40K EDITORIAL: Dreaming of Baal
Hey all, Jawaballs here!
Bigred made the announcement about the return of the Blood Angels, and tickled all our little toes. Now it is time for the speculation! What will the new Blood Angels codex have in store for us? Here is a list of what I feel are the current BA short fallings, and what I would like to see in the new Dex.
Current Edition Updates
These are some things that need to be brought in line with the current codex without question. This is a no brainer and should have been done with a quick edit of the PDF. Shame on GW for not doing so.
-5 man max terminator squads? Why can Blood Angels only take 15 terms in an army?
-No Teleport Homers? WTF?
-Storm Shields cost as much as generic ones, but way less effective. Why?
Transport capacity of models? I admit, OCE are nice and it can be reasoned that they take up capacity, but what about the Land Raider?
-Power of the Machine Spirit?
-Can BA Landspeeders deep strike? I have not actually looked into this yet, but I certainly deep strike mine when I use them.
Basicly, fix any discrepencies that may exist between the Blood Angel and Space Marine codex in terms of wargear and weapons; OR print some sort of different fluff, reason or whatever and give them advantages that off set the obvious disadvantages instead of being just plain lazy and saying “Some chapters may use different versions of some wargear.” Bull Hockey. Why would an assault army use inferior Storm Shields? Having taken care of those problems:
Wish List – Reasonable Changes First
-Do not change how Over Charged Engines work. I like the random die roll. I like the stalling as it is. No need to mess with it. No need to make them immobilized. If it aint broke, dont fix it. Leave OCE alone.
-Add OCE to all BA vehicles, including Land Raiders.
-Give the Blood Angels their own variant of the Land Raider.
-Give more options for squads. Allow us to buy individual models in addition to our base number. As of now, we can have 5 or 10 tactical marines. Why can’t I take 6?
-Give our Sergeants and vets wargear options.
-Give Death Company Power Weapons. Or at least give them an option. Banshees have Power Weapons! Rending was nerfed into a mere tickle. Give people a reason to take Death Company again. The coolest unit of the Blood Angels has been relegated to a minimal distraction by most players. I field the bare minimum in my army.
-Improve the Heavy Flamer option on the Baal Predator. There is no reason to take them. You will almost never land both flamers on a squad, and even if you get to land one, you will probably not get to cover too many models with it. It is a useless option. Maybe allow it to be taken like a pintle mounted version, or allow it to fire its gout of flame like a Devil Dog.
New Psychic Powers
Currently, the BA have what… 3 powers? Most of them are useless. One allows a jump pack move! Not sure but can’t generic librarians take jump packs?
-Give Mephiston an Iron Halo. Lowly Imperial Guard officers can take them, why not one of the most powerful and reverred psychers in all of the Imperium? (with his 3 powers…) Give him and Dante Eternal Warrior.
Wish List – Robust Changes
-Give Blood Angels Fleet.
-Give their Rhinos Assault Ramps. Make them the Assault Machines they should be.
-Reduce cost of Death Company, allow them to be optional and reduce the cost of all models entirely.
-Throw in some unique wargear.
-Give Corbulo a power weapon for gods sake.
-Don’t touch Dante at all.
CRAZED Wishlisting
-Allow the Blood Angels to take an Apocalypse flyer model of their own like IG. How bout the Thunderhawk? Its too big? Make sure it is allowed to hover over any models on the table. Allow it to transport multiple squads, terminators and dreadnoughts, And only make it cost 140 points. (kidding)
-Give Drop Pods Assault Ramps. All jokes aside, that might just be reasonable. Kinda going along with the killer assault aspect of the Blood Angels.
~Any thoughts? Input? What do you think the new BA codex should improve on? Omit? Be sure to check out the progress of my army on my blog. The next 6 months are going to bring a lot of change for me with the new dex coming and my efforts to upgrade my list to be competitive again. At this time, I am playing with a few configurations. Jump packs, drop pods, or foot slogging tactical squads? What should I do? Feel free to pop in and give some input!
Jawaballs Out
