Thursday, 13 October 2011

E-Mail In : Blood Angels 'Jumper' List.

She's got angel wings and is in some blood therefore this picture is totally relevant to this article.....
E-Mail In :

Hi GMort,

I've been using  a jump pack BA list for a few months now but it's not working very well. I've got plenty of Melta for dealing with tanks and Flamers for killing infantry. I also had some trouble with getting shot to bits before I could do anything so I added some vanguard units but they've been really disappointing for the points I've had to spend on them, there main job is to remove bubblewrap but they don't seem to manage it often and I hardly ever manage to destroy vehicles with them (which is their primary role really) so you can ditch them if you like. I thought 50 Marines would be loads even at 2000 points but I'm losing more games than I'm winning and to be honest even the wins have felt like they happened by accident, lol. You seem to give good advice without being a cunt about it so I thought I'd drop you this e-mail. To make matters worse I want to use it in a 1750 point tournament in my local area and I've a horrible feeling that it will suck even worse at that points value. Is the list beyond hope or can something be salvaged from it?

Reply :

I've converted your list into Army Builder so I could play around with it more easily. I'll post your list first so I can point out some (imo) mistakes you've made and then I'll post a list taking all that stuff into account (including your new points value requirement). 

2000 Pts - Blood Angels Roster

HQ: Captain in Power Armour (1#, 160 pts)
   1 Captain in Power Armour @ 160 pts (Jump Pack; Combi-Meltagun x1; Power Fist x1)

I'm reasonably sure that this Captain isn't bringing a lot to your list. The Power Fist loses you the Initiative advantage of the Captain and that's a lot of points to spend just for an extra Melta shot. If you really want an Honor Guard then you can still have one if we leave in the Librarian which I'm going to recommend you do.

: Honour Guard (5#, 200 pts)
   1 Honour Guard @ 200 pts (Equip with Jump Packs; Blood Champion; Honour Guard)
      1 Blood Champion (Jump Pack)
      1 Sanguinary Novitiate (Jump Pack)
      3 Honour Guard (Jump Pack; Flamer x1)

A Flamer equipped Honour Guard is okay if your using Dante to 'place' the unit wherever you want when it drops to clear out objective holding units. Other than that it's going to draw all the fire-power of an infantry list and be laughed at by a mechanised one. If you want to use an Honour Guard in this way then it's best to give it Meltaguns and Flamers so it'd dual purpose.

HQ: Librarian in Power Armour (1#, 140 pts)
   1 Librarian in Power Armour @ 140 pts (Jump Pack; Infernus Pistol; Blood Lance; Fear of the Darkness)

The powers are fine, not sure about the Infernus Pistol though.

Elite: Sanguinary Priest (3#, 255 pts)
   1 Sanguinary Priest @ 255 pts (Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour)
      3 Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour (Jump Pack; Combi-Meltagun)

I'm presuming that one of these goes with each Assault Squad and it's equipped this way to give the unit dual-melta. Personally I'd rather give them a Power Weapon of some kind as they are WS 5. If they're with the Assault Squad anyway then it's unlikely that they can avoid combat so they might as well help out.

Troops: Assault Squad (10#, 235 pts)
   7 Assault Squad @ 235 pts (Meltagun; Flamer)
      1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
      1 Assault Marine with Flamer
      1 Sergeant (Lightning Claw x2)

Troops: Assault Squad (10#, 235 pts)
   7 Assault Squad @ 235 pts (Meltagun; Flamer)
      1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
      1 Assault Marine with Flamer
      1 Sergeant (Lightning Claw x2)

Troops: Assault Squad (10#, 235 pts)
   7 Assault Squad @ 235 pts (Meltagun; Flamer)
      1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
      1 Assault Marine with Flamer
      1 Sergeant (Lightning Claw x2)

Sergeants need Power Fists. Unit needs two Meltaguns.

