Ex Libris Mortis'
Blood Angel 
Tactical Library

4th Edition Blood Angels Tactica

Tactica Blood Angels 
 by Brother Torn

Welcome to my article on blood angels tactics. I have been a long time 40k player (over 10 years) but my experience with playing as blood angels and not against them has only been in 4th edition. Don’t despair though as I have still had quite a bit of game experience with my angels of death and have a few handy tips to offer.

Army Construction - Troops

When choosing your force its good to ensure you have all of your bases covered, and that you are exploiting your strengths and not your weaknesses. Now what does this mean for blood angels?

The strength of the blood angels lies in close assault. Blood angels are shock troops, they go in and they hit hard. All blood angels fight at strength 5 and initiative 5 when they charge into close combat, with at least 2 attacks. But this doesn’t mean you have to choose an army based on all out assault. I find that my close combat scouts are just as effective as jump assault marines at dealing out damage; their only downside compared is they are slower and have lower armour saves. To be honest just isn’t much of a downside when you think how many points you are going to save.

When you start writing an army list you want at least 2 troop choices, possibly 3, and a specialist squad (e.g. devastator or assault) before you pick any characters or vehicles. This gives you a good fire base, a solid defensive core, units that are flexible and can capture objectives, and a lot of models on the table. You need a lot of models. In theory a lasgun can take out a space marine in 1 shot, it is possible. So when you like up against 100 imperial guardsmen you don’t want to have only 20 marines.

It is important that when you outfit your tactical squads that you make sure you know what their role will be. It should be either defensive or offensive,

A defensive tactical squad should be equipped with a heavy weapon, most commonly a missile launcher but all of them are good for certain situations, and a plasma gun. There is no point buying terminator honours and a power fist/power weapon for the sergeant because those points can be spent on 2 extra boltgun marines for this squad or another.

The offensive tactical squad should be armed with a melta gun or flamer. Both these guns, unlike a plasma gun, allow you to fire before you charge into close combat. This is important as a blood angel as your strength is in charging into close combat. Also the sergeants in these squads should be given terminator honours and power weapons and fists. They will more often than not earn their points back on these. You just have to remember that if you want to charge into close combat not to fire your boltguns (rapid fire weapons disallow it).

When it comes to transports it is not worth paying the points for a razorback unless you have no other place to put your heavy weapons. A rhino is more useful at troop transport, is slightly more survivable, and costs a lot fewer points. Just remember blood angels must take overcharged engines that cost +15 points. If you cant decide you have the parts on the sprues to make your vehicle chassis with interchangeable razorback turret or rhino doors.

Blood angels only have the option of taking one unit of regular scouts, plus blood angel scouts. Blood angel scouts are nothing special; they are just scouts with a more limited equipment roster. I suggest taking at least one unit of scouts, either armed with sniper rifles, or close combat weapons and bolt pistols. The fact they can get close to the enemy and are just as effective in combat as regular marines make them well worth their points.

Army Construction – HQ

There is not 1 HQ unit that is better than any other. Of course the blood angels have the extra option of a sanguinary high priest, and the death company chaplain can be better than a regular chaplain because of his death company.

Master and Commander – Although these are the cheapest in points, and don’t have super effective close combat special rules, their ability to give high leadership to every model on the table is well worth the points costs. I regularly take a master and with a whole army at leadership 10 I always win the psychological battle.

Chaplain – Blood angels chaplains cost more points than regular chaplains, but do come with d3+3 Death Company, which is nothing to be laughed at. You also have the option of paying for him to wear a jump pack, or putting him in a free rhino. Because blood angel chaplains are always accompanied by their death company they will always be an assault unit, and as such you can be sure that a chaplain is the guy you want if you want an all out assault force.

Librarian – The librarian with his force weapon is an all out character killer. His psychic hood nullifies enemy powers, and he is just as good a fighter as the other HQ choices, and that’s before you give him any powers. The librarian is expensive but if you know you are playing against a force with lots of psychers or with strong HQ units (like eldar avatars and daemon princes) then he is the guy you want.

Sanguinary High Priest – Now this guy just screams blood angels. He is again one of those close combat orientated leader, with his ability to give those around him re-rolls to hit he is very affective in large squads of honour guard with jumps packs, or even in a rhino. He is also great if you want a character no other army is going to have.

Because blood angels don’t get command squads or terminator command squads, you are limited to honour guard. Honour guard are a good unit but can be expensive, which is why a lot of blood angels players stick with chaplains accompanied by free death company. Then again blood angels honour guard led by a sanguinary high priest on the charge will re-roll to hit, have str5 and I5 and not allow armour saves. That is a unit that will take down anything.

Army Construction – Other choices

Now all you have to do is fill in the rest of your points with what suits your tactics. A lot of players pick assault squads, although personally I find tactical marines and scouts can do their job just as well. If you need the speed from the jump packs they are a good choice.

