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

====Special Characters====
*'''Astorath:''' Astorath has gained some fun special rules. His axe is now basically a relic blade, which on a 6+ to wound is a flat 3 damage. All BA within 6" re-roll hits in the fight phase and can use his leadership for morale tests; death company instead become fearless. Astorath now gains the very cool rule Mass of Doom, which you may activate once per game at the start of your turn. Roll 1D6 for each friendly BA infantry unit within 6". On a 1, the unit takes 1 mortal wound. On a 2-5, add 1 to all hit rolls made in the fight phase. On a 6, same as above but the unit also gains a 4++ invuln until the end of your turn. So, just before your big 15 man death company charges, you can probably give them 2+ re-rollable attacks for maximum rape, and you only kill one of them with odds 5/36, since they can FNP the mortal wound from the Mass. Combine this with Librarians, Sanguinary Priests, and Ancients to get the maximum bang for your berserker buck.
** Mass of Doom is no joke. Whatever Astorath says takes your Death Company WAY beyond enraged. Enjoy your renewed title as the premier alpha strike combo. Combined with the Red Thirst, your DC will become incredibly efficient in melee armed with power swords [which are now cheap as chips]. Against other MEQ, you're hitting and wounding on 2s and 3s with re-rolls and AP-3. With a priest or sanguinor (who also has deep strike), the buffs just keep building and building and building... there is really no comparison. Be careful, though, as you're going to wind up the same way as many iterations before, completely butchering the first target and getting left alone and likely facing lots of retributive firepower the next turn. Go play ultramarines if you want to be cool, calm, and collected.
** Unfortunately Astorath is shadowed by Lemartes ability. The ability to re-roll charges is too crucial for a Death Company list and its just too expensive and redundant to realistically run them both. Unless you're re-enacting the Diamor campaign. FOR SANGUINIUS!
** Double unfortunately, Mass of doom and Litanies of Battle need to be used at the '''beginning''' of your movement phase, but the deep strike happens at the '''end''' of the movement phase, so you can't use it on a unit that is deep striking this turn, nor can you use it while deep striking Astorath himself.
** Only 105 pts to run this Angel of Death.
** Thanks to Blood of Baal, Astorath has gained a serious buff in the form of the Master of Sanctity keyword. This brings with it the ability to take 3 Litanies of Battle and use 2 each turn. 
***Unfortunately bumped down to only knowing 2 litanies from the Litanies of Battle as of the 01/06/20 FAQ, but can still use 2 each turn.

*'''Brother Corbulo:''' Corbulo is a buffed Sanguinary Priest with some cool wargear.  14 points buys you the standard lack of ability to choose different wargear for a named character, but +1 BS with his Bolt Pistol and Grenades, +1W, and his melee gains +1S and -1AP due to him gaining +1A but swapping out his chainsword for Heaven's Teeth, resulting in no net change to attack volume.  His Blood Chalice grants 6+ exploding hit dice during the Fight phase to infantry and biker units within 6" (including himself, naturally).  He also has the Far-Seeing Eye, which grants a single re-roll on anything for Corbulo 1/turn, which you will generally want to apply to his Narthecium, either to heal more wounds (bringing his average healing up from 2 to 2.33) or increase his odds of raising the dead from 50% to 75%, but it's worth noting his re-roll is Cawl grade, not just on failures, so you can use it to guarantee his bolt pistol or krak grenade hits or wounds, or to raise his krak grenade's average damage from 2 to 2.33.  He has no jump pack. Like other priests, he is cheap and a genuinely good option.
**Like Mephiston and Tycho, this dude prefers to rock and roll without a jump pack. He does complement vanguard vets and death company rolling around in transports very well, as they can simply conga line to leave someone close enough to Corbulo to pick up the buff. His explosions work on ''all'' {{W40Kkeyword|blood angels}} units, so you can apply him to dreadnoughts, or even Stormravens if you're feeling silly.  He's also amazing paired with a Company Ancient, as his explosions happen during the Fight phase regardless of weapon type, giving you access to shenanigans like exploding the dice for inferno pistols.
**Makes a fine support unit for Aggressors. Makes them tougher, hit harder, and hit more often. Aggressors are well suited to foot slogging so no worry over transportation issues.

