Why Play Blood Angels?

[Morticon]

Hey guys, since I've had to close a topic (or two) regarding this very reasonable question and since searchy doesn't always bare overwhelmingly helpful advice, im hereby making this topic a sticky.

Why do you play Blood Angels?


By now, we all know the legendary Solar's thoughts on the matter ->

 

The Blood Angels have, without a doubt, the very best Chapter fluff in the Imperium. We aren't all lame and disgusted with our bodies to the point of hacking bits off to be replaced by cybernetics, nor are we all goody-goody blue funboys with no real fluff short of, "Uhhhh... we got our asses handed to us by the 'nids." We aren't scouring the galaxy, searching for our brothers who turned to the dark side and might out us while living in a floating rock because we blew our own homeworld up. We aren't self flagellators in yellow armor, we aren't all albino with schtoopid mutant weirdos, we don't have lame claws growing out of our forearms, and we do not enjoy chowing down on a steaming bowl of dog food and rolling over for a nap.
We are among the oldest lived space marines. We are possibly the only ones who appreciate, and create art. We have a true hero Primarch that died in the service of the Emperor. Our Primarch didn't have canines, he didn't have pallid skin, or one freaky eye; he had wings! He had precognition without dabbling in the chaos arts. The Blood Angels are proud, yet not self-important. They fight as well as any marine, yet at the same time hold themselves back to keep from falling into the abyss of the Rage. I could go on, but I'd be speaking to the converted...

The popularity of marine armies waxes and wanes as GW focuses their baleful eye on each one. While our rules may suffer in light of the current armies, there will always be a core cadre of players who play them because they are just so dang bitchen' regardless of the rules.

Oh, I almost forgot... the Blood Angels are red. Not some fairy lame color like blue or yellow. Not presumptuous goth black, or goth-lite gray. Not green (I mean, green?) or white (coming up with a primary color was too difficult for them). They are red; the color of blood and violence. In other words, the color of why it's good to be a marine!

-Soular; 01/25/2005 expurgated


But what are yours?

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by Jolemai
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[NaZ]

As a long time Kult Of Speed ork player.. I always thought the blood angels provided the best and bloodiest fights when compared to the other chapters.

 

I love the variety of units, the death company and all its fluff, the 'red ones go faster' truth to the overcharged engines. the fact that we get one of the few units that aren't characters yet can carry the mighty thunderhammer. the coolness of unique baal predator, VAS, furioso dreadnoughts.

 

if there were any chapter closest to the orks.. the boyz in red would have to be it.

 

tactically mechanized angels play very similiarly to my KOS, and frankly they are a blast to play with.

 

NaZ

[Julius Firefocht]

I'm in it for the Taiwanese hooker lipsticks. :P

 

Nah, lets be a bit more serious.

 

The Blood Angels were not my first army, though a squad of Space Marine Terminators were the first minis I ever purchased. My first army was actually the Grey Knights, because I was young in 40K fluff and lore at that time, and had no opportunity to do proper research on the "normal" Space Marine chapters. On the other hand, a friend of mine had passed me his Daemonhunters codex, a book which actually started me off on 40K proper.

 

I wanted to play Grey Knights because they looked good and rocked in close combat. But my favourite colour is red and for a period of time, I actually contemplated painting my Grey Knights red, just to have an army that visually appealed to me. Then as I read more about 40K, I realized that there was another Chapter of Space Marines who actually wore red armour and were close combat oriented as well. They were called the Blood Angels, and my readings revealed that they had a glorious history that stretched all the way back to the Great Crusade, the Horus Heresy and the Siege of the Emperor's Palace.

 

Those were the days of 3rd/4th Ed, when all Blood Angels had Furious Charge built in and when the Death Company were totally free. Brutal indeed, but I had started on my Grey Knight army by now and it would take more than that for me to actually abandon the Grey Knights for another army.

