Rough Tactics - Facing the Reds

[Levitas]

Learning to handle a new dex is always fun, specially when its a strong one like the Blood Angels. With the ink barely dry on the red tomb, and gold pots of painting opening every where, its time to share war stories and tactics.

 

These are just my own ramblings as I know quite a few long term BA players. No expert by any means, so do add your own wisdom fellow wolves.

 

The Hot Points - What you will most likely see:

 

The key is not super characters here, despite all the press over hyped stats and super librarians. Unlike days of old the Dante and Corbulo combo will not reign supreme. The key now will be the SHPs, the guys in white and read with cups o joy - Corbulos buddies of the grail. These come in squads that can be dispersed a-la-wolf guard, each one radiates a 6" bubble of FNP and Furious charge. So its not hard to see a wall of buffed up jump packers, or more likly assault squads minus packs in rhinos. Without the need of an overpriced HQ to buff, the expected point hinderance is somewhat negated by cheap SHPs.

 

In front of those angry mobs you will likely see a lot of AV13, the nex dex allows them to pack a serious amount of it on dreads, vindicators and baal preds. To make matters worse these will be fast moving (just the tanks), meaning that not only do they have greater range but will be much harder to take out in close combat. The dreads themselves have some nasty gear, but blood talons is perhaps one of the worse being able to chew through infantry like nothing else.

 

Librarians. Something BA players will find strange after years of Dante and Corbulo. But the humble libby will now be highly favored due to his buffs and storm caller type protection power. Expect to see more of these just as our own Rune Priests grew more popular over night. They also come in dread flavor, meaning more hoods to shut powers down along with jumping around with wings and smashing things like tanks.

 

So generalizing a lot we have Priests that are cheap and will buff squads, a lot of fats AV13 and librarians.

 

What is worth taking:

 

Shutting down the SHPs is a tough job. The dirty solution is a vindicare assassin, and it is dirty make no mistake. The other is to gun them down at range with weapons that will negate that FNP, or charge with multiple power weapons. The SHPs themselves are not that great. But you do not want to be charge by a unit that combines berserkers with plague marines, even with counter attack.

 

The AV13 is tricky. Again i think range works well here as getting close to a flame storm cannon is not advisable, and then needing 6's to hit the thing in combat. Double melta drive by will work, but the BA tank will still have superior speed. My favorite choice here is MM land speeders as we dont have the joys of attack bike squadrons. MM tyhpoons are expensive but good too, allowing you to get good shots on that squashy side and rear. Long Fangs work, bus lascannons still come in expensive and MMs on them lack range.

 

Fire with fire when it comes to librarians. Taking full advantage of our HQ limitation, running 2 cheap RPs and spreading out that 24" lockdown. Plus we have a few tricks to really put the wobbles on those jump packs.

 

In general:

 

Most blood angel lists will come at you with speed, so a smart deployment is key. Make them roll difficult terrain rolls and expose side armor on their vehicles. If you reserves stuff then be aware that they will most likely be upon you by turn 2. Concentrate strongly on target selection, and what ever you do keep track of their range and remember their fast status.

 

Just a few random thoughts..do add to them!

[Lord Ragnarok]

Nice commentary Levitas. Thanks! One thing I noticed in the BA dex are blood taloned dreads. Those should be shot to pieces asap...especially if you are footslogging. Blood talons allow an immediate additional attack for each unsaved attack (think saga the warrior born but using the additional attacks in the same combat phase) when they carry two. When they carry one it works simply like a lightning claw.

[clanfield]

id look out for the 3 baals with flamers they can hit a foot sloger on turn 1 as well 3 flame canons and 6 heavy flamers

[Levitas]

Thankfully the bloodtalon dreads are still slow unless housed in a storm raven - which are a lil rare...for now. With that in mind they will look to pin units in place with bait/expendable units like combat squaded assault squads. Shoot these things on site, do not feed it units!

 

Flame storm baal preds are a big issue as they are fast and scout. The sanctuary of a rhino is key here, but these things will even hurt Thunder wolves due to that nasty AP3 flame template. Deployment is perhaps the biggest weapon against these, and then shoot it up as fast as possible.

 

Worth noting that many BA players are not happy with the new death company rules, but these are considerably buffed by chaplains of all sizes. So keep an eye on those too.