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Seeing as the 6th edition of Dark Angels came out I thought I would get dakka's opinion as to what is better of the codex's two iconic play-styles. If you like please explain why.

A hybrid. Your teleport homer armed Ravenwing zoom into the enemy's army, and the Deahtwing teleport in. After that, it is just a matter of laughing in the most evil way you can imagine.

 thenoobbomb wrote:
A hybrid. Your teleport homer armed Ravenwing zoom into the enemy's army, and the Deahtwing teleport in. After that, it is just a matter of laughing in the most evil way you can imagine.

What IC?

No good ICs can fit on bikes in a hybrid build unless you're getting Terminator armor, I don't see what would be better than Belial...

Belial costs a mere 190 points, and he carries a teleport homer stock plus his Terminator Squad does not scatter. So you get to totally avoid any possibility of getting alpha striked, then deep strike en masse in a big bad block of Terminators exactly where you want them.

No bikes necessary.

With plasma and melta everywhere, jink, HoW, Scout, Outflank, MSU, fast scoring, rending, missiles, melta bombs, Sammael, more plasma, hit and run, twinlinked, skilled riders, stealth, shrouded, and jet bikes Ravenwing wins.

A hybrid is always gonna win out. Especially with Azrael as the joint leader now

The two synergize really, really well; using one or the other exclusively wastes some pretty useful tricks.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
The two synergize really, really well; using one or the other exclusively wastes some pretty useful tricks.

How so?

Belial has a teleport homer and you get to choose the turn you arrive with Deathwing Assault.

Because his teleport homer only works if he was on the board in the previous turn, and when you use DWA the units included only come on automatically on turn 1 or turn 2, you can't have a DWA split over both.

So, you can either DWA Belial and his unit, then have your other terminator units come on from turn 3 onwards (and you can't guarantee when)

Or you can DWA everyone, but Belial's teleport homer won't work for them, since he wasn't on the board at the start of the turn.

But with Ravenwing, you can DWA Belial and Friends on turn 2, using the bikers with teleport homers to get them on accurately, since the bikers will've been on the board since the start of the turn.

 TheAngrySquig wrote:
A hybrid is always gonna win out. Especially with Azrael as the joint leader now

Yeah, kind of a silly poll. "Which is better?, cool thing A, cool thing B, or them working in tandem?"

I voted RW just because I think it's more fun, but pure utility, two is better than 1. I'd rather have seen no third option.

I chose tandem, but my actually answer is d) all of the above. Deathwing on their own have a lot of unique opportunities, as do Ravenwing working on their own, and when working together they have yet more ways of being awesome. Hell chalk me up for d) all of the above and below where e) is Battle Companies.

The Dark Angels codex is like any other, it is meant to be taken holistically while also having many avenues for fun theme forces. There are a lot of workable force archetypes for us now, I don't think any one is cooler/better than the others (until we have more experience with it, at least).

 TedNugent wrote:

 thenoobbomb wrote:
A hybrid. Your teleport homer armed Ravenwing zoom into the enemy's army, and the Deahtwing teleport in. After that, it is just a matter of laughing in the most evil way you can imagine.

What IC?

No good ICs can fit on bikes in a hybrid build unless you're getting Terminator armor, I don't see what would be better than Belial...

Belial costs a mere 190 points, and he carries a teleport homer stock plus his Terminator Squad does not scatter. So you get to totally avoid any possibility of getting alpha striked, then deep strike en masse in a big bad block of Terminators exactly where you want them.

No bikes necessary.

You can equip your Ravenwing with teleport homers (the normal ones not quite sure, but the Black Knights can).

 TedNugent wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
The two synergize really, really well; using one or the other exclusively wastes some pretty useful tricks.

How so?

Belial has a teleport homer and you get to choose the turn you arrive with Deathwing Assault.

Yes but pure DW are easily out-manoeuvred and swamped with fire/bodies. You also have very few true anti-armour options. Belial has a homer yes, but that means he has to start on the board. If the balance of the rest of your army is starting in reserves for a DWA turn 1 or 2, you rish him getting killed and that means losing your 1 homer so you didnt scatter.

A couple of small units of RW mean you have a few homers to choose from, which can scout and therefore get you closer to the enemy turn 1. They can also roam the battlefield filling gaps and making strikes to help out the DW where they are needed. Plus, some RW Typhoons give you the anti-armour that the DA generally lack.

The best option is definitely DeathRaven.

Hybrid

Most people are going to go with Ravenwing and forget that bikes in combat suck. If they are smart they will keep a 24" gap between them and the enemy and take a banner of devastation and unleash hell, sucks the command squad is 5 guys, but as long as you are moving and near a dark shroud you have a 2+ cover save.

Deathwing are awesome because they are hard to deal with and have a devastating first turn, after that its all walking, split fire makes them really good, but the speed is terrible.

Combined you have devastating fire power, good combat and rapid movement.