Tits for Tournaments: New Dark Angels 2nd Adventure

Warning

Tits for Tournaments is rated factually opinionated. Expect results, army lists, and some light bitching about boring spam lists to follow.

Last time I talked about Dark Angels was a few weeks again before taking a short vacation down to San Diego for my 1st event using the new Dark Angels codex at Game Empire team tournament.

So, how did I do with the extra Emo Marines? Well I was able to go 2-0-1 (getting Invisibility only once mind you) and with the help of my teammate we won the event taking best overall! Pretty darn cool I have to say. This puts me at 6-0-2 in my last 8 tournament games with the Dark Angels.

Quick reminder, since I live in California I primarily play in ITC events meaning when talking about events I will always work under the ITC guidelines.

With that in mind once again here is the list I took to So Cal.

TastyTaste’s New Codex Dark Angels ITC List

Even though I didn’t lose any games I really felt like I could have played better. So, I plan on making some minor tweaks for the next event coming this Labor Day weekend, in Fremont California called CelestiCon!

Tactically, I was aggressive with the wrong units. As an Assault centric player, I was lured in by the ability to Drop Pod in Azreal, Ezekiel, and Tactical Marines. It cost me the combined unit in two games, and the one game I didn’t Drop Pod them they survived, so go figure! Then in my tie game, I wasn’t aggressive enough with Libby Bike Star which would have given me the victory.

When I was running old Dark Angels I ran into the same problem when taking one Drop Pod, by risking my Warlord in a futile effort to get First Blood or take out a critical unit. My risk/reward analysis just wasn’t good enough. So, I am going back to what worked well enough, have Azreal and friends walk on the board, holding shop near an objective. The points I gain by losing the Drop Pod also means I can max out both my Tactical units.

The second tactical change and one I am loath to do, but has become abundantly clear is Summoning. I have avoided it for as long as I could. In the current Meta, so many top tier armies get free stuff; I just have to summon. I can’t stand lugging around all those extra models to every event, but if I want to win I should stop crying about it.

The Summoning is just too good to pass up.  I can leverage the psychic phase even more by summoning Horrors. Against Battle Companies I can take Bloodletters or Bloodcrushers to cut down Marines. If I need objective grabbing I can get Flesh Hounds, Deamonettes, and Seekers all able to get anywhere. In a pinch, if I need anti-air I can even summon a Greater Daemon. I will feel dirty, but I think I am past that point now, because I already feel dirty re-rolling my Jink saves. If anything, summoned units will give my opponent other things to worry about besides my main units, especially the Objective Secured Tactical Squads.

Here is the list I am looking to take to CelestiCon this weekend. On the surface not much change, but once I get Summoning going it will look a lot different.

TastyTaste Celesticon Dark Angels ITC List