Warhammer 40k Blood Angels: Baal Predator Tactics

Ok, well, Blood Angels are known for their fast attack and furious assaults. SO, when answering the questions concerning what sort of armour should a Blood Angels army include... there is really only one answer. It is NOT the Land Raider. In my opinion Land Raiders have nothing to do with Blood Angels what so ever. They are slow, big and clunky. No my friends, the choice is simple. The Baal Predator. Allow me to introduce, again, this marvel of Blood Angels technology.

First of all, The Baal is a tank based on the Predator design of Space Marine tanks that only the Blood Angels have access to. It comes with a Turret Mounted, Twin Linked assault cannon. It has weapon options too. It make add a Storm Bolter, and side sponson weapons. Heavy Flamers, or Heavy Bolters. It may also add a Hunter Killer Missle. The fire power that this tank can lay down is tremendous! When taking the Heavy Bolters, and Storm Bolter options, you can pump out 12 shots at a target. I once used my ball against a squad of Guardians with a Warlock, and killed the entire squad, except for the Warlock who made his invul save. (and then killed the Baal with his Singing spear but that is another story) The fact that is almost all non power armor models will be denied armor saves against the Baal Preds guns. Its a great Ork Killer! The assault cannon is str 6 and the heavy bolers are str 5, so they will most likely wound as well. Add the missle launcher and you can drop a small template, increasing the wounds by as many as you can hit... could be 10+ if they are packed. That could be 22 wounds dealt by the tank. No one expects that kind of fire power that does not play against BA regularly so do not hesitate to unleash that hell whenever you can.

Another suprising aspect of the BP is that it is a Fast Vehicle on a roll of 4+. That means that the BP may move a maximum speed of 18", may move 12 and stil fire a gun, and may move 6" and still fire ALL of its guns. Yes, that's right... the BP may move from behind a wall, and fire off every gun it has at an unsuspecting squad hiding behind cover. Without a doubt, every opponent you play will gasp at the pure torrent of fire the BP will unleash, and be prepared to read the rules to them, several times. Keep that ace in your pocket for when you need it most... meaning, dont use the fast vehicle option until you have a whole squad under your guns, and out of cover. Then light them up!

Other options:

It does not have much. It comes with a searchlight and smoke. Buy it Extra Armor, always. It will draw fire, and being able to reduce shakens to stuns will ensure that you can get away if you need to by moving 18 inches to safety.

How to use a Baal Predator:

It lacks the tank killing power of a LR or Pred Anhialator. It is NOT a tank killer, dont even try to waste your Assault Cannon shots hoping to get lucky. It might be ok at popping armor 10 vehicles, but to fire on them is a waste of this machines power. The exception, is squads of speeders. If you can get a squad of 3 speeders under your guns, take the chance. Especially since they will probably have meltaguns and will zap the BP next turn any way. Your Assault Cannons can hurt them on 4s and rend, while your heavy bolters can hurt on 5s and the storm bolter on 6s.

The main purpose of the BP is to work as infantry or armor support. Using it together with a Vindicator is devastating. Or, use it as a tank killing group by teaming it with an attack bike with Multi Melta. The bike can move up behind the BP, free of Line of Sight. At the last minute, the bike pops out from behind the BP moving 12", then fires its multi melta at tanks within 12", getting a Str 8, ap 2 shot +2d6. Yup, the attack bike has a TWO FOOT threat range to knock out any tank in the game with ease. This 50 point model makes the Baal Pred that much more devastating.

Heavy Flamer sponsons? I don't suggest them. It will be rare indeed that you get the chance to lay one of them onto a squad, even more rare that you get to use two... that means you are wasting a sponson. You can move that thing up 12" and drop the HF template on a squad, but a land speeder is better at that by far. Dont bother.

Speaking of Land Speeders, if you want to seriously make a trio of death, take the above mentioned Tank Killer combo of BP and AB, then add a Land Speeder with Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer and Typhoon Missle Launcher! (yes you can add all 3) Use the BP as moving cover and move the fast attack up behind it to leap out and strike. They have speed, fire power, and when used properly are simply devastating to mech infantry and armored companies. Use the attack bike to pop a Chimera full of pesky Karskrin, then light them up with the BP and Speeder!

