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Hey all, I'm entirely new to 40k, and I just got the Blood Angels battle force.

My friend and I started putting our squads together last night; all I've made so far is 4 bolters and a melta.

So here's how I plan on making my army... and I hope all of you gak on my list and give me some actual good ideas lol.

I figure I want to approach the blood angels with the death company riding around in a rhino, or a storm raven when I get them (yes 2 of them, I've been reading around! haha)... What is the best way of equipping them? I just want them to focus on the elites and HQ of the enemy.

Then I plan on having my assault squads attack regular infantry, with tactical squads laying down supporting fire for them... mostly bolters, heavy bolter, maybe a plasma gun?

So I mentioned the 2 storm ravens that I'd like to get, I figure one can usher a dread and DC around, while the other focuses on covering the assault squads.

Lastly HQ's, I was thinking a chaplain for the DC and also a librarian.

Again, I'm brand new to all this, so I don't know what load-outs are best for my troops. Hence this not being a very detailed army list, I'm hoping you guys can point me in the right direction. Thanks for any and all advice.

-Sincerely, Newbie Blood Angel

Cool cool you have been reading thats good.
For the Sr i have mine with twin mm and assault cannons possibly extra armor but thats a personal thing.
I would put 2 furiosos with blood talons in them because they are fun and deadly.
I dont run tac squads because assault squads do the same thing only better IMO.
Mine are armed with 2 melta guns and a pf or a th works cery well.
I recommend leaving death company out till you have a larger army or are more experienced at playing the army because they are not easy to play and if used wrong they are just an expensive squad that gets killed.
Lib is a great Hq make sure to take priests they will make your marines live longer and make them dangerous. Dont give the priests anything because they can get singled out in cc so a pw could make it an even more expensive model.

Ok so a few questions.
How many men do you put in each assault squad typically? I assume 10 if you have 2 meltas.
(Saddened by the news of the DC :( haha... I really wanted to use those guys)
Librarian I was thinking of giving him blood lance and Shackle soul, and a straight up bolt gun, and probably sticking him in a tac squad. I figure the blood lance is a sick attack, and the shackle soul will aid in protecting the other heavy weapons in my tac squad.
I was thinking going dreads as well, a furioso and librarian dread perhaps. I'm still working on a solid list.
Any ideas as to what the best outfits for dreads are?

Priests definitely sound like a good idea, how many do you need, like 1 per assault squad?

I was depressed by the death company and the sanguinary guard lack of certain things because I had 3 boxes of dc and 4 boxes of sang guard mix those with 2 tac marine squads and you have yourself 55 cool assault marines (I did have to order more cc weapons) But the extra bits are fun to build cool models with Sorry for going totally off topic.

Yes assault squads are 10 man squads pf 2 melta guns its 235 points seems expensive yes it is put a priest with them and they are really tough.
Librarian should be with an assault squad here is why
You give him shield and unleash rage.
The assault squad has a priest so you have furious charge and feel no pain.
So your librarian strikes at initiative 5 ws 5 re rolling to hit with unleash rage with a power weapon.
You get a ton of attacks with the assault marines that re roll to hit at str and initiative 5 (so you go before normal marines and mostly everything).
Those attacks wipe out squads.
Shield is amazing it sounds lame 5 up cover its a bubble effect it works on tanks infantry and everything you have no idea how many of my tanks that has saved and how many marines have lived because of shield.
Also you cast shield in the opponents shooting phase and then cast unleash rage in your assault phase its a win win.
Tac squad is a little out of place assault squads can deal with the enemy better (3 attacks on the charge rather than 2 rapid fire shots).
I suggest you try it out the 2 melta guns shooting before you charge and the bolt pistols kill (for me at least) 2 to 3 guys. Then charge lib chops down 3 priest if he ends up in combats does 2 ish wounds and then there are 20 some odd assault marine attacks and 3 pf attacks basically marine squad is done for.

Personally I would recommend a tw assault cannon hb sponson Baal pred it gives amazing fire support and mulches everything from guard squads predators.
Mine have always earned their points back I think they are wonderful and amazing.

Dreads really great because the furiosos have armor 13 and thats pretty darn great as in crack grenades dont work.
My favorite set up for dreads is a furioso dread with blood talons riding a storm raven.
Reasons.
3 attacks on the charge
If a priest is near by he gets furious charge so he strikes initiative 5 str 7 but that str dosnt make a real difference hes meant for troop killing not tank hunting.
He has ws 5 so hits marines on 3s
str 6 kills marines on 2s
eery unsaved wound he makes he gets that many more attacks in the same turn.
You can kill an entire marine squad with them not having a chance to do anything back to you because you can wipe them out before their melta bombs and or pf will be dead by the time its thier turn to attack.
He has a melta gun so he can bust open the transport then slaughter the guys inside good times no one is safe.
125 points of awesome.

