Battle Report: Bloody Wolves vs. Tyranids - 5,000pt Game at Warhammer World

The report of my death was an exaggeration - Mark Twain

Well it's been a while at least! There's a reason I haven't been blogging about 40K recently is because I simply haven't been playing it! Part of that is a result of having a second child but the major factor is the number of excellent board games I now play instead. I'll have to post a top 10 or something similar soon so you can see what I've been playing.

Meanwhile we kept our annual(ish) tradition of Matt, Jamie, Dan and I meeting up at Warhammer World for a big game. This time round it was Matt and I versus Dan and Jamie and we decided to have a 5,000pt game. Space Wolves and Blood Angels (Bloody Wolves for those of you who remember our Doubles efforts) would take on Tyranids in a modified version of Relic. There'd be a central objective as usual but there'd also be five teams three of guardsmen to represent the PDF running from the Tyranids. The Adeptus Astartes had come to liberate the planet from the Tyranids but the PDF had vital intelligence crucial to their efforts. The guardsmen would advance every turn back towards the Imperial lines and could only be killed in combat. Each surviving unit was worth points to us and any unit wiped out was worth bonus points to the Tyranids. We aren't a fan of all the complicated stratagems so decided to stick to the rulebook ones but without the restriction of one per phase.

Battle took place on the excellent J'migan Bridge board which we played lengthways to give us more close quarters fighting. The forces deployed on either side of the dry river bed and the Imperials would be taking the first turn. We somewhat foolishly decided just to pile headlong towards the Tyranids with the bulk of the Space Wolves force. The Knights and BA predators hung back to give artillery support. The early volleys managed to take down the tervigon, a venomthrope and a handful of gaunts. I was also able to rack up some wounds on the tyrannofex and the harpy. On the other side the Blood Angels weren't faring so well, the tactical squad that drop-podded in barely managing to kill any genestealers.

Speaking of 'stealers, Jamie used his large horde of them to tear open the grey hunters' rhino. Fortunate for me that he did since otherwise there'd have been no escape for them. As it was I managed to just squeeze them into a gap to allow them to disembark. Meanwhile the tyrannofex sprayed acid at the already damaged stormwolf and brought it crashing down. Fortunately the Wulfen survived (with help from some re-rolls) and we spent some command points to allow them to attack and kill the harpy before it could swing. Elsewhere the genestealers made short work of the drop pod tactical squad.

It didn't go well for them after that though as the combined fire on the left flank was able to wipe them out, followed by the screamer-killers, taking out the major threat on that side of the battle. The Wulfen charged headlong into the termagants to stop them firing off their weapons, killing them in great swathes. Njal and his terminator brethren piled out of the land raider to go to work on the other gaunts, broodlord and carnifexes. The fire from the knights made short work of the tyrannofex and remaining venomthropes. The most dramatic events were taking place on the bridge itself though. The death company dread managed to take out old one eye only to be killed by the broodlord and Swarmlord, the resulting explosion damaging both in return. This left the blood claws (who'd recenlty left their razorback) and the knight warden to deal with the wounded tyranid monsters. Dante and his assault squad arrived behind the tyranid lines but Dante failed his charge. Astorath and his tactical squad did even worse and both failed to make it into combat.

At this point we were feeling pretty good but there was an ominous pile of Tyranid models that had yet to be deployed. Two trygon primes, a hive tyrant,  some raveners, deathleaper and three lictors all now entered the fray. With the genestealers tackling one of the armiger helverins too it looked like we'd soon be surrounded. Unfortunately for Jamie and Dan, most of their reserves failed to make it into combat. This also resulted in them taking some unnecessary wounds to overwatch. This was probably the tipping point of the battle. The Imperial firepower was able to clear out the trygons and lictors keeping the predators and remaining helverin safe. The blood claws dispatched the genestealers on the bridge and the warden made short worth of the swarmlord and broodlord after some poor luck on the invulnerable saves.

Meanwhile the wulfen continued to cut swathes through the hordes of nids before them, downing a warrior brood before smashing into the zoanthropes. The terminators struggled against the carnifexes but not before Njal had managed to down the broodlord with Smite. The assault squads finally started to do their job cleaning up some other warriors and more gaunts. Dante wasn't so lucky though as the hive tyrant made him look silly. In fact, the way Jamie was rolling his invulnerable save probably extended the game for a good hour! He eventually succumbed to the warden though and by this point it was essentially game over. The remaining firepower mopped up the last of the genestealers and carnifexes. Deathleaper had one final stand against the terminators though, killing Njal but falling to the pack leader's hammer. With time running out, we decided to wrap it up there. It was a clear victory for the Imperium.

 

Conclusions
I have to say I enjoyed that more than I thought I would. There's nothing quite like 40K for creating those epic scenes of two mighty armies clashing. It helps a lot when you're playing on beautiful scenery with painted armies obviously. There are some awesome looking photos from the game. The scale is always fantastic and it still creates those moments when a unit achieves something you wouldn't expect it to. I'll happily play the odd game now and then.

However, it hasn't reignited my passion for the game. We weren't rushing but it still took us six hours or so to get through the game. Yeah, we could've played a couple of games with smaller armies but the big draw was the scale of it and being able to play doubles. I had really high hopes for 8th edition. When we went to Coventry for Warhammer Fest, just before the launch of 8th, I remember listening to the speakers and thinking, "they finally get it". Fast forward to now and I think the game has a lot of the same problems creeping back in. When the indexes first came out we had a very streamlined game, albeit with a lack of flavour. We're now back to a similar level of silliness with stratagems, faction abilities, etc. In 5th and even 6th edition, I could show up to a tournament, look at my opponent's army and know exactly what to expect. That just isn't the case now. Only someone who lived and breathed the game (and played several times a week), could hope to remember all the combos of armies, stratagems, etc. That takes away a lot of the strategy and puts too much emphasis on list building over generalship.

I was glad, therefore, that we didn't use any of the faction stratagems. Even so, all the re-rolls and modifiers still make things complicated. This is a problem GW created by sticking with a D6 system. I'd hoped we might see a return of D4, 8, 12, 20, etc. That would give more options for differentiation between units and weapons without having to add re-rolls. There's also some of the same nonsense that has always plagued 40K. Why would a unit of marines sit in their rhino, surrounded by genestealers and just let them tear the vehicle apart killing them in the process. They'd throw open hatches and fire off their bolters or slam the ramp open, squashing a couple of aliens and come out guns blazing. It's moments like that which ruin the flow of the game and detract from the willing suspension of disbelief. It's like the moment in a film where the hero makes a miraculous recovery or similar, jarring against the immersion of an otherwise entertaining movie.

There are a lot of positives to be taken from the current "new GW" though. They're engaging the community in fantastic style, something I never thought I'd see from them. Not only that but they're taking ownership of the competitive scene and tinkering with rules to try to keep certain builds from dominating.

All that being said, it just isn't a good enough game to take my attention away from the huge array of excellent board games that are frankly much more enjoyable. Like I say, I'll try to post up some reviews, top 10s, etc. In the meantime, I've put quite a chunk of 40K stuff up on eBay to cut down my collection significantly. I've amassed quite a pile of Tyranids too as I'd intended them to be my new army for 8th. I still enjoy the hobby side of things so they might get painted up. Facing them in this game has definitely made me want a fully painted horde. Just a shame they won't see battle much.

