New to BA

[Akhar]

Hello everyone,

 

I've never looked at their codex (until now), never played against them or with them. I don't even know where to start with these guys.

 

Could someone help me out with where to start with a Blood Angels army? I want to focus on melee, even though it's weaker in this edition. I am going to be using the Blood Angels codex with my Khorne Berserker themed army. I've already got a few Zerkers with jump packs.

 

At first glance, I really want a unit of Death Company with jump packs led by an HQ chaplain. They are very expensive though!

[killersquid]

I've been getting into the hang of things with Blood Angels in 6th edition. Played quite a bit in 5th (and before), but only started in 6th after moving around a lot. Against the sorts of armies I go against (and depending on your playing group), close combat can still work. You just need to make sure you have resilience, redundancy and speed. You'll take a pounding getting into combat range with shooting armies, so you want to be able to last and experience as little shooting as you can. Jump Pack troops are key for this.

 

Death Company are good, but are so unbelievably expensive with jump packs and cannot capture objectives. Assault Marines with a Sanguinary Priest nearby will give you furious charging marines with FNP for a fraction of the cost and with the exact same resilience. Deathcompany on foot, are an awesome buy and are great coming out of a pod with bolters. I've found Sanguinary Guard to be alright as well. Also expensive, but with Dante as an HQ (who is pretty good with a slew of helpful special rules), they become a pretty solid troops choice.

Assault marines however are the bread and butter of the force. I only have one unit in my army so far and they blew always all my expectations.

 

Sanguinary Priests are expensive, so try not to load too much gear on them (I give mine just a jump pack so running two is only 150pts). Honour guard are a great alternative for a cheaper blood chalice.

 

I wouldn't use an HQ chaplain. Your better off using Dante, or a librarian IMO. Librarians with a jump pack give you access to divination which has some very useful powers. I've not used Mephiston yet. Looks like a beast, but is very expensive.

 

If you're thinking of using death company, I think you'd be better off sticking them in a landraider. A better option then the ungodly amount of points you'll spend giving them all jump packs. Plus, armour 14 is fun and you can charge out of it.

 

One main bit of advice, is that there are a lot of expensive HQ's and upgrades you can give to your models. Refrain from spending too much and focus more on cramming more units into your list.

 

This is all fairly vague, but I cannot really go into much specifics based on what models you're thinking of getting and already own. If you want units to assault though, don't put them into rhinos or razorbacks, as it takes a while to charge out of them. Use jump packs or assault vehicles (landraiders and stormravens).

 

What sort of armies do you play against? One of the best things to do is think about your gaming group and think of what sort of problems those armies can cause you and how to deal with them (or mitigate them). If someone has a lot of tanks, make sure to grab a bunch of melta guns and Infernus pistols.

 

It'll also take experience too. Blood Angels can be a low model count elite army and very unforgiving. Don't get too discouraged and don't expect to start off winning every game you play.

[Akhar]

I would rather not use a Librarian. I wanted a champlain for the reroll to hit and wound with the DC. Maybe take an elite Chaplain and put him in the LR with the death company?

 

I'm assuming I should take a tac squad to control a backfield objective. Than 2-3 Jump squads with a priest or 2? I'd like to take Vanguard Assault Marines to be able to assault after deep striking. I'm thinking scouts my be able to achieve this. I've heard a Fragioso dreadnought in a drop pod is good, and I'd like to fit bikes in the list too.

 

My biggest concern is balancing combat units and anti-transport models. I don't want to get stuck not being able to kill vehicles.

 

With your advice, this is what I've got so far...

 

150 – 2 Sanguinary Priests – Jump Packs

170 – Furioso Dreadnought – Frag Cannon, Heavy Flamer, Drop
Pod

185 – 10 Tactical Marines – Plasma Gun, Plasma Cannon

169 – 8 Assault Marines – Lightning Claw

169 – 8 Assault Marines – Lightning Claw

169 – 8 Assault Marines – Lightning Claw

210 – 8 Death Company – 2 Power Fists

250 – Land Raider

 

I'm still worried about popping vehicles, and especially how to deal with flyers.

[t4play]

Assault marines "melta" 2x in 10's plus serg CC weapon

Tac marines multi melta / melta

May be a solution A bit of tank/ MC popping then :-)

[killersquid]

Looks good to me. You must accept that all the advice I give comes from the way I play. I have some feedback. 10 man squads are joyous for a number of reasons. First of all, you can combat squad, which helps a lot with objective missions and target satuation. Secondly, you can add in two special weapons. If you added a couple of meltaguns to each assault squad, you'll be much better at popping tanks.

 

I would maybe not worry about the Tactical squad in this layout. I'd use the extra points in boosting the assault squad numbers and getting meltaguns. I unfortunately have very little experience playing with, or against flyers.

[Akhar]

Get rid of the tac squad? You are officially my new favorite person haha.

 

I can do 10-man squads with Meltagun. I guess if one squad pops the transport than the others can charge what is inside. When combat squading jump infantry, do you normally split the meltas or keep them together?

[Leonaides]

NOte- the squad who pops the transport can still assault the occupants if they're in range...

[killersquid]

Get rid of the tac squad? You are officially my new favorite person haha.

 

I can do 10-man squads with Meltagun. I guess if one squad pops the transport than the others can charge what is inside. When combat squading jump infantry, do you normally split the meltas or keep them together?

It all depends on the game. You don't always need to combat squad, but it's a good option to have. I would normally keep the meltaguns in the same unit and I keep a powerfist or thunderhammer on the sergeant, so he can punch tanks while leading the other squad. But, it'll all come down to what works for you.

 

I would personally like to include more tactical squads in my army (or even one), but it's hard to justify the cost for a unit which cannot 'keep up'. My whole army is made of jumpers.