Dark Eldar Tactics: Screening

OldChiZOne here again, talking about a tactic that will make or break your games.

Looking through the dark eldar codex, it is apparent that a Dark Eldar army can be built as a medium ranged firefight army. The problem then arises, how do you keep the enemy army from mass assaulting your shooting units or melta gunning your vehicles to the ground? The answer: Screening units.

There are three different screening units that I will talk about in this article, beasts, hellions, and reavers.

Beasts: In a screening format, I recommend taking minimum of 3 beast masters and 6 razor wing flocks for a tiny point cost of 138 points. The advantages this unit has over the other two is that it will be much more durable and much better in counter charging close combat threats. The disadvantages is, as there are no models yet we do not know how tall they will be or whether or not razorwings will be on flying bases. This is important due to whether or not they will be able to obscure vehicles behind. Also moving them up with your vehicles may be rather tricky, considering that beasts will have to run in order to screen your vehicles.

Hellions:

Although more pricey, less durable, and less potent in the assault, hellions still make great screening units due to the fact that they can still pump out shots with their shard carbines. They move as fast as your vehicles which makes them easy to use.

Reavers:

Most menuveravable of all of the screening units due to it's assault and turboboost moves. It is also the most expensive and fragile. They also have very little close combat potential. They are the only unit that has access to tank busting weapons though.

Out of these three units I believe that each is viable to screen. However, they each excel depending on how close to the enemy they are. Beasts excel at being very close, hellion excel where they can pump out some shots, and reavers excel at longer ranges.

Screening: It's uses

Screening, in nearly all aspects of the game, is extremely helpful. It makes your vehicles more survivable by creating cover. It creates space in which deep striking units can't land. And above all it makes nearly every unit holding a short ranged gun quake with fear.

Specific uses:

Units: Beasts: 3x beastmasters with 6x razorwing flocks 138pts
4x trueborn, 4x blasters, Venom with extra SC and nightfield 178pts
5x warriors, 1x blaster, venom with extra SC and nightfield 145 pts

This type of setup will work wonders against armies that rely on melta guns and multimeltas. If you can fill the 5 inches in front of the venoms with the footprint of the beasts, the enemy won't be able to get in range with his melta guns, and will not be able to get in "melta range" with his multi meltas. This setup also can be completely self sufficient. You have 5 blasters to blow up tanks with, 24 splinter cannon shots to weaken squads, and close combat unit to take charges that the vehicles would normally take. All the while, you have a 33 wound unit that obscures the vehicles behind, making them twice as durable. Correct, blast templates will hurt, but that's why you have proper target selection right? ^^

Why it's important for dark eldar:

Screening is important for everyone, however it is especially important for dark eldar. Dark eldar have the most expensive/fragile transports in the game. This is for balence purposes, seeing that what is inside of those transports is usually much more potent than other races. However, once you begin to nullify how fragile the transports are, you can gain a massive advantage.

Well that's it. Over Christmas break I may have some time to actually start building my army so expect some non-hypothetical stuff in the near future. Leave concerns and comments like usual, so that I can shoot you all down with my vicious rhetoric.

Blood Angels Unit Review: Assault Terminators

Today I want to talk about Blood Angels Terminators, more specifically, Assault Terminators.  The most glaring and stupid failure of the Blood Angels PDF was the refusal to give them the 3+ storm shields that are used in the Space Marine codex, saying that some chapters would use different wargear as an excuse for laziness.  The updated PDF came out after Codex: Space Marines and would have taken no time at all to fix. Instead, the BA were left with a 4+ storm shield that only worked in close combat while generic marines used 3+ storm shields that worked vs close combat and shooting attacks.  What a crock!  Why would the most assaulty Space Marine chapter use inferior assault gear?  

Well thankfully that was fixed with the new BA codex.  I had always maintained that if they ever switched the shields over, I would play a terminator squad coming out of a Land Raider Crusader. Well Happy Birthday Jawaballs!  

Why do I like terminators? Well, without a doubt, the army that has repeatedly given me the most trouble has been one packing T hammer termies.  They are simply hard to kill.  Put them into a LRC with a couple of buffing Independent Characters and blammo... Death Star!  But it's not just effectiveness. Terminators are some of the coolest Space Marine models to play. I like Land Raiders too.  All of this made the decision a no brainer.  I finally just primed and started painting the LRC and Termy squad I bought over a year ago!  

Above you can see one of my terminators Work in Progreess.  

Terminators in the BA codex are an Elite choice that do cost a bit more then their generic brethren. The unit costs the same, but you have to pay 5 points a piece for the storm shields.  The unit I am using consists of 4 th/ss and 1 lightning claw.   Why so many storm shields? Well in combat they are way over redundant. Plus the TH reduces them down to Initiative 1.  Normally this would result in bad things for a squad consisting most of th/ss, but not so in my case. I have attached 3 independent characters to the squad, all of whom attack in I 5 and 6 on the charge.  The ICs and lightning claw termy give enough high initiative attacks to kill just about any squad they charge before they even get to strike back. Then the hammers finish off any survivors.  But why so many hammers over claws?

Well, it is my experience that the Land Raider gets immobilized or knocked out early.  People hate them and know that they have to stop it.  With so many speeders, bikes, and other melta units, it is hard to keep em alive.  More often than not, the termies end up hoofing it, and taking LOTS of AP1 and 2 heavy weapons fire.  That is where the storm shields come in.  With so many ICs to deliver high initiative attacks, the shields are there to make sure the squad survives to get across the table.  

Now here is some useful stuff.  

Play against lots of Eldar? Have no idea how to take down fast moving vehicles? Well assault the crap out of them!  "But Jawa, you need a 6 to hit vehicles that moved 12". Sure you do.  That is why I have a chaplain packed into my squad.  For 130 points taking up an HQ slot, the reclusiarch is the way to go. With so many attacks, you are guaranteed a few 6s, and the best part is that the Chaplain reroll works against vehicles.  So take all those non6s and roll them again!  Now all of your regular attacks are wounding on a 5 or 6, and the hammers are auto glancing on 1.  (I have a priest in the squad who gives furious charge.)  I'm not sure but the lightning claw may even work on failed rolls to wound!  Eldar players like to put their transport access points up against the edge of the board or other tanks too, that means it is easier to trap the occupants. I pulled it off in Hard Boys!  Ohh so satisfying. 

In actual close combat, the shields are a boon.  Most squads in assault are usually packing at least a power weapon or fist.  If you are good, you can use the storm shield guys to suck up those shots. Going up against a squad with ICs attached? Throw the shields up against the enemy ICs while your own ICs assault and slaughter the unit.  Odds are your termies will make most of the dangerous saves from the IC while your characters kill the squad and do not have to make any saves themselves.  Then, if the enemy IC survives the hammers, he still has to make a leadership test for losing combat, or take saves from being fearless.  He will probably go down too under the weight of the assault.  

The rest is pretty straight forward for terminators. They have some weaknesses. They are larger models, on big bases, so are hard to hide. That means they will almost always be taking shots if they are caught on the table and not in combat. It also means they have a hard time maneuvering around the table.  Once the sheet hits the fan, the table becomes cluttered with difficult and dangerous terrain. You are pretty much assured that your terminators will be assaulting through terrain.  Their lack of Frag grenades hurts them, leaving even the lightning claws attacking last.  But wait... I only have one LC terminator in my squad... Ahhh Ha! Welcome to the last reason why I take 4 hammer termies.  Unless they are assaulting out of a Land Raider, all terminators go last no matter what if attacking through terrain.  Since you are going last, might as well have most of your boys packing big boom sticks!  

For more on how my terminators perform, check out this article!

More to come...

Jawaballs

Early army list ideas!

It is too early for me to be writing lists at this point because I dont know the values. I should be able to do that this weekend. :) But from reading others information, it is becoming clear to me that, as I expected, BA are going to be expensive... IF you want to play the big boys. But you don't have to put a 280 point non IC HQ on the table just because you can. Sure we all want to play these freaks, but it looks like they have been written so as to make them vulnerable point sinks. No matter how strong Mephiston is, a single squad of IG Vets in their Chimera can mow him down.

The secret in writing competitive lists with the new dex will be to avoid the point sinks. As has been pointed out by others, you can get an RAS, in a Razorback, with a Power weapon, meltagun and heavy flamer or bolter on the turret for less then 150 points. Now THAT is a bargain. I don't know what the equivalent cost would be in C:SM, but I do know that their Razors are not Fast Vehicles. The best part is that you can get five of these for 750 points. In an 1850 list, you will still have 1100 points to spend on the toys!

Now to add more to the list. I am thinking that Dante and a Sanguinary Guard will be a must for me. I love Dante and the Guard are beautiful. Do I put them in a Raven? I will probably do so and start them on the table. In fact, I am thinking that I will have to go with three of them on the table. Without seeing the points, I imagine three of them, Dante, SanGrd, and a Libby Dread should eat up the rest of my points. But what an army!

