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I have played BA since early to mid 3rd. After a few games of 6th, I decided to shelve them for all of 6th. Close combat armies are not competitive, we are over paying for powers that got worse, and our only flyer is over priced.

Yay! One other person that realizes the Stormraven is overpriced.

Close Combat Armies can be competitive.
The problem is that we don't bring enough CC-power on the table.

My biggest dislike with the BA is in the friendly games.
While my other armies can have an okay list in 5 to 10 minutes I need to spend a minimum of 30 minutes on a BA-list to make sure I don't give away a free game.

Martel732 wrote:
Yay! One other person that realizes the Stormraven is overpriced.

Are there people who deny that it's overpriced?

Aah wait! It's not overpriced.
You just have to pay for a gazillion bonuses you don't want.
Only twice have I made the error of using it as a transport: First time it didn't show till turn 4 or 5 and the second time it got shot down with 200pnt troops in it.

Oh, yeah. There's a lot of members of the "Stormraven is the second best flier in the game" crowd. Oh, yeah, then there's the "you're not using it right" crowd.

*For its price*, its flimsier than the Vendetta and heldrake by far, and maybe even some AV 11 fliers.

Basically all I want out of a BA flier is three skyfire multi-meltas. That's it. Keep everything else. Three multimeltas so I can melt heldrakes. That's all I really care about.

But for only 2 captains worth of points you get:
-Flyer
-AV12 all around, 3HP, BS4
-FOUR!!! Blood Strike Missiles
-12 model transport
-A Dreadnought transporter!
-POTMS, Skies of Blood ánd an Assault Vehicle
-TL Heavy Bolters and Assault Cannon
-The option on superb wargear, such as a single TL-Lascannon, Hurricane Bolters or TL-Multi Melta!

And I even forget the best part: Immunity against Melta.

What is not to love about it?

The Hull Point/point ratio. And reserves.

Dreadnoughts have transporters called drop pods. That have drop pod assault.

Martel732 wrote:
He had two squad of warwalkers, a wraithknight, some rangers, a waveserpent of firedragons, a wave serpent of dire avengers, a farseer, some dudes on bikes that I guess were warlocks? Do Eldar still do that? Basically, the scatter lasers twin linking everything else on top of being a broken (imo) weapon is nuts. I was hoping they'd nerf the scatter laser. That was dumb on my part.

sounds like you got cheated. Scatter Lasers only twinlink another weapon on the same model. So a warwalker could fire its scatter laser and then twin link its other weapon. But not everything.

No, no that's the way he was doing it. I meant "everything else on the model" Which is still not an ability that weapon needed. The war walkers still melt everything they are pointed at, just like the 4th edition versions, except now they don't need to be babysat by a farseer for guidance. The farseer is free to go do something else obnoxious. It's really disheartening.

Martel732 wrote:
No, no that's the way he was doing it. I meant "everything else on the model" Which is still not an ability that weapon needed. The war walkers still melt everything they are pointed at, just like the 4th edition versions, except now they don't need to be babysat by a farseer for guidance. The farseer is free to go do something else obnoxious. It's really disheartening.

I think the problem is that everything in the Eldar Codex is now BS 4 and a lot of it is already twin linked. It is now the autohit codex.

PredaKhaine wrote:

Breng77 wrote:
So a few issues here

1.) 10 Sternaguard in a pod combat squading unlikely kill 2 Wave serpents: 5 shots hit 3.33 times, pen/glance 1.94 times, both likely reduced to glances. If the eldar go first they care even less with 4+ cover. You are better off with Plasma with each squad doing 2.222 damage results.

2.) Your 10 Vanguard kill one serpent when they drop and then likely get shot to death and/or moved away from.

I'm not saying it is an auto loss but a lot of your tactics assume better than average rolling, and stupidity by your opponent (Corbulo.... Eldar Move, different model is closest, open fire.)

1) Why only 5 shots? rapid firing bolters glance rear armour on 6's so go for hull points too. Put some combi meltas in there give them a couple of melta shots to the rear armour (where there is no serpent shield). One should be saved, the other will almost auto pen (needs a 5+ on 2d6)and then you have to roll a 4+ to kill the vehicle and probably half the squad inside if its wrecked. Its a gamble I'd take every time.

2)can you not take vanguards in 5's as a distraction unit?

