Forged in The Mind

So my original post was going to cover my progress of the Black Templar army I am currently constructing. However, the pictures were not to my satisfaction, and the words have escaped me. So for now I will be putting my efforts towards something of a similar nature.

As a marine player, I feel it is important to make my army have the feel of many things. First and foremost is the daunting and intimidating feel that Marines should inspire in the enemy. Second, to allow them all to have a great sense of self; and to do this requires a lot of work to make them all stand out. Finally, I want them to have a certain feel of anonymity, and to do this, I use helmets.

However, this is where a certain conflict of interests arises in the Templar army. Many (including my army) use Neophytes, or scouts as most marines call them. These models do not wear helms... and therefore goes against my personal views that all soldiers should wear helms. So my answer is simple, and the subject of this article. Conversions!

Now, I know not everyone is comfortable with the idea of making ones own impression on already beautifully detailed models; some because they won't, and others because they feel they can't. But let's look into what makes a conversion so special. When you look at models on the tabletop, often it is to simple see what actually exists for the purposes of the game. But many times people want to see the hobby shine through to this by presenting stunning models. These often times prove to be more entertaining to play with and against than a horde of gray plastic miniatures.

Obviously we all want to be able to paint to Golden Daemon standards, but sadly this is a difficult objective for a great many players. It takes a lot of skill, and even more practice until you find a good style for yourself that really makes an army look sharp. So this is where simple or elaborate conversions come in handy.

Of course the prime example of conversions would come from the new Tyranid codex, as the new book brought with it new units. GW modeled almost all of these new guys on the carnifex so that people could easily create their own units with relative ease. And what a storm of new and interesting new creations have spawned from this. Although painting may prove to be a challenge for some, a great conversion can get the same attention as an amazing paint job.

As for myself, I know the use of the Templar conversion boxes can hardly be called conversion, but it does give the army the feel and aesthetic I want it to have. But I want more, I want it to look like I did it, and so here comes the unique conversions. For example, my Venerable Dreadnought uses a DCCW (Dread. Close Combat Weapon). For this, I wanted to model a large claymore type sword, as I feel it would bring out the Crusader-esk feel the army should have.

All of my scouts wear helms from Bretonnian Knight's Errant, and my marshal (made from the Helbrecht model) has another of the Bret. helms. I must say I enjoy these conversions as they bring a personalized feel to the army, and allow it to have a much more crusader-like feel for even the scout models.

Conversions range from very simple to extreme. It doesn't take must to give your models a personal touch that can really turn heads. Almost any model worth taking time on is worth taking a little more to really create something you love. So go out, grab your bits, you green stuff, and put some extra love into your army.

Liturgies of Blood: Blood Angel Codex Review Part Two

Welcome back to dramatt’s rather late review of the new Blood Angel’s codex. This time we are going to cover the special characters that the Blood Angels have, new and returning. The new codex now contains 6 special HQ units and 2 special upgrade characters. This is up from the 5 special characters that were in the last Blood Angel pdf and up from the 6 that were in the 3rd edition (same number of special HQs though) . This is showing an increase in the number of special characters, but before anyone starts to shout about how we are moving to HeroHammer who have to look at the situation. Now that Blood Angels have a real codex with more fluff than we’ve seen for a very very long time it only makes sense that new characters have been introduced to the Blood Angels stories and legends and having a model for these new guys only makes sense. Plus the point of a new codex is to get new stuff and that means new special characters. People want new things without losing old things, so we end up with more special characters than we had before. I know that lots of people don’t always agree with all of GW’s business practices, but making new things better to sell them seems like a pretty standard idea in the business world. But that is a topic for another day so anyway, on to the characters themselves.

