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

===Troops===
*'''Scout Squad:''' The Scout special rule Concealed Deployment may be the best troop rule space marines have. Since they deploy during the deployment phase, you can cut off huge swaths of the board from enemy deep strikes early in the game, and they count as deployed on the table for the purpose of legally holding all your Jump stuff back to Deep Strike. They have both a shooty build and a close combat build, and offensive wise are just as good as Tactical Marines at shooting and Assault Marines at assaulting. They can create early pre-screens so horde armies can't get a full move right off the bat. Worried about a Tyranid army getting a 30" move on turn one? Scouts make a fine speed bump. Camo Cloaks actually make Scouts cost more than Tactical Marines on a model by model basis, so skip them.  The Combat Knives look like a good idea, but they aren't - your Scouts hit harder in melee than they do at range, but after their deployment step, they're not particularly mobile at getting into charge range; remember, the primary reason you're bringing these guys is for Objective Secured. The shotguns have a similar problem of needing more mobility than you have to shine (contrast with Scout Bikes, where the shotguns are amazing).  Your best bets for the "mook" scouts are bolters to keep them cheap, but effective at range, or snipers if your meta has a lot of weak support characters running around - just be wary, as this makes the scout more than a third again as expensive.  The Sergeant is another matter entirely, due to his second attack and superior equipment access, particularly if you're deploying your Scouts in a Land Speeder Storm; a Power Sword on him costs as much as that sniper rifle would have, but murders more things more easily, and doesn't make him drop his bolter.
**Alternate take on combat knives: Scouts with knives are significantly more dangerous in melee than more expensive normal SM units and scouts with combat blades show up in Blood Angel lists that win tournaments (and play more than a few BA HQ units, the most successful lists are still Slamguinus, Mephiston, another Captain with the Hammer of Baal and a Guard Brigade. BA Battalions with Blade Scouts are a thing that do place though, more than some armies place at all), often the Sarge has a storm bolter and combat knife. Sniper scouts are not terribly competitive, they do not mesh with the BA advantages (which gravitate to melee), nor the scout advantages (being a cheap unit).

*'''Tactical Squad:''' You know how these guys work. Squad size of 5-10, armed with Boltguns, Bolt Pistols, and Frag and Krak Grenades. As before, you can take one Heavy or one Special Weapon at five models, and one of each at ten, but because you're {{W40Kkeyword|blood angels}}, the heavy can be a heavy flamer. Your Sergeant may take items from the Sergeant Equipment List by dropping both his bolter and pistol; your strongest choices here will be a storm bolter and a power sword or thunder hammer (be aware, this will more than double this cost). Combat squads are still a thing, working much the same as they always have. They now have the Red Thirst that makes them better in melee, and when combined with other synergy units in the codex they can become surprisingly good melee units (though they will never become amazing in melee, so don't get any ideas - combat knife scouts will readily butcher them). Look, these guys are bread and butter, great at nothing, good at everything. They are neither as cheap and tricksy as Scouts or as Tough and effectively specialized as Intercessors, but are a reliable middle-ground between these two options, as they always have been. 
**5 man squads in Twin Assault Cannon Razorbacks are pretty certainly your best bet; a Storm Bolter/Thunder Hammer Sergeant, 3 mooks, and a guy carrying your favorite of a Heavy Bolter, Heavy Flamer, or Lascannon will do a shockingly reasonable amount of work.

