Raw Dogger is back with another Blood Angels tactica! Reader be ware, Raw Dogger uses adult language and aims for the jugular with most of his articles. As always check out the tactics corner for more tips and tricks!
Here we are again, another blog post about everyone’s favorite 6th edition whipping boy the Blood Angels. Like a beaten spouse I find myself returning to my beloved space vampires no matter how many times I get my shit kicked in. They don’t mean it! It’s not their fault their units are completely over-costed and under performing. They’re just having a hard time and I won’t give up on them that easily. The root problem at this time with the Blood Angels codex is that the units that they share with newer codices such as Codex: Space Marines and Dark Angels are dramatically more expensive than their newer counterparts. Throw in some inane GW 6th edition updates such as making Commander Dante initiative 1 and Mephiston’s sword AP 3 and the play-ability of the army takes a further plunge down the 6th edition shit hole.
But all is not lost. The Blood Angels still have a lot of powerful units and combos that mesh well with the current tournament meta. The key to winning with the Blood Angels is the play to their strengths. You have to use their unique units and special rules. Let’s take a quick look at the units and special rules that make the Blood Angels playable in the current edition.
Assault Squads in Drop Pods – Drop pod armies are all the rage with the recent release of Codex: Space Marines. Did you know that Blood Angel assault squads get Drop Pods for free? That’s real talk, son. Take two special weapons and a storm shield on the sergeant and call it a day.
Baal Predators – What’s not to like about fast AV 13 tanks that spew molten death on any unit unfortunate enough to get in it’s way? While many people lament the death of vehicles in 6th edition, many armies still struggle with AV 13 or above. Take away the detrimental glancing chart from the 5th edition and the Baal Predators can continue to shit in your opponents face far longer into the game. I like the standard load out of the twin-linked assault cannons with heavy bolter sponsons but the case can be made for the Flamestorm Cannon with heavy flamer sponsons.
Death Company – These crazy fuckers can still get the job done. Throw them in a drop pod with a Chaplain and terrify your opponent.
Mephiston – This guy is still the ultimate bad ass. An infantry sized monstrous creature, Mephiston can dominate an entire section of the battlefield by just doing what he do. And what he do ain’t very nice. He is incredibly fast even without his psychic wings and hits like a ton of bricks. You really need to use him as a monstrous creature hunter and even with his AP3 sword if a Riptide fails one of his 2+ armor saves Mephiston can instant kill them. Still good after all these years.
Brother Corbulo – I’ve started putting Brother Corbulo in almost every Blood Angel list that I write. What he really excels at is being a tank with his 2+ Feel No Pain. I like putting him in a drop pod with a Sternguard squad or running him with Assault Terminators. His Far-Seeing Eye ability is also incredibly useful for it’s ability to kind of negate the random shit that can lose you the game. He also gives any units within 6” Feel No Pain and Furious Charge.
Storm Ravens – Codex: Space Marines and Grey Knights get these but the Blood Angel’s Raven gets Blood Strike missiles which give them a leg up on flyer and vehicle hunting.
Fast Vindicators – Moving 12” and firing the Vindicator Cannon can really put the hurting on unsuspecting chump bitches. Make sure to take a Storm Bolter and a Hunter Killer Missile to make it harder to take off the big gun.
Dreadnoughts – Blood Angels are the top dog when it comes to the sheer amount of Dreadnoughts they can field. With the advent of hull points in the 6th edition dreadnoughts are slightly better with their overall damage output.
The trick to winning with the Blood Angels is to play to their strengths and use units that you can’t just get cheaper by playing newer, shinier marine codices. A lot of people will try and tell you that assault is dead in the 6th edition. While it certainly has become harder to get into actual hand to hand combat, the fact is that the top tier armies at the moment completely break down when you get into them. You have to over load them with your fast moving, hard hitting units. Get Mephiston running up a flank while drop pods full of pissed off assault marines drop right into their fucking throats.
Blood Angels in the 6th edition work how they’ve always worked. You hit the enemy hard right at the word go and you don’t stop until you’ve got your boot on their neck.
Does the 6 predator list with assback scorers work since everyone use’s st 7 shooting ?
I love the assault squads in pods, for 125 points you can get two hand flamers and a flamer + frag or krak grenade and three bolt pistols.