*'''Captain Tycho:''' Tycho changed a bit with the codex. Like usual, he is a captain with a master-crafted boltgun like other captains, but it has a meltagun strapped to it, and he has a 2+ save and doesn't like orks, gaining 1d3 attacks against them. He also got back Dead Man's Hand for Melee purposes: S User AP-2 D1, which is a lightning claw that doesn't re-roll wounds/a power sword with 1 worse AP/a power axe with 1 worse S.  Meh.
**Like his psycho version, his greatest advantage is a low points cost, paired with a durability upgrade; actually building him from a Captain is impossible, but his melee weapon is approximately as good as a chainsword (it's worse against anything with 0 or 1 penetrable save, such as Storm Shield MEQs or Genestealers, but better against anything with 2 or better, so is approximately a wash), and his ranged weapon is indisputably better than a combi-melta (a Captain with a Combi-Melta will run you 2 ''more'' points than Tycho), so if you were going to field a footslogging combi-melta no-melee-upgrades Captain, this is the way to go, but why would you do that?  His severe lack of mobility fails to impress.
**'''Tycho the Lost:''' Edgy Tycho now doesn't help his friends. He loses his re-roll aura (making him less accurate without external support), but gains the Black Rage for a 6+++ and +1A on the charge, and drops 25 points in cost - but why would you do that?  If your goal is paying HQ taxes cheaply, you can take a Sanguinary Priest for 1 point less, a Techmarine for 8 points less, or a Lieutenant for 10 points less, all of whom provide actual utility - and the Black Rage doesn't really impress on a model carrying a weapon that shabby. With the red thirst, black rage, and AP-2, he will surprise you. If you assault the same model you shot with your melta gun in the shooting phase you stand a good chance of killing it, unless its a vehicle or MC of course.
** Tycho the lost is a bargain no matter how you add things up; the problem is his questionable purpose in a BA army. Don’t use him as a frontline HQ or melee powerhouse, load him in a stormraven and place him behind your enemy or in an inconvient position. He will take dedicated effort for your opponent to remove him and will hamper their main effort. He’s great at snatching far off objectives. Also does a great job of preying on vehicles or other weaker units. He’s also a great distraction. Get creative with him.

*'''Chief Librarian Mephiston:''' The only ''named'' Primaris character for BA's, Mephiston is similar to last edition, with 6 Wounds and 5s for S, T, and A instead of 6s like the days of yore (or 4s for a standard librarian), but he makes up for it in other ways. His Sanguine Sword is now a Power Fist with no to-hit penalty; his other benefits include M7 (although he has no jump pack), BS2+ with his Plasma Pistol, a 2+ save, a 5+++ FNP, Denying 2 powers instead of 1, and knowing 3 powers instead of 2, but that last is particularly lackluster, as he can still only cast 2; you'll probably want to take Unleash Rage (or Quickening, if you want him to buff himself better [[derp|since THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE MEPHISTON!]]), Shield of Sanguinius, and Wings of Sanguinius on him, then only cast the third power when you really need to get him into position.  All of those benefits will cost you 57 points over a normal Librarian, or 52 more than a Primaris Librarian (which has the same W and A as him).
**Mephiston has an excellent statline, lots of melee power (combined with a Sanguinary Priest, he can hit at S12!), can buff himself and/or others well, and is priced decently. He makes a good HQ (although his warlord trait is lackluster). His only weaknesses are no way to generate anything better than a 5++, allowing basic power swords to hurt him, and no means to deep strike with other choppy units. otherwise, he can perform any HQ role quite well. He's in direct competition with a librarian dreadnought, given how much of his special character oomph was directed into making him beatstickier.
**'''Chief Librarian Mephiston (Legends)''': The now-outdated, non-Primaris version of Mephiston.  No point taking him even if allowed, as the new Mephiston is better ''and'' cheaper, unless you want to put him in an older transport.

