Newbie's Guide - Getting Started with Dark Angels

 

The Dark Angels Combat Patrol

Hello new battle brothers! You have chosen to begin your journey as a Dark Angels player, because you are discerning player of excellent taste, and the Dark Angels are the coolest army in 40K. Who can resist the combination of lore with a little darkness to it, an air of mystery, the knightly aesthetic, and robes? Welcome to the First Legion. Just make sure to ixnay on the egion-lay thing around other Imperial forces. They get jealous that they don't get to have legions anymore, and there's no sense in making them sad.

In all seriousness, It's always exciting to be at the beginning of one's adventure into a 40K army, but it can also be daunting. There are a lot of rules for a new player to absorb, and a wide array of choices when making your initial purchases. People's time and money are limited resources, so it's only natural to want to get the most return on them possible. I'd like to offer a potential path to act as a guide for a new player that will help you build a collection that can be used across a wide variety of armies.

One would think the obvious place to start with a brand new Dark Angels force would be the Dark Angels Combat Patrol box, but I find it to be a bit of a head-scratcher. You'd think a box that would serve as the starting point for collecting a Dark Angels army would contain some combination of Bikes and Terminators, but this one doesn't. Instead, it includes 10 Intercessors, 5 Hellblasters, 3 Bladeguard Veterans, and a Gravis Captain. So, it leans into the "Dark Angels are the plasma chapter" thing, and the Bladeguard represent the Deathwing. If they replaced 5 of the Intercessors with 3 Outriders, it would have some Ravenwing representation too, but maybe Outriders don't balance well in Combat Patrol. Also, it's a little weird that the box includes a Gravis Captain but no Gravis units, but it's a place to start, and it pairs well with another box set GW sells. 

Honoured of the Chapter box

With the Dark Angels Combat Patrol as a starting point, it makes some sense to pair it with the Honoured of the Chapter box. This box contains another 3 Bladeguard Veterans, 3 Eradicators, a Chaplain, a Judiciar, and a Bladeguard Ancient. As I stated earlier, I think this box pairs well with the Dark Angels Combat Patrol for a number of reasons. The first is that you can combine the two Bladeguard Squads into one full sized squad. Plus, you get a choice of characters to lead it. The Chaplain and Judiciar can both lead either the Bladeguard or the Intercessors. The Chaplain could also lead the Hellblasters. The Bladeguard Ancient can only be attached to the Bladeguard, and you can't attach him and one of the other characters, so he may wind up gathering dust, but it would be feasible to field all 3 characters, attaching the Ancient to the Bladeguard, the Chaplain to the Hellblasters, and the Judiciar to the Intercessors. 

Then there's the Eradicators, who are a good add to any force. These guys give the Gravis Captain a squad to join, and they provide a solution to heavy armor or big monsters. It should be noted that all these minis are from the previous edition's starter set, so they all only have the one configuration - you can't give the Bladeguard any clever alternate poses, and the Eradicators don't include a multimelta, but they're all still all valuable models.

With the contents of these two box sets, plus another 5 Hellblasters from eBay, you can field a 940 point force, which gives you some points to chuck enhancements onto characters. However, we're playing Dark Angels here, so we definitely want to include Azrael. If we bench the Bladeguard Ancient and include Azrael, that brings the list to 1000 points on the nose. Retail, that's a $400 investment, but if you were buying these units individually, you'd be looking at close to $500. You can potentially save even more money if you can find the box sets discounted, though that might be challenging with the Honoured of the Chapter box, which is listed on the webstore as available online only.

Here's how I envision the list looking:

Gladius Strike Force

Azrael

Captain in Gravis Armor

Chaplain

Judiciar

Intercessor Squad: 4 bolter boys + sergeant with power weapon

Intercessor Squad: 4 bolter boys + sergeant with power weapon

Hellblasters: 10 plasma boys

Eradicators: 3 chonky melta boys

Bladguard Veterans: 6 awesome swordy boys

The list is pretty balanced. It's got both decent shooting and isn't bad in assault. I thought about keeping the Intercessors as a 10-man squad because then every squad would include a character that could throw down in assault, but I think they're more valuable if they're split up so they can be on more than one objective at a time. The Judiciar goes with the squad that's moving to midfield so they're a little more of a problem to deal with. The Chaplain obviously goes with the Bladeguard, helping them punch up against tougher targets. The Gravis Captain goes with the Eradicators, and Azrael with the Hellblasters.

From here, what you want to obtain to build the list up to 2000 points depends on what you want to lean into. You could do worse than obtaining a pair of Redemptor Dreadnoughts, a pair of Gladiator Lancers, a Darkshroud, a 3-man Inceptor squad and a 5-man Scout Squad. That would compliment the base list nicely, and it could also double as a fairly competent Ironstorm Spearhead if you replace a couple of the characters with Techmarines. 

