I Need Help!

[Brother Neyo]

I am new to the tabletop of warhammer 40k and could use some help to figure some stuff out, any advice or tips would be really appreciated!

[Zynk Kaladin]

Ah, a prospective son of Sanguinius.  Welcome!

 

It would greatly help us if you could be more specific on what you need help with.  Army composition tips?  Rules?  Tactics?  Paint schemes?  Why Sanguinius is the best primarch ever?  Why you have an insane thirst for blood sometimes? Why legions of women flock to you ever since choosing Blood Angels?  Why Night Angels are the best successor chapter EVER? etc.

 

If you haven't checked out the BA resources please click here.  It will give you an overview of just about every unit in our codex and some additional cool stuff to know.

 

Here's some simple steps to starting an army (I'm assuming you haven't done any of these yet, but...):

 

1) Get a 6th edition rulebook.

2) Get our Codex.

3) Read and study them like holy scripture.

4) Pose for the ladies.

5) PLAN BEFORE YOU BUY!  I'M HERE FOR YOUR WALLET, BROTHER!

6) Get super glue, a paint brush, a hobby knife, primer, and paints

7) PLAN YOUR ARMY LIST!  SANGUINIUS BE WITH YOU!

8) Buy

 

Now for #7 I will give you my personal opinions on what's "core" for Blood Angels.  You DO NOT have to follow my suggestions.  It's YOUR army.  Go crazy(within rules and reason)!  The rulebook requires you to have at least 1 HQ choice and 2 Troop choices.  I'm going to pick choices that allow you to learn all of the basic rules AND are VERY effective.  Therefore, here's what I suggest:

 

HQ: Librarian with force axe and jump pack.  Librarians are very good at buffing your army with spells and dishing out the hurt on your enemy.  Since you're playing Angels, a jump pack is often necessary if you want him traveling with Assault Marines.  The axe lets you chop through the heaviest armor, but it's slower.  You will learn how psychic powers work in 40k.  You can choose not to attach the jump pack and put him with the tactical marines or keep it on and place him in the assault squad.  Either way I often give him the prescience psychic spell which allows you to re roll failed hit rolls.  Great army booster!

 

Troop Choice 1:  Assault Marines with two meltaguns and a power sword(or lightning claw) sergeant.  Assault marines are THE bread and butter unit of Blood Angels.  The meltaguns are a very effective close ranged solution to enemy vehicles and the power sword helps you chop through basic marine armor with ease.  They all have jump packs so you'll be getting them into close combat.  Therefore, you will learn the close combat mechanics of the game.

 

Troop Choice 2:  Tactical Squad with plasma gun and missile launcher.  Ah, the iconic basic marine ranged unit.  Nothing like bolter fire to make the Emperor proud.  The plasma gun puts the hurt on marine-level armor while the missile launcher gives you a long ranged solution to enemy vehicles (krak missiles) and light infantry(frag missiles).  Keep these guys out of close combat and in ranged combat.  You will learn how the shooting mechanics work in warhammer.

 

Other great choices:

 

Elite: Sanguinary Priest with jump pack and axe:  A sanguinary priest is great at helping your army.  He gives your squad Feel No Pain (FNP), which essentially gives you an extra 5+ dice roll against small to medium arms fire.  Also, the squad he is attached to gets Furious Charge which gives them +1 strength when charging an enemy squad.  This lets your squad have an easier time wounding your enemy.  Therefore, place him with your assault marines.  They'll need FNP to weather the storm of enemy fire until they get close enough to assault.  Then Furious Charge lets you PURGE IN THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR.  The Priest is a great choice to have in my opinion.

 

Dedicated Transport: 

 

1) Rhino for your tactical squad.  Rhinos let you get your tactical squad where you want them faster than having them footslog across the board, which takes up precious turns.  The transport also gives your embarked squad protection against small arms fire.  Your enemy will have to dedicate some anti tank just to get your guys out of there.  Great choice for tactical marines.

 

2) Alternatively, if you want to get into the fight FAST you may give your tactical squad the iconic Drop Pod.  Drop pods let you enter the table on turn 1 wherever you want.  You may scatter a bit, but generally it is a very safe delivery system for your marines.  You get into your enemy's lines fast OR you can get to an objective fast.  The drop pod is a great choice if you want to learn deep striking rules, which Blood Angels LOVE.

 

I would suggest plenty of other units after these, but this is sufficient for your basic core Blood Angel army.  If you like what you've read, go out and get started, brother.  But I can not stress enough your planning phase.  Read the rulebook.  Read your Codex.  Know EXACTLY what you want before you walk into the store.  Your wallet will thank you.  If it could it would make you a cake.  If you have any questions, please ask!

