8th Ed BA Tactica.

[Charlo]

Eurgh - Land speeders suffering the -1 to hit on moving and firing Heavy Weapons really sucks...!

 

...Also lost deep strike I see.

 

I'd go for weight of fire, so Heavy Bolter & Assault Cannons seems good. If not a Heavy Flamer isn't bad at all, sure you're very close then but it helps with overwatch and suffers no penalty to accuracy on the move.

[Silverson]

I haven't seen anyone play blood angels land speeders but I have seen play on 2x10 man squads on vanguard veterans with 6-7 plasma pistols dropping In and being a devistating shooty unit that is no slouch in combat with their 2 attacks base and a whole lot more depending on chainsword et....

 

Or company veteran squads with jump packs and 4 melts guns dropping in and going for monsters and vehicles.

 

The down side to both of these units is they they really want to deep strike in to get maximum benefit and conflicts with possible deep strike assault units

[Riot Earp]

They also should have an buffing Character nearby for overcharge rerolls. :)

I think everybody has enough Plasmapistols in his bitz box but it would be a real pain to convert all Veterans to this setup. ^^#

 

I have 20 Veterans from the last BA Formation some got magnets so i will put some pistols in here and there.

[Xenith]

Deep strike shooty > deep strike assaulty.

 

You can only put half your units in reserve, and of that half, only 1/3 will make the 9" charge, meaning around 16%, or 1/6 of the units in your army will make the deep strike charge.

 

If you want to DS charge T1 you need to play the numbers game, which means MSU. If you put down 18 units, half of which can deep strike, 3 of them will be able to charge. 

 

Dont forget that the shooty units can also still try to charge. They can strike in, shoot one unit, then try to charge another. Even if they fail, they've still done some damage.

[Karhedron]

Dont forget that the shooty units can also still try to charge. They can strike in, shoot one unit, then try to charge another. Even if they fail, they've still done some damage.

I think this is a great tactic. You don't need to go all-out on power weapons for the squad either. Putting them into CC (if you make the charge) will help insulate them against enemy shooting.

 

If the enemy withdraws from combat, that is one less squad to shoot at them. If the enemy stay put, the BAs can pull out in their turn and still shoot all those plasma pistols again thanks to the FLY keyword.

[Quixus]

I haven't seen anyone play blood angels land speeders but I have seen play on 2x10 man squads on vanguard veterans with 6-7 plasma pistols dropping In and being a devistating shooty unit that is no slouch in combat with their 2 attacks base and a whole lot more depending on chainsword et....

Too bad we cannot do that with inferno pistols, but apparently meltaguns on the other hand are not too unwieldy to run into melta range

[Karhedron]

 

I haven't seen anyone play blood angels land speeders but I have seen play on 2x10 man squads on vanguard veterans with 6-7 plasma pistols dropping In and being a devistating shooty unit that is no slouch in combat with their 2 attacks base and a whole lot more depending on chainsword et....

Too bad we cannot do that with inferno pistols, but apparently meltaguns on the other hand are not too unwieldy to run into melta range

 

But will picking the highest from 2D6 be enough to offset the fact that you get -1BS if you Advance? I would probably go for more hits vs better hits. Advancing will typically cost you 25% of your hits. I can't calculate how many extra points of damage you will get on average for being inside melta-range as my A-level maths was too long ago.

[Panda_Saurus_Rex]

I played a couple of games over the weekend and wanted to share some findings.

 

 

Game 1 was a 2v2 at 200PL per team; Blood Angels & Black Templar vs Emperor's Children

 

 

BA were as follows:

 

 

Dante

Mephiston

Sang Priest, JP

 

 

Scout Squads (x5) - Camo Cloaks, boltguns, ML

Scout Squads (x5) - Camo Cloaks, boltguns, ML

Scout Squads (x5) - Camo Cloaks, boltguns, ML

Scout Squads (x5) - Camo Cloaks, boltguns, ML

 

 

Death Co Squad (X5) - JP, Chainsword, PF

Death Co Squad (X5) - JP, Chainsword, PF

Sang Guard (X4) - 2 swords, 2 axes, Angelus Boltguns

Sang Ancient - Sword, AB

 

 

Baal Pred - HB sponsons

Dev Squad (X5) - 2 ML, 2 LC

Land Raider Crusader - MM

 

 

My Black Templar teammate brought a LRC with MM, several crusader squads, Helbrecht, and Emperor's Champion.

 

 

Emperor's Children were mostly noise marines with a demon prince, Lucius, Chaos Lord, 2 squads of possessed, Cypher, 2 squads of Fallen, daemonettes, and Rhino transports.

This is a big game and I've slept since then so I won't go through a play by play but I do want to discuss what I think are stand outs.

 

 

MVP - The land raiders are fantastic now. Hurricane bolters spitting out 24 shots at half range, Assault cannons are 12 shots, a Multi-melta that can strip large amounts of wounds and tanky as all hell. The BA land raider lost 5 wounds all game, the BT LRC never lost a single wound.