Drop pods negate eldar speed. Why go fast when your enemy drops out of the sky wherever he likes. Which is always behind tanks.

1.) So yeah...why am I giving you rear armor shots again? Very easy to deny you rear armor by keeping my back to a table edge. So no bolters 5 Melta shots against serpent shields (unless I have a reason to shoot them before you drop in, at which point I at worst get 4+ cover.

2.) Sure you can, they just aren't killing a serpent then I boost away or shoot them to death.

Drop pods do the opposite of negate eldar speed against a skilled player. You drop...which is never behind my tanks, blow your load, I move away with my superior speed now you are on foot, getting hammered by serpent shooting. Now if you go full pods all with Plasma sterngaurd, multiple plasma and melta guns maybe if you go first you kill a few serpents by glancing them to death. But 10 melta guns...kill 1 serpent on average.

Essentially the assumption that you drop in and get rear armor is a bad assumption. The assumption that you get rear armor on 2 tanks with the same pod is a terrible assumption. Like I said reliant on your opponent making mistakes.

Martel732 wrote:
He had two squad of warwalkers, a wraithknight, some rangers, a waveserpent of firedragons, a wave serpent of dire avengers, a farseer, some dudes on bikes that I guess were warlocks? Do Eldar still do that? Basically, the scatter lasers twin linking everything else on top of being a broken (imo) weapon is nuts. I was hoping they'd nerf the scatter laser. That was dumb on my part.

Basically, there's too much stuff for a sternguard and a fragnought to engage. Come to think of it, I think he did roll above average with the rangers. But still. The firepower the Eldar can field is insane.

I fought another Eldar list with my shooty list and that went 2 turns before we called it. It's very hard to win with no models.

On the plus side, Eldar are very fragile, but this is mitigated by things like Serpent Spam and Fortune/Protect/Conceal. I haven't really come up with a solution yet, but I'll just say I'm glad that my Rune Priests are still ...

Breng77 wrote:

PredaKhaine wrote:

Breng77 wrote:
So a few issues here

1.) 10 Sternaguard in a pod combat squading unlikely kill 2 Wave serpents: 5 shots hit 3.33 times, pen/glance 1.94 times, both likely reduced to glances. If the eldar go first they care even less with 4+ cover. You are better off with Plasma with each squad doing 2.222 damage results.

2.) Your 10 Vanguard kill one serpent when they drop and then likely get shot to death and/or moved away from.

I'm not saying it is an auto loss but a lot of your tactics assume better than average rolling, and stupidity by your opponent (Corbulo.... Eldar Move, different model is closest, open fire.)

1) Why only 5 shots? rapid firing bolters glance rear armour on 6's so go for hull points too. Put some combi meltas in there give them a couple of melta shots to the rear armour (where there is no serpent shield). One should be saved, the other will almost auto pen (needs a 5+ on 2d6)and then you have to roll a 4+ to kill the vehicle and probably half the squad inside if its wrecked. Its a gamble I'd take every time.

2)can you not take vanguards in 5's as a distraction unit?

Drop pods negate eldar speed. Why go fast when your enemy drops out of the sky wherever he likes. Which is always behind tanks.

1.) So yeah...why am I giving you rear armor shots again? Very easy to deny you rear armor by keeping my back to a table edge. So no bolters 5 Melta shots against serpent shields (unless I have a reason to shoot them before you drop in, at which point I at worst get 4+ cover.

2.) Sure you can, they just aren't killing a serpent then I boost away or shoot them to death.

Drop pods do the opposite of negate eldar speed against a skilled player. You drop...which is never behind my tanks, blow your load, I move away with my superior speed now you are on foot, getting hammered by serpent shooting. Now if you go full pods all with Plasma sterngaurd, multiple plasma and melta guns maybe if you go first you kill a few serpents by glancing them to death. But 10 melta guns...kill 1 serpent on average.

Essentially the assumption that you drop in and get rear armor is a bad assumption. The assumption that you get rear armor on 2 tanks with the same pod is a terrible assumption. Like I said reliant on your opponent making mistakes.

It's the same reason drop pod DC are somewhat suspect. Well, that and you just volunteered to be double-tapped. A lot.

So, now that Martel has hijacked this thread, is it now an anti-Eldar discussion?

