September 13, 2012 by darrell
Video Sponsors: Heavy Gear - Dark Age
We've received our Dark Vengeance box... but what are the contents like?
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
0
Join In! TerrainFest 2025 + The Plastic Crack Podcast Challenge
0
Join The Space Troopers From Lafig Miniatures On Kickstarter
0
Add 6mm Peninsular War Terrain To Your Tiny Battlefields
1
Warp’s 3D Printable Clockwork Cavalry Ride Out On Patreon
0
Snap Up Wild West Exodus Christmas Minis This Month
1
Unleash The Queen’s Blade For Fantasy Game, Eldfall Chronicles
0
Grab New Battlefleets & More For TTCombat’s Dropfleet Commander
1
Returning Warhammer Miniatures Land On Boxing Day This Year
4
Elegant Killers & Next Wave Expansions For Infinity In 2026
2
Predators & Hardened Guards Come To Warcrow Next Year
1
Build Dark Age Armies & Take Part In Hastings960 Project!
5
Guild Ball Goes Digital Via New MyMiniFactory Store
5
Celebrate Gotrek & Felix With Special Edition Trollslayer Set
1
Indulgent Demons, Elementals & Ogres From Satyr Art Studio
0
The Scions Of Dagon Emerge For TTCombat’s Carnevale
1
Freebooter Miniatures’ Sci-Fi Game, Ascending Fate, Coming Soon!
1
Add New Home Guard To 1st Corps World War II Collection
5
Snag Some New MDF Ruined City Terrain From Warlord Games
0
Tickets Are Now Available For UK Games Expo 2026!
2
Don’t Miss Exclusive Dropfleet Commander Ships From TTCombat
8
Embrace Retro Sci-Fi With Hydra Miniatures’ 10mm Atomic Tank!
3
The Mounties Join Street Scraps In The Chicago Way
![Warcradle Studios Reveal TINY New 10mm Festive Marker! [Updated]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/11/christmas-kyle-main-600-338.jpg)
2
Warcradle Studios Reveal TINY New 10mm Festive Marker! [Updated]
4
The Perrys Expand Their 28mm Ottoman Army Collection
2
Snatch Up Witches & Wanderers From Black Crab’s Kickstarter
3
Ramshackle & Warfactory’s Rat Storm Is Rising; Classic Rat Folk!
1
Battle With New 28mm Space Amazons By Red Bard Games
0
Grab Returning Wargames Foundry Paint Sets For Crimbo
3
Add New Dark Legion & Cybertronic Minis To Warzone Eternal
1
Snap Up Mighty Mycenaean Warriors From V&V Miniatures
Glad they kept the box the same for this edition. Smartest packaging for a starter set, it looks cool.
Nice touch to include some beakies
Seems like they have stepped up from Black Reach which was a good set imho.
Certainly looks like a good set. Some good models (even if the Chaos ones outclass the Dark Angels by a mile, in my opinion at least) that will be a great starting point for a couple of armies.
Always nice to see a set where you could split the cost with a friend and get battling fairly quickly.
BoW Ben
“A great little template for moving your models.”
Hold it next to a tape measure and repeat that. >_<
On the sticks what's marked out as 6" is actually 5", so yeah, use it if you want to lose an inch of movement.
I'd've thought you already knew that?
Since the rumour is once the DA codex comes out deathwing terminators will be troops, I think this is the first box since 2nd edition that actually has two minimum legal armies, but if dark angels arn’t your bag, buy a chaos tank accessory sprue or another box of chaos marines and make sure you scrape off or cover the dark angel icons with bits and you’ve got a pretty hefty chaos starter army.
The red fencing sticks are just crap, there’s no other way to put it, I’d rather have a paper rolled tape like privateer press use, but if both you and your opponent are playing with them the slightly off measurements aren’t really an issue.
mixing the sprues up to have chaos and imperial on the same sprue, I can see that being confusing for anyone new to the game, and a slight annoyance for online bits shops, but they’ll probably be able to charge more for the models individually bagged than the whole sprue anyway- the hellbrute on ebay is getting about twelve quid on its todd.
The one thing I’m slightly disappointed with is the dark angels captain model, I’d have preferred a Terminator armoured captain to claim it as Belial, thus making the deathwing troops in the current codex, but acquiring a single terminator from ebay to convert to Belial(unusually for a character he has about as many options for his weapons as a standard captain) isn’t going to be too expensive or difficult.
Can’t help wondering if the reason for putting the two armies on the same sprue is specifically designed to discourage or at least annoy Bitz vendors?
Prolly just my innate cynicism but you never can be sure with GW lol
That was my first thought, but thinking it through its probably just the best way to fit them all in three sprues, since every bitz vendor has clippers, and in the long run it’ll make them more money, they’d probably only get away with charging £20 a sprue were even splitting them into units they’ll easily get 10 for the tacticals, 15 for the terminators, 15 for the bikes, 5 for the captain, 5 for the librarian, 10 for the shooty cultists, 10 for the stabby cultists, 15 for the chosen, 5 for the lord and 15 for the hellbrute, so they’ll be onto about £40 profit before they even think of selling the mini rulebook dice and brittle red eye removers, not to mention the price increase they can put on the deffcoptas they have left from AoBR.
First off a bit of fanboy gush…..cheers to Andy, Darrell, Warren and all the rest for the BOW site…. thanks to all you guys for makeing tabletop gameing accessable. Believe it or not Ive been following the game on and off in White Dwarf since I was a nipper ( I remember Rogue Trader! ) and have never once played a game of 40K! Apart from the odd board game, Space Crusade (which I still have Warren!) and a verry large collection of LOTR SBG minis etc, which may see the light of day again with the release of the Hobbit movies, if I can find any older gamers to have a bash about with.
