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I've been having a lot of success with this tactic during an ongoing weekly tournament at my local Games Workshop Store. I thought I'd share for the rest of those Blood Angels/Flesh Tearers players still trying to find their way since the new codex.

I feel the true strengths of the BA/FT list are not their varied and cool, but slow moving dreadnoughts. This strategy leaves you Drop Pod dependent more often than not. It's strength lies in having some of the best Jump Assault troops in the game and the option to have fast Vindicators, Predators, and Baal Predators.

I've been fielding Dante attached to a unit of Sanguinary Guard with a Sanguinary Priest with their banner and infernus pistols. As many Death Company squads with jump packs as I can afford, since the old 0-1 restriction no longer exists. I then use all 3 of my heavy support slots from the Baal Formation on fast Vindicators, Predators, and/or Baal Predators. I personally run 2 Vindicators and 1 Baal Predator. Take an Assault Squad or two on foot with dual Flamers, Meltas, or Plasma Guns to suit your needs, then put them in Razorbacks toallow them to keep up and giving you more tanks for the line while filling those annoying troop choices.

Ultimately what you want to happen is for your tanks to form a 12 inch moving wall, that's still shooting 2 weapons at full ballistic skill, or Demolisher Cannon large blast template shots, while advancing in front of your 12 inch moving jump troops until they are in range to assault. This will give your opponent limited line of sight to shoot your jump assault troops and offer cover more often than not when they do get it. When they are in range to assault disembark your Assault Squads from the Razorbacks with their dual special weapons to lay down more initial fire for the Assault Troops about to charge. Don't be afraid to sacrifice Hammer of Wrath hits by moving 12 inches in the movement phase to make sure your charges are successful either. You'll chew through almost anything Death Company or Sanguinary Guard get within charge range of.

You have to watch for high strength large blast weapons, but in general your opponent will expend a lot of energy blowing up a couple tanks and Razorbacks over their first couple turns shooting only to realize that Dante(The Most Dangerous Single Man in 40k) and a wall of gold and black is crashing into them and destroying everything they assault in their path. At high point totals take Assault Terminators with a Land Raider of some variety as a dedicated transport to add yet another tank to the line and assault squad in the mix without using another heavy support slot for more tank fun. Anyone else have success with these or similiar tactics for BA/FA?

Well as long as you realise the AM are no longer troops and cannot take a razorback as a DT. Otherwise it is a legitimate tactic.
Dante + priest + SG with banner is definitely an incredibly strong unit (esp with 2 fists at 8-10man) Although I would say stay away from infernus pistols - they are almost a complete waste as you will be wrecking what you charge anyway, and with a 3" melta range, you will be in definite charge range of what you shoot.
Without an IC I have found DC to be most effective for their points in 5 man jp squads with 1 pf.
Vindis are and have always been a good fire magnet but the best I've found is a Knight Paladin - which works especially well with SG since they have a 2+ and a paladins blast is ap3 in case of scatter.
Baal preds I would stay away from. A tl assault cannon is not worth 40pts more than an autocannon and a flamestorm is worse than (maybe at a stretch on par with, due to fast) an autocannon yet still costs 40pts more. Baals are a complete failiue in the current dex.

MrGiuseppe wrote:
I've been having a lot of success with this tactic during an ongoing weekly tournament at my local Games Workshop Store. I thought I'd share for the rest of those Blood Angels/Flesh Tearers players still trying to find their way since the new codex.

I feel the true strengths of the BA/FT list are not their varied and cool, but slow moving dreadnoughts. This strategy leaves you Drop Pod dependent more often than not. It's strength lies in having some of the best Jump Assault troops in the game and the option to have fast Vindicators, Predators, and Baal Predators.

