Friday, March 26, 2010

2000 Blood Angels

cHey, I figured since nobody else is talking about the new Blood Angels Codex, I'll offer my thoughts and put up a test list.

Blood Angels have lots of cool stuff going their way, particularly in the way of characters, mobile mech, awesome jump pack units, new Dreads, and bunch of funky new rules.  All this combines to make a strong, flexible list with a lot of options but still keeping its own unique flavor and not stepping on any other marine armies' toes (except Dark Angels of course, but nobody like us anyway, grumble, grumble).

In my continuing quest to find the cheapest army possible, my marines are a twitter with joy at having a new ruleset for them to play with.  I don't own any jump packers (I thought I was so clever too, never buying any, well joke's on me now), so I'm going to be meching it up. 

BA Rhinos and Rhino-based vehicles all have Fast now, so that opens up a lot of options for mobility.  To top it all off, they get the perfect Troops choice to ride in them.  Assault Squads can get 1 special weapon per 5 men, sport pistols and chainswords to maybe poke somebody with, and if they forgo jump packs they get a 35 point discount on any dedicated transport they bring.  This helps take the sting out of the across the board price increase on all Rhino-based vehicles to pay for Fast.

On top of that, BA get Predators in Fast Attack and Heavy Support slots. Baal Preds are Scouts on top of it all! Unfortunately, normal Dreads get bumped to Heavy so my beloved Riflemen are actively contesting the new hotness of AC/LC Preds (for only 15 points more). What Riflemen lose in front AV, AP2, tank shock and maximum speed, they make up for in twin-linking, lower cost, not being potentially hampered by sponsons (try finding LoS with 10 vehicles crowding the board), better mobility in terrain, and even the odd chance of getting Furious Charge and squashing somebody flat (lol).



When building my BA army, I obviously need to look at the basics.  1 HQ and 2 Troops.  BA have a lot of nice HQ choices, but for a mech army I need more points for tanks and less for flash.  A Librarian is always a good standby thanks to his hood and powers.  With Blood Lance and Shield of Sanguinius he can knock out enemy vehicles that get too close (or T4 multi-wounders like Tyranid Warriors, or anything that gets hurt by S8 AP1, so everything) or provide cover to a good chunk of my army beyond smoke launchers. 

100 points, easy peasy.

BA have lots of good Troop options too.  DC can be very smashy and hard to kill, but they're pricey and don't fit in a pure mech force.  Tactical Squads are a good standby, but Assault Squads give me mobile special weapons and discounted transports.  That's what I like to see, versatile troops with an overall lower cost.  Scouts are always handy for holding home objectives, but I'll hold off on them to grab more essentials.  Initially I wanted 5 Assault Marines in a las/plas Razor.  With Fast it can move and fire both guns, giving me reach and mobility.  However, the marines inside won't be doing much and the unit can get pricey if I throw in upgrades.  Hold up, check out the Heavy Flamer turret.  It's free.  I like free, and I like flamers.  5 Assault Marines with 1 melta, 1 infernus and the burnyback costs only a paltry 145 points.  Similar to the Immospam Sisters are so fond of, BA can zoom 12" and burninate things while still having 2 meltas inside the armored shell.  4 of those is a good start and sets me back 580. 

680 Total for the basics, handy.

Time for the good stuff.  So far I've got a Lance, 8 meltas, and 4 Flamers in Fast tanks.  That's going to want to get close, so I should pick up support elements that can deal with enemies from afar so I don't go for a walk. 

Rifleman Dreads (dual TLACs) dropped in cost?  Awesome!  3 of those is 360, almost a no brainer pick.  They can sit back and plink away, going after light armor and anything that needs 4 S7 shots in its face.

1040, a little over halfway.

I have range, I have up close, melta and anti-light armor.  What else do I need? 

Well, 20 marines aren't the toughest cookies in the jar.  If only BA had something that could make them more survivable...Hey, what's this in the Elites section?  Sanguinary High Priests, 1-3 ICs per slot that give FNP and Furious Charge to all units within 6".  Hell yes!  Lucky me my Razors have an extra seat, so in they go.  FNP keeps those marines alive longer (twice as long to be precise), and FC will help significantly if they need to run mop up (they're still Assault Marines after all).  Compare 5 normally to 5 with FC (against MEQs, 15 attacks, 7.5 hits, 3.75 vs 5 wounds, 1.25 vs. 1.67 kills) across multiple units and it adds up (better against weaker stuff, natch).

1140.