I suppose we should start with the Lord of the Host himself: Commander Dante. In terms of fluff Dante hasn’t changed that much. He is still older than balls (having been chapter master for like three thousand years now) and supposedly venerated for his tactical knowledge and general awesomeness. New to his fluff is how he is supposedly waiting for a time of crisis where he has to save the entire imperium, which would be cool. Dante costs the same as a ten man assault squad with power weapon and meltagun and comes with a jump pack. His stats have been slightly changed grabbing him an extra wound and initiative. He makes the sanguinary guard troops choices (although why anyone would want them even as troops is beyond me). His weapon loadout is still the same, with a infernus pistol (used to be called the Perdition Pistol before the entire army could take it), the Axe Mortalis (which despite the cool name is just a master crafted power axe), and the standard Iron Halo. His Death Mask of Sanguinius has been changed to act like a regular death mask like the sanguinary guard have and to significantly reduce one enemy independent character’s stats (this effect lasts even if Dante is killed). Dante also gives the squad he joins the ability to arrive from deep strike without scattering (assuming they are jump infantry) as well as the rule Hit & Run. Perhaps most glaringly absent is Eternal Warrior. Apparently three thousand years of chapter mastering isn’t enough to stop you from getting blown away by a single melta gun. All in all a pretty useful guy, but if the enemy doesn’t have an IC or you aren’t using much jump infantry to put him with he may have a hard time earning his points.

Next we come to one of the new additions to the army: Gabriel Seth, Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers. Seth is the cheapest of the BA special charters(still a lot more than a regular chapter master though). And he probably isn’t even worth that much. He is one of the only two special characters who is stuck on foot with no way of having a jump pack (along with Tycho). He comes with a pretty blah stat line for an special character HQ: the same as a regular Captain’s with one extra wound and attack (for a total of 4 each). With only regular power armor and an iron halo his saves aren’t anything to write home about. For weapons he has a regular bolt pistol and a huge ass chainsword. This chainsword, called the Blood Reaver, is a strength 8 weapon with rending. The fact that he still always allows armor saves 5/6s of the time makes him a lot less useful in close combat where his special rules kick in. He has a rule called Whirlwind Of Gore which lets him give up his regular attacks to automatically hit every individual model that he is in base to base with. A nice way to snipe out special guys, but as he still allows armor saves its usefulness is limited. His other rule Ferocious Instincts means that anyone who rolls a 1 trying to hit him in close combat takes an immediate strength 4 hit as he headbutts them back. Cool to think about, but not that useful in real life. To sum him up he is the cheapest special character, but probably not as useful as a cheaper non unique Captain.

Another newcomer to the Blood Angels is the new high chaplain guy: Astorath the Grim. Astorath is only a few points shy of the same price as Dante himself. He counts as jump infantry (he doesn’t actually have a jump packs, but uses wings). Fluff wise Astorath is the guy who comes around to the Blood Angels and their successor chapters to finish off any Death Company who lived through a fight and his presence makes regular Blood Angels more likely to succumb to the Red Thirst. His rules reflect this as he removes the 0-1 limit on the Death Company and causes red thirst to activate on a roll of 1-3 rather than just 1 (although if you run Sanguinary Priests the Red Thirst isn’t neccessary). His stat line and the rest of his rules are the same as a regular Reclusiarch (the generic HQ chaplain) except for his weapon: the Executioner’s Axe, a strength 5 power axe that forces successful invul saves to be rerolled. Although he does have some good points in the end Astorath is probably just doesn’t add enough to useful in most armies as the Death Company aren’t nearly as useful as they used to be and can’t hold points and Priests make the Red Thirst unnecessary. His axe is awesome, but doesn’t justify all the extra points from a generic Reclusiarch. If you want to try a Death Company centered army, though, Astrorath is a must have (literally as he is the only way to have multiple Death Company squads).

The last of the newcomers is The Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host. A mysterious guy who shows up to kick ass when the Blood Angels need help the real identity of this guy is unknown. I’ve heard all sorts of cool speculation, like he is a manifestation of the Blood Angels collective physic powers, or perhaps even a fragment of Sanguinius himself preserved by the Emperor. In any case he is the most expensive special character. His weapons and gear are pretty standard: artificer armor, grenades, a jump pack, and a Glaive Encarmine like those used by the Sanguinary Guard. It is his rules and stats that make him interesting guy. At weapon skill 8 he hits almost anything on 3s. His BS is 5, although that is irrelevant as he doesn’t even have a gun. Strength 5 is always nice, but Toughness 4 is average. His 3 Wounds seems a little low for his points, but he does have Eternal Warrior (the only guy in the BA codex to get it) and a special rule (not wargear) that gives him a 3+ invul save. Initiative 6 with 5 attacks can be all sort of deadly. For rules he has Avenging Angel that lets him chose one enemy HQ at the start of the game and reroll and To Hits and To Wounds against that HQ, The Sanguinor’s Blessing that beefs up one sergeant, Aura of Fervor that gives all units (except himself) within 6 inches +1 attack, and the standard Descent of Angels, Fearless, and Furious Charge. The biggest drawback to this guy is that he lacks Independent Character status, which means he can’t join units to meat shield for him. He has to be all by himself. With good play techniques to keep the enemy from just massing shots on him he can be a real beast, but it is up to you if you want to commit so many points to something you have to baby so much.

