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Hi,
I have been experimenting with a new list at 1850 points, as this is the level that most places I have seen play at, and is also the most popular points level at tournaments (?).

Here it is:

Baal Strikeforce

HQ

Sanquinary Priest
Bolt Pistol, Valours Edge and Jump Pack
96 pts

Elites

Sanguinary Guard
Inferno pistol, Power Fist and Chapter Banner
210pts

Death Company
8man
Jump packs, 2 Power Fists
231pts

Furioso Dreadnought
Frag cannon, heavy flamer
140pts
(in a Drop Pod- 35pts)

Troops

Tactical Squad
5 man
Heavy Flamer, Sergeant with 2 Hand Flamers (or Combi-Flamer)
100pts

Tactical Squad
5 man
Heavy Flamer, Sergeant with 2 Hand Flamers
100pts

Currently, I have these guys riding in my Stormravens and will be combat squaded, although originally I had these guys in drop pods.

Fast Attack

Assault Squad
2 meltaguns, Sergeant with Combi-Melta
115pts (In a free Drop Pod)

Assault Squad
2 meltaguns, Sergeant with Combi-Melta
115pts (In a free Drop Pod)

Heavy Support

Stormraven Gunship
Lascannon, Multi Melta
200pts

Stormraven Gunship
Lascannon, Multi-Melta
200pts

Lords of War

Commander Dante
220pts

Total- 1762 (after recommended changes)
Gives me 88 pts to play with.

The main idea of this army list is essentially to deep strike as much of the army as possible, and to have alpha strike ability (although using the 5 drop pods would be better I suppose).
I am interested in using many other units too including things such as Librarians/ Mephy/ Librarian Dreadnought, Assault Termies, Command squads- the list goes on...
Any comments and criticism would be greatly appreciated guys, thanks

A Chapter Banner on a SG is a must.
Especially with Dante & Priest on the unit, just think about it.

For a price of a single Power Fist you get:
One attack with S8AP2
Four attacks with S4AP3 Master-crafted
One attack with S4AP2
One attack with S6AP2

And all that every round of combat (as long as people don't die, which they of course will) and I'm not even counting FC.

Too good to pass up. Not to mention the Ld re-rolls.

Also, another PF on the Death Company would do miracles on their damage output.

One thing I would personally drop is Hand flamers. Or maybe just switch them for combi-flamers.
S3AP6 isn't that impressive and I hardly ever get kills with it.
Altough, that's also a matter of meta. If hordes are a thing where you play they might make up for the cost.

If you drop your tac squads to 5 man and run heavy flamer+2 hand flamers on the sgt, you can use them as late game objective grabbers when they hop out of your ravens while retaining the ability to clear said objectives with a bunch of templates. This also frees up some points to flesh out your sanguinary guard.

Other than that, I definitely dig it.

Thanls man for the feedback!
And in all of my lists I run with a chapter banner and two power fists and a power weapon pn the dc, but I just couldnt find the points. Your idea of changing tye tacs to a single ten man unit and then presumably comhat squaddding into seperate stormravens sounds like a good idea, of thats what you mean? And I also heavily considered using a combi-flamer too
Thanks again for the helpful feedback


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Correction: Sorry, I know get what you mean about the tacs as it would make much more sense to have two lots of heavy flamers and a flamy sergeant rather than one and a squad woth a single flamer... derp on my part lol.
Both of your help has been really helpful

(Editted the list with recommended changes)

Would you recommend any other changes to this list?

The Assault squads in drop pods wont pop many vehicles. I think they have like 20% chance of popping an AV12 vehicle or something.

Why not run double dread fragglers, they work well in duos or even trios. Or get rid of them and get more assault troops in jump packs, because your 2 jumptroop units that starts on the board will be shot to pieces.

Alpha strike with blood angel jump troops is impossible, as you cant assault out of those drop pods, though you CAN out of the stormravens, which you ironically have the non-assault troops in.

On the other hand, BA is not very competative these days so...

Thanks for the constructive criticism. And whilst I understand that BA are not one of the 'top tier' armies, but I still think they have a good chance of winning in most games. How would you recommend rectifying the issues that you suggested?

Your list is fine. But at 1850 you'll need some more bang for your buck I think.

Theres been written a lot about BA assault armyon dakka, and I'll give you my full thoughts tomorrow, but for starters:

I would either go all the way to 5 drop pods like you suggest, or perhaps easier; just start the game with all the assault troops on the table together with the SG and DC. If you win initative, you will only take 1 turn of shooting against you before you manage to assault. Consider if you could get another squad of DC.

Same as with drop pods, you might say, but at least you get all 3-4 squads in cover and try to utilize it during your advance.

Do you already have the stormraven models? Because 2 landraiders, as assault vehicles, could be just as good, just dumping your units into close combat without having to risk heldrakes, tau gunfire etc.

A last alternative is of course to just DS all the jumptroops. Dante gets some bonus to reduce scatter IIRC, but you'd need some units to tide you over for turn 1 though. Or you could get tabled.

Thanks for your thoughts, they have been really helpful. Originally I did a 2000pts list, in which I had absolutely no idea what to put in the stormravens. I suppose I could go to five drops pods and keep my plan of deep striking the Sanguinary Guard squad and Death company. Can I ask what your opinion on a command squad is? Not that I am wanting to get rid of the priest, but it would save me 96 points because of the apothecary and I could make it much more survivable by adding in storm shields.

