Monday 7 February 2011

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


7 comments:

  1. I have to be honest: List 2 is turd.

    How on earth does it survive against competitive armies?

    Deepstriking LR's? Come on bro...no one does that. Daring is not the word.

    Your reserve objective grabber is ok and I get that it allows you to bomb forward with everything else, but what about in KP's where it contributes...umm...nothing but 2 easy Kp's to the bad guy.
    Additionally, what about with seize ground? You can't really split 2 multiple objectives without losing your much needed FNP for the RAS boys. Then they are too easy to stop...

    Do I need to say alpha strike? Or multiple melta units in fast moving vehicles? Fire Dragons? Vets? other BA or even suicide WG in DPods?

    All cheap and effective at closing it down...

    Now list 1 on the other hand...I like it.

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  2. i'm sorry, i think list 2 is fail as well mate :( its a total noobhammer, and anyone who knows how to play the movement, sacrifice and blocking game will eat you for breakfast. and dont even get me started on how dead you would be if you decided to deep strike in front of a gunline like mine or Vens.

    list 1 however, has all the tools to win against pretty much any army, and (dare i say this) i like the inclusion of Mephy.

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  3. No. Fucking. Way.

    Atreides approves of Mephiston in an army?

    Pick me up off the floor! lol.

    I like list 2 too...think it can definately work well.

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  4. I really like list 1 - Its pretty much spot on what I run when/if I run Meph at 1750 (except slight different RAS/Troops WG.

    Not a fan of the 2nd one - despite the fact that my BA Land raider does have a slogan on the bottom implying it does deepstrike (it doesnt ...)

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  5. Hahahaha so much loving for the second list ;) Poor guys :(

    As for the first list, yeh im leaning more to it. Any thoughts on changes? Im a bit annoyed i cant find the 5pts for dozers on that hounor guard rhino :(

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  6. actually, since we played that doubles game against Killswitch i have a little more respect for Mephy. i still believe he dies as soon as you look at him with a squad or two of meltas, but he is undeniably awesome at area denial and forcing your opponant into difficult choices.

    in the first list, i would get rid of that priest, as he adds nothing to this list imo. having said that, i'm not sure what you would add with those 50 points. maybe change that rhino for another flamerback? :S however, if you insist on keeping the priest, i'd change one of the honour guard meltaguns to a flamer and buy that dozer blade, personally.

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  7. Yeah if your desperate for that dozer (that'll be the cursed chasis that always gets the 1) I'd go with Andy and do MGx3 Flamerx1 and the dozer - I myself went MGx2 LCx1 and dozer just to have the PW attacks.

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