Review of the Dex

[ContemptuousAngel]

I've only had the new Blood Angels codex in my hands for about 30 hours now, but that's a bit more than most people have had it. I've read through the unit entries several times. I'm not the best player but in 5th edition I played with blood angels and won around 90% of the time, so I think I can speak a bit about the differences, especially the strengths and weaknesses of this new rules set fairly well. Here are my thoughts.

A Destiny 5 Years in the Making

 

Has it really only been five years? It seems like longer. For five years, loyal Blood Angels fans and their Flesh Tearer cousins saw the full extent of what GW can do to your favorite army. Even before that, the BA players of the world got a bit jerked around by GW for years as they transitioned between 2nd, 3rd, and 4th edition. I began playing them in 4th. Only got a few games in, wasn't very good at the time (worse than I am now and that says something), and the White Dwarf 'dex was just... not good. I converted some of my BA into Black Templars. Then 5th happened. And with it, the 5th edition Blood Angels Codex, and it was glorious.

5th was good to assault. It was good to power armor. It was good to Blood Angels. The army I played with spammed fast vindicators and Baal

 

Predators, backed up by assault squads as troops fortified by Chaplains and Sanguinary priests. I only lost to the best local players using their most cracked out armies. I threw down against the new Wolf Guard and Thunderwolf Cavalry with Blood Tallons on Furioso Dreadnoughts. I deep struck landraider crusaders.  I saw Astorath The Grim smash his face into a mountain on what should have been a perfect Deep Strike. I witnessed Lemartes take a wound, and then take on an entire Chaos Army like a champ. It was by turns overpowered and hilariously subject to failure. It was a great Codex and Great Edition when paired together.

 

And then 6th happened. And then Codex Creep did what Codex Creep does. It left the Blood Angels in the dust, thirsting for blood and stuck in the mud. Overpriced and hopelessly underpowered by 7th edition, even with Blood Tallons and the Red Thirst, it just wasn't a viable army.

 People still played though. I added some Death Company and a Stormraven to fortify my Space wolves. Bolter and Chainsword's most numerous group is Blood Angel players. The Blood Angels fans of the world waited impatiently and yet with magnificent loyalty for the new codex, and here it is.

Bought in Blood

 

If you were hoping to get a new 5th edition style dex that put the Blood Angels directly on top of the dog pile for a while, you didn't get that. If you were already hate raging on the interwebs about how horrible the codex was going to be, you didn't get that either. What I believe we got was a solid army list, in line with Codex: Adeptus Astartes and the rest of 7th edition's point costs, with a few oddities slipped in, and a great deal of hard choices to be made.

Creating an army with this list is like playing through the most gripping parts of Mass Effect. You are going to make a decision. that decision will change how your army plays more than how it costs. Except for Troop choices, the army list is extremely crowded in every force organization slot. Chaplains, which were the only good thing about 5th ed BA compared to 6th and 7th ed Astartes (much better for the points cost), are now HQ. So are Sanguinary Priests. So are Tech Marines. So are Captains (duh), and Librarians, and Librarian Dreadnoughts. That's a lot when you throw in Astorath, The Sanguinor, BOTH Tychos, Mephiston, and Brother Corbulo.

 

Then you've got Fast Attack. Gone are the days of Assault Squads as troops; they share this slot with Bikes, Scout Bikes, Razorbacks, Landspeeders, and Drop Pods.

 

Elites choices are Death Company, Death Company Dreadnoughts, Vanguard Veterans, Sternguard Veterans, Command Squad, Terminators and Assault Terminators, and Sanguiary Guard. That is A LOT.

Heavy Support- now, did you notice the lack of Baal Predators in the Fast Attack Section? Yeah. Me too. That pissed me off. They are Heavies now, right there with Vindicators, Whirlwinds, Predators, Landraiders, Stormravens, and Devastators.

 

Lastly, in Lords of War, we've got Dante, and for some reason, Gabriel Seth.

See what I mean? Talk about crowded. No more spamming Feel No Pain, or re-rolls. So what did we get in exchange?

We got Furious Charge. The whole army. Every unit that isn't a tank got Furious Charge.

And if you play the detachment, which is impossible not to, your army (THE WHOLE ARMY) gets +1 initiative on top of the charge, adding to the bonus of furious charge. That is pretty cool.

 

To sum up, we didn't get Thunderwolf Cavalry equivalents, but we got better guns, we got better points costs, universal Furious Charge to make a   viable assault army, and we got the challenge of making it work.