*'''Intercessors:''' The Primaris addition to the Blood Angel infantry. Essentially a Tactical marine with an extra attack and wound, and packs Bolt Rifles for free (bolters at +6" range and -1AP), Auto Bolt Rifles for 1 point (Assault 3 bolters, for when mobility is needed), or Stalker Bolt Rifles for 0 points (36" Heavy 1 AP-2 2D Bolter). One squad member can take an auxiliary grenade launcher for 1 point to have 30" grenades, which is at least entertaining. Intercessors are better in close combat than their Tactical marine brethen, however this is not the reason you take them (you have better options in this Codex, though they aren't pushovers either). What you want from them is good good mid-field objective grabbers and frontal assualt fighters. They've got good range, -1AP over Tacticals, and good staying power. While Tacticals may have more diverse weapon options (for now) Intercessors are better suited for contesting and holding objectives and dragging out fights with tougher adversaries that Tactical and Scout squads would prefer to avoid. Along with stock Intercessors being good at objective grabbing another effective loadout this has found is 10 of these guys with Auto Bolt Rifles (which are not entirely worse than regular Bolt Rifles, outputting more damage outside of 15") or any variant really and a Lieutenant can make for a very effective mobile anti-infantry platform. Remember to play to their strengths, Tactical Squads (for now anyway, Intercessors will probably get their chance) are the ones who want to be the Jack-of-all-Trades Infantry that can do a little of everything, Intercessors job is geared toward anti-infantry and holding-the-line or contesting, be that against infantry, monsters or vehicle chargers (much easier now too thanks to Red Thirst, wounding Carnifexs on fours anyone?).
**Intercessor sergeants can now take a chain sword, power sword, a hand flamer (instead of a rifle, fluffy perhaps but keep the rifle for serious play,) a power fist, or a thunder hammer. Keep in mind you need to get intercessors INTO melee to use these. No reason not to take a chainsword, but the rest depends on how you are using them. Auto-rifle wielding intercessors could do well with a sword or fist, acting as a back-up if your squishier melee units (lookin at you, Death Company) die before making back their points. 
**The other rifles recieved a buff from Codex Space Marines, and they're actually pretty good now. Having assault 3 bolters is never a bad thing, and increase the speed of the Primaris, something they lack a bit of with no cheap transports. Stalker rifles upgrade Intercessors with budget autocannons. Yes, they're only stregth 4, but D2 only occurs on a few guns in any SM codex. These rifles are definitely made for popping Nobs, Immortals, and Tyranid Warriors. (Or Primaris, interestingly enough.) (Side note that these rifles also have just enough AP to make cataphractii terminators use an invuln-save instead of armor.)

*'''Infiltrator Squad:''' Same statline as Intercessors, but with +1Ld. Standard unit of one Sergeant and four Bodies, but unique in that it can take an additional four bodies and one Apothecary-Cadet that can only heal a model from this unit, or revive one on a <b>5+</b>. Marksman bolt carbines are exactly the same as <b>boltguns</b>, but unmodified hit rolls of 6 automatically hits and wounds, but your opponent still gets a save. Their smoke grenades work exactly as vehicle smoke launchers; sacrifice a round of shooting for a -1 hit modifier against opponents shooting attacks.  They can deploy when setting up anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" from an enemy unit or your opponent’s own deployment zone: this is during set-up only, not during any of your other turns. Finally, enemy units cannot arrive as reinforcements within 12" of this unit, making them excellent at area denial. 
**Sadly, at 22 points a model (and 32 points for the Helix Adept), much of this needs to be judged against the flexibility of the Tactical Squad, the solidity of firepower from an Intercessor squad, and the cheapness of the Scout Squad. Bad? Maybe not. Overcosted? The jury is still out...but the verdict is likely yes.
**While they do cost as much as Reivers with grapple guns and grav shutes, they do deny deep strikes within 12" of them meaning the majority of rapid fire weapons can't rapid fire upon arriving and more importantly enemy units ''' can't charge you out of deepstrike''' (crippling to armies and players that rely on it and makes their ability much more valuable against Orks, 1K Sons & GSC.) spread them about to maximize that bubble and watch them draw fire from your opponent (assuming their army relies on this tactic) possibly saving other key units. So weigh this against their staggering cost (230 for 9 plus a Hellix Adept) for a troops choice.

*'''Incursor Squad:''' These models come in the infiltrator box set and have some nice benefits. Firstly, their shots ignore cover so you can feel like an Imperial Fist as a Blood Angel. Second, they ignore all negative modifiers to hit (eat your hearts out eldar and thousand sons). They start at 19 points per model and can take a haywire land mine for an additional 10 points.
**These guys you should take if you're playing an objective based game, once they throw down their land mine enemy units now can't get near an objective without taking D3 mortal wounds
**Their Paired Combat Knives synergize with the Blood Angels better than most other chapters, since the +1 to wound rolls helps ameliorate their relatively low Strength (never wound at less that 5+!), and exploding 6s to hit means that the 16 attacks from a five man squad on the charge (2 per base, +1 per from Shock Assault, +1 on the Sarge) will statistically become 18-19, so you'll have lots of chances for that +1 to make a difference. Leave backfield objective holding to the Infiltrators with their 12-inch anti-deepstrike bubble—these guys are probably better off using Concealed Positions to start close to entrenched enemy units, where their ability to ignore cover and other penalties will help make up for their S4 AP0 shooting, and then moving in for a Charge. AP-1 from the Assault Doctrine can also help make them viable.