Now we get to the resident BA-dass: Mephiston, The Lord of Death. The fluff for Mephiston is largely the same with a few hints that he might be slowly giving in to the dark side. The best way to think of the new Mephiston isn’t as a space marine, but rather a monstrous creature. Like the Sanguinor he doesn’t have IC status and can’t be put with a squad. His stats are rather, looking like they were ripped out of the Tyranid codex. The Tough 6 helps make up for the fact that he still doesn’t have Eternal Warrior. His points are smack in the middle of Dante and the Sanguinor and he comes with artificer armor, a plasma pistol, a force sword, the usual grenades, and a psychic hood. If you notice he has no invul save, by far his biggest weakness requiring careful play to make sure a group of lascannons don’t just blow him out of the water. He comes with pre-selected psychic powers that can give him wings for a turn, preferred enemy, and strength 10, as well as the ability to use all of them in one turn. For rules he comes with the usual And They Shall Know No Fear, and Psyker. More importantly is that he is Fleet and that his Transfixing Gaze is now an ability that forces an enemy independent character to pass a leadership test at -4 or Mephiston gets to reroll all To Hits and To Wounds against him. Now obviously without any kind of invulnerable save Meph is weak to a number of things and most other players will just start listing things that they have that can tear him a new one. However, between having wings and Fleet he can be incredibly mobile and easy to hide so that you can choose what he hits. The list of things that eat him may be long, but the list of things he eats is even longer. Of course his points are kind of salty so you have to make sure to use him well and can’t just throw him up front and hope for the best.

The final special HQ is return Captain Tycho. To be honest I’m not entirely sure why he is in the codex as according to the fluff he is already dead. Even on his own page it talks about how he died during the third battle for Armageddon after finally snapping and joining the Death Company. At any rate he is the second cheapest special HQ, being only a few points more than Gabriel Seth (and more useful). The interesting thing about Tycho is that he comes in two different flavors: regular and Death Company. His regular form has the same stats as a generic captain (he is a captain after all), while his Death Company form loses a BS and two to his leadership, but gets an extra WS and attack. Both of his forms have the same gear which is pretty nice as he comes with artificer armor and an Iron Halo, plus some his weapons. His gun, the Blood Song, is a combi-melta that can fire sternguard ammunition. His close combat weapon is the Dead Man’s Hand that acts like a power weapon with built-in digital lasers. He also has the standard bolt pistol to give him an extra attack for dual-armed. Regular Captain Tycho’s rules are fitting for an army leader with Rites of Battle, but no fancy shenanigans. Death Company Tycho doesn’t have Rites or even IC, but gets Rage, Fearless, Fleet, Furious Charge, Feel No Pain, and Relentless (which goes well with his gun). Both forms of Tycho have his fluff based Preferred Enemy: Orks as Tycho hates him some greenskins. If you are trying to get a fair amount of bang for your buck Tycho either form of his aren’t bad choices and are generally a fair amount better than any generic HQ, but his power and rules aren’t as game-changing as his more expensive brethren.