As I understand it, the transport can move 12", and the passengers can disembark then assault. Is this a big deal for assault troops? They can already move 12"... Absolutely! The lander will save them from the first two rounds of whithering small arms fire that normally reduces the effectiveness of any jump squad. They should be getting into combat intact every time. I may drop a couple of the Razorbacks, and fill the other flyers with RAS.

The idea is simple. Two flyers deploy up as far as they can, then move 24" to get into position and gather up a cover save. Or move 12" and assault if possible. In the meantime, the razorbacks move flat out to get into flamer range next turn. The third flyer sits back and fires it's missles at stuff in the way. Or on turn one all three of them sit tight and empty their payload on transports and tanks. That should amount to three dead transports at least. Once the flyers have moved up, the razors follow in and dispense flame and assault as needed, mopping up the survivors.

I know, simple rudimentary plan... but I have made a 40k career out of using simple plans to win tournaments, and that seems to be a mystery to some folks. So there you go! Dudes comment on my Bols articles hating on me for pointing out the obvious and calling me a noob. Whatever. I am willing and do travel across the country to put my army on the table. I invite any one to do the same and meet me at BOLSCON to see how simple I am. :)

Back to topic.

So the first thing you have to do when you break the seams on your new dex is to ignore Mephiston and the other monsters. Build your self an army first. Find the hidden gems, like scout bikers and fast moving Vindicators and exploit them! If you want to go crazy, you can play three Baal Preds, that now have scout which I believe allows them to flank march... I have never used scouts so am still sort of unfamiliar with what "scout" allows. But don't stop there, throw in three Vindicators for 6 fast moving tanks spewing death. For what I estimate to be around 825 you can get the six of them on the table along with your 5 RAS at 750, for a total now of 1575. In an 1850 list you still have 275 points! With that much mobile fire power, you can cut down on the number of RAS razorbacks, and load up on harder hitting elites and sanguinary priests instead.

The name of the game is redundancy. When the boys stormed Normandy they were told to split up... a group of GIs was a juicy target, a single soldier was a waste of ammo. It is the opposite in 40k. A single Vindicator is a juicy target. Eliminate that and you eliminate a huge threat. Psychologically guys will be compelled to shoot a lone Vindicator. It is an easy kill of a deadly target and they can add a mark to their subconscious checklist. If there are three of them however, their subconscious mind may have them looking for less numerous targets. Our mind wants to feel satisfied that we are accomplishing something. Eliminating one of three vindicators will not satisfy that because you have only slightly reduced the perceived threat, but taking down a lone Land Speeder may. The subconscious mind is a powerful thing!

Another angle of this is that most people don't quite fathom what a Fast Vehicle is. To spell it out, Blood Angels Vindicators now have a 36" range. They can move 12" and fire their gun. Or, a Storm Raven can move 6" from behind cover, and fire off all of its weapons. More on this when I talk about Vehicle Tactics later on.

Any way, hopefully this weekend I will have the stats. Then Fritz, Danny Internets and I are going to convene a war council and work out an army. Then I will build it and the blood will spill.

Warhammer 40k Tactics: Assault Revisited, Assaulting Multiple Units

Today I will answer a request to open up a discussion on assaulting multiple units with a single unit. My single unit is going to be a 10 Blood Angels Veteran Assault Squad equipped with 2 power swords, a Power Fist, and a guy with Melta Bombs. My VAS will be assaulting some pesky Guardsmen. They are assaulting a squad of guardsmen hiding in cover with a Lascannon, the cover being ruins. They are also going to assault a Chimera that was immobilized previously by Lascannon fire, and a squad of 10 Veteran Guardsmen with a Power Sword, and 3 meltaguns. I do not have the IG codex so we will set the Guardsmen leaderships at 8 for this discussion, and the VAS at 10 since Dante is on the table elsewhere.

To set the stage, our VAS has managed to get very close to the Guard due to lots of terrain blocking LoS. They are able to jump right into their midst and assault away! Let us begin. It is top of turn 3 shooting. Oh, and the Chimera did NOT move the previous turn.

Turn 3:
BA VAS shoots at the squad in cover. Why? Because by shooting 10 bolt pistols at the other squad, they will probably kill over half of them in the shooting phase, and you really dont want that to happen. Your opponent can pull off enough guys to render you not close enough to assault, or they can break and run! You don't want them to break until you assault them. The guys in cover will at least get a 4+ save. You want to thin them a bit, not slaughter them.

10 shots, 8 hit, 4 wound. 2 Fail save. Perfect. It is not enough to force a leadership, but you have 2 less to slaughter in the assault.

Now time for assault. We have to roll Difficult Terrain since we are assaulting a squad in terrain. We will say a 6 was he result.

The first step is to move the closest model of mine, in to Base to Base (B2B) with the closest model of his. The cool part here is that you can ignore any thing you are not attacking. You MAY MOVE within 1" of enemy models. Absolutely. Don't let dudes bully you. The rule is on page 34 in the second paragraph. You just cannot move THROUGH models, so you have to allow extra movement space around them. In this case, it was the S BA attacking the Closest model. This choice should be well planned before you finish moving. You have to make sure you can keep the rest of your models in coherency as you move them.

Now, the rest of your models can move and assault whomever they choose. There are some restrictions though. Some guys are loose on them, some can be dicks. The way I do it is that so long as all models are in coherency at the end of my assault move, then they are fine. BUT, the rule says in the first rule bullet:

"The most important one is that each model must end it's assault move in coherency with another model in it's own unit that has already moved."

Be prepared to deal with dudes that will measure 2" between each and every model you move as you take your fingers off them. In that case, smile nicely and curse him under your breath, then nail him on his next measurement.

We will do this by the rules though, for rules sake!

Next two models are going to attack the Chimera. There was a good amount of space between the two squads, so I decided to send two models at the Chimera to bridge the gap. The next two models will move so that they end their assault move exactlly 2" away from the previous model moved. Now My power fist and melta bomb are in B2B with the transport. Now the last crucial move is for the guys getting into the 2nd squad. I have ensured that I can assault both squads and I can pretty much place these guys where I want... almost.

The next bullet stats that:

If Possible, the model must move into base contact with any enemy model within reach that is not already in base contact with an assaulting model. Just to be safe and protect yourself from your opponent's meddling, move the rest of the guys who will be assaulting the squad in cover, into B2B. This will stop him from saying you have to move the other guys into B2B with unengaged models in range... Now you cannot run through engaged models... So you are free to assault the guys on the left. You will see that one model was left and he cannot reach an unengaged model, but there is a nice space for him next to the S guy. I will move him there.

So, I have successfully, and by the rules, engaged 3 units with 1 squad. I first moved my closest model to the squad I shot at. I second moved two guys creating an "Assault Bridge" to the next model. I third moved the rest of the right side models into B2B with all models in their range, to engage any models my other guys may be forced to assault. I fourth moved the rest of my models into engage models if possible, then double engaged what was left. At the end of each models assault move, they were in coherency with another model that moved previously.

Lets move on!

Now it is time for Defenders to React!

Now that I have moved my models into B2B contact, the defender must move all of his in to B2B as well, up to 6" away. If not they can get within 2" of an engaged friend.

Time to roll dice! All models are engaged. The way assault works is that all models who start the assault engaged will get to attack, UNLESS they are killed by a model who gets to attack before them based on a better initiative. What this means is that, unlike in 4th edition, if your opponent removes casualties from models engaged with your power fist guy, leaving him "Out of Combat" he will still get his attacks when his turn finally comes up... no matter what. Remember that for when guys try to claim that some of your models cannot attack since they are not B2B any more.

Now to figure out who goes first. My Assault Marines are initiative 4, higher then the Guardsmen 3. So the space marines will go first. All except for the Fist, who goes last. Since my marines have Frag Grenades, they may go at initiative value. Other models who do not have frag grenades, like Terminators, do not get this benefit and will go after the defenders. So the order is 9 marines first, then all surviving Guard, then the Power Fist.

We will resolve the Meltabomb first... this is actually very interesting.

The meltabomb will auto hit because the Chimera has not moved. It is Str 8 plus 2d6. I roll a 1 and 2 as customary, but that is still enough to penetrate the Chimeras back armor. (when assaulting vehicles, you use the back armor value) Remember, Melta Bombs are NOT Ap 1. So you do not get a bonus to the damage chart... BUT I just rolled a 6! The chimera explodes out, and crap, 6"... I am actually rolling these dice by the way... Some damage is about to happen... Actually, to make this easier, we will say I rolled a 5, and destroyed it... no need to get into messy explosion casualties.

The reason why I said this was interesting was that the chimera is now destroyed, and the power fist, who was initially B2B with it, has not gone yet... Well sadly, on page 35 it says that workign out which models are engaged in combat is done at the start of the fight and cannot change. Since the Fist was engaged with the tank at the start of the fight, he cannot attack any thing else.

Now to resolve the rest of the models. We will start with the 4 marines assaulting on the right. Assault Veterans get 2 attacks base, 1 for charging, and 1 for two weapons. That will be 16 attacks, 4 of which are power weapons.