Battle Report - Astra Militarum & Blood Angels vs. Orks (1,750pts) - Warhammer World

Well, I fully intended this battle report to have been up last night but that also involved me writing it on Wednesday night which just didn't happen. Anyway, here it is, better late than never.

In order to celebrate GW's 40th anniversary we decided to have a relaxed game of 40K during our visit last Sunday. We went for a clash between the combined might of Matt's AM and Scott's BA against my Ork horde. We were sharing our army lists in advance so that we could try to make it a reasonably close game rather than a white wash. This is something I've talked about before but I really think it makes for much better games. We don't get many opportunities to play these days so having a totally one-sided affair just feels like a waste. Anyway, Matt and Scott would have 875 pts each to fend off my full 1,750 pt mob of Orks.

Matt's guard force consisted of an infantry platoon including mortars and the obligatory PCS and infantry squads. To that he added some stormtroopers, ratlings and an aegis line with quad gun (since he knew I'd be bringing a couple of flyers. The mission we devised would see a beleaguered Imperial world under assault from the greenskins. The PDF had requested aid from the Blood Angels and would need to hold a key bunker long enough for their power armour clad allies to rescue them (or else avenge their deaths). The Blood Angels in question consisted of two 5-man tactical squads in pods, a furioso dread in a pod, some jump pack death company with a chaplain and a squad of terminators.

Facing them was the Ork horde consisting a warboss in mega armour leading a mob of 20 boyz on foot, a weirdboy leading a second score of boyz, a big mek sporting an SAG joined by lootas and 3 mobs of boyz in trukks each with a klaw-wielding nob. They'd be joined by a squadron of three deffkoptas, a dakkajet, blitzabommer and finally a morkanaut with KFF containing 3 meks and 3 burnas (that was the closest they'd let me come to a Stompa!).

We didn't get much choice over the table so it probably had a bit more scenery than we'd like but it certainly made the game more immersive to playing on a full table of terrain (yeah, yeah I need to get mine done!). We'd planned on a central bastion or similar for the PDF to defend but in the end we chose a Firestorm Redoubt. The board featured multiple gun emplacements but we reasoned that a squig had chewed through a crucial power cable so they'd be inactive (had we put more thought into it we could've had some system where Matt and Scott could roll to see if any came back on line but nevermind).

The PDF deployed surrounding the redoubt with the PCS inside the structure. The greenskin horde could then deploy anywwhere that was 24" or more away from an AM unit. All reserves would be guaranteed to arrive on turn 2 (i.e. all the BA but also the Ork flyers). The Ork objective would be to control the structure at the end of the game (which we gave AV12 in case it came to that).  You can see the deployment in the picture on the right.

There was no grand strategy on my part. I like to keep Orks as Orks and just charge headlong into combat without much thought of the consequences. The mek was a little more kunning than brutal though and kept his lootas at range to pound the "stoopid oomies" from range.

Turn 1

As the early morning mist cleared the PDF finally saw what they'd heard coming in the night. The guardsmen took aim and launched an opening salvo at the xenos scum but still bleary-eyed from a troubled night's sleep they could only damage one of the trukks and bring down a couple of the onrushing boyz.

Knowing they wouldn't be able to sink their teeth into their human enemies yet the Orks simply charged at them as fast as possible. The morkanaut pilot didn't seem to get the message though and chose to fire his weapons rather than keep pace with the rest of the boyz. That proved to be pretty ineffective too as just a handful of the humans fell. The weirdboy was able to summon the power of the warp but his 'eadbanger missed it's mark and failed to bring down the guardsman carrying a flamer in the nearby squad and he wasn't able to wield enough warp energy for da krunch.

Turn 2

The Blood Angels came tearing down through the clouds in their drop pods to aid their besieged allies. Two pods slammed down bringing a tactical squad and the dreadnought in close to the weirdboy's mob. The marines and dread both opened up with a torrent of promethium which reduced the mob into little more than a gang. The guardsmen managed to destroy stop all of the trukks.

Meanwhile, the terminators teleported in but in the rush to save the crucial building they missed their target and would need to cover ground to get to grips with their foe. The death company and chaplain came in behind the lines in order to counter-charge once the first wave of guardsmen had been slain in the inevitable onslaught. Finally the last drop pod brought the tactical marines down in front of lootas and allowed them to cut half the mob down with bolter fire.

The onslaught came on quickly with the warboss declaring a Waaagh! This would not only help the boyz get into combat but also give the flyers a boost to their firepower. Speaking of which, the bommer came in low over the squad shooting the lootas but missed the mark with its bomb meaning only a single marine died. That would be all it did too as the quad gun made short work of it after the over-confident Ork pilot made no attempt to avoid the incoming fire.

The dakkajet also hit the squad with all of its supashootas but left a couple of marines after most of its shots failed to penetrate the marines' power armour. Meanwhile, the mobs clambered out of the wreckage of their trukks and charged into the guardsmen killing the squads on the front line. The Morkanaut advanced dispensing its cargo of burnas who incinerated a full unit of humans.

The weirdboy also frazzled three of the tactical squad with a bolt of psychic energy before he and the remains of his mob charged in to finish off the remaining two. Rather than target the closest threat the mek directed his lootas to hit the guardsmen again and was at least able to damage the quad gun before the morkanaut could finish it off along with some of the men manning it.

Turn 3 onward

The dreadnought slammed into the warboss' mob but in its zeal for combat it neglected to fire its flamer again which proved to be costly. It couldn't cut down the boyz quick enough to stop the warboss from tearing it apart with his power klaws over the next two combat phases.

The death company executed their counter charge plan to perfection, cutting a full mob of Orks down before they knew what hit them. The fire from the remaining guardsmen was enough to cut a second mob down to size and cause a third to flee. The death company then turned their attention to the deffkoptas and cut them down too. The warboss' mob returned the favour though and crushed the death company and its chaplain, thanks mostly to the warboss himself and his klaws.

A combination of the retreating mob regrouping at the right moment and fire from the lootas meant the remaining tactical squad was dealt with but not before the mek was killed. The morkanaut gunned down the remaining stormtroopers after the terminators had killed what remained of the weirdboy and his mob. The final mob from the trukks was able to kill off the ratlings and help deal with the mortars too. This left the morkanaut and warboss stood outside the structure containing the PCS (one of which had been killed by an earlier glancing hit from the deffkoptas.

With empty drop pods the only remnants of the BA force, the Orks simply needed to enter the base and kill off the occupants but in typical Orky fashion (and because I thought it was a better way to end the game), they chose to smash the structure apart with their S10 fists. I think we'll call than an Ork victory! WAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!

Conclusion
Once again, our system of planning our armies together meant that we ended up with a very close game which we all really enjoyed playing. I think my battle report has made it seem a lot more one-sided than it actually was. There was a point when the AM had taken out all of the trukks and the BA had incinerated a good chunk of my Orks and I thought I wouldn't actually get into combat. Having not played Orks in a while though I'd somewhat forgot how their relentless assault works. You lose a big pile of boyz early on but what's left smashes through the opposition. It's kind of the opposite of how Tau work, you feel like you're cutting your open down in great swathes but as soon as the combats start you wish you'd killed more sooner!

I'd planned the list with the intention of keeping plenty of the Orky flavour of randomness that I love about the army. Sadly, I never rolled a double on the SAG, got decent powers with the weirdboy but barely used him and the blitza-bommer died a premature death after getting "just like dis" on its first bomb. They basically proved to be more reliable than I hoped but it still felt like a very orky game.