Breng77 wrote:

PredaKhaine wrote:

Breng77 wrote:
So a few issues here

1.) 10 Sternaguard in a pod combat squading unlikely kill 2 Wave serpents: 5 shots hit 3.33 times, pen/glance 1.94 times, both likely reduced to glances. If the eldar go first they care even less with 4+ cover. You are better off with Plasma with each squad doing 2.222 damage results.

2.) Your 10 Vanguard kill one serpent when they drop and then likely get shot to death and/or moved away from.

I'm not saying it is an auto loss but a lot of your tactics assume better than average rolling, and stupidity by your opponent (Corbulo.... Eldar Move, different model is closest, open fire.)

1) Why only 5 shots? rapid firing bolters glance rear armour on 6's so go for hull points too. Put some combi meltas in there give them a couple of melta shots to the rear armour (where there is no serpent shield). One should be saved, the other will almost auto pen (needs a 5+ on 2d6)and then you have to roll a 4+ to kill the vehicle and probably half the squad inside if its wrecked. Its a gamble I'd take every time.

2)can you not take vanguards in 5's as a distraction unit?

Drop pods negate eldar speed. Why go fast when your enemy drops out of the sky wherever he likes. Which is always behind tanks.

1.) So yeah...why am I giving you rear armor shots again? Very easy to deny you rear armor by keeping my back to a table edge. So no bolters 5 Melta shots against serpent shields (unless I have a reason to shoot them before you drop in, at which point I at worst get 4+ cover.

2.) Sure you can, they just aren't killing a serpent then I boost away or shoot them to death.

Drop pods do the opposite of negate eldar speed against a skilled player. You drop...which is never behind my tanks, blow your load, I move away with my superior speed now you are on foot, getting hammered by serpent shooting. Now if you go full pods all with Plasma sterngaurd, multiple plasma and melta guns maybe if you go first you kill a few serpents by glancing them to death. But 10 melta guns...kill 1 serpent on average.

Essentially the assumption that you drop in and get rear armor is a bad assumption. The assumption that you get rear armor on 2 tanks with the same pod is a terrible assumption. Like I said reliant on your opponent making mistakes.

Ok - turn 1 I drop in the dread instead. Then on turn two land behind whatever wave serpent is full of your favourite things as you're flying forwards with a pod of sternguard unless your plan is to spend the entire game parked at the back?

Vanguard - 5 krak grenades hitting on 3+ so I'll hit with 3 to 4. Thats not bad odds of getting a pen or two. Then you can boost away and turn and shoot (as long as you're not stunned or shaken and have decent guns left) Fire the shield too if you like - it's poor against marines becuase of the no ap and then I can shoot the tank more effectively next turn.
Now you aren't where you wanted to be because you had to turn and deal with 5 men.

The two tanks was a suggestion for target priority not an assumption.

But tell you what - my next game against BA, I'll just declare I auto win with my eldar at the start of turn one (after warlord traits and objectives etc).
I'll let you know how that goes


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@ Martel with ref to the list he posted
I'd take out his rangers with the fragnought and take out the dire avengers in the wave serpent with the sternguard.
Burn the bikes (if they're guardians and therefore troops)with the baal. If not them, burn his farseer and whoever is stood next to him. Its ID if it wounds (unless its eldrad)
He's got no troops then and if you went first, you've got first blood. Keep your army further back and make sure corbulo is the nearest of your ground troops - that negates half his shooting (literally, only the fire dragons and the wraithknight can reliably hurt him - keep a squad with him and los onto your squad anything st8 and up)and dealing with your dropped down units will slow him down.
Or go for broke - combat squad the sternguard and take out all the warwalkers or try for the wraithknight.
Don't worry too much about the fire dragons - they'll fly up, leap out and kill one thing (if you've got vehicles) then you get to kill them and the wave serpent.


Eldar need to support each unit - they can all only do one thing. Dire Avengers can't hurt a dread. Fire Dragons are only really useful as meltacide if they're 5 strong. If theres 10, you'll lose a troops choice maybe (unless they have a farseer with them). Then you get to charge them and they won't beat a squad in cc.

Anyway, I'm done. I think that may be the longest post I've ever written on Dakka

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
So, now that Martel has hijacked this thread, is it now an anti-Eldar discussion?

Whatever. It seems we got an answer for the original thread: BT, maybe. It seems foolish to fight over whether BT or BA is the worst list in the game.

