This week Games Workshop are releasing all of the Index Datasheet packs for every single faction in the game! Today is the turn of the various Space Marine chapters, and in this post we’ll be looking at the Dark Angels!

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for giving us access to the rules a little early, and you can download them right now off WarCom!

If you would like to support the site then why not order your Dark Angels through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We also have a whole raft of 40k 10th Edition and Leviathan content up, so be sure to check it out here on the site or on YouTube!

Unforgiven Task Force Detachment

So what do the Dark Angels bring to the party from an Army Rule point of view compared to other Space Marine chapters? Like other chapters they have full access to any Space Marine unit in the main Space Marine Datasheets, but cannot take anything with the keyword of a different chapter.

Their bonus for taking the Unforgiven Task Force (Which is currently the only detachment, more will come with the Codex when it is released in January) is pretty good – when they fail battleshock their OC becomes 1 rather than 0, which may catch out people expecting to take an objective off you!

Unforgiven Task Force Enhancements

We get some really nice enhancements for the Dark Angels

Shroud of Heroes is an upgrade that means that if the hero is destroyed it returns with 3 wounds at the end of the phase on a roll of 2+. This is awesome, but what’s even better is that if the bearer was battleshocked at the point they are slain then they instead return with full wounds. Nice wa of making your important characters stick around a little longer

Leaning into the “We fight even harder when we’re battleshocked” vibe the Dark Angels have is the Stubborn Tenacity enhancement which gives the bearer’s unit +1 to hit if below starting strength and +1 to wound if battleshocked

Similar is the Heavenfall Blade which increases strength, attacks and damage by 1 but increases this to +2 if battleshocked

Finally, Pennant of Redemption gives a unit 6+ feel no pain which increases to 4+ if battleshocked.

There’s a really interesting mechanic here where you want those units to get battleshocked in order to maximise these abilities, but I’m going to have to play a few games before I know if this will work reliably.

Unforgiven Task Force Stratagems

So onto the Stratagems, and don’t forget these replace the core Space Marine ones as you are taking a different detachment!

Like the return fire reaction from Horus Heresy? Well the Dark Angels have been kicking around since then and still have a few old tricks! Grim Retribution is used when you lose a model from a shooting attack, and for a bargain 1 CP let’s you shoot back! What’s even better is that this is at your base BS too!

Unbreakable Lines is used in the enemy charge phase to reduce the damage of incoming attacks by 1 (though I’ve had this confirmed that all damage reduction abilities are to a minimum of 1 – theres no way to reduce something to 0 damage)

Unforgiven Fury gives a unit lethal hits, and if a unit in your army is Battleshocked then they get critical hits on a 5+ (which in turn triggers the lethal hits) – Again there is a real focus on getting your own units Battleshocked.

Armour of Contempt is back! Dark Angels get this as a stratagem which is triggered in the opponents shooting phase and worsens their AP by 1!

Intractable is pretty straight forward, it allows you to fall back and shoot and charge, which is pretty handy!

Fire Discipline is really good and gives any Astartes unit Assault, Heavy and Ignores Cover on their weapons, which opens up lots of cool possibilities!

Key Units

Well we have to include The Lion here! He was pretty awesome in 9th edition, and he’s still crazy good now! Packing a 2+ save and a 3+ invulnerable save he’s pretty resilient already, but on top of this the enemy gets -1 to wound against him and any save of a 6 bounces back a mortal wound. In combat the guy is an absolute power house, with a choice of 8 S12 AP -4 damage 4 attacks or 16 (sustained hits) S6 AP -3 Damage 2 he is versatile to put into any target and cause some serious pain!

Ravenwing Command Squads are pretty cool as a fast unit with OC3 per model (with a banner) and the ability to bring back a slain model each turn – can see these being amazing objective grabbers!

Deathwing Command are very similar, with OC2 and the returning model ability from the Ravenwing – Sadly theres no way to make bikes or teminators battleline, but that may come in the Dark Angels Codex.

Keep your eyes peeled throughout the week for more faction focus posts!