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The scions of Sanguinius, the Sons ofBaal; call them what you will, theBlood Angels have acquired a

fearsome reputation as an assault army,and its well deserved. Leaving aside theeffects of the Red Thirst special rule a1 in 6 chance of a unit gaining the Fearlessand Furious Assault special rules can makea pretty scary close combat unit out of

anything in the army there are loads ofdedicated assault units from which a closecombat-geared army can choose. But howbest to assemble your troops? Thats thequestion. Theres a lot of choice to be hadin the Blood Angels army, and it can seema little daunting at first. Over the course ofthis article Ill be talking about how I goabout putting a Blood Angels armytogether, and hopefully illuminating a fewhelpful hints along the way.

The Lost BrethrenSelection of a Blood Angels army shouldalways begin in the Troops section with the(in)famous Death Company. With WeaponSkill 5, 2 Attacks each and the FuriousCharge rule, even a small Death Companycan be an intimidating foe for youropponent (though youll need to take care

that the units Black Rage doesnt disruptyour battle plans). Therefore, dont be toosurprised if your Death Company catchevery bullet thats going in the initial turnsof the game. Dont worry too much either;Death Company are incredibly hardy(thanks to the Feel No Pain rule) and canweather a storm of incoming shots farbetter than almost anything else in yourarmy. If they dont survive your opponentsmassed firepower, then you can takecomfort from the knowledge that their

ON WINGS OF BLOODThe Blood Angels Flaw has conspired to make them one of the most feared closecombat armies in the galaxy but whats the best way to forge an army around thistragic trait? Mat Ward thinks hes got some of the answers...

Mat Ward is yourcongenial host for thistactical tour of theBlood Angels. As healso authored theCodex then rest assuredyoure in good hands.

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SANGUINARY GUARDThese bad boys are assault elites par excellence. Withjump packs, (master-crafted) power weapons, 2+ armoursaves and souped-up boltguns, the Sanguinary Guard areperhaps best described as flying Terminators.

Sure, they may not be quite as durable, but theyllcleave through heavily armoured enemies like a hotknife through butterscotch. If their mere 15 Attacks onthe charge isnt enough for you, consider adding aChapter Banner to the squad thisll give them (and anyfriendly unit within 6") +1 Attack per model. As with

Assault Squads, the Sanguinary Guard also benefitgreatly from having a Sanguinary Priest nearby Feel NoPain makes them pretty much immune to anythingsmaller than a krak missile.

Another option is a squad of Assault Terminators.Whether you choose to equip them all with lightningclaws, thunder hammers or a mix, Terminators can berelied upon to get the job done. In a Blood Angels army,Id always lean towards lightning claws, because theybenefit most if the squad succumbs to the Red Thirst.

TM


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sacrifice has preserved other Blood Angelsfrom the same fate. Of course, what youreally want is for your Death Company tocrash into the enemy lines like a black andred thunderbolt, so make sure youveinvested in a few additional bits and piecesto give your Death Company a little addedimpact. Against poorly-armoured hordes,such as Orks or Tyranids, always considergiving boltguns to your Death Company.Being Relentless, they can fire as theyadvance and thin the enemy down. Ifyoure likely to be up against something abit more durable Renegade SpaceMarines, say then youre going to needsome special close combat weaponry.Power weapons, power fists and thunderhammers are all good for this, of course.

Regardless of the Death Companysspecific armament, to ensure your foe goes

away from the game with a wholly suitablefear of the Blood Angels, make sure thatyour Death Company is led by a Chaplainor Reclusiarch (or better still, Lemartes).Adding a Chaplain of some kind to yourDeath Company doubles their hittingpower at a stroke. Not only will yourDeath Company get to re-roll misses on theturn they assault (just as would other unitsunder the Chaplains influence) but theyllalso get to re-roll failed to wound rolls aswell. Given that the Death Company areStrength 5 on the charge, and that thesquad should be packing at least onepower weapon (you did remember to

equip them with a power weapon, didntyou?) then all these things combined arebound to make a real mess. A mere 5-strong Death Company, led by a Chaplain,can eliminate (or at least knock the windout of) pretty much any enemy infantry unitthat stands in their way.

