Musings on Blood Angels Jump Pack lists...

My Take on the Blood Angels jump pack lists and where i am with my army list so far...

So, It dawned on me today, I don’t actually have any articles up here.  Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing, this was never meant as an actual blog, more of a record of my painting work so that I could refer to it and show people when I wanted to.  Also there’s the fact that I’m not the best writer in the world.

Anyway I digress, the reason for this post is a dilemma I have regarding my Blood Angels army and recently I have tried to move away from changing my list for every game and pick a standard one that I use for every opponent in every game I play. 

As such I decided to go with a pure troop list, not because I don’t like the razorback spam lists out there, I do have the tanks to do it I just don’t think that’s how BA should be played.  Here are a few other reasons….

• Decent of Angels is amazing

Yes, yes it is.  The scatter reduction alone is fantastic but when you combine that with a re-roll on your reserve roll to help get things in, its one rule BA should definitely take advantage of.

• A Trend of Mech in 5^th ed has resulted in too much anti tank

Though most armies are balanced to an extent, people cant help but think when writing a list, “must get as much anti tank in as possible”.  As such if you turn up with none, some people worry that the role their lascannons had before is now anti troop which they of course don’t do very well on a large scale.

• Jump packs are great

And for Blood Angels, scoring which makes them even better.   Sure they have their disadvantages, like cover causing dangerous terrain tests and being out in the open instead of a nice little box meaning AP3/2, battle cannons etc sting badly.

And finally my logistical reason, vehicles take up a lot more space in my carry cases.

So with all this in mind my initial lists took shape….

1750 Points

HQ

Librarian - 125

Jump pack

Shield of Sanguinius + Blood Lance

Librarian - 125

Jump pack

Shield of Sanguinius + Blood Lance

Elites

Sanguinary Priest - 90

Power Weapon
Jump Pack

Sanguinary Priest - 90

Power Weapon
Jump Pack

Sanguinary Priest - 90

Power Weapon
Jump Pack

Troops

10 Man Assault Squad - 250

Powerfist + Melta Pistol Sergeant

2 Melta guns

10 Man Assault Squad - 250

Powerfist + Melta Pistol Sergeant

2 Melta guns

10 Man Assault Squad - 250

Powerfist + Melta Pistol Sergeant

2 Melta guns

10 Man Assault Squad - 235

Powerweapon + Flamer Pistol Sergeant

2 Flamers

Fast Attack

Vanguard Vetran Squad - 245
Power Fist Sargeant
Jump Packs
2 Storm Shields + Lightning Claw Marines

So this was my first attempt, There are a lot of scoring units, 50 marines which is a fair amount packing quite a bit of melta, their main disadvantage is if they don’t do enough damage the turn they come in, they could get shot to pieces or if they get charged by something nasty that’s much better in combat that would hurt too.  Priests scatter around to provide everyone with FNP/FC and the 2 librarians provide shield and a bit of extra anti tank with lance. 

Another option with them is to use their fast movement  and keep them a bit further back, giving up shooting when they arrive to jump forward and hammer home the following turn.  Some disadvantages I see are that theres simply no dakka, without baal preds I run the risk of not being able to deal with large squads of nasty things like Orks.  Deadly combat units will need mutli charging to ensure I get out alive.

I have since evolved this list slightly but as there’s always a danger of TLDR kicking in, that will follow in a different post.

**Edit**
Completely forgot my priests need jump packs so big thanks to sam for the heads up, list has been tweaked a bit to fit those in.