Blood Angels

Long time followers of my blog (Hi Mum!!) will know I had a huge Blood Angels army back in 5th edition. Firstly I ran a full Jump Pack Descent of Angels army, and then a triple Stormraven army with added Dreadnoughts. However, at the end of 7th I sold all of it to finance my Genestealer Cult army. Kinda regret that now!!

Anyway - I love the new Codex, particularly the Strategems, which I think allow you to play the army like it should be played (fast and deadly!). And I need an army for the GT final (I would play Harlies if I thought the Codex would be out by then, but I doubt it). So, I’ve been furiously painting Blood Angels and trying to work out the best build. OK, maybe not the best build, but the best version of the build I want to play.

What i would like is an army that hits hard out of deep strike, that is all or nothing, a bit like my old drop pod army was. The core of the army will be a 15 man Death Company unit backed up by Lemartes, and a 10 man Sanguinary Guard unit. I need to build around that.

There are 2 things I think the army needs - fire support and command points. 

As for Fire Support the key thing is clearing bubble wrap. The big problem with trying to charge stuff out of deep strike is when your opponent wraps his important units with chaff. You come in, kill the chaff, and then have your 300pts Death Company unit murdered by stuff hiding behind the bubble wrap. I used to do this all the time with Kroot when I played a Tau gunline army. If the fire support can kill other stuff reliably, that’s a bonus, but the DC and SG are pretty deadly.

My first thought was 3 units of devastations with 3 Heavy Bolters, a Laz Cannon and a Cherub. However I found them too static, and often out of position. I needed something more flexible. My next thought was a Guard Brigade with 6 units of deep striking Scions toting Plamsa Guns, with a bunch of mortars in heavy support. I haven’t tried this yet (the Scions and mortars are still on my workbench waiting to be built). Finally, my latest revelation (!) was Primaris Inceptors. They bring a huge amount of dakka, in a far more flexible “package” than Devistators, and point for point are more efficient. The downside of course is their short range - but I want them up close and personal. 

As for Command Points, the army is really CP hungry. What makes the army tick are its Strategems, particularly Descent of Angels (2CPs to allow a 3d6 charge), and on Wings of Fire (1CP to reposition any JUMP PACK unit). I initially ran a BA Brigade, which was OK, but believe it or not, I found 12 CP’s too few. I was spending 1- 4 CP’s pre game to upgrade Captain Jump Smash into a Death Company Captain, and hand out some extra Relics, and then up to 7 on turn one, moving Captain Jump Smash before turn one, giving him d3 extra attacks, and making him attack twice to kill the biggest scariest thing on the board. And that was before bringing in the Death Company and using Descent of Angels to charge stuff. So, by the end of turn one I could have spent all my CPs.

So I started thinking about alternatives, which brought me to taking a Guard Brigade with BA Battalion for 15 CPs, and then making a Guard Company Commander my warlord, giving him Grand Strategist, and Khurov’s Aquila. By doing this, every time I spend a CP I get it back on a 5+, and every time my opponent uses a Strategem I get an additional CP on a 5+. And with that many CP’s sloshing around, spending one to give a BA character the Veritas Vitia would mean that if I use a 1 CP strategem I throw 2 dice to get a 5+, or if I use a 2CP strategem I throw 3. 

So the 2 lists I’m toying with are

Company Commander (Warlord - Khurov’s Aquila, Grand Strategist)

Tempestor Prime

Tempestor Prime

5 Tempestus Scions, 2 Plamsa Guns, Plasma Pistol x 6

Cyber Wolves x3

Inquisitorial Acolytes x3

Mortars x3

Captain, Jump Pack Thunder Hammer

Lemartes

Librarian, Jump Pack

5 Scouts x3

15 Death Company, 3 Thunder Hammers

10 Sanguinary Guard (swords)

Mortars and the Scions provide the fire support for the DC and the SG. Mortars clear bubble wrap and Scions clear more substantial stuff. It starts with 15 CP’s and on average dice should get 7 or so back during the course of the game (depending on how many my opponent has). 

The other list is

Dante

Lemartes

Sanguinor

3 x 5 Scouts

4 Inceptors, Bolters

4 Inceptors, Bolters

4 Inceptors, Bolters

Company Commander (Warlord - Khurov’s Aquila, Grand Strategist)

4 Acolytes (just here to give me enough units on the board so I can hold everything else in reserve)

Not sure about Dante. He’s there primarily to buff the Inceptors when they come in, and then jump across to support the Sanguinary Guard. Full re-rolls rather than re-rolling ones is good, but is it worth 100pts over Captain Jump Smash? Also not sure about the Sanguinor. He’s there to give the Guard +1 attack (which they really need IMO), but a cheap Libby with Unleash Rage can do the same thing (although not as reliably). If I replace Dante with Captain Jump Smash, and the Sanguinor with a Libby i have points to get more Inceptors and a truly terrifying amount of dakka. 

Thoughts?