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Hi there,

I'm intending to build a Dark Angels army for both tournament and general play.

I've fallen in love with the Horus Heresy miniature which Games Workshop has released so the main base of the army will be composed of those with the exception of the Deathwing.

This is what I have so far.

Battle Demi-Company

Company Master
Artificer Armour
Foe Smiter
Monster Slayer of Caliban
Melta Bombs
The Eye of the Unseen

Tactical Squad
5 Additional Marines
Veteran Sergeant
w/ Melta Bombs
Meltagun
Heavy Bolter

Tactical Squad
5 Additional Marines
Veteran Sergeant
w/ Melta Bombs
Meltagun
Heavy Bolter

Tactical Squad
5 Additional Marines
Veteran Sergeant
w/ Melta Bombs
Meltagun
Heavy Bolter

Assault Squad
Veteran Sergeant
w/ Melta Bombs

Devastator Squad
Veteran Sergeant
w/ Melta Bombs
4 Heavy Bolter

Dreadnought
w/ Multi-melta
1 Additional Dreadnought
w/ Multi-melta

Deathwing Strike Force

Belial

Deathwing Knights
Perfidious Relic of the Unforgiven

Deathwing Knights
Perfidious Relic of the Unforgiven

CC and other advice is much appreciated.

Thank you.

Given that a new edition is out in about a month, it's a bit difficult to give lasting advice, so I'll just pick out a few things in case you end up sticking with this edition:
The FAQ (linky) for the main rulebook restricts Relic upgrades to one-per-model, so you can't stack all three on your Company Master.
Meltaguns do their best work up-close, getting the extra dice for penetration, so foot-slogging them (taking them without transports) is generally inefficient. I'm presuming you're planning on combat-squadding the tacticals? In most scenarios having a transport for a tactical squad is best - it allows them to get into rapid fire / objective range quicker, gives the army an extra (objective secured) unit, and provides a bit of extra protection on the first turn.
Assault squad - do they have jump packs, or are you just taking them as a tax?
Devastators - no extra marines, which means you're losing firepower pretty much as soon as you take casualties. I would deffinitely move some bodies from one of the tactical squads, even if it means not being able to take both a special and a heavy in that tac squad.

 Quanar wrote:
Given that a new edition is out in about a month, it's a bit difficult to give lasting advice, so I'll just pick out a few things in case you end up sticking with this edition:
The FAQ (linky) for the main rulebook restricts Relic upgrades to one-per-model, so you can't stack all three on your Company Master.
Meltaguns do their best work up-close, getting the extra dice for penetration, so foot-slogging them (taking them without transports) is generally inefficient. I'm presuming you're planning on combat-squadding the tacticals? In most scenarios having a transport for a tactical squad is best - it allows them to get into rapid fire / objective range quicker, gives the army an extra (objective secured) unit, and provides a bit of extra protection on the first turn.
Assault squad - do they have jump packs, or are you just taking them as a tax?
Devastators - no extra marines, which means you're losing firepower pretty much as soon as you take casualties. I would deffinitely move some bodies from one of the tactical squads, even if it means not being able to take both a special and a heavy in that tac squad.

I've mounted the two 10 man Tactical Squads in Rhinos however left the 5 man Tactical Squad to footslog or sit on objectives.

The Devastator Squad has also increased in numbers and the weapons have been changed.

Hum... So the Devs are more resilient now, but whilst the HB's could sit back easily enough, Grav cannons are shorter ranged so you're rather needing the targets to be coming to you. That'll work against armies like Khorne Daemonkin and Orks, but against Tau (Riptides / Stormsurges are grav targets there) or other armies you might not always be able to shoot what you want (you'll normally have some target, a 24" range and being very potent creates a big bubble).
The tacs are mobile now, which is good, and the assault squad have jump packs. If you found points to give a jump pack to the company master, he'd be able to tag along with the ASM, otherwise he'll be stuck mostly as an assault deterrent in a tactical squad or dev squad.

You can't take the Redemption Force formation (p141) as shown. It needs two normal Deathwing squads, and can only have a maximum of one unit of Knights - Your first list was correct in using the DW Strike Force (the force organization detachment on p158), which doesn't need normal DW squads, and can have up to 12 units of Knights.

 Quanar wrote:
Hum... So the Devs are more resilient now, but whilst the HB's could sit back easily enough, Grav cannons are shorter ranged so you're rather needing the targets to be coming to you. That'll work against armies like Khorne Daemonkin and Orks, but against Tau (Riptides / Stormsurges are grav targets there) or other armies you might not always be able to shoot what you want (you'll normally have some target, a 24" range and being very potent creates a big bubble).
The tacs are mobile now, which is good, and the assault squad have jump packs. If you found points to give a jump pack to the company master, he'd be able to tag along with the ASM, otherwise he'll be stuck mostly as an assault deterrent in a tactical squad or dev squad.

You can't take the Redemption Force formation (p141) as shown. It needs two normal Deathwing squads, and can only have a maximum of one unit of Knights - Your first list was correct in using the DW Strike Force (the force organization detachment on p158), which doesn't need normal DW squads, and can have up to 12 units of Knights.

I've just spotted that, it should be a strike force.

I was thinking about making the whole army much more mobile by putting them all in Rhinos apart from the assault marines and perhaps dropping the Deathwing completely.