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

==Stratagems==

===Codex Space Marine copy-pastes===
*'''Armour of Contempt (1CP):''' used whenever a {{W40kKeyword|Dark Angels Vehicle}} suffers a mortal wound. Roll a D6 for that mortal wound, and any other mortal wounds suffered by that vehicle for the rest of the phase. Those wounds are ignored on a 5+.
*'''Auspex Scan (2CP):''' Used when an enemy unit arrives from Tactical Reserves within 12" of one of your Infantry units. Your infantry unit may fire on the enemy unit that arrived with a -1 to-hit penalty. 
*'''Cluster Mines (1 CP):''' Use when a Scout Bike squad falls back. On a 2+, one unit you fell back from takes D3 mortal wounds.
*'''Datalink Telemetry (1 CP):''' When shooting with a Whirlwind, if you have a Land Speeder within 12" of the target, the Whirlwind's shots automatically hit. Fluffy if fairly ineffective unless you have a Whirlwind Hyperios.
**Dark Angels benefit from larger Land Speeder units, the darkshroud and land speeder vengeance, and 2 landspeeder characters that can make this stratagem a little more usable than for regular marines.
*'''Empyric Channelling (1 CP):''' If you have a {{W40Kkeyword|Dark Angels Psyker}} within 6" of 2 other {{W40Kkeyword|Dark Angels Psykers}}), it can manifest an extra power and you can add 2 to the roll.
**Interromancy powers cost a lot of WCs, so they can use the boosts to Psychic Tests. Also good for Spectacular Smite Spam, which requires a test score of 11+.
*'''Flakk Missile (1CP):'''  Used when a Dark Angels Infantry model with a Missile Launcher fires at an enemy unit with the Fly keyword. Add +1 to the hit roll, and if the target is hit, you deal D3 Mortal Wounds instead of the regular damage.
*'''Hellfire Shells (1CP):''' Used when firing an Infantry model’s Heavy Bolter. Instead of firing normally, fire one shot and on a successful hit you deal D3 Mortal Wounds to the target instead of the regular damage. Use this to get past tough units like Daemons, damaged vehicles, and units with a good Invuln save. Remember your Signum if you need to guarantee that hit.
*'''Honour the Chapter (3CP):''' Used at the end of the fight phase. Select an Infantry or Biker unit that had already fought. That unit may fight a second time. Use this on Deathwing Knights sitting next to a DW Ancient and/or Asmodai to absolutely crush anything they're in close combat with.
*'''Killshot (1 CP):''' Use in the shooting phase if you have a Predator within 6" of two other Predators. Add 1 to the wound and damage for all of the trio's attacks against Monsters and Vehicles.  Split fire those 12 Lascannons away, and remember to buy those Hunter Killer missiles. Can also make autocannon/heavy bolter predators into surprisingly effective monsterhunters.
** Now only effects baseline Predators, not Deimos patterns. Apparently the crews are too full of themselves to coordinate fire anymore.
*'''Linebreaker Bombardment (1 CP):''' Use in the shooting phase if you have a Vindicator within 6" of two other Vindicators. Instead of shooting their Demolisher Cannons, pick a spot within 24" of all three and roll a d6 for each unit within 3" of it (+1 if the unit has 10+ models, -1 if it's a {{W40Kkeyword|Character}}). On a 4+, the unit takes 3d3 mortal wounds.
*'''Only in Death Does Duty End (2 CP):''' When one of your {{W40Kkeyword|Character}}s dies, it can shoot or fight again. Doesn't combo with the Banner abilities on Ancients. Does apply to Samael in land speeder getting another 5 attacks or 18 shots off, or Chaplain dreadnoughts.
*'''Orbital Bombardment (3 CP):''' ''One use only''. If your warlord is a Space Marine (this could be your secondary detachment) and didn't move, you can use this stratagem in the shooting phase instead of having him shoot any weapons. Pick any spot on the battlefield that the warlord can see, and roll a D6 for every unit within D6" of it (subtract 1 if it's rolling for a {{W40Kkeyword|Character}}). On a 4+, it takes D3 mortal wounds.
