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I usually play guard or orks so putting a blood angels list together is a bit of a change for me and any helpful critisism would be much appreciated.
My FLGS is doing a ladder type tournament and I got my handed to me on a plate last week by Saint Celestine and a bunch of girls with too many faith points for my liking.
I had a landraider full of death company and a couple of furiosos (one with blood claws) but still managed to loose close combat so my new list is more of an armoured company like I might use with my guard army.

HQ
Captain + Jump pack, power sword, storm bolter, Melta bombs (148)
Honour Guard + Jump packs, Blood champion, (185)

Troop 1
Tactical squad + 5 marines, Flamer & Multimelta in Rhino (220)

Troop 2
Tactical squad + 5 marines, Flamer & Multimelta in Rhino (220)

Troop 3
Assault squad + 4 Assault marines in Drop pod + Deathwind ML (192)

FA 1
Baal predator + Flamestorm & HF sponsons (140)

FA 2
Baal predator + Flamestorm & HF sponsons (140)

Heavy 1
Drednought + Multimelta & bloodfist in Drop pod + deathwind & locator beacon (170)

Heavy 2
Drednought + TL Lascannon & bloodfist in Drop pod + deathwind (190)

Heavy 3
Vindicator (145)

Total points: 1750

My plan is to Drop pod the Dreds behind his lines or in his face to first turn shoot tanks then second turn (if still around) to assault infantry. (Locator beacon used to keep them together)
The 2 Baal preds are used to guard the flanks of the Vindicator to give it more than one turn of 24" range pie plate and BBQ any infantry that try to get close. (All fast, stick together)
The 2 Tacticals in Rhinos use speed, smoke and cover to get on Objectives then try to hold them. The HQ squad are hit & run nuisance and diversions, deepstriking in wherever they can cause most damage, or helping the Assault squad to give back up where needed. (This bit depends on reserves rolls but at least the honour guard get descent of angels and I have a locator beam on the table to help my 3rd pod land in the right place)
I hope to play test it later today but can anyone spot any obvious flaws? As I said I am not a veteran marine player and am more used to horde armies so my list is still trying to get more bangs for my buck than expensive "elite" choices. Thanks

I personally love the rifleman dread, and I think it might be better than the TL las one in this list. Either change the TL las to a TL Auto, or take the real deal. 4 TL S7 shots make fun of every AV12 vehicle in the game. As far as the Baals are concerned I think that the HB might be a better option just to pepper the enemy every turn instead of having all your eggs in one basket with the flaming comet config.

After playing CSM for 2 years or so FNP is the biggest pain in the, well you know, and I think that you should take advantage of it with the preists.

Otherwise it is a solid list. good luck!!

Thanks Billie_Joe, but (pardon my ignorance) what is a rifleman Dred?. I was thinking the same thing about the HF sponsons on the Baals, I will change those to give me some longer ranged options. Been thinking about deployment and the weak side armour on my tanks, how would this be:
Rhino, Baal, Vindy, Baal, Rhino. (Terrain permitting)
All move forward together, Rhinos can pop smoke first turn.
I Wanted a Priest in the pod with the Assault Squad but I took him out to cut points. The Honour guard still has a 6" FC/FNP bubble but the only way to get another priest is to go to 1800 and the tourney rules wont allow that : (

Thanks for your comments, been looking at some of the other lists posted here for BA and am considering converting my Rhinos to Razorbacks, what do you think?

Remember that the Baal preds are scouts, and with flamers on em, you don't want to have them do nothing but hang around playing body guard. I love the flamyness of the Baals though, took care of a lot of nids fast with just one.

How did you lose close combat against the sisters? Did you assault them, or did they assault you?

Baals are really great as troop transport shredders if you get first turn you can scout move and maybe hit side armor with their rending twin linked cannon. If you are playing blood angels you can always deep strike instead of drop pod and if you have the points sanquin priests with jet packs are good in assault squads giving them an armor and feel no pain save in melee is great and gives them a greater chance to move up.

Razorbacks are good if you have a devistator squad (or BA equivalent dont know if they have a special name) and then giving it a laz cannon for an additional gun, or you could put bare bones tac squad in it and just run around lazcannoning stuff.

You could do razorbacks and get more assault squads with the extra points or preds. Or you could make a suicide anti armor squad. Just some assault squad with meltas and deep strike. Decent of the angels is good for you because you only get a d6 inch drift vs 2d6, but thats just what I've seen people do against me in play.

Surtur wrote:Remember that the Baal preds are scouts, and with flamers on em, you don't want to have them do nothing but hang around playing body guard. I love the flamyness of the Baals though, took care of a lot of nids fast with just one.

How did you lose close combat against the sisters? Did you assault them, or did they assault you?

I also like the smell of promethium in the morning and would love to scout the Baals from behind. Perhaps just use the Rhinos to bodyguard the Vindy?

