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Played a game with the new Codex against Custodes yesterday. While I had ideas to test out one of the new Detachments, in the interests of simplicity on release day I just took Gladius. This would let me focus on changes to datasheets and Oath of Moment. I had Ravenwing Black Knights (including a Command Squad), Sammael, Eradicators, Inceptors, two Predators, five Deathwing Knights with a Terminator Captain, Scouts, two Infiltrator Squads, a Stormspeeder Thunderstrike and a Landspeeder Vengeance.

I certainly noticed the change to Oath, especially with the Deathwing Knights as they fought high toughness Custodes infantry and Dreadnoughts.The Predator Annihilator and Thunderstrike combo did some work early on against a Custodes tank, but the Stormspeeder then got destroyed.

The Deathwing Knights were still great, and having a rerolled changes out of Deepstrike swung the game (two Secondaries were in play with that one). The Knights and their Captain took down a Custodes Squad, a Shield Captain and two Dreadnoughts. The Terminator Captain and one Deathwing Knight were still alive at the end.

I am liking Eradicators in Strategic Reserve in this new Oath world. The Black Knights struggled and I would think very hard before taking them in a competitive game. Custodes are not a great matchup for Black Knights due to access to damage reduction, but the Black Knights were very underwhelming. So was Sammael.

I am taking a hard look at the Chaplain in Terminator Armour due to his ability to add 1 to Wound rolls in melee. Could be a good choice to lead Deathwing Knights in this new Oath world.

None of the new Detachments are really jumping out at me for Dark Angels. Gladius is still good. There is a meme-list of a Vanguard Spearhead with 10 infiltrating Deathwing Knights (with a character using the Blade Driven Deep enhancement) which looks intriguing, but the Deathwing Knights will struggle somewhat against high-toughness targets without access to Honour the Chapter. Still a very survivable brick in the centre of the board to mess up the enemy's plan. I might try it...

Anvil Seige Force looks intriguing for a gun-line Dark Angels army, but I am not sure if it is better than the Unforgiven list. The Anvil Seige Force does have a good (but 2CP) stratagem to allow massed Hellblasters to reroll wounds against monsters and vehicles. An Azrael force might have the CP to actually plan for this a few times per game.

The 1st Company Task Force might have some play with Deathwing Terminators. The once per game old Oath would allow Deathwing Knights to drop big scary things. The Iron Resolve enhancement on a character leading a brick of Deathwing Knights could be fun - a once per game 5+ feel no pain for the Deathwing Knights could be clutch. The Imperium's Sword enhancement on a character with Deathwing Knights could also be nasty with a once per game extra attack for all members of the squad. The Stratagems are quite "meh."

Perhaps there is a good Ravenwing list hiding in the Stormlance. I just can't find it yet...But I will keep looking!

I agree that Black Knights are kind of on the struggle bus, points drops be damned. Ravenwing need some serious love once the DA codex drops (early next year if the rumors are true). I've tried them in a game once myself, and they were underwhelming, but then I didn't commit and only ran a 3-man squad of them. Maybe a 6-man with a Bike Chappy could do better?

On Deathwing Knights, I plan to run them with a Strikemaster from now on, as Lethal Hits will sometimes make up for the lack of old Oaths. And anything with built-in rerolls will help us keep that old Oaths magic, so stuff like the Predator Annihilator with its twin lascannon, and the Eradicators you mentioned (I love those things!). And we've still got the standard Marine tricks of the Aggressor/Biologis/Fire Discipline combo (with optional LR Redeemer) and others to help us keep up with the meta.

One thing I'd like to try, although it's not DA specific, is a drop pod with a 10-man Infernus Squad inside it, in the not-Salamanders detachment. Drop them somewhere inconvenient for your opponent and then pop the flamer strat. On their turn, they'll have to move something to deal with the Infernus guys, so you slap them with some Overwatch action. Sounds like good clean fun to me, even if it's not as good as doing that on flamer Aggressors (I don't own any of those, Infernus is what I got).

Yesterday's Goonhammer article showed a couple more interesting Dark Angels lists for us, including an Unforgiven Strike Force list that came in 4th at the SoCal Open:

https://www.goonhammer.com/competitive-innovations-in-10th-codex-chaos-pt-1/

The SoCal list had a brick of Hellblasters with Azrael, a crunchy Deathwing Command Squad (joined by a Terminator Ancient with the Pennant) and 3 Repulsor Executioners with a Darkshroud to provide the benefit of cover. I'm honestly fascinated by the fact that someone would choose the Unforgiven detachment over the Gladius or one of the new ones, but then again it's not too bad. As Goonhammer even point out, the strats rock. I personally am just not impressed by the Enhancements, but then maybe I'm just not using them right. I played a couple of games with the Unforgiven force (1k points for my escalation league), and I found myself missing my doctrines.