 Endriu Death Coy wrote:
Well, for such a "Bad Codex" as Martel keeps putting it out there, the BA players did well at the last Throne of Skulls, only losing out to the Tyrranids (once again) on best painted army. of the BA players, one won all 5 games, another won 4.

Of course, yanks like Martel will immediately reply that "The British don't play as competitively" but that theory does not hold water.

Also, pretty sure this was the derailing moment. The BA *are* bad, this thread was discussing how bad.

PredaKhaine wrote:

@ Martel with ref to the list he posted
I'd take out his rangers with the fragnought and take out the dire avengers in the wave serpent with the sternguard.
Burn the bikes (if they're guardians and therefore troops)with the baal. If not them, burn his farseer and whoever is stood next to him. Its ID if it wounds (unless its eldrad)
He's got no troops then and if you went first, you've got first blood. Keep your army further back and make sure corbulo is the nearest of your ground troops - that negates half his shooting (literally, only the fire dragons and the wraithknight can reliably hurt him - keep a squad with him and los onto your squad anything st8 and up)and dealing with your dropped down units will slow him down.
Or go for broke - combat squad the sternguard and take out all the warwalkers or try for the wraithknight.
Don't worry too much about the fire dragons - they'll fly up, leap out and kill one thing (if you've got vehicles) then you get to kill them and the wave serpent.


Eldar need to support each unit - they can all only do one thing. Dire Avengers can't hurt a dread. Fire Dragons are only really useful as meltacide if they're 5 strong. If theres 10, you'll lose a troops choice maybe (unless they have a farseer with them). Then you get to charge them and they won't beat a squad in cc.

Anyway, I'm done. I think that may be the longest post I've ever written on Dakka

I'll let Breng reply to that, because the amount of assumptions being made in this post is astronomical.

I never said auto win, but you keep making assupmtions about what your opponent is going to do.

So you drop the Dread and thus I must speed foreward and give you rear shots. Wait, I stayed along the side of the table and my rear is still against a table edge?!

As for serpents being bad against marines they average ~3 kills each(2 with FNP), not accounting for rends. I could also you know drop the dire avengers or guardians out to shoot the vanguard.

Sure you can hope your sterngaurd come in when they best kill things but If I have already wiped out a bunch of your stuff before you kill a few serpents I'm ok with it.

Again not an auto win, I just don't expect what your suggesting to be all that effective against serpent spam eldar.

Can we just go back on topic instead?
@ Martel - Try playing as eldar and stopping those units perfectly. By 'take out' I mean make them useless - the da aren't good outside of the transport, the rangers can't hurt a fragioso that ignores cover and the baal burns guardian jetbikes with no armour or cover.

I really hope you win soon Martel.

I've beaten Eldar. Once. And it took a lot of Eldar mistakes to make it happen, too. Just as Breng suggested it would. But against well-played lists, it has not been close. Even once.

For the record, I don't fear any BA lists, even when using BA. I'm pretty certain I could take some Eldar and massacre a BA list. Of course, that might be due to my extreme familiarity with what BA units are (and aren't) capable of. I did swap lists with a CSM player once and tabled him in 4 turns. It's so easy to fail as the BA. That's my one rock solid data point: CSM are indeed much better than BA. Not very enlightening, I know.

More to the point, I don't fear your fragnought or your sternguard, because they are going to come in, do their set amount of damage, and then get obliterated. And then you're back to relying on BA troops. I've done this to vanilla marine players and BA players. If I were an Eldar player, I wouldn't fear it either.

I think the thing I am seeing here is BA can win in 2 cases.

1.) Bringing Allies.

2.) When you are a better player/outplay than your opponent.

Things like getting Jetbikes caught by a baall pred is a mistake by the eldar player. Jetbikes are much faster and thus should be able to avoid the flamer.

I agree rangers are bad. But what does the Fragiouso do when its targets are serpents and Wraithknights? Wait unitl you kill a serpent to come in, but now the sternguard need to come in...but then they don't kill the serpents effectively...

Do I think I can make a TAC BA list that has a chance of beating Serpent spam, probably. But it will be tough, and probably use allies.

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
So, now that Martel has hijacked this thread, is it now an anti-Eldar discussion?

Anytime Blood Angels are mentioned on this website, he swoops in to tell everyone how bad they are. He cant win with BA and wants to convince everyone else that they are bad to. Instead of working to make them better, he tries to convince everyone they are bad. It's easier that way. That way it's not his fault he can't win with BA, its the codex's problem.

