Playing competitive BAs in 6th

[spafe]

Is a pod assult viable? I knoow this mainly wanted tried and tested lists but since i'm still building/painting mine I have no real exp with it atm.

 

I'd look to be running a unit of tac in pod, unit of tac in rhino, assult squad in pod, assult squad jumping, death company pod, death dred pod, dev with 4 las and either tyco, termie and 3 priests, or meph and 2 priests.

 

Idea being spilt the tac squad in rhino with heavy wep and devs doing covering fire, rhino plus jumpers sprint forwards, and as many pods as possible hit the ground to try and overwhelme the enemy army.

 

Also for a modelling side I'd look to a strike squad running forward, inq qith termie psy cannon supporting and a hench unit adding some cheap firepower.

 

Only risk is I dont know how I'd deal with many flyers, other than have poor targets for guard flyer spam (one rhino and one sucide dred), and hopefully be in combat/too close for other flyers to really hit me too hard

[ianj253]

@Sokhar I completely agree with you on Mephiston being good at all point levels. It's very difficult for me not to justify taking Mephiston in a competitive setting because for his points he almost always outperforms the other options in the codex. He's so versatile and that's what makes him amazing. He just rampages through troops and his initiative almost always allows him to sweeping advance a unit. He's also great for taking out vehicles since he hits at strength 10.  my last game I played a forgeworld IG gun emplacement army and he destroyed a russ and 4 turret tanks alone. 

 

My local gaming store always has two 40k tournaments a month 1 @ 1000 and another between 1500-2000. My question is what list can you guys come up with for a 1000? I find it very difficult and alway end up with the same 1000 pt list

 

Mephiston 

1x sanguinary priest w/ Power axe and Jump pack

2 x 10 RAS w/  2 melta guns and melta bombs 

Storm raven w/ MM, Hurricanes, and AC

 

I feel really limited due to the necessity of including a flyer. I don't feel Mephiston can be dropped for anything either. If you swap him for a normal librarian you only have 125 extra points which amounts to either 2 AB's or a furioso. Both inferior options to Mephiston IMO. 

[MrGando]

Hey man,

 

I won a 1000 pts tourney with BAs.

 

My list was:

 

3x Dev Squads (11 ML in total)

2x 10 men JP Squads

1x Divination Libby

1x Blood Priest , JP.

 

Splitting the JP squads is key.

[Brother Maikel]

At 1k, I'd probably run something like

 

 

Mephiston

1x 10-man ASM (JP, 2x Flamer, Power Sword)

1x 5-man ASM (JP, Meltagun, Infernus Pistol)

1x Dev Squad (4x ML)

Stormraven (TLAC, TLMM, Hurricanes)

 

which comes to 950. The last 50 pts could be used on a bare priest to go with the Devs, a pair of ASM and some Meltabombs for the Troops, or other upgrades. Depending on the meta I also might swap the Devs for Sternguard, especially if MCs are popular in the area, or a Fragioso if you expect to face a lot of hordes. You can also switch the roles of the two ASM squads, bringing 2 Meltagun and an IP in the bigger one and 1 Flamer and a Power Sword in the smaller if you expect to face a lot of tanks.

 

This provides 3 Scoring units (5 in Big Guns), only 5 KP you can surrender, has answers to Tanks (Mephy, Melta ASM, Raven), Light Vehicles/MCs (Mephy, Devs, Raven), Hordes/Medium Infantry (Flamer ASM, Devs, Raven), and Aircraft (Raven), and provides multiple targets for any of your opponents' high-str weaponry (Mephy/Raven), making target priority harder. The list is also fast enough to stay away from most Heavy Infantry, which is one thing it struggles to remove.

 

Edit: formatting got screwed up

[ianj253]

@Grando, like the list but my meta is flyer heavy and I don't feel comfortable relying on DEV's alone. I know it's a lot of shots but I'd hate to be forced to focus that much fire on a flyer. 

 

I hate combat squading and avoid it unless I'm playing some DE or IG that I need to DS next too for that melta. I alway feel the 5 man squad are so ineffective after losing 1 member.

[Brother Maikel]

If you treat the two squads as completely separate units, they do tend to suffer a bit after losing members. However, you can always keep them close together, which gives you a few advantages:

* when your opponents shoot at the combined "squad" the most models you can lose is limited to 5. In a 10-man squad you can lose as many as the whole 10 to a single unit shooting them.

