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

==Tactics==

Playing with Blood Angels can be a double-edged sword. Move too aggressively and you'll find some of your squads isolated and overwhelmed. Move too slowly and you'll struggle to make an impact. Here are some useful tactics to use in 8th edition. '''With Red Thirst returning we can pretty much ruin anything we face. Even a scout will wound Magnus on a 4+. How d'you like them apples?
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There's only really one tactic you need to know when playing Blood Angels, ABC "Always Be Charging." You don't play BA to sit back and shoot, there are other Chapters that do it much better than we do. Blood Angels are at their best on the charge, so to that end, you should design your force with an emphasis on close combat and speed. 

*'''Sword and Shield''': This tactic relies on combining decent firepower to pin an enemy force (or elements of that force) in place whilst your attacking squads advance and seize the objective or destroy other enemy squads and vehicles. This tactic is useful against highly mobile opponents, such as Ravenwing or Eldar. One or more squads or vehicles with heavy weaponry act as a stationary firing platform to prevent the enemy from exploiting that flank, while the remainder of the Blood Angels force advances. This tactic is less useful against hordes. Imagine a warrior holding a shield (that's the heavy weapons on the flank) and the sword, ready to thrust (that's the attacking force). Also useful for pinning enemy elements in place before assault.
*'''Hammer and Anvil''': Compose an army with supporting troops such as sniper scouts or tacticals with heavy bolters, intercessors if you can spare points. Keep the troops on objectives and form a backline. Add in good amounts of durable high volume anti-horde ability such as inceptors, aggressors, terminators, or fragnoughts. These are your Anvil and should clear out the weaker foes. Then strap up and focus on four units: JP Captain with thunder hammer and Angels Wing, Sanguinary Guard with power fists and angelus boltguns, Lemartes, Death company with a 1:1 mix of thunder hammers and bolter chainsword marines. These are your Hammer's. The beauty of this army is that you can tackle early screens and hordes well, claim objectives and provide covering fire, while all of your deep striking units have a means of increasing your chances of charging from deep strike. Captain uses Angels Wing for re rolls, Sanguinary Guard use Descent of Angels, Lemartes and the Death Company all have re rolls on the charge.
*'''Steel and Flame''': A tactic used specifically for hordes such as Tyranids or Orks. This calls upon the Blood Angels commander to field squads, vehicles and characters that specialise in killing scores of enemy troops. If used correctly, a seasoned commander will deploy with overlapping fields of fire, good line of sight and defensive positions designed to slow the enemy advance. Baal Predator tanks, Whirlwinds, flamers, rapid-fire weapons and characters that improve accuracy or penetration are best employed here. Each squad or vehicle should be able to both advance and retreat under covering fire from other supporting troops or vehicles. Deployment is key here. Position your forces too far forward and your squads will be overrun. Pull back too far and your range will be limited and you'll have nowhere to fall back to when things get hairy. Razorbacks armed with twin assault cannons should not be overlooked here, and each squad, vehicle or character must support and be supported by other elements. In this scenario, an isolated squad is a dead squad. It should be noted that this is primarily a defensive tactic, but counter-attacks can swing the outcome of the battle here. One example would be to utilise a Land Raider Crusader (with assault troops/terminators/Death Company inside) as a mobile shredding platform, continually pulling back as the enemy advances, keeping it out of range of assault. If the enemy get too close, and you have nowhere to move, that's when you counter-attack with whatever is inside the vehicle.

To really blitz fuck your enemy and win the game in 3 turns or less, you need to be thinking about the charge after the charge. Essentially you need to anticipate where your models will be after you carefully win your first combat. Ideally, you want them to be in a position to get off another charge, or better yet an immediate consolidation. Try to take advantage of the DC Dreads 6" consolidation move, heroic interventions, jump packs 12" movement, and the Upon Wings of Fire stratagem. All of these will position your models well for more rounds of close combat; key here is repeating close combat often which triggers the Red Thirst repeatedly. Also consider units like terminators or dreadnoughts over softer 1 wound models for a charge that may result in prolonged combat. These units will last longer in the second turn of fighting. Utilize fully supported and buffed death company or sanguinary guard to wipe out entire units in one round. (And to be badass, its doesn't get much better in 40k than marching 15 Death Company Marines down your opponents throat with Astorath up front literally giving the most mind bending pep talk in the galaxy). Remember three things when your opponent attempts to counter you: 1) The more often you charge, the more often your are getting many important bonuses. 2) The more turns you spend in combat, the less firepower you take. 3) Avoid getting shot at in between and after combats when possible, and plan complex charges to mitigate or avoid overwatch altogether.

