So I personally feel that I deserve a medal. Or at least a cookie. I have NOT started a new 40k army since the Blood Angels codex came out…I got stuck into IG for a week, following a brief moment of weakness/love for Forgeworld, but I’m fixed from that now – turns out I just needed to paint a couple of Death Korps and a Valkyrie.
My cure? Had been all the Malifaux that you will have seen around the site. Now, I know that this is not everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, judging by the number of comments on the Malifaux posts…I guess it is almost no one’s! But I really enjoy it. Its great. Oh, and I just bought another crew – the Ortega’s, a cool looking Wild West themed family….
But anyway… my Blood Angels. I’ve been reading around the blogs I follow and am seeing a mix of love and hate, success and fail, poor lists and novel concepts.
Some elements I am not convinced about though.
Razorbacks with Assault Cannons – I love AssCans. I want to say that first. I rate them very highly – but agree with most out there that they do not fit into standard marine or SW builds. They certainly do in BA. Their range and medium strength is overcome with speed and the ability to field more than a few…
But I do not see them fitting into my BA army. Why? Let start off with my current 1500 point list (the one that won the local tournament last week after a month or so of noob-crushin’ (joke!)):
Mephiston
3 x 5man RAZ w Meltagun; Razor w Las/Plas, HKM
3 x Baal Pred; 2xAssCan, Hvy B sponsons, 1x Baal-B-Q, 3xHKM
Vindicator, HKM
Rifleman Dread
See, this army generally splits in half, with the troops sitting back with the Rifleman, whilst the Baals, Vindie and Mephiston advance on the enemy position.
You may be thinking why the marginally more aggressive las/plas on the RAZ rather than TLLC if they are going to sit back and plug away? The answer is DS’ing units. They can drop in my back field and then I can blast away with TL, Rapid fire plasma, las love and sometimes a HKM too…from one vehicle. Its worth it to watch ONE troop choice drop a TMC (2x Trygons dropped big time to just one troop choice – the marines disembark and hit a melta shot plus lucky bolter fire in separate games). Lucky? Yes, but I hedged the odds in my favour.
So, hold on. AssCannon Razors would fit in here wouldn’t they? Sort of. The army would have to change considerably. Why? The Rifleman would be left high and dry on his own. The troops would need to actually do stuff far more often…and a slightly different role too.. They would lose the Melta for Flamer… For units in cover against whom AssCan shots would be wasted. Mephiston becomes too expensive for this army I feel…
Why don’t we have a look and see if it works?
We go cheap as chips and roll with a Librarian with Shield and Sword of Sanguinius, 100 points spent. Protects against incoming fire, not that this army should struggle to give itself cover saves when run together efficiently.
Next up our troops, 3 x RAZ with Flamers, Power Weapon and the Ass Cannon and HKM on the Razor. Why 3? 2 is far too few.
On a side note, I ran only 2 troop choices in my 1500 points for the longest time, and only with ‘true’ 5th ed codexes have I moved onto using more troops.
Fast. 3 x Baals with AssCannon and dakka, oh and the important HKM.
Heavy; Stealing the Stelek; 3 x Rifleman Dread. I give 100% credit to Stelek for popularising this bad boy. I love it.
Umm…that it. 1500 blown.
Ha. No melta. Just realised. Oh well, c’est la vie. Or do I drop a Rifleman for a RAS squad with Meltagun and Infernus Pistol at 125points? Lets leave it as it is for now.
Librarian
3x RAZ w TLAC, HKM, flamer, PW
3x Baal w TLAC, HB, HKM
3x Rifleman Dread
Positives:
- Synergy. Like a Deathwing army, we focus on a 24” bubble of support and death.
- 6 x TLAC can rend the crap out of AV13+
- 6x TLAutoCan can pop transports easy.
- 8x HKM will murder side armour whilst mounted on fast vehicles.
Negatives:
- No Mephiston.
- No Combat threat.
- No Mephiston.
- No massive threat that will attract attention – Vindicator and Mephiston
- Um, did I mention my ‘crutch’! Fuck off is it a crutch.
- No melta…AV14 will have to be either glanced to death or rended.
Conclusion:
My Mech BA as it is currently configured can’t enjoy TLAC the way BA can. By running a Stelek army am I just a pawn? This is not my list. This is my interpretation of a list devised by someone else. Is this a problem? See when I titled this post ‘Andy’ could refer to me or Stelek from YTTH.
I don’t think this is going to be a replacement to my list, but I think that it certainly warrants a little look.
The inspiration…
http://www.yesthetruthhurts.com/2010/05/blood-angels-razorback-spam-how-to.html
http://warhammer40kbloodangels.blogspot.com/
Hell, my Loganwing was inspired by Stelek's and now it's my favorite army. A list is just a list. Once you make the models, learn how to use it, and make your own alterations, it becomes your own.
ReplyDeleteI kinda like AC/LC Preds over Rifle Dreads in BA for the AV13 and lascannons.
I see your point dude - on both issues, the Preds certainly have the extra point of armour on the front, but less on the side, have the mobility to get the shots in and protect said side armour...same volume of shots, 2 x2 more powerful, yet all less accurate... The Dreads are a relatively immobile fire base, dropping the synergy of the army quite a bit...
ReplyDeleteThe key point would be where do I find 75 extra points at this level?
I've already lost my CC prowess through Meph - Librarian, I would need to lose my dakka through sponsons on Baals and a HKM to fit these in...losing 12 S5 shots to gain 4 las shots (those shots only being S+2 from the autocannon and not TL). Or lose all 3 PW on the RAZ and one set of sponsons... which I'd be more keen to do...
Hmmm...always great for thoughts, cheers Chumby, I'll play test..
Venerable
Taking my ideas and using them yourself is what the YTTH mission is all about. If you find a better/worse way to run/build a list, share. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat Chumpalaya said. Yeah, see what I did there? I'm clever. :p
Good armies are fun because after spending 500$ and a hundred hours on assembly + painting only to find out it's balls, well those armies aren't fun. Reminds me of my foot horde Empire. Yeah that was all kinds of awesome back in the day. Greater Demon, run! Everyone, run! ;)
Thanks Stelek,
ReplyDeleteI'll be sure to share here and on YTTH if something note worthy comes up man.
I kind of knew it'd be cool to run the list, scaled down to UK size, but was a little unsure...first time just poaching a list from someone else! Even from a site such as your own that is designed for this purpose.
And yeah, you do need to absolutely KNOW the core of the army works before diving in to all that time, effort, money...
Cheers for commenting!