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Okay so I am getting into BA to play with my DA friend and I had a couple questions.

Besides Death Company and Assault Squads, what else should I go for?

I was debating terminators but they move slow and as far as I recall off hand, they don't get jet packs to launch into a guys face.

Terminators are sow by assault marine standards sure but they aren't really THAT slow. They cannot sweeping advance however.

Vanguard Veterans- for now at least- can assault from reserve the turn they arrive from deep strike, which is awesome. There is also the Sanguinary Guard, which are some of the greatest models aesthetically in the game in my opinion but are pretty lackluster.

Baal predators are great though, as is Mephiston. And they can also get librarian dreadnaughts!

I have Mephiston and Dante on order.

I'm sitting on like 10 Terminators my DA buddy gave me to get started and 25 Tacticals.

Debating on buying the Battleforce or a large lot to get me started, trying to figure out the core of what I'll need and whether Terminators are even worth it in a BA

........

Want to get the basics down before I go deep into them. My friend is doing the same with his DA and we don't want to outpace the other.

Right but the question is whether you want to play them using units purely based on effectiveness, or whether you are willing to sacrifice some efficiency for fluffiness

I see, well in that case. Both? Lol.

I intend on getting at least 1 Baal, Dreadnought when I can find them at a reasonable price, I honestly don't know about Stormbird. I'm primarily a Tyranid player, my friend let me borrow some of his DA and I liked them so I figured what the hell, why not.

Ideally, I wanna have like 15-20 Assault Marines, 2 Baal minimum, 30ish Tacticals as these are beyond useful in my experience so far, cheap and decently effective, my style.

For starting out, I'm planning on going towards whatever is cheapest.

I simply love Terminators hence why I am curious as to how they do in a BA army.

Objective Secured Land Raiders
Storm Ravens
Corbulo and Meohiston

That's got enough potential to bust up the Meta.

Otherwise, if you are concerned about competitive play, you can always just have fun with them, lots of fast assaults units.

 Zagman wrote:
Objective Secured Land Raiders
Storm Ravens
Corbulo and Meohiston

That's got enough potential to bust up the Meta.

Otherwise, if you are concerned about competitive play, you can always just have fun with them, lots of fast assaults units.

Not concerned with competitive yet with the BA, my Tyranids have that covered and I'm the only Tyranid player at my shop which is really nice.

Battles will mostly be against DA and I don't want to have too similar of an army. He is planning on running Devastators in his Greenwing list which is cool cause I want to use Assault Marines to get in their face and cut them in half.

Units exclusively to him so far are the bikes he will bring to larger point games, wanted my own BA specialty units to go against them. I like the idea of Death Company in lore, no clue how they work in game. Have yet to actually see anyone play BA out here

I suspect mech will be coming back in a big way for BA, especially Razorbacks, since both the veichle and troops inside are scoring (even if you split them). And BA mech being fast, you can really use the 24 inch plasma/assault cannon range effective.

Dreadnought also seem awesome now (Frag Cannon Furioso, or a Furioso Libby ML2).

Death Company is also really strong.

A podding furioso with frag is the best thing in our dex.

Everything Zagman said.

If mainly playing DA, flamestorm baals will be excellent!

I know not blood angel special unit but land raider crusader could be ideal way to grant termies the mobility they need to get into combat.

Its close combat specalied with assult cannons. Meta gun option + the hurucane bolters of death.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Forgot frag launcher pria to assult on front tracks.

Its a truely glorious tank.

Stormravens are also a pretty boss way to get Terminators where they need to be.

I'd reccomend a box or two of Death Company, and you can use the extra bits from it to 'Blood Angel' up your tactical marines and assault marines. Id suggest magnetizing backpacks and jump packs unless your not worried about money.

Terminators are good, remember you can deep strike them, and you can get locator beacons on your drop pods. You can drop pod in a couple Furioso Dreadnoughts on turn 1, and then teleport in your terminators on turn two.

