[RetiredLashBlitz]

So my brother is looking to get into 40k and asked me to help him create a BA army list for him as he enjoys their lore.

However, there's a problem. I have mostly run CSM and, while I still play, I haven't expanded my collection much in the past few years, which has forced me to predominantly run Lash/Oblits. As such, I have very little idea where to start for this BA army. As you will see, the Assault squads are set up in the exact same manner as I set up my plague marines.

So, with that out of the way, here is the army list. My goal was to create something scalable down to 1500/1000 points if needed, straightforward to play, and fun.

1820
HQ
Librarian

-Shield of Sanguinius
-

Librarian

-Shield of Sanguinius
-

Elites
Sanguinary Priest

Jump Pack


Troops
10x Assault Squad

Power Fist

2x Meltagun

w/o jump packs

-Land Raider Crusader


10x Assault Squad

Power Fist

2x Meltagun

w/o jump packs

-Land Raider Crusader


5x Assault Squad

Power Fist

1x Meltagun


5x Scout Squad

4x Sniper Rifle

1x Missile Launcher

Cammo Cloaks


Fast Attack
Baal Predator


Baal Predator


Heavy Support
Storm Raven
Twin-Linked Multi-Melta


Dreadnought


My intention is to have each Librarian run in a LR with the assault squads, the assault squad with jumpacks to be accompanied by the Sanguinary Priest and to ride in the Storm Raven (would something else be better suited to ride in here?), and for the Dreadnaught to also hitch a ride on the Stormraven.

Any feedback on how to spend that last 200ish points would be greatly appreciated, as well as any advice to make the list more effective overall. If the list is complete garbage, feel free to say so and, in that case, I'd appreciate any suggestions on a better direction to go in. Thanks!


Edit: Part of what I'm having the most difficulty with is deciding which upgrades to give people, which powers for the librarians, etc.

 

[Keith]

Sanguine Sword and Blood Lance are pretty nice powers for BA Librarians. Maybe put a beacon on the Storm Raven and deepstrike your Raiders to it lol.

 

[Creon]

I'd rather have the beacon with the scouts, myself. For the RaiderStrike! Too many librarians, not enough Sang. Priests. Should drop the 2nd libby and replace with 2 more priests, one in jump pack.

 

[search116]

I would drop one of librarians and add a reclusiarch, also don't take shield of sanguinus it fails should take the sanguine sword or fear of the darkness. Then there shouldn't be so many melta guns as it would be benefical to take flamers just incase of light infantry. Why are you takeing a power fist when you already have meltaguns if you want to take a power weapon stick with the power sword. Then there is the fact that you don't need the multi meltas on the storm raven as it already comes with blood strike missles.

 

[Dallas_Drake]

1820
HQ
Librarian

-Shield of Sanguinius
-

Librarian

-Shield of Sanguinius
-

Fine. But I'd go with Unleash Rage & Sanguine Sword, why? Well a 5+ is meh & why pay x amount for AV14 if you're going to need a 5+. Also, you can't shoot out of a LR so any shooting attacks are going to be used once at most.

I was ready to say how much I hate RAS in LRs but with Unleash Rage at least you might beat some units up, I still don't like them though (lack of inv. saves & power weapons you see).

Elites
Sanguinary Priest

Jump Pack

Fine. Though this guy would be best leading a larger unit. 5 man RAS is ok in a Razorback but not for much else IMO.

Troops
10x Assault Squad

Power Fist

2x Meltagun

w/o jump packs

-Land Raider Crusader


10x Assault Squad

Power Fist

2x Meltagun

w/o jump packs

-Land Raider Crusader


5x Assault Squad

Power Fist

1x Meltagun


5x Scout Squad

4x Sniper Rifle

1x Missile Launcher

Cammo Cloaks

Got to be honest, really not feeling this set up. Firstly, what is the role of your dual RAS in LRCs? Because they will not beat up any other serious hth units. Hammernators will eat them, Nobz will eat them, Berzerkers will eat them, I mean, they're fine to sit on objectives and give you scoring LRCs but I just think this combo won't work. People need to fear the LRC & it's contents, & with this load out they'll just ignore it. At least give the sergeant a power weapon.

