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

MaGGoT Posts for the First Time Part 1

So hello, my name is MaGGoT and today I'd like to start by saying that I found an old figure. It reminds me of my old days, when I'd just started the hobby and I was collecting O&C. I got it for christmas from my aunt, who didn't know what the hell she was buying and yet got just what I needed back then. And the paintjob wasn't quite flattering

 It looked like this. This actually is it.

Ah, yes, a fanatic. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a model, belonging to a three model unit that launches itself from a unit of Night Goblins, hurdling towards the enemy with a force of a small Goblin spinning a metal ball the size of its torso, even larger sometimes. Oh, the paint job is bad, yes, and this is about repainting. Not the Fanatic, mind you, cuz it's perfect as is. No, I'm repainting this instead

Yes, this!

Oh God, what hideous beast is that, you say. I say, well, it is a Grot. A badly unpainted, ugly greenskin. The first step, obviously, was to paint it black

 

               That is black, right?

Now, the thing about this site is that I can't apparantly make two images be parallel so this is the best that can be done. Anyways, the process of making it black was finding a pot of Chaos Black and dot watering it down, so there. Then, after it had cured I whipped out a pot of Orkhide Shade, and applied it to the Grots back and arms. Also face, because this wasn't going to be any black-faced Grot that the others would pick on, no. It was the enemy who should be so bold and foolish that it would taste humiliation and defeat. I love bad references. Anyway, to cut the amount of pictures, next I painted the bandana and loincloth both Iyanden Darksun, which is yellow, in case you don't know and haven't seen teh next image yet. Here it is:

Oh and the gun in red and metal, yes.

Ah, it's looking much better now than it did when I started the project. It isn't finished by a long shot but it's getting there at the speed of a crappy Trukk that was built by a blind Mekboy after getting drunk on bloodletting. To get to success, I painted the fingernails and started doing the next layer of skin

Fantastic. Or should I say Fanatic-istic. Heh. Heh? 

No? Okay.

Doing skin like that is a pain in the ass for a lot of reasons, like that my brush is lousy and that going too far by a millimeter (0.039 inches for you Americans. I know some of you read this) means that you have to redo layers on that spot, and it's going to look bad after a couple of mistakes. Or you could remove paint, but that's going to be bothersome. I decided to not pay it mind after a while.

Here he is again

That's what the model looks now, and I'll end this post as I'm really, really lazy and can't be bothered to go and take more images right now. Next time up I'll paint the bandages on his feet, and oh also the rest of his feet. I'm also going to wash him and so forth so wait up for that. Oh and here's the Night Goblin I mentioned earlier when I appeared on a post:

Beautiful

Uhh, he's a WIP too so um Next time I eat a hamburger.

No but srsly, next time I'm returning on the Gretchin. Meanwhile, when not working on him I'll tweek that Gobo up. 

- Maggot

Who the Plaguebearers are We?

                      
Picture of our lovely little group.
From left to right: Simson, Eric and MaGGoT













Gretchin Grot Handler Analysis: Makkonen (a.k.a. MaGGoT)
Armies: Chaos Warriors, Skaven, Orcs and Goblins, Orks, Chaos Space Marines, Space Marines, IG
HQ of choice: Castellan Creed
Unit of choice: Black Orcs
Own quote: "Scouts are useless!"

Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down Wait, no, that's not it. So I'm the oldest one, 17 of age, and I also like to consider myself to be the one with the poorest sense of humor. Anyface, about me. I started the hobby in the golden year of 2009 and ever since I've set my sights on painting the most awe-isnpiring-est figures. I do play, some days, but mostly I like to sit back and put a brush in my mou- erm, paint... Yes, paint. I'm also thinking about doing this small chapter that hates the Ultras and absolutely abhors the Codex Astartes. Oh, and they're successors of the Ultra Mahrunes. So, that's a project. And speaking of projects, I undertook repainting an old Night Goblin that I found at the clubhouse. It's been just sitting there on a shelf and I know it's not a decoration because a) I've been going there for the past like 5 years and b) I funded the set it belongs to aanndd c) it was painted like shit. So, I took it in my loving fingers and painted the life out of it. I think it looks nice now, but I ain't even finished with it. And that is me, a 17-year-old who enjoys painting even more than these two here. I'll make some posts of my own about my numerous, simultaneous projects but now i shall pass the ball to the other two.

