New Mephiston/Psychic awakening p3

[Indefragable]

About those spoilers...

 

...and he still only gets +1A +1W lol.

[BrainFireBob]

Mephiston succumbed to and overcame the red thirst.

I always leaned toward "he drank his own blood while trapped" and that triggered the gene seed mutation and reinforced the connection to sanguinius.

[Pyronick]

We're all missing the bigger question here. What the heck do i do with my unbuilt Wargames Exclusive Mephiston now?  Who can think of a good conversion for him? Primaris Astorath might be a stretch...

[Panzer]

Nothing because I don't buy any Wargames Exclusive models. They all look like a busy mess that misses GWs aesthetics imo.

[Charlo]

"New and updated datasheets give your Blood Angels access to extra army rules, Vanguard units, Stratagems, psychic powers, Litanies and more! There’s even some extra stuff for Flesh Tearers fans – ideal if you like your Blood Angels successors extra bloody."

From the preview on WHC just released.

 

Seems we are getting a *good* chunk of update here. It's annoying they're probably going to have to use book space for the Vanguard Datasheets but no matter.

[VanDutch]

I was at first excited about the new psychic powers, but given the Mephiston leak I expect that it's just the vanguard psychic powers.

 

Looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

[Charlo]

I was at first excited about the new psychic powers, but given the Mephiston leak I expect that it's just the vanguard psychic powers.

 

Looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

Fingers crossed it's some BA specific vanguard powers or another discipline.

 

Otherwise we're on less disciplines than the normal codex

[Indefragable]

 

I was at first excited about the new psychic powers, but given the Mephiston leak I expect that it's just the vanguard psychic powers.

 

Looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

Fingers crossed it's some BA specific vanguard powers or another discipline.

 

Otherwise we're on less disciplines than the normal codex

 

 

It would be interesting if they created another BA psychic table and split them between the more Biomancy-esque self-buffing powers and a more traditional utility discipline.

 

Since the book is right around the corner, here's

 

My guess at something we might see:

 

 

Hidden Content

 

Red Thirst: Infantry, Biker, and Dreadnought models with this rule add 1 to their To Wound rolls in close combat (at all times). When an Infantry, Biker, or Dreadnought model with this rule charges, it adds 1 to each dice rolled for charge distances and AP0 melee weapons count as AP-1 until the start of the controlling player's next Turn.

 

Encarmine Speed: Vehicles with this rule count all weapons as Assault when Advancing. If a vehicle with this rule does not fire any weapons in the Shooting phase, it may Advance and Charge. Vehicles with the Supersonic ability may choose to turn up to  90⁰ either before or after they move.

 

Black Rage: Models with this rule add 1 to their attacks characteristic when they declare a charge and have a 5+++ Feel No Pain. Models with this rule can not take casualties due to failed Morale tests.

 

Strategems:

-Pistols are +1 To Wound for a single phase (I have been suspecting something like this would be coming for a while, since we are "the pistol guys" with hand flamers, inferno, etc... yet those items are still pretty lacking. Having hand flamers be essentially S4 and Inferno pistols be effectively S9 would go a long way to reviving their use. Some precedence for GW wanting to improve those two weapon types based on the new Sisters of Battle codex. ALternatively, copy+pasta SoB ones giving hand flamers/inferno pistols 12"

 

-Shenanigans that mess with enemy Overwatch: we are the "original" no-Overwatch faction with the Angel's Wing relic, but now all the kids have some form of turning off Overwatch. It would be nice if we got a Strategem to do something about it as well, so that we can spread that ability around without having to rely on a single Relic all the time. That being said--and this will sound weird coming from a Blood Angel--I worry about the state of the game a bit with so much no-Overwatch shenaniganery going around, since it could mean Tau and other players simply pick up their ball and go home, which is never good for the health of the game system overall.

 

-Something that prevents an enemy unit locked in combat from falling back.

 

-Something that lets a BA unit go first in a subsequent round of combat and/or give bonus attacks in the second round of combat. This is an unusual one, but where I think it is important for us is being able to finish off enemy units in combat. So many of our abilities are tied up in that first round of combat that we have to put all our eggs in one basket Having an ability (even if it's once per game) to get more out of subsequent turns would be huge, on the chance you don't knock that Knight out on the first turn of combat. Or--and this is a theme I would like to see more of--it gives more legs to non-dedicated-melee units adding more punch (pun intended) by tieing up enemies and working them down more.