5 man RAS is too small to make the Priest worth the points & the scouts are just meh. I know you want to have them charge out of the SR but they're not going to do much, even with FC & FNP. I'd look at the SR & either decide on something scarier or drop it & make the jump pack RAS 10 man.

Fast Attack
Baal Predator

Baal Predator

OK, but sponsons might be worth looking at. 1 weapon destroyed & you have a very expensive battering ram.

Heavy Support
Storm Raven
Twin-Linked Multi-Melta

Dreadnought

For this combo to work you need to get that Dreadnought swapped out for a DC/Furioso Dread.

I hope that's helped, I don't mean to be so critical but I want to be honest k:

Good luck!

Dallas

 

[Sanguinary Dan]

I agree with about 96% of Dallas_Drakes' comments, but I'd like to expand on a few points.

HQs
You need at least one I5 or better character in any BA army over 1,000 points. A Reclusiarch is a good HQ for that or even having Corbulo as one of your Sanguinary Priests could work. But a jump Chaplain is never the wrong choice for at least one HQ slot.

Shield of Sanguinius is a great power for one of your Librarians, not both. Even assuming you don't change the basic make up of the army Unleash Rage should be the #1 power for any Blood Angels Librarian. After that it's flexible. Hell, I've even seen Microwave Vital Fluids work against marine units to remove the hidden power fist. But you'll never go wrong with Blood Lance or Might of Heroes as a secondary power.

ELITE
No Furioso? Come now. :nono: They aren't just signature units, they're bloody effective and utterly terrifying to anyone without a ≥S8 in CC. Even a S8 power fist will bounce off 66% of the time, and since your average Marine Sergeant will only score one hit with his Power Fist (if he's lucky) that's pretty poor odds. Besides you haven't lived till you see the look on your opponents face when you use a Magna Grapple to drag his vehicle into assault range. Or vaporised his entire Genestealer brood with a Frag Cannon blast. Or turned a full squad into a gore splattered jigsaw puzzle with Blood Talons. Good times. Good times. :grin:

Sanguinary Priests. More and with power weapons. Jump Packs are optional. Not making good use of a WS5/A2 IC who has to Pile In/React to Assault before any regulars is not.

TROOPS
I don't like wasting large RAS. And sticking them in a Transport is a waste. Convert the units in the Land Raiders to no more than 5 man units. That way you can have all the advantages of the 35 point discount without hamstringing your primary scoring units. And don't bring 2 Crusaders. Make one of them a stock Raider and you've massively increased your ranged AT strength. The RAS-10 with Descent of Angels combined with a Sanguinary Priest are the meat and potatoes of 5e Blood Angels, IMO. Don't waste them in metal boxes that take a single lucky hit to stop.

Lose the toys on the Scouts. Except maybe the Camo Cloaks. A small Scout Squad with a dangerous Sergeant is good enough. If you want firepower bring Predators or Devastators. Or lose the Scouts completely and field more RAS.

FAST ATTACK
Sponsons. Dallas_Drake is dead right that you are short changing yourself without them. The odds that you'll be able or even want to move 7"+ every turn are effectively nil. And the difference between 4 dice and 10 when facing infantry in cover or large units is way more than just 6.

But don't forget about VAS either. Descent of Angels makes Heroic Intervention dramatically more effective. Sure the base unit cost with Jump Packs is 165 points. But what's it worth to you to crush a dug in or out of range enemy from blasting your scoring units to pieces? Knock out that evil Manticore battery that's hiding behind a building? Easy as pie. For 200 points you can field a squad with a Power Fist, 1 Lightning Claw and 2 Melta Bombs. Laugh that one off as it drops in your lap? Not likely.

HEAVY SUPPORT
I love Stormravens. I don't love Multi-meltas on Stormravens. At least not if you can afford the points for the Typhoon Missile Launcher. Multi-meltas make you want to close to ≤12" to get that extra die. That is a bad idea. Why give the enemy more chances to hurt you by closing into Melta Gun (S8 and AP1 are still scary even without the Melta rule) and rapid fire plasma range? If you can't find the points for the TML or if you really love MMs, fine. But I can't recommend the ability throw 6 S8 shots at targets 48" away highly enough. Not to mention moving 24" and firing 2 Krak or Frag Missiles into an enemy that though they were safe.

