Livery for multiple assault squads? Do we care?

[psiekier]

We Blood Angels have a wonderful if not entirely undeserved reputation of showing up for games with an army consisting largely of 5-man assault squads with a meltagun and tooled-up veteran sergeant ready to leap out of their Razorbacks and unleash some Furious Charge on the enemy at close range.

 

As someone who's painted up almost the whole third company, and finding tactical squads a little... less than useful ... how do you explain the presence of more than two assault squads, and how would you paint them?

 

Do you paint them with red helmets and simply explain that the tactical troopers exchanged their bolt guns for chainswords? After all we are known for our predilection for close combat!

 

Or, instead, should they all be painted as assault squads from the same company, but have them be "combat squads" of the same full-strength squads... just with one veteran brother to lead the second half of the squad. I don't know... Maybe give him a red banner instead of a black banner like combat squads in Second Edition.

 

Or, lastly, are they simply squads from somewhere else in the host, such as perhaps the Eighth (Reserve) Company, and should be painted as such?

 

Or am I just over-thinking this?

[Vodunius]

Or, instead, should they all be painted as assault squads from the same company, but have them be "combat squads" of the same full-strength squads... just with one veteran brother to lead the second half of the squad. I don't know... Maybe give him a red banner instead of a black banner like combat squads in Second Edition.

 

If you are going all 5's then that's how I'd do it.

[darth_giles]

We Blood Angels have a wonderful if not entirely undeserved reputation of showing up for games with an army consisting largely of 5-man assault squads with a meltagun and tooled-up veteran sergeant ready to leap out of their Razorbacks and unleash some Furious Charge on the enemy at close range.

 

As someone who's painted up almost the whole third company, and finding tactical squads a little... less than useful ... how do you explain the presence of more than two assault squads, and how would you paint them?

Dang that's some old minis. I see RTB01 guys in there, and some 2nd edition sergeants. Got any of the old one-pose plastics in there, too?

[Lividjoker]

Well you could just say that due to battle attrition in the assault squads the tactical (as per the codex) have taken up their Close combat arms to fill out those squads, but they're doing it temporarily until they're reinforced by the rest of the chapter etc.

[psiekier]

Dang that's some old minis. I see RTB01 guys in there, and some 2nd edition sergeants. Got any of the old one-pose plastics in there, too?

Yes, but you might have to look more closely than my picture's resolution makes practical. Several of the boltgun marines in the ninth squad are plastics from the Second Edition boxed set, as is one of the (unfinished) missile launchers in the tenth squad.

 

I will probably do as Vodunius suggests, as I have quite a few models that could fill in as veterans with some kind of fighty or choppy weapon. It won't be too complicated unless I throw in an attack bike squadron and Brother-Sergeant Gideon literally finds himself in two places at once!

[Brightguy]

If full squads, I would paint the extras as tacticals with assault weapons. Nothing wrong with using the right tool for the job and tacticals are fully qualified for assault duty. If 5 man squads, I would portray as 5 each from an assault squad. Only one in sergeant livery, the second combat squad leader can have the special weapons, but less bling.

[daveclark890]

I would sack off the idea of assault squads in transports unless they are open topped! New rules: you can only assault from an assault vehucle. Assault vehicles are basically open topped and we only have the storm and the pod, the Raven has it in its special rules as do the LR variants but Rhino and RB just got NERFED

[The Yncarne]

I'm running a successor who uses (standard) Codex markings, but I have integrated the strike force concept from the Codex: Blood Angels into my paint scheme.

 

What I did was develop a paint scheme for 'strike forces'. The shoulder rim denotes the strike force ID. Squad markings and sergeant/veteran helms can then remain unchanged. This allows you to break the normal codex paint scheme while still having a coherent looking army. I can paint each squad type up through squad 10. Your 'strike force' is whatever is in your list.

 

It allows me to paint whatever I want without the worry about adhering to a traditional company color pattern. Some like that though.

[darth_giles]

I would sack off the idea of assault squads in transports unless they are open topped! New rules: you can only assault from an assault vehucle. Assault vehicles are basically open topped and we only have the storm and the pod, the Raven has it in its special rules as do the LR variants but Rhino and RB just got NERFED

I was under the impression that rhino/razorback rush had been nerfed that way, back in late 3e under the NVR and it was simply carried forward into later editions. I haven't played much under 5th, so if you could leap out of a transport and assault, then it was something I totally missed.

 

Then again, that's why we got jump packs.

[psiekier]

I would sack off the idea of assault squads in transports unless they are open topped! New rules: you can only assault from an assault vehucle. Assault vehicles are basically open topped and we only have the storm and the pod, the Raven has it in its special rules as do the LR variants but Rhino and RB just got NERFED

Sounds like they restored a little decorum to the game. It was beginning to degenerate into an ugly brawl without the artillery...

 

It allows me to paint whatever I want without the worry about adhering to a traditional company color pattern. Some like that though.

Yes, some of us do. :)

 

http://www.peteandkellie.com/wh40k/images/blood_angels/third_company_sergeants_medium.jpg

[Plague Angel]

My usual response to these sorts of questions is to remind people that taking to battlegrounds together as a Company is actually rare, especially for the sorts of skirmishes that are the scale of 40k as a game.

 

You are, of course, free to decide your army is all from one Company, though, and it sounds like that's your goal. The combat squads seems like a good idea to me; you even have an idea of how to indicate that! But some reserve squads wouldn't be bad either. Assuming a max of six squads in a standard FOC, combat squads would let you take four 5-man squads. A single, close-combat directed, red-helmeted "Tactical" squad could provide the last two units, which would let you stay all Third Company instead of calling up the Reserves.

[The Yncarne]

Agree with Plague Angel. If you want the company colors to be by the book, why aren't you painting reserve companies and placing them in with your 3rd?

[psiekier]

Agree with Plague Angel. If you want the company colors to be by the book, why aren't you painting reserve companies and placing them in with your 3rd?

Slow down, The Red Worm!

 

I was planning on getting there some day, as I am already facing the conundrum I described above with two full-strength assault squads and an attack bike squadron made up of models that are supposed to be the same guys.

 

Earlier codices make the claim that assault squads function not only as such, but are also the crews for the chapter's Land Speeders, bikes, and attack bikes. Surely if Brother-Sergeants Adorno and Gideon are on the table leading their respective squads (whether they're on bikes, in Rhinos, or just hoofing it), somebody else must be operating those other vehicles.

 

Actually, I don't know that there's been a Land Speeder in my army since Second Edition ...

[Plague Angel]

Earlier codices make the claim that assault squads function not only as such, but are also the crews for the chapter's Land Speeders, bikes, and attack bikes.

 

This is still the case in the present codex, actually! It's a nice detail. Though Tacs still drive Land Speeders sometimes, I think.

[The Yncarne]

I'm coming across in unintended ways so I will bid adieu with a "Good luck". :sweat: