Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Blood Angels(7E)

Why Play Blood Angels (AKA the red ones)

• People are jealous of your Vampire-Jesus self.
• Haters gonna Hate.
• Some of the best close-combat units in the game.
• You like jump pack marines (if you want tacts, go play vanilla, pansy)
• Stormravens that will take your superior dreadnoughts and death company right down your enemy's throat in zero - tabled in record speed.
• SPESS VAMPIRES
• You like to make Khorne players jealous of all the blood you spill.
• True to the beliefs of Orks, your red ones DO go faster.

The new 7th edition codex has dropped, and it seems like there were a lot of nerfs to the book, like the Grey Knights since this was also a Ward dex'. Some of the changes are as follow:

• Assault Marines now are Fast Attack choices, which means you need to go Unbound if you wish to have an army of them.
• In order to keep in line with the Vanilla 'dex and Chapter Tactics, the Red Thirst is now just condensed into army-wide Furious Charge.
• Sanguinary Guards got cheaper and can take more in a unit, to a max of 10.
• Death Company and the Death Company Dreadnought are now Elite, as are the Vanguard Vets. Again, very lovely GW. (Not)
• Dante and Seth now LoW.
• Only Rhinos, Razorbacks and Baal Predators have Fast stock. The rest of them (Vindies and Whirlwinds) need to buy it.
• Tactical Squads now have Grav-guns and Heavy Flamers. Grav being awesome while the Flamer is more of a "Why not?" bonus.
  • Also, their new box set is pretty sweet, albeit a bit more expensive than Vanilla. Your sarges can now wear Nipple Armor.

This is just the surface mind you. Read on if you want to see more.

Warlord Traits

1. Red Rampage: - Warlord gains the Rampage USR. Both versions of Tycho and Seth have this.
2. Speed of the Primarch: - Warlord gains +1I, which stacks nicely with the special Formation and FOC. Corbulo has this.
3. Artisan of War: - One of the Warlord's weapons gains the Master-Crafted USR.
4. Soulwarden: - Warlord gains the Adamantium Will USR. Mephiston and Astorath have this, which makes one of them a Denying machine.
5. Descent of Angels: - Warlord gains the old 1d6" scatter rule, which everyone will miss. Dante has this.
6. Heroic Bearing: - Warlord grants Fearless to all units within 12" (all friendly? or just all friendly Blood Angels?). Sanguinor has this. As usual, nice for when things go tits-up too soon.

Fighter Aces

In Skies of Death, you now have a bonus rule allowing you to pay 35 points for one of 3 special traits for any Flyer or FMC (FGC is still debatable).

1. Angel of Vengeance - +1 BS. Pretty nice.
2. Grace of Angels - Ace can now pivot up to 180 before moving, giving them a way to actually back off and go around something if they want.
3. Wrath of Sanguinius - All fellow Blood Angels within 12" of the flier can get one turn with Preferred Enemy. Blast shit off the map, charge with some big mob of DC, it's just gonna be based on how your flyer's gonna run.

Baal Strike Force Detachment

The Codex-exclusive formation makes an elite choice mandatory, and then gives you a spare elite slot to mess with alongside the basic FOC. Aside from the mandatory WT re-roll, you also gain +1 Initiative on the charge for EVERYONE (if there's no Disorganized Charges), which is a seriously big deal for an assault-heavy army like this. Issue is that while army-wide +1 I is awesome, it feels like you give up something important (ObSec) for little in return, especially with the Elites slot being the most clogged of the army.

Wargear & Powers

While most of the weapons are accumulated on the Vanilla Codex, there are special tools available to the red marines of go-fast.

Melee Weapons

• Blood Talon: Once the epitome of cheese with that fucking "extra attacks that cause more extra attacks" rule. Now they're just Power Fists with Shred instead of Unwieldy (and Blood Fists are gone). Um...it's nice, but those extra attacks were what allowed the Dreads to actually break tarpits. If only the DC Dreads at least got Rampage for their troubles...
• Encarmine Axe: A two-handed MC S+1 Power Axe. Kinda...not that great, but it's at least free for the Sanguinary Guard
• Encarmine Sword: A MC Two-Handed Power Sword. Pretty decent for stock weapons.
• Furioso Force Halberd: The weapon of the Librarian Dreads, it's a Power Fist that replaces Unwieldy with Force and loses Specialist Weapon, costing you an attack. It's still rather threatening either way.

Ranged Weapons

• Angelus-Pattern Boltgun: The guns of the Sanguinary Guard, it's an S4 AP4 Storm Bolter.
• Frag Cannon: A unique weapon to the Furioso. It's an S6 AP- Template with Assault 2 and Rending, making it ideal for murderizing GEQ and having a decent chance at clearing out MEQ.

Vehicle Equipment

• Magna-Grapple: No longer a weapon, this one tool that once allowed Dreads to do the Scorpion to whatever he wants and kill now just grants Move Through Cover and allows re-rolls on the charge against Vehicles. Furiosos can replace Smoke Launchers with these, which is just as well, since you pretty much need to be in combat.
• Overcharged Engines: Makes tanks Fast. Available for purchase on the Whirlwind and Vindicator, while the Preds and Rhinos have it stock.

Special Equipment

• Blood Chalice: The trademark item of the Sanguinary Priests. Gives Blood Angels +1 WS, making him only as useful as any other Apothecary for allied Marines.
• Cluster Bombs A special tool for Scout Bikers, they can booby-trap a single piece of terrain and make it Dangerous Terrain for the enemy. It's a pretty devious way of funneling a cover-camping force to your location to kill them.
• Death Mask: The trademark item of the Sanguinary Guard (and Dante, though his is special. And Sanguinor), this mask gives the wearer Fear. Being 1 point per model, it's honestly not too terrible a grab. Shame half the armies can negate it one way or another.

Relics of Baal

1. Angel's Wing: Jump Pack. Bearer and Unit may re-roll Deep Strike Scatter Dice and Mishap roll. If targeted by a unit or weapon with Interceptor, that unit only fires snapshots. Guess which army full of Interceptor we can now fuck around with?
2. Crown Angelic: Grants the Fear USR, and Fear tests are taken at -2LD. This is one of the cheapest Relics, but it is situational.
3. Veritas Vitae: Grants an additional Warlord Trait from the Strategic Table.
4. Gallian's Staff: A special Force Staff. The Libby can re-roll all rolls of 1 when making a Psychic Test, but if he ever rolls another 1, he takes an unsavable wound. Kinda Grey Knights, but not by much.
5. Fury of Baal: A MC Plasma Pistol that replaces Gets Hot with MC, making it a hellishly more reliable weapon. Issue is that it costs almost twice as much as a plain jane Plasma Pistol (which can get MC to mitigate Gets Hot anyway) and packs the same amount of punch for it.
6. Valour's Edge: AP2 Power Sword. For only 5 more points than a regular Force Sword, that's pretty nice for a Captain and his big bag of assault.

Psychic Powers

Primaris. Quickening: WC1 Blessing that gives Fleet and +D3 to A and I to psyker or target character at 12". Pretty much the only way to get back your classic murder-rape-kill DC Dreads, or make an attached Chaplain/Mephy even killier.

1. Fear of the Darkness: WC1 Malediction. Target unit at 12" takes a Morale test with -2LD. Only really helpful for clearing out room.
2. Unleash Rage: WC1 Blessing that gives a unit within 18" Rage. If they had already that rule, they get +1A instead. Aim at that DC over there. See them kill. Arm those Clawnators over there with a free attack.
3. Shield of Sanguinius: WC1 Blessing that gives the Psyker and his unit 5++ invul. You will be needing this against any AP2 or D shots.
4. Blood Boil: WC2 Focused witchfire. Target within 18" makes 2 T tests. Take one W for each failed test. If the target dies, place 5" blast with S4 and AP5 Ignores Cover.
5. Blood Lance: WC2 Witchfire. It's an 12" beam with S8 AP1 and Lance. Time to shoot tanks.
6. Wings of Sanguinius: WC2 Blessing. Targeted infantry unit within 12", Unless locked in combat, that unit may move up to 12" in the psychic phase. No charging after this movement. A unit that moves using this ability counts as moving for the purposes of shooting weapons in the shooting phase. Pretty much an ideal tool for transporting a squad out of a trap or chucking DC into position for a charge next turn.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Captain: With the new 7th edition codex, captains got the much needed love that they deserved. They now have access to artificer armor, relic blades, and most of the other fun toys that vanilla captains get. Give him a thunder hammer, storm shield, artificer armor, and the relic jump pack for a relatively cheap and effective HQ. We still don't get generic chapter masters though, so keep that in mind.

• Librarian: Identical to the vanilla Space Marines Librarian, though with a different discipline availability. Still has no Invulnerable save, unless you take Terminator armor or luck out with powers. Pretty much an auto-include if you don't run Chaplains or Mephiston. Can choose to manifest powers from Biomancy, Divination, Daemonology, Telepathy, Telekinesis, or Sanguinary.
  • Death Company with Endurance? Yes, please!
  • Death Company with Invisibility...by The Emperor, think of the devastation!
  • Death Company with Invisibility...AND endurance....you will never need more incentive to take 2 librarians...for extra rape add Astorath...

• Chaplain: Pretty much the same as the vanilla Space Marines Chaplain. The Reclusiarchs are gone, and that kinda stings. You can drop them in with DC to make a frightening engine of rape.

• Librarian Furioso: No. No more flying or invisible dreadnoughts for you. You can instead give yourself some crazy and who wouldn't like a Furioso with +D3 A and I, Rage, a 5++ or a an AP1 beam (though you're ML1, with option for ML2, your options do become limited)? However the other changes to the psychic phase also help a fair bit: Having a psychic "phase" means that you do not lessen your shooting if you choose to let rip with witchfire spells and having communal Warp Charges means that if you have more than one psyker (you can have quite a few in an unbound list but in a single battle-focused list, you can have 2 max plus one for every allied BA detachment) then you can focus more power on the psyker in the best position. He can only roll on the codex for WT and can replace your fist's gun with a Flamer or Melta.

• Sanguinary Priest: YEAH NEW FUCKING MODEL BITCHES!!!!! WAS responsible for a fair bit of Blood Angel Bitching, but now only available as an HQ and you can only take one per slot; still a fairly solid and formidable choice as far as HQs go, but you are going to need to cover your ass. Only grants the +1 WS and FNP benefits to the unit they are attached to, similar to a Painboy. This makes him rather invaluable for allies, since almost every other Imperial Force only has apothecaries in command squads though you will lose out on the +1 WS. They can have Jump Packs or bikes, but can no longer grab Termie Armor. Bullets will no longer hurt your troops, as if marines needed to become even more survivable. Enjoy your immortal demigod soldiers. Don't send them in combat, powerfists make them cry. Not much choice in the matter now, attach one to your most powerful squad and abuse Look Out Sir! but sweet FUCK - watch out for those challenge-cheesing characters and precision shots! One good swing from an Axe of Khorne, a MURDER SWORD or even a well placed meltagun/fusion blaster/fusion gun and you can kiss your cute little point sink/bullet-sponge generator goodbye!

• Techmarine: A minor chance to make a vehicle move again. Now take an HQ slot, and unlike vanilla Marines they can take Jump Packs (at the cost of their Servo-arm), so at least they can keep up with the vehicles they're supposed to repair. One-wound model, though, so they are good for little else than deep-striking with a combi-melta or attending to a Land Raider, and even then, you can find a better use for an HQ slot. However, it is also worth noting in recent FAQs the techmarine can repair vehicles while being inside of them. In other words give a techmarine his servo-harness and put him in your stormraven and laugh as you regain your hullpoints. If you take him and don't put him in the stormraven to fix it, then you doing it wrong. (It's also worth noting that Servitors are cheaper than a harness.) Unlike the Iron Priest, the BA Techie is limited to only 5 servitors to himself.

Special Characters

• Astorath the Grim: He's basically a Reclusiarch with Artificer Armour, a jump pack, and a two-handed power axe. He is initiative 1 due to that axe, so he will be the stain on the end of your opponent's commander's boot if you're not careful, but to offset that, rolling a 6 to-wound makes the wound automatic with ID. He also allows DC to re-roll to-wound on a turn where he charges.

• The Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host: Your army's special character only wishes he was half as special as this snowflake. Apparently responsible for a great deal of the Blood Angels' past victories (including killing an Avatar of Khaine, but pretty much every codex these days has someone or something killing an Avatar so meh), he's nowhere near as impressive on the tabletop. Yes, he has high Initiative and WS 8. Yes, he has an Encarmine Sword and a jump pack. Yes, he has 2+ armour, 4+ invulnerable, Furious Charge, Fearless, Eternal Warrior, and can re-roll to-hit and to-wound in challenges. Yes, he can give all units within 6" a free attack so they can make that big assault, bolstered by the army-wide Furious Charge. However, he's still only T4 and has 3 Wounds, which means he can be shot to death by Orks, Termagants or Guardsmen. He can't take a bodyguard to back him up, since he doesn't have Independent Character. His only shooting weapons are grenades and he's only slightly cheaper than Dante. Against mediocre opponents, you can do fine hiding him behind bawkses and keeping him out of LoS of killy guns, but he's not as good as everybody thinks he is. And his model also looks kind of silly.

• Mephiston, Lord of Death: He's now only WS6 but he can get his WS7 back by accompanying a Sanguinary Priest, and with S/T5 it means he can now be insta-killed by Demolisher Cannons/Railguns/Powerklaws, no need for enemies to waste Force and other ID bullshit. He has Furious Charge, Fleet and ATSKNF replacing Fearless. However, Mephiston's an Independent Character so if you're feeling threatened stick him in a Terminator Squad with Storm Shields and abuse that 2+ Look out sir! He can still roll on Biomancy to buff his stats, he has Sanguine Sword (A WC1 blessing that makes him S10) as a personal power, and he has Transfixing Gaze; Each turn Meffy's in a challenge, you roll 2D6. If you roll equal to or higher than the enemy's Ld, Mephiston hits on a 2+ like a boss. No where near his 5th Edition rape-train status but he's still the Blood Angels go-to named character. He got a price cut to 175 points too. Always keep him away from Force, Mindshackle Scarabs and S10 weaponry.

• Captain Tycho: Good ol' Cap'n Tycho, a mainstay from the olden days, now lost in purpose. He has a master-crafted combi-melta that has an 18" range on the melta part and is AP4 on the bolter part. No more specialist ammunition though. He's also lost his ability to punch through tanks and armour and so has absolutely no close combat special abilities other than Digital Weapons and Hatred (Orks). He's cheap for a special character at 130 points, but an upgraded captain can potentially do much more than he can, use him with care.
  • Tycho the Lost: Tycho off his happy pills. The upgraded version of Tycho, he's still an Independent Character this time around, so no longer needs to run around solo, though he can only join Death Company squads like Lemartes. His profile is unchanged though, and now only gets the addition of Feel No Pain, Fearless and Relentless, which is not bad for an extra 15 points. Unfortunately his gear remains the same so he's stuck foot-slogging with non-jump pack Death Company.

• Brother Corbulo: Bullets no longer hurt your troops and you get one free re-roll. And this can be for any roll except deployment (though he can re-roll Seize) or game continuation. Unless he dies before you use it, at which point you kinda didn't deserve it anyway. He has a S5 Rending chainsword, grants +1 WS like other Sangs, but costs as much as 2 ordinary Priests and is still vulnerable to powerfists. Honestly, if you need a Priest, take a generic one and save the points.

• Malakim Phoros (Forgeworld): Lamenters Chapter Master. The 2013 Forgeworld update turned him from an average character to a scary monster. He lost his ability to force enemy rerolls on successful leadership tests but instead gained the zealot special rule and also generates a 6" hatred bubble around himself, furthermore if he loses a wound he flips out and gains +1 S and A and also confers rage to himself and any unit he joins. All of this makes him very similar to a overcharged chaplain. His Inferno Pistol is now 12" range and his Glaive Encarmine grants +1 Strength on the charge. Finally, he's the ONLY Blood Angels character who has the chance to suffer /(benefit) from Red Thirst. Although nothing compared to Mephy, he's still awesome with DC in a LRC, or if you have balls of reinforced Ununoctium, a Spartan from FW. 24 Blood Crazed Maniacs + Malakim Phoros = An awful lot of dead things, also watch as your opponent's sense of Target Priority utterly EXPLODES.

• Captain Karlaen (Deathstorm): The first taste of things to come, and things seem...underwhelming. Basic Termie Captain with an MC Thunder Hammer and Iron Halo for 160 points, which is a little bit more than a normal/vanilla captain with the same loadout, but he has Counter-Attack and Furious Charge built-in, which 5th Edition BA Captains didn't get. His Warlord Trait allows him to re-roll on Seize and gives a re-roll on Reserves at any time while he's alive, which is admittedly incredible for a DS-heavy force like the Blood Angels.

Troops

• Tactical Squad: Shooty. Better than vanilla Space Marines, because you can give them Feel no Pain (through the means of attaching a Sanguinary Priest). Tactical marines are a mighty fine addition to any mech themed army, with the chance to be deployed in fast rhinos, it means you can create a fast moving jack of all trades army. Good for grabbing objectives late on from edges of the board, whilst providing fire support and being the main bulk of your army. Their main power is in cheap special weapons, being flexible and generally being VAMPIRES IN SPESS. Shoot with your tactical marines and then charge your enemy with assault marines. They can also grab Teleport Homers like Scouts, so they can actually survive long enough to allow for a squad of Terminators to DS at any other turn (seems like they are REALLY pushing for the use of Terminators, probably to do with the new kit).