The other featured list was using the Ironstorm Spearhead, and the only DA-specific thing in the list was a Darkshroud to provide the benefit of cover to all the vehicles (hiding behind a wall as much as possible). That list got pipped in the final by a nasty CSM list piloted by Innes Wilson, a known very good player. While part of me is a little salty that it's not really a DA list since it only took a Darkshroud, anything that can help us do better is welcome. Personally I want to see someone win a big tournament with The Lion and prove me wrong about him.

Dark Angels actually won a tournament in my local area (sadly I was unable to attend myself), here's the obligatory Goonhammer article showing it:

https://www.goonhammer.com/competitive-innovations-in-10th-the-dark-is-rising-pt-1/

Lately it seems that a lot of Dark Angels' success is riding on the Ironstorm Spearhead detachment, which gives me mixed feelings. On the one hand, it's great to see DA doing well, but on the other hand they're doing well with mostly the generic Marine toys (that winning list had only one DA thing in it, that being Azrael). I'd love to see more of what we saw last week with someone doing well using the Unforgiven detachment. I also wouldn't mind seeing someone take down an event with The Lion, proving me wrong about him, but I don't see it happening.

Played a 2k-point game with my Dark Angels vs. one of my friends' Leagues of Votann earlier today. Mission was probably the simplest one (forgot the name of it) with pretty simple 5 or 10 points for holding one or two objectives, respectively, plus 5 for each one you hold at the end. We used Hammer & Anvil deployment and decided to just use Chilling Rain as the secondary to be more like tournament play. My list was the following:

My opponent's list, as best as I can remember, it was more or less of a throw together of whatever he had available as he barely had enough LoV stuff for a 2k game:

I deployed my Land Raider (with the Aggressor bomb inside) on the line, my Deathwing Knights in the bottom of a ruin (we ruled like many tournaments that bottom floor blocks LOS), and my Intercessors, Hellblasters, and Predator behind the ruin. The Inceptors, of course, were in Deep Strike Reserves. My opponent put his solo Champion (the Wayfarer's Grace one), as well as his big Hearthguard brick and their Champion, in Deep Strike. His smaller Hearthguard and the third Champion were in one of the Land Forts, which basically deployed on the line also. The bikes deployed on the line but on the flanks, and most of the Warriors were in the backfield holding his home objective and trying in vain to screen his DZ from my reserves (hard to screen out Inceptors with their rules though). The other five Warriors were in the Sagitaur. He put his free Judgment Tokens on the Land Raider, the Knights, the Hellblasters, and the Predator. We rolled for first turn and he got it.

On turn 1, he scout moved his bikes and Sagitaur forwards, then moved the flanking bikes fairly close to my lines. His first major misplay was to move his bikes into range of my Land Raider, which let me use my only Command Point to Fire Overwatch and kill them down to a single wound (that was frustrating for me as I was hoping to just pick up the unit, oh well). His other bikes chewed up my Hellblasters pretty good, bagging six of them altogether since I didn't have a CP for Armor of Contempt. All of them made their rolls to shoot as they died and wiped the bikes in return. His Land Fortresses combined took my Land Raider down to 8 wounds, but otherwise he really didn't do much else except sticky one of the midfield objectives with the squad that got out of the Sagitaur. On my turn, I called Devastator Doctrine and moved all my stuff up, disembarking the Aggressors. The Intercessors, after stickying the home objective, started moving toward the right flank objective, trying and failing to polish off that last bike. My Predator shot all of its weapons at the Land Fortress in the midfield (that had Hearthguard inside) and did all of 3 wounds to it, Oath of Moment be damned (my opponent rolled well for his saves and used Void Armor). The Aggressors ground another 8 or so wounds off of it with Storm of Fire, and the Hellblasters thankfully finished it off, killing one of the Hearthguard with the emergency disembark. The Land Raider did a few wounds to the other Land Fort and wiped the final bike on my right flank. I tried to charge the now-disembarked Hearthguard with both my Deathwing Knights and Aggressors (each needing a 9-inch charge), but neither unit made it in.

