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I have a hard time choosing between these two armies. I love bikes and dreadnaughts. Blood angels have a Librarian Dreadnaught but Dark Angels have more bikes and they all wear capes and cloaks, which i think look unbelievable good.

So i think i need a generel run-down of these two armies. Blood Angels are assault focused is all i know really.

So besides one has a unique dreadnaught and the other has a lot of bike options and cloaks, what are the main strenghts of these two armies?
Rules are not that important, since they change all the time anyways

some rules change all the time. Some are pretty consistent.

BA are very jump pack oriented. Their Chapter Master is on a jump pack. They have two unique Jump Pack units - Sanguinary Guard and Death Company. They did (and probably will again) have a psychic power that gives the Librarian a temporary jump pack. For another couple months at least, they do not. BA also have some special flavor in Terminators, but less so than Dark Angels

BA are known for flamers and melta (but ironically less so than Salamanders) while Dark Angels are known for Plasma.

Sanguinius is dead. Lion El Johnson is taking the world's longest nap in the Dark Angels flagship "The Rock", they just don't know it.

Both chapters have a tragic hero thing going on. BA because they're space vampires slowly dying out, DA because of their secret shame during/right after the Horus Heresy.

BA don't do the Sternguard/Vanguard they do Terminators and only Terminators. Their Second Company can also be assault oriented with Ravenwing bikes and Speeders. The Black Knights will be very similar to Vanguard Veterans.

What I'd do is grab the Space Marine Codex, and read the fluff for each chapter and see which appeals to you more. You can also look for any short stories on the internet, or a couple black library books.

Nobody is stopping you from using Dark Angel models and Blood Angel rules, if you fancy their capes and cloaks so much.

Every unit these two chapters can muster is only one kitbash away from you.

In a lore context, both armies are defined and themed by a different dark secret.

For Blood Angels, their dark secret is a gene flaw that makes them at times crave blood, and occasionally (seemingly inevitably given enough time) succumb to an irrestible rage where they lose their minds and go berserk.

For Dark Angels, their dark secret is that during the heresy around half the chapter fell to chaos. They have spent the last 10,000 years covering for this and are not above killing agents of the Imperium or even wiping out entire planets to keep their secret. The irony is that at higher ups in the Imperium (certainly Gulliman) probably know their secret anyway, and at this point the things they have done to cover ot up are probably far less forgivable than the secret itself.

These secrets dictate a lot of the flavour of the army. Blood Angels have soem vampiric flare and love getting up close and fighting to spill some blood. Dark Angels take a lot for inspiration from Knights Templar, with the robes and secret society vibes.

In terms of how they play:

Blood Angels excell in melee. Being Marines, they can do very well in other areas too, but if you're playing the army you really want to be taking advantage of their chapter tactic which gives a +1 to wound rolls in melee. This is frankly incredible, meaning that your basic infantry are punching through tank armour on a 5+ and power swords are now wounding other marines on a 2+.

Dark Angels on the other hand get army wide +1 to hit with ranged weapons provided you didn't move thay turn. This is also an awesome ability. However while this makes them a very capable ranged army, the shtick of Dark Angels has always been that they are generalists. They were the first Legion, and a prototype for Legion organisation, and some of that persists in the 40k setting, primarily in the Deathwing and Ravenwing. The Deathwing are all terminators, and Ravenwing use bikes, planes and other vehicles. This gives you two other ways to build your army, with some more unique abilities, than just a gunline. This is the best thing about Dark Angels in my opinion - their flexibility. You can build decent lists that play completely differently.

Each army has a bunch of unique units too. Some standouts are the Blood Angel Librarian Dreadnought, Death Company (marines who succumbed to the rage i mentioned), and Sanguinary Guard. For Dark Angels, check out Deathwing Knights and Ravenwing Black Knights.

There is some unit over lap, specialy as far as the primaris models goes.

BA have a lot more jumppack units, and are getting a codex sooner then DA, by like 2 months. DA on the other hand have godlike termintors, special bikers and special land speeders.

