Friday, September 21, 2012

The Blood Angels Captain

After creating the useful Captain in the Space Marines codex, Mat Ward took most of the useful upgrades away from the Blood Angels Captain. This included increasing the points cost of the Storm Shield, no Relic Blade, no Artificer armour and doesn't make marine bikes scoring if the Captain has one. This is a significant downgrade of the Captain and doesn't make him very useful to lead your army. This is important because there isn't much customization available on the other characters or none at all. I don't think opponents want to see only Librarians, Dante or Mephiston across from them every time they play Blood Angels.


Credit: Angels of Death codex

He has the standard statline: WS6  BS5  W3  I5  A3 and a 3+ 4++ save.

He doesn't really have that much going for him with the amount of powerful characters in the game.

Mr. Black:

I did an entire article on the Odd Man Out himself the Blood Angels Captain, and how he really doesn't have a true place in the codex. I really did hope for 6th to change that, and while it certainly helped him, it also made him even further overshadowed by his Codex: Space Marine brethren.

When we look at the Blood Angels Captain we see that he can't take any fancy Relic Blades, no Artificer Armor, just knockoffs of that gear... And then we look at the Reclusiarch and he is just overshadowed completely. Hell, even now Tycho is overshadowing him! But that is not to say he does not have his merits... You can put him on a Bike, give him a Power Fist and Storm Shield and have him go hunting Characters (except Codex: Space Marines does it better). You can center him in with some Honor Guard and give the unit a bigger punch (except a Reclusiarch does it better). You can just ignore him and take a Space Marine Captain and a unit of Sniper Scouts and get Bikes as Troops or a 2+/3++ Relic Blade.... And... ...Hell, that's just better, isn't it?

I really feel bad here, I like Captains, I do, but our Blood Angel's ones just fall short of what they could be... And it's just a few small wargear complaints really, but its ones that our Codex: Space Marine brothers don't have and thus, don't have to deal with. Sadly, I feel that while the Captain did get better this edition, another rule (allies) completely mitigates those facts and sends him right back into obscurity.


Stelek:
Captains. +1 WS and init and attack really isn’t worth losing access to psychic powers.

3++:
-Captains still lolbad. Worse off than other Captains due to having no access to 2+ saves.

BA Devastators:
I think the best use of a Captain is if you want to be able to insert yourself into the game as the leader of your force. Maybe you want to have that jump pack and dual Lightning Claws or maybe hard hitting Thunker Hammer. However, why not do that as a Sergeant instead or as part of the Honour Guard or Sanguinary Guard- even Death Company.

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