Help Me Start a BA Force for my Son

[Aegis]

So I've been out of the game for some time, but I visited a game store and got motivated by the new edition.  My 11 year old son likes the look of the Blood Angels and wants to start an army.  I'm dusting off my Crimson Fists, and I really don't have much experience with the BAs.  I ordered the most current codex off ebay for him (I didn't want to pay full price if a new dex comes out soon), but I'd like to pick up some units for him this weekend.

 

The plan is to start with around 500pts and grow from there if he enjoys the game.  Would somebody give me an idea on what to get to start him out at 500pts? He'll mostly be facing my Crimson Fists and some Orks I put together as an opposing force out of a couple of starter boxes (some of them are Goffs from the 2E starter box!).

 

Any help is appreciated.  I figured some assault marines for troops, but don't have the codex yet so I'm not sure how many and I have no idea on an HQ choice.

 

Thanks 

[Ultramarine vet]

Assault marines is a good idea for Blood Angels. For an HQ, Commander Dante is definitely something he might want. He can go with the assault marines and do some real damage. Or an even better idea, you can get Sanguinary Guard and put Dante with them. Mephiston is another good HQ choice, though he can be quite squishy at times.

 

Also, a Baal Predator is worth looking in to, very handy! That template is ridiculously good. 

 

All the units I've mentioned are very reliable in my experience! Hopefully this helps! :)

[Paternus]

See the subforum army lists above for some help and for current popular competitive lists the thread 'your current and best list' below. He will need to decide how he wants to play as competitively drop pods are popular but in the 7th edition razorbacks/rhinos are looking to be more viable than previously. Other transports such as landraiders and stormravens are heavy points wise at that level. To be honest if it is just between you and your son you could play any edition you want but if you want to be current can you not take him along to a Games Workshop store for a game?

[Aegis]

See the subforum army lists above for some help and for current popular competitive lists the thread 'your current and best list' below. He will need to decide how he wants to play as competitively drop pods are popular but in the 7th edition razorbacks/rhinos are looking to be more viable than previously. Other transports such as landraiders and stormravens are heavy points wise at that level. To be honest if it is just between you and your son you could play any edition you want but if you want to be current can you not take him along to a Games Workshop store for a game?

I will take him to the GW store in Lexington KY, which is about a 40 minute drive from our town.  He wants to get a small army started and get comfortable playing before he plays at the store.  I'm going there this weekend, but I don't think the codex will be here by then.  I'm looking for some ideas on a couple of troop choices, an HQ choice, and some units to get him to around 500pts.  I'll pick up the models this weekend if I can and he can start working on them while he's out of school for the summer.

[Krimsonkilla]

the death company box will be your best friend, lots of extra little bits for equipment and flashy stuff. a group of assault marines and I like the chaplain (jump pack or no) but in order to get the full idea of the game, a librarian may be better.

[marine7312000]

Death company box and the sanguinary guard box. So many excellent bits and pieces between the two. Add a tactical box and he should be good and can customize to his heart's content. Beyond that, I'd let him look through the codex and pick an HQ on his own. That way he picks one that he likes rather than what is competitive.

[psychodough]

For a Starter BA army at 500 points I think I would go with something like this 

 

+ HQ 

    * Librarian

        * Power Armour

            Bolt Pistol, Jump Pack

+ Elites +

    * Sanguinary Priests 

        * Sanguinary Priest

            Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Jump Pack

+ Troops +     

* Assault Squad

        4x Assault Marines, Flamer, Retain Jump Packs

        * Veteran Sergeant

            Bolt Pistol, Power Weapon

    * Tactical Squad 

        Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun, 9x Tactical Marine (Or really any mix of weapons you'd like)

        * Veteran Sergeant 

            Bolter, Chainsword

 

Its something you would use time and time again in many different list and very easy to add models to, to make a larger list. It gives a taste of BA with the Priest with his abilities, and will also let his/you use the new psychic phase. Getting to play in all the phases of the game is nice. Who doesn't want to roll more dice all the time?

