Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Dark Angels (section)

===Troops===
*'''[[Tactical Squad]]:''' The same jack-of-all-trades as always. The changes to core rules allow them to charge after firing, although with only one attack each and no close combat weapons on anyone other than the sergeant this should only be used to tie up a unit that might hit you back hard if you can't kill it. Other changes allow you to fire your heavy/special weapon at a different target from anyone else, turning them into a genuine "tactical" unit that can deal with multiple threats at once. This also means there is less need to combat squad since taking the heavy weapon doesn't force his companions to waste their fire on things they can't hurt. They now benefit from cover, upping their save to a strong 2+. While they are not particularly great at any one role, they can fill in any gaps in your army that might need to be addressed and while some FOCs don't require troops slots anymore, some of the larger ones still do, so these guys are solid choices, particularly when accompanied by characters granting various retools.
**Similar to how Blood Angels can have three flamers, in a 10 man squad you can have three plasma weapons. A Combi-Plasma on the sergeant, a plasma gun, and a plasma cannon. 

*'''[[Scout Squad]]:''' The Scout special rule Concealed Deployment may be the best troop rule space marines have. Since they deploy during the deployment phase, you can cut off huge swaths of the board from enemy deep strikes early in the game. They have both a shooty build and a close combat build, and offensive wise are just as good as Tactical Marines at shooting and Assault Marines at assaulting. They can create early pre-screens so horde armies can't get a full move right off the bat. Worried about a Tyranid army getting a 30" move on turn one? Scouts make a fine speed bump. Camo Cloaks actually make Scouts cost more than Tactical Marines on a model by model basis.  
**With the new codex. Your Dark Angel Scouts now have the option of taking a Land Speeder Storm. Opening up some new strategies. Such as taking two Land Speeder Storms and a full squad. Rather you could also Combat Squad them, have half the squad leg it to the nearest objective while the other half goes for the next one. The Heavy Bolter also offers synergy with your other heavy weapons. Allowing dirty tactics such as arming eight with sniper rifles. Give half Camo Cloaks and Sniper Rifles.  Load the other half with a heavy weapon. Give the Sergent two Plasma Pistols and three others with either Shotguns, Boltguns or SRs. Split them up with Combat Squad for long range campers and use the other as a mobile attack squad. The latter with three heavy weapons (including the Storm's own Heavy Bolter and Cerberus Launcher) and two Plasma shots.

*'''[[Intercessor]] Squad:''' The Primaris counterpart to the Tactical Marine with an extra attack and wound per model and packs some variant on a Bolt Rifle with longer range and better AP than the standard Bolter. At first glance this makes them look like a flat upgrade over the basic Tacticals, but if you look closely you start to see a few problems. First, a minimum sized Intercessor squad costs 25 points over a minimum-sized Tactical Squad for the same number of S4 bolt shots ''(with the range and AP boost mentioned earlier)'' but least the Tacticals get to bring along a heavy or special weapon at that size and Tactical squads can be put in a cheap Rhino/Razorback for objective grabbing, while Intercessors would have to fork out for a floating Land Raider to do the same job. While Intercessors are capable of securing objectives, they simply aren't as efficient as aggressive objective grabbers because they have no inherent rules advantage for moving forward and no significant heavy/special weapons to deal with unexpected vehicles or really tough models. What Intercessors do really well in Dark Angels lists is form gun lines using their increased range to let other squads advance up the table, pretty much everything the updated Codex Astartes suggests they are for. With longer range and more wounds than a tactical squad, they can easily be set up on objectives in their own deployment zone, taking advantage of ''Grim Resolve'' to just stand and shoot while Ravenwing or Deathwing do the heavy lifting. If you're looking purely for bolter shots then compared to Tactical Marines the Intercessors seem better on paper. And the Sergent can get additional power sword, power fist or chainsword. Remember to take the Chainsword, it free. So your sergeant can have 4 attacks.
**Deciding whether to use the regular bolt rifle, or the auto-bolt or stalker variants really depends on the size of the table and how far back you intend to keep them. 
**The Regular Bolt Rifle is probably the best bet. For a basic Troops choice armament it has increased range compared to the "standard" 24" boltgun or lasgun that most other armies make do with so you can start firing ''(and rapid firing)'' from earlier in the game with greater effectiveness than most opponents thanks to -1 AP. When things get closer you can then rely on the enhanced durability of Primaris to keep them standing. With the introduction of Bolter Discipline, there's now even less reason to use the other options for Intercessors as you can now rapid fire ''and'' reroll 1's by standing still. If you aren't sure what to do with Intercessors, then the basic load-out works just fine.
** Auto-Bolt Rifles offer a mobility upgrade for 1 point per model and the loss of AP. For six points more than a regular Tactical marine you fire double the number of shots at 12"-24" though those advantages diminish up the closer the Auto-Rifles get to their opponent, since they fire the same number of shots as a regular boltgun at ranges of less than 12" and are worse at shooting at ranges of less than 15" compared to a Primaris bolt rifle. This means your min-sized 90 point Auto-Bolt squad falls between 85 points regular Intercessor squad and a 65 point Tactical Squad in terms of shooting effectiveness depending on range. The trick to Auto-Bolt rifles is to go cheap with them and take advantage of the ability to advance and still shoot to maintain that sweet spot of 12"-24", or play mop up to other units by dashing into mutual weapons range and taking out the few remaining stragglers. Though by doing this you are losing the benefit of ''Grim Resolve'' and are mostly playing with a vanilla squad.
** Stalker Bolt Rifles offer some long range armour penetrating shots at the cost of 0 points per model. This makes them great for sitting back and camping an objective while forcing wounds on high armor units with its -2 AP. Greatly benefits from ''Grim Resolve'' increasing accuracy by 11% of the unit. Even so, its output lacks much to be desired however with just 5 shots for 85 points when the other basic weapons can force double the number of saves at shorter ranges. Take Stalkers if you absolutely need the additional range or you are certain they will be shooting high-value targets, anything else is generally a poor expenditure of points.
** Auxiliary Grenade Launchers are the Intercessors "special weapons" in that one in five models may take one for free. They extend the grenade range to 30 inches. This means that you have the choice between one S6 AP-1 D1d3 damage or d6 S3 AP0 D1 shots. For 0 point it's hardly a bad deal and can add some capability to your squad with the Krak grenade being usually better unless you're shooting at low toughness/low save units. Just let the Sarge take it anyways since it free!
*** Current rules have altered the above in several ways.  To keep the other bolt weapons competitive now Bolter Discipline is a thing auto bolt rifles are now assault 3 and stalkers now do two damage.  Also, the aux grenade launcher now costs one point.