Tanks are definately a Blood Angel thing. Get a vindicator (It can move 6 and shoot its ordinance 24" (Str10 ap2 large blast) for a 30" threat since its a fast vehicle. Consider runing 5 man assault squads without jump packs in razorbacks for the cheap upgrade to Assault Cannons (they get a 30 or 35 point discount on a vehicle when you take the packs off). You can get 6 AV13 tanks in a normal detachment (3 Baal, 3 Vindicators or Predators) and you have access to Land Raiders as dedicated transports.

Speaking of which...

Two words: Deepstriking LANDRaiders. With an assualt squad inside, 30 points cheeper, and objective secured in a CAD. Watch his face drop when you Deepstrike a Landraider Redeemer (without scatter due to the locator beacon on your drop pod) and then melt his devastators without saves and steal his objective!

Blood Angels are a lot of fun, and I think they are going to get a lot better with their next codex. I expect the cost of jump packs are going to be going way down. (Death Company pay 15 points per jump pack currently...it should be closer to 5)

Okay that sounds flippin awesome. Getting the Battlefore this Friday and have a guy who is looking to sell some old BA stuff, inheriting 15 more assault marins, a Baal, some more Rhinos and some more troops.

I have some Librarians lying around, wanted to put them in packs if possible, won't know if I can til i see codex.

Deepstriking Terminators in a Crusader is just mean and may lose me some friends lol

Yes, librarians can take jump packs. If you are using a lot of troops with jump packs id highly reccomend sanguinary priests as well. You can get 3 as a single elite choice and they have a 6" aura that gives furious charge and feel no pain. Feel no pain will be handy for you if your friend is fielding lots of plasma.

A chaplain is also highly reccomended to go with your deathcomoany ad it more than doubles their effectiveness on the 1st round of an assault.

Maybe not deep striking but land raiders are toughest armour space marines get (non fprgeworld)

One crusader alone could cause a more infriantry oriented force to think very carefully about it.

I haven't read the past posts, so don't get on me if I repeat anything.

The two best builds BA have right now are LR spam and Mech.

Tactical Marines have no place in a BA list, IMHO.

Two Baal Predators are never wrong, they always pay back their points, especially with the new damage chart.

The best unit in the dex is a fragioso dreadnought. A furioso with a frag cannon and heavy flamer in pod is AMAZING.

Mephiston and Corbulo are really good now in the new edition.

You can use terminators with corubulo in front, passing off the strength 8/AP 3 stuff back to the terminators, and they could go in a land raider, but other than that I wouldn't use them.

 Glorywarrior wrote:
I haven't read the past posts, so don't get on me if I repeat anything.

The two best builds BA have right now are LR spam and Mech.

Tactical Marines have no place in a BA list, IMHO.

Two Baal Predators are never wrong, they always pay back their points, especially with the new damage chart.

The best unit in the dex is a fragioso dreadnought. A furioso with a frag cannon and heavy flamer in pod is AMAZING.

Mephiston and Corbulo are really good now in the new edition.

You can use terminators with corubulo in front, passing off the strength 8/AP 3 stuff back to the terminators, and they could go in a land raider, but other than that I wouldn't use them.

While those are really nice strategies, I'm just starting out with the BA. Getting the Battleforce on Friday to supplement a baseline for what I'll need. I'm going to run tactical/assaults and death company for a while before I spam one of the competitive strategies. At the moment I'm just using it against a few friends who don't have much at the moment and spamming Crusaders or Mechs isn't exactly nice.

If everything goes right over the weekend, I'll be looking at roughly 40 Tactical, 20 Assault, 5 Death Company, 4 Rhinos, a Predator, a Razorback and 20 Terminators for me to start with. Planning on converting the Terminators into Assault rather than shooting, I know I'll want a crusader eventually and a drop pod or two. A 2nd Predator is on the horizon in a few months as are Dreadnoughts. I definitely will be getting more Death Company as I really enjoy this unit. I'll also have 3 Librarians and I think one guy that I could convert into a Chaplain

If you want to run Landraiders and/or Razorbacks you want to take them as dedicated transports on assault squads with their packs removed for point savings. After many games with my Blood Angels I have to agree with the statement "Tac squads have no place in a BA list". If not running lots of vehicles then assault squads with priest bubbles are great with the right special weapon set up. The Furioso dread in a pod with fragcannon and heavy flamer is very good and Terminators are too expensive for what they do. In the end though, I'd say to get what you like the looks of most and see how it plays.

