Tactica: Blood Angels (part 1: "HQ's & Elites")

So I decided to start this series of BA-tacticas where I'll tell my opinions of different units and their uses. If you have questions or opinions, I'm happy to give my answers. And notice that I tried to be brief with most of the units and focus to the stuff that matters. I might return to some of them later and be more specific. But however, to the point. It's sad how as a new player I chose one of the least competitive armies out there. Let's face this at the start: Blood Angels are not that competitive. To be honest, they kinda suck. The main idea of BA is that we take Ultramarines, make them actually cool (by both looks and fluff), give them few useless special rules, few own units and vehicles and make them roughly 10% more expensive. But I have seen some working BA-lists. It's not impossible to win with them, just difficult. Let's break down the codex and see what we find inside of it, shall we?

HQ

Named Characters 
Well what do we have here? A bunch of awesome-looking characters that seem sweet on the paper. Dante with his Initiative 6 and AP2 weapon that... brings you back to the initiative 1...? What? A minor setback, but let's continue: mastercrafted S+1 AP2 weapon with WS6 and 6 attacks on a charge. Not bad I guess! So he's medicore fighter. Now his special rules: he makes Sanguinary Guard scoring unit which is simply great! Not a good friend of them but Dante + Sanguinary Guard is a great combo that can wreck stuff and making them scoring can be worthwhile. Also no scatter on deep strike, great! Hit&run on his squad, useful. But something's missing... hmmm... oh right! Dante's fluff says that he's the oldest living Space Marine. If so, where is his Eternal Warrior? 225 points easily thrown away by a lucky meltagunshot. Not good.

And the problem is that he isn't the only character with minor flaws. Mephiston. Dear God this guy can wreck anything!! Except stuff in 2+ armour... A good character, yes. Great? Nnnnnope. And yet again, an important special rule is missing. Independent Character. With no Inv save this guy will quickly be shot off the table with plasmas. They are not the only ones so I'll just save time by saying this: To be honest, the only BA named character I'd take as a HQ choice is Captain Tycho. Stick him with Sternguard and Corbulo (I'll return to those two shortly) for cheesiness.

Other HQ's
Luckily, the named characters aren't the only ones we can play with. We also have Captain, Librarian ans Reclusiarch.
Captain lacks all the stuff that makes him great in other SM codices. However, I can still see some uses to him. Jump Pack/Bike Captain with Power Sword to challenge the nasty PF Tac Sgt. Useful maybe but not gamechanging. Librarians are the most common choice. Keep them in any squad you want and well, once again, not gamechanging but can be worth his points. If you put him in Sternguard/Tacticals, take Divination. The primaris works well, so might as well use it. But don't forget the codex-powers. Shield of Sanguinius saves many as*es when combined with FnP from the priest and I believe you can't go wrong with Unleash Rage. And now, my favourite choice: Reclusiarch. As a fighter he's on the level with Captain and gives his squad buffs almost as well as a Libby. S6 AP4 weapon is great! But remember that he can also take a Power Fist against tougher targets. 4+ Inv and I5 makes him durable fighter. Add in the facts that his squad is Fearless and re-rolls on charge and you got one heck of a homewrecker!

HQ overall:
A lot of good named characters, but I'm afraid they're not worth their high price. I would skip most of them if not for fluffy reasons. This section is one of the worst of BA. Okay, I'm not being fair. Maybe. As an overall, I'll make top 3 named characters here (only HQ):
1) Captain Tycho, the sane version. Why? Basic captain that works well with Sternguard for having same kind of weaponry. Also CC-attacks that ignore armour? Yes please.
2) Gabriel Seth. Why? Cheapest one with one heck of a weapon. S8 and Rending are made for insta-killing high value SM-characters.
3) Astorath the Grim and Dante go in same slot in here. Why? In my opinion, they are useful in only certain list types. Astorath removes the limit of only 1 DC and Dante makes Sang Guard troops. Both can be made into powerful lists, but not without these guys. (+ I really love the 50/50 chance on Red Thirst with Astorath).

The other options are all useful in their ways. My point goes to Reclusiarch, who should stick into any CC-squad you have, but in shooting lists Librarian supports your troops better. (And no, I do not think that shooty BA is dead. More of that later). It's difficult to find a proper job for Captain, but maybe dual LC-Cappy wouldn't be so crappy. Just a second, got to stop laughing. --- Done, moving on.


