Codex Dark Angels

Attention all Space Marines players! The future of Space Marines is written in Codex Dark Angels.

Curious Codex

Codex Dark Angels is a very curious thing. The previous Codex Dark Angels (for third edition Warhammer 40,000) was a slim volume which listed only the changes from the Codex Astartes, i.e. the ways in which this chapter deviates from a regular Space Marines chapter. To build an army you would need both Codex Dark Angels and Codex Space Marines. This time Codex Dark Angels stands alone (ha ha, "We Stand Alone!"). All of the normal Space Marines stuff is included in the book. And this is what is so curious, because the Dark Angels specific bits are almost negligible, but the normal Space Marines bits are wildly different from Codex Space Marines!

Thus we have the wierd situation that a more-or-less codex army built using Codex Dark Angels would be quite different to one built using Codex Space marines. Not only that, but Codex Dark Angels severely restricts options compared to Codex Space Marines, and most things are also more expensive in points. As a result, the exact same army built with Codex Dark Angels would be more expensive than one built using Codex Space Marines, but in any case many regular Space Marine armies simply could not be built at all.

I hope I'm getting my point across and not confusing the reader. The point is that the Dark Angels chapter is more or less a standard chapter following the Codex Astartes, so the army list options for the two should be very similar. But the radical parts of the new codex are not the Dark Angels specific parts, but the other stuff. They clearly reflect a new thinking in GW HQ and in due course I am sure Codex Space Marines will be revised. But what an odd way to do it! Surely the first new Codex Space Marines for fourth edition Warhammer 40,000 was the perfect opportunity to revise the Space Marines army! Anyway...

Why is that a problem?

Now we have an 'awkward' situation. Firstly, no-one is going to play Dark Angels in a tournament or competitive situation, and basically that will put off most people from collecting Dark Angels. Secondly, everyone who has recently built a regular Space Marines army from Codex Space Marines should feel nervous, because if these changes are carried through into a 'redux' Codex Space Marines, and that would seem to be inevitable, then your army is about to become obsolete. Again.

I'm beginning to think it's best to avoid collecting Space Marines altogether. You are much safer with a less popular choice, like my beloved Necrons. Games Workshop wrote a Necron codex and produced some nice models, then nothing happened for years. That means you can get on and build an army to the codex book and plan your model purchases, knowing that it won't become obsolete as soon as you've finished building your army. But with Space Marines, they are fiddling all the time. It has become very hard to plan an army.

The Golden Eagles

My son's army is a good example, the Golden Eagles. He built his following the release of Codex Space Marines, with a bit of help from me. It represents th army I would build if I didn't already have an investment in other chapters. He has a tactical squad in a drop pod, a scout squad with sniper rifles, a dreadnought, three Land Speeder Tornadoes and an HQ with jump packs. He complained that he had just finished his metal scouts when GW released plastic scouts with sniper rifles. We weren't expecting that release, and it's an example of one reason why it is hard to plan an army, although a minor point.

Anyway, using the new Space Marines thinking from Codex Dark Angels, Matthew's army is just not possible. For a start, it would be more expensive, because GW have corrected the errors with drop pods and assault cannons by making them much more expensive. Secondly, you can't take scouts as a Troops choice, so Matthew would need to add another tactical squad. Third, squad size would now have to be standardised on five and ten man squads. Some of the wargear options are now no longer legal, e.g. Iron Halo for the army commander. And according to Codex Dark Angels, you can't have three Land Speeder Tornados unless they are three Fast Attack choices, you just can't have a squadron of Tornados (despite Dark Angels being famous for their Ravenwing fast attack troops!).

In other words, Matthew's army would need to be completely redesigned from scratch.

Collecting Dark Angels

Consider this example which should be familiar to anyone who has been playing for a few years: I started collecting Dark Angels at version two of Warhammer 40,000. I bought the codex book "Angels of Death". Now this book included both Blood Angels AND Dark Angels in a single book. For me this was ok, because I was collecting both, but I can see how it could be annoying to anyone just collecting one of the two chapters. There weren't many chapter special rules, it was mainly background, colour scheme, etc. with a definite leaning to a firebase type army, for a reason that has never been clear.

