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Here's the list I'm hoping to try out soon. Essentially I want a balanced army that will have a chance against most opponents, based around the blood angels battleforce boxed set. In my mind the list below is true to what blood angels are about, but I'm wondering if this will be competitive.

I would combat squad the assault squad, but keep all the assault units close. The reclusiarch would go with the death company and all assault units would aim to stay close to the chapter banner. The single drop pod means the dreadnought will definitely arrive first turn, i don't like the uncertainty of deep strikes. Tactical squads get transports to help them keep up and seize objectives late in the game. I'd appreciate any comments...

Reclusiarch - 130
Honour guard x5 (including sanguinary novitiate) - chapter banner, 2x power sword - 225

10 man tactical squad - flamer, missile launcher, rhino - 220
10 man tactical squad - melta gun, plasma cannon, melta bombs, land raider redeemer - 425
10 man assault squad - flamer, infernus pistol, power sword, melta bombs - 230
5 man death company - power sword, power fist, jump packs - 215
Death company dreadnought - drop pod, blood talons - 160

Vindicator - 145

If you are going to use a Drop Pod, use the Lucius Pattern. It costs 50 points but you can assault with the dread when it comes in.(Yes, BA can use them now)
Tacts squads should keep the ML/FL combo. Its free and it will leave more point to be used else where.
No Rhinos. Take Razorbacks with TTLC. All Rhino based vehicles are fast for a BA army. Hide if you need to first turn then pop out up to 12" and fire away.
Go with a libby for a HQ. New psychic phase will make him handy.
Ditch the DC and their dread. Regular furies have 13 front armor so krak grenades can't hurt them. DC just suck unless you get them into combat. No ride for them make them useless.
No to the honor guard too. No ride and too expensive.
For the point that you save, you could put a Knight on the board or some Ball preds. Put PF or PW on vet sargents and add some other ooky stuff.

This is just my 2 cents.
Hope this helps.

Only way to run Death Co is without JPs and with a Bolter IMO. Makes them very versatile still having 4 attacks on the charge but can also shoot and don't forget they are relentless so get close shoot em up to thin em out and then charge. If you are putting anyone in a LRR it should be DC not Tac. The point of a LRR is to deliver a boatload of pain and Tac marines don't scare anyone. I love the Vindicator but you know whats better then 1 Vindi? 2! Drop the Honor guard and a Tac squad and put the DC up to 10 or 11 with the Reclus in the LRR...that sir is a scary piece. I also like Baal Preds but you may not have any...smart thing to invest in.

I might try something like

Reclus

10man DC with whatever power weapons you want and LRR

DC Dread with Drop pod but personally I like fists for smashing ability

10man tac with rhino or rback

10man Assault with whatever you like

10man Assault with whatever again

and any combination of 2 of Baal Preds or Vinidis

Should leave you with some points to put Dozer Blades on tanks so you can run them right through/into terrain for cover and give the Rback whatever weapon you want.

I play a list like this and its good. Fast moving, versatile, death star with the DC, and the Dread is used as a distraction turn 1. Good luck!

How do razorbacks work for a 10 man squad? Sorry I'm confused about taking a razorback rather than a rhino for the tac squad...

I could swap the land raider for another rhino and spend the points on another Vindicator?

The idea with the dread is indeed a distraction, if it doesn't survive the first turn to be able to assault then it will have taken the heat off my transports? The lucious pattern sounds good, but I can't find it in the codex?

Also on second thoughts I'd drop the jump packs off the death company and load them with the reclusiarch into a razorback.

He's saying dont do ten man. or combat squad.

If you want to do DC, you have to drop a lot of points on them. I wouldn't suggest it.

I guess the lucious pattern is FW. Haven't heard of it before.

Tac squads aren't for BA. Too expensive, and just don't match the army.

DC Dreads got so much better in 7th. I wouldn't pay the 50 points, and just draw fire and ignore results 1-4. then if it survives then assault and wreck shop.

Gundor2 wrote:
If you are going to use a Drop Pod, use the Lucius Pattern. It costs 50 points but you can assault with the dread when it comes in.(Yes, BA can use them now).