The marines need a 3 to hit and a 3 to wound since they are stronger and better fighters then the guard. 3 Power Weapon shots hit, and 7 chain sword shots hit. Now to wound, 2 power weapon hits wound, and 3 chainsword hits wound. The guard player allocates these wounds... he has to place one on each model that he can before stacking them, so he will place the 5 wounds on 5 normal guardsmen. 2 die from the power shots, and 3 fail to save. The guard player removes 5 men. He takes off the Lascannon tea and 3 others, leaving the Sgt and two more.

ON the other side, 6 chainsword wounds are dealt, and 2 power sword. Like the right side, he has to place each wound on a different model. He places the 2 power sword shots and 4 of the chain swords on the 6 normal guardsmen, and the remaining two chainsword shots on two of the melta guns. Five of the normal Guardsmen die, and 2 of the melta gunners die. Leaving 1 Guardsman, 1 meltagunner, and 1 sgt.

Now for the Guard to hit back! First squad. Sgt has a power sword and gets 2 attacks. The guard get 1 each. They will hit on 4 and wound on 5. Sadly, none of them wound. On the other side, none of them even hit!

Getting towards the end!

Now both of the squads must make a leadership test. On page 63 it says to ignore the vehicles in a multiple combat for determining attack results. So we need to total up the number of Guard killed, which was substantial! 13 total! Egads. They need snake eyes... snakes always mean a success. (Page 43)

Neither makes it.

They will both now fall back, and the marines must do a sweeping advance. Squad 1 rolls a d6 vs the marines. Then add their initiative. Guard 1 rolls a 4, marines roll a 3... this result is a tie, which means the marines catch the guard in a Sweeping Advance and slaughter them all. On the other side, guard roll a 3 and marines roll a 2, another tie... dead marines.

Now all the guard are dead, and the marines get to make a consolidate check... (a six is the result...) and they can now move into the cover that was once being occupied by the guard... having successfully assaulted and killed 3 units. :)

If one of the guard squads had made their leadership test, then the marines would not have been able to sweeping advance the other since they would have been locked in combat. The guard would have rolled 2d6 and run away.

So there you go Sabb! I hope that makes sense. I will now illustrate this and pop in the pics!




FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! The guard in my illustrations turn up as white and you cannot see them. I need to remake them. I will do it later and add them to the post. Enjoy!

Faces of Death. How to take advantage of "Facing."

Want to see your opponent's face turn green, blue, then explode? Try this!

First of all, as Flekkso pointed out in my last post, and I agree, you should at least offer to explain "Facing" before the game starts. It will help to bring a photo copy of page 60, or even try to print out my illustrations if you can. At least offering will let you off the hook for sportsmanship points. "Dude, I know you want to kill me, but I'm not being a dick! I tried to go over this before the game started..."

Now. A Jawaballs post would not be complete without me saying how I use rules to win games. Want to take advantage of "Facing"? Here is a quick tip or two.

Butt the front of your tank up against low walls. Your opponent will try to get angles to take shots at your sides, but will probably, for at least one of his shots, still be in your front facing. He will attempt to minimize his exposure, while getting a side shot on you. It happens all the time. You can still fire your turret over the wall, but you will get a 3+ save because he is in your front facing. If he starts to come around the wall and you have room, slide over a bit and draw him out more. If you can, rotate your tank a little, keeping the front hidden but side exposed. He will try to get the shot, but hopefully still be in front facing. This will only work for a turn or two fellas, and will not work all the time. Remember, this is not an instant win tactic, it is just a way to get an extra round of survivability out of your tanks. That can make all the difference.

What about boards that have very little cover? Luckily for me I bring my own. This is not so great in Kill Point missions, but in capture and control, this is effective. Lets look at my illustration. Forgive the colors, they were Yellow Blue and Red, but something happened when I brought them over. Blood Angels have a sweet advantage in that their tanks have Over Charged Engines. They can sometimes move up to 18". This is great because it allows nice flexibility for moving your tanks.

At the start of movement, my opponent had a Rhino and Predator tank in the open. There is very little terrain on the board. I moved my rhino into its current position and popped smoke. I then moved my Baal Pred right up behind the rhino, perfectly hiding its front facing behind the transport, BUT leaving the turret and sponsons exposed! With my Lascannon Tactical marines about 2 feet off the edge of the illustration, I popped the rhino. (The marines conveniently got out in front of my tanks for illustration purposes.) Now, I have options! I can bring all of my Preds guns to bear on the poor tactical marines. The right sponson may have a hard time targeting, but I can certainly fire the left, and the turret as well as Storm Bolter. This will be 12 shots raining down on those marines. Substitute a Chimera and Guardsmen and they will get no saves at all! Or I can take my assault cannon shots at the front armor of the enemy predator. Knowing how I play, I will probably take the shots at the infantry and at least force a leadership, while my other preds take care of the tank.

Here is the kicker! On my opponents next turn. He will be shooting at my front facing if he attempts to shoot my Predator. (Unless of course if he moves... I made this a tight illustration for well... illustration purposes... most of the time the enemy tanks will be further away and not as close to the "facing" line, leaving them in the front facing after they move 6".) Remember, most tanks cannot move and fire all their guns. A marine predator tank with Lascannon sponsons will probably just rotate and fire all of its guns.

If he shoots my predator, I will get a 3+ save because the rhino is completely blocking the front facing! I will at least get 4+ save if he tries to shoot the rhino instead... But then that is like giving my Predator a wound!

How can you apply this to your tactics? With a little thought I'm sure you can work it in. I have created a moving Rhino line. 3 Rhinos lined up next to each other, with a few inches in between, and butted my 3 predators right behind them. Now the rhinos move up, and angle themselves taking "Facing" into account, and the preds move up and take their positions behind them. Some can pop smoke, and using fast vehicle movement switch out with fresh rhinos that are coming in from behind. Be sure to leave "bail out" room if you have troops inside your rhinos. :)

Is this cheating? Well, in World War II the American Sherman Tank was fast and thinly armored like a Baal Predator. German Tigers were like Land Raiders. The Americans were NOT going to win a gun fight with Tiger tanks. So they had to use their speed and movement to give each other cover! I am willing to bet that they may have even run less important vehicles up in front of their tanks and fired over the top of them in an effort to give themselves more cover from those German 88s.

Were either side cheating? Hell no! It's war. So is 40k.

Jawaballs

Just Face It: The impact of "Facing" on mechanized warfare.

Illustration A


Illustration B






As I understand the rules, when a target vehicles armor value is being decided, that is, when you are trying to figure out just which of the vehicles armor values you have to penetrate, it is decided by "Facing". Huh? Whatsits? Yes, "Facing". I've pulled "Facing" out in tournaments to cockeyed looks of suspicion at best and in pick up games resulting in rule books being thrown! People don't get it. Players sometimes simply refuse to understand why they have a full view of the side armor, yet they have to target the front of my Baal Predator. To me it makes sense. Lets see if we can make sense of this together shall we?

Page 60 of the rulebook covers "Facing". From here on out known as fc.

Every one has been in this position. They have a Predator tank in open space at a funny angle. They can see both the front and the side of the tank. OF COURSE the shooter would rather shoot at the side armor value of 11 then the front armor value of 13. Well sadly shooter, you do not get to choose. Which armor value you are going to attempt to is decided for you by a vector drawn out from the tank, not by you. To decide which armor value you get to shoot, consult the chart on page 60.

The last sentence of the paragraph below "Vehicle Facing and Armor Values" states "Armor Values for individual vehicles also vary depending on which facing of the vehicle the shot comes from- it's front, sides, or rear, as explained in the diagram."

What this is saying folks is that when you shoot at a tank, you again, do not get to choose which of the sides of the tank you get to hit. A "Vector" is drawn from the sides of the tank out in all directions. The diagram on page 60 is a perfect example of this. A straight line is drawn from one corner, to its opposite corner, and out towards you. Which ever side of that line you fall on is the facing you are in, and that is the armor value you have to contend with.

Confused? Probably. It gets worse.

What happens if you are a large tank, or a squad, and you fall right on that "Vector" line. Well to answer, you resolve the individual shots against the armor value of the facing they are in. Some may be shooting at the front, while some may be shooting at the side.

Lets consult my crudely drawn diagram Illustration A. In it you see a Blood Angels Baal Predator (drawn larger of course) fighting 3 enemy Predator Tanks. Tank A is obviously in the front facing, while tank C is obviously in the right side facing. But tank B is the problem. It has a shot at both the front and side of the BA tank. Which armor value are its shots resolved against? By looking at the vector you can see that it goes right through the tank. (The line did not translate from photoshop to my diagram, look at the line on the BA tank and extend it out towards tank B.) In this case, the turret and its Right Side sponson are in the FRONT facing of the BA tank, while the left sponson, if it were able to draw a bead, is on the SIDE facing.

Still confused? Don't worry, you should have seen the look on my buddy Ed's face today when I tried to explain that yes his Russ could fire on my Predator, but not only would I get a cover save despite the fact that he could see all of the right side, I will get a 3+ cover save because he cannot see ANY of the front...(He was in the front's facing but it was blocked by terrain.)

Head smack...

