New Blood Angel stuff- character sculpts, upgrade sprue, and rules?

[LemartestheLost]

Embrace the Red Thirst in a New Blood Angels Codex and Army Set - Warhammer Community (warhammer-community.com)

 

New Lemartes, Astorath, and Death Company have been revealed.

[Khorneeq]

Lemartes looks quite nie, Astro nothing special- for me he looks to similar to previous version and rest of box sadly but as suspected very few options for DC

[Helias_Tancred]

Lemartes? Liked it. Astorath? Lazy sculpt Meh. Just a cleaned up newer old one. The upgrade sprue? Inferior. It should have two inferno pistols, and some death company shoulders that harken back to the designs in the firstborn death company box. The decal sheet was meh too. The Black Templars and Dark Angels got better upgrade sprues.

 

I'll hold off final opinions until the primaris sanguinary guard are revealed, ditto for the Sanguinor, and we see the new Blood Angel rules. On the latter subject it looks like Mephiston got the changes he needed, now lets see if Dante gets done right?

 

 

 

 

Edited July 29 by Helias_Tancred

[SvenIronhand]

44 minutes ago, Helias_Tancred said:

Lemartes? Liked it. Astorath? Lazy sculpt Meh. Just a cleaned up newer old one.

To imitate and replicate the old is more involved than you might think.

[MadGreek]

1 Infernus Pistol kind of annoyed me as well. I do like the Eviscerator. Lemartes looks nice, Astorath looks largely the same (which is OK, but a missed opportunity). My concern is the scale. Does Lemartes look SMALL? Or is it just me? Is he Primaris-ized? Or still First Born scale? Actually, same question on Astorath.

[Helias_Tancred]

4 hours ago, SvenIronhand said:

To imitate and replicate the old is more involved than you might think.

 

You might be right, I'd rather have had that work put into a new pose. I like Astorath in the lore, just wished the pose was new.

[DemonGSides]

I'm with you; should've let Lemartes keep his old pose and give Astorath a new one that isn't so awkward.

He could look cool doing the AoS stormcast Terminos pose.  Could be cool.

[Brother Raul]

Grateful to get something but a few bits raise eyebrows on the sprue and good sculpted HQs, just not to my taste and not particularly needed.

 

LTD ED codex, half usable sprue (only 1/3 if you have existing purchases of Primaris upgrade sprues) 2 JPI and a Brutalis for most BA players so not really great value.

 

Can't think of another box with 2 jump chaplains and probably won't be another.

 

Will see what the combat patrol box is but I'll pass on the box unless as can make cheap AI from stuff on hand if I need too.

 

Can't wait to get Mephiston painted now finally. Hope I feel the same way about Dante.

 

Happy with the eviscerator as a compromise on power weapons and we knew DC would get nerfed but the 1 fist per 5 plus eviscerator is a welcome heavy plus special.

 

Too bad 4 Infernus pistols per squad of 10 and 1 per sprue but was always going to happen.

Edited July 30 by Brother Raul
DC info

[Blindhamster]

I don’t really get why people are saying the DA one was better?

 

blood angels:

10 heads

1 terminator torso

1 storm bolter housing

1 power sword 

1 chainsword

1 eviscerator

1 terminator power sword

1 inferno pistol

6 tacticus pads

5 Phobos pads

5 terminator pads

3 bladeguard pads

5 gravis pads 

3 aggressor pads

2 backpack toppers

9 belt details

4 vehicle accessories

1 tilting shield 

2 other symbols

 

dark angels:

11 heads

1 terminator torso

1 storm bolter housing
1 power sword

1 terminator plasma canon 

6 tacticus pads

5 Phobos pads

5 terminator pads

3 bladeguard pads

5 gravis pads

3 aggressor pads

1 backpack topper

6 belt details 

5 vehicle details

2 tilting shields

2 terminator hip guards

1 ravenwing back

1 watcher

1 book

 

i put the stuff that was totally unique in bold, otherwise honestly they seem pretty comparable. I personally prefer the blood angel one. We get slightly more unique sergeant pads than DA, and we get more weapons and more infantry details too. 

[Mostwanted]

Yeah, I don't get the disappointment in the upgrade sprue. I personally love it, and think it's slightly better than the Dark Angel one. I really wanted all the pads like the DA got, so was really happy that we did. We've got loads of gubbins to make our models a bit more unique. It wouldn't take much effort to cut the Inferno pistol from the hand and putting it on a left firing hand to give more variety with them. Fairly happy with the heads we got. It would be fairly easy to cut the fangs down if they aren't your cup of tea as well.

