The First Legion goes to war as two wings of a single, secretive host. The Deathwing are the anvil — Terminator-armoured veterans who translate onto the ground they mean to hold and do not yield it, weathering fire that would shatter a lesser line. The Ravenwing are the hawk. Bike-mounted hunters, they race the flanks, outrun the enemy's answer, run the broken down. Both postures stand at once beneath a single declared Combat Doctrine: the anvil holds while the hawk strikes, and the line body forms up between them. And beneath every open battle runs a colder war the rest of the Imperium is never told of — the Hunt for the Fallen, pursued in silence, its spoils kept and its secrets buried. A Dark Angels strike force fights one war in plain sight, and another that no ally is ever permitted to see.
Composition4
Identity2
The Adeptus Astartes fight as the few, the dear, and the superhuman. A Chapter commits no horde to the field but a small strike force of transhuman warriors, each the equal of a squad of mortal soldiers. Their endurance is written into the flesh — the wide chest, the fused ribcage, the doubled hearts — so that a battle-brother weathers wounds that would fell any lesser fighter and never breaks under fire. Where other warhosts drown a foe in numbers, a Chapter answers with discipline: a gang-wide doctrine, declared afresh each round, that shifts the whole force from massed fire to swift advance to the closing charge as the battle demands. Every Chapter shares this spine — the transhuman body, the unbending nerve, the shifting doctrine — and expresses its own character through which end of that discipline it leans into and the relics its heroes carry. They are a strike force of demigods waging war across the galaxy, and each brother lost is a grievous loss to the Chapter.
Gang Composition2
- Starting credits: 1500
- Exactly 1 Leader (Captain / named Chapter Master)
- 0-2 Champions (Lieutenant); 0-1 each specialist (Librarian / Chaplain / Apothecary / Techmarine)
- Marines are the bulk; Scouts cheap and plentiful; backbone (Marines + Scouts) >= Leaders + Champions
- 0-X Cavalry (0 for foot-only chapters) - 0-1(-2) Centurion - 0-1 Brute
- Champion / specialist / Brute slots unlock with Reputation
- Combat Doctrines is declared as a stance each round; it is never stored or carried between rounds
A Chapter strike force musters on 1500 credits. It is led by a single commanding officer — a Captain, or a named Chapter Master fielded on that body — and no gang may field more than one. Beneath the Leader stand up to two Champions of Lieutenant rank, and one apiece of the specialist brethren: Librarian, Chaplain, Apothecary and Techmarine, as the Chapter's needs demand. The bulk of the force is its battle-brother Marines, stiffened by cheap and plentiful Scout neophytes; together these gangers and juves must always at least match the officers set above them in number. A Chapter may also field its mounted brethren, a lone Centurion in his warsuit, and a single interred Brute. Further Champion, specialist and Brute slots open as the Chapter's Reputation grows. The gang's Combat Doctrines stance is declared anew each round and never carried between them.
- Starting credits: 1500
- Every fighter carries Combat Doctrines; each winged fighter then carries its own standing posture on top - see Signature
- Exactly 1 Leader (Captain, who may join either wing by taking the Terminator mark or a bike); 0-2 Champions; specialists 0-1 each
- Backbone: Marines and Scouts >= Leaders + Champions (the wings are the elite core, not the bulk)
- Deathwing 0-3 and Ravenwing 0-4 at founding; both caps grow as the gang gains Reputation (the wings unlock over a campaign)
- Declare the wing: at gang creation tag each Deathwing and Ravenwing fighter to its wing; the standing postures and the Inner Circle skill read those tags
- 0-1 Brute (Dreadnought or Redemptor); Land Raider and Land Speeder are prohibitive support
A Dark Angels strike force is built around one commanding officer and its two elite wings, and musters with 1500 credits. Every fighter carries the Chapter's Combat Doctrines; each winged fighter then carries its own standing posture on top of the declared stance. Exactly one Leader takes the field — a Captain, who may ride with either wing by taking the Terminator mark or a war-bike — supported by up to two Champions and no more than one of each specialist. Marines and Scouts form the backbone, and must at least equal the Leaders and Champions together. The wings are the elite lean, never the bulk. At founding the force may field up to three Deathwing and up to four Ravenwing, and both caps rise as the Chapter's Reputation grows. At gang creation each Deathwing and Ravenwing fighter is tagged to its wing, and the standing postures and the Inner Circle skill read those tags. A single Brute — a Dreadnought or Redemptor — may be interred among them. Land Raider and Land Speeder support remains prohibitive.