Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Blood Angels (section)

==Tactics==
(9th Edition tactics)<br>

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 9th edition. '''With Red Thirst, we can pretty much ruin anything we face. Even a scout will wound Magnus on a 4+. How d'you like them apples?''' Blood Angels perform their best on the charge but close to friendly characters in order to get the maximum efficiency out of their close combat. So to that end, you should design your force with an emphasis on close combat, character buffs, and speed. However, charging at every opportunity can lead to some units being out of range of character abilities/auras. Not to mention that your characters can lose their much needed "Look out, sir!" protection.
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*'''ABC''': There's only really one tactic you need to know when playing Blood Angels, "Always Be Charging." You don't play BA to sit back and shoot, there are other Chapters that do it much better. 

*'''Play the Objectives''': We might be the kings of melee but don't forget you need something on the backfield objectives too. ATV, intercessors, eradicators, bladeguard, inceptors and hellblasters all perform this role 

*'''Build to the Secondaries''': We have some good secondary options that support our strategies but some need a skewed list to work really well work out what secondary you want and optimise your list to them

*'''Synergy''': While Lemartes can buff DS death company squads or a single forlorn fury DC unit are viable can both be viable in a non-death company army. The more you mix death company and non-death company units the less synergy you have - e.g. Captains' auras don't buff death company and the lost captains don't buff non-death company. So you often want to focus one or the other more strongly. A rookie will often look at the units and determine that non-Death Company is the more effective melee force and this is largely true (but there isn't much difference). However, fury of the lost is an auto 15VP secondary for Death Company armies and gives them a big boost in performance.

*BRING '''BATTALIONS'''! Battalions maximise your elite slots while refunding your CP for having your HQ in it. You're unlikely to have the points for a brigade and a vanguard detachment doesn't refund your CP. This means that most BA lists will be capped at 3HQ and 6 Elite with a mandatory 3 Troops. In addition, the current points cost of characters mean taking more is probably a bad decision anyway

*'''Rerolling Charges''': Lemartes and Death Company, Icon of the Angel, Chapter champion with martial supremacy. Individual character buffs like imperiums sword. Remember the "always be charging" rule, one of the big things that can go wrong is failed charges. Rerolls double your odds of making that charge and luckily we have a lot of options.

*'''Squad sizes ''': Quake bolts, Fury of the first we have a lot of ways to hit on 2's, assault intercessors fighting twice. We have a lot of really strong melee buffs and this often incentivises larger units compared to other chapters MSU builds.

*'''Positioning and auras''' Remember those 9" auras their more valuable than you think - if you want to always be charging, you're going to move around the board a lot positioning correctly so that you still benefit from auras is one of the most important things for a rookie to learn after terrain.

*'''Optimizing targets''' You're going to want fewer damage 2 weapons but the ones you have really want to be hitting vehicles, using reserves and deep-striking units is a great way of getting the right models to the right part of the battlefield. However you can only do that to half your army - drop pods - work

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Example list: '''Sweet Law’s Blood Angels''', as presented by GoonHammer

2x Extra Relic, 2x Extra Trait

'''HQ'''

Captain, storm shield, Teeth of Terra, The Imperium’s Sword 95

Primaris Bike Chaplain, Iron Resolve, Benediction of Fury (litany not listed, but I assume Mantra of Strength) 115

Sangunary Priest, Jump Pack, Warlord, The Armour Indomitus, Rites of War 120

'''No Slot'''

Vindicare Assassin 100

'''Troops'''

5 Assault Intercessors, Power Sword 100

5 Assault Intercessors, Power Sword 100

5 Assault Intercessors, Power Sword 100

'''Elites'''
9 Sanguinary Guard, power fists 315

3 Bladeguard 105

3 Bladeguard 105

Judiciar 85

'''Fast Attack'''

Outriders 135

'''Heavy Support'''

7 Devastators, 4 multi-meltas, cherub 211

3 Eradicators 120

3 Eradicators 120

'''Dedicated Transport'''

Drop Pod 70
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'''Vanguard Death Ball''': 1-3 units of 10 vanguard Vets with 5xthunder hammer/storm shields and 5xdual lightning claws or dual chainswords. Shove a Chaplain (with the strat to auto pass the +2 to charge litany when coming from DS) or Priest with JP and Icon of the Angel (for the 6+++ and RR charge) 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. Two veteran units, priest and chaplain cost around 900 pts so in a 2000 pts game you can still have a decent fire-base and support.

*'''Death Company''' seem to have been left in the dust by VVs and SG after losing the ability to take bolters.
*A Death Company Marine with JP and power sword costs 30 pts, the same as a Sanguinary Guard with an encarmine sword. This is an extremely bad thing, as the SG does 2D instead of 1D, can easily get buffed with +1 to hit rolls and gives enemies -1 to hit rolls. The same goes for power fists. Take Death Company either with the free chainsword or a thunder hammer!
*Another thing to remember is that for 25 pts you can either get one DC with bolt pistol and chainsword or one VV with dual lightning claws. Both get 5 attacks on the charge but the VV has one extra AP but no FNP. 
*For mobility, consider either Jump Packs or a Stormraven. Start with them on the board next to the Stormraven and depending on the enemy deployment either run them ahead or embark them immediately and fly.  
*As Death Company rely on support, consider taking Lemartes, Sanguinary Priest with JP or Librarian with JP for buffs. If in a Stormraven, you may also consider a Librarian Dread for Null Zone and anti-tank smacking.
*Some off the cuff math says that Death Company kill vehicles with thunder hammers better and more cheaply than TH/SS Vanguard although the VVs are harder to kill, especially when supported by a Priest.
*As an aside, I've ordered non primaris assault units from most to least expensive: Terminators (43pts for TH/SS), Death Company (40 pts for TH), Vanguard Vets (35 pts for TH/SS), Sanguinary Guard (30 pts for sword/axe), Death Company (25 pts bolt pistol, chainsword), Vanguard Vets (2 LC). 
**
Alternate take. While on a PT for PT comparison of above stats the above analysis is largely correct pt for pt DC are weaker. However, because of lemartes ability to reroll charges as deep strikers 2 units combined with lemartes can drop in and are twice as likely to get into combat. Sanguinary guard are a choppier unit but a choppier unit that fails the charge is still a sitting duck and not chopping. Now there are only a few other ways in the codex to get round this (librarian single unit), CP reroll, Company champion (foot model), Icon of the angel, Chaplain adding 2" to your charge with Litanies, can only be buffing one part of the battlefield. A single unit with forlorn fury can move 24" T1
and charge if you want something to smash your enemys screens and neither VV or SG can do that.
 
On unit comparisons death company are probably weaker, but if your going ultra competitive a mix offers significant advantages and a pure death company list can be just as viable when played the right way.





[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000 9E]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40000 Tactics (9E)]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Space Marines]]

[[Category: Blood Angels]]

{{Warhammer_40k_Tactics}}