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We all know flame tactical squads are good. Melta asm drop pods are good. I think grav bikes work well in combination with drop pod armies.
The question of the day is: What's the best way to get your blood angels assault units into close combat effectively and quickly? We all have different opinions on weapon load out and squad size. But here i want to know if you use jump packs in a storm Ravens, no jump pack in a raven, jumppacks deployed turn 1, jump packs deep striked, angels wing relics, dante, commlinks, decent of angels if you're lucky?

I have 2 dc squads and 2 storm Ravens and i thought about veritas virtue for my combined arms detachment so i get 2 rerollable blood angels traits. That's a good chance to get decent of angels and then my storm Ravens are hardly likely to be out till turn 3. My Brother plays tau with riptides and missile pods crisis star with sky fire. So that's too bad.

I use my DC in a pod as a disruption unit usually. If I run them with JP I will DS them or deploy them depending on the opponent, table and mission as a bully unit.

For the SG I always run them with a priest w/ angel's wing and dante. They are my scalpel and I will deploy them depending on the situation to be sure they can do their job.

The angle's wing only being able to be snap fired at when DSing is great against those AP2 interceptor riptides as they cannot use the blast template.

I think you also need to think about what units you can bring to take the heavy fire off your DC/SG. Such as a knight, vindis, typhon, etc. They play as an important a role of getting your DC/SG in combat as any transport or jps will play.

I had the best success with my Sang-ball when I was running 3 Frag cannon dreadnoughts in pods with them (and at least 2 other pods). Getting 3 frag cannons in your opponents face T1 removes a lot of threats, and having at least 2 melta packed ASM squads in pods is a great way to get to 5 pods. In fact, those 5 squads (and pods) are only 725 pts, leaving plenty of room for Dante and friends plus more stuff.

With or without dante, effective use of cover is always necessary when fielding sanguinary guard, and a priest is basically mandatory. With a 2+ and fnp you can jump from ruin to ruin and not care about dangerous terrain. Dante gives you an extra layer of protection for tanking plasma and melta. I actually hardly ever deep strike mine.

 Mulletdude wrote:
I had the best success with my Sang-ball when I was running 3 Frag cannon dreadnoughts in pods with them (and at least 2 other pods). Getting 3 frag cannons in your opponents face T1 removes a lot of threats, and having at least 2 melta packed ASM squads in pods is a great way to get to 5 pods. In fact, those 5 squads (and pods) are only 725 pts, leaving plenty of room for Dante and friends plus more stuff.

I've considered using triple fragnought in a list.

I think ravens are great because you can carry a DC dreadnought with your squad, and then they have enough fire power to take out vehicles while your DC take out infantry

TheManWithNoPlan wrote:
I think ravens are great because you can carry a DC dreadnought with your squad, and then they have enough fire power to take out vehicles while your DC take out infantry

Until it gets shot down.

Martel732 wrote:


Until it gets shot down. [/quote'

Well every thing is good until it gets shot/ destroyed!

The Stormraven is particularly bad when it crashes, though.

You have the option to bring it on as a fast skimmer when facing armies that can easily shoot it down. This still allows for a 24'' move the turn it comes on.

An av12 fast skimmer assault transport with 2 units is something most armies would love to have.

Not for the pricetag. AV 12 skimmer for 200+ pts is far too fragile.

Martel732 wrote:

TheManWithNoPlan wrote:
I think ravens are great because you can carry a DC dreadnought with your squad, and then they have enough fire power to take out vehicles while your DC take out infantry

Until it gets shot down.

A Stormraven or Storm Eagle needs to live one turn. It comes on, Jinks like mad, then drops into hover the turn after to drop its cargo somewhere it'll shred everything. If the other guy can reliably one-round an AV12 Flyer it's not a good idea but if he doesn't have the stuff to do it you're fine.

That's an awful expensive delivery system for an assault that can't take place before turn 3. Not worth it, imo.

Yeah im not a fan of using the storm raven as a combat transport unless the unit is really cheap and efficient to begin with. Death co get jump packs for 3ppm, why spend any more than that on transports?

Because it gets them into combat before any shooting phase. And with range of a storm raven they're IN cc on turn 3- no chasing after the stuff that's worth assaulting. Jp you still have to roll for reserve and then you gave to wait till turn 3 just like a storm raven, but you get shot first. Unless you start on the board and get close enough somehow without getting waxed. That's my opinion on why they are possibly better than jp.

Storm Ravens do have nice aa and at ability. And for what it's worth, with a death company inside they have a nice fear factor and distraction from everything else. They most certainly are not just a unit to keep fire off the rest of the army, but ive seen many opponent snap a bunch of shots at them instead of shooting at something they can actually kill.

Do you have a way of getting into cc before turn 3? I'm talking about against an opponent that is not orks or tyranid and does not want to get into assault, and particularly against a squad as killyas dc or sg. Have you found a way to get into cc by turn 2 without getting blasted first?

Yes, when people you drop lists against me, I'm combat on turn 1.

How convenient

Maybe my FLGS just plays with more terrain than everyone else, but jumping from cover to cover gets me into combat with enough dudes to make a difference. Plus its not just nids and orks that want to close with you. Most marine lists, dark eldar, wolves, etc, all want to get within your threat range.