With all this sexy talk about close combat, never forget fire support. Warfare typically revolves around a cycle of applying fire and movement. One option for the savvy son of Sanguinius is to tie up large portions of the enemy with carefully planned charges, not cumbersome frontal assaults; and utilize mobile medium ranged fire power to neutralize any models out of reach of your assault. As the game progresses use air support and your armies impressive mobility to adjust. Maneuver your firepower to avoid return fire, then remaining assault units switch to protecting your firepower. Units like razorbacks and baal predators do this well and can move very fast when needed, land raiders provide good anchors for your army. Stormravens have a gun for any target, and nearly your entire army has options for jump packs. Sometimes its best to sit back a turn or two, blast your opponent to shit, *cough Imperial Guard, then clean up in combat with very opportune and convenient charges.

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Pretty sick army right here which has nearly tabled Orks and Nids:

--Battalion-- 
*Slamguinius, Artisan of War, JP, Angels Wing, Thunder Hammer (shield optional but helpful)
*Lemartes
*X3 sniper scouts 

--Vanguard--
*Corbulo
*X3 maxed out Bolter Aggressor squads
*15 DC, power swords, boltguns
*10 Sang Guard, fists, angelus bolters 
*Company Ancient, Standard of Sacrifice 


*This list will usually leave your army or your opponents nearly wiped. Problem is, it all depends on landing 4 drop charges. Luckily each deep striking unit has a means of boosting the charge after dropping in all on turn two. Lemartes and his re-roll for DC. Slamguinus has Angels Wing, and Sang Guard have Descent of Angels. 
*Everyone else (Scouts, Aggs, Ancient, Corbulo) simply kick back and unload the sweet sweet dakka. Enjoy.
*Ideally the scouts hug objectives and pop sniper mortal wounds on important things, Corbulo and the Ancient along with your ~18 aggressors form a big ball and demand your opponent to prioritize them. Even if the aggressors get shot up, the buffs make them very tough and they will unleash powerful return fire killing hordes. Finally everyone else drops in on turns 2 or 3 and kills the big stuff hanging around in the back or anything that couldn't be mowed down by the Aggressors.
*If you desire more command points, reduce DC to 10 men and remove 1 or 2 aggressors and turn the vanguard into a battalion with basic bolter scouts (maybe a HB for some hellfire mortal wounds).
*Keep Sang Guard cheap with angelus bolt gun and fists, they do very well with fists being cheaper than swords. If you have points and need a little more ranged dakka, give them plasma pistols and keep near warlord and they can easily kill tanks with a charge afterwards. 
*This list makes for quick games; you will win or loose in spectacular fashion! I have found the key being to save the ancient and about 3-6 Aggressors. Otherwise you will loose board presence, scouts will get picked off somehow, and your deep strikers won't be able to win it all back. If you work patiently with the Aggressor ball and don't get them killed immediately, they can hold down the board and let other units focus on specific fights they can easily win. 
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Vanguard Death Ball
10 vanguard Vets with storm shields and power swords and 2x 10 man squads of vets with 5x shield/chainsword, 4x double chainsword and the Sargent with power sword/chainsword. Shove a Chaplin/priest/banner with 5+++ and the sanguinor in the middle of your ball of fun and fly up the table in a orgy of death. You will be surprisingly survivable with the invuls and FNPs and with the benefit of being infantry you just hide in handy buildings before you charge in. Your looking at 1k points for this so in a 2k game you can still have a decent fire-base and support also.