 

 

Scouts with camo cloak in cover are nigh-invulnerable. I only lost 2 squads all game and it took all game for me to lose them. The missile launchers are great, I was popping open Rhinos all game with no issues. They are also great if you need to thin out hordes.

 

 

Baal Predators running AC/HB combos will erase hordes. My opponent kept getting lucky and rolling 1's for battleshock which resurrects 5 daemonettes a pop but it only took me 2 turns of shooting the Baal to kill a squad of 20.

 

 

Dante's re-roll to hit is clutch. I kept him in the middle of a bunch of my stuff but protected so he really didn't do anything all game but give out that buff; which was still worth it. Same goes for Sang Ancient.

 

 

Death Company were ok. I loaded up the 10 of them in the LRC with Mephiston and they got out toward the end of the game and murdered some Noise Marines and some possessed to claim objectives.

 

 

Mephiston is absolute beast. At one point the daemon prince jumped over and killed all but 2 of the Sang Guard. Mephiston gets out of his pimp-mobile, struts on over to the combat, and puts out 8 wounds on the daemon prince in CC. He spent the rest of the game pooping out mortal wounds, handing out invul saves, and cutting Rhinos in half.

 

 

Hordes of dudes can tie up entire armies in close combat. The Crusader squads ran screaming forward and between pile-ins and consolidations managed to tie up an entire half of the board after charging 2 squads. Remember brothers, all marines have bolt pistols.

 

 

Rhinos, transports, and all manner of vehicles are extremely potent. Our opponents used them to great effect eating overwatch or blocking line of sight.

Our opponents were not impressed with their Noise marines. They said that without the buff from the 7th Ed formation that they were completely lacking with how they used to run them. I personally think had they not hung back, played conservatively, and concentrated so much on the Land Raiders that the Blast Masters would have done a lot more damage.

 

 

Lucius got the charge on Helbrecht and managed to take him down to one wound, who swung back and took Lucius down to a single wound. Opponent was not happy with this result as Helbrecht bravely, bravely ran his ass away in our next turn and Lucius took 24 Hurricane bolter shots to the face.

 

 

We ended up calling it early but everyone thought that Imperium would have taken a 2-point victory between objectives, 1st blood, warlord kill, & linebreaker.

[Panda_Saurus_Rex]

I ended up playing a smaller 50PL game against Minotaurs with Moloc, the named dreadnought, Clawminators & Hammenators.

 

 

The terminators did an ok job of stripping wounds but ended up getting stomped on. I think they are a lot stronger now but compared to what they were up against...

Moloc is great, my opponent forgot to shoot his beam the entire game which I think would have made a big difference but he is the only Chapter Master that gives out re-rolls to charge. Very tanky, very killy.

 

 

That named dreadnought is gross. My opponent beat me as at the end of the game his dread was the only thing left on the table having taken 8 wounds. That 4++ with a 6+ FNP is so damn resilient. He also kicks out mortal wounds on the charge. Very scary!

 

Pic from Game 1: http://i.imgur.com/bJuk7QM.jpg

 

My 50PL list going forward: http://i.imgur.com/kkJwgZ6.jpg

[9x19 Parabellum]

Has anyone tried dropping 2 units of 5 Devastators in a drop pod for a massive crapload of 1st turn dakka?  You could drop in Dante or another Captain with JP right next to them for the rerolls to hit.

[Spagunk]

So I have an old 3rd edition BA banner guy that I've put off painting for quite some time. Looking at 8th edition, would it be considered wasteful to give him a thunder hammer given that they are pretty fantastic this edition? I was originally going to have him with a single lightning claw but now I'm thinking otherwise.

[Charlo]

Not at all! 

 

Hammer and Banner looks ace.

[dread05]

For anyone who tried the sanguinary guard, would you say the death masks are a must?

[Panda_Saurus_Rex]

I'd say no just because I always forget they are there and 2-8 points isn't worth the off chance I kill one more guy in battleshock.

[Indefragable]

For anyone who tried the sanguinary guard, would you say the death masks are a must?

 

It depends.

 

If you bring Dante and/or The Sanguinor, then no since both of those bros have one built in.

If you don't bring either of them, then 2pts for one in your squad is worth it. You don't need one on every model.

[Sun Reaver]

How do you guys feel about Devastator squad spam? 

 

4-6 squads of marines with either heavy bolters or lascannons exclusively per squad? 

 

My gaming group is tournament level competitive and I have found those IG blobs to be quite the pain. I already run some Wyverns but I feel like mass infantry is the name of the game now so I just wanna light things up from afar. 

[Quixus]

Sounds interesting. Don't forget a squad with heavy flamers in a flamerback for horde control. Too bad we can't feasibly put them in drop pods.

[Arkhanist]

I'm tempted by some forgeworld rapiers in that role. Quad heavy bolter unit for about 3/4 the price of a 5 men HB dev squad. The laser destroyer is also a super nasty AT weapon for same cost as the HB dev squad, though it's a bit too much of a gamble for me. Parked near a deredeo (it can give a 5++ in exchange for the missile launcher) with some scout snipers though, and I think HB rapiers would round out quite a nice mixed firebase and help provide a bit of a deep-strike protection bubble. Cheap primaris LT for wound re-rolls would go very nicely with all 3 for their prefered targets, and add a small speed bump charge capability for suprises.

