40k Meta- ‘Ard Boyz Round Two Report – Blood Angels Edition

So what does that mean for the current meta? Perhaps it’s still too early to tell, but I think overall the tools Blood Angels and Grey Knights have available to them allow them to succeed/ excel in a variety of formats. I do foresee both Grey Knight and Blood Angel competitive builds transitioning to more grounded Multiple Scoring lists than the beater lists we have been seeing so far.

As far as the ‘ard Boyz Semis, I couldn’t make it due to my fourth place performance, or was it a bunch of kids throwing games to each other to get in, I forget lol. (and I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those meddling kids!) No biggie, I had a very solid year tournament wise already so it’s all good.

However Master Shake did get in, and asked to use my Blood Angels for the Semis and I said sure why not….

Now the problem with borrowing someones army the day before the event as I found out at the NOVA Invitational, and he came to find out as well at the semis, is you don’t have time to get familiar with the army. You have to learn the army right down to every stat, and practice every little trick they possess so you know what to do at each critical point during your game.

The thing with my list is that every unit is a weapon, from the little 5 man squads to even the Devie squads, they are all sick when combo-ed with the Sanguinor and a grail. Each unit is super deadly in combat. Also placement of the right unit in assault is critical, as the characters are squad killers, and squads are character killers respectively.

Cut back to me and Master Shake talking about what list to take. I suggested my original list of 30 jump troops, Rhinos and my new tech the Land Speeder Typhoon. He wanted to play a more aggressive list, with Furiosos armed with Blood Talons, and more Devies.  He was worried about a field of Draigowings, and while I don’t blame him I wasn’t sure the list needed Furiosoes to deal with multiple wound feel no pain units.

He won his first two, but lost his last game, and thusly the tournament. Apparently it was mostly due to not being able to kill storm shield temies. I’m not sure I would have run Meph and Sanguinor in on them like he did, but hey that’s where not being in practice with a list, and personal preference comes in.  I do still like the feel of his build and may kick it around in the future.

I wrote up our two Blood Angels lists below for you to check out. Let us know what you think!

Sanguinor

Mephiston

3x Priests w/ Power Weapons 2x Jump Packs

3x Five Man assault squad with one Melta, Rhino Transport

3x Ten Man Assault Squads Flamer Melta Power Sword

2x Five Man Devies w/ 4 rockets.  Rhino Transport, Pod Transport

2x Furiosos w/ Talons  Extra Armor, Drop Pods (can both come in turn 1)

Sanguinor

Mephison

3x Priests w/ Power Weapons 1x Jump Packs

3x Five Man assault squad with one Melta, Rhino Transport EA Smoke

3x Ten Man Assault Squads Flamer Melta Thunder Hammer

1x Five Man Devies w/ 4 rockets.  Rhino Transport

Two Land Speeder Typhoons

Land Speeder Typhoon

I’m starting to like Typhoons more and more over devies because well they are more maneuverable, and in dawn of war they are not crippled for a turn or two. Granted there was no dawn of war in round two but still. I’m thinking a tactica article on them is in the near future. 😀

I also prefer Thunder Hammers in my Assault Squads. 5 points more for the ability to stun your opponent’s characters and stall them just long enough to come back to them after you kill their squad is worth the points IMHO.

That’s it for this report, be sure to leave some comments on the army list!