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I would go with Wraith Eldar - with every unit in a Wave Serpent and Wraithlords or Wraithknights as the non-vehicles that start on the board.

Well, my Sisters love Wraith Eldar, and those who think putting their Wraithguard out in the open are safe. :3

I'd say certain Tyranid builds are up there, either big MCs or hordes that are hard to wipe out.

Drop pod marines of any description. Deathwing.

This is a tough call and I think it comes down more to the general than the army itself. Because first blood has a lot to do with positioning and how you kit out your units.

That being said I think tau are pretty tough. They will rarely have all their units on the board first, and will have almost all of their army fortified and walled up. With drones it makes it harder to bring down what would otherwise be small units.

Any full reserve army

 davou wrote:
Any full reserve army

But can that type of army steal the First Blood over another one? I've seen interceptor quad-guns getting First Blood all the time.

Vehicle-heavy IG. Those russes are pretty hard to break, and can be squadroned too.

 davou wrote:
Any full reserve army

Uh, I know I haven't played in ages, and forget much of the rules. Doesn't a Full Reserve Army, loose the game? If you have nothing on the board by the end of the turn you loose.

So if you go turn one, with a FRA, you loose with nothing on the board. Who takes the chance on trying this out and getting turn 2, where you can loose if you get turn 1 and not get nothing on the board.

Davor wrote:

 davou wrote:
Any full reserve army

Uh, I know I haven't played in ages, and forget much of the rules. Doesn't a Full Reserve Army, loose the game? If you have nothing on the board by the end of the turn you loose.

So if you go turn one, with a FRA, you loose with nothing on the board. Who takes the chance on trying this out and getting turn 2, where you can loose if you get turn 1 and not get nothing on the board.

Game turn not player turn

Tactical_Genius wrote:
Drop pod marines of any description.

As Oaka said, Interceptor quads will break this, but that's about it so still a fairly safe bet for First Blood most of the time.
I would think full-on Paladins would do it - more so than Deathwing thanks to the 2+ save and FNP, plus there is a tendency to field more than 5 men in a unit when going for the full army as opposed to a unit in an otherwise normal GK army.

I reckon a Black Tide (BT hordes) army.

 Oaka wrote:
I would go with Wraith Eldar - with every unit in a Wave Serpent and Wraithlords or Wraithknights as the non-vehicles that start on the board.

good luck getting first blood from my lots o serpent list

Serpent Spam isn't that hard to get First Blood. Especially when you are also running Serpent Spam and get first turn.

Ork Nob biker armies. Just too many two wound T5 4+ save, 4+ cover, 5+ FNP models to wipe out to get first blood.

In return they can do a ridiculious amount of damage in both the shooting and/or assault phase to pretty much anything and get first blood fairly easily.

I've yet to even come close to giving up first blood with my CSM army. At 1850 points, the list is two ICs, two 20-man units of fearless power armored dudes, and a unit of 10 terminators (who, if they have an IC with them, are also fearless. That's two hidden models, and then just three units, any of which are going to be very, very hard to kill.

I then throw in some support unit, but if it's oblits, it's deepstriking (and so not showing up until I get first blood, or they'll get it themselves), or if it's something else, it's something like a 10+ size unit of fearless havocs in ruins, or something.

And I disagree with the OP. Any list that includes vehicles that isn't, say, a land raider spam army is going to have problems keeping hold of first blood. You're just a fistful of lascannons away from losing it, much less any of the many other ways of one-shotting or swiftly destroying vehicles.

Triple Dreadknight Draigowing is definitely up there.

Draigowing hands down.

The important thing to note is that first blood, while important for winning, shouldn't cost you the game. If you deploy so conservatively to avoid first blood that you hurt your ability to win, then you're letting this one point control you.

If you bring a list with lots of scoring models, don't worry about it.


First blood, linebreaker and slay the warlord were created to help balance out armies with all scoring models with armies like my DC Blood Angel army in which nothing scores. I could still win games by 1) tabling and 2) clearing off all the objectives by the end of the game provided I won those 3 points.

Thatguyoverthere11 wrote:
The important thing to note is that first blood, while important for winning, shouldn't cost you the game. If you deploy so conservatively to avoid first blood that you hurt your ability to win, then you're letting this one point control you.

If you bring a list with lots of scoring models, don't worry about it.


First blood, linebreaker and slay the warlord were created to help balance out armies with all scoring models with armies like my DC Blood Angel army in which nothing scores. I could still win games by 1) tabling and 2) clearing off all the objectives by the end of the game provided I won those 3 points.

+1

Often I hear how groups have house ruled out First Blood and it puzzles me. It is 1 point that only 1 army can get, so it often acts as a tiebreaker point in close games. I mean who likes watching football games that end in ties?

Kudos to the original poster for this thread. It raises an important question every general should ask themselves...

Is my army equiped to get/prevent First Blood?

If the answer is no, concentrate on your plan of attack and let your opponent waste his time shooting at your least effective unit. I hadn't thought of it before, but I would start to think of what I could take in a list that would bait my opponent into trying to get First Blood. A unit that is perhaps harder to kill than people think, and put it right up front in the open for him to shoot at. In other words turn a disadvantage into an advantage.

Something like IG Ogryns behind a forward ADL emplacement?
5 T5 3W models with 3++ GtG save.
If opponent dosent deal with them they're in your face (earlyish) and still a hardy unit to boot.
Granted Eldar WS spam will still hurt but maybe thats the exception to the rule.

