Blood Angels Popularity

I was quite taken aback when I saw the finished poll from 3++

Credit: 3++ Armies Played Poll Analysis



There we are, #4 on that list. However, Space Marines is the catch-all beginning player army that represents more chapters than any other codex generally. I am quite surprised to see Eldar doing so strongly, but that may be due to 4th Edition popularity and people didn't want to part with their lovingly painted models. The Blood Angels' twin from second edition, Dark Angels, are far behind in popularity yet may shoot up again once their new codex drops shortly and through new players buying the starter pack (well played, GW). I'm not going to lie and say I'm not shocked to see Tau ahead of Orks, but maybe Ork players are more dedicated to them and play them more as a main army.

I've read before that the Blood Angels are the most popular single chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. Having a red army helps, but I think there is something about having Assault Squads as troops and Death Company that really drives interest in this chapter along with a focus on close combat. We can all imagine hurtling ourselves through the air with our jump packs to come crashing down with Thunder Hammer to smash our opponent or Lightning Claws to rip them to shreds. Every army needs some fire support though, and Devastators are an excellent choice to neutralize threats. Jumpers and Devastators make a fun combination to play on the table and interesting to customize and paint.

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.

Gabriel Seth

Gabriel Seth is definitely one of the over-looked named characters in the Blood Angels codex. Even though this is the first time he's been someone you can take, being part of the Flesh Tearers instead of just the more generic Blood Angels really hurts him seeing the table more often. He doesn't seem to have a place that fits in a way with the rest of the army unless it's a Flesh Tearers dedicated one. GW has continued support for the Flesh Tearers with even their shoulder pads going into Finecast as opposed to oblivion. Maybe the Flesh Tearers are more popular in England, hence the continued commitment to them. For the next codex, I would like to see more moderate yet somewhat unique characters like Seth to be able to take rather than 250 point characters. Characters like Seth are good for the game in that they can be torrented down, he can shoot, but is stronger in hand-to-hand, so he has some strengths and weaknesses but not extreme. I would just like to see more options like being able to take a jump pack or upgrade his weapons or change to Artificer armour, etc.

The Flesh Tearers are not of Baal origin. Their home planet is Cretacia.

Photo Credit 

Let's get to his statline- WS6  T4  W4  I5  A4 and a 3+ 4++ save. While ferocious instincts is of limited use, the Whirlwind of Gore is a nice choice to have against vehicles and tough to hurt characters for a more modest point cost of 160 versus 250+ for some of the other big stick named characters. 

Mr. Black:

Mmm, I really didn't want to talk about Seth, but I suppose if I make an all-inclusive list I have to, don't I? I've never really liked Seth, and this edition didn't change that. Sure, it upped his survivability, as it did with every other character, but other than that he really didn't change much... Sure, his weapon now had a bit more of a bite against vehicles, but he shouldn't be focusing on those.... And to top that off there is still the matter of his Lash Out ability, which states that if an attack directed at him rolls a 1 he gets to strike back... ...Except now you never "direct attacks" at a character, except in a Challenge... So by current wording that ability took a hit as well. What else is there to say? I'm not a fan of this character and I think, for the points, you're better off going with a generic HQ or Tycho.

Is that review short? Yes, but you know what they say if you can't say anything nice about someone...

Stelek:

Seth. Whirlwind got nerfed due to pile-in moves. No, he can’t hurt flyers because he can’t assault them.


Sons of Sanguinius:

This guy has been basically unaffected by the new edition. However he has probably gone up in ranking among the characters in the codex. Strength 8 rending causing instant death to any toughness 4 or less I can see as being kind of a big deal, considering how hard 2+ saves are going to be to bypass. Definitely making people think twice about challenging him and allowing him to worry both characters and vehicles in combat. Still a very solid choice and relatively cheap to boot!


 3++ (updated link):

Seth still awful.

BA Devastators: With 6th and vehicles being able to be hit more easily in assault along with challenges, Seth is left looking on the outside until an update. At least he is somewhat unique for a marine character in his powers although not in his statline.

Blood Angels and the FAQ

It's disappointing, but it is expected. Blood Angels will pretty much have to get worse to get better (the next codex). Once the codex has a few years, it gets left behind in power and GW support and rulings. This is clearly one of those frustrating times where things go against your army.

BA FAQ Link
Dante and Astorath have now lost their initiative with their AP2 axes. Point adjustments aren't made through the FAQ's so your models may gain a fine layer of dust for a little while. At least there is no need for trying to figure out what they are fighting with along with the Sanguinary Guard. The other good news is that there is still model support coming out with somewhat fine cast models replacing some metal models:
New Releases Link
The Sanguinor
Sang Priest
Mephiston
Lemartes
Seth
Corbulo
Tycho
Vanguard Vet
BA shoulder pads
Sternguard equipment
meltaguns
plasmaguns
lightning claws
thunder hammers and storm shields

At least your army can look great, right? Corbulo and Lemartes would be nice additions to have, though.

Two-for-One Tycho

Captain Erasmus Tycho - Killed in Action

Well, that's the ending, but what about the beginning?

