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So im beginning the process of making my new blood angel army.
just looking for some advice on pros and cons.
fast attack?
all deathguard?
armor?
im in the very early stages of assembly and was just curious what other people were doing.

and apparently just in time for some new models in feb. sweet.

First of all, blood angels are cool.

There are 5 things that mackes the really special:

1: Tanks are fast. They cost more, but they can move and shoot. Have that in mind if you want to do a tank list. (Perhaps it is better, or perhaps it cost to mutch.) Also you can get predators in fast attack.

2: They have dreadnought everywhere. Elite, heavy suport and troops. Keep in mind that meeting an all dread army is booring for some as they will lose to that kind of spam.

3: You have an elite that grants feel no pain and furius charge. Nothing else comes close.

4: Assault marines as troop choise. If you want to get the feel of the BA I would sugest these. They also have the decent of angels rule! (all jump packs have!)

5: You have the freaking death companay! Yes, they are mindless and can be kitet, but will you look at what you get for 20 points per marine?! Furius charge (I5 and frag grenades), rerentles (if you want bolters that can shoot 24" or just shoot bolters and then charge) power armour and feel no pain (they are almoast harder to kill then terminators) 2 attack base. They also look iconik. Compare the death company with ANYTHING else and they fall short. They are like khorn berzerkers meet plague marines, only cheaper.

Whatever you choise, keep it funn, for you and your oponent, OK?

The structure of the Blood Angels Codex is my favorite of all three,(i have SW, BA, and SM). One way of going which i am in the process of doing now is bolstering my army with tanks. While BA infantry is expensive, their tanks are relatively cheap. And because the Baal Predator lies under the Fast Attack category and Land Raiders lie under Dedicated Transports, you can field a Land Raider, three Baal Predators, and three Predators with twin linked Lascannons for under 950 pts. And because any tanks on a Rhino chassis has the Lucius pattern engines, they cant as Fast vehicles and can go 12" and still fire off their main armament. The Land Raiders a bit slower but with Power of the Machine Spirit you can still go 12" and shoot off one gun, albeit BS 3. Another pro is if youre a fan of Deep Striking, BA does it better than anybody else. With Descent of Angels, you can re-roll the Reserve Dice if you fail the first time rolling and they scatter D6" instead of 2D6", which allows for you to get within pistol range and reduce the chances of a mishap. Also, Heroic Intervention for Vanguard Vets lets you Deep Strike and assault, allowing you to drop from the sky and destroy your enemys most deadly unit of destroy a tank. Their options allow you to arm all members of the squad with melta bombs, infernus pistols, or power weapons, making them a unit to be feared.

awesome. thanks you guys.

To get started i went ahead and got the space marine battle force consisting of a scout squad tactical squad combat squad assualt squad and a rhino.

i also bought some dc marines and with all the cool stuff they came with i made them and my assualt squad from the battlforce into a dc assault squad.

now i know dc marines cant take objectives so if i field astorath and have them as my main force its a "kill em all "type game. which im not sure i really am up to. yet.
from what you guys tell me im feeling an fast attack/ assault army. that would fit my playing style the most.

also can assault marines take a transport?

from an earlier thread

the two most popular blood angels armies are 1. spam assault squads, mount them in fast razor backs, and go gang busters down the middle, 2. spam assault squads with jump packs and take advantage of the descent of angels rule.

I dont play or play against the 1st type so I cant say much about it except give you the reasons why I dont play it. I play the 2nd type and it is a strong force. my army at 2000 points goes something like:

2 librarians shield of sanguinius unleash rage
2 sanguinary priests, combi melta power weapon jump pack
4 assault squads, melta guns, storm shield, power weapon, jump packs
3 squads of land speeders, 2 in each squad, with multi melta and heavy flamer.

the strategy with this army is...
1. decrease the amount of time my guys spend out in the open getting shot by taking jump packs on everything.
2. make sure I get the charge by taking jump packs on everything.
3. use the descent of angels rule as needed to retain the strategic initiative.
4. use the sanguinary priests to make the army effectively immune to small arms fire, and use the priest and the librarian together to have preferred enemy furious charge feel no pain marines in assaults.
4. use the land speeders to flame thrower the few things I cant beat in close combat or use their multi meltas to kill enemy tanks (like vindicators or medusas) that will turn my marines into tragic piles of goo.
5. keep rhinos and other tanks out of the game in order to deny my opponent extra kill points.