We all know how cover saves work. If you are shooting at a vehicle, and it is more then 50% obscured it gets a cover save, and if less then 50% is obscured, it does not. Right? Not exactly. If you look at the first bullet on page 62 you will see that word FACING again. "At least 50% of the FACING of the vehicle that is being targeted needs to be hidden by intervening terrain or models from the point of view of the firer for the vehicle to claim to be in cover." I bet most of you gloss right over that word completely.

Now here is the kicker! At the bottom of the page it says this: "It may rarely happen that hte firing unit cannot see any part of the facing they are in, but they can still see another facingof the target vehicle. In this case they can take the shot against the facing they can see, but to represent such an extremely angled shot, the vehicle receives a 3+ cover save." Gulp...

Yes, that is correct sir! Please don't jack my sportsmanship points! You CAN fire at my tank, I will get a 3+ save!

Look at Illustration B. Tank A has pulled its front armor up against a large black wall. It completely blocks LoS to the front of the tank. Tank B is at a good enough angle to see the side armor, but if you extend the vector you can see that it is in the FRONT facing! It may take that side shot, but due to the angle tank A will get a 3+ cover save.

Bullshit? Hell no. Rule Munching? No Way. These are the rules as intended by GW. This gets rid of the "Which side can you shoot?" arguement. If you are a mechanized player, you MUST master this concept.

It is late, and I have no idea how the illustrations will translate to the blog, so I will just post this now and make edits. Feel free to offer ways to make this more clear if you understand, and feel free to ask for clarification if you do not!

I updated the images and put them in order and added lines today.

MAJOR EDIT:

Please read all of the comments since this is a great discussion!

I left the contents of the original post so you could follow the discussion.

After reconsidering, it is impossible for a tank to fire over terrain, and claim a 3+ cover save on it's side, if a "front faced" shooter can see the turret FROM THE FRONT FACE. However, If the shooter cannot see the front of the tank or the turret from the front, but it can from the side, the tank will still get a 3+ save.

So, it is possible for a tank to have it's "Front Facing" completely blocked by terrain as well as the turret, yet still fire... depending on where it's target is.

Looking at Illustration B, which has not changed, you can see that tank B cannot draw LoS at all to the "Front Facing" of tank A since it is completely blocked by a large wall. It CAN fire at the 11 armor value "Side Facing" but it will get a 3+ save. Also, due to the placement of the turret on tank A, it can fire on Tank B! In this case, Tank A can collect a 3+ save, and still fire it's main gun. Depending on how much of the "Front Face" of tank B can bee seen while looking down the barrel of Tank A's turret, Tank B may or may not get a 4+ cover save.

Lol, this is fun!

Jawaballs

Mind Games: Forcing your opponent to choose.

The other night, when playing a Tau player, I realized that some times I employ a nice little mind freak that I have in part touched upon previously but I felt warranted it's own post. Here was the setup.

The Tau player had all of his guns lined up on his edge of the board thanks to Dawn of War deployment. He knew he would be facing my 5 Rhinos and 3 Predators among other things as they came onto the table in my turn, and he knew that I would be unable to reach him. I forgot to mention that I deployed a rhino and Dante behind cover to begin the game.

Turn one came, and all of my stuff moved onto the table as far as I could. The problem was that I would need at least one full turn of movement before I could return fire, and he would have up to two full turns of shooting during which he could cut down my rhinos like they were made of paper. My solution? I fed him a Rhino and Dante.

On the bottom of one, I fast moved the rhino I had deployed up to within 18" or so of his edge, and jumped Dante over to hide on the right side of it. Then I popped smoke. This rhino was right smack in the middle of the table and was carrying a 5 man combat squad... it was now on an objective. I had no delusions of it surviving the turn... but it did not have to. The point is that I forced my opponent to make a choice. He could:

A. Shoot his guns at this rhino and Dante because if he did NOT kill them, they would surely be on top of his troops.

B. Shoot his guns at my transports, leaving my troops stranded in the open and easy pickings for his missles.

Now, if he chose to ignore Dante and pop my transports, sure Dante would have gotten into his lines and tore it up... but what he did not quite realize was that Dante is not the strength of my army... my fast moving transports are! So he fired every gun he had at the first rhino and Dante. He actually failed to kill Dante due to some lucky dice on my part!

What did this do for me? Now my transports had a chance. I was able to fast move them the next turn up into cover and into lanes of blocked line of sight from his rail guns. He had missed his opportunity to stop them cold, and I was in position to win the game.

How do you translate this into your own games? First of all, pick a unit that has high survivability, coupled with a unit that is expendable. In this case, I took Dante and one of 5 of my troops choices. Then move the expendable unit up as far as you can to provide cover for your survivable one. Storm Shield terminators deep striking next to a rhino, or a fast moving seer council next to a Wave Serpent would be good. Use the transport to block LoS from as much as you can. In my case, I angled it to block about 60 percent of his guns from targeting Dante. He had to blow it up to get to him...

Now you cross your fingers! In this situation, he exploded up the rhino on his first shot. If you are lucky, he will simply destroy it and your troops can disembark into relative safety. In my case, with the rhino gone, my marines went down fast and Dante suffered more shots then he should have... but his 2+ save and 4+ invulnerable saved him! I knew I was going to lose the rhino and troops, but hoped that Dante could survive... and he did.

With Dante alive, any thing he did from that point was bonus. I sacrificed him to give my transports a chance to move. Now he was able to get up into it, destroy a squad, survive yet another round of shots, and die to a fire warrior charge... but we wont mention that. The second round of shots that he sucked up were the cake though. They are what won the game for me.

So there you go! A perfect example of my mind games in practice. Sacrifice a juicy target to give the rest of your army a chance to do their jobs.

I will add that the next round, I moved my Death company rhino with Corbulo into that same position, to fill the same role. I did not want him shooting at my troops, so I fed him the DC. The Rhino got popped, not exploded, and they got out on the safe side, and hunkered down. Now I had a nice LoS blocking heap of slag in the middle of the table, and my troops were able to move up unmolested.

40k for Noobys! Tactics: Assault

Ok, bear with me here. I am sitting at a tire dealership getting my flat fixed. I have gotten an overwhelming number of requests to do tactics for noobys. Probably the most questions I get in general are on how to play the game! So I have decided to write a series of tactical posts for the 40k nooby. If you are here, you were either forced here by my massive Youtube marketing blitz, googled Blood Angels and found the first 40 hits as mine, or probably were directed here from some one elses blog list. At any rate, a good number of you finding yourself here for the first time are new players searching for ANY info on how to start. There is a lot of info for advanced players who know what they are doing... but very little for beginners.

Having said that, allow me to begin.

Assault!

Not all armies are created equal when it comes to assault. If you have just started playing the game, you may have picked an army you thought was cool like the Tau, and wonder why you buddy keeps owning you with space marines with Jump Packs. There are a few things to consider when looking at assault. The most important stat is Initiative. Initiative determines who gets to swing their sword first. The better the fighters will get to attack first, thus getting a chance to kill your guys before they get to even swing their weapons. When planning what you are going to assault, you need to consider initiative first. After initiative, comes Toughness. You may have a higher initiative, but your target is too tough to wound! An Eldar Guardian has Strength 3, and Chaplain Cassius, a Space Marine Character, has Toughness 6. Those poor Guardians who manage to actually hit him, will only wound him on a roll of 6. Needless to say, Cassius will slaughter entire squads of guardians all by himself.

After initiative and toughness, the rest of the stats come into play. Weaponskill is a measure of how good your model is with his sword compared to his opponent. Leadership matters in assault too.

Armor saves matter too. Space Marine Terminators have a 2+ save. Eldar guardians have what... a 5+ Not fair at all.

Finally comes the matter of what weapons you are carrying. Oh man... lol... soo many variables! I guess this is why there is so little written for noobs! This is hard! Well I will just plug away here and organzie it after.

You need to be aware of the weapons that your squad has and the squad that you are attacking has. You can have a jacked out badass squad of Assault Space Marines, but if they do not have a power fist, they will have a tough time beating a Chaos Dreadnought in assault.

Let me try to simplify things. In the movement phase you need to think about what squads you will want to assault in the assault phase. I know, thinking ahead is not easy, especially when you need to think ahead 5 rounds... but you have to do it. So you need to move your units so that after shooting is done, they will still be in range to assault. (that means if you plop your assault marines just 6" away from the closest enemy model, fire at that squad, kill one, and he pulls that model off, you are no longer in range...)

So if you want to assault, make sure your unit is VERY close to the target unit. Or do not shoot at that unit. I rarely shoot at the units I plan on assaulting. That is because I play on the extreme edges of measurement. I have a fairly good eye for estimating distances, and will take chances for my assaulters. If I think I can get just one of my guys into assault, with just one of his, I will go for it, but shooting that squad may allow him to pull that model off, leaving my squad stranded. Never let that happen! Plus, if you are not sure that you will slaughter the squad you are about to assault without shooting at it... you may want to rethink your target any way.

So during movement, position your assaulters so that they are as close to your enemy as possible. If you are so close that no matter how many guys he pulls off from that squad you will still get into assault, feel free to shoot em up. Otherwise, hold your fire.