On turn 2, my opponent moved his Hearthguard closer to my Aggressors, and got three of them barbecued by my Land Raider's overwatch, leaving just one plus the champion. He also moved his Land Fortress right up next to the Land Raider, as well as slightly moving up his Sagitaur and Hearthkyn next to it. He also brought in all of his reserves, dropping the big Hearthguard bomb in the middle near my Aggressors and the solo Champ on the left flank threatening Azrael and his men. He managed to plink a couple more wounds off of the Land Raider and dropped two of the Deathwing Knights in shooting from the Hearthguard (he later lamented forgetting to use Ancestral Sentence here). Both units of Hearthguard and their Champions made their charges and killed four of the six Aggressors (leaving another with just 1 wound), but the solo Champ failed his charge even with a reroll. The only reason my Aggressors held on that well is because of Armor of Contempt. He also charged my Land Raider with his Land Fortress, beginning what would become a multi-turn game of bumper cars, and charged his Sagitaur and Hearthkyn into Azrael's group (after killing two more Hellblasters in shooting, which killed two of the Hearthkyn in response when they died). Azrael nearly soloed the Sagitaur (left it with one wound), and the other men wiped the Hearthkyn. On my turn, I moved up the Predator to get an angle on the solo Champion. I called Tactical Doctrine so I could fall back and shoot with some of my units, letting Azrael's group and the Aggressors get out of combat so I could shoot stuff. The Deathwing Knights used Tactical Flexibility to go into Assault Doctrine and moved up to line up a short charge into the Hearthguard. The Land Raider shot some of its weapon into the Land Fort that was in combat with it, plinking a few wounds off, and shot its flamers into the now lonesome Einhyr Champion (his last Hearthguard buddy died to Aggressor fists in my opponent's turn). The Aggressors, after falling back, killed a couple of Hearthguard (they aren't as good without Dev Doctrine or the strat). The Pred killed the solo Champ, but he made the roll for Wayfarer's Grace and stood back up at the end of the phase. My Inceptors came in and spectacularly whiffed, barely killing any models from the Iron-master's unit of Hearthkyn. They did score me 5 points for Behind Enemy Lines, though, which was the main thing. The Deathwing Knights wiped out the Hearthguard thanks to Honor the Chapter, but sadly wasn't actually on the midboard objective (they would have had to Consolidate towards the Land Fort that was in combat with the Land Raider).

On turn 3, my opponent was ahead on points and had kept me bottled up for a couple of turns now. He brought up the solo Champion and yeeted the Predator into the sun, and the Iron-master and his warriors killed one of the two Inceptor units. His Land Fort shot at my Intercessors, killing three (would have wiped the unit except for Armor of Contempt). On my turn, things started to look a bit worse, as I failed my Battleshock tests on Azrael's unit and the Intercessors. Worse, my secondaries were wanting me to control objectives (Cleanse and Secure No Man's Land), which you can't do with Battleshocked units. Thankfully I was able to Cleanse with the Aggressors on the midfield objective, and due to charging my Knights into that Land Fortress and killing it I was able to grab the objective on the right flank for Secure No Man's Land. The Inceptors killed a few more Hearthkyn out of another unit, but didn't make their Hail Mary charge into my opponent's home objective (it wasn't really necessary anyways). Azrael's unit wiped out the Wayfarer champion despite being Battleshocked, so it was definitely looking like the game was swinging back towards me.

On turn 4, my opponent wiped out the Aggressors and the Apothecary Biologis (he got Assassinate) with Uthar's unit of Warriors, but failed to kill all of my Inceptors with his other units. I called Assault Doctrine and managed to make a long-bomb charge into Uthar's squad after softening them up with shooting, killing him and the rest of his men. We pretty much called it and talked it out from here, as now I was going to max primary and had nearly maxed my secondaries and my opponent was basically out of stuff. The final score was a 94-70-something victory for the Sons of the Lion. It was a pretty fun game, but only my opponent's second ever game with the Votann. He forgot some of his key strats (like the aforementioned Ancestral Sentence) and made a few mistakes like moving the bikes into the Land Raider's overwatch range and getting his bikes killed by my Hellblasters' death shooting (that cost him a table quarter for Engage on all Fronts). He normally plays Custodes, so this was a very different playstyle army for him. Still, plenty of lessons were learned on both sides, and I look forward to more games. For my part, I liked seeing the Votann in action as I have a force of them that I'm building up.

