Killswitch 1750 BA List Ideas

Hey guys.

Ive thought long and hard about the type of force I want to use for regular tourney play with my new Blood Angel force, and I tell you what, it hasn't been easy. Bearing in mind my lost post here I have playtested, practised and looked into the use of my new list.

I have decided on Blood Angels for now as I believe they are a hidden gem still and no solid build has emerged on the UK Tourney scene. We see a lot of different builds running rampart, many of them containing FNP Termies which I've seen done to death. We then also have a very nice innovative list from Venerable utalising flamer backs with suppresion fire and plenty of scoring units. A True mobile hammer. I decided to take a similar approach and mech up. At first, i designed a list to be a pure all comers hybrid list, but after facing a few fast armies, it become apparent (more so in KP missions) that I couldn't handle them with only a few fast units of my own.

So now I have a few choices to make. Coming to terms with armies I will face, what i am expected to face yet still keep the concepts strong and all-commers, I came up with the following first:

List 1

Mephiston: 250pt

5 Honour Guard: 205pts

4 Meltaguns, Rhino.

Priest: 50pts

5 RAS: 150pts

Meltagun & Infernus Pistol in Razorback with Twin-linked Heavy flamers & Dozer blades.

5 RAS: 150pts

Meltagun & Infernus Pistol in Razorback with Twin-linked Heavy flamers & Dozer blades.

5 RAS: 150pts

Meltagun & Infernus Pistol in Razorback with Twin-linked Heavy flamers & Dozer blades.

5 RAS: 150pts

Meltagun & Infernus Pistol in Razorback with Twin-linked Heavy flamers & Dozer blades.

Baal Predator: 120pts

Twin-Linked Assault Cannon. Dozer Blades.

Baal Predator: 120pts

Twin-Linked Assault Cannon. Dozer Blades.

Predator: 135pts

Autocannon & 2 Lascannons.

Predator: 135pts

Autocannon & 2 Lascannons.

Predator: 135pts

Autocannon & 2 Lascannons.

Grand Total: 1750pts

So we have some solid firepower, sweeping ability through Mephiston (who uses cover and rhino chasis to stay out of LOS) & scouting Baals to deny my opponents potential Alpha-strike & also to take side-armour pot shots. I was considering Flamestorms but I don't like the range. For a 120pt tank I feel to nervous at times whether it will perform well enough as a whole over the space of many games. The chance of it dieing after one shot is fairly high, so the tactical options I get from a Ass-Cannon Baal tends to favour my approach, as I can hang back, move 12 at all times and try hit some side armour shots, whilst keeping out of melta range. This means my opponent cannot simply ignore it.

With 10 Hulls and plenty of Melta-weapons, there's a lot of redundancy and the one thing I do worry about is the lack of Combat. Mephiston is great, but can't be everywhere. More-so people know that once he is committed to destroying a Unit, he is fairly vulnerable afterwards. I tend to use him fairly carefully, but this means I lack the combat punch sometimes needed to drive into my opponent. Perhaps more play tests will see me use him more aggressively.

So, onto my second list. This list is a rather different approach, and is based on the Italian (or Spanish..can't remember for the life of me) ETC team's BA list.

List 2

Librarian: 100pts

Shield & Fear.

2 Priests: 100pts

5 Assault Terminators: 215pts

3 TH/SS 2 LC's.

Dedicated Land Raider redeemer: 256pts

Multi-melta & Extra Armour.

5 Assault Terminators: 215pts

3 TH/SS 2 LC's.

Dedicated Land Raider redeemer: 256pts

Multi-melta & Extra Armour.

10 Assault Marines: 235pts

2 Meltaguns & Power fist.

10 Assault Marines: 235pts

2 Meltaguns & Power fist.

5 RAS: 120pts

Rhino with Dozer blades.

This list performs completly different. Its a pure sledge hammer, with no room for slip ups. If you miss-time your assault, spread your force too thin or simply get slowed down fairly early on, it could turn into a slugfest, but one which can work.

Place your Land raiders in a V-type formation, your assault marines can effectively hide behind the Land raider hulls. This practically stops all incoming small arms fire against your assault squads, allowing them to move up un-harrased. If your movement isnt too great & your opponent gets some LOS to them, you still have a garenteed cover save, and a great FNP bonus from the priests in the Raiders. Having first turn isn't too important for this army either, as they can all deepstrike. By taking this daring option, you can effectivley land those hammers right into the midst of your opponents lines. DOA can also provide you some useful melta, up close & personal. I like the dual raider approach as I know from personal experience how annoying it is to kill them. Even with melta I've had some bad experiences and with 2, its certainly going to take a lot to bring them down (see what I did there?).

Rhino squad gets chucked in reserve and does fuck all for the game then bum rushes an objective later.

Ive played this army before and seen it played and by god is it devastating, however again, falls short against fast armies. With no long range support, it can be forced to split up, but with clever play and concentration on the Mission/objective, it can work.

So what do you all think, what should I take and are there any obvious changes? Love to hear you're thoughts.

Killswitch