The only thing left to consider for yourDeath Company is how theyre going toreach the enemy lines. Are they going tohoof it all that way on foot, or are yougoing to splash out on a transport vehicle,or even some jump packs? Leaving themon foot is, of course, the cheapest option and this can sometimes mean its the best.

Personally, I favour a nice efficient Rhino with its fast Lucifer-pattern engines its agreat way to get into the fight and doesntcost many points. Of course, if points areno object and youre wanting your DeathCompany to arrive swiftly, you cant beat aLand Raider or a set of jump packs.

Reinforcing the AssaultThe Death Company only have one realdisadvantage, but its a biggie. Unlike otherTroops units, they cant claim objectives, soyoure going to have to look elsewhere foryour land grab squads (technically, theBlack Rage special rule is a disadvantage

too, but surely you want the DeathCompany to run towards the enemy?).Happily for the assault-oriented Blood

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LEMARTES, GUARDIAN OF THE LOSTIf your Death Company is the kind that takes to the skies on the wings ofa jump pack, then why not give a thought to Lemartes? Not only does hehave a slightly punchier profile than a normal Chaplain (Initiative 6!) anda master-crafted Crozius Arcanum, he also benefits from the FuryUnbound special rule, which boosts his Strength and Attacks to 5 oncehe takes a wound (making him Strength 6 on the charge, for those of youwhore interested). Accordingly, Lemartes is a great way of putting youropponent in a sticky quandary: he wants to shoot your Death Company,but is afraid of wounding Lemartes (remember that you can allocate awound to Lemartes if you wish). The very worst case for your oppositenumber is that the Death Company emerge unscathed, all save forLemartes, whos suffered a wound, and is now very angry indeed

Sanguinary PriestsThanks to the peculiarpsychic influence of aBlood Chalice, all BloodAngels units within 6" of aSanguinary Priest gain theFurious Charge and FeelNo Pain special rules. Inthe case of an AssaultSquad, this is a huge boostthat brings the units closecombat power levelsmuch closer to those ofthe Death Company all

for a relatively meagrepoints outlay.

Angels player, your Assault Squads areTroops units and can easily fill this role.

Assault Squads are good utility troops theyre manoeuvrable, great in a fight andcan select from a fairly broad array ofweapons to enhance their battlefield role.Most of these weapon options take theform of upgrades for the squad Sergeant (Idnever advise an Assault Squad to set offfrom Baal unless its Sergeant totes at least apower sword) but the unit can also takeone or two ranged special weapons (orspecial pistol weapons) depending on itssize. While Assault Squads are by nomeans as fearsome in close quarters as theDeath Company, they are a lot cheaper tofield (an Assault Marine with a jump packcosts about the same as a Death Companywithout). This is no bad thing SpaceMarines often fight outnumbered, buttheres no reason to make things worseunless you a) have no choice, or b) have acunning plan of some kind.

Ill move on to talking about HQchoices and support units in a moment, butfirst of all theres a couple more assaultunits that are worthy of discussion.

If you want a really intimidating unit inyour assault force, Id heartily recommenda Furioso Dreadnought or a DeathCompany Dreadnought. Of the two, theDeath Company Dreadnought is both the


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WHITE DWARF BLOOD ANGELS TACTICA

most unsubtle and the moststraightforward it runs and fleets towardsthe enemy as fast as possible and, well,you get the idea. Most of the time, youllwant to consider a pair of blood talons with good dice rolls, thesell generate a

lot of attacks and, with the Initiativebonus from Furious Charge, theDreadnought can normally wade throughan enemy squad before theyve even hada chance to strike back. The Furioso is theBlood Angels equivalent of a VenerableDreadnought. It has better armour andmore flexibility in weaponry than theDeath Company version, and can even beupgraded to be a Librarian. Both types ofDreadnought can be outfitted with amagna-grapple a powerful harpoon andwinch system that can be used to snarevehicles and drag them towards theDreadnought. Its always worth

considering a magna-grapple not onlydoes it greatly increase the Dreadnoughtsfirepower (albeit at close range) it can pullan enemy vehicle out of position, andeven create situations where theDreadnought can charge it a turn earlierthan would otherwise be possible.

