Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So i am still new to 40k in the sense that i havent played a game yet, but i have been around it and painting my models for quite a bit. I started my collection with the Dark Vengeance starter pack, i main the Dark Angels and i have since then been collecting more things for my army, and was wondering if i could get feedback or advice on how ive so far equipped it so that im not rushing into battle with "bad" equipment choice. Thanks for any sort of feedback i will list my army below

One Tactical marine squad, seven bolters one plasma cannon one plasma rifle and one chainsword and bolt pistol
One ravenwing bike squad, one bolt pistol one chainsword and one plasma rifle
One Deathwing Terminator squad armed with four Storm bolters three power fists one assault cannon and one power sword
One Librarian with Power sword and one HQ with Power sword
Two Dreadnoughts One Venerable with twin linked lascannon and power fist with heavy flamer under the arm with optional power claw, plasma cannon and assault cannon the other dreadnought has melta gun with power claw and heavy bolter under the arm.
One stormtalon gunship with air to ground anti vehicle missiles and twin linked assault cannon with optional sky fire missiles and lascannons.
One Predator with Twin linked lascannon and heavy bolter sponsons, with optional autocannon main gun with lascannon sponsons
Two Razorbacks both with Twinlinked heavy bolters
One Rhino

Again any and all feedback is appreciated

First, Welcome to Dakka and 40k.

Do you have your codex? It might help with a few things. Full disclosure: I’m an Ultramarine player, so there are some subtle differences between our codexes. I’ll try to keep things general though.

IIRC the DV sarge has a plasma pistol. If you swapped it for a bolt pistol, good job! Plasma pistols are generally overpriced and should be avoided.
Bikes squads normally want two matching special weapons.
Terminators are fine for what they are. Be careful with them, they are not as tough as the fluff would have you believe.
HQs should do OK for moderate games. Captain generally need to be geared up with more then just a sword to play in the big leagues, but a basics librarian will serve you well at most every point level.
The first dread is a bit conflicted. The TLLC wants to sit back, the fist/flamer wants to mix it up. I think the MM or assault cannon would serve better here then the lascannon. But it should still work well as a jack-of-all-trades troubleshooter. Do you mean stormbolter, rather then heavy bolter? If so, that’s your basic, no upgrades, dread. He would really like a drop pod to get into melta range quickly. And the HF would work well on him, rather then the bolter, as he’s going to rush the enemy anyway.
Stromtalons are restricted to vanilla marines, and can’t be fielded by Dark Angels without using the ally rules. They are great little birds And I enjoy flying mine.
Preds are decent tanks. One thing to keep in mind is you want all the guns to shoot at the same kind of target. Mixing things like lascannons (anti-vehicle) with heavy bolters (anti-infanrty) is generally a bad idea. I think the auto/las or full las preds are the way to go.
Rhinos and razors are a staple of mechanized lists. Might be nice to see some of the upgrade guns on the razors. Don’t forget that a razor kit can be a rhino just by not glueing the top hatch on. Sometimes you want the guns, other times the cargo.

When equipping an army you need to cover a lot of different bases
Killing heavy armor
Light armor and transports
Hordes
Marine equivalents
Monstrous creatures
Flyers
And lastly getting your scoring units onto objectives to score.

You are actually looking pretty good. You do only have one troop pick though. With formations and special detatchments there are ways to build lists without tactical squads, but the basic combined arms detachment needs a HQ and two troop picks.

Welcome to Dakka! I hesitate to help anyone who attends the Rock, since they're generaly regarded as filthy, deviant scum (I attended IUP), but I'll make an exception for a fellow Son of the Lion

It's best to find which part of the Dark Angels fluff that interests you, and go from there. Ravenwing is our strongest competitive build. A Deathwing army looks awesome, but you will be hamstrung by having only a few slow elite units. The Lion's Blade formation is a great all-arounder, and allows you to use pretty much everything in your collection in one form or another.

So, pick a theme: bikes, termies, or a mix of everything. Put a list together and post it in the Army Lists forum. If you've done a really bad job at list construction, you're almost guaranteed to get feedback!

I do have my Codex, but as for the Stormtalon and the allied forces rules, i understand that it may be different in the Ultramarines codex but what are your particular rules for allied forces for Ultramarines? And as for the first Ven. Dreadnought it is possible of course for kit changes as i didnt glue the arms, however to clarify, the other dreadnought i bought from my friend who got it from the Assault on Black Reach kit, so im assuming its Ultramarines but didnt have any specific chapter markings, so this dreadnought is standardly armed with the MM and powerclaw storm bolter combo, Will i have to include this dreadnought in the allied forces rules? Thanks again for the reply!

TheLionDA wrote:
I do have my Codex, but as for the Stormtalon and the allied forces rules, i understand that it may be different in the Ultramarines codex but what are your particular rules for allied forces for Ultramarines? And as for the first Ven. Dreadnought it is possible of course for kit changes as i didnt glue the arms, however to clarify, the other dreadnought i bought from my friend who got it from the Assault on Black Reach kit, so im assuming its Ultramarines but didnt have any specific chapter markings, so this dreadnought is standardly armed with the MM and powerclaw storm bolter combo, Will i have to include this dreadnought in the allied forces rules? Thanks again for the reply!

I think Dark Angels can use the MM dread no problem. For about 80% of the units, the difference between Dark Angels and Ultramarine models is just the paintjob. There are some options that you have that I don’t. Some specialized speeders, PCs on terminators, Specific raven/deathwing units, etc. In return there are a few things in the vanilla codex that you don’t have. Stormtalons being one.

You can have multiple factions in your army, you just need to be sure everyone is part of a detachment/formation (or just play unbound) There is a specific allied detachment in the main rules, but you could use a full combined arms detachment or a faction specific one. It really depends on what you want to include.

For example, the allied detachment requires you to take one HQ and one Troop, and allows up to one more troop, elite, FA, and/or HS pick. So you could take a low point HQ and troop pick, then the talon. Something like Sgt. Talion and a sniper scout squad would be a low cost “tax” to get the flyer on the board.

Alternatively, there is the Stormwing formation, which consists of 2 stormtalons and one stormraven. It doesn’t allow any options (formations are not big on choice, you normally just get to take what they tell you). It’s a higher buy in, but gets you some extra bonuses.

There are a number of finicky bits I’m glossing over. I’d recommend reading the section on choosing your army, staring on page 116 of the rulebook.

Alright, ill be sure to check that out at some point! Thanks again!