Now onto the point, 6th edition…. Im probably going to take the plunge thanks in no small part to the BOW coverage. I personaly hate going into GW shops to buy anything because Im old and cynical and those sales guys get on my tits. However Im still not convinced its one of the best games about but at least its hugely popular and finding players shouldnt be a problem, unlike LOTR SBG. Anyway thanks again guys…
Now Im wondering…… and would also realy appreciate any feedback from the community…. if there will be any way of converting those Space Crusade minis ( loads with the add on which I also still have Warren, Tarantulas, Dreds etc ) along with the DA in “Vengenace”, if any fans who remember the SC edition Im on about ( not the advanced one with the Hive Ship ) recon Ill be able to convert the afore mentioned minis into a half decent Chaos Army ?
If that stirs the old memory banks of anyone Id be delighted to hear from you and any ideas you might have for me about converting those old minis into a chaos army. Prety stactic poses but Im just wondering if its possible to get a reasonable army outa them ?
Hey anto,
I have a big collection of LOTR models from my SBG days, so i’d be up for a game! Recently grabbed myself a copy of one of the new books GW made, so I’ve some idea of the new warbands system & I can remember most of the SBG rules off the top of my head despite not being able to get a game of it for several years.
I also grabbed the new 40k rules when they released and have started to collect some Eldar stuff (infact i’m waiting on some Eldar stuff I ordered from wayland games last week so I can really start my Eldar force), so I’m going to be completely new to the 40k rules myself.
If your looking for an “older” gamer (well i’m mid-20’s & don’t consider myself old yet!) than the usual younger players who play these games then send me a message. Like I said I’d be up for a SBG or starting 40k anyway. Also you should try out Gamers World in Dublin city centre for “older” opponents & I hear the GW store does a late night games night on Wednesdays too, but i’m not sure of the age range that attends that.
Finally, you’re best bet if you want to avoid the GW store guys is just to buy your mini’s online. Tends to be the fastest option imo. Gl!
@anto It should be pretty easy to get at least a few useable units out of space crusade minis, IIRC there are a few oddities like marines with lasguns etc from around then, but nothing that can’t be fixed with a pair of clippers or handwaved as a warp mutated bolter, really it depends on what you have and how many, beyond that its just a question of creativity and maybe swapping the bases on terminators to the larger ones they come on now.
most of the space crusade marines had bolters so it would be just a matter of repainting them. i personly prefair what the missle lauchers looked like back then than the modern ones.you can also use the lascannon and flamer weapon choices
i remember the first 40k kit i ever built…it was a box of scouts…the heavy bolter guy looks like he’s a candidate to become a chaos obliterator…god how i messed that one up lol
Oh my Gawd “gush imminent” Dark Angels in a starter set… and whats better it starts you down all the possible dark angels army builds (vanilla/ravenwing/deathwing) just wow amazing and u get a libby, chapter master and if ur quick enought a chaplin… that is pretty epic realy. The chaos is amazing model wise the chosen are brilliant! Loving the lord as well, he looks total badass and has forward facing horns ,insert jokes here,. cultists erm well differenet i guess and a realy nice looking dreadnought…gotta say this is probably the best starter set any company has come out with.
This is defenetly very good box. These 40k starter boxes have improvet a lot during years and this one is currently best when it comes to what it includes. I really love how models and scenarios in box support Dark Vengeance story.
I split a couple of boxes with a friend. I had the Dark Angels. I’m in the middle of building and painting now and i am really quite pleased with the deal.
The Ravenwing bikers are well posed and will add a bit of animation to my existing units.
The Deathwing SB/PF will be handy to drop into the slots vacated by the lightning claw models when I don’t need them. Ok they’re not TH/SS but they are a quick cheap fix.
The Greenwing with 3 plasma weapons are just as I would build them as it fits in with the fluff and I like plasma even though some nights I have a tendency to blow myself up.
Nice pieces in plastic, but only good for Dark Angels and Chaos. If you play a different SM army, I think it would take too much to modify them because of the way they are made.
No neat terrain in the box! Why not?
Nothing here for me. Saved my coins on this set.
There’s no neat terrain in the box because terrain is easy to make and you get many more models this way.
well sm player can take the dark angels as a battle brother ally without any problems(apart from space wolves) 1 elite 1 troop 1 fast and a choice of 2/3 hq
the only thing i dont like about the set is how the chosen is armed
After seeing the detail on these models I have to wonder, why the hell are they still using finecast.
So true alphamail! I detest Finecast (possibly even more than Darrel does!). It’s an extremely poor, unreliable way to make their minis. I have yet to see a Finecast model that was good to go right out of the packaging.
I think GW does styrene EXTREMELY well, and the minis in this box are a good example of that. Every new plastic release seems to push the outside of the envelope as far as the limitations of the moulding process (undercuts, etc). Some real innovation with the way the multi-part minis are assembled produces some really amazing figures in dynamic poses.
The two things I despise about GW are the inflated prices (I’m in Australia) and the fact that you have to go to Finecast figures for HQ and other special figures. It makes it hard to build a good looking army without breaking the bank, and spending hours/days/weeks repairing all the flaws in your Finecast minis.
Can’t fault this box set as far as value for money goes (in the US & UK). Great video guys!
I know what you mean about the prices, I bought Marneus Calgar and Honour guard for £36.00 and it still bothers me how bad the mold was, whatever happened to getting your moneys worth I would have returned it but waited so long to get it I couldn’t be bothered, but any plastic model I have is perfect (aside from flash and things like that) now with the new chaos figures and their high detail I think GW should just quit the whole finecast thing (plus the light weight makes them feel cheap) plus have you seen the cool detail on the newer warhammer fantasy empire plastic models wow.