[Chaplain Killmer]

Given that I am a DA player and got a new Belial that could have been just better. I am quite happy for you BA guys. Lemartes is to me as raging as a non Khorne model can be and Astorath is at least not not making things worse :D. Good thing that none of those got the new fashion of using a cape over the shoulder pad.

[DemonGSides]

The DA bits are just straight up more interesting. Most of the BA ones are just blood drop trinkets.

 

I think the lack of any helmets (besides the same one that on the first Primaris Upgrade Sprue), and the complete lack of ANY type of chalices, even as just trinkets is disappointing.  Edit: I guess there's one chalice but still, just a trinket. 

Edited July 30 by DemonGSides

[Jolemai]

There "might" be some bits I can use, but a lot of it will be incompatible for me.

[Jolemai]

Threads merged

[Blindhamster]

28 minutes ago, DemonGSides said:

The DA bits are just straight up more interesting. Most of the BA ones are just blood drop trinkets.

 

I think the lack of any helmets (besides the same one that on the first Primaris Upgrade Sprue), and the complete lack of ANY type of chalices, even as just trinkets is disappointing.  Edit: I guess there's one chalice but still, just a trinket. 

I don’t see how the DA shoulder pads are more interesting, the BA ones actually have slightly more unique ones with some extra detail.
 

similarly, blood angels bare heads was probably the right call because it’s where the more unique appearance arguably lie. I do agree a couple more helms would have been nice, but there’s the heresy ones that can spruce up mkX nicely at least. 
 

the little ornaments are pretty varied and exactly what I’d wanted nicer versions of personally.

 

the book and watcher are “interesting” but don’t really have an obvious equivalent. And personally I’m happier we got more embellished weapons than the dark angel one gave

31 minutes ago, Jolemai said:

There "might" be some bits I can use, but a lot of it will be incompatible for me.

This is fair though, if you aren’t doing primaris models, there is a whole lot of “not that useful” in the new style upgrades 

[DemonGSides]

7 minutes ago, Blindhamster said:

I don’t see how the DA shoulder pads are more interesting, the BA ones actually have slightly more unique ones with some extra detail.
 

similarly, blood angels bare heads was probably the right call because it’s where the more unique appearance arguably lie. I do agree a couple more helms would have been nice, but there’s the heresy ones that can spruce up mkX nicely at least. 
 

the little ornaments are pretty varied and exactly what I’d wanted nicer versions of personally.

 

the book and watcher are “interesting” but don’t really have an obvious equivalent. And personally I’m happier we got more embellished weapons than the dark angel one gave

 

Shoulder pads are equivalent. But the DA sprue just has more interesting things; a knife, interesting tilt plates, the open book, the hip plates, a couple of power plant adornments.

 

BA get... 9 belt trinkets, 4 power pack trinkets, no close combat weapons, no real DC specific upgrades, NO CHALICE, and basically only unhelmeted heads.

 

It's a downgrade. Like, completely. It is disappointing, especially when there's so much historical upgrades to draw from.

 

Like having 0 Sanguinary Priest representation, basically 0 Death Company representation (if the arms weren't painted black you'd have no idea they were specifically meant for DC), and none of our immediate hallmarks: there's not one single angel with wings.

 

The shoulder pads and snarling faces are good. Everything else is kinda meh at best. 

Edited July 30 by DemonGSides

[Blindhamster]

For me it’s exactly what I hoped for, possible exception that I’d have liked some muscle armour, but I think that’ll be covered by the captain kit - which I have a feeling may also build a priest. 
 

blood angels got 1 tilt plate vs the two for DA, I’d say our one is pretty nice though with the blood drop and laurel.
 

just shows how much can have different hopes and opinions I guess! I was dreading potentially having sculpted saltires for example.

 

 

Edited July 30 by Blindhamster

[DemonGSides]

12 minutes ago, Blindhamster said:

blood angels got 1 tilt plate vs the two for DA, I’d say our one is pretty nice though with the blood drop and laurel.

 

Compare it to literally any of our other tilt plates from various kits and it's anemic, just like the one helmeted head; literally reproduced from the current D tier upgrade sprue we have.

 

I think there was room to remove four of our random belt trinkets for a chalice and a single saltire. Instead we get "Blood Drop Ultramarines" for like 50% of the sprue.

 

Disappointing. 

[WrathOfTheLion]

The upgrade sprue is perfectly fine, in my opinion. The DA one is more focused, as there's direct things that need to be represented (watcher, plasma cannon, deathwing dagger, Ravenwing hussar wing, etc.), but the BA one definitely has some useful stuff.

 

I'm quite happy to see the decal sheet continuing the trend of adding successor chapters, although I kind of wish it had some Lamenters ones. Flesh Tearers and a couple others is a good representation though.

