So last week I played a proxy game with my blood angels list seen here:
It was against Marshall’s Imperial Guard which looked something like this (from memory):
CCS – 3x Plasmaguns, 1x Plasma Pistol, Chimera
Marbo
Infantry Platoon
-JCS – 4x Grenade Launchers, Chimera
-Infantry Squad – Autocannon, Grenade Launcher
-Infantry Squad – Autocannon, Grenade Launcher
-Special Weapons Team – 3 Demo Charges
Infantry Platoon
-JCS – 4x Meltaguns
-Infantry Squad – Flamer, Grenade Launcher, Chimera
-Infantry Squad – Flamer, Grenade Launcher, Chimera
-Heavy Weapons Team – Missiles
Vendetta
Vendetta
Hydra
Hydra
Manticore
Now I’m not going to write an entire battle report but I’ll quickly fill you in on the details and what I’ve learned about the list and how it’s going to change. I’ll also discuss the ramifications of the Blood Angels FAQ on the Descent of Angels type army.
Marshall won the roll off and opted to go second, as such I reserved everything banking on descent of angels to bring things in slightly more than piecemeal (everything ended up coming in turn 2 due to great DoA rolls). Marshall essentially castled in a corner near 2 of the 5 objectives. As you can see I was dealing with both a quantity and quality of firepower. He basically had everything.
I came down pretty much in front of his gun-line hoping to melta a lot of his army and leave him mobile-less. I had a decent enough first turn, blowing up a few chimeras, a hydra, pinning a few units and causing the missile team to run via Fear of the Dark (FoD).
I lost 2 priests right off the bat to some plasmaguns and marbo and noticed that I was all but impervious to small arms fire (with FNP) but once a few priests dropped the army started to melt away rapidly. Long story short, the game was a draw with each of us holding 2 objectives across the table from each other (me DS/jumping over to mine) and him pushing me off his.
So thoughts about the list and army style in general:
-Having all jump packs was refreshing, I didn’t need to worry my mobility was going to be shut down turn 1 or how I would make it across the table turn 4 to grab objectives. In that sense I was able to fully concentrate on taking the fight to my opponent.
-Without vehicles of my own I would be at an advantage in terms of killpoints. A rhino is a heck of a lot easier to kill vs 5+ FNP marines, etc. That’s the other thing, the units are tough to kill, for the most part.
-Its a very different style of army, most people and armies just can’t handle 30 tough, fast, killy marines right in front of them without any chance to outmaneuvering or shooting.
-Descent of Angels was amazing, being able to bring an army in fairly reliably and then not having to worry much about scatter allowed me to pick where I needed to shut down vehicles. Short of the enemy being in cover or landing on them, veterans will always be within charge range (as you only scatter 6” but you need to form a circle around the centre guy, thus gaining you essentially an inch.)
-One the priest dies, the unit becomes expensive basic marines (18 points plus the cost of the priest) and really, its not hard to get a wound on the priest and hope he fails 2 saves (when he’s in a 5 man squad).
-Landing in a tight circle isn’t doing you any favours. Unless the army has NO ap3 or str 8 plate weapons its probably better to DS away from the enemy, run to cover/out of LoS, and bear a turn of firepower. The next turn you are able to jump up to their vehicles, hopefully blow it up with meltas, and charge the insides.. Instead of standing around like chumps. It sucks losing an entire squad plus priest to something like Marbo!
-While the marines are fairly killy against other marines or worse, I can’t see them standing up to anything super killy or badass MC’s… I need to either include effective shooting or something a bit more powerful.
And that’s pretty much it, I can sum it up like this:
I need bigger squads to house my priests
I need to include something more killy or more shooty to deal with deathstars
I need to look closer at my enemies list and then decide where to DS.
BASED ON THAT, here’s the lists I’m thinking of trying next at all the main point levels:
1500 Descent of Deamons
Baizaarshk, Lord of the Butchers (Counts as Sanguinor) – 275
The Butchers Cohort, Winged Deamons, Khornes Faithful (5x Vanguard Veterans) – 245
-Powerfist (champion), 2 Power Swords, 2 Storm Shields, Jump Packs
Necrosurgeons, The Stitchthralls (3x Sanguine Priests) – 225
-Jump Packs
Murder Squad Demios (10x Assault Marines) – 250
-Power Fist & Infernus Pistol (champion), 2x Meltaguns
Murder Squad Horrifica (10x Assault Marines) – 250
-Power Fist & Infernus Pistol (champion), 2x Meltaguns
Murder Squad Macabre (10x Assault Marines) – 250
-Power Fist & Infernus Pistol (champion), 2x Meltaguns
@1750
+The Slaughtermasters, Khornes Fist, Champions of a thousand campaigns (5 Thunder hammer & Storm Shield terminators) – 225
+One priest upgrades to terminator armour (+10 points)
+Infernus Pistol to Vanguard Veterans (+15 points)
@2000
+Murder Squad Malice (10x Assault Marines) – 255 (5 free points floating around from 1500)
-Thunder Hammer & Infernus Pistol (champion), 2x Meltaguns
1500+
Yep, I’m putting the Sanguinor back in the list. He’s still a beast in combat plus he makes all the marines around him beasts! 4 attack assault marines and 5 attack veterans, ouch! He’s a 2+/3++/4+++ and is eternal, plus he makes one of my sergeants a mini-hero. He’s a TONNE of points but I’m hoping he’ll give me that edge I need against deathstar armies or just other CC specialists. I can run him into a unit of incubi with little fear of dying and most likely cutting down a good number of them. Str 6 helps him to paste T3 models as well.
