Crusade Strategy/Tactica

[spiros14]

Hello all.

I am hoping to kickstart a narrative Crusade campaign with my hobby group during the summer where (hopefully) life will begin to return to normal. However, I've yet to use the Blood Angels proper (I did use the pre-supplement marines beforehand) and am a little stuck as to what would be a good starting position for the chapter and what sort of direction I want to go with the army, and I would greatly appreciate some insight to those with an eye for this sort of thing.

From a brief look I think getting a Chaplain is a preferable start, because I can get the Custodian of the Lost fairly early on and reduce losses from the Black Rage (The concept of losing Character units to the flaw is terrifying to me) and getting a Death Company unit can help gain experience and requisition through the Honourable Death in Battle agenda (I have had few games in where my Death Company have survived a battle so this seems like an easy win here)

If anyone else has any advice they can share, I'd be happy to here it.

-Spiros-

[Zeller]

Hello,

 

I've only recently started using my Blood Angels in crusade and have run a purely firstborn list. I also haven't used marines in almost 3 editions so I am very out of practice. That said, so far I haven't seen any impact from the Black Rage. My units generally don't kill more than a single unit per game in melee, no doubt a combination of my poor playing and things being so damn deadly.

 

I run a jump chaplain along some SG right now. I would definitely recommend having a psyker if you anticipate somebody else having one as well. 

 

I don't think I can add anything else with my limited experience thus far. 

 

Good luck!

[Gloomfoe]

I just started a marine only crusade with my friends using my Lamenters. So far I've won the two games I've played, one vs iron hands and one vs dark angels. First off, if you are starting at "combat patrol" or "incursion", and you are using small map sizes, then I recommend an extra choppy army. The only shooty unit I have is a 5man tac squad with a MM. Initially I was worried about not running enough ranged units, but it turned out to be a big advantage as the maps are so small it won't be long before your entire army is charging and killing stuff.

 

Secondly, "an honorable death in battle" is amazing and you should always take it. I would suggest a 5man of death company with jump packs for multiple reasons: easier to kill for your agenda, the stratagems you will use on them are cheaper(forlorn fury, refusal to die), and the jump packs make a first turn charge almost a guarantee. I love my death company, they are the strike missle of my force. I basically get to choose a unit I want removed and poof! They disappear! Like the 5man iron hands vanguard vets with TH/SS that they charged.

 

From the two games I've played, I've only accrued 1 flaw point on two units, with all but one kill per game being melee. It will definitely be a thing, but it will probably take a while before someone gets three. And there are ways to remove them(although the requisition to remove one can only be used once per unit)

[Gloomfoe]

My crusade force...

 

"The Forlorn Procession"

 

Battalion, 53 PL

 

Hq-sanguinary priest(armor indomitus)

Hq-Primaris Chaplain(benediction of fury, canticle of hate)

 

Troops-5man tac squad (MM)

Troops-5man assault intercessors(sgt w/hammer)

Troops-5man assault intercessors

 

Elite-Judiciar

Elite-5man assault terminators(4hammers, sgt with master-crafted lightening claws)

Elite-5man death company w/jump packs(all chainswords and bolt pistols. It's all I got, crusade uses PL sonic you have the expensive stuff may as well use it, but the extra attack is nice)

Elite-3man Bladeguard(sgt w/neo volkite pistol)

Edited March 16, 2021 by Gloomfoe

[spiros14]

In my seven pre-supplement games I also found that the short range of the board made it very easy to get into short range/ combat. IIRC, the units that really jumped up in experience points where my troops (Intercessors and Assault Intercessors) and my Aggressors, which can be cheesed fairly early by giving them the Indomitus Crusaders requisition and then Marksman's honour for that sweet BS 2+.

I will take what you've said about the DC to heart. I do have a ten man squad of jumppack variants, so will be including them in my list for the first turn kill.

[Xenith]

Pick your favourite units and use them. Crusade is a narrative campaign, so emphasis on storytelling and character development over optimising a force to smash everything before it. Both you and your opponents will have more fun! 

[spiros14]

That is advice I generally follow as a rule. I had a lot of fun running a Vigilus Campaign in the last edition (whereupon poor Captain Aphael made a name for himself for getting clawed up innumerable times by Genestealers; Chaos Chosen; and even the despoiler himself - Twice!) and as I said previously, got a kick out of writing up a general narrative for the pre-supplement crusade campaign I ran late last year.

 

I guess what I was after was more of an idea of a slow-build strategy for the army as a whole, rather than an "Always win" army.

For example, one thing that I'm looking at, but haven't quite decided on, is the Captain Honourifics. Now I play second company, and what I want to do a little further down the line is make another Rubicon'd Captain Aphael model, armed with the power sword and plasma pistol he was seen wielding in the 7th ed. campaign supplements, which I think will become an wargear option come the next Chapter Approved (given the new magazine subscription unique model).

In the meantime, having tenth Captain Borgio (represented by a Phobos Captain) lead the force with his honourific seems to be a good start, because he can allow units to increase in manpower without as heavy an RP cost.

 

Similarly, because you only have 50 power to start with, and from there can only really build in increments, you can only fit in support characters like Ancients, Apothecaries, and Techmarines one at a time. What order they're put in is somewhat important for Crusade, because you the player have to get through missions and agendas to build them up.

[FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants]

I’ve a few thoughts on BA in Crusade and Crusade in general. Firstly I plan on upgrading my Captain to Master of Sacrifice (3rd Coy) early on, and also giving Custodian of the Lost to my Chaplain. Both are good for minimising the effects of the Flaw and losing both characters and squadies to the Black Rage.