Also, what are your opinions on the Archangels sanguine wing formation? In that case I would drop the assault marines and replace them with 5 man sternguard squads and take advantage of the free power weapons and add storm shields to a couple of the VV.
Thanks

In the current meta, I think AC/TML ravens are better.

25 poinst for TML over TLMM? It's good, just not that good IMO.

I like the idea of tml but couldnt find the points.

Also, what are your opinions on the archangels sanguine wing formation?
I was considering taking a few storm shields on the vanguard vets too.
Or even adding in a command squad?

InsTincT_OP wrote:
I like the idea of tml but couldnt find the points.

Also, what are your opinions on the archangels sanguine wing formation?
I was considering taking a few storm shields on the vanguard vets too.
Or even adding in a command squad?

It's the only way I'd use vanguards. It seems okay, but I don't have 20 power weapon models.

Fair enough, how would you recommend kitting the vanguards and sternguard out? and do you think the formation would fit in this list? Thanks

I know BA aren't the be all anymore but they do have some cool toys so I'll throw out some ideas from this perspective..

First I feel 'Fast' is a very overlooked ability. BA mechanized lists have a nice advantage in that their razorbacks and preds can move 12 and fire 2 weapons at full capacity taking say the lc/tlpg rb from meh to damn decent en masse. 'lucifer predators and lucifer vindicators' same. I would want at least a few of these in some form or another. I also think that free rhinos warrant consideration simply due to fast and mobility/utility after arrival which pods lack while upping your mech saturation.

On the BSF I realize in a vacuum init 5 can look really yummy, but does it really beat FTSF with 6 FA slots and only 1 compulsory troops? I personally say no but it depends on the list and largely your opponents army.
For example if you face other combat specialist units/armies frequently and specifically of the init 4 variety then it matters quite a bit, when you charge.
If you face non combat units and/or elves, orks, tau crons etc, basically everything else then it doesn't really matter, not compared to the other benefits IMO.

In your case I would consider building from FTSF instead (or else completely maximize jump units). This would allow you to put say cassor the damned in troops and deliver him via stormraven, then focus the rest on elites/FA. Or at least reduce the number of tacs required.

Otoh if you need the init boost in a key place theres always corbulo.

On cmd squads, BA still have the cheapest and they can be a nice place to bunker meph while podding in as an eraser squad or otherwise just DS.

Just some thoughts..

Thanks for all the ideas. I definetly agree with you on the fast vehicle front, I had two preds in my 2,000pt list from a while back.
Also, I havnt really looked too much into the FTSF simply because I prefer the standard blood angels colour scheme, fluff etc. I am definetly considering fast tanks and the archangels wing formation.

InsTincT_OP wrote:
Fair enough, how would you recommend kitting the vanguards and sternguard out? and do you think the formation would fit in this list? Thanks

I like 4X combi-melta on Sternguard. I don't use vanguards, but if I did, I'd go meltabombs and a few Storm Shields.

With the Archangels strikeforce formation I was thinking somewhere along the lines of:

Sternguard
10Man
5 combi-plas, 5 combi-melta
220

Vanguard Vets (x2)
10Man
Jump packs, 9 Pw, Pf, 5 ss
295 pts each

This is almost definetly the most costly way to run them, do you guys see any changes as I kinda just bffed them up as much as I could. This formation, including a regular 200pt raven is about 1000pts

I usually run my DC in a raven because they become a huge target once they start footslogging and can't survive as well as the Dante/ SP/ SG blob.

Also Astorath has been doing a lot of work for me (Zealot and rerolling wounds).

With that I usually run a 10m squad of DC in a raven w/o jump packs, and that allows you to spend the 30 points you would use for jump packs on Power Swords.
So in a Baal Strike Force, that's 40 attacks (10 at ap3) at initiative 5 rerolling to hit/wound, then 8 PF attacks rerolling as well when Astorath is in the squad (He also gives those 4 str 6, ap 2 attacks that auto wound with instant death on a to wound roll of a 6)

Fragnoughts are also funny if you have a lot of open-topped transports or hordes in your meta. (Because why not have essentially 3 template shots?)

One huge benefit of the FTSF is how easy it is to go double CAD. The list I'm currently working on is only using like 4 fast attack choices, but allows you to take 4 hqs. Do not underestimate the power of a high number of ws5 marines with fnp.

Interesting stuff. Do you think that the archangels strikeforce would compliment this list? and if so, how would you recommend fitting it in? I quite like the idea of dc in a raven, but I like the jump theme too, which is something I'm trying to build upon, so it gives me a bit of a conundrum atm.

I think there is some untapped potential in the Archangels FOC in general, but not for this list. Unless you wanna drop the points for Karlean as your warlord (because his trait is incredible) and some sternguard/furiosos I wouldn't bother.

(Sorry for the late reply.) I agree, I would love to the see the Archangels FOC in action, though I agree with the previous post, and you could also take a Baal Strike Force and a CAD, that way you can give you some obsec as well as your deathstar units +1 init on the charge depending on how you organize it.

Since you are running the assault squads and stuff, for just something fun/ kinda fluffy, you can look at the Angel's Wrath Intervention Force (White Dwarf # 47). Only thing you would need to fit in somehow is some Vanguard Vets. It's fun and can do some damage to some infantry (and glance armor 10) on arrival.

Thanks mate and yeah Il have a look