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Guys I'm trying to create a "fluffy" small Blood Angels training army. Mainly made up of a few scout squads ( this is meant to take place pre primaris btw ). Aside from that I plan to have at least 1 tactical squad and some veterans.

I remember reading on one of the 40k pages that Sanguinary Priests sometimes have command/honor guard squads. This I recall is a BA variation or something a long those lines, although we know chaplains sometimes have them too, though I'm unsure how accurate this is in terms of the lore as usually it tends to be Captains who have these only ? or is this true that BA deviate ?

The idea of a command squad lead by a SP and having a "in training" SN within appeals to me, the only thing I'm unsure about is the banner as usually these are the company banner correct ? or can chaplains and SP have their own "ancient banner bearers" ? and only one of these would exist ? so in such a case would you simply avoid taking the banner and keep the the CS more tooled towards the training and SP aspect ?

I've crossed out the idea of taking terminators as this would be a bit overkill and probably not wasted on such a small "training" group of scouts. So the veterans they would have I think would be either a command squad, a small unit of sternguard or vanguard bets plus at least one tactical squad. Remember this is meant to be scout training world mini BA army so I'm trying to keep it as accurate as possible to the chapter and lore itself.

Thanks for any input.

Sanguinary Priests are more like Very Important Apothecaries. Because the blood of Space Jesus *Sanguinus* is used to make new Marines, and the Sanguinary Priests are responsible for ensuring that blood is around for important things... like... basically everything the BA do.

BA “Honour Guard” are the Gold Dudes with wings. I want to say Sanguinary Guard but that almost sounds like a parody name so I’m not sure anymore. They have Jump packs and power weapons and not-quite Storm bolters on their arms.

Scouts, A Sanguinary Priest (are they still HQ?) with a Librarian and hopefully BA will get access to the Scout Transport Skimmer. A tactical squad with Rhino to give a ride to the SP and Libby gives you a solidly mobile core. Take a Baal Predator (fast?) and between the Rhino and Predator you can make a wall for the Sang Guard to hop along behind.

Yea the BA honor guard are basically the gold winged guys, but the command squads I remember reading somewhere that SP can have them ( in lore terms ) for BA. I'm still running 7th so I have no interest in any primaris stuff plus the lack of "customizing" is a turn off for me ( I know people hated it I still enjoy it for what it was...the last version of classic 40k rules pre primaris mini end times ).

Anyway a discussion some years ago over this also came down to how a BA training/scout force would actually look realistically. Ie most likely stationed on a planet training with a single tactical squad and some form of veterans ( probably not termis ) and either a chaplain or a sanguinary priest leading them but in BA case probably SP due to the importance of the blood etc.

This is why I'm trying to make this force as accurate as possible given the BA chapter itself and how it's structured.

Something like this

1 SP

Command squad OR 1 unit of vanguard/sternguard

3-4 scout squads in any kit out to reflect their training stages at this point

1 Tactical squad maybe with a rhino.

Another reason I brought this up is even in the codex ( and dif ones over the years ) we have all seen the company banners for BA and many other chapters and the chapter banner. What is very strange is that the official EM team 2nd company banner ( and the upgrade command kit box that s now opp ) have VERY different banners for those companies. In both these cases they are captains attached to them ( the 2nd company and whatever one is depicted on the upgrade ba command box ). This raises some serious lore questions....do the BA ( and other chapters ) have variant banners for their command squad ancients/banner bearers ? or is this a new lack of skill in the obviously lower grade EM team making use of low end designs as they keep the proper stripes but not the actual codex chapter company banners that were used for years in the past.

Originally they have been a single black wing with some cup or blood dripping and the company markings. The above cases are a half a%^D black chalice and something else for the upgrade kit.

Which also leads me to wonder if the lore has changed is there suddenly "multi" banners that exist for captains and other high ranking BA now ?

Each company should have only one company standard bearer. There might be some analogues like a relic bearer for a reclusion command squad but I’d probably drop the standard bearer from your honor guard.

greatbigtree wrote:BA “Honour Guard” are the Gold Dudes with wings. I want to say Sanguinary Guard but that almost sounds like a parody name so I’m not sure anymore. They have Jump packs and power weapons and not-quite Storm bolters on their arms.

The Blood Angels have actual units in their codexes called honor guard. It’s their term for Blood Angels command squads. I don’t think this input seems very well informed.