• Scout Squad: Cheap, infiltrating, and scoring like every other Scout unit. 'One tiny, easy to miss upgrade that separates BA Scouts from their weedier codex brethren is their ability to take a Teleport Homer. Yeah, now you can flawlessly deepstrike, say, Dreads, within 6" of the enemy. Should the Scouts live (doubtful, since they will almost undoubtedly attract ridiculous amounts of fire from this), they can guide in all the other deep-striking stuff that BA have access to as well, like Vanguard. Anyway, they're not a combat unit with their 4+ save and WS3, but their use as beacons is now really vital with Dante being booted to LoW and only getting a 1/6 chance for the same rule anyway. If you want your scouts to provide some ranged support you can equip them with sniper rifles for free so you can try to snipe the hidden power klaws and similar threats before your marines have to engage it in melee.

• Raphen's Death Company (Deathstorm): 4-Man DC that's still Troops, but with a Sarge that gives +1A/Ld, a Power Sword, a Power Fist, a Thunder Hammer, and an Inferno Pistol. For about 25 more points than an equally-kitted squad, you get Relentless but the major new rules change is that they can now score (and as troops, they'll get ObSec in a CAD). Issue is that you lose -1 WS, making your death people no better than any regular goons, though probably an indication of what's going to happen in the incoming Codex.

• • Cassor the Damned (Deathstorm): The Blood Angel's attempt to match up with MURDERFANG THE MURDERBORN as a Troops Slot, a DC Dread with Magna-Grapple, Searchlights (Instead of Smoke Launchers) and the new AP2 Blood Talons. For about a point cheaper than a normal one with the same kit, you lose Fleet. Probably the weakest of the set, with the loss of Fleet and the embarrassing bump to WS4 (and the likely typo'd out lack of Strength).

Elites

• Command Squad: It's still here, and still as debatably useful, as they will always take up a slot in one of the most bloated sections of the codex. Problem is that you're stuck with 3 Vets, the Champion, and the Sanguinary Novitiate (Why is he still here? Why can't we just grab more Sanguinary Priests?) with the options being either weapons for the vets, the Company Standard, or Jump Packs so they can at least keep up with the attached leader.

• Sanguinary Guard: Blood Guard who have Blood swords and Angel wings and Angelus bolters that shoot Bloodshard shells that spill Blood for the Blood God- I mean, Emprah. All equipped with jump packs, two-handed master-crafted power weapons and 12" AP4 Storm Bolters. Cost as much as a Terminator squad, but can't have more than five guys in a squad. One of them can carry the chapter banner, and all of them can swap out their usual gear for power fists, plasma pistols, or infernus pistols, and they can take death masks, which forces a Fear test on the enemy in combat. 2+ armor save which means power weapons won't hurt much which just made this unit much more valuable on the field, but no invuln save at all; keep them away from plasma and AP2 or lower weapons in general. Attach a Sanguinary Priest to them for extra lulz. Cool unit, Your mileage may vary. Perhaps just spend those points on a termi squad.

• Death Company: Now no longer a Troops choice, but you played Blood Angels for the sauce and this is it. If you're going to be a bitch and refuse to spend points just take an assault squad, its the cost effective choice. They have Fearless and Furious Charge and Rage for maximum carnage on the Charge. Do not forget that they are Relentless, so give bolters to fist/claw-equipped guys for free extra shots. If you're going to use these, it's highly advisable to throw in a chaplain to re-roll both to-hit and to-wound and an array of close combat weapons. Taken together they make Death Company the last word in terminal close encounters. An eight-man power-weapon-equipped death company squad with a chaplain can easily wipe out full Bloodcrusher squads IN ONE CHARGE, but new ap3-power weapon nerfed power-DC a lot, since they can no longer threaten TEQ's (unless you take some power axes and a very big squad). A Land Raider actually makes a good transport for these guys, particularly the Land Raider Crusader; 15 blood-crazed maniacs + 1 chaplain + Land Raider Crusader = pretty much a guaranteed charge and a whole lot of dead things. Another option is to give a 5 man squad jump packs add a HQ with the relic jump pack and charge in on a Tau Gunline and laugh as they're forced to Snap Fire while you get the chance to actually charge their asses.
  • Lemartes: The resident Zen berserker maniac Chaplain of the Death Company (and sadly unlike Arjac Rockfist or Lukas the Trickster or Boss Snikrot, having a DC doesn't make him a free option), Lemmy's weapon change to a power maul in 6th Ed seems like it's nerfed him somewhat, but the moment he gets wounded he turns into one of the nastiest things for any character to face in a challenge. With his special rule, you're looking at 8 (!!!) Str 8 (!!!!) AP4 I6 attacks on the charge with rerolls to hit and wound - enough to instant-death most T4 characters without Eternal Warrior through their armor saves before they even have a chance to strike back. This also means he actually has a really good chance at wrecking vehicles with his beatin' stick now. Take him. Get him shot once. Enjoy.

• Death Company Dreadnought: Has been taken down several pegs; now that it's Elites, it can't score so you actually have to choose between a survivable and pricey dread or one that'll die but take a squad down with it. On the plus side, it -does- get one more attack than a Furioso (two on the charge, thanks to FC), Blood Talons are actually the choice here allowing your DC dread to maximize the damage done from landing all those attacks. If you wanted anti-tank consider a Furioso or something else instead.

• Dreadnought: Blood Angels love Dreadnoughts, and you should too. The assault cannon is probably the most cost-effective shooting weapon available to them, and replacing the standard storm bolter with a heavy flamer can't hurt either. You can kit them out for tank-hunting, but other units can easily fill that role, too. They're no slouches in melee either (unless you were a fool and swapped the DCCW for a missile launcher) but it can't compare to the Furioso pattern when it comes to well and truly fucking something's shit up. Instead, try doubling up on TLACs for long-range support - there's a reason as to why rifleman dreadnoughts suddenly proliferated many a Space Marine list.