P.S: Join the team MaGGoT if you wish to not get shot in the fa- oh, did I type that. I meant, join my team if you like tacos. And salsa. And the smell of paint. And dakka. Lots of the D.

- MaGGoT

Gretchin Analysis: Eino (a.k.a. Eric)
Armies: Forces of Chaos, Necrons, Some Loyalists
HQ of choice: Wulfric the Wanderer
Unit of choice: Warriors of Chaos
Own quote: "I think I can win this"

So its my turn then? Well i´ve been in to this hobby for quite some time, maybe 4 years in now. I am the youngest of the group, still the most veterannest(thats a word now!) of the group. I started the hobby with Chaos space marines and it has been stuck since. I also play Warriors and Deamons of Chaos and Necrons, but i have my own chapter, Raven Guard based, underway. As painter i am very lazy, seeing how most of my army are undercoated or grey. But now comes the question, why chaos? Because good is dumb! No but seriously i like close combat, and if you do, Forces of  Chaos are your men. But about me. I am a tournament player, yet pretty laid back kind of gamer. While writing lists i can see some unit, giggle about it, and build entire army around it, just for khorne´s sake. I play both FaBa and 40k and there have been some awards i have earned. So join Team Eric today and get free gift from the gods of chaos.

- Eric

Gretchin Analysis: Simo (a.k.a. Simson)
Armies: Eldar, Blood Angels
HQ of choice: Reclusiarch
Unit of choice: Dire Avengers
Own quote: "Lazy painter, lousy player."

So where to begin... The middle-child of our group, I'm turning 17 in few days (yippee!) and youngest in the world of wargaming. A little over a year ago Maggot recommended this hobby for me. Gave it a try, got hooked, and began spending hundreds of euros to GW. I'm not yet entirely sure should I curse or bless Maggot for doing this. However, after few weeks I decided what to do with my new Marines I bought: paint them red! (Because red is a cool colour) What next: I should decide what to play them as. Well, who doesn't love blood drinking maniacs with affection to close-combat? A few Tau-players raised their hands now, but it doesn't matter. I love them and even after starting my new army (Eldar), the Winged Maniacs still hold a special place in my heart... (Speaking of which, I'm working on a BA-successor chapter that loves bikes, but I'll return to it later). As an impulsive player I often make mistakes of an amateur so please forgive me. Maybe one day I'll do better... one day...

So in summary: if you want to watch my Blood Angels flying trough the skies with bloody blades in their hands or sneaky Eldars with army list that's not based on 5-10 Wave Serpents, join me in the Team Simson and be on the side of the weak guy! (Propably worst speech ending ever.)

- Simson

Batrep: Horse served with a pint of Chaos

Horse served with a pint of Chaos

Welcome, welcome all to story time with me, your humble host, Eino. Today i´m going to tell you all a story, one more recent, so that you may laugh, learn or may by just have a good time. This is battle report from few days back when i was at my local games store. I did not go there to game, because i was just hanging around there, but the instant i walked in, one of the storekeepers asked me if i had come to play? I declined, since i had no models with me, but the clerk offered me a chance to play with his Warriors of Chaos. I had nothing else to do, so i said yes. At that moment a fellow arrived form the bathroom. I knew that he was Breton player, and he was over cocky and just bad playmate. I instantly knew that i was pitted, almost pimped to play against this player. I had no other choice than to accept his challenge.

Well when i started to make a list, i was a bit disappointed, as they had only a display case army with about 50 warriors, couple of lords and hero´s, chariot, hellcannon, 30 marauders and 10 chosen. I made an army of 20 warriors of Nurgle with shields, 10 x 2 warriors of Khorne with additional hand weapons, 10 chosen of Tzeentch (with shields and ring of fireball) to guard my Lvl 4 Sorcerer, who took 2 spells from lore of metal and 2 from lore of Tzeentch. 2 Exalted heros of Khorne (one Battle standard bearer) with additional hand weapons and a Hellcannon. For 2000 point list this might not be the most strongest or balanced, but it would have to do.