Here are some observations from what I've seen:

 

Brother Corbulo will be a go to HQ for a lot of people. He can make a good assault unit into a death star, raising his own initiative to 7 and everyone else in the unit's initiative to 6 (or higher if they are HQs) on the charge. Plus feel no pain. Power armored assault elites striking at initiative 5+ base strength 5 with power weapons. Ouch.

Furioso Librarians will almost never be played, but Mephiston will be joining Corbulo in a deathstar unit with meat shields striking at initiative 7. He's not as powerful as 5th ed (he's getting old, I guess), but he's still pretty beastly and has received a significant cost reduction. Also he can join a squad again. Too bad his model still sucks. I mean, come on, GW. If any character in the game deserves a modern model it's Meph-fist-up-yo-ass-ston.

 

Troop squads are in line with 7th edition needs. You can take a special or heavy weapon with a 5 man squad plus vet sergeants with whatever they want on their person. Plus fast razorbacks. Scouts got Hellfire shell upgrades to their heavy bolters. Not bad. Too bad their models suck.

Death Company are GOOD AGAIN! :cuss YEAH! They can score! They are still relentless! They can still be jump packing bolter squads with thunder hammers! And Jump packs only cost +3 points a model! WHAT WHAT!!! I'm excited. Can you tell? Unfortunately only Astorath The Grim can give them that Liturgies of Hate love. But that's not bad. Astorath is still awesome and got a points reduction.

Death Company Dreadnoughts can be taken without taking 5 DC. Magna Grapples are free and give move through cover and reroll distance to assault tanks. Blood Talons are strength x2 (so.. 12, 13 on the charge... Jesus) AP2 Shred. Not bad. You won't need to reroll wounds with that though. Maybe rerolling pens on some vehicles.. but on the charge that is AUTO PENNING half the vehicles in the game, and auto glancing most Astartes vehicles. Frag cannons are still cool, too. But I think DC or Furioso Dreads with talons will be popular.

Vanguard vets with grav pistols and powerweapons will be popular. They lost the ability to charge after deep strike.

Terminators are now the only squads that can take Landraiders of any kind as transports. That sucks. But... the new terminator models are pretty damn slick.

 

All (non landraider) heavy support ground vehicles can be upgraded to Fast for 10 points. So... Get ready for that. Unfortunately with the Baal as a HS vehicle (they are already fast without the upgrade... what?) you've got lots of good choices and only 3 slots... that's not good. Stormravens are still good *but apparently ALL BA chapters used up all of their blood strike missiles and now have to make do with Stormstrike*, but so are fast Vindicators, fast Predators, fast Whirlwinds, and Baal Predators... ugh.

Lastly I want to talk about the Lords of War choices and express a little... "What the :cuss?"

Dante, Lord of the Blood Angels, is a Lord of War Choice. Cool. I get that. He gives descent of Angels as an automatic warlord trait so Jump Packing armies will field him reflexively. He is a beast of an IC that can join a unit with Jump Packs, and Sanguinary Guard are much more viable than they had been, so why not?

 

The other Lord of War Choice is Gabriel Seth. What the actual :cuss? He costs less than Mephiston (155 points), isn't nearly as ass kickingly powerful, doesn't have the same kind of fluff about him, and has never been the Astartes version of a Demon Prince. So I really don't get this choice. The Sanguinor fits the bill for Lord of War more. Comparing Seth to Logan Grimnar or Gazghul Thrakka is a bit... sad. Seth is a beast, though, in his own right. As an HQ choice he would be solid as hell. He has furious charge, Rage, and Rampage. That's nothing to sneeze at when he's hitting at S9 on a charge with rending wounds and the Whirlwind of Gore special rule, but he's not on par with Grimnar or even Dante.

The Baal Strikeforce requires 1 HQ, two troops, and one elite. This gives the detachment +1 initiative on the charge. This is the new Red Thirst.

The Blood Angels Battle Company (apocalypse games only) gives objective secured, and +1 initiative.

 

So I think we're off to a good start here. I also think that Allies and Imperial Armour are essentials for the army at higher competitive levels. I also can't wait to get a game in.

 

 

[Dusktiger]

interesting review.  though i should point out you made a misinterpretation of the str of the blood talons; any weapon or rule that modifies stat values, whether it's a multiplier, or a fixed value addition, can never exceed 10 in 40k.  blood talons, like power fists on dreads, are Str x2, so they double the str of the dreads to 12, but since that exceeds the stat cap, they just increase to Str 10 and go no higher.  same with +1 and +2 modifiers that would be added on in addition to this.  any values above "10" are essentially lost and the number never rises above 10.

 

if this wasn't the case, the blood angel contemptor dreadnought would be everyone's favorite because its allowed to take blood talons and that variant starts with a base str value of 7.  str 14 melee attacks would be impressive for sure, but again, the stat cap makes them only str 10.

