Blood Angels at 'Ard Boyz?

In a very short three weeks, the 'Ard Boyz preliminaries will be held around the country. If you've never heard of 'Ard Boyz before, it's a nation-wide tournament consisting of the most brutal and devastating lists at 2,500 points you've ever seen. No painting is required though everything MUST be "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG), as in properly represented on your miniatures.

I've been tooling around with a few lists that I'd love to bring, though I'm not quite set on which one yet. Anyways, here's what I came up with so far.

List #1:

HQ
150 Librarian, Epistolary <-- Shield of Sanguinius, Unleash Rage
150 Librarian, Epistolary <-- Blood Lance, Unleash Rage

Elites
130 2x Sang Priest w/PW
210 Furioso Librarian in DP <-- Wings of Sanguinius, Blood Lance

Troops
450 Assault Squad (10, 2x Melta, PW, LRC w/MM)
450 Assault Squad (10, 2x Melta, PW, LRC w/MM)
180 Assault Squad (5, Meltagun, PW, Razorback w/TLAC)
180 Assault Squad (5, Meltagun, PW, Razorback w/TLAC)

Fast
155 Baal Pred (TLAC, HBS, SB)
155 Baal Pred (TLAC, HBS, SB)

Heavy
145 Vindicator
145 Vindicator

 Now this list is a little bit safer than the next one. I went with a core of two Crusaders full of Assault Marines, with each one including a Sanguinary Priest with a Power Weapon and a Librarian with Unleash Rage. One Librarian will use Shield of Sanguinius in a similar manner to an Ork Big Mek's Kustom Force Field, granting a 5+ cover save to all units within 6" of the hull of the Land Raider he'll be chilling in, and the other will use Blood Lance to knock out multi-wound T4 creatures or rank-and-file tanks like Chimeras and Rhinos. Pretty much anything these two mounted units shoot at and/or assault will be removed from the table. Then for some additional objective support I took two five-man Assault Marine squads with a meltagun each in Razorbacks with Twin-Linked Assault Cannons. These are extremely versatile as they can fulfill a number of roles as needed. To back them up I took a Furioso Librarian in a Drop Pod. With the Wings of Sanguinius and Blood Lance powers, he will be an immediate threat that will have to be dealt with sooner rather than later, and with a front armor value of 13, it won't be that easy. Finally, for some mixed anti-infantry and anti-armor choices I took two Baal Predators (dakka variants) and two Vindicators. As Fast vehicles, they will be able to respond to situations quickly and put out enough firepower to suppress almost any type of unit.

And here's list two:

HQ
250    Mephiston
150    Librarian (Epistolary) <-- Unleash Rage, Shield of Sanguinius

Elites
130    Sanguinary Priests (2, 2x PW)
210    Furioso (Librarian, DP) <-- Wings of Sanguinius, Blood Lance
300    Sternguard (10, PW, DP)

Troops
450    Assault Squad (10, 2x Meltas, PW, LRC w/MM)
450    Assault Squad (10, 2x Meltas, PW, LRC w/MM)

Heavy
135    Predator (Autocannon, Lascannon Sponsons)
135    Predator (Autocannon, Lascannon Sponsons)

Fast
145    Baal Predator (TLAC, HBS)
145    Baal Predator (TLAC, HBS)

Okay, there's not a HUGE difference between these lists but I'll go over the changes. First of all, I decided to go with my favorite character in all of Warhammer 40k, Chief Librarian Mephiston, Lord of Death. With stats like a Greater Daemon and abilities and psychic powers to back them up, I just can't say no to him. I thought about using the Sanguinor but Mephiston is just too cool to pass up. So sue me if he's not "the best" option available. Next, I took Sternguard with a Power Weapon in a Drop Pod. Sure, they're a solid Codex: Space Marine entry but I think they can do some real good in this list either as area denial or Monstrous Creature/specialty unit hunters. Finally, I replaced the Vindicators with Autocannon/Lascannon Predators for a little more anti-vehicle support considering I took out the Razorbacks and added a few anti-infantry units. These were basically meant to balance the list back out so I'm not incapable of dealing with a Mech list.

Well, I'm currently building and painting (albeit slowly) my army and with some luck I might be able to show up to the Primaries for this year's 'Ard Boyz. Let me know what you think!

Houston, we have a problem...

So after some technical difficulties experienced during the upload process, I am continuing to work on getting my battle report up ASAP. The game was against my friend Thomas using the same 1850 list I've been using for my Blood Angels lately, and was one weird game with a lot of twists and turns and some really unexpected rolls and outcomes. However, as I promised, I will have the bat-rep up this week AND since I've made people wait a bit, I'm going to go ahead and post a unit review from the new Codex. And just because I'm feeling generous, I'll review the highly anticipated Stormraven Gunship first! Keep checking both this blog and my YouTube channel for updates!

Blood Angels - First Three Games

So after playing three games Friday night at my local game store with the new Blood Angels codex, I'm very happy with how it performed. I used the 1,850 point list that I posted right before this entry and played three different opponents. I didn't take notes after each game so I'm not going to be able to do any battle reports with them but here's the rundown of how things went:

Game 1:
Versus a Slaanesh-themed Chaos Space Marine army played by Toni G. Included three Vindicators with Daemonic Possession, two Slaanesh Daemon Princes with Lash of Submission, two Noise Marine squads in Rhinos, a Chaos Space Marine squad with Mark of Slaanesh in a Rhino, and two units of five Chosen Chaos Space Marines with four meltaguns (in each unit) infiltrating.

Result: Blood Angels major victory.

Game 2:
Versus an Eldar skimmer army played by Matt D. Included two Wraithlords, two four-man Guardian Jetbike squadrons, an Autarch on a Jetbike, 10 Banshees in a Wave Serpent, 10 Fire Dragons in a Wave Serpent, and a Warlock with six Wraithguard in a Wave Serpent.

Result: Blood Angels major victory.

Game 3:
Versus a Nurgle-themed Chaos Space Marine army played by Thomas F. Included two 10-man Plague Marine squads in Rhinos with melta/plasma/fists, a Chaos Space Marine squad in a rhino with a lascannon, a five-man Havoc squad with four missile launchers, four Chaos Terminators with Icon of Nurgle, a heavy flamer, and a combi-melta, a Sorcerer in Terminator Armor, Typhus, and a Land Raider (Typhus, Sorcerer, & Termies ride inside).


Result: Blood Angels major victory.

All three games were great fun and I have to send a special thanks to Thomas for working with me through the one round where I surrounded his Land Raider with Typhus, the Sorcerer, and the Termies inside and destroyed it.

I'll probably be doing a battle report on Monday so look for it to hit my YouTube channel by Friday!