One of the main differences between codex command squads and BA honor guard are that codex command squads are one per company. Honor Guard can be formed for any character that the chapter wants to have the .

I could easily be wrong. Once upon a time, SM had Honour Guard, the guys with bird-like faces? And BA didn't have those, but they had the golden death-mask faced dudes instead.

Things may have changed, I'm not as into BA fluff and crunch as I once was.

OP does seem to be into BA fluff and crunch though.

In 2010 they did start having a chapter bodyguard unit called Sanguinary Guard, that’s similar to the Ultra’s chapter body guard, yes. They’re models, most people have seen them.

They also call their normal command squads honor guard, since 2007 at the latest. The primary differences to command squads being that they can take jump packs, they have gold helmets, and that in background they can be formed for any character, not just being one per company. They’re older than sanguinary Guard, which were part of a bigger and more recent release. It’s just a name.

I bow and step back, your knowledge surpasses my own.

Answer the guy faster next time. I could have saved my well intentioned efforts for another.

This particular subject is a bit complicated due to certain and many changes over the years with SM's since RT days. Sometime around 4th or 5th edition I think...there was a lot more flushed out for quite a few of the chapters. One example was DA veterans in the past having terminator honors ( and most veterans having this option in the first place ) today and even in 7th this was changed as they were not technically privy to the "Shame/fallen" secret if I recall but only the deathwing, ravenwing and inner circle ( being the hero types ).

In the past if I remember this also that certain characters/heroes COULD take command squads. We also know around 6th or 7th that GW came out with the chaplain and command squad ( I think it was called reclusiarch command squad ) which had a command squad, a chaplain and a razorback to cart them around. That was for vanilla marines of course.

With the Blood Angels...this becomes weirder due to the fact their Sanguinary Priests have a very vital role to the chapter, while it's true librarians, chaplains, captains etc can lead "space marines", the Sanguinary Priests can and are even usually "second in command" if their captains/chapter masters ( I think this is right ) are to fall as a sorta "vice president" situation.

Anyway as I had mentioned some years ago there was a discussion over a BA kind of scout force, what it would be made up of and who would lead it and all of that. It was mostly decided that Termis would be far too rare to be stationed on some planet or training world. A captain would be leading companies and while I think scouts do have captains...it would most likely fall to sanguinary priests or chaplains ( maybe even though ) in such a small training type force. With so the black rage and them having to replenish their marines I thought it would be cool to come up with a very themed small type BA force made up of scouts and a single tactical squad and at least one unit of veterans.

Due to the existing fluff ( and no real solid answer ) it's hard to figure out in such a situation if Sanguinary priests would have a command squad ( which is sorta part honor guard for BA but not the ultra uber sanguinary honor guard in gold with jump packs we all know ), ie Blood Angel command squads are BA veterans just like vanguards and sternguard or terminators....simply formed into a command squad with pirest in training, banner bearer, company champion + sgt/special weapon guy.

I supposed the scout "captain" def would have a veteran command squad, but again due to how important Sanguinary priests are I thought this might be a cool little fluffy unit like with the novice priest in training and the SP to lead the small force, the scouts, the tactical marines showing them the ropes and the command squad being present as an honor pride thing linked to the priest role and how important the blood and priests are.

Just not 100% sure if the BA would do this or if it's better to just go with a sternguard/vanguard squad instead...it's mostly the banner issue that creates the problem though due to not knowing...would an SP have a personal banner bearer..or are command squads only ever the company banner and nothing else ?

Scout companies do not have their own banner or heraldry. They have an identical command staff to every other company EXCEPT that they do not have a standard bearer or standard.

It’s likely a sanguinary priest and any other officer would have their own heraldry, however this would be on their armor or on a back banner, not carried by a standard bearer.

Since the 2007 WD codex seems to say they form honor guard whenever and for whomever they want, you can probably use a regular command squad that just doesn’t happen to have a standard bearer. Or a veteran squad, it’s probably not important.

Now, whether a training force like you describe would even exist I wouldn’t say. It’s more likely to me that scouts advanced enough to be in combat would just be used normally, they’d be attached to a normal task force.

I'm pretty sure a training force like that would in fact exist. Given the nature of BA and their priests and overall structure. Scouts would of course end up in the main force too with battle companies but they def do training in the early stages of their life and its usually on dif worlds or a training location specific to those chapters.

Now of course taking a "company banner" is only an option in a command squad. So technically I don't have to take one and can simply kit out of the rest of them without the banner.