What to get?

[Hostilius]

Greetings fellow super humans!

 

Having played Tyranids for a few years I finally took the initiative to start a new army - I decided on Blood Angels!

I am, however having some trouble figuring out how to equip my soldiers as well as what to get in the future:

 

I currently own a Blood Angels Battleforce which consists of:

 

10 Tactical Marines

- Sergeant, Missile Launcher - should I equip the last with a Flamer or a Meltagun? I like Flamer for crowd control, but anti-vehicle is important I guess?

 

5 Assault Marines

- Sergeant with a Powerfist, as well as one Marine with Infernus pistol.

 

5 Death Company Marines

- Should I give these Jump Packs? I'm thinking of buying a Reclusiarch to go with them and I like the idea of flying rage-heads causing trouble.

- Should I give them Power weapons/Fists/Thunder Hammers? Or Infernus pistols perhaps?

 

1 Rhino

- Storm Bolter

- I'm gonna give this to the Tactical Marines which is why I'd prefer if the rest of the army is Jump packing across the board.

 

What should I get beyond these units? I'm thinking a Reclusiarch for HQ and a Furioso Dreadnought for lulz? I'm playing in a friendly environment but I'd still prefer some anti-vehicle stuff to wreak those tanks! Perhaps Devastators are a viable choice here?

 

Let me know what you think!

 

Cheers!

[BOBMAKENZIE]

The trend for DC these days are for transports, but you could easily blend the BA specific parts in with your Tacs and assault marines and just use them as Assault marines.

 

Devastators are definitely a popular choice especially Missile Launchers. You could look into Multi Melta attack bikes as an possible alternative.

 

You may want to invest in a rhino, razorback or drop pod for your Tactical squad as well :D Otherwise a Reclusiarch and a Dread sound like fun choice.

[Tamwulf]

The strength of the Blood Angels falls into two categories:

 

Mechanized, which is pretty similar to all Space Marine Mechanized lists. Lot's of Razorbacks with Lascannon/Plasagun, Baal Preds, and regular Preds.

 

Assault- here is the fun part for Blood Angels. Everything Deep Striking, has Fast movement, or a jumppack. You want to get them into close combat ASAP. Reclusiarch is a good choice, but we have fantastic Special Characters. Dante, Astrorath, the Sanguinor all bring something to your army. If you want a beat stick, take Mepshiston.

 

Furiso Dreads are awesome. You can't beat that AV13, and we can take a Furiso Libby! Ever seen a Dreadnought move like Jump Infantry? Blood Talons will kill everything in close combat (infantry anyways), but against bigger stuff, not so much.

 

You're also going to want a couple Sanguinary Priests. These are the guys that give your whole army Feel No Pain. They are Independent Characters, and not that expensive until you start heaping on the extras. Keep it cheap. I typically run 2-3 with Jump Packs, and maybe one with a power weapon.

 

For your troops, you are going to want to take Assault Marines. Yup, assault marines. Take away the jump packs, and they are cheaper then a Tactical Squad, and get a free Drop Pod, or Fast Rhino for 15 points, or a Fast Razorback for 20 points. A Meltagun, P-fist, or Thunder Hammer in every squad gives you anti-tank capability.

 

Deathcompany is good, but expensive. Competitive lists don't use them, a token force just sucks points away. You almost have to create your army around them. Just be aware of Rage and the fact that they are a non-scoring unit. Death Company are fun in a Storm Raven, with a DC Dread, all led by Lemartes. If you're going to use a squad of Death Company, you're going to want Lemartes. Try and run them in a transport (Storm Raven first, Rhino, Land Raider if you are so inclined). I run either 5x Jump Packs, Thunder Hammer, led by Lemartes in a Storm Raven, or 10x regular with two Thunder Hammers led by Lemartes inside a Storm Raven. You could lead these guys with a regular Chaplain, but they are just so much better with Lemartes.

 

What else? Baal Predators with Assault Cannons are awesome, and Storm Ravens... oh how much fun those things are. Blood Angels are currently the only army with Flying Land Raiders. Yes, our Land Raiders can deepstrike.

 

Try and take the stuff that makes Blood Angles unique. Yes, you could field Devastators and Tactical Squads (I have), but then any Space Marine army can do that.

 

Good luck, and have fun!

[Quixus]

Blood Angels are currently the only army with Flying Land Raiders.

I wouldn't call our flying boxes land raiders. AV 12 is considerably more squishy than AV14. Ignoring the Melta rule mitigates this a bit.

[Tamwulf]

Blood Angels are currently the only army with Flying Land Raiders.

I wouldn't call our flying boxes land raiders. AV 12 is considerably more squishy than AV14. Ignoring the Melta rule mitigates this a bit.

Ummm... read the fluff. :wub: Blood Angel Thunderhawks will release Land Raiders high up in the atmosphere where they fly down to the battlefield. In game terms, Blood Angel Land Raiders can Deepstrike. Hence the name, flying Land Raiders. People started calling the Stormraven a flying Land Raider due to it's transport ability and assault ramps. Not much much anymore- most people just refer to them as a Stormraven. Speaking of Stormravens...

 

There are also a couple things that really help out a Stormraven: Moving Flat Out (18"-24") every turn. You can still shoot a weapon with the Power of the Machine Spirit, the guys in back can still disembark using the Skies of Blood rule (and if you have jump packs, it's even easier, and don't forget the Descent of Angels rule) and you get a 4+ Cover Save. It doesn't get much better then that. Suddenly AV12 isn't all that bad, as not a whole lot will be able to touch it.

[Taranis]

You should buy what you like and what you find fun! However proxying and testing will prevent most buying mistakes.

