Sandbag Gun Emplacement

A few months ago I had used some paper clay to make the base of these emplacements and then put on a base coat. I finally got around to touch ups and dry brushing. I primed and gave two base coats separately to the sandbags. I bought a non GW product where there were two sculpts that were quite similar. Next, I super glued the sandbags individually onto the base and then dry brushed them. The super glue hasn't been as good as I had hoped and will try something else if the bags break off. I don't have access to Gorrilla Glue so I will have to experiment a little. 

I know my terrain is not amazing but I feel that its quality is improving, so do not be discouraged from building your own. Your imagination and creativity can do a lot better than looking at the same flimsy terrain put out by GW. 

Terrain Variety with Rivers, Lakes and Pools [Tactical Exploration]

Sixth edition has opened up various new ways to explore the game. Let's get into the rule book about Rivers, Lakes and Pools terrain (Rule Book p. 103) and how we can increase the amount of variety and best utilize terrain to help your Blood Angels.

BA jumpers are already behind when rivers, lakes and pools are automatically at least difficult terrain which means dangerous for jump pack marines. You might as well insist that you use the Mysterious River Table because you might be able to squeeze some benefit from it.

D6 Roll
1- no change
2- loss of warp charge points and no Deny the Witch rolls
3- add the Feel No Pain rule but need to pass a leadership test to move or shoot
4- dangerous terrain, vehicles immobilized is automatically wrecked
5- 5+ cover save, going to ground is a dangerous gambit
6- dangerous terrain, re-roll failed armour saves

Essentially, there is no downside to using Mysterious Rivers when using jumpers. Mechanized lists have really little to gain, though. Think about getting some river terrain into your games to balance out with the buildings and blast craters; it might turn the battle in your favor.

Jumpers treat difficult terrain as dangerous terrain (Rule Book p.47). You have to roll a 1 to trigger it though  (Rule Book p.90). Then you still get armour saves and a Feel No Pain roll too. Dangerous Terrain is far less risky now. Remember, your jumpers can also land on impassable terrain if they physically fit and they treat it as dangerous terrain (Rule Book p.47). This may come in very handy for Deep Striking and jumping onto unusual terrain features, etc.

Credit

If anyone has great ideas or experiences, always add them in the comments to help Blood Angels players.

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.

Making a Blast Crater

                                     
Making your own blast crater is a nice project to get away from painting the minute details on your Blood Angels. Get yourself some paper clay that will dry itself and you are pretty much ready to go.

Open up your pack of paper clay and get shaping. Design how you want your crater or anything and let it dry. This may take a day or two or three depending on humidity.

Next, lightly mix some water with your acrylic paint and cover your crater.

The next step can by done in a myriad of ways but I prefer to just mix your main paint color for your crater (I used red brown here) with white glue and small gravel pieces with a sprinkling of sand too. This is "textured paint" for our purposes here.

Last, dry brush the colours you want. It's easy but just requires the patience to keep the right amount of paint on your brush. I did too many layers of dry brushing but it still didn't take that much longer. I used black, then grey, then white/grey/brown bone color, then red, then another layer of red and finally an orange red to make it pop more.

Terrain Variety with Mysterious Forests [Tactical Exploration]

Sixth edition has opened up various new ways to explore the game. Let's get into the rule book about terrain and how we can increase the amount of variety and best utilize terrain to help your Blood Angels.

First, play with a lot of varied terrain. Not just ruins, hills and empty craters. As a codex that has a general speed advantage, terrain variability will help out. Isn't terrain going to be equal for both sides is the first question you should ask? Of course, the principle is correct but Blood Angels will be able to avoid, bypass or just plow through it more easily than other armies.The over reliance on ruins gives undue advantage to armies like Space Wolves with maximum Long Fang units blasting from the tops of ruins and hiding Rhinos full of Grey Hunters waiting to counter attack.

Forests, Jungles and Woods (Rule Book p.102)

Dropping a Mysterious Forest onto the board is a good idea. Although it does not actually help your army as  a boost, it probably will have an increased negative effect on the army you are playing against- especially filthy Xenos ones. Blood Angels have their 3+ save but also Feel No Pain. This makes the dangers of forests more acceptable and may gain you additional tactical advantages if the enemy is hesitant to enter it or suffers penalties for passing through it.

Mysterious Forest Effects Summary
1- just difficult terrain
2- 3D6 leadership. If failed, a random squad member inflicts D6 automatic hits with his weapons
3- D3 automatic hits S5 AP- / vehicles use rear armour
4- 3+ cover saves
5- 2+ cover saves on grenades
6- 4+ on the difficult terrain test means D6 S3 AP- hits with Rending / vehicles use rear armour

Jumpers treat difficult terrain as dangerous terrain (Rule Book p.47). You have to roll a 1 to trigger it though  (Rule Book p.90). Then you still get armour saves and a Feel No Pain roll too. Dangerous Terrain is far less risky now. Remember, your jumpers can also land on impassable terrain if they physically fit and they treat it as dangerous terrain (Rule Book p.47). This may come in very handy for Deep Striking and jumping onto buildings, etc.

As the Blood Angels codex continues to age, you will need to become less risk averse in your games to gain tactical superiority. It could also blow up in your face but there is little choice against superior points effectiveness armies at times. This codex was never able to push Imperial Guard or Space Wolves aside for most competitive and now it is getting buried. Stick with your Blood Angels army and know it inside out and how to get the most out of the new rules. Tony Kopach did this with his Space Wolves for 5th Edition and you can become a better player too with a solid list, knowing your opponent's army and knowing what your Blood Angels army can do. Opponents will be seeing Blood Angels' armies with less frequency and will be glad to play you and will be less familiar with all of the changes the 6th Edition has caused to it.

Easy Terrain

Once you have some of your Blood Angels painted up, it's time to think about the terrain they will be playing on. The problem is that with all of the fantastic terrain and probably coming terrain, it is very hard to mix in scratch built stuff because it will not look right. One way to blend is to have two different scenes on the table like jungle transitioning into a ruined edge of a city from the main rule book.

I am going to show a bridge from the How to Make Wargames Terrain book.

The popsicle sticks are cut, aligned and then glued. We want the bridge to look more Imperial than the example though.

Final cuts and then paint them lightly with your favorite brown. Remember, you can make more cuts to show the effects of the ravages of total war or even collapse the middle of the bridge.

Super glue on the support legs and paint on details like mud. I stamped on the aquilla symbols. You can also use a lighter and create burn marks effectively to give the impression that a flamer was used previously. 

Last, remember to have fun making terrain pieces and if you don't like the results at first, try it again later or experiment on it with more damage so none of your efforts are wasted.