5 Things I’ve Learned From Codex Blood Angels
We’ve been playing games with the new codex and uncovered a lot of cool tips.
The new Blood Angels codex isn’t super sexy and full of new units like Codex Death Guard – but like Codex Craftworlds it’s well costed and gets the job done. Here’s some tidbits we’ve been seeing on the tabletop in our Twitch Games.
Red Thirst is Solid
The Red Thirst makes bog-standard infantry good. The +1 to wound skews the 8th Edition S vs T chart and makes line infantry into something the enemy has to think about. It goes off whether you charge, or get charged, so BA foot soldiers are no speed bumps. They can pull off tricks en masse like wounding most vehicles on 4+ in assault – making the blood angels lean towards weapons with save modifiers, over weapons with strength modifiers. This leads directly to…
Power Weapons FTW
You want the cheapest melee weapons with solid save modifiers on as many of your infantry units as you can. That would be the 4 point, -3AP power sword. Put these anywhere you can from Lieutenants to Death Company and everywhere in between.
Death Company Are Scary
Speaking of Death Company. They are the same point cost, but their weapons came WAY down in points. You can give EVERY model a 1pt Hand Flamer or the 9pt super nasty Inferno Pistol. Give 2-3 models (the last to die) Thunder Hammers to nail the nasty stuff in close combat. 4pt power weapons sprinkled around and your 15-man Death Company with jump packs is nasty. Throw in the Forlorn Fury strategem for reliable turn 1 charges and they become terrifying.
The Standard of Sacrifice is CRAZY
What’s better than your Ancient letting close-by models get off killshots as they die? How about giving all Blood Angels Infantry and Bikers within 6″ a 5+ “Feel No Pain” save. Yes, that is totally worth the 1 Command Point for the Armoury of Baal strategem to get the Standard and your warlord’s relic every game.
Intercessors – Maybe?
Putting it all together, I think so far, Blood Angels may offer the best case so far for Primaris Intercessors. They will shoot just as well, but really benefit from Red Thirst to make them viable in melee. Exactly why GW made the BA Intercessor Serg only able to upgrade to a chainsword with no power sword option is baffling – but 4 attacks from the serg with the +1 to wound isn’t too shabby.
~For Sangunius!