Elites

Chaplains/Priests
Not much to say about Chaplains, a bit lamer version of Reclusiarch. Has it's uses but I'd rather pay the 30 points to make him Warlord. But the priests! As said before, BA isn't best of armies so it simply HAS to use every bonus it can get. One of the biggest is the ability to get FnP in any squad. Put him in Assault squad and you won't regret. You only need to pass 4 5+ saves to make him worth his points + after giving him power weapon he'll make a good challenger in fights.
A tougher version of priests: Brother Corbulo. Damn if this guy isn't one of the best named characters in the game! Up to 5 S5 Rending attacks on CC make him a fighter but that isn't his best trait. He has a goddamn 2+ FnP! I've had him suck up shots of about 15 bolters and 4 heavy bolters while not losing a single wound! Take him. He's worth it.

Terminators:
I'm gonna be brief with these guys. They DO have a place in BA-lists. I'm just not sure of what is it. 5 Terminators with a single Heavy Flamer has always worked well as a counter-assault unit in case I decided to make a shooty list. But sadly enough, I can't justify the CC-version. With Land Raider and 2-3 Storm Shields they are an awesome unit but I just feel that the shooty guys hit just as hard AND get to shoot before it. Of course the 3+ Inv is a huge thing but still... With Chainfists avaivable they are also better at AT. This is propably a matter of taste but my points will always go to the regular Termies. Reliable, worth their points, make stuff die.


The rest:
Sternguard: a unit I love. The multiple rounds and possibility to take combi-guns is great! 5 guys with 5 combi-meltas. Put them in a Pod and get free first blood. Plan B: 8 guys with 3 meltaguns/combi-meltas. Add Corbulo and Tycho in there for 500 points of goodiness. Corbulo will tank all the shots he can get and Tycho will challenge the nasty enemy HQ (not too nasty..). March across the board, you will draw fire and therefore keep your less scary Assault squads etc. alive. Remember that even if the Sternguard is made for shooting, they still have 2 hits each and you can always put a power weapon/fist to the Sgt. to spice up your close combat. (With Priest/Corbulo they will also have Furious Charge. Never forget Furious Charge)

Sanguinary Guard: with this unit you either win big or lose big. They are like goddamn flying Terminators that fly from one unit to another and leave a pile of bodies behind them. Their guns are awesome, their weapons are awesome, they can fly, they can take Chapter Banner with them and with Dante they come as Troops. The problem: plasma will ruin your day. That's all I'm going to say, a squad with dual-plasma/melta will shoot at you once in 12''. If you're ready to take the chances then I'd at least recommend a Priest in here. It may not be Inv but that 5+ FnP can save your game (Furious Charge doesn't hurt either... well, doesn't hurt you at least).

Furioso Dreadnought: I see one useful build for this fellow: Fragioso. Assault 2 Template with S6 and Rending. Many first bloods have been won with this guy deep striking into enemy's ass. Combine with HF and make the nightmare of any army. Well, maybe not any army. The problem is still to get him in range. I think that DP is the best way for this. I'm not sold on the Libby version of this altough a WS6 S6 force weapon does seem nice... However, I find fragcannon one of the coolest guns in the game. Get him in range (and fast) and you shall not regret!


Elites overall:
A bunch of good options, some better that others. With Blood Angels your units need speed, which many of these units lack and that's a huge problem (which can always be negated with Transports, of course). In many of these choicec a well placed Drop Pod will do miracles. So in a nutshell: make your Elites support your Troops, and your Transports support your Elites. Simple, predictable, effective.
Again, top 3 of Elite choices:
1) Sanguinary Priests. Why? As said before, BA isn't competitive. And it's more expensive than regular marines. So we can either copycat the top Ultasmurf-lists and have about 300 points less.. or we can use every goddamn advantage we have against other armies. And propably best of these is the ability to get FnP in every squad. Use it, make your troops tougher. And with CC-army the FC is good. Always remember.
2) Terminators (even the Assault version). Why? Because Blood Angels need hard-hitters. These draw fire and can take it. Don't push your luck however. If you're willing to put some points into Land Raider, they are pretty much a "point-click-delete"-unit.
3) Sternguard Veterans. Why? I like this unit and might have ranked it better if not for the common "fast moving + cc = victory"-Angel theme. In this kind of armylist they are often left behind. It would not be a problem if they were troops, but now they are more of a areal-deniers when equipped with plasma, scaring TEQ away. Contesting objectives and bringing fire support/AT is still viable and works. They are an excellent squad because they can bring pain into anything and with 36'' threat range per turn they are able to help your troops where-ever needed (at least when deployed well).

Well, that's all I'm going to say today. I'll return later with parts 2 (Troops & Transports) and 3 (Fast Attack & Heavy Support). Hope you enjoyed!

- Simson