*'''Tactical Flexibility (1 CP):''' At the start of your movement phase, pick a 10 model unit with the Combat Squads rule and split it into two 5 model units as if they had been deployed as two Combat Squads. 
*'''Wisdom of the Ancients (1 CP):''' At the start of any phase, pick a Dreadnought. Any Dark Angels units within 6" can re-roll hits of 1 that phase, including itself.

===Dark Angels Exclusive===
*'''Deathwing Assault (2/3CP):''' Used when a friendly {{W40kKeyword|Deathwing}} unit is set up on the board from Teleport Strike. If the unit contains 5 or less models it costs 2CP, if it contains 6 or more it costs 3CP, so most cost effective on [[skub|10-man deathwing squads]]. This unit can immediately make an out-of-phase shooting attack that does not count toward the Shooting Phase. A bit overpriced considering Deathwing can really only bring stormbolters and one or two assault cannons or cyclone missile launchers, but it can be useful for clearing out some bubblewrap if you get the jump on someone. Strategy: A 5 or 10 man Deathwing teleport in, clearing the bubblewrap, for other units can deepstriking closer to the main targets IN THE SAME TURN.
** Measure its cost against the enemy you want to get rid of. At best you'll get 40 bolter rounds + 2D6 frag hits from a full squad, producing roughly 15 armor saves against T4 opponents and 21 against T3 ones. This can open up enough space for your Inceptors or a smash-captain. 
** This thing worth its weight in gold against pesky T'au drones and their savior protocols - clean them off table before your shooting / psychic phase, then your big guns' shot won't be wasted.
**Remember that you can use combat squads to split a 10-man into a 5-man, and in doing so, can put all the heavy weapons in a single 5-man unit. So you can get 2x plasmacannons or assault cannons into a single drop at the 2cp level. 
**You can also take advantage of the Land Raider Prometheus, combat squad up your heavy weapons, and then fire twice for 1 command point. Although, it is annoying keeping your warlord in a transport when he is likely needed buffing and adding to the ensuing combat. 
*'''Fortress of Shields (1CP):''' Used at the start of the fight phase. If a Deathwing unit contains at least 3 Storm Shields, all attacks suffer a -1 to wound modifier against that unit. This is better than what the Deathwing Knights had as -1 to wound affects more Strengths. Imperial Knight with a Reaper Chainsword? Wounding on 3+. MEQs without Strength boosting melee weapons? Wounding on 5+. With this, you're never wounded on a 2+ (unless the enemy has a way to add a positive wound modifier) and you'd have to throw at least a S8 weapon to be wounding on a 3+. This is [[Awesome]], but becomes pricey if you want to use this for 3 or 4 consecutive combat rounds. Very good considering that the best weapons against storm shield termies are massed attacks like Orks or Gaunts, with S3-4. Generally best used against huge numbers of attacks since the Deathwing Knights usually survive and kill whatever they're against in combat and they have 3+ Invulns to stop less voluminous but more potent attacks..
*'''Hunt the Fallen (1CP):''' Used before the battle starts. Pick an enemy {{W40kKeyword|Character}}; it gains +1 Attack but all Dark Angel units re-roll all failed hits in Close Combat against them. In addition, all {{W40kKeyword|Deathwing}} and {{W40kKeyword|Ravenwing}} units re-roll all failed charge rolls against that character. May wanna be careful who you give to. Someone such as Ghazghkull would love an extra attack, so this is best used on a character that is a pain in the ass to deal with, but isn't so good in combat as the other boosts are [[awesome]]. Tricky, because the characters against which you actually need this bonus are exactly the characters that you don't want to get an extra attack.