Here's what the 2000 point Ironstorm Spearhead looks like:

Azrael

Techmarine - Enhancement: Target Augury Web

Techmarine - Enhancement: The Flesh is Weak (had 10 points to spend)

Intercessor Squad: 4 bolter boys + sergeant with power weapon

Intercessor Squad: 4 bolter boys + sergeant with power weapon

Hellblasters: 10 plasma boys

Eradicators: 3 chonky melta boys

Inceptors: 3 plasma boys

Scouts: 5 sneaky lads

Bladguard Veterans: 6 awesome swordy boys

Gladiator Lancer

Gladiator Lancer

Redemptor Dreadnought

Redemptor Dreadnought

Ravenwing Darkshroud

The additional units represent an investment of $620 from GW's online store.

On the other hand, since there's already a lot of infantry in the list, you might buy towards a Vanguard Spearhead. I'm reluctant to recommend buying Centurion Devastators as they are Firstborn models and it's hard to know if they will still be a legal choice after 10th edition. However, we're early in 10th edition, so if you pick them up fast you could get a couple years out of them, and that is not a terrible return on your investment. Or, to keep the list future-proofed, you could base it around all Primaris units. Azrael and the Hellblasters wouldn't be a bad unit to move around with Guerilla Tactics, and you could buy some Plasma Inceptors and some more Eradicators to have alternatives for when the Hellblasters are destroyed.

I'd had some notions of adding the Vanguard Task Force box set to the base list to give it a bunch of Phobos units to move around, but it's listed as out of stock, so instead I beefed up the Inceptors and Eradicators to full size squads, added 2 squads of 5 Infiltrators, and added a 10-strong squad of Deathwing Terminators with a Terminator Captain. I figured having a big brick of those guys to pick up with Guerilla Tactics could be good, and we don't become Dark Angels players because we hate Terminators.

Here's what the 2000 point Vanguard Spearhead might look like:

Azrael

Captain in Terminator Armor

Chaplain - Enhancement: The Blade Driven Deep

Intercessor Squad: 4 bolter boys + sergeant with power weapon

Intercessor Squad: 4 bolter boys + sergeant with power weapon

Hellblasters: 10 plasma boys

Eradicators: 6 chonky melta boys

Inceptors: 6 plasma boys

Scouts: 5 sneaky lads

Bladguard Veterans: 6 awesome swordy boys

Deathwing Terminators: 10 awesome chonky boys

Infiltrators: 5 sneaky boys

Infiltrators: 5 sneaky boys

There's 30 points left over, but the Ghostweave Cloak isn't that sexy on a non-Phobos model, and the other enhancements are restricted to Phobos models. I made a judgement call about retaining the Chaplain and giving him The Blade Driven Deep, but there's certainly an argument to be made for giving it to the Terminator Captain, or retaining the Gravis Captain and giving it to him so you can Infiltrate the Eradicators. You might maybe not use all or even any of the Intercessors since there's 2 squads of Infiltrators, but I erred in favor of keeping units from the initial 1000pt list.

The next detachment I'd like to look at building up to is the Firestorm Assault Force. I've been playing a Firestorm based around Azrael and 10 Hellblasters riding a Land Raider into battle and been getting decent results with it, so I thought other players might enjoy it.

Here's what the 2000 point Firestorm Assault Force could look like:

Azrael

Lieutenant - Enhancement: Champion of Humanity

Chaplain - Enchancement: War Tempered Artifice

Intercessor Squad: 4 bolter boys + sergeant with power weapon

Intercessor Squad: 4 bolter boys + sergeant with power weapon

Hellblasters: 10 plasma boys

Eradicators: 3 chonky melta boys

Eradicators: 3 chonky melta boys

Inceptors: 3 plasma boys

Inceptors: 3 plasma boys

Scouts: 5 sneaky lads

Bladguard Veterans: 6 awesome swordy boys

Land Raider Redeemer

Impulsor

Impulsor

Redemptor Dreadnought

The idea behind this list is that Azrael, the Lieutenant, and the Hellblasters ride in the Redeemer, one of the Intercessor Squads and the Chaplain ride in one of the Impulsors, the Bladguard ride in the other Impulsor, the second squad of Intercessors sit on the backfield objective, and the Inceptors and Eradicators go in reserve. I added the Redemptor because I figured the list could use another heavy hitting unit, and because that way the list is built from models from the detachments we've listed previously. The Impulsors come from the Gladiator Lancers from the Ironstorm Spearhead. Lancers have the same sponson weapons as Impulsors, and the same hull can be used as either an Impulsor or a Gladiator if you don't glue down the upper hull superstructure, which gravity holds in place just fine without extra help. We get the second squads of Eradicators and Inceptors from the beefed up squads from the Vanguard. That makes the only new models not discussed previously the Land Raider Redeemer and the Lieutenant. The Redeemer gives you a ride for Azrael and the plasma boys, and a unit you can use Immolation Protocols on. You'll want the Lieutenant so the Hellblasters can fall back and shoot. Plus, Lethal Hits is awesome, and Champion of Humanity may well be the best Enhancement for the points in the whole game.