Sadly BA have been badly flanderised into being space vampires, but they can do other things too - like renaissance art and master craftsmanship - for they live exceptionally long lives by marine standards and develop hobbies to help keep the madness at bay (unless you're Flesh Tearers. No high culture for you.)

Both chapters have some pretty great successors too - the aforementioned Flesh Tearers are great if you like the idea of BA in terms of sheer CC murder-machines (or if you secretly long for loyalist World Eaters), but not so much of a fan of the renaissance art.
The Dark Angels have quite a number of successors, collectively referred to as the Unforgiven, but it's inferred that there's a much closer link between successors and parent chapter, so that they can effectively function more like a legion.

Also small note about names - Blood Angels tend to go for Greco-Romano names, and the names of Italian Renaissance artists... Dark Angels prefer no-nonsense Old Testament names. If you ever have difficulty in naming your DA characters, just flip open the old good book to Numbers and pick the first name you see.

In terms of list variety, I'd say Dark Angels have more flexibility than Blood Angels - who really want to leverage close combat with cost-efficient fire support.

Both sound really appealing and fun thematically. That's good. Thanks a lot for you thoughts on the matter.
I think i will get the new codex and flip through it and look at pretty pictures. I do also like that i can buy some cloak-wearing termies and use them as blood angels. Hopefully without to much effort
Otherwise it boils down to which has more models i like, atleast until i read some short-stories.
Besides the horos heresy books, are there any good ones out there you could recommend? Like shorter than the average books on 200 pages Have a hard time keeping focus when reading

Again, thanks Appreciate the comments

You could simply do both in one army. You would lose their super doctrines, but they would still be quite strong with the rest of the rules. Adding a Patrol of one chapter will only cost you 2CP. They each definitely have a strong appeal.

zaible wrote:
Both sound really appealing and fun thematically. That's good. Thanks a lot for you thoughts on the matter.
I think i will get the new codex and flip through it and look at pretty pictures. I do also like that i can buy some cloak-wearing termies and use them as blood angels. Hopefully without to much effort
Otherwise it boils down to which has more models i like, atleast until i read some short-stories.
Besides the horos heresy books, are there any good ones out there you could recommend? Like shorter than the average books on 200 pages Have a hard time keeping focus when reading

Again, thanks Appreciate the comments

It will be even easier because they're both -Angels. They'll both have some heavy Wing iconography, you just have to turn a blood drop into a sword, or a sword into a blood drop on some models. On the full kits you can usually just buy an "upgrade pack" with the proper shoulder pads.

The thing with both of these armies is they can now take pretty much anything and everything in the new Marine Codex. So already, you're looking at a powerful Primaris base and you're going to be looking that way for your core Troops (Intercessors, Tactical squads, Infiltrators etc.). In that respect there is virtually no difference between them, and that goes for most standard characters too (Captain, Lieutenants, Librarians).

For your favourite units - Blood Angels do have a couple of unique Dreadnoughts, aside from the Librarian there's also the Furioso (a few different weapon options, including two fists) and Death Company variants. However, it's not like Dark Angels are suffering for walker choices now that they can take Ironclads, Redemptors, and Invictor warsuits. Really your limiting factor here is detachment slots, not the variety of Dreads.
The same goes for bikes, both Chapters have access to the new Outriders, ATVs and Chaplain on bike - though Dark Angels have the Black Knights as a unique bike unit, and are likely to have better rules for their bikes overall than Blood Angels.

Where things really change up is the two Chapters' unique units, and their Chapter tactics.
As mentioned, Blood Angels are assault-focused and like their jump packs in particular - whereas Dark Angels have Deathwing Knights as well as the other Terminator units. The Chapter tactics encourage opposite styles of play - Blood Angels usually trigger in combat and/or when charging, whereas Dark Angels over time have flipped between two types that suggest their stubbornness - either they're better for morale, or (like at present) they get bonuses for standing still and holding ground.