Blood Angels army list [BA] 2000 - Troop Spam TAC List

[Jolemai]

Cheers and it's hard to balance at times. -1 to hit in melee and turning off within 3" (when normally with a combat blob) vs hopefully surviving long enough to contest - thing is, he wont steal an Objective from an ObjSec choice on his own....

[Jolemai]

Game was against Imperial Knights, rolled Tear Down Their Icons from the Arks of Omen mission pack. List:

• 4x Warglaives
• 2x Helverins
• 1x Knight Errant
• 1x Knight Crusader 
• Secondaries were Grind Them Down, Yield No Ground, Renew The Oaths

I went first and it was one way traffic tbh. DC got into combat with the Errant and left it on one wound and survived - which stopped the other night behind it from going anywhere. Errant tried a Point Blank Barrage and killed itself, when the Crusader trued to finish the job it was held up for a little while longer. Meanwhile, the Pods are down scoring Engage, the Terminators are having a party in the centre and I even manage to stop the Knight player scoring Grind T2  We played four turns, the Crusader survived with seven wounds.

 

Score BA 89:34 Ik. Secondaries of Oath (13), Bring it down (15), Engage (12)

 

So the Assassin didn't do much, but did sit on my home objective all game. The stuff I put in SR I should have used better (i.e for doing bombs when they arrived) so I need to keep focused on things like that. tbh it might have been closer if I had gone second and/or my opponent had put stuff into SR too, but they are still learning how best to use Knights and tbh, I think it's a hard faction to learn - especially when you get hemmed in and are playing reactive. I actually feel a little bad for beating them again 

[Jolemai]

I woke up one day and realised that I didn't have a plan B for this list; for those times when it's a six objective mission. So I tweaked the format by removing the Company Veterans, a single Terminator, and a single Scout, and added in a Chaplain with a jump pack and an Icon of the Angel. In short, I'd have my Terminators and the Chaplain in Reserves and I'd pop Commanding Oratory when they arrived in order to get a charge off (the Champion and Apothecary would be whatever). If it ended up being a five objective mission, then the Chaplain would roll with the other jump units.

 

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

 

As it happens, a six objective mission was rolled on the weekend (Recover the Relics), so I could put it into practice. I was supposed to be up against a 2k Guard list, but one of the group's casual members wanted in so my original opponent took 1k of his Scions and the other chap brought along 1k of Guard instead. List was:

• 2x Tempestus Command Squad
• 2x Commissar
• 3x Scions
• 3x Taurox Prime
• 2x Bullgryns
• Ratlings
• Leman Russ
• 2x Sentinel
• Strachan
• Harker
• 4x Infantry Squad
• Ogryns
• Heavy Weapons Team

With the normal Guard being Born Soldiers. They took BEL, Assassinate (my list has seven Characters!), and Inflexible Command. Mine was Assassinate, Engage, and RBD. Quite a relaxing game (for everyone!) where I went first and hemmed them in as you'd expect from a Drop Pod list and good use of Forelorn Fury. Mid way through they broke out and started to push on board control (even reaching my home objective with the large Ogryn squad), but the counter was swift enough as I'd left my Company Champion to guard the backline. Final score was BA 97:58 IG. BEL ended up being a poor choice for them as they were force to be reactive with their units, they only managed to kill three of my characters due to some savvy use of Angels Sacrifice and the terrain was impressive - to the point where my Assassin did absolutely nothing at all for the second game in a row. The Scouts started on the board this game and whiffed their first attempt at finding a Servo Skull (this is why they are normally six models!) and the Terminators whiffed their charge when they arrived from Reserves as I didn't have enough CP for Commanding Oratory  - and the next turn they actually went Servo Skull hunting 

 

In short, plan B needs some more practice and if their list has been optimised (2v1s never are), I'd have probably given up Assassinate and the game would have been much closer. I also want my Scouts back to six models somehow...

[Jolemai]

Sunday saw this list get used in a Death and Zeal game vs Ulthwé Eldar. My opponent brought:

• Avatar
• 3x Rangers
• Jetseer
• 2 Warlocks on Jetbikes
• Footseer
• 1x10 Dire Avengers (Waveserpent)
• 1x5 Dire Avengers (Waveserpent)
• 1x5 Howling Bansheers (Falcon)
• 1x5 Shining Spears

Safe to say they were experimenting with this list. They went first but played very cagey throughout the game really. Did the Warp Ritual trick well enough to max it (Warlock/Farseer moves into range of centre, performs the Action, another Warlock casts Quicken to move them back behind cover), but they chose No Prisoners (7) and Scout the Enemy (10) which let them down a bit (my list gives up Assassination and BEL could have been viable).