• Furioso Dreadnought: A WS5, 13/12/10 Dreadnought. Work best in pairs and trips and come with loads of options, including the new and... well, different Blood Talons (see above). Basically, they're now the choice for dealing with those 2+ armor saves, but they might actually be better on a DC dread because they have more attacks; it's more of a tradeoff now - do you want more survivability and utility or do you want to deal more damage? AV13+ vehicles will instead require you to retain your fists and that meltagun, whereas slogging through terrain befits a Frag Cannon and Magna Grapple (which has also changed a bit).

• Contemptor Furioso Dreadnought (Forgeworld): Exactly what it says on the tin, which is to say it gives you everything you love/hate about Furiosos in a Contemptor's package. Benefits include Atomantic Shielding, 13/12/11 armour (thus making it impervious to units that only get S4 in melee), fleet, S7, WS5, Red Thirst, two DCW's with storm bolters - and that's just to start! You get the option for both contemptor fun (trading a DCW for Kheres Assault Cannon, Heavy Conversion Beamer, other dread guns, Chainfist, etc) and Blood Angel goodies (Blood Talons, upgrading a storm bolter to a meltagun to break people out of their metal bawkses, the Frag Cannon arm replacement, and the chassis-mounted Magna Grapple). There's not much of a reason to take Blood Talons on CFD unless you know you're facing lots of 2+ saves, otherwise anything else is better.

• Terminator Squad: They're Terminators, what's not to like? Use them just like you would vanilla Terminators, there's not much of a difference. Heavy Flamers are cheap and ignore cover, and Assault Cannons and Cyclone Missile Launchers ensure long-range carnage. Remember to bring at least one Chainfist, and a Sanguinary Priest couldn't hurt either. If you're fighting 'Nids, reminisce about the good old days of Space Hulk.
  • Squad Alphaeus (Deathstorm): A Termie Squad with a Chainfist and Heavy Flamer. For about 5 points more than a normal squad with the same loadout, you get...Furious Charge in place of old fashioned Red Thirst (Um...for the Chainfist?) and PE (Tyranids) while the Sarge is still alive and no Combat Squad because the squad is fixed at five models.

• Terminator Assault Squad: A bunch of guys with Lightning Claws, upgradable to TH/SS for 5 each with fancy new models. If you use Claws, stick a Sanguinary Priest with them like everything else (though keep him hidden. Losing Termie Armor makes him a vulnerability). The gap between S4 > S5 is more valuable than S8 > S9 unless you are fighting against AV13-14 vehicles or monstrous creatures (but Assault squads with Meltabombs or regular terminator squads can deal with those effectively anyway). The 3++ is preferred only if you expect to be facing a lot of AP2/1 weaponry such as melta/powerfist spam, but ready access to FnP mitigates against plasma/axes slightly, so consider what your opponent is bringing.
  • It is absolutely necessary that you take a Land Raider to ensure they make the long trip to the enemy. They benefit greatly from a buffer unit like a Chaplain (to boost their close combat capabilities even more) a Sanguinary Priest (a squad 2+ armour saves, 3+ invul. saves with Feel no Pain? Yes please) or a Librarian (In case you needed yet another sledgehammer in your squad). Bottom line: great CC squad, but they can become really expensive, really soon. Also they got a new Blood Angels specific pack which costs the same as Dark Angels Deathwing Terminators.

• Sternguard Veteran Squad: Yep, they're back. Yep, they're still awesome. Dakka, dakka, dakka. Just keep 'em away from tanks and high-armor units, unless you remembered to bring some combi-meltas/plasmas. Not as useful for Blood Angels, with the amount of anti-infantry and meltaguns they usually possess, but still a fine buy.

• Vanguard Veteran Squad: Got a nice 20 cut from their cost, but are now shoved into the crowded Elites Slot. Since there's no special DS rules, you now need to buy jump packs for this squad. Since assaulting after arrival is a dead thing this edition, these guys get the consolation prize of ignoring the penalties for Disorganized Charges and can automatically pass Heroic Intervention. Which is a savage anal raping, FOR YOU. Be careful not to go overboard on the wargear; they WILL draw fire, and they can get very expensive, very fast. The best use is tank hunting or killing shooting units so pack them with a Thunder Hammer of Power/Chainfist. So your enemy's units like a predator or dev squad will be bounded in close combat with your vets when other parts of your army get close to fuck your enemy and your metal boxes will be in safety from big guns.

Fast Attack

• Assault Squad: They can be tooled any number of ways and most of them are deadly. Small squads with Melta, Combi-Weapon, and a FAST razorback with Lascannon and TL Plasma, or a large 10-man squad, either flying, in a free drop pod, in a 15-point Rhino, or a discounted Raider. Just make sure a Sanguinary Priest is within 6" so they have the joy of FNP and Furious Charge. In a competitive meta, the 10 fly guys are the way to go, as a transport may get lased to death as it steps out and you do NOT want these guys foot slogging. On the other side, it's still harder to glance razor to death rather than to kill some infantry units. So razors can be competitive, especially when your opponent has good anti-infantry units, but is not very good in killing many vehicles (and if you go razors, take 4 with 5 ASM each).

• Land Speeder Squadron: Basically the damn same as the Land Speeders in the Space Marine codex. If you run one, run two, same as other vehicles. The key feature of these fuckers is that you can speed 'em around the field fast enough that they always get their 4+ cover save from moving flat out. If you're lucky, you can get people to waste a turn or two shooting at these while your real vehicles are getting shit done unimpeded. Of course, if your enemy ignores them, then you probably get a chance to pop something with your Multi-meltas, so you might win either way.

• Attack Bike Squad: 1-3 Bikes with heavy weapons. Give them Multi-Meltas and go tank hunting. Other units can handle anti-infantry roles, such as the Baal Predator.

• Bike Squad: Blood Angels aren't as good as vanilla Marines are with bikers, if only because they lack the ability to take bikes as Troops. Still, they can prove to be useful as skirmishers as long as you don't let them get bogged down in an assault. Take a meltagun and/or a plasma gun to kill shit faster. There's also a build, known as Blood Rodeo, in which ASM and Bikes are used together. FNP and FC bikes? Yes please.

