Starting out with 40k - Astra Militarum and Blood Angels

[Merrilin]

(Also posted in the BA forum, I hope that's ok).

Hi.

I recently purchased my first 40k-models, and are looking to expand my Blood Angels army. However, I would also like to include some Astra Militarum units as allies (potensially evolving into a second army in time).

So far I have:

- Captain Karlaen/Terminator Captain

- 5 Tactical Terminators

- 1 Furioso Dreadnought

- 5 Death Company marines

The captain will most likely be replaced by a Librarian as soon as I have the model.

I'm still trying to get a grip on the rules, but my thought is to have the blood angels mostly deepstriking, in droppods or with jump packs taking out isolated units, combocharging and messing up the enemies flanks/backline as well as providing psychic powers, while the Astra Militarum units fire long range weapons and guard objectives.

I love almost all the BA units look- and lorewise, while I'm fond of artillery, tanks and fortifications for the AM.

Do anyone have any thoughts on how to best create such a list? I don't need to win tournaments, but don't want to lose every time either.

Thanks in advance

[WarriorFish]

Welcome aboard Merrilin :tu: As an elite army, Marines will benefit more from something that isn't elite - so something like a Platoon would be a great Troop choice for your allies. A Company Command Squad would then be a good HQ pick to make full use of orders. That would net you quite a few troops and more if you want to expand the Platoon, so it depends on what you're after as to where you go.

 

Platoons can be effective without spending lots on upgrades - cheap upgrades like flamers and grenade launchers are my favourites. You can do vox too to help with orders, but for an allied force I'd recommend spending the points on more toys. You can add some tanks, but they're a bit pricey. They are real tanks though, unlike the excuse Marines vehicles are! Artillery is fun but along with some of the Russ variants you'll need to be careful with scatter, as your BA will be closing with the enemy and you don't want blue on blue.

 

Wyverns are a stand out unit though, more accurate thanks to their rules and with smaller blasts you should be able to rain death on infantry without too much risk. They're not too expensive to field either. Is there a certain points value you're aiming for, or is it a case of looking for what you'd like first?

[slowclinic]

I switched from BA to Guard a year ago, and have ran them together on a few occasions. They're quite complimentary of each other, at least in the way I've ran them anyways. For me, running Mech Guard, BA have provided much needed close combat ability. At first, I was running lots of tanks with an allied detachment of a tax unit of sniper scouts, a jump Librarian and a unit of 10 Death Company. It worked well. Since the Angel's Blade supplement came out, I've ran the Lost Brother's Strike Force (1 DC Chaplain, 3 units of DC, 1-3 DC Dreadnoughts), Chapter Ancients (3-5 Librarian/Furioso/Standard Dreadnoughts) and the Sanguinary formation I can't remember the name of (Dante/Sanguinor, 2-5 units of Sanguinary Guard). 

 

The basic benefits are that the LBSF get a 6" infiltrate move that doesn't change their ability to charge, and the Chaplain gives additional attack buffs plus the usual Zealot. It comes in at around 860pts with assorted upgrades, and is quite likely to gain a turn one charge, leaving your tanks and artillery at the back to shoot from a distance. 

 

The Chapter Ancients are great. Put them all in Drop Pods, 2/3 arrive on turn one and the benefit is that once in a battle, they can scarce a movement for an additional round of shooting or an additional pile in and attack. I run an ML2 Librarian Dread, a Furioso and a standard with a multi-melta. A lot of people have been running 3x Furioso and using the ability to shoot twice, giving you a total of 12 Frag cannon blasts and 6 heavy flamer blasts. It's great! Mine comes in around 530pts.

 

The Sanguinary formation arrives automatically on a turn of your choosing from turn two onwards. Take Dante, -D6 to scatter, disordered charge on the turn they arrive. 600pts-ish. Not the most powerful of CC choices, but one hell of a distraction.

 

It's worth getting the Angel's Blade supplement, as it makes BA somewhat of an option when compared to how weak the actual Codex is as 7th progressed. There's also formations that give Terminators turn one charges too, which BA players are loving!

To summarise, BA work very well with mechanised Guard armies. BA in combat, Guard making the shots.