Foot/Jumper Blood Angels: A 6th Ed Review

Death From Above!

So it has been a fair bit of time since my last post, mainly due to things like attending College now so that is taking up a lot of my time. Since my last post however, 6th Edition of 40K has been released and I have been playing around with a few foot and pod lists.

This edition is almost a complete change in the meta from Mech to Infantry. Mech took a big nerfing with new rules such as not being able to assault out of transports unless it is open-topped or an assault vehicle and always hitting vehicles on 3's if they have moved or automatically if they haven't.

This review has come from a request from Merv over at Touched by Greatness as he wanted to see reviews of both sides of the Blood Angels, both Mech and Infantry. Caolan over at the Skibb Wargamers has already finished his review and thoughts on Mech BA and so I will be rounding out the 2 part review of Blood Angels in 6th.

Drop Pods, they're boss.

Some of the first lists I toyed around with for the first 6th Edition tournament were full Drop Pod armies. It was a successful army with it taking 2nd place at Moo6. The army was designed to be an Alpha Strike army with it incorporating many special weapons to take down anything from Grots to Land Raiders. The army was also almost always guaranteed to get First Blood and Linebreaker, two very important secondary objectives in 6th. The list was as follows:

Librarian w/ Blood Lance + Shield, Infernus Pistol, Force Axe
Sanguinary Priest w/ Power Fist, Infernus Pistol 
Sanguinary Priest w/ Power Fist, Infernus Pistol
8 Sternguard, 5 Combi-Plasma, 1 Combi-Melta, 2 Meltaguns, Drop Pod, Locator Beacon
9 Sternguard, 4 Combi-Plasma, 3 Combi-Melta, 2 Meltaguns, Drop Pod, Locator Beacon
10 Assault Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Power Fist, Drop Pod, Locator Beacon
10 Assault Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Power Fist, Drop Pod
5 Assault Marines, Meltagun, Infernus Pistol, Drop Pod

Total : 1500

The list worked exactly like it was supposed to and tore through pretty much everything it was thrown at, the list got 4 wins and 1 loss at Moo6 and that was against a variety of armies such as 4th Ed Chaos, Necrons, Wolves and Demons. It is certainly something I'm going to look at further as 6th Ed progresses.

Devastators, Devastators everywhere.

Recently I have just been playing with Jumpers as they are still my favorite way to play Blood Angels and also, in my opinion the best way to play BA too. The list I'm playing around with now is one that is slightly changed from the one I ran at Moo8 and got 8th with. What I brought to Moo8 was 40 Jumpers with double melta, 2 Jumpy priests with Powerfists, 1 bare bone priest, Jumpy Libby, 3 Devastator squads with 4 rockets, 5 Scouts and an Aegis Defense Line with a Quad Gun.

What I plan to try out now is the following:

Librarian w/ Jump Pack, Sword, Shield, Axe
5 Honour Guard, 4 Meltaguns, Pod
Sanguinary Priest w/ Jump Pack, Power Fist
Sanguinary Priest w/ Jump Pack, Power Fist
Corbulo
10 Assault Marines w/ 2 Meltaguns
10 Assault Marines w/ 2 Meltaguns
10 Assault Marines w/ 2 Meltaguns
5 Scouts, Camo Cloaks, Sniper Rifles
5 Devastators w/ 4 Plasma Cannons
5 Devastators w/ 4 Missile Launchers
5 Devastators w/ 4 Missile Launchers
Aegis Defense Line w/ Quad Gun

Total : 1850

In this list I have dropped one of the Assault Squads in favor of getting in a Drop Podding Honour Guard to secure me First Blood secondary or to just support the Jumpers even more on their way up the board. They are also a good distraction from other units such as the Plasma Cannon Devastator Squad which is easily able to destroy MEQ squads in one volley. 

Corbulo is going to be the priest that sits at the back with the 3 Devastator squads, Scouts and will man the Quad-Gun. It will be my first time trying him out so I'd like to see how he gets on. He does have a 2+ Feel No Pain after all.

Lastly I am going to discuss allies for Blood Angels. I am of a strong opinion that Blood Angels do not need allies to work but do have benefits in picking up some Guard. Guard give Blood Angels what they lack in the most, cheap infantry. Guard bring 50 man Blobs with Primaris Psykers for around 350 points. The benefits to this is that you have a scary enough blob with re-rolls to hit walking up the field.

The blob acts as a great distraction from your other units that are generally more scary such as the Assault Marines. Now, Merv is a huge fan of Allies in armies, especially Guard allies but myself, I don't like Allies at all, they dilute too much from the actual army in my opinion. 

So there's my thoughts on some Blood Angels foot lists and hope to see some comments/criticism from my fellow nerds.