Blood Shadow Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Hello, I've been building a Blood Angel force slowly for a while but I have been focused on my other armies up until now. My only experience with marines is with traitors so far so i have a few questions about units that i have never used. Are sternguard a decent elites choice? I have terminators and death company already but as i've always liked tactical marines i like the idea of veterans. Are land speeders any good? i have bikes for my traitors so I dont want to copy my other marine force and if i want assault marines i can put jump packs on the DC. I like the fluff behind the Blood Drinkers, and i know ruleswise nothing would stop me, but fluffwise if i painted my marines as BD would i be unable to field characters like mephiston? And last for now, are drop pods preferable to rhino's or would it be best to have both to use in different builds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordCommanderSamirus Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 In short,yes when deployed via pods in particular, yes, you are fully capable of fielding any of our special characters, if you want to though id kitbash up some of your own and not use the gw made models. Id buy a few of each to mix things ups sometimes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shandwen Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Just about all the BA elite choices are solid (but forget tactical termies they are aweful). Sternguard are good, perhaps less useful for a cc empowered army, but still good. I have not seen anyone who had an issue of playing a blood angel character in another chapter as long as they still are ba tactics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DominicJ Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 When we had assault troops, I loved speeders, now not so much. Single with HF or MM and just be a nuisance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meracalis Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 I think with the exception of Mephiston, most Blood Angels characters can be built with a Sanguinary Guard box and assorted bits. I'm currently making a Sanguinary Priest out of some apothecary bits from a command squad sprue and some Sang Guard armor. Dante can be replicated pretty much exactly with some Sang Guard bits and some normal Assault Marine bits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 The trouble with Speeders is their fragility which means they often end up costing you First Blood. Since 6th edition, it has been quite easy to glance speeders to death with basic weaponry. Eldar Vypers suffer from the same problem and are equally rare as a result. BAs also have plenty of good options in the Fast Attack section so Speeders tend to get left behind. Sternguard are a good unit but need to get close to the enemy to be effective so need a transport of some sort. They excel at killing everything except vehicles and units with a 2+ save. I find the best way to use them is to avoid loading them up with too many upgrades (boys over toys) and rely on their special ammo. Support with some units with melta and grav to deal with vehicles and TEQs and they will kill whatever you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolemai Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Hello, I've been building a Blood Angel force slowly for a while but I have been focused on my other armies up until now. My only experience with marines is with traitors so far so i have a few questions about units that i have never used. Are sternguard a decent elites choice? I have terminators and death company already but as i've always liked tactical marines i like the idea of veterans. They aren't an auto-include (but then what is?) and like many units in our Codex, they perform better in certain lists than others. Their special ammunition and ability to stock up on combi-weapons makes them unique and extremely versatile but they will need a goal in mind. For example, two melta guns and a sprinkling of combi-meltas makes a strong anti-armour choice (which can be deployed via Drop Pod for a strong alpha strike), a plasma version rolling around in a Rhino will make short work of MCs and heavy troops, etc. Are land speeders any good? i have bikes for my traitors so I dont want to copy my other marine force and if i want assault marines i can put jump packs on the DC. The main problem that Land Speeders suffer from is that they compete with the Assault Squad and the Bike Squadron. This doesn't make them a bad choice though. For their weapons, it's best to use ones which synergise well together and given their low AV and HP, it's best to field 2-3 for redundancy purposes. For example, one of my favourite loadouts is the dual heavy bolter one. Three of these will amass eighteen STR 5 shots for 180 points. Alternatively, dual multi-melta will spoil anyone's day while the typhoon setup can be quite a versatile one. I like the fluff behind the Blood Drinkers, and i know ruleswise nothing would stop me, but fluffwise if i painted my marines as BD would i be unable to field characters like mephiston? It's your army so nothing is stopping you. Just kitbash your version and use Mephiston's rules. And last for now, are drop pods preferable to rhino's or would it be best to have both to use in different builds? Horses for courses. That said, I always find room for a Drop Pod is my army lists but it's been a while since I have used a Rhino (only because I tend to use Razorbacks). What else do you have in your collection so far? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesI Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 The trouble with Speeders is their fragility which means they often end up costing you First Blood. Since 6th edition, it has been quite easy to glance speeders to death with basic weaponry. Eldar Vypers suffer from the same problem and are equally rare as a result. BAs also have plenty of good options in the Fast Attack section so Speeders tend to get left behind. If I was to use a speeder, it would be 2 multimeltas or heavy flamers and deep strike in using Descent of Angels. Won't show up until turn 2 so First Blood is probably not a concern and has decent chance to pop a tank with 2 multimeltas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bukimimaru Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 I ahdn't thought of using them like that. I really love the models for landspeeders and I think they are really inkeeping with BA's fast and furious theme, but they have a reputation of being pretty flimsy. They do seem more fluffy than bikes though... I suppose if you have Dante's Descent of Angels, then you get a cheap and nasty suicide unit. Totally gonna try this. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesI Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 I ahdn't thought of using them like that. I really love the models for landspeeders and I think they are really inkeeping with BA's fast and furious theme, but they have a reputation of being pretty flimsy. They do seem more fluffy than bikes though... I suppose if you have Dante's Descent of Angels, then you get a cheap and nasty suicide unit. Totally gonna try this. I have been planning to try a land speeder with 2 multimeltas to deepstrike in a Dante army. Haven't tried it yet though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blood Shadow Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 I have 20 tactical marines, 10 tactical terminators, 5 assault terminators (with thunderhammer's), 20 death company, 4 dreadnoughts (1 being a librarian), 1 stormraven, 1 landraider, 10 scouts (snipers), 1 sanguinary priest, mephiston, lemartes, 2 captains, one in power armour and one in terminator armour, and 2 librarians same as the captains I will buy some Sanguinary guard to make my own versions of the other named characters as has been suggested. With what i have already would it be worth me trying out some landspeeders or would i be better off going with assault marines to start with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Assault squads in pods, with jump packs and MM Landspeeders can all potentially fulfil the role of Deep Striking to kill enemy armour. Each option has its pros and cons. The options for 4 melta shots can be made with 2 dual MM Speeders or an RAS with 2 melta guns and dual infernus pistols on the sergeant (either with jump packs or in a pod). The RAS are the same price while the speeders cost mroe points. Here are the pros and cons of each option. Pod Pros - Can arrive on turn 1, more reliable scatter. Cons - Does not benefit from DoA, limited mobility after initial deployment Jump Packs Pros - Better mobility than pod squad, benefits from DoA Cons - Arrives turn 2 at the earliest. Speeders Pros - Better mobility than pod squad, benefits from DoA, MMs have twice the range of melta guns and 4x the range of inferno pistols. Cons - Arrives turn 2 at the earliest, lower threat to infantry. More expensive Based on this, I would say that Pod squads are best if you do not have DoA or you require a Turn 1 alpha strike. If you are content to wait until turn 2 then I think speeders may have the edge over over RAS due to their longer range. However the RAS can also assault infantry which may be useful if you are successful and eliminate your armoured targets early. Horses for courses really. Each option has strengths and weaknesses and it will depend on whether Dante is leading your army. On their own, Pod squads look the best to me. With Dante (and/or servo skulls) then RAS and Speeders become more attractive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blood Shadow Posted March 20, 2015 Author Share Posted March 20, 2015 Hmmmm so if i were to go for landspeeders could i split my weapons, like a multimelta on each speeder and a heavy flamer underneath to take on infantry or would i need to focus on one type of target unit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 You can split your weapons. It comes down to the old flexibility vs specialisation. If you specialise, you can really hurt your ideal targets but will struggle against others. If you generalise, you can hurt more targets but you will do less damage due to suboptimal weapons. I would go for dual multimeltas for a couple of reasons. MMs are Heavy 1 but that does not matter if mounted on a vehicle. Heavy flamers are assault 1 meaning your tactical squads can carry them and still fire on the move. Heavy flamers also compliment the anti-infantry firepower from the rest of the squad. Also, Heavy flamers need to be within 8" to do damage whereas MMs have an ideal range of 12" and can still do damage out to 24" which means you do not have to worry so much about Deep striking accurately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.