 

The person that finally convinced me was the Blood Angel's Primarch, the great Sanguinius. The Angel Primarch who stood on the walls of the Emperor's Palace, leading his Marines in person to defy the forces of Chaos to the bitter end. The Primarch who slew the greatest Bloodthirster ever in single combat, high above the Eternity Gate. And the Primarch who performed the ultimate sacrifice, defying Horus and staying loyal to the Emperor to the last. Sanguinius never gave up, going down fighting to his last breath. Truly an inspiring figure, and an example of honour, courage, tenacity and loyalty worthy of emulation even in real life, outside the world of tabletop gaming.

 

Sanguinius' sacrifice and the origins of the Black Rage, and how each and every Blood Angel, while being the most noble of Space Marines, constantly had to fight a battle for control within himself. That in itself was tragic, but I also appreciated the irony of how the Blood Angels' weakness provided the means for them to obtain strength in the battlefield, while simultanously gifting them with humility and an understanding of their mortality.

 

By the Emperor, I believed that was better fluff and background than the Grey Knights ever had. So without a second thought, I put down the 20 power armored Grey Knights and 5 Grey Knight Terminators I had been working on, and stocked up on red paints instead. I also went out to get myself the Space Marine Army Box Mk II, the one that had 5 Assault Marines, 15 Tactical Marines, 5 Scouts and a Rhino. Since that day, I had counted myself as a proud Blood Angel, and had never looked back.

 

I might have dabbled with other armies. Indeed, I still kept the Grey Knight minis that I worked on in the past, while working on some Emperor's Children Noise Marines that I acquired cheaply. But my main army will always be Blood Angels. To quote, because they are just so dang bitchen' regardless of the rules!

[Arkaniss]

The Fluff, the models - the colour!

 

You can't say that red doesn't stand out on the battlefield! I paint mine very simply - a dull-ish red with black soft armour and details and thats it pretty much. The simple black and red colour scheme looks great! Naturally i guess all of us here are very biased - but the fluff for Blood Angels is brilliant.

 

Sanguinius played a huge role in the Horus Heresy at the Seige of Terra and knowingly sacrificed his life to allow the Emperor to kill Horus and end the heresy - how can you top that? A noble sacrifice that results in the curse the Blood Angels stoicly carry with them, yet they continue to do their job of defending mankind.

 

I like the tragic Death Company a lot - brave Marines who could hold out no longer and fell to the curse, and who go out fighting rather than fade away to madness and insanity.

 

Living a long time, and practicing things like art makes them different to the other Marine Chapters - and i love their helmet designations! Thats something different i've always liked. The yellow helmeted Assault Marines are a nice different flavour to the normal Marine colour scheme, just with a jump pack on his back.

 

As for how they play currently on the table top - they can be close combat or ranged, and excel at both. Something not many armies can do, and it gives a nice option of how to play the army. That said, who doesn't like getting stuck into close combat? Assault Marines as Troop choices all the way!

[Age quod agis]

See the sig...

[Dunamis]

When I started back in 2nd ed. it was the Angels of Death codex and all of the tragic dark fluff behind Mephiston and Tycho. Then I read about Sanguinius' titanic battle at the Eternity Gate, holding it singlehandedly against a mighty daemon of Chaos and I was hooked.

[Luy22]

1. The name.

2. RED.

3. Easy to paint.

4. CLOSE-COMBAT.

5. Chainswords.

6. Death Company.

7. Sanguinious.

8. BADASS.

[Chaplain Xerichian]

I started on painting up Undead which then turned to Vampire counts and then my good friend Martemis said "why not paint a real army.....a 40k one" I said jokingly "you cant get Vampires in space" to which he said "actually you can get a close enough version in blood angels" so i took to reading the fluff and instantly I was hooked, I also loved the fact of these deformed stunted people growing up on an irradiated desert world being transformed into towering, strong super soldiers.

 

Again as others have stated Sanguinius was the clincher, since he seemed so much like a true hero leading his people and staying true to what is right when all around him were decending into chaos, I loved the fluff that stated he spent his time soaring over the sands upon his luminary pinions.

