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So after finding tcgs bland and too much upkeep and expense to play at even a local level I found warhammer 40k and decided to go head first and start with a 1500 point army. Blood angels jump pack spam seemed like a great army for someone thats getting started to learn all the ins and outs of the very basic tactics. So far I have come up with 1195 points so I'm looking for ideas on how to get to an even 1500. I want to have a list figured out so I know exactly what to by when I go to get my models. So far I have come up with



HQ
Librian 125
jump pack
sheild, unleash rage

Honour Guard 225
jump pack
4 plasma rifle


Elite
sanquinary priest 75
jump pack

sanquinary priest 75
jump pack

sanquinary priest 75
jump pack


Troops
assault squad 235
9 marines 2 melta
1 sargent power fist

assault squad 235
9 marines 2 melta
1 sargent power fist

assault squad 235
9 marines 2 melta
1 sargent power fist

Assault squad 220
9 marines 2 flamers
1 sargent power weapon, melta bombs

Total 1500

Well as a start it's very solid, all the basics that you want for a DoA list.

You have 305 pts left, which is an awkward number really.

This is because I would would normally suggest 2 devastator squads with 4x missile launchers, which is 260 pts.

Otherwise a decently tooled up honour guard squad (4x plasma is my preference, most options are good here), or a vanguard squad is also good. Both of these options will set you back close to the 305pts (depending on how you equip them) and will give you a full jump pack army.

Hope this is useful.

Honour guard with 4 storm shields, 4 plasmas and jump packs comes out to 305 thats what I'm gonna add.

Well they're very survivable and with 4x plasma put out a lot of damage, so they are a decent choice.

Good luck with the list when you get it together.

Not a bad start dude, not a bad start. Only comment is storm shields on the Honour Guard - no point. They are single wound and will die just like normal Marines. Ditch the storm shields and invest the points else where. If you have any spare a cheap Scout unit with camo cloaks for getting a objective would be real nice.

I agree 100% with mercer. Sadly, 80 points isn't enough for a Scout squad with Camo Cloaks, which costs 90 if I recall correctly. You could go with Meltas in the Honor Guard, though, which is a bit more standard. One great thing about Meltaguns that you may not have fully absorbed yet is that there's a huge difference between S8 and S7, mainly because S8 causes Instant Death to T4 models. So, while there certainly are target types that Plasma is better against, like Terminators and Monstrous Creatures, Meltaguns are a workable substitute for Plasmaguns.

Great list

Next I would get a fully kitted out venguard to take care of the nasty cc that you'll need doing: sometimes assault squads can not punch hard enough.

Personally I do not think DoA is a great starting army. It has very unique play style. It requires good knowledge of the opponent, great tactical awareness and reasonable scenery: furthermore it is not forgiving when you lack any of the above.

Death company box set is good to decorate your assault marines and then you'll need to but the box of meltaguns.

Then again maybe that is fine, well done for shying away for tactical squads

mercer wrote:Not a bad start dude, not a bad start. Only comment is storm shields on the Honour Guard - no point. They are single wound and will die just like normal Marines. Ditch the storm shields and invest the points else where. If you have any spare a cheap Scout unit with camo cloaks for getting a objective would be real nice.

The storm shields are pretty point less but they get me a perfect 1500. I plan on magnetizing them so when I add more to the army I can just take off the shields.

MrEconomics wrote:I agree 100% with mercer. Sadly, 80 points isn't enough for a Scout squad with Camo Cloaks, which costs 90 if I recall correctly. You could go with Meltas in the Honor Guard, though, which is a bit more standard. One great thing about Meltaguns that you may not have fully absorbed yet is that there's a huge difference between S8 and S7, mainly because S8 causes Instant Death to T4 models. So, while there certainly are target types that Plasma is better against, like Terminators and Monstrous Creatures, Meltaguns are a workable substitute for Plasmaguns.

I'm going magnetize em so I'll play around and see what works, I already have 3 sqauds with meltas so I wanted to mix it up with some plasma and being able to get off 8 shots without having to worry about over heat is nice too.

I'm thinking of going with 4 boxes of death company and 4 boxes of assault marines so I have a nice selection of parts, also gotta get a thing of melta guns.

If the shields are pointless then why take them? . It is like having a chocolate teapot - pointless.

It is like having a chocolate teapot - pointless.

Is this because the chocolate would melt due to the hot tea?

Yes, and the storm shields won't put much protection for a single wound model, which will go down to small arms fire.

Well what else should I drop the 80 points on? Can I go with 2 melta and 2 plasma on the honor guard? If so that would give me 90 points for a cloaked scout squad.

