Starting a Dark Angels Army in Warhammer 40,000 – Everything You Need To Know From Painting to Lore

Amongst the superhuman heroes of the Adeptus Astartes, there are some who stand apart. They are known as the First, as the Sons of the Lion, as the Unforgiven. For ten millennia these warriors have guarded secrets that would shake the Imperium to its core, waging a never-ending war in the shadows even as their elite strike forces protect the Imperium from the alien, the mutant, and the heretic.

They are the Dark Angels, the knights of Caliban, and where their risen Primarch walks, Chaos is thrown back into the darkness.

Here’s everything you need to know if you’re thinking of starting an army of these secretive super-soldiers.

The Dark Angels are a unique Chapter who expand the already-extensive Space Marine faction by adding exclusive characters and units to their roster. This means that many Dark Angels collections share elements with a regular Space Marine army, and we recommend reading Starting a Space Marine Army to understand the core options available to a Dark Angels player.

The Dark Angels are, like all Space Marines, mighty warriors enhanced by arcane science and poorly-understood genetic technology – transforming mortal initiates into demigods far beyond the limit of human ability. However, they are not merely one among thousands of Space Marine Chapters – they were the first of the original Legiones Astartes, and they carry the weight of their history heavily.

Secrecy shrouds everything the Dark Angels do, from their observance of ancient rituals to the battle plans they share with allies. This guarded attitude was instilled in the Chapter by their Primarch, Lion El’Jonson, who mirrored the secretive ways of the knightly orders on his home world of Caliban. 

The Dark Angels have only grown more insular in the millennia since, for their history conceals a terrible secret, one that shames the Chapter and has guided their every deed for ten thousand years. When the fires of the Horus Heresy split the Imperium in two and plunged Humanity into its bloodiest ever civil war, the Dark Angels guarding their home world rebelled and threw their lot in with the traitor Horus.

The Lion’s retribution was apocalyptic – and when the flames died down, their home world was split asunder, and the Primarch was missing. Those traitorous survivors who escaped into the warp became known as the Fallen, and now the Dark Angels hunt them down above all other concerns.

The shame of this ancient betrayal haunts the Dark Angels, and they and their successor Chapters regard themselves as ‘the Unforgiven’. Not even the return of their Primarch, who appeared without warning at their moment of direst need, could fully expunge the stain on their honour.

With Lion El’Jonson once more at large in the galaxy, the Dark Angels are reinvigorated, and the Imperium has never needed them more. Supreme Grand Master Azrael commands the Chapter from their mobile fortress monastery – known as the Rock – and they’ve seen service in battlezones across the galaxy.

The Dark Angels are true masters of all forms of combat, but are best known for two particular specialist companies – the Deathwing and the Ravenwing. The former are veterans clad in bone-white Terminator armour to overwhelm their foe at close range, while the latter are jet-black bikers and pilots who strike and fade and strike again.

Dark Angels generals can build their entire force around one of these elite companies, or mix and match unique specialists with common units taken from Codex: Space Marines. The Unforgiven can also call on vaults of ancient technological relics – they are masters of plasma weaponry, and many of their units sport strange weapons from the Imperium’s dark past, like the time-warping stasis bombs carried by the Dark Talon gunship.

Combat Patrol is a game mode perfect for beginners and veterans alike, where bite-sized forces clash in fast paced and finely balanced games. Like their regular Space Marine cousins, the Dark Angels bring an elite force of durable infantry to the game, but field greater numbers than Strike Force Octavius.

A unit of 10 Intercessors form the core of the Vengeful Brethren, matching their typically excellent Space Marine durability with flexibility, as the unit can be split into two groups of five to cover more ground. Their Hellblaster fire support destroys the toughest enemy troops with bolts of pure plasma, while Master Zacharial and his three Bladeguard Veterans smash opposition aside in close combat.

Like their regular Space Marine counterparts, the Dark Angels swear an Oath of Moment each turn to focus their ire on one particular enemy unit, and their Combat Patrol rules incentivise hunting the enemy’s commanders in particular. 