**Ideal target is on that will be close to the front of their deployment, so you can use it for securing charges via deep strike units. As long the character in question is eligible to get included in your charge, re-rolling charges is awesome. You can combine this with the Inner Circle stratagem below, to allow Dreadnoughts arriving in Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pods to have a more reliable charge.
*'''Inner Circle (1CP):''' Use this before the start of the game; target a {{W40Kkeyword|Dark Angels Master}},  {{W40Kkeyword|Dark Angels Dreadnought}}  or  {{W40Kkeyword|Dark Angels Land Raider}}. They gain the {{W40kKeyword|Deathwing}} ''(important for interacting with characters and banners)'' and {{W40kKeyword|Inner Circle}} keywords. Ven Dreads do exist, but it could always be used on a Redemptor or a Contemptor. As for Land Raiders, they don't like combat, so ancient abilities don't really affect them, and as for shooting, Belial already gives a re-roll 1s aura, but full re-roll for models with the Deathwing keyword, which is pretty great for Land Raiders, especially the Crusader, and Contemptors. 
**Also can be used to give a generic or Primaris Master the Deathwing keyword, as unfluffy as that may be right now. Or a Chaplain Dreadnought. 
*'''Intractable (2CP):''' Used when a {{W40Kkeyword|Dark Angels}} unit has fallen back. They can still shoot this turn. One thing: ''never'' use this with units that can fly (Sammael, Talonmasters, Land Speeders, or the Repulsor) since they can already shoot after falling back. Black Knights still get Plasma shooting after falling back and if your Predators or Land Raiders stuck in combat, move them out and get some Lascannon shots off. In short, it is overpriced for basic units, but letting a valuable ranged unit fire after falling back can well be worth 2CP.
*'''Never Forgive, Never Forget (1CP):''' Whenever a {{W40kKeyword|Dark Angels}} unit is chosen to attack in the Fight phase you can activated this ability. Whenever that unit rolls a 6+ to hit against {{W40kKeyword|Heretic Astartes}} they make an additional attack against the same target using the same weapon. If you use this stratagem on a {{W40kKeyword|Deathwing}} unit, then the extra attacks are generated on a 4+ when targeting {{W40kKeyword|Fallen}} unit. Essentially the Dark Angels version of the vanilla SM Stratagem ''Death to the Traitors''.
*'''Relics of the Rock (1/3CP):''' That typical "take 1 extra relic for 1CP or 2 extra relics for 3CP" stratagem that all armies with Codices get. Dark Angel relics are alright so using multiples of them isn't that bad. With the Shroud of Heroes, the Heavenfall Blade and maybe the Foe-Smiter? Then a CP is certainly worth it.
*'''Secret Agenda (1CP):''' When playing Maelstrom of War missions, before the game begins you can spend one command point to make your tactical objectives secret, and you only reveal them when scoring victory points. In Maelstrom of War, this is amazing as your opponents will never know what you're trying to achieve and therefore be less able to interfere with your ability to complete those objectives. Pretty [[awesome]], if a bit situational as if you're not playing Maelstrom of War, then it does absolutely nothing. 
*'''Speed of the Raven (1CP):''' Used when a {{W40kKeyword|Ravenwing}} unit has advanced this turn. That unit may still shoot and charge this turn. The recent FAQ on the Warhammer Community site also says that the unit does not suffer the -1 to hit penalty for firing assault weapons. Combine that with the 4+ Invulnerable and some Black Knight Plasma Talons? Darktalon with -1 hard-to-hit and 4+ Invulnerable save? YES!!!. This also works on Land Speeders, so a pack of three or more speeders can hit a unit 29" to 34" from where they started with heavy flamers. IF you use it on speeders, it works well with the Master of Maneuver warlord trait.  
** Since the Jink save lasts until your next turn, you'll get the 4++ even if the enemy you charged retreats from close combat in its own turn to shoot your bikes. Corner case: you'll get the 4++ against the pistol shots, if they stay engaged with you.
