Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Dark Angels (section)

====Auxiliary Choices (1+)====
*'''Ravenwing Attack Squadron:''' 1 Ravenwing Bike squad, or Attack Bike Squad, and 1 Landspeeder Vengeance or lone normal Landspeeder. They all gain ''Scout'' (including the Land Speeder) and if the Land Speeder shoots an enemy and causes a hit, then the Ravenwing Bike/Attack Bike squad gains +1 BS when firing at that target and finally, the whole formation counts as a 12" Teleport Homer for deep striking Deathwing units. Pretty nifty bonuses as it helps Deathwing and the Bikes hit more often. Recommended a heavy bolter or assault cannon to get almost certain hit for that +1 BS. 
**'''Alternate View:''' Attack Bikes with Multi Meltas (1 or 2) and a Double Multi Melta Landspeeder will scare the hell out of anything with an AV. With that Scout move it isn't too hard to get into melta range quick.
*'''Third Take:''' Heavy Bolter Attack Bikers or Grav Bikers with a Typhoon Missile Launcher and Heavy Bolter Landspeeder is a fairly effective way to deal damage from a distance and clear units that have taken cover in ruins and buildings.
*'''Ravenwing Support Squadron:''' 1 Ravenwing Land Speeder Squadron, plus one Darkshroud '''or''' Vengeance. Holy shit... they all get Grim Resolve ''(wait for it...)'', Interceptor and Strafing Run. So they're pretty good at shooting. In addition, they have the Ravenshield rule; whenever a friendly Ravenwing unit [[Awesome|within 24"]] is charged, the Support squadron may fire Overwatch ''(at BS2 because of Grim Resolve)'' at the offending assaulter, or [[Rape|FULL ballistic skill]] if taken as part of a Lion's Blade detachment. Granted it only protects your Ravenwing units, who themselves will mostly have twin-linked and/or improved BS overwatch, so any opponent would be stupid to charge you with this around. Tau players may now retrieve their jaws from the floor.
**Wait! There's more: If you take a Darkshroud, normal Land Speeders gain Shrouded from it because they all form a single vehicle squadron; so the unit would have Stealth ''and'' Shrouded for a 4+ cover save in the open, 2+ in cover and rerollable if jinking. Awesome resistance in a unit that also have Deep Strike and Scout (also from the Darkshroud) for silencing ignore cover weapons before they can fire. Forget the bikes, take as many of these formations as you can. You only have to think which weapons your speeders will have. 
*'''Ravenwing Silence Squadron:''' 1 Dark Talon and 2 Nephilim Jetfighters. The Stasis bomb of the Dark Talon always hits on-target (forcing a target hit bythem to test Initiative on 2d6, picking the highest), and Slay the Warlord is worth D3 VP when using this formation to aid in eliminating the enemy's Warlord.
*'''10th Company Support:''' 1-5 Units of Scout Squads. They get Supreme Fire Discipline and... nothing else. In other words, this is just a cheap way to upgrade a Demi Company to a full Lion's Blade Force. 
**If you really want to take Scouts and a Lion's Blade force, consider taking a secondary CAD as well, since Scouts don't get any additional rules beyond ''Supreme Fire Discipline'' when taken here, but Scouts are one of those units you'd prefer didn't get charged anyway. You can have them with ObSec instead, plus free slots for those units that you can't really squeeze into the Lion's Blade in the first place ''(like Black Knights, spare flyers, tanks or FW units)''
*'''The Hammer of Caliban:''' One Landraider (Your choice of regular, Crusader or Redeemer), a Techmarine which must start inside said Land Raider, and a full squadron of three Predators, Vindicators, or Whirlwinds. The entire Formation gains Monster Hunter and Tank Hunter, the Techmarine grants the Land Raider BS 5 while inside the Land Raider (due to the **Hammer of Heretics** bonus), but the wonkiest part is the rule **Might of the Lion:** Basically, the Land Raider and the other vehicle squadron must form a super-squadron. However, the bonuses for doing so are questionable at best, if not outright pointless: The Whirlwinds gain little from Tank Hunters, while being able to Shred anyway at full Squadron size, the Predators already get Tank Hunter and Monster Hunter when fully Squadroned, but the most hilarious is the Vindicator/Land Raider team-up; RAW, [[Fail|Linebreaker Bombardment prevents the Land Raider from firing.]] Needless to say, the only theoretical use for such a formation would be if you have a weird sense of humor and like the idea of using throwaway tanks to allocate hits to prevent the Land Raider from being killed off, find a safe way to immobilize and detach the entire squadron, or have some other extreme whacky usage for this mess. Or you could spend the points on Grav Ravenwing and Black Knights.
