Blood Angel Help

[Blood Angel]

Hi All.
As my user name suggests, I have been a Blood Angel Player/fanboy for years. I haven't played 5th edition though, because I put my first and favorite army away when the crappy WD codex nerfed everything I loved about my army. Now I'm rebuilding based on the new codex. I have alot of metal and I'm replacing with plastic whenever possible for storage, durability, and artistic issues. My old Assault Terminator Squad is 3 TH/SS and 2 lightning claws. As I'm building my new beautiful plastic squad (and using lots of Blood Angel Iconography) I am thinking about changing the compilation. I have enough to do 5 TH/SS or 3 TH/SS + 2 LC or even 4 TH/SS and 1 LC. I would be interested in hearing from those of you who have played with the new codex what combination would be the most effective for a CC unit like this and why. As well as suggestions for Delivery. I have a Redeemer right now but could be open for a better method especially if it saves points for other heavies. I am leaning towards a small Death Co. (4 or 5) with chaplain and Death Co. Dread w/ Blood Talons. Assault squad/razorback spam with a sang. priest in each squad, P. fist Sgt and Melta in each squad. Also HQ Astorath.

Any Ideas or Suggestions. i can play this army any way I want because I own all the HQ (except the Sanguinar and Sang. Guard.) I have Mephiston, Lemartes, Dante, Honor Guard, Tycho, Corbolo, 1 reg Dred, with Regular Claw and TW/ Laz, 1 Furioso with Blood Talons, 1 Death Co. Dread with Blood Talons, Plenty of Rhino/razorback (double duty removable razor turret) 1 reg Land Speeder (which I think has Never seen combat, 2 Baal Preds, 1 Auto Cannon/TW Laz Sponson Pred, as well as units that seem to have outlived their usefulness (Tac Squads, Scouts, Devastator Squad).

As I'm a fluffy Player but also want to make a win or two along the way, I would like to hear several different opinions before I finish.
I also plan to pick up the Stormraven and Libby Dread Tomorrow. They're very cool and I would love to work them into my army, but I'm afraid not all of this is going to fit into 2000 points.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any/all input.

Dennis aka Blood Angel.

[DarkLink]

3 THSS and 2 LCs are good. Striking at I1 with the whole squad is a bit of a disadvantage sometimes, and three 3++ saves is solid.

Storm Ravens can be a good alternative delivery means for the terminators, but you need to build your list around them. You can't just add in a Raven randomly. The Raven makes a good gunship, thanks to all its missiles, then can fly forward and deliver troops to combat. Or you can take two and bum-rush the opponent. Either way, the Raven won't likely live, but if you play around with the tactics and other units you can definitely make it work.

Razorback spam works well, but tends to lack cc punch. You rely on feel no pain bubbles to keep your limited number of dudes alive, while blowing stuff up with razorbacks and baals. Las/plas is a popular choice of weapons, from what I can tell. You can also keep a Land raider hidden behind the razorbacks as a counter assault unit, though in this case a standard raider with lascannons will work better.

You can also go all Descent of Angels, and spam jump troops. This is a kinda all or nothing thing. You drop in and use melta to blow up immediate threats. The enemy then has one turn to kill a whole bunch of power armor guys, all with feel no pain thanks to the priests, before they get assaulted.

[Mr.Pickelz]

baal preds are nasty against hordes, or a tight group of Marines. No matter what you use, you will still keep everything in transports, Think of 5th ed. as "rhino rush part deux" and go from there figuring what works against the opponents you face.

[Smotku]

Like you I have been playing BA for a long time, since 2nd edition and I have a lot of old metals.. I still use mine. I have expanded my assault termies to 10 with 5 lc and 5 th/ss . I rarely use all 10 and mix and match to suit my mood and opponent. I like to have at least 2 lc to take advantage of higher initiative when they charge. I almost always run them with a sang priest in termy armor and a librarian in termy armor with ss. some time I use a chaplain or reclusiarc in terminator armor insted of librarian. My favorite deliversystem is a LR crusader. I prefer the crusader over the redeemer for its ability to shoot more as it moves and longer range.

I am going to start using Stormravens to deliver the termies on occasion.

As far as the rest of the BA list I have had much success in pretty much all types of builds DOA, mech and mixed.

the only units I find no use for are tactical squads, Captains ( which is a shame because I have some well painted captains), scouts and scout bikers, tech marines, and whirlwinds. I actually have found that dev squads with 4 missile launchers are a great choice

Bikes are a disappointment, I made a priest on a bike and still found that bikes squads die at an alarming rate. not sure why.

have not run the Sanguinar or sanguinary guard. finishing up a squad of those right now and i think the sanguinar model is horrible. so I plan to make my own

[AngelsofDeath]

I am in bit of a different situtation then the rest, I started playing Blood Angels with the White Dwarf paper codex. That was when Death Company rocked and were free. The Codex now has given in to what I feel is a free ranged Codex, meaning that the units work well together and as long as the type of unit fits your fighting/playing style you cant go wrong. Wether its an armour list with Predators and Baal Predators supporting Razorbacked Assualt squads or a Full Jump pack list your choice of units needs to fit how you want to play your army. Or else your just not going to have fun.

I have played both of the mentioned lists and have won and lost with both. The missions I have played does not seem to have a great impact on the wins and losses, but just playing against really good players who know how to handle the faster pace of a Blood Angels army has been the difference.

I have just about all the unit choices from the codex except Scouts and Bikes (just do not like them) and have fielded these units at different times trying to see what works best. But as I have played it seems that solid Assault Squads with either Jump packs or placed in transports is the key, while backing them up with the support they need to be able to accomplish their roles. If you can balance this while still fielding an army that makes you excitted to play Blood Angels your wins will come.

Now if I could only paint a bit faster......