*'''Commander Dante:''' Despite being the "I'm too old for this shit" character, Dante is still a beatstick. Coming in with the classic wargear of The Axe Mortalis (a relic blade that re-rolls failed wounds against {{W40Kkeyword|character}}s) and an Inferno Pistol, 2+, 4++, and a jump pack, Dante hasn't really changed much, but does have W6 and A6. A lucky lascannon can still kill him, but he is a whole bunch tougher against small or even medium arms fire. Dante loses out on his cool tactical and jump pack warlord rules and now has a 6" bubble of re-rolls of all failed to hits, which is... alright. But you're not taking him for those, you're taking him for the 6 inch bubble of giving morale rolls the middle finger from his built in Warlord Trait - meaning that whoever you select as his bodyguard won't break for shit - although it's worth noting you can put that trait on any unnamed Warlord you like. 
** Unleash Rage and Red rampage. 10 Attacks. Nice 
**For vanguards and assault marines, this is great, but since the most commonly used Dante bodyguard, Sanguinary Guard, get re-rolls to hit within 6" of your warlord already, this is kind of shit, so you probably don't want to take them - instead, take Company Veterans with Jump Packs, for the same job, or don't make Dante your Warlord.
***This boy is 25 pts cheaper as of Chapter Approved 2019 now only costing 150pts! He is not and should not be used like Calgar, Abbadon, a hive tyrant, an Avatar, etc. Dante's main draw is his exceptional alpha strike potential. For best results, consider not deep striking him. Instead work up the board normally using your character status as protection, or jump out of a stormraven. You need to damage your opponent as much as possible in one turn, that means getting very close in the movement phase, inferno pistol in shooting phase, successful charge in assault phase with those juicy 6 attacks and ideally red rampage for D3 more. Lower their damage bracket so they cant strike back as hard. If everything goes as planned, he is a top notch character assassin. Otherwise, Dante just doesn't have the staying power of other models in his weight class. 
** Take a vanguard detachment with Dante and back him up with three standard dreads packing lascannons w/ fist/storm bolter (heavy flamer if you must). March them up the board, they will take a beating and will protect Dante, likewise they will throw out a lot of dakka thanks to re-roll all hits. Once you get close Dante can jump ahead, or swing around to slay the most opportune target, and dreads will dish out some hurt with all their re roll fists hits. 
** Alternatively, he's a great buff for a gun-line.  Have him sit back with several lascannons and pop enemy vehicles, re-rolling all misses, and let Lemartes and DC charge in and wipe out everything else.

*'''Lemartes:''' Lemartes is still the mad-capped berserker that we all know and love, with some differences in this edition. Gone is his crazy approach to getting wounded and getting angrier, but his wounds have gone from 2 to 4, and his base attacks are a respectable 5. As Death Company are no longer fearless (disappointing), you do have the option to use Lemartes’ Leadership of 9 (immunity until 4 models drop) if within 6”, should your crazy marines need to take a leadership test; note that Lemartes ''can't'' buff non-Death Company, unlike Astorath or normal Chaplains. The best thing here, though, is that Lemartes allows re-rolls of failed charges for Death Company, on top of providing them with re-rolls to hit in the Fight phase (which, again, he can't provide to non-Death Company). Quite handy when Jump Pack assaults will be at least 9” away to start with.  At only 100 points, this Death Company deep strike bomber is a bargain.
** Blood of Baal changes things up a bit. He still has Black Rage due to an FAQ put out on 01/06/20 and now knows Litany of Hate/1 Litany of Battle/Invocation of Destruction and can recite 1 each turn, on top of his natural aura to re-roll DC charges and melee hits. Consider taking Mantra of strength to turn him into even more of a beatstick.

*'''The Sanguinor:''' Our special snowflake is now a very pointy snowflake. Basically a copy of Dante for 20 points less now (since he dropped 20 and Dante dropped 25), with -1 wound (he is affected by his own aura, so his attacks match Dante's unless they're together, in which case Dante pulls ahead by 1), but his weapon is AP-4 vs Dante's AP-3 (and doesn't re-roll wounds against anything), and he retains his aura of fervour, granting +1 attack to BA infantry units within 6" (but ''doesn't'' grant re-rolling misses, making him better at buffing melee but worse at buffing ranged), making him a natural fit with Sanguinary Guard/Jump Company Veterans/Vanguard Veterans as warlord. He may also fall back from combat and still charge that turn, and is wearing a Death Mask. All this for noticeably less than Dante. So yeah, if you want a slightly less tough, more/differently buffy guy, pick the Sanguinor; otherwise, if you want a more focused killer, Dante is your man.
** Pretty solid warlord, and will make power fist sanguinary guard quite gnarly. A better take over Dante unless you really want an inferno pistol and/or improved 1v1 combat ability
** He does very well with Sanguinary guard... but also makes death company alarmingly good. With +1 A, they will hit 6 times with chainswords, or 5 times with power swords OR thunder hammers. Hey, where is the chaplain?
** Don't forget to throw his grenades, its not like they will kill much, but i`d be a shame to waste his awesome ballistic skill.