Credit

Thanks to older players, there is a thread here to go over what they remember.
Tycho is actually quite interesting as he seems to be a Captain that was named and he became a named character. His injury sustained and becoming part of the Death Company all became part of the story. Why can't this happen more?
Tycho's story background is here.
To summarize: Tycho was a captain, commander of the 3rd Company, suffered a wound that disfigured half of his face leading him much later to become part of the Death Company. He died on Armageddon. His weapon is also a combi-melta with special ammunition.

Although I'm combining the Tycho characters, their effectiveness is significantly different.

Captain Tycho has WS 6  BS 5  S 4  T 4  W 3  I 5  A 3 with 2+ 4++ saves. The toughness 4 hurts him quite a bit. His armour sheering Dead Man's Hand makes him intriguing in one way.

Death Company Tycho (with an extra WS and A) is improved under 6th Edition but suffers so much from still not being able to join a unit. However, he has a lot to offer a player looking for a fun game.

 Credit

Let's get the community's take on these characters.

Stelek:

Captain Tycho. Still costs too much. Dead Man’s Hand is nice, but you can get roughly the same for less that’s better.


Mr. Black:

First let's speak about Death Company Tycho: He will get hit by a Meltagun and die. End of story....

... ...Ok fine, not so cut and dry. Tycho gained a few benefits, namely from Rage and whatnot, but still suffers the same issue of being a single T: 4 character that cannot join units. Do I continue to hope one day an FAQ will say "HE CAN JOIN THE DEATH COMPANY!!"? Yes, I do. But until then he is just not worth taking.

Now Captain Tycho, on the other hand, just became a go-to choice this edition. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted the standard Blood Angels Captain to be better this edition, he just isn't, especially when I realized I could either ally in an actual Captain, or just take Tycho. Why is Tycho so much better now? Well the main point is that his weapon just straight up ignores Armor Saves- no Power Weapon classification here, just a weapon with a bitchen' name that shreds Terminator Armor. Combine that with the changes to Rapid Fire and his Special Issue Ammunition actually carries some terrifying weight- stick him with some Sternguard and you have a cover-all unit that is both capable in shooting and melee.

Of course we still have the old Rites of Battle, which is just as good now as it was before, and he still sports his 2+ save, which, as hammered into you time and time again in this article, is really important now. What else can I say? Before you really never saw Tycho being taken and now... Well, honestly the idea of allying in a Space Marine Captain if you really wanted to run a Captain is still probably better, given their options, but you at least have a decent option now if you want to keep the blood pure.

Sons of Sanguinius:

Now here's our big winner in all this. I'd say expect to see alot more of Tycho in 6th. Why? Well the combi melta with special issue ammo is great as you can use the special issue ammo to effectively pick out certain troops due to the way wound allocation now works. Big plus as it's much harder/impossible to "eat" wounds using wound allocation. 2+ save, check, Iron halo check. So he's pretty survivable and in challenges he's likely to swing as he's at initiative 5. So all good? And it only gets better. Rites of Battle is even more useful now as it means your squads can resist psychic powers at leadership 10. Now comes the game changer... The Dead Man's Hand. Not only does he have digital weapons giving a reroll to wound the hand isn't a power weapon. It just straight out ignores armour saves. Full stop. Fuck this AP3 bullshit Tycho doesn't give a fuck what you're wearing he's gonna pimp slap you into oblivion. Terminators, Artificer Armour whatever, invulnerables only. Terminators (which I think we'll be seeing more of soon) will be running scared of the awesomeness of Tycho.

3++:


Tycho got a relative boost in that his Dead Man's Hand strikes at initiative while "ignoring armour" instead of being given a fixed AP value.


BA Devastators:

Poor Death Company Tycho is barely mentioned. Hopefully the next round of FAQ's will help him out. If you want to do something different, you can try out using Captain Tycho with some Sternguard with a Chaplain for some re-roll fun and still have combat effectiveness or even bullet shield Corbulo.

How would you run Death Company Tycho? He can't jump pack, so he will need a R-H-1-N-0 or a Razorback unless you want to Deepstrike a Landraider for some extra excitement. Maybe a Drop Pod might work too. I would look to use him as either a distraction (maybe not very good) or as a mop up / counter attack choice like you would Assault Squads. I might even try him out as an assassin as he might work nicely if you can get him to your enemy's Warlord.

Mephiston by Community

This is a big one for Blood Angels players: Mephiston. It's a large points investment that will partially guide the kind of list you will bring.

Mephiston, Lord of Death, has been included in the Blood Angel codices from the beginning.

Mephiston has the problem of not being able to join units. However, he does have a plasma pistol and a force sword. His stat line is impressive- WS7  S6  T6  W5  I7  A4  and he has a 2+ save. Having power weapons weakened really hurts his effectiveness against AP2 enemies. Transfixing Gaze is nice for challenges now too. This might allow him to re-roll attempts to hit and attempts to wound.

Let's see what the community has to say:

Stelek:

Dante. Still overpriced, like all the rest.


