Newbie Looking for Blood Angel Armour & Fluff Advice!

[Joyous_Oblivion]

Hey all, I'm new to the whole Heresy era, and I chose the Blood Angels, mainly due to my love of painting red...lol. Kidding, they were my first marine army from 2nd edition and I'm eager to see the chapter's playstyle/aesthetic before everything became based off of Sanguinius dying.

 

Anyways, I know Forgeworld hasn't really show a tonne of love to BA yet, though the upgrade pack is nice, so I'm hoping we will see more when their time in the sun comes.

 

But who wants to wait for that to happen? I started my journey off with a bunch of Mk.3 plate marines, just because I have seen some people make these look phenomenal in other legions colours.

 

My question goes more into fluff though. Do the Blood Angels have much fluff from the Heresy era yet? Can anyone point me in a direction?

 

Lastly, are there particular marks of armour or vehicles/equipment the Blood Angels used more so than other Legions? Less so? I'd like this to be as 'fluffy' as possible, I'm not looking for dominating choices, just the most relevant.

 

Thanks in advance if anyone can lend a helping hand/link/advice etc!

[marine7312000]

Most people are going to point you towards MK4 as the dominant armour for BA, but I'd like to put in my vote for MK3. I'm a bit tired at the moment so an in-depth rationale will have to wait til tomorrow.

 

As far as units\ vehicles, I firmly believe in buying what you like and worrying about fitting YOUR fluff around YOUR army. I love the Destroyer models and I seem to remember someone suggesting that the BA will forswear using the squads as they have seen first hand just what the weapons can do to a world. I put forth that they will use these weapons with as much precision as possible and only when needed.

 

For fluff from the Heresy, there isn't all that much. A few chapters in Horus Rising, some short stories, and Fear to Tread are about all I can think of right now.

[Joyous_Oblivion]

Thanks for the help, I already have a few units and vehicles picked out to use purely based off aesthetics, but just wondered if there were any things that the BA def did or didn't use.

 

After browsing heavily through Lexicanium I got a bit of info, but as you said, its not much. Hopefully when the Blood Angels get included into a HH FW book we will see more, or if the novels do more on them.

 

I am glad to see the Sanguinary guard are present in the heresy era, so that gives me an excuse to at least get some of those!

[Charlo]

As for definitely not using, only potential is destroyers.

 

Other than that they are a Legion, they have access to any and all arms and armour and will use them all liberally :)

[Arac]

I guess Tacticals in Storm Eagles (without the Need of Angels Wrath) might be a Thing for the BA.

[Brother Heinrich]

Do what you want man, I tend to hate typecast legion dynamics, "oh they're Blood Angels, so they must use Angels Wrath ROW" nonsense. These are also the guys who found and used the Lucifer engine STC for crazy fast rhino chassis vehicles. You can do a tank company, a jet pack assault company, or even a foot-slogging army backed up devastators and artillery. Every legion is designed to tackle any battlefield, thus its formations run the entire gamut.

 

As far as armor goes I used modified Mk.7 with a sprinkling of heresy bits for flavor because I'm poor, however if you want historical accuracy, only the senior or elite members of the legion would have Mk.4 plate since by the time it was being widely issued Horus was already making sure those not loyal to his cause weren't getting any of the new toys.

[Soldier of Dorn]

As far as armor goes I used modified Mk.7 with a sprinkling of heresy bits for flavor because I'm poor, however if you want historical accuracy, only the senior or elite members of the legion would have Mk.4 plate since by the time it was being widely issued Horus was already making sure those not loyal to his cause weren't getting any of the new toys.

I'm also using lots of GeeDubs bits because I'm poor, and I like the super-fancy BA Tactical Box for Veteran Squads, though I disagree with the idea that senior members of the Legion would be the ones to receive Mark IV. The way I see it, even during the Great Crusade, a Marine's armour would be a piece of personal kit, optimized for their physique (remember, Astartes are not clones. They would not be exactly alike in height and weight), and new sets of armour or even individual replacement plates would be issued as the need arose, optimally the same mark, but not necessarily. The ideal is entire formations in a single mark, but I think of it as one rarely achieved. Additionally, I think of Horus allowing the Loyalists a smaller number of Mark IV as some 15,000-25,000 odd suits per Legion compared to 50,000+ suits for the Traitors Legions. If you then factor in armours produced by a Legion's own forges, as several Legions were likely capable of, then it probably drives the numbers quite a bit . The Horus Heresy is a huge event on a galactic scale, and concepts such as less reflect that, with Legions having ridiculous amounts of war materiel, including armour. So, in my view, any Legion is capable of fielding companies purely comprised of Mark IV infantry, including the Blood Angels. Anyways, that's my view. People are free to disagree with me.

