Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I have a new army planned, but I'd like some advice on choosing the codex to best represent it.

Before IA:9 came out I was a big fan of the Badab fluff. I wanted to start a Badab army but had already started SM, so put the idea on the back-burner. My vanilla marines army is nearing completion (and I'm very prooud of them) so I'm looking to either start CSM or another Marine army, badab-style.

My intial idea was the Star Phantoms chapter. I disagree wholly with the IA fluff, as I'd already decided in my head what the Star Phantoms were all about. After reading the fluff in Cities of Death about Captain Androcles' strike against the Palace of Thorns on Badab, my initial idea was to have an infantry-only army, all drop-podded. I though this evoked perfectly the idea of a fast attack force dropping out of orbit and smashing stuff up.
Also I thought this would be a fun, unique army. My intial idea was Tacs, Assault marines (sans jetpacks), rifleman dreads and devestators, all podded and no vehicles. The imagery was there, the playstyle was there. Not competetive in the slightest, but unique and fun nonetheless. Heavy reliance on special and heavy weapons - oh and their armour will be turquoise.

Recently I've begun to think about re-styling the army as a counts-as Blood Angel army and going for a Descent of Angels build. Different playstyle perhaps, but the fast, dropping-from-orbit strike force theme is still intact. This build would be slightly more competetive for sure, but I don't want to get accused of bearding it up when I pull these guys out. I'm unsure if I'll take a Stormraven, and I might have to drop the dreads and devestators.
However, jump-pack deep strike from orbit, tactical insertion, assault weapons and the in-and-out mentality of the DoA build fits very nicely with my made up Star Phantoms fluff.

In your opinion, Dakka, is there any place for a hybrid of the two lists? Maybe podding in devestators and dreads, leaving the rest of the force free to jetpack around the place. I'm pretty sure I have to do one or the other, as a mixture seems to lack the advantages of either. Opinions please?

Cheers guys.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Seriously, thirty views and no-one has an opinion?

Drop pods sound cooler I guess.

Wow. Riotous response! Thanks Space Crusader. I actually thought more people would like to interject their opinion into this thread.

Come on Dakka, give me some opinions!

Not blood angels. It's better to have drop pods and other ways, really, it's true

Blood Angel have Death Company which is basically a cheaper version of Khorne Beserker and the tatical Marines are 1 point cheaper than nomral Marines. You can bring Dreadnoughts as troop choices.

Visually, I think the idea of drop podding units down is what you're looking for. Competitively, well - KPs galore!

So, in my opinion - and this may not help at all:

1. You go fluffy but lose all your games.
2. You go competitive and then you're that guy.
3. Come up with a fluffy competitive mix.

I ask myself this all time time. And the question is:
Am I in it to win it? More often then not, the answer is no..
So, I like to have the fluffy fluffy armies on the table.
(to which I get - um, dood.. why did you bring Howling Banshees? or um, dood.. don't you know Looted Wagons suck! or um, dood.. or um, dood.. Drop Pods are a waste of money.)

BOOM! - yes, I've had waaay too much coffee!

Thanks guys - and thank you to the Mod who moved this to the correct forum, I apologise.

DX3 - totally hear you. I don't to be TFG, but rather I thought the BA list might evoke that feeling of shouty space dudes screaming into combat from orbit.

I play fluffy armies, so I'm used to losing in style. Same with my Eldar and my other Vanilla marine list - which actually performs pretty well becuase the theme is "smash their face in".

One thing I'm not keen on, as you point out, is the extra KPs on the table for bringing seven or eight Drop Pods. Descent of Angels isn't the strongest build, I'd still plan on bringing no vehicles (no Baal spam here) but I am concerned that people will say "so you just play BA becuase you want to WAAC, right?"

phhaeron - could you elaborate?

rockerbikie - I'm not even sure I'd take Death Company, Maybe Sanguinaries - I dunno, I'm still unsure. I know the army would look awesome with loads of pods, but I also don't want to invest a squillion pounds into Drop Pods.

Imo I would take the assault squad marines instead of the BA death company. The drop pods deffinately add to the attraction of what you are doing and then I would go for the Sanguinary guard for you cc elites or even get a couple of Dreadnaughts and throw in some cc Termies for a very cool effect. I am a huge fluff guy and all about giving my armies a nice back story so I say go for it. Also add some SM:scouts in your first round of attack in their own drop pods. Rock it dude and have fun!