Not 100% sure, but I believe that was the old Lucius Pattern, the last version of rules I read was that the drop pod would count as an open-topped vehicle allowing the occupants to stay inside after the drop and receiving a better cover save.
That plus the use of Forgeworld is not accepted in a lot of gaming communities (yet).

As for the list it's not a competitive list at the moment. However it can be improved a lot by adjusting a couple of things (at least in my opinion ):
- I am not a huge fan of Blood Angel tactical squads. If you want to go for infantry I would suggest taking assault squads instead. Either keep them with jump packs with double special weapon 10 man squads or reduce them to 5 man squads to get the discounted razorback.
- Death company with jump packs are very expensive points wise. I would suggest dropping the jump packs and giving them the Land Raider Redeemer as a transport. Join the reclusiarch to this squad.
- Your honor guard currently have no transport and will have to walk across the field. While the banner is fun it will hardly ever have an impact currently the squad is too slow to keep up with your army. I think you can better drop these guys and use the points you used on them to increase the size of the death company squad to 10.
- This also unlocks the potential to run a second DC dread. If you are going to use another one you can either increase your drop pods to 3 and have both of them in drop pods + another drop pod with an assault squad. If you don't want 3 drop pods then you can have the second dread using your transports (especially the land raider) as mobile cover as he runs to your opponent.

I hope this helps a bit.

This advice is very good, but I would just say making DC affective just costs too much points. I wouldn't use them at all.

Lucius pattern drop pod is FW unit. Since 7th ed people can take pretty much anything they want. Even some tournaments allow at least one unit from FW. It is a dread drop pod that allows the dread to assault out of it on the turn it arrives. Combining that with a Blood Talon dread is sick. A regular fury dread has 13 front armor and a DC one only has 12. Marines with krak grenades could glance the DC dread to death but can't hurt the fury one.

To utilize the razorback, combat squads are the way to go. Five guys in the tank to go out and capture far away objectives while the other five sit back and give some long range help. Since 6th ed the BA's have had to learn to adapt. Assault squads can't do what they used to. The assault phase has changed too much.

I don't see how tact squads are too expensive. With a ten man squad, you can get a free ML and Flamer. Assault squads are base 100 points for five guys. After adding five more guys and other weapons, they get too expensive.

The list that I use for regular play is effective and competitive(until they changed Mephy). I haven't had them on the board for 7th but I will plan a game and take them out to see how they do.

Remember too that everyone has a different point of view on how to build a list. Everyone also has a different playing style. What works for one may not work for others. Find what you like in the list and what works for you that fits your playing style.

Good luck

How do you plan on dealing with air units? A heldrake will rip through your marines, leaving your army very empty,

Gundor2 wrote:


Remember too that everyone has a different point of view on how to build a list. Everyone also has a different playing style. What works for one may not work for others. Find what you like in the list and what works for you that fits your playing style.

Good luck

This

I honestly believe BA got better in 7th especially in maelstrom games...the only successful list I've played at 2k points runs a flyer, 2 baals, 2 vindis, and a transport being either Rback or LRR. Sometimes I switch it up for a dread against shooty armies for, like I said earlier, distraction. I usually throw a magnagrapple on it and go after the most dangerous vehicle. I almost always take 1 tactical squad with ML and plasma gun and battle squad putting the plasma with 4 in the Rback and the ML with the others on an objective in my deployment zone. DC can definitely work...When I use them I go 10 with all bolters and a chaplain or reclus in a LRR. It's expensive but the LRR is as strong as a squad in itself and the DC don't need power weapons simply based on the amount of attacks. 40 attacks rerolling all missed hits and wounds is good enough to wipe anything...PWs are just overkill.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Forgot to say why we got better in 7th. I know it isn't BAlike but having access to all fast tanks and unlimited assault marines is amazing, possibly the best mobility in the game. BA can also take a ton of tanks because of our codex allowing Baal as fast attack and LRs as dedicated transport, not many armies can match this. Every tank got 1 point better on penetrate rolls and they can hold objectives now. You can potentially run 6 or 7 great pieces of armor that are all fast vehicles and hold objectives....think about this for a minute...a LR in blood angels counts as a troop choice...a 14 armor vehicle that is a super scorer is insane

Yeah, this is true. Land Raider spam is effective.