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Greetings Dakka!

I've been a long time lurker of Warhammer, and of this site, and I've finally bit the bullet and jumped in, and I sure am glad I did!

I'm a casual gamer, 26 years old, and with a wedding soon to come and a minor relocation, my brother and I were looking for something fun to do once or twice a week to stay close.

And in came 40k! I'm really glad I decided to play, and more specifically play with him. It's been fun learning the game and rules week by week and getting the hang of it. My brother (Matt) and I are not hardcore guys by any means, we're looking for light games. Heck we started playing out with 5 SM's vs. 5 SM's. After some hunting around I found an amazing painter here who we're both commissioning to do our painting (great prices, great work, and we're terrible artists)

He's decided to go with Ultramarines, and I fell in love with the story of the Blood Angels.

We are currently not looking to add vehicles in the mix yet, although it is something that will happen in the future. Since we have the commissioned work, I always want to make sure I get everything right the first time.

There is no points list at the moment that is required, but I'm just looking to get solid, dare I say "Universal" good formats against my brothers Ultramarines, and perhaps a friend who will play Imperial Fist.

I'm happy with what I've done so far, as I felt it was very balanced and could be swapped in and out on a need be basis.

1. 10 Man Tactical Squad - 1 Flamer, 1 Rocket Launcher.

2. 5 Man Scout Squad - 4 Sniper Rifles, 1 Rocket Launcher, 5 Camo Cloaks.

3. 5 Man Assault Squad - 1 Flamer, 1 Power Fist.

4. (Here's where I really need your help!) 5 Man Death Co. - Not configured yet.

I'm going to be using Lemartes with my Death Co, as I know he's a nice advantage to have. How would you recommend I equip these guys? My painter is going to magnet the jump packs so I can decide on a game by game basis, but I'm not sure weapon wise what to run.

Also, I'm looking for any other suggestions as to what to use next. Would it be time to look for a Sang Gaurd, or should I consider a pack of Terminators?

Any help, feedback, and opinions are appreciated! Thank you for reading and your consideration.

32x/Mark

If you're starting out, a good way to get an army together would be to set a small point limit first(oh, say 750) and get some starting units, as well as seeing if there are any gaming clubs or stores where people hang out to play nearby. For Blood Angels, you need to remember they have some additional rules from normal Space Marines. The Red Thirst, Descent of Angels, and having Assault Marines as Troops all mean BA Assault Marines are the stars of their Troops section. A better army, more unique from your soon-to-be arch-rivals would be more like this:

Librarian(Jump Pack and your choice of Psychic Powers)

10 Assault Marines(Sergeant has Power Fist, Squad has two Meltaguns)

10 Assault Marines(Sergeant has Power Fist, Squad has two Meltaguns)

5 Death Company(Jump Packs, one model has both Power Fist and Infernus Pistol)

Although if you really want Tac Marines or Scouts, go for it, you should use what you want to. In what I've suggested, even without Vehicles to pop, the Meltaguns should do well against the other Marine players.

As for Sanguinary Guard or Termies, both are good and fun, and it's really you that should make the choice between them. Sanguinary Guard with Chapter Banner and an Infernus Pistol and a Power Fist would probably be good, or Assault Terminators with all-Thunder Hammers and Storm Sheilds is always fun(3+ Invulnerable Saves all-round!).

This is all, of course, my opinion, and you should always take what seems best to you.

The above list is a pretty decent start to a DoA list.

Alternatively you could snag a Sanguinary Priest or two instead of the Death Company.

If he has no AP2 shooting then take Mephy

Just kidding. Don't do that to your brother, as that is just crazy cheese at 750. If it wasn't your brother though, do mephy

You should have your painter magnetize the arms for anyone carrying a special weapon. Meltaguns are always good, Flamers have a place.

A Tactical Squad is a terrible idea, from a gameplay standpoint anyway. This is doubly true if you don't plan to give them a Rhino or Razorback.

I'm pretty sure that the Death Company boxed set is much like most of the recent Marine boxes and is generally overflowing with bits. They give you enough parts/options to build several different units, the only limitation on models being the number of legs you get (and to a lesser extent the Jump Packs). If you can get legs from somewhere else such as your existing Tactical guys (since as BA you want Assault Marines wherever possible) or from another box set then you can quite possibly get a quite a few more than 5 Death Company/Assault Marines/Honour Guard/Vanguard from that set.

As people have mentioned one of the main advantages of playing Blood Angels is the ability to get Assault Marines as troops. Tacticals are ok but I wouldn't get any more of them, if you want an army heavy on Bolter/Tactical Marines BA aren't the best choice. If you want to aim for a smallish sized force then the list above with 2 Assault Squads + a Librarian + something else is a good start imo. Alternatively you could go down a vehicle heavy route and take 5 man Assault Squads without packs in Razorbacks, but that tends to be more expensive so I wouldn't recommend it for a casual player.

One thing you definitely need is an HQ of some sort, since otherwise you technically don't have a legal army (which is fine when you are learning but something you should aim for asap tbh). A Librarian is probably your best bet, since they are cheap and bring decent support abilities. Other than that I would highly recommend that you get a Sanguinary Priest asap, they are cheap, incredibly effective and something that's unique to BA.

The general advice I've heard has been repeated above - the core of a Blood Angels army is an HQ, some kind of escort for the HQ, and two Assault squads. What you need to decide now is what kind of BA army you want to make.

I'm under the impression that there are several major builds. However, if your love for the Sons of Sanguinius is based on the fluff, I would recommend going the route of the Descent of Angels assault list. Blood Angels falling out of the sky, landing with precision, assaulting viciously.

In that case, I'd definitely recommend buying a Sanguinary Guard box to act as escort for your Librarian. The Sanguinary Guard and Librarian are a killer combo.

Alternately, if you want to add a little mechanization to your list, you should consider going with a Stormraven. The Stormraven lets you add elements that cannot Deep Strike as easily, including dreadnoughts (furioso dreadnoughts and furioso librarians are awesome) and terminators (who Deep Strike, but without the benefit of Descent of Angels).

Can you tell that I'm a DoA player?

I will say, though, that Descent of Angels takes some finessing. It can take a while to learn how to drop your troops so that they don't get destroyed in the following shooting phase. However, once you figure it out, it's a lot of fun.

Thanks everyone for the quick and helpful posts!

It's much appreciated!

The tac squad and scouts will be nice for some games, but I'm going to focus a bit more on a Death Co with Lemmy, and then Sang Priests with more assault troops.

Be careful with that. Death Company are not scoring units despite being troop choices.