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My army is mostly geared for assult. I have assault marines, assault terminators, death company and a tactical squad. I feel I'm lacking something to shoot up the enemy to weaken it a bit before I get there for CC.

What would people recommend? I was thinking a Vindicator might be good as the demolished cannon is S10 and can take out troops or vehicles. Also it's very fast moving so can keep up with my troops. Although would a Baal Pred or even normal Pred be better? Or should I just put Furioso dreadnought a in drop pods and just run them at he enemy?

Stormraven makes a nice gun boat

Baal preds are good, but if you take 1, you should take a second.

I've meched up again in 6th ed, but taking all AV13+ so Furioso's, Vindis and Landraiders. I sit a mid field and shoot away

The single best thing to shoot at things that give BA headaches is the auto/las pred imo. It's great vs MCs, it's great vs transports, it can hurt terminators, and can even hurt the might LR. The 48" range is key. You can start hammering from turn 1 and use the fast special rule to get clearer shots than normal marine tanks.

Stormraven to me is purely anti flyer. If you count on it for firepower, you will be burned when it shows up late.

Baal predators look awesome on paper until you realize that they are killing stuff you can already hurt in HTH. Of course, there are times when you need them. That's the problem; 6th edition has made the BA a very poor all comers army.

To me, the Storm Raven just isn't worth the points. My problem with the Preds is that they are quite slow and can't keep up with the army. I guess though using AC & LC's can't lead you wrong. The Baal predator looks like its great for killing troops but not really tanks or anything heavy.

I'm leaning towards just attacking using a Furisoso dreadnought in a drop pod. Mind you what I like about the vindicator is that you can put a serious dent in a squad if you can get minimal scatter of the blast. Then the assault marina can swoop in to finish them off.

I am in the same boat as you with my assault marines. I already have one predator and while i find it little weak i plan on purchasing another to create 2 targets for people. People seem to be really afraid of them and focus on them quite a bit. After talking with some people hear next game i am running 2 predators and a 10 man devastor squad with 2 plasma and 2 missiles. I will combat the plasmas in one unit and the missiles in another. I want to see how people react to all this around the board.

I do have my eye on the vindicator but it is quite pricey points wise.

The stormraven is absolutely worth every point when you need a Heldrake brought down. But not every army has heldrakes.

The auto/las predator's main advantage over the vindicator is range. But this also allows you to keep your AV 13 front facing the opponent for most of the battle. The Vindicator has to expose the AV 11 sides, which will ensure it gets fragged. The secondary advantage is that it can put 4 potential wounds on MCs or strip 4 potential hull points. The vindicator can only ever take one. The tertiary advantage is desperation anti-air.

I play blood angels, and I find the best thing if you want plenty of shoots is....... Stormraven.......or maybe......2 storm ravens.

I play one at the moment, with Autocannons, 2 x twin link hurricane bolter sponsons, and also twin link heavy bolter mounted by the cab.

You also get 4 blood strike missiles to use throughout the game too.

Power of the machine spirit means that you can even change target with one of your weapons, or if your opponent has crippled the raven so it can't shoot, POMS means you can still shoot 1 weapons!

Shoots enough?

The problem is that you have to wait for those to show up. Which may or may not happen in time. Plus, tanks on the board on turn 1 have the potential to mess with your opponent's decision making. Obviously, at 2.25 or 2.5K, I'd consider two stormravens.

Beard wrote:
I play blood angels, and I find the best thing if you want plenty of shoots is....... Stormraven.......or maybe......2 storm ravens.

I play one at the moment, with Autocannons, 2 x twin link hurricane bolter sponsons, and also twin link heavy bolter mounted by the cab.

You also get 4 blood strike missiles to use throughout the game too.

Power of the machine spirit means that you can even change target with one of your weapons, or if your opponent has crippled the raven so it can't shoot, POMS means you can still shoot 1 weapons!

Shoots enough?

You mean assault cannons, as SR can't take autocannons

I use a SR in almost every list I bulid, maybe 2 in 1500+ games. With AV12 all around and the amount of dakka it can put it out I believe it is a very worthwhile choice for many armies

I have found that a stormraven at 1500 can back fire spectacularly. Even a single turn delay can be disastrous. I prefer quad gun/auto las for anti air at 1500. I consider the storm raven's #1 job anti-air, and I never use it as a transport.

Perhaps for BA we're better off having a devastator squad in a rhino. Once they disembark they can start destroying tanks and if kitted out with a few heavy bolter they can mow down troops.

Martel732 wrote:
I have found that a stormraven at 1500 can back fire spectacularly. Even a single turn delay can be disastrous. I prefer quad gun/auto las for anti air at 1500. I consider the storm raven's #1 job anti-air, and I never use it as a transport.

I agree that they are mostly anti air, however they do a wonderful job at foot troops too, and have the advantage of mobility. Since reserves are a 3+ now, you have a 67% chance of coming on every turn.

Yes it's a gamble but for my personal preference. I never use they for transports now, however having that ability for a late game drop to an objective, while rarely used, is still nice to have.

Storm Ravens with even 5 scoring troops in it becomes a huge priority target. They can and do die to snap shots.

Stormraven are really great, but I lost my love for them when I got them T4 in two games in a row.

The power of our shooty-vehicles is that they are fast.
With a fast vehicle you can get into their side, you can quickly hide them in cover and still shoot.

"Stormraven are really great, but I lost my love for them when I got them T4 in two games in a row. "

This. All day long.

Fast vehicles are really great. They also start out on the board. I've seen so many battles lost on turn 1, I can't stress how important this is.

If you are just trying to soften up troops before you get to CC, base autocannons predators with heavy bolter sponsons are great for there cost (85 points with the upgraded sponsons). If you run 2 rhinos slightly in front of a Vindicator, and to either side, you can protect it's vulnerable sire armor. I do this with my Space Wolves sometimes. I march Thunderwolf Cavalry behind the rhinos, but for you, it would be assault marines jumping up behind. Basically 4 assault squads (2 with packs, 2 in rhinos) move forward with the Vindicator. Having 2 Vindicators can be downright nasty. If your whole army is rushing them, they will be forced to choose between letting those nasty demo cannons get in range, or letting the assault squads reach them basically untouched. Relying on air for heavy support is sketchy. I won a game the other day, simply because my opponent got screwed on his reserve rolls and hardy got any shooting off with 2 Vendettas and a Valkyrie. He even had an astropath to ensure that they should be on board faster, but the dice gods were against him. A Land Raider can be a fun option as well, although rather pricey. They take a lot of heat off of other advancing units. Certain armies have a hard time downing AV14 too. I've seen a lot of lists that have mass S6-8 firepower, but nothing s9 or 10, so dropping AV14 is nigh impossible! If my buddy's Space Wolf missile spam army faces a land raider, it can take all of his heavy support to drop it, taking all the heat off of the rest of the army early game.

Vindicators are very good, but can fail spectacularly. Especially with all the plasma flying around now. As the Vindicator advances, it's side AV 11 gets exposed to more and more fire from mobile shooters. Typhoon speeders, attack bikes, and lord knows what xeno stuff out there can all get on the sides of these things, strip the hull points, and leave plenty of dakka for the troops. STR 4 and STR 5 is going into the troops anyway.

When making up these lists, go look at some some IG lists. If you don't shoot back in some non-trivial way, they will wither you in short order. Remember the special rule of the IG: they roll more dice than you.