Starting a Blood Angels Army

[Bloody Legionnaire]

Hello all! Space Wolves player here and I've decided to pick start a Blood Angels army to get a little diversity. Quick questions.. What should my first few buys be as I began my Blood Angels collection or the best way to start a collection? I know general rule of thumb is a couple of battleforce box sets and an hq. What about just individual box sets other than battleforces to begin with?

[morello]

Welcome fella. I don't think you can go wrong with a few Baal pred's, some DC, stormraven and furioso to be honest. HQ wise is a harder thing most run with mephiston or a normal Libby but I'm a tycho and Dante fan, just depends in my opponent really.

[Bloody Legionnaire]

I will be picking up Astrorath first, I don't know which other HQ's I'll ge after that. Mayble I'll go for a baal. I think it'd be a waste of money to buy the death company box set alone since the battleforce is such a good deal. I normally start with a vehicle but that got me into trouble with my space wolves. My first few games I didn't have a lot of troops.

[JamesI]

The DC box is a great box, lots of useful stuff in it.

 

I personally love attack bikes and Storm Ravens.

 

A lot depends on the style of army you want.

[Alyssis]

I bought the battleforce set, and i have yet to use anything but the death company sprues in there.

I didnt care for the looks of the assault marines, so i use sanguinary guard boxes, and death company boxes, and paint them red. Looks alot better, with blood angels symbols and everything..

The tactical marines and the rhino, is also something i have yet to field, as they never seem to find a place in my army.

If you want to start a Blood angels army, my suggestion would be to buy 3-4 boxes of death company, 1-2 boxes of sanguinary guards, and a pack of melta guns from GW.

That would roughly give you 2x10 assault marines, with 2 melta guns in each squad, and a pack of sanguinary guards that you can make a few seargents with different options for, as well as a few sanguinary priests.

As for hq slot, the best choice when starting is proberbly a librarian, or mephiston. Every other choice we have, unfortunatly has its down sides. Dante, and astorath striking at Initiative 1. The sanguinor is to expensive, and rarely gets its points back in value. If you are to field Death company troops, a reclusiarch is a good choice.

Depending on the size of your army, and what tactics you wish to use, there are lots of options...

As stated, baal predators are awesome. A Furioso dreadnought, with a drop pod is a decent choice in almost any army.

For heavy support, either stormravens, vindicators, reguler predators, or a devestator squad are all viable options. Some favours one, others the other..
 

[Bloody Legionnaire]

To me it sounds like Astorath has more going for him than Mephy. The one thing that stands out the most against Mephy is that fact that he can't join any other unit. Against MC or other stout IC's I think Mephy is going to struggle with the equipement he brings to the fight.. I1 for Astorath would suck if he is challeneged though. I do like that I feel I have more options that work with the Blood Angels. I like that there isn't a unit like Long Fangs that are a must and wipe out all your HS slots

[Alyssis]

Obviously you are free to choose whichever of the choices you want. Either way, a reguler librarian is the safest choice.. Mephie is used by many, and for a good reason.. I personally use librarians, either one or two of them. Shield of sanguinius, and blood lance, or divination powers, depending on who im facing. Never lets me down..

I agree with all the options. Its great to be able to choose from so many things.. I have closer to 5000 points now, and still getting some more things.. Its a great army! :) And the models look awesome..! :)

 

[Demoulius]

Astaroth defenitly has alot going for him :) S6 AP2 attacks with WS6 that force a target to reroll invunverable saves. 2+ armour and 4+ invul. If your opponent challenges you he either has one nasty combo himself or hes very sure of himself. :)

I personaly always go with a liby with jumppack and force axe. More because I have the model made already (and hes a bad ass! :wub: ) and because... Well... Most HQ models are going to hit before the liby anyway (specialy after the initiative loss from FC) so I want him to hit as hard as he possible can! Ive had him survive blows a few times (either my opponent whiffed his attacks or I had some lucky FnP rolls) only to have him chop off my opponents head :D

an assault squad or 2 are never a bad choice for blood angels. Like others said Baals and attack bikes are very good for blood angels as well for mobile AT. While the SR is pricey I think its one of the best fliers out there right now. If your meta has lots of fliers consider taking one or proxying/burrowing 1 to see if you like it.

