Jumper Blood Angels in 6th

Better keep the blog name relevant! lol..

I played quite a bit of Jumper BA towards the end of 5th.. rocking both Mephiston and Sanguinor was awesome fun and utterly hilarious.

The biggest change for a lot of BA Jumper players is that there is no total reserve option anymore. I generally  didn't run them that way and preferred to leg it up field with 45 marines and see what happened. 3+/4+ FNP was sweet.. Now, it is different and not so useful..or more so as it can be used against everything.. almost.

FNP not being as statistically effective vs small arms fire COMBINED with the loss of +1 Initiative from Furious Charge does mean that you WILL lose more dudes on the way in.
This means you need to start with more on the table.
This takes away the ability to run Meph and Sanguinor, simply because you need more bodies. Sanguinor raises the quality of these troops, adding attacks to the blob of angry red marines, Meph is a cracking distraction unit.. The question is, is this still true in 6th? Not sure it is. Improvements to 2+ save makes these guys more survivable in combat, but just as weak to plasma, which is of course on the rise.. due to changes in Rapid Fire. Sanguinor still gets his 3++ save, but Meph goes down.. on the other hand, Meph is more likely to get his "Wing on" due to changes to psychic defence.. and has access to S10 and preferred enemy.
Meh.. it's not what I want to discuss here.. let's go back to basics and just flood the field with bodies:

2 x Librarians - Jump Packs, Blood Lance and Shield 

1 x Sanguinary Priest - Jump Pack

2 x 10 Assault Marines, 2 Plasmaguns, Meltabombs on Serg 

4 x 10 Assault Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Meltabombs on Serg 

5 x Assault Terminators - 3 TH/SS, 2 PoLC 

I've been paying quite a bit of attention to Stelek over on YTTH. He's been throwing down some cracking ideas for Jumpers and the above is my take on it.
Very simple.
60, very fast moving, S5 marines.
Will do a lot of damage to vehicles and troops alike in combat. Shooting is improved due to plasmagun changes, meaning you can start to strip hull points from transports from 36" away (at the start of your turn, before movement). This is decent as it blocks the enemy mobility and does some of the job that your meltaguns normally do up close. Speaking of, the Meltaguns are still primary anti tank and should there be very heavy armour that needs removing quickly, rerollable reserves on a 3+ means that from Turn 2, you should be getting those guys on the table via DoA Deep Strike very quickly and in the right place after 1D6" scatter. Drop, nuke, done. Either combat squad and keep the other boys on the table or keep together for that 'harder to shift' feeling.. I think i'd rather use them all together and personally I like to keep everyone on the table..

Except of course for the Terminators.....

Stolen from some dude on Dakka

2+ armour got a lot better in 6th and I really did consider using Sanguianry Guard as the extra bodies in this slot, however the lack of invulnerable saves still means that the guys will die on the way in. The Terminators can drop in from DS Reserve from Turn 2 far more reliably than before, well an extra 16.6% reliably anyway.. and can come in ahead of the main force, ready to assault Turn 3 and draw some serious fire before hand..

Librarians are needed for anti flier, Blood Lance does not require a roll to hit, draws a line 3D6" long and then we get S8 lance hits.. nice. They also help with anti-carpark duties..not that I think this is a build paradigm thats around too long.. plus, I kind of want the enemy to cluster and car park, castle up too, then when the guys hit, they really hit.. taking a large portion of the opponent's mobility or capability.. or both.
Now, cover is more easy to access now I think, and is only a 5+, like shield...so I am not sure whether or not to grab Sword and Lance. The beauty of Shield is that it can be used in the opponents turn and you can use Lance in your own..  But then there are times when you don't want to Lance, you want to Fear ..or Sword for S10...

The other option is to get stuck into the Allies system, something I have not really grasped or forayed into as yet. Dropping those Terminators and 1 of the Assault squads nets quite a considerable amount of points and then I can start to think about the gaps in the army.
So for 430 points what can I get?
Well, I need an HQ and a Troop. Perhaps a troop that can sit back and provide fire support for the unit as it goes forward.

Best way to go about this is to think about the 'gaps'? The principal issue with this army is that it is the troops that are doing the vast majority of the work! What about finding some disposable units that cause real pain, are hard to kill and also draw fire from the remaining 50 marines.. to be honest, I have started and restarted this section of the article over a dozen times.. allies needs its own post without a doubt!

So to finish, let's just consider what the Jumpers would look like with Mephiston still here..

1 x Librarian - Jump Pack, Blood Lance and Shield 
Mephiston

1 x Sanguinary Priest - Jump Pack

1 x 10 Assault Marines, 2 Plasmaguns, Meltabombs on Serg 

4 x 10 Assault Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Meltabombs on Serg 
1 x 5 Scouts - Camo Cloaks, Sniper rifles, Missile Launcher

5 x Assault Terminators - 3 TH/SS, 2 PoLC 

Hmmm... I quite like that.. Still have a good amount of fast moving melta and a little bit of Plasma.. 5 sets of Meltabombs, objective holding unit, some FNP, pair of psychic hoods, Meph for messing up smaller units, or even any unit up to a huge fearless blob.. depending on the presence of Fists etc. for AP1/2. Assault Termies should soak up some serious fire before dropping, especially with the presence of FNP...if positioned correctly anyway..


Clearly going to have to dedicate a bit of the upcoming school holidays to developing my skills with the Jumpers..as well as my Nids.. more on those early next week! I have over 60 gaunts to sort out as well as 3 Tervigon/Carnifex conversions to sort and 2 new Tervigons to build..9 Hive Guard to convert from Warriors and Tyrannofex gun parts.. so much to do... good job I have the time!! I love being a teacher.. 
Back on topic.. what are your thoughts on the lists? Do you still think Meph has a place? More so than ever?  What are your thoughts on the concept of Jumper BA in 6th?