I thoroughly enjoyed using Orks for a change having played with Tau quite a bit recently. They're great fun to use as you don't feel like being too tactical is the right thing to do. I really think Mob Rule is a great rule despite its many detractors. Remember that the old rule only worked for 10+ mobs so most of the time you weren't getting Fearless anyway when using trukk-sized mobs. This way you might lose a few boyz but they'll stay in the fight longer. I think having Fearless would've been OTT since they took away the penalty kills in combat.

Finally, it was the first time I really got to use the morkanaut to any great effect. It probably wasn't a fair choice since Matt and Scott didn't have much to deal with AV13 but it would've soon died to the dread or terminators. You feel like it's got a decent amount of firepower but then remember the BS2 and Get's Hot and soon it doesn't look so powerful. Still, it's a low-AP threat to terminators and the like. Dropping off some burnas into the guardsmen was satisfying too.

In typical fashion for me, this game makes me want to paint Orks again despite saying at the start of the year that they probably wouldn't get a look in. I'm very tempted to pick up some stormboyz too despite promising myself I won't be getting anything new. Mind you, I am planning on selling quite a bit of stuff so I'll probably have enough money for some....

I really must get on with sorting the Double Trouble details out. The next post will cover the deployment types and custom Tactical Objectives (the first draft before playtesting at least). I'll also cover a couple of things that have come up in comments and emails regarding army selection.

Bringing Back the Fun

Matt and I have managed to get a couple of games in over Summer since he's on his six week holidays from teaching (git). We played a game with his Necrons against my DE in a Fluffageddon test game and basically called it on Turn 2. It was totally miserable. I know no-one enjoys losing but seriously it just felt impossible. Obviously the Fluffageddon rules don't exactly help DE but still, it was probably a low point in our 40K gaming. We decided that for our next session we'd do something we hadn't before and actually discuss our armies with each other in advance. Normally we're practicing for a tournament or testing things out for Blog Wars but since I've not changed much for BWX and we aren't booked into any tournaments we could actually have some friendly games.

We decided to play a classic matchup of Tau versus Blood Angels (we played this a lot when we got back into 40K in 2009) and then a game of CSM vs Space Wolves. We were deliberately toning our lists down from the usual tournament standard and taking units we wouldn't normally use and conversely dropping some we normally would. That resulted in some classic looking lists. My Tau were pretty mech heavy with a few suits and the SW army consisted of Grey Hunters in Rhinos and Terminators in a Land Raider!

Well, you know what? Those were two of the best games of 40K we've had in a long time! The BA vs. Tau game swung dramatically as ever with Tau cutting down swathes of marines early on and the BA hitting back hard in combat. I was screwed a bit by the tactical objectives I pulled out (we used the BW ones) but basically I had all my luck early on and Matt's came in towards the end when it mattered. Dante was a beast and he got lucky staying locked in combat with my Fire Warriors who pulled out some Insane Heroism (double ones). I tried to kill the BA off quicker than they could get to the Tau in combat but it wasn't to be. You forget how fast jump infantry can move!

The SW vs. CSM game was almost 5th edition in appearance with both of us having three rhinos and a land raider. I had thunderlord and Matt had some obliterators to prevent them being identical. Early on it was a case of brinkmanship with neither of us wanting to dismount from the rhinos too soon. I actually popped smoke on a vehicle for the first time in ages! Anyway, eventually the rhinos started exploding (they're pretty tough these days) and we had men on the ground. There were some brutal combats and equally brutal psychic attacks from Ahriman and Typhus. It came down to just a handful of models. My land raider limped through on a single hull point to try and incinerate some thousand sons only to succumb to weapon virus and lose the final hullpoint! Typhus eventually won the combat against my Thunderlord (he needed help from the Chaos terminators!). When the dust settled we had a damaged rhino each but the only other survivors were Ulrik and a couple of Grey Hunters! Since we were playing Cleanse the Xenos (from Blog Wars) that gave me a narrow victory!

With the postponement of Fluffageddon we've decided to book a couple of tables at WHW and have our own mini-tournament on the same day. Matt will be bringing Chaos (I think, he keeps changing his mind), Jamie is thinking Dark Angels (or some shade of Space Marine), Scott is taking Tyranids and I'm going to take Tau. Since it worked so well for Matt and I we've decided to show each other our lists. I'll talk you through my Tau in the next post.

New 7th Edition Blood Angels Codex Review - Lords of War and Summary

Here's the last post in Matt's review of the new Blood Angels codex. Here he'll talk about the Lords of War (there are two unlike other books) and round everything up with a summary.

Commander Dante

Dante is easily the best character in the codex. In close combat he is an absolute monster (as he should be, being one of the oldest living space marines and leader of the Space Marine chapter that excels in close combat). On the charge Dante puts out 6 strength 7 AP2 attacks at initiative 7, with his axe also being Master Crafted, this is enough to slay many other dedicated close combat characters (and units) before they even have chance to strike back. Don't forget that he can be made even deadlier by casting the Blood Angel primaris power on him with a Librarian, for a maximum of 9 strength 7 AP2 attacks at initiative 10!! He's also not too shabby defensively with 2+ and a 4++ and Eternal Warrior, which allows you to tank him on the front of squads without the fear of him getting blasted apart by a lascannon. Obviously there are more ways to buff him further such as putting him in a squad with a chapter banner and/or giving him Feel No Pain from a priest etc.

However, his personal prowess is not the only reason to run Dante, he's also got a few special rules that help out his fellow Blood Angels. Firstly he has Hit and Run, an excellent special rule that allows him to escape combats that aren't favourable or just disengage in order to charge back in again for the charge bonus, or even just to engage something else/claim an objective. Also he has the best Blood Angel warlord trait, this allows all flyers, skimmers and jump units to re-roll reserve rolls, excellent for getting your Stormraven in earlier. But it doesn't stop there, additionally if you are playing a Maelstrom game then Dante also gets to roll on the Tactical traits table and gets that warlord trait in addition to Descent of Angels, this can be a great help in winning Maelstrom games.

The Death Mask of Sanguinius is a bit rubbish as generally no-one cares about Fear and even when they do it is forgotten about. I think that this is mainly because the units that suffer from Fear are generally rubbish in combat anyway!

I would say he is pretty much an auto take in any pure Blood Angel army if Lords of War are permitted.

Gabriel Seth

I have never used Seth before, but I wanted him to be good this time around so that I could start giving him a whirl (pun intended). However he isn't that great really, mainly because he is essentially a close combat character who insists on hefting a massive chainsword rather than any sort of power weapon. However, at strength 8 AP4, the sword is pretty good against some things such as vehicles, multi wound models and low armour save units, but a bit rubbish against 3+ or better (except for multi wound T4 or less of course). On the charge he gets 6 attacks because of Rage and his attacks are strength 9 due to Furious Charge, he would also strike at Initiative 6 in a Baal detachment and any 6's to hit generate extra attacks, so like I said, this is great against vehicles and multi wound things that may fail their saves and get insta-gibbed. But the thing is, he doesn't bring any sort of other buffs or bonuses to other units in the army, therefore if you are looking for a close combat monster you are better of looking elsewhere, Mephiston is only 20 points more for example….

Summary

I have enjoyed writing this series, mainly because it has really made me think about the different options available in this codex and it has made me consider units that I probably would have just overlooked in favour of others before.