All you need to deploy the Vengeful Brethren is a few dice, a ruler, and the downloadable rules below – the Core Rules show you how to play the game, the Combat Patrol Datasheets provide a balanced army that’s ready to play, and the Combat Patrol Missions give you some thrilling objectives to fight over!

As you will have seen by now, the Dark Angels have three signature armour schemes: dark green, bone white, and black, but these are by no means the only ways to paint your miniatures. The First Legion have spawned many successor Chapters that each have their own patterns and colours, and all are able to use the Dark Angels rules – like the quartered blue and yellow of the Penitent Blades, or the steely Guardians of the Covenant. 

The classic dark green armour remains their most recognisable look, so the painting experts at Citadel Colour have come up with a list of their recommended paints.

Contrasting reds are a great way to pick out the details on your Combat Patrol, and have the added benefit of looking great alongside green, bone, and black. The Dark Angels are also a great place to practise advanced plasma effects, as ranks of troops carrying plasma weapons are extremely on-theme, while their dark armour makes it easy to cover up mistakes. 

Once you’ve played your first few Combat Patrol games and have a taste for the 41st Millennium, you may be wondering: “Where do I go next?”

First off, you’ll want to pick up Codex Supplement: Dark Angels, and if you haven’t already, a copy of Codex: Space Marines. As a Codex Supplement, the Dark Angels book expands on the full Codex with additional background lore and comprehensive rules for 16 unique units, to go alongside the dozens available to all Space Marine armies.

The core of your army will be composed largely of units from Codex: Space Marines, and we recommend our guide to starting a Space Marine army for ideas on what to add to your existing troops. 

The risen Primarch Lion El’Jonson is one of the finest duelists in the entire game, and acts as an inspirational figurehead for all Dark Angels lucky enough to fight alongside him.

The most celebrated warriors of the First Company become Deathwing Knights, augmenting their prodigious durability with massive storm shields and relic weapons. Their counterparts in the Ravenwing mount specialised bikes equipped with powerful plasma talons, tearing around the battlefield as units of Black Knights before thundering into enemy lines in a single roaring charge.

The shrouded swordsmen known as Inner Circle Companions are perhaps the most mysterious figures in an already secretive Chapter, fighting in complete silence save for the whir of their power armour, shrouded by their smoky censers. Their giant Calibanite greatswords make short work of elite forces and enemy characters, while their supreme swordplay protects your own leaders from harm.

The Unforgiven maintain a pool of ancient vehicle designs not seen elsewhere in the Imperium, mostly operated by the superb pilots of the Ravenwing. Sleek fighter craft like the Nephilim Jetfighter eradicate enemy aircraft in a blaze of missiles and lascannon fire, while the up-gunned Land Speeder Vengeance levels scores of traitor Chaos Space Marines with volleys from its plasma storm battery.

As one of the most legendary Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, the Dark Angels have dozens of stories written about their exploits in the 41st Millennium. Legends of the Dark Angels is the perfect place to start, featuring a full three-novel saga by Gav Thorpe, as well as the novel Eye of Ezekiel and four additional short stories by C Z Dunn.

The adventures continue in Legacy of Caliban, as the Dark Angels battle Orks on the war-torn world of Piscina IV and even greater, more mysterious threats amidst the ruins of lost Caliban across the novels Ravenwing, Master of Sanctity, and The Unforgiven by Gav Thorpe. This stacked omnibus also includes a further six short stories, starring major characters like Grand Master Sammael of the Ravenwing and Grand Master Belial of the Deathwing as they hunt the Fallen and safeguard the Imperium from Chaos.

Before he made his public debut in a climactic duel with his brother Angron, the Lion found himself lost and adrift in an unfamiliar Imperium. The Lion: Son of the Forest by Mike Brooks is the definitive tale of the Primarch’s return, as he gathers allies and fights against foul forces who would love nothing more than to cut short his resurrection.

This unfamiliar era is also where the new Master of the 5th Company finds himself in Lazarus: Enmity’s Edge by Gary Kloster, as the titular character grapples with his own rebirth and his place in the Inner Circle. He has no time to dwell on his situation, however, as an ancient debt to a forlorn Knight world is called in, and Lazarus is faced with saving a world that may not want to be saved.