In this section we will look at the Dark Angel Space Marine armies heavy support choices.
General Tactics
The legendary stubbornness of the Dark Angel army has made them excellent heavy support army. For
example it is not unusual to see a single heavy weapon Dark Angel Devastator standing alone passing
leadership test after leadership test adding covering fire for the rest of the army long after other Space
Marines would have run.
Dark Angel Devastator Squad Tactics
I do tend to use the Dark Angel Devastator
Squads frequently in my Dark Angel armies. This is because I tend to having more static shooting
tactics when playing the Dark Angels. The Dark Angel Devastator Squads add a big punch for the points
cost.
Gun Lines
One popular tactic for the Dark Angel army is to form a Gun Line, or massed long ranged fire infantry
men entrenched waiting for the enemy to appear. The idea is to think the advancing enemy down to nothing before
they can launch an assault.
Dark Angel Land Raider Tactics
My Dark Angel Land Raider tactics center
around one word - 'Taxi!'. As the Dark Angel Land Raider is not attacked to any squad, you can use it
to transport any squad that can fit in and ferry them across the battle field safely, or come and
rescue squads that are getting in to difficulties.
The Land Raider has an armour value of 14 all around. This means that you do not have to be so careful
about the direction your Land Raider is facing during the game.
Dark Angel Land Raider Crusader Tactics
The Land Raider Crusader trades fire power for capacity. This makes the Land Raider Crusader the
only reasonable choice for a HQ transport if you have a Terminator armoured squad.
Be aware that the Dark Angel Land Raider works out slightly cheaper than the standard
Space Marine Land Raider, as the multi-melter is included in the Dark Angel version, and an extra
on the Codex Space Marine Land Raider.
The Space Marine Predator can be configured
either as a anti-tank / monstrous creatures killing tank, as a anti-personnel / swarm army killing tank,
or as a mix of the two.
As the configuration of the Predator tank is flexible you will benefit from knowing as much about
the opponent as possible before you write up your army list. Usually I go for one of the two special list
configurations rather than trying to cover two many bases, to the point where I would take two different Predators
over taking one mixed role Predator.
Dark Angel Whirlwind Tactics
The Dark Angel Whirlwind is very similar to the
standard Space Marine Whirlwind. That is to say that the Whirlwind is an ordinance weapon and uses the 5"
blast template. The missiles that the Whirlwind fires are strength four or five. These do not
usually have enough punch to take out armour do you will want to target troops and softer targets.
Note that the armour on the Whirlwind is thinner than the Predator and Vindicator so you may want
to take advantage of the Barrage special rule and keep the Whirlwind behind cover as far as possible.
Dark Angel Vindicator Tactics
The Space Marine Vindicator is armed with the
Demolisher Cannon. This is a 24" ordinance weapon. This makes the Vindicator quite a short range compared
to the other tanks. This is made up for by the demolisher's high strength. The Vindicator does work well
in semi-densely covered battle tables (city fight and jungle fight etc.).