Yah this thing! The project I started last summer, right about the same time 6th Ed dropped.
Well they have sadly been sitting on a shelf because 6th Edition pretty much left my beloved Blood Angels at or near the bottom of the competitive 40k rankings.
I lost the desire to work on the army because I didn't want to spend the months to paint it only to get my nipples kicked in every time I played. I think the kicker was when I played my Blood Angels around this time at a tournament in Rhode Island and got "Smoking Boots". (dead last)
Well, a couple things have happened recently to renew my desire to paint the yellow.
First, I went to The Nova. I hung around with John Stiening a lot who was playing in the Narrative. It looked fun! So I decided to play in that next year too. But also in talking with John it was refreshing to see his almost indifferent approach to getting blasted off the table. He had fun! He actually enjoyed making a game out of NOT losing every single one of his marines.
Granted, The Narrative is NOT the 40k GT. It is not meant to be uber competitive. But this was a good experience for me to see. I don't know if I will ever be able to embrace getting tabled though... I am just too damn competitive.
Luckily for me, something else happened. The new Space Marine codex came out!
I have decided to renew the project using the new SM codex, Black Templars in particular.
First, the army was designed to showcase an array of models. I wanted armor, a Storm Raven, a dread, assault marines, bikers, scouts and white painted Death company. That all holds true. But the Black Templars gives me a great solution to the problem I had before in that Blood Angels sucked.
First, why did they suck? The BA codex has almost zero long range shooting while focusing on assault as their strength. But assault is dead! And of course there are always exceptions and builds that are still good in assault, but it AINT the Blood Angels.
Why is the new codex now good? Well it fills some of the holes I had. Now I can play Thunder Fire cannons, and Centurian Devastator squads and all I really lose is a 5+ feel no pain bubble! But also I can put a captain on a bike and turn bikes into troops. Hell, I can put a captain on the table that is not a glorified sergeant! Etc etc. It may not be the best choice, but it is far better than what I had.
Here is loosely what I am thinking about building.
New Sm Codex 2k list.
Captain on a Bike
Emps Champion
Command Squad
all on bikes
apothecary with fist
champ
a grav gun or two
A crusade squad with 10 initiates and 5 neophytes
You see, I get to play my combat scouts!
A bike squad
A vanguard vet squad with jump packs
Another Vanguard vet squad with JP, only painted white posing as Death Co.
Storm Raven
Thunderfire Cannon x2
IG Allies:
Command squad
x2 vet squads
Vendetta
x2 Thudd Guns
Why the guard allies? Because I found those awesome Eizenkern storm trooper models and I want to use them! Plus I want the Vendetta and I maybe will even go for a Storm Talon.
So there you go!
No, this is not an uber competitive list and no I won't win any GT with it. BUT at least it is a legal list playable with what I wanted. Minus the dread of course. I cant bring myself to field any dread that is not a furioso.
Now I only hope Army Builder updates soon so I can finalize the points! Hate writing stuff down.
What options? Well Blood Angels allies of course. I can play Mephiston, an assault squad and a furioso. Can I put the Blood Angels dread in the Space Marine storm raven? That would seal the deal!
Jawaballs