Adding some Allies- Dark Angel Successors Guardians of the Covenant

With the Stormlord nearing completion it was time to tie up a few loose ends I have had in my force. A while back I picked up a couple of dark vengeance units to ally alongside my imperial guard. I wanted an Azriel stand in to beef up my Bullgryns (giving them a 4+ invulnerable) and a squad of Raven wing to give a bit of speed to the guard list. Here are some pictures-

 Only a couple of changes from the original kit, I added two melta guns in place of the single plasma torso. 

 Interestingly I didn't undercoat these models, I simply gave them a complete wash of Nuln oil before painting. It seems to have worked quite well.

 My Azriel Stand in, luckily the Dark Vengeance company master comes with the same wargear as Azriel!

Originally I was going to paint up this force as a Dark Angels unit, but as I read the background, the Guardians of the Covenant fitted much better with my Guard army. I liked the links they had with the Adeptus Mechanicus, and their fanatical desire to save Imperial lives is never a bad thing for an imperial ally!

In Game they have been brilliant. Although an expensive unit (600+ points) Azriel and the Bullgryns make quite a hefty force together. They took three complete rounds of 1850 Eldar shooting and were only reduced to 4 ogryns and Azriel from an original squad size of 9, saving the rest of my army from harm. They then proceeded to charge fire dragons, guardians and an Eldar Far-seer, destroying the lot.

The bikes are brilliant for objective claiming (as they are troops with Azriel and have the all important objective secured rule). I frequently turbo them up to the enemies back field for line-breaker, and they have worked well alongside my melta vets too. 

I think I will add a few more units to this outfit, maybe some death wing, a librarian and a tactical squad in drop pod or some scouts perhaps, just to add a little bit of variation on the list. Most of these things can be picked up fairly cheap on eBay.