*'''[[Infiltrator]] Squad:''' Same statline as Intercessors, but with +1Ld. A standard unit of one Sergeant and four Bodies, but unique in that it can take an additional four bodies and one Apothecary-Cadet that can only heal a model from this unit, or revive one on a <b>5+</b>. Marksman bolt carbines are exactly the same as <b>boltguns</b>, but unmodified hit rolls of 6 automatically hit and wound, but your opponent still gets a save. They are subject to Bolter Discipline, so double tap out to 24" when stationary. Their smoke grenades work exactly as vehicle smoke launchers; sacrifice a round of shooting for a -1 hit modifier against opponents shooting attacks. They can deploy when setting up anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" from an enemy unit or your opponent’s own deployment zone: this is during set-up only, not during any of your other turns. Finally, enemy units cannot arrive as reinforcements within 12" of this unit, making them excellent at area denial. 
**Sadly, at 22 points a model (and 32 points for the Helix Adept), much of this needs to be judged against the flexibility of the Tactical Squad, the solidity of firepower from an Intercessor squad, and the cheapness of the Scout Squad. Bad? Maybe not. Overcosted? The jury is still out...but the verdict is likely yes.
**While they do cost as much as Reivers with grapple guns and grav shutes, they do deny deep strikes within 12" of them meaning the majority of rapid-fire weapons can't arrive within RF range, and more importantly enemy units ''' can't charge you out of deepstrike''' (crippling to armies and players that rely on it and makes their ability much more valuable against Orks, 1K Sons & GSC.) spread them about to maximize that bubble and watch them draw fire from your opponent (assuming their army relies on this tactic) possibly saving other key units. So weigh this against their staggering cost (230 for 9 plus a Hellix Adept) for a troops choice.

*'''[[Incursor]] Squad:''' Cheaper infiltrators that trade their auto-wounding on 6 rifles for ignores cover. Also trade their fancy electronic warfare kit for sensors that can ignore hit penalties, and carry knives to get an extra hit on 6s. They can set a single haywire mine per game and... that's about it. They lose the ability to take a Helix Adept or comm array, which I guess makes them the jocks to the Infiltrators nerds, complete with explosive football to toss. With concealed positions and the mine, these guys function as a your front line brawlers along with veteran intercessors. Scouts/Infiltrator/dakka intercessors kick back and shoot people, tacticals are your middle of the road specialist weapon troopers.
**What these guys do excel at is board control - they are a mere +2ppm compared to Intercessors, yet have Concealed Positions and can thereby flood the midfield (and its objectives) before the game even starts. Smoke grenades + cover makes them hard to shift without heavier firepower, the optional mine and above-average CC are additional deterrents.