Don't leave your Baal isolated. Its strength is in its support factor. Keep it with advancing assault troops, or foot slogging Tacticals. It's versatile speed make it able to support either type of infantry equally.

So there you go! Don't be afraid to play the Baal Pred. Combine it with Fast Attack fire power, and supporting infantry, and you have a huge mobile fire base. Use its smoke launchers to get from cover to cover, and tandem it with a Furioso Dread to truely scare the crap out of your opponent. Have fun!

Happy Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving every one. :)

Warhammer 40k: Questions

Here is a question from a subscriber to my Youtube videos:

Re: Re: Which to choose Well now that im set up i kind of know what army style i want.... i want a hit and run style with speed bikes and fall back to were there is heavy guns, i was wondering if this tactic would work at all?

Answer:

It seems that in 5th edition that tactic works great, especially in "Kill Point" missions. Take attack bikes and skimmers and some long range fire support. Zap some squads to take a lead in Kill Points, then turbo boost yourself all over the place and stay out of range! Its cheezy, but it works, and won Fritz and Myself a doubles tournament. Frankly I would rather face an army that has a logical and decent list based on background fluff that uses cheeze tactics then a cheezed out list that just relies on exploits in the rules to win. (Ork armies with 2 nob bike squads and a warboss in each)

How to Paint Space Marine DVDs now available in Full DVD format.

Now my painting tutorial DVDs are available in a Full DVD format that can be viewed on any Region 1 DVD player on a TV. Find my paypal link and place your order.

Battle for Salvation Doubles November 22, 2008

On November 22, 2008, Fritz from Way of Saim Hann and Jawaballs teamed up to enter the Battle for Salvation 40 Doubles Tournament. We had been planning for months to do just that, but our plans were crushed just one week earlier at the Grand Tournament doubles. We arrived there with hopes of glory and loot only to be beaten badly in all 3 of our games. So we made changes, adjusted our list and rearranged our goals. We decided that we wanted to take Best Painted for sure, so set up our list to go for it. I played my Blood Angels and decided to put all of my very best painted models in the army, with little regard to army composition. I dropped all of my jump packs and remodeled my Assault, Death Company and Honor Guard squads. I dropped the Baal and took the Vindicator and I put in the Rhino. Two of my nicest models. I also went with my Attack Bike and Land Speeder. I dropped Dante and went with just Corbulo. Fritz went with his usual makeup, but went all jet bikes, seer council, vypers and prism cannon.

I our opinion, our army was weak and we were going to play for fun. We would face a lot of Ork Nob Bikers, cheezed out storm shield biker marines, and chaos lashes. Our pretty little army could stand little chance... could it???

Game 1:
BA and SH vs Orks and Daemons

This army scared us from the start. We were looking at two full boy squads with missles, big shooters and every thing else, a full squad of lootas, and a 6 or 7 man Nob Biker squad with Painboy and Warboss. The Daemons had two big walky thingies that look like mutated crabs, a huge daemon bitch, and several squads of deep striking daemons who had ap3 flamers! Gulp...

Our plan? Make them take the fight to us. We deployed our forces defensivly. We set up the Vindicator in cover where it had fireing solutions over 3 of the objecvtives, plus the far enemy edge. We put my tac squad right on an objective and the Vindicator was contesting one. We went first, and our first round of shots hurt. The vindicator lined up an ork boy squad that was not in cover, and killed 6. Then the vypers and my tacticals shot up the Lootas, killing all but 1! The orks took a beating! But we knew more were coming, lots more. On their turn, a gutsy Daemon player would deep strike right into the heart of our forces. He landed a squad of the mean bitches right next to my Vindicator. He landed his two mutated defilers as well, one landed close to us, and the other landed on top of a large ruined building. (this would turn out to be its salvation because it made cover saves against no less then 6 melta shots.) The big crabs fired and killed a few of my Tacticals with AP weapons, but that was all. The Daemons had no assault for turn 1 ended.

