Battle Brothers Updated

Go ahead and check out the Battle Brothers links on the sidebar, especially for podcasts to check out.

Captain Option

Beer, Bolters and 40K (FB, Podomatic, Twitter)  had a nice catch on their podcast. The captain is allowed to take two weapons in addition to the storm shield like in the Space Wolves codex.

Rapid Fire

Before being able to move beyond on the Sternguard, the Rapid Fire section of the 6th Edition rulebook needs to examined. How often do Blood Angels even rapid fire anyway?

Credit

Let's go right to the source Warhammer 40,000:

Let's review what this means for your Sternguard, 1st Company Veteran Heroes of the Imperium. 

1. You can move, and then you can still shoot up to the maximum range of the weapon.

2. If your unit is divided between ranges, you just measure to see who can still Rapid Fire.

3. Vengeance Rounds will Rapid Fire at only 9", while Kraken bolts can reach 15" to Rapid Fire.

4. If you shoot with a Rapid Fire weapon, you may not assault.

5. If you want to assault, you need to use your standard issue bolt pistols, upgraded pistols or

    assault weapons like meltaguns. 

Insanguination

Let's have a look at Insanguination - or is that Exsanguination?

The 2nd Ed. Codex: Angels of Death (Rick Priestly & Jervis Johnson) gives the first look at this:

All Space Marine Chapters use gene-seed to trigger and control the processes that transform an ordinary mortal into a Space Marine. The gene-seed is encoded with all the information needed to reshape ordinary cell clusters into the special organs Space Marines possess, and it contains viral machines which rebuild the body to the template contained within the gene-seed. However, from the beginning there was no set way to activate the gene-seed.

Indeed, at the time when the Chapters of the First Founding were created, the process was still highly experimental and many different ways of controlling and managing the change were tried. This led to the Space Wolves using the ritual known as Blooding, the Imperial Fists using the process known as the Hand of Faith and the Blood Angels using Insanguination.

The Process was originally triggered by injecting the Aspirants with tiny samples of their Primarch's own blood. This practice of course ended with the death of Sanguinius. However, some of his blood was kept and preserved in the Red Grail. The living blood could not be kept this way for long and it was injected into the veins of the Sanguinary Priests. In this way they became living hosts to the power of Sanguinius. To this day, drinking the collected blood of the assembled Sanguinary Priests fromt the Red Grail is part of the ritual of creation of all Blood Angels Priests.

Looking at Adeptus Astartes for the Blood Angels by Phil Kelly, he adds numerous details to the history of the Blood Angels:

At the time when the First Founding Chapters were created, the Emperor himself oversaw the process of transferring gene-seed from Primarch to Space Marine. However, since the Emperor's interment in the Golden Throne, each Chapter has had a different method of controlling and managing the change. The Blood Angels originally practised Exsanguination, a process initially triggered by injecting aspirants with tiny samples of the Primarch's blood. Alas, this process ground to a halt after Sanguinius's death, but fortuitously some of his blood was kept in the relic known as the Red Grail. This living blood, even possessed of such incredible power, could not last for long in an unprotected state. Thus it was that the vitae of their dead Primarch was injected into the veins of the Sanguinary Priests. They became living hosts to the power of their Primarch. Even today, drinking the blood of the assembled Sanguinary Priests from the Red Grail is part of the ritual used in inducting new Blood Angels Priests. In turn, it is from these custodians of the pure lineage that the blood given to aspirants is taken.

The Phil Kelly fluff doesn't actually use the word Insanguination. It describes what happens to new Blood Angels recruits but doesn't use the word. The Priestly and Johnson fluff use Insanguination to denote all ways of the BA gene-seed being activated, while the Kelly fluff only uses Exsanguination to denote the activation of BA gene-seed taken directly from Sanguinius.

Movement and Shooting Quiz for 6th

Link Here

Thor is doing some nice work on this, so visit his site and make sure you know the basics.

R-H-1-N-0 Schematics

You can get a look at the Rhino's engine from Imperial Armour 2. Of course, the Blood Angels have turbo-charged engines, and I have no idea how they would look or be modified in detail. Knowing the ins and outs of your vehicle is more important than ever because of the way line of sight works in 6th Edition.

Sanguinius' Honour Restored

Han Solo shot Sanguinius attacked first.

5th Ed. Codex: Blood Angels:

Thus rejected, Horus flew into a rage and attacked. Even at the peak of his powers Sanguinius could not have hoped to prevail against the monster Horus had become, and the Primarch was weary and wounded from his travails on Terra.

2nd Ed. Codex: Angels of Death:

While he was still alone he chanced upon Horus and, although he knew it would almost certainly spell his doom, he immediately attacked the Warmaster. But Sanguinius was no match for Horus at the height of his daemon-provided power, and was slain by the Warmaster with contemptuous ease.

Wound Allocation and Rules Quiz

Wound Allocation for Dummies

The chart seems like it never ends!

Rules Quiz

Five Questions to get you started on 6th Edition.

Horus' Offer

In examining the 2nd Edition Codex: Angels of Death, we are looking for differences to enjoy.

In the 5th Ed. codex, it reads, "In evil cunning, the Warmaster offered Sanguinius one final chance to renounce the Emperor, to join with Horus' inevitable victory - yet the Primarch of the Blood Angels held true, and refused."

