Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Blood Angels (section)

==Formations==

===Baal Strike Force Detachment===
The Blood Angels' codex-exclusive detachment requires 1 HQ, 1 Elite, and 2 Troops, but it gives you an extra elite slot to use alongside the basic CAD.  Aside from the mandatory Warlord Trait re-roll, you also gain +1 initiative on the charge for all models in the army as long as there are no disorganized charges. Unfortunately, your troops lose objective secured, but you play Blood Angels for fast choppy Space Marines.

===Angel's Blade Strikeforce===
You get the customary WT reroll for using the Angels Blade, and everyone gets the '''Red Thirst''' special rule for added Initiative when charging. Furthermore, any unit which gets reduced to less than half strength (rounded down) gets the ''Zealot'' rule for the rest of the game, making your army a dangerous proposition for your opponent if he starts leaving half-eaten units all over the place.

====Command (0-5)====
*'''The Golden Host:''' The Sanguinor or Commander Dante and 2-5 Sanguinary Guard squads go out to pimpslap some bitches. The whole formation may assault on any turn they arrive from Deep Strike Reserves. The catch? They count as disordered if they do so. But at least they aren't standing around looking into the barrels of enemy gunfire for a turn. The disordered charge makes me sad. It removes your +1 to Initiative on the charge. Meaning they are effectively assault marines with AP3 weapons. Great to know an Ultramarine can assault more orderly than a Blood Angel. But its not like Blood Angels specialize in drop assaults or anything. 
**Alternate opinion: butthurt opinions aside (or including them as the previous comment brings us to this key comparison) one has to say that the golden host is superior to the skyhammer, from an assault standpoint: the skyhammer consists of assault marines, who have 1 attack base, whereas the sanguinary guards come with 2 attacks base. Furthermore, ALL sanguinary guard come already with power weapons (the skyhammer has to pay for SOME of them wielding said powerweapons) AND rock a 2+ save. This means that, one on one, this formation is better as the units on it (specially dante!) are of a better quality than the skyhammer's assault complement!. If you run Dante as warlord, you can do even more by not scattering at all! If you have some points to spare, deep strike a sanguinary priest with a jump pack and add him to the squad and watch as you shred everything with your +1 WS and FNP sanguinary AND if you have more points, put a librarian near by and try and do some invulnerable save spells.

*'''Leaders of the Angelic Host:''' 1 Terminator Captain or Captain Tycho, Librarian or Mephiston, Sanguinary Priest or Brother Corbulo with an optional Command Squad and Stormraven. You can take a lot of Sanguinary Priests like in ye olden days of yore. 

*'''Chapter Ancients:''' 3-5 Dreadnoughts (Furioso, normal, or Librarian) in any combination. They get an awesome rule where once per game in the movement phase, the Dreadnoughts ''may instead'' stand and shoot, or they may pile in and fight if already engaged. Furthermore, you are not required to have all dreadnoughts do the same thing. So some can move, some can shoot, while some can fight. Remember this is the movement phase, so is essentially a free phase of attacks and it doesn't stop them from shooting or fighting again later in the same turn. Blend some hordes with the DC dread or shoot the crap out of something with a dakka dread. It's important to note that you decide to use this special rule for the whole formation at the same time. So if you decide to use it but only one of the formations Dreadnought can actually use it because the others already moved then those won't be able to use it anymore for the rest of the game. Oh, and with the possibility of FIVE librarian dreadnoughts, you can throw some pretty significant psychic powers down the table, plus giving each of them a drop pod can be awesome.

====Core (1+)====
'''Overview'''Many people are complaining that the Angel's Blade Strike Force isn't as good as the Gladius or Lion's Blade. However, notice that the Command Benefits for the Gladius and the Lion's Blade require you to take two Demi Companies (a Captain and Chaplain, 6 Tactical Squads, 2 Assault Squads, and 2 Devastator Squads) to get those free transports. That is quite a lot of tax to pay to get roughly 280 Points in transports. The other complaint is that the Blood Angels' rules aren't as good as ''Objective Secured'', but what's the point of playing Blood Angels if you aren't rushing forward to use Furious Charge and the Red Thirst? If you want to sit on objectives then play Space Marines or Dark Angels since they have the rules that make that play style work. Again, you chose Blood Angels for fast choppy Space Marines. The Sons of Sanguinius Command Benefit supports taking aggressive ten-man units of Tactical and Assault Marines, who become even angrier the more bullets they eat.