I assaulted them but they did some shenanagins with faith to make their saves invulnerable and also to make them higher initiative, so striking first. I also lost a fair few DC to Seraphim with their flamers and the hit & run rule. Heard later my opponent may have been playing a bit fast and loose with the rules but as a newb to the club as well as to playing BA I put it down to experience. Next time..

I mean use the Baals to get a scout move. Before turn 1, move 18inch to the enemy; turn 1 move 6 inches, unload 3 templates or 12 and unload a flamestorm on something. I ravaged 2 nid squads at once because they were placed in a way that let me hit both squads with templates (he had rippers in front of termagaunts). Or you can change them into ranged shooting with the assault cannon and heavy bolters and just shoot at who ever is meaty.

being able to move your vindy 12 inches and then fire means he's going to be highly mobile. Consider taking the siege shield so you can laugh at those stupid dangerous terrain tests. When I first fielded my brand new Baal pred, scout move right up to dterrain and rolled a 1. I watched as it went on to lose all 3 of it's weapons, but never get destroyed, since it was kill points it was still ok, but still. I think that right there convinced me to consider dozer blades because it makes a 16% chance to be immobilized to become ~2.5%, but I rant. There is a way to have your rhinos advance in perpetual smoke, and this can be used with other tanks as well. What you do, it put one rhino in front sideways, pop it's smoke. Take 2 more rhinos, place them facing the front rhino so they are both covered in front. Now next turn, take one of the rear rhinos, move it up in front, sideways, pop it's smoke. Then place the other 2 behind it facing the rhino with smoke popped. Basically, they move as fast as they can while in perpetual smoke. That's about as fancy as you can get with rhinos.

Can't really help if someone's abusing rules, but just remeber, DC go after what they see, so use that to your advantage. If they're trying to bait them into a trap, be prepared to counter said trap. Like if they goad them with unit x so they can hit them with unit y, pressure unit y so that they won't be able to deal with the DC effectively or won't want to deal with them at all any more.

Thanks Surtur, some good advice there. I am playing around with points and now have added a Sanguinary priest to the assault squad, swapped the heavy flamer sponsons for heavy bolters, and swapped the TL Lascannon on the Dred for an assault cannon. Also managed to get a Seige shield on the Vindy by loosing the locator beacon. 1749 points. Thanks again.

I didn't know SoB can boost the initiative with Faith. I know they can lower their initiative & boost their strength plus convert their armor save to an invulnerable save though. It seems like DC should still be able to kill quite a few on the charge... Wounding on 2+ with rerolls to hit and rerolls to wound when charging plus WS5 so hitting on 3+. So let's assume 9x DC charge 10x SoB...

36 attacks... 24 hit then with the reroll 8 more hit for a total of 32 hits (I'm assuming they have the Chaplain attached). 29 wound then you reroll the failed wounds, basically all 32 wound. Sisters are then going to fail 1/3 of their saves... They should all die. Basically you want to make sure the DC charge.

G

Sadly, no chappy, (well it was my first game with BA). Also, not sure SOB are ok doing more than one act of faith in one turn (YMDC?)

your list is a SM list not a BA

use more new units the strenght of BA

instead of Captian+honorguard take a

Librarian125
+jumpack
sanguinary guard 230
+Chapterbanner

just 25pts more but a all model in this unit with powerweapons.


stop equip your droppods its to expensive
and when droping your dreadnought in the line of the enemy use Death company dreads or furioso dreads because they are made to do fething dmg in assualt

i hope you will look over your list again


and one tip never take a damn captian

Baal preds are BA and yes, I could take Death co Dreds, but only if I take death co, who are IMO very expensive and didn't do very well in my last battle. Furioso Dred is a possible but as I am drop podding in I cant assault on that turn so figure to get some shooting in first, then assault if still around. The Captain is cheap, and his honour guard give him some punch, but as I said in my OP, the list is based on my experience running mech IG.
I may get a Librarian with jump pack to run with the Sanguinary Guard I already have but don't have a model at the moment. My concerns are mostly a) Win and b) Learn to use the new BA list with c) Buy new models lower down my list of priorities. I might try a conversion or "counts as". What do you suggest for the Librarians Psychic powers?

every hq choice can take a honor guard so drop the damn captain with no powers

Ok, I'll drop the damn captain, just have to use the model I already converted as a vanguard vet or something. I'll post the revised list once I get it sorted.

damn captains :O)

List now looks like this:

Librarian + Jump pack, storm bolter, force weapon (Blood lance & Sanguine sword)
128
Honour Guard + Jump packs, Blood champion, company standard
200
Tactical squad + 5 marines, Flamer & Multimelta, in Rhino
220
Tactical squad + 5 marines, Flamer & Multimelta, in Rhino
220
Assault squad + 4 Assault marines, Sgt has Melta bombs, in Drop pod
177
Sanguinary priest (joins assault squad)
50
Baal predator + Flamestorm & HB sponsons
145
Baal predator + Flamestorm & HB sponsons
145
Drednought + Multimelta in Drop pod
140
Drednought + TL Lascannon in Drop pod
170
Vindicator + Seige shield
155
TOTAL = 1750



Automatically Appended Next Post:

Loricatus Aurora wrote:damn captains :O)

lol

I personally am not a fan of putting sponsons on Flamestorm cannon Baals. You are intentionally getting them up in your enemies grill to make the best out of their template, and thus are putting them directly in harms way. Multi-melta, high weapon melee hits, etc. So I'd rather save those points and distribute them otherwise. I also wouldn't give the Las dread a drop pod, and take the one off of the Assault squad. If you're intent on deep striking them for sure, just do so with their jump packs. It'll let them have the mobility after the deep strike that is truly invaluable, and a very important part of the BA codex- mobility.

