Which Blood Angels Company?

[ElectricPaladin]

In a stunning change of heart, I've decided to repaint my Blood Angels shoulder pads to remove the unit markings (assault cross, tactical arrow, etc) and replace them with company markings. I dunno... it started to annoy me. Warhammer 40k is a world of such rich background... I'm cheating myself if I don't throw myself into it. Of course, that leaves me with a decision to face: which company?

I can't find any references in my codex to any stories that give the companies particular personalities, though I did just find, on Lexicanum, information about what each chapter has and their nicknames. That helps me narrow it down some.

Let's see.

I don't want to field purely veterans, so not the First Company. I'm not fielding only scouts, so not the Tenth, either. That was easy. I'm not fielding only assault marines as my troops (at least not anymore), so not the Sixth or Seventh; neither am I only using tactical marines or devastators, so not the Eighth or Ninth. That leaves:

2nd Company: The Blooded
3rd Company: Ironhelms
4th Company: Knights of Baal
5th Company: Daemonbanes

Of those, the 5th Company has the coolest nickname, though the Blooded and the Knights of Baal aren't bad, either.

Alternately, I could vary on a squad-by-squad basis, so that my army represents a variety of squads drawn as needed from the various companies. That has some appeal as well.

So, what do you recommend, and why? 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, or a combination of several? My entire paint scheme hangs in the balance here!

[White Tiger88]

Do things like a true obsessed gamer, Do legion markings and keep collecting!

[Nabterayl]

Unless you're deliberately sending up the Codex Astartes (which you might be; I do), my vote is a mix, but mostly focused on one battle company. My vote is for 5th Co. as the focus, for a few reasons:


One, as Keeper of the Arsenal, Sendini's boys have the greatest justification for being as overloaded with special weaponry as tabletop armies typically are. Sure, plasma weaponry, infernus pistols, and power weapons are actually quite rare even in space marine chapters. But are we really going to run without them for fluff's sake? Bring on the Keeper of the Arsenal, baby!

Two, I feel like black on red has the most recognizable pedigree as the Blood Angels color scheme.

Three, (a) 3rd Co.'s white has immediate veteran connotations and is a pain to paint in shapes, (b) 4th Co.'s green on red strikes me as kind of Christmasy, and (c) 2nd Co.'s yellow on red leaves less immediate visual identification between assault marines and non-assault marines.

I'd personally be disinclined to take squads from multiple battle companies, as that implies the presence of two battle companies plus a strong contingent from at least one reserve company, and likely heavy supporting elements from the veteran and scout company as well - a huge commitment of forces (I've always found it instructive that the Ultramarines responded to a splinter fleet invading Ultramar itself with only one battle company, not even a full "one company" strike force - because to space marines, one unsupported company is a serious response to such a grave threat). However, I'd also feel free to draw from the reserve companies as your collection and/or army lists dictate. I've always felt that a full-on one company strike force - about 150-200 marines representing four to five companies (one battle company, one or more reserve companies, scouts, and veterans) gives the best flexibility among narrative plausibility, narrative possibility, and list-building desires. Sure, most lists are not going to require more than the battle company, veteran, and scouts personnel to be modeled (even if reserve company personnel are "on the table" in the armored vehicles and off the table in the strike cruiser, rapid strike vessels, and/or Thunderhawksthat got everybody there). But by including reserve personnel in your fictional strike force, you free yourself up to field additional troops. This is particularly true if you're into the Fast Attack and/or jumpy sections of the codex. Since Blood Angels battle companies don't include more than 20 marines across jump assault marines, foot assault marines, Land Speeders, and bikes combined, you can easily run up against the "codex limit" of those units. Reserve personnel allow you to field more than 20 jump/foot assault/Land Speeder/bike marines without breaking plausibility. Even if reserve company marines are expected to be working "out of sight" roles most of the time, they still have the flexibility to do otherwise upon request.

[dirkspair]

if you do the 3rd comp. you could either run a generic captain or tycho.

[ElectricPaladin]

Thanks for the advice, all. I'm going to go with Nabterayl's suggestion and base my force on the 5th Company, the Daemonbanes. Not only do they have an awesome name, but I agree that black on red is striking and consistent with the general colors of the Blood Angels. It also makes me feel better about loading up my squads with special weapons (not that I do too much of that).

As Nabterayl wrote, what I think I'm going to do is paint up my core units - tactical squad, assault squad - with 5th Company markings. Occasionally, however, I'll paint a unit with the colors of a reserve company, like devastators or a shooty dreadnought with 9th Company markings. Overall, however, I will maintain the theme that most of my force comes from the 5th Company.

My current dreadnought is a furioso, btw. Ought I to paint him with 1st Company markings? Or are furioso and conventional dreadnoughts supposed to be distributed throughout all the reserve and battle companies?

[Nabterayl]

Furioso dreads are First Co. by definition, yes. Unless they're furioso librarians, in which case they are librarium by definition.

[Phototoxin]

The problems arise when you have zillions of vets all with gold helmets!

But the Demonbanes are cool I was stuck between them and the Knights of Baal (IV co) which I went with in the end. I figure knights, crusadin' around, smiting xenos and stuff would be pretty cool.

[Wolfshade]

Go for 4th or 5th as there are a 2nd company and 3rd being done by other peoples on this site.

[pgarfunkle]

Yeah I have gone for a mainly 4th Company force with supporting elements from 1st for Terminators and Vets, 8th for additional assault support (read old minis lol) and 10th for scouts.

I love the name of the company "Knights of Baal", also 4 dreadnoughts which I love the models for!