New Dark Angels Stratagems, Traits, Points, & More

By Juan Lopez | December 10th, 2017 | Categories: 40k News & Articles, Dark Angels, Tabletop Gaming News & Rumors

Checkout all the new Dark Angels Codex reveals, as we have even more information on what rules and points changes are inside the new book!

It has been a week rich with information concerning the upcoming Dark Angels Codex. First off we had Games Workshop’s Twitch preview Friday with tons of datasheets rules previews and more. And now thanks to winters SEO’s review, we now have more information regarding changes to points costs and datasheets; new Stratagems that are unique to the Dark Angels, psychic powers and changes to the existing ones, Warlord Traits, and Relics.

The section below includes all the new information we have gathered from Winters’ review and was not covered in other posts.

Stratagems

Never Forgive, Never Forget: 1CP, use this Stratagem when a Dark Angels unit from your army is chosen to attack in the Fight phase. Every time a hit roll of 6+ is made for a model targeting Heretic Astartes units, an extra attack is made. If you are attacking Fallen units with a Deathwing unit/model, then an extra attack is made on a 4+.
Intractable: 2CP, use this Stratagem after a Dark Angels unit has Fallen Back. They will still be able to shoot.
Secret Agenda: 1CP, use this Stratagem before the battle if the mission uses Tactical Objectives. For the duration of the battle, you can keep your objectives hidden from your opponent and only reveal them when they have been achieved.

Warlord Traits

Fury of the Lion: If your Warlord charged, was charged, or performed a Heroic Intervention, add +1 Strength to their Characteristic for the Fight phase.
Courage of the 1st Legion: Friendly Dark Angels units auto-pass Morale checks if they are within 12″ of the Warlord.
Stubborn Tenacity: Roll a dice each time your Warlord loses a wound. Add +1 to the rolls if your Warlord did not move. On a 6+, your Warlord does not lose a wound.

Named Dark Angels Characters have their Warlords Trait already chosen for them:

Azrael: Brilliant Strategist
Belial: Huntsman
Sammael: Master of Maneuvers

Relics

Relic Blade – replaces Power Sword : S+2, -3AP, D3 Damage, and bearer can make an additional attack with this weapon.
Foe Smiter – magic Storm Bolter: -1AP, 2 Damage.
Mace of Redemptions – replaces a Power Maul: S+3, -3AP, D3 Damage, and can re-roll failed wound rolls made by the bearer against Heretic Astartes units.

Psychic Power

Mind Worm, Aversion, and Engulfing Fear have not changed.
Righteous Repugnance: Warp Charge of 7 – If manifested, pick a friendly Dark Angels unit within 12″ of Psyker. Chosen unit can re-roll all failed hit and wound rolls made for this unit’s Melee weapons until the start of the next Psychic phase.
Trephination and Mind Wipe have already been covered in our last post.

Points and Datasheet Changes

Ravenwing Black Knights are now 46 points, down from 50.
Interrogator Chaplain in Termi Armor is now 125 points, down from 128.
Interrogator Chaplain w/ Jump Pack is now 99, down from 101.
Ravenwing Attack Bike Squad is now 35 points, down from 45.
Ravenwing Bike Squad is now 25 points, down from 32.
Ravenwing Dark Talon is now 140 points, down from 180.
Ravenwing Land Speeder is now 70 points, down from 85.
Deathwing Knights and Deathwing Terminators can now combat squad if you have a unit of 10 of them. If you have a Watcher in the Dark, it must be split off into one or the other.
New Cataphractii and Tartaros Termies can combat squad as well but not take a Watcher in the Dark.

Checkout Warhammer Community’s Ceri sitting down with Rhu on Warhammer TV to preview some awesome options from the upcoming Dark Angels Codex recently. Ravenwing gets a Talonmaster, who has a land speeder, weapon skill 2+, and several great abilities including buffs to both Ravenwing and Dark Angels keywords.

As well, Sammael was previewed, giving some great abilities and has several different options for equipping. The Sammael in Sableclaw was previewed as options, giving rerolls to failed hit rolls for Ravenwing within 6″ and re-rolls of hit rolls of 1 for friendly Dark Angels within 6″.

Deathwing got a few previews, including a Master in Cataphractii Armour. This model is fantastic, offers re-rolls of hit rolls of 1 for Dark Angels within 6″, and has some killer stats.

Deathwing also gets Terminators in Cataphractii Armour that has different wargear options, and the Inner Circle ability. Deathwing Terminators also have access to Tartarus Armour.

The Dark Angels will also get a Storm Raven as a flying transport, giving them a 14 wound, 3+ save, toughness 7 transport with a ton of different guns. It carries 10 infantry in the front, and a dreadnought in the back, including the Contemptor Dreadnought…another new addition to the Dark Angels ranks.

Stratagems, several neat ones were previewed. The Lion and the Wolf was discussed again, being the first Dark Angel stratagem previewed from the codex. The three current ones give some great views to what else can be added.

The stratagem Inner Circle and the ability Inner Circle, which character models have, are completely different. The ability Inner Circle grants an auto-pass for morale and re-roll failed hit rolls against a Fallen Unit. The stratagem above grants keyword Deathwing and ability Inner Circle.

Two other stratagems were discussed. Deathwing Assault, for 2CP, allows the Deathwing to immediately make a shooting attack.

A few psyker abilities to keep an eye on as well. Mind Wipe, for instance, can be targeted against character models such as Guilliman.

Some relics available include: Eye of the Unseen gives enemy units within 3″ of the bearer, subtract 1 from the leadership and, if that enemy is a character, they cannot fight until everyone else has fought in the combat phase. The Shroud of Heroes causes enemies to subtract 1 from hit rolls targeting the bearer.

Warlord traits include: Huntsman, giving the warlord the ability to fire pistols, grenades, assault, and rapid fire weapons at characters, even if they are not the closest enemy unit. The Master of Maneuver grants any friendly Dark Angels units within 6″ of the warlord get re-rolls to charge or Advance.

Finally, points changes. There will be some points changes from the Index prices. Azmodai is 130 points, Azrael is 180 points, Belial is 150 points, Exekiel is 135 points, and both Sammael’s points remain the same at 216 in the Sableclaw and 183 on Corvex. A few other points were changed in the Codex as well, but none others previewed in terms of numbers.

The Fortress of Redemption is in both Chapter Approved and the Index, not in the Codex. Otherwise, just about everything you need to play a Dark Angels army is in the Codex.

This completes what we know about the new Dark Angels Codex to date. We are sure that more information will be released before it launches next Saturday. Dark Angels are looking to be a tricksy and stubborn chapter to take down.

What do you think about the Dark Angels Codex? Were you hoping for more unique units, points changes, stats changes, etc.? Let us know in the comments below!