Warhammer 40k Dark Angels Guide

Space Marines are one of the most versatile and solid armies in Warhammer 40k and a great entry-level army for everyone that wants to step into the game. However, choosing which chapter to collect and play can be a though decision for every player. In my case, the army I loved the most since joining the hobby are the sons of the Primarch Lion El'Jonson.

I know a lot of players can relate when I say that Warhammer 40K Dark Angels are one of the most intriguing and cool Space Marine Chapters. The strong mysticism and medieval feeling that runs through the models, the deep lore and story of this chapter and the mysterious secret that drives these Marines are more than enough to get every player excited. If this also picked your attention, what about having a look together in what makes Warhammer 40k Dark Angels a great chapter to collect.

The History of the Dark Angels: What are they fighting for?

The Dark Angels were the First Legion of the original twenty Space Marine Legions and they are known for sharing their their Primarch devotion as well as his deep passion for victory and for martial perfection as Lion El’Jonson, the Primarch of the Dark Angels, was in fact raised by the noble knight Luther, the leader of a Knightly order on the forest planet of Caliban. Growing-up, Lion helped the fight against the spawns of Chaos that lurked in the deep woods of the planet becoming the leader of the order.

When the Emperor arrived on Caliban, Lion El’Jonson was finally able to re-join with his Marines and his father. Luther and many of the other knights were also genetic enhanced to be almost as powerful as any Space Marine and they were left to protect their home planed once The Lion left with his legion to help the Emperor to free the Galaxy from Chaos. Unfortunately, leaving Luther and his former friends to guard Caliban proved to be a critical error. Fed by angry for being left behind and seduced by the powers of Chaos, Luther betrayed the Imperium and The Lion during the Horus Heresy.

Once Horus finally defeated, Lion El’Jonson returned home to Caliban only to discover Luther betrayal and the Chaos reigning again on the planet. After the planetary defences started firing upon his fleet, The Lion had not choice but to fight his adopted father. After a colossal battle and after receiving a mortal wound, The Primarch managed to capture Luther just to see the powers of Chaos scattering his disloyal sons across time and space, shattering the planet Caliban in the process.

In the aftermath of the battle, the Dark Angels found themselves without an home planet and with their Primarch on the brick of death but with a new mission, hunting down their traitorous brethren, The Fallen, to clean their name in their own eyes and in those of the Emperor. The mission continues today after 10,000 years while at the heart of the Rock, the floating space monastery that serves as the Dark Angels’ home, Lion El’Jonson just came out from his stasis fully recovered from his wounds.

A much more detailed story of the Dark Angels can be found in the fan-made Wiki page dedicated to this great Chapter.  

Collecting and Painting Dark Angels Miniatures

Being one of First Founding Chapter, the Dark Angels are brilliant chapter to collect and paint considering they have more a 10,000 year long of story filled with lots of interesting facts. The Chapter has a strong monastic structure driven by a deep sense of justice and faith. This is clearly represented by the Dark Angels models wearing robes, small shields or symbols of faith and it offers a great opportunity for customization. For examples, robes can either be painted to show signs of wear or to include quotes and prayers. A good guide on how to paint robes can be found here.

The same type of customization can be obviously applied to weapons, shields and vehicles to achieve a higher degree of uniqueness. In addition to the details you can add to your models, every warhammer 40k dark angels army can include models with three different basic colour patterns. In fact, while most of the chapters now wear dark green power armours instead of the original black colour of the First Legion, the 1st and the 2nd company of the chapter are completely different from all other companies.

The elite 1st Company of the Dark Angels, The Deathwing, is in fact entirely made up of Veterans all wearing Terminator Armour to remind the sacrificies made a long time ago by this company to free their home world from a Genestealer invasion. The 2nd Company of the Dark Angels, The Ravenwing, on the contrary, still wear black amour as it was originally a portion of the chapter tasked to hunt down all remaining Fallen Angels. The company today is a highly specialised formation made by fast moving attack vehicles and value mobility and speed over heavy firepower.

A few good tips to paints and differentiate these three very different types of models can be found here and here.

Overall, collecting and painting an army of Dark Angels can be a lot of fun and at the same time an opportunity to grow your painting skills. Initially, you may focus on battle-ready models keeping your colour scheme as simple as possible and exploiting a lot of contract paints like shown here. If you don't like contract paints, you can still paint your basic model efficiently with some more classic techniques while been able to add a few extra details as you need.

If you are looking to add some models from Ravenwing and Deathwing companies (and I know you will) you may need a bit more of attention to learn how to paint blacks and whites efficiently but the guide mentioned above can be a great starting point.

As your skills increases, you would probably be looking to learn how to add more details on your models and to be able to tackle more challenging models like the heroes of this chapters. In particular, Games Workshop has recently released the Lion itself that is one of the best models I have seen in a while. Although painting Lion El'Jonson may seem challenging, there is a very good guide on the Citadel Colour website that can really come in hand to help you step-by-step.

The last topic I would like to address in this quick review on how to collect and paint your army is “where to start”. As a general rule, the combat patrol bundles always offers a very good value for your money and can be a good starting point while you decide which type of list you would like to play. If interested, Dark Angels combat patrol units can be found for free on the Games Workshop website.

