A new Flesh Tearer army in the making - need advice on units

[roodie]

Hello all! 

 

I desparately need your collective wisdom! It will be a bit long post, but I hope I will get some advice. After a couple years of pause (I had a kid, and I sold my Imperial Guard) finally I decided that it is time to get back to the hobby, and this time, I will collect and play Flesh Tearers (I blame winterdyne and Mortarion for their excellent paint jobs).

 

The problem is - since I was away from gaming, I have no idea what works and what doesn't in this edition. Not to mention the fact that the Blood Angel codex is also completely new to me (Space Marines in general not since I had a Space Wolf army also). So I need some general list building advice.

 

At our club, the most common armies are marines, chaos, the new eldar, some tank-heavy imperial guard.

 

A copuple of requirements on my part - I LOVE jump packs and the Death Company. I refuse to play without those :-D And also I would not like to field a fully mechanized army  - I've had enough tanks with the Imperial Guard, thank you :-D And the most important thing - all the questions are about low point games - 1000, 1250, 1500 points.

 

But first things first - what I have currenlty so far (hunted on ebay and in the local community mostly):

 

- chaplain with jump pack,

- basic librarian on foot (I have a spare jump-pack though)

- AoBR captain

- 2 sanguinary priests w/ jump pack (one plain, and an another under assembly so could have a power axe)

- 20 assault marines w/ jump packs (2 power fist, 2 meltaguns, 1 infernus pistol, rest w/ ccw + bp)

- 12 Death Company marines w/ jump packs (2 power sword, 1 th, 1 pf, 1 infernus pistol)

- 28 tactical marines (2 sargeants w/ ccw, 1 w/ power fist, 7 missile launchers, 3 meltaguns, rest with bolters)

- 5 scouts (4x sniper, 1 x ML) and 5 AoBR terminators (sergeant, cyclone and 3x storm bolters)

- 1 Stormraven

- 2 CC dreadnoughts (a Dc and a Furioso)

- 1 (unassambled) Rhino :-)

 

So that's it. And since I used up most of my money, I will be able to buy a single box (or a few blisters with the same value) - my plan is a Baal Predator, but I will listen to your advice of course.

 

So, my questions before I create my lists to post in the army lists sections:

 

1. Is a basic librarian on foot with a tactical marine unit is feasible as a HQ, or is it better to stick a jump pack on him?

2. ..or since I would like to bring a Death Company anyway, I should stick with a Reclusiarch?

3. Are small (5 man) assault marine units effective, or I should stick with a 10-strong unit backed by a sang. priest?

4. Tactical marines on foot - any point bringing them? A meltagun/missile launcher unit split in two using combat squads?

5. Devastators - browsing the army lists section, virtually no-one is using them - is there any reason for it? A single devastator unit with 4 missile launchers is tempting for me, especially since I do not have any heavy options yet.

6. Sanguinary priest - should I give the unassembed one a power axe, or go with the cheaper option?

7. CC dreadnoughts - is there any point (in low-point games, under 1500) bringing one if I am not using th Stormraven to carry it to battle?

8. Speaking of the Stormraven - at which point value should I consider one in my army?

9. Normal terminators? On foot, deep striked, or dropped by the Stormeaven? Should I get an assault-cannon equipped one?

10. Death company - it is easy to spend a helluva lot of points on them. Should I bother with the power fist/thunder hammer or power swords? Or keep them cheap?

 

These are my specific questions, but I will be grateful for any other suggestion or comments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chaplain Admetus]

Greetings brother, and welcome to the home of the choppy/stabby/death marines :D. What you've got there sounds like an excellent start to a Blood Angels force, and I'll break down my responses to your 10 questions:

 

1) He's feasible on foot, but I tend to run mine with a jump pack as ASM (ASsault Marines) support. They're more of a force-multiplier though, as with 2 wounds and a 3+ save only, they're pretty fragile. But for you...

2) Definitely a jump-reclusiarch. More survivable, just as killy, and you can stick him with the DC or with ASM as you see fit.

3) Yes if you're clever. I've been using Multiple Small Units as a method for a while now and it works (go check out my battle report thread if you want to see it in action). The way I do it is to take 10 man squads and split them up if the occasion calls for it; frequently I'll take a 10 man unit with 2 meltas/flamers, combat squad them leaving the specials in reserve. Use 5 grunts to hold objectives, whilst the special weapons squads deep-strike in and cause damage. Works a treat, and you can choose to keep them together for survivability.

4) I also use them, but in a rhino (which I note you have available) - 5 marines with ML sit at the back as scoring/fire support, 5 with meltagun in the rhino providing close support/mobile scoring (my assault marines are too busy chopping things to worry about such trivial things as objectives).

5) Again, a player along my line of thinking! I run 5 guys with 4 missile launchers, and other than the occasional game where they clearly studied at the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy, they've yet to let me down. Great for crowd control if you face hordes (4 templates), and for knocking out light-medium armour. Also nice against 3+ save Monstrous Creatures.

6) Axe. Running more than one priest really eats into your points, and one is enough of an FnP bubble generally speaking. Model the second one with an axe to give you more flexibility when list-building.

7) They die horribly when footslogging. They're not too shabby in a Raven, and pretty scary in drop pods. If you can't get either of those, leave them at home.

8) Depends how flier heavy your meta is. Blood Angels are so expensive that we're pretty thin on the ground, so a 200+ point model is a big decision. Definitely not at 1k or below, 1250 is iffy; I don't start using mine til 1500.

9) Tactical terminators can work - I ran a brief stint with 5 dudes with Cyclone Missile Launcher joined by a librarian in terminator armour (using Divination to get Prescience). Nice bodyguard, reasonable damage output, pretty survivable, but a bit static for my liking. Definitely better on foot though, as you can advance and lay down the fire without risk. Assault terms need the transport, but shooty terms don't.

10) Keep them cheap if you're going with jump packs, as its easy to eat into points. Maybe go for one or two specialist weapons as they're a rare instance of the 'hidden' power sword/fist/mackerel that blighted previous editions; since your power weapon isn't on a sergeant, he can't be challenged out to neutralise his effectiveness (in cases where a power whatever would cut ribbons through the unit).

 

11) Baal predator is a good buy - mine's almost never let me down (3 weeks ago it got stunned and -still- took out a leman russ through its front armour). The scout/outflank ability combined with being a fast vehicle makes the things positively lethal if you pick your targets correctly. Definitely a shooty variant over the one with all the flamers, as it'll just get assaulted and kicked in by something with grenades otherwise.

 

Phew - that should be enough to keep you going :D. Best of luck with the army, and pop up some pics when you've started painting them, as Flesh Tearers look awesome. Hope that helps!

[roodie]

It was definitely helpful, thank you :-) Especially the combat squad advice, I keep forgetting it. I opened a topic about my first lists already, based on your feedback :-)