Wahammer 40k blood angel tactics?

[swculver]

So I've never played Warhammer 40k, but I've watched a few games and decided to buy a Blood Angel army, I started out by buying two Death Company squads, The Sanguinor, Astorath the Grim, Terminator Assault Squad, Sanguinary Guard, a Crusader Land Raider, Stormraven Gunship, and a Whirlwind.

I'm looking for ideas on how to employ the troops I have so far. Also what upgrade and troop combinations might be good ideas. I might buy a chaplain and 2-3 Sanguinary Priests to intergrate into my troops. Also a maybe a Furioso dreadnoght or two, and Sternguard Veterans with combi melta and combi plasma upgrades.

[ElectricPaladin]

The first thing you need to do is decide which kind of Blood Angels army you want to build first. You'll probably eventually end up acquiring the models you need to switch back and forth, but when you first start a game it's important to get yourself ready with an army that can win you some games at the level you will play.

That said, here are the Blood Angels army themes as I see them:

* Descent of Angels: This is a foostslogging jump pack army that falls out of the sky. You need a LOT of assault marines with jump packs (do yourself a favor and magnetize the jump packs so you can use them as Razorback Assault Squads if you feel like it later). The strengths of this kind of army are that it's fun to play; there's nothing quite like watching your opponent turtle up his army because he's afraid of you. It's not a bad army, but my impressions is that it has a lot of weaknesses which stop it from being truly competitive at a really high level of play, not the least of which is that it involves a lot random chance. You will also have to paint a LOT of assault marines, which may be a plus if you like painting power armor. This build also has some bad matchups, as I learned when my opponent started playing a "Wall of Tanks" Imperial Guard army...

* Fast Mech: The Blood Angels have a special advantage where all their vehicles built on the Rhino chassis (Rhino, Razorback, Predator, Vindicator, Whirlwind) are Fast. Thus, you can build a mechanized Blood Angels force that can jet around the battlefield with hard-to-match flexibility. The advantage of this build is that it's probably the most competitive, and you get to mix up your power armor with some cool-looking tanks. The disadvantage is that everyone will look at you funny for being yet another razorspammer.

I also recommend buying the models that are special and specific to the Blood Angels: Furioso Dreadnoughts, Death Company boxes (also - they contain a lot of great bits you can use to make sure your "ordinary" marines look more like Blood Angels!), Stormravens, and Sanguinary Guard. The Sanguinary Guard models are particularly beautiful, in my opinion. These are good investments because codices will rise and codices will fall, but the stuff that makes Blood Angels special will probably always be worth fielding in some quantity.

Finally, I'd stay away from Sternguard Vets. They're not bad in a Blood Angels list - I've got some models built up to be fielded as Sternguard, myself - but they don't really add anything. The Blood Angels excel at assault. If you want to add covering fire to your Blood Angels list, I'd recommend something that also accomplishes something else. A tac squad, for example, can soften up enemies before an assault squad charges them, but they can also hold objectives. A conventional dreadnought can be configured for long, short, and medium range fire support, and it's also great at smashing things in melee.

[woodenronin]

I would suggest at least 1 tactical squad. I find myself filling at least 4 troop choices that can hold an objective.

[woodenronin]

Also welcome to the game.

[MaltonNecromancer]

Death Company are a bit of an awkward unit because they're just so damned expensive when you start to properly trick them out. Give them Jump Packs and you'll see what I mean. If you're going to run a Death Company, run it in a unit of no less than five to ensure survivability (because Feels No Pain is useful, but it doesn't confer invincibility), and make sure you either Deep Strike it so it can't get shot up while it goes berserk, or run it in a rhino so it can't go bananas until you want it to.

Death Company Dreads are fun, but they quickly become veeery expensive because of the Death Company boys you have to play to "unlock" them. However, dropped from the back of a Stormraven, they're really quite fun.