*'''Stasis Shells (1CP):''' Used when a {{W40kKeyword|Ravenwing}} model fires its Grenade Launcher at an enemy {{W40kKeyword|Character}}. Make a single hit roll with +1 to hit, and if it scores a hit the target takes d3 Mortal Wounds. OK, does anyone use Ravenwing Grenade Launchers? No? Yeah. Plasma Talons are so much better, but this stratagem makes them somewhat viable - provided you have the CP. It might help you to finish off low-wound high-invu targets like Smash Captains, but it still won't exempt you from the character targeting restriction. 
*'''Weapons From the Dark Age (1CP):''' Used when a unit's weapons fire. Increase the damage characteristic of all Plasma weapons (plasma pistol, plasma gun, plasma cannon, plasma incinerator, and plasma talon) by 1. Super-charged plasma that can 1-shot 3-wound thickies like Paladins, Custodes, and Warriors? Yes please. Hellblasters in particular will be able to erase entire TEQ squads and wreck vehicles. Don't forget black knights or the Land Speeder Vengeance either. Damage 4 Plasma? (And possible blowing yourself up?) Yes PLEASE!!!
**Sadly you can use it only in your own shooting phase, so you must skip it in Overwatch, or when you want to shoot back at the enemy via the Ancient's banner.
**Though there's a limited number of units that can take lots of plasma weaponry, Hellblasters, Ravenwing Black Knights, and Inceptors are still great units for this. If looking for higher damage per shot plasma, the LS Vengeance, the Deredeo Dreadnought and the Sicaran Omega Tank Destroyer is also an option.
**If you want to give a Plasma Repulsor Exicutionor Cawl's wrath (albeit with half the shots if you move above half movement and 12" less range but made up for by having ALL THE GUNS), then look no further!

===Special===
*'''The Lion and the Wolf (1CP):''' Use before the battle begins if your army contains any {{W40Kkeyword|[[Space Wolves]]}} units. These must be taken in a different detachment, else you can't use Dark Angel stratagems. Choose one  {{W40Kkeyword|Dark Angels Infantry}} model and one  {{W40Kkeyword|Space Wolves Infantry}}  model and roll a D6 for each. On a 4+ those models take a mortal wound. Each model that survives then receives +1 Weapon Skill, Strength, Attack and Leadership for the duration of the battle. This is simultaneously considered one of the best and one of the worst Stratagems out there, as most Dark Angel Players don't field Space Wolves (for good reason, see below), but it's also easy to abuse:
**Gives you a crunchy excuse to field these two famous rivals together. The combinations are phenomenal, particularly since there seems to be no limit on who can be your champions. HQ choices and named characters can comfortably soak a 50% chance of a wound before the battle begins if it means getting extra attacks and strength for the ''whole battle''. Get an apothecary on the job and restore that wound so it barely even matters.
**If you want to use Mind Wipe, use this stratagem for the +1 Ld. Among the other bonuses turns your librarian into a fearsome character. Target your Interrogator chaplain with this and keep your librarian within 6" to also gain the Ld 10 for Mind Wipe. 
**Best option is an auxilliary detachment with just one character, but it will cost you an extra CP. Good options are: Lucas the Trickster or Krom Dragongaze for leadership fuckery. Arjac Rockfist is a good character-hunter with deep strike, that benefits from S12 and 7 attacks on the charge with re-rolls against characters. A rune priest can manifest Tempest's Wrath, which is basically Aversion with a different name so it stacks for -2 to hit on that knight or daemon primarch.
**A Supreme Command detachment is the most efficient way to use this stratagem without losing a command point, and would look nicely thematic. A supreme command detachment of three Space Wolves HQ's also gives you access to the Space Wolf stratagems. You can also build a Supreme Command detachment of Adeptus Astartes with 1 Space Wolf and 2 Dark Angel characters or any other detachment with Dark Angel units with 1 space wolf character. You do need another Dark Angel only detachment to get access to this stratagem.