Turn two opened up with us pumping more shots into the orks, I landed another solid shot with the Vindicator killing 5 more, and we put the rest of our shots on the daemon squad trying to kill it. They had a homing beacon. After all of our shooting, one lived... :( The daemons were going to land in our midst. The Seer Council would assault one of the crabs and kill it. My Furioso advanced slowly through craters, right for the remaining lootas and nearby boys.

On their turn, they came down with some pain. A daemon squad with ap3 flamers dropped right on top of my honor guard, and torched 4 of them. Corbs and the power fist lived. The ork nob squad came on from reserves as well as another boy squad. ALl of their forces were in. Their remaining crab was having a tough time getting off the top floor of the building. But it was keeping it alive thanks to cover saves...my attack bike and speeder were unloading on it.

Turn three would see my Furioso get in range to cook the last of the lootas with his flamer. My death company, corbulo, and assault squad on foot would come in and wipe out all of the daemons in our line. The Vindicator would land it third straight shot, this time right on the ork nob squad, killing 3 of them including the warboss and painboy! You cant ask for more then that from a tank that is usually popped in turn 1. The Seer Council, flank around to line up the orks.

On the enemy turn, they popped my Furioso with a lucky missle shot, and advanced their remaining nobs to assault my Vindicator, popping its two guns. They would claim an objective with daemons and try to hunker down and hold.

Turn four would see us change gears. We were now going to attempt to prep for a turn 5 end. A bike squad was put in place to claim an objective, the seer council finished off the nobs. The speeder would ignore the crab an fire on the daemons to little effect. Corbs would lead the death company, power fist, and assault squad all up to climb into the rhino that was sitting in cover on an ojective, thus securing it. The enemy would forget that troops were inside on turn 5...

The orks advanced to make a run for an objective, and the other boy squad would try to hold the one they had. The daemons hunkered down in cover to keep theirs and the crab would finally make it down to the ground floor.

Turn Five would prove to be the last round. The Seer council shot up then assaulted the first ork boy squad, killing them all and rooting them out of an objective. The orks were left with just one boy squad. We sent a guardian biker squad to claim an objective, moved the speeder to contest against the daemons and dug in. At the end of our turn, we held 3, and contested 2. They held none and were in contest for one.

On theier turn, the orks would assault the guardian bikers and kill them to the last. They claimed the objective. Fritz should have moved his Prism tank up onto the objective as well, brain fart. But that would be all they could muster. The crab got out of the building, but failed to beat my speeder off their objective. The end of turn 5 would leave us in control of 2, contesting 2 and them in control of 1 and contesting 1. I would take the honor of rolling the die to end the game on turn 5... the result??? a single pip. a one. victory.

We scored 11 of 13 battle points in a game that we expected none. This would prove to be the trend of the day for us...

Next opponent: A space marine army made up of Pedro Cantor with terminators riding in a Prometheus tank, and Black Templars with their own Land Raider and lots of foot sloggers. We would be hard pressed to score any points in this game.

More to come...

New Blogs! Check out my two new blogs as I expand to other projects

Yup, you guessed it! I am working on two new projects. Vampire Counts and Iyanden Eldar. Here are the links:

Vampire Counts

Craftworld Iyanden

Enjoy!

Grand Tournament Summary

First of all, I want to say I had a great time at the GT and I learned a LOT about the game, most good, some bad. I will be posting a series of updates and posts this week, battle reports, praises and rants! First though, I will discuss Players Choice. It is something I need to get off my chest and be done with. I went to the GT with the goal of winning Players Choice. Yes, I know, lofty indeed. I had several things against me, first of all, my inexperience. It was my first GT! I didn't win of course, and yes, I was quite let down. But I learned several things. First of all, size doesnt matter. I painted a HUGE banner, and my brother and I made my case from wood. It was huge, clunky and heavy. It caught attention and pushed me into the upper realms of contention for PC, but in the end, the guy who won had a simple small display. Second, my terrain modeling sucks. My display looked half rate to the guy who won. His was simply beautiful. I will discuss his entry later.

To sum it up, I did a lot of politicing and hand shaking. But it wasnt forced, most of the guys I spoke to were truely good people and I was happy to have met them. I know for sure that I had at least 6 votes, and last year my buddy Matt won PC with 8. So I want to thank all of you who voted for me! I will try to do better next year.

