Blood Angels: Spess Mehreens +1? (Part One)

Some people on Twitter and I were having a rather engaging conversation the other week, regarding Blood Angels, with the prevailing belief being that they are simply better than Space Marines, as they get everything Marines do, and more besides.

Sadly, Twitter being Twitter, it's profoundly difficult to convey long and meaningful points, especially when directing said points to multiple personages - I think we were each naming 8 people by the end of the chat, and with only 140 characters to begin with...well, that's bad for trying to elaborate.

Since it was (largely) a consensus contrary to my own points, realistically the onus was no me to try and challenge the accepted version of things via a more practical medium, eg, my blog.

Looking Forwards...Wait, Haven't I Used That One?

SO, given my spectacular implosion at Salvation (the renamed Assault on Arkham: Spring Slaughter) last weekend, I doffed my thinking cap, and had a good once over the Blood Angel Codex.  Well, actually, I had a go over a couple of Codexes, but since I have a BA army 'ready' it's by far the most likely.

After thinking on what was and wasn't a failure in the list, or perhaps simply how it was employed, I ended up here:

Raptors List for Q-Con XIX

**********INCOMING MESSAGE**********

I, Epistolary Kelios, shall be taking the Raptors 3rd Company to the contested planet of Q-Con XIX in the hopes of vanquishing the Emperor's enemies and winning honour and renown for the Chapter upon the fields of battle. With the disposition and identity of the enemy unknown, Captain Orelius has suggested the following forces, from the 3rd and 6th companies present on Taros,are available immediately, or I can request different forces from the chapter armoury. What say you brothers? Is this force worthy of delivering the Emperor's Judgement upon the xenos and the heretic?

The Dust Has Settled...

Well, to be honest I've been home for hours and hours by this point.  But I just wasn't in the mood to throw up a blogpost just yet.

We Cannot Hope To Achieve Victory Through Strength of Arms!

Not for ourselves, no.  But we can give Frodo his chance!

So, after a quite magnificent start, if I do say so myself, I was leading the pack going into game three.  Two 19-1 wins, over another Blood Angels force and over Dark Eldar Venomspam (you should have SEEN how bad the table would have been if I'd not asked for more terrain to be placed...I'd have won in 2 turns...) saw me set up as the player to beat, for TO and entrant Jonny65.

Unfortunately, after a truly titanic clash, Jonny managed to destroy my last contesting Razor in turn 7 with Paladins in Assault, and the game went from a tie (think it would have been a very rare 10-10 actually, need to double-check...) to a decisisve 16-4 win for him.  Actually, that means it would probably have been 12-8.  I made a couple notable mistakes in the game, including forgetting to Smoke a Stunned Razor for the second consecutive game.  Irritating as hell, really.

I could put the loss down to inexperience (while I've played both Henchmen and Purifiers, I've never played a list that is terribly close to that one) but honestly that would be a disservice to us both.  Now, I can ascribe my loss more accurately to the inherent resilience of his list, and a couple of foolish errors, both in deployment, and in my opening moves.

Well, onwards and upwards, hopefully! Last two games starting soonish, so back to War!

The Board Is Set, The Pieces Are Moving...

We come to it at last...the great battle of our time...

SO, I woke up (a while ago actually...thanks alcohol...) knowing that today was the day, and that, yes, getting home at 4am or whatever godawful time it was last night/this morning was a serious error of judgement, despite having been a lot of fun at the time.

We Interrupt Our (Ir)Regularly Scheduled Programming...

I felt that bracketed part in the title was too accurate to leave out, despite perhaps stealing a bit of focus from the post with humour that I'm the only person who really enjoys...

I know I haven't replied to the comments below on other posts, and I meant to...I've just been so hard at work trying to finish my BA to at least the minimum for this Saturday, or avoiding my own blog to try and feel like the procrastination time I spend online is somehow more valuable making dozens of little comments (or, smallish essays as on Hulksmash's blog leading to this...)

Bloody Blood Angels of Bloody Blood.

So, continuing on from my thought process for Arkham's Spring Slaughter (or whatever it's called...) 1850 Tournament on Kirby's Blog, here's a list I'm contemplating...

Looking Forwards, Not Backwards, Sideways, not Forwards, and ever Twirling, Twirling, Twirling Towards Victory...

Well, as I may have mentioned previously (pretty sure I have, a couple times) I'm going to Arkham Gaming Centre to participate in another Tournament on the 19/20th of next month.  This gives me a little time to edit my list down from 2k to the 1850 I require...but I'm kinda stumped.

I want to retain the core of 3 AutoLas Predators, the 4 Las/Plas Razors with 2 Libbies and 2 Priests..but I can't field the 6 Speeders and the Flamerback I usually round it out with.

