Blood Angel 'Ardboyz list

Here's a list that I used over the weekend.

Dante  225
Librarian w/ Jump Pack 125  Powers -Blood Lance and Might of Heroes (now to be Shield of Sanguinius)

2 Sanguinary Priests w/ Jump Packs 150
Furioso Librarian w/ Drop Pod 210  Powers- Blood Lance and Wings of Sanguinius
Furioso Librarian w/ Drop Pod 210  Powers- Blood Lance and Wings of Sanguinius

5 model Assault squad w/ Melta gun, power fist, and infernus pistol 150
5 model Assault squad w/ power fist, and infernus pistol 140
5 model Assault squad w/ flamer in Razorback with twin-linked lascannons 160
10 Death Company w/ powerfist  225  and  w/ dedicated Landraider w/ multi-melta 260
Death Company Dreadnought w/ magna grapple and drop pod 175
Death Company Dreadnought w/ magna grapple and drop pod 175

Vindicator  145
Vindicator 145

Total  2495

Give every dreadnought a grapple.  If it can't kill a vehicle when it lands, then hit it with the grapple and drag it closer and kill it in an assault.  The grapple is an additional weapon that can be blown off by a damage result.

It is interesting to note that a Vindicator costs nearly the same as an upgraded assault squad.

Librarian Dreadnoughts - taking Wings of Sanguinius was a novel idea and seemed to be pretty good.  I think the better choice might be to take the Shield of Sanguinius to absorb some incoming fire at the start of the opponent's shooting phase.  Add in a locator beacon or two to the drop pods and the Librarians and DC Dreads can boost their survivability.

Hmmm, lots of different lists are rolling in my head.

Sanguinary Guard Wings Assembly

I had the hardest time figuring out how to attach the wings to the Sanguinary Guard models.  The instructions provided by GW were worthless in trying to figure it out and since they are all digital diagrams, a reasonable person would expect that they'd show how it assembles. But the finer points of model construction are not GW's bag.

So, the wings contain a spot that fits into the round bubbles on the back side of the marine torso. Yeah, its complicated to describe, so check out the picture for a more accurate description.  The areas that are circled are glued together.  Hope that helps.

 

Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard

First off, thanks to The Warstore for fulfilling all of my purchasing needs.  You guys rock.

Second, it's been many a moon since I've posted and I'm back!  Thank all of you for your comments and I will be responding more as your comments pop up.  The truth is so much easier to handle!  I'd rather be known for telling it like it is than one who can't face the facts!  So on we go.

I've been a rabid Blood Angel player since I played Space Marine Epic with the black armored Salamanders on the cover way back in 1991.  I've always like the color red, the glorious Red Wings and I think part of the draw of choosing the Blood Angels for Epic was they were always pictured in White Dwarf magazine.  So I got my copy of the Blood Angel Codex last week. Thanks Warstore!!!!!!

I'm very pleased with the Codex.  There are a few things I'm still digesting and figuring out, more on that later. 

But today is a discussion on Sanguinary Guard. These are some great models with some solid rules. I haven't used them yet in a game but overall I think they are a pretty good choice.   A player may take 5 models at the cost of 200 points.  It's pretty expensive, but I think there are a few good bits in there.  Each one has veteran stats and thus have 2 attacks. Artificier armor gives them a 2+ save and they are fearless. With Descent of Angels, they can drop in nearly anywhere they want.  The Glaive Encarmine is a two-handed master crafted power weapon so they can be devastating when they engage in combat and Death Masks can be taken that force opponents to make a leadership check and if they should fail, they will be at Weapon Skill 1 for the duration of the assault phase.  I would bet that during playtesting they tried the Glaives at Str. 6 and found it to be too much with the Artificier armor and Fearless rules and thus reduced it to merely a master crafted power weapon.  I think that losing the attack of the additional hand weapon to be rather silly for Blood Angels. Why shouldn't the Sanguinary Guard have 4 attacks each when they charge?  They are the Elite of the Elite!  I'd like to take units of 10 models, but alas, I can only take units of 5. Guess someone figured out just how good they were.

Add in a Sanguinary Priest to give Furious Charge and Feel No Pain, and a player has one fantastic and dangerous unit of 5 models, and sadly not 10.   Taking Dante as an HQ choice allows a player to take Sanguinary Guard as Troops choices.  That's awesome and allows for GW to really sell lots of these models which is what they want to do anyway, so why not give players that opportunity!  Good job, GW.

