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

====Forge World====
*'''[[Storm Eagle]] Gunship (Forge World):'''  It's a transport gunship armed with a Vengeance Launcher amongst other wing and nose mounted weaponry. The Vengeance Launcher this edition is practically a Heavy Bolter that fires 2D6 shots and is the only thing you cannot change about the weapon loadout. The nose can have either a twin heavy bolter, twin multi-melta or a Typhoon Missile Launcher, allowing you to customise for ground clearance, vehicle hunting or a combination of both. While the wings are armed with with either Hellstrike Launchers or Twin Lascannons. The whole thing has a transport capacity of 20 so is one of the only transports that can carry a full Deathwing Squad, so makes for a great alternative to teleporting to battle since you can get right in the enemy's face before disembarking. The Eagle also has the Power from the Machine Spirit rule, so does not suffer penalties to hit when moving, great considering all the heavy weapons it is packing.
**Unlike the previous edition the Vengeance Launcher can now target other aircraft though with S5 it might not cause a whole bunch of wounds, either way considering it's other armaments, the Storm Eagle makes for a pretty good interceptor once it has delivered it's transport payload.
**Hellstrike Missiles in the wings might be worth keeping this edition. They used to be limited-use Ordnance which meant they hindered all of your other shooting, but now they are unlimited weapons that sit between Lascannons and Krak missiles in effectiveness: they have a longer range of 72" so can reach further over the table and they also do fixed 3 points of damage which means you can more comfortably rely on them, rather than risking the higher strength Lascannon fluffing a critical shot and doing 1-2 damage. 
**The ROC pattern has the Minotaurs key word, so isn't for us. It can't transport our men anyway.

*'''[[Fire Raptor]] Gunship (Forge World):'''  A flyer that pointedly puts out '''more''' than double what the Nephilim is capable of. For starters, the Twin Avenger Bolter fires 10 shots at S6 just like the Nephilim Avenger Bolter, but is AP-2 and 2 damage. It has two quad heavy bolters throwing out [[Rape|12 Heavy Bolter shots EACH]] and two twin Hellstrike launchers ''(no more limited use missiles)'' that are better than Blacksword launchers by firing two S8 AP-3 Dam3 missiles each. Now that's a LOT of firepower. It also has Power of the Machine Spirit just like Land Raiders do, so it never suffers ballistic skill penalties for moving and firing heavy weapons. This thing is a pure hurricane of dakka that will cause carnage no matter what you point it at.  It also can't get the '''Ravenwing''' key word, so you can't get the full benefit of Sammael's rerolls or the ''Jink'' rule.
**It probably won't be a massive shock to find out that before you spaff ropes of nerdy jism all over the place that this pointedly puts out '''more''' than double the dakka of the Nephilim unit pointedly costs '''more than double''' the points.  About a hundred more than double, in default loadout.  Pew!

*'''[[Xiphon pattern interceptor]] (Forge World):''' The essential anti-aircraft interceptor. Thankfully changes to the rules this edition means that the Nephilim and the Xiphon do not stand on each others toes as much. Firstly, for shooting, the Xiphon does not suffer penalties for moving and firing heavy weapons ''and'' gains +1 when shooting at other flyers: So hits aircraft on a 3+ even after you factor ''Hard to Hit''. It's two twin Lascannons now fire four shots altogether and it's rotary missile launcher fires three shots that are weaker than black sword missiles; S6 means it can only wound most other vehicles on a 4+ or worse, but can do three damage if they inflict unsaved wounds. So the Xiphon is really built for taking out high value targets whether on the ground or air, where the Nephilim can deal with hordes or double down if it takes the lascannon and go after bigger targets, but generally only on the ground. Secondly, in some strange reversal, the Xiphon is actually more resilient than the Nephilim, having T7 and 11 wounds. It is '''not''' ''Ravenwing'' so it cannot benefit from certain auras or the ''Jink'' ability. But Jinking is hardly as useful this edition as in previous, so that's not actually a problem. The Xiphon really has its place in Dark Angels lists because the Nephilim is a general purpose flyer and they don't have their own interceptor like the Stormhawk. Sure, Stormhawks are more customisable, but the Xiphon really does stick to its job of high damage.

*'''[[Caestus Assault Ram]]:''' The Caestus is a bizarre cookie this edition. Though it does exactly what it sets out to do. It transports ten infantry men, irrespective of (terminator) bulkiness ''(no Jump Packs though)'' and if a building needs assaulted, then this flyer will take men there. The Ram itself is S8 AP-3 D6 and hits buildings multiple times on a 2+, so has a decent chance of punching a hole in a wall for your disembarked troops to assault through. But all of this happens in the assault phase ''(rather than being a "Ram" action like before)'' so your men disembark and you both have to charge your targets at the same time and even if your Caestus does destroy the building, any survivors can crawl away and need not necessarily be engaged any more. Leaving your close-assault troops standing around for a while.
**The other big consideration is that it's "Airborne Ram" special rule doesn't allow it to charge buildings. To charge a building, you'd have to go into hover mode.
**For ranged weapons, it has the twin magna-melta which will likely punch the crap out of its target, doing 2D3 shots ''(average 4)'' at S10 AP-4 and a rerollable D6 worth of damage. This is what will pop open those buildings for your troopers to get a go at. It also has a pair of Firefury Missile Launchers, which are no longer one-use and now behave like a four shot assault cannon ''(remember you have two, so eight shots altogether)''. So can be good for clearing out hordes of infantry around your landing zone.
**Note the Caestus gets no bonus to hit against vehicles -only buildings- which means it only gets four attacks that hit on a 5+, So it doesn't really do so well as a bludgeoning tool for knocking other flyers out if the sky, save your ranged weapons for that.