Lessons learned from playing BA?

[Brother-Captain Devlonir]

Things I've learned:

 

1) Assault Marines are ALWAYS better than Tacs

 

 

For me, against armies like Space Wolves (can include more power weapons p troops unit) and some Tyranid builds (warrior with bonesword/whip) this is not really true. I've found that my army really works best in combined arms because while BA is an assault oriented army there are armies that do it more cost effectively.

 

Have to agree here. A Combat Squaded Tact Squad with SP in one of the two 5 man groups and them staying close to each other (within the SP bubble) really makes an awesome objective holding group which is tough, effective in shooting and can charge very hard as well when needed. The SP is a must to add to the mix, but you barely notice the 1 attack less they have compared to a RAS when on the charge.

 

Many an enemy will fall to a boltgun whipped to the face with S5 :-D

[Isryion]

Powerfists make no sense to me in an army with so much furious charge available...

 

Really? Do your combats only go one round? Powerfists w/furious charge wreck dreds and other vehicles and instakill T5. Besides that, there's the whole wound allocation argument that is hugely in favor of PF. Don't get me wrong I like PW as well, but even if wound allocation weren't an issue, I'd still say that PF add to the versatility of a unit.

 

Actually the strength doubling of the power fist occurs before any bonus to strength is added so FC + power fist = S9 i.e. no instakilling T5

 

That makes sense -- thanks for clearing it up.

[GlauG]

I've not quite got into double figures with the games played with my BA yet, but thoughts so far;

 

Furioso Libbys are fantastic if only for the fire magnets they become, Wings of Sanguinius is probably a large part of this. I took one my first game and it took out 4 other assorted Dreads in CC, so I try and run two while leaving my third Elites slot for Sang Priests. I've tried some fairly silly armies where I ran 3, but the inevitable result is one getting popped without doing anything, whereas a slightly more balanced list makes my opponent split his fire more.

 

I need to experiment with alternate delivery methods, but Death Company are fantastic. 5 DC with no weapon upgrades destroyed Lysander + 5 Assault Termies today for me. 20 WS5 S5 attacks whittles down even tough enemies with good saves it seems. Similarly, DC Dreads with Blood Talons are basically combine harvesters on legs against anything under WS5/T6. I want to field 3 somehow, and will probably end up writing a list for this exact purpose.

 

Stormravens are a bit crap against mech anything without the weapon upgrades. Bloodstrikes are nice but it's possible for all 4 to fail to pen AV13 :/ I'm considering giving it the MM and Las combo next game. I'd also like to take 2, but building one has taken me over a week and I'm running out of modelling time. :/

 

Mephiston, Lemartes and Dante are all well worth their points costs. Mephiston once literally killed an entire 1500pt Tau force minus 2 battlesuits and a Hammerhead,while the Death Mask of Sangunius takes the bite away from a lot of other high-end HQ choices, as well as Dante allowing me to deepstrike multiple inferno pistols within 3" of something's rear armour with total safety. I want to try Dante + Sanguinor sometime for character assassination. Or is that overkill?

 

Sanguinary Guard are cool, but haven't had a huge impact on any of my games so far. I'm considering alternatives like putting the points into DC Dreads or something.

 

Even without putting all my eggs into one transport basket, and instead replying largely on JP to carry me around at speed, I end up with tiny armies, which is saying a lot considering I've previously run Dark Angels Doublewing (<30 models) and Daemonhunters with a heavy emphasis on GKTs (30ish at best). I fielded an army with 16 models today by taking 4 varying Dreads, Dante Mephisto and a Stormraven + DC and RAS (and won!).

 

Just my own observations so far though. :devil: Having a lot of fun with an army where there's more than one "viable" build.

[Guest Drunk Guardian]

Glau,

 

Why not try 15x DC and a Chaplain/Reclusiarch in a Land Raider Crusader. That'll open up your 3x DC Dreads. Add Mephiston to your list, and some Rhino/Razorback mounted infantry to provide charge cover and you have yourself one nasty blitz force.

[All-Things-Power-Armoured]

Its an amazing codex, fast vehicles with lots of nasty assault units.

 

Some things I've learned from playing them.

 

1 - An Assault cannon razorback is almost better than the baal on every occasion, moving 12 inch a turn, smashing round after round at anything that moved, and the best thing is its usually ignored so it always gets its points back (and my one is slightly blessed, it took 5 lance shots in a game against dark eldar and survived). All in all there isn't much that a razorback can't be used for, with 5 tactical marines or 5 assault marines once it makes it to assault range they disembark on the next go move shoot and assault (depending on what weaponry they have), and just so no one points out the obvious, yeah not being able to get special weapons in 5 man squads is a pain but the razorback with its heavy weapons makes up for that. Plus they can block line of sight for your death company so that they don't charge something you don't want them to.