Anyway, with third edition Warhammer 40,000 you could use the temporary generic Space Marines list in the rulebook until the Dark Angels codex was released, but in fact Codex Space Marines was released at the same time so I bought that. In any case you had to buy another book and build a new army. I didn't object, because I thought third edition was a far superior game to second edition.

Later, Codex Dark Angels was released which meant buying another book and again redesigning the army. This time it was released as a supplement to Codex Space Marines so you needed both books. The army was not very popular because it had some uncompetitive new rules, specifically the infamous 'intractable' rule which meant that on a 1 in 6 a unit could not move. This compared very badly with the previously released Codex Blood Angels that also had a 1 in 6 rule but actually worked for them not against them (plus they had the Death Company and other cool stuff like Honour Guard with jump packs - no surprise that Blood Angels became very popular).

After a while, GW tried to boost the Dark Angels by issuing a redux or set of corrections because people just weren't using Dark Angels. That necessitated another redesign. Then came fourth edition Warhammer 40,000, which remember was just an 'update' to third edition, with only a few rules changes. However, changes were enough to necessitate another redesign. This was immediately followed by Codex Space Marines, which of course you had to buy, and another redesign.

In fact it became effectively impossible to now build a Dark Angels army using Codex Dark Angels, because there were so many layers of FAQs, corrections and adjustments. Hence I designed my new Dark Angels army using just Codex Space Marines and Chapter Traits. Remember that Dark Angels are more or less codex, much moreso than Blood Angels, and the Chapter Traits system seemed to be encouraging players to build different Space Marine armies using the one codex. Which was fine by me.

So what happens next? No sooner had I started painting up my new Dark Angels then I hear of the release of an official Codex Dark Angels, which brings us up to the present day. Another book, another redesign. And unfortunately another uncompetitive list that nobody can afford to take.

The Good News

I apologise because I'm having a bit of a rant here. The GOOD news is that Dark Angels players now have for the first time a single stand-alone book to build their army with. It's also GOOD news that it includes the latest thinking on Space Marines army design (and latest thinking on army list design in general), this means it won't become obsolete if there is a Codex Space Marines redux.

Release Schedule Problems

But like I said, the bad news is that this army will not survive against other Space Marines armies until that redux is issued, and it's also worth mentioning that fifth edition Warhammer 40,000 is now getting closer... GW have always had a five year release cycle on editions of their main rules, as a matter of company policy. Unfortunately for Dark Angels players, because ours is an army of secondary importance, GW don't get around to issuing a codex until years after the release of new editions of the rules, in other words we don't have very long to plan, build and play with the army before it becomes obsolete again (see above). All in all, I feel like a victim of GW's release schedule, not a customer.

Specific Examples of Changes in the new Codex

Let me give you specific examples...

In my previous legal Dark Angels themed army, the army was led by a Terminator Captain with a small command squad of Deathwing terminators, all in a Land Raider. I thought it was in theme to have Deathwing terminators. That is no longer legal. Why? because terminator squads are all standard five man squads now, and if led by a Captain that makes six terminators, but a Land Raider will only take five. Yes, they simply won't fit into the vehicle that is supposed to be designed for them! It's also worth mentioning that now the Captain must in fact be a named special character Belial, the Deathwing Company Master. I don't like that either, because I normally never take special characters. For me, they are special named individuals in the whole W40K universe, and I don't expect them to be commanding my little 1000 points army. In fact, with the new codex, belial DOES command my 1000 points army, becuase I had no other choice.

I've had to redesign my 1500 points army so that the terminator squad now teleports into battle and the Land Raider is instead used to transport a squad in power armour. But we continue to face problems... Command squads can also now be only five men, which is really understrength to be carried in a Land Raider (which can carry ten Space Marines in power armour). Also, I offset the expense of terminators and a Land Raider by having scouts, the sergeant of which used to carry a teleport homer to help the terminators arrive if they used Deep Strike (especially in smaller battles without the Land Raider). That is also no longer legal. The Wargear section has been removed completely, and the only troops who can carry teleport homers are bikers, in fact for these troops it's compulsory! Where's the logic in that?