Edit:

I really like the concept of a Mech army tbh and I like the jump army as well, I could easily see myself having 1500pts in mech and another 500-1k points in jump for larger games as well.

Some questions.

Can I convert Tactical Marines into Assault Marines, if so this would greatly save me a lot of money? I don't have the codex handy so I do not know if their load out and weapon options are much different, but I know they all come with Jump Packs.

Will people care much if I show up with a bunch of Tactical and say they're Assault and that they all have Jump Packs on them or will they insist that I have the actual Jump Packs on each of the models?

Also, Assault Marines and Razorbacks, why not Rhinos as well?

Also, why are Terminators not used with the BA? They have access to them and everything which makes sense and all, not to mention I already have ten I was given and they're painted already lol

Everything Glory Warrior said.

I don't much care for Rhinos because typically, you are hauling assault marines. You are trading a jump pack for a little bit of protection. You are better off with a drop pod or razorback.

Why though? I can carry 6 in a Razorback or 10 in a Rhino

It might save you a lot of money. In our local "used" market Tacticals are much cheaper than Assault Marines.
That's because you get Tactical Marines with nearly everything!
I would personally never buy Assault Marines; DC are the same price and look better/have more options.

And if you can substitute them? Not really..
A quick google shows the main difference: ASMs run around with pistols and chainswords, Tactical Marines run around with Boltguns.
If you have a lot of tactical marines you could try to paint them into Death Company, they are quite awesome without JP's and with Bolters.

Why Rhinos? For only a few points more you can put weapons on them.
And for some more points you can put heavy weapons on them.
Those Heavy Weapons are really awesome because our vehicles are Fast, you cannot outrun or hide from a Razorback with an Assault Cannon.

Kangodo wrote:
It might save you a lot of money. In our local "used" market Tacticals are much cheaper than Assault Marines.
That's because you get Tactical Marines with nearly everything!
I would personally never buy Assault Marines; DC are the same price and look better/have more options.

And if you can substitute them? Not really..
A quick google shows the main difference: ASMs run around with pistols and chainswords, Tactical Marines run around with Boltguns.
If you have a lot of tactical marines you could try to paint them into Death Company, they are quite awesome without JP's and with Bolters.

Why Rhinos? For only a few points more you can put weapons on them.
And for some more points you can put heavy weapons on them.
Those Heavy Weapons are really awesome because our vehicles are Fast, you cannot outrun or hide from a Razorback with an Assault Cannon.

I see. Yeah I would much rather convert the Tactical Marines into something else and save a lot of money. I can simply tell my opponent they have Chainswords and such as I have used plastic glue on my models.

I'll probably give my friend back his Terminators as their uses are so limited in my army, but I will need to come up with something to counter them then

It's a valid tactic. Do what you find the most fun, it's just not my favorite way of running a list. The big problem is you can't assault out of a rhino or razorback. You can't take heavy weapons with an assault squad so your best loadout is going to be dual melta in a rhino. If you are going to run a 10 man squad, I'd rather leave their jump packs on for the same price. This gives me the option of deep striking, combat squading, and attaching a priest or other IC. Typically, when I throw dudes in a rhino or razorback, I'm just planning on kicking them out on an objective somewhere. I don't expect to get much work from them. Jump marines I put to work.

All of what you listed you have has nothing that is needed for BA, and Space Marines have better point values and their tactical marines are actually good. Until you get 30 assault marines then I would run Space Marines, or you will get disappointed.

Planning on converting all the Tactical into Assault. Should have 50 by the end of the weekend, all will have jump packs in time as well.

Also, it may not be ideal units for BA, but as I said, I am not looking for competitive builds.

I want to 10man squad at least 30 Assault Marines for sure

If you want to go mass jump, I would ask you to consider 4 assault squads with sanguinary priests.

Or you could do 3 and have some deep striking meltas in pods.

A huge jump force isn't the most competitive, but it's super fun. If you get the chance to fight a bike list that's a blast. I recommend modding some jump troopers to act as priests as well.