What other units could one use?

x13rads wrote:

Often I hear how groups have house ruled out First Blood and it puzzles me. It is 1 point that only 1 army can get, so it often acts as a tiebreaker point in close games. I mean who likes watching football games that end in ties?

Hey, now! I'm a fan of European football and tie games can be very exciting. Living in the US, I've never been able to understand the constant obsession with requiring one sports team to be considered the winner over another during a certain period of time. It may not make sense in other sports, but in football weaker teams often strategize around breaking even with a much stronger opponent.

 Ratius wrote:
Something like IG Ogryns behind a forward ADL emplacement?
5 T5 3W models with 3++ GtG save.
If opponent dosent deal with them they're in your face (earlyish) and still a hardy unit to boot.
Granted Eldar WS spam will still hurt but maybe thats the exception to the rule.

What other units could one use?

Unless your entire army is Ogryns what's to stop them from shooting at else?

Necrons cowering in cover. That Overlord with 2+ armor and 3+ invul? He's soaking up all the hits by sitting at the front of his squad. Managed to tip even just a couple of those danged robots? No, they were just taking a quick breather and enjoying a snack. They'll be right back.

x13rads wrote:Often I hear how groups have house ruled out First Blood and it puzzles me. It is 1 point that only 1 army can get, so it often acts as a tiebreaker point in close games. I mean who likes watching football games that end in ties?

The problem is that it's not that difficult to go for a draw on purpose (which is a lot easier than going for a win), and then win on secondaries thanks to first blood.

It's becoming so rampant that people at our FLGS are starting to refer to 6th edition as "first blood: the game". Really, any time we roll relic or will, or big guns or crusade with an even number of objectives (or... well... an odd number as well if the players know what they're doing), it invariably boils down to who won first blood.

 davou wrote:
Any full reserve army

Eh, my Tau would like to argue against that.

Ive scored first blood because i had 5 units with Interceptor waiting for t 5pt upgrade and i honestly didnt care about the other choices and i had points so why not?


I would say any army that can validly field 3-4 units because theyre so freakin hard to take down. GK for instance, i gotta get stupid lucky to first blood them.

Often I hear how groups have house ruled out First Blood and it puzzles me. It is 1 point that only 1 army can get, so it often acts as a tiebreaker point in close games. I mean who likes watching football games that end in ties?

People probably dont like it because some armies just give it away by default (Orks.....) and its literally designed to be the tiebreaker. Having a tiebreaker at the start of a game is kinda unfair because if one army is all elitist OMG units and the other is pieces of crap but tons of them, the pieces of crap are almost forced to table their opponent which isnt easy if theyre any good.
Ive had many games where that happened when i played orks. I was crushing my opponent, but he had firstblood because im orks so my units are easy to wipe out (except nob bikers). He won because i was unable to fully table him, he was in my deployment zone, and it was his warlord. Purge the Aliens too btw. Nothing more irritating to me than losing purely because first blood gives small unit count armies an advantage.

They ought to change it to be "Last blow" where the last unit killed when the game ends gives the extra point lol

Well, Eldar Serpent spam, Necrons with AV13 vehicles, BA with AV 13 vehicles (rarely seen these days), some IG builds, and whatnot.

My group has started, and will hopefully continue, to use secondary objectives as purely tiebreakers. So hey I got a single 1 point objective in the fast attack one, and you have nothing, but all 3 secondary objectives? Good job I still win for having a primary

Well, in our monthly RTTs we are no longer use ''first blood'' as secondary.

 Vineheart01 wrote:

 davou wrote:
Any full reserve army

Eh, my Tau would like to argue against that.

Ive scored first blood because i had 5 units with Interceptor waiting for t 5pt upgrade and i honestly didnt care about the other choices and i had points so why not?


I would say any army that can validly field 3-4 units because theyre so freakin hard to take down. GK for instance, i gotta get stupid lucky to first blood them.

Often I hear how groups have house ruled out First Blood and it puzzles me. It is 1 point that only 1 army can get, so it often acts as a tiebreaker point in close games. I mean who likes watching football games that end in ties?

People probably dont like it because some armies just give it away by default (Orks.....) and its literally designed to be the tiebreaker. Having a tiebreaker at the start of a game is kinda unfair because if one army is all elitist OMG units and the other is pieces of crap but tons of them, the pieces of crap are almost forced to table their opponent which isnt easy if theyre any good.
Ive had many games where that happened when i played orks. I was crushing my opponent, but he had firstblood because im orks so my units are easy to wipe out (except nob bikers). He won because i was unable to fully table him, he was in my deployment zone, and it was his warlord. Purge the Aliens too btw. Nothing more irritating to me than losing purely because first blood gives small unit count armies an advantage.

They ought to change it to be "Last blow" where the last unit killed when the game ends gives the extra point lol

I play tau, and tbh, if I was facing tau interceptor pie plates is as easy as placing your models so that a plate would clip friendly units. I have yet to use my marines against a tau player, but my intention is fully to gert out of the drop pod and go stand 1'' away from an enemy unit at the end of movement.

who said anything about pi plates? broadsides have interceptor too and HBC Riptides are "not" a bad unit theyre just more risky. Though usually i dont have interceptor on that one because i typically dont like shooting it without the buffmander helping...which is only in the shooting phase