Ex Libris Mortis'
Blood Angel 
Tactical Library

4th Edition Blood Angels Tactica

 Tactica BA: General force composition and considerations

By Brother Soul

This tactica assumes a force composition consistent with a combined-arms army.

Yes, we assault well. But we are not the best assault army.

We are space amrines and we shoot well. The black rage is not a reason not to take heavy weapons/fire support. You will rage on average once per game with each unit. I routinely field dev squads starting at 1200, and it's THE way to go for solid fire support.

We are the most mobile space amrines on the board due to black rage, grail (a relic), overcharged engines, and the ability to take many squads of jump pack marines.

In terms of assault, we assault better than regular space marine armies, so we need less, not more, to get the same punch they have.

In terms of shooting, black rage is a liability, so you will want to put a heavy weapon in every single squad that can take one. Example, I always take a 10 man cc scout squad with PF and ML. I don't use the ML too frequently, but the redundancy is helpful.

Also, you will want all of your infantry units to be able to do something when they rage. For Ba, that's easy, right? Sure. But if your dev squad rages, you're got about 250 points or so of army that's not doing anything useful. So I put a PF in my dev squad. I take a 10 man dev squad with 4 ML and a VS with PF and purity seals. This way, if I rage, I can reposition and/or put in a supporting assault.

Avoid the trap of building many small squads and putting VS's into them to maximize on the DC. The DC are pretty tough, but they go down to power weapons/fists just like anything else. You're best off considering them as a uber-infantry killing assault squad, and not plan on having a squad larger than about 8 - 10 models, including the chaplain.

Scouts are great, inexpensive assault units. I usually take 2 squads. 10 man. PF in each. ML in one.

In keeping with the redundancy theme, equipping your assault squads with MB would probably be best. This is again due to the rage and the effect on heavy weapons.

Since we tend to end up in assault, I suggest all of your squads be at least 8 man squads. 10 man is what I prefer to field.

tactical fire support squads are a big waste in a BA army. I'm referrinjg to the 6 man las plas team. effective, but not flexible enough. I put my firesupport infantry units in heavy support. For the cost of 2 6 man las plas teams, I get a 10 man dev squad with 4 ML. Much more powerful and cost-effective. My troops are COMPLETELY geared toward getting within 12" of the enemy. This doesn't mean I always charge my opponent (b/c we're not the best assautl army). It does mean the my tactical squads are large, in rhinos, and have a PF, a special, and a heavy weapon. I put those and scout squads (2 max) in my troop slots. Rhinos are very survivable if you build a combined arms force. combined arms is what space marines are best at. And it's the core principle of what SM do best, which is fire and maneuver.

BA are a marine army, so build upon your basic marine strengths first. Fire and maneuver. Make your whole army mobile, with the exception of your dev squads.

In keeping with the basic marine strength of shooting, take a special and a heavy weapon where ever you are able to. This makes your tactical squads truly tactical units that can do everything in an above-average way, but not as well as specialist units. They should be able to assault or shoot every single turn, and have the mobility to get where they need to go when they need to get there (rhinos).

As far as BA-specific abilities, this is where we gain a significant edge. I suggest you build you army such that it contains a slightly higher percentage of assault specialists than a regular space amrine army. For my own composition, I'd say that I put about 40 to 45 percent of my points in assault specialists. this includes cc scouts, assault squads, and HQ.

Put about 40 - 50 percent of your army, minimum, in troops. I suggest at least 2 rhino tactical squads and 2 large cc scout squads at least.

As far as assault marines go, I take one squad up to about 2500. But I also have the chappy/dc HQ and 2 scout squads. that's a good 40 dedicated assault units. with tactcial squads supporting, you can have alot more bodies should you need them for assault.

You'd make a mistake if you want with an all-out assault set up with masses of assault marines, cc scouts, and no tactical marines or other fire support. This isn't a very viable army against all comers. You'll get owned by nids/orcs and tougher cc armies like WE, SW, and BT.

Ba have a force organization similar to regular sm chapters, so use it. this is where we're dangerious. We can assault one turn, shoot the next, both very effectively, or go combined arms and do both for a turn.