[swculver]

[QUOTE=ElectricPaladin;175590] * Descent of Angels: This is a foostslogging jump pack army that falls out of the sky. You need a LOT of assault marines with jump packs (do yourself a favor and magnetize the jump packs so you can use them as Razorback Assault Squads if you feel like it later). The strengths of this kind of army are that it's fun to play; there's nothing quite like watching your opponent turtle up his army because he's afraid of you. It's not a bad army, but my impressions is that it has a lot of weaknesses which stop it from being truly competitive at a really high level of play, not the least of which is that it involves a lot random chance. You will also have to paint a LOT of assault marines, which may be a plus if you like painting power armor. This build also has some bad matchups, as I learned when my opponent started playing a "Wall of Tanks" Imperial Guard army...


I like the 'decent of angels" ability. Speed and maveurability are what I want I think, but as far as troop choices, blood angel assault squads seam to be the only choice for jump infantry, and they don't seem to have great upgrade options... I like them though

[thecactusman17]

Don't bother with tactical squads. Your assault marines can take more tank-killing weapons and will fare much better in assault.

Remember, every powerfist in your Death Company should be carrying a regular bolter--the relentless means that Rapid Fire will increase your shooting potential and you'll never get the close combat bonus for a powerfist anyway.

I would not have recommended the Whirlwind, but it can be of use against hordes. Remember that there is no minimum range when you have direct LOS, and keep that thing zipping around the backfield.

A good option for the list expansion will be a Death Company Dreadnought, tossed into the Stormraven. Give it Blood Talons and you will chew through infantry every assault phase.

Until you have a dread, put the Terminators into the Stormraven. The extra mobility will help immensely. When you do have a dread, put them into the Land raider, so that your opponent has to deal with two hard to kill vehicles instead of one.

Finally two issues with your list:

You have no scoring units. This means that you have only one option for winning 2/3 of your games: wiping the other player off the board. This is a playable option, especially for Blood Angels, but be aware that you should be looking at every model to determine what it should be killing, both during your list construction and during the game. Picking up some regular assault marines will help you win the objective-based games. A squad of 9-10 with a Sanguinary Priest is hard to kill.

Sanguinor is a great model with one critical flaw: he cannot join other units. This is a common mistake new players make with him, so I'm warning you ahead of time. However, surrounding him with other units should give him a cover save in addition to other benefits. That also makes whatever surrounds him a high-priority target.

[swculver]

so what's the advantages and significance of the Blood Angels having Assault squads as troop choices, Land Raiders taken as dedicated transport, Dreadnoughts as Heavy support, and Death Company Dreadnoughts as troop choices?

What are usually the limits to troop, heavy support, vehicles, elites, and HQ choices? Is it decided upon by players beforehand? or by the rulebook?

[Silver Drakes Legion]

It's 2 HQ, 6 Troops, 3 Fast, 3 Elite, and 3 Heavy.
I personally love dante not his model but his rules makes jump lists fantastic not scattering means I can destroy their big threat squad or vehicle in a hail of inferno and melta.
Assault Squads give you a bolt pistol and chainsword which means you get an extra attack in close combat for having an extra weapon. Plus they carry no heavy weapon which means their is no reason not to move them unlike Tact squads which have rapid fire weapons and heavy weapons.
A storm raven is something you will want if you have close combat squad of Termies and a dreadnought with blood talons nothing is handling that with ease other then a large group of paladins. Stormravens can move 24 inches a turn and fire a weapon due to their rule. So you're not losing much it is a lot of points but well worth it.
Dreads are fun but the furiouso beats most when they have blood talons losing a point of armor in the front the death company trades it for an attack.

[thecactusman17]

As the name suggests, assault marines are significantly better in the assault phase with extra attacks and higher mobility. That does Mott mean that they can't also do a good job shooting things if they have the right weapons. Most marines only get tactical squads so they don't pack as much punch in the assault phase. Death Company turn that up to 11 but trade it for Rage, which severely reduces the amount of control you have over them. Use your two assault vehicles to get close before doing those directly in front of an enemy unit, do that he doesn't have s chance to move s vulnerable target p out of the way.