So in part one of this little mini-series we discussed the the proper care and feeding of Blood Angels Jumper armies. I explained my opinion that many BA players have been misled by some of the shiny toys in the codex to believe that Jumper armies are not viable or are sub-par, and specifically that I feel Descent of Angels in particular contributes to the misguided efforts to build Blood Angels armies that play more like Drop Pod armies (Deep Strike in, shoot you with meltas, try not to die).
Deep Striking Assault Marines ARE scary. Don't get me wrong. In a Hybrid build that has a lot of long-range anti-mech suppression firepower and ranged anti-infantry firepower, having Descent of Angels melta-units to come in and zap your enemies hard targets is a FANTASTIC asset.
My point is that in a JUMPER army (as opposed to a hybrid army or a fully mechanized army), Descent of Angels is best seen as a strategic tool, something to manipulate your opponent with - especially their initial deployment.
So, I see a Jumper army as being VERY similar to a Biker army, something that I have had a pretty large amount of experience with. Assault Marines fight like a wolf pack, isolating one section of the enemy force with their superior mobility and destroying it utterly. One of the biggest reasons that Descent of Angels fails so often (not the only reason) is that by deep striking in your forces you are almost doing the same thing to your own force that you should be doing to your opponent - offering isolated and relatively static targets for them to focus on and destroy.
So the basic premise is clear: take on one section of the enemy force (most likely a flank), close in too quickly for your opponent to do much damage, and utterly mangle/destroy a significant portion of their army early. This leaves you in a dominant position for the rest of the game.
So how can you ensure that you are properly positioned to carry out such a strategy? Is your opponent simply going to conveniently spread out for you to pull a text-book refused flank maneuver, setting up directly across a 24" gap from one wing of their forces?
Well, yes, probably. See, you have the tools to force your opponent to do this (or at least, make a REALLY good effort at it). What are these tools?
-Descent of Angels
-Deploying Second
-Blood Lance
Wait, Purgatus, I thought you said Descent of Angels sucks?
No, it's actually a pretty amazing ability. I mean, just read it. It kicks ass.
But that doesn't mean it's going to get used all the time.
It's kind of like Outflank. In fact it's a LOT like Outflank. Outflank is an ability that is pretty easy to defend against, right? But by defending against it, you sometimes do exactly what your opponent wants. So when playing a Tyranids player with Genestealers, you might tend to position your forces more centrally to avoid your flanks. This is what your opponent wants, you sitting directly across from him instead of hiding in a corner.
Descent of Angels presents a similar dilemma to your opponent, especially if you are packing two Blood Lance Librarians. If he is playing a mechanized list, he can defend against you relatively effectively by castling up. He has lots of guns in a small space, plenty of hulls for you to have to chew through, etc. Well, Descent of Angels with Blood Lances punishes castlers quite severely. This encourages your opponent to spread out so you aren't nuking multiple vehicles on the drop. This in turn provides you with the opportunity to perform a refused flank maneuver after he has spread out the way you want him to.
Make sense?
This is why this style of army will usually want to go second (not always, but often). By saying "ok, deploy" your opponent SHOULD be faced with some difficult choices. If they are stupid enough to deploy in such a way that DoA is really your best bet, then sure, reserve everything and go for it.
But most times, you will be better off starting on the board.
Now, you are going to get shot as you come across the board, of course. To survive to make contact with the enemy you will need two things: cover saves vs. heavy weapons and Feel No Pain to shrug off torrents of fire. Furious Charge and Fearless are nice to have too. ;D
SO obviously we will need some Chalices. There are different schools of thought on the best means to get them. My personal preference is for Honor Guard, as they provide Chalices and a tough-as-nails close combat unit to boot. The fact that the Sanguinary Novitiate cannot be picked out in close combat is a nice bonus as well. Since we are taking two Librarians we can bring two Honor Guard units.
