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Hi everyone. Made a quick 1,000pt list using some models I already have. Just wanted to see some thoughts!

HQ (x1 required)
Death Company Chaplain
Jump pack
Crozius Arcanum
Inferno pistol
Rosarius
Warlord

Elites (x1 required)
Death Company Squad
7 man
Jump packs
1 power fist & boltgun
2 power sword & bolt pistol
1 inferno pistol & chainsword
3 bolt pistol & chainsword

Troops (x2 required)
Tactical Squad
10 man
Veteran Sgt. combi-melta & power fist
Meltagun
Heavy flamer
7 boltguns
Rhino

Tactical Squad
10 man
Veteran Sgt. plasma pistol & power sword
Plasma gun
Heavy flamer
7 boltguns
Rhino

Fast attack
Assault Squad
5 man
Sgt. combi-melta & lightning claw
2 meltaguns
2 bolt pistol & chainsword
Drop pod

I don't think I've forgotten anything. Should be bang on 1,000pts. Everything will be strength 5 and initiative 5 on the charge. The tactical squads will both be split into combat squads. 5 man units including the heavy flamer will be used to hold objectives, and the special weapons will be teamed up with the Sgt. and push forward in the Rhinos. The drop pod and the offensive rhino units will hopefully be enough of a distraction for the death company to move up and cause some damage. Also, with the chaplain having Rites of Blood and Zealot, it'll mean the Death Company will be able to re-roll all failed to wound rolls on the charge, and all failed to hit rolls in the first round of combat.

Not huge numbers of models, but mobile, and there's weapons in the units that can cause damage to most opponents.

Let me know what you think. Like I said, it's just a list I've thrown together using models I have.

Hi! Let's delve right in!

Your death company feels too loaded. With 7 guys you should be totally fine with either a pair of fists or a fist and sword. Everyone else should be wearing the default "bullet catcher" outfit. Inferno pistol on guys that want to be all up in there is kind of a waste.

If you want a BA list to be stronger, use as few points as possible on troops, especially tacticals, and put those points onto some of our better things that are mostly in the elites section. Also you never want a vet sergeant with expensive wargear unless there's another tanky independent character in the squad to keep him out of challenges. The heavy flamer is probably the best upgrade to actually take on a 5 man squad, as it makes them go from ignorable to a minor-medium threat.

You might consider scouts instead though. Being much cheaper, being almost as good in every way except for the 1 point of armor, and having their own deployment tricks built in nullifying the need for an easily first-blooded transport really clears up some points to bring some actual threats.

The asm squad looks like a suicide melta squad, in which case the claw on the sarge is wasted points. After they drop in and melt a thing, they're going to get murdered, and stacking more points of offense on them just guarantees that when they die, it hurts you more.

There's plenty of room for point shaving, so you could easily get more DC, a podded fragioso, or some sanguinary guard with a veritas vitae-priest.

 niv-mizzet wrote:
Hi! Let's delve right in!

Your death company feels too loaded. With 7 guys you should be totally fine with either a pair of fists or a fist and sword. Everyone else should be wearing the default "bullet catcher" outfit. Inferno pistol on guys that want to be all up in there is kind of a waste.

If you want a BA list to be stronger, use as few points as possible on troops, especially tacticals, and put those points onto some of our better things that are mostly in the elites section. Also you never want a vet sergeant with expensive wargear unless there's another tanky independent character in the squad to keep him out of challenges. The heavy flamer is probably the best upgrade to actually take on a 5 man squad, as it makes them go from ignorable to a minor-medium threat.

You might consider scouts instead though. Being much cheaper, being almost as good in every way except for the 1 point of armor, and having their own deployment tricks built in nullifying the need for an easily first-blooded transport really clears up some points to bring some actual threats.

The asm squad looks like a suicide melta squad, in which case the claw on the sarge is wasted points. After they drop in and melt a thing, they're going to get murdered, and stacking more points of offense on them just guarantees that when they die, it hurts you more.

There's plenty of room for point shaving, so you could easily get more DC, a podded fragioso, or some sanguinary guard with a veritas vitae-priest.

Hi niv-mizzet, thanks for the reply!

I see what you mean about the death company. To be honest, I upgraded them last after everything else was in place so I wasn't 100% on what to give them. I thought by chucking an extra inferno pistol in there might help as the chaplain is the only real "ranged" threat. Plus, I usually have bad luck with dice so I know I'd miss that one shot more than I'd like to!

Would you suggest not upgrading a Sgt. to a veteran at all then? Personally, I like doing it because it gives them the extra attack, and when you're fighting at S5 I5 (unless you have a power fist) I like to take advantage of that boost Blood Angels have. It would help if they do get into challenges, right?

