Heresy Dark Angels - This has gotten out of hand.... again

Hi Folks,

So Today I'm just going to have a quick chat about my Heresy Dark Angels army for 30k games. Fortunately my local meta, which is fairly competitive, 30k list are acceptable to play against 40k lists and are welcomed at the local tournaments with the biggest tournament seeing a 70-100 player turn out. So this isn't investment into a pretty army (or I hope its pretty) that won't see much more table time. Though to be fair I don't get that much table time anyway...

Anyway the army is taking shape with two squads of terminators already converted and the beginning of paint applied to one of them, which I will be posting up in the days (or weeks...) to come. I plan to have a Praetor beatstick thrown in here as well , possibly on a bike. I'm likely to model up a moritat just because they are super cool gunslingers...

So I'm looking to just have a chat through whats going on, what I might get from the forgeworld shop on my trip to warhammer world and basically canvass a few ideas and let you know where I am heading.

Terminator Transport

So these guys will need some form of ferrying to get them into the sticky situations that do best in. It needs to be tough and preferably of an offensive nature (I say!) and be able to go at a fair lick of speed. I currently have enough liberators to convert up 20 of these guys so I can take two big squads if I want... This has really brought it down to 3 options for me. 

Option 1

The first is the ever popular (I think...) Spartan assault tank. I love the concept of this thing but my god do I hate the tank tracks being uncovered over the top. I just think it looks stupid as hell. So buying the actual spartan tank is out of the question, I'm not buying something very expensive to hack it apart.

BUT what I have done is spend about £40 on bits and bobs from ebay and my local modelling (but not tabletop modelling) store, combined with all the bits littered about my room and life I am hoping to make a counts as Spartan assault tank. I'm not trying to replicate the spartan look exactly but going for something... grander? Teasing I know, but tune in thursday to find out more.... 

Option 2

The second option is the Anvillus Dreadclaw. I love this model to within an inch of its life. It is gorgeous. I've heard the build is a little fiddly but I think I should be able to cope with that sort of thing these days (fingers crossed). Now this beast can deep strike and do a little flame attack in its vicinity when it lands and then it becomes a hovering flyer which means it can jink shots at it. If memory serves it has 5 hull points as well so its not a massively fragile creature, but I won't be expecting it to take a hammering. 

It is an assault vehicle though, so despite no assault on the turn of arrival, it can land, jink shooting, and then in the next turn move, unload its cargo of terminators and then they can charge something and smoosh it. Mmmm smoosh. It also has frag launchers or somewhat so you don't lose initiative. 

Big bonus here is the point cost. At 100 its basically a third of a spartan tank which frees up points to put elsewhere. Also, the cost... at £57 its is nearly half the price of the forgeworld spartan (£101!) and would still be cheaper overall than any conversion I knocked up of a spartan. Though a conversion would be more unique and not significantly more expensive I think. I could convert up a dreadclaw for dirt cheap, which has crossed my mind

Option 3

The last option is the stormeagle, which I know can take 20 marines so I assume it can take 10 terminators? This, like the fire raptor, is an awesome model with some fair heavy armament to go along with its transport capacity. My main issue is I am not confident at my ability to convert this beast, its a super pretty nearly £100 model that I don't massively want to go all crazy on with a bone saw...

So a quick break for you to toss your mind salads over that bowl of choices.

And now on to...

Contemptor Loadouts

I know I want to be able to have punchy and shooty variants here, purely from an aesthetic point of view I want to be able to play with both of them. However I will be investing in some big magnets to make the lower arms interchangeable if that looks like a possibility whilst still maintaining kick ass posery.

My current thoughts are autocannon mortis dreads with magnetised bits for a chainfist contemptor perhaps? But I am open to any and all suggestions.

These guys I will definitely buy in rather than convert up one, but I can go to town converting a contemptor to be Dark Angel-y. Whilst the one they eventually turn out of forgeworld will be super awesome, I am really enjoying the ownership of my models after they have been converted so might prefer that if (a bigish one) I can pull a decent converted look out of the bag.

And finally

Flyers and sundry

Fire Raptor, I may be getting one. I haven't decided if I'll pick one up at warhammer world or at a later date, but I love the model and will its definitely one to think about picking  up in the future. 

My question here is, do I double up? Or do I go for a Xiphon interceptor or a Storm Eagle? The Xiphon looks cool but comes off as pricey in points and dosh for its size and capability. The storm eagle is obviously great looking like the fire raptor as I've said above, but a little lighter on armaments but made up for with its carrying capacity of 20 marines. I presume this means I can take 10 terminators in it also but do correct me if I'm wrong. 

Again with regards to additional flyers I am happy with suggestions for either flyers or why I shouldn't get more than the fire raptor and what I should buy instead?

Sundry is just everything that I haven't mentioned that you think would gel well with the generally very elite force I have lain out. I am going to be getting some sniper marines either from Anvil Industry or from forgeworld and these guys will fulfil my scout requirement for the Lion's Blade in 40k as well as working in 30k (both of the model options have cool power armour not the meal nappy of normal 40k scouts). So that is an additional troop choice there, but throw your ideas at me. 

I am happy to be persuaded to spend my money if it sounds Dark Angel like, and is cool without being stupidly expensive!

Thanks for reading and any of your thoughts.

Peace out,

Rob