On to next year. I discussed this with Fritz all the way home. (four hours) We planned out my entry for 2009 GT. Basicly, I am going to start from the display and work my way up. My preliminary idea is going to be the Invasion of the Iyanden Craft World by Hive Fleet Kraken. (was it bohemouth?) I will be painting my Iyanden of course. I plan on using LED, music and making it a truely interactive dislay complete with button activated sound effects and animatronic action. I will probably start a new blog to chronicle this endeavour. More to come!

I am working on battle reports and other stuff. Stay tuned.

Update from Grand Tournament

Well, it is the morning of day 2 of the Grand Tournament in Baltimore. Friday night, Fritz and I got rocked in the doubles tournament. It seens our egos were bigger then our guns. But we learned a lot! In the first day of the tournament, I did'nt do too bad. I scored 10 out of 20 battle points in game one with a draw down the middle from a game that ended on turn 5. Had the game gone another turn, it would have been mine. Plus, the guy shot and killed a single marine holding an objective with his last shot of the game. Great game Dale! I scored 20 points in game two with a crushing victory over a competitor from Brothers Grim, and in game 3 I got rocked by an Ork army and scored 4 points. After 3 games, I have 34 battle points and Fritz has 40. I will post pics, video and full battle reports as I find time. I am optimistic about my chances for Players Choice and Best Appearence. Wish me luck! jawaballs

The Greatest Battle of All Time: BA/SH vs Nids/Chaos

So good ole Fitz and I teamed up in our last practice game for the GT doubles tournament last night against our two buds who will also be there. We crushed a large Ork Nob/boys army the other night, and last night we wanted to throw ourselves against what we considered to be one of the hardest opponents we will face.

Enemy:
Sorcerer with lash
10 noise marines,
3 olbiterators
2 rhinos
10 berzerkers
Winged Hive Tyrant with Devourers
3 full Genestealer squads
3 warriors with some gun and rending shots

Valiant forces:
Dante
Honor Guard with Banner, PW, PF, Flamer
RAS
DC x2
Furioso, DC, Ven, Dread with HF
Farseer jacked out
Seer Council of 5 or 6 Warlocks with Spears
5 man Jetbike squads x2


I think that was it.


So, deployment was Dawn of War, and 50% of the table. We won the roll and elected to let our opponent deploy first. The mission was loot counters which ended up placed in a diamond in the center of the board.

The game started out VERY badly for us. Fearing a LOT of shots turn one, we only deployed Dante and some bikes behind cover. We forgot about DoW. Enemy deployed with their oblits in one corner and the rest of their force in the middle or on the other side.

Turn One:
Enemy is unable to shoot at our squads. They move and brace. Our guys come on, most of them deploy on the weak side of the enemy, away from Oblit fire. This sadly left Dante and the 10 bikers alone on the right. Dante rallied them and infused them with the Blood of Sanguinius. While they wanted to flee, he convinced them to Charge for the glory of their ancestors. They leapt out of cover and went straight for the nearest squad of Stealers. Dante chose to run to get closer and did not fire his perdition pistol. The Eldar shots from the bikes failed to do any real damage. Dante frowned in dismay as only one Genestealer died in front of him. He was not leading marines it seams after all. On the left flank, the Farseer ordered the Blood Angels to engage the Stealers. She promised her councils support if the marines failed to reduce the stealers with pistol fire. Sadly only 2 stealers died while the marines lined up on the edge of the terrain that the bugs were hiding in. When they looked back to the Farseer for support where was she? Watching out for her own butt by attempting to take out the Hive Tyrant. Her mind war fizzled and their spears bounced off its thick hide. Now the Blood Angels were left to face a Stealer Charge and the Eldar were about to be charged by a pissed off Tyrant. In the assault, on the right side, the bikers manged to use the size of their vehicles to their advantage. They managed to get into assault against the stealers. But the one bike that got in crashed against some rocks in the terrain and died...(rolled a 1) The left flank forces were not in range for assaults so they simply had to brace for impact.