My key takeaways:
-The Gladius Task Force is a very strong choice for Dark Angels. Being able to get Sustained 1/Lethal on two different units is very nice, and that Aggressor brick absolutely puts in work and isn't trivial to shift.
-Deathwing Knights are absurdly durable, and they can hit hard in the Gladius thanks to Honor the Chapter/Assault Doctrine. I do think next time I might take a Terminator Captain instead of the Strikemaster, as the Lethal Hits wasn't really needed but free AoC or HtC would have helped.
-So far, the Predator has been okay in my games, but never the absolute star. It's still a nice little workhorse anti-tank piece that is cheaper than either a Lancer or Ballistus Dread.
-Azrael is a monster in melee in addition to being one of the better buff characters for a unit. I think he's actually undercosted for how all-around useful he is.
-Intercessors and their sticky objectives are a great thing to have in a list. I don't think I'll leave home without them in my DA lists.

Closed out the final rounds of a local league with post-Codex Dark Angels. I stayed with Gladius and just tweaked my list to be up to date with points/non-Legends units.

Azrael, two Lieutenants (one with Fire Discipline), a Terminator Captain and a Phobos Librarian led a force of:

10 Hellblasters
10 Hellblasters
5 Infiltrators
5 Infiltrators
3 x 5 Scouts (with shotguns in two squads - WYSIWYG)
2 x 5 Infiltrators
1 x 3 Plasma Inceptors
5 x Deathwing Knights
Predator Annihilator
Predator Destructor

Game 4 - Custodes

I would like to say that I put three of my Scouts squads forward to bait my opponent into the open, but I really just forgot that I was now running a Phobos Librarian instead of a Phobos Captain and they were hanging in the breeze when the Custodes got first turn. Down three squads, but the enemy was exposed. Hellblasters took down a squad of Wardens with a Captain - damage reduction and a 4+ FNP soaked up a ton of firepower.

The Infiltrators kept the Allarus squads back when the dropped in, but my Predators were dying to a grav tank. Azrael and the Hellblasters focused down on an Allarus Squad, killing them with blistering firepower (and Overwatch in the Custodes turn). The Deathwing Knights and Inceptors dropped into the Custodes' backfield, flipping their objective and drawing in his own jump troops. Mopping up after this, but Azrael did need to conduct a Heroic Intervention to prevent my own home objective from getting flipped.

A rough start, but Hellblasters can still get it done vs power armour, even ones with damage reduction.

Game 5 - Salamanders

He had a brick of Flame Aggressors, a big squad of Infernus, a full Bladeguard Squad, a Repulsor Executioner, a Stormspeeder, a Redemptor, two Inceptor Squads, Eradicators, Eliminators and some Salamanders characters.

My left-flank Predator was somewhat vulnerable (again, I would like to say this was bait) and it was destroyed turn 1, along with a Scout Squad who were zorched by the Infernus Marines. That was actually bait.

The Fire Discipline Hellblasters theb killed all ten Infernus who had pounced on my vulnerable Scouts while the surviving Predator and Azrael's Hellblasters took down the Executioner. Hellblasters are noticeably worse against tanks now (duh?), but Lethal and Sustained Hits are nice.

His big brick of Aggressors moved up to flame Azrael's squad, but supercharging Overwatch not only killed an Aggressor but also killed the three Hellblasters in range of the Aggressors. This likely saved the rest of the squad. Both Hellblaster squads then wiped the Aggressors and Eradicators while my Inceptors flipped the enemy objective that was incautiously held by Eliminators. The Deathwing Knights then finished off the Salamanders over the next two turns, supported by ever-dwindling Hellblasters.


Thoughts

Azrael, Hellblasters and a Lieutenant are still really, really good. Give the Lieutenant the melee options and you can also blend in melee alongside Azrael. This makes them a great mid-field unit. The Deathwing Knights really miss their once-per-game protection against Devastating Wounds, but they are still great.

I don't think we can only rely on Hellblasters with new Oath, so going forward I might swap one squad for some longer-range higher-strength firepower. Which is a challenge. Still keeping Azrael, a full Hellblaster Squad and a Lieutenant (maybe with Fire Discipline for the 5+ Critical and Lethal in Dev) as my mid-field manglers. Deathwing Knights with a Terminator Captain give a somewhat reliable means to flip the game with the re-rollable charge.