 

AV 13 spam can be fun (elite-furiosos, fast-baal, heavy-vindicators) but for low points I'd recommend one or two command squads for priest, banner and weapons. Then DC boxes as they can be any marine in our army except terminators and perhaps sang guard.

 

If you go light on the glue or magnetize the packs you can really use them in many ways

 

There is a YouTube tutorial on magnetizeing a furioso.

 

Massive amounts of tricks, advice and guides here:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=215235

 

Have fun. :tu:

[Bartali]

Generally, you'll want more Assault Squads. Either 10 Man Jump Pack squads with Priest support or 5 man squads in Razorbacks.

You'll then want some fire support, generally for jumpers you'll want Devs with Missile Launchers; mech Assault Marines you'll want Predators.

Once you've got those basics sorted you can add the fancy stuff on top.

[Warbringer]

You should buy what you like and what you find fun! However proxying and testing will prevent most buying mistakes.

 

AV 13 spam can be fun (elite-furiosos, fast-baal, heavy-vindicators) but for low points I'd recommend one or two command squads for priest, banner and weapons. Then DC boxes as they can be any marine in our army except terminators and perhaps sang guard.

 

QFT - Thats the way brother ;)

[SnorriSnorrison]

As you have the battleforce, the it's probably the best to build the squads 'as intended by GW'(I'm sorry, I have no other way to say that).

 

That means just go on building your tactical squad(flamer/missile launcher is pretty good for starters. consider a powerfist as well!) stick it in the Rhino and you're done.

 

Next, DC and Assault squad. The good thing with the DC is that you have so many spare parts that you can bling up the assault and tactical marines pretty easily, with bolters, backpacks and shoulderpads and whatnot. Even small knifes or daggers, and don't forget the special close combat weapons!

 

As you have two powerfists(one from the DC, one from the Assault squad) and several powerweapons(see brackets), you can either give it to the DC or save and spread them among your army for good measure once you are building more squads.

 

A Baal Predator is a nice thing to have, really. Not only is it a very good tank, but it also has some chapter-specific icons that you can slap on your other battletanks, even if you only field rhinos it will look great.

 

As already said, get hold of the Command Squad box and gather some more narthecii as well(you know, those apothecary-medical-things...) for your Sanguinary Priests.

 

A box of Sanguinary Guard is also recommandable. Whether you build a squad or not is up to you, but it has loads of accessories from glaives encarmine to nipple chest armour. ;)

 

Devastators work well, and if you don't want to field them, you have spare heavy weapons to use in your tactical squad but they are not mandatory.

 

Furiosos are not only for the lolz, they are also great at smashing/stomping/slicing the enemies of the Emprah and Sanguinius! Definately a good choice for BA.

 

For HQ, most people go with a Librarian/Reclusiarch combo. That's up to you. Both work well, or you use one of the various characters we have access to. A Captain can work as well.

 

For mobile air support, the Stormraven is really a great choice for delivering deadly cc troops and a furioso in one go! It's fast, it's big, it's red and it makes woooosh when you move it over the battlefield! Worth a try in my very humble opinion. It also has the ability to pick up jumpers which favoured your idea of a JP-heavy army.

 

 

 

I hope this post was not redundant after all the things the others said. ;)

 

 

Snorri

[Hostilius]

Thank you so much! - All of you, you've been a great help!

 

Perhaps a final questions - do you suggest that I make a Sang. Priest out of the command squad instead of buying the metal model? I could see the logic in that for sure.

[Quixus]

Perhaps a final questions - do you suggest that I make a Sang. Priest out of the command squad instead of buying the metal model? I could see the logic in that for sure.

Yup. If you can get 2 bases from some place else you could make 7 models from the command squad IIRC.

[Quixus]

Perhaps a final questions - do you suggest that I make a Sang. Priest out of the command squad instead of buying the metal model? I could see the logic in that for sure.

Yup. If you can get 2 bases from some place else you could make 7 models from the command squad IIRC.

[Brother Chris]

Buy the Lemartes figure as your reclusiarch.

 

I'm wondering if you shouldn't use the command set as the basis of an Honour Guard, spliced with left-over bits dfrom the DC sprues, getting sanguinary novitiate instead of a priest. Otherwise bits from those sprues could easily make you some sanguinary priests. they don't all have Nartheciums. One in the Codex has his Blood chalice on his pauldron, and there are a couple with this design on the DC sprue.

 

Or use the DC bits to make a Vanguard Vet Unit.

 

Either a Baal or a Furioso.

 

Welcome aboard!

[SnorriSnorrison]

they don't all have Nartheciums. One in the Codex has his Blood chalice on his pauldron, and there are a couple with this design on the DC sprue.

 

Wasn't it the other way round? They all have a Narthecium, but not everyone has a Blood Chalice as those things are really really rare, right?

I think it says in the codex that a small shard of a Chalice is incorporated in every SP's Narthecium.

 

 

Oh, and the buying the Lemartes model is a wonderful idea.

 

Snorri

[Quixus]

Actually it is neither. They don't have nartheciums. They do have somnething that counts as blood chalice. Not all of them have actual chalices but only a shard of an old chalice.

[Brother Chris]

I was trying to convey the concept that we don't need to use a straight Apothecary figure to represent our Sanguinary priests. They are elite looking characters with a blood chalice in some form (cup, shard, medical arm equipment). The guy on the front of the Codex is one, for instance.

[Quixus]

Woops my bad. I thought the Blood Chalice was a special rule not war gear. The description on p 48 says that the priests either have an actual chalice or a narthecium with a shrad of a chalice in it. You could even interpret the text as all piests having a narthecium and some having a chalice.

[Brother Chris]

It is indeed confusing, and Narthecium (misspelled) doesn't appear as an item of our wargear. They used to be called exsanguinators, which is how I think of them.