Mr. Black:

Well, you stayed scary, didn't you? Mephiston has always been our go-to "Run! Run Away!" character, and now he's back and meaner than ever. You already know his state-line is just insane, but now even Plasma or Melta isn't going to stop him for sure, assuming he has a Priest around, of course. What other marine can you think of that can take a Meltagun to the face and just sneer it off and keep charging? No one, that's who! We also get the honor of having one of the few Mastery Level 3 Psykers in the game, which is always nice. 

On the note of Psychic Powers, however, I can see the merits in taking some of the other options, but for me keeping the three powers he has is just fine. I mean, we have Wings, which combined with Fleet means he is still super mobile, we have Sanguine Sword, so he still hits like a truck, and Unleash Rage so we know those truck-hands will land. Sure, there are other psychic combinations which could prove useful, but we're trading out a complete and whole package for the chance to do some nice tricks, and to me that's a waste. You want to have some mix-and-match fun? Take a standard Librarian.

I don't have much to say about Mephiston here aside from the fact that an already great Special Character was only made better by this edition. His rules mix in a near perfect way to weather any storm that this edition might bring (Wings and Fleet, for example). It seems he gained a whole lot of nifty buffs and tricks without losing anything that made him the scary figurehead he was before... Rock on, Mephiston, ain't no edition going to keep you down!

Sons of Sanguinius:

Well what can I say? Probably the most utilised special characters for blood angels in 5th if not of any army. The amount of lists that I saw without him were few and far between (or maybe that's cos Ven has a major hard on for him... lol) ahem anyway.. 6th seems to have changed things a bit.

Lets get on with it shall we?

So 2+ save is good especially in the new edition with PW being AP3.. Plasma Pistol at AP2 is definitely a bonus due to the likely prevalence in 2+ saves due to the above rule change. Now here's where things get.. iffy. Psychic hood straight away the effectiveness of this has dropped. No straight up shutdown and no long range.. 6" range and less effective at stopping psychic powers is not so great. but don't worry he's still a beast in combat and can fell all before him.. oh wait. No he can't. With the new rules his force sword is still only AP3. Ok great at killing marines. No in fact great at killing 1 marine at a time. Period. With the new challenge rules and Mephistons lack of joining units ability he can only kill one marine a turn in a challenge, and if the opposing sergeant happens to have a storm shield or is a special character with a 2+ save. Big Meph is now seriously struggling to layeth the smack down. A 10 man unit of marines will now hold him up for at least 4 Assault Phases if they pass their Morale checks!! Seriously reducing his impact on the overall game, and for 250pts probably not really such an auto include.

3++:
Our libbies got both boosted and nerfed all at the same time. Boosted in that opposing libbies can't stop our powers that help our own units (Shield, Wings, etc), nerfed because our hoods got nerfed too. Mephiston and Libby Dreads are much more reliable now. That said, fudgemuiffin Wolves and Eldar still have their great psy defence, so it's not all roses.


BA Devastators:

Well, if you are going to go with a big scary character, I suppose this is the one for you. If you take him, you better have a plan for him to stay alive for as long as possible. Otherwise, you have to look back at your list and weigh whether just taking a regular Librarian is the better choice.

The Sanguinor

The Sanguinor is up next. He is another character added starting in the 5th Ed. codex.
Everyone knows his main problem is that he cannot join any units, so playing with him presents unique challenges.
His statline is also something special for Space Marine players to toy with. WS8, S5, T4, W3, I6, A5, Ld 10 and a 2+ 3+ save. Importantly, he has the Eternal Warrior rule to save him from that toughness 4 stat. He gets to re-roll against an opponent HQ (Avenging Angel) which might be handy with the new missions. He also gets to soup up a sergeant which also may be helpful with challenges.

Let's get to the analysis!

Stelek:

Sanguinor. I love seeing the living Land Raider drop onto the tabletop. He is quite a bitch, but you shoot him he falls over same as the rest.


Mr. Black:

If anyone remained largely unchanged by the passing of millennia and gaming editions it was the Sanguinor. He's still the lovable T: 4-nearly-300 point figure he was, and I mean that for better or worse. So how did he change in 6th? Well, he has a 2+ save... Which is about it. Except now he can issue and receive challenges, which means he won't get bogged down by a torrent of attacks... Except any smart opponent will just refuse the challenge and then, well, bog him down with a torrent of attacks.

Again, for better or worse the Sanguinor remains largely the same as he did before. Nothing in this edition seems to have drastically changed him (though Overwatch did chink his armor slightly). So in the end he will continue to see the same use he did before, without much of a tactical revamp as some of the other character received.

Sons of Sanguinius:

Yeah we all know this guy was a bit meh in 5th and to be honest, he's only got worse in 6th. The glaive encarmine is now AP3 meaning the essence of sanguinius himself simply bounces off terminators... really. Yeah keep him for fun games but at 275pts don't expect him to be anything more than average. The only thing I can think of which is useful for him to do is buff your units and go around challenging characters with his 3++. But he's still nothing special.

3++:

Sanguinor even more of a bad joke now: easier to torrent away and his weapon is AP3.

BA Devastators:

If you are going to run him, you better figure out how to keep him safe until he can get into combat. You can't view him in isolation when you have a Mephiston of comparable points or cheap Librarians. Maybe by playing around with him you can develop a way to use him and drop a tactica.