Now, you moved your guys, and maybe shot at your target and it is time for you to assault. At any rate, you are committed now so there is no turning back. Charge. The next step is to pick the closest model you have to his squad, and move him directly into base to base contact with that model. If you are short... assault is over. Your guys are stuck in the open. If you reach, assault has started. Once your first guy is BtoB with his, the rest of your guys can go where ever they hell they want. So long as they remain in unit coherency... that is, every guy in your squad has to be within 2" of another member of the squad. What is key about this is that now you can assault the squad you are after, but you can send other guys in your squad out to attack other nearby squads and vehicles. In our little example, we will say that 10 Assault Space Marines have targeted a squad of Eldar Guardians for assault, and there are two other squads of Eldar nearby. The first marine goes in base to base with the first Eldar, but then you can shoot out marines from that squad into the other two squads of Eldar. Lets just say there is also an Eldar Viper too. You can send your marine with the power fist after that!

So lets recap this. You moved your 10 assault marines into range to assault a squad of eldar. There also happens to be two other eldar squads right next to your target and a viper. You get your closest marine into base to base contact with the target squad. You can then send out marines to assault the other two squads and the viper. Your guys are close enough to reach them all, and stay in unit coherency. Now the eldar player has to bring all of his guardians into combat against your squad! Your 10 marines are about to wipe out 30+ Eldar and a tank.

Now to decide just who is attacking who.

This is a little confusing. Lets start with your first marine. He, and any one who is base to base with the first eldar squad can attack it. Also, any one behind him, up to 2", can attack it even if they are not in base to base. Lets say 5 of your guys qualify to attack the first squad and you will direct all of their attacks into it. Now, two of your marines are base to base with Eldar squad 2. They will attack that squad. Two other marines are base to base with squad 3 and they will attack that one. Finally, your Sgt charged the Viper and is going to punch the crap out of it.

Now lets look at Initiative. Space Marines are initiative 4. We will say guardians are initiative 3. The space marines get to attack 1st. Assault marines have one base attack. They get a second attack because they have an off hand weapon. In this case, their bolt pistol counts as a club. They get a third attack because they charged. So they get 3 attacks each. 5 marines are attacking the Eldar, and they get a total of 15 attacks.

Holy crap i think I just lost myself... Let me post this, if you think it is ok, i will continue writing it! :)

How to Win Warhammer 40k: Blood Angels Tactics 4, Rhino Rush

Time to talk about Rhinos. 5th edition has welcomed the new dawn of 40k, and with the rise of that dawn came the reliable and practical use of the Space Marine Rhino. I use them extensively in my army and walk all over people. In the Way of Sanguinius, the Rhino is the key factor in my plans.

Lets discuss the Rhino first. Armor 11 on front and sides, with 10 back is lacking but not terrible. It protects the squad inside from withering small arms fire, which is the intended use of an APC any way. No armored personnel carrier is intended to withstand the heavy guns carried by tank destroyers. Once you accept that and focus on the Rhino's strengths, you will do fine. You must give your Rhino extra armor. I know, it is a 15 point investment, and when using 5 rhinos can get really expensive, but I cannot tell you how many times extra armor has been useful, especially in tank shock, which I will get into after. I personally feel it is worth while to add the second storm bolter on at least one of your Rhinos. Just think of it as a mobile gun platform. 4 shots can be used to finish off that last lucky couple of guardians, or possibly add a wound to a commander before he assaults you. They can be wonderful for dealing with speeders. Remember, 5th edition is about torrent of fire. You want as many shots as you can get on the table, regardless of STR. Lastly concerning Blood Angels Rhinos, they have Over Charged Engines. This enables them to move up to 18" and get in position to contest/claim objectives, and tank shock enemy troops.

How to use your Rhino.

Use your rhinos as a mobile gun platform. Put a 10 man tactical squad with a lascannon and meltagun inside. Move it up onto an objective. Next turn, fire that Las and melta at any thing you want, keeping the guys inside safe.

Protect your squads. Put a 5 man squad in a rhino, and drive it up onto objectives. Keep the squad in the rhino... your enemy must divert heavy weapon shots onto them to crack em open. In the meantime, the rhino is protecting your 5man squad from annoying infantry shots. You can always disembark the squad and move/assault if you have to. So long as you have gotten your rhino into position, every heavy weapon shot fired at them is one less fired at your Baal Preds and Furioso. That is a good thing in turns 3 and 4 believe me.

Provide cover. Rhinos are great and cheap at providing mobile cover. Move that rhino up on to an exposed objective, and let it get knocked out... now you have a big lump of terrain to hide behind. OR you can use them to provide cover for each other while they are on the move. In the movie The Empire Strikes Back, Luke ordered an "Outside the Box" tactic to attack the AtAt walkers. They flew in a straight line, one behind another, 3 or 4 in a row. The lead speeder maximized its front shields, while the others saved power. When the lead speeder had its shields reduced to a dangerous level, the next in line leap-frogged into the front, always keeping a charged and undamaged shield to take the brunt of the enemy fire. Of course the speeders were weak vehicles and got shot down any way, but they did their job! They slowed down the enemy advance, and even took out a few in the process. Rhinos can pull the same tactic. Use them to provide cover to the ones behind them, each overlapping the next. Pop smoke on the lead Rhino. Next turn, move one up to the front that has not popped smoke yet. If done right, your rhinos should all have cover saves in open terrain up until they reach their objectives. (And if Corbulo is in one of them, you can negate a failed cover save once per turn.) You can also use them to block the enemy charge, and line of sight. Force the ork nob/warboss biker squads to go around them, slowing them down to allow you to get to them first. Use them to block LoS from enemy plasma cannons and battle cannons so you can advance your tanks. Make a wall around objectives you have just secured. The possibilities are endless.

Tank Shock. Perhaps my most favorite tactic! With 18" of movement, you can usually reach enemy squads and tank shock them. This will usually take them completely by surprise. First of all, They may or may not know how TS works. Their lack of knowledge is your gain. It has been my experience that 40k is 1/3 Army List, 1/3 tactics and 1/2 knowledge of the rules... (weird math intentional) Do not deceive your opponent, but don't feel like you have to tell them about all the rules in the book they should have in their own hands. They will probably know about Death or Glory, you can even be a good sport and tell them that they can Death or Glory your tank, but even that is not necessary since they SHOULD already know that. You could get away with simply saying that they have to make a leadership test, and if they fail, they fall back, and if successful, they MAY move out of the way or they MAY DoG. At any rate, wether you tell your opponent if they can use a Meltagun to DoG is up to you. A good player will know that, and knowledge of the rules is what seperates the good from the orks.

NOTE: My tactics are intended to be used against experienced players, usually in tournaments. In fun pickup games, you should always be a good sport and explain rules that less experienced players may or may not know. It is ok to nail em once, but make sure that they know what you did.

Back to Tank Shock. SO here is how it breaks down. You tank shock a squad, that squad needs to pass a leadership test immediately. IF they pass the test they may simply move out of the way, moving as far as they need to stay in coherency and one inch away from your tank. Fearless models need not roll. If they fail to pass the test, they will immediately fall back as per the rules... In this case, simply chase them off the table by staying within 6" of the squad. They can NEVER regroup so long as you have a model nearby.

If they pass, they may attempt to DoG. They can elect to select one model, and get a free shot against the front armor of the tank with whatever weapon they are holding. Over zealous 4th edition experts may jump to choose that powerfist... but in 5th edition you may use Meltaguns or lascannons to do the same thing. At any rate, which ever model you use, it gets an auto hit. It has to penetrate the front armor. If you manage to stop the tanks movement, either by rolling a 2, 4, 5, or 6 on the damage table you are successful. Glances modify the roll accordingly. But here is where it gets interesting. Extra armor allows you to ignore the 2, it is treated as a 1. So you can still move and now you are only stopped on a 4,5 or 6. That is a 50% chance at being successful... You cant beat that! Especially if you tank shock a squad with 3 Rhinos... They have to make 3 leadership tests, then beat those 50% odds 3 times. If the DoG is successful, then the model stops where it encountered the squad and the damage is resolved as normal.. IE your guys get out if it is destroyed and will probably die next turn. But if the DoG fails, the model dies, and your tank keeps on plowing through. You can even move on to TS another squad! This is crucial for taking and/or contesting objectives. Where Melta guns throw off the math is that they add a +1 to the damage chart... and reduce your chance of success to what 18%? 2 in 6 instead of 3 in 6... (assuming the penetration happens)

I once tank shocked a squad that had 2 meltaguns, with 2 rhinos, and the poor guy failed to stop the vehicles twice... Losing both models. You just never know.

There you have it. Cover saves and Over Charged Engines make Blood Angels Rhinos superb at land grab, take and hold missions. They are survivable, and are good at knocking squads off objetives. Especially if you can get to ones that do not have heavy weapons. Some guys like to take squishy and weak troops just to fill the requirement and hold objectives. They put them in the back and forget about them. Tank shock away!

