Blood Angels in Action

It's the Capt of the 8th back for another romp in the blogosphere.

This is the start of a series about my army list and where it is headed based on in-game performance. Now I'm not going to try and sit down and analyze units and synergies etc. There are plenty of blogs out there for that, and let's be honest, they can do it better than I can (nods at Xaereth). What I can do is take my list that I am currently running and put the rubber to the road. I can put the army to the test and evolve my list from the performance I get. And all you statistics people don't get all "sample-size" on me, I don't have time to test units 50 times. I'll be just reporting my results, and how I plan to change things if I don't like how it goes.

So let's start with my most recent list. For those of you who have followed my blog, What I Do, you might have noticed that I have army list ADD. I make a new list a week it seems. I like to think through the process, and use the different units that I have at home and ideally painted. But I am trying to stick with a list and improve it. So here we go:

Librarian with jump pack
usually has Blood Lance and Shield of Sanguinius (great load-out for DS'ing marines)
Honor Guard with Jump packs
4x melta

2x Techmarine with jump pack
Power weapon and combi-melta
3x Sanguinary Priests
2x jump packs, and one on foot

4x Assault Squad with jump packs
10x marines
2x melta and power weapon on sergeant

3x Devastator Squad
5x marines
4x missile launchers

Almost a horde marine list. It totals 2000 points, has 60+ marines on the table, most of which have FNP. And let's be honest, this is not an original idea here. I took elements from different blogs out there and put them together in my own mix.

The plan of course is to place the Devs on the table to start in some 3+ cover with one of the Priests as a babysitter. The rest drops in, up close and personal. It packs a punch, but it seemed a bit copy and paste to me. I don't believe that "spamming" effective units is a bad thing per se. Some people will tell you that is the case, but if someone is telling you how to play with your plastic soldiers, then they need to just pump the brakes a bit.

So I wanted to make it a bit different, mix things up a tad, so I sent an email out to the boys at 3++ asking for help/ideas. In the meantime I got a game in against a Tau army. It was a massacre for the poor guy. I had tabled him by the bottom of turn 3. Nothing worth reporting, unless you like blowing up fancy hover tanks with melta guns and routing little blue skinned aliens in combat.

I came from the game feeling pretty good about the list and thinking that I had it all figured out. But Tau mostly fold to any army that can drop right on top of them reliably, and beat their faces in combat. It's just an older codex.


I then got a reply to my email in the form of a post, and it had some good ideas. Namely, my army lacked combat punch. Sure I have Furiously Charging marines everywhere, but they crumble to a dedicated CC unit. I had no counter to a Deathstar unit, or even a good hammer unit. This became super obvious when I played a small game vs Dark Eldar last weekend. It was a very interesting game that will get its own post here soon. I think it will be enjoyable, lol.

They suggested dropping some assault marines to make space for some Sanguinary Guard, ideally 2 units. I thought it was a good idea and am going to run with it. I will probably go with one unit of Sanguinary Guard and one of Vanguard Vets. I'll use the Vets with storm shields as an anvil to tie up other Deathstars, and the Sang Guard as the hammer to smash the other guys face. That's the theory at least. I'll have to put them to the test.

So how are all of you dealing with Deathstars? What do you do when Vulkan exits his ride with some TH/SS termies in his posse? How do you survive that Wolflord on his oversized chihuahua smacking you around with 15 attacks with a thunderhammer that strikes at initiative? (jk about that one, but it feels that way sometimes) And how are you going to deal with the Archon + Incubi wiping your whole army? (nearly true story)

Help out your fellow Blood Angels and let us know what works for you!

-Michael, Capt of the 8th

"Enter the Mephiston" - Blood Angels 1850 List

Hey guys, this was sent in from Rob Baer and I thought you would enjoy reading it if you have not seen it already! Jawaballs

This was the third rewrite of my Blood Angels list. I kinda did it on the fly too, and made some mistakes, BUT I knew I wanted to play around with Mephiston.

As previously pointed out Mephiston is a Death Star, able to kill with realitive ease most unit in the game.  However he is not invulnerable, i.e. no INV save, but as long as you can minimize the hits he's taking he can endure for most games.

The list I wrote below was going to be my greatest list ever. However as with most master plans I forgot one little thing; he's not an Independent Character.  So he wasn't going to go into a drop pod with the honor guard, DOH! It's quite possible that the combination of him in a pod would be broken, but hey in tourney play I'm all for broken.

Anyways so I started looking for a "Mephiston Delivery System", and came up with two 15 point rhinos that belonged to some 5 man Assault squads.  Now while he couldn't start in the rhino, he could embark into it and scream 18 inches up on his first turn!  Conversely he could just start 12" or whatever up and (hopefully) wings up 12 more and fleet on his turn as well, BUT I prefer the screaming rhino tactic.

