Blood Angels Assault Squad Loadout

[Demoulius]

To build on what CaptainCaine24thfoot and ravenshard42 said: as far as dedicated assault troopers go assault marines actually arent all that good.1 attack each (boosted to 2 by a pistol) and strength and toughness of 4 while allowing armor saves are quite meh. Genestealers, harlequins or even banshees are capable of beeing quite abit nastier. Fact that we allow saves from our wounds, have a quite mediocre strength and no "auto-wound" functionality means that other armies dedicated assault troops outshine assault marines. :(

What we have that make them managable though is mobility from jump jets, acces to priests for FnP and FC and the fact that our assault marines are troops. ^_^ Beeing able to score or deny an opponent an objective by their presence is HUGE. Specialy if you dont like scouts and/or tacticals. Take 2 assault squads (any size) and fill the rest of the army with non-mandatory choices that are more to your liking :)

Having said that (or repeaten? Not sure if someone brought it up already or not? ) when you also factor in deep strike scattering on only 1d6 and the discount on transports if you ditch the jumppacks they actually become quite versatile troop choices :) add also that we got some amazing HQ selections with jumppacks to that and the deal just keeps getting better and better IMHO theres reasons why most blood angels got at least 1 (but probably more) assault squads in their army

[ElectricPaladin]

Don't forget Hammer of Wrath! It's not auto-wounds, but it is auto-hits, which is nice.

 

In my opinion, assault marines make decent bullies. They'll die against a dedicated assault unit from almost any army, but if they get off the charge and use their jump packs to do it, they can mess up anything that isn't high initiative or super durable, and they have the speed and mobility (not to mention Deep Striking!) to get to where your opponent usually likes to put units like that.

[Shaezus]

I know our codex is badly aged but we are definitely strong in the troops area. I've had club friends who play SM say they would gladly exchange one side of a vital part of their anatomy for scoring assault squads.

 

Jump packs are awesome - tactically flexible and great fun to play with. But with the new super-scoring rules and the fact they apply also to dedicated transports, we are doubly blessed. With a 35-point discount on super-scoring transport vehicles, I think we have the potential to be very hated :D

[Brother Navaer Solaq]

This seems a good place to put this out.

 

Would using a small 5 man assault squad with melta gun work as a good sacrifical anti tank unit?

 

I did read about having 10 man unit and splitting unit in two with special wpns in one squad and sergeant in other squad. This idea is great and I will remember this for future games. This forum is great for tips on buioding ba army. :)

[Demoulius]

I use a 5 man meltagun, powersword ASM unit riding a TLLC razorback. Quite effective and while they dont have jumppack mobility their mobile coffin tends to see them unscathed until they disembark (or it is destroyed, obviously :P)

[ElectricPaladin]

This seems a good place to put this out.

Would using a small 5 man assault squad with melta gun work as a good sacrifical anti tank unit?

I did read about having 10 man unit and splitting unit in two with special wpns in one squad and sergeant in other squad. This idea is great and I will remember this for future games. This forum is great for tips on buioding ba army.

I have never liked the idea of intentionally sacrificial units. It feels to tactically shallow. Now, having a unit that you can sacrifice if you have to, because it's cheap and has an important one-off purpose, like destroying a valuable enemy vehicle, is fine. But there's no versatility in a unit that is built solely to sacrifice itself. What are you going to do with it if your opponent hasn't got any good targets?

[Quixus]

I doubt that anyone fields units just to be sacrificed. More likely those units described as sacrificial units are those that are expected to fulfill a certain objective (like killing a tank) but are very unlikely to survive long after that, if they do all the better. 3 man Chaos terminators with combi meltas pretty much fit that description.

[Demoulius]

Add sternguards with (combi) melta in a droppod to that list :)