*A good all rounder Melee Unit is 12 Death Company with either Chainsword and Bolter or Power Fist and Inferno Pistol, with a ratio of 9:3. The Fist and Inferno Marines can easily deal with a Leman Russ or equivalent each turn, while the Chainsword and Bolter Marines can clear out any tarpits.
** Death company have access to thunder hammers, which for 7 points more significantly increase your damage output over power fists. This is perhaps the best delivery method for hammers.
**For mobility, consider either Jump Packs or a Stormraven.
**As Death Company rely on support, consider replacing some Marines with a Chaplain, Sanguinary Priest, Lieutenant, Librarian, or Librarian Dread (who can keep up with Jump Packers) for buffs. If in a Stormraven, you may also consider a Chaplain Dread for more buffs and anti-tank.
*Death Company vs Vanguard Vets: Death Company seem to have a one up over Vanguard vets vs hordes (and with the Black Rage fnp they really do), but on the charge they do almost every job cheaper. VV can take double chainswords, allowing 4 attacks regardless of charge. DC can take bolters along with chainswords, allowing decent shooting and surprising flexibility.
**Some off the cuff math says that Death Company kill vehicles with thunder hammers better and more cheaply than TH/SS Vanguard. But in that case VVs are a lot harder, in case 30-ish damage from DC doesn't kill a target.
*As an aside, I've rated the units of normarines (as in non-primaris) from least to most expensive: Vanguard Vets, Death Company, Sanguinary Guard (with encarmine swords they cost roughly the same as terminators, but with one less man base they occupy middle-ground), Terminators, then TH/SS Terminators. 
**Terminators and Sanguinary Guard are of similar durability, weapons (since SG power fists are a free swap) and deep-strike potential. But with Stratagems and Deathmasks SG kinda win the comparison.
***Reivers are also 2 wounds and while they aren't quite as durable you get a lot more for your points while still putting out a very respectable number of attacks. Something to consider when shopping for your more durable troops to accompany VVs and Death Company. 
*BRING BATTALIONS! Even if you are focusing on the fast attack and elite slots. A battalion gives you <u>6</u> elite slots for DC or whatever and 3 extra cp so you can [[Dawn of War|soar on wings of fire!]] Plus you need at least some troops to hold ground, and they let you bring extra HQs like chaplains, librarian or Priests. On this point, you can bring some effective Troop choices to the field while staying lean on points. Five Intercessors come in under a hundred points, and are great at running around and grabbing mid-field objectives. Consider five Scouts with a power sword too, even cheaper and put out a surprising amount of damage in close combat.
**Counterpoint:  Battalions, and all large formations, are quite expensive to field for marines of all kinds.  It's harder to just "sprinkle in" troops and HQs (around 25-40 power for just a "basic" battalion). You may still want anchors for all the deep-striking jump-pack-users in your army and battalions give the best CP investment without building a brigade, but it's still a meaty investment for an average game and has to be weighed against other options. A Vanguard Detachment is a decent alternative if you want to focus on a cheaper force.
***Counter-Counterpoint: Taking your support HQs and Scouts in a battalion is relatively cheap (clocking in around 400 points) and lets you spend the rest on all those big, flashy, and choppy units that entices every Blood Angels player. With our red lads being so CP hungry, it's absolutely worth starting with a Battalion.
*Scouts. Don't underestimate these fuckers. An entire essay can be penned about how useful they are! Keep them cheap, kitted out with boltguns and a chainsword on the sergeant, and have them pop in how you need them. The flexibility of this kit is a fantastic tool to have in any commander's arsenal. If your opponent is bringing a large assault force, you can have them sneak in and form a barrier in front of where your Death Company are dropping in and getting you some pretty nasty counter charges. If they are running their Cultists or other cheap screening unit up the board, use scouts to stop them from taking up the board by forcing them to get in a shootout right outside their deployment zone. Enemy is running a lot of things with Deep Strike, like expensive Terminators? Scout in your boys all spread out and give them no room to set up their unit. At a fairly cheap 55 points for 5, being so useful, and also being able to keep up with the fast strikes that Blood Angels like to be performing, Scouts are absolutely a fantastic choice to start a list with.
**Sniper Rifles. Need More? Okay, a Heavy Bolter and four rifles? Boltguns and a rocket launcher? Using the auspex in particular will help if you opponent can fit in a deep-strike. They're also useful if your choppy marines want to fall back from a bad fight to shoot the unit.
**Keeping scouts exactly 17-18" away from your other forces prevents deep-striking. 
**Red thirst really makes them shine with or without bolters. Gives them just enough extra punch to threaten normal MEQ and other units typically regarded as stronger than them. 
*ALLIES BABY! Imperial Guard have all the answers: Cheap bodies, Over powered tanks, And the best flyers around. Try two Leman Russ Annihilators with Lascannons and hull Lascannons and two punishers with punisher gatling cannons and 3 heavy bolters. Thats 696 points, and you've got 10 lascannon shots with re roll 1s (Cadian doctrine) and 80 S5 shots and 18 S5 AP-1 all on very durable platforms! Seriously you cant go wrong with these two models. Let the Guard shoot everything while you handle the face to face confrontations. 
** These two armies are a classic combo. Everything that one is lacking the other has twofold. Fluff wise, there is tons of room for narrative setups and sweet scenarios. There is nothing more a guardsman could ask for than Commander Dante himself swooping down to save his sorry ass. Or perhaps Flesh Tearers, who might kill the guardsman afterwards... Sounds interesting!!!!!
** Also, guard are the undisputed kings of command point accrual and abuse. We like that cuz guardsmen are our little buddies. Fill out brigades with mortar heavy weapons squads and bare bones infantry squads (maybe a heavy weapon or assault weapon here and there just to be cute) and use your best stratagems turn after turn after turn after turn after turn.
** Scions and Scion Command Squads provide a shit load of assault weapon spam at the same BS of 3+ as you, they can also deep strike to keep pace and shoot the right unit at the right time. They are only T3 of course, but are cheaper and provide denser firepower per squad compared to assault marines. As mentioned before, Blood Angels handle melee, Guard shoots everything to pieces. Goes together like potatoes and gravy. And let me tell you, the Emperor fucking loves potatoes and gravy.
*** The better option may be meltaguns, as you need the tempestor primes for re-roll safety and access to command squads which are basically an additional tax considering what you're using the units for.

[[Category:Warhammer 40000 Tactics(8E)]]
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