Priests are pretty great you definitely want them.
For 1500 and 1750 I run 3 with jump packs in 1500 I have 3 assautl squads in 1750 I have 4 assault squads and 2 squads just stick together.
I wouldnt recommend more than 3 because then you loose an elite slot and well when I can I like taking 2 furiosos or furioso and termie friends.
Dont give them power weapons or anything fancy other than a jump pack they can be singled out in cc because they are independent characters in that sense so you want them hidden they are unit buf models not combat models even tho they can do that too.

One more thing then ill stop infernos pistols and hand flamers sound really awesome they are way too costly and not very effective the hand flamer is not strong enough to do much and the inf pistol it gives you the plus 1 bonus in combat but to get the 2 d6 ap you need to be within 3 inches of a tank and if you blow it up there is a good chance that the explosion can hit you and you could take a wound (yes you may have priests) but why would you risk loosing a marine.

That being said I hope I helped you a bit adn best of luck If you have questions you can pm me

A tooled-up captain can be a good choice-try giving him Terminator Armour and a pair of Lightning Claws, and put him with a squad of Assault Terminators. Of course, you don't have to listen to me-I don't play Blood Angels, althugh I have read the codex and made an army.

Captain really dosnt bring much lib with termie armor can make the assault termies scarier with making them re roll to hit. Captain dosnt give you any bonuses for the same price as a lib.

ok Wow, really amazing advice cowpow, thank you soooo much! This is helping tremendously. I'll pm you some more.

Basically, everything cowpow has said is super solid advice!
But it feels like part of why you picked BA is because of our DC squads and as cowpow said, they are not that cost-effective in lower point games. However, if you dont mind not having the most competitive list now in the beginning and if its just a friendly game then I think you should use them anyway. If you do, yes use a SR as delivery with 10 DC+Lemartes and maybe slap in a DC dread. This SR will be highest target priority for your enemy ofc and it will cost A LOT of points but it will wreck anything it hits. Some general tips on DC that I've picked up:
- Mix weapon loadouts so you can, depending on what your're up against put the wounds on whatever you dont need.
- Allocate wounds to Lemartes first, if he takes a wound he'll get pissed and just become even better.
- Never get jump packs, way too expensive.

Like mentioned, this will be way expensive but in lower point games just remove Lemmy and use some DC in a Rhino if you want to try them out.

thanks for the DC advice... I was disappointed to hear that I can't really use them until I'm more familiar with the game or have a larger army... but I don't mind moving forward just getting assault squads for now, and other units until i have enough units or skill lol

Here are some general pointers that haven't been mentioned yet:

1. Assault Squads can be run one of two ways. You can take a 5 man squad and put them in a Razorback, or a 10 man squad with Jump Packs. In either case, you should take the maximum number of special weapons possible. You will want most of these special weapons to be meltaguns. If you go with Razorbacks, the Assault Cannon and Lascannon/TL-Plasmagun options are the best.

2. Your army should be composed of similar units. If you take 5-man Assault Squads in Razorbacks, support them with other vehicles, like Predators and Baal Predators. If you take 10 man Assault Squads with Jump Packs, support them with Vanguard Vets and Devastators, and do not take any vehicles whatsoever. You have the right idea with Stormravens. If you want to take at least one, take two or even three.

3. A Librarian is usually the best HQ choice. He is cheap, makes the rest of the army better, and comes with good wargear. Good powers are Unleash Rage, Shield, Sword, and Blood Lance. The Epistolary upgrade is generally not worth it. Mephiston is also great in higher points games. Reclusiarchs have their place, but only if you have a Death Company. Other choices are pretty weak, especially the Captain.

In friendly games dc can be used so you get a feel for them they are not an easy unit to use by any means but they are deadly. You should definitely try them they can be tons of fun.

I don't quite agree with the if you take jump packers take no tanks.
My 30 to 40 assault marines are backed up by 2 Baal preds and a vindicator and they have always earned their points back. The vindicator in cover becomes such a fire magnet that everything else usually dosnt take heavy weapon fire atleast in the games I play.

MrE summed it up pretty well just remember lcs can be tempramental and don't always do what you want.

There has been a lot of great advice. One suggestion I would like to make is this. It sounds like you play more friendly games than anything else (or that is the intention), that being the case, proxy some of your assault marines as death company, this will allow you to build your army according to the suggestions but still have the opportunity to try out an awesome option for BA.

I will definitely try the DC later on.