Although Lemartes and Corbulo aren’t HQs anymore they used to be and they are still special characters so I’ll be giving them a quick review of their own. Lemartes is now an upgrade character for the Death Company. Fluff wise Lemartes has had a 180 degree change. Where he used to be the High Chaplain and responsible for guiding the souls of all the Blood Angels he has now fallen to the Black Rage and only holds on to his sanity by sheer force of will and is carted from battle to battle. He comes with a jump pack and costs just a little bit more than the elites slot chaplain with jump pack and combines the special rules and equipment for the chaplain with the rules of the Death Company. Plus he has his own rule where if he loses one of his two wounds both his strength and attacks increase to five. If you were planning on running a Chaplain to boost the Death Company Lemartes is a logical replacement unless you are really hurting for points, but in an army without much Death Company Lemartes doesn’t really add that much. Corbulo is now an upgrade character for the sanguinary priests. His fluff remains largely unchanged as he is still the visionary for the Blood Angels as he sometimes has visions hinting of the future as he searches for the cure to the Red Thirst and Black Rage. Corbulo costs a few points over double that of a plain priest with no extra wargear. His stats are the same as a priest except for an extra wound and attack. His equipment is also mostly the same except for his sword which hits at S5 and has Rending. His Chalice of Blood works the same as a regular priest, but gives him Feel No Pain on a 2+ rather than a 3+. Also he allows you to reroll any one die as long as you do so before he dies. Corbs is a good option when looking for a priest to help beef up a hammer unit, although without a jump pack he isn’t much use for a regular assault squad and there isn’t a lot of point in paying extra just to throw him into a tactical squad.

So, about that Khorne army I play.

Some time ago I posted the list for 2k that I use when I play my Khorne CSM. To recap, here's the list:

Kharen

2x8 Zerks, Pfist Champ, Rhino w/EA

7 Zerks, Pfist Champ, Rhino w/EA

3x Dreadnoughts, Multi-melta, EA

Defiler- 2CCW

Vindicator- Possession, Dozer Blades

3x Obliterators

2x 8 lesser daemons

So, after going through several games with this list, there are a number of entertaining "tricks" that have popped up from playing different people. The first of which is that the Defiler, which I lovingly refer to as "Mr. Bojangles", is about as idiotic and inaccurate as a drunken sailor going after a baby seal. As such, he'll do one of two things: either he will soak up a lot of fire early on from his intimidating stature, or he'll sit in the corner and fire shell after shell (read: miss after miss). He's a relatively dangerous bluff, and it's entertaining. Both him and the Vindicator don't really perform all that much beyond being anti-tank attractions. The Dreadnoughts fulfill a similar role, but they are far more vital to my battle plan. Either they go as a trio in a flank manoeuver, or they screen my Rhinos. All this would be great if they didn't go insane and end up shooting eachother every other game. They're another unit that attracts a lot of attention, partly because of their inherent insanity, another because they're pretty useful when they aren't mad. Now, in this list I only have one personal icon, and that's on Kharen. Luckily, due to the baby daemons being able to come in from reserves and assault, I've had the great luck of being able to use them to assault walkers and tie them up for multiple turns, saving the Rhino and its cargo. Now, for the use of the Zerker squads themselves. When it comes to these fools, I only ever use them when I am either forced to, or the benefit outweighs their deaths. Kharen has a special role herself. If the daemons have all been summoned and have done their job, it's her job to go out, engage, and die gloriously to buy the rest of the troops time to finish the game. Mind you, these are mainly for objective missions, in KP the game changes and I get to play that fun game where I have to look turns ahead to see if an action will get me in the lead.

These are just some random things that have come up while playing this army. My opinion on how strong Chaos is relative to the other armies is that it doesn't have the tools to compete. No fast attack options that work well, as well as the complete and utter lack of any form of psychic defense outside of Kharen's relative immunity to certain psychic effects. Compile this with how only the Plague Marines are a real deal for what you get, and Chaos is rather mono-colored for being able to deal with as many opponents as possible.

Now, I am currently working on a Tau army, the full complement of models should be in my possession at the end of this week. I also plan on starting Khador in Warmachine to play with another system. Come later this summer I'll also be posting on my Dwarves for Warhammer Fantasy. Hopefully they'll have a stronger position with a new core rules set.

So, yeah, I'll have more stuff to post on besides just how rules and arguments work.

See you, space cowboy

Ishamael

Professionalism in Wargaming

Heretic here again to talk to you all about etiquette and a professional attitude in our beloved hobby. If you haven't read this article, I suggest you take some time to do so. Goatboy is generally a pretty decent commentator on 40k and this article does not disappoint. His points about dice rolls and transparency in all aspects of gaming are good, but there is more to being a good player, in my opinion than that. Don't get me wrong, if you follow what Goatboy says and common courtesy, you will generally be a good person to play against.