* they can obviously split up late game to claim multiple objectives

* they can deep strike in smaller "pockets" without mishaping

* you effectively get "split fire" ala Long Fangs when necessary

* two chances to cause grounding tests for FMCs instead of one

* one squad can give the other a 5+ Cover save when necessary

* you can effectively choose which squad is a "10-man" and which is a "5-man" at deployment time, or deploy as a single "15-man" blob

* two chances at getting Red Thirst

* you can always toss one combat squad in the Raven for late-game objective grabbing if desired

 

 

All in all there's not much difference between a 10-man unit down to 9 men and one 5-man and one 4-man unit next to each other.

[Death Dealer 101]

Hi all, heres some battle reps with my 1200 point blood angels. Using mephy and a raven. Got 4/6 battles posted up.

 

http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=138355&st=40

[DaDa]

Hey guys what do you think of sterngaurd sqauds for BA? supported with a raven en maybe IG and assaultsqauds?

[Ushtarador]

 

3. Mephiston , he seems to be a must-have from what I've read above.

I'm still wondering if he's viable in 1500... I think that an experienced player can just "entertain" him with some unit and having 250 pts stuck at 1500 points is like having ~17% of your army locked with some bait... I think it could be dangerous. Would love to hear other ppl thoughts about that.

 

This would be a valid concern if Mephi couldn't just move 12'' and ignore whatever unit your opponent wants to throw at him :) There's usually just 2 cases: Either Mephi totally owns a unit, or he gets slaughtered. The nice thing is that stuff that slaughters him is usually slow (terminator armor) and expensive, so if you play it correctly, he should not get caught.

 

I think that sternguard in a pod plays nicely with a fast, assault-oriented army. You should combat-squad them to take out 2 dangerous/expensive threats, and then your opponent has to decide on what to focus - the sternguard in his flank or the rest of your army in the midfield.

They work similarly to DC in a pod, with less resilience, but a lot more alpha strike potential.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Mephy is viable in 1500. Ties up an entire unit like nobodies business, and its not necessarily a bad thing. Tarpit something that scores. Just keep him away from terminators and certain monstrous creatures (Swarmlord will murder his face). I'll attest to Ushtarador's Sternguard comment, but I've never run a full 10 man unit. They can come down and be a nuisance/distraction, but be sure to kill what you hit or you'll likely give away first blood.

[JamesI]

I really like Sternguard in this edition.  They don't fit in well with my usual jump heavy style, but I am working on a drop pod force where they will be prominent.

[Ushtarador]

 

 

I'll attest to Ushtarador's Sternguard comment, but I've never run a full 10 man unit. They can come down and be a nuisance/distraction, but be sure to kill what you hit or you'll likely give away first blood.

 

I am currently building a 10man Sternguard unit with the intention to combat squad into something with melta and something with plasma. That way, you can make full use of the wide potential of this unit and threaten infantry and vehicles at the same time.

I feel that 5 guys can field enough combiweapons, and anything more is overkill. So either run 5 as suicide squad or 10 as serious threat, anything in between feels like wasted potential to me.

[SamaNagol]

I run 5 Wolf Guard in Power Armour and one in TDA. 3 combi plas. 2 combi-melta and the terminator has a Hvy Flamer.

 

Pretty similar concept to running Sternguard. Just that they are cheaper, without the special issue ammo or access to full Plasma and Meltaguns rather than combi.

 

You can guarantee First Blood in 7 out of 10 games.

 

TBH if you are worried about first blood, the drop pod is more of a target than the 5 man unit.

 

Tycho works really well with a 5 man Sternguard squad too. Will make a lot of units think twice about charging them with his I5 ignores armour attacks, and he can tank a lot of mundane shots with his 2+ and 3W.

[BassMattJaxx]

I guess like most of you are finding, the troops section is the hardest to find an effective use for.

 

Something I've come to the conclusion in my brief 6th ed foray into the angels is that the BA codex is a jack of all trades, master of none book.

However I think it's great how there's so many options and nothings really 'auto-include to win games'. At least for the time being anyway. Well, beyond Ravens+ etc.