I've been fielding Dante attached to a unit of Sanguinary Guard with a Sanguinary Priest with their banner and infernus pistols. As many Death Company squads with jump packs as I can afford, since the old 0-1 restriction no longer exists. I then use all 3 of my heavy support slots from the Baal Formation on fast Vindicators, Predators, and/or Baal Predators. I personally run 2 Vindicators and 1 Baal Predator. Take an Assault Squad or two on foot with dual Flamers, Meltas, or Plasma Guns to suit your needs, then put them in Razorbacks toallow them to keep up and giving you more tanks for the line while filling those annoying troop choices.

Ultimately what you want to happen is for your tanks to form a 12 inch moving wall, that's still shooting 2 weapons at full ballistic skill, or Demolisher Cannon large blast template shots, while advancing in front of your 12 inch moving jump troops until they are in range to assault. This will give your opponent limited line of sight to shoot your jump assault troops and offer cover more often than not when they do get it. When they are in range to assault disembark your Assault Squads from the Razorbacks with their dual special weapons to lay down more initial fire for the Assault Troops about to charge. Don't be afraid to sacrifice Hammer of Wrath hits by moving 12 inches in the movement phase to make sure your charges are successful either. You'll chew through almost anything Death Company or Sanguinary Guard get within charge range of.

You have to watch for high strength large blast weapons, but in general your opponent will expend a lot of energy blowing up a couple tanks and Razorbacks over their first couple turns shooting only to realize that Dante(The Most Dangerous Single Man in 40k) and a wall of gold and black is crashing into them and destroying everything they assault in their path. At high point totals take Assault Terminators with a Land Raider of some variety as a dedicated transport to add yet another tank to the line and assault squad in the mix without using another heavy support slot for more tank fun. Anyone else have success with these or similiar tactics for BA/FA?

"Dante attached to a unit of Sanguinary Guard with a Sanguinary Priest with their banner and infernus pistols" = 220 + 245ish + 75 = 540 points minimum
" 2 Vindicators and 1 Baal Predator" = 135+135+150 (assuming all fast and Baal with sponsons...because you really should be taking sponsons)
" Assault Squad or two on foot with dual Flamers, Meltas, or Plasma Guns...in Razorbacks" = 105 + ~65 for Razorback (which chews a FA slot...since for some reason it my digital copy doesn't even allow them assess to razors as a dedicated transport? That's odd. Also, assualt squads are FA now, not troop.).
=~1300 points....and you don't even have any troops yet.

Throw in a ~150 points tactical squad tax (2x5 + special weapon) and in a 2000 point game you may be able to jam in 3x7 DC, each squad with a power fist.

Not really sure how 1-2 razors and 3 AV13 vehicles are going to hide 30+ JP troops. Not to mention a deathstar with no significant invul saves, flat footed tactical marines, and throw away ASM.

Mediocre list and strategy overall. Would have done a lot better in fifth edition when Baals were better, ASM were troops and vehicles were 2 or 3 times harder to kill. Even then it was barely an upper-mid tier list compared to SW, IG, GK and the power level over all have come a LONG way since then.

Yes I mis-read Assault Marines, I read it as they turn to troop type not plain infantry but remain FA type. That's okay it saves some points.

1500 point list:
Dante + 5 Sang Guard w Banner + 5 infernus pistols = 460pts
Sanguinary Priest + Jump Pack/Powerfist = 100 pts
2 Tactical Squads ×5 man with Melta Guns = 160 pts
9 Death Death Company + Jump Pack/Powerfist ×2 = 260pts
2 Vindicators + Extra Armor/Overcharge Engines = 280 pts
1 Baal Predator + Sponsons/Extra Armor/Overcharge Engines= 155 pts
1 Razorback + Turret Upgrade = 85 pts


I've seen the thought that Infernus Pistols are a waste because of their range a few times in these forums. Attached to Jump Troops moving 12 inches at a time you cover the same range as a Melta Gun in a foot slogging models hands(18 inches combined movement and range) just with 3 less inches of Melta range, which I realize is important. And since units can charge units that disembark from transports when they're destroyed as long as they shot at the transport this makes Dante attached to a Sanguinary Guard with Infernus Pistols a Transport popping/Troop slaughtering machine. Land Raider with Terminators inside. Not a problem for my set up. 1 turn both destroyed. They do that to every transport and with 2+ Armor Saves they don't have much to worry about from exploding vehicles catching them for landing in the 3 inch Melta range.