I still have 30 assault marines and most likely I’ll combat squad 20 of them and keep 1 big 10 man with a priest for an anchor. I kept the pistols, I think they add a bit of redundancy and as I said they will help vs MC’s.
I toyed with replacing the VV with Sanguine Guard but I just don’t think I NEED that much killy (I kinda want to be stuck in combat for a turn) and this way I can get a couple of storm shields into the unit. I like them, they’ll deal with that one nasty unit that I need to tie-up or kill (like long fangs).
1750+
I realize the termies don’t have packs but they are able to DS thus fitting the theme of the army. I’ve noticed most people freak out when they see TH/SS termies, with good cause, they’re killy and annoyingly difficult to get rid of. They’re going to be my defense against nasty things I can’t afford to deal with. I also upgraded a priest to a termy to help vs torrent of fire. Finally I gave the VV an infernus pistol to help with vehicle busting and taking out big stuff.
2000+
We get another assault squad, I gave him a thunder hammer as I had points kicking around. I’ll probably end up doing this in the 1500 point list as that’s where the free points are. Never a bad thing to have another thunder hammer.
Fluffwise I’m thinking of changing the name of my space wolves as these angels are all part of the same army. I’m leaning towards calling them a syndicate of some sort. A behind the scenes chaos force appearing in battles/campaigns where needed. Almost like the strike forces for the forces of good but reversed for chaos. There isn’t much of that out there so I’d be free to do whatever I want.
There we go, thoughts? I like the idea of all jump packs and being a little more elite.
Do you like the fluff so far?
ALL OUTTA BUBBLEGUM 
You know, looking back at it, I’m not sure Dante is worth it. I’m thinking just a jump captain with SS and a TH for 175 is a pretty good deal. Gives me 75 to add more guys elsewhere.
Changes made to the list
I like.
I really like how there’s a codex out there that lets people field Jump Pack armies – i’ve always wanted to try a list like this but there was never really an efficient way 😛
Comments :
Are you sure you’re set on the TH/SS Captain? Might be more effective to do the dual lightning claws and rely on the 4+ Iron Halo he comes with. That way you keep the initiative 5 in play
Random thought… do you think the priests are worth it? I know feel no pain is pretty badass, but for 225 points you could get a full new squad of jump marines.
Plus the priests can die, and FNP doesn’t help against those power fists / problems you will face in CC
Those are my only real thoughts. Other than that, I like how the jump packs don’t give up killpoints like Rhinos… they’re awesome.
Have you thought about shooty units at all? Or maybe a Stormraven with the Dread and some footsloggin’ Vanguard or something. Nothing would say “Hello!” better than that one punch combo to the face!
Granted, all of that above would mean drastic changes to the list hahaha
Your thoughts though, even hypothetically?
-M
I don’t know why/how that happy face is in my post (don’t remember typing it, haha). I’m not THAT giddy about an efficient assault list.
Hhaha thanks! No captain anymore, Instead I added 5 TH/SS termies. While not jump infantry, they can DS and would fit in the army that way. I need something to throw at those units you just don’t want regular marines into, like a Trygon. I can DS these guys and let them do whatever, I don’t care if they die as it means my jump marines are ok. One of the priests gets upgraded to termy armour as well to prevent torrent of fire.
I think the priests are worth it. At a very basic look, it essentially doubles the required firepower to kill a marine (baring whatever ignores FNP). 1 squad doesn’t do that and comes with the same limitations as FNP (power weapons, etc ignore the armour). It does mean another unit though and more scoring. One thing you overlooked (and many people do) the priests also give out Furious Charge, which is huge. Swinging before other marines and the same speed as things like Incubi rocks, not to mention str 5 helps against things like Ork Mobs. With jump packs and no vehicles, I really should be getting the charge.
I have thought about a stormraven and dread haha, especially at 2000 points. But its at minimum 350 points to do that, and guess where every lascannon, missile, etc is now pointed. I guess the point of this list is to make all the anti-mech out there redundant. 25 point lascannon vs 1 marine a turn is a waste, especially when the marine has cover. You can apply this to all the other anti-vehicle weaponry. If I did, I would change up the list and go very shooty. Baal Preds, Dakka Preds, stormraven with termies patrolling my gunline, and assault marines in razorbacks for objectives.
well thats three times vect and incubi are mentioned now. looks like there your new standard for “well if you can kill that your doing good”!
It’s not them per say, its their stat-line/gear. They’re a good comparison for things that are faster than MEQs /w power weaponry. You could replace them with things like bloodletters, banshees, anything of that nature… Its just that DE are fresh in everyone’s mind as they are the current flavour of the month.
It also doesn’t help that all I’ve played over the last couple of months is IG and DE haha!