Nothing personal here. I'm just struck by the enormity of negative BA posts coming from one guy. It amazes me. If any marine army has all the tools to defeat Eldar it is the BA. They have everything you need. Speed to counter the Eldar mobility. Armor 13 to negate the plethora of str 6-7 strength shots everywhere. Outflanking tanks to get rear shots on Eldar skimmers. Fast moving flame template weapons. And even if you don't want to take all that they still can take allies that help mitigate a lot of what the Eldar, even with Tau, can do.

To the OP who are the BA better than? Anybody they want to be. 6th is such a RPS edition that you can tailor lists, with allies, to have a great chance against anything. The problem is, and even the top tourney guys will tell you this, you can't plan against everything. You have to make some educated guesses as to the tourney field and hope you don't pull a non common list you might struggle against.

DarthDiggler wrote:

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
So, now that Martel has hijacked this thread, is it now an anti-Eldar discussion?

Anytime Blood Angels are mentioned on this website, he swoops in to tell everyone how bad they are. He cant win with BA and wants to convince everyone else that they are bad to. Instead of working to make them better, he tries to convince everyone they are bad. It's easier that way. That way it's not his fault he can't win with BA, its the codex's problem.

Nothing personal here. I'm just struck by the enormity of negative BA posts coming from one guy. It amazes me. If any marine army has all the tools to defeat Eldar it is the BA. They have everything you need. Speed to counter the Eldar mobility. Armor 13 to negate the plethora of str 6-7 strength shots everywhere. Outflanking tanks to get rear shots on Eldar skimmers. Fast moving flame template weapons. And even if you don't want to take all that they still can take allies that help mitigate a lot of what the Eldar, even with Tau, can do.

To the OP who are the BA better than? Anybody they want to be. 6th is such a RPS edition that you can tailor lists, with allies, to have a great chance against anything. The problem is, and even the top tourney guys will tell you this, you can't plan against everything. You have to make some educated guesses as to the tourney field and hope you don't pull a non common list you might struggle against.

Maybe you're right. But the situation is very frustrating, and I'm certainly not dumping more money for allies.

And what you write about BA is true on a forum, but never quite seems to pan out in reality. The BA are always short that tank for outflanking or the speed unit you were counting on just got evaporated by Eldar shooting. Yes, the BA have everything you need on paper. But when you field the list, there's never enough plastic on the table to absorb all the firepower.

Funnily enough, I tied against a Mechdar player the other day with pure BA. Would have won too if Corbulo didn't die like a girl to overwatch.

Then again, I rolled really well too.

I think the trick to winning with BA is not allies but exploiting the fact that many people rate BA so lowly competitively. In my LGS I'm the only BA player it's had in years, so many people don't expect the damage potential of some of our best units(Fragnoughts, Sternguard w/ Prescience, unkillable ATK bikes). It's not something to rely on, but it's helped me out for a while.

Again, just my 2c.

Lucarikx

DarthDiggler wrote:

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
So, now that Martel has hijacked this thread, is it now an anti-Eldar discussion?

Anytime Blood Angels are mentioned on this website, he swoops in to tell everyone how bad they are. He cant win with BA and wants to convince everyone else that they are bad to. Instead of working to make them better, he tries to convince everyone they are bad. It's easier that way. That way it's not his fault he can't win with BA, its the codex's problem.

Nothing personal here. I'm just struck by the enormity of negative BA posts coming from one guy. It amazes me. If any marine army has all the tools to defeat Eldar it is the BA. They have everything you need. Speed to counter the Eldar mobility. Armor 13 to negate the plethora of str 6-7 strength shots everywhere. Outflanking tanks to get rear shots on Eldar skimmers. Fast moving flame template weapons. And even if you don't want to take all that they still can take allies that help mitigate a lot of what the Eldar, even with Tau, can do.

To the OP who are the BA better than? Anybody they want to be. 6th is such a RPS edition that you can tailor lists, with allies, to have a great chance against anything. The problem is, and even the top tourney guys will tell you this, you can't plan against everything. You have to make some educated guesses as to the tourney field and hope you don't pull a non common list you might struggle against.

There was a time not long ago when I felt the same about our friend here, but it's not fully how you say it. Even tough I don't like all of his comments as a BA-player, I still check them out because behind that negativity is also a lot of good advice. He has the truth of BA and more than once has that truth helped me to become a better player.