As you can see at 1500 points I have 4 armored vehicles on the board that very successfully block line of sight and at minimum tend to offer cover saves, that is if your opponent is paying attention to anything but the line of 12 inch moving tanks still shooting most weapons at full ballistic skill. As to Baal Predators I agree with the points made in the first reply to this post by me. However, a str 6/ap 3 flamer template is a marine killing champ. Also in my context, a lot of my games are played on a cityscape board with lots of buildings for cover and on that board the Baal with its Flamestorm Cannon has performed very well. Sub in a regular Predator of whatever variety you like though. As long as you spend the 10 points on overcharge engines it doesn't matter.

I don't know if this strategy worked better in 5th edition or not. I don't know if it was mediocore then. But it is working very well for me in 7th edition and in my little tournament I adopted this strategy half way through and have been wiping people off the board since.

Well the bottom line is pretty much that you don't want a 12" gun on anything that footslogs.
Serisously, get another Razorback or your Tacticals are going to be a waste.

The Vindicators are great, but Las Predators are far better than Baals.
Your list has basicly no AT (with effective reange longer than 6") and killing infantry is literally the last thing Blood Angels need help with.

Most of my shooting is AP 2 or AT fire. Everything else can get punched in the face or poisoned to death by Sternguard. The Vindicator is very poor, imo, as it is virtually useless against MCs. For anything I'd shooting with a Vindi, grav bikers are almost always better.

Like I said with the Baal. I agree, Lascannons are better. In my context, I play a lot of games in a city scape with tons of cover and the Baal always pays for itself on that table. Adjust to whatever tanks that can be made fast available to the Blood Angels. It's about getting 3-4 armored fast vehicles(Razorback or Tank) in front of your Assault Troops. I have a general disdain for deep striking Assault Troops and standing around getting shot at and charged for a turn before they can really do anything.

The upgraded turret on my razorback is almost always the TL Lascannon. I put turret upgrade because sometimes I switch it up for a particular opponent. Between that and my 2 Strength 10 AP1 pie-plates my Vindicators still drop after moving 12 inches I haven't had any issues with enemy vehicles at a distance, granted I've never attempted this strategy versus Tau but I have used it successfully against multiple tank heavy Imperial Guard players. While I'm not arguing grav bikers wouldn't be more efficient at tank hunting and cheaper. I'm arguing they die much easier, draw less fire away from my Assault Troops, provide less physical cover for said Assault Troops, and don't have the advantage of large blast templates that don't just hit the vehicles but any troops around them as well, or multiple vehicles with one good shot. 2 Strength 10 AP 1 large blast markers a turn scares any opponent and draws a lot of fire their way. Once my Assault Troops have crossed the board I have such an abundance of AT and AI at my disposal that I can usually kill anything I consider my opponents biggest threat to me.

As to the Tactical Squads and their Meltaguns. One is in the Razorback of course while the other I'm fine to leave behind for a random objective or to slow/hold and enemy flank while I advance on their core.

The list above is just for 1500 points. If I'm playing more points everything is in a Razorback or has Jump Packs. At 2000 points this list includes the 2nd Razorback and a 5 man Assault Terminator Squad decked out with Thunderhammers/Stormshields with a Land Raider as a dedicated transport.

The only thing I've really struggled against are opponents with a stong core of Flyers and in those scenarios I adjust my list to include a Stormraven to take out the biggest flying threats, a role it excels in, and just try to weather the rest the best I can.

Ignore enemy fliers. They can't hurt you, or take objectives.

I use the "deep strike behind you with melta weapons" tactic
60% if the time,it works EVERY time