*'''Battle Demi-Company:''' A near-copy of the Space Marine formation of the same name, with a few minor twists. You must take: A Captain with a Command Squad, or a Chaplain with a Furioso Dreadnought, 3 Tactical Squads, 1 Assault Squad/Bike Squad/Attack Bike Squad/Unit of Land Speeders, a Devestator Squad and a Dreadnought. In exchange, if this Formation is your Primary Detachment then your Warlord may re-roll his trait from the Blood Angels table, and the formation gains Red Thirst. You'll notice that these bonuses are exactly the same as those of the Angel's Blade Strike Force, so taking this formation as your Core effectively provides [Fail|no benefits whatsoever]. You should probably skip this Formation altogether and go straight to the next one.
*'''Archangels Battle Demi-Company:''' AKA First Company Task Force. One Terminator Captain, 2 Furioso Dreadnoughts and 5 units in any combination of: Vanguard/Sternguard Veterans/Terminators/Assault Terminators. Besides allowing a Warlord from this formation to re-roll on the Blood Angels table, all units in this formation gain Stubborn, make Reserve Rolls starting from the first turn (which can be re-rolled), and units only scatter 1d6 when arriving from Deep Strike Reserve. 
**'''Summary:''' Take this instead of the regular Battle Demi-Company. Re-rolling Reserves gives you some control over your forces, and if you're using this formation for smashing into your opponent as a forlorn hope, you probably don't care so much about the initial lack of Objective Secured. Worst comes to worst, at least you get some can slam down a load of Combis when you need (though it's still no Skyhammer).

====Auxiliary (1+)====
*'''Death Company Strikeforce:''' 3 Death Company Squads with a Death Company Dread and a Death Company Chaplain. All units in the formation gain +1 Attack while within 12" of the Chaplain for maximum [[rip and tear]].
**All Death Company units get Stormravens as Dedicated transports in this detachment.
*'''Archangels Orbital Intervention Force:''' 3 units of Terminators and Assault Terminators in any combination. They all must be in Deep Strike reserve, and roll as 1 unit. When they deep strike, the vanilla Terminators can fire twice in the shooting phase and the Assault Terminators can charge straight out of reserves, but count as a Disordered charge (so no Furious Charge bonuses for doing so). Still, the ability to assault out of reserves is freaking amazing! Take some TH/SS termies and murder big stuff. 
*'''10th Company Ambush Force:''' 3-5 units of Scouts or Scout Bikers. They all gain Stealth as long as they don't infiltrate, and all units have the ''Precision Shots'' special rule during Turn 1. Remember your Scouts get Furious Charge and the Red Thirst, so they become a decent threat in CC. 
*'''Lucifer Armoured Task Force''': one Techmarine, 3-5 Predator '''units''' ''(Regular and/or Baals)'' and 1-3 Land Raiders ''(Regular, Crusader or Redeemer)''. Everything gets ''Scout'' and all tanks become Fast, including the Land Raiders. Scouting Fast Land Raiders is a phenomenal delivery system for Hammernators. A Baal Pred or a Land Raider Redeemer already halfway up the field turn 1 does nasty, nasty things to infantry... 
*'''Stormraven Squadron:''' 2-4 Stormravens. Once per game at the start of any of their turns, they may nominate a target and fire ALL of their missiles at it simultaneously. This is an out of phase shooting attack and doesn't stop the vehicles from moving and shooting normally during its turn. Do you start to see the alpha strike pattern? 
*'''Rapid Assault Force:''' Not a formation outside of an Angel's Blade Detachment, so no bonus rules. Take 1-3 units of Assault Marines, Bikes, Attack Bikes or Land Speeders. That's right, take a Core Formation, then ONE Attack Bike for army-wide Red Thirst and Zealot at half strength. If Core choices were cheaper you could have spammed this for ASM to reminisce about 5th ed. 
*'''Fire Support Force:''' Similar to the Rapid Assault Force, take 1-3 units of Devastators, Vindicators or Whirlwinds. This one goes out to all you treadheads who always wanted to spam Fast Vindicators.