[Son of Carnelian]

Yeah, so far we don't have as much detail on them as we do some other legions who Forge World has covered. Fear to Tread gives you a great picture of the diversity of the legion and how they interact with their primarch. As for armor marks, I a big proponent of "anything but unconverted MK VII." Heinrich sells his own efforts short. He does awesome stuff with his Angels. But when I start building up my Blood Angels, I'll use anything from MK II to MK VI. I'm not a huge fan of these big debates on what armors each legions had access to, especially with regards to MK IV and VI. Just make your legion man and have fun! 

[Brother Heinrich]

Yeah exactly, I don't mean to come off as "hey this is the only way" because of course, depending on the size and capabilities of each expeditionary fleet, the armor marks a legion component has access to will vary greatly.

 

I just meant in reference overall to Horus' scheming and his deliberate movement of material and supplies to weight the scales in his favor. However even on his own side there were legions that ignored the access to newer armor, such as the death guard and Iron warriors.

 

But in the end, I love the Mis-matched armor look way better than all homogenous. Especially with legions like the Emperors Children, Blood Angels, and Salamanders, who are all artisans as well as warriors.

[Slips]

Methods on deciding which armor mark is the right one for your legion:

Does it strike a cord with you in terms of Style points?

 

Does it look generally awesome to you?

 

Do you feel that painting 20+ Suits of this Mk Would not bore you?

 

Then BAM choice made.

 

I personally prefer Mk III because the Layered Plates let me easily vary up paint scheme such as: Legion Colored Over-Plates with Silver/whatever-I-Feel-Like Under-Plates.

[Rage of Khorne]

From a fluff perspective really the only source I can think of that gives them any sort of flavour is from the book "fear to tread" which starts off with the blood angels fighting the forces of the nephilim. They fight side by side with the forces of Horus (not yet the warmaster) and employ a "hammer and anvil" tactic whereby the Luna wolves hold the line and push forward slowly while the blood angels employ jump pack equipped command squads (sanguinary guard) and thunderhawk/storm eagles filled with standard bolter equipped legionaries. If I recall correctly, there is also part of the book that details some of the equipment and stylistic differences between the commanding officers and their troops. I think there was one group that used their bolters paired with serrated knives as its iconic weapons.

[Marshal Rohr]

How many suits of every mark of armor does each legion have?

 

Enough to build your army ;)

[Slips]

Also, this is more valid than, say, 40k perhaps? but the Rule Of Cool for your Legion should trump all.

 

'Cuz Resin is expensive and if your army doesn't look Hella Fly (even for white guys), you might start having some regrets.

 

And thats something we dont want with how much we pay :P

[Joyous_Oblivion]

Thanks to all for the great replies. I'm very much doing this because of aesthetics so no matter the answers that would be what it came down to in the end, it just might have swayed my choices a bit.

 

But like you have all said, these are Legions and I'm sure enough of each Mk. Of armour made its way into the BA hands to let me field whatever I want.

 

Starting out I think I'll build my core out of Mk. III tacticals then see where I want to go.

 

Some of the shinier things are really really tempting (Deredeo, Glaive, Deimos vindicator, whirlwind variant, etc).

 

It's also too bad rotor cannons are butt. They look absolutely amazing.

[Marshal Rohr]

The first time someone drops down 150 levies on objectives with discipline masters to bolster their leadership for less that 25% of their total points you're gonna wish you had some rotor cannons ;)

[Brother Heinrich]

Bah, who needs rotor cannons when you can have CHOOM squads.

[Slips]

Volkite Culverins. Killing 80 Levies with 40 Shots since M31!

[Joyous_Oblivion]

I need to learn the 30k lingo, I have no clue what all three of you said, lol

[Slips]

Inducted Levies Squad: up to 50 Conscript equivalents in a single FoC slot that dont give up first blood from the Cult and Milita Army List.

 

CHOOM: Sound Volkites Make.

 

Volkite Culverin: 45" S6 Ap5 Heavy4 Deflagrate: Every Unsaved Wound caused by an attack with deflagrate generates another automatic hit with the same profile. Extra Auto hits do not generate other auto hits.