Lists of the near future?

Here is some more from DocRailgun!

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One of the interesting things about the Blood Angel Codex is that a number of useful (we won't say "competitive", because that means a certain something in the 40K world) lists are possible even under 2000 points.

In 1850 points it's very easy to field lists such as these:
- a "Razor Rush" list meant to get in close combat in the relative safety of Fast Razorbacks -
HQ - Mephistion
Elite - 4 Sanguinary Priests with no upgrades
Troops - 5 x 5-man Assault Squads with a melta and a power sword in a Heavy Flamer-armed Razorback
Fast Attack - 2 x Baal Predators with heavy bolter sponsons, storm bolters and extra armor
Heavy Support - 2 x Autocannon Predators with lascannon sponsons and dozer blades

- a shooty mechanized list -
HQ - 2 basic Librarians with The Blood Lance and The Sanguine Sword
Troops - 5 x 5-man Assault squads with a melta and a power sword in a Twin-linked Lascannon-armed Razorback
Fast Attack - 2 x Baal Predators with heavy bolter sponsons, storm bolters, and extra armor
Heavy Support - an Autocannon/Lascannon Predator, a Las/Las Predator, and a Whirlwind with a dozer blade

- "The Tears of Sanguinius" - an assault-squad list
HQ - 2 basic librarians with The Blood Lance, The Sanguine Sword, and a jump pack
Troops - 4 x 10-man Assault Squad with 2 meltas and power fist, 1 x 10-man Assault squad with 1 melta and power fist, 1 x 5-man Scout Squad with a heavy bolter, 4 sniper rifles, and camo cloaks
Elite - 5 x Sanguinary Priests with jump packs and power swords

- "Echoes of the Past" - a super-elite army
HQ - Dante
Elite - 3 Sanguinary Priests with jump packs
Troops - 6 x 5-man Sanguinary Guard with Death Masks and an Infernius pistol

- "Warp Angels" - lots of psykers
HQ - 2 Librarians with jump packs, The Blood Lance and The Sanguine Sword
Elite - 3 Furioso Librarians with Wings of Sanguinius and The Sanguine Sword
Troops - 15 Death Company w/ jump packs, 6 power fists (or 10 power swords), Lemartes and 2 DC Furiosos with 2 Blood Talons

We could, of course go on and write some Dreadnought lists, or Storm Raven lists, or lists full of Assault Terminators with Sanguinary Priests in Deep Striking Land Raiders, but those are easily done as well.

So the question is, what will the lists opposing the BA look like fairly soon?

It seems safe to assume that a lot of lists now are melta and mech heavy lists. But what happens when there are 10 Lascannons on the field and 6 of them (twin-linked) can move 12" and still fire, and the others can be brought to bear while still moving 6"?

Does that bring out the footslogging armies packed with melta, or an arms race of lascannons? If the former, what is that countered with? Triple Vindicator and Triple Baal lists, or Furious Charging Assault squads with power sword lists?

What do people then field against the Sanguine Host? Land Raiders? Would that not bring the BA's Fast Lascannons back? As many Outflanking units as possible? Is that when the Blood Taloned Furiosos come out?

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9 comments:

fester said...

The scariest list i have come up with so far (in my opinion) is (at 1750 which is Australia standard):

Librarian (with whatever, just need a HQ)
3x 10 man Assault Squads in Landraiders
3x Vindicators

The AV14 wall with enough firepower to stop any meltagun advanced and enough AP2 and mobility to stop plague marines, Termies, etc.
And, its 3 AV14 scoring bunkers.

I would throw in Baal Predators to make up the rest of the points as the limits increase.

Michael said...

I have been thinking about this same thing over the past few days. Where, if at all, will the Blood Angels take the list building paradigm? Does the codex have the power to influence most of the competitive or top-tier lists?

