40K: Blood Angels List Building: The Anti-Razorspam

As part two of thinking about reviewing and rebuilding my Blood Angels army I am sharing some of my thoughts now that the Dark Eldar are upon us – and the game will never be the same.

In part one, I suggested replacing Razorback spam with Rhino spam. The obvious theme of the army was trying to pack as many marines on the table as possible.  But as many of you pointed out, they had a major flaw in that RAS (regular assault squads) were giving up what makes them special to hide inside a little red box.  I envisioned the list as taking advantage of a big BA trait, the RAS as troops.  This gives a 10 man squad a really cheap Rhino that can move 18″.  But yes, the game is about to change.  As if it was not already difficult enough to get my armor 11 transports to survive a round of shooting, once the Dark Eldar come out with their dozens of high strength guns ripping open Rhinos, Marine Transports will be pretty much done.

Ok, back to the drawing board. What else do Blood Angels have that no one else does?  Commander Dante, and Descent of Angels.  In the past all deep striking armies have been an enormous fail.  Is this the time for that to change?  Lets look at another 2k list option:

 Jump Force Jawa (2000pts)

Dante
Astorath the Grim

Sanguinary Guard x5
banner
infernus pistol

Sanguinary Guard x5
infernus pistol

RAS x10
x2 melta
fist

RAS x10
x2 melta
fist

Vanguard Vet x5
x2 PW including SGT.
Jump Packs

Vanguard Vet x5
x2 PW including SGT.
Jump Packs

Sanguinary Priest x3
x3 Jump packs
x3 Power Weapons
x1 melta bomb (I had 5 points left)

The  Plan
Now we have options and an army that if nothing else will be a lot of fun to play.  Astro gives the entire army fearless and Furious Charge on a 3 or less.  The entire army deep strikes.  Astro, joins Dante in the banner squad with a priest.  The two other priests join the two RAS.   In case you did not know, Dante turns Sanguinary Guard into Troops.  The Vanguard Veterans have an obvious role.  Deep Strike and destroy any exposed troops squads that will wash the rest of the deep strikers with plasma/melta fire.  They can use Heroic Intervention to assault when they land, and taking Jump Packs gives them Descent of Angels and the ability to reroll failed reserves and to cut their scatter to 1d6.  Since they cannot shoot if using HI, you need to be tactical with placement.  Dante’s squad will not scatter at all.  So you place the VVs and let them scatter, then you place Dante’s squad in such a location that they will hopefully pop a transport and let the vets assault.  With a little less accuracy you do the same thing with your other SG squad.  Now you have 45 angry marines instantly in your face, most of whom have FNP and are hopefully fearless as well.

Weaknesses? You only have 45 marines and they are exposed to AP weapons!  But using the enemy deployment against him should work in your favor. If he has deployed long, than you can focus on one end of his army and obliterate it, then sweep across the table.  If he has reserved every thing, he will be coming in piecemeal while you have the pleasure of re-rolling failed reserve rolls.  With two 50% chances to come in on turn two, most of your army should arrive. If you are going second, you will literally be the Angels of Death.

Point sink?  Astro.  220 points is a lot.  I’m not convinced that the 1,2,3 Red Thirst is worth it, especially since he also grants it to enemy Blood Angels.  Options?  Take an elite chappy with JP for 125 points.  This will serve the same purpose as Astro at a bargain price.  Or take a libby with JP to fill that slot as well.  Perhaps the better choice.  Either option will allow you an additional 95 points to spend elsewhere.  A scout squad with power fist? (by dropping the melta bomb)  The scouts will give you an extra troops squad that has the ability to enter the game late and pop a pesky tank or squash some isolated weak troops squad holding a vital objective.  More vets with upgrades? More Inferno Pistols in the Sanguinary Guard squads? Go with less priests? The FNP in Dante’s squad is crucial. And the assault squads will be the guys digging in and holding objectives so they will greatly benefit from FNP as well.  I think all three of the priests are valuable.

Dealing with the Badguys
What about dealing with Dark Eldar?  Well, we can replace some melta guns with flamers and hand flamers. Promethean love belchers coupled with Furious Charge should deal with them easy enough.  Their lance weapons will be vaporizing single marines, and only if the marines are unlucky enough to not get into cover.

Dealing with Guard?  I know from experience that Chimeras are hard to deal with.  Last week I pumped 9 las cannons and 4 melta shots into a couple of them hoping to give my terminator squad some juicy meat to eat… and all I managed to do was immobilize and blow the weapons off them.  Poor rolling to be sure, but the point was made.  This army will definitely struggle against them.  But if we can get them separated and focus our strength against small pockets we can easily overwhelm them.  Just like the space marines though, mech guard is about to be in dire straights, so maybe we will see less of them at tournaments.  Unlike the Space Marines, Guard have little other option.  Blob Guard can do well, but even the mighty 45 man fearless guard unit will have a tough time surviving an assault from 20 furious charging Blood Angels.

Blood Angels Still on Top?
When I listed what I felt was the top three codices, a fire storm of opinion flooded in, some very angry.  What about Nids and Eldar one commenter probed? Well what about them? Sure I could have probably listed any codex in the game aside from Necrons in that same power bubble with Codex: Space Marines and Orks. Though I believe that those two books stand above any others aside from the top three. None of this changes the fact that with the current trends of the game, Imperial Guard, Space Wolves and Blood Angels are the top three. And I only write from the tournament point of view folks. Dark Eldar are going to hit hard and maybe take one of those top three spots, or at least push some of the big three out.  The question is, that as the game evolves, which armies have the versatility to remain atop the heap?  Who can adapt and fill the power vacuum left by the impending and perhaps over exaggerated end of mech. Will mech die at all? Whatever the way the game changes in the next 6 months, It is my opinion that Blood Angels can climb to the top due to everyone overreacting to what the DE bring to the table and the BAs unique strengths carrying them through.

Author: Guest Columnist

This article was written by a Guest Columnist who requested anonymity.