Overall I do believe that the codex on its own does have some competitive builds in there, but I don’t think you would ever be able to create a top tier list that could take on all comers. Obviously it relies heavily on close combat and so against a dedicated shooting army like Tau or some Eldar builds it will struggle, I think it would perform best against a balanced army with some shooting and some assault units as the Blood Angels should be able to tackle most assault units from other armies, there are exceptions of course.

The other thing to consider is allies. They would ally well with an army that can provide a lot of supporting long range firepower as this is what they lack. I also think that they would ally well with other armies that can provide further buffs, such as Grey Knights and their Santic psychic powers or Space Marines and their access to different wargear and reliable psykers such as Tigurius.

I hope you have enjoyed reading

Matt

New 7th Edition Blood Angels Codex Review - Heavy Support

Back to Matt's Blood Angels codex review and onto the Heavy Support section. Often the Stormraven was the only Heavy unit that BA players ran in the old book. Let's see if the new book has changed anything.

Stormraven Gunship

I've already talked about this quite a bit. This is the only option for anti air in the codex and it's pretty solid as it's always been. The main problem I have with it is that it costs 200 points and whenever I use it the thing doesn't arrive until turn 4! It just makes me think that I'd rather have more points on the table turn 1. The fact it's an Assault Vehicle is also great for Blood Angels, especially since it can carry dreadnoughts, but that makes the "points off the table" problem even worse. Of course there are options within this codex and other allied codices that improve the odds of it arriving, so if used in conjunction with those then I would say that it's a pretty solid choice with or without passengers.

Baal Predator

These used to be a popular choice with flamestorm cannons and heavy flamer sponsons. This setup still isn't bad as the Baal Predator is a fast vehicle as standard and so it is quite easy to get it close enough to the enemy to unleash the templates, however there are a couple of reasons why this setup won't be as popular as it once was. Firstly there just aren't as many 3+ armour squads around, with the ability to now tank a 2+ character onto the front of squads the flamestorm cannon just isn't as dangerous as it used to be. Secondly the changes to vehicle damage now means that many squads can take down vehicles in close combat by glancing them to death which means that getting your Baal Predator up close to the enemy's lines probably isn't a good idea. Finally, it would have been nice to have the Scout special rule on this tank, that would have allowed it to perform the outflank flame attacks that I always used to do with it back in 5^th edition.

So considering all that it is probably a much better idea to load it out with an assault cannon and heavy bolters. This way it will have 6 heavy bolter shots and 4 twin linked assault cannon shots even when moving 6", while only losing the ability to fire one gun when moving 12" (and snap firing the other - ed.). This gives you a very effective infantry killing vehicle with the ability to take out light and even heavy vehicles thanks to Rending on the assault cannon (well assuming it doesn't have many hull points left at least). Also, as with the other predator chassis tanks, armour 13 on the front also goes a long way to help keep it alive long enough to cause problems for the enemy, both in terms of causing casualties, but also in capturing and holding objectives.

Predator and Vindicator

I have already discussed these when talking about overcharged engines in one of the first posts in this series. They are both solid heavy support choices due to the fast upgrade.

The Predator because it can more easily get a firing solution and fire all of its weapons, either load it out with all lascannons or with autocannon and heavy bolters (this last loadout is in some ways better than a Baal Predator as it out ranges it and is also 30 points cheaper, but when in range the Baal's firepower is better due to the assault cannon being much better than an autocannon).

The Vindicator is good with overcharged engines purely because it can get enemy units in range faster and easier. A Vindicator's main weakness is its 24” range, so being able to move an extra 6” before firing helps a lot.

With the changes to vehicle damage I can see Predators and Vindicators being a lot more useful. AV13 became that bit more difficult to deal with so with enough predator hulls you could cause problems. Fast has always been a big bonus for BA tanks and makes the Vindicator a lot more viable than it is in other books. Of course, Matt hasn't talked about Whirlwinds or Land Raiders here. That's because they're the same as in the SM book and have the same advantages and disadvantages as their SM equivalents. The next post will be the last part of the review looking at Lords of War. 

New 7th Edition Blood Angels Codex Review - Fast Attack

Another short post for a fairly short section. It's pretty clear already that BA lists will be dominated by Elites choices which is echoed in the Baal detachment. 

Rhino and Razorback
These are both fast vehicles and get it for only 10 points more than the regular Space Marine version. This is great and makes these transports much more useful in my opinion. If you run them as dedicated transports for Troops in a Combined Arms Detachment then they gain Objective Secured which makes them very annoying for your opponent as they zip around the board controlling and contesting objectives. Even if they aren't Objective Secured, they are still much better as they can deliver carry units across the battlefield faster and can still go on to claim hard to reach objectives due to their speed. Rhinos are really quite durable these days and I have often found them surviving far longer than you expect them too in more recent games. Also due to being fast, BA Razorbacks can be used as fairly effective mobile gun platforms with twice the move distance before firing.

Drop Pod
My favourite thing in this section. Being able to take these empty is great, it means you can put whatever you want into it, from any Armies of the Imperium codex (as long as it fits).

Assault Squad
I was one of the many people who were bitterly disappointed to see that assault squads weren't in the Troops section. However it's not all bad for this unit. They get more special weapon options than regular marine assault units, such as meltaguns and plasmaguns and they can still take 2 special weapons no matter the size of the unit. So many people will see this as an opportunity to put a 5 man unit into a drop pod (for free as they lose their jump packs) with 2 meltaguns and a sergeant with 2 melta pistols for a total of 4 melta shots!

They could also be used in a similar way with their jump packs on in a jump themed army they could run around with a few meltaguns trying to blow things up. Otherwise the jump assault units in the Elites section are just so much better in close combat, that this unit really isn't worth considering for that role.

Bike Squads
Everyone knows how good these can be with a load of grav guns and they are just as good here. I personally don't like bike armies, partly because everyone runs them at tournaments and partly because Space Marines on motorbikes is just a bit weird.

Two more posts to go then to wrap the review up. I'll be interrupting it again briefly to review the year and write up my hobby resolutions for the new one.

New 7th Edition Blood Angels Codex Review - Elites (Part 2 of 2)

Back on track with the review series and onto the second part of the Elites section. I'm certainly finding it useful to know what I'm going to be facing next time Matt and I play.

Dreadnought
Only difference this has over any other Space Marine dread is that it has Furious Charge. Not important for a dreadnought, I suppose it also has initiative 5 on the charge if part of Baal detachment. But all this is pointless discussion as no-one will run them when they are in the same slot as the following two selections….

Death Company Dreadnought
I love the idea of a dreadnought falling to the Black Rage and rampaging through the enemy ranks. I think that the rules for the Death Company Dread do it justice and definitely make it a viable choice in a very crowded Elites slot.

Get one of these to charge into combat and it will do immense damage to a unit. On the charge it has 6 attacks at initiative 5 (Baal) with S10 AP2. Give him talons and he will also re-roll wounds. He ignores Shaken and Stunned and can take magna grapples which will help him get there too. But this of course is the main weakness of a dreadnought, getting them there. They will be a prime target to any heavy weapons fire that your opponent has, so what are your options? Well you could run several dreadnoughts in your army, I already discussed the possibility of running 6 (7 with Cassor the Damned as a troop selection) maximum including 4 Elites and 2 libby dread HQ’s. This is extreme of course, but it is reasonable to run a few in drop pods and have them all come down turn one, this gives your opponent too many targets and should allow some to get in to combat and start wrecking stuff. Your other option is a Stormraven, put one in raven and it can assault straight out, this coupled with the ravens manoeuvrability should ensure the dreadnought gets into combat as long as the raven survives long enough. The other problem with this idea of course is that it has to be in reserve, which sometimes means it doesn't arrive until turn 4, which also means the dread can't charge until turn 5, which is a complete waste and a massive points sink. You could make this less likely to happen by having something that helps reserves to arrive such as the Descent of Angels warlord trait, which Dante has. Even so I personally prefer dropping a few dreads on top of my opponent  turn 1, but I would also use the Stormraven method, especially if only running a single Dreadnought.