Lets see what else... A furioso with double blood talon rips through anything 3+ armour save related. Before the crons had their new dex (and warriors still had 3+ armour) I had one munch through 16 (or 18? cant recall) of them in 1 combat phase Cast precience on this baby and see the body parts fly

What id get no matter what though; if I were you. Is some priests to give your entire army FnP. Theres no official model for one (aside from a apothecary) but part of the fun is making one yourself :) I personaly used parts from several kits to make mine. But a normal apothecary in normal BA colours would suffice as well :)

Hope its helpfull!

[BAHERSH]

Hey bro!

 

My recommendation - BUY Death Company BOXES!!

 

You can use them for virtually everything (i.e. assault marines, DC, veterans, etc.)

 

After you cover the basics 2 Troops, HQ, start planning out the army. Do you want a fast, JP/ Bike army? Or mech? A drop pod army? Or balanced with tacticals devs, AM's etc. No way to go wrong with the DC boxes, unless you want tactical squads (the DC box doesn't come with meltas/ flamers/ plasma/ rocket launchers). And the models look GREAT! Plus there are some extra bits to spruce up the rest of your eventual fleet.

 

I also bought the battleforce set and realized I only really wanted the DC units (although the extra parts have been mildly helpful).

 

Outside of the basics, 1 Sang Priest is pretty much a must. I like librarians for HQ, but Reclusiarchs aren't bad, and captains can be useful in very specific roles. I also love Death Company (plus it fits the BA swagger). The rest is up to you really. But 4 boxes of DC and an HQ Librarian would be the way I would start if I could do it all over again. You'll need to buy some meltagun/ flamer bits, but it honestly will save money, and if I started over, this is what I wished I had done.

 

Cheers

[BAHERSH]

Oh, and I believe Mephy is MUCH better than Astorath. +1 WS, +2T, + 2 Wounds , +2 Attacks, and +2 Initiative (although its more like +7, since astorath has an Axe). Plus he has a psychic hood and can use three psychic powers a turn (potentially a 10 S weapon/ instant death/ preferred enemy, and essentially has a JP) and transfixing gaze, meaning he will usually reroll all failed to hit/ wound rolls like astorath. Yeah, he doesn't have an ap 2 weapon, so you need to keep him away from termies / 2+ armor, but he'll tear through most MEQ's and is a machine in CC. Astorath can be instant killed via ST 8 + weapons, while Mephy is immune to almost all instant death (can just use psychic hood against another force weapon and T 6) He's only 30pts more...

Astorath's main value is the removal of the DC limit, so if you want to field a ton of DC units, then he i probably the way to go.

Personally, I don't use special characters in games under 2000+ pts. A librarian is versatile and adequate for most armies.

If I were to field a special character, I would use Brother Corbulo. He's cheap and sweet. But my list is heavy on attack bikes/ JP's, so there's really no place for him.

[Bloody Legionnaire]

Good replies fellas

The main thing that saddened me about the Space Wolves was the fact they have no access to flier. Eventually I would love to field an Army list that used the SR effectively. 

I plan on using the BA as they should be utilized.. a fast attack force. Plenty of assault marines, maybe one unit of DC and plenty of fire support from baals. I think I'll get a few predators for back field play. I would like to be as 'in your face' as possible and that's how I'm thinking I will run them. I am also highly intrigued by the Librarian Furioso.. what do you all think about fielding them? Also, I'm considering how well it would work to have Scouts kept in reserve till and use those units to through on objectives late in the game? They are cheap and shouldn't detract too many points away from core units. I was thinking if I had a cheap unit like scouts to hold the objectives there'd be no worries about throwing other scoring units into the thick of the fight and letting them do what they do best.. RAPEPWN!

