Video Content

Flashgitz made some Space Hulk videos, and they're a little old but new to me.

Prescience with Blood Angels

Generally, the Blood Angel psychic powers are good enough to set aside the main rule book powers. The biggest concern is reliability in order for the power to complement your army list design.

The BA book powers have some of the best that were created in 5th edition. Shield of Sanguinius is no longer as good with the reduced requirements for cover. Blood Lance is really a glorified melta shot which is not as good as it was with vehicle rules changes. The Sanguine Sword and Unleash Rage also feel underwhelming with the decrease in value of assault in 6th edition.

6th edition is more of a shooting game now. Prescience has been well recognized as one of the best powers in the rule book due to its reliability and effectiveness:

Primaris Power
Prescience is a blessing that targets a single friendly unit within 12". Whilst the power is in effect, the target unit can re-roll all failed To Hit rolls.

The important thing is to look back at Blessings:

Blessings are manifested at the start of the Psyker's Movement phase. They grant extra abilities to the Psyker's allies, such as characteristic boosts or additional special rules. Blessings can affect units that are locked in close combat and can affect the Psyker himself. ...

How can this power do the most work for your army? It's probably best to not upgrade your Librarian to an Epistolary as that is half the cost for an additional Librarian. The To Hit roll is generally the biggest limiting factor to damage output (the first step and only 66% chance).

What you are going to do is have your Librarian in Rhino / Razorback deployed within 12" of your Devastators. You want to cast it Turn One on them to maximize your chances of putting damage onto your opponent.

You have some flexibility about your approach for what comes next. You can use Sternguard or Death Company (without Chaplain) and go with five and a razorback with Heavy Bolter or Heavy Flamer or a larger squad and a Rhino. Then you can zoom ahead still on Turn One. Do not leave them unsupported or they will die as usual.

You will then apply battlefield tactics like you can see on YTTH to maximize your firing and cover potential. Those re-roll hits will be maximized with those two units as you will pretty much always be shooting with them both and probably end up in hand-to-hand with two attacks. It's best to not waste points on Sternguard power weapons, just have them shoot and move back which will be hard because you want them rapid firing. Remember, you will get re-roll Overwatch Rapid Fire Snap Shots too.

Last, do not forget about your Rhino / Razorback after disembarking. It still can fill useful battlefield roles. Additionally, do not forget that you can give the Prescience blessing to a unit that you are not in, and that unit could already be locked in combat to give them some help.

This could work just as well if you are running a bike squad, just put your Librarian on a bike too. You could also do this with Sanguinary Guard, especially if they are troops too.

You can always double this up with a second Librarian to further harass your opponent.

Using Prescience for your army might be a refreshing way to play your Blood Angels army.

Stelek and YTTH Community on Rhinos

Go read his Community Quiz: Why do YOU bring Rhinos? and the comment section at yesthetruthhurts.

Let's adapt this for our Blood Angels armies with Rhinos and where applicable Razorbacks too. If you missed the earlier post on Rhino Schematics click away.

Credit

Let's visit the Rule Book FAQ (1.0a) on Page 5:

Q: If a unit disembarks from a destroyed vehicle during the enemy turn, can it Charge in the Assault phase of its own turn? (p80)
A: No, unless the vehicle in question was an Assault Vehicle.

6th Edition Rule Book page 80:
•Wrecked. The passengers must immediately disembark in the usual manner (see page 79), save that they must end their move wholly within 3" rather than 6". If, even by performing an emergency disembarkation, some models are unable to disembark then any models that cannot disembark are removed as casualties. This does not prevent the rest of the unit from disembarking, The unit must then take a pinning test. After this, the vehicle becomes a wreck.

•Explodes! The unit suffers a number of Strength 4, AP- hits equal to the number of models embarked. Resolve these as for shooting hits, except that the controlling player allocates any Wounds caused. Surviving passengers are placed where the vehicle used to be; any models that cannot be placed are removed as casualties. The unit then takes a Pinning test.

Here's a video for some of these ideas in action. Go ahead and click on it.

Let's cover the other ideas (numbers converted for Blood Angels) covered in the comments too.
1. You can get your models 24" closer to the enemy.
2. Provide line of sight blocking terrain.
3. Clog firing lanes for your opponents.
4. Bait assault units to assault the wrong units.
5. To take the middle of the field.
6. Cause psychological stress in your opponent so they have to think about dealing with
    them.
7. Mobile bunker with two firing points for special / heavy weapons.
8. An additional layer of defense for a small cost.
9. You can Combat Squad from them.
10. After delivering their troop payload, they can keep moving to create blocking to
     opponent charges (and the aforementioned shooting).
11. Rhinos turn into terrain after getting wrecked.
12. Let's you put melta threats midfield to zone enemy vehicles, especially high AV.
13. Mobile cover.
14. To take away shooting from troop choices and screen units behind them.
15. Use them as movement blockers. One or two sideways Rhino chassis can really take
      a lot of movement off other units.
16. Park them right in front of a shooty squad and essentially negate their shooting.
17. Force Anti-Tank fire away from expensive stuff.
18. To have a chance to reach a distant objective.
19. Lighting up enemies in Night Fight.
20. If destroyed, allows you to move in the enemies shooting phase.
21. Assault protection: if the Rhino explodes, you can move up to 3" to crowd at the rear
      of the crater and force a difficult terrain roll in the assault phase.

Let's just leave Stelek's comments to stand for themselves:

Why do *I* bring Rhinos, you wonder? I bring them for many of the reasons given.

Notably, I play them about the same as I used to in 5th.

You’ve read the rapid fire and disembark rules, right?

What did everyone give their ground troops? Plasma guns?