In the 2nd Ed. codex, we instead are treated to, "Although Horus  offered him a throne by his side and the pick of human worlds to rule, Sanguinius refused, even though he knew such a refusal would seal his own doom."

Let's actually examine this:

Horus:
The Emperor is on his way and I am about to win. Sanguinius is here, let's offer him something that is a pittance compared to being the undisputed ruler of the universe. His additional help will make sure I can defeat the Emperor. Horus has nothing to lose by making an offer, essentially. Horus has a lot to gain if Sanguinius would turn to the forces of Chaos.

Sanguinius:
Does Sanguinius not already have a privileged place as one of the primarchs at the side of the Emperor? Does he not already have a homeworld with two moons also? However, with his prescience it really is a question of life in heresy or death in honour. Could it also have been a gamble that he could hold off Horus long enough for the Emperor to enter Horus' sanctum to prevent his death? The 5th Ed. version has the Emperor immediately arriving after Sanguinius' death. The 2nd leaves no mention of how long it took the Emperor to arrive.

Knowing that the Emperor is on board the ship with you would have to be incredibly fortifying and encouraging before the biggest test of your life, I would have to say that Horus should have given a much improved offer to provide a greater temptation. The great Warmaster and tactical genius failed at the most critical time twice and ended up paying for it. Of course, letting his shields down was a failure made from personal character. Not swaying Sanguinius to his side shows his limitations.

Blood Angels - 2nd Edition

For all newer Blood Angels players, you may have an interest in seeing what has come before. There are numerous resources which shouldn't be missed out on because the materials are basically unobtainable.

Just look at that Chaplain! "Behold my awesomeness!"

A lot of the fluff has been recycled over the codices, so we won't need to cover that- you've read the BA 5th Ed. Codex cover-to-cover and lovingly pored over and over the army building section figuring out how you want to arm and model your units. Instead, we are going to examine differences and small pieces of interesting information from the past.

Moving Units Directly Toward s.

The B & C had a primer on how to move your units in 5th Ed. for the Rage rule. All you had to do was move the front models to stretch to the maximum of your movement to satisify this.

The 6th Ed. BRB Page 4:

It's interesting that it still uses the word unit, but this time the meaning is much clearer than the Rage rule from 5th Ed.:

Units must always move as fast as possible towards the closest visible enemy.

Of course, the Rage rule is completely different now.

3++ Takes on Wound Allocation

Here

Finished reading it? Good. It seems like it would really speed up rolling, but removing the models all at once will be somewhat anticlimactic, I think. You already know they are being removed, you now just need to pick over the corpses- which is fine for Tyranids. I enjoy the "Will the marine shrug off this shot?" tension. I hate just removing models when they are instantly killed or have no save. It's harder to picture in my mind "the cinematic" (in 5th Ed.) when I'm just calculating who is coming off the board.

I'm definitely going to try both types (the rule book and 3++ speed rolling) and then see how I feel about it.

Sending a Letter to Games Workshop

Well, I figure it's time to write my first letter to Games Workshop. With all of the confusion to the weapon profiles, I thought it was a perfect excuses to do so!

Blood Angels' Fluff

Please comment on your favorite pieces of Blood Angels' fluff that you want to share or tell new players about (and where it's from). You can also comment on what you want to know more about the Blood Angels and maybe someone can help you.

Favorite BA fluff:
It's definitely Death Company. "The warriors of the Death Company seek only one thing - death in battle - and they are sent forth to their final fight with great honour."

I find it very interesting to see how part of your marine force is just set aside in very stark color contrast to the red of your force (excepting successor chapters that may vary color schemes).

From the 5th Ed. Codex: Blood Angels

Those few members of the Death Company that survive the battle perish shortly afterwards, either of their fearsome wounds or through the mercy of the Redeemer of the Lost, whose duty it is to end their suffering. It is better this way, for those who do survive almost always fall victim to the Red Thirst, turning into creatures no better than wild beasts craving flesh and blood. Better by far to die cleanly and quickly than to suffer such ignoble fate...

BA fluff I want to know more about:

What type of symbols or iconography and styles they use on their communications or internal documents?

Image from: Dragonrealm

Ceremony of Commissioning

Let's examine Imperial Armour to see what happens to a rhino. According to the Lexicanum, Rhinos were called RH-1-N-0.  It is a Standard Template Construction (STC) vehicle. It's armour is made from bonded ceramite over plasteel. The current engines are four thermic combustor reactor engines.

From Imperial Armour:

There are many rituals surrounding the construction, maintenance and use of Rhinos. They must be cared for using the correct liturgies of maintenance, divined from the runes of engineering and the Machine-Spirit must be blessed to protect both the vehicle and its occupants in battle.

When armoured panels are made, they are inscribed with protective sigils:

The Techmarine builder calls upon the Spirit of the Machine God to invest the Rhino with power. Three- times the Runes of Activation are hammered onto the engine block; the engine is fired as the third blow is struck. If it roars into life first time then it is a good omen, the vehicle will live a long and useful life.

We all know the importance of naming your vehicle:

The final blessing is the Naming Ritual. A new vehicle must have a battle name worthy of the Chapter's great history. This name is recorded, and some Chapters choose to paint or engrave it onto the Rhino.