By Mark Wilson

Images copyright of Games Workshop, used without permission.

s the first legion of Space Marines created by the Emperor, the Dark Angels fought with great distinction throughout the Great Crusade. Laid low in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy by a terrible betrayal, they and their successor chapters have kept the sinister truth a secret from even the Inquisition for ten Millennia.

The new edition of Codex: Dark Angels brings the elite warriors of the Unforgiven up to date with the 4th edition Warhammer 40,000 rules.

Background:

Beginning with an overview of Imperial history, Codex: Dark Angels goes on to detail the origins of the Unforgiven during the Great Crusade. Continuing on into the bleak times of the Horus Heresy, this section covers the fall of Caliban and the terrible shame of the Dark Angels.

The Codex then describes the aftermath of Caliban’s destruction, the construction of The Rock - the Dark Angels’ Fortress Monastery - and the formation and purpose of the Inner Circle. The organisation and unique forces of the Dark Angels and their successor chapters is covered, followed by accounts of a small number of the Dark Angels’ many great victories.

Forces of the Dark Angels:

Here we see a thorough description of the various troops, vehicles and other equipment available to the Dark Angels army. Each type of troop and character is described in detail, providing further embellishment to the rich background of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Four named characters are included in the army list and are described here. Azrael, Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels and Ezekiel, Grand Master of Librarians are familiar names to any Dark Angel player, while Master Belial of the Deathwing and Master Sammael of the Ravenwing make their debut as special characters with this codex.

Colour Section:

Here we are treated to plenty of photos of the Games Workshop Studio Dark Angels. There is also an overview of Dark Angels company and squad badges.

After the colour section is a brief overview of several Successor chapters of the Dark Angels. The three established Second Founding chapters are described along with three more recent chapters who share the heritage and many traits of the Dark Angels.

Army List:

This is the part of the Codex that everybody will be looking at with anticipation, and the army list offers a good number of choices for each unit, with all the options described the unit’s entry. There is no central Wargear list or Armoury, instead, each character, vehicle and unit has all the options available to it costed out in the army list. The choices available are limited in the most part to weapons, with all armour and other wargear provided according to the model’s type. All Dark Angels except Terminators carry a bolt pistol, frag and krak grenades and a bolter or close combat weapon as standard.

Most Dark Angels squads are now fielded in squads of either five or ten models, while the new Combat Squads rule allows for a deal of tactical flexibility with the option to split full strength squads in half during deployment with each operating independently for the duration of the battle. The basic Dark Angel Space Marine is trained and equipped to perform almost any battlefield role from support gunner to Assault trooper.

Other exciting bits and bobs…

One of my favourite aspects of the new codex is in the Special Character descriptions. Most of the characters wargear is named! This is a delightfully classic touch that helps to reinforce the Dark Angel’s nature as one of the oldest chapters of Space Marines with ancient relics from before the dawn of the Imperium.

There is also a return to the ‘flavour text’ boxes scattered throughout the codex. Each one paints a word picture or describes in brief some facet of the Dark Angels chapter history or attitudes. While these have been present in many recent codices, they seem more prevalent in this book.

The artwork used in Codex: Dark Angels is a mix ranging from old classic images from the early days of Warhamer 40,000 through to new pieces printed for the first time.

Final summary:

The first legion is back with attitude, folks. Don’t stand in their way, because they aren’t stopping for anything.