Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Dark Angels (section)

==Armoury of The Lion==
Let's face it, the heretics have a nice layout on their tactica; no reason we can't use it and say they got it from us. Other than the fact that [[Fallen Angels|they don't exist]]. So we came up with this layout. With no inspiration from anywhere else.

===Ranged Weapons===
Actually a valid choice. Your characters do not want to be in close combat, as most duelist HQ's in the game would kill them in challenges, so let's buy some moar dakka. Keep in mind that while your champions aren't going to down other HQs in melee they're easily good enough to bully regular troops that underestimate them... for which you don't really need dedicated melee weapons. Due to weird wording you can take two ranged weapons if you want, which you really shouldn't, unless it's two combi-weapons for a non-veteran dakkasarge.
*'''Bolter''' - Wait, do not skip! This is a good and solid choice if you do plan to abuse Standard of Devastation.

*'''Stormbolter''' - It's only 5-pts, so why not?

*'''Combi-weapon''' - Tried and true. One-shot melta, plasma or flamer is always handy, if you use them wisely.

*'''Plasma pistol''' - The most expensive and the least popular choice. The main reason why is pistol range, which make it useful only to lay some dakka before charge - and on terminator-armoured model Combi-plasma do this job better for less points.

===Melee Weapons===
Unlike [[Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Chaos Space Marines‎|some people who obviously do not exist]], your guys can get only one special melee weapon, so no claw/fist combo for you. Also note the lack of Storm Shield - this is why expensive and goofy Displacer Fields are your special wargear. Remember that your named HQs can't take these, and usually have some sort of special melee weapon anyway.
*'''Power Weapon''' - Unlike other armies, a power weapon is actually a valid choice - not because its better, but because Dark Angels themselves are worse in assault. With fewer base attacks, the extra swing from a pistol/power sword often overcomes the other options in this category (would you rather have one AP3/shred attack, or two power sword swings?).

*'''Lightning Claws''' - Not so useful on sergeants due to only one attack base, and not useful on HQ units, because they need something to pierce through 2+ armour to have a chance of winning in challenge.  Carefully consider power swords instead, or an axe if you're expecting Terminator Equivalents.

*'''Power Fist''' - Not as much of a must have as they were in 5th ed, and not recommended on non-veteran sergeants. Otherwise either this or power axe are obligatory choices for your warlord, as long as you face marines or orks. They continue to make great surprises for overconfident vehicle commanders...

*'''Thunder Hammer''' - You're paying extra 5 points for a stylish power fist. Yes, it has concussive, but with an almighty S8 AP2 hit few things can survive to suffer from concussion. May be good against monstrous creatures, though, but again concussion only starts to kick after the first blow exchange. Most of the time, you'll see these on the special units that have something else going for them (like terminators with storm shields) or not at all.

===Special Rules===

*'''Deathwing Assault''' - Any squads with this rule, deep strike on either turn one or turn two. You decide. There are two details people often miss about these bone-white marauders. Firstly, you '''CAN''' split units up. Not all Deathwing have to attempt a Deathwing Assault, you just have to notify your opponent which ones. This allows you to drop Belial and his homies (and homing beacon) turn one, then roll as normal to bring on your cyclone-missile terminators in turn two for a scatter-free strike. However you MUST write down the arrival turn somewhere before the game begins. Sounds like minutia, but it works in your favor as you don't need to tell the opponent which turn it is. Heavy-weapon armies will likely have to spend the first turn sticking close to their guns instead of pulling into better positions for fear of a terminator assault.

*'''Fortress of Shields''' - Page 45 of ''Codex: Dark Angels'' (2014 GW) states: "Any model with the 'Inner Circle' special rule that is in base contact with two or more models with this special rule has +1 Toughness". So the Deathwing Knights who 'have' this rule - can effect adjacent (Independent) characters who join the unit who happen to have the 'Inner Circle' special rule. That includes ALL Masters, Librarians, Chaplains - and ALL HQ/s from Azrael to Sammael. So, once you get say…'two' Deathwing Knights 'touching' any 'two' inner circle - the 'two' inner circles have toughness '5'; thus, the WHOLE group has Majority Toughness 5. Since Sammael is 'Inner Circle' as well, even on his jet bike ''Corvex'', '''he''' gets TOUGHNESS 6 when touching 'two' 'Fortress of Shields' models! As would any other Bike-riding Inner Circle model. Might be able to get a smart, right squad UP to Toughness 6 that way. Which is handy when opponents try to hit you with attacks like Smite from Biomancy - a Strength 4 AP2 shooting attack!? Instead of getting a Wound '50%-of-the-time', that can now only wound Toughness 6 on a 6-roll - or 16.67%-of-the-time! AND: it does NOT require that the 'Inner Circle' model being 'touched' even be 'in' or joined to the Unit. 'Friendly' characters (even in different units) CAN be placed as 'close' as they like.

