Horus Heresy Review: Dark Angels Legion Rules

Background Material Evaluation.

As my long term readers know all too well, I have a soft spot for the Dark Angels, as well as owning a couple of ancient Death Wing terminators that have not seen action in a very long time on the table top. Overall, I am somewhat pleased with the revised rules for the Dark Angels compared to the older version. 

As the First Legion, the Dark Angels are pictured as being one of the most prominent legions in the early Crusade and the Emperor's personal army. They therefore became a template for the other legions yet to come. But more than that: they had access to all the old weapons from the Old Night that the latter legions did not (and instead relied on the Martian pact for armaments). Thus, the First Legion, have access to a wide array of weapons to use. Although losses in the Crusade would see the Sons of Horus become more important later one, the First Legion were a great threat to Horus in the Heresy: so much so that the Night Lords were sent almost in entirety to keep them at bay. Unsuccessfully. Overall, the Legion is portrayed as very technologically capable, combined with a ruthless attitude to warfare and some sinister secret keeping.

Legion Rules Review.

The rules presented in Crusade over-write the older rules presented in Retribution.

The first thing to note is that one of the main rules -- Covenant of Death -- has been eliminated. The dropping of the older "Covenant of Death" rule is a shame as I rather liked it, but otherwise, the newer rules are okay. 

Their main rule though is a good one in principle. Mastery of the Blade means that they strike at 3+ to hit in close combat when using something that has a blade. Like a combat blade. Or chainsword. Or power sword. Or anything sword-like. They do like their swords! This is great when one is facing off against another legion (as is common in both 30k and 40k games). But it doesn't apply all the time. Only when the enemy is also at the same WS. Hence its not applicable all the time, but does give the legion a solid edge! Doubly so in a mirror match against other legions. 

Inviolate and Alone is the new semi-negative rule that is replacing Covenant of Death from Retribution. It means that the Dark Angels never gain any Leadership bonuses from sources other than Dark Angels characters and units. Strictly, this is a less severe drawback compared to the old Covenant of Death one. 

I think its also a missed opportunity. I would have liked to have seen some of the Scion rules points cost reduced in favour of retaining the old rule. Can't have everything though. 

Scions of the Hexagrammaton is the final new rules here which allows characters to select some bonuses. We will have a look at these in a moment. 

Wargear. 

The Dark Angels are known to have stock piles of weapons from the Old Night. They therefore have access to the Terran Greatsword (not that great to be honest, unless you're fighting mechanicum monstrous creatures). The Calibanite Warblade is nice in the sense you get it for the same cost as a power sword, but it gets S+1 which is a very nice bonus. Take it if you were going to take a power sword, simply put! 

The Plasma Repeater should be an awesome weapon. But unless its on a Support Squad mounted in a rhino, its really short range means that you're going to be taking a plasma gun most of the time in preference to a plasma repeater. 

Stasis Shells are actually really good as they can downgrade an enemies abilities through merely hitting them (was -1I and -1WS, but now just the -1I penalty). 

Molecular Acid Shells were totally worth it and almost a must-have in the previous iteration of the rules for this legion. Now they have fleshbane only, and its a bit more of a question as to whether they are worthwhile. I'm on the fence a little bit. 

Scions of the Hexagrammaton.

Any Dark Angels Characters or Independent Characters can take one of the following options. As stated above, I think some of these are wasted opportunities, and further: some of the rules are simply not worth the points cost. Let's have a look at them.

Scion of the Stormwing: Snap shots with BS=2 is, on paper, alright, but also very situational. I'm not sure how many snap shots people make every game, but for me it might be a couple of times per game. Can you predict which unit might take advantage of it? Possibly heavy support squads would get a benefit from it, as might truly front line terminators. Ones with Volkites are also probably going to do well here. My overall thought is that this is somewhat worth it, but only for select units. 

Scion of the Deathwing: I'm sorry, this is bad. Re-rolling the first failed to-hit roll of a challenge in any phase is just terrible. It is very situational, and simply not worth the cost. For the price, I'd expect at least +1 attack. Don't take it. Save the points.

Scion of the Dreadwing: This is okay, but probably over-priced. The ability to always move 4" through terrain is nice -- and above average. Re-rolling dangerous terrain checks is also nice, but dependent on the battlefield. Just about okay, but still marginally over-priced in my mind. 

Scion of the Ironwing: Crew shaken becoming crew stunned is nice on paper. That is, until one considers the extent of, and price of, extra armour for vehicles. Not worth it at all. 

Scion of the Firewing: Hatred of characters is actually okay -- doubly so given it spreads through the unit.

Scion of the Ravenwing:  Re-rolls of run, fall back, or thrust distances sounds okay to me. But then again, you would probably be running a dedicated Raven Wing army if you were thinking of this, so maybe better to take other option / rites of war unless you have a dedicated Raven Wing rite of war in play?

Scions of the Hekatonystika.

As well as being members of the Hexagrammaton, characters can also belong to different cults within the legion. Little wonder then that Horus' attempts to have the lodges imposed within the Dark Angels failed. That said, these options are also expensive and generally not quite worth it in the same way that the above options are poor. 

Augurs of Weakness: adding +1S to weapons when facing AV>10 is actually very nice. Pity is doesn't spread to other members of the unit though. Could be nice on a heavy support character. 

Icons of Resolve: +1A when charged at is fine, but not worth the points cost. 

Guardians of Sanctity: Better deny the witch rolls is nice. This will be worth it on your legion librarians, but few others. Are you obeying the Emperor though with taking librarians?

Slayers of Kings: Re-rolling 1's to hit in challenges. But only against WS>4. Meh. 

Hunters of Beasts: Re-rolling 1's to wound vs. T=5 or re-rolling every failed wounding roll against T>5 is actually nice. Best to put this on a close combat character for full effect. Slightly expensive, but could be totally amazing given the opportunity.

Reapers of Hosts: +1A when in base-to-base with more than one enemy is fine, but over-costed. 

Breakers of Witches: Re-rolling all hit and wounds against those pesky psykers is actually really good. That is, if you are facing off against them. Perhaps you have a daemons player in your gaming group? Or Thousand Sons? If so, this will be great. 

 

Summing up.

There are lots of options here, many are not quite worth the points. The Dark Angels are the basis for many space marine legions that would follow, and they can emulate (with rites of wars) what many others are capable of (e.g., can certainly give White Scars a run for their money on speed, and can have their own death star units with some nice bonuses), but other legions are much more specialised. They have many positive aspects, but some can come across as being vanilla. Players will need to carefully select and build their Dark Angels armies with a specific type of outcome in mind (e.g., build a fast, speeding list like the White Scars, or take a lot of bolts, rad, and plasma to lay waste to a battle field like Death Guard, etc.). Caveat Emptor.