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So I am considering starting blood angels. What would be the best way to play them? I considered a rush list involving full assault squads. Leader is the new axe wielding chapter master with a sanguinary guard protecting him. Las predators for anti tank and a stormraven (already have one.)

I'd suggest reading the slew of other BA threads around here before everyone repeats what's been said in them. BA are one of the most talked about armies around these days, and generally, it's agreed that they are a bottom tier army.

The BA have incredible fluff. Just terrific. But their rules right now suck out loud.

You will find it very difficult to field an effective TAC list as BA. If you play a league where you can tailor, they will be more effective, but at the same time, opponents can tailor for meqs which could be very, very bad. f

Jump marines backed up by sanguinary priests are hard enough to kill, but lack offensive power since they don't shoot worth a damn and aren't really that overwhelming in HTH. They're probably better than most troops at HTH, but you have to take into account all those casualties getting to assault range.

Sadly BA are not what they used to be in 5th... the nerfs to FNP, FC and assault in general have really hurt Blood Angels. They were my first army and fun to play, but they just aren't as competitive which is a bummer. As mentioned above, there are several well developed BA tactics threads that go into great detail as to how best to accomplish an effective list in the current rule set. Either way, I still love my vampire axe wielding maniacs and I think their next codex will be solid.

Personally I'm curious to see if it'll be possible to field a proxy-BA army using the new Space Marines Codex when it's released...

I'm sure it will be *possible*, but I personally don't own any stormtalons or thunderfires. And I have several old las/plas razors I would never use as vanilla marines.