Anyhow, I've played BA for a while and have about 400 games or so under my belt with this army. I've played anywhere from 1000 to 3000 point games, with about 2000 being typical. I've got about an 85 percent win rate, against experienced players for the most part. This isn't bragging. My point is, I go wit ha combined arms, mobile BA army that accentuates basic SM strengths. IN combination with BA-specific chapter abilities we have an army that's very hard to fight against.

Lastly, don't go crazy on your HQ. I generally have 1 HQ even in 2500 points army lists. You don't need it.

Any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Tactical Honor Guard and HQ in general.

This tactica is primary about the Honor Guard, but there is some information about chaplain and SHP without HG attached.

Honor guard rock, but they're prohibitively expensive. I don't take them out until 2500 points, minimum.

probably the best thing to do would be to take a sanguinary high priest. They give re-rolls to all models within 6" (incl. themselves) on the charge. With all those PW, you'll generally be able to wipe a unit.

if you're going with an honor guard, i suggest taking a Grail. This will give you a 2D6 consolidation after a massacre result. You'll need it after wiping a unit. I generally consolidate backward into cover to deny my opponents a counter-charge.

I would also take a sanguinary priest IN the HG squad. Narthecium/Reductor is 25 points. Exsanguinator is 30 points. Take the former. I would save the latter for a character with more than one wound.

This squad will draw alot of fire, so you need the sanguinary priest. Anyone can take advantage of cover on the way in, so I won't bore you with tactica on that.

When I run one, I set it up this way:

All have JP and FG, making base model cost 29 points each.
I take a 10 marine squad with 4 PW and the narthecium/reductor. Comes to 355 points.

My sanguinary high priest will generally have lightning claws, JP, FG, Terminator Honors, Shield, and Grail. The grail is a chapter relic. Taking it means you can't take an iron halo. Oh well. The trade off is worth it, though.

Terminator honors make the squad too expensive. There's a ton more war gear the unit can take. All PW's. 2 MG, PG, or flamers, etc. I just make mine an infantry killing squad. Sticking with a combined arms approach, I'll have an assault squad with MB/PF/PP and a few mobile tacticals escort it in.

As far as a chappy/dc goes, I generally take it along with this HQ. For 217, I'll take a reclusiarch with JP, frags, and BP. overall, your hq will total about 355 + 176 + 217 points. So I'll reserve this for 2500 point games or 3000 points games.

For a first HQ, I would definitely go with a master of sanctity. generally, i go with this starting at 2000:

HQ
1 MoS + DC [JP + FG + Term Honors + LClaws + Grail] (301)

This is a killer HQ. pricey, but it's worth it. note the Grail.

for a second HQ, I generally go with this:

1 Sanguinary High Priest [JP + LClaws + FG + Term Honors] (141)

No invulnerable save on this guy. I sometimes dump the grail on the chappy and add a IH to the SHP.

These 2 HQ's are what I usually go with at 2500 or 3000. I just stick the SHP on the end of an assault squad. When I assault, I make sure I have another unit assaulting nearby so some or all of its models gain the assault bonus the SHP offers. In practice, this is all you'll ever need. An HG is overkill in generic lists. I wouldn't build a take all comers list with one. But against Khorne, some of other of the more nasty chaos armies, necrons, and death wing, I would add one.

Tactica: Fighting against BA

This talks about the generic strengths of BA and how to overcome them. useful for our brother gamers who sometimes encounter the sons of sanguinius.

BA players go with 2 approaches. 1 is an all-out assault based army, taking advantages of their chapter-specific abilities (such as furious charge on the whole army and black rage, which gives a 1 in 6 chance of fleet of foot per unit per turn, including most vehicles).

another approach (which I prefer) is to go with a combined-arms army that takes advantage of basic SM abilities and the chapter-specific abilities of BA.

What's common with both is this: Speed

BA are a freaking fast army. You'll usually see multiple jump pack equipped squads, a scout squad or two, and mobile troop choices.

This gives the BA player the ability in most cases to pick where they want to attack, usually a flank. Additionally, if things get bad, the army can fade, regroup, and try again.

So first I would use the approach that destroys their speed first. Focus on transports and jump squads.

