Space Marines and Dark Angels Wish List

So this blog has kind of evolved into me using it as announcement space for tournaments and leagues. It originally started off as a place for me to post about my 40k escapades, from painting to battle reports. Well this post is going to be the latter.

More after the break!

I've just picked up the Space Marine codex from Huzzah today. While it has been leaked for a few days(so I already kind of read it) I took a bit of a closer look at it today. And it's pretty much just tweaks and points adjustments to units. Eviscerators in assault squads seem like a cool idea. Them still being 17 points (14 points base and then 3 points for a jump pack) means no one will continue to take them. But for those beer and pretzel nights and such the tweaks will help immensely.

Though at a tournament you'll pretty much see the same stuff with a few new additions. Bikers, though they are becoming less prevalent because of the change to jink in 7th edition, Tigerius, Centurion Devastators and a few of the formations. Centurion Devastators got a points reduction for Emperor knows why. Pod marines will come back with a vengeance. The Gladius Strike Force Combi-Detachment makes it so if you take two Battle Demi-Company Formations (one must be taken with a Captain and the other must be taken Chaplain) you get free transports for the squads in the Demi-Companies, oh AND objective secured is given to the Battle Demi-Company as a formation rule. Its going to be insane. It might be so good that it could win NOVA this year. The other formation that you'll probably see in a Wolf Star is the Librarius conclave. 3-5 Librarians (and one of them can be Tigurius) that can share their known powers and let one librarian "channel" the powers. If 1 Librarians from the formation is within 12" of the casting Librarian, the casting Librarian harnesses powers on a 3+. If 2 or more Librarians from the formation are within 12" of the casting Librarian, the Casting Librarian harnesses powers on a 2+. Yeah that's right, a 2+.  Oh and if you didn't notice, that's a MUCH better version of the Dark Angels Librarius Conclave formation that came out a while ago. Even though Space Marines are coming out before Dark Angels in 7th edition, they still had to steal one more cool thing the Dark Angels have.

Which leads me to the whole point of this post. Dark Angels. Rumor has it they're the next codex to come out and this is the first time since I've been playing the game (3.5 edition) that Space Marines are coming out BEFORE Dark Angels. That's a pretty big deal as what usually happens is that Dark Angels will get something cool/nifty and then Space Marines come out and just straight up take it or make it better (the Librarius Conclave is a perfect example of this). So this is kind of a wish list that I'd like to see in the new codex. I know most of these won't come true but a man can hope can't he?

In no particular order my wish list for Dark Angels

1. Special Rules - Stubborn is pretty redundant when you have And They Shall Know No Fear. Honestly just take it away, make it so we overwatch on BS2 or something as we'll never give up objectives. Intractable was a terrible rule in 3.5, but was a cool concept. Something like that. I'm okay with Inner Circle (Fearless and Preferred enemy(CSM)) on our ICs and Deathwing. That's fluffy. But our base marines and Ravenwing don't need stubborn with ATSKNF. Also while we're at it, don't make it Chapter Tactics (Dark Angels). I would like to mix and match stuff from other Space Marine codexes. But with the change to Chapter Tactics (if you have a unit of Ultramarines and a Black Templar IC joins, you lose both of their Chapter Tactics while they're in a unit) I'm sure you'll see this rule in all upcoming Space Marine codexes. 
2. Thunder Fire Cannons -  This one is pretty much a pipe dream because we didn't get it last time. But hot damn do I want them in an Unforgiven army. Hell Space Marines can keep their +1 Ballistic Skill if you take 3 in a squadron rule. Just to have access to this is a game changer for the DA. Also if we do get this I'd like to also throw in my wish of having a base BS 5 and 2 wounds for the Techmarine gunner, just like the new Space Marine Techmarines.
3. Vehicles - I'd like to see the Hunter/Stalker in the Dark Angels book. There really isn't a reason that they are not other than that they came out BEFORE the 6th edition Space Marine Codex. Also the change to the Stalker's main weapon is, wow I like it.
4. Vehicle Squadron Special Rules - We're probably not going to get TFCs like I said before. But we'll continue to have Whirlwinds and Vindicators. I think it'd be cool as hell to also have the squadron rules that the Space Marine ones get. If we don't get TFCs and we get the squadron rules for these vehicles, I'm going to be taking 3 Whirlwinds in a squadron in every list. Pinning and shred on a 65 point vehicle is just too good to say no to.
5. Flyers - I'm going to point out the obvious here. Our flyers suck. Flat out suck. They're more expensive than Storm Talons (which got a points reduction on their Skyhammer Missiles. . . .) and don't do nearly the amount of damage as one. Which by the way they're 30% cheaper than our cheapest flyer is. We also are the ONLY Space Marines without access to a Flying Transport. So my wish has a lot of parts to it. 
• Stormraven - I would love to have this in my army. I own 2 of these. One for my Grey Knights and one for my Marine army. If I could finally paint one of these in either Dark Angels Green or Deathwing I would be extremely happy.
• Nephilim Jetfighter - Make this our actual Anti-Tank/Flyer. Right now this flyer is better at removing light infantry than the Darktalon, which is our anti-infantry flyer. Make it so instead of heavy bolters base we have Assault Cannons. Make it so the Blacksword Missiles are S8 not S6. Also make the missiles AP1-3, them being AP4 is a joke. Make the avenger mega bolter rending. Make it 40-60 points cheaper to match the Storm Talon. If you have to give it HP2 to do that, so be it. Just fix this unit.
• Ravenwing Darktalon - Make this our actual Anti-Infantry unit. Yeah it kind of works versus extremely light infantry, I've only played with it a handful of times. But it just needs a massive points reduction (I'm talking 60ish points) and maybe some weapon upgrades. In this day and age of scatbikers, two hurricane bolters and a blind test is kind of meh. Though the stasis bomb is kind of nice.
6. Company Veterans - This needs to be our actual Stern Guard and Vanguard Veteran unit. I know the fluff is that Stern/Vanguard are from the first company so we don't get them because we have the Deathwing. But our Company Veterans are kind of meh. 
7. Deathwing - Speaking of the Deathwing, these guys need a points reduction. Base Space Marine Terminators are now 35 points. If you made them base 35 points I would be so happy. They wouldn't be owning the tabletop, but I might actually consider taking a unit of these. I'd also like to see that points drop happen to the Deathwing Knights. They're such a cool looking model and I absolutely love to play with them. They're just really high in points. Oh and one last thing with the Deathwing, MAKE IT SO THAT I CAN HAVE MY DEATHWING SERGEANTS TRADE IN THEIR POWER SWORD AND STORM BOLTER FOR ANOTHER WEAPON SET LIKE THE REST OF THE DEATHWING!!!! Its really aggravating to have a unit of TH/SS terminators and still only have a PS/SB on my Sergeant.
8. Ravenwing - Points reduction. Please please please don't charge each biker 5 points for a teleport homer. Please just either give it to us for free or give us an option to take them on the bikers. If you want to play with mass bikers White Scars is still better to play with than Ravenwing. So a points reduction is needed to actually make it a choice you have to think about, White Scars or Ravenwing? Also why is the Ravenwing Command Squad cheaper than Ravenwing Black Knights? Make them cheaper, both of them.