With the game being a five objective mission I went for my default of OoM (15), Engage (14), and RBD (8). My Terminator blob held off a solo Avatar thanks to Angels Sacrifice and an over-committed counter charge with Dante and my SG, as well as a subsequent Banshee attack. Tbh I made a couple of mistakes throughout the game - some positional, sometimes getting my trades wrong - which I need to learn from. I also can't play the same way on a quarters map as I do on a different one (which is kinda obvious, but sometimes you need to see why to drive it home).

 

Eldar 64:92 BA

 

Oh, and the Assassin actually killed some stuff this time around 

[Jolemai]

Switched back to this list on the weekend, however, I decided to bench the Librarian and invest in another Tactical Squad and a single Scout. Whilst this doesn't do anything for Assassination (my list still has six Characters), if does prevent my Scouts from failing RBD the turn they arrive (should I choose to use them that way) and gives me a back field camping unit for games using quarter deployment. I also tweaked my Devastators to go MM (1) GC (3) and finally, I was permitted to use Dante's old stats (unofficially Legends basically and technically still legal).

 

As it happens, the mission rolled was Death and Zeal and I was facing the following Tau list:

• Coldstar Commander
• Crisis Commander
• 1x 10 Kroot
• 2x10 Breacher
• 2x3 Steath suits
• 1x3 Crisis suits
• Sunshark
• Riptide
• Ghostkeel
• 2x1 Broadside
• 1x10 Pathfinder

I went first and it didn't go well for the Tau at all. My Devastators and other shooting took care of the Ghostkeel, whilst the Death Company poked a hole in the Riptide's bubble wrap enabling them and a Squad of Sanguinary Guard to get in (the latter charged from behind a ruin meaning no Overwatch...) which took care of that. Understandably uphill from that point, but I was able to start raking in the points and they could only attempt to counter rather than push out and be proactive.

 

BA 92-42 Tau (would have been 52 if everything was painted...). 12 for Engage, 12 for RBD, 13 for Oath

[Jolemai]

Index Update...

 

Following the Index changes for 10th edition, this list requires a slight rework too. I'm keeping the infantry spam and board control theme where possible and of course, it will remain a Firstborn list (no proxies and WYSIWYG where possible too).

 

Blood Angels 2000 points

Sons of Sanguinius

 

Captain with Jump Pack

~ Thunder hammer, relic shield

~ Warlord: Artisan of War

 

Chaplain with Jump Pack

~ Bolt pistol

 

Librarian in Terminator Armour

~ Storm bolter

 

Tactical Squad

~ Combi-weapon, chainsword

~ Missile Launcher

~ Plasma gun

 

Tactical Squad

~ Combi-weapon, power weapon

~ Plasma cannon

~ Plasma gun

 

Tactical Squad

~ Combi-weapon, power weapon

~ Mulit-melta

~ Grav-gun

 

Death Company with Jump Packs (5)

~ Thunder hammer (3)

~ Inferno pistol, power fist (1)

~ Bolt pistol, power weapon (1)

 

Sanguinary Guard (5)

~ Angelus boltgun, power fist, astartes banner (1)

~ Inferno pistol, encarmine blade (1)

~ Angelus boltgun, encarmine blade (3)

 

Scout Sniper Squad (5)

~ Missile Launcher (1)

 

Scout Squad (5)

~ Combi-weapon, power weapon (1)

~ Heavy bolter (1)

~ Bolter (3)

 

Terminator Squad (5)

~ Storm bolter, power weapon (1)

~ Assault cannon, power fist (1)

~ Storm bolter, chain fist (2)

~ Storm bolter, power fist (1)

 

Devastator Squad (5)

~ Combi-weapon, power weapon

~ Missile Launcher (4)

 

Devastator Squad (5)

~ Combi-weapon, power weapon

~ Lascannon (3)

~ Heavy bolter (1)

 

Drop Pod

~ Storm bolter

 

Drop Pod

~ Storm bolter

 

Vindicare Assassin

 

Musings

• SoS because I'd rather have that in my back pocket than GTF and I have the mobility and board control to get up the board all the same
• Captain with SG, Chaplain with DC, Librarian with Terminators, MM and PC Tacticals in Pods
• I could rework my Devastators and have both squad in a Pod with the Tacticals either starting on the board or in SR 
• Snipers and maybe the Vindicare infiltrate. Scouts either start on the board and go in SR, or start in SR. Expect I'll have the HB Tacticals in SR too
• Terminators start off the board. SG and DC start out of line of sight looking for targets of opportunity/counter charge/move forward whilst the Pods are taking objectives, etc
• From my limited exposure, 10th plays the same as 9th, so in theory I'm in good stead with this - gain points early and hem the opponent in; by the time they break though it's too late to pull the game back...

