Blood Angels portrayal in Shield of Baal

[ServoBadger]

I'm curious, are people happy with how the Blood Angels in general, and the named characters in particular, were portrayed in the Shield of Baal supplements, supporting books, and even the painting guide and the Tyranid Dataslates that came first?

 

What did you like or dislike about how they were portrayed?

 

The reason I'm asking is that I just read Curse of the Wulfen - just the supplement, I haven't read the supporting books - and the way the Space Wolves were portrayed didn't exactly make me root for them.  I don't think I'd be happy if I were a Space Wolf player and to test this I've lent the book to a friend who used to play Space Wolves before he retired from 40k to see what he thinks.

 

Were you still rooting for Dante, Karlaen and the rest after Exterminatus?

[Frater Antodeniel]

I've only readed the Shield of Baal : Exterminatus book, and to say the least, i was very disapointed. There is good elements, notably one fighting scene with Dante+Mephiston+Other BA VS Tyranids. But on the others hand you have a very bad global script.

 

It is like a bad strategy with some good tactical elements. But it remains a bad strategy.

 

About the elements that i disliked the most, here is the list :

 

 

 

 

1 - The alliance with the Necrons. No seriously, i wonder what happened in the brain of those who designed this "Blood Angels" Campaign...but to include the Necrons within it....drug really is society problem with hard impact. Plus, of all the "Surprise its me" factions, they had to choose the Necrons...

 

It should have been a 1 vs 1 Campaign with Imperium (Blood Angels + Imperial Forces) VS Tyranids. It could have been perfectly developed this way, but no, for questionable marketing questions or, worse, lack of creativity, the GW campaign design team choose to include the Necrons in it, and to sink the whole campaign.

 

2 - Flesh Tearers description is 50/50. On one hand, they manage to keep the savage aspect, maybe a little to much, but it was still quite good. But on the other hand, i cannot imagine that Seth would blindly field precious Terminators armour just to allow his men rushing rage blind into the tyranids swarm.....about this, the whole Flesh Tearers ingagment described in the Exterminatus Campaign book is wrong.

 

3 - Blood Angels and their Imperial allies once again failed.....but thanks to the necrons, the day is saved. (This should better have been described as a Necrons Campaign rather than a Blood Angels campaign...)

 

4 - The Sanguinor Speak.....a Great scene, in the end.....Yet everything seems wrong about it....

 

5 - Also, maybe because i missed a book or two, but i still don't know where the Sisters of Battle come ? Nor Why they come to ally with the Flesh Tearers ! (I'm pretty sure that, if following the fluff strictly, the Sisters would have prefers to fight and die alone, rather than fighting alongside the Flesh Tearers).

 

 

 

[Servant of Dante]

I've only readed the Shield of Baal : Exterminatus book, and to say the least, i was very disapointed. There is good elements, notably one fighting scene with Dante+Mephiston+Other BA VS Tyranids. But on the others hand you have a very bad global script.

It is like a bad strategy with some good tactical elements. But it remains a bad strategy.

About the elements that i disliked the most, here is the list :

1 - The alliance with the Necrons. No seriously, i wonder what happened in the brain of those who designed this "Blood Angels" Campaign...but to include the Necrons within it....drug really is society problem with hard impact. Plus, of all the "Surprise its me" factions, they had to choose the Necrons...

It should have been a 1 vs 1 Campaign with Imperium (Blood Angels + Imperial Forces) VS Tyranids. It could have been perfectly developed this way, but no, for questionable marketing questions or, worse, lack of creativity, the GW campaign design team choose to include the Necrons in it, and to sink the whole campaign.

2 - Flesh Tearers description is 50/50. On one hand, they manage to keep the savage aspect, maybe a little to much, but it was still quite good. But on the other hand, i cannot imagine that Seth would blindly field precious Terminators armour just to allow his men rushing rage blind into the tyranids swarm.....about this, the whole Flesh Tearers ingagment described in the Exterminatus Campaign book is wrong.

3 - Blood Angels and their Imperial allies once again failed.....but thanks to the necrons, the day is saved. (This should better have been described as a Necrons Campaign rather than a Blood Angels campaign...)

4 - The Sanguinor Speak.....a Great scene, in the end.....Yet everything seems wrong about it....

5 - Also, maybe because i missed a book or two, but i still don't know where the Sisters of Battle come ? Nor Why they come to ally with the Flesh Tearers ! (I'm pretty sure that, if following the fluff strictly, the Sisters would have prefers to fight and die alone, rather than fighting alongside the Flesh Tearers).