The previous poster has a good point. It seems to me (not having actually used a Baal Predator since 4th Edition) that you're either going to take an assault cannon and heavy bolter sponsons, or just a flamestorm cannon. The former variant would sit back, using its speed to maneuver to maximise its firepower, while the latter would charge in and do as much damage as it could before melta weapons/powerfists/TMC's took it out.

That being the case, maybe use the points saved to add a power fist to your Honour Guard and Assault Squad, as it will make both of them more versatile. I actually prefer to give most large Marine squads a power fist, as it makes a big difference when they get assaulted (and presumably all of your units will be getting up close and personal).

It would certainly save some points (30 each) which could be spent beefing up the HG and AS with 2 power fists. Leaves me 10 points for a melta gun. Sweet. Just a shame I model first then post list, really should be doing it the other way round.

I would give the librarian the power that gives the squad preferred enemy (Unleash Rage, I think) instead of Blood Lance.

Also, tactics-wise, I would buy the LasDread the pod, but not put him in it. He's got the range to start on the table to harass targets and you can only drop two pods in the first turn...I wouldn't want to go without his firepower for the first few turns of the game.

Also, your list has a ton of kill points in it, like 15 or 16 of them, and a lot of them are easy to kill. I don't know how much that plays in your local meta and the tournaments, but it's something to keep your mind on when you play.

We are playing all Battle Missions, of which a few are kill points I think. If the Las Dred is not using his pod can the empty pod at least be used to contest objectives? Or spend the 60 points saved on the Baal sponsons on a minimal death co? Unleash rage gives the assault squad re rolls to hit in CC, add that to the SP's Blood chalice FC and FNP, I see what you might be getting at there. Sounds like I need to keep the power fist too. Cheers : )

I think you can contest with an empty pod, unless there's some rule against it for dedicated transports. Also, it's there to make sure you get the OTHER two pods in on the first turn (half pods, rounded up).

I don't know if you want to get rid of the sponsons for the Baals, having the option to move up to 6 and put a slowed amount of anti-infantry firepower on the table isn't going to hurt you, though depending on the mission and your opponent, I would definitely think about out-flanking them for mid-game cleanup.

Tailgunners point about scouting forward (up to 30"effective move on turn 1) then opening up with the flamestorms has definate appeal (BBQ MEQ?) as does getting some power fists into my assault teams. Point taken about the empty pod just seems a shame not to try and do more with it.

They're both sound tactics, neither is better than the other, just different options.

You'll probably want to take into account your opponent and the mission parameters.

I like having the heavy flamers as side sponsons. Even if they destroy your flamestorm, you can still throw down templates then. Or, if you don't have to move very far, you can throw down 3 flame templates.

Giving the libby a storm bolter gets rid of a CC attack, may want to rethink that.

Dreads in drop pods should both be using multi meltas. If you're drop podding them in with anti tank weapons, go in with something that will almost guarantee a pop and just dpod in close.

Or you could put one of the Tactical squads in the Dreadnought's drop pod, remove the rhino, and use it to buy the epistolary upgrade for your librarian.

Tac squad in drop pod is nice mid/late game scoring opportunity.

The TL Dread should stay, but keep him on his feet. The whole point to giving him that gun is so he can shoot it.

ok, so sponsons are gone on the flamestorm preds, thinking to keep em cheap, but I kept them on my other (assault cannon) pred. The Las Dred is too cool a model to pull apart so for now I have only one Dred with multimelta. Libby can loose the storm bolter, as I have yet to model him any suggestions? (I have a Marine command box plus some spare SG and DC bits) Playing this list tonight so any more suggestions better be fairly easy to do : ) Cheers for all your help and keep it coming..


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Tac squad in pod sounds good, as does epistolry upgrade.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So here it is with the latest changes:
Librarian Jump pack, Epistolary 175
Honour Guard Jump packs, Blood champion, company standard & storm bolter, Power fist, flamer 233
Tactical squad 5 marines, Flamer & Multimelta 170
Rhino 50
Tactical squad 5 marines, Flamer & Multimelta 170
Drop pod 35
Assault squad 4 Assault marines, melta gun, Sgt has Power fist, 207
Drop pod 0
Sanguinary priest 50
Baal predator Flamestorm 115
Baal predator Flamestorm 115
Drednought 105
Drop pod 35
Drednought TL Lascannon 135
Vindicator Seige shield 155