Fast Attack: Vanguard Veteran Squad (5#, 270 pts)
   1 Vanguard Veteran Squad @ 270 pts (Equip with Jump Packs; Vanguard Veteran; Vanguard Veteran)
      1 Sergeant (Jump Pack; Melta Bombs; Power Fist)
      1 Vanguard Veteran (Jump Pack; Melta Bombs; Bolt Pistol; Power Fist x1)
      3 Vanguard Veteran (Jump Pack; Melta Bombs; Bolt Pistol; Power Weapon x1)

Fast Attack: Vanguard Veteran Squad (5#, 270 pts)
   1 Vanguard Veteran Squad @ 270 pts (Equip with Jump Packs; Vanguard Veteran; Vanguard Veteran)
      1 Sergeant (Jump Pack; Melta Bombs; Power Fist)
      1 Vanguard Veteran (Jump Pack; Melta Bombs; Bolt Pistol; Power Fist x1)
      3 Vanguard Veteran (Jump Pack; Melta Bombs; Bolt Pistol; Power Weapon x1)

These are very expensive for what they do. If (as you say in your e-mail) your using them to destroy vehicles then a small 'suicide' Assault Squad would do the job for a lot less points and could also double as a moving cover save for your larger more important squads as well as being a cheap 'drop on an objective while scoring' unit. So I am indeed going to 'ditch' them, lol.

Total Roster Cost: 2000

To be honest I can actually quite easily turn that into a 1750 list using the changes I've mentioned.

1750 Pts - Blood Angels Roster

HQ: Librarian in Power Armour (1#, 140 pts)
   1 Librarian in Power Armour @ 140 pts (Jump Pack; Infernus Pistol; Blood Lance; Fear of the Darkness)

: Honour Guard (5#, 225 pts)
   1 Honour Guard @ 225 pts (Equip with Jump Packs; Honour Guard)
      1 Sanguinary Novitiate (Jump Pack)
      4 Honour Guard (Jump Pack; Flamer x1; Meltagun x1)

Elite: Sanguinary Priest (3#, 270 pts)
   1 Sanguinary Priest @ 270 pts (Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour)
      3 Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour (Jump Pack; Lightning Claw)

Troops: Assault Squad (10#, 245 pts)
   7 Assault Squad @ 245 pts (Meltagun; Meltagun)
      1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
      1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
      1 Sergeant (Hand Flamer x1; Power Fist x1)

Troops: Assault Squad (10#, 245 pts)
   7 Assault Squad @ 245 pts (Meltagun; Meltagun)
      1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
      1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
      1 Sergeant (Hand Flamer x1; Power Fist x1)

Troops: Assault Squad (10#, 245 pts)
   7 Assault Squad @ 245 pts (Meltagun; Meltagun)
      1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
      1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
      1 Sergeant (Hand Flamer x1; Power Fist x1)

Troops: Assault Squad (5#, 125 pts)
   3 Assault Squad @ 125 pts (Meltagun)
      1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
      1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Infernus Pistol x1)

Troops: Assault Squad (5#, 125 pts)
   3 Assault Squad @ 125 pts (Meltagun)
      1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
      1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Infernus Pistol x1)

Troops: Assault Squad (5#, 125 pts)
   3 Assault Squad @ 125 pts (Meltagun)
      1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
      1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Infernus Pistol x1)

Total Roster Cost: 1745

I'll be interested to hear how you do in your tournament as list feedback is always nice to have.

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

3 comments:

  1. I don't see the need for the honor guard. You have already 3 chalices, thats enough really! At 1750 I play with 2 priests, with carefull planing and movement that's sufficient.

    Some fire support would be nice.

    So change the honorguard for another 10 man assault squad with 2 meltas and fist and get for the 3 small squads 3x devastors with 4 MLs each.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 3 Priests AND Sanguinary novitiate is a bit much in my opinion.

    Honour guard should have at least 2 meltaguns. Hand flamers are not really worth the points.

    Why bother with 3 5 man assault squads, when you can take a 1 x 10 + 1 x 5?

    I think you need some sort of assault threat beyond I5 str5 marines without power weapons and Vanguard Vets do that. The other, cheaper option is sanguinary guard, but you lose heroic intervention.

    Shield of Sanguinius is a pretty important power for these types of list to generate cover that is unlikely to be way you want it and risky to drop into.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There were a few more back and forth e-mails than the one that I put in this post that specified certain units and prohibited others based on what models he had (he'd been proxying some models) and also what bits he could scrounge. The list above is based on those requirements.

    @ Skip + Brother Loring - You both make good points and they might have been things that I'd considered if my 'restrictions' hadn't been quite as specific as they ended up ;-)

    ReplyDelete