 

one thing that did however almost threaten to turn me away from Blood Angels was that I love making Chaplains, they are by far my most favoured class in the entire game, then i saw Lamartes.........and I really didnt like it in the slightest, good thing I made my own :D

 

anyway thats my reasons

 

Regards

 

Xer

[Brother Martemis]

Hi all,

my reasons would be more why i would consider them, because i don't (sorry)

 

1. I read the story of the death of Tycho at Armageddon, and it was awesome, it summed up the curse the angels carry on a daily basis, showing a flawed hero always appeals to me, flawlesness makes things too easy

2. Red and Black

3. Furioso Dreadnaughts (Chaplain Xerichian tells me i'm obsessed with washing machines)

4. The Black Fury. (kinda makes me wanna do flesh tearers though)

 

alas, my love of anti heroes and the ambiguous has got me torn between the mantis warriors and the Legion of the Damned, but this has got me thinking now (damn, i hate being a magpie gamer)

 

 

Oh and 5. Baal Predators. Hua!

Edited June 24, 2008 by Brother Martemis

[Massawyrm]

My reasons had more to do with practicality. My wife forbade me to spend any money on 40k, as she had heard for years what a moneysink it was. So I had to trade for it. Reason number one? FREE CODEX. A PDF in fact (just as God intended) so you can print up necessary fact sheets to keep on hand rather than flipping through a book.

 

Reason 2? We get everything the Space marines do...and THEN SOME. Special dreadnoughts. Our own crowd control tank. And a unit of Tasmanian Devils that you just kind of point in the direction of enemies and let them rip.

 

Reason 3? Collectability. Blood Angels have gotten a LOT of love over the years. the result is a number of wildly different BA minis out there. My personal favorite is the BA SGT that looks exactly like Charlton Heston - but there are a number of differnt BA things to seek out and add to your army to personalize it.

 

Reason 4? Everything can have a jump pack. No, not every unit, but you can actually field an entire army wearing Jump Packs. If the orcs were ever right about anything, it's that red does make things go faster.

 

Reason 5? GW loves us. Every Red Color paint release is geared towards painting BA. Our wash is even named after our tank. Paint runs to the hobby store include picking up Blood Red, Macherite Red, Baal Red, Chaos Black and Blazing Orange. The result is minis that look uniform with their artwork and every picture stretching back, what, 15 years?

 

Reason 6? They're just fun. They're fast, play hard and can scare and surprise opponents.

[Chaplain Dominus]

Call me weird and I am ashamed to say but what happened at ETENITY GATE I have never heard of the story myself.

Sorry :tu: can someone give me a link or even tell me by post of the story it would be very much appreicated. :)

[teutogen]

Something we often hear is that Blood Angels are a "close combat" army etc. But we should know that BA players can take their army lists in multiple directions and can bring both firepower and melee prowess to the tabletop. I was comparing Blood Angels to Ultramarines and came up with this:

 

I'd say Blood Angels are a generalist combined arms force which uses it's ranged firepower to support it's close combat units, whereas Ultramarines are a generalist combined arms force which uses close combat squads to supplement their ranged units.

 

But then it occured to me that Blood Angels can actually do both of those depending on what units the player takes. So essentially the Blood Angels are whatever you want them to be.

[vahouth]

well... my reason for starting BAs is Space Hulk the board game. so.. i stuck!!! :D

[Chaplain Dominus]

Really I wouldn't say there comabt oreintated more highly mobile.

[TychoIsDead]

Why not?

 

Honestly, it's the fluff - great history (I choose to ignore the Deus novels) with Sanguinius holding the Gate alone so everyone else could retreat inside, then following the Emperor willingly to his own death, knowing it had to be done... the honour and nobility he always showed, not just to his own people but to all humanity is something to be revered.

 

Besides, they're red.

[metabubbles]

Ok, I admit it, I played Bubble Marines. My nickname is bubbles, I loved blue, it was a monumental gathering of all the right parts, until.... Then one perfect day (killing Dark eldar...heheheh) I met a person called 'Pooker' that had marines as well. No problem, in fact to make it fair I set my Ultra Marines to standard tournament settings, not tweaked for marines. Ok, so he won. I then tweaked my army to beat marines. Ok so he won, but it was a new army for me. So we played again (another day of course) and He won; again ....

 

I don't like red, I am not a fan of fluff, I didn't get the board game, I didn't play 2nd edition.