[ThatOneMarshal]

Good review. Though I do think that the furioso librarian will be pretty popular because str 10 ap 2 force weapon and if you give him ml 2 then give him Quicking. All this dropping out of a raven. Though it is a lot of points and can be shot down probably destroying both the raven and the dreadnought.

[Freman Bloodglaive]

Heavy flamers in tactical squads.

[Antarius]

Here is my review: Best. Codex. Ever.

 

Seriously; this is pretty much everything I wanted from a Blood Angels Codex.

[Ebsolom]

I wish I could be as enthusiastic about the new codex but it left me feeling a bit empty to be honest. Yes I am glad Dante finally got a decent axe and eternal warrior and Sanguinary Guard got a points reduction but sad that Dante lost the ability to take SG as troops and his Death mask lost the power of weakening enemy HQ's stat lines.

Lemartes should have been left as a DC upgrade I feel. Techmarines as HQ's? They'll never see the light of day, the HQ slot is too crowded as it is. Only having the options of Tacticals and Scouts for troops feels a bit of a let down.

My current DC army is now unviable unless i play unbound. Also i felt that the actual book itself had a bit more of a catalogue feel to it with the large picture taking up half a page with each unit entry and less background on the succesor chapters with the Lamenters dissappearing completely.

I'm sorry for the moan but I'm getting on a bit now, comes with age you see. I still love my BA army and we have some of the best looking models in the game. Time to convert myself a decent looking Dante model and kick some ass

Rant over

[Captain Idaho]

So what did they do with Dante's axe finally?

[Theredknight]

I have faith we will see supplements in the next few months, once they have sold lots of new tacticals so everyone adjusts, then a jumper supplement or dataslate so they can sell dc/asm.

 

I'm glad they changed Dante, it's a trade off, ppl didn't use him because of his low I. Now il probably make myself a better Dante to give him the credit he deserves!

[SnorriSnorrison]

So what did they do with Dante's axe finally?

+2 on the S value, AP2 and mastercrafted. Yup, not an unwieldy weapon any more.

He's terrifying on the charge. And he can do the same thing again should he get stuck in combat for longer than a turn - which is unlikely, to be honest - only to get that furious charge S and Init bonus again...there are no words to describe how badass he is.

Snorri

[Ishagu]

Dante in the new detachment with quickening can have 9 str7, ap2 attacks at initiative 10 :-o

[Captain Caine 24th]

Descent of Angels working for skimmers I thought was very interesting. 

[tsijben]

I have faith we will see supplements in the next few months, once they have sold lots of new tacticals so everyone adjusts, then a jumper supplement or dataslate so they can sell dc/asm.

 

I'm glad they changed Dante, it's a trade off, ppl didn't use him because of his low I. Now il probably make myself a better Dante to give him the credit he deserves!

We are getting a new supplement ("three" of them) next week ;)

 

- 18 new datasheets for the Blood Angels 1st and 2nd Companies, Flesh Tearers, and the Necrons of the Mephrit Dynasty. That’s the equivalent of four Codex Supplements in one book!

- new warlord traits, relics and force organisation charts for all four armies

[Dempsey]

I see some use for wings of sanguinius psychic power. Against bubble wrapped enemy drop two squads in drop pods - one tactical with heavy flamer+flamer+combi-flamer second assault squad with two melta guns+combi-melta. Tactical squad cleans bubble wrap, then you reposition assault squad in place wher bubble wrap used to be and fire away at your primary target. Yes it is situational but can be effective :-)

[Charlo]

"Also i felt that the actual book itself had a bit more of a catalogue feel to it with the large picture taking up half a page with each unit entry and less background on the succesor chapters with the Lamenters dissappearing completely."

 

Yeah thay is a bit of a shame, id rathrr it was £10 cheaper and we didmt what is essentially the same 4 photos across 20 pages or so. Plus theres a good few successors missing love. I can only assume lamenters we're legt out as they have forge world love.

[Theduke08]

"Also i felt that the actual book itself had a bit more of a catalogue feel to it with the large picture taking up half a page with each unit entry and less background on the succesor chapters with the Lamenters dissappearing completely."

 

Yeah thay is a bit of a shame, id rathrr it was £10 cheaper and we didmt what is essentially the same 4 photos across 20 pages or so. Plus theres a good few successors missing love. I can only assume lamenters we're legt out as they have forge world love.

All of the 7th ed codex's have had this format.  Might not like it but it is what all of the new dex's are going to look like.