===Lost Brotherhood Strike Force===
Another detachment from Angel's Blade, this time revolving around the Death Company. 
*Gets the usual Warlord Trait Re-roll (on Blood Angels or Death Company), as well as the Red Thirst.
*All Death Company units get Stormravens as Dedicated transports in this detachment, or if fielding a solo DCSF.
*Also, after deployment they can be moved up to 6" like a mini scout move. This means that if using troops with Jump Packs you can deploy up to 12", then move the additional 6" and then jump the regular 12"( Rule states a unit can only redeploy 6 inches so no 12 inch scout), totalling a 30" move in the first turn. "Surprise, motherf**ker!" The same goes for bikes and land Speeders, obviously. A really useful means of getting across the battlefield quickly, especially if facing a shooty army.
====Command (1-3)====
*'''Death Company Command:''' Lemartes, Astorath, or a Death Company Chaplain.
====Core (1+)====
*'''Death Company Strike Force'''
====Auxiliary (0-5)====
*'''Archangels Orbital Intervention Force'''
*'''10th Company Ambush Force'''
*'''Lucifer Armored Squadron'''
*'''Stormraven Squadron'''
*'''Rapid Assault Squadron'''

===Dataslate===
*'''Blood Angels Battle Company''' - Captain and Chaplain, Command Squad, 6 Tac Squads, 2 Assault Squads, 2 Devastator Squads, 1 DC, and a Dread of the standard & Furioso Patterns. You not only get the Re-roll of WT and the +1 I on all charges, but you also shockingly get Objective Secured for the Tac Squads. Imagine the look of those yiffs' faces when you run this and get ObSec.
** This dataslate gets Objective Secured while the Blood Angels Demi-Company from the Angel's Blade Strikeforce does not. Run this with an auxiliary formation of your choice. Since you can have an army of formations and still be battle forged, the only things you're missing out on is Zealot when all squads dip below 50% however. Despite how this selection's limited, it's still better than running 2 Angel's Blade Demi-Company formations which do not get Objective Secured at all.
*'''The Carmine Host (Start Collecting! Blood Angels)''' - One Captain in Terminator Armour, one Tactical Squad and one Baal Predator. Once per game the Captain gives all units from this formation within 12" of himself Feel No Pain and It Will Not Die for a turn. Honestly rules wise this formation is pretty meh, but played against the other Start Collecting! sets it will hold up well enough. Model wise for starting a Blood Angels army this is what you'll want.
*'''Flesh Tearers Blood Rain Strike Force (White Dwarf 47)''' - A Death Company Squad, Vanguard Veterans, Assault Squad, a Furioso Dreadnought, and a Stormraven to cart them all in if you don't give absolutely everyone here a Jump Pack. Everyone gets Crusader, which is okay for this assault squad. If they ride the Storm Raven, anyone that disembarks can re-roll failed charge rolls and has Rage for that turn. If you don't use the Storm Raven as a transport, then all the little guys must Deep-Strike on the board as a single unit and get Fearless and Counter-Attack the turn they arrive.
*'''Angel's Fury Spearhead Strike Force (White Dwarf 47)''' - 3 Tactical Squads of 10 with Homers (for free) get 3 Stormraven Gunships to ride in. Not only do these guys get Objective Secured to shove it in the other Marines' faces, but they also let anyone (blood angel's faction) who Deep Strikes within 12" of them to not scatter and charge as soon as they arrive. And as a plus to this, the entire formation has to enter reserves and can drop in as soon as Turn 1 (with a re-roll to reserves).  All in all, a shockingly good take. An extremely expensive formation, both in terms of points as well as actual money.