Fast Attack is always important for marines.  Normally I'd take Speeders, but it's hard to pass up Baal Preds.  It's a Fast, Scouting Predator with turret twin-linked Assault Cannon.  That along is rocking.  The Flamestorm cannon is not so much, considering you have to get into melta range to use it, so much for AV13 (it's as good as a Rhino on the side and rear).  For sponsons, there's heavy bolters and heavy flamers.  The former give me extra firepower to whittle down hordes and plink away at light armor, while the latter suffers from the same problems as the Flamestorm cannon.  3 Baals with TLAC and HBs runs 435.

1575

Well, what's left?  2 Elites, 1 HQ, 2 Troops.  I've got plenty of mobility, a wide variety of dakka at range and up close, passable mop up HtH, but what else.  I like midfield with this army, a lot, and what better to rampage through it than a big stompy robot?  BA have some new Dread options to peruse, namely the Furioso and Librarian.  WS6, AV13, and psychic powers for the Libby version.  Looking at the powers, Blood Lance is always a good pick, Might of Heroes helps bypass the Dread's normally low number of attacks, and Wings of Sanguinius would help them reach the enemy sooner and keep up with my armor.  I'll take 2 with Wings and the Lance.  350 for the pair.

I'm at 1925 and there isn't much room left.  Time for toys.

I could fit in that Scout Squad, but with all my mobile armor and resilient Troops I should be ok.  I find myself drawn to Corbulo.  For a little more than double the price of a normal SHP, Corby gets an extra wound, attack, BS and I.  On top of that he sports a S5 rending chainsword and he gets to make his FNP on a 2+!  This guy is basically immune to anything that isn't S8+, AP1/2, or ignores armor in HtH.  Wow.  On top of it all, he gives me 1 re-roll per game.  That may not sound like much, but that re-roll could mean the difference between a Land Raider exploding or gettings its paint scratched, a botched psychic hood roll, one bad difficult terrain test, or a ton of other things that can have a huge impact on the game. 

But, Corby is just a toy.  Instead I could have infernus pistols on both SHP, extra armor on both Furiosos, and a smattering of melta bombs.  It's a trade off, but I like what Corby brings to the table.

That brings me up to 1980.  For the last 20 points I can pick up melta bombs for everybody or an infernus for my SHP.  Infernus it is, plus melta bombs on a random Sergeant.

So, the final list is:
HQ
Librarian w/ Blood Lance, Shield of Sanguinius
Elites
2x Librarian Furiosos w/ Blood Lance, Wings of Sanguinius
Corbulo, 1 SHP w/ infernus pistol
Troops
3x 5-man Assault Squads, 1 meltagun, Sgt w/ infernus pistol, Razorback w/ TL Heavy Flamers
5-man Assault Squads, 1 meltagun, Sgt w/ infernus pistol, melta bombs, Razorback w/ TL Heavy Flamers
Fast Attack
3x Baal Preds w/ TLAC, HBs
Heavy Support
3x Rifleman Dreads

Total-2000

So, there's my list and the process I took to get it.  It's a first draft and I'm going to be testing it out, so I'm open to any criticism or thoughts people may have.

Have at you.

19 comments:

TheKing Elessar said...

HF Turrets? Sing with me...
*I'm bringin' Burnyback...*

Overall, I like the list, quite a bit. Not sure about Corby though, he does wonders for the enemy's target priority.

I'm also leaning towards dropping a Baal for a Speeder squadron...but that's me. lol

PS - Captcha is 'tableon' IE what you aim to do with this list, get some tableon dun!

...TKE - bringing the blogosphere shitty jokes since 2009!

Diabeatstick said...

I played a game today with a version of this army at 1850 pts. I replaced the Riflemen Dreads with 2 Dakka Preds.

Mission was capture and control, setup was Pitched battle.

Got first turn. Scout all 3 Baals forward to get range. The razorbacks rushed forward, unloaded all the troops and fired melta at some Vindicators and Razorbacks. Popped on Vindicator, shook another, popped a Razor. Ran the dreads forward, and crossed my fingers for the retaliation.

My opponent doesn't move much, unloads on the squad with the Librarian, kills the librarian and 3 bp/ccw marines (I didn't have a sp in range, mistake on my part, I had the two priests on the left side of the board, so no fnp for the right side). All of my marine squads take damage, none get wiped.

My turn I have the former librarians squad hop into their rb and flat out towards the objective on my side of the board. They sit there the entire game.

That is pretty much the excited part of the match. I pop tanks, kill the meat inside. The Blood Lance doesn't really do a whole lot of damage. I just had fail rolls with it though.