Spend the 80 points on upgrades. Definitely get an invulnerable save for your librarian and get a power wep for your sang priests. As an eldar player, I have seen too many librarians die to perils of the warp.

Yeah I could see upgrading the librarian. From what I read though putting the sang priests in base to base is a no no.

Definitely do not put your Priests in base to base contact, this is their weakness. If you put Priests in combat then wounds can be allocated to them and bye bye Priest - that means no more feel no pain and furious charge, I don't know about you, but I like these things.

I never understood why people say things like don't put your priests in hand to hand....

Simply put the priest in hand to hand with a single model in the enemy squad (one without a power weapon!) and the odds of him dying are tiny, compared to the damage he will do.

I mean against marines, a single marine killing a sanguinary priest in hand to hand will happen 4.5% of the time. So yea, 1 game out of 20 I'll be unlucky... but it won't happen often. And the punch I get from having a priest, librarian, and sergeant with power sword all charging and hitting at I5 Str5 is worth it.

You can't put him in base contact with a single model. You can move him into base contact with a single model, but when the enemy unit reacts the opponent moves the unit to base in base contact. They will try and get as many enemy models by the Priest and of course those within 2" of a enemy model in base contact with the Priest may also attack. So it will be very slim chances the Priest will be in base contact with just a single model.

As mentioned above, it won't be a single Marine attacking the Priest. It will be about four or five. Also depends what weapons they are armed with.

A Priest in combat is never worth the chances. You always want feel no pain and furious charge, don't you? Or else a smart opponent will allocate as many attacks on the Priest as they can.

It takes 17 regular Marine CC attacks to have a 50% chance to kill a Priest in a round of CC, so I can understand where Horst is coming from.

However, you have to worry that the enemy squad will have a Power Weapon or Power Fist, and will maneuver to make that model eligible to attack the Priest. A Power Weapon Sergeant has 3 attacks when charged, which works out to killing the Priest 58% of the time. A Power Fist Sergeant will kill the Priest 67% of the time. Note that there is basically no reason for this model to attack the Assault Squad, as it will at best kill 2 ablative Marines.

Also, note that the WS5 I5 Priest with a Power Weapon has 4 attacks, so it will kill about 1.78 Marines on the charge, while it kills about .7 without one. The rest of the squad, assuming full strength and a Power Fist Sergeant, will kill about 4 MEQ. Is there a huge difference between killing 6 versus 5? Maybe if the enemy has already been weakened by shooting, but in general no.

Obviously, this is just one scenario, but I think it shows that you don't want to risk the Priest if the enemy has a Power Weapon, and the gain in killing power from adding the Power Weapon isn't huge. As I see it, putting Power Weapons on Priests is something you might consider doing if you don't have anywhere else to spend some points, but that rarely ends up being the case. I've seen army lists where the Priests have Power Weapons and the Assault Squads don't, which is completely insane.

in the vast majority of games I've played, I've been able to get one normal assault marine into base to base with the enemy fist, the priest in base to base with a single enemy model, and the rest of the squad doing whatever it wants.

Your right, as many as 3-4 enemy marines may be swinging on the priest... which still gives me a very low chance of losing him.

But yea, I get that there are better things to spend points on sometimes. I'm just saying, its not a waste of points to put a sword on a priest, as many people say it is.

It sounds like your opponents aren't being very smart with their deployment. They should be putting the Sergeant behind other models, so you can't get to him, and then piling him in towards the Priest.

By the way, having only one model in base-to-base with the Fist doesn't do much. The Fist can still kill multiple Marines. Remember, it isn't 4th edition any more, and any model in a unit can be removed as a casualty.

List has been updated. Dropped the useless storm shields for another priest and gave a sargent melta bombs.

Drp the priests for a term assault squad in a dp with all th as or another assault squad or plasma honor guard with chapter banner

MrEconomics wrote:It sounds like your opponents aren't being very smart with their deployment. They should be putting the Sergeant behind other models, so you can't get to him, and then piling him in towards the Priest.

By the way, having only one model in base-to-base with the Fist doesn't do much. The Fist can still kill multiple Marines. Remember, it isn't 4th edition any more, and any model in a unit can be removed as a casualty.

oh I know. Having a single model in base to base with the fist however DOES prevent him from swinging on the IC's in the squad

Horst wrote:

oh I know. Having a single model in base to base with the fist however DOES prevent him from swinging on the IC's in the squad

True. Goes to show that playing skill is always going to be a big factor in who wins.