Furioso Dreadnought
There is an interesting comparison to be made here between the Furioso and the DC dreadnoughts, as they are both exactly the same points value, but both have very different rules and stats.

So lets say we kit them both out exactly the same way, with two blood talons:

Kitted in this way the DC dread gets 6 attacks on the charge at WS4 I5 S10 AP2, re-roll wounds. Against a WS4 opponent that gives 3 hits and 3 wounds. When not charging he will get 2 hits and 2 wounds.

Furioso on the charge gets 4 attacks at WS5 I5 S10 AP2, re-roll wounds. Against WS4 opponent will get 2.67 hits and 2.67 wounds. When not charging he will get 2 hits and 2 wounds.

So when fighting WS4 oppoents with this loadout both are closely matched, but the DC dread edges it offensively with the potential to get many more hits and wounds if you have some lucky rolls. However defensively the Furioso has the edge, just because it is AV13 compared to the DC dreads AV12, the DC dread ignores Shaken and Stunned, but this is nowhere near as good as the extra armour point on the front, which is especially good in close combat, it makes even power fists and thunder hammers struggle sometimes. Of course the other thing to consider is that not all opponents are WS4 and any other WS will tip the balance even more in favour of the DC dread in terms of damage output, for example if assaulting a vehicle then the DC dread has a much better chance of wrecking it. But the main selling point of the Furioso for me is the AV13, it makes it so much more durable, which is what dreadnoughts need. AV13 rules out any weapon below strength 7 and makes strength 7 weapons (the most common strength of weapons capable of doing damage) half as likely to do any damage, and incapable of penetrating. (don't forget WS5 also adds to the defense as it's more likely your opponent will be hitting on 4s and riptides etc will be hitting on 5+ - ed.)

The other reason I like Furiosos is because you can give them frag cannons. Many people don't like these, but I do. It's a 2 shot strength 6 Rending flamer, what's not to love? Equip your Furioso with a frag cannon and heavy flamer and put him in a drop pod, 4 high strength flame templates straight out of the pod turn one and the dreadnought is still very capable is combat too.

Vanguard Veterans
These are the 4th option for a fast moving hard hitting squad, after looking at DC, Command Squads and Sanguinary Guard. If you are only wanting a small 5 man unit then any of the other 3 options are better than vanguards. For example a 5 man command squad with jump packs is 15 points more than a 5 man vanguard squad with jump packs. For the 15 points extra you get a champion with a power sword and combat shield (and better WS) and Feel No Pain as standard for the unit, otherwise they have the same stats and access to similar wargear (with some unit specific options). So for a small unit don't bother with these.

However if you are wanting to run a specialised 10 man unit then vanguard vets are the way to do it. They can all have thunder hammers and storm shields if you want or they could all have dual inferno pistols. Obviously this is massively expensive, but you can do it.

Sternguard Veterans
It is worth noting that a 5 man unit of BA Sternguard are 10 points cheaper than regular space marine Sternguard, which is nice. I definitely think these are still worth consideration for many lists. The special issue ammunition is as always very versatile and the ability to kit them out with loads of combi-meltas is always attractive. Of course they can now be put with a priest to make them more survivable plus the WS boost coupled with Furious Charge makes them pretty decent in combat too.

That wraps up the Elites section then. Onto the last couple of articles covering Fast, Heavy and Lords of War. I'll try and get Matt to wrap the series up with some discussion about list building and general tactics. 

New 7th Edition Blood Angels Codex Review - Elites (Part 1 of 2)

Since the Elites section is considerably more chunky than the Troops portion of the book, Matt has broken it into two posts. The first today and the next on Boxing Day. This is probably the most important section of the book and even more so when the BA faction detachment lets you take an extra Elite choice. Here goes....

Command Squad
These will definitely see some use in Blood Angel armies. The main reason for this is the fact that the squad comes with a Sanguinary Novitiate who gives the squad Feel No Pain. This means that you do not have to buy a Sanguinary Priest for the unit and can attach an Independent Character so that he also gets FNP. This is not the only reason to run this squad of course, another popular choice will be to equip the 3 Veterans in the unit with dual pistols, this will allow the unit to fire 6 grav, plasma, melta or flame template shots while still retaining the extra bonus attack each for carrying two CC weapons. The other option is to equip them with storm shields which can be very effective against some armies that rely on low AP firepower or low AP melee attacks. Obviously these loudouts come with a price, which is the price, each veteran with 2 pistols or a storm shield and fancy CC weapon will cost a lot of points and are still no more survivable against high AP shooting than regular marines. Overall I do like this unit and the potential it has and it does certainly its purpose, which is of course protecting and supporting your commander.

Death Company
One of the best units in the codex, perhaps the best. They are 20 points per model, but I suspect most people will run them with jump packs at 23 points per model, so lets consider that setup. For 23 points you get a model that can move 12" before charging which gives him a very good chance of getting himself into a position where he can get a charge off against the enemy. When he does charge he gets 5 attacks at strength 5 initiative 5 (if in Baal detachment, which lets face it, he is). So pretty good offensively, but then defensively he is Fearless and has Feel No Pain in addition to his regular marine hardiness. No this was assuming that you had run him with 2 close combat weapons, but you could of course make use of his other special rule, relentless, and give him a boltgun, which loses him an attack but makes him more dangerous at range and means he can still charge after firing.

So even without any upgrades the Death Company are pretty awesome, but they can get even better. First of all any number of marines can take power weapons/fists and thunder hammer, plus they can take any of the special pistols. Now you obviously shouldn't be equipping a full ten man squad with power fists as it makes the unit far too expensive, but 3 or 4 in a 10 man unit is reasonable (and devastating).

The other upgrade to the squad has already been mentioned, and that is putting a Chaplain in there, preferably the high chaplain, Astorath. Run a 10 man unit of Death Company with him attached and there isn't much in 40K that could withstand their charge. Running just 3 power fists/hammers in the unit would give 35 S5 I5 attacks that re-roll to hit and to wound plus 12 S9 I1 attacks that re-roll to hit and wound, plus Astoraths 4 attacks at S6 I1 that re-roll to hit and could cause Instant Death. You get the idea.

Lemartes
I mentioned this guy in the HQ section. I think on first look you will probably think why would I bother, but if you are running an army with 2 big squads of Death Company then this is your (second) man. Astorath should really be first choice for buffing DC units, but I if you want to buff 2 units then I think Lemartes is a better choice than a regular Chaplain, this is of course assuming that you are running your DC with jump packs. If you run a regular Chaplain with a jump pack he comes in at 105 points, so that makes Lemartes 25 points more, so what do you get for that? Well his stats are exactly the same, except for his Initiative which is 2 points higher! He also has all the same special rules plus a few extras that come from being lost to the Black Rage: FNP, Rage and Relentless. He also has his own special rule that gives him +1 to his strength and attacks when injured. So on his own he will put out 5 S7 I7 attacks on the charge, but only at AP4 (although his weapon is master crafted), plus he confers the re-roll to hit to the Death Company unit he is attached to on the charge. So really when you think about it 25 points isn't much for all those extra bonuses over a regular Chaplain, definitely worth taking if you are already running Astorath as well and want to run 2 or more Death Company units. Otherwise though probably not as Astorath is a better choice for a single unit of Death Company, although he does save you an HQ slot and is cheaper, so he could be considered an alternative to Astorath for those reasons.