the weaknesses of the army are
1. lack of invulnerable saves.
2. relatively low model count.
3. no one really powerful fighter in it
4. relies on the charge to win.

the reasons I opted for this strategy rather than the fast tank strategy are...
1. I hate rhinos, even fast rhinos. they dont kill anything, they give up kill points, they cost me points, and, most importantly, when they get blown up the squad that was riding it loses its mobility and is more or less stuck where they stand for the rest of the game. I want to have options at every stage of the game; if the unit has no ride, it has no mobility, and hence no options. a unit in a rhino can be rendered effectively useless by one lucky lascannon shot. that is not ok.

2. you cant charge out of rhinos. if your opponent has the 1st turn and you rush down the middle with your rhinos you have to endure two turns of shooting even if you close the distance in one turn. turn 1 you're standing still, turn 2 you're waiting to charge next turn. compare to a jump pack army, where no matter who is going first, if you deploy within charge range you will only ever take one turn of shooting before you get to assault something.

3. as much as possible I want to deny my opponent the use of a whole category of weapons. an army that doesnt rely on tanks doesnt present good targets for my opponents lascannons meltaguns etc. the fewer armored targets I bring the less threatening those weapons are to me. You can do it the other way around too - take an army full of vehicles and heavily armored or feel no pain troops in order to deprive your opponent of good use of his bolters. whichever way you go, you have the advantage when you do this because you dont have to bring targets for his guns, but he still has to bring the guns or risk being caught without vital capabilities.

hope that helps.

Abaddon's cut and pasted advice is pretty dead on. I would like to add my personal favorite build for BA is a all JP deepstrike army.

Dante
Librarian
Honor Guard JP 4xMG

Sangpriest x2
Sang Guard PF Inferno Pistol

2 Vanguard Vet squads with SS and LC intermixed for wound allocation abuse.

Then as many AS w/ PF and 2xMG as you can fit.

Abaddon, while i agree with most of what you say, i disagree with your opinion on Rhinos. My strategy is to stick a 9 man squad with a Sanguinary Priest in my Rhino and keep it behind my tanks. This gives it cover and nobody will really shoot at it, instead choosing to shoot at my tanks. And in the event that it blows up, everyone inside with have Feel No Pain, increasing their chances of surviving the blast. Also, going up against Tau, IG, or any other army which has lots of firepower, it keeps them out of the way of small arms fire, which can over time erode a squad of BA to nothing. Also, i can measure from inside the Rhino to see if any units outside also get FNP and FC

BA players should love and hate their rhinos. Move 18" and pop smoke=awesomesauce. Not being able to charge out of them=weaksauce. The thing is love em or hate em mechanized BA players are stuck with them, and the 2 basic options for BA are mechanized or jump. If a BA player wants to run death company then they are stuck being mechanized. Before anybody says "But what about razorbacks" well fast razorbacks are a great unit, but they only carry 6 marines and I would not advise a new player to go with a model count that is limited to 36 marines. The 6 razorback list is competitive, but having so few marines makes it very difficult to play list that is dangerous in the hands of an experienced player, but unforgiving towards any new BA player's mistakes.

If you dont like Rhinos, you better start Deep Striking everything or get some Land Raiders. The ability to go fast is what seperates the BA rhinos from all other SM chapters. To me, i fething love them aside from one single thing, Front Armour 11 is a pain in the arse. Strength 5 guns have the potential to rip through it. A tactic I use is to throw all my Rhinos up 18" and pop smoke. I cross my fingers on the next players turn as all my Rhinos take shots. When it becomes my turn again, I disembark my unit, move them 6" towards the enemy, shoot assault guns and charge granting im close enough. If not close enough, i move the Rhinos up again. It beats all of your BA getting shot to gak from small arms fire.

rhinos offer some unique advantages to BA players as opposed to in other codices, no doubt. I've just had too many shot out from under me to want to take them under pretty much any circumstances. To me good play is based on having options. Since options are in turn based on mobility I dont want my opponent to be able to take it away with one lucky lascannon shot. The guard codex was the end of the rhino rush.... I dont think the unique qualities of the BA rhinos outweight the limitations of basing all your mobility on a couple of av 11 vehicles.