40K: Whither Dark Angels?
After the Dark Angels battle report we posted I was amused by many of the comments regarding my decision to stick with the Dark Angels and thought I should at least explain my thoughts. So it really begs the question why in the world would anyone play a 4th edition codex?
The answer is easy. I’ve played them since Rogue Trader days. I have seen this army change over the years for good and bad. The current difficulty with the current iteration of this codex is not that they are worse, but that everyone has gotten better. Now think about that for a minute. How did vanilla marines get better? After this most recent FAQ the only thing they are better at is points cost, and the point difference is 15 to 20 points on the average. I will admit there are more expensive units and there are cheaper units.
Let’s look at this perceived better and what it means. Let’s start at the top with Deathwing Terminators. They are 15 points more and what do we get for that? Well Deathwing Assault, Fearless, the ability to be scoring with a cheap company master, mixed weapons with assault and firepower, and if they take the cheap company master the ability to give one squad an apothecary and a pretty decent standard. Hmm… sounds like a bargain to me.
Next we have the Ravenwing who clock in at 30 points more for the minimum size and 55 points for the full size. (For review purposes I’m not counting the squad Land Speeder in points cost because vanilla marines don’t have an equivalent.) They make their points up with the fact that every bike has a teleport homer at 10 points a bike while teleport homers for vanilla marines are 15 points for a single model. On top of that the bikes have scout. Then if you want to get real tricksey they count as scoring when you combat squad them and if they are in combat squads then the attack bike and Land Speeder are scoring too for four scoring units. Hmm… once again Ravenwing come out as a better bargain.
There is an elephant in the living room, the tactical squad. With no upgrades the Dark Angels are cheaper by five points. However the five points the vanilla marines pay are actually buying something. Those 5 points go towards the squad light weapon (i.e. flamer, melta-gun, plasma gun.) For vanilla marines their squad light weapon is 5 points cheaper because that price has already been paid. Remember though that Dark Angels can still take the squad light weapon at 5 man size, which vanilla marines cannot. The heavy weapon is where the Dark Angels take it in the pants. Vanilla marine’s heavy weapons are 10 points cheaper. I normally field no more than 4 tactical squads, so I don’t loose much here.
Of course I could go through and examine every unit. For example the Assault Squads are more points while the Devastator squads have near parity. My venerable dreadnought is cheaper while the plain dreadnought can cost up to 20 points more. The key here is look and see why you might be paying more points. See what you are getting for the points. If you’re not getting much then look at another unit because chances are you’ll find something better.
Let’s look at a sample Dark Angel list. I will note that this is a fun list.
Belial 130 points (An equivalent would be a Captain in Terminator Armor 140 points)
1 Deathwing Command Terminator Squad 2x TH/SS, 2X LC, Assault Cannon, Apothecary, Standard Bearer 300 points (There is nothing like this in C:SM so we can only assume at most a 15 point difference.)
1 Deathwing Terminator Squad 2x TH/SS, 2X LC, Assault Cannon (Once again this combo is not possible in C:SM so once again a 15 point difference is reasonable to assume)
1 Tactical Squad 10 man Power Fist, Melta-Gun, Lascannon, Rhino w/ Extra armor, Hunter Killer Missle, Pintle Mounted Storm Bolter, Dozer Blade 295 points (Vanilla marines get this at 280 points)
1 Tactical Squad 10 man Power Fist, Plasma Pistol, Melta-Gun, Multi-Melta, Rhino w/ Extra armor, 275 points (Vanilla marines get this at 260 points)
1 Devastator Squad 10 man 4x Missile Launchers, Razorback w/ Extra Armor, Dozer Blade, Pintle Mounted Storm Bolter, 350 points (Vanilla marines get this at 330 points)
1 Land Raider w/ Pintle Mounted Storm Bolter, 255 points (Vanilla marines get this at 260 points)
The estimated savings for a vanilla marine list is 65 points. (If I took only things that were in both books I would still come in at 65 points under.) What can we get for 65 points from the vanilla marines book? We can get a stripped down predator, a stripped down Land Speeder or a single Tech Marine. I’m underwhelmed by that dizzying array of choices.
The key to playing the Dark Angels is to just accept that they are a different army. They aren’t like any other army in the game. If they were then we would be playing from Codex: Space Marines. Most of the arguments I’ve heard against playing Dark Angels are typically repeated or unfounded. The point cost argument is the only one that flies with me because one can empirically show why certain builds aren’t points efficient, but in some cases you are getting something for the points.
Ultimately this is about your ability to have fun. If you are unable to have fun then play something else, but own your inability to have fun instead of blaming it on something as ephemeral as Games Workshop’s Codices and Army Books.