How to Win Warhammer 40k: Blood Angels Tactics 3, General Plan

Welcome back! I believe I should have probably started with this post, and then discussed how each of my units fits into it. Never too late though! My first two posts were about Dante and Corbulo and were very specific. This one will be a about how I play my Blood Angels in general. Keep in mind, that I do not win every game. But I am a contender at every tournament I go to and know that I have a good chance at victory, or at least not losing, in every game I play. I suppose that is all one can ask for!

I have touched on some of this stuff in other posts, so some of the info I am laying down here may be repetition. I just wanted to get it all in one spot. Jwolf, over at Bell of Lost Souls recently wrote an article placing Blood Angels in the bottom tier of 40k armies, based on his experience. He quotes "Small pockets of destruction" and the fact that in order for BA to be strong, they have to concentrate themselves in one small portion of the table, leaving themselves vulnerable to blast templates and eliminating their overall effectiveness. I want to begin by saying yes, he is correct, IF I try to play Blood Angels like a normal space marine army. The simple truth is that BA cannot stand toe to toe with a generic codex space marine army. With the exception of the Baal Predator, Generic Marines (GM) can field units that at least match and in most cases better BA ones. Honor Guard, Veteran squads, Terminators, Ironclad Dreads... the list goes on. To take it one step further, they can do it cheaper in most cases.

When most people look at the BA codex, they drool over the prospect of scores of Assault Pack infantry leaping over terrain bristling with power fists and raining death upon their opponent basking in the glow of Dante and Corbulo. I believe this army might be the one that Jwolf is in part referring to. I tried this army and it simply does not work. Any smart player is simply going to sit back and fire away. You cannot hide those assault squads in 5th edition, and they will either be nipped down by withering small arms fire, or destroyed completely by blast weapons. True line of sight makes this army a loser. Sure, you will destroy some guys if the circumstances are right... but to put it simply, forget it. Move on. There are a couple of other armies that people try but will fail. The Land Raider full of Death Company for example is a one trick pony. Hell, the BA Land Raider is a poor choice any time since it does not have the same Machine Spirit or capacity as a GM one. Guys feel the need to load up on Terminators... Boycott them outright until they get 3+ Storm Shields or are made cheaper. Resist the temptation to overload on Elite choices. Point sink units will wear you down. The most expensive unit in my army is my Tactical squad. With it's Rhino, it costs about 250 points. Every thing else is 150 and under. (except Dante) The secret here is maximizing your army size, while minimizing the cost.

Now, welcome to The Way of Sanguinius!

It is time to go over the secret, the key, the way. If you are looking for an army that is going to bludgeon your opponent into submission in 4 turns, Blood Angels fail. But the good news is 5th edition is NOT about bludgeoning your opponent like 4th edition was. With Victory Points removed from you game, and 66.6% of the missions being Objective based, you can win without even killing a single enemy squad! Blood Angels can do this better then any one. Allow me to explain.

My army is a mix of overwhelming assault force, devastating "Torrent of Fire", and speedy troops. Dante, Corbs with the DC in their Rhino, and the Furioso are the spear head assault element. My 3 Baal Predators and Tactical squad provide fire support, and my 3 Rhinos with Assault Squads inside run the endaround and take and hold objectives. It is the rule of 3s! One Baal Pred is good, but 3 Baal Preds are devastating.

I send the assault element right at the heart of the enemy. But I do not charge blindly. Setting up your opponent so YOU get the charge is an art. If they get the charge, there are very few squads in the game that can survive an attack from Dante and a Death Company Furioso supported by Corbs. If they do, you can unload the Death Company next turn and finish them off.

I keep the Rhinos back and ready to go. I protect them from long range shots, and spend the first two rounds getting them in line to make their attack runs. Of course, a Rhino is fragile, and 5 guys inside will die if your opponent decides they want to kill them and has the time. So you hold them back and safe until turn 4, then send them out! Over-Charged Engines (OCE) will allow you to get to where you have to go.

Lastly, 3 Ball Preds (BP) and the 10 man Tactical squad provide all the shots I need. I recently just added a Rhino and Meltagun to the tactical squad (TS). That gives me one more option for taking objectives. 3 BP is a truely scary thing to behold. Think about it. 3 tanks with AV 13 advancing and shooting 12 shots each. 10 of those 12 shots will deny armor saves to any thing not in power armor, and wound on 2 or 3 to almost every model in the game. With so many cover saves and invul saves in 5th edition, the game is about Torrent of Fire (ToF) which is simply LOTS of shots. BPs provide that. Using OCE they can advance 6" and fire all of their guns, or advance 12" and fire their Assault Cannon and Storm bolter. You can charge the 3 BPs up 12" and unload 24 shots on a squad. That is a 36" range to deliver a volley that can kill most squads. Giving them extra armor and using them to overlap cover saves makes them that much harder to kill. AND if they are rendered useless from weapon destroyed, but still are mobile, they can ram from 18" away getting a STR 10 shot.

To refer back to the post by Jwolf, yes I do tend to keep my army clustered. But any marine player does. Marines are expensive, and spreading expensive units leads to isolated units, leading to dead units. But this is not a weakness. Clustering my forces means lots of cover saves in the pivotal first two turns. Then after that comes the break out and land grab. OCE allow Blood Angels to do it well.

Allow me to address each of the 3 standard missions.

Loot Counters:
This is my favorite mission. Remember, again, this mission is NOT about killing your opponent. The winner of this game is simply the guy who has more loot counters at the end. When deploying the Loot, I set up the one I intend to keep, and the two I intend to take. I ignore the rest. I plop my Tactical squad on the one I want and surround it with my assault element. They then head towards the ones I want to take, and are followed by my Rhinos. The BPs advance softening up their defenses for my Assault Element (AE). The Rhinos get into position to move up and claim objectives for me, and/or contest his. Zoom the rhino right up onto the objective, hopefully it will have cover, and sit there. The enemy has to first pop the rhino, then kill the marines inside. If you wait until turn 4 to do this, they will not get them all. If you need to, unload the AS inside. After all, they are assault marines, with assault weapons, and a power weapon veteran. Even without Dante and Corbs in range, they are a tough nut to crack. All you realy need to do is hold one objective, then contest all the others. Victory Blood Angels. I will write a lot more about these tactics later in more specific posts.

Bases:
Each of us have one objective and must try to take it from the other. If a Blood Angels army ever loses this mission, the guy needs to give up and play something else, he is an embarrassment to the blood. This is the same as before, but even easier. Set up your tactical squad on the objective surrounded by the AE and BPs. Reserve your rhinos. To get to your base, your opponent has to go right through your advancing stuff which is just what you want. Simply hold yours, try to take his, defend, and send your rhinos for the End-around again. Get em in to contest... victory Blood Angels.

Kill Points:
This one is a little more tricky. A mechanized Blood Angel army will have lots of Rhinos... which are fairly easy kill points. This mission is my armies greatest weakness. I find myself hiding them all the way in the back, using cover, smoke etc. Reserve them for sure. Then when they come on, you can deploy them turn 2 or 3 in safer spots on the board. In a kill point mission, you need not overwhelm your opponent. You only have to finish the game with one more kill point then he has. Sadly, almost all of your fire power is mid range. (Using my army list) Set your self up so that in order for your opponent to get a kill point off you, he has to expose himself to your shots. And if you cannot get a kill point without exposing your self, DONT GO FOR IT. Make him make the mistake. Be patient, sit back, fire your Las at his transports. Try to get second turn. That is a huge edge, because on turn 5 and 6 you can advance and grab kill points without threat of reprisal. Make no mistake, KP missions are hard to win for my army. But it is possible!

Other Tips:
I very often reserve everything. Most people do not know that when you reserve, you come onto the table on your TABLE EDGE not DEPLOYMENT ZONE. You can catch them, especially when playing a table quarters deployment. Reserve some heavy hitters. He may try to flank you and come close to your table edge in the corner you did not deploy on. When your reserves come on, you can get right behind him, or assault him from the edge... Sneaky...

Reserving is key for anti drop pod. When up against a heavy pod army I always reserve, and make him go first. If you are lucky, all of his pods will be down before any of your stuff is on the table. Then you come on and deal with his isolated pods. Sneaky...

Reserving every thing keeps your juicy Rhinos off the table. You dont even want them on the table during turn 1 and 2. Reserving allows you to get them into the fight on your terms, where you want them, and protects them from 2 turns of Heavy weapons fire. They are fast enough to get where you want them to go in 2 turns. Since they have troops inside, they simply need to be within range to score and you got em.

So there you go. How to WIN with Blood Angels. Play the mission. Contest objectives. Do not get into a slugfest. Use the Baal Predator liberally. Pick and choose your targets. Use all of your firepower to completely destroy a target before moving onto the next. Do not be afraid to shoot assault cannons at Land Raiders. They are actually better at killing them then Twin Linked Lascannons.

I am sure I will add more to this as the thread develops.

