Working With a New BA Player

[Brother Caleb]

I've got a 1500pt 2v2 game this Sunday in which I'm teamed up with a green BA player. We're facing Nids and Daemons. He's still getting to know his army and I have very little experience with BA.

 

Any basic conceptual suggestions regarding the army list that I can pass on to a new brother?

[Alexos]

Okay, we're going to need a little more info then that. At least give us an army list.

 

But, here is a primer, and general all-round guide.

 

If he has alot of Assault marines in the army, have him sent against the Nids, they'll be the ones to suffer from CC. It may sound strange, but with 10 assault marines, you'll somewhere near Forty attacks with Furious charge. Thats enough to kill any nid swarm.

 

Now, remind him of the whole "Land raiders get to deep strike" thing BEFORE THE GAME. If there is a break in the Daemon's line, you'll want him to exploit it by having a Land Raider to deep strike in behind them. The best thing would be to have Assault Terminators in there, they will completely annihilate Daemons.

 

Now, the Death Company Dreadnought is the best of the three in my opinion. It completely ignores Crew Stunned and Crew Shaken results, which means that, with a smoke, the best you will do is knock off a weapon. That means that you will have a somewhat invincible CC monster running around the field killing all in his wake.

 

If you have the Sanguinor, Target the biggest Daemon on the table with him, with a 2+ regular save, and a 3+ invulnerable save, and the fact that he lowers alot of the enemy stats by 1 at the beginning of the game is sweet. And, judging by the Daemon army lists I have played against, that will be their main support monster.

 

Sanguinary guard should be deployed to strike at a weak flank, with some armoured Baal Pred support.

 

Hope this helps.

[Brother Caleb]

Sorry about the lack of info, but we're in pre-construction on the list. We're both trying to wrap our minds around the internal synergy and principles of the army. Your help is appreciated.

[Leonaides]

Sanguinor doesnt lower enemy HQ's stats - thats Dante's Death Mask.

 

Though a Dante/Sanguinor double team is a very nasty thing to do to the hardest enemy HQ in the game - especially as it leaves Dante free to go beat up on other units while Sanguinor is beating up on the HQ who's already lost 1W/A/I/WS...

[Rob_Loken]

I played with Astaroth running with a 10 man Assault Squad, that's quite nifty. Astaroth makes your opponents re-roll successful Invulnerable Saves and he's hitting on 3's and wounding on 2's. He wiped the floor with a Deathwing army, taking out 4 Termies each time he charged, the Assault Marines do the rest. Also 6 DC in a Razorback with 3 power weapons is alot of fun what with their enhanced weapon skill and Furious Charge. They wiped out 2 and a half Terminator Squads before losing out against Belial and his mates. But yeah Sanguinor is quite a beast but he's definitely a character killer, don't let him go into combat alone. Also take Baals as they're great.

[Emperors Immortals]

Interesting thread, please keep us posted about a SW/BA double act - good luck too!.

[Alexos]

I assume you are playing Space Wolves? Well, correct me if I am wrong, but I think it is Njal Stormcaller that can make a huge snow blizzard come from nowhere. I think that the rules that supported this was that any friendly units in the blizzard can move freely, and get a cover save, whilst the enemy's units have to take a difficult terrain test?

 

My suggestion is that you use that when his Death company Dreadnought (a very nasty cc unit) is nearing with the enemy, making him less vulnerable to long-range attack. Doing this at strategic times will help alot.

 

Also, if you have a unit that gets a butload of attacks, put them next to the sanguinor. If they are within 6", they get another attack.

 

Playing Space wolves is a good choice with Blood Angels. The thing is, Your four HQ selections' special abilities will help friendly units, so if the sanguinor, and a Space wolf HQ that allows one more attack within a certain radius are near enough, you get an extra two attacks per person. I am not saying you should swamp them with Hq's, but I am saying that you should try and plan them out according to the other's army.

 

For example, if you have an HQ that allows CC units an extra save, or something of the sort, and the BA player has a unit that can possibly reinforce your battleline by making a otherwise erratic unit more manageable, you should use those. Lemartes makes it easier to use Death Company, in my opinion, so lets say that your Longfangs are in danger of being overwhelmed by a very large CC unit. Well, the Death company could bolster the defence by swooping in on jump packs and, at the very least, hold the line until your Longfangs can reposition.