9. Land Speeders - Our special land speeders are cool. I will give them that. I've been using the Dark Shroud in our league and I like it a lot. I don't like the points of it though. A base 80 points seems reasonable, but 20 points for a NON-Twinlinked Assault Cannon is a bit steep on a 2 HP vehicle that is just jinking all the time because people dislike it giving a Stealth buff to units around it. Speaking of Jinking and 2 HP, fix the Land Speeder Vengeance. This thing can HP itself out due to gets hot. . . Make it so you don't gets hot! Also a points adjustment is a must for both units as well.
10. Grav Weapons - I know that this is all but confirmed as the pictures on GW's website shows a base Dark Angels Marine with a Grav-Cannon, but until I see it in the actual codex I'm still going to put it on this list.
11. Centurions - I've got kind of a mixed feeling about these. I'd like to see them in Dark Angels but I'd understand if we don't get them to make us a little different than a base Space Marine. But being the first Legion I feel we should get them as well.
12. Special Characters - Our characters have a lot of, well, character in the fluff. But you couldn't tell that on the table top. The only one that I've grown to really like is Sam, and that's because he has an AP2 sword that goes on Initiative. That's pretty beastly. Azrael is good because of his 4++ he gives to his unit, so he can get a lot of synergy from other books and such. Belial is okay. When I was taking him I would take him with Thunderhammer and Storm Shield because that would give him the best chance to survive during the game. Ezekial and Asmodai I don't know. If they could take a bike or terminator armour that would be sweet and I could find a use for them. Until then, they're kind of just left sitting in a display case.
13. Headquarters - Make it so if any generic Captain/Chaplain/Interrogator-Chaplain/Librarian that takes either Terminator Armor or a Bike can make Deathwing or Ravenwing troops. We could do it in 3.5, Space Marines can do it now (at least with bikers), why can't we do it now? It makes no sense that the Master of the Deathwing/Ravenwing/Chapter is at every battle to make them troops. I was really hopeful in 6th edition that they would bring this back, but I was disappointed. Don't disappoint me again GW.
14. Scouts - Make them BS/WS 4 to match the Space Marine Scouts. I think this will happen, but still until I see it in the new codex it's going on this list. 
15. Formations - I want some cool Ravenwing/Deathwing formations. I know they'll get some as every new book is getting them. I just hope they're usable like Eldar/Marines/Necrons and not like Khorne Daemonkin. Something like a Ravenwing Hunting Force where its 3-5 Ravenwing units and some flyers/landspeeders. A Deathwing Capturing force where if you're playing CSM and they kill the opposing Warlord you get extra points because you've "captured" him to take him back to the Rock to extract information out of him. Stuff like that, that if I ever decide to play a fluffy game I wouldn't feel bad taking it, and if I'm playing in a tournament that I can at least use one formation that is really good. 

I'm sure there's more that I could add to it. I just can't think of them at the moment. But I honestly do think the Dark Angels codex is in a good spot right now. Most of the changes that need to be done is points reductions across the board. Now I won't be complaining if any of my wishes actually do make it into the codex ;)

Until next time guys! Happy gaming and FOR THE LION!