What I see as professionalism isn't necessarily taking the game with the seriousness that you would your job, but having an attitude conducive to a good game. A player's conduct is under their control and only their control, so it is the core of what I view as an attitude conducive to a good game. In some areas, leniency is very helpful to conducting an enjoyable game. For instance if you and your opponent are not sure whether a vehicle or monstrous creature is half or more obscured for getting a cover save, either remember the provision in the Big Rule Book (BRB) for a 5+ save in case of disputes or simply give your opponent the benefit of the doubt. I've found that a lot of those "iffy" cover saves happen to fail, but the important part is producing a friendly atmosphere with your opponent. If you give them the benefit of one iffy call, they should reciprocate later, making what could be a hotly contested point, slowing the game and raising tempers, into a minor point where friendship was worth more than the game, as it should be.

When it comes to rules disputes, I will admit my tendency to be a rules lawyering ass. The rules are the foundation of the game and give it structure. Much like the lines on a football field, the rules say where one can act and where they cannot. The codices and BRB define these limitations in, admittedly sometimes obscure, language whose meaning is generally clear. Houserules are perfectly fine, if they are agreed to by both players before hand. Only bringing up houserules midway through the game to explain your action can leave your opponent feeling as if you are cheating. To avoid this perception I try to know what my codex says, but we can all mess up with our memories from time to time. Remember your own falability and be willing to look up the answers to any question your opponent has. Don't act like this inconveniences you, even if it does. Literacy in an army is always helpful as a player.

When an opponent makes a choice you think is an error, for instance firing a Strength 7 weapon at a Land Raider (AV 14), try to politely ask them if they are sure. We all make mistakes and we don't always see them. Discussing with your opponent why a choice may or may not be a good idea will slow down your game, but it will get both of you to think. If your opponent realizes their error and wants to take it back, in a casual game, I say let them, within reason. This may put you in a worse tactical situation, but it will put you in a better interpersonal situation. Your opponent should realize that you would have been fully within your rights to force them to adhere to their decision, but chose not to. In a tournament, I would not point out errors to my opponent until after the battle, but even then it is an opportunity to discuss your way of thinking, not for gloating.

The classical Greeks believed in a principle they called "Agon," from which we derive the word agony. For them it held a very different meaning; Agon was not suffering, but the struggle inherent in sporting and contests, generally at religious festivals. I love to play this game for the same reason I loved to wrestle: there is a definite sense of Agon on the field. One person on each side pits their mental faculties and luck against another, trying to see who is the better on that day. Winning is a good feeling, but I've never really liked the feeling of blasting an opponent off the table nearly as much as counting up the points at the end and seeing either a draw or a minuscule victory for either side. Neither side towers above the other, but each gave as good as they got and gave their best fight, even if it was not enough to win.

The willingness to struggle against an opponent, to help them and give them the benefit of the doubt are all signs of respect for your opponent and yourself. This is just a game we all play, but that does not mean that giving your best performance in your conduct, your tactical decisions and being willing to give some leeway for your opponent say that you respect them as an opponent and treat both yourself and your opponent as adults by acting in a professional manner.

Logic and Rules: Part 2

So I find myself putting off my readings for my USSR history class. Then I remember that I’ve left readers in the dust with my logic articles. Well, here we take off once more! If you remember, last time I went over the basic logic gates that construct arguments, as well as the basic methods by which to appraise those arguments. In hindsight, I forgot some definitions:

Valid- This means that it is impossible that we have all premises true and the conclusion is false.

Invalid- It is possible to have all premises true and the conclusion false.

Sound- An argument is valid and has every premise true. Please note that these are incredibly hard to find outside of mundane statements.

You probably need to refresh your memory, so here's the link to my last bout of insanity:

Moving on, we’ll start with the S-rules, which deal with basic inferring from the logic gates.

AND S-Rule:

If it is the case that you have two items linked by an AND symbol, then you can infer each part.

Banana and chocolate

(B*C)

B

#C

Please note, however, that if it is negated ~(B*C), then you cannot infer a thing.