I do have some scouts, but I hadn't dedicated them to my Blood Angels yet lol. I have a 5 man squad of snipers, and a 5 man squad with bolters and a heavy bolter. They were originally for my Crimson Fists, but they've been put on a back bench for now.

The assault squad is exactly that! I have left it so I can play around the the Sgt. gear. I was planning on a few games to see how they work out. If I find they get wiped straight away, I'll strip the lightning claw off. My original plan was to make him a veteran Sgt. for the same reasons as above. More attacks at S5 I5. The upgrade was to make up for losing an attack for taking the combi-melta. In my head I was thinking that a veteran Sgt. with a lightning claw (which has shred) might give me a slight increase in survivability after dropping down an maybe put some people off charging them. I know it's probably wasted, but it was just a thought. In this build I had stripped him of his veteran status to put some points into the death company though.

I might play around with another list and take 5 man tactical squads with just a heavy flamer and a bare bones Sgt. and see how that goes. Maybe drop one for some scouts etc. My thoughts behind the 10 man squads that they can split up, and I'll have some objective holders sitting with a heavy flamer, and some more troops to be mobile gun platforms.


Other Blood Angel units I have at my disposal are:
Terminator Captain (who doesn't have him now...)
Terminator librarian
Sanguinary priest
5 Sanguinary guard
10 assault terminators (5 lightning claws, 5 thunder hammer & storm shields)
15 death company (in total)
Razorback / rhino
Baal predator
Land raider crusader/redeemer
Oh, and the terminators in Space Hulk

On the vet sergeants, there are very few times when upgrading them to vets is reasonable:
-in core marines, rhinos spammed with 5 man tacs with a grav cannon will likely need to take Ld tests for vehicle damage snapfiring and pinning when the rhino dies. Additionally given the range of the cannon, they actually generally would like to not fall back for losing a couple meat shields. A bland vet sergeant can be useful here if you don't have any other Ld tricks. If the extra point causes a single cannon to not snapfire or fall back out of range for a turn, the vet probably paid for himself and then some.

-They make good supplemental damage dealers behind BAMF characters that aren't afraid of stepping up to the plate against enemy warbosses, tyrants, chaos lords etc. Dante for example.

They aren't super-amazing, but I enjoy running SG with a naked jump priest, with 1 fist in the squad. If you don't run into a few s8ap2 or better shooting attacks, they can get stuff done. My tyranid buddy that spams flyrants at our local events hates them, for example.

 niv-mizzet wrote:
On the vet sergeants, there are very few times when upgrading them to vets is reasonable:
-in core marines, rhinos spammed with 5 man tacs with a grav cannon will likely need to take Ld tests for vehicle damage snapfiring and pinning when the rhino dies. Additionally given the range of the cannon, they actually generally would like to not fall back for losing a couple meat shields. A bland vet sergeant can be useful here if you don't have any other Ld tricks. If the extra point causes a single cannon to not snapfire or fall back out of range for a turn, the vet probably paid for himself and then some.

-They make good supplemental damage dealers behind BAMF characters that aren't afraid of stepping up to the plate against enemy warbosses, tyrants, chaos lords etc. Dante for example.

They aren't super-amazing, but I enjoy running SG with a naked jump priest, with 1 fist in the squad. If you don't run into a few s8ap2 or better shooting attacks, they can get stuff done. My tyranid buddy that spams flyrants at our local events hates them, for example.

I see what you mean about the sergeants. I guess if I were to drop both veteran upgrades from my original list, that'd pay for an extra death company marine too.

I did wonder about taking the sanguinary guard with the priest when I was deciding the list. I think I've put them together with a power fist & inferno pistol, an axe, and 3 swords (one with the banner). The priest has his default chainsword and I've magnetised his hand so he can take pistols. I'd most probably pay a point for a bolt pistol.

I'll have a play around with another list and see what I can come up with

BA tac squads work fine with a Rhino and a heavy flamer and nothing else. Although they're much better in a CAD that way.

Martel732 wrote:
BA tac squads work fine with a Rhino and a heavy flamer and nothing else. Although they're much better in a CAD that way.

What would be benefit of taking them in a combined arms detachment?

They would get objective secured. So you can literally not fire a shot and just drive up to an objective and potentially take it. Vanilla marines make their living off this idea with battle company.

Shotgun scouts and CC scouts are quite good as well.

Martel732 wrote:
They would get objective secured. So you can literally not fire a shot and just drive up to an objective and potentially take it. Vanilla marines make their living off this idea with battle company.

Shotgun scouts and CC scouts are quite good as well.

Oh s**t, yeah. I completely forgot about that! Been looking at Blood Angel formations too much..

Objective secured is pretty handy when a lot of people seem to take other formations that don't grant it.

Close combat scouts seem a good load out for Blood Angels so I might have to pick up some more.