 

Part of why I would like to see Red Thirst adjusted to a permanent basis and the AP0 = AP-1 thing is so that it spreads the melee love around to all our units, not just the dedicated heavy hitters of DC/SG etc... For example, Intercessors with 3A and AP-1 turn them into truly viable all-purpose units and that's not even accounting for their shooting.

 

I would also like to see +1D in melee somehow, but unless it's a flat upgrade, I don't see how we wouldn't just be mimicking other chapters (White Scars, etc...). That being said, additional Damage seems to be the new black.

 

The C:SM Litanies are admittedly pretty darn good overall. My concern there is that it's a fine line to walk between "just" getting what C:SM get and "just" making things different.

 

 

That being said, I am pessimistic overall since I suspect that we're going to be on the downslope of the balancing roller coaster (GW: "BA were doing just fine, so they need more nerfs than buffs....nevermind that C:SM 2.0 just came out and upset the entire apple cart!"

 

As I've stated before, it kind of seems like GW's approach was that BA were the best-functioning SM faction and took all the elements that worked for us (Basically everything that made Slamguinius what he is: +1D, turning off overwatch, better charges, FNP, etc...) and spread that around to all the other flavors of power armor. That excites me since it makes me wonder "oooooh! What do we get next?" .....it worries me since it very well means we get left in the dust as they think we don't need anything and get leapfrogged by all other factions.

[SnorriSnorrison]

I’m getting excited about PA3, but probably without too many reasons. I guess we won’t see that much stuff that’s actually new, they’ll just update us to use things the C:SM chapters use. Interested to see what the stratagems will be, with faint hopes that we’ll see more than just the space marine ones.

 

I’m still a bit doubtful about doctrines. The fact that we have our own codex and are not a supplement for C:SM *should* mean that we’d be exempt from that mechanic.

[Klod]

I just hope for some flavourful Stratagems. Something that defines the Blood Angels and let's you draw conclusions on how they fight.

Let's say a Stratagem that makes a squad of Sternguard re-roll all wounds with melta. This would tell me that a melta is typical weapon of choice for a Blood Angel Sternguard.

Or some neat Strats for Stormtalons and Stormhawks. Lately, I can't get that Stormhawk out of my head. It's a boxy flying potato, for Emperor's sake, but for some reason I started really liking the model.

Stormraven could also use a neat Strat. Maybe an equivalent of what BT got for Land Raider Redeemer.

Also something for the chainswords. I think they fit us more than any other Chapter.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Klod

[Jolemai]

I don't expect much considering the type of lists I field, but this update can't come soon enough for us.

 

(Today's loss has gotten under my skin)

[Pathstrider]

My fear is that they'll put updated datasheets in for *everything* that's changed, not just the vanguard stuff. So for Aggressors etc... that might not leave a lot of pages for new stuff.

[Neuralshock]

I think just gaining litanies is a huge buff to units like DC, canticle of hate is going to be too legit with 7 inch charges rerolling and a further 12 inch move with pile ins and consolidates

[Klod]

I think just gaining litanies is a huge buff to units like DC, canticle of hate is going to be too legit with 7 inch charges rerolling and a further 12 inch move with pile ins and consolidates

Litanies are recited at the start of the Battle Round, so no 7'' charges, as your deepstrike units are not on the board at that time.

[Neuralshock]

 

 

I think just gaining litanies is a huge buff to units like DC, canticle of hate is going to be too legit with 7 inch charges rerolling and a further 12 inch move with pile ins and consolidates

Litanies are recited at the start of the Battle Round, so no 7'' charges, as your deepstrike units are not on the board at that time.

Then don't deepstrike the chaplain? It's pretty simple to position a jump chap/lemartes where you need your dc to go T2. Additionally, you can opt to just pay 2 cp to redeploy

[Klod]

 

 

I think just gaining litanies is a huge buff to units like DC, canticle of hate is going to be too legit with 7 inch charges rerolling and a further 12 inch move with pile ins and consolidates

Litanies are recited at the start of the Battle Round, so no 7'' charges, as your deepstrike units are not on the board at that time.

Then don't deepstrike the chaplain? It's pretty simple to position a jump chap/lemartes where you need your dc to go T2. Additionally, you can opt to just pay 2 cp to redeploy

Ah yeah, you're right. I didn't think of it because I wouldn't do it. It feels clunky to me to do something like this. I prefer to play narrative games, and I like when whatever I do makes sense, so a Chaplain who stands behind and then suddenly goes "Oh snap! I got a Death Company to lead!" and then he leaps to them and be like "Sorry for being late guys. Where were we? Right. CHARGE FOR THE EMPEROR AND SANGUINIUS!".