Deployment:
We rolled of and i won. I took the first turn and deployed my Warriors of Nurgle in 10 man wide ranks. On the side i deployed my Khorne Warriors with Exalted Heros. Chosen took the rear behind my Warriors of Nurgle and Hellcannon took the nearest hill. My opponent laughed at my deployment, as it was "very beginner like". Well it was hard to take from a man with almost 50 horsemen. He had 4x9 Knights of the Realm blocks ( i think) and 5 Grail knights with a mounted lord ( thats 42 you asshat) and some 20 peasant bowmen and a trebuche. He said something on the lines of how this going to be so easy.

Turn 1: No Rocks for you, asshat!
I marched my army forwards and shot my hellcannon at the trebuche, destroying it. That was a good start but nothing else. He charged 3 blocks of knights at my nurgle block, trap was set and sprung, last block moved toward my cannon and Grail Knights went toward my flank and warlord. Fight itself was disapointing. My warriors stroke first and, whatcha know, killed 4 knights and my champion, who challenged his sergeant, killed it in the first strikes. He was rewarded with +1T. Knights did very poor them selves, killing only 1 warrior per unit. None of the knights ran. And so started turn 2

Turn 2: +2 armor eh....
Remember those 10 man Warrior squads? Well now was their turn to shine. They both charged the flanks of those knights, who were in close combat with my another warriors. Before the slaughter could begin, i stunned, shaked and immobilized my opponent. i charged my cannon, yes CANNON toward the knights that were only 8" away from them (fourth block, that charged toward my cannon). Now was magic time,  baby! Spells of Tzeentch did monkeys ass, but i aimed my Final Transmutation at my enemy´s  Questing Knights. Final Transmutation: cast +15, all models in unit roll d6. on 5 or 6 remove with no saves allowed, Models with 2 or more wounds are removed on 6. He shoots, He scores! 3 Knights were turned to solid gold. After this, i irresistable forced powerd searing doom down their throats, making the take 9(2D6) +2 wounding hits with no armor saves. Needless to say this destroyed my opponent. After that it was my cannon turn. Knights tried, but were in vain. My cannon killed 3 of them and its handlers killed 1, making them run. Elsewhere, my warriors about destroyed rest of the knights, leaving 1 running knight unit and 1 full peasant bowmen unit. This was apparently enough for my opponent.

Aftermath: My opponent started to pack quickly, i offered to shake hands, but he refused. He was obviously pissed like a public bathroom during a festival. He left as the Clerks watched confusedly at my running opponent. I placed the models back, with assistance from one of the clerks and i was congratulated. After this i left and cursed at my bus, driving past me.

Okay heres the lesson kids, If you lose, its okay, unless your opponent is a dick. Lose gracefully says the old folk. And also, don´t do all horses, they are good chargers, unless they are charged, or are in a prolonged close combat. Now i hope you enjoyed. This was your host, Eino. Signing off.

The Three Gretchins arise!

So... my (I should maybe say our?) first blog-text ever. Never tought that I'll start this kind of stuff. Well, what can you do? Here we are we're not going anywhere. I'm talking about "we" so maybe I should tell you who we actually are, right?

We are Simo, MaGGoT and Eino, three teenagers from Finland (Espoo, to be more specific), and we are united by several things. Let's start with the fact that we love food (who doesn't?), and Game of Thrones (again, who doesn't?), we all like playing consolegames and doing lousy movie-references (Sorry Eino). But those are not the things that we're making this blog for. We're making this for our common hobby, the noble Warhammer 40k (well, sometimes maybe Fantasy)!! Tabletopgaming is our hobby and since we play a lot, we decided to make a few batreps and post them online. Can't tell if this is the greatest idea we've ever had, or just an joke Maggot made while being drunk from too much Coke. However, we'll do our best and hope that there are few people who care enough about good ol' Marinekilling!

We'll return shortly with our very first batrep and hopefully there will be many more to come!

- Simson