 

1. I like winning.

2. I like free

3. I like mobility

4. I like power armor

5. I like winning.

 

Thanks Blood Brothers....Angels....

Edited July 8, 2008 by metabubbles

[Parcival]

Well, originally I purchased a load of Orkz for 40K who are a fun group of Boyz, but they never felt to me like the Green Tide I expected them to be. I just bought them because I wanted to get an army for 40K and found this offer on ebay.

 

At the same time I still dreamt of having my own Space marine army - the brave and strong superhumans who are the last line of defense of mankind. Seriously, the Imperium may fall apart one day, but these warriors will always be loyal to the Emperor and not some false God. Either way, once again I found an offer on ebay too good to resist so I started on Blood Angels. After that I read through the fluff behind Sanguinius and felt about that like described in many of the posts above already.

 

I don't know if the Blood Angels are the best army in 40K - but they are definitely the best for me. :)

[JamesI]

Somehow I never answered this.

 

The answer is almost entirely jump packs. I love jump infantry, and being able to have them as troops was a big thing, plus the VAS is awesome.

 

I used to use Blessed be the Warriors in codex marines to get elite jump packs, but felt it was missing something. I always wanted the ability to take jump pack command squads (2 attacks base, access to apothecaries, multiple power weapons in the squad, meltaguns with jump packs!). BA offers all of that.

 

When I started marines, I played Salamanders, but wanted a red marine army. I was going to do Angels of Fire paint scheme as Salamanders successor, but got talked out of it (one opponet said he would refuse to play me if I painted Salamanders red). Now I play Angels Vermillion, nearly the same base color as what I wanted before.

[Brother Mathias]

When I decided I wanted to build a WH40K army, of course I was going to build a space marines army! Ater playing Dawn of War, I was obsessed with the Blood Ravens. But then I learned that they were a farily new chapter (at least game wise). I wanted an army that was first founding with a lot of history and background, kicked butt, and were red. That really only left one option :P

My local hobby shop always looks at me weird when I pick up 3-4 pots of red and not much else. :lol:

[N!GHTBR1NG3R]

I dont actually have a BA army....yet.

 

the reasons i am considering them is because i believe:

 

1. Combat is cool

2. Red is cool

3. Chapter history is cool

4. Space marines just dont die

 

i have plenty of experience trying to kill marines and apart from necrons i would have to say they are the hardest army to kill.

i started off with a daemon hunter army with grey knights as it core, it preformed well but i didnt like the limited numbers, so once i reached 2500 points

i changed to orks! There well known for hacking power and i thought they would provide me with numbers, boy was i right. too right infact the painting was extreme, i have never painted for so long and achieved so little. Next up was Elder because i suffered a string of very close games with both my DH and my orks so i collected a 2000 point army but i just couldnt get the hang of them, so now im thinking space marines, but which chapter. So far its BA all the way

[baglunch]

I started my first Blood Angels army back around 2000, when Third Edition still reigned supreme, and the Tau were only a few well-hidden concept sketches. My favourite colour was red, and so when I saw the red Blood Angels colour scheme on the back of the painting starter set my father had purchased for me, I was set. Time would pass, I would pick up the 3rd Ed Blood Angels codex, and I would learn more about my chosen chapter. With every new piece of storyline I read, with every new fact I learned about my chapter, I knew I had made the correct decision. The seething anger, the constant tight-rope walk on the edge of madness, these were things that my angsty teenage mind could relate to and understand. The Blood Angels reflected who I was, and I loved them for it.

 

I started an Ulthwé Strike Force Eldar army and a Tau force after beginning my Blood Angels. The Eldar story of the constant lingering doom of their race, and the energetic hope and optimism of the Tau resonated in different ways with my attitudes - they reflected my pessimism and my need to develop some optimism, respectively.

 

When I left my hometown for university, I sold my Blood Angels and my Ulthwé Strike Force - I was unhappy with the paint jobs on both, and had improved my skill greatly. I needed the money for school more than I needed the armies, and so I made the difficult decisions I needed to make.

 

"Brothers, drink deep and remember the fallen."

 

For three years, I would play Tau and only Tau. I would grow pretty attached to my happy giant robot-piloting communist overlords. But I had toyed with the idea of coming back to Space Marines, perhaps with a homebrew chapter.