[Neuralshock]

Ah yeah, you're right. I didn't think of it because I wouldn't do it. It feels clunky to me to do something like this. I prefer to play narrative games, and I like when whatever I do makes sense, so a Chaplain who stands behind and then suddenly goes "Oh snap! I got a Death Company to lead!" and then he leaps to them and be like "Sorry for being late guys. Where were we? Right. CHARGE FOR THE EMPEROR AND SANGUINIUS!".

For sure, that's your right. I could also see it being more flavorful for a chap to be at the head of a DC charge, though rules as they are would make it hard to succeed. Alternatively having the chaplain going headlong into the enemies frontlines bellowing "strike with me brothers!" And then boom, 15 strong squad plops down behind him. Or the battle madness causes them to break rank before the battle is joined and the chaplain needs to boost himself up to be able to direct them. That's the beauty of fluff.

Edited November 25, 2019 by Neuralshock

[Panzer]

Nothing wrong with a Chaplain deploying with the regular troops just to head to the deathcompany dropzone in a moments notice.

[Dont-Be-Haten]

I'm not getting my Hope's up that we get the exact same litanies as those in codex space marines.

 

It amazes me how quick people are to forget that GW isn't 5he most trustworthy when it comes to giving us rules leaks. Because a few months ago BA, DA, & SW, were supposed to get the entire arsenal of codex space marines added to their own books...look how that turned out.

 

Don't get yourselves too hyped up. Blood of Baal is looking to be a huge let down if you're thinking we are getting the farm.

 

I.e. only new psychic powers will probably be phobos powers and some vanguard stratagems. It is better not to put too much stock in what litanies we get until we see them.

[Hintzy]

One thing I double checked re the Litanies. The collection of litanies referred to on the leaked data cards is the same name, Litanies of Battle, as the vanilla collection. I believe that suggests we'll get the same litanies. Otherwise they'd be referred to by a different name, ie Litanies of Blood.

[Blindhamster]

I think, based on mephistons rules, they're going for minimal effort.

 

We will probably therefore see:

- Vanguard units printed here.

- Other units that got an update also printed here (chaplains, aggressors etc, intercessors if we are lucky)

- Angels of death direct copy from codex marines

- litanies of battle direct copy from marines

- maaaaybe an update to our "chapter tactic" but probably not.

- some of the codex marine stratagems that they feel make sense for us.

- maaaaybe our own "super doctrine", assuming we even get doctrines at all with Angel's of death.

[Panzer]

I've read somewhere else that GW won't be releasing new Codexes except for the SoB one until june 2020 when the next edition gets released and that they are using the PA books as Codex updates until then. If true it would make sense for them to print all the updated datasheets since our Codex got released in PA3.

[Charlo]

I'm hoping we'll get *one* special litany, however that could be covered off by Astorath's Mass of Doom I suppose?

 

I think we'll get Doctrines and a special bonus in assault as people have reported. It makes sense. What that will be I have no idea as base Doctrines give us -1AP and White Scars already have +1D as theirs.

 

Shock assault gives us an extra attack already so it's totally up in the air! They may give us fall back and charge. While WS already get it, it would be really cool, or maybe something to prevent enemies falling back (I can dream!)

 

Someone also mentioned a buff to wound for pistols, but imo that's really lame and not thematic.

[Klod]

I wouldn't mind some defensive buffs. All units with FLY are -1 to hit.

[Dont-Be-Haten]

I'm hoping we'll get *one* special litany, however that could be covered off by Astorath's Mass of Doom I suppose?

 

I think we'll get Doctrines and a special bonus in assault as people have reported. It makes sense. What that will be I have no idea as base Doctrines give us -1AP and White Scars already have +1D as theirs.

 

Shock assault gives us an extra attack already so it's totally up in the air! They may give us fall back and charge. While WS already get it, it would be really cool, or maybe something to prevent enemies falling back (I can dream!)

 

Someone also mentioned a buff to wound for pistols, but imo that's really lame and not thematic.

Or it could be we always fight first during the assault doctrine to represent the red thirst taking hold and making us faster than other astartes. Wouldn't that be something? Lol.