Please tell me how exactly you are firing your plasma guns and charging me.

I’ll give it to you plain and simple, so you really understand why you bring mech.

In most CCGs, there is always a way you can gain a phase for yourself.

Lowinor is the only one I noticed mentioning the free move after you blow up my ride. Oh no, I can’t charge with my…rapid fire weapon equipped unit.

Gee. I can’t anyway. This is an inherent bonus in the rules system for Marines. You get this bonus for free, you know.

So we can see I can generate an extra phase for myself (movement). This is really nice to have when the other guy just rapid fired his plasmaguns to kill my Rhino, guess his guys standing in the open can’t charge me after all, so who cares?

Well, I can always let another squad disembark and fire on said squad, then embark on that other squads Rhino (especially nice if I’m stuck and unable to do anything but snap shot) and then run forward 12″ (if I want to snap shot).

Now think about what I just did. I not only gained a phase for myself, I denied a phase for my opponent (his CC phase, since he cannot charge me).

This might not seem like much, but the +1/-1 adds up over time. You have to LET your opponent make those choices, and then capitalize on them, but if you set up the bowling pins…eventually, the other guy IS going to knock some of them down. That’s where you come in.

Techmarines [Tactical Exploration]

Welcome to the first [Tactical Exploration]. I would like this to be wide open to new ideas on how to use different units even if they aren't utilized heavily at the moment.

Let's explore the Blood Angel Techmarines together. They are definitely an underused unit on the table because of points cost, Elite slot competition, unusual army role, amount of utility versus an enemy may be somewhat unpredictable, etc.

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Stats: The Techmarine has the standard Marine line except he has a 2+ save.
Special Rules: They are not independent characters. Although you can run Servitors (without mind-lock) with them. Bolster Defences actually got better considering that cover saves have generally been lightened. Blessing of the Omnissiah is basically the reason for a Techmarine's battlefield existence.
Wargear:  Servo-arm- this allows you to fix your vehicles on a 5+ roll. You need to be in base contact and roll to fix during the shooting phase. If fixing a weapon destroyed, it will be able to fire immediately. The Servo-arm allows you an extra close combat attack at Strength 8 Initiative 1 but ignores Armour Saves. That's pretty valuable in a challenge. If you have a servo-harness, you can fix a vehicle on a 4+ roll, get two Servo-arm attacks, and a twin-linked plasma pistol and a flamer that can both be fired in the same shooting phase.

From the Blood Angels FAQ:
“Blessing of the Omnissiah: In each of your Shooting phases,
instead of firing his weapons, a Techmarine may choose to
repair a single friendly vehicle that he is in base contact with or
embarked upon."

Q: Can a Techmarine that is in base contact with multiple damaged vehicles attempt to repair them all?
A: No. A Techmarine can only ever make one repair attempt per turn.
If you want your Techmarine to be effective, you have to get those repair rolls chances in your favor.

On the whole, the new edition is friendly to the Blood Angels' version of the Techmarine. He has a nice 2+ save and his shooting repairs are now enacted immediately. The Servo-harness is a nice upgrade although that needs to be balanced by only having one wound.

If you take the Servo-harness, you might as well take a plain Servitor or two as an ablative wound and to help fulfill its main function of battlefield mechanic. Fulfilling this role will require a lot of movement, so despite  the increase in power of the Plasma Cannon, it will still be hard to actually get shots off and it can't fire snap shots either. However, you shouldn't receive too much early fire from your opponent as your Techmarine will be lower on their target priority which will allow you to get premium positioning. Use this to your advantage. Remember, the Techmarine doesn't have the option of taking a dedicated transport, so they will have to borrow one. You'll have to think about how he will get around. Will it be on foot or will it be an assault squad razorback with twin-linked assault cannons or maybe twin-linked lascannon?

Your other main choice is then for your Techmarine to become like a Devastator squad. In this instance leave your Techmarine minimally armed to just absorb wounds and load up your servitors with Plasma Cannons to drop tons of damage on your opponent. This unit will serve as a distraction to your opponent because between two and four plasma cannon shots a turn will be hard to ignore. If you want to play more defensively, make sure they have a nice firing lane to where you think the enemy will be advancing into mid-field. If they make it there, they will pay for taking the advantage dearly.

What about unusual choices?
Landraiders- Well you could pack them inside of one, but it would make more sense to follow it in a razorback so you can keep your assaulty units tucked away inside of it instead. You can jump out and still get in base to base to fix it and then embark onto it after. If you have two Land's Raiders then you may want to dump them in quickly and let them zoom ahead first drawing fire.

Techmarine in a razorback with Death Company within a following razorback would be a major distraction to your opponent and allow a greater chance of getting to enemy lines.

Please add any great ideas you've used or seen for Techmarines in the comments.

Stelek Drops New R-H-1-N-0 Tactica

Link Here

Stelek has imparted a few ways to run your Rhino squad. Let's examine:

He says you can use it with Tactical squads or Assault squads. These will be ten man squads that are already made into combat squads (before deployment) yet are using the same transport.

Plasma Variant - Stelek has the Sergeant utilizing the Gunslinger rule taking two plasma pistols and meltabombs leading one combat squad. The other combat squad keeps both special weapons (plasmaguns). His intention is to use these to target opposing Rhinos or Dreadnoughts.

Melta / Plasma Variant - This will replace the plasmaguns with meltaguns and the rest remains the same.

Stelek concludes that plasma pistols are to be used over infernus pistols due to the increased range. Infernus pistols are more suitable for Assault squad jumpers.

Stelek on Jump Pack BA

Jump Away

Should you be arming your Sergeant with two melta pistols?

Stelek Tactics for Heavy Weapons

Devastators
Link