STARTING A DARK ANGELS ARMY IN 11TH EDITION: ROBES, RELICS AND UNFORGIVEN SECRETS
The Dark Angels keep secrets, hold grudges, and enter 11th edition as one of the most atmospheric armies a new hobbyist can start. Robed knights in bone and black march beside dark green battle-lines, and every squad hints at ten thousand years of unfinished business. For a painter, the palette is a gift: deep green armour, bone robes, a red accent, and suddenly your squad looks like it stepped out of a stained-glass window. For a collector, the chapter's structure — battle company, Deathwing, Ravenwing — gives your purchases a shape that most armies simply don't have. You aren't buying boxes; you're recruiting wings of an order.
The first box
Start with the current Combat Patrol-style set. Dark Angels starters reliably build around power-armoured infantry — Intercessors or their kin — with a character to lead them, and the chapter's upgrade parts (robed torsos, winged icons, censers) do the heavy lifting of making them feel Unforgiven rather than generic. Paint that first squad before anything else arrives. Dark green over a black undercoat, a controlled highlight, bone on the robes: it's a forgiving scheme that rewards patience without demanding brilliance.
Recruiting the Inner Circle
Your second wave is where the chapter's personality lands. Deathwing Knights are the iconic pick — Terminators in bone, maces raised, the most knightly models in the entire Space Marine range. Ravenwing Black Knights answer them in jet black on bikes, all speed and plasma. One box of each gives you all three wings on the table, and painting bone, green and black side by side keeps the project fresh. When you're ready for a leader, Azrael, Supreme Grand Master, is the classic choice — a character who looks like he owns every secret in the room, because he does.
Recommended: Deathwing Knights
Recommended: Ravenwing Black Knights
Choosing your centrepiece
There is only one honest answer: Lion El'Jonson. The returned primarch is a genuinely magnificent kit, a cloaked swordsman you will want on a shelf even between games. He is also a serious painting project, so treat him as a reward — the model you start once the first thousand points are finished, not the box you open first. If you'd rather work up to him, a Redemptor-pattern Dreadnought in chapter colours makes a fine interim monument.
Recommended: Redemptor Dreadnought
A word on the new edition
The move to 11th edition refreshed points and datasheets across the board, and starter boxes rotate with it, so check the current contents and current points before committing to a list. Buy models you love; the numbers will change under them either way.
Purchases to defer
- A second Ravenwing squadron before the first has its wheels painted — grey bikes win no races.
- Every named character at once; the Inner Circle admits one candidate at a time.
- Duplicate Deathwing units because a tournament list said so — learn the army first, specialise later.
- Any transport bought before you own something worth transporting.
Keep the archives of the Rock
The Unforgiven have hunted the Fallen for ten millennia because somebody kept immaculate records, and your collection deserves the same discipline. Log each kit the day it arrives and state its condition honestly: boxed, built, or finished. That little ledger is what turns a pile of shame into a crusade with momentum — watching the finished column grow is the best motivation in the hobby, and it tells you exactly what to paint next instead of what to buy next. When you want the full sweep of what the chapter can field, from Scouts to the Lion himself, the complete unit catalogue is on the Dark Angels faction page under Data. Repent, and start painting.