ArchangelsSo, your armys now got an intimidatingDeath Company, as well as a few AssaultSquads to grab objectives and perhapseven some veteran assault units to addmore punch. Youll also be needing asuitably heroic HQ unit to lead your army

to victory, glory and all that other goodstuff. Now, you might have alreadychosen a Reclusiarch to give your Death

Company a bit more punch in whichcase you dont need (but might like) toinclude another HQ unit. Lets take a lookat what your options are.

First up, we have the Captain. Hes agood all-round character with plenty of

options for those of you who want to fine-tune his weapons and wargear. If youwant an HQ choice that can just get stuckin with a minimum of fuss, then theCaptain is a good choice for you. Anothernice all-round option is the Librarian.Blood Angels Librarians tend towardspowerful short-ranged and close combat-based psychic powers, rather than long-ranged zaps. However, as your armyslooking to fight the foe eye-to-eye, thatshouldnt be a problem, should it? Mypersonal favourite is to take a Librarianwith the Wings of Sanguinius and BloodLance powers. The former allows the

Librarian to scoot around the battlefield asif he had a jump pack, whilst the lattercan make a mess of heavily armouredtroop clusters or vehicles squadrons theBlood Lance travels 4D6" in a straight lineaway from the Librarian, inflicting aStrength 8, AP 1 lance hit on enemy units.

But what of the special characters? Ihear you cry. Most of the Blood Angelsspecial characters are, appropriately,specialists you pay a lot of points forthem but, used properly, theyll almostalways return your investment. Justremember, the more special charactersyour army includes, the smaller itll get.

So, who is the deadliest of the specialcharacters? Theres some debate on thisissue. The Sanguinor is clearly a strong

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Vanguard VeteransVanguard Veteran Squadscan assault on the turnthey arrive from DeepStrike. Thats pretty good

all by itself, but in aBlood Angels army, wherethe Descent of Angelsspecial rule reducesscatter to D6", it more orless guarantees that yourVanguard Veterans canarrive where you needthem and get stuck inright away.


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MephistonMephiston is not known asthe Lord of Death fornothing. On the battlefield

he is the embodiment ofdeath and slaughter!

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contender. In the most vulgar of gamingterms, hes an assassin, able to re-roll failedto hit and to wound rolls against an enemyHQ unit of your choice. Simply choose theenemy HQ unit you want dead and sic theSanguinor on him even the likes ofAbaddon and Skarbrand would do well tostay out of the Sanguinors way. This,combined with the ability to boost afriendly Sergeants profile to the level of aminor hero, makes the Sanguinor atempting option for any army. One word ofwarning though once the Sanguinor hathsmote his chosen prey, his combat abilitiestail off a little. If your opponent has onlyfielded a cheap HQ unit (a bare bones OrkWarboss, perhaps) then the Sanguinor willstruggle to repay his hefty points cost.

Commander Dante may not have theraw hitting power of the Sanguinor, but he

more than makes up for it with the abilitieshe bestows upon his unit. Adding Dante toa squad gives not only the Hit and Runspecial rule (something that works rathernicely indeed with Furious Charge) but ifthe squad has jump packs also preventsthem from scattering when they DeepStrike. On top of this Dantes no slouch incombat himself, with a profile and wargearloadout worthy of his rank.

On the other end of the spectrum,Mephiston brings no benefit to your rank-and-file troops, but is a nigh-unstoppablekilling machine. A quick glance atMephistons profile, and youll see why

Initiative 7, Strength 6 and 4 Attacks willmake a mess of most characters ormonstrous creatures, whilst Toughness 6and a 2+ armour save means that even ahorde of Orks are going to struggle to bringhim down. Mephistons only realweaknesses are the lack of an invulnerablesave and the fact that he cant join units. Intheory, this makes him vulnerable to enemyheavy weapons fire. In practice, however,Mephistons Fleet special rule andknowledge of the Wings of Sanguiniuspsychic power mean that you can get himwhere he shines knee deep in thedismembered corpses of the enemy

very quickly indeed.Last of what it pleases me to call theBig Four is Astorath the Grim, HighChaplain of the Blood Angels. Stat-linewise, Astorath is the weakest of the four but remember that in this hallowedcompany, that means only a touch betterthan a Space Marine Captain which is stillnothing to be sniffed at. Astroraths realutility comes from the effect he has on yourarmy. First of all, he removes the 0-1limitation on the Death Company. Whatsgoing to scare your opponent more thanone Death Company? Thats right, twoDeath Companies (or even more than two).