[Helias_Tancred]

8 hours ago, Blindhamster said:

I don’t really get why people are saying the DA one was better?

 

blood angels:

10 heads

1 terminator torso

1 storm bolter housing

1 power sword 

1 chainsword

1 eviscerator

1 terminator power sword

1 inferno pistol

6 tacticus pads

5 Phobos pads

5 terminator pads

3 bladeguard pads

5 gravis pads 

3 aggressor pads

2 backpack toppers

9 belt details

4 vehicle accessories

1 tilting shield 

2 other symbols

 

dark angels:

11 heads

1 terminator torso

1 storm bolter housing
1 power sword

1 terminator plasma canon 

6 tacticus pads

5 Phobos pads

5 terminator pads

3 bladeguard pads

5 gravis pads

3 aggressor pads

1 backpack topper

6 belt details 

5 vehicle details

2 tilting shields

2 terminator hip guards

1 ravenwing back

1 watcher

1 book

 

i put the stuff that was totally unique in bold, otherwise honestly they seem pretty comparable. I personally prefer the blood angel one. We get slightly more unique sergeant pads than DA, and we get more weapons and more infantry details too. 

 

Ummmm .... no Watcher in the dark!

Also all this red crap?

[Helias_Tancred]

Just wait until Watchers in the Dark get stats! Every Blood Angel and Black Templar player will wish they got one on their sprue!!

[DemonGSides]

For what they do for DA?  Yes please. 

[Mostwanted]

5 hours ago, DemonGSides said:

 

Shoulder pads are equivalent. But the DA sprue just has more interesting things; a knife, interesting tilt plates, the open book, the hip plates, a couple of power plant adornments.

 

BA get... 9 belt trinkets, 4 power pack trinkets, no close combat weapons, no real DC specific upgrades, NO CHALICE, and basically only unhelmeted heads.

 

It's a downgrade. Like, completely. It is disappointing, especially when there's so much historical upgrades to draw from.

 

Like having 0 Sanguinary Priest representation, basically 0 Death Company representation (if the arms weren't painted black you'd have no idea they were specifically meant for DC), and none of our immediate hallmarks: there's not one single angel with wings.

 

The shoulder pads and snarling faces are good. Everything else is kinda meh at best. 

You aren't going to please everyone with an update, so I get that there are people in the same boat as you that aren't happy.

 

I've got to say that I am happy and are relatively pleased with the upgrade sprue. Yeah it would have been good to get more weapons with BA icons on, more helmets etc. But they are limited with space on the sprues so there has to be compromise.

 

I'm glad there are loads of belt ornaments. If they removed a few for say another helmet, then you are going to end up with models using the same unique bits to try to make them look varied, which then makes them look more the same.

 

Our tilt plate is really nice. It would be really easy to make other Blood Angels ones using some of the belt icons in the upgrade sprue with a plain tilt shield that you'll have in other kits.

 

Blood Angel knives are a plenty (well I've got tonnes spare) if you have any kits like Sanguinary Guard, old Tactical Squad, the firstborn upgrade sprue that's still available.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by no close combat weapons? We got a chainsword and a power sword in power armour and another Power sword in Terminator armour?

 

It appears the eviscerator is a DC only upgrade. If you mean DC upgrades as in different looking armour then fair enough. But for me, DC should always have been just Blood Angels painted black with red crosses painted over their armour. That's what it is in the lore/background. So to me, I see no reason why they should look more embellished than a regular Blood Angels marine.

 

I'm also not bothered by having no chalice as it's only really Sanguinary priests that's meant to carry them, so they aren't really common place on anything else. But again, I've got loads from the firstborn ungrade sprue (I've never had the need to actually use even one of them).

 

To you it's a downgrade and it may be to others. But to me it's pretty close to what I wanted.

[DemonGSides]

41 minutes ago, Mostwanted said:

I've got to say that I am happy and are relatively pleased with the upgrade sprue. Yeah it would have been good to get more weapons with BA icons on, more helmets etc. But they are limited with space on the sprues so there has to be compromise.

 

I'd prefer the compromise that's going to give us more bits that are visually interesting over the "Here's 9 keychains", most of which will be broken and lost with even casual usage of the models.

 

41 minutes ago, Mostwanted said:

Our tilt plate is really nice. It would be really easy to make other Blood Angels ones using some of the belt icons in the upgrade sprue with a plain tilt shield that you'll have in other kits.

 

There's better tilt plates available in all the kits you mention later on.  This one is literally just tilt plate + blood drop. They've done way cooler in the past and could've just brought those forward.