OR S-rule:

If you have the negation of an OR statement, then you can infer the opposite of both.

Not-either banana or chocolate

~(BvC)

~B

#~C

In the case of a negation of the negation of an OR statement, you cannot infer anything.

IF-THEN S-rules:

If you have the negation of an IF-THEN statement, then you can infer the first part and deny the second. Please note the original definition of an IF-THEN “it is not the case that we have A true and B false.” This negation means that we do have A true and B false.

Not if banana, then chocolate

~(B>C)

B

#~C

As has been usual so far, if there is a positive IF-THEN, it is the case that we cannot infer anything.

These should be rather obvious in their usage, and you may find yourself using these rules to infer things about what another person is saying. Now, let us move on to the I-Rules, which are just referred to as the Inference rules, and while those last rules were technically inferring, they’re just called the Simplification rules.

AND I-rule:

If we have the negation of an AND gate, we can affirm one and deny the other.

It is NOT the case that we have A true AND B true

~(A*B)

A

#~B

Remember, if there is a denial of the first, we cannot infer anything.

OR I-rule:

If we have an OR statement, and deny one of the two premises, then we can affirm the other.

Chainsaw or shotgun

(CvS)

~S

#C

Remember that you can only infer when you have a denial of one of them. If one is affirmed, the other can be true or false…we don’t know!

IF-THEN I-rule:

So, we’re back to this complicated prick. This gate actually has two I-rules, so ‘ere we go!

If we have an IF-THEN statement, and affirm the first premise, then we can affirm the second.

If chainsaw then shotgun

(C>S)

C

#S

If we have an IF-THEN statement, and deny the second, then we can deny the first.

If chainsaw then shotgun

(C>S)

~S

#~C

So yeah, this one proves to still be quite wretched as a logic gate.

Now, I can certainly understand that all this is rather dry, so I’m going to shoot something out to the community: Give me a rules situation that you are having trouble with, and I will apply these principles to it to find meaning, and it will be in the next segment of this…not necessarily frequent series regarding Mr. Spock.

As always, shoot me an email at dominobi@gmail.com

I will be waiting to see what you guys have questions on!

Regards, Ishamael

Liturgies of Blood: Blood Angel Codex Review Part One

Now that the blood angels’ have been running on a real bound codex rather than a pdf for a while now I suppose I can go ahead and give a review of what has changed, both for the army and for the game itself.

First let’s look at the codex itself. As the Blood Angels are a space marine chapter we have nearly all the goodies of the vanilla space marine codex are here with a few exceptions such as the Legion of the Damned (apparently they don’t like Blood Angels, Dark Angels, or Templar), the Master of the Forge, the Thunderfire Cannon (and to those of you who would have used the cannon, I’m sorry both of you), Ironclad Dreadnought (they have been replaced with a cooler dreadnought anyway) and the generic Space Marine Chapter Master. Although the Chapter Master was pretty much a Captain with the addition of an orbital bombardment and we still have Captains (without the orbital, of course) who is down some bits of wargear and the option to make bikes troops. Other than that the squads have largely been copied and pasted into the new codex, but we are space marines so no surprise there.

“So what makes the new Blood Angels special?” you might say. Well, it’s all the new things that we have and different things that have carried over and our very own special characters (more on them in a bit). For instance we have our new special rules. The regular space marine rules are still present, while the ability the chose to fail leadership test is gone and has been replaced with new Blood Angel oriented rules (a pretty good trade really). Harkening back to the third edition codex (last time we had an actual codex we didn’t have to print off of a pdf) where all infantry (including jump infantry and bikes) had furious charge and a kind of ”half-rage” and the fourth edition pdf where only the death company had, or could get for that matter, furious charge is a rule that makes all infantry, jump infantry, bike, and dreadnoughts roll a die at the beginning of the game, after deployment, but before the first turn. Any rolls of 1 mean the squad has given in to the red thirst gain for fearless and furious charge (why this is on a 1 which typically means a failure I don’t know as it is pretty good). The other new army wide special rule is a rule for jump infantry (minus the Vanguard Vets for reasons probably known only to Matt Ward) that lets them reroll for reserves when coming in from deep strike and has them scatter less. This is a cool way of showing the BA’s expertise with jump packs and makes deep striking a much more appealing and deadly option.