Or for the more hilarious, 140 points for 2 melta pistols and 1 melta gun etc in a unit, and those two pistols can precision shot
even just regular assault marines aint bad, combat squading for 4 melta shots that can deep strike 1d6 scatter or 4 templates, while leaving behind some mobile scoring isn’t terrible, or leave them together with a priest if you are just running at an army or fighting horde like nids or orcs.
I don’t agree with the last comment about hull points and dreads… hull points pretty much killed off AV12 dreads. AV13 though are still nice.
Blood Angels also has some of the meanest vehicle lists out there. I mean, you can fit 6 preds and two Razorbacks in a 1000p list ffs. O.o
He wins one game against Reece’s Orks…
Haha, and it goes directly to his head!
It was a big win. I like this article and approve.
Actually, Blood Angels can be quite good. One of the good players in my local area has been on a months-long spree at tournaments with his essentially null-deployment angels. At 1750, he takes 2 ravens with dudes in them, mephiston, and IG with a vendetta, dudes and marbo. He has it worked out so that he only has to deploy meph at the beginning of the game. It actually started out as a joke list, and then he discovered it was actually a great anti-meta list, and has been winning with it ever since.
Raw Dogger has been doing well with them.
I pretty much only use Blood Angels for competitive tournament play, and I usually expect to go 3-1-1 or 4-1-0 (WLD).
I don’t ally and I don’t spam.
here’s a sample list that has done well for me:
Dante
3 sang priests, 1JP+PF, 1JP, 1 plain
sang guard with 2 swords, 2 axes, 1 fist, banner and 1 sword guy has an infernus pistol
1x assault squad with 2x flamers, PF for sarge
1x assault squad with 2x melta guns, PF for sarge
aegis defense line with quad cannon
dev squad with sarge and 4x lascannon (usually sarge uses the quad)
dev squad with sarge and 4x plasma cannon
3 x multi meta attack bikes (3 single squads)
jump sang priest goes with sang guard and dante
fist jump sang priest goes with the assault squads who usually stay near to each other
plain sang priest joins plasma cannon devs (for overheat help and fnp for las devs too)
both dev squads behind aegis, sergeants in b2b with quad (can swap who uses it) – great 1-2 punch, las and quad together usually crack open transports and if they explode the contents are huddled together for The follow up plasma shot 😉
oh, the melta bikes are great for cracking transports too
with 2x heavy and 3x fast the build is handy for big guns never tire and the scouring.
This is the first truly positive and not-entirely-gloomy tactics guide for the Blood Angels that I have found. Seeing as how I am a new player and just blindly sunk over two hundred into a blood angels army (my cousin tricked me into buying a bunch of 40k units and i like the BA Lore) this fills me with hope that I wont have to convert it into Space Wolves or some chapter that i haven’t researched and consider second-rate. Why do all of the chapters have the worst lore ever? I mean, the Space Marine codex was basically just an Ultramarines codex, which pissed me off, and every other chapter has awful backgrounds except for that rare few that I have yet to find besides the Space Wolves(I’m honestly tempted to switch to Age of the Emperor rulebook so that I can play as the Dark Angels, which are fragging awesome in Heresy-era but suck in 40th millenium, but i did just sink 200 dollars into the Blood Angels). I don’t know why the background matters so much to me. Well, i just wasted five minutes writing this, I think I’ll go find something else to spend my time on while I wait until I get tired (ps, whatever you do, do not get the blood angels battleforce, you’ll be better of just getting the units piecemeal).
Very happy that you got some good info and some encouragement!
Reecius, may I ask what is your point of view on Blood Angels Vanguard Veterans these days? As the only units in the game (to my knowledge) that can still deep-strike & assault, are they worth taking & using?
I’ve been trying them out in a squad of 5 with a build that’s all jump-packs, a sergeant with an axe glaive encarmine, one or two (depending on points) marines with a storm shield, and two or three marines with melta bombs. If points allow, I add melta-bombs onto the sergeant then the shield-bearer/s. I’ve yet to use them against an intercepting Tau force or a force using a Knight, and to date they’ve wreaked havoc in three or four games to date and dying utterly once to failing a 7″ charge roll against a dreadnought armed with a plasma cannon and failing both storm-shield saves the following turn.
I am interested in thoughts & feedback on how to best use them, and overall worth of use. 🙂