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Hello,

I'm trying to decide what Special Character would be the best to put in my BA army (A small series of matches with my friends needs one in your army). But they all seem great. I was thinking Dante, but does he give his abilities to his squad as well? Also, I'm new to the whole codex so any other info would be appreciated.


The point value would be 1.5K.

Thanks in advance!

Bring Meph, lose friends

Really I think for the price of most of them, I think a libby or 2 can be more useful. Dante's alright I suppose though

Haha, what is Mephs deal?

Also, I usually run a Libby as my HQ, but with the games requiring one special character, I cant run 2 libbys. However, I could run Dante, or the Saguiner (Spell Check?) + a libby, that would be expensive though.

Each one depends on the rest of you army.

Captain Tycho(regular) is good all-around.

As is Brother Corbolo.

If you want a Table-or-lose death company army you can take Asteroth

Mephiston doesn't care what the rest of your army looks/works like; neither does the Sanguinor

Seth is only really good on paper; or if you keep him away from power-fists and the like.

Dante can be awesome, especially if you want tons of sanguinary guard, but is a little on the Pricey side(as are the guard).

your Cheapest bet is Tycho or Corbolo; both let you run pretty much whatever army you want, and come with good/decent special rules and don't break the (points) bank. Just remember Tycho only has his listed attacks(plus charge bonus), and Corbolo isn't much more than a regular Saguinary Priest with a few awesome extras.

Corbolo is awesome. The rending makes him not entirely suck, he can hold up a unit that has no power weapons for the entire game (once a guy at my FLGS didnt have points and decided to drop the nob on one of his boyz squads. Never again!), and he can reroll the Turn 6/7 die to see if the game goes on or not, which is awesome if you need to win RIGHT NOW or need the game to go on to grab another killpoint or two

Meph was awesome at first when the book came out, but now he either gets trashed or blows things up the whole game.

Sanguinor you need a unit of jump troops to make him useful, and we all know that putting assault squads in transports is just better. Dont lie to yourself you know it is.

Seth is crappy.

I like Tycho alot. Very well rounded and a BS5 combimelta with superduper ammunition is always welcome.

Asteroth.... Idk.... just take sanguinor unless you really want that death company.

Dante is pretty cool. He plays a bit wierd. More of a tactical-support Character than an all-out brawler.

Okey dokey, here goes:

Seth - hit and miss... he can be a beast against very quick armies; he can autohit vehicles with his whirlwind. However, being as he doesn't have a power weapon, hes a weak choice vs infantry. A str 8 weapon on initiative is nice though; hes great at slaying MC's because he wounds them easily. He also suffers because he can be put down with 1 powerfist attack. Rating: C

Dante - He looks great on paper; great stats, 3 wounds, invun, infernus pistol, hit and run to a squad, and allows 1 squad to deep strike without scatter... but his downfall is 90% of his benefits he HAS to deep strike. Hes a great start for an alpha strike army, however. His making sang guard troops is negligible; if your buying sang guard for troops, your definitely playing for fun. Rating: B

Tycho - Normal tycho... sucks. Death company tycho... sucks more. Honestly, the only thing they give (your whole armies LD 10) is very negligible. He can't do squat in CC, and he has a COMBI MELTA.... not even a normal melta for a 180 point guy! Terribad. Rating: D-

Sanguinor - So here we have the mighty jesus wannabe. He can't pop tanks reliably, he has to run around by himself, hes T4 so he gets easily wounded. But, on the flip side, he buffs everyone around him, has awesome saves, and is great at killing troops. Hes hit and miss; honestly, hes not worth it in my eyes because for the same points you can get Mephiston. Also, with a round of bad rolling, sanguinor goes down FAST with only 3 wounds. Rating: B

Corbulo - Not really a special guy, he pretty much gives you 1 reroll a game. It can be useful; but more often than not its not game changing. Paying an extra 55 points for a 2 wound sanguinary priest isn't really worth it. Rating: C

Lemartes - Ok, this guy is AWESOME if your running Death company. Toss him in a stormraven with 10 other death company and watch them roll over anything they fight. Problem is, you HAVE to take him with a jump pack... so other than a stormraven, or spending an assload on jump DC, hes not usable. Awesome model, awesome rules, just wish you could take him without a JP. Rating: B

