What's in a Dark Angels list?
"That's a Space Marines list with Azrael in it."
Okay, sure, that's accurate, but so what? We haven't always had a bunch of unique units Back when I started playing in 3rd edition, besides characters there were no unique Dark Angels units, other than reskins of Terminator Squads and Bike Squads. Also, the named characters were listed in the book with the caveat one could only use them with opponent's permission, which definitely implied that one was not supposed to use them in regular games. The only uniquely Dark Angels thing we could put in every list was wargear from the mini dex.
Fielding a characterful Dark Angels list really just meant painting your minis in the appropriate colors, and maybe using a Terminator Squad and a Bike Squad to represent the Deathwing and Ravenwing. Then, later on, in late 4th edition when we got our first stand-alone dex, Sammael and Belial would let you field Ravenwing Bikes and Deathwing Terminators as Troops (the category that became Battleline) which was a big deal because taking 2 Troops choices was compulsory in all lists. Of course, neither Bike Squads nor Terminator Squads were amazing back in those days, but neither were the standard Troops choices - Tactical Squads and Scouts. You could make some fun thematic lists, but Ravenwing Bikes and Deathwing Terminators were still just reskins of the standard Bike and Terminator squads.
Our 6th edition codex introduced all of the uniquely Dark Angels units we've had until now - Deathwing and Ravenwing Knights, the Darkshroud, the Vengeance, and the planes. They started creeping into Tournament lists after that. In 7th edition, you'd occasionally see a Battle Company list with a Deathstar built around a Ravenwing Command Squad and a Darkshroud, which stacked rules to grant a 2+ rerollable cover save. If you think that sounds stupid, well it was. but it barely stood out in 7th edition. I don't really recall if anything from the Dark Angels was hot at tournaments in 8th edition, but during 9th Deathwing Terminators were making tournament-goers sad with their always-on Transhuman Physiology effect (couldn't be wounded on greater than a 4+ roll for those not familiar with it). 9th edition really went all-in on faction uniqueness, with faction unique units, stratagems, and secondary objectives.
Maybe the criticism of Dark Angels lists not having enough Dark Angels units for some people's liking stems from those accustomed to 9th edition. 10th edition certainly did tone a lot of that stuff down - for the better, to my opinion. However, I can see the edition might seem bland compared to what came before.
That said, while the Dark Angels may be a divergent Space Marine chapter, they are a divergent Space Marine chapter. According to lore, their main fighting formations are their 3rd, 4th, and 5th Companies, just like every other chapter. Marines of those chapters can probably fight whole campaigns without ever seeing a Ravenwing or Deathwing unit, or one of the named characters from the codex supplement. If someone wants to play a list without many unique Dark Angels units - heck, if someone wants to play a list without any unique Dark Angels units, that's their choice to make, and it's hard to argue that it's not lore-appropriate. If they also happen to be doing well at major events, I say heck yeah my guy! They're doing honor to the First Legion. Why would we be against that?
Plus, it deserves to be pointed out that the list du jour fits nicely into Dark Angels background as an Ironwing list.
I guess what I'm saying is, let's not gatekeep. The Dark Angels are the best Space Marine chapter - heck, the best faction in the game. Let's not criticize other players for their army choices. If they're doing awesome jobs on the hobby aspects, if their models have First Legion bling, if their squads have robed sergeants, then they're doing a good job representing the chapter. Let's wish them success with whatever units they happen to want to use.
I think where you missed the mark isn't anyone gate keeping dark angels, it's the fact that in their current state the ONLY lists that are viable in competition are the Azreal only include. We have knights,our own primarch, and a number of other unique units but Azreal is the only competitive unit in the chapter.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with that way of thinking is that if we consider any list of marines as AO because they are painted that color, the supplement loses almost all the value it could have.
ReplyDeleteIt only has 3 good things (Azrael, Shroud and the crusade rules) and the rest are bad options that you will not use if you want to win games, since the base codex gives you better options. And it's sad.