Furthermore, Astoraths inclusion in anarmy increases the likelihood that the RedThirst will take effect, from a 1 in 6 per

unit to a 1 in 2. Thats right, with Astorath,a full half of your units will be Strengthand Initiative 5 on the charge!

Before we move away from HQchoices, I have to make mention ofCaptain Tycho. You see, hes the exceptionthat proves the rule of the specialcharacters are specialists. In his daysbefore joining the Death Company, Tychosan exemplar Space Marine Captain hecan do a bit of everything, and do it verywell indeed. Not only does he grantLeadership 10 to every friendly unit,Tychos got Blood Song (a combi-meltapacked full of special issue ammunition)and the Dead Mans Hand (a powerweapon with built in digital weapons). Healso has the Preferred Enemy: Orks specialrule, making him a must if youre going upagainst greenskins. On the other hand, if

you want a more close combat orientedTycho, then you can opt to field him afterhis induction into the Death Company. Thisversion of Tycho (or psycho Tycho, in the

LIGHT THE FIREWhen picking special weapons for your squads, its worthremembering that many Blood Angels squads have access to twounique weapons: the infernus pistol and the hand flamer. The former isa short-ranged melta gun, with all the red-hot microwave fury thatyoud expect. The latter, as the name implies, is a compact flamer.Whilst its true that neither weapon is quite as potent as their largerbrethren, they do have a crucial advantage theyre pistols, so a BloodAngel doesnt sacrifice a close combat attack if equipped with one.Theyre a great way to increase a squads firepower, withoutdiminishing its potency in assault.


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unsanctioned vernacular) trades hisleadership abilities for a bulked up closecombat profile, Feel No Pain, FuriousCharge, Fleet and, of course, Black Rage.Hes also not an Independent Character(fellow Blood Angels arent reallycomfortable in his presence any more).

So, those are your HQ options. Whichone is best for your army really depends onyour playing style. Personally, I tend togravitate towards the Sanguinor (if Imfeeling generous with my points) or aniteration of Tycho if Im not.

Supporting FireOf course, even with an assault-heavyarmy like the Blood Angels, youre going towant units to lay down a little supportingfire. As a Codex Chapter at heart, theBlood Angels have plenty of options in this

regard. Regardless of which supporting fireunits you choose, youll want to make surethat the weapon loadout compensates forany weaknesses in the rest of your army. Inthe case of a Blood Angels assault army,

this will normally mean bringing missilelaunchers or lascannons to destroy (or atleast suppress) enemy tanks you candestroy vehicles with power fists and thelike, but an anti-tank gun can do so rightfrom the first turn, probably saving the livesof many Battle-Brothers. That said, if yourarmy is shaping up to be small, spare athought to a touch more anti-hordefirepower your Blood Angels are tough,but you dont want to get overwhelmed.

If youre wanting more infantry in yourarmy, youve essentially got the choice ofScouts, Tactical Squads, Devastator Squads,Sternguard Veterans, and Terminators. Ifyou want massed firepower, a combinationof Devastator and Tactical Squads probablymakes the most sense; whereas if you wanta small number of models with aproportionally greater firepower, go for

Sternguard Veterans or Terminators. TacticalSquads and Scouts have a furtheradvantage, of course they can claimobjectives, so theyre often a good choice ifyou want a static firebase or a second

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Brother-Captain TychoTycho, after hesuccumbed to the BlackRage and joined the DeathCompany, lost his awe-inspiring leadershipabilities but gained abloodthirsty edge. Withhis black-armouredbrethren Tycho now seeksto die in battle.