Second, don't let them get the charge. if they charge, they get the furious charge bonus. Otherwise, they fight like non-trait codex marines in cc. Keep an assault squad in reserve and hit their lines with an assault prior to them hitting yours.

third, how to deal with their death company. These are marines with 2 attacks in their stat line. They are usually jump infantry and are attached to a chaplain or a sanguinary high priest (chaplain with apothecary abilities, basically). In both cases, they get to re-roll attacks on the charge. nasty enough with 4 attacks on the charge per model.

Death company also get 'feel no pain'. This is the ability where, if they fail an armor save, they get another 4+ save. if they pass that, they're okay. So if they take star cannon fire, they still get a 4+ save. to kill these guys, you just need to get around their armor save and their feel no pain save. Feel no pain does not work under these circumstances: instakill weapons, power weapons, rending weapons if used in CC. ranged rending weapons still give them a 4+ save.

When i play against BA, I go after transports first. And whatever instakill ranged weapons I have usually get directed against the DC, to bring it down to a manageable number. if you get hit with a chappy and 4 or 5 DC, it's not insurmountable. if you get hit wit ha chappy and 9 or 12 of these guys, you're gonna have a problem.

Overall in 4th edition, Ba have a bit of a problem. even though we pay an extra 100 + (can't say exact number) points for the Dc retinue of 4 - 6 models, and can sometimes loose models from our squads, which count as casualties for the purpose of being a scoring unit, our death company assault marines are underpriced. basically, for an average roll of 5 DC, we would end up paying the same amount as 5 assault marines.

So overall, for any list, BA are fielding the equivalent of a FEW more points than our opponents. this is advantageous in smaller games, not so much in larger games. And it's something we have to deal with until the next BA FAQ or codex release.

Death company can take PW or PF in the unit if the player who looses a model from a squad decides to take the veteran sergeant and bring it into the DC. I generally don't do this because I go combined arms and like having a PF in my squads. Sometimes I will, but it is rare and really depends on whom I'm playing.

Anyhow, the real place to kill DC is in CC. they go down fast the power weapons. So swamp them with cheap units and watch them wither and die. they're powerful and slightly unbalanced, but no so much so that a BA player can win the game simply by having a DC. I suggest a chaplain leading an assault squad to take down the DC. focus on the dc and ignorre the chaplain. if you want to take the down the chaplain at the same time, assault the chaplain only with a tactical or scout squad that has a PF. You can instakill him quick. If Dc are iwthout their chaplain or sanguinary high priest, they're kinda like khorne berserkers that blood rage. every turn the Dc will have to more toward the nearest enemy. so you can lead these guys around with a rhino and have them do nothing for the rest of the game once theiir chappy's dead.

I mentioned a sanguinary high priest at the start of my post. In 3rd eidtion, it was the only character in the game that had 'litany of hate'. Now all chappies do. Nice thing. But the SHP's litany of hate, which is actually called, 'chosen of sanguinius', has a 6" radius. it will affect other models in other squads on that squad's charge. So if you see this guy, he's potentially worse than a chaplain and easier to take down. ask your opponent if he has one and kill it fast.

BA got nerfed quite a bit in 4th edition b/c so many BA-chapter specific abilities can be emulated with traits and skills now. The rhino rush is gone, so you don't need ot worry about marines charging out of rhinos after moving 12", then another 6" due to over-charged engines, disembarking 2", moving 6", and then assaulting 6". I still use rhinos fairly extensively b/c I like tactical squads in close.

On the down side, each squad, including vehicles, has to roll for the black rage at the start of each BA turn. on a roll of 1, we 'rage'. Meaning we get a D6" move for the unit. this move must be toward the enemy, not toward the nearest enemy. Additionally, when we rage, we can't fire heavy weapons. do a BA dev squad is basically useless if we rage. This might also help you to understand why we build our armies the way we do. I take 1 or 2 dev squads in my lists starting at 1200 points, but I put a PF on a VS in the squad, so if I rage, I can either re-position or lend a supporting assault if needed. Anyhow, this is the trade off for having furious charge on the army. it is a disadvantage, but not one that completely mitigates the furious charge benefit. We should be paying an extra point per marine across the board for balance purposes. Anyhow, if you can force the BA player to sit and shoot for a few turns, you might be able to take advantage of this. In any case, it is a slight advantage for you.