New to DOA!

[Tophawtdog4411]

Hey everyone!

 

My names Dave and im wondering whether or not to start collecting Blood Angels. I am presently aware of several playstyles of BA: Mech, Hybrid and DOA. Right now, i am interested in a pure DOA list ( maybe a hybrid).

 

What are the strengths of a DOA list? So far i see as deepstriking melta pop shots and flamers. Sanguinary guard buff assault squads for CC goodness. Other than these two pure DOA doesnt look strong so far...

 

Is pure DOA strong? If so please elaborate

[Drunken Angel]

I dont think DOA is in itself a strong army, DOA is beautiful, compact, elegant and needs to be played carefully. I like the playstyle of a DOA list so will play it and like any army with experience the list becomes strong.

 

Most power armour armies are some variant of mech, because people seldom encounter pure DOA lists you will have the advantage on them.

 

Big Orange has taken Blood Angel DOA lists to comps and had pretty good success but DOA is not an easy win army. It is awesome to play and very quick I enjoy playing but in my opinion if you want strong there are other lists that are easier to master.

 

Whats strong in DOA? its fast, hard hitting, good to excellent in close combat, very tough to destroy, has wide access to powerfull short ranged weapons, great models, great choices, its confusing to opponents, and at the end of the day if you get it wrong it does not take long to pack your whole army in one foam tray.

[AbusePuppy]

DoA's main strength is that it is very reliable- with reserve rerolls and only d6 scatter, it almost always does pretty much what you want it to. It also has resilience- you're dropping 30+ Marines with FNP on the enemy. It relies heavily on these, plus okay AT from Meltaguns and anti-infantry from assaults to break the opponent down before they have time to really do anything.

 

As a "pure" strategy (i.e. no units that don't wear a jump pack) it's okay, but has some significant holes in it. Shoring it up with a secondary thing often alleviates this significantly- for example Missile Devastators are a common inclusion to bring extra anti-tank and anti-Dreadnought shooting. Bikes are also sometimes used, as are many other units from the codex (Terminators, Dreadnaughts, etc.) However, a pure list is certainly possible to use, it will simply end up with a few bad matchups (MCs are a problem, as are lots of Power Weapon attacks.)

 

And to be clear, Sanguinary Guard are not terribly effective in a DoA list because they will usually be able to get an assault off by turn 2 just running across the board. Sanguinary Priests are basically the thing that make the list function.

 

I think a lot of people underestimate DoA and play it wrong, and thus lose with it (or beat it when playing against), thus considering it weak. It's not; it's actually just as good as Razorback lists, or any of the other top-end 5E codex builds, but it presents you which a huge array of deployment options, which can be overwhelming for those not familiar with it. Do you stay in reserve or go on the board? Deep Strike or enter from an edge? Close to the enemy or far away? Play for objectives or for the wipeout? Depending on the matchup and terrain, these can all go either way.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I played DoA for about one year solid following the release of the new codex - how time flies! If you check my blog (link in my sig) you'll find lots of articles there on DoA and how liked to play the army. I like it because it's very close combat oriented. It's fun to play.

 

G