The Ravenwing Detachment preview is up - I am broadly optimistic.

Detachment ability is that Adeptus Astartes units are eligible to shoot in a turn in which they advanced or fell back. This is pretty good - allowing Outriders to move far and still score Tactical Objectives. Falling back and shooting with Black Knights is also good.

Outriders become Battle Line. I suppose you might want to take more than three?

The two strategems look fine: a debuff to enemy shooting and a boost to the wound roll against Infantry or Mounted. The wound roll is a little niche, and I guess that Thunderstrikes will still be needed.

The Enhancement allowing a unit to be in Strat Reserves, not count against the total and treat the turn as one earlier is good (similar to the Storm Lance one).

It looks like Black Knights, Sammael, Dark Talons, Nephilims, Landspeeder Vengeance and Darkshroud will still have datasheets, but the Talonmaster is not mentioned. Maybe Legends? Sad.

Looks like the Command Squad Champion has the Character keyword (and could be given an Enhancement) and can join a unit of Black Knights. Perhaps it is capped at the three models for the Command Squad? (Champion, Apothecary and Ancient)?

It appears only three detachments, and one is the current one (unknown if it will have changes). I found that interesting with the first supplement codex.

I have a feeling the DW Strikemaster will no longer exist. I may need to convert that model to an Ancient in Terminator Armor.

Curious about the Ravenwing detachment. I have not paid much attention to those models in 10th; cautiously optimistic.

Deathwing preview is up. Detachment gets to pick an objective and gain +1 to Wound against enemy near it. Not bad.

The Deathwing Assault enhancement to allow the character and his attached unit to Deep Strike on Turn 1 could be very good. Enemy can screen, of course, but it opens up No Mans Land without having to be Vanguard. Dropping in ten DW Knights with a Captain could allow us to pin an enemy in their DZ.

The points on Deathwing Knights look to have increased quite a bit from the sample list, so maybe their data sheet got some buffs? AP -2 would be great…

Yeah, an 11-ppm hike on Deathwing Knights if they stay exactly as they are will kill them competitively. Maybe enough players screeched on the internet about them that GW decided to point the nerf bat their direction despite the new kit coming out. I do like what I've seen of the new detachments though, and I hope the current Unforgiven Task Force gets a buff (not sure what that would be admittedly) and becomes a bit more viable.

The Deathwing Knight swords look decidedly “meh” in the battle report. If those points are true and the Maces stay the way they are in the current sheets then the Knights just took a major hit.

No idea how the Unforgiven will be fixed. There is some good in the current detachment, but much of it is too conditional to Battleshock. I am not sure when books go to the printers. If it’s is only a couple of months then there is hope. Otherwise it might be back to Gladius...

The points for the Knights is rough. If I can play a full 10 strong unit and the mace stat remains unchanged, I will still play the unit but need to figure out where 110 points will come from.

At current costs, that's a squad of Inceptors I'd have to drop. I'd find an alternative to the Knights instead, or just scrap my whole list and rebuild from scratch.

Well, Knights are only 5 strong and lost 1 damage on the mace.

Initial thoughts will be me sticking with the Marine Codex detachments.

Sarigar wrote:
Well, Knights are only 5 strong and lost 1 damage on the mace.

Initial thoughts will be me sticking with the Marine Codex detachments.

While going up in points?
Oof.

Deathwing Knights took a few massive hits. Even if the points come down from the preview, the maces going to D2 and having the squad capped at five hurts. I don’t think they will see very much play. Nice models though.

The Lion got worse, so he will continue to stay on the shelf.

Deathwing Command Squad is gone. Deathwing Terminators can’t mix in Thunderhammer and Storm Shields.

So it’s tough news for Deathwing...

Unforgiven Task Force is still bad, and one Stratagem that was quite good (Line Unbroken) got worse. Gladius it is.

The Ravenwing detachment might have some play, but the underlying units are still a little “meh.” Loss of Talonmaster confirmed. Still, might play the objectives well so we’ll have to try it out.

So this book might have been written and sent to print before Edition launch? A mid-performing army got some of its key units nerfed (and one removed). Losing units to Legends as kits change is one thing, but the nerf to Knights really hurts.