[BAHERSH]

Yeah, the SR's are really awesome. They can fulfill every shooting role you need for a game. Most importantly, they are a great anti flyer unit, which you will need regardless. Plus the models look sweet. I play a similar style of play - fast - except I use 9 attack bikes instead of Baals for support fire (along with 2 stormravens). Everyone else has jump packs, except for my scout squad, who basically does what you said - scores late game points. You may want to check out the attack bikes. They're pretty good in 3 man MM squads and win me a lot of games. I don't think there's a better unit for taking care of MC's and Vehicles (non flyers), and generally they are not high priority targets. Plus, they are durable and relatively cheap. 

I've been tempted to pick up a Libby Dreadnought as well, but just can't seem to justify the points. If I'm going to spend 175 + points on a single melee model, I'm getting Mephiston for a few more points. Aside from some sweet fluff, he just does work on everything in his path and essentially has a JP, so can keep up with the rest of the BA ground forces. The only thing you don't want him to engage is 2+ armor saving units. The way I play my list, I shoot anything in 2+ armor, and assault the rest.

[beefeb]

Hello there.  I am just starting back with blood angels after a few years absence.  I sold my previous army (making a lovely profit I might add) via the dreaded ebay.

 

I am going for a predominantly infantry/dreadnought army initially with bike support.  My approach is buying two boxes of dc, 1 sang guard and 1 tac marines. I am going to make 2 tac squads and 1 squad of 5 dc with jump packs.  This will leave me a healthy collection of spare BA related parts for future convertions.  I have a selection of old metal HQ models to choose from and will expand from there.

 

Its a reasonable startup cost and will allow me to make sure that every single marine has some form of additional BA iconography from the variety of sprues.

 

When these are finished I will move onto bikes and dreadnoughts...joy!

[Squirrelloid]

Meph is definitely our 500lb gorilla.

 

Dante is really a specialist commander.  You use him for one of two reasons: (1) sanguinary guards as troops - expensive, but better now since 2+ saves got a pretty decent boost in 6th edition. (2) To make use of his precision deep-striking and hit-and-run special rules.  To best accomplish this, use an honor guard with 4x Plasma Guns.  Deep strike and open up a can of rapidfire whupass, then you can use hit-and-run to withdraw after you get charged and do it again on your next turn.  (Can also work with a couple meltas as a precision anti-tank squad, but rapid-fire plasma is almost as good as that against most vehicles since you'll have your choice of armor facings)

 

Corbulo is probably the all around best character.

 

Astorath i'd place with Dante as a specialist, you use him to field an army of mostly death company.

 

But honestly, my preference is not to use special characters. I find them kind of lame thematically - I don't want to play their characters, I want to have my own characters who define my blood angels battle force, with distinctive models I've converted.  (Which is why I dislike the trend over editions to restrict war gear options and permit special characters.  It's taken away a lot of the ability to make interesting and personalized characters.  I mean, BA can't even give their commanders Artificer Armor, what the heck!)

 

(Also annoyed that Sanguinary High Priest is no longer a command option xP)

[Bloody Legionnaire]

Squirrelloid. I get that. That is one thing I really appreciate about the Space Wolves is how their heroes and the customization of those heroes works. It's great fun!

Thanks for the responses brothers... I will have to collect my BA Army much slower than I did my Space Wolves, but I am excited none the less!

[JAMOB]

I for one have found great value in the battleforce. I use tactical marines quite frequently, and with ebay you can make the rhino a razorback for only a couple more dollars or even a baal with the right buys. For the RAS I find that pure DC bits is a bit too ornate for regular marines so I mix the two boxes to get some nice looking models.

 

I would say 1 of those plus another DC box or two, then 1+ baal preds and either a normal pred or a vindi for the heavy-hitter. Convert your own libby using the DC box, or buy a single GK figure unasembled online if you want the hood.