JB

How to Win Warhammer 40k: Blood Angels Tactics 2. Brother Corbulo

Welcome to segment 2 of How to win Warhammer 40k. I could not post a tutorial on using Dante without posting about my other HQ choice, Brother Corbulo. Also, I want the reader to bear in mind that these tactic posts are designed with the standard missions in mind from the Warhammer 40k Rulebook. Of course, at tournaments, tactics and mission objectives will change. Hopefully, you will be able to adapt what I present to you here and use it to win games. You might not be able to win against some of the uber cheat armies, and people might consider my army a little cheezy as well. But the one major distinction is that my army follows the fluff and history of the Blood Angels. Every thing in my army is encouraged for use by Blood Angels lists. A fine example of a contrasting list. The Two Warboss/Nob Biker list. Absolutely not would two equal Strength Ork Warbosses team up. It defies the nature of chaos, orks and the universe. It is a simple accepted truth that the two war bosses would first fight each other to see who is stronger, and then one would be the warboss, the other would be a big freaking nob, or dead. Yet we see more and more of these armies on the table. Plus, we see players very sneakily diversifying each nobs gear in the squad, for the sole purpose of exploiting the Wound Allocation rule. Great job ork boys.

So, my point is that my tactics are designed to help you win against most non uber cheezed armies, playing the standard 5th edition missions. Having said that, I welcome any and all arguements to my posts. With one rule. Keep it clean of rude language, and back up your statements with fact. It is amazing how hard people find those two simple rules. If you think I am wrong with something I have said, that is fine. Explain why, and support your statement with page numbers and rules quotations. If you cannot do that, please do not post.

OOOKKKKKKK! Time for the Bro.

If you are taking Dante, you have to Take Corbulo. Lets talk about his gear first.

Chain sword. What the hell? One of the highest ranking Apothecaries in the Imperium canot afford a power sword? I would gladly pay 25 more points for this model to have a PW.

Sanguinator. Standard apothecary gear. This allows him to negate one wound per turn within 6" of him. The wound cannot have been caused by any attack that denies armor saves or instant death. Unlike new codex apothecaries, he does NOT grant a squad he has joined Feel No Pain.

Corbulo can lead the Death Company. A DC squad not within 6" of Corbulo or a Chaplain must move as far as it can towards the nearest enemy model during the movement phase.

The Holy Grail...
This thing has TWO effects. First of all, it grants Corbs a 4+ Invul. But most importantly, and the reason why this is AWESOME, it grants all Blood Angels within 12" Furious Charge. This does apply to Dante, all troops and my Furioso Dreadnought! Yes, that is right, my dreadnought charges at initiative 5, and Dante charges at initiative 6 with Str 5. For this reason alone, Corbs is mandatory.

How to use him:

Attach him to the DC, and buy them a rhino. I do NOT use jump packs for my DC. Doing so necessitates taking Lesmartes, and he is not worth it. Nope, I load them up in a Rhino with Extra Armor, all painted black and covered with skulls. People fear it. The reason why you put him in a rhino is not only to let him keep up with Dante, but because his powers work from inside it! (Please correct me if I am wrong, with facts, quotes and page numbers.) I am not interested in opinion on this one. So, Corbs can lead the DC, negate wounds, and grant FC from in his rhino.

Move the rhino up, it is perfect for blocking Line of Sight for Dante too. Charge it up to Dante's target and park/pop smoke. Keep the DC inside. Jump Dante up into assault range. Send him him! Make sure he is within 6" of the hull of the Rhino. If Dante takes a wound, negate it. Next turn, if you have taken a bite too big to chew, unload the DC, and charge them in!

If you are forced to disembark Corbulo, do NOT put him into assault. At the end of the movement phase, make sure he is 2" away from the DC, and preferably out of LoS from enemy guns. Send in the DC and watch the mayhem. If you absolutely MUST send him into assault, it is ok. I have used him to charge in and finish off squads when needed. But it is almost always better to keep him out of CC. Simply because he is able to heal, but NOT while in CC. If you used your heal on your opponents turn, and can not use one on your turn, and the squad you are fighting is close to death, charge him in to finish it off. you might also want to get him into CC just to allocate wounds on to him. Especially later in the game. He has an Invul, and only cost 100 points. He is a much more expendible model then Dante. If it is getting close to the end, and you need Dante to live, get Corbs in there and put the wounds on him.

When to use his heal:
Save it for Dante, Death Company, Himself, Power Weapon/Fist in that order. Do not use it on normal infantry unless it is the very last wound of the turn and all attacks have been dealt. It is always better to allow an infantry man to die and save it for a DC model or Dante then to use it on a grunt, then watch a DC go down from the next round of shots.

And there you have it! Corbulo is invaluable to your Blood Angels army. If you are playing a small force, he is the ONLY choice. At 100 points, he is the strongest, cheapest commander available. He should pretty much always be in your army. Get him in a Rhino, and keep him safe. Move the rhino up with your assault forces, and grant every one you can that bubble of Furious Charge. Unload him only if you have to. Assault with him even less. Sacrifice him to save Dante. Keep his rhino within 6" of your main assault forces for heals. He CAN heal guys locked in assault, so long as he is not locked in himself. You need him to control the DC, and if you are using a DC Furioso, that as well. Keep the Dread close to his Rhino until it no longer matters. You will know when that point arrives. Just about when your opponent starts squirming and whining. Enjoy!

JB

How to Win Warhammer 40k: Blood Angels Tactics

Hey Folks! So, after working on this blog and developing my army and tactics for about 9 months, I have started to turn into some sort of expert on Blood Angels. There simply are not many sources for info on them. The result of this is that the Blood Angels have been rendered down to a low tier in the 40k world. Well BS on that! I have made it my mission to squash that squig starting NOW! Here is the first post of many on Blood Angels tactics, that will teach you how to play warhammer 40k, and how to win warhammer 40k.

I will begin with a question from a reader.

Oh hey, Jawa, quick question, I just got my Dante, primed and ready to paint. I'm bringing him to a game on Sunday, wanted to know how you field him. Attached to a unit or alone hiding behind stuff, ready to pounce? I am thinking of attaching him to a 5-man jump pack assault squad (troops)? I'm going to two games, could be either against Necrons, Orks or Chaos Marines Noise Marine spam. Thoughts?

How do you play Dante? Do you field him at all? First of all, a resounding YES. Play him. He is expensive, but worth every point. If you are playing 1750, Dante should be on the table. Dont bother with some generic captain with weapons... spend the extra 50 points, and get the MAN.

I want to begin by saying that this Dante guide is assuming he is being granted Furious Charge from Corbulo. If you are taking Dante, take Corbulo. Get him into a Rhino, and keep the Rhino close to Dante. You give him FC, you can heal him, and you can unload the Death Company to help him if he needs it. All from inside the Rhino too! More on Corbulo in another post.

Dante's Gear:

Perdition Pistol. God Pistol. Pimp Pistol. It is a meltagun that counts as a pistol in Close Combat. Enough said.

6 attacks on the charge.

Axe of Mortalis. Master Crafted Power Weapon.

Artificer armor 2+ save!

4+ Invulnerable save.

Death Mask of Sanguinius... -1 Bs and Ws to all enemies within 6". That means he will pretty much always hit on 3.

Jump pack!

And the Creme de la Creme... all Blood Angels within 12" of Dante get Preferred Enemy... which lets them reroll misses in Close Combat. To hell with a Chaplain... Dante gives Litanies to EVERY ONE, EVERY TURN. (Within 12") But if you are playing your Bloods right, that will not be a problem.

Tactics:

First of all, do NOT attach Dante to a squad. Keep him close to one or all of them, but do not attach him. Why? Because you can hide him. Advance your Baal Preds, and yes every BA army should have Multiple ones, keep him right behind it, and jump him out when the time is right. Or, advance him behind a rhino filled with assault troops, and same thing. If you attach him to a squad, it is nere impossible to hide the whole thing. Therefore the squad will be targeted, and shot with every thing on the table that can reach. Of course no single shot at a squad will kill it, but it is the multiple hits that add up. And with enough shots fired at a squad he is attached to, he will have to make saves eventually, and battle cannon templates will be able to hit him. Keep him hidden, and unattached.

Once you have gotten him into range to attack, consider him expendable. Now that he is up in the lines running a-muck, it is time to advance the rest of your army, and win the game. Rounds 1 and 2 should be getting him up into range, and he should be assaulting in round 2. Idealy, he assaults at the bottom of the turn, but does not kill the squad. Then in your opponents assault phase you finish off the squad, and massacre, then move and assault a new squad on your next turn. Plan your assault. Do not finish off squads too quickly, leaving him stranded and open in the middle of the terrain. That means you have to measure how much you shoot at the squad he is assaulting, if at all.

Follow this guide for determining whether to shoot at Dante's target.
A. Measurement. It very well may be that he will be on the outside edge of 6" away. If it is possible that your opponent can pull off the one guy that leaves the squad in range to assault, DO NOT shoot at it. Even if the squad is large.

B. Number. If the squad is full. 10 or more... fire away. The magic number is seven. Dante can and probably will kill 4 to 6 normal marines a turn. Lesser beings will be more. Ideally, you want to allow for poor rolling, and leave him with just 2 or 3 to kill (half of his attacks) on your opponents assault phase. Assaulting a squad of 7 is the perfect number. 6 might mean you wipe them out completely, leaving him stranded. 7 means that you will probably be left with 2 or 3. Less then 6? Do not shoot the squad at all.

