A promised,
Warhammer community have released the new units available to the Blood Angels in their next codex. The advice they give is somewhat lacking, so I'll give you my opinion on how best to use them.
The confirmed units available are:
- All Primaris marines
- Cataphractii and Tartaros Terminators
- Stormhawk Interceptor and Stormtalon Gunship
- Hunter and Staler Anti-aircraft tanks
- Cataphractii captain
So let's look at each part, in the context of the released
Stratagems and relics:
I've done numerous reviews on Primaris Units, and I'll be updating those with the Blood Angels Tactics. I'll summarise them here first though.
Intercessors
Blood Angel Intercessors hit harder in combat thanks to the Blood Angel chapter tactic. They're still not a fully melee force, but can perform objective assaults far more effectively than other Space Marines. They still won't annihilate anything in the first round of combat, but they may be enough to break an already softened up enemy unit. Unlike codex-marines, they don't have access to a power sword, instead only getting a chainsword. It's cheaper, and more or less a no-brainer to take at 1 point, regardless of comparative effectiveness in combat. There's nothing in the current Stratagems that is useful to Intercessors, so we'll leave it there.
Hellblasters
Nothing much in the Blood Angel tool kit helps these guys (as far as we know!). They are, however, a better fire support choice than Devastators for an assault or aggressive army. I recommend you take the assault weapons, but the standard rifle is also a fairly good option.
Inceptors
Hmm. A great choice for Blood Angels, but not the assault unit Warhammer Community describes them as. They can use the Wings of Fire Stratagem to bounce around the battlefield, applying fire exactly where it needs to be. The bolter option is probably best here, unless you can dot Captains or dreadnoughts around to allow them to overcharge plasma each turn. An excellent skirmishing unit, and can finish off weakened targets in melee better than the codex-marines.
Reivers
Hitting harder on the charge than the vanilla codex-marines, Blood Angel Reivers are certainly better in melee. With their Terror Troops ruling they make for very good shock troopers too, and can break an enemy quite easily. Be warned though, they are not going to eradicate units in melee.. they simply don't have the damage output. A for choosing between carbines and blades, it's hard to say which would be better. If you could guarantee a perfect momentum, and a charge each turn, the blade might be better. I think they carbine would be most useful in the end though, unless you really are a master level tactician you can avoid them being out of charge range or being bogged down in multi-turn combat.
Agressors
This is fast becoming one of my favourite units as a harder hitting skirmisher team. Blood Angels Agressors can get that 2+ to Wound on every infantry unit in the game, and will be wounding even the toughest on 4s... provided they get the charge. You can do significant damage with them, but the lower numbers of attacks limits their capability as a wrecking ball. They can still advance and shoot, making them a really fast anvil for your deep striking hammer units. Unfortunately there are no BAngel Stratagems we know of yet that really make them shine.
Terminators
Use them as you would regular terminators. Tartoros patterns are good if you want to do some risky Deep Striking, and are worried they may get stuck away from the fight. Cataphractii are good if you are confident in your positioning and so the they won't need to move much from their start point.
Flying Units
I think I could write a book on the virtues of the Stormtalon gunship, and far less on the Strormhawk Interceptor. Access to this is going to be a massive boon to the Blood Angels, who will now have some nice, mobile fire support for their armies. Go for the general purpose Gunship over the Interceptor, unless you know the enemy is brining a lot of FLYing units.
Hunter and Stalker
Nice to have but not game making or breaking. This just brings the Blood Angels in line with the rest of the codex-marines.
Missing Dreadnoughts
Blood Angels have access to Furioso, Death company and Librarian Dreadnoughts. What they wil be gaining as a confirmed unit is the Contemptor dreadnought, but they may not ge getting access to the Ironclad or Venerable Dreadnoughts. It's not strictly needed for the Blood Angels to get them, as those two styles could be rolled into the Furioso model, but getting a 2+ BS heavy weapons platform has always been my favourite part of the Venerable Dreadnought model. I still hope they will gain access to them later.
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