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Hi guys,

The Strike Force Ultima box is released this week and I'm looking to get back into 40k using this - casually, more a painting project than competitive.

I want to go blood angels, so I figure the codex and start collecting box plus a couple upgrade sets would go well.

Any advice to add to this in how to go about equipping the models or advice for longetivity? Or even further expansion? Is this a decent starting block?

Cheers in advance

Well it has its own formation however I don't think anyone has seen the leak yet of the rules. The only other issue you may have is technically space marine formations are not available to blood Angels codex. So you might just have to play it as red space marines until you build up an army list outside this space marine formation. Once we are the rules for the formation I am sure someone can tell you how to equip the units because it can slightly depend on the role of each unit. Rules such as no scatter first turn dwo strike might make something a suicide shooting unit. Assault after deep strike might make it melee based, etc.

Yeah, I played a tiny bit of 5th and thats about it. So much has changed, thanks a lot!

Do BA have access to the Stormhawk?

(N.B., I’m an Ultramarine player, not BA, so this is general, not army specific advice)

First, magnets are you friends. As is just leaving some parts un-glued. For example, the razorback can be a rhino just by not glueing down the top hatch.

In a non-competitive environment, it’s not a bad start. Do note however that things like the Land Raider, and terminators in general (both squads and as armor for HQs) are not normally well regarded. How well it will do in the long run as an army base depends a lot on your goals. If you want to run a drop pod list, large chunks of it will not be useful.

If and what you add can make a difference in how you assemble things. For example, I use tac squads to shore up other gaps in my list.

I’d put the TLLC in the razor. If you fell like some converting, the las-plas option would be better.
Probably just keep the SB in the pod
LR doesn’t have a lot of options, run it stock.
Captain in monopose
My tac terminator squad of choice is assault cannon and one chain fist.

The sternguard and tac squad are where things get interesting. What I would do would be to take 5 of the tacs and cut them into the sternguard kit. Run a 10 man squad, with the HF being the only upgrade (would run 2, but only one in the box). Would run a 5 man tac squad with a meltagun/combi melta sarge

This changes quite a bit if you are going with BA though. IIRC they can take HFs on their tac squads. So I’d probably keep the sternguard 5 men, and run them suicide melta in a pod. 3 combi-melta, 2 melta guns. (I’d run 5 combis, but there should only be 3 in the box) Probably run the tacs with grav/combi grav, and the HF.

Depending on what else I was planning on adding to these armies, this could all change though. Both from a tactical and modeling POV. So take this with a grain of salt.

Thanks for the detail, though the amount of Acronyms is a bit difficult.

OK so what would be the best way to start blood angels if I dont go for this box?

you could try the Let's Start Building Space Marines box from Games Workshop. £50 gets you a terminator captain, 2 tac squads and a Dreadnought. Paint them in blood angels colours....


FIrst off though you need to think what your list will be. Strike Force Ultra is good but very very costly in points as well as £!

Ok I'd recommend this box set regardless of it isn't necessarily blood Angels formation. It's overall a decent box set. It's almost a 40% discount of purchased seperately and is a good foundation for any space marine army list.

Now the good newsthe formation just leaked and it has very very good rules. Everything in this formation has to go in reserves. This is great as a null deploy formation meaning of your opponent gets first turn. He has nothing to shoot at.
However the next rule in this formation says all your models will arrive first turn. On top of that every model adds +1 shots to thier weapons. This includes twin linked lascannons on your land raider or every special weapon on your stern guard.

So overall it's a very strong formation. The only issue it has of your opponent null deploys and you go first because then you can't shoot anything and all your models will arrive before your opponent which defeats the purpose of the formation but that's mitigated with seizing initiative.

So my opinion is paint this army as red blood angel (with ultramarine tactics) and add the golden host blood angle formation. That will synergize well with the above formation and allow some accurate first turn (or whenever you want) deep strike assault. And the added benefit of playing a clear blood Angels themed army.