*'''Angel's Wrath Intervention Force (White Dwarf 47)''' - A Vanguard Veteran Squad joins 2 Assault Squads, all with Jump Packs. The formation has to arrive from reserves, but if the Assault Squads arrive 6" from the Vanguard Vets, there's no scattering.  In addition, any suckers within 6" of them has to take an S4 AP- hit and are stuck in difficult terrain for the rest of the turn and the beginning of the next.  While this helps the team avoid getting charged like bitches and is a cheap setup since you probably have so many Assault Squads thanks to 4E/5E, but...this really can't do much to make them necessarily good.
*'''Strike Force Deathstorm (Deathstorm)''' - Put the Deathstorm Blood Angels units together.  Aside from everything else, you get Fearless (Or Counter-Attack for the DC since they have Fearless already) and once per game, Karlaen can allow everyone to re-roll to-wound one assault phase.  Helpful for the rape train of DC, but...they seem to be the least astounding of the pack.
*'''Space Marine Company (Apocalypse)''' - A Captain, Chaplain, Command Squad with Standard, and trio of Dreads have a choice.  If they're from a battle company, they must have 6 Tac squads, 2 Assault Squads, and 2 Devastator Squads.  If they're from a reserve company, they must have all 10 squads be of one type of the three.  All squads must have 10 men.
** A fluffy formation that really works depending on how you kit them out.  No matter what, they get an Orbital Strike Strategic Asset and Counter-Attack.  If they're within 12" of an objective, they get Stubborn.  If someone charges an infantry unit of this formation within 12" of them, they get the Tau Supporting Fire rule once per assault phase.
*'''Masters of the Chapter (Apocalypse)''' - A Chapter Master can take an optional Honour Guard squad along his 4-10 Captains of the same chapter.  Any of them can be replaced with a named Character where fitting.
** This is not an assault force; it's too small for that.  What it can do, though, is give you 3 additional assets on the first break and give them a 3++ on the turn they use their Finest Hour/Sons of the Primarch ability.
*'''The Black Rage (Apocalypse)''' - Astorath grabs 1+ Chaplains, 3+ Death Company squads (with one holding Lemartes) and 2-4 Death Company Dreads.  They can also get DC Tycho as well.
** This is a straight-up murder squad.  Their biggest boost is a bonus to their charge equal to the number of turns it is from turn 2 onwards.  Things will DIE here.
*'''Lucifer Armoured Task Force (Apocalypse)''' - Tycho, an Honour Guard, and 3 Tac Squads get 2 Predators, 2 Baal Predators, and 4 Land Raiders of any sort.
** The Land Raiders get Fast and Scout in exchange for a Hull-Point, so make sure you keep a good eye on them and their health while transporting the teams where they need to be.  Other than that, they're the same as normal.
*'''Wings of Sanguinius (Apocalypse)''' - JETPACKS FOR EVERYONE!  A Captain and a Chaplain get 10 Assault Squads of 10 and a choice of either an Honour Guard or Sanguinary Guard.  Oh, and optional Sanguinor.
** Since everyone's a jump unit, they all get Deep Strike and Descent of Angels, with the option to Deep Strike at ANY TIME THEY WANT.  THE SHIT.  They also all get Shrouded the turn they Deep Strike.

