be a premature/noob question then with not having seen the Codex yet. Would I be able to use the generic Captain from the Battle for Vedros set (picture hopefully below), paint it in the Dark Angel colors and say it's Ezekiel or Azrael, or would I need to buy specific kits for them?

I wouldn't mind you testing out some stuff that way, but longer term I wouldn't be massively thrilled with you using that miniature as is as a Dark Angel special character. It doesn't depict the right gear, or look like a Librarian at all in the case of Ezekial.

It's not strictly a rule of the game, it's just a case of etiquette though, so really it's up to you and the people you play with what is ok!

You could totally use it is as a generic Dark Angels Master though.

It is acceptable as Ezekiel or Azrael.

This is your first box. I have never heard of anyone imposing WYSIWYG on a new player, let alone outside of a tournament. This is a totally acceptable form of counts as.

 Marmatag wrote:
It is acceptable as Ezekiel or Azrael.

This is your first box. I have never heard of anyone imposing WYSIWYG on a new player, let alone outside of a tournament. This is a totally acceptable form of counts as.

I think there needs to be some correlation with how a model looks and what it represents.

As you say, when you're learning the game with your first boxed set, sure, whatever. But you should seek to either get the real model or make an effort at an appropriate conversion for the long term.

It's not fair on your opponents to use models that are very different from what they are supposed to be.

@ Stux - You can use that model to kitbash a Librarian.

And I agree with Marmatag.

 Primark G wrote:
@ Stux - You can use that model to kitbash a Librarian.

I'd be totally fine with it being run as a librarian if it had been kitbashed in that way.

Thank you guys so much for your help. I have wanted to get into this game for years and have finally taken the leap. Having done so now I am trying to make sense of everything.