• Scout Bike Squad: More fragile than standard Bikers, have WS/BS 3, and can't take meltas/flamers/plasma guns; instead, all they can do is replace their bikes' boltguns with rapid-firing grenade launchers. However, they can Infiltrate and Scout, and thanks to their Sergeant, an Infiltrating Power Fist on a bike is nothing to sniff at. They can also take Locator Beacons, to help put that deep-striking Jump Pack squad of doom where you want it at, and .

Heavy Support

• Baal Predator: The Blood Angels' unique Predator, armed with a twin-linked Assault Cannon. Can take Heavy Bolter or Heavy Flamer sponsons, or replace the Assault Cannon with a Flamestorm cannon, the S6 AP3 flamer found on the Land Raider Redeemer. It's fast, it ruins infantry's day, it will likely draw a lot of fire to stop it from killing their troops.

• Stormraven Gunship: Basically, a flying Land Raider. This ugly flying brick is now available to vanilla Marines and Black Templars, no more a Blood Angels/Grey Knights only for no adequately explained reason. Go figure. It costs 200 points base, has AV12 all around, and meltaguns don't get the extra D6 for AP when shooting at them. It's also bristling with guns; it has a twin-linked heavy bolter, a twin-linked assault cannon, and four Bloodstrike missiles (72" S8 AP1, one shot each), and that's only standard issue. It can replace the heavy bolters with a twin-linked multimelta for free or a Typhoon missile launcher for 25 points, and replace the assault cannon with a twin-linked plasma cannon or a twin-linked lascannon for free. And if that's not enough dakka for you, it can take hurricane bolters in side sponsons. It can't deep strike (as per the latest errata, Stormravens can't Deep Strike anymore), but it can take a locator beacon. (So you could use it as a highly mobile beacon for a Deep Striking Land Raider.) The real gravy comes with its transport capacity; it can carry 12 guys in power armor (or 6 Jump Infantry/Terminators) AND one Dreadnought. Watch your opponent cry tears of bitter rage as your Death Company comes out of fucking nowhere to ruin his day. It'll cost you an arm and a leg, but you certainly get what you pay for.

• Predator: Marginally more useful than the vanilla Predator, since it's now a Fast vehicle [Only if you pay the 10 pts upgrade], though it also costs more because of that. Meaning it can move further and fire more guns at once. The Baal Predator is better than the Destructor against infantry (Compare S7 AP4 Heavy 2 to twin-linked S6 AP4 Heavy 4, Rending); use the Annihilator variant to hunt tanks and Monstrous Creatures instead.

• Devastator Squad: They're just like the vanilla Marines' Devastators, only with the Red Thirst, and cheaper weapons. Great with 4 missile launchers - a cheap and universal squad with a lot of firepower. Carry around a priest to babysit them. Park them in cover. Perfect for shooty army-list.

• Vindicator: It's a massive gun strapped to a Rhino. Imperial Guard wished they had something this awesome *coughcough*Thunderers*coughcough*. Even if the gun gets blown off (likely, considering the amount of fire this thing will draw), you can go all-out and ram your target instead for massive damage. Just bear in mind that your choice of targets will be limited once the rest of your army gets into melee, and no-one likes scattering S10 AP2 "friendly fire" pie-plates. Except maybe your opponent.

• Whirlwind: The Fast engine can actually help Whirlwinds out if they get too close to enemies; just zip off to somewhere safe for you to rain fiery death down upon them. But, as it's strictly anti-infantry, and costs even more because of Fast, it's even worse than vanilla. You have to buy fast now. But why the fuck would you?

Lords of War

As with the Space Wolves and Grey Knights 7th Edition Updates, Commander Dante and Chapter Master Seth have been moved to Lord of War slots in same fashion asLogan Grimnar and Kaldor Draigo.

• Commander Dante: Pretty damned powerful for a Chapter Master, with a jump pack, inferno pistol (Melta in pistol form), and a Power Axe (great for Hit and Run). He can deal with pretty much any kind of enemy in the game with a decent chance of winning. As of the 7th edition update he now has his much needed Eternal Warrior. Throw him at S8-10 weapons if you're feeling gutsy, and now that melee weapons have AP values his artificer armour lets him laugh at power swords. His WT reduces the scatter distance of the unit he's with, so pair him with a Honour Guard unit with multiple meltaguns to kill a tank and threaten its contents the next turn, or deliver some other killy unit with precision. Take him and Mephiston for extra lulz. Also as of 7th Edition his axe is now S+2 AP2 and strikes at his stupidly high initiative.
  • If you run Maelstrom with Dante as warlord, you also get to roll on the Tactical Traits table. Joy.
  • He may be powerful, but he just ain't cost effective. However a must for a 'Flying Praetorian' list
  • Does extremely well as an attacker in planetstrike missions, since he has no scatter and can charge immediately after arriving. Use this to your maximum advantage.

• Chapter Master Gabriel Seth: The incredibly badass Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers. Doesn't have a power weapon, but his huge chain sword, Blood Reaver, hits at Strength 8 (in Initiative order, even!) and has Rending. His other feature is the ability to make another hit on a to-wound roll of 6 (With the likelihood that these bonus hits can make wounds that make more attacks). Also, he's low priced at 155 points, has 4 attacks base, and is Fearless by default to boot. The downside is that he doesn't buff your army in any way (other than granting Fearless to the squad he's in), so take stick an HQ with him to make him and the army more effective. While not quite amazing, as a pure combat character, Gabe is pretty far from a bad buy get him into combat with a decent squad, then: 'Watch the Magic happen...'