 

Then all my BA-specific stuff can go rampaging around the enemy lines! 

[Jorre]

The relic sicaran is looking like excellent long range support.

 

8 x str 7 shots -1 ap and 2 damage. Ap goes to -3 on a 6 to wound. It also has bonus to hit vs flyers!

 

Solid move of 14 and tough 7 with 14 wounds make it pretty tough to!

[Jorre]

Also under 300 points with 2 x lascannons!

[GrunTeufel]

Okay, so I tried a list I wanted to try for some time last friday. It goes something like this.

 

HQ

 

Dante 

Lemartes
 

Elites

 

Death Company Dread: 2 fists, heavy flamer, melta, magna grapple

2x Death Company: 10 marines, Jump Packs, thunder hammer, Bolters

 

Heavy Support

 

4x Devastators: 4x Heavy Flamers

 

Flyer

 

2xStormraven (All Twin) Heavy bolters, Assault cannons, Hurricane Bolters, Stormstrike Missiles.

 

Mission: Kill Point

 

Result: Tzeentch Demons tabled by turn 5

 

THOUGHTS:

 

We have some serious damage output in our hands. Stormraven might just be the hardest hitting flyer out there.

 

My deployment was fairly simple. DC and Lemartes in reserve, Dante, along with two devastators in one raven. DC dread and the other two devastators in the other raven. I only deployed two flyers on the table which is a great way to get the first turn. 

 

Ravens performed superbly, even against an enemy with stupendous amont of units that fly. I disembarked dante to give the ravens them rerolls they needed. They more or less wiped a unit or more each turn. One of them actually one shotted Belakor. Absolutely huge. At 8 points a pair, hurricane bolters are more or less free.

 

Death company is still good. Fnp nerf hurt them quite a lot but its not too bad. I find that bolters work great combined with jump packs. +1 attack is good, but being able to rapid fire things to death (you can now fire at units other than the ones you intend to charge) is much better. If you are like me and hate tactical marines it is the way to go. In the end, DC is just better tactical marines with bunch of great bonuses while being only a bit more expensive.

 

Dante is still a great beatstick but now he is also a great force multiplier with his reroll to hit: everything! Great character slayer with his axe and his inferno pistol does serious damage in close combat as well. 

 

Lemartes is finally usable. Charge distance rerolll is useful when you deepstrike and his combat capabilities are better than ever. Plus, litanies of hate. You can never have enough rerolls.

 

DC dread performed better than I expected although he got knocked out by Lord of change quite quickly after he dealt 6 wounds. Two bloods fists means you get 5 attacks rerollable on the charge. Now that I am writing this, I notice that BA gets so many rerolls its absurd. 

 

Devastators worked well enough I guess. I just wanted to try the idea and I think 16 heavy flamers is a bit overkill but they did wipe out some screamers and flamers. They qot wiped out quickly after that.

 

Last thoughts:

 

Ravens are the best. Best mobile firesupport we have probably. 

 

DC are my new tactical marines. Mobile bolter fire platforms that can smash faces. Durable and efficent.

 

DC dread was fun. But I have yet to try the libby dread so jury is still out on that one.

 

Dante is a good buffmander now. Not massively durable so you have to watch out since there are lots of multiple wound inflicting weapons around. 4++ goes only so far.

 

The system overhaul turned it into an easy to play game with lots of tactical depth without excesive micro managing. I was quite dissapointed with Flames of War v4 so this is a breath of fresh air for me. Can't wait to try some other units thats been gathering dust.

[Brother_Angelus]

I do wonder if the HF devastator squads will survive the transition to full codex. It feels like an oversight, considering the 7th limitation, and how powerful flamers are in this edition, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

Great to see some more first hand experience broken down into usable chunks.

[Xenith]

I do wonder if the HF devastator squads will survive the transition to full codex. It feels like an oversight, considering the 7th limitation, and how powerful flamers are in this edition, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

Great to see some more first hand experience broken down into usable chunks.

 

I'd agree. I can see these getting the nix, although I hope I'm wrong. Just one more thing to upset Salamanders players.

[Charlo]

Quad heavy bolter rapiers are like the new awesome for me. So many quality shots for cheap.

[Karhedron]

4-6 squads of marines with either heavy bolters or lascannons exclusively per squad? 

 

My gaming group is tournament level competitive and I have found those IG blobs to be quite the pain. I already run some Wyverns but I feel like mass infantry is the name of the game now so I just wanna light things up from afar.

For horde clearance, I rather like a bike squad with a storm bolter, 2 flamers and an HB attack bike. Cheap as chips, 20 bolter shots at close range, 2D6 flamer auto-hits and a heavy bolter for backup should easily eat most of a conscript squad in a single volley. 10 T5 wounds behind a 3+ save makes them just annoying enough to remove.