Mech BA Army List

Guys and Geeks,

Long post sorry, but some good articles linked to and the list is at the bottom, thoughts up top.

This is the Mechanised Blood Angels list I am currently playing. I like it alot however it does have some major issues.

Firstly, for me anyway, is the AV11 side armour of all vehicles. This is really not great. This was hammered home to me in games against Imperial Guard (my very first BA game!) and his hordes of Plasma Guns were smashing into my tanks.

I would hate to come up against a ton of Autocannon heavy weapon teams in an IG army...however, they at least would be static in their fire position and fire arcs, so it would be my fault if they got side shots off!

Second issue is the min/maxed nature of the 'Troop' selections. I have 2x 5-man Tac sqauds in Razorbacks and a 10-man RAS. This is it. No Sanguinary Priests, no Honour Guard to provide that 6" FNP bubble making dudes far more rugged.

I am happy with this minimised nature of the troops selections. I am going to be revising the list below slightly based on my play testing...But this will lead me down the MSU (multiple small unit) road - having 3 x 5-man RAS w. Meltagun in TLLC-Razorbacks and thats it.

Now, this is not very survivable, but will be ok in my opinion for several reasons;
1) Having MSU means that the opponent doesn't gain alot from killing one, he needs to kill all 3. The reason for this is...
2) Redundancy - each Troop choice can do exactly what the other can. Claim Objectives, LR Anti-Tank etc.
3) Target Priority/Dilution - in Objective missions clearly the troops are a high priority target. However, they will be exploiting the relative safety of range due to thier TLLC (twin-linked lascannon) and in a rhino triangle most often for cover saves.
In addition, if you are using Long Range anti-tank to take out 3 Razorbacks, you may have to make a difficult choice between 3 Baal Predators, Death Company Rhino and a Vindicator - all of which are fast vehicles delivering a payload of death to whomever they like.

This 3rd point I believe to be the strength of this list, combined with each vehicle carrying a Hunter Killer Missile.... Is a one-shot S8 AP3 missile worth 80points across the army?

I think so. Write this down: Alpha -Strike. Read this from Fritz from Way of Saim Hann and this and this from Stelek at Yes The Truth Hurts. They will give you an idea of how Alpha Strike works...or doesn't; there is always the possibility that you want to have fun when you play this little game...too much alpha strike is not a good thing...

Having the ability to blast away with range impunity as you either roll onto the board in Dawn Of War, or from good fire positions in regular set up is a great strategic asset. Combine with a trio of TLLC from the Razorbacks and I can potentially cripple the enemy armour first turn.

Ah, but what about AV14? I hear you cry...well, once I've neutered the rest of the army, I'll roll in and melta or rend my way through his last threat...or just drive around ignoring it...

So, the most recent, revised list....this is about as points/cost-efficient as I can make it.....

Spear of Sanguinius
Librarian; Sanguine Sword, Blood Lance (rides with DC in Rhino- shoots Lance out of top hatch)
5-man RAS; Meltagun. No JP's, DT = Razorback wTLLC, HKM
5-man RAS; Meltagun. No JP's, DT = Razorback wTLLC, HKM
5-man RAS; Meltagun. No JP's, DT = Razorback wTLLC, HKM
Death Company x 7, 3xPower Weapon. DT= Rhino, HKM, EA
Baal Predator; AssCannon, HB Sponsons, HKM
Baal Predator; AssCannon, HB Sponsons, HKM
Baal Predator; Flamestorm Cannon, HF Sponsons, HKM
Vindicator; Demolisher Cannon, HKM

1500 bang on.
Remember Baal can scout and all vehicles are fast. So if I don't get first turn, DoW deployment can just roll on 6 and deliver 3TLLC and 8HKM then use speed to get into position after a fairly lethal salvo of missiles. At 1500 I am expecting 8-10 vehicles really max. Does this sound realistic to you guys? I see no more than this except in some extreme Guard builds...there are simply not the points in 1500...Eldar can barley fit 5 decent skimmer hulls on the table at this points level....

So what are your thoughts?