Dedicated Transports

• Rhino: Looks like the Orks were right after all: The red ones DO go faster. Costs 10 more points than a vanilla Rhino (45 compared to 35) but is now a Fast vehicle, making them absurdly useful. Take one for as many infantry units as you can.
• Razorback: It's fast. It has a big gun on top. Use it in conjunction with Sternguard or your hero unit + Honor Guard. Take the las/plas turret if you can spare the points, since you can move 12" speed and fire both guns.
• Drop Pod: Perfect for putting Dreadnoughts where they need to be.
• Land Raider/Crusader/Redeemer: Pretty much the same as the vanilla counterparts: normal Land Raider is schizo, Crusader is God-tier for Terminator transport, Redeemer fucks infantry's shit up. Use one for heavily-armored delivery.

Building your Army

The Blood Angels battleforce has been released. Start with that. Then start filling in your base. Get yourself an HQ model and another Space Marine squad. You can also buy Commander Dante and fill out your troops with Sanguinary Guard. You get your elites slots free for anything you like.

Here's an in depth look, a little spammy, but a nice starting point you can add flavor to!

Get librarian and sang for your HQ.

BA are a pretty good mech list, with all the tanks being fast, so get a predator(s) with autocannon on top, and lascannons on the side. (for the maximum price efficiency)

Also with the buff to fliers- add a stormraven. (I know they cost a lot, but it helps) Throw a Furioso dread in that, and add a nice hammer unit. (Though don't waste too many points)

pretty balanced base start with and add on to

If you go a DC list, IG allies are a fine buy, because they provide you with infantry platoon - a reliable scoring unit.

Allies

Battle Brothers

• Adepta Sororitas: Why? All the good units they have to offer are the Priests and Jacobus (Much cheaper and better than chaplains for War Hymns to potentially give your Death Company rerolls on wounds and any saves), you already have fucktons of flamers and meltas while your tac marines can do the same as normal bolter babes with +1 S/T.
• Black Templars: Coming soon. rolled into regular marine 'dex. Why the fuck would you take two assaulting armies as allies anyway?
• Dark Angels: - A very good combo with Blood Angels, as they are the more shooty and resolute marines compared to your own quick moving, melee marines. You can also perform really good alpha-strikes with lots of turn 1 Deathwing deep strike (particularly with Belial) and are one of the few other Space Marine chapters with access to divination, while this is no longer the go-to discipline as it was in 6th edition it combos especially well with Mephiston if he's already on biomancy steroids and will force your opponent to make panic induced mistakes.
• Grey Knights: It's just repeated deep-striking and a massive points sink. It's purely redundant like the Black Templars from Codex Space Marines.
• Imperial Guard: Excellent fire support for a up-in-your face army. A neat little army list is a CCS in a chimera (so he doesn't die if the enemy sniffs at him), a veteran squad with camo behind an ADL w/quad gun (or an infantry platoon if you have the points), and a few leman russes. All the fire support you'll ever need. So for a CCS in a chimera, Camo veterans, and ADL w/quad gun and a Leman Russ, this all costs only 445 points (a little more or less depending on the Leman Russ variant and if you take upgrades for your Veterans or if you take an infantry platoon. With an ADL, the chimera isn't a necessity anyway.). Alternatively, you could take them as meat shield distractions. But it's mainly recommended that you use them as long range fire support/ objective campers.
• Inquisition: Servo-Skulls and Mystics work really nice with your deep-striking units. Inquisitors also have hilarious shit like the Conversion Beamer (small blast that gets stronger the farther the target is from the Inquisitor holding it) and the Psyocculum which gives your units BS10 when shooting at units containing Psykers and Brotherhood of Psykers/Sorcerers. Death Company got the assault gear, Inquisition lays down a shooty advance. You can take Crusaders to suck up heavy weaponry and Power Weapons with their storm shields, so they are awesome meatshields too. Always a good choice.
• Space Marines: Pretty nice alpha strike potential here if you throw in Vulkan He'Stan.
• Space Wolves: Long Fangs for epic long range shooting prowess, and Rune Priests. But Mephiston can do it better. Space Wolves with Counter-Attack make fantastic defensive allies to hold the line while Blood Angels go out and rip and tear.
• Imperial Knights:' Nothing much to say but yes! Big scary, fast Super-heavies to give your target too many things to shoot at in too little time.

Allies of Convenience

• Eldar: this army has the advantage of actually being able to keep up with you, but you might find that there to be a lot of overlap within the two codxes, that being said they are really quite a bit less durable than your standard troops, so just think carefully about whether or not you just want more Blood Angels.

Desperate Alllies

• Tau Empire: If all else fails, use them in the same fashion as Guardsmen. Rail guns and other devastating Long-range shooting, but you must always remember One Eye Open.
• Dark Eldar: Their speed is good, but you're also within OEO range often so that sucks! They also are an in your face army with lots of scary close range shooting.

Come the Apocalypse

• Necrons: Coming soon.
• Orks: Well...I guess it can work? The fact is, One Eye Open stings like a bitch so big Ork hordes necessitate Deep-striking. Also OEO doesn't apply to units locked in combat already. That's an advantage.
• Tyranids: Look at Orks pretty much. Also, the new Tyrannocyte Spores provide deep-strike synergy with 'Nids so OEO doesn't sting so bad.
• Chaos Space Marines: You can do assaults better, why the hell would you take this when your main army can do all that without allying at CtA levels? Pass! Just take Loyalist Marines!
• Chaos Daemons: Coming soon.

Formations

• Blood Angels Battle Company - Captain and Chaplain, Command Squad, 6 Tac Squads, 2 Assault Squads, 2 Devastator Squads, 1 DC, and a Dread of the standard of Furioso Patterns. You not only get the Re-roll of WT and the +1 I on all charges, but you also shockingly get Objective Secured for the Tac Squads. Imagine the look of those yiffs' faces when you run this and get ObSec.

• Strike Force Deathstorm (Deathstorm) - Put the Deathstorm Blood Angels units together. Aside from everything else, you get Fearless (Or Counter-Attack for the DC) and once per game, Karlaen can allow everyone to re-roll to-wound one assault phase. Helpful for the rape train of DC, but...they seem to be the least astounding of the pack.