I'd suggest an Autocannon w/Lascannon sponsons Predator instead of any form of gunbunny Dreadnought. It's faster, better armored and hits much harder. Not that Blood Angels can't field shooty dreads effectively (coughRiflemancough), just that we have better choices in 9 out of 10 game situations. But these points are better used on a Furioso to be honest.
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There are about a million other possible ways to make it work and you'll probably find some none of us even thought of before you're thru. Regardless, I hope some of my unending stream of drivel will help your brother win and feel the righteous joy that comes from being a true Angel of Death.:wink:

 

[OIIIIIIO]

I agree with Dan all the way. Sang. Priests are the best force multiplier that the BA have. They are very cheap for what they do. In a recent game I had 2 squads of RAS each with a Sang. Priest and one with a Captain. I went after an Imp Guard army and every assault I crushed his guys and they ran away or died. Every shooting phase of his, he shot the hell out of them. He kept a count, in 4 turns he shot at the two squads with over 250 shots. He only killed 16 guys. Now that is survivability.

 

[RetiredLashBlitz]

Thank you all very much for your advice, particularly Dallas and Dan. As I mentioned I know next to nothing about BA so all of the criticism and detail is very much appreciated. I am out of town and don't have my codex with me but, with your suggestions in mind, here is what I loosely came up with.

HQ

Librarian
-Unleash Rage
-Sanguine Sword
-Jump Pack

I figure I'll slap this guy onto one of the Assault squads[/quote]

Elites

2x (3x?) Sanguinary Priest
-2xJump Pack

Again, these guys will be slapped onto assault squads, and/or add one to a VAS squad.

Furioso Dreadnaught
-(?)

This guy will hitch a ride on the SR though, without my codex, I have no idea how to outfit him.

Troops

10x Assault Squad
-Power Weapon
-2x Meltagun

10x Assault Squad
-Power Weapon
-2x Meltagun

10x Assault Squad (?)
-Power Weapon
-2x Meltagun

Are three of these too many? my chief concern was not having enough scoring units. Also, would it make sense to replace some of the meltaguns with flamethrowers?

10x Death Company
-Power weapons (?)

These guys will be in the SR.

5x Scout Squad
-5x Sniper Rifle
-Cammo Cloaks

I really like the idea of a cheap scoring unit that can scout/infiltrate, plus the sniper rifles are free.

Fast Attack

Baal Predator
-Sponsons (bolter?)

Baal Predator
-Sponsons (bolter?)

These guys are pretty self explanatory.

VAS Squad?

Maybe toss in a VAS squad as Dan suggested, possibly with a Sanguinary Priest. Again, without my codex, I don't know how to equip these guys (though likely just as Dan described) or even how many to put in this squad.

Heavy Support

Storm Raven
-EA (?)
-Typhoon Missile launcher

I could put a beacon on this guy or the scouts, or both.

Based on your feedback, I realized that the LR's might not have been the best choice. The original idea was to have them deepstrike, and the AV14 would nearly guarantee the Assault Squad wouldn't get shot up. My main concern is having my Assault Squads get blown up as soon as they deepstrike.

With any extra points, I would beef up the number of tanks with a predator or two, for target saturation purposes. If points become an issue (again, no codex) I'd probably cut a unit of RAS or maybe the scouts, however, removing the LR's is 500 or so points to play with. Ideally, I feel it would be fun and effective to have a wall of armor along with some strong CC oriented squads that can quickly get into combat.

Thank you again for your help and please let me know what you think.

 

[Dallas_Drake]

Don't run a Sang. Priest with VAS otherwise they'll lose Heroic Intervention. I say VAS should be all about knocking out armour & bogging down MCs/units. I'd go with a single Fist, a few melta bombs & then as many Storm Shields as you can realistically afford.

Dallas