Terminators are a valuable unit but are a lot of points (expect to pay at least 250) so are better left for larger games. Close combat terminators are good in some situations but when a regular terminator already has a power fist I don’t find its worth taking their firepower away, especially when they can get assault cannons!

Blood angel veteran assault squads are another unit only available to blood angels, but unless you want to go through the roof on points they are not much better than regular assault squads.

A devastator squad is always handy, yes they will rage a few turns every game, but they will pump out more firepower than any other heavy support choice and the whole squad wont die in one lucky shot from a lascannon. I find outfitting a devastator squad for a purpose is always best. If you want tank hunting put in multi meltas or lascannons, if you want anti infantry have heavy bolters, and if you want something in between take missile launchers and plasma cannons.

A dreadnaught is another great heavy support choice, giving you a mobile firebase that can fight in close combat. Its worth making your dreadnaught venerable, and depending on your opponent I find the best weapon combination the twin linked lascannons and dreadnaught close combat weapon, with heavy flamer. If you want something other players are going to fear getting close to and will pound with all of their heavy guns get a furioso dreadnaught. Even if it doesn’t make it to the fight all the shots fired at it will mean a lot more marines get there.

Land speeders are good fast attack units, a tornado armed with heavy bolter and assault cannon is a great anti infantry weapon, you just have to remember that they are very likely to die with the return volley.

A whirlwind is a choice that has become more acceptable again in 4th edition. With the choice of castellan missiles it can create great opportunities for assault armies. You can use it to lay down minefields forcing your opponents to move to places you want them to, as most people would rather not risk walking over a minefield. Also placing minefields behind an enemy unit your about to charge can finish them off nicely when they run away.

Bikes are a lot of points but their higher toughness and speed makes them more survivable than regular assault marines. Once again they are a unit you need to get in on the charge to be of any use. Ultimately for the points regular assault marines are better, although a bike squad does have the option of taking an attack bike.

An attack bike squadron equipped with multi meltas can be a good tank hunting units. As they have troop stat lines rather than vehicle stat lines they have less chance of dieing to weaker arms. They are an alternative to land speeders but not necessarily better, as they lack the manoeuvrability of a skimmer.

If you want to take a predator take an annihilator with lascannon sponsons for tank hunting or a Baal predator with heavy bolter sponsons for anti infantry and light vehicles. They are the only real worthwhile choices.
 

Tactics

Now that you have an idea of how to construct your army its time to put it to good use.

Deployment

When you deploy your army you need to make sure you look at the terrain. You have to make sure you know before you put models on the table whether they will have any natural protection, and if they can make it to where you want them to get to within a reasonable amount of turns. There is no point deploying a tactical squad behind a forest if you want them to run to the other side of the table and melta gun a tank. Put heavy weapons where they will have a clear firing route where you know enemy assault troops will have to advance.

Once again this is a good time to look at where it would be useful for putting a castellan minefield. If the enemy have to move over a bridge or through a pass, then put mines there. Forcing your enemy into a bottleneck almost guarantees victory.

Also you should consider whether to deep strike of deploy units. Deep striking terminators means that they aren’t on the table to destroy infantry units with assault cannons and storm bolters, but if you have assault terminators they might as well get stuck in there. Same with a furioso dreadnaught compared to a regular dreadnaught.

Moving Forwards

It’s important to keep moving forward to your objectives. Although cover is tempting a suit of power armour allows your marines to waltz right up the middle of the table, and if you do it in enough number most should get into assault alive. Now this doesn’t mean do it stupidly. If you can keep in cover without sacrificing 3 turns then do it, or even better, take a rhino or jump packs.

You want to keep your support units like tactical squads behind your assault units just in case. Only if the scenario calls for it do you want to keep your army spread across the board.

Refused Flank

The refused flank is an unorthodox tactic that involves moving 75%-100% of your army up one side of the table. This can confuse opponent and will give you a large advantage on one side of the table, basically allowing taking your opponent one half at a time. This can be risky and isn’t advisable when trying to take table quarters. It works best against smaller armies like daemon hunters and chaos marines, as you can easily be overwhelmed by fast armies with lots of troops like eldar and tyranids.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

This is a situational tactic that I devised and is a method of winning against an enemy unit 1 on 1.

Basically you first have to decide whether a unit is rocks, paper or scissors.

Rocks = tanks, dreadnaughts
Paper = land speeders, attack bikes, devastators
Scissors = Tactical, scout and assault squads, terminators and bikes

Basically remember rocks beat paper, paper beats scissors and scissors beats rock. Its not a flawless idea and some units don’t fit greatly into just one category, but it gives you an idea of which units are best to take out which enemy units and survive the process. When your opponent deploys decide which are rocks paper or scissors and match your troops the best you can.

++TORN++