Turn 2:
The battle with the stealers on the right flank would start to turn really ugly. The Sorcerer would lash the bikers into a clump surrounding Dante. The stealers moved around to get out of the way. The oblits would fire all they could at Dante and his clustered and whimpering Xenos allies, they do fear the plasma. After all the shots the only wound was one against Dante himself. He stepped in front of a plasma shot to save an Eldars frail life. The Lord of the Blood Angels was wounded. The cluster would take some more shots from the nids. Dante suffered the indignity of his Artificer armor being pierced by a lowly tyranid weapon. Wounded twice and facing certain death, he let the Black Rage consume him. The tyrant fired at the Council killing one. The Enemy assault left the genestealers charging one of the bike squads on the right. Dante's Death Mask exerted its power over them, if nothing else giving the Eldar some confidence, a placebo effect. The assaulted squad managed to kill some of the nids but was killed. On the left flank, the Tyrant charged the Council and the stealers charged the BA RAS trying to knock out my troops squad. They had to assault through cover and that gave my boys a chance, but the Sgt. and 3 of his men fell leaving 4 stealers. The tyrant killed a couple of Warlocks and they wounded it in return. Our turn 2 shooting was minimal. Dante looked over his shoulder at the wide eyed and terrorized Eldar who remained and said to them "Men, these are the moments that make us great. These are the moments that distinguish us from mere mortals." He looked at one in particular and touched him on the shoulder, infusing him with the warmth of the Sanguinius. Clearly Dante thought he was speaking to his battle brothers 10 thousand years passed. He was caught up in the moment of the defense of Terra. He WAS Sanguinius. The Black Rage had taken him. With a nod to the bugs he ordered his men to finish this, then ignited his Jump Pack. Some rocks dislodged as he left the ground, but he did not faulter. He landed mere feet from the Noisemarines, and burned one with his Perdition Pistol. The remaining jetbikers, now led by the Blood Touched jetbiker basking in the glory of Sanguinius, fired on the Genestealers and prepared for assault. On the left flank, there was no shooting to be had. The Furioso Dread saw that he had to save the Farseer so moved to support and Veteran Ren of the Honor Guard realised that the RAS had the vital equipment needed to secure the objective. They assaulted the Stealers but were not quick enough to save the remaining RAS marine. The stealers died under their blades. The Furioso charged the Tyrant and popped it's with his powerful claws. Spattering green blood in the face of the Farseer who thanked him for her life. "It is my duty to protect the weak my lady." The Marine forces would massacre roll towards the enemy lines and the Eldar would fall back, of course. On the right side, Dante would charge the 10 Noisemarines. 6 died to the Axe of Mortalis, but sadly one of them managed to slip a blade through his armor. Dante lay still as the black rage washed over him and he assumed his well earned spot at the right of his Primarch in the battle of eternity. Spured on by their commanders valiant stand, the lowly jetbike guardians charged the genestealers. The battle would come down to 2 bikers and 2 stealers exchanging blows in an even fight. What a day when two Eldar can stand toe to toe with the mightiest of the Tyranid assault forces and call the fight even! It must have been the power of Sanguinius indeed.

Turn 3:
The 2nd left flank stealer squad that was held in reserve now charged for the Furioso. The warriors, seeing their Tyrant fall, moved in for the kill against the council trying to shoot them down. The remaining noise marines would move for an objective and the oblits would move to get into fireing position. The Berzerkers hiding in their Rhino moved back to attempt to claim an objective and the Sorcerer inside his rhino moved up, but his powers were thwarted by the Farseers runes. The nids killed off the last of the Warlocks with their shots. In the assault, the stealers had just enough reach to get into grips with the Furioso. They suffered 6 deaths but failed to scratch through his armor. The bikers locked with the stealers would all miss each other.

On our shooting the two Death Company moved to stand in front of the Farseer, seeing her as a glorious chaplain on a marine bike fighting for the defense of the Emperor. They would fire their pistols at the Nid Warriors then assault them. The HG moved up to assault the stealers who were on the Furioso. He stealers failed to wound it again, and then they died to the Vets swords. The Farseer found some minerals deep inside and decided to join the DC in the assault on the Warriors, the bugs would not last long.