All in all, I enjoyed playing the army, and plan to play my variant of it for a bit longer.

Sorry about the wall of text. :-)

Chumbalaya said...

Thanks for sharing, glad to hear I may not be totally off base.

Like TKE, he's a nutter. <3

TheKing Elessar said...

:D

Corby gives a target as he's a much bigger threat than a regular SP.

2 Speeders muddles Target Priority for the foe, especially since the Speeders are going to be more threat but less Threat Perception-y.

But you know this.
I need scissors!61!!

Diabeatstick said...

Thanks for the help with the list. Last night (this morning) I was racking my brain on how to pare down stelek's 'Ard Boyz list and I couldn't figure out how to do the troops. When I saw your list I was a little wary of the lack of troops, but with the SP's, those 20 men are VERY resilient.

Chumbalaya said...

It's true Corby could draw some extra heat, but I suppose anybody who wants him dead that much will just have to ignore the Dreads and Pred and other Razors :P I have him in on probation just because he looks nice on paper, so I'm not opposed to giving him the boot should I find a better buy for those 50 odd points.

Speeders are super cool, I agree, but I do so enjoy those Baals in my mouth, err, list. List is what I meant. For the price of 2 MM/HF Speeders I get a Baal loaded out. I don't have any multi-meltas, but TL flamers abound and all my melta is in fast vehicles or flying robots. Plus I have 3 TLAssCannons, which work a treat on most armor plus the usual 3 sets of quadocannons. Plus it's the whole AV10 fast skimmer squadron vs AV13 scouting fast tank. Worth a look either way, I'd say.

Diabeatstick (lol puns), thanks for liking it. I'm not entirely sold on the survivability of 20 marines, even with FNP, but I think it's got plenty of armor, mobility, and firepower to do enough damage to keep them safe. It's very frontloaded, but that's kinda how I like it.

TheKing Elessar said...

Overall, I like the list, very much. :)

MorbidlyObeseMonkey said...

Anti-horde could potentially be a problem. If they take out your razorbacks you're in trouble.

Overall, nice list, though I'd swap out the riflemans for more anti-infantry.

Unknown said...

Nice list, though did you miss those priests off the end list? I don't seem them listed?

Thanks for the info as well - certainly sounds interesting :)

Chumbalaya said...

MoM, I do have heavy flamers on both Dreads, the Baals each kick out 10 shots, and the Riflemen can put out 4 shots. They aren't flamers (except the ones that are :P) but that's a lot of firepower flying around.

Mercer, the SHP and Corby are totally listed :P

I think I may end up swapping Blood Lance on the Dreadies for Might of Heroes. The Dreads sport meltaguns and my regular Libby already has a lance. I think I'd be much better off with extra attacks from my S6/10 killer robot. Thoughts?

Diabeatstick said...

I don't think the librarian dreads have a meltagun, as you replace the meltafist with a force weapon, and keep the storm bolter arm.

Also I played an 1850 pt variant yesterday vs Tervigon 'Nids and didn't have too much trouble vs the hordes. Baals/Dakka Preds sure put out a lot of shots. That doesn't even include tank shocking with the RB's to achieve "template me" formations.

All in all it may not have a huge amount of anti-horde, but I think it has an adequate amount.

Chumbalaya said...

Huh, maybe they don't, I did kinda gloss over that bit. Thanks for keeping me sharp.

Glad to hear it's working for you. I just need to figure out how to convert up HF turrets and I'm set :P

Diabeatstick said...

I've been considering how to do that too, probably gonna use the rhino + Immolator bits. I've been proxing the army with friends, so it hasnt' been too much of an issue.

Chumbalaya said...

That's all I can think of at present, that or the unused Baal Pred inferno cannon bits. Either way, I'll post pics when I have it all together.

TheKing Elessar said...

Dread arm Flamers could be easily squeezed in, methinks.

Or Sentinel flamers.

Chumbalaya said...

I'll have to see how many I can scrounge up. Since I'm converting my IG stuff into Orks, that's a good number of flamers I can make use of. Hmm, that's 2 Sents, 3 Russes and a Chimmy for 6, so I'd just need 2 more.

Very doable, good idea TKE

Unknown said...

Ah I see now! You've taken corbulo plus a priest.

Diabeatstick said...

I was thinking with the 3 Baal's I'll be buying I can use the 6 sponson heavy flamers that come with it, and maybe the flamestorm from one to some use as hf turrets. I'm cheap though. Ill see how it turns out.

TheKing Elessar said...

I am 'teh aw3s0m3s'.