===Shield of Baal: Exterminatus===
*'''Blooded Demi-Company''' - Half a company: only 3 Tactical Squads, 1 Assault Squad, 1 Devastator Squad, 1 regular Dreadnought and one Captain '''or''' Chaplain. You also get a Command squad if you took a Captain, or a Furioso Dreadnought if you took a Chaplain. Unfortunately, you don't get Obsec, but you do get '''The Red Thirst''' (+1 Initiative), but basically if you're playing this you've built yourself the beginnings of an army right there so you might as well be using a normal FOC anyway since you can add more stuff to it.
*'''Archangels Orbital Intervention Force''' - Three Terminator squads (any type, any combination), when the formation arrives via deep strike they may run & shoot in the assault phase. A bit of a lack-luster attempt at pushing the new Terminator kits, especially since the Archangels FOC is so much better for deep striking terminators.
*'''Archangels Sanguine Wing''' - 2 x 10-man Vanguard squads (MUST have jump packs) and a 10-man Sternguard squad transported inside a Stormraven. They arrive together from reserve on a single roll, and you get a free single Power Weapon/Lightning Claw per model for the Vanguard Vets and a free Storm Bolter/Combi-Weapon per model for the Sternguard. [[FAIL|Thats it]], basically this saved you a few points on stuff you could do anyway. Actually, this can save you a whole ton of points (400) if you kit your squads out and makes them a whole lot more cost efficient, although the actual use of this formation is questionable.
*'''The Archangels''' - basically the Archangels FOC when it's almost completely filled up. You need 10 veteran/terminator squads (in any combination), a Terminator Captain (or Karlaen) a Terminator Chaplain and four Furioso Dreadnoughts. Doing this via the Archangels FOC would have left you two slots, but this is better, if a bit more demanding since you can't take anything less. You not only get the reduced deep strike scatter and re-roll reserves bonus, but your company also is ''Stubborn'' and units from it may be rolled from reserve on the first turn!
*'''Archangels Demi-Company''' - Half of the First company, only five squads and two dreadnoughts. Same as above but lose the ability to start rolling for reserves on the first turn.
*'''Strike Force Mortalis''' - 1 Chaplain and 1 DC Squad are mandatory, you may add up to 3 Dc Squads, 2 DC Dreads and 2 Stormravens. Aside from getting the Red Thirst, they get a watered down form of rampage, in which all DC get +1 attack if they are outnumbered. This will make your DC the las word in tarpit breaking, since now they get 6! (fucking 6!!) attacks per model on the charge if they are outnumbered, never again shall your expensive shit be locked in eternal combat.
*'''Dante's Avenging Host''' - Take a regular Blooded Demi-Company (so 5/6 squads and 1/2 dreadnoughts), mix in a pinch of Sanguinary Guard, one Sanguinary Priest, a single Librarian AS WELL as Mephiston, three Stormraven Gunships for luck and finish off with Dante on top. Your Demi-Company still has The Red-Thirst, but all non-vehicle units in the formation also gain Objective Secured AND the reduced Deep Strike scatter and the ability to re-roll failed reserves from ''Storm of Angels'' rule that the Archangels usually get. Essentially this is a slightly less model intensive alternative to a full battle company and combines the best rules of both except that only the redshirts get The Red Thirst.
**Also remember that as Warlord, Dante has Descent of Angels, which would further reduce the deep-strike scatter distance of Jump Infantry by another d6", meaning exact precision, but only for Jump Infantry since Descent of Angels doesn't apply to anything else in this formation (like drop pods), where the ''Storm of Angels'' rule does.
*'''Flesh Tearers Vanguard Strike Force''' - 3 Tac squads, 1 Assault squad a Furioso Dreadnought and a Vanguard squad to finish it off. They all get The Red Thirst, but whilst the Vanguard squad is still on table, everybody has Stubborn and may ignore any penalties for disordered charges, which does pretty well for the Assaults.
*'''Lysios Relief Force''' - Gabriel Seth, Tactical Squad, Vanguard Squad, Stormraven, 1 normal & 1 Baal Predator. They all get Crusader and must begin the game embarked on a transport (not a drop pod) if not already jump infantry. They all arrive as one roll on reserves. Not that impressive, but an easy formation to put together as an allied force.
*'''Defenders of the Cathedrum''' - Another simple one to put together, Terminators, Death Company, Assault Squad, 2 Tacticals and a Furioso. They get Counter-Attack and Stubborn, nothing fancy, but does the job in offense or defense.
*'''Strike Force Razorwind''' - Take the Lysios Relief Force, and combine it with the Defenders of the Cathedrum and you get this, each sub-formation keeps its own special rules, but in addition everyone within 12" of Seth is ''Fearless'' and you may roll for your reserves on turn one.