I recently read Goonhammer's review of the codex, and, well, we got shafted pretty hard overall. I will give my very hot-take-ish thoughts below:

THE GOOD
Ravenwing Command Squad rework: Having access to another generic bike character really opens up options for both the new Company of Hunters detachment as well as the Stormlance Task Force from Codex: Space Marines. I look forward to having a reason to actually run bike units again.
New unit options for our characters: Being able to put Ezekiel with some better unit choices (like Bladeguard) makes me more likely to consider taking him. And that's just one example. I really like this kind of thing, as I enjoy running some of the named heroes and I want them to be at least decent.
Inner Circle Task Force: This is probably the best detachment Dark Angels got, and although it might still not be as good as some of the vanilla SM choices there's definitely some interesting possibilities with it.
Company of Hunters: At first glance this thing seems pretty decent, although I think it'll take a pretty good player to get the most out of it. I'm glad I held on to a bunch of my old Ravenwing bikes, as I'm probably going to invoke what GW said a while back and use them as Outriders (and my Attack Bikes as ATVs).
Asmodai: He's actually (probably) good now! I like Goonhammer's idea of running him with a brick of Assault Intercessors, as that seems like a fun little unit.

THE BAD
Lion eats a double nerf: Lion was already a borderline case, not making it into many competitive lists, and unless he gets a big drop in points from the dataslate he's going to be fully relegated to shelf duty.
Land Speeder Vengeance nerfed: I guess there was a secret LS Vengeance meta that was oppressive or something, because GW decided to reduce the damage of the plasma weapon. Like Lion, this thing is never going to see play unless it gets a significant points reduction.
Deathwing Knights: Now limited to 5 dudes and the damage of the maces has been reduced. As long as the points either stay the same as the current dataslate or go down slightly, these might still see some play, but their days as a build-around unit are probably behind them.
Belial: His strikebacks went from 2+ to a 4+ for no damn reason, and he got nothing as compensation unless the dataslate helps him. Noticing a pattern here?
No more Company Heroes for Azrael or Lazarus: Not a huge deal probably as you can still take the unit with a generic Captain, but losing yet more options sucks.
Deathwing Terminators can't mix ranged and assault variants: No more hammers or claws mixed in with the guns. They can still take plasma cannons which normal Marines don't get, and honestly their rules are still good, so I think they still have play. Hopefully they'll at least get a FAQ to allow their sarge to take a fist instead of a sword, as there's really no reason for them to be arbitrarily restricted like that.
The Unforgiven Task Force is still just a slightly worse Gladius: It's not bad per se, and the enhancement that used to be called the Heavenfall Blade is still really fun, but one of the strats got nerfed and nothing got buffed to compensate, which feels bad.

THE UGLY
Strikemasters, Talonmasters, and the Deathwing Command Squad got Thanos'd: I expected the Strikemaster and Talonmaster to go away as they never had official models (TM was only a sanctioned kitbash type thing), but to see the Deathwing Command Squad get sunsetted as well really hurts. I do understand why it's being done though. Press F to pay respects.

THE UNKNOWN
Inner Circle Companions: I need to find somewhere to actually see their datasheet, as that would make it easier to quantify how good or bad they might be. I imagine it's going to depend on their final points cost.

As ever, I don't think the sky is totally falling, and there are still plenty of good Dark Angels lists to be discovered, I'm sure. When life gives you lemons, make some lemonade. If nothing else, the Gladius list with a Dark Angels spin is pretty evergreen, so at least we have something to fall back on if nothing else proves to be good.

the companions are just assault marines (firstborn) with eviscerators.. theres only 5 of them and they have no upgrades, they are the most boring whitebread unit imaginable, they will never see play unless their so cheap you can take 5 for almost free

^spot on. They're as bland as this edition. I can't fathom why anyone would want those models. Just green stuff some cloaks and save yourselves the debasement of buying
downgrade units