Will all deepstrike armies force the others to take bubblewrap units for protection? Will 12 lascannons first turn get IG out of tanks to make your expensive Pred Annihilators less effective? Will Footdar continue to never lose?

Jokes aside, I wonder where the lasting power will be found in the codex.

Time will tell I guess.

Flekkzo said...

I hope there will be many viable lists for a long time, that's what a good codex is about after all.

I personally like the priests (FnP and furious charge!!) and the 3 fast vindicators should be able to dent a whole lot of stuff. But let's face it, the codex is filled to the brim with win:)

Doc Railgun said...

Flekkzo,
I would really like to field a list with 3 Vindicators and Assault Troops, but I'd be afraid that after Turn 2 or so my Vindicators would be resorting to Ramming because my Assault squads would be all over the enemy and I'd be afraid I'd scatter S10 AP1 death atop them.

But Triple-Vindi Triple-Baal lists would do a good job of nuking heavy armor lists, I think.

Flekkzo said...

@docrailgun Sounds like a pretty sweet problem to me:) Can't shoot because my assaulty guys are already up there killing everyone:)

If the vidis prove to be good enough can openers you could save on any tank in your assault troops, plus they should be good for killing nasty units if nothing else.

And if you so fancy, there is always the tons of dreads list. When I think about it, Blood Angels are the spammers best friend, because you can get a lot of similar units out there.

Michael said...

I have never used a vindicator before, are they that effective? The times I have played against them, I was underwhelmed. They have a scare factor that I can't deny, but the killiness is hit or miss I have experienced.

Reminds me of Hammerhead tanks. You need to kill that one tank and then, miss. What a disappointment that is. I know you can understand that Doc, lol.

But maybe three of them at a go is better insurance. Maybe I will give a triple vindi list a try and see for myself.

Feuermann said...

I made a death from above list
HQ
-captain with thunder hammer or a lightning claws pair
-honourguard with jumppacks, blood champion, power fist and a meltagun
Elite
-sang. priest with jumpacks
Troops
-2x 10 men asault squad with 2 meltaguns and a powerfist
-10 men tac. squad with melta, multimelta in a drop pod
-10 men tac. squad with melta, multimelta and a PF in a drop pod
-10 men tac. squad with flamer, heavy bolter and powerword in a drop pod

fast attack
-land speeder with multi melta and heavy flammer
-land speeder with multi melta and heavy flammer
heavy support
-dreadnought with multi-melta, heavy flammer in a drop pod
(1850p)
and another dread with multi-melta, heavy flammer and a drop pod if I want a 2000p game

what do you think about this list??

Michael said...

I think the drop pods are a poor idea. Drop pod assault really nerfs your army by making you come down piecemeal.

You have 3 pods coming down first turn. They really don't pack enough punch to keep themselves safe for a turn or two before your jump packers start dropping on or after turn 2. They will be shot to pieces before the support elements arrive in most cases. It could work well, but it is leaving too much to chance I feel.

Instead of Tac squads, I would suggest more assault squads. And instead of dreads, maybe Vanguard. Definately I would add another priest in there. The two of them probably won't be able to give you the coverage for the entire army

Flekkzo said...

An idea for the death from above army, to get a bit more value out of the points. Convert all tacticals to assault without jumppacks and save 105 points on the drop pods (what the heck, the models are cool and you can swap them out for rhinos if they get hard to play in your area). Play around with equipment. Are meltas the best for you? Plasmas? Power weapon or fists? It's first and formost about fun.

What I then would do, and this is speculation, is to go for two more priests (elite slot). One more jump pack so each of the jump packers have one and the other go in a drop pod, which means one squad can be pulled down to around 5-7 marines and be given some fun equipment.

The basic strategy is making your army more durable with the priests FnP and then more Killy with furious charge.

Viable? You tell me:)

With a fast vindi moving 12" and shooting 24" you can fire stuff far into enemy land. Tripple that and things are bound to die. Fast vehicles are, well, fast:)

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