7th Edition Dark Angels Codex rumour roundup
28 June 2015 | 7th Edition
The new face of Dark Angels.
Image Games Workshop.
For those who like to open their Christmas presents before the big day… this is for you! If you don't then don't click on the images below. Note that these are big images so not so good for those of you on 3G/4G rather than WiFi.
++ Note that all pre-release leaked images have now been taken down as the Codex was officialy released on the 27th June ++
A few notes:
General comments
Points reductions throughout the new codex which is great. Deathwing units cheaper for instance — not by much but it all helps.
The introduction into our Armoury of Grav weapons. This has got to be good as they have become the go-to weapon for Marines since their creation.
Overwatch buff on the Lion's Blade formation is really nice and in my view is totally in line with our stoic, strategic way of waging war.
There are plenty of new formations to get to grips with. Some will be good, some average and some maybe never used at all.
First impressions: so far pretty excellent in most respects with a few niggles here and there.
Deathwing Strike Force detachment
ALL units in this detachment must be placed in "Deep Strike Reserve". This obviously means included Deathwing squads cannot take Land Raiders of any type as dedicated transports as those vehicles cannot deep strike. Now, this could be as the rules-writers intended, or, an FAQ is required pretty smartly to resolve this. My guess is that this is what was intended: a purely deep-striking assault detachment, and it pretty much spells this out in the detachment's introductory text.
I've no issues with this otherwise. Being able to take three HQs is pretty neat too.
Edit: looking more closely, both the Deathwing Redemption Force and the Deathwing Strike Force must start from Deep Strike Reserve. So the use of Land Raiders as dedicated transports is forbidden for them too. The entire Deathwing Redemption Force arrives on one turn, 2, 3, or 4. The Deathwing Strike Force's mechanic uses regular reserve rules and allows 50% of any Venerable Dreadnoughts in their drop pods to come in on the first turn (using Drop Pod Assault) to save you from an automatic loss. But if you don't take podded Ven Dreads, nor have any Ravenwing in your army (to buff the Deathwing Strike Force's reserve rules), then you need something else on the table at the end of T1 to prevent the auto loss. It looks like the days of fielding an all-DW Terminator army are over! Unless one goes Unbound of course.
Wargear
The Displacer Field and the Power Field Generator are both gone.
The three discrete Sacred Standards have gone. They have been replaced with just one generic rule covering them all in what seems like a retrograde step back to the 4th Edition codex.
Mace of Absolution now AP3.
Blacksword Missiles now Str7 AP3 with Missile Lock.
Vehicles
Deathwing Vehicle rule has gone.
36 inch range Plasma Storm Battery compared to the 24 inch in current codex.
Ravenwing Attack squadron formation
Interesting changes. You can field either Bikes or Attack bike squadrons, together with one Land Speeder or one Vengeance. It would seem that the Speeder has been forced into the limelight here, becoming the single support vehicle, a role once fulfilled by the lone Attack bike. I quite like this change, maybe because I'm just glad Attack bike squadrons are back.
Other items
Well there are plenty of other details to mull over. Haven't really paid to much attention to the Warlord Traits, Tactical objectives or psychic powers as of yet. But the Interromancy Discipline does seem a pretty interesting collection of psychic powers for us to get to grips with. I do particularlty like Trephination as a way of sniping enemy HQs and MCs. It's shortish on range and the 2D6+2 gives an average of 9 to subtract Leadership from. As most targets are (probably) going to be Ld9 or 10 or cetainly high, some good throwing is going to be required to pile on the wounds. The only good thing is that cover and armour saves can't be taken, but invulnerable saves can.
To be updated