Sanguinary Guard

I've already stated that I think that this unit is probably second choice for me when choosing a jump assaulty unit, and that is probably joint with a command sqaud. I think DC are the best value and I also think that a Command Squad is good value due to already having the medic in there. This unit is probably still going to be some players first choice though and for good reason. 33 points per model isn't actually bad for a jump infantry marine with a master crafted power sword/axe and 2+ armour. To kit out a Vanguard Veteran with a power sword and jump pack costs 37 points and he only has a 3+ save, but he has an extra attack, which is better than master crafted of course. This leads me on to my annoyance at their weapons, they are called encarmine swords/axes, which makes them sound better than a power sword or axe, but they are actually worse, just because they are two handed. Yes they are master crafted, but the extra attack is better because sometimes all 3 attacks will hit and even if they don't you have more chance hitting twice with 3 dice than you do with 2 even when you can re-roll a result of a 1. Also I've never really understood why Sanguinary Guard aren't weapon skill 5 when they are "the best the chapter has to offer"?!?

But saying that they are still a really solid choice and with the Fearless rule and their 2+ armour they offer excellent protection and support for Independent Characters. They can also take power fists for a 10 point upgrade (a good idea to take at least one) and the other good upgrade is a Chapter Banner, which gives everyone in the unit +1 attack, extra good when someone like Dante is attached to the squad…..

Right more Blood Angels after Christmas. Let me take this opportunity to wish all of you guys a very Merry Christmas. I will, of course, be interrupting the BA review to bring you my review of the year and hobby resolutions (a.k.a delusions). Whatever you're doing I hope you have a good one that's filled with plenty of time for hobby/gaming! 

New 7th Edition Blood Angels Codex Review - Troops

A very short post tonight for a very short section of the codex. On a personal note I still find it frustrating that some books have just two options for Troops whereas others, such as Eldar, have an array of options. Anyway, here are Matt's thoughts:

The troops section only contains Tactical Squads and Scouts. Now, often players these days will just run Scouts as they are the cheapest and offer other bonuses such as Scout and Infiltrate for getting onto objectives etc. However, in this codex I do think tactical squads are worth more consideration. This is mainly because they have access to heavy flamers. Heavy flamers are great at the moment, many armies run large and/or many infantry squads and often these have low armour ratings and rely on cover, even against heavy armour flamers are good just because they can cause a lot of wounds from a single shot. In addition to this it is worth noting that a heavy flamer is an Assault weapon, this makes it the only heavy weapon that can be fired before charging into combat, which suits the Blood Angels down to the ground. If you really wanted to go template crazy a full 10 man squad can fire 4 flame templates if you take a heavy flamer, flamer and a sergeant with 2 hand flamers (or a 5 man squad with 3 templates of course)! Drop that out of a pod next to a cover hugging infantry unit and watch it disappear.

Also don't forget tactical marines, like everything else in the codex, have Furious Charge which makes them much better than regular marines on the charge. I think I will probably run a mixture of Tacticals and Scouts in my lists, Scouts still have a place and are very useful (even if that utility just comes in the form of keeping points costs down).

Generally speaking then the Troops section here is the same as in the SM book. We all know that if they weren't compulsory we wouldn't take them any more. Since the faction detachment is pretty much a given there's no Objective Secured to worry about so I'm thinking the general rule of thumb will be min-max with basic Scout units. The Elites section is more interesting....

New 7th Edition Blood Angels Codex Review - HQ (Part 2 of 2)

Today Matt continues his look at the HQ section of the new Blood Angels codex:

The Sanguinor

I could never really decide whether or not I liked the idea of the Sanguinor. I don't really get what he is supposed to be, not sure he fits with the rest of the army. Anyway, if you are running this guy then it should be alongside an infantry heavy army for 2 reasons. One is that his warlord trait gives all friendly units with 12” Fearless and the other (better) reason is that he gives all models within 6” an extra attack. So if you run him alongside a load of Death Company, Sanguinary Guard or Veterans he will boost the attacks of the surrounding units quite a bit. Obviously it would have been nice for him to give it to all units within 6” as realistically he is going to have to be in the same combat most of the time in order to confer the bonus. His real downside is his lack of Independent Character. If you couple this with that fact that he is only toughness 4 and 3 wounds you quickly realise that he is just going to get shot down fairly quickly by any army with even a mediocre amount of ranged firepower, even with his 2+ and 4++. Then if and when he does reach combat he isn't actually that devastating anyway, only 5 attacks on the charge at S6 AP3, Mephiston is much more dangerous and has much more potential. I think the only reason people may consider running him is to boost surrounding squads with Fearless and +1 A, but even that doesn't really warrant his price tag when you consider the other options available in HQ.

Astorath
I really wanted Astorath to be good in this codex as I love the model but never used him with the previous codex. On first look I was a little disappointed but after writing some lists I find myself putting him in nearly every time, why? Because Death Company are so good. Death Company are one of the best units in the codex in my opinion and Astorath makes them even better. He has Zealot which gives them re-roll to hit on the charge plus he allows them to re-roll wounds too! So put him with a large unit and they will put out a huge amount of damage on the charge.

And actually although I was a little disappointed at first with the fact that his axe is unwieldy, he still has loads of potential in combat mainly due to the fact that his axe also causes Instant Death on a roll of a 6 to wound. Also, although he only gets 4 attacks on the charge, he is S6 AP2 and so when you think about those attacks (that are potentially Instant Death) added to the attacks of the big DC squad he is with he starts to become a very attractive choice for HQ.

Sanguinary Priest

I haven't found myself putting these guys into many of the lists that I have written so far, this could be because I am tending to lean on Death Company squads to be my infantry, but also I think it is because I'm not wanting to use a HQ slot up on them. I do however think that they are a very good choice with the right unit. Remember that although the +1 weapon skill bonus does not apply to allies, the Feel No Pain bonus does, so this is a way of getting Feel No Pain on to allied squads as well as BA ones. In terms of which BA units to run them with, really I think that they only ones that would really benefit are Vanguard or Sternguard squads because they are likely going to be pretty expensive anyway and so it would be worth spending the extra points on a priest to give them the extra survivability and, for Vanguards especially, the WS bonus. Command Squads are going to be quite popular and they already have their own mini priest, so its not worth it for them and Death Company already have Feel No Pain so 75 points to give a jump Death Company squad +1 WS is just not worth it, especially if they are being run with Astorath or a regular Chaplain as with the re-rolls to hit that they have already +1 WS would only net the squad another few hits on the charge, plus not all enemy squads are WS4, so then it is a complete waste. Better to spend the points on more Death Company instead.