• Space Marine Company (Apocalypse) - A Captain, Chaplain, Command Squad with Standard, and trio of Dreads have a choice. If they're from a battle company, they must have 6 Tac squads, 2 Assault Squads, and 2 Devastator Squads. If they're from a reserve company, they must have all 10 squads be of one type of the three. All squads must have 10 men.
  • A fluffy formation that really works depending on how you kit them out. No matter what, they get an Orbital Strike Strategic Asset and Counter-Attack. If they're within 12" of an objective, they get Stubborn. If someone charges an infantry unit of this formation within 12" of them, they get the Tau Supporting Fire rule once per assault phase.

• Librarius (Apocalypse) - 5 Librarians or Rune Priests. If you want, you can replace one of them with Mephiston, making them all Blood Angels.
  • These Librarians form a Warp Charge 4 (!!) power called Force Vortex, a 24" S:D AP1 Heavy 1, Large Blast Vortex. IF they don't recall it before it moves, then it'll scatter off and kill everyone. Before you run with this ask yourself: How confident am I that this won't kill everything?

• Masters of the Chapter (Apocalypse) - A Chapter Master can take an optional Honour Guard squad along his 4-10 Captains of the same chapter. Any of them can be replaced with a named Character where fitting.
  • This is not an assault force; it's too small for that. What it can do, though, is give you 3 additional assets on the first break and give them a 3++ on the turn they use their Finest Hour/Sons of the Primarch ability.

• The Black Rage (Apocalypse) - Astorath grabs 1+ Chaplains, 3+ Death Company squads (with one holding Lemartes) and 2-4 Death Company Dreads. They can also get DC Tycho as well.
  • This is a straight-up murder squad. Their biggest boost is a bonus to their charge equal to the number of turns it is from turn 2 onwards. Things will DIE here.

• Lucifer Armoured Task Force (Apocalypse) - Tycho, an Honour Guard, and 3 Tac Squads get 2 Predators, 2 Baal Predators, and 4 Land Raiders of any sort.
  • The Land Raiders get Fast and Scout in exchange for a Hull-Point, so make sure you keep a good eye on them and their health while transporting the teams where they need to be. Other than that, they're the same as normal.

• Wings of Sanguinius (Apocalypse) - JETPACKS FOR EVERYONE! A Captain and a Chaplain get 10 Assault Squads of 10 and a choice of either an Honour Guard or Sanguinary Guard. Oh, and optional Sanguinor.
  • Since everyone's a jump unit, they all get Deep Strike and Descent of Angels, with the option to Deep Strike at ANY TIME THEY WANT. THE SHIT. They also all get Shrouded the turn they Deep Strike.

Tactics

AWAITING REMAKE AS THE NEW CODEX DROPS LIVE

You have an army made for one purpose, and one purpose only. Motherfucking BLITZKRIEG!!! If there was any other army more adept at using this Nazi tactic it would overrape everything. Blood angels are the certified masters of BLITZKRIEG!!! I mean look at what they have in their army list. Watch with glee as your opponent cry out in horror as your army crosses half the boardlength in the first turn (sort of. this fast vehicle FAQ may have taken away my will to live). Second, your troops are utterly focused on getting close as fast as humanly possible to the enemy and obliterating them at close-range and/or in CQC. Third, you have the best conditions for deep striking of all the armies in the galaxy All jump infantry can deep strike and use only one die for scatter by with the proper WT (or Dante)). Use deepstriking Dreadnoughts in drop pods, combine it with fast flying Stormravens carrying a ten-man assault squads joined by a Sanguinary Priest and Vindicators on the ground lobbing S: 10 large-blast templates of annihilation all over the table. Combine all this with the units mentioned above, along with their aforementioned tactics and you will basically bring all your opponents to their knees crying bitter tears of rage and frustration after you stand victorious at the end of turn 2.

Do not charge your Death Company into a Terminator squad, no matter what you may think will happen. Especially do not do this if you're playing against Space Wolves, Terminator Wolf Lords will eat your DCs alive without breaking a sweat. I want whatever this guy was having. Srsly. Death company is still the last word in CQC. counter-attack/TEQ's are cute but a fully tricked out Death Company will turn them into a fine red paste in one turn.

Always use Dreadnoughts with Blood Talons in a Drop Pod. Trust me, they're bound to screw up your opponent's strategy. Magna grapples+melta is also a must take.

Sanguinary Priests are your friends, especially for allied armies. Since most armies only have FNP distributed either in a command squad (aside from Rune Priests), you'll be better off taking one to assist a team you'll expect to take a lot of fire.

Though BA are powerful in close combat, they are nice in shooting with their 4bs. Concentrate firepower on one target and fuck it up. Then choose other target. Libby with shield or Telepathy for shrouding/invisibility or Biomancy for Endurance is fine too. Mephy or Furioso can be taken as counter-charge. Melta or plasma honour guards are always good. Missile Devs are universal unit in Heavy Support and Autocannon-Lascannon Predators are nice for fucking heavy units up. Baal Preds ruin infantry's day. Melta-Attack Bikes or Land Speeders are your mobile anti-tank units.

Tactical Objectives

11

Valor of Angels

+1 VP for issuing a challenge. EASY MONEY.

12

Aerial Assault

+1 VP if you have a Jump/Skimmer/Flyer unit destroy an enemy unit. +1d3 VP if the unit that did the killing arrived from reserves on the same turn.

13

Purity Through Bloodshed

+1 VP if you killed a unit in Assault. +1d3 if 3-5 units die. +1d3+3 if you killed more than 6 units in Assault.

14

Decapitating Strike

+1 VP if you killed the Warlord on this or any prior turn. Nice.

15

Swift Advance

Draw the card, opponent chooses two objective you must hold. Win 1 VP if you control one of them at the end of your turn, win 1d3 if you secure both.

16

Noble Self-Sacrifice

In order to better imitate their Primarch, you win 1 VP if your Warlord dies during your assault phase. However, if you ever refuse a challenge, this goes away.