Sadly, even with the release of the Balance Dataslate, we're kind of in limbo until our codex officially drops. The points changes to regular SM units do raise some eyebrows though. Here are a few hot take-ish thoughts:
-Aggressors got more expensive, but honestly I think they're still good. The tried and true Gladius Fire Discipline Biologis Aggressor Bomb is still kind of nuts.
-Hellblasters went untouched, so we should still bring a unit with Azrael. They're good in just about any detachment, too.
-Assault Intercessors got cheaper, so the brick of 10 with Asmodai is definitely on the menu now!
-Inceptors got significantly more expensive. I personally still think one unit is too good of a utility piece to pass up, but I'll probably switch my second one for some Jump Pack Assault Intercessors to save points. In some games I don't need the 3 inch deep strike capability anyway.
-Whirlwinds got punted into the sun. It might actually be better to go back to a single Desolation Squad now, especially as other factions' indirect pieces also got hit.
-Outriders at 80 points for 3 might be worth consideration? Certainly if we wanted to run any kind of Ravenwing-heavy strategy (with either the Company of Hunters or Stormlance) they seem more viable than they were before. They're still pretty pillow-fisted, but maybe now they're cheap enough to run anyway.
-Intercessors and Heavy Intercessors are cheap enough to make me consider them more strongly. I was already bringing an Intercessor unit in a lot of my lists because sticky objectives is a great rule, and Heavy Intercessors might be useful just to be a fridge and camp an objective for a whole game.
-Sternguard might actually be better in the Inner Circle detachment than in any other Marine detachment simply because rerolling wounds against units on the marked objective (with the Martial Mastery strat) makes it easier to fish for those tasty Dev Wounds. And they just got cheaper now. I fully intend to experiment with this.
-Scouts are more expensive. To the great shock of no one, as they were criminally undercosted before. I imagine we'll still take them.
-Redemptors got a bump too. This only impacts our Ironstorm builds really, although I was considering them for the Inner Circle detachment as well. Not sure a 10-point increase completely kills them, but we'll see.
Hopefully we don't have to wait too long for our actual book release so GW will tell us our actual points costs (especially those of the Inner Circle Companions, as points are going to make or break that unit).

The Balance Dataslate opened up for Marine armies using Vanguard Spearhead in a move that surprised me.

A DA army using Vanguard Spearhead can take 6 Centurions and use Guerilla Tactics stratagem. Not quite as good as Uriel Ventris/Centurions, but if my opponent gets first turn, I can pull thr Centurions off the board at the end of my opponent's fight phase for 1 CP and place them on the board via Strategic Reserve counting as one turn higher. I can now place them in the most advantageous position with 6 Lascannons and 6 Missile Launchers. Give them Strike from the Shadows for +1 to hit (and AP bonus) and it is nearly as effective as Oath of the Moment.

I had to adjust to losing my DW Knights. Now, they are all Assault Terminators with Storm Shield/Thunderhammers.

I added a banner/icon to my Strikemaster and now is an Ancient in Terminator Armour.

I'll try out the DA detachments at some point once I get the army updated. In the meantime, I still get to use my DA in a similar fashion as before the codex release.

Honestly, this codex supplement is the biggest piece of dung I’ve seen for Dark Angels in a long while. I don’t care what they do with the points, they ain’t saving this dex unless they actually reverse some of the nerfs.
Fully sticking to the Index for remainder of edition unless they make big changes. Was able to snag some of the index cards to use as the app will soon be useless for me when the dex officially drops.
Huge disappointment.

Yeah the DA codex is 70% trash. All the stratagems, enhancements and the Inner Circle detachment are good. Everything else has been bloodied with the nerf bat and then coated in bland sauce. "Pay us money to replace your models with nicer looking ones but with reduced options and power; $80 please." Whoever wrote this codex will wear this shame as an asterix to their name, like the Admech writer. 365pts for for the lion wtf are they smoking? "Hey guys here's a ravenwing detachment, but all of your models are legends now so good luck using it." A dick pic on the inside cover would've been less offensive then this collection of seizures over a keyboard.

We still don't have all the info. Yes 365 would be way too much for the Lion, but what if he was only 320? I seriously doubt he'll be that cheap; the 350 seen in the current balance dataslate (that is for his old profile) seems more likely, which would be pretty overcosted for his nerfed stats. The Inner Circle detachment, as you say, is pretty good, so maybe let's figure on leaning into that. I definitely think there are some good builds that can come out of that. The Ravenwing detachment might have some teeth too, especially since Outriders are quite cheap now. I think it would take a pretty good player to make it work well, but some of the movement tricks could catch opponents off guard. And of course if all else fails, we can still use all of the detachments in Codex: Space Marines, some of which are quite solid for DA already. Maybe instead of being a bunch of debbie downers, let's actually come up with some stuff that can work. Of course, we'll need the final actual points rather than the ones in the book or the temporary ones from the dataslate that go with the old profiles of the units.

Locally, there is one player building the Ravenwing detachment. He thinks there is some potential there. We shall see.

I think the DW detachment has some utility.

The bigger issue for me is none of the detachments really excite me enough to not use the Vanguard Spearhead, which is what I've been enjoying fielding.