Brother Corbulo
He is basically the same as a priest except his stats are better, for example he is initiative 8 on the charge if he is warlord and in a Baal detachment!! Plus he has 1 more wound and 1 better BS. Also he has a +1 strength Rending chainsword, which is nice. But the best thing about him is that his chalice has an area of effect, so all BA units within 6” gain +1 initiative and +1 weapon skill (note he still only confers FNP to his squad). Now these bonuses sound great and they are if he has a few units within range, but the downside here is that he is just Infantry, if he had a jump pack I think he would see much more use, but in 7th edition speed is really important, especially for close combat units so Corbulo just isn't going to keep up. Perhaps he could be dropped in via Drop Pod with a unit ready to boost onrushing assault squads when they reach him. Or he could be used to boost a couple of key units that are dropped in or assaulting from Land Raider. His other ability is that he allows you to re-roll one die per game, which is really nice just for Seize the Initiative or for re-rolling a reserve roll, it could be game changing, but probably won't be. Just remember he is twice the cost of a regular priest and you have to wonder if the +1 Initiative boost is really necessary when you already have a boost from the Baal detachment, the boost from Corbulo is there all the time, not just on the charge, so it could be important in the right circumstances.

Techmarine and Chaplain
I'm not going to bother going through these as they are the same as in every other Space Marine codex, except for the fact that the Chaplain may see more use here if you don’t have the points for Astorath or you are running two units of death company, but if you are doing that then maybe Lemartes is a better choice…….

That's it for the HQ section of the book then. At the start of next week Matt will be looking at the Troops portion of the book. Once again, I hope you're enjoying this series.

New 7th Edition Blood Angels Codex Review - HQ (Part 1 of 2)

Welcome back to the Blood Angels codex review. In this second guest post, Matt will start to look at the units in the new BA book beginning with the HQ section. Since this is a pretty meaty portion of the book Matt has decided to split it into two posts with part 2 coming later in the week. I hope you enjoy...

Captain
No-one runs SM Captains generally. I think it's because they don't benefit the rest of the army in any way and Chapter Masters are a better choice if running regular marines. I think that the same is true here, there are better HQ options and I can't think of a good reason to run a Captain over one of the special characters or a Librarian/Priest. Even with the relics they are not that much better in combat than a Librarian or Priest who can also take  relics.

Librarian
These will see some use, especially when run alongside beatstick characters (explained below). The downside is no access to Telepathy and therefore they can't cast, everyone's favourite power, Invisibility. However, the Blood Angel powers themselves are actually pretty good (well half of them are):

1. Fear of Darkness was my favourite power back in 5th ed. and it is still really good now. Even a unit with leadership 10 is made to take a test on leadership 8, which is very easy to fail. Proper use of this power on units close to the board edge can cause those units to run off the board (I still remember destroying a large unit of Alex's thunderwolves with this power back in 5th by doing just that! (thanks for reminding me - ed.)) At the very least against non-ATSKNF or Fearless units it can break them, making them pretty useless for a turn 
2. Unleash Rage – this is great when cast on any unit, but especially nice on Death Company. Run a large unit of Death Company and hope to roll this. +1 attack for the entire unit on a unit that already has a shed load of attacks, great.
3. Shield is now a 5++ save, a bit weak compared to some of the other powers especially since it only effects the psyker's own unit. If it had a radius of effect then it would be great, but as it is it's OK, and will be useful in some circumstances, but overall with the current meta of high volume fire it's not that great
4. Blood Boil - pretty similar to Haemorrhage from Biomancy, both are warp charge 2 and both are probably the worst power in their respective discipline. I don't know why they thought it was worthy of warp charge 2, but saying that Blood Boil is slightly better due to the large blast explosion if the model dies. Against most units it won't be a worry but against low toughness low armour save units such as Kroot or various Eldar it could wreak havoc and potentially almost destroy the unit or cause enough damage to make them run due to the blast also ignoring cover.
5. Blood Lance – pretty good, shame its not 18” range though, beams are much better now that they don't drop in strength after every hit. Get a few models lined up with this and see them vanish, even multi wound T4 models have to worry due to it being strength 8. AP1 gives it a decent chance of one-shotting a vehicle (or 2 if they're next to each other)
6. Wings – same as levitation, great if your Libby is with a shooty unit with shortish range, also not bad if he is with a CC unit who needs to get up the field sharpish, just a shame that you can't assault after the move. But wait! Levitation is only warp charge 1 while this power is warp charge 2. That's not fair I hear you cry but what you may have missed is the fact that wings can be cast on any friendly unit within 12”, that makes this power much more useful and random units suddenly moving an extra 12” is likely something that your opponent won't see coming!
7. (Primaris) Quickening – an excellent primaris power if used correctly. I suggest running your BA Librarian with a big beat stick character (*cough* Dante) and cast this on him, turns him into an absolute beast! Of course there are plenty of other Imperial beat sticks out there so choose one you fancy beefing up and get this cast on them. For example, Draigo would enjoy having 8 attacks on the charge at initiative 8!!

I think I will mostly run these just as ML1 with a jump pack to go with a large CC squad and another character to beef up. I think that this is the best option as you can guarantee getting the primaris and so you may as well make use of it and the other power he gets will either make the squad even better in combat or it will give the unit a bit more utility in the form of an offensive ranged attack.

Tycho
What. The. Hell. What kind of Blood Angel Captain goes around without any form of close combat weapon? Especially considering Erasmus Tycho is supposed to be a crazy bastard bloodthirsty killing machine who goes absolutely mental and falls to the black rage, but apparantly doesn't like knives. I don't get it, he's loads of points for a Captain with a one shot long ranged melta, WHAT?

Librarian Dreadnought
I used to love these when they could fly. Not anymore, decent idea but I can't make my mind up about them. I think most of the Sanguinary powers work best when the librarian is in a squad and half the Biomancy powers won't work, you aren't gonna use him to summon Daemons, so that leaves Pyromany which is rubbish or Divination where some of the powers are pretty useless. What also annoys me here is the fact that it gets less attacks than a regular Furioso due to the force halberd not being a specialist weapon and so not giving an extra attack for 2 weapons. I suppose Force is nice for killing MC's and armour 13 is very hard to get through these days in CC due to the changes to the Smash rule. He would still be annihilated by a Wraithknight though, but should take it with him if he charged at initiative 5 due to the Baal detachment, fairly unlikely scenario though. It's a shame but unless you are running a dread heavy list (which this is actually great for as it allows you to have 6 dreads in your detachment) then I think a regular Librarian is a better choice.

Mephiston
This is my favourite character in 40K, I knew he would get toned down stat-wise but I also thought he would get an AP2 sword, oh well, there is still some good stuff here. He is still an absolute beast and without comparing to how he used to be (which I'm trying not to do remember?) his statline is pretty hefty. The big thing to realise here is that he is an ML3 psyker and he has a statline which rivals many other beatstick characters out there. He still has 6 attacks on the charge and if he takes the Quickening he can boost this up to a potential 9 attacks at initiative 8!! Plus he always has the option of being S10. But if you are going to run him then a much better option is to roll on Biomancy, except for Haemorrhage every power in there is good for Mephi, but obviously what you really want is Iron Srm, this power will give you the old Mephiston back, maybe even better than before with T8 S8 and AP2 attacks. Best scenario is probably Iron arm and Warp Speed if he is protected in a squad, this would make him S10 T8 I8 A8 (9 on charge) and AP2 Force! Nice!!!

Which brings me on to one of his downsides, which is his AP3 sword, but then again that only really matters against Terminators, which lets face it he would struggle against anyway due to his lack of invulnerable save and their abundance of fists and hammers and probably storm shields. Characters and Dreadknights are the only other things that really have 2+ armour and could cause him problems, but don’t forget that his sword is also Force and so one failed save will normally mean instant death, but of course gambling on the fact that your opponent will roll a one is very risky (better to just roll iron arm).