Turn 4:

The HG and Furioso would advance to get into range for an assault the next turn. The obliterators fired at the Furioso and blasted his arm off. The Berzerks drove their rhino over an objective to claim it while the sorcerer was shut down again by the Eldar Runes. In the Enemy assault, the 2 stealers squared off against 2 bikers, each would claim a kill, leaving 1 vs 1. The warriors fell to the DC and Farseer, leaving her unengaged to move and the DC able to redirect and go for the sorcerer. The BA forces moved up to prep for the final assault against the berzerkers who were hiding in their transport. Sadly though, the Furioso's meltagun was now destroyed, they were not quite sure how they would pop that nutt open.

Turn 5:

The enemy shooting was minimal. The dread took some shots but suffered only a stun. The chaos forces were content to hide and fire their transports guns. The sorcerer was shut down by the Runes yet again and they seemed to think that they had the battle well in hand. They controlled 2 objectives, their last genestealer was about to kill the last of the Eldar troops, and the marines had no way to kill the berzerkers in their transport. In the assault, the last Genestealer fought against the last Eldar Biker, the one graced by the touch of Dante. The stealer hit him but his claws only raked a gash into the chasis of the bike. With his final gasp of strength, the biker managed to head butt the stealer, stunning him. The stealer would stumble and crack his head open on a rock... The victorious biker would take the opportunity to run and hide behind cover.

On our movement phase, the Farseer was inspired by Dante's faith in the Emperor. If only she could have faith in such as cause... any cause... "Why not let it be the Humans?" She ordered the marine forces to take and hold. The veterans moved up and contested the objective held by the cowering berzerkers. The Furioso and DC moved up to try to pry the sorcerer out of his shell. She turbo boosted her bike to contest the objective held by the noise marines, and yes, the valiant biker, glowing with the blood of Sanguinius, moved to take an objective. At the end of turn 5 we held an objective, and the two held by the enemy were contested.

The fate of the battle would fall to the hands of our enemy, and Chaos. With faith in the fact that the will of the Emperor protects, we asked The Warmaster to roll the die. With a snicker of glee, he tossed the cube into the air, letting it fall where it would. The result? a "2". The game would end at the end of turn 5. The combined Saim Hann and Blood Angel forces would snap VICTORY from the maw of Chaos.

This was the best game of 40k I have played yet. It was all around fun and ended with an epic climax! It looked like we were to be driven from the board in 3 turns and almost threw in the towel but decided to keep at it because we had a chance to tie. Well, this just goes to show that you never know. The Emperor Protects.

Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Saim Hann Seer Council

So Fritz and I played a game last night. I used my BA GT list, inlcluding my new Speeder and Attack Bike. Fritz used his Saim Hann force that he plans on playing at the GT. It was more of just a friendly game so we werent really focusing on killer strategy, but the short of it is that I completely cut him down like the lapdog he is. By turn 5 he had his Fire Prizm and 1 vyper. I had lost a Dev Combat Squad, my RAS and Dante (cheap mind war). We were playing Kill Points so the game was very much over. His mistake was to lead the charge with his seer council while protecting his bikes behind cover. He should have done the reverse. Provide me with a juicy target that I cannot pass up by putting his bike squads in range, and flank with his seer council. He left them in the open though, relying on his invul/cove saves. Sadly though I pumped a LOT of firepower into him, and when he is rolling 10 saves at a time, he is going to roll some 1's. By the time they got into assault, there was only 3 left. They used Mind war on Dante killing him, but the Honor Guard finished them off fairly easily, then went on to kill two more squads. Actually the HG was having trouble with the Farseer who was the last one, but then a squad of bikes jumped into the assault to try to save her. I wounded her, won combat, and they failed morale... The Farseer and the bikes were cut down. Fritz, never assault a Blood Angels Honor Guard with guardian bikers. So that was about it. My speeder spent most of the game stuned because Fritz tried franticly to knock it out. But finally it managed to get into range and it popped a transport with its melta. The attack bike sped all over the place as well, and zoomed into cover to pop a shot at a vyper and exploded it. Two Death Company charged a squad of Guardians hiding in a building and ate their livers with a nice Chianti. The dreads mopped up the Vypers. Fun game Fritz!