 

41 minutes ago, Mostwanted said:

Blood Angel knives are a plenty (well I've got tonnes spare) if you have any kits like Sanguinary Guard, old Tactical Squad, the firstborn upgrade sprue that's still available.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by no close combat weapons? We got a chainsword and a power sword in power armour and another Power sword in Terminator armour?

 

Close combat weapons are a loadout choice. The knife you poo poo'd is a Close Combat Weapon; the power swords are Power Swords (and frankly, also disappointing. BA have the encarmine suite to lean on for visuals and instead we got... Blood Drop Ultramarine Sword).

 

41 minutes ago, Mostwanted said:

It appears the eviscerator is a DC only upgrade. If you mean DC upgrades as in different looking armour then fair enough. But for me, DC should always have been just Blood Angels painted black with red crosses painted over their armour. That's what it is in the lore/background. So to me, I see no reason why they should look more embellished than a regular Blood Angels marine.

 

DC of the past had a whole bespoke kit with awesome bits. We no longer get those unless you're like me and bought them constantly. That's a huge downgrade for all BA players.  If the marine is wearing their armor into battle, it's gonna have all of their old trinkets on it, hence why the DC was always blinged out. Kind of a big miss to not get that.

 

41 minutes ago, Mostwanted said:

I'm also not bothered by having no chalice as it's only really Sanguinary priests that's meant to carry them, so they aren't really common place on anything else. But again, I've got loads from the firstborn ungrade sprue (I've never had the need to actually use even one of them).

 

Even chalice iconography would be appreciated. This upgrade sprue feels like a Space Wolf level understanding of the iconography of our faction; yes we love blood drops, but we have so much more to bring to the table for visuals and almost everything on this sprue is just "Blood Drop, slap it on, ship it."

 

It feels extremely lazy compared to the DA and BT sprues. Both of which have multiple forms of iconography present. 

Edited July 30 by DemonGSides

[Blindhamster]

23 minutes ago, DemonGSides said:

There's better tilt plates available in all the kits you mention later on.  This one is literally just tilt plate + blood drop. They've done way cooler in the past and could've just brought those forward.

the new one is a blood drop with laurel which is a nice design imo.

 

23 minutes ago, DemonGSides said:

Close combat weapons are a loadout choice. The knife you poo poo'd is a Close Combat Weapon; the power swords are Power Swords (and frankly, also disappointing. BA have the encarmine suite to lean on for visuals and instead we got... Blood Drop Ultramarine Sword).

interestingly, my first thought was “I love the tacticus power sword” it has a pretty distinctive blade design and I liked the less over the top hilt (though yes, I’d have loved a winged blood drop hilt too, I’m hoping for such a bit in the captain kit when it comes). Regardless, I thought the swords were nice, and I liked the small variation with the chainsword too. Plus us getting eviscerators as a unique weapon is cool.

 

23 minutes ago, DemonGSides said:

DC of the past had a whole bespoke kit with awesome bits. We no longer get those unless you're like me and bought them constantly. That's a huge downgrade for all BA players.  If the marine is wearing their armor into battle, it's gonna have all of their old trinkets on it, hence why the DC was always blinged out. Kind of a big miss to not get that.

the DC not was always too noisy for me, I usually had to spread the parts over a lot of models as many of the pieces were too busy, and as a result no longer elegant, excess is the realm of emperors children, rather than blood angels. So yeah, mileage may vary but for some this isn’t a downgrade in the way it is for you. But I can totally understand the frustration and it’s a shame there isn’t an actual full kit coming too - the upgrade kit was never going to compare to a full kit sadly though. 
 

23 minutes ago, DemonGSides said:

Even chalice iconography would be appreciated. This upgrade sprue feels like a Space Wolf level understanding of the iconography of our faction; yes we love blood drops, but we have so much more to bring to the table for visuals and almost everything on this sprue is just "Blood Drop, slap it on, ship it."

one of the belt details is a chalice. It’s a little light on the ground, but not sure what you hoped for? Chalice on shoulder pads? Personally I’m happier getting a full assortment of chapter icons on shoulder pads. A chalice on the storm bolter housing might have been cool though.

 

23 minutes ago, DemonGSides said:

most of which will be broken and lost with even casual usage of the models.

Use better glue and ensure a proper connection, no reason for them to come off if you do this (I’ve not had such an issue)

 

23 minutes ago, DemonGSides said:

It feels extremely lazy compared to the DA and BT sprues. Both of which have multiple forms of iconography present. 

I don’t see any more varied iconography on DA set than the BA one frankly. Sure that DA one has a different chapter icon for ravenwing and deathwing, but that’s an actual different chapter emblem. So feels like comparing apples to oranges 

Edited July 30 by Blindhamster