So Dark Angels just hit and it’s making a few people use space marines in new ways. Even if you don’t want to play dark angels you’ll probably have to play against them in the coming months a few more times than you’re used too.
Here is a quick rundown of a few things I like and hate about the latest edition of feather hoody marines.
Like
1. Sammael is now allowed to play with the other members of the bicycle gang with his newly added independent character status.
2. Ezekiel is no longer the Grand Master Librarian of Mastery level 1s. And Dark Angel Librarians have access to all but one of the schools of magi… psychic disciplines
3. There is in fact a dedicated biker command squad that is built to boost your army with great banner options. Plus attached independent characters can scout now.
4. Basic infantry got great points re-costing along with all getting flakk missile options.
5. Ravenwing Grenade Launchers causing plasma instant death to paladins near you.
6. Both versions of Black Knights having unique and different weapons. Plus I’m digging the implications of skilled rider.
7. Weird and goofy war gear that makes your custom characters boost your army, literally bounce off of things, give invulnerable saves out like candy to friend and foe alike, assault plasma cannon, and blinding mechanics.
8. Dark shroud floating around yelling you can’t see me or my friends.
9. Fully integrated codex and universal special rules making all units have fluffy and effective combat roles.
10. Beautiful full color artwork spread around the book
Cool fact: Put this codex flush with the right side of the new Chaos one
Hate (RANT ON)
1. Fallen fluff reduced to Dark Angels quietly punching their skeletons back into their closet. Very very few instances where they hint at Luther not being a total characterless douche and having a reason to revolt besides CHAOS MAKES YOU FEEL GOooooD.
2. Ravenwing command squad is limited to 3 members, has to buy the apothecary for those three members, and all other upgrades making them astronomically expensive. Even if I wanted to just buy the basic Ravenwing Banner which is pretty cheap, the unit instantly becomes a priority target because everyone is just going to think it’s the one that gives salvo and start thinking “KILL IT WITH FIRE”. I don’t know how I plan to use them yet, but they are basically a 6 point cheaper black knight unit if you go un-upgraded. Side note Blade of Caliban is the worst power weapon I’ve ever seen especially compared to the stupid Halberd of Something which is in fact not unwieldy for some reason.
3. Min squads of tactical marines having access to heavy or special weapons kind of makes me annoyed because spam lists are fun for people who don’t enjoy playing the game. I know they and all the old dexs have had this option in the past, I’m just a big fan of the standard Tact squads and the balanced choices it makes you make.
4. No option to attach the attack bike to the Ravenwing Attack Squadrons means easy first blood. You can outflank the attack bike separately now which is a bonus but I would have liked the option to at least tuck it into a squad if I wanted too. The speeder isn’t scoring but that has been the case for a while now because of the FAQ.
5. Nephilim Jet Fighter…….. What’s it fighting?.... BALLOONS! It’s alright to make a fighter a kind of jackknife unit that’s not the best at any one thing, but GW propped this thing up on an anti-flyer pedestal and failed to deliver (read the fluff and model description). I could compare it to a Vendetta or Nightscyths but that would just be just unfair so let’s try a Blood Angels Stormraven which is only 20 points more. In one shooting phase Derp fight pumps out a twin linked heavy bolter, twin-linked lascannon (megabolter is a trap unless you’re fighting xenos and or only heavy weapon teams), and 2 str 6 ap 4 missiles. Storm bird is twin-linked Multi-Melta, twin-linked lascannon, and 2 str 8 ap 1 missiles. Storm bird has +1 armour facing on all sides, immune to melta rule, and transport capacity. I know it’s a vacuum comparison, but come on 20 point difference are you kidding me.
6. Land Speeder Vengeance. So 140 points for a land speeder with a cool gun you say… neat…. Wait wait wait is it anything else……. NO. Literally you’re paying 90 points for the privilege of equipping a gun with a built in balancing flaw to a basic land speeder. If you shoot in the blast mode only it might not kill itself before the end of the game assuming your opponent doesn’t shoot at it. If you want a large blast ap 2 weapon take a vindicator which is CHEAPER and better in all ways save speed (which only has 6” more of threat distance). The Jink save, even if boosted by a nearby shroud, in 6th edition does not make up for the crap the Vengeance is.
7. The dark shroud only having one upgrade. I get it’s supposed to be a support vehicle but it would have been hilarious if it had been allowed to take search lights.
“Hey Jim is that shadow shining a light at us”
“Yes it is Bob, yes it is”
“Should we kill it?”
“Is it hurting you?”
“No”
“Then ignore it!”
“BUT IT’S FREAKING ME OUT”
8. All but one of the special characters have forced warlord traits and they really aren’t that great. Of course the one that doesn’t gets to pick his which is pretty fabulous, but the rest will probably need another HQ to be the warlord if you want to get access to actually useful army buffs. Also why didn’t dark angels get their own psychic table, chaos got 4! Instead Ezekiel gets one nifty power and standard librarians don’t have any neat unique powers. ALSO Heroes Shroud why are you dumb?
9. No flak missiles on anything but the basic missile launcher. It’s is almost like they were thinking there would be some kind of good anti-flyer FLYER unit in the codex. Whirlwind missile upgrades would have been nice but people making rumors often come up with better ideas then what we get.
10. So I just paid $50 for a finished product that is full of typos in both fluff and rules. This is a rules game, I can let slide a misspelled description in one of the timeline bubbles (hell there’s probably a few in this article but that’s because I’m lazy and not being paid), if you can’t write the rules right your delivering a shit product. Things like Rapid fire weapons only being rapid fire in half of their weapon profiles, people having iron halos in one place but not another, Command squad getting access to super-secret banners that don’t exist in this book, and non-blast weapons not having to deviate with their blasts should not exist in a book that looks as pretty as this one.
…….. Alright that should it for now. So what are things you like and hate about the new book?