More Blood Angels pics: New land Speeder

Here is my new Speeder! I have to paint the base and the underside of it, I will try to get that done tonight. So Little time! I have barely started working on my display... My case is built and it looks fantastic, now I have to paint Blood Angels icons on it and some gold edging. My attack bike is justabout done too. So much to do! Keep watching, more to come.

Battle Report from DocRailgun

A frequent reader and content submitter played a game and submitted this battle report. Thanks Doc! Great stuff. Keep it coming, and next time send me some digipics so I can post them for you.

From DocRailgun:

Recently I played my Blood Angels in the last week of our league
against a Tau opponent I had played before.

My army:
A jump Chaplain with 4 Death Company
2 10-man Tactical Squads with flamers, plasma cannons, and power
weapons, both with Rhinos
a 10-man Assault squad with a power fist in a Rhino (no jump packs)
a DC Furioso
a MM Dreadnought
a Whirlwind
a Baal Predator w/ heavy bolter sponsons
an attack bike w/ a multimelta

The foul Xenos:
a commander in a crisis suit with two bodyguards
3 Fire Warrior squads
2 squads of Stealth suits
a large squad (20?, more?) Kroot and some Kroot Hounds
A squad of Sniper drones

We rolled Dawn of War (table halves) and one objective each. His
objective was placed in woods about 6-8 inches from the center line of
the board and about 8 inches from the edge. Mine was placed just
outside of a copse of trees in the opposite corner near my table edge.

I deployed my two tactical squads right on the edge of my deployment
zone near the Tau objective, the Tau deployed Fire Warriors some
distance back, his HQ unit near his objective, and his Kroot around my
objective.

The highlight of the game was at the beginning of the first turn, when
my CHaplain, DC and DC Furioso (which had 6 attacks that round)
charged the mass of Kroot and caused 15 wounds to 1 in return. The
Kroot ran and were cut down. I had thought that I was in trouble
there, as the terrain near my objective made it impossible for me to
deploy my assault squad on the first turn, but it turned out that I
didn't need them to combat the Kroot.

My plasma cannons and Whirlwind as usual made short work of the
enemies of the Emperor, especially the squishy non-mechanized Fire
Warriors. The Baal's massive firepower (especially combined with
overcharged engines) tore apart Stealth suit squads. My enemy spent
most of his early game trying to kill my empty (and mostly useless)
Rhinos while my plasma cannons whittled down his squads.

His last unit (the drones) made it on the board on turn 5, but were
charged by the packless Assault squad and wiped out. I controlled his
objective and contested my own with a Rhino. 7 brave Marines, one
Death Company brother-Marine and the attack bike died, while his
entire force fell.

Things I learned (but which I mostly already knew):
Tau like to shoot at fast-moving things. My Rhinos and attack bike
were prime targets, while my tactical squads that were doing all the
damage were mostly ignored early in the game.

Crisis suits should not get in close-combat, especially not with 10
Marines. One suit died to bolter fire, and the other two (including
his commander) died over two more rounds.

Overcharged engines are very useful, if only to be able to readjust
the Baal's facing to be able to bring all weapon systems to bear on a
target.

It is not important what individual models can do in close combat, but
what squads can do to other squads. A Dreadnought, 4 Marines and a
Chaplain wiped out a squad 4-6 times its own size because the Marines
didn't take many wounds (and had Feel No Pain). Certainly my side had
a lot of attacks, but so did the Kroot. I was able to make my 3+ saves
and they were not able to make their armor saves.

Seeming aggressive is as good as being aggressive. Two of my three
Rhinos spent all game being annoying trying to tank shock the Tau
units for no good reason (and never succeeded), yet they drew fire for
several turns away from my tactical squads which rained plasma death
on the enemy.

BS4 and templates mean lots of hits. This is important, as people seem
to be leaving the tanks at home, and even Marines don't like plasma
blasts.

Twin-linked assault cannons, two heavy bolters, and a pintle-mounted
bolter is a lot of firepower, especially when it can move 6" and still
alpha strike.

So, in closing... Blood Angels still rock, even without special
characters being allowed in a league. They're possibly even better in
a character-less environment than a number of other armies. My Marines
went 3-2-2 in their battles against the foes of Mankind.