I have a techmarine. How can I include him in the army? That has also changed. In Codex Space Marines he is an independent character and can therefore join other squads and ride in a transport vehicle with them. But in Codex Dark Angels he is now a unit not an independent character, so he cannot join other units. This makes it very hard to use him, especially in a close combat role.

Deathwing terminators can only have one Assault Cannon, unlike Codex Space Marines terminators who can have two. Assault cannons are also a lot more expensive (30 points instead of 20 points).

My previous army had two Drop Pods. These are also more expensive (50 points instead of 30 points). Rhinos, however, have got a lot cheaper (from 50 points to 35 points), so now it is hard NOT to have a Rhino. At 35 points with no upgrades, it almost makes sense to buy a Rhino for every unit just to use as mobile cover and a storm bolter!

In my previous list, my Troops choices were one tactical squad of ten and one scout squad. That is no longer legal. Scouts are Elites, which not only means that you must take more tactical squads but also means Scouts now compete for slots with terminators, dreadnoughts and company veterans.

In a Codex Space Marines army, you can have two five man squads each with a missile launcher or other heavy weapon. That is no longer legal. Now you can only have a heavy weapon if you take a full ten man squad.

You'll notice that all of these changes are nothing to do with Dark Angels per se, but should apply to all Space Marines chapters. Which is the point I was making earlier.

I hope you can see these are pretty big changes. The new list is in many ways better, and I think they will make better, more balanced Space Marines armies, but the point is that the Dark Angels are not an aberration, instead we are looking at changes that will happen to all Space Marines in time. If I built a new army now, it would be completely different. I would have lots of foot troops all in Rhinos, including Devastators. I would no longer recommend Land Speeder Tornadoes so heartily, nor Drop Pods, these are still good but in small numbers. Scouts snipers are still a bargain.

Dark Angels Benefits

So, what benefits do Dark Angels get to offset the huge number of disadvantages? Hmm, let me think...this is going to be a tough one... ah yes, Deathwing terminators can Deep Strike on turn one, well half of the units, rounding up. I think that's more or less it. The only other changes I can think of is some Deathwing/Ravenwing special army options, which are of no interest unless you want to build one of those specialist armies (e.g. take the Deathwing Company Master Belial and Deathwing Terminators then count as Elites AND Troops choices), also some characters and elites are now Fearless rather than just very high Leadership with "Feel No Fear".

Conclusions

OK, that's my whinge over, I feel better now. The GOOD news is, despite my moaning, I actually agree in principle with nearly all of the general Space Marines changes. They are more balanced, fairer, much more accurate to the background and make Space Marines armies look like they should. It is also much easier to build an army list. There are simply so few options now. Truthfully there were too many before, and most gamers could fine tune their armies to a ridiculous extent.

One big change is that the Wargear section has gone. You now simply cannot give characters things like artificer armour, Iron Halo, teleport homer and so on. ONLY Techmarines have artifier armour, ONLY named very senior commanders and heroes have Iron Halos. ALL Librarians carry force weapons, ALL Space Marines carry frag grenades, ALL vehicles have searchlights and smoke launchers, and so on. I tell you, this is quite a radical codex! But really, I guess that's how it should be. Well, some will like it, some not.

I am however upset because I have to keep buying new books and redesigning my army before I've even finished the last one, and I am upset that I can't play competitively with my new army, I'm also upset that the books are mainly rehashes of the same old fluff which I've read so many times before and even (they are cheeky) rehashes of extremely outdated artwork. It is good that we have a single reference work for Dark Angels armies and the changes make lists easier to build and ones that are more balanced and 'authentic'. However, once again GW treads the tightrope...

My recommendation has to be - avoid Dark Angels, go for a vanilla Space Marines chapter of your own making. You will have to buy half as many books. However, better yet don't build a Space Marines army at all, because all the signs are that they are about to change radically to follow the Blood Angels and Dark Angels. Much better to go for something less popular like Tyranids or Necrons. In any case, you might want to plan ahead and stock up on Rhinos...