Being a Sisters player, I feel obliged to comment.

First, my personal biases: I am a little extreme in my view of Sisters. I go so far as having my order want to kill their own astropaths and navigators.

That being said, I feel the general consensus would be that since the Flesh Tearers ARE still considered loyal, many orders might be willing to work with them, but might not want them clomping around their convent. On the other hand, the local Canoness (or Palatine, depending on the size of the detachment) might say "warp that" and tell the Daemon Marines to frack off.

I know for a fact that there is at least one Sisters player who also own a Flesh Tearers army, and allies them together from time to time.

Remember, Sisters are rather psychotic in their own right. It's what makes us better than Spess Muhrines.

[Rafen IX]

I enjoyed it, it felt like there was some credible danger, and while I agree that the Necrons were a cheap tie in, some of the fighting lent a good idea of BA warfare. Dante's jumpers descending on wings of fire, Dante duelling a Flyrant in midair (this is a guy who canonically fought skarbrand in single combat and won).

Honestly the space wolf campaign if you switch the wulfen for death company could have been a thousand times more credible and we wouldn't have to put up with those silly models or rules (personal opinion).

I loved the Sanguinor part, but then I'm super excited to find out his identity.

R

[Aubéron]

"1 - The alliance with the Necrons. No seriously, i wonder what happened in the brain of those who designed this "Blood Angels" Campaign...but to include the Necrons within it....drug really is society problem with hard impact. Plus, of all the "Surprise its me" factions, they had to choose the Necrons...

 

It should have been a 1 vs 1 Campaign with Imperium (Blood Angels + Imperial Forces) VS Tyranids. It could have been perfectly developed this way, but no, for questionable marketing questions or, worse, lack of creativity, the GW campaign design team choose to include the Necrons in it, and to sink the whole campaign."

 

For me :

 

Replace Necron by Adeptus Mechanicus.
Make a historic moment between a Techpriest and Dante, who is obliged to accept to exchange the construction scheme of the Baal Predator against using the adeptus mechanicus to reverse the course of the war.
And would have been better.

 

IMHO.

 

...

 

Aub.

[Charlo]

Only problem is that the Skitarii and Cult codexes weren't out yet then :P

[Damon Nightman]

How bad was the necron alliance?

 

Was it like "hey some necron a woke up lets get them, but wait they are fighting the nids too. Let them fight the nids over there and we will just fight over here"

 

Or was it super heretical to the point that if any other chapter/imperium army were there they would have considered the BA traitors?

 

Did the FT know about the neurons or the alliance? I don't think they would be as understanding as Dante. At least Dante was smart enough to know he couldn't do it alone and allowed necron to help instead of fighting them too and losing. I feel like a lot of chapters that aren't as practical as Dante would have fought the necron a regardless of the outcome I guess. Still sounds shady though that they saved the day for us.,.

[Arkangilos]

It was a desperate alliance, not some super heretical one.

 

With the new Necron fluff, it's no worse than when the Imperium fight with the Eldar.

[Rafen IX]

it was Necrons technology but activated and won by a heroic charge of the death company and chaplain, not to mention an intervention by the Sanguinor, that won the day.

[Spagunk]

It was a desperate alliance, not some super heretical one.

 

With the new Necron fluff, it's no worse than when the Imperium fight with the Eldar.

 

I would go further and point that it was the Necrons who reached out to the BA, not the other way around.

 

Dante and crew saw the Necron crafts and were readying themselves to start a rumble but then the Necron leader requested a cease fire to discuss a possible solution.

 

Also the Necrons were fully willing to let the Tyranids grind down the BA before intervention.

[Nova_chron]

I feel while some of the fluff was ehh I did enjoy the read, I'm actually really reading it to work up some drive for a small flesh tearer detachment to break up all the white and blue I'm painting for my heresy world eaters.

 

On the necron involvement I'm a bit mixed there, however I think it comes down to pragmatism on both parties Dante had to know he was fighting a losing battle in the cryptus system and when offered a solution that possibly allowed him to save the lives of his men to protect the home world... I believe most level-headed commanders would've made a similar choice.

[Calistarius]

 

It was a desperate alliance, not some super heretical one.

 

With the new Necron fluff, it's no worse than when the Imperium fight with the Eldar.

 

I would go further and point that it was the Necrons who reached out to the BA, not the other way around.

 

Dante and crew saw the Necron crafts and were readying themselves to start a rumble but then the Necron leader requested a cease fire to discuss a possible solution.

 

Also the Necrons were fully willing to let the Tyranids grind down the BA before intervention.