[toaae]

I see some use for wings of sanguinius psychic power. Against bubble wrapped enemy drop two squads in drop pods - one tactical with heavy flamer+flamer+combi-flamer second assault squad with two melta guns+combi-melta. Tactical squad cleans bubble wrap, then you reposition assault squad in place wher bubble wrap used to be and fire away at your primary target. Yes it is situational but can be effective :-)

 

You can't shoot, use psychic power, then shoot again, since the psychic phase precedes the shooting phase.

 

The new Wings is an interesting power. Not being able to charge off it is an obvious restriction (or it would be super, duper OP), so it's a power for more effective shooting. Put a squad in Flamer range, melta range, onto on objective late, ect. That last one is potential game-winner.

[Dempsey]

 

I see some use for wings of sanguinius psychic power. Against bubble wrapped enemy drop two squads in drop pods - one tactical with heavy flamer+flamer+combi-flamer second assault squad with two melta guns+combi-melta. Tactical squad cleans bubble wrap, then you reposition assault squad in place wher bubble wrap used to be and fire away at your primary target. Yes it is situational but can be effective :-)

 

You can't shoot, use psychic power, then shoot again, since the psychic phase precedes the shooting phase.

 

The new Wings is an interesting power. Not being able to charge off it is an obvious restriction (or it would be super, duper OP), so it's a power for more effective shooting. Put a squad in Flamer range, melta range, onto on objective late, ect. That last one is potential game-winner.

 

Drat - messed up phases... and wishthinking two shooting phases per turn - I stand corrected. And certainly late game objective grabbing can be game winning (especialy, when opponent do not expect any more movements ;-) - so you could move, then wings then run instead of shooting? - potentialy up to 30" of movement on jump troops)

[Toomanyprojects]

Seth being a Lord of War makes sense to me - all of the other leaders of forces (Grimnar, Draigo, Ghazghull) are lords of war. I think its just for consistency of GWs part

[ThatOneMarshal]

Is Seth changed at all from his last incarnation?

[Dempsey]

Just another tought. Did you noticed that using BASF you can actualy field all death company army? Lets say:

HQ: Asorath and Captain Tycho (fallen one ;-) )

ELITES: 2xDeath co (tooled to your liking), Death Company Dread, maybe chaplain or next death co squad/dread

TROOPS: Cassor and Raphen's Death Company.

When you tool up death companies to be battle worthy then you easili meet points limits even for 1850pts battles :-)

[Zeller]

I don't care for the new format since it's not exactly clearly delineated besides the force org. symbol. It seems like we have even more things competing for slots that use to be unlocked if you took a captain, or vehicles, or whatever. Techmarines and honor guard are what I refer to specifically. It's a catalog and feels lacking in many format ways. Aside from that, I like what they did with us. 

 

 

That_One_Marshall, Seth was tweaked to this:

Same statline and wargear.

Blood reaver is now AP4 

Whirlwind of gore is now: any to hit roll of a 6 causes 1 additional hit

Ferocious instinct is gone

5 points cheaper

Has Rampage USR as warlord trait.

[pompeyladbfp]

Cheers for the well thought out review.. still waiting for mine. Defoe need to redo some units.. sell some too and replace some. Damn you geedubwa!

[Toomanyprojects]

Is Seth changed at all from his last incarnation?

Whoops, didn't notice that this had already been sorted :)

[ContemptuousAngel]

interesting review.  though i should point out you made a misinterpretation of the str of the blood talons; any weapon or rule that modifies stat values, whether it's a multiplier, or a fixed value addition, can never exceed 10 in 40k.  blood talons, like power fists on dreads, are Str x2, so they double the str of the dreads to 12, but since that exceeds the stat cap, they just increase to Str 10 and go no higher.  same with +1 and +2 modifiers that would be added on in addition to this.  any values above "10" are essentially lost and the number never rises above 10.

 

if this wasn't the case, the blood angel contemptor dreadnought would be everyone's favorite because its allowed to take blood talons and that variant starts with a base str value of 7.  str 14 melee attacks would be impressive for sure, but again, the stat cap makes them only str 10.

Thanks I forgot about that!

Just another tought. Did you noticed that using BASF you can actualy field all death company army? Lets say:

HQ: Asorath and Captain Tycho (fallen one ;-) )

ELITES: 2xDeath co (tooled to your liking), Death Company Dread, maybe chaplain or next death co squad/dread

TROOPS: Cassor and Raphen's Death Company.

When you tool up death companies to be battle worthy then you easili meet points limits even for 1850pts battles :-)

Ok how does Raphen's Death Company work? 

[shandwen]

The DC dreadnought and Raphen's Squad are mqrked as troops in the stuff that comes with the tyranid/BA box set. The squad has a set number of guys and set wargear, but they are troops, and that DC squad has a character (Quickening anyone?).