1500 BA (returning to game after LONG hiatus)

[Laertes' Folly]

Hey all. So I put down my miniatures, at the time I thought for good, way back in the day. I'm talking 3ed back in the day. I've rediscovered the little guys recently, and am thinking of taking another foray into the galaxy of chaos, destruction, and invulnerable saves. I'm afraid it seems I've chosen a pretty tumultuous time to return to the hobby, however, since 6ed seems to have shaken everything up pretty well. I've been silently stalking forums for a week or two now, here and over at dakka, and everyone is talking about flyers and changes from 5th. I never even played 4th, let alone fifth, so I'm way out of my element. I stopped when Tau was as newfangled as newfangled got. Anywhoo, I'm thinking of starting up a little Blood Angels army (love the fluff), scrubbing down my old models, repainting them, and picking up some new toys (I used to play generic codex marines). I've been trying to toss around a decent 1500 point list. Something more fun, but that might be able to win once or twice. i'm curious to see what y'all think, and how much the game has really changed.

What I'm thinking is:

Librarian w/ termie armor and ss

Sanguinary priest w/ jump pack x2

Assault squadx10 w/ 2 plasguns
Assault squadx10 w/2 plasguns
Death companyx10 w/ bolters and 2 pfs in drop pod
Death company dread in drop pod (with either blood claws or talons depending on the opponent - I'd magnetize the model)

Vidicator
Dakka Pred w/ storm bolter

Totals to 1470, giving me 30 points to toy with.

The plan is each assault squad gets its own sangpriest to tag along and the libby goes in the front of one of the squads to suck everything up. (2+/3++, plus the FnP, equals yay) He'd have to use Wings as one of his psychic powers to keep up, which I know is kind of limiting and not the most reliable. But I love the idea of him being, quite literally, a mobile fortress. The tanks obviously sit back and shoot things. First turn sees the dc drop and shoot some stuff, then charge in if still alive, which I hope they would be. Second turn the dread arrives if it can. Hopefully by then the enemy is pretty tied up with the rest of my force and can't dedicate all its fire to the dread.
I'm also contemplating chucking the tanks for a unit of sangguardx5, which would get its own jump sangpriest. I love the models, but taking that unit would mean the army would lack ANY firepower, which it's already not huge on.

Any thoughts or criticism (i.e. go back to not playing 40k, this list is trash :p) would be appreciated. Especially thoughts on whether the tanks have any place on this list. Thanks in advance :)

[Black Hydra]

I'm no Blood Angels player, but here is something for your tactical and comical enjoyment: http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Blood_Angels

If you don't enjoy curse words and certain ways of talking, still give it a read through. This is written by people who post on 4chan's /tg/ section after all. It still has very enlightening points. Unfortunately the 40k pages are currently being updated due to 6th's arrival. I don't think the BA section has been touched yet but still has useful information and is up to date with the latest codex anyway.

As for what you've got there I would probably drop the Sanguinary Priests. I read this from someone else and cannot remember for the sake of my life why he said that. I think it had something to do with FNP being reduced but that doesn't sound completely right. So if you can find a good reason not to include them, it's probably the one he said.

On a more useful note, 2 things. First check out the Death Company entry in that link I posted. It talks about Lemartes and using a Stormraven as a transport. Seems pretty good to me. Second, Predators are really good. That front armor 13 is tough to crack. But if you're going with an infantry killing Pred, might as well go with the Baal version. Absolute monster.

Well hope that helps somewhat and welcome back.

[ElectricPaladin]

I think you're really asking for trouble with your lone librarian. Sure, it's unlikely, but a lucky lascannon shot (or something similar) can still wipe him out. If it's Str 8 or higher, it will cause Instant Death and therefore ignore his Feel No Pain. Not only will that lucky lascannon/railgun/whatever shot deprive you of an expensive model, in the new edition there are "secondary objectives," worth a victory point, one of which is "kill the opponent's warlord," aka: highst Ld model. That's your libby, and in your list he's low-hanging fruit.

My advice is to turn him into a jump librarian instead. That way, you have the option of air-dropping him as a member of one of the Assault squads. Reserves became much more reliable in the new edition (3+ on Turn 2, auto-arrive on Turn 4), though don't forget, you can't reserve more than half your army (rounded up).

Also, I'd recommend against elements of your list being "depending on your opponent." That's called list-tailoring, and it's considered cheating at most FLGSs. I know you're coming back after a long hiatus. Maybe things were different in your day. If you follow this advice bit, it'll spare you some misery, controversy, and other bad things ending in "y."

[Laertes' Folly]

Thanks for the advice d00ds. And thanks for the tip on the list tailoring thing - I wasn't aware of that. I didn't anticipating changing the bits in front of someone's nose, I meant more like if I knew ahead of time a guy I was playing usually brought nids, for example, I'd figure the blood talons into the list. Is that still a no-no?
And I think I wasn't clear on the librarian. I wouldn't be putting him alone, lone-wolf style, in front of the unit. He would go in the unit, but be positioned towards the front. That way he'd benefit from LoS and such. And if there are scary lascans and stuff abound I could throw a guy or two in front of him. Would you still just recommend against him having that setup, period? Surprisingly, termie armor and ss are only 20 points more than jump pack...

[Black Hydra]

Actually list tailoring isn't really considered cheating unless you're at a tourney or completely rebuilding your list after you showed your opponent the previous one. I do it to a minimal extent. Why bring something that won't help me? So I wouldn't consider it cheating. Unless it's the extreme example I just gave you.

Using LoS is always a good idea. I don't know how the dynamics of BA's would work, but it sounds solid.

[Luvz2Sp00g3]

Maybe try out Corbulo instead/ as well as Librarian? 2+ FnP with your Librarian and a squad to back them up with Look out Sirs?

Also, Flyers are where its at in 6th Ed!!! I can DEFINITELY recommend a Stormraven....or even 2.

Anyways, just sum thoughts for you!