I've been following this conversation for a while (read: since the beginning) and I think it's sort of stupid how this is now all about comparing how army X (mostly Eldars) would do against BA.
In a way it relates to this subject, but I still think that wondering how many glances can Sternguard make on a Wave Serpent is irrelevant. (Oh well... I believe all conversations on internet happen to get distracted, this message serves as an example).

Now, about BA:
As I mentioned before, BA still has some solid advantages against different armies.
It may not be the fastest of armies, but it still has a good threatening range with most units.
There are armies with more durability, but T4 3+ armor models with capacity for FnP is not bad.
A lot of armies with more damage output, but we have 2 unique vehicles with front AV13 and template weapon to bring the pain.

Martel732 wrote:
The Hull Point/point ratio. And reserves.
Dreadnoughts have transporters called drop pods. That have drop pod assault.

I was being sarcastic

Kangodo wrote:

Martel732 wrote:
The Hull Point/point ratio. And reserves.
Dreadnoughts have transporters called drop pods. That have drop pod assault.

I was being sarcastic

Sorry; I thought that. But then I answered anyway for some reason.

DarthDiggler wrote:
Anytime Blood Angels are mentioned on this website, he swoops in to tell everyone how bad they are.

Yes.. And every time that someone mentions icecream, I will tell everyone how cold it is.

He cant win with BA and wants to convince everyone else that they are bad to.

He isn't convincing people of anything, he is simply stating the obvious.

Instead of working to make them better, he tries to convince everyone they are bad. It's easier that way. That way it's not his fault he can't win with BA, its the codex's problem.

But it IS a problem with the codex.
You need a tailored list to have a chance against any TAC-list.
Unless you are playing against bad players with terrible lists.. But that's shouldn't be an argument for BA being good.

Think the problem with BA overall is that they are average. They don't do anything particularly well, nor do they do it particularly poorly. This becomes an issue with a take all comers list because you end up at a disadvantage in some area of the game.


BA assault better than some armies, but worse than the top assault armies. I'd rank them maybe 5th or 6th best in assault(if built fully assaulty, but they are closer to the 7th best army than to the armies that are better than they are.)

BA shoot better than some armies, but worst than the top armies (I'd rate them 7th or 8th here, but again closer to those worse than they are than the best armies.)

I'd rate them 5th or 6th in mobility, but closer to the armies immediately below the, than those ahead of them.

I'd rate them 5th or 6th in durability (not as far behind their betters here)

So they are average, they have no big weakness, but also no super strength to leverage in their favor. Throw that in with a relatively high price tag and you get an average army.

Blood Angels have to pay for searchlights.

Their vehicles don't come with lights.

They drive around in the dark without headlights.

With extra fast vehicles.

 soomemafia wrote:

DarthDiggler wrote:

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
So, now that Martel has hijacked this thread, is it now an anti-Eldar discussion?

Anytime Blood Angels are mentioned on this website, he swoops in to tell everyone how bad they are. He cant win with BA and wants to convince everyone else that they are bad to. Instead of working to make them better, he tries to convince everyone they are bad. It's easier that way. That way it's not his fault he can't win with BA, its the codex's problem.

Nothing personal here. I'm just struck by the enormity of negative BA posts coming from one guy. It amazes me. If any marine army has all the tools to defeat Eldar it is the BA. They have everything you need. Speed to counter the Eldar mobility. Armor 13 to negate the plethora of str 6-7 strength shots everywhere. Outflanking tanks to get rear shots on Eldar skimmers. Fast moving flame template weapons. And even if you don't want to take all that they still can take allies that help mitigate a lot of what the Eldar, even with Tau, can do.

There was a time not long ago when I felt the same about our friend here, but it's not fully how you say it. Even tough I don't like all of his comments as a BA-player, I still check them out because behind that negativity is also a lot of good advice. He has the truth of BA and more than once has that truth helped me to become a better player.

Agreed, I used to think Martel was just a whiner as well because my regular opponent uses Blood Angels and he seemed to do ok. However, I have come to realize that Martel is actually right about the state of BA in a competitive environment (whereas my opponent and I play casually and he knows enough to tailor his list towards Wolves or Nids). People who disagree with him generally are looking at BA from a non-competitive and/or tailored perspective, which is not the point he's trying to make at all.