 

Its also easy to buy this at the store being its 2 boxes for guys and two characters. the priest could be iffy on getting without ordering.  

Edit, like people before me the Death company or Sang guard box would be a really nice way to go for the 5 assault marines lots of bits to add to the tacticals. 

[Paternus]

 

 

See the subforum army lists above for some help and for current popular competitive lists the thread 'your current and best list' below. He will need to decide how he wants to play as competitively drop pods are popular but in the 7th edition razorbacks/rhinos are looking to be more viable than previously. Other transports such as landraiders and stormravens are heavy points wise at that level. To be honest if it is just between you and your son you could play any edition you want but if you want to be current can you not take him along to a Games Workshop store for a game?

 

I will take him to the GW store in Lexington KY, which is about a 40 minute drive from our town.  He wants to get a small army started and get comfortable playing before he plays at the store.  I'm going there this weekend, but I don't think the codex will be here by then.  I'm looking for some ideas on a couple of troop choices, an HQ choice, and some units to get him to around 500pts.  I'll pick up the models this weekend if I can and he can start working on them while he's out of school for the summer.

[Paternus]

The starter box set has tactical, assault and death company squads and an almost free rhino transport which you could convert later to a razorback (or magnetise to get both options). Then add a standard HQ choice of Librarian or priest (or a character like memphiston or corbulo which you could use as 'a counts as' for smaller points games).

[Remtek]

A few value mistakes i made when starting out:

 

Buying the assault marine boxes. The tactical and dc box are good value like mentioned above. DC box has better models in general.

Buying Devestator box. Since i was gonna run ML dev's and only 1 ml per 5units in a dev box, grabbing one 10man tactical box and ordering ML bits would of been alot cheaper.

Buying Rhinos. The Razorback is priced pretty much the same and contains the same as rhino box, but an extra turret sprue, so you can switch back and forth.

 

Does he like tanks or jump marines?

Marines/assault

At around 500 points you could grab some dev's or tacticals and some assault marines.

 

Tanks/mech

I belive it's around 160 points for a razorback with weapons upgrade and 5 marines. 

[Brother Dallo]

It's a generally accepted view that our captain is a sub-par HQ choice, so I'd suggest steering away from him, if competitive is what you are looking for. That said, when our new codex rolls around, I'd expect to see him get a big price drop, in line with other codices. That said, they are pretty cool, so if it's more for fun a captain could be a solid choice, probably with some kind of power weapon and a jump pack.

 

In terms of HQ choices which will be exactly what you want in the box, without the need for additional purchases (mainly jump packs ), you could do worse than a chaplain (Reclusiarch) with jump pack, which is an awesome model, and a good force multiplier as he buffs the squad he's with when they charge.

 

As has been said before, a librarian is also a good choice with a wide range of powers and uses, but traditionally will run with a jump pack, which you'll need to purchase separately.

 

Dallo

[appiah4]

Let me help you by suggesting you wait until next codex..

[knife&fork]

That's a little harsh. 

 

While you can't know for sure what will be good or not in the near future there are some basic units that always will see some use, particularly if you like the models. 

 

Some basic stuff like a box of tactical marines, the death company box, an additional assault marine box. HQ of your choice (Chaplain/Reclusiarch is lower points friendly and usable in many situations)

 

Right there you have the very basics of a list with plenty of fun bits and extras. 

Where to go from there is a matter of taste. 

 

Like tanks? How about a razorback or Baal predator? 

 

Dreadnoughts of all kinds are cool but they kinda need a transport and thus will end up eating a lot of your points. Doable at 500 if you only take death company with a dread as troops.

 

The storm raven is unlikely to go out of fashion any time soon. Tight fit at 500 pts but also doable. 

[mandaloriano]

I think your best option is to buy the Blood Angels starter box, one tactical with rhino, a DC squad and Assault squad, and then you only need to buy a HQ (I recommed a Librarian or Chaplain). I started my army in this way. And now I have around 4000 points blood angels. 

 

Then you can choose the following units according with your play style.