[Brother Neyo]

I am a little more than a prospective son of the great angel, I have studied our history and have absorbed as much of the history as I could, but I am really new to the tabletop game

 

Unfourtanly, I have already purchased a lot of units but I don't think I made any critical errors I just may have over bought some units, as of right now I have:

 

1 Baal preadator with 4 lascannons

2 razorbacks (1 heavy bolter 1 lascannon)

1 furioso dreadnaught 2 cc arms

5 scouts with sniper rifles

10 sang guard

1 storm raven

5 sternguard veterans

5 vanguard veterans

7 death company (the extra two were models made out of bits)

20 assault marines

5 tyrannic war veterans (checked on the history, Dante sent the 2nd 4th and 5th companies to aid in the second tyrannic war. Unsure if I can even play them though)

Mephiston

Commander Dante

Corbulo

Tycho

Lemartes

The sanguinor

2 Chaplin venerable dreadnaughts (forgeworld)

60 tactical marines (assorted power weapons, meltas, and plasma)

10 devastators

1 techmarine

3 apothecaries

2 chaplains (1 with jp)

The captains of the first , second, third, fourth, and fifth companies respectively

Sepharam captain of the sanguinary guard (my first real conversion)

7 random marines( 4 bolters, 1 power sword and chapter banner, 1 stalker, and 1 thunder hammer)

 

I do own the codex but don't really have any things else, most of them are paint to the blood angels standard but that's about all I got right now. I still don't understand tactics and or really how to play units if you guys could help me figure that out it would be much appreciated

[Xenith]

Getting the rulebook is the next step, reading it twice is the one after that :)

 

Baal preds cannot have lascannons. What you have there is a predator annihilator, with a turret twin linked lascannon, and 2 lascannon sponsons.

Tyrannic war veterans are not an actual unit in game, but they are easily represented with the rules for Strenguard, giving you a total of 10.

 

Currently you have the following choices:

 

11 HQ

10 ELITE

9 TROOP

1 FAST ATTACK

3 HEAVY SUPPORT

 

Being new to the game, I would stop buying things right now. Build some armies using the codex with the models you like, we'll tell you if they are legal, or how they can be improved.

[Brother Neyo]

Ok thank you very much

[Brother Neyo]

Is this a viable 2,000 list?

 

HQ:

Mephiston with honor guard

 

Elite:

5 sanguinary guard

10 stern guard

Techmarine

Furioso with dual blood talons

 

Troops:

10 assault

10 tactical

 

Heavy support:

Storm raven

 

Fast attack: none right now, do I have to take any?

 

Dedicated transports:

Razorback

 

Misc. (aka I don't know what they fight under)

Chaplin dreadnaught with autocannons and lascannons

[Sanguine Eternal]

I think your list is too character heavy for starters...Although it is common to have 2 HQ choices for a large game, I find it best to spend your points on units rather than characters. 

You have too many Elite choices in that list as well.  I would drop Lemartes or a Sanguinary Guard, or even both.

 

Devastators are a heavy support choice as well, not troop.  Now since you are new to the game, I would suggest starting with smaller games, and working up from there.  Try a few 750-1000pts games maybe to start.  Get the feel for the game, try out different units that you have and see what you like to play with.  Grab a friend that might want to play, and you can both do BA vs BA for the time being until you get the rules down.  It's a fun game to play once you get the hang of it, and understand how the rules work.

 

First off though, pick up the rule book, and the BA codex, and everything else you will need to play the game.  Dice, tape measure, weapons templates.
I would also suggest reading a bunch of BA army lists here on the forum.  Gives you an idea what other people are fielding, and what they have experienced using that list.  Good luck, and have fun.


 

[nurglespuss]

that list is ok

but I might think about dropping mephiston and the honour guard for a standard librarian, and another assault

squad. the tactical squad is a solid choice. I might also think about saving the raven for bigger games ans fielding a couple of heavy support options, or a land raider.

you can't drop a single sanguinary guard... they are a set cost (with options).

I notice you haven't included any death company? 5 plus a chaplain would be great in that razor back!

[Sanguine Eternal]

Before he edited the post, he had two squads of Sang Guard, with 4 elite choices, and a squad of Devs in as troops.  Was more of a, drop one squad comment since he had 10.

 

Drop the techmarine, they are a waste of points and an elite slot when you can take a sanguinary priest.  Sang priests, in larger games work best when you max them out as well, and Corbulo can count as one of your 3 priests (only using up 1 of your 3 elite choices)  Their FnP bubbles are awesome.

In a game with a Primary Detachment you need to take 1 HQ and 2 TROOP choices.  Once those are filled, you are allowed to take 1 additional HQ, 4 TROOP, 3 ELITE, 3 FAST ATTACK, 3 HEAVY SUPPORT.  That's it.  Then if you want, you can take an allied detachment, which is a small force from a different army that is able to alliance with your army.

 

In a large game like that, I would have more scoring units, which are only troop choices unless stated otherwise.  Another squad of assault or tactical marines could go a long way.

 

Your razorback will get blown to bits turn 1, and their is no one in it unless you combat squad a tactical squad, so I would probably drop it as well.

Razorbacks can only carry 6 marines because of the weapon turret, so keep that in mind.