*'''Deathwing Redemption Force:''' Led by Belial, or a Termie Interrogator Chaplain/Company Master/Librarian, 2-5 Deathwing Terminator Squads, and an option for DW Command Squads, Deathwing Knights, and Venerable Dreadnoughts. They get Preferred Enemy (CSM) and also gain ''Take the fight to the Enemy'', which should seem familiar if you play Grey Knights (it's basically Battle Focus on the turn they arrive from Deep Strike), as well as choosing in advance which turn they arrive on. Furthermore, the First Draft FAQ says that they can either be placed in Reserve ''or'' Deep Strike Reserve. This change is to allow Terminators to hide in Land Raiders kept in Reserve.
**Now there are a couple of comparisons to make with the Deathwing '''Strike''' Force FOC that you get access to, despite having the same initial prerequisites, especially since the DSF simply allows you to decide whether they pass/fail reserve rolls on a squad by squad basis, as well as being more customisable so you can squeeze in more Knights or Dreadnought rather than more regular squads. However the DSF will '''NOT''' be part of your larger Lion Strike Force formation and will therefore not get the ''Supreme Fire Discipline'' rule, nor do they get Preferred Enemy. So choose carefully.

Now, as awesome as Supreme Fire Discipline is, Lion's Blade does have limitations you need to consider. First off, there's absolutely zero way to take Black Knights, be it the regular flavor or the Ravenwing Command kind. Second, your options for tanks are very very restrained. You want a Predator? All you have to do is buy an entire Land Raider and Techmarine, plus two more Preds, and park the fucking Raider four inches away at all times. If you actually wanted 5 twin-linked Lascannons, this is great, but otherwise you have a vehicle squadron of things that were never meant to be squadded together. Similarly, if you want ANY Termies at all, you must take a bare minimum of 495 points. Want Deathwing Knights? 730 points up front. Another one is to use that awesome overwatch you shouldn't take any weapons with a blast type since you can't overwatch with blast weapons. While not a huge downsides it is something to consider. 
*Against Khorne Daemonkin and other assault armies, Lion's Blade is awesome. But if your opponent is going shooty too then stick to your CAD, since it'll let you customize WAY better.  
*'''Alternate Opinion:''' The thing is with this bonus overwatch it can be used as a powerful psychological tool. No one would want to charge your dug in stubborn marines unless they don't want to get shot to shit and taken out. Using terrain is a major factor in this as if they lack some type of assault grenades they'll have to attack at I1 AND get shot at BS3-4. Lions Blade overwatch needs some clever thought to be truly used to full potential.
*'''Alternative Alternate Opinion:''' The psychological problem with the Lion's Blade is that as soon as someone sees Dark Angels they auto-assume BS4 Overwatch, so they stay away and won't come near you for you to benefit from your special rules much. Of course some armies can't afford '''NOT''' to get into combat with you ''(Tyranids, Daemons etc)'' other more balanced armies might prefer to deny your plasma/grav overwatch and keep you at arms length.
*'''Another Alternate Opinion:''' When taken in the Lion's Blade Strike Force, Dark Angels are actually one of the most flexible close combat armies in the game, with '''COMPLETE''' control over which units fight the Assault phase. Even Terminators will think twice before facing your overwatch, especially if it's augmented by some plasma and/or grav. This means that your shooty units won't be tied in combat, where they can't do shit, and your assault units will have much greater freedom of picking the enemy units they actually want to fight. The only two armies that are completely exempt from this are Tau and Eldar, because [[Games Workshop|GW]]. Also, when playing against Genestealer Cults, you will '''NEVER''' lose. Seriously, this is probably the only army that makes GSC shit themselves with fear.