[Cronhour]

So I've been out of the game for some time, but I visited a game store and got motivated by the new edition.  My 11 year old son likes the look of the Blood Angels and wants to start an army.  I'm dusting off my Crimson Fists, and I really don't have much experience with the BAs.  I ordered the most current codex off ebay for him (I didn't want to pay full price if a new dex comes out soon), but I'd like to pick up some units for him this weekend.

 

The plan is to start with around 500pts and grow from there if he enjoys the game.  Would somebody give me an idea on what to get to start him out at 500pts? He'll mostly be facing my Crimson Fists and some Orks I put together as an opposing force out of a couple of starter boxes (some of them are Goffs from the 2E starter box!).

 

Any help is appreciated.  I figured some assault marines for troops, but don't have the codex yet so I'm not sure how many and I have no idea on an HQ choice.

 

Thanks

 

It will depend on his interest I suppose, is he all about the winning in games in which case scoring land raiders ravens and drop pods are the way to go. Though if it was me I'd go through the codex and maybe get him some of the books/audiobooks and see what he finds cool, that's what captured me as a youngster the heroic, noble marines who despite their terrible flaw tried to uphold the best ideas of the imperium.

If you have orks a good place to start with fluffy models moving to tabletop would be Tycho, a furioso a few death company and some jump pack or tactical troops. You can play on Tychos history with the orcs and there's wholly dreadnought defence of baals fortress in the codex you could name the dreadnought as Astramael who led the defence, in IA2 Se there's a dreadnought legacy of glory linked to a blood angel hatred of orcs as well. Plus if your ork force grows you could have the blood angels team up with the crimson fists for Kantor and Tycho must hate them enough to fight side by side against the green skins.

 

Next to the deathcompany and sanguinary guard people mentioned I find Baal predators reclusiarchs and sanguinary priests to stand out ad iconic blood angel units.

[Aegis]

Thanks for the responses!  

 

I'm going to start with the Battleforce box, and then let him decide which HQ he wants.  He seems to really like the jump pack assault units, so I plan to start his 500pt force with those as troops.  That will also give him some modeling and painting experience before he tackles vehicles.  

 

We got a free space marine mini when we visited the GW shop near our town, and he's been practicing on the Blood Angels paint scheme.  He's doing a pretty good job!  I'll post a new thread when he gets his force into battle.

[Ushtarador]

The battleforce is certainly a good start for somebody who has no models yet Also make him aware of the fact that the death company sprue has a ton of bits that he can use on his regular assault marines to make them look more like blood angels (shoulder pads, helmets, weapons, etc.).

To continue you could also add one box of sanguinary guard, the models are very nice and they come again with a ton of bitz you can use to improve the regular assault marines.

To expand on the force, I would strongly recommend a furioso dreadnought with drop pod, if you don't glue the arms you can make all 3 variants and it is a lot of fun to play (and again a very nice model )

[Aegis]

The battleforce is certainly a good start for somebody who has no models yet Also make him aware of the fact that the death company sprue has a ton of bits that he can use on his regular assault marines to make them look more like blood angels (shoulder pads, helmets, weapons, etc.).

To continue you could also add one box of sanguinary guard, the models are very nice and they come again with a ton of bitz you can use to improve the regular assault marines.

To expand on the force, I would strongly recommend a furioso dreadnought with drop pod, if you don't glue the arms you can make all 3 variants and it is a lot of fun to play (and again a very nice model )

The Furioso dreadnaught is one of the models that drew him to Blood Angels. As soon as we get an HQ for his new force, a Furioso will definitely be the next purchase!

[knife&fork]

You don't have to glue the front, arms or magna grapple either. It's a very forgiving kit.

 

As long as you glue the bottom, back and sides of the sarcophagus you can easily change between the different fronts. No glue or magnets needed. 

[appiah4]

You don't have to glue the front, arms or magna grapple either. It's a very forgiving kit.

 

As long as you glue the bottom, back and sides of the sarcophagus you can easily change between the different fronts. No glue or magnets needed. 

 

This kind of clip on/off switching with painted plastic kits causes quite bad paint chipping in my experience; magnetizing saves you a lot of problems in the long run.