My Take On New Blood Angels

By: Norbu the Destroyer

After two years of playing the current 40k I finally ventured into running a Marine army. I’ve dabbled with wolves, and I’ve proxied vanilla marines, but I’ve actually given Blood Angels some serious thought and play. Now my view may be skewed as it will be from the eyes of someone who has almost exclusively run Necrons and Daemons, but hopefully it will give you some insight into GW’s latest codex. I have not used all the entries of the codex so I will touch on entries I have had experience with.

Separate Camps

Since the book has come out I have noticed some different opinions on the codex. Some claim the codex is broken and completely unfair, “cheesy” if you will. Others have stated they are too expensive to be competitive at high levels of play. I actually believe the Blood Angels to be right in the middle of the two camps.

The units are expensive, and at low points (1500 or so) other than running the (yawn) lazor-spam, it becomes difficult to field a viable force that is little more than a Land Raider with a couple support vehicles. This can be an issue for this army. Yes, the transports are fast, but a lascannon or melta gun does not care how fast your rhino went, when it is penned and immobile, or blown up, those extra points for speed are wasted the earlier it is popped. The various dreadnaughts can be point efficient, but if you read the fine print you are forced to buy Death Company members to get him. The Furioso is also good for his points…..if you get him into melee. Also, if you go the blood talons route, look out for other walkers as they will smash your dread. without any harm in return.

As far as the “cheese” factor some players complain about, I don’t really see it. Mephiston is a character I hear a lot of complaints about, but he has a glaring weakness- no eternal warrior and no invulnerable save. Yes he can put three or four wounds into the beefiest of melee units, but a pile of power weapon attacks back kills him outright. Units like crushers, nobz, and monstrous creatures can really mess up Mephiston. I’m not saying he has no use; just that he is fair for his points cost. The speed of the vehicles does seem like a little too much at first but you certainly pay the points, and as I stated earlier, a weapon that gets through your amour does not care how fast you went. My arguments above as to why the various dreadnaughts seem like a steal for their points hold true as to why they are not cheesy.

This is why I fall down the center of unfair-too expensive argument. I think GW nailed this codex perfect. The army is fast, deadly, but at a price. Nothing in this codex is cheap, so you pay for that elite marine force that can rocket across the board. “So what makes it an effective force?” you say, well lets look into that.
Force Multipliers

One interesting aspect of the various codexes’ that have come out is the force multipliers. Eldar can cast spells to create death traps in certain parts of the battlefield, basic marines can take characters that give entire armies abilities like twin linked melta or stubborn, guard can mess with reserve rolls for themselves as well as opponents, and even chaos daemons had characters that could make your entire army super resilient, or extremely deadly. Around the Tyranid codex, GW started using area multipliers when units are near each other. Tervigons could affect gaunts just by being nearby, pheromone trails could help reserves, the Swarmlord could just give abilities to units nearby, and that doesn’t even include the multiple psychic powers and synapse benefits on many of the Tyranid units.

What does this have to do with Blood Angels? Well they really don’t have a large force multiplier like the other books. They are more in line with the Tyranids as far units helping each other at specific points on the battlefield rather than army wide benefits. Yes, Dante does make Sanguinary Guard scoring, and Astorath helps your odds of succumbing to the red thirst, but that’s it. Other than those two abilities, there are no army wide benefits. The Sanguinor has +1 attack to all units within 6”, but that’s it, 6”. The sanguinary priests are the same way. Yes, they give Feel No Pain and Furious Charge, but again 6”. So what does this mean? I think they made these small little bubbles so Blood Angels can use their speed to collapse on a part of the battlefield where the ability is needed most. Think of them like a “lets split up and rendezvous at the clump of trees” sort of army. This ability can be transferred during the battle. Early you may want FNP near the termies, but once they are engaged, you could transfer the priest to another unit to benefit from furious charge. The Chaplains can be used to make Death Company extremely deadly on the charge, but as the unit fades away, he can link up to a unit of terminators to make them fearless.

This is only possible with the speed of the transports. Blood Angels do not have to fear moving a vehicle 12” to embark/disembark characters or units because they loose fire from the vehicle. The “Fast” ability helps tremendously in this department. The down side seems to be the razor-spam becoming more prevalent, but most people who run the razor spam choose to ignore the assault phase of the game with the exception of a beefy HQ.
My next post about my take on the Blood Angels will have to do with actual builds and units that work together on the battlefield. Again, I am by no means an expert on the Blood Angels, so post some things you agreed/disagreed with. I’m curious to hear other people’s opinions on the new Blood Angels. By opinions I mean actual conversation about the army as a whole and not things like “you are wrong about Mephiston, one time I saw him charge this awesome unit, he killed it, and then he killed this other awesome unit, so that proves he is awesome”, this could be phrased like “yes Mephiston has no invulnerable save, but his role in the army is not to attack other armies assault oriented units, he is meant to use his speed to track down basic troops units, wipe them out, and escape before help can arrive.” See what I mean there.