 

When I got a job last July at the Games Workshop Battle Bunker in Ottawa, I saw in my employee discount an opportunity. A couple of months after I started, I told the story of my history with the Warhammer hobby, and I was challenged by my manager to rebuild my old Blood Angels army. Something stirred within me, something akin to the Red Thirst. And so I bought a Space Marine Battleforce. I bought a Chaplain. I bought a box of Death Company. And I painted them. I bitz-ordered the metal Blood Angel shoulder pads, lovingly tore the blank red plastic pads off of my Tactical Squads' shoulders and replaced them. And I remembered what it was that made me play Blood Angels in the first place.

 

The Battle Bunker was closed and cleaned out a few days ago, and I no longer work with Games Workshop. The store is gone, but the Blood Angels remain. I have resolved that never again will I abandon them.

 

"Brothers, drink deep and remember the fallen."

 

The constant struggle between sanity and madness, between calm and anger, and the nobility and honour that comes with fighting a constant war within your soul and winning, day after day, year after year, century after century. As I had become a rather good painter by that time, I also reflected the appreciation of the Blood Angels of art, painting a mural of Sanguinius on one of my Rhinos, depicting Tycho on a Tactical sergeant's banner, Calistarius, who would become Mephiston, Lord of Death, on a another. Like the samurai of old, the Blood Angels blend an appreciation for intellectual and artistic pursuits with a martial skill unmatched even by most other Space Marine chapters.

 

And that is why I play Blood Angels.

 

"Be bloody, bold, and resolute. For the Emperor and Sanguinius!"

Edited July 30, 2008 by baglunch

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

i love the Death Company, i love how radiated twisted wretches turn into beautiful super humans i love how they focus on art when they're not fighting i love sanguinius and his whole story the tragedy of the black rage the mobility and all the amazing options they have.

 

for our angel liege, for the emperor, and for the blood angels, we shall purge the heretic and the traitor!

[shadelance]

"By the Blood of Sanguinius Death,Death,Death!!!

[Wolflord_EC]

At first, there was the TCG of Warhammer 40k. The first edition. And it was good.

One day, they diceded, that they will bring out the Blood Angels. And it was better.

It was the first time beside in the Novell Sapce Marines written by Ian Watson, that I met with the name of the Blood Angels. I began to collect them. I loved the arts, the chapter... Then, our community died up. I sold nearly everything. And found out, that there is another art of warhammer: the tabletop.

I went to our rpg shop, because GW is far, far away from our country, and that time, I lived not in our capitol, where a strong base of tabletop gamers exists. The shop called for the official GW store, butthey said: sorry, nothing with BA... There were already some people, who already played it years ago, and they were willing to join, if I have an army. So, i bougth an army of eldar.

Then, 2 weeks leater, something arrived... The BA things, that I wanted... They ordered it, but forgot about, that it was canceled.

It was all back in the 3. edition...

So, I have had to decide, and at first, I began to make both armies.

After some time, I also bougth a SW army. So, I already owned 3 5000 points armies... A little too much, I thougth. So, I sold the SW first, and then, the eldar... Then, I went with only BA. But then 4. ed came. I couldn't win any more. Tryed out everything, proxysize. Then, I sold my BA-s too... I went back to eldars, and to some chaos. Now, I have a 6000 points eldar, and 1500 chaos, converted, mainly Tzeentch...

But with fifth edition, I dosn't find the two armies so great. And, I wanted to play with true heroes once again, like in the old times. Beside of this, everyone abandoned the BA-s, there is none, who brings them to tournaments any more (in my country, of course;)) And so it happened, that I opened an old box, and found parts of my formel BA army... Shoulderpads, tactical and assault squad parts... A brand new chaplain, wich i youst bougth, because I liked the modell... So, now, I once again in. Currently, I'm yust makeing my new blood angeld army, to get started once again... Slow process, but they will be ready sometime, and then, they will bring havoc against the enemys of te emperor once again!

[SamaNagol]

Because I can proxy my PH WEaters now that the new SM 'dex negates my old traits list :)