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Supporting FireIts not all the cut andthrust of assault in aBlood Angels army; as aCodex Chapter they cancall upon a whole array ofHeavy Support fromDevastator Squads,Whirlwinds, Predators andStormraven Gunships. Andlets not forget that BloodAngels have more LandRaiders in their arsenal

than many other Chapterscan field.

security wave that goes in behind yourassault troops to secure the objectivestheyve cleared of enemies. If this is whatyou want to achieve, consider a Rhino,Razorback or Drop Pod for your TacticalSquads not only do they make it easier toget your troops to where they need to go,but they can be used to block or obscureenemy lines of sight, and therefore createsome much-needed cover as you advanceupon the objectives.

As a completely different alternative,you can avail yourself of the Blood Angelsgenerous fleet of vehicles. Star of the showhere is clearly the Baal Predator. Adedicated anti-infantry tank, the Baal canbe outfitted with burst fire weapons, suchas the assault cannon and heavy bolter, ortemplate weapons such as the flamestormcannon and heavy flamer. Because the

Baal Predator is a Fast vehicle, it can easilykeep pace with your assault advance, so trypairing one with an Assault Squad youcan use the Baals weaponry to thin theranks of the Assault Squads intendedvictim, or shred a potential enemycountercharge. Similar tricks can be playedwith a normal Predator, a Whirlwind or theVindicator they all share the BaalPredators Fast characteristic, so canadvance, guns blazing, or redeploy at amoments notice.

Somewhere in between thesesupporting fire options lie the Scout Bikers,Bike Squads and Land Speeders. These are

relatively cheap ways of getting someserious firepower in your army, and thoughtheir weapons are normally quite short-ranged, their high movement rates helpthem get into range. Of the two, I tend toprefer Bike Squads, as I find them to be awhisker more durable than Land Speeders;and, more importantly, can be subject tothe Red Thirst potentially giving meanother close combat unit if I need it.

If youve the points to spare, its hard tofind a better support unit than a LandRaider. There are three types to choosefrom, depending on just how close to theenemy you want the tank to get. As the

Blood Angels field their Land Raiders asdedicated transports, rather than separatetanks, youll need an infantry squad forevery Land Raider you want to field. Thisnever proves a burden, however, as theLand Raiders assault vehicle special rulemakes it ideal for getting your DeathCompany, a Terminator Squad or even aTactical Squad right into the thick of thefighting. Its worth remembering that, whilea Land Raider cant keep up with theChapters other tanks, you can elect toDeep Strike it into the battle. A particularlynasty trick is to fill a Land Raider Crusader(with its nice high transport capacity) full of

Death Company. Come turn two or three,youll be able to drop it on the enemylines, giving your opponent only a single

turn to neutralise it before the DeathCompany boil out into his lines and a LandRaider takes some neutralising.

And Finally...Weve looked at the various elements of theBlood Angels army and some of the tacticsthey can employ, but before I go, theres onefinal piece of advice to impart. It can be veryeasy to get caught up in trying to squeeze allthe elite units into your army, at the cost offlexibility. Thats not to say theres anythingwrong with this, provided youve got a plan,but it can make your life more difficult whenthe battle begins. If youve got less than fortymodels in your army at 1500 points, youveprobably fallen into this trap go back andcheck youve got enough Battle-Brothers tofulfil your strategy. With a Blood Angelsarmy, a little elite goes a long way use unitslike Sanguinary Guard, Terminators, LandRaiders, Dreadnoughts and VanguardVeterans to add muscle to your AssaultSquads, rather than the other way round.

Anyway, thats quite enough out of me fornow. Now get out there, and remind thegalaxy why they fear the Blood Angels!

DREADNOUGHTSIf youre the type of commander who likes his supporting fire to pitchin during close combat, then I can do no better than recommend aDreadnought or two. The basic Dreadnought is a versatile warrior invulnerable to most close combat attacks and wielding one or twoheavy weapons. While it cant keep up with your assault force, theDreadnought can fire on the advance, so its a good choice if you want

neither a static firebase nor tracked vehicles.

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