**If you do want to take a bigger detachment of SW, go for a decent space wolf detachment and look at the SW tactics page for advice on how to build a SW army, you [[Furry|closet wolf]].

===Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned Space Marine copy pastes===
*'''Big Guns Never Tire (1 CP):''' A vehicle UNIT ignores heavy for a turn. Choice units for this can be:
**Leviathan dreadnought in devastator doctrine with 3 hunter killer missiles and extra range guns hitting on 2's with wisdom of the ancients anyone? 
**Forget your Leviathan, the wording is 'Vehicle unit' so take 5 speeders in your Ravenwing Landspeeder UNIT and zoom around without penalty.
***This sounds great on paper but there's a few flaws, primarily the saves. Landspeeders have to advance to get the Jink 4++, to then shoot you now have to add in speed of the Raven AND then include Big guns never tire, assuming they manage to survive the entire battle that's 10cp. Now the Leviathan also uses 10 cp on Wisdom and BGNT however now lets include characters, the leviathan can ignore wisdom simply by having a captain nearby so that brings it to 5cp. The Landspeeders are still on 10, solution? Ignore this strategem for them and take a Talonmaster, why? Because the Talonmaster can take the impeccable mobility warlord trait which lets them ignore the heavy penalty, and if you don't want him as a warlord, you can pay 1 cp for hero of the chapter to get it, bringing the Landspeeders down to 5/6cp for the whole battle while also gaining ignore cover and rerolling wounds of 1. Not saying this isn't a bad unit choice but it has alternative solutions to fix it's -1 for heavy problem
**There's also no one saying that the unit needs to expensive, need to reposition that predator? Go for it. Really need that Lasorback to shoot something? Go for it. Want that Nephilim/Dark Talon to hit on 2's? GO FOR IT! 
*'''Boltstorm (1 CP):''' Useable only during your shooting phase, Auto-bolt rifles within half range automatically hit their target.
*'''Duty Eternal (1 CP):''' Affects a dreadnaught when targeted in shooting or combat and cuts all damage by 1 (to a minimum of 1). It'll keep that dread alive, but it's not immune to mass lascannon fire.
*'''Fury of the First (1 CP):'''  Add 1 to the hit rolls for a {{W40kKeyword|Deathwing}} squad in shooting or combat. Combine this with "Never forgive, never forget" and you can have exploding attacks on 5+ against CSM and 3+ against the fallen, as rare as they are. Ensure you have some rerolls available through Belial or Righteous Repugnance to make the most of it.
*'''Gene Wrought Might (1 CP):''' Affects a primaris infantry squad in combat a 6+ to hit is an auto hit and wound.
*'''Hero of the Chapter (1 CP):''' Give a non-unique character a warlord trait, but you cannot double up on the same trait. Also only the warlord counts as a VP for "Slay the Warlord" and the like. Only one use per battle, this may sound bad for a 3-wings army. 
*'''Honored by The Rock (1 CP):''' Give a Successor Chapter a relic of the Rock. A space marine copy, the place name simply changes. Pretty much pointless for non-codex marines as we don't get to pick successor tactics like they do in the new supplements, so all our successor chapters just play as counts-as-dark angels because otherwise you're just nerfing yourself, unless a That Guy is around being all pedantic and whiny.
**It has some really niche utility as a way to get 3 relics for just 2 CP instead of 3 (1 is free, 1 is with the old stratagem, another one with this), but 2 of them must be from the special wargear (or be the Heavenfall blade) and one must be a "Dark Angels" relic. 
*** It's interesting to point out that Codex compliant Marines can pay the same amount of CP for 3 relics without this ridiculous limitations. 
*'''Monster Slayer Missile (1 CP):''' Used on a repulsor, shoot at a vehicle or monster within 48" and if it hits it does d3 mortal wounds. Interesting, probably won't be used often but don't forget about it, as an average extra two mortal wounds on that charging Mortarion might be really helpful.