This gives us our 'shield' unit as well. Assault marines will get carved through like a hot knife through butter by a real close combat unit. You need something to be able to tangle with those tough customers. These guys do the same thing as a Command Squad or a Biker army. They are a bit less durable than a biker squad because they are only T4, but you should be able to survive.
The Honor Guard squads also give you an easy cover save, as they will be hanging out front with their 3++ invul saves and everything else can get behind them for 4+ cover saves. That's what I mean when I say they provide themselves cover.
Now, you might still benefit from Shield of Sanguinius even if you are planning on hiding behind honor guard. That's a personal preference thing I guess.
Anyways, if you are just trying to go for the maximum amount of bodies moving forward, we now have enough tools in place to put together a basic list:
Librarian, Jump Pack, Blood Lance, Sword of Sanguinius
Librarian, Jump Pack, Blood Lance, Sword of Sanguinius
Honor Guard, Jump Packs, Storm Shield x 4, Lightning Claw x 3, Power Fist
Honor Guard, Jump Packs, Storm Shield x 4, Lightning Claw x 3, Power Fist
Assault Marines x 10, Meltagun x 2, Hand Flamer, Power Weapon
Assault Marines x 10, Meltagun x 2, Hand Flamer, Power Weapon
Assault Marines x 10, Meltagun x 2, Hand Flamer, Power Weapon
Assault Marines x 10, Meltagun x 2, Power Fist
Assault Marines x 10, Meltagun x 2, Power Fist
So that's 2000 points. 62 bodies with Feel No Pain, 3++ for the honor guard and 4++ cover for those behind. A pretty decent and fairly scary list, right? There are simply many armies that cannot deal with that many Marine bodies, let alone with Feel No Pain, Furious Charge and good mobility.
But it does seem to be missing something, yes? In a take-all-comers environment we don't want to play the rock-paper-scissors game if we can help it, and the reality is that this army will really struggle against mechanized armies that are fast enough to simply run away and shoot you down.
"Look not behind you, brother. Know in your heart that your kin are there, offering their fire and their prayers. Look instead to your foe as you scream from the skies upon jets of white fire. Take but one instant to savour the fear in his eyes as he looks skywards, and there, in the keen edge of your blade, he sees his doom, delivered by your hand.” - Deathwatch RPG
You don't NEED to have devastating amounts of ranged firepower. What you need is enough to slow down a few vehicles at a time, preferably dismounting units of infantry. This will force your opponent into a difficult position of abandoning pieces of his army to destruction or else stay and face your forces.
So this is a more balanced approach, I think. One that maintains the Jumper army style but has a few models (ten) that are not Jumpers. It is still clearly a Jumper army, however.
Librarian, Jump Pack, Blood Lance, Sword of Sanguinius
Librarian, Jump Pack, Blood Lance, Shield of Sanguinius
Honor Guard, Jump Packs, Storm Shield x 4, Lightning Claw x 3, Power Fist
Honor Guard, Jump Packs, Storm Shield x 4, Lightning Claw x 3, Power Fist
Sanguinary Priest, Jump Pack
Assault Marines x 10, Meltagun x 2, Power Weapon
Assault Marines x 10, Meltagun x 2, Power Weapon
Assault Marines x 10, Meltagun x 2, Power Weapon
Assault Marines x 10, Meltagun x 2, Power Weapon
Devastators, Extra Marines x 5 Missile Launcher x 4
63 bodies, 2000 points.
The extra Sanguinary Priest is a nice addition. He can hang back a bit (probably on the back edge of an assault squad) and provide Feel No Pain for the Devastator combat squads at least through turn 2, and further protects against the Honor Guard getting offed and being left without a chalice.
Anyways, I think this is quite an effective list and although the specifics could be switched around, I think the point is the basic strategy of planning to start on the board and building a list that can support that.
So I hope that was... entertaining at least and possibly even informative. Feel free to provide alternate viewpoints or disagreements if you have them. I know there are a few good Blood Angels players that read here, including Nardy.
Till next time.