The issue for me is not finding the one special secret sauce list that will work, or that we can just play green space marines from codex, it’s that so many DA specific units will be relegated to shelf due to their reduced stat lines. It already sucks that the army lost bikes, attack bikes, speeders, talonmaster, Deathwing command squad, ccs in terminator squads, but what remains they actually made worse!
It’s like eating a gak-sandwich and then get kicked in the gonads while eating it!!
Deathwing knights got worse.
Bladeguard are better than the new companions (who look great!)
Vengeance got a nerf for no good reason.
Lion is now worse in close combat than Guilleman (at least his weapon is)
The Ravenwing detachment is the only good part of the book, and I barely have any models that I can now use in it.

So it’s a big nope from me.

I can empathize. Since the introduction of Primaris, I'm not surprised over the loss of RW units.

I did have some hope regarding Deathwing when I saw the new Terminator sculpts arriving in 10th. Alas, it was not to be.

The sad part is nothing first born will survive the 11th ed culling, so it's the best time to get sell off any Blackknights and Darkshrouds you have left. Even Rhinos are possibly facing squatting. A few years from now they'll bring back Tactical squads but composed of Primaris models, if not, then the Space Marine army will be trying to mirror the Aeldari one with aspect warriors as a design metric.

I was lucky enough to get a Deathwing Assault box. Its funny reading the Codex and wondering who synchronizes GW efforts. The fluff section of the Codex has Talonmasters and Strikemasters...Salt in the wounds...Still, this is a Tactics thread so lets leave the salt for General Discussion. Oh yeah..Anyway.

My games recently have been with the Index and new MFM points as I am preparing for a five-round tourney this weekend that will use the DA Index. Locally (and I think this is common) we don't use a Codex in tourney play if it is only available in a special box - we wait for it to be in general release.

I've tried out Deathwing Knights with Damage 2 maces and yes, the downgrade is real... We don't have the points, but it is hard to see the place for the new Deathwing Knights (and also Inner Circle Companions) in an economy where Bladeguard are 180 points for six. Still, the models are wonderful so I am trying to find the brightside.

Deathwing Knights are still very survivable and they can deep strike. Looking at the Inner Circle Task Force I can see a build that leans into this. Take at least one Deathwing Knights squad and attach a character with the Deathwing Assault enhancement. Select Fixed Secondaries with Behind Enemy Lines and Deploy Teleport Homers. Turn 1 - drop in the Deathwing Knights somewhere safe, using Relic Teleportarium if the enemy deployment zone is too crowded. Deploy Teleport Homer for 4VP and just sit there for 2 VP on Behind Enemy Lines if nothing else can make it in. They will likely survive the enemy's turn, aided by Unmatched Fortitude or Armour of Contempt depending on the threat. Turn 2 the Inceptors drop in, allowing you to max both Secondaries. The Deathwing Knights just focus on staying alive, since as long as they don't charge or become Battle Shocked they can deploy teleport homers. Turn 3 Scouts come in from strat reserve. Keep going to get those Secondaries - Deathwing Knights just staying alive. Dropping in a Deathwing Terminator Squad on Turn 2 using Relic Teleportarium to join the Knights could be another way to max. Meanwhile the rest of the army is playing the Primary game, and back-field pressure is never a bad thing.

Would struggle against a board control army that can fill its Deployment Zone, keeping in mind that Relic Teleportarium can allow for some tight drops. You can always change gears if the match-up is unfavourable.

Yes, I'm reaching. But I will try it out once the tourney is over.

 Gibblets wrote:
The sad part is nothing first born will survive the 11th ed culling, so it's the best time to get sell off any Blackknights and Darkshrouds you have left. Even Rhinos are possibly facing squatting. A few years from now they'll bring back Tactical squads but composed of Primaris models, if not, then the Space Marine army will be trying to mirror the Aeldari one with aspect warriors as a design metric.

They've already got Tactical Primaris - Intercessors and Assault Intercessors do the two types of "tactical" marines now - Tacs/Sword Brethren etc...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Sarigar wrote:
I can empathize. Since the introduction of Primaris, I'm not surprised over the loss of RW units.

I did have some hope regarding Deathwing when I saw the new Terminator sculpts arriving in 10th. Alas, it was not to be.

I expect at least some of the lost units to return - mainly the two lieutenants - moving black knight/command squads to the outrider base. Probably the Talonmaster as well.