The models are fantastic too.  My only real complaint is that the sprues come with only one Infernus pistol, one Plasma pistol, and one Power fist.  The options in the book allow me to take as many as each of these as I'd like, but I'm limited by the number of pieces in the box. GW dropped the ball here.   It took me about 15 minutes to figure out how the wings attach to the model and I'll post up how that's done in the next few days as a proper customer service bit!

I like the way the Death Masks and armor look in that Italian Renaissance sculpture style (think Michelangelo's David), but I'm not a fan of the bare heads behind the Death Masks and they have the exact same hairstylist! Upon closer inspection, the un-helmeted heads have the same stylist too!   I like my Marines with close-cropped hair. These hairdoos look like they should belong in the Emperor's Children Fulgrim pretty boy camp. (Note: I like the Emperor's Children and Fulgrim, so this isn't a slam on them, just a statement of truth).  But I do applaud GW on the amount of different bits and shoulder pads on the sprues.

If you plan on taking Blood Angels Honor Guard, I'd recommend using most parts from the Sanguinary Guard models for your models. Just paint them red instead!

Entry Point and Expansion

Many years ago, GW published core and secondary games and supported them with a wide range of figures.  The core games are/were WFB, 40K, and LotR.  The secondary games were Space Marine, Epic 40,000, Epic Armageddon, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Blood Bowl, Mordheim, and Battlefleet Gothic to name the big hitters.

A large number of people were drawn into the GW Hobby from these secondary games, myself being one of them.  And a lot of us speak about those games with passion and fond memories!   But those games aren't supported much at all anymore and GW isn't focused on using them or other great game ideas as entry points into the GW Hobby.

While GW has continued to produce great models and kits, there is no effort into additional entry point games.  Yes, they have licenses with Fantasy Flight Games to produce great board games, and video game companies to make video games, but are those folks who play these games actually entering the GW Hobby?  GW certainly has wider recognition than ever before, but is the hobbyist pool actually expanding?   Board gaming and video gaming are great fun, but they are instant gratification games and easily achievable results within hours.  Do those people want to or are willing to spend hours working on an army?

I find it to be an interesting discussion point. In all my years of playing and wide spread interaction with hobbyists across the world, I haven't met anyone yet who has said that GW video games or GW board games (2005-present) were the cause of them getting into the GW Hobby.

Gratuitous model shot of a Praetors of Orpheus Space Marine that I painted way back when I was still at GW. 

What was your first GW game?

As the title says, what was your first GW game? 

Space Hulk for me back in 1990.  The game was awesome and still is to this day.   We played a lot of it and the rulebooks mentioned additional scenarios, rules, and campaigns in White Dwarf magazine.  So we picked up a couple of copies of this and that was all she wrote.  Looking at all the great pictures, armies, scenarios, everything about GW games that those WDs used to contain, we were hooked.

Within months, we were also playing Adeptus Titanicus/Space Marine and Blood Bowl.  Within the year, WFB and 40K.    And I'm still going strong too!

Jervis Johnson is wrong again

I just got around to reading Jervis Johnson's standard bearer article in US WD 361 on page 76 today.   He says, "The days that you had to use converted models in your army, like Aly and I did, have long gone." Man, that really ticked me off when I read that and reflected on all the missing models that we have to convert.

Not so Mr. Johnson, I guess you haven't been constructing enough armies to realize how wrong you are.  I'll rattle off a few models that we need to convert because they don't exist as products by GW Citadel Miniatures and we are not talking Forgeworld models either.  Vendetta, Manticore, Medusa, Hydra, Griffon, Thunderwolf Cavalry, Long Fangs (regular Devastators aren't Wolf enough!), half the Tyranid models in the new book, Space Marine Razorback with Las/Twin Plasma, and the Blood Angels Stormraven Gunship (Don't worry about the Stormraven, I've got it covered for everyone!).

So we, the consumers, who want to spend our hard-earned money on your products (GW) expect that you (GW) create the models for the Codices that you publish. PERIOD.  Stop lolly-gagging around in your comfy studio and start speaking more to the public about what's missing.   If you need help, I'm happy to help.  You know how to get in contact with me!

Death Company Dreams

For many years, I've always wanted to build a Death Company army and now it looks like I might be able to do that soon with the new Death Company plastics now available on Advance Order off the GW website.  The plastics are full of all manner of excellent details such as little skulls, blood drops, and angelic wings. 

 

These models look great and I'm very excited to purchase gobs of these for my collection!