So now we go on to what else to do with Dante.

While he is on the table, there is a 2 FOOT diameter circle centered on him where every squad with a model within that circle at the start of their assault phase will get preferred enemy. I cannot tell you how huge this is! I believe the BEST use of this is with a Death Company Furioso Dreadnought. Keep Dante as close as possible to the Furioso and Corbs. Use them to cut out your opponents heart! How about 7 attacks from a Furioso, hitting on 3, and rerolling misses at initiative 5! Bring on those Carnifexes and Ironclads! Through luck, I once managed to get my furioso base to base with two Ironclads on the charge... I split the attacks... 3 to one and 4 to the other... destroyed them both! They didnt even get a swing in.

So here is the minimum deal. Put your DC and Corbs in a Rhino. Advance the rhino, supported by at least one Baal, follow it with Dante well hidden behind the tank. Use the tanks to give your Furioso a cover save. Send them right at your enemies heart. If used properly, Dante can kill 3 or 4 squads or vehicles on his own. In a game against some Tau recently, Dante killed a squad of Fire warriors, then a squad of suits, then a squad of Broad Sides, then finished up with that fire warrior squads transports! He is that insane. Once your army is in the thick of it, risk Dante. Be aggressive. Try to pop tanks. Send him into large squads. Don't forget to subtract 1 from the BS and WS of any enemy model within 6".

If you think he needs a little help, it is ok to keep an assault squad near by to join him. But DO NOT join him with that squad until it is time to go to assault. That is simply done by making sure they are within 2" of each other at the end of their movement phase. I almost never join him to a squad, but I may use him to support assault squads. I will send him into a weak squad, and my assault squad into a stronger one, he wipes up the weak one, then next turn assaults the other one, finishing them off and freeing up the weak squad.

Always if possible, make sure that he will NOT wipe out the squad he attacks until your OPPONENTS assault phase. Don't send him against very weak squads on your turn and leave him hanging in the open.

Remember, while it is ok to be aggressive with your Dante, it may pay to keep him back as well... I know, contradictory... but true. That preferred enemy is invaluable. It is all situational.

Get him into assault turn 2. Dont fear jumping into large squads... just make sure you get him some help if he needs it. He is best used taking out squads that are holding objectives and enemy commanders.

If you can get him base to base with an IC... do so and take advantage of Furious Charge from Corbs. That will probably give you the drop on all but the most powerful commanders.

Ok, that is a lot of info. Digest it, let me reread it, and I will edit it as needed. This is a work in progress. JB.

Q and A. Question from a youtube subscriber, posted with his permission.

I received this email from one of my youtube subscribers, and I asked him if he would mind if I posted the response here since it is information that all could benefit from. He didn't mind. So, here we go!

Question/comment:

no offence but i dont see many prime units that are pretty much needed in a blood angels army. first i dont see atermie squad they are primo choices for the army your going for. 2 shots with storm bolter. base 2 attacks + 1 for the power fist. and add an assult cannon for a lot of good shots at enemy units with just 1 model. add in some chain fists make your chances of penetrating a tank better. you think that power fist in your assult squad can pop open a landraider?
another thing is you are using a rhino transport for a 5 man squad. double them up or get razorbacks to get that much more shots on the field. what happens when a rhino blows up. you roll a number of dice to see who lives. rolling only 5 dice gives you a good chance of living. rolling 5 dice gives you a good chance at dying too. they may not have over charged engines but you only get that 6 inches by chance. and you have all thos assult squads but took them off their jump packs yet you want a fast moving army. its good to have a fast moving army but it's even better to have a fast moving army with a lot of shots. baal preds get over-charged engines and you can put them with assult cannons and 2 heavy bolters. thats 10 shots coming from a single tank.

Let me begin by saying, my army is optimized for speed and torrent of fire. After hours of play testing, I have come up with the strongest Blood Angels army I can that exploits the 5th edition rules. Simply put, the game is about taking or contesting objectives, not about killing your enemy 66.6666 % of the time. The other 33.333% of the time is about simply ending up with one more kill point then your opponent, which is only benefited by fast moving vehicles and torrent of fire.

Having said that, allow me to discuss some of your must have Blood Angels choices. A Terminator squad is a great choice. The 2+ save is spectacular and their possible fire power can lay down the law. However, lets look at points. For 230 points, I can put a 5 man terminator squad on the table with an Assault Cannon. (+1 death company, more on my thoughts about DC later) Counting points, that is 12 shots possible, including 4 STR 6 rending shots all at 24" range. A single Baal Predator can move 6" and unload 12 shots, half of which are at 36", almost all of which are STR 5 and above. Not to mash the numbers, but a Baal Predator can unload better fire power then a terminator squad, but can move faster, and has better range. Sure, a single shot can kill a BP, but a single Vindicator shot can knock out a Terminator squad (So can a Baal Pred)!

Lets take it a step further. Take a jacked Baal Predator from my list at 150 points, and add a Land Speeder. For just about the same cost as that Terminator squad, you now have a Baal Predator and a Land Speeder with a Multi Melta and Heavy Flamer. Two very fast moving units that could possibly land 22+ shots, almost all of which will wound on 2 or 3+ and about 25% of them possibly denying saves. Oh, and at the end of the game, they can move 18-24 inches and contest enemy objectives. Those pesky objectives again. If you take a Terminator squad without a Land Raider, the minute they are out of cover, they will be hit with every AP shot on the table, and die. Throughout a game, they might get as far as a BP/Speeder combo can go in one turn, and will maybe drop their fire power once or twice. Bottom line: Terminators have no place in a Fast Attack army.

Yet another step further. If you are going to take terminators in any army, they should take advantage of a maximized squad riding in a Land Raider, and use Space Marine Storm Shields for the 3+ Invul. But wait, Blood Angels Terms cannot do either. The BA LR can only hold 5 terms. BA terms cannot take Storm Shields with the 3+. Sadly, other Space Marine armies can do the terminator thing better. Nobody plays Terminators without CCW and a LR any more. For that 580 points, I can get so much more then what they can offer. OH and power fist never gives an additional attack as far as I know. Terminators are looking at a base 2 attacks, +1 on the charge all at 1 initiative. Dante and a single assault squad will eat a 5 man Term squad for breakfast.

The power fist in my assault squad is not meant to pop Land Raiders. It is meant for Monstrous Creatures and/ore Dreadnoughts. I drive that Rhino at such enemies and if I have to, unload them and punch the crap out of them. But I rarely have to.

In fact, when it comes to enemy Land Raiders, I simply ignore them, unless I can charge my Furioso at them. Plus, I have enough Melta shots to deal with them... Additionally... based on Mathhammer, TL assault cannons are better at dealing with Land Raiders then TL Lascannons... With 3 Baal Preds, I fear no Land Raider. Last time I faced one, I exploded it with a Baal Pred.

Assault squads in Rhinos vs squads in Razorbacks. To put a squad on the table in a Razorback, I need to spend 165 points and I get no extra armor, and a Rhino with a Heavy bolter that cannot move more then 12" but only holds 5 guys who have bolters. For 170 points I get a Rhino that can move up to 18" with extra armor, and contains an assault squad with a power weapon. Is the loss of that power weapon and fast movement worth a few extra shots? I run 3 assault squads in Rhinos, and I move them up on to objectives, WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT, and park them. To get at them, the enemy has to first pop the rhino, then kill 5 space marines who are now taking cover in the destroyed rhino. 5 Assault marines with Jump Packs are a target, who can pretty much be shot at by any gun on the table and wittled down to nothing by round 3. The odds of hiding them behind something, while advancing are pretty much nil. Putting them in a Rhino gives them more mobility, and survivability. That is based on fact, proven and tried. Before I added my rhinos, my assault squads were cut down by arbitrary gunfire from grunts that would not even hurt a rhino. Now, they almost always survive the entire game. In 5th edition, the game is about taking and holding objectives. Jump packs simply are inferior to a rhino at this role. OH, and there is the Tank Shock ability. A Rhino with Extra Armor can tank shock from 18" with a 50% chance of survival! That is fantastic! I Tank Shock every chance I get. Move your rhino 18", tank shock... if your tank shock is successful, the squad falls back and you follow them off the table. If the tank shock fails, your squad gets out and goes into assault next turn, probably killing any thing not in power armor.

These tactics have been explored in depth in other posts on my blog, so I will not get into them much more. But to lay it out, assault squads in Rhinos are simply faster, and tougher then assault squads with Jump Packs. I do not rely on my assault squads to do any thing but take and hold objectives, something that they are better then jump packs troops at. I rely on Dante, my Death company, Furioso, Speeder and Baal Preds to do my killing. The fact that I can unload an assault squad and charge a squad with a reasonable chance of killing it is a bonus.

Simply put, the army you are talking about is more easily fielded by codex marines then Blood Angels. If you try to compete with them, you will lose. Blood Angels are strongest using speed, and torrent of fire, coupled with precision assault power where needed. Leave the overwhelming force to the Ultravenamanderfistiscars.

JB