His other downside is his mobility. It is difficult to get him into combat as he is just regular infantry, although he does have Fleet which helps a bit. He is probably best used attached to a decent shooty unit as a counter charge model and gradually moved up to wreck things as the game goes on.


In summary, this guy is still a beast and will make a mess of most units and vehicles in CC, plus he is hard to take down due to being an IC and has the potential to be absolutely ridiculous in combat.

Come back later in the week for the rest of the review of the HQ section and remember that Matt will be working his way through the entire codex over the next few posts. I hope you're enjoying the series so far, don't forget to post comments/queries below.

New 7th Edition Blood Angels Codex Review - General Overview

Firstly an apology for the absence of any posts recently. I've recently picked up an Xbox One (as an early Christmas present) so I've been playing quite a bit of Madden etc. which has eaten up my blogging (and hobby) time. I'll return in full force in the new year though. 

Meanwhile, this is the first post in another guest post series by Matt as, like with the Grey Knights, he's far more familiar with their rules and how to use them to great effect on the battlefield. Over to Matt...

Hello everyone, I've returned for another codex review on Alex’s blog due to my favourite (and first ever) army getting a new codex.

This is my second review after doing the GK codex a while back. I will be sticking to the same format of first looking at army wide rules and wargear before moving onto units one FOC section at a time. I will only be reviewing units that are unique to Blood Angels (or have unique abilities etc.) as we all know what a space marine bike squad does or a drop pod, although they may get mentioned when discussing tactics and army choices.

I also like to try and review the codex based on its own merit without too much comparison to how it was before. It is irrelevant how it was before because those rules are now obsolete, a much more useful thing is to look at how the rules in this codex will work in 7th when compared to other current armies, which is the angle I will look at it from.

Army Wide Special Rules
Combat squads – I only mention this to point out that neither Sanguinary Guard nor Death Company squads have this rule. Death Company perhaps makes sense as they are a bit too mental to tactically break off into smaller units, but you would think Sanguinary Guard would be able to.

Furious Charge – Everyone in the codex has this, which is great and really makes sense for Blood Angels. That extra strength on the charge really makes a difference too especially when charging with a large number of attacks (don't forget this doesn't work on disordered charges).

Warlord Traits
Most of these only affect the warlord and so the table is somewhat similar to the personal table in the main rulebook.

1. Warlord has Rampage – a bit rubbish, your warlord is often going to be in a unit and so you often won't even get the benefit.
2. Warlord gets +1 Initiative – Also a bit rubbish, your warlord's initiative will already be quite high, it could make a difference sometimes and is better than the previous one I suppose.
3. Make a weapon master crafted – perhaps the worst one yet? Re-roll one dice to hit if it's a one. It's fluffy as Blood Angels like to make stuff, but they could have done something better than this like +1 strength to a weapon or something
4. Warlord has Adamantium Will – now sometimes this really does help, but its still a rubbish trait, if someone really wants to get a power off against you they often will and +1 to Deny is not going to help, sometimes you will roll this when the opponent doesn't even have any psykers.
5. Descent of Angels – finally a good trait! All skimmers, flyers and jump units re-roll reserve rolls. This is excellent, even if it's just to get your Stormraven in. Plus D6” less scatter on jump and skimmer Deep Strike, which is also great and allows for much riskier deep striking to get those meltaguns in range or to stop enemy units getting out of charge range
6. All armies of Imperium units are fearless within 12”. This could be awesome if used correctly. The warlord could be in the middle of an Astra Militarum infantry army for example, making the entire army fearless.

The best one here is clearly number 5, which thankfully is Dante's warlord trait....

Wargear
Most unit specific wargear I will cover when I come to review that specific unit. But there are a few Blood Angel only pieces which can be purchased for a range of units that I want to look at:

Overcharged Engines – One of the best things in the entire codex! Make any vehicle (except Land Raiders) gain the 'fast' unit type. Awesome! Especially on Whirlwinds…… OK, not Whirlwinds (unless the only opponents you play are Orks). But Vindicators really do benefit from this upgrade. A Vindicator always seems great on paper with a S10 AP2 large blast, until you remember its only 24” range. But make a Vindicator Fast and now it can move 12” before firing giving it an effective 36” range, much more viable.

However, my favourite always has been, and probably still is, Fast Predators. Many people will think that making a predator Fast is not worth it, these people are wrong. Making it fast allows you to move it up to 6” and still fire all weapons, this is infinitely better than pivoting on the spot for getting firing solutions and for making it harder for close assault units to get to you and to hit you if they do. Also you can move 12” and still fire 2 of the weapons on full BS compared to all on snap shot without overcharged engines. Predators can be kitted out in many different ways and are perhaps a little underrated at the moment. I used to run mine with autocannon turret and lascannon sponsons, but with the changes to vehicle damage and lower costs I actually think that the classic predator annihilator (all lascannons) is the best way to kit them out for tank and MC hunting. The other way to kit them out is autocannon and heavy bolter sponsons, which puts out 8 shots per turn, 3 of these gives you loads of dakka and will cause massive damage against infantry heavy armies.

Don't forget being Fast allows BA vehicles to deliver passengers and get to objectives much quicker. A Fast Rhino with objective secured could be a game winner.

Magna Grapple – These are great, giving dreadnoughts Move Through Cover all the time and also Fleet when charging vehicles really makes a dreadnought a more tempting option. I'll cover this in more detail when I get to dreadnoughts in the elite section.

Relics of Baal
I'll only talk about the ones that are perhaps worth considering here:

Angels Wing – a jump pack with re-roll scatter (this coupled with Descent of Angels is almost as good as not scattering). Plus can only be Snap Shot when intercepted, makes landing next to Riptides safer (assuming you can kill it before the Tau player's next turn). Also, re-roll results on mishap table makes risking those tight Deep Strike spots much safer. This is definitely worth considering if you plan on deep striking a jump unit in.

Veritas Vitae – gives another roll on Strategic table. If you are not taking a special character as warlord then I suggest taking this and rolling on the Strategic table twice. It is the best warlord trait chart in 40K at the moment so getting two traits from it is great (especially when a CAD will give you a re-roll on the first one - ed.).

Gallian's Staff – this is just like the Liber Daemonica in the GK codex in that it allows you to re-roll 1s when making psychic tests. This is great except it causes an automatic wound if you re-roll a one into a one, which happens to me regularly, so I think I’ll be steering clear. Not bad for the points though I suppose

Valours Edge – for 5 points more than a power sword this is well worth it. I would argue that it is as good if not better than a power fist in many situations. Allows you to strike at Initiative and gives the additional attack if paired with a pistol. This is the sword that Mephiston should have :(

Baal Strike Force
As a BA player you should always run this detachment over a CAD. It is same as a Combined Arms Detachment except that you have to have at least one Elite and can have up to 4, which is nice for lots of Dreadnoughts or Death Company etc. But what makes this detachment great is the +1 Initiative to all BA units on the charge for the entire game. This puts all units on at least Initiative 5, which is above most other armies average initiative. Couple this with Furious Charge and loads of attacks and you will be able to create units that can potentially wipe out enemy units before they can even strike back!

That's it for the first post then. Matt will return in a couple of days with a look at the HQ section. Feel free to post comments here and I'll get Matt to respond. I hope you enjoy the review and that it helps see the silver lining in this book.