 

It is not really about the units you pick, its just how you use them.

 

Now, Blood Angel techmarines get a nifty thing called Reinforce. This means that you can pick one terrain piece, and give it a 4+ save. Put this on the area you will be putting a very valueable, and mainly immobile, unit.

 

I played a game of some guy's Daemons against my Orks. I lost. two units of 30 daemonettes killed 300 orks by turn three. that one unit of Daemonettes got 120 attacks per turn, so you want to make sure that YOUR FORCE is a long-ranged one. HIS FORCE is the close combat one that will take care of the nids.

[Brother Caleb]

Here's what we came up with.

 

HQ

The Sanguinor 275

Ashteroth 220

Elites

2 Sangunary Priests (JP, Storm Bolters) 156

Troops

10 Assault Marines (Hand Flamer, Infernos Pistol, Power Fist, Melta Bombs) 245

10 Assault Marines (Hand Flamer, Infernos Pistol, Power Fist, Melta Bombs) 245

5 Death Company (Jump Packs, Bolters, 3 Power Weapons) 220

DC Dread (Heavy Flamer, Blood Talons, Magna-Grapple) 150

1511

 

Any suggestions on how to best drop those 11 points or better choices we could make? Perhaps drop an HQ for a few Baals?

[Whitefireinferno]

Dump the Hand flamers for real flamers and the melta bombs since I dont think you can meltabomb bugs/Daemons I would also drop Astorath since he isnt really doing much for the army I guess he joins the DC and the Preists join the RAS I would say dump the packs off the DC and run them in a Razor flamer.

[Whitefireinferno]

Dump the Hand flamers for real flamers and the melta bombs since I dont think you can meltabomb bugs/Daemons I would also drop Astorath since he isnt really doing much for the army I guess he joins the DC and the Preists join the RAS I would say dump the packs off the DC and run them in a Razor flamer.

[angel of justice]

Personally i would replace astro with lemartes and use the 70 points to give the dreadnought a drop pod and put a power fist and or thunder hammer in the deathcompany Or take Baal predators assault cannons do pretty good against monstrous creatures since you most likely dont want to get into hand to hand combat. Against Nids its mostly about shooting the crap out of them and getting the charge and you should be able to destroy units, Against demon its a bit of a crapshoot depending on what he brings. Im pretty sure that the space wolves have something rune priests can get that give a bonus when fightings demons.

[Brother Caleb]

Personally i would replace astro with lemartes and use the 70 points to give the dreadnought a drop pod and put a power fist and or thunder hammer in the deathcompany Or take Baal predators assault cannons do pretty good against monstrous creatures since you most likely dont want to get into hand to hand combat. Against Nids its mostly about shooting the crap out of them and getting the charge and you should be able to destroy units, Against demon its a bit of a crapshoot depending on what he brings. Im pretty sure that the space wolves have something rune priests can get that give a bonus when fightings demons.

Since he would be the only drop pod, how would you suggest deploying him: drop him at the front door or hold him back a bit to wait for the bulk of the force?

[angel of justice]

Most likely at the back depending on the deployment, if there are a lots of anti armor lurking pop smoke then tear things apart. It will death company dreads with blood talons attract a lot of attention.

[wookielips]

1. dump the storm bolters on the SP. get PW if you can. they help, sometimes a LOT.

 

2. dump the JP on the DC, get them a rhino and a chappie or reclusiarch (for astorath) if you can.

 

3. dump the hand flamers. make 1 RAS have 2 melta and inf pistol (if points allow) and a PF, make the 2nd squad 2xflamer (i still dont like the s3 hand flamer) and PF. thats a fair bit of points right there.

 

4. if you can position your DC dread across the table from the nids, dump the magna grapple. you wont need it, and thats a PW somewhere.

 

5. changing out astorath for a reclusiarch saves 90 points. if you follow the other steps i noted, you are also saving points in bundles. whatever points you have left over, get the DC more models, more power weapons, or get them a razorback with TLLC or TLAssCan. you wont be sorry.

 

under NO circumstances do you want those jump DC wandering across the field outside a vehicle. you wont be able to control them, and a smart opponent will lead them away from where you need them. the rhino/razorback is cheaper and keeps them alive from attrition fire. i prefer my DC inside a LRR or SR, but being only 1500 points and you already have sanginor, trim points where you can.