 

2 - Heavy Bolter Razorbacks are pretty cheap for how effective they are.

 

3 - (from playing against blood angels) Baals are never as good as they look on paper (or on the battlefield), they're awesome for that first turn punch as they can scout move, I still use them as they're pretty awesome and fun, they always soak up a lot of damage but are almost always dead at the end of the game.

 

4 - Rhinos are awesome, 18 inch then next turn move shoot and assault out of it, you can't ask for much more than that! Though I choose razorbacks usually just cause they add some tank hunting capability to my list.

 

5 - Deep striking land raiders is funny but not necessarily a good idea.

 

6 - Tycho is extremely good for his points if you use him correctly.

 

7 - Tactical squads are pretty cool and underrated when your enemy sees all your spicy units, which allows them to take objectives or to sneak around taking out important targets.

 

8 - Jump infantry aren't as good as I first thought, I prefer mechanised lists. In larger battles especially they just don't earn their points back (in most of them I've played a guard player with 3 bas and 2 Master of Ordinance, so you can tell what he targeted.

 

9 - Did I say how much I love razorbacks!!!

 

10 - Death company will be targeted in every battle, so they draw lots of fire away from your more expensive units (I mean come on, 145 points for 6 blokes (one with power fist) with furious charge and feel no pain, give them bolters and they can move shoot and assault a squad out of a razorback which will pretty much kill any normal unit or at least hurt them enough that in your opponents assault phase you can kill off the rest of his squad and move on to another unit next turn)

 

11 - If DC make it to combat, they earn their points back in that turn, if they don't, they've drawn enough fire for this not to matter!

 

12 - Ow and DC dread with blood talons is frigging awesome! Mine has killed Dante and his SG squad, plus a SP and a baal predator in one game. (with a little help from his friends). They're scary and your opponent knows it, they draw enough fire to take down a land raider and still keep going! you just have to control him! I use the manoeuvring of my razorbacks to make sure he charges towards certain units, and he has fleet, need I say more.

[Roland Durendal]

My favorite lesson:

 

I should have played SW's....

 

 

:P

 

Sorry wanted to throw some humor in here.

[LordofDeath11]

..Upping..

[Leonaides]

Query this -

10 - Death company will be targeted in every battle, so they draw lots of fire away from your more expensive units (I mean come on, 145 points for 6 blokes (one with power fist) with furious charge and feel no pain, give them bolters and they can move shoot and assault a squad out of a razorback which will pretty much kill any normal unit or at least hurt them enough that in your opponents assault phase you can kill off the rest of his squad and move on to another unit next turn)

 

I dont think Relentless allows you to ignore disembarkation/charge rules...

[SamaNagol]

I dont think he meant assault after the Razorback has moved. I normally fly forwards 18", pop smoke, pray and wait til the next turn with my fingers crossed.

[fearlessgod]

I dont think he meant assault after the Razorback has moved. I normally fly forwards 18", pop smoke, pray and wait til the next turn with my fingers crossed.

 

To be honest, using the DC as stated above is very effective for DC or Assault squads (without JP). I run 8 DC in a rhino and haven't had much of a problem getting my DC into CC. Rage isn't that big of a drawback if played correctly.

[Sanguinarian]

Query this -

10 - Death company will be targeted in every battle, so they draw lots of fire away from your more expensive units (I mean come on, 145 points for 6 blokes (one with power fist) with furious charge and feel no pain, give them bolters and they can move shoot and assault a squad out of a razorback which will pretty much kill any normal unit or at least hurt them enough that in your opponents assault phase you can kill off the rest of his squad and move on to another unit next turn)

 

I dont think Relentless allows you to ignore disembarkation/charge rules...

 

I don't think he meant to imply this either. More like:

*Move Razor maximum 12" to disembark & pop smoke;

*Shoot all Bolters;

*Hold breath during enemy shooting;

*Move DC 6", shoot all Bolters again and CHARGE!!!

[Zeller]

1. Keep your armor together to support each other.

 

2. Priests are great if for anything that fnp.

 

3. Baals are fun but their main gun's short range makes me wince every time.

 

4. Not taking all the shiny units is a good start to winning.

[Andrew_Beck]

new lesson.

1) muss buy Canis Wolfborn 10*. and build thunderwolves.

2) sanq+dante is funny and clean enemy hq with ease (scalps so far: abbadon,dorn,vulkan,logan,sanq,ragnar and others unnamed)