 

[Jolemai]

Some minor changes, but I had a go with this against a Guard force using the Leviathan cards missions. It was some Relic-type mission where you spawn your own No Man's Land objective, and the special rule was "Sticky Objectives" List was:

• Lord Solar
• Creed
• Cadian Shock Troopers with attached Cadian Command Squad
• 2x 10 Cadian Shock Troopers in Chimaeras
• Hellhound
• 2x LRBT
• LRExe
• 1x3 Sentinels
• 1x10 Rough Riders
• Enginseer
• Rogal Dorn tank

We only had time for three turns. Unsurprisingly I hid most of my stuff as best I could, but each turn they would "spot" with the Sentinels, deny a cover save with the Hellhound, and proceed to slam everything into that unit - so T1 I lost my DC, T2 I lost my SG, T3 I lost my Terminators - but at least the latter two did some damage and it meant that everything else was scoring as best it could. When we ended the score was IG 29:43 BA; it was a tight, tense, and swingy game throughout.

 

I need to tweak the list as I wasn't really able to do enough damage throughout and where it was was isolated. Whilst it's all well and good scoring VPs, I need to do something of note to make this theme work better for this edition. At least I'm getting more of a hang of the changes...

 

As for my list:

 

[Jolemai]

So it's almost been a year since I've used this list, but I get to blow the dust off of it this weekend. Changes in red:

 

On 8/15/2023 at 4:53 PM, Jolemai said:

 

 

Blood Angels 2000 points

Sons of Sanguinius

 

Dante

~Warlord

 

Chaplain with Jump Pack

~ Bolt pistol

 

Librarian in Terminator Armour

~ Storm bolter

 

Sanguinary Priest with Jump Pack

~ Icon of the Angel

 

 

Tactical Squad

~ Combi-weapon, power weapon

~ Plasma cannon

~ Plasma gun

 

Tactical Squad

~ Combi-weapon, power weapon

~ Multi-melta

~ Grav-gun

 

Death Company with Jump Packs (5)

~ Thunder hammer (3)

~ Inferno pistol, power fist (1)

~ Bolt pistol, power weapon (1)

 

Librarian Dreadnought

~ Meltagun

 

Scout Sniper Squad (5)

~ Missile Launcher (1)

 

Scout Squad (5)

~ Shotgun (1)

~ Heavy bolter (1)

~ Sniper rifle (1)

~ Bolter (2)

 

Scout Squad (5)

~ Chainsword (1)

~ Shotgun (1)

~ Sniper rifle (1)

~ Combat knife (2)

 

Scout Squad (5)

~ Chainsword (1)

~ Shotgun (1)

~ Sniper rifle (1)

~ Combat knife (2)

 

Terminator Squad (5)

~ Storm bolter, power weapon (1)

~ Cyclone missile launcher, power fist (1)

~ Storm bolter, power fist (4)

 

Vanguard Veterans (5)

~ Storm shields (5)

 

Devastator Squad (5)

~ Combi-weapon, power weapon

~ Plasma cannon (4)

 

Devastator Squad (5)

~ Storm bolter, power weapon

~ Lascannon (2)

~ Missile Launcher (2)

 

Drop Pod

~ Storm bolter

 

Drop Pod

~ Storm bolter

 

Callidus Assassin

 

 

 

 

Bit of a re-work following the points changes, but it will still play the same - focusing more on board control with a counter charge element to it. 

• Snipers on home objective and the Librarian Dreadnought holding back to fling stuff up the board
• One Pod with all the plasma as I think that's cool... The other was going to be the other Devastators and Tactical half, but I don't have the grav cannons to pull that off yet - this this may be dropped in order to get a decent firing lane, perhaps.
• Maxing out my reserves. The two other Tactical halves go into Strategic, along with a Scout Squad. Callidus, Terminators (and Librarian), and both Drop Pods with their cargo. My two jump units to move or use Wings of Sanguinius. Alternatively, I could stick a Combat Squad on the field leaving me with 200 points to stick into reserves of jump units - we'll see what the board is like and who I'm facing.
• I'm interested in trying out the Dante, VAS, Priest combo, even if it's only seven models.

[Jolemai]

I didn't get around to doing a battle report, but I thought I'd do a small review and show off all my lovely Firstborn 

 

 

Unfortunately, I lost this game. First 2k game in a year and maybe my second game this year and it showed; lots of rust, in decisions, and so on, but then, it was the same for my opponent who was playing a casual Eldar list.

 

Spoiler

 

One of the things that also lost me the game here was my list imbalance - I had too many scoring units really. Four squads of Scouts, two bolter combat squads, and a Callidus was too much - even though I was able to maximise the points for Behind Enemy Lines and the corner scanning secondary (signal?). I think I'll drop two squads of Scouts for something else that makes the theme work. I've also since bought a squad of Devastators to start pumping out some grav cannons to replace the ML/Las Devastator Marines. My Dante/Priest/VAS combo whiffed too, but I'll give this one some more time going forward.

 

I suffered from target priority whereby the Devastators didn't do a great deal and I messed up my Oath of Moment targets. Completely forgot to use Rapid Ingress on my Terminators and pretty much everything of mine was charged rather than the alternative. Still, it was fun and I do need more practice.