So I played this a few times and pretty much ran the flank he was on, leaving devastation in his wake.  It made me giggle on the inside, but reality set in and I realized I didn't have enough troops to do missions etc, so I scrapped the list.  BUT here it is version 2.0 of my Blood Angels Playtest List.

Now on a side note this list is the same one I ran for my playtest video 3 hopefully coming soon this week.

• Mephiston
• Honor Guard 4x Meltas, Pod 
• Priest, Jump Pack, Combi Melta 
• Furioso LIbrarian Dreadnought, Blood Talons, Pod w/ Loc 
• Furioso LIbrarian Dreadnought, BL, Flight, Pod w/ Locator
• Assault Squad 10 Man- Melta x2, P Fist 
• Assault Squad 10 Man- Melta x2, Sgt w/Melta Bombs 
• Assault Squad 10 Man- Melta x2, Sgt w/Melta Bombs
• Assault Squad 5 Man- Melta, Rhino Searchlight 
• Assault Squad 5 Man- Melta, Rhino Searchlight

 -MBG

So what would you fix in this list?

Jawaballs New Blood Angels codex list Alpha!

So I have decided on my first shot at a competitive list. This is by no means definitive, but I'm not worried, for every model will have use in later army builds and this will make a good core for the new Blood Angels era. 1850 points.

Librarian 100

Sanguinary Priest 50
LC 15

Corbulo 105

RAZ 100
PF 25
Melta 10
Hand Flamer 10
Razor 20
TL AssCan 35

RAZ 100
PF 25
Melta 10
Razor 20
TL AssCan 35

RAZ 100
PW 15
Melta 10
Razor 20
TL AssCan 35

RAZ 100
PW 15
Melta 10
Razor 20
TL AssCan 35

Baal Predator 115
Heavy bolters 30

Baal Predator 115
Heavy Flamers 25

Baal Predator 115
Heavy Flamers 25

Predator 70
Lascannons 65

Predator 70
Lascannons 65

Predator 70
Lasccannons 65

I know, most dudes have been posting up their lists with razors. But jesus! How could you not? It has always been my position that the only reason why I was not taking them in my old mech list was that they were not fast. Now they are and I can take Ass Cannons! It took me about .2 seconds to make the call and order up a pile of them.

Notice how I went without extra armor on my tanks! I figured I have so much redundancy that 2 or 3 of my vehicles being stunned at any given time won't hurt that much.

I went with the auto cannon/Las preds over vindicators because in my experience, they are actually much more effective vs troops, and when it comes to popping transports or combating Valkries, they are boss. I'm no math man, but I think if I averaged out 100 shots of a Vindicator vs a Chimera, and a ACL pred, the ACL pred will win. But the same goes for clustered troops! In a recent game when I put my Vindi back in the list, it just kept missing. I had a whole squad of Tsons lined up for 3 rounds, and I think I managed to kill one or two with the vindi. Scatter and an opponent who knows what he is doing minimizes the effectiveness of the pieplate. You may catch more boys under it with a dead on shot, but I am interested in seeing how the two would play out. Do I smell a future post?

Tactics? Later. For now, bask in the glory that is the Blood Angels. This is a list I have been dreaming about, and can finally put it on the table!

More to come...

Jawaballs

Battle for Salvation 2k tournament Blood Angels list

Since I posted my win from Saturdays tournament, I have had few dozen emails and comments asking for a breakdown of my list in detail. Being one to share, and knowing that my list will completely change in a few months, here you go!:

HQ:
Space Marine Captain
Power Weapon
Combi-Melta

Troops:
10 man tactical
lascanon
melta-gun
power weapon
rhino
extra armor

10 man tactical
lascannon
melta-gun
power weapon
rhino
extra armor

Elite:
Death Company
2 models

Furioso Dread
Venerable
Death Company
Extra Armor
Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod

Furioso Dread
Venerable
Death Company
Extra Armor
Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod

Furioso Dread
Venerable
Death Company
Extra Armor
Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod

Fast Attack:

Attack Bike x2
Multi meltas

Attack Bike x2
Multi meltas

Heavy Support:

Baal Predators x3
Heavy Bolters
Storm bolter
extra armor

The instant reaction to this is "Where are your jump packs?" "Where are your troops?" And most people, like I used to, laugh off Baal Predators without a thought. They also laugh off Pod Dreads because they know they have to suffer a round of shooting before they can assault. Usually dreads dropped close enough to use their meltagun will die to the return fire. No big deal.

