Letter to a fellow BA player

[Enzephalon]

Hi, guys.

I have been asked by some guy over at DakkaDakka to share some of my experiences with him about how I field my BA.

He seemed to be nice so I wrote down some examples for units that I use on a regular basis since the beginning of 6th edition.

 

It turned out to be more text than expected and so I thought it would be a good idea to share it with you guys.

Some of you might find some inspiration here, and some might have the urge to add some constructive or devastating critique.

 

All of it is welcome.

So maybe you want to jump right in and have a look at some of the stuff I was leaking from my brain. ^^

 

 

"I will just present you some stuff that works for me. You can use these ideas and come up with your own combinations depending on your meta.

What works here in Austria might not work at your place, because of the presence of different armies.

 

1. The attack bike:

If you need reliable anti-tank with good resilience take these. They are a bargain at 50 points a piece equipped with a multimelta.

12" movement and another 24" of shooting (12" for the extra roll for armour penetration) is really good. With the new rules you get a free cover save (5+) if you moved (even 4+ for flat out). Combine that with your toughness of 5 (no instant death from melta/lascannon/krak missile) for instant awesomeness.

They are a suicide unit though. Don't expect them to last long. Avoid to be charged and use line of sight blocking cover while moving forward.

Take two squads of two/ two squads of one/ or one squad of two for your fast attack. They never let me down.

 

2. The Baal Predator:

Use one with assault cannon (which is more awesome now in 6th) and heavy bolters if you face a lot of infantry. Otherwise there are better options to spend your points.

 

3. Predator:

If you need some decent long range shooting to kill light/heavy vehicles or terminators/obliterators/monstrous creatures then take these equipped with lascannon sponsons and an autocannon. Being able to shoot two weapons at full balistic skill on the move is just godly.

I never leave home without two of them.

 

4. The Vindicator:

A very decent choice in 6th since the template hits vehicles at full strength even if they are only partially under the template. It's also incredibly good against infantry.

 

5. Librarian:

Your best choice for HQ hands down. There are certain mighty fine combinations. I'll mention them when I talk about the units they support.

 

6. Sternguard veterans:

Take 8 of these in a Drop-Pod or Rhino. Get 4 combi-melta and attach a sanguinary priest and a librarian with the Divination lore for the re-rolling to hit you get from the primaris power "prescience".

Go for marine hunting with the special ammunition that "gets hot" and has AP3. The chance to die from "gets hot"is only 1:324! thanks to the re-rolling of these 1s while rolling to hit, and the "Feel no pain" from the priest, while the chance to kill a marine that has no cover is 66%.

This translates to an average of 10-11 nuked marines within 12" and 5-6 within 24".

4 melta shots from the combi weapons only cost you 20 points. Take these against terminators (you still re-roll to hit) and vehicles.

 

7. Honour guard:

Field them with 4 plasma guns and 1-2 storm shields (3+ invulnerable save). They come with the priest included. Add a librarian with prescience and stick them in a Razorback of your choice. Roll 6" get out for another 6" and vaporize anything in your path from monstrous creatures, light vehicles to terminators. AP2 is king and since you are re-rolling, this is deadly as hell. When you are under heavy fire use the "Look out sir" to allocate AP1-3 wounds, or those with double the strength of your toughness on the guys with the stormshields.

 

8. Assault squads:

Take 10 with two melta/plasma with 1 fist/energy weapon on the sergeant, depending on your needs. Let them follow the Razorback with the Honour guard to protect them from being charged while profiting from the FNP bubble the sanguinary novitiate provides.

Take another 10 men and split them into combat squads to have mobile scoring units. Don't expect them to do much and go to ground when you find yourself under heavy fire.

Another option in addition to the 10 jumping guys -> Two 5 men squads with their own Razorback of your choice.

 

9. Tactical squads:

If you prefer them you can buy two squads and buy a Razorback for each. Then combat squad them. 5 guys with the sergeant and a melta ride in the tank while the remaining 5 guys with the heavy weapon are deployed in the back field on an objective. This leaves you with two stationary scoring squads and 2 mobile ones for a total of four.

 

10. Scouts:

Take 5-10 with a missile launcher and camo cloaks in addition to either the tacticals or the assault marines. They will sit on objectives.

Don't expect them to do much killing but with a 2+ cover save when going to ground, they are resilient as hell. You can put them in an aegis defense line with a quad gun manned by the sergeant for some anti air.

5 guys with a missile launcher + cloaks are a real bargain at only 100 points.

 

11. Terminators:

5 of them (3 claws/ 2 hammers with shield) with a priest in terminator armour and a librarian with terminator armour, stormshield and "prescience" in a Landraider Crusader or Stormraven. The rerolls do count for close combat as well. Therefore a terminator with claws rerolls his 4 attacks on the charge with S5 while hitting AND while wounding. At AP3 they will shred marines as well as those squishy eldars/humans/orks.

 

12. Death company:

If you don't want them to be overkill take them in squads of 5-10 with at least two energy weapons and maybe a hammer/fist. Equip them with bolters (yes, you lose one attack on the charge, but you have the same number of attacks compared to pistol+sword DC in 5th edition because of the extra attack from rage USR) to gain some shooting power after shredding your first enemy + you now profit more from overwatch when you find yourself being charged. Attach a chaplain for some serious facekicking.

They will be delivered by either a stormraven or a landraider to be able to charge after disembarking.

 

13. The Stormraven:

I never fielded one myself because I do not own one, but they seem to be a very decent choice in 6th edition.

I would play 1 with termies, or two with death company (you need Astorath for two separate squads). Or a combination of both which seems to be a bit of an overkill, so stick with 2 max for the start.

 

Hopefully this gives you some insight on how I play my angels. This is not THE way to play them, it's just MY way..."

[CitadelArmyGuy]

I like most of your thoughts. Rather than running through what I agree with, I'll give my thoughts on what I don't prefer.

 

7. Honor Guard-- the 4x PG is a great option. I don't think I'd increase their cost through the roof with Storm Shields though. Also, I wouldn't put the Librarian inside the transport with them-- because then you lose his Prescience ability until you unload-- and he can only bless the Honor Guard, which is rather inflexible. Prescience should be cast every single turn; riding inside a transport like that means he's wasting his Prescience for 1 or 2 turns (depending). If you switch to a Rhino (for shooting out of the hatch) then *perhaps* it would be worth it. But since blessings must be cast at the beginning of the movement phase, you can't bless anything but the Honor guard--- and sometimes you're gonna want to bless DC or RAS or the MM Attackbikes.

 

1. Attack Bikes-- I only disagree with how you organize them. A unit of 3 bikes is far better than 3 singles, or 2 and 1. Because in 2/6 missions, they are worth a Killpoint each-- so you need to make them as survivable as possible (also, I don't view them as suicide units). Keeping them near a Priest with JP means they almost always get a FnP roll, which is awesome for the amount of fire they attract. Also, if you need to cast Prescience on them, you will want them all together in one unit for the most bonus.

 

10. Scouts-- I love these guys, but only because they are cheap. I cannot justify the cloaks, because then they cost as much as a normal Tactical marine (which are usually better in more situations). Plus 100pts for 5scouts, Cloaks and ML (BS3 being the killer here) isn't as good as 5 naked Assault Marines (also 100pts)--- granted this is an apples to oranges comparison, and only my opinion.

[Deschenus Maximus]

Keep the libby out of the transport when you deploy. Cast Prescience on whatever, load up on T1. T2, cast prescience on the HG (well worth it with 4 plasmas), disembark and shoot shoot shoot! No power wastage!