 

I have quite a few units I can add to the army, I have a BA Termy Librarian, 2 BA Termy Captains (one of which will be converted into a Terminator Ancient), a BA Primaris Lt, the JP Death Coy Chaplain and a Sanguinary Priest all on the sprue ready to be assembled and painted, as well as quite a few units to assemble including multiple Death Coy sprues and two Sang Guard sprues, and some Space Hulk terminators. I’ve a lot of stuff I’ll be adding to the pool of units available to the army over time using the Increase Supply Limit Requisition.

 

I know you have a choice of picking Battle Traits and Scars, but I do like the randomness of rolling, and like how the concept reminds me of role playing games. Basically for my personal, ongoing Crusade I’m going to roll for honours and such instead of picking. However, there will be one caveat I’ll allow myself, that being if I roll for a trait that is both a) useless from a gameplay perspective AND b ) doesn’t fit the game’s lore, I will reroll the result. An example of this would be a Terminator Assault squad getting Marksman’s Honours, as not only would it be wasted on said unit having no ranged weapons, but also it wouldn’t seem like a squad with no ranged weapons would have the chance to be awarded honourifics for accurate shooting. The same could be said for a squad of Eliminators having Bladesman’s Honours.

 

I’ll also be adding other forces to my Crusade Army, the first of these will be some Salamanders.

 

Anyway what do people think about what I’ve said?

Edited April 9, 2021 by Captain Smashy Pants

[The Unseen]

In my group, well be rolling, unless the unit does something on the table warranting a specific bonus. Will rerolls allowed for entirely useless buffs.

Example: A squad of meltagun bikers, aka 2 meltas, a combi on the sarge, and an attached mm attack bike, firing overwatch at an above half health redemptor after they hilariously failed to kill it in half range shooting phase.

3 hits were scored, 2 wounds, and something like 11 damage went thru damage reduction.

They would get the overwatch noon.

But otherwise it's way to easy to cheese out incredibly strong synergies too easily.

[Gloomfoe]

We are rolling, rerolling useless ones. If you get an honor from winning a mission we are picking that one instead.

[spiros14]

I’ve a few thoughts on BA in Crusade and Crusade in general. Firstly I plan on upgrading my Captain to Master of Sacrifice (3rd Coy) early on, and also giving Custodian of the Lost to my Chaplain. Both are good for minimising the effects of the Flaw and losing both characters and squadies to the Black Rage.

 

I have quite a few units I can add to the army, I have a BA Termy Librarian, 2 BA Termy Captains (one of which will be converted into a Terminator Ancient), a BA Primaris Lt, the JP Death Coy Chaplain and a Sanguinary Priest all on the sprue ready to be assembled and painted, as well as quite a few units to assemble including multiple Death Coy sprues and two Sang Guard sprues, and some Space Hulk terminators. I’ve a lot of stuff I’ll be adding to the pool of units available to the army over time using the Increase Supply Limit Requisition.

 

I know you have a choice of picking Battle Traits and Scars, but I do like the randomness of rolling, and like how the concept reminds me of role playing games. Basically for my personal, ongoing Crusade I’m going to roll for honours and such instead of picking. However, there will be one caveat I’ll allow myself, that being if I roll for a trait that is both a) useless from a gameplay perspective AND b ) doesn’t fit the game’s lore, I will reroll the result. An example of this would be a Terminator Assault squad getting Marksman’s Honours, as not only would it be wasted on said unit having no ranged weapons, but also it wouldn’t seem like a squad with no ranged weapons would have the chance to be awarded honourifics for accurate shooting. The same could be said for a squad of Eliminators having Bladesman’s Honours.

 

I’ll also be adding other forces to my Crusade Army, the first of these will be some Salamanders.

 

Anyway what do people think about what I’ve said?

 

I also took a liking to the Master of Sacrifice's trait, but I'll be holding off adding Captain Antargo for a bit to focus on the Shield of Baal and Master of Recruits for narrative purposes. Eventually though, I think I'd like to make him a Gravis Captain (T5 and choice of melee weapons will surely help him as he's using his Angels Sacrifice Strat on the Battlefield) in charge of other Gravis Units. 

 

I also prefer rolling for battle scars, though I'm not above choosing "shamed" when a unit performed particularly badly - in my second game, for example, Assault Intercessor Squad Maschio were buffed by a wounded Mephiston (who rolled perils on the power and subsequently fell in battle) but fluffed their charge against my opponents Immortals, allowing that unit to blast my army to pieces, before Maschio were counter charged by Praetorians, killed to just the sergeant, who then fled the field of battle, leaving my poor lieutenant to face the foul xenos alone.

He eventually redeemed himself, but it took two destroyed trucks, a pile of ork boyz and taking an objective in the orks deployment zone before anyone on the battle barge would talk to him again.

 

I'm a little on the fence on adding outside forces, but that's just me. I do have Lord Inquisitor Draxus still unpainted, and my hobby group have gravitated toward the Pariah Nexus warzone, so I may add her to my roster to see what she can do.

[FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants]

When I do my Captain Antargo, Master of Sacrifice, model, I’m going to use an Sanguinary Guard body with a pair of claws and the JP from the Van Vets sprue with the Aquila on top, and painting him gold. I’ll be giving him the Armour Indomitus relic from the SM dex and the Master Artisan trait (Master Crafted weapons on the claws). The fluff behind the wargear loadout is that he inherited Tycho’s (who is a previous Master of Sacrifice), although having made a few modifications, which will justify it looking slightly different aswell as the 3++, and also decided to keep his claws as they are his own preferred weapon that he has used for a large part of his career.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Captain Smashy Pants