My basic strategy is to combat squad my two tacticals. I place four bolters and a las cannon back in cover and on an objective. I put the other combat squads in their rhinos and the captain jumps in with one. I hold back the rhinos and send them out when needed. I line up my three preds together, with the two bike squads hiding behind them and my two death company standing with their backs up against the front of one of them. They are big enough to block 50% and give me a front cover save. Of course with nothing to stop them from taking their Death Company move this only lasts until the first turn but every little bit helps. If I can I advance them 6" and advance the tank behind them and try to squeeze out another round of that cover save. Yes, I admit, this is cheezy. Why should two infantry grant a tank a cover save? Well, that is out there for all you Land Raider rotaters. :)

So I hold back my advance until my pods come down. But in the meantime I sniper speeders and exposed troops with the heavy bolters. I focus on speeders and bikes first.

My general target priority? Any thing melta of course. Then I work on his troops if I have nothing else to shoot at. I try to supress pockets of armor in prep for my pods to drop. If I can I will pepper transports with asscannon fire near my intended drop pod target locations in an attempt to Stun them, since most guys refuse to take extra armor. If I can pop transports, even better. Lets get those juicy vet squads out on the table in nice clumps of disembarked fun where I can lay down the flame. If they fail their pinning test from their transport being knocked out, even better.

If I have no speeders or bikes to snipe with lascannons, I will use them to suppress armor as well. Hopefully by the time my pods land, they are coming down in a pocket of suppressed tanks and disembarked troops. That raises their survivability.

Now the pods drop. I have had 1 or 2 rounds of supressing fire and hopefully killed or imobilized stuff that can get over to my pods and kill the dreads. I use the pods as little walls, blocking off the majority of his stuff, and disembark the dread to take advantage of cover while getting a nice shot at the back of a tank or transport. I will almost always drop the pods together. Strength in numbers. If I can get them out and pop a transport with one, I will attempt to lay the flame over the troops while targeting the next tank in line with the second dread. Three dreads working in a triangle are truely frightful. If I can drop them behind something full of death that has to die, like a land raider full of terminators I am good to go. I will shoot the middle dread first and hopefully get two flamer shots on the terminators inside. I will also use the pods to stop enemy advance. If I need to slow down a Land Raider I will drop pods in front of it and try to box it in. The best best is to try to catch the LR while it is still in his deployment zone. Often times guys keep it back on the first turn to protect it while they try to take out my tank killers. If I can catch it on the back edge, I will always go for the kill.

"But Jawa, dreads are only armor 12, don't they get destroyed by all the melta guns?" Well, if I am lucky I have successfully suppressed most of the tanks in my drop zone. Now they are creating road blocks stopping active transports from moving up and unloading the troops to get their melta shots. Or there is so much stuff around, speeders cant get close. Etc. Use his armor against him. Pick your targets, stun things that will then grant you cover, support them with cover fire from the predators, and have faith in your wargear!

Finally, the dreads only work if they have extra armor and venerable. What shots that do make it through the cover have to pen or glance. Then they have to Immobilize or destroy the dread. A Shaken has no effect except for not shooting, a stun becomes a shaken with extra armor and a weapon destroy just reduces my attacks by one. If I get through the round only taking a weapon destroy and a bunch of stuns/shakens, I am good to go. I will be assaulting with up to 6 attacks next turn. So if he gets a 4+ on the damage roll, I make him reroll. He has to do it twice.

When used properly, ven furioso dreads are incredibly resiliant and devastating in combat. If they actually get a chance to move, shoot and assault, things are gonna die. I have yet to play them against a full guard army with chimeras and melta vets or a army with super serious fire power, but I am confident that smart placement, suppression and a little luck will get them through the fire and they will roll some heads.

Weakness? Yes, I lack the loads of assault punch typical to a Blood Angels army. But ask yourself, is the BA dex all that assaulty? Sure, Assault Squads are troops. But they cannot take special weapons. They cant take a melta gun to pop a transport and assault the boys inside. Plus, only the sergeant can take a power weapon. They are not vets so they only get one attack, plus off hand and charge. Orks with shootas are as good as that, cheaper and can take tank popping guns. I'm not griping, I love the BA dex. I am just pointing out that I have focused on a weakness and turned it into a strength.

Guys look at a BA army with no jump troops and think "Oh sweet, a really expensive generic space marine army." Which quickly turns into "That dread gets seven attacks???"



I also lack the troops that most people believe 5th edition requires. Sure, I combat squad them down into four squads. But that makes them squishy 5 man squads. Most guys will say that my biggest weakness, especially in objective games, is that if you want to beat me, all you gotta do is kill 20 marines. My answer? Try it. Easier said then done.

