Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Blood Angels (section)

===Melee Weapons===
These are sorted by profile similarity, so you can compare apples to apples.

*'''Chainsword''' - Now actually has a use! Still the basic CCW profile, but allows for one extra attack. It's free and a good weapon for clearing out hordes.
*'''Power Weapons''' - Each type of Power Weapon has its own profile now, so pick the right one for the situation. All Power Weapons have a damage value of 1:
**'''Power Maul/Power Lance''' - S+2, AP-1. This is the one you want to use against lightly armored units that rely on toughness to shrug off hits.
**'''Power Sword''' - S User AP-3. Your best bet for dealing with MEQs and TEQs. A bit better on higher Toughness targets than it is for vanilla Marines since you can wound T4 units on a 3+ with Red Thirst.
**'''Power Axe''' - S+1 AP-2. A good enough compromise between the Sword's armor negation and the Maul's brute force. You can wound T3 and T4 on 2s, provided you can trigger Red Thirst.
**'''Force Weapons''' - Librarians come with these. Identical to their Power Weapon counterparts (with Force Staves filling in for the Power Maul), but deal D3 damage instead of 1 damage, for twice the cost - slightly less efficient, since they'll do less than twice as well against W2 or W1 targets, but nice and hitty.
**'''Encarmine Weapons''' - Comes in Sword and Axe form, but basically just overcosted (the sword costs half again as much, the axe 60% again as much) Force weapons of the same name.
***A case can be made that red thirst works better with the encarmine swords, but the axes become inferior to the fist except lacking a -1 to hit. 
***After Chapter Approved 2019 encarmine weapons have had their costs slashed.  Axes are down to 9 points and swords are down to 8, making them a viable alternative to power fists. In fact the axe version costs less than the Force Axe that it is, so Axes are a steal in theory. Fists are still good to use against monsters, but axes can now take over their role against MEQ. 
**'''Relic Blade''' - Available to Vanguard Veteran Sergeants and Captains. At S+2 AP-3 D1d3 (combining a force maul with a force sword), now at only 9 points viable for taking on your captain if you don't want a 40-point hammer, and good on your veteran sergeant as well.
***With the Red Thirst they perform almost the same as a power fist (up to T5), with no hit penalty. Above T6 they'll still wound on a 4+ against most things you'd reasonably expect to run into. 
**'''Lightning Claws''' - SUser AP-2 D1. Allows you re-rolls to wound and gain an extra attack if you have two of them; one of them costs twice as much as a power sword, and two of them cost triple, so needless to say, ''always'' bring them along in pairs - thanks to the Red Thirst, one claw will seriously struggle to be worth it compared to a power sword.
*'''Power Fist''' - Sx2 AP-3 D1d3. Unwieldy has been replaced with a -1 penalty on to hit rolls, which can be annoying, but does mean you're no longer screwed by being forced to attack last all the time.
** Now being a 9 point weapon (almost half the cost of a thunder hammer for non-characters) they're now a viable option over a thunder hammer if you're looking just to have some heavy hitters and don't care as much about damage, this is a must take
*'''Chainfist''' - Like a Power Fist, but AP-4 and a fixed 2 damage, both of which are upgrades (the latter makes you better against W2 targets, and the former is obvious), now only 11 points and only 2 points more than a power fist making this an actual viable option for dealing with higher armor 2W models. Sadly only available to Terminators.
*'''Eviscerator''' - A chainfist (at the same cost, too!) that deals 1d3 damage instead of 2 (i.e. it's worse against W2 targets), this is strictly worse than a chainfist, and you have only yourself to blame if you waste points on one.
*'''Thunder Hammer''' - Like a Power Fist, but deals 3 Damage instead of d3. All the strengths (and the -1 to hit modifier) of the Power Fist, with none of the random damage. Costs 16 points vs. the power fist's 9 points for an average of half again the damage. '''24 points more''' for Characters means over 4x the cost for 1.5x the damage.  The extra reliability could mean the difference between whether or not you can one-shot Aggressors (or combined with Artisan of War, Centurions) but likely only worth its 40-point cost on a single, dedicated Smash Captain.

====Dreadnought Melee Weapons====
*'''Blood Talons''' - S+4 AP-2 D3, re-rolling both failed hits and wounds, and only comes in pairs (meaning you can't combine them with a frag cannon); as of chapter approved these slashers only cost you 35 points, and pair of Furioso fists cost 40, meaning you're paying 5 points less and losing 1 point of AP and 2 of S to re-roll failed wounds.  Since both weapons will wound T9 or less on a 2+, thanks to the Red Thirst, the fists actually hurt anything with a 4+ or better save more than the Talons do, and applying a lieutenant or sanguinary ancient for situations where you want that re-roll. Better now than the Index version, but still a little disappointing. Re-rolls for hitting and wounding helps though, especially when combined with Red Thirst.
*'''Dreadnought Combat Weapon''' - Sx2 AP-3 D3, now for 20 points as of CA 2019.  
*'''Furioso Fist''' - Sx2 AP-3 D3, re-rolling failed hits when you take a pair; the second one only costs 10 more points.  As a pair, ''far'' better than Blood Talons; as a single, completely identical to a Dreadnought Combat Weapon.
*'''Furioso Force Halberd''' - S+4 AP-4 D3, and only available on librarian dreadnoughts, who have to take a fist as well; the halberd will almost always be far better, due to the Red Thirst.  Thankfully free.