Asteroth - Ok, so you have a JP chaplain here... he has a str 6 power weapon your foes have to reroll invuns against... Sounds good. Not. Like lemartes, if you could take him without the pack, he might be viable tossed in a rhino with some DC. But as is, you can only take him with a pack... so once again, the squad he synergises best with, you have to spend 35 points a model to take. Eff that. Hes a fluffy charecter for fun only lists. Rating: C-

Mephiston - Hes one of the best charecters in all of 40k, hands down. T6, 5 wounds, I 7 base, str 6, fleet... 2+ armor... the ability to fly, reroll hits, and whats that? Strength 10? The onky downside is hes 250 points and has to run around by himself. But honestly, for all he does, its well worth it! He'll tear apart land raiders single handedly, take apart full squads of marines, facebash dreadnaughts, make monoliths cry, and one shot carnifexes... all befor they can swing back. I've even had him take down 5/10 nobz in 1 turn of combat, live with 1 wound, and manage to sweep them. He'll make his points back game after game if you play him right. Rating: A

Pretty much for specials its go Meph or go broke. But as others said, if you put meph on the board, I'd only recommend using him against people you: A) dislike, or B) want to punch in the face so hard they cry.

Mephiston is the easiest special character to fit into a list because he has no abilities other than to make himself more powerful. He is a one man hammer unit which doesn't require any real support (other units, transports etc) but in turn doesn't give your army any real buffs. The Sanguinor, Dante and Asteroth are all very good characters, but aren't quite as point and click, they require the rest of the army to be built around them to maximise the buffs they give you. I would rate the Sanguinor leading a fully jump packed force which makes use of DoA one of the scariest lists in the game. Dante is a great addition to DoA based lists as well, although I wouldn't overdo the the Sanguinary Guard. Asteroth is probably the least valuable of the usable Special Characters (as Priests give everyone the same buffs basically) but is still a good fighter and lets you run more than one Death Company unit.

Tycho is either pointless or overpriced AND pointless (depending on which version you are using) and Seth is a power weapon short of being usable. Basically as long as you avoid the terrible ones there is definitely space for any of the characters as long as you don't just throw them into any random list and hope they do well. Having said that at 1500pts I would probably avoid them for the most part, most of the Special Characters are 200pts+ so aren't really viable until 1750pts+. The 100pt Librarian is imo still the best HQ in the codex and definitely a better choice when you don't have a huge amount of points to work with.

Thanks for all the help guys, I'll probably take just a cheaper HQ, since I'll just load up on infantry. Again, thanks for the detailed response it really helped.

dante is awsome but to expensive in 1500, corbolo isnt a hq but def worth having for 1500+ point games as his feel no pain is out of this world and he gives it to a squad he is with too. so personally at 1500 id go corbolo and a reclusiarch both with squads.

@zeekill
You can NOT re-roll the dice to see if the game goes on with Corbolo.

Corbolo's rules state "a Blood Angels player may re-roll a dice roll". *You*, the player, are not re-rolling the dice roll to end the game. It's a neutral roll. It's in the FAQ as well.

@Topic
Meph, and more Meph. If you can't fit him, do two Librarians with Shield/Fear or Shield/Rage for 50 points less.

Thanks for all the advice. I might just to the Librarian/Corbolo idea.

revackey wrote:Hello,

I'm trying to decide what Special Character would be the best to put in my BA army (A small series of matches with my friends needs one in your army). But they all seem great. I was thinking Dante, but does he give his abilities to his squad as well? Also, I'm new to the whole codex so any other info would be appreciated.


The point value would be 1.5K.

Thanks in advance!

I like astoreth because he makes the badguys reroll invulnerables. IMO they're all overpriced for what they do. IIRC it's Dante that lets you put down a deep striking unit with no deviation at all. If he's with a squad that's carrying the right weapons (command squad w/4 flamers or 4 meltas for instance) then that power is basically a gaurunteed kill vs certain targets. most armies treat deep striking as a negative but blood angels are an exception - descent of angels is an awesome power, and its free. imo you should build your whole army around it, it's that good. Mephiston is overpriced and tricky to use but obviously can be a fantastic beat stick if your opponent doesnt know how to handle him.

Corbulo isn't an HQ

*edit*

Someone already said that.

Powerguy and Zid wrapped it up pretty well.

:-) Playing a FT army, Seth was pretty much the only option for my lads... He does fairly well, surprisingly. No power weapon, but the special rules for him are amusing... Can't really say how many attacks against him never happened just due to the fear of rolling the 1 and him hitting them back... But, saying that, he's a "fun/fluffy" choice, not a "power gaming" choice...