*'''You Cannot Hide''' - Can deal Precision Strikes, just like characters. Given to Deafwing Knights. Perfect for removing that one jerk with a power fist or for heaping pain on an independent character.

*'''Grim Resolve''' - Dark Angels' Chapter Tactics part 1. Grants Stubborn, but the unit loses the ability to choose to auto-fail a morale check.

*'''Inner Circle''' - Dark Angels' Chapter Tactics part 2. Grants Fearless and Preferred Enemy (Chaos Space Marines).

*'''Vengeful Strike''' - All ranged weapons are twin-linked on the same turn as the deep strike. This special rule is absolutely dazzling, for a shooting based army, it allows you to get into a good position and unleash some nasty dakka into a deadly close combat unit. Or it can help you gun down a dangerous looking tank in the rear armour. Coupled with. Belial you can get your now twin-linked assault cannon or cyclone missile launcher, with a horde of bolter shots, into someone's squishy armour 10 rear passage. It is also useful to ensure that you remove that one big threat with a shooty DW Assault.

*'''Deathwing Vehicle:''' A Deathwing Vehicle gets Preferred Enemy (Chaos Space Marines) and can force a re-roll on the damage table for penetrating hits. It brings in everything other peoples' 'Venerable dreadnoughts' get, but you can put this on land raiders too.

===Warlord Traits===
1.'''Rapid Manoeuvre''': Rolls two dice for Run moves taking the highest, or add D6 to their Turbo-boosts(or flat-out for Sammael on his Land Speeder). Sammael has this by default. 

2.'''The Hunt''': Extra VP for killing the enemy warlord in assault with your Warlord or his unit. Belial, Ezekial, and Asmodai have this by default. 

3.'''Courage of the Lion''': Warlord and all friendly units within 12' roll an extra die for leadership check(excluding psykic tests) discarding the highest. One of the best traits.

4.'''For the Lion!''': Warlord and his unit have Furious Charge.

5.'''Brilliant Planning''':You can add +1 or -1 to your reserve rolls. Very useful for bringing in your Outflanking Ravenwing bikes.

6.'''Hold at all costs''':The warlord and his unit gain Feel No Pain when within 3' of an objective. Note that this can be ANY unit he joins, even ones that cant score.

===Chapter Relics===
*'''Foe-smiter''' - S4 AP4 Assault 3 Master-crafted stormbolter. Basically, [[Blood Ravens|stolen]] [[Crimson Fists|Dorn's Arrow]]
 
*'''Lion's Roar''' - Master-crafted Combi-bolter with combi-part being assault plasma '''cannon'''. Yeah that's right,a mother-fucking mastercrafted assault 1 plasma cannon of doom.

*'''Mace of Redemption''' - One of the greatest weapons forged by the dark angels to hunt the <s>Fallen Angels.</s> EMPEROR'S ENEMIES WHO ARE CERTAINLY NOT FROM THIS CHAPTER. +3 STR and AP3 (AP2 against the unholy forces of chaos). It also inflicts blind and concussion. Your defense against <s>Fallen</s> TRAITORS THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DARK ANGELS and other power-armoured things

*'''Monster Slayer of Caliban''' - A power sword that grows stronger in the hands of a pure-hearted wielder, or randomly in game terms. Each fight sub-phase you roll a D6. On a 1 it's still just a power sword. On a 2-4 it adds 1 to the wielder's strength. On a 5-6 it adds 2 to the wielder's strength and causes instant death. Good for making Tyranid players cry.(aka overpriced garbage) The weapon's biggest weakness is that none of its random rolls will let it overcome anything it couldn't already deal with (like terminator armour). The extra point or two of strength simply isn't good enough most of the time, especially in an army whose commanders tend to abhor melee.

*'''Shroud of Heroes''' - Gives the wearer FnP and, if they're not in a squad, Shrouded... Yes, you read that right. 50 points for FnP on one guy. [[Pyrovore|What the fuck]]. It's not even very helpful until you pull into a challenge, which you don't want to do.
**That Shrouded bonus might be good if you have, say, a biker Librarian/Chaplain not attached to a squad for some ungodly/unlucky reason. Still, way too overpriced for something that actively discourages helping your squad.

*'''Perfidious Relic of the Unforgiven''' - Only Company Masters & Deathwing Knights can take this, but it's a pretty cheap upgrade that gives you Fear (which isn't that great, really) AND Adamantium Will. If you play people who go psyker-heavy *cough Thousand Sons cough* you get an extra +1 to your deny the witch rolls. It's a bit case-by-case though.

===Banners and Standards===
*'''Company Standard''' - Friendly Dark Angels within 12" of the bearer can re-roll failed morale checks and pinning tests '''AND''' all Dark Angels in close combat with a friendly banner get +1 to combat resolution. ''(Important to note since Codex Space Marines don't get this with theirs)''
 
*'''Dark Angels Chapter Banner''' - As Company Standard, but also grants +1A to bearer's unit.