 

This.  I actually enjoyed all of the short stories.  I might be the only one, and at least it wasn't an alliance with Orks. :P

[Frater Antodeniel]

Personally, an alliance with Eldars would have made far more sense fluff wise.

 

It would have been far more logical to have an army of Eldar coming out of nowhere, helping the way they do, rather than the "Surprise, a Necrons Tomb World, an a Core one....".

 

The Imperium and The Blood Angels (Legion and Chapter) have occupied the area for Ten Thousand of Years, this particular Cryptus system even have been named "The shield of baal", and finally, have been under attack more than once. But no, no one noticed the Necrons tomb world....

 

Plus, for Tyranids, Tomb world are egal to Dead world, so of no interest...the Necrons just had to sit and watch....

 

So, following my personal opinion, i would rather have welcomed an Army of Eldar "lending their help" to the Imperium, in order to protect a near Craftworld or a Maiden World.

 

Even, a Third front, formed of Orks fleeing the Tyranids but blocked by the Imperium, and then fighting the two, would have made more sense.

 

--------------------------------------------------

 

In the end, even if, like i said before, some parts are good, i prefer to consider the whole "Shield of Baal"/"Cryptus system" Campaign as Non-Canon in the present form.

[Charlo]

Necrons are fine imo. The tombs woudl have been deep underground and buried literally millions of years before humans maybe even settled there.

[The Unseen]

The necrons are interested in stopping the Tyranids to prevent them consuming all the biological matter in the galaxy, biological matter that the Necron lords wish to study to attempt to return themselves to living bodies.

[CaptainHelion]

There's countless examples throughout the lore of Necron tombworlds being underneath unsuspecting Imperial settled worlds. It's a pretty common theme.

[Rafen IX]

IT could even be a nod to when Blood Angels and Necrons could form alliances in a previous edition of 40k, that caused quite a round of hilarity at the time I remember.

[Charlo]

IT could even be a nod to when Blood Angels and Necrons could form alliances in a previous edition of 40k, that caused quite a round of hilarity at the time I remember.

 

I imagine it is pretty much just that.

[The Red Thirst]

 

2 - Flesh Tearers description is 50/50. On one hand, they manage to keep the savage aspect, maybe a little to much, but it was still quite good. But on the other hand, i cannot imagine that Seth would blindly field precious Terminators armour just to allow his men rushing rage blind into the tyranids swarm.....about this, the whole Flesh Tearers ingagment described in the Exterminatus Campaign book is wrong.

 

I havent read the source material but from whats written in your post Id like to point out that despite the glimmer of hope Seth has for his chapter he knows their dying. Each day brings them closer to a time where they will be nothing more than mad butchers who cannot distinguish friend from foe. Seth wont allow this and believes instead that all Flesh Tearers must throw themselves at oblivion and die in glorious victory, to be remembered not as savage beasts but as dead heroes that gave everything to the Emperor until the last bloody death.

 

Better to be remembered in glory than infamy.... even at the cost of losing Terminator plate

[Servant of Dante]

2 - Flesh Tearers description is 50/50. On one hand, they manage to keep the savage aspect, maybe a little to much, but it was still quite good. But on the other hand, i cannot imagine that Seth would blindly field precious Terminators armour just to allow his men rushing rage blind into the tyranids swarm.....about this, the whole Flesh Tearers ingagment described in the Exterminatus Campaign book is wrong.

I havent read the source material but from whats written in your post Id like to point out that despite the glimmer of hope Seth has for his chapter he knows their dying. Each day brings them closer to a time where they will be nothing more than mad butchers who cannot distinguish friend from foe. Seth wont allow this and believes instead that all Flesh Tearers must throw themselves at oblivion and die in glorious victory, to be remembered not as savage beasts but as dead heroes that gave everything to the Emperor until the last bloody death.

Better to be remembered in glory than infamy.... even at the cost of losing Terminator plate

Well . . . if they're dead set on dying, they should give those priceless relics that contain SHARDS OF THE DIVINE EMPEROR'S OWN ARMOUR (because that's the important part, right? ) back to their parent chapter.

[Leonaides]

i'm pretty sure someone can/could swing by in a  quick ship with a functioning teleportarium and 'retrieve' any suits later...

[BadDice0809]

I found the lore read in exterminatus better than all of Swallows drivel.

Plus the Death Company save the day (that Chaplain was a boss), not the necrons. The cliff hanger at the end is ok too. The only part I didn't like was Mephiston versus the Malenceptors. That was total BS.