Dark Angels also have access to some very specialized units and some of them, like the Veterans, can be also used to create a very nice thematic army. Last but not least, if you have access to any space marine model, you can also look to convert them to Dark Angels using the bits from the Upgrade pack or from the Primary Upgrade pack. These two packs can also be a great way to add further details to your models.

Playing Dark Angels Warhammer 40k 10th edition - “For the Lion!”

In the Galaxy of the 40th millennium as well as in Warhammer 40k 10th edition, Dark Angels are very well known for their efficiency on the battlefield. As many players know, facing the sons of the Lion in a tournament should not be taken lightly as they can face a wide range of scenarios and still rank very high in most competitive environments. This is mostly due to having not only access to the core Index Space Marines units but also to a few very specialized and powerful units that widen the standard Marine range. For example, as all Space Marine, the Dark Angels can use the Oath of Moment to re-roll all rolls to hit and to wound against one single unit per turn and the Gladius Task force. However they can also opt to use their own “Unforgiven” task force that is specific only to the Dark Angels and revolves around mitigating the effects of being Battle-shocked and even taking advantage of it.

Before we look into the main strengths of this Chapter, I would like to remember you can download a free copy of Dark Angels 10th edition Index cards here.

Dark Angels “Unforgiven” Detachment

As mentioned Dark angels lists can use the Space Marines Gladius Task Force as well as their own “The Unforgiven” Task Force. The first one provide a more flexible and general approach to your list while the second one has some very specific ability that can be very effective depending on your list and playing style. In detail, the Unforgiven Task Force provides the special ability to increase the “Objective Control” of a unit from zero to once whenever that unit becomes Battle-shocked. This is a huge advantage as Dark Angels units can hold onto an objective much more reliably even when they’re below half-strength or affected by negative modifiers of some weapons. At the same time, all Enhancements and most of the Dark Angels Stratagems become more effective if a unit is Battle-shocked although some of the requirement to trigger the most effective combinations may be difficult to achieve.

Unique Dark Angels units

Many Dark Angels army are filled using the standard Space Marine codex although there are a lot of Specific units available only to this Chapter. These for sure include the Terminators of the Deathwing (and the Deathwing Knights) that can become an unbreakable wall against your opponent, and the bikes and speeders of the Ravenwing that can easily crush the enemy units all over the field.

Among all the notable units a few ones to point out are:

1. Lazarus is a unique Dark Angels Primaris Captain armed with the notable blade “Enmity’s Edge” and the Spiritshield Helm. He is particularly effective as melee fighter and against enemy psykers. His presence is so inspiring that any Marine units within 6” from him will ignore any mortal wound with a roll of 5+.  

2. Known to be “a masterful commander, the Gran-Master Azrael quickly grasps changing battlefield realities and orchestrates his forces to maximum advantage. In the fray, Azrael decapitates foes with every strike of the Sword of Secrets..”. In your army, Azrael will not only be a powerful adversay but it will also provide an 4+ Invulnerable Save to the Dark Angels unit he leads.

3. The Ravenwing Land Speeder “Vengeance” is a good high mobility option that owes its name to the ability to unleash the Chapter rightful punishment to any enemy who destroys a friendly model within 6″. Considering the amount of weapons this Land Speeder carries and its invulnerable save, this model can be a great addition to your army.

4. Deathwing Knights are among THE best units in the game at the moment. They not only combine all the pros of a Space Marine in terminator armour but they also have the Dark Angels ability “Inner circle” that reduces the damage of any attack assigned to a model by 1. These knights also have the “watcher in the dark” ability that allows the units to summon a Watcher in the Dark once per battle to use the “Feel No Pain” ability on 4+ against any mortal wounds.

Dark Angels strategies - "Repent! For tomorrow you die!"

A Dark Angels army plays in a very similar way to most Space Marines armies as they are made of well balanced units with high resistance and effective combat abilities. However, the Dark Angels special units tend to add more depth to this balance creating the possibilities to bring to the battlefield very different type of armies. In a way, the Dark Angels can allow a player to deploy a balanced Space Marine army, a pure Deathwing or Ravenwing based army or a mixed of these three.

This last version is the most intriguing possibility to use the Dark Angels as a player can exploit a core of regular Space Marines, surrounded by fast-moving Ravenwing units, and ultra-resilient Terminator Deathwing units. This flexibility is greatly increased in Warhammer 10th edition with respect to the 9th edition as all peculiarities of the 1st and 2nd Company are captured in their data-sheets. At the same time, it should be noted that Ravenwing and Deathwing abilities do not come cheap.

Last but not least, the Dark Angels have a massive selection of characters to provide plenty of way to add unique buffs to your units. This list not only include some classic and well know characters together with a few new ones but it also provides very interesting HQ options for the Ravenwing and Deathwing. Above all, the list of characters includes the Dark Angels Primarch, Lion El'Jonson, finally awaken from his slumber. The Lion is not only an amazing miniature to see on the battlefield but he comes with very powerful abilities that can be changed at the beginning of each turn. Considering he also benefits from the Lone Operative ability as far as he is within 3" of one or more friendly Adeptus Astartes Infantry units, he can survive long enough to unleash all his power onto the enemies of the Emperor.