*'''Rapid Fire (2 CP):''' Turns bolt rifles into rapid fire 2 for a shooting phase. 2cp is kind of steep but if you have objective camping intercessors about to be overrun by a horde, turning their guns into 30" S4 AP-1 (-2 in Tactical doctrine) 1D storm bolters with instant rapid fire and rerolls to 1 for not moving is pretty decent. 
*'''Steady Advance (1 CP):''' Affects any infantry squad, they count as remaining stationary for bolter discipline. Storm bolter toting veterans are a good choice for this especially in the tactical doctrine.
*'''Target Sighted (3 CP):''' Stalker Bolt rifles become snipers for a turn, being able to target characters and doing a mortal wound on a 6+. Very unlikely to be worth it for 3CP even on a squad of 10. Most effective against linchpin T3 characters like Guard and Eldar where the S4 and volume of fire actually means something in comparison to the Eliminators S5
*'''Transhuman Physiology (2 CP):''' Works on any non-vehicle unit in combat, that unit can never be wounded on a 1-3. It's nice this isn't exclusively Primaris, makes us remember that old marines are still Damn Space Marines.
*'''Vengeance of the Machine Spirit (2 CP):''' Any vehicle with power of the machine spirit can do one of the following when it dies, shoot a single weapon, auto explode or attack again in combat. It will always use the top of its wound chart when it does this. For 2CP you're probably making it explode.
*'''Veteran Intercessors (1/2 CP):''' Turns a 5 man unit of intercessor into vets for 1 CP but if the squad has 6 or more models it costs 2 CP, a veteran intercessor gets an extra attack and Ld. This will be better on the upcoming chainsword intercessors, (assuming it works on them) now that they've stopped being Tau-level whimps about joining in honourable melee combat.

===Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned Dark Angel exclusives===
*'''Combined Assault (2 CP):''' Lets you resurrect some Teleport Homer tricks from prior editions. When using Teleport Strike to set up a {{W40kKeyword|Deathwing}} unit, you can place them within 6" of a {{W40kKeyword|Ravenwing Biker}} unit that hasn't advanced that turn, so long as the unit is also more than 6" away from an enemy. that's really close
*'''Evasive Assault (1 CP):''' Pick a ravenwing bike squad in combat, they get a 5++ for the phase.
*'''Full Throttle (1 CP):''' Pick a Ravenwing unit to move again in the movement phase, it can advance if it did not already but the unit cannot shoot or charge this turn. Great for repositioning early game and grabbing objectives late game. You can also combo this with Combined Assault for some reliable turn 1 6" charges but thats 3 CP. Can be worth it though.
*'''High Speed Focus (1 CP):''' A ravenwing unit can jink during your opponents shooting phase when targeted by an attack. Great reactionary Ravenwing stratagem. Easily spammable on a big unit of bikes, knights or land speeder squadrons.
*'''Out Numbered but Never Out Matched (1 CP):''' Target a {{W40kKeyword|Deathwing}} squad in combat with a unit of 10 or more, until the end of the phase, models in the unit get +1 attack. Gives your Deathwing Knights some of their horde clearing abilities back. 
*'''Stand Firm (1 CP):''' Target a Deathwing Squad in shooting or combat, they get +1 Toughness. If you have the CP to burn, combine this with Fortress of Shields to have some Deathwing Knights with REAL staying power.
**If you have a lot of CP, you could protect 2 units of Deathwing. Use Transhuman Physiology on one and this on the other to make it difficult for your opponent to deal with them.
*'''Targeting Guidance (1 CP):''' Pick a unit within 12" of any {{W40kKeyword|Ravenwing}} land speeder and your whole army gets to reroll all hits against the target. It does sound pretty good but you still need to be within 12" which is pretty close. Ideally whatever you targeted will die since EVERYTHING in your army can reroll their hits. Keep in mind that Darkshrouds, Vengeances and Talonmasters count as Ravenwing Land Speeders, so keep this stratagem in the back of your mind if you field any of them