So there you go folks! Please dont mistake my explanation as arrogance. It is hard to talk about how you have won games without sounding arrogant. I went into that tournament prepared, but with low expectations. My game plan and surprisingly strong, unconventional list carried me through. If you can get the right combination of those two, and throw in a smattering of luck, any one can win a tournament. I don't consider myself any better then any of the guys who did not win. Believe me, there were some fantastic players at that tournament. But when the dice were done rolling and the smoke cleared, Blood Angels and Jawaballs were standing on top! :)

Final Mechanicon List

I decided. My mechanicon list, provided that I can get the models ready by Friday.

Corbulo

Tactical squad x10
Lascannon
melta
power weapon
rhino
extra armor

tactical squad x10
lascann
melta
pw
rhino
ea

death co x2
jump packs

furioso dread
death company
venerable
heavy flamer
drop pod

furioso dread
deato co
heavy flamer
drop pod

Attack bike x2
multi melta

Attack bike x2
multi melta

Attack bike x2
multi melta

Baal Pred
heavy bolters
storm bolter
extra armor


Baal Pred
heavy bolters
storm bolter
extra armor


Baal Pred
heavy bolters
storm bolter
extra armor

The obvious weakness of my list is fragile troop squads, but when you think about it, my list before had 3 troops choices, 2 of which were 5 man assault squads. I can combat squad a tactical, and have the same number of troops as before. But with this list, I get a stronger assault presence, and dreads in pods are two big fat bricks in the face. Cutting Dante shaved 200 points off the list that I was able to spend on a second dread. Why? Well, as good as Dante is, I found him serving the role of decoy too often. Plus, he still had to charge through open terrain to get into grips, and often found himself snipped by las cannons.

Maybe I just needed a nice change. At any rate, here you go. My plan? The tacticals CS. 2 squads with Lascannons stay back, hold objectives and shoot the las. The other two with melta and MW mount up and charge out to take objectives. Drop pods land near objectives I want to take, or near targets of opportunity and mess it up. Corbs jumps in with one of the squads to catch a ride. 2 DC with jump packs file in behind that rhino, using it to block LoS and lend a hand in assault. 3 Baal Preds do their dakka thing while the 3 squads of 2 bikes hide and seek and kill.

Wish me luck!

Yet another new list idea...

My list for mechanicon is pretty much set in stone based on time... I have a week left before I go. Since I dont have the models I need yet to make my new list a reality, I will be playing my already competitive BA Mech army. This will probably be that lists last hurrah!

The next tournament I go to after that will be the Battle for Salvation tournament in White Plains, NY on November 21. I will have a 2 week refit to get my boys ready to go at 2k points. I have not decided exactlly what I will roll with, but here is something I just came up with. I have beeen wanting to get a Land Raider Crusader and termies into my list. Here we go!

Chaplain (Terminator or Jump Pack)
Corbulo

tactical squad
+5
Lascannon
Melta
Power weapon
rhino
extra armor

tactical squad
+5
las
Melta
power fist
rhino
extra armor

Death Company x3
Jump packs

Furioso Dread
death company
extra armor
heavy flamer

Furioso dread
DC
EA
HF

Terminator squad
LC x4
SS/TH x1

Land Raider Crusader
Extra armor
storm bolter

baal predator
extra armor
heavy bolters
storm bolter

baal predator
ea
hb
sb

Attack bikes x2
multi melta

Plan? LRC gives a good dose of brick in your face. Chaplain wether i put him in termy armor or jump pack determines where he goes... If with the DC he moves up behind the LRC or Baal Preds. Corbs rides in the LRC regardless.

The preds flank the LRC and move up providing fire support.

The bikes hide and pop out to provide a safety bubble around my armor and provide tank killing punch

The furioso dreads... just run like hell and kill every thing they can!

tactical squads combat squad. leave 2 las canons behind shooting away, the melta and power weapons drive off to take objectives.

The question I have for you... Do I need the attack bikes? Can I put my dreads in pods instead? I have quite a lot of tank killing punch, would it be better to drop my dreads behind enemy lines and let them run wild? That will provide some much needed relief to my main force as they land behind tanks and pop stuff that is out of my short reach. What ya think?