So, while I have a few ideas, I'm opening it up to suggestions from the Gallery... any ideas guys?

Know When You Have An Idea That Will Cost Several Monies But Would Be Great?

Sigh.

Sigh, sigh, sigh.

As I mentioned, I have a bunch of White Dwarf issues to atticise, including some as old as to be double figures, not even triple, and a bunch of 'Best of White Dwarf Articles' or 'Best of White Dwarf Scenarios' - ancient tomes the like of which is not seen today.

Armies In Focus: TKE'S Blood Angels Part Two - Elites

[Image from B+C]
For my Elite slots, I have opted for two Sanguinary Priests, each armed with a Power Weapon instead of the default Chainsword, and retaining their Bolt Pistol.

Armies In Focus: TKE'S Blood Angels; HQ

Welcome to part two.
This one will be relatively short - the HQ Choices in my list pretty much explain themselves.
If you have any questions, please add them in the comments.

Armies In Focus: My Blood Angels (2k) Part One - The List

This is the beginning of a series of articles to discuss various army lists that I (and hopefully others) field, and why certain choices were made in favour of certain others, what I aim to do with x, y and z units, etc etc.

To begin with, I shall breakdown the army list itself:

Stop Playing The Game Wrong ; AKA Why I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Combat Squads (Actually, I Loved Them Before...)

I have seen mention of how the Combat Squads rule, and the Reserves Mission Special Rule interact aplenty recently.  In fact, you could even say I've seen it brought up TOO MUCH...mostly, because most of the opinions, comments, and 'facts' I have seen regarding the issue are wrong, lies, or stupidity masquerading as intelligence.

Just looking for some feedback...

For those of you who don't follow me on Twitter (@TheKingElessar, and why the hell not??) this will be new, but I spent a good 10 mins or so yesterday writing a Blood Angel Drop Pod list, because for some unknown reason the idea came into my head, and I figured being late for work was well worth scratching that itch.

Not Another Counts-As Article

From Eternity of War

Oh no! What’s this? Another opinionated fool trying to convince people on one of 40k’s most contentious issues?

*Cut to two small children nodding (one is holding a chocolate-covered teddy bear wearing a red paper hat)*

Hey it’s Widthofacircle here again, TKE asked me to write another article or two to help keep his blog afloat during his holidays and I obliged because I’m nice.

So...what have I missed?

Haven't even been reading any other blogs for a while now, so what's going down? Warseer still full of arrogant idiotic pricks passing themselves off as competent players? Kirby still adding authors? Brent still pleasing anyone with a prefrontal cortex, but irritating the Great Unwashed? (Has a phrase ever more aptly described the type of gamer we dislike? lol) Stelek still pissing off...well...everyone? :p

Missile Spam, Codex Creep, and False Comparisons; Part One - Who gets most toys?

First, let's define Codex Creep.

Codex Creep (noun)
A process by which successive releases of Codexes (40k) or Army Books (WFB) released by Games Workshop invalidate, through enhanced power level, not only their direct predecessor (ie, namesake) but by extension other similar Codexes - as defined by fluff, affiliation, playstyle, art design, or even sometimes just by the loose connection of being in the same game system (ie, the 'Most P0werful Book Eva'.) A good example would be a new version of Codex: Space Marines, which is inherently superior to Codex: Space Wolves, Codex: Black Templars, Codex: Dark Angels, Codex: Blood Angels, Codex: Chaos Space Marines and Codex: Grey Knights (admittedly a recent addition to the list proper...)

This new book would need to present most if not all of the unit and build options in the others, whilst being cheaper/better/more synergistic - and overall objectively more powerful.  Typically found in 2nd and 3rd Edition 40k to a limited extent, or 5e, 6e and 7e Warhammer Fantasy Battle to a great extent (and 4e 40k to a medium extent) it involves simply being better than previous books.  A prerequisite of this is, however, that every book (or nearly every) is superior.

Couple Games Today, and A News Flash

Had a couple games today, with a BA list I threw together this morning of varied Space Marines, a mix of actual BA, Zerks, PMs, regular CSM, and a few Scythes tanks.

Just didn't wanna play Chaos, tbh - my Eldar need new Prisms before I de-mothball them, and Orks...well.  My Speeders and Riflemen are on holiday, so no fun vanilla army available, and I haven't enough ML guys built to act as Fangs.

Totally Fluffy: Word Bearer List

Well, there was a bit of discussion on 3++ t'other day about Counts As (when isn't there?!?) and I believe I brought up Word Bearers (someone did, probably me - very much the kind of thing I would do...) in regard to making them from the Blood Angel Codex.