*'''Revered Standard''' - As Company Standard, but also gives friendly Dark Angels within 6" the Crusader special rule.

*'''Ravenwing Company Banner''' - Friendly Ravenwing within 12" of this banner automatically pass their Hit & Run checks and can move an extra D6 with Hit & Run. 

*'''Deathwing Company Banner''' - Friendly models with the Inner Circle special rule within 6" gain +1A

*'''Sacred Standard of Retribution''' - As Company Standard, but also gives these units Counter-attack. Not really worth it, Space Wolves do it better.

*'''Sacred Standard of Fortitude''' - As Company Standard, but also gives these units Feel No Pain. Great for boosting your gunline survivability.

*'''Sacred Standard of Devastation''' - Generally known as the 'Dakka Banner','Dakka Pole' or the 'Bolter Banner'. It's treated as Company Standard, but also allows friendly Dark Angels within 6" to treat their boltguns (this includes hurricane bolters, and twin linked boltguns on bikes BIKES! ) as salvo 2/4 instead of rapid fire. Some people consider it broken, you have been warned. One of the two reasons why DA doesn't have sternguards (the other being 'cause the Deathwing is 100% termies).

===Special Issue Wargear===
*'''Auspex:''' It's a scanner array thing that allows the user to lower one enemy unit's cover save by one (also, it can be a different enemy unit than that rest of the unit shoots at). For 5 points, this sounds nice, but there's a couple problems. First off, it doesn't stack, so it's usually not a huge benefit. Secondly, it only has a 12" range. Finally (and most problematically), it's largely only available to HQ units, which usually have better things to be doing. If it could be taken by Sergeants, it would be amazing; as it is, it's only useful if you ''need'' to take something out and you're willing to devote large amounts of firepower to do it, to make the most of the cover save reduction.

*'''Combat Shield''' - As of this edition and last, 6+ invuln.

*'''Infravisor:''' Five points for Night Vision on the equipped model. Problem is, the ''whole'' unit counts as Initiative 1 for the purposes of Blind tests. It's only really useful when you ''know'' you'll have Night Fighting, but not incredibly useful otherwise. Don't combine with the Conversion Field. 

*'''Meltabombs:''' They're meltabombs. You know them, you love them. Dark Angels don't have many dedicated assault units that would benefit from taking them, so only take them if you have points to spare and think you might get close enough to an enemy vehicle.

*'''Digital Weapons:''' - As before.

*'''Porta-rack:''' Huh, thought I was playing Dark ''Angels,'' not Dark ''Eldar.'' In any case, this is (fluffwise) a portable torture kit that lets you torture tactical information out of an enemy sergeant on the spot (which is rather unnerving to watch). Upon killing a character in CC, the user gains Preferred Enemy and Fear. You also [[Just as planned|gain access to all the opponent's teleport homers and locator beacons]]. It's probably not that good. Killing a character is easy (what with challenges and sergeants counting as characters), but Fear is "meh" as it only consistently works with a few armies, and though Preferred Enemy is nice, your character won't exactly be slaughtering any easier, but it does confer onto any unit he joins. Also, using enemy teleport homers isn't that useful because a.) most armies don't have them and b.) by the time the Porta-rack actually activates, most of your Deep Striking units have already arrived. Still, it's only 10 points, so if you have a few extra points, it's decent, but far from a must-take.

*'''Conversion Field:''' A neat little piece of gear that gives a 4++ invulnerable save... for 15 points. Yep, the Chaos Marines should be slavering in envy. In addition to that awesomeness, whenever the bearer passes an Invulnerable save, all units within D6" (friend or foe) basically get Blind (and friendly units can reroll the Initiative test for it). This won't activate all that often (you have Power or Terminator Armour, after all), but when it will, it's a bit of a crapshoot whether you'll take the brunt or your opponent. Still, even if you get messed up... it's a 15 point 4++ Invulnerable save!

*'''Jump pack''' - As before.

*'''Space Marine Bike:''' It's a bike. It comes with a twin-linked bolter (with Relentless), an extra point of Toughness, Hit & Run, and Hammer of Wrath. Note that Company Masters can't take one, but Techmarines can. Use it to hang out with Ravenwing Command Squads or Black Knights.

*'''Displacer field''' - 3+ invuln. At the end of the phase that saves of this type were taken, the user is teleported D6", scattered.

*'''Power field generator''' - 4+ invuln. for everyone (friend or foe) within 3" of the bearer, which offers protection from good AP weaponry (like [[Heldrake]]s) which would otherwise erase your squads. A perfect reason to take more techmarines. Inside a transport it only affects the units embarked on that transport, making it essentially useless in that situation unless you crash a Storm Eagle, or a drop pod.

*** That is no longer True as of the new Errata, you can now pretty much put your tech marine back into the landraider and it gets a 4++ with max servitors that repair it every turn if you choose so.....and or  take imperial guard allies and add three tech priests to that squad and you will have a land raider that will never die.