Finally, let's look at building up to an Inner Circle Task Force. Our initial 1000 points may not seem like the most obvious starting point for that, but Azrael and 10 Hellblasters are making it into a lot of ICTF lists, and Dark Angels Bladeguard get the Deathwing keyword. Plus, we can draw from the models for the previously discussed detachments to beef up the Deathwing component of the list.

Here's what the 2000 point Inner Circle Task Force could look like:

Azrael

Captain in Terminator Armor - Enhancement: Deathwing Assault

Chaplain

Intercessor Squad: 4 bolter boys + sergeant with power weapon

Hellblasters: 10 plasma boys

Bladguard Veterans: 6 awesome swordy boys

Deathwing Terminators: 10 awesome chonky boys

Scouts: 5 sneaky lads

Scouts: 5 sneaky lads

Land Raider Redeemer

Redemptor Dreadnought

Redemptor Dreadnought

If you bought the models for all the previous lists, this one costs nothing. It exclusively uses models from the previous lists.

I'm going to do a cost breakdown of these upgrades. So far, we established the 1000 point base army will cost around $500 retail, as of the prices currently on GW's online store. The Gladius/Ironstorm list adds 2 Techmarines, 3 Inceptors, 5 Scouts, 2 Gladiators, 2 Redemptors, and a Darkshroud.

Techmarines: $40 each    Total:  $80

Inceptors: $60 each         Total:   $60
Kill Team Scout Squad:  Total:   $65    (Contains 10 Scouts)

Gladiators: $90 each       Total: $180
Redemptors: $75 each    Total: $150

Ravenwing Darkshroud: Total:  $75

Overall Total                   Total:$610 

So, for roughly $1000, you got your first 2000 point army. Now let's break down the additional cost to collect the Vanguard. In this calculation, I'm figuring you already have the Inceptors and Scouts from the Gladius/Ironstorm purchases. Thus the new purchases are 3 more Inceptors, 3 more Eradicators, 10 Infiltrators, 10 Terminators, and a Terminator Captain.

Inceptors: $60                Total:    $60

Eradicators: $60            Total:    $60

Infiltrators: $60             Total:    $60
Terminators: $65 each   Total:  $130
Terminator Captain:      Total:    $42
Overall Total:                Total:  $352

Now let's break down the Firestorm. Again, I'm presupposing having already bought the models for the Gladius/Ironstorm and Vanguard. As previously discussed, with the Gladiators from the Gladius/Ironstorm able to do double duty as Impulsors with very little effort, that makes the only new models being bought the Lieutenant and the Land Raider Redeemer.

Lieutenant:                        Total:   $35

Land Raider Redeemer:    Total: $112

Overall Total:                    Total: $147

Finally, there's the Inner Circle Task Force. If you've bought the models for the previously mentioned detachment, the ICTF list won't cost you anything. It's entirely comprised of models that have already been purchased for the other lists.

So, for a total investment of about $1500*, you can have the models to play up to 5 different detachments with at least semi-competent builds. That likely won't be the end of your purchasing. I've only included a token Ravenwing investment, and odds are if you embrace the hobby aspect of the game, you'll want to keep assembling and painting models. I'd like to note that I put the asterisk next to the total cost because that's calculated from GW retail prices. With a little effort, you should be able to discounts and deals, either from online retailers or from your personal social circles. 

I'm not saying this is the right way to collect a Dark Angels army from scratch, but it is a logical progression that starts with the Dark Angels Combat Patrol box. If all my current models were stolen by aliens (filthy xenos!), this is probably how I'd go about re-establishing my collection. That said, you may have other priorities than I do, and one never knows what treasures one can find on eBay.  eBay can be a good resource for a new player, because you can use virtually anything you can find a good deal on. Just don't let yourself get sucked into a bidding war and winding up paying retail price or more for something.

If you're at the beginning of your journey as a 40K player, I envy you. When you're a new player, everything is fresh and exciting, and every unit you paint and field is a first. You're joining a whole new community that, largely, is excited for you and wants you to enjoy the hobby, enjoy the game, and will support and encourage you through the process. I hope I've helped in some small way. I have every confidence you'll represent the legion chapter with honor!