New Jaballs Lists

Just like the game, my lists are ever evolving. In this most recent draft, I am addressing my weakness of tank killing pop. I dropped my DC Furioso... sadly. I love hte model and he is insane in assault, but he rarely got there. He was too stagnent and was usually left behind while my fast moving army moved out to slaughter stuff. He often found himself guarding a base that would never need guarding, or getting popped as I tried to run him across the table. So, my new lists are posted to the right on my blog. I posted up a 1750 and 1850 list. I know, they are only 100 points different, but I decided to go with a different focus for each. My 1750 has 6 Multi Melta attack bikes, while my 1850 goes with an extra assault squad in rhino and only 4 bikes. We shall see how they work out!

You can now find my lists as permanant stickies on the right side of my blog. These will be the most up to date versions. Enjoy!

Jawaballs

Jawaballs 1750 Mechanized List April 2009

Dante
Corbulo

Troops:
Assault Squad 1
5 marines
power fist
rhino
extra armor

Assault Squad 2
5 marines
power sword
rhino
extra armor

Assault Squad 3
5 marines
power sword
rhino
extra armor

Tactical squad
5 marines
+5 marines
meltagun
lascannon
rhino
storm bolter
extra armor

Furioso Dread
extra armor
death company
heavy flamer

deathcompany
rhino
extra armor

baal predator
extra armor
storm bolter
heavy bolters

baal predator
extra armor
storm bolter
heavy bolters

baal predator
extra armor
storm bolter
heavy bolters

This is my list as of April 2009

Warhammer 40k Space marines Blood Angels: new 1750 army list

Ok, after getting thoroughly trashed 2 out of 3 games last weekend, I have decided to add some long range fire power. As it stands now, the only model in my army that can fire more then 12 inches is my Whirlwind, which if it is lucky can kill 2 or 3 marines a game. Its great against orks and the like, but reality is most guys play marines. So, I am dropping an honor guard and 2 vet squads. They are devastating in assault, but in reality, I just dont need them. They are over kill. One of the vet squads i was simply using as a means of getting Corbulo into battle by giving them a Rhino instead of jump packs. I replaced the Vet squad with a regular assault squad and removed its weapons, saving 65 points, and actually giving myself another troops choice. I added a Furioso Dread in a Drop Pod, and a 10 man Devastator Squad! In the Dev Squad I placed 2 Plasma cannons and a missle Launcher. I was going to also add a vindicator, but they cannot move and shoot, making them inappropriate for my rapid assault force. I have 125 points remaining. Now I have options. I can use a Baal predator with side sponsons for 125. OR I can go with a predator tank with auto cannon and side sponsons for 95 points. That will give me 30 points to play with. I can go with another Plasma Cannon in the Dev squad, Scrape up 5 points for a lascannon... Wait, Ive got it, I can go with the Pred with auto cannon and heavy bolters on the side, and go with 2 plasma cannons, 1 heavy bolter and 1 las cannon in my Dev squad. People will be less likely to shoot at the Pred with no las cannon, but it will still mess shit up with 8 anti infintry shots from 36 inches away, but the real fire power will come from the Devs! Also the Dread dropping in behind tanks with its melta gun and stompy stomp will change things dramaticly. With all this fire power on the board, it will take my opponents mind off the real danger. Dante, his Honor Guard with 3 power weapons and Company Banner, A Veteran Assault Squad with 3 power weapons, an assault squad with 1 power weapon, an assault squad with a power fist and hopefully all of them powered up with Corbulo's Furious Charge. Ok, time to get TheWarStore on the phone and get some models on the way pronto...Gamesday is 2 weeks away!

Warhammer 40k Space marine blood angels: Tournament time

So, I am gearing up for a tournament this weekend, which is the trial run for Baltimore Gamesday. I have been told that Curbolo cannot start the game in a drop pod with a squad of veterans. So, I have decided to swap out the pod with a Rhino. I think this might be better any way because it will give me more control over him. Now I can choose exactly the place and time I want him to come out, AND I have a mobile wall with the rhino, which will help provide that precious cover which might be sparse on some maps. I am also seperating out my melta guns. Here is my list:

Dante
Corbulo

Honour Guard 1:
Veterans x5
Company Standard
Chapter Standard
Power Sword x2
Company Champion
Jump packs x5

I removed the plasma pistol

Honour Guard 2:
Veterans x5
Power Sword x1
Meltagun
Jump Packs x5

Added Power Sword
Removed Meltagun

Troops:
Assault Squad 1
Veteran x1
Marines x4
Power Sword x1

Assault Squad 2
Veteran x1
Marines x4
Power Fist x1

Elite:
Death Company x7
Jump packs x7

Veteran Squad 1
Vets x5
Power Weapons x3

Veteran Squad 2
Vets x5
power Weapons x3
Meltagun x1

Added meltagun

Veteran Squad 3
Power Weapons x2
Power Fist x1
Rhino

Heavy Support:
Whirlwind