Blood Angel Tournament Lists 1750

Fast, Furious and FNP.. The three tenets of Blood Angel warfare. For a long time, this blog was dedicated to the Angels of Death. We've grown and changed, but the love for red marines is still there..

I struggle with "competitive" BA. I find I struggle to play them how I really like to play - a lot of shooting, strong troop pressure and some decent CC.

Which is funny, as these are all the areas BA excel.

There so many different builds that it can often be pretty tough to establish what is the best course of action.
There are builds that I have seen taken to tournaments that are pretty damn good.
There are builds tkaen to tournaments that I don't get.
These are the BA Deathstar armies.
How do they do so well?
Why are they not closed down with all the tools people should be bringing?
Because for all the blogosphere discusses how to close down deathstars,it doesn't always happen in the real world.. So can I try one or two out?
Maybe, let's have a look at a few armies and see what's what...


Option 1:  Tactical Squads?
Now, I know what you are thinking..why tacticals with BA, Ass squads do it cheaper.. however let's look

Libbie - Shield, Fear

3 x 10 Tac Squad - CombiMelta, Melta, ML, LC, Rhino

2 x Priest - 1 x Combi Plasma

2 x 2 MM Attack Bike

1 x 5 Sternguard - 3 x CombiPlasma, 2 x ML, Rhino

3 x 5 Devs - 4 x ML

The tac typically combat squad and push into the midfield with the plain Priest and the Attack Bikes. These peak out the corners of the rhino's and  attempt to pop transports at range, the Sternguard stay static for a turn and add their ML fire to the 3 combat squadded troops and the 3 Dev squads.. so first turn we have a 21 S8 shots blazing overhead, the following turn, the Sternguard push 18" to get into position of plasma support Turn 3. From there, the Melta action does it thing, the Lightning Claws and FC/FNP troops and Sternies are on clean up duty and we go from there.
The main issues here for me are the small number of scoring bodies, although it has to be said the 15 FNP troops in the back field can run late in the game to gain objectives
Still, I like it, but a bit meh...
Option 2: Mephiston...
 

Mephiston

Furioso – Blood Talons, Melta, Lucius Pattern Drop Pod

2 x 5 RAS - Flamer, Razor LasPlas

3 x 5 RAS – Razor LasPlas

3 x 5 Devs – 4 ML

3 x 1 MM Attack Bike Pretty simple. The 5 LasPlas troops push into the midfield first turn and light stuff up with their Lascannons, supported by the MM attack bikes. The 3 Devastators blast away overhead and pop transports.
Mephiston flies up out of sight and gets into the middle of the board, once in place, he can lash out as and when he needs..
The Lucius pattern pod I shamelessly have stolen from an army I saw at the last Warlords Tournament I went to.. I didn't play the guy, but remember thinking it would be a PITA to deal with. And I think it would be, dropping in and melta'ing something before charging it.. all the better if I could get stuck into a large mob of Boyz, IG blob, Genestealers or well, whatever really..
Then the next turn, Meph hits the lines and the plasma and las on the razors really kick in.
Still light on troops due to lack of FNP.

Option 3: Balanced
Umm...I just noticed this is actually just the loss of Mephiston for a Librarian, 2 Priests and another MM attack bike to make one unit a pair... umm...it's not as good!

Option 4: Pred Spam

Libbie – Shield, Sword

Scout Squad – ML, Camo Cloaks

5 x 5 man RAS – LasPlas Razors

3 x Baal Pred – TL Ass Cannon

3 x AC/LC Predator

Like it for its mobility and 11 tanks, 11 lascannon, 3 Ass Cannons, 3 Autocannons and possibly 5 Plasmaguns per turn...however, I don't like the lack of CC...we do have the baby sitter objective unit here though too as well as 5 highly mobile troops..

Option 5: Super Friends (ala Goat Boy)

Sanguinor

Mephiston

Jump Pack Priest, Lightning Claw

3 x 10 RAS 2 Meltaguns, Power Weapon

5 x Assault Termies - 2 x TH/SS, 3 x LC

Redeemer Land Raider - MM

Okay, so this one is ridiculous! All about flying forward and smushing face as angry marines. 8 KPs...lol. um...vehicles you say...hmm...
 
See what I mean! I struggle with BA, lots of options, some good some bad...very difficult to find the right mix with BA as far as I am concerned.. For me, this is mainly down to the lack of decent long range shooting options in the Elite slots..
If there were decent options there, we could build some very scary shooting lists with BA.