Then we come to the new units. Assault Squads, while having been copied and pasted from the space marine codex are a Troops choice for the Blood Angels. It is definitely nice that they kept this as this is one of the core aspects that has come to define the BAs. Rhino based vehicles (rhinos, razorbacks, predators, Baal predators, whirlwinds, and vindicators) have also gotten an upgrade. All of them cost an additional a few more points and have the same possible upgrades, but are fast. Land Raiders can now deep strike, but that almost never works out well, so we’ll just ignore it. The Death Company are now a regular troops choice costing a few more points than a Assault Marine (jump packs cost additional and can get real expensive) and come with the ability to buy power weapons/fists (no more rending), have furious charge and FNP standard, and can never hold a point (‘cause they be craaaaaazy). Lemartes is now just an upgrade charcter for the death company. Death Company Dreadnoughts are now their own troops choice (as a vehicle they can’t hold a point though) and they same loadout as the Furioso dreadnoughts discussed below, but without the increased front armor, furious charge, fleet, rage, and a new rule which grants them immunity from shaken and stunned (just like the old Moriar from the 3rd edition).

For HQs the only new guy (other than the special characters) is the Reclusiarch, who is a slightly buffed up chaplain, the regular chaplain having been downgraded to an Elite choice. For Elites we have the Furioso Dreadnought, who more or less replaces the Ironclad with his increased front armor, the Sanguinary Guard, and the Sanguinary Priests. The Furioso comes with two Dreadnought close combat weapons, called Blood Fists, one having an underslung meltagun and the other a storm bolter. The biggest change is the option to replace the fists for Blood Talons, which wreak havoc on infantry by generating additional attacks that can also generate additional attacks and acting like lightning claws by allowing rerolls of failed To Wound rolls. The down side is the claws don’t give the strength increase like dreadnought close combat weapons, so no more anti tank punches. The Sanguinary Guard are terminators with wings without the invul save or the good weapons. They cost as much as a regular terminator, come in squads of five (no more, no less), have a regular marine stat line, artificer armor, storm bolters with an extra AP (mounted on their wrist) and two-handed master crafted power swords. Note that despite two-handing the swords they get no bonus out of it and essentially just lose an attack they could have from being dual-armed. They can, however, take the chapter banner and/or fancy new masks like Dante wears which make enemies they are assaulting pass a leadership or lose their weapon skill for the combat (still aren’t worth their points though). Last new addition to the Elite slot is my personal favorite, the Sanguinary Priest. These guys are fairly cheap for what they do (jump packs still cost extra though). They are independent characters, although three of them can fit in one elites slot. They have a pretty standard stat line (regular marines, but with one higher weapon skill), and no invul. What makes them rock though, is their Blood Chalices. These essentially turn even regular units into the Death Company without the downside of not being able to control them. Corbulo is now an upgrade character for these guys rather than an HQ and comes with an interesting rule that lets you reroll any one dice, regardless of what it is for, once per game as long as he is alive. For new Fast Attack we have the Baal Predator. Tanks in my Fast Attack? It is more likely than you think. These guys are predators that have the scout rule and come with either a twin-linked assault cannon or a flamestorm cannon (enough AP to kill space marine out of terminator armor and just enough strength to do it on a 2+). Useful for scounting in turn one, killing a few dudes and then soaking up fire while the rest of your army moves up. The only new Heavy Support is the Storm Raven, sort of the space marine answer to the Imperial Guard’s Valkryie . It is has the same armor as a drop pod, but can ignore the melta rule. It has high AP one-shot missiles, a twin-linked assault cannon, and a twin-linked heavy bolter (that can be changed to a twin-linked multi-melta for free). It is an assault vehicle (although if it moves flat out guys who get out may scatter, take dangerous terrain tests, and can’t assault) that can carry 12 models (no terminators, jump pack guys count as two models) AND a dreadnought. I just really like the idea of a dreadnought jump with a flying ship onto very surprised infantry.

That’s it for the new units of Blood Angels. Check out my upcoming article on the new and returning special characters for the Blood Angels, how these BA-dasses work, and how they stack up to everything else.