new blood angels codex

ContemptousAngel wrote:
If you were hoping to get a new 5th edition style dex that put the Blood Angels directly on top of the dog pile for a while, you didn't get that. If you were already hate raging on the interwebs about how horrible the codex was going to be, you didn't get that either. What I believe we got was a solid army list, in line with Codex: Adeptus Astartes and the rest of 7th edition's point costs, with a few oddities slipped in, and a great deal of hard choices to be made.
Creating an army with this list is like playing through the most gripping parts of Mass Effect. You are going to make a decision. that decision will change how your army plays more than how it costs. Except for Troop choices, the army list is extremely crowded in every force organization slot. Chaplains, which were the only good thing about 5th ed BA compared to 6th and 7th ed Astartes (much better for the points cost), are now HQ. So are Sanguinary Priests. So are Tech Marines. So are Captains (duh), and Librarians, and Librarian Dreadnoughts. That's a lot when you throw in Astorath, The Sanguinor, BOTH Tychos, Mephiston, and Brother Corbulo.
 
Then you've got Fast Attack. Gone are the days of Assault Squads as troops; they share this slot with Bikes, Scout Bikes, Razorbacks, Landspeeders, and Drop Pods.
 
Elites choices are Death Company, Death Company Dreadnoughts, Vanguard Veterans, Sternguard Veterans, Command Squad, Terminators and Assault Terminators, and Sanguiary Guard. That is A LOT.
Heavy Support- now, did you notice the lack of Baal Predators in the Fast Attack Section? Yeah. Me too. That pissed me off. They are Heavies now, right there with Vindicators, Whirlwinds, Predators, Landraiders, Stormravens, and Devastators.
 
Lastly, in Lords of War, we've got Dante, and for some reason, Gabriel Seth.
See what I mean? Talk about crowded. No more spamming Feel No Pain, or re-rolls. So what did we get in exchange?
We got Furious Charge. The whole army. Every unit that isn't a tank got Furious Charge.
And if you play the detachment, which is impossible not to, your army (THE WHOLE ARMY) gets +1 initiative on top of the charge, adding to the bonus of furious charge. That is pretty cool.
 
To sum up, we didn't get Thunderwolf Cavalry equivalents, but we got better guns, we got better points costs, universal Furious Charge to make a   viable assault army, and we got the challenge of making it work.
Here are some observations from what I've seen:
 
Brother Corbulo will be a go to HQ for a lot of people. He can make a good assault unit into a death star, raising his own initiative to 7 and everyone else in the unit's initiative to 6 (or higher if they are HQs) on the charge. Plus feel no pain. Power armored assault elites striking at initiative 5+ base strength 5 with power weapons. Ouch.
Furioso Librarians will almost never be played, but Mephiston will be joining Corbulo in a deathstar unit with meat shields striking at initiative 7. He's not as powerful as 5th ed (he's getting old, I guess), but he's still pretty beastly and has received a significant cost reduction. Also he can join a squad again. Too bad his model still sucks. I mean, come on, GW. If any character in the game deserves a modern model it's Meph-fist-up-yo-ass-ston.
 
Troop squads are in line with 7th edition needs. You can take a special or heavy weapon with a 5 man squad plus vet sergeants with whatever they want on their person. Plus fast razorbacks. Scouts got Hellfire shell upgrades to their heavy bolters. Not bad. Too bad their models suck.
Death Company are GOOD AGAIN! :cuss YEAH! They can score! They are still relentless! They can still be jump packing bolter squads with thunder hammers! And Jump packs only cost +3 points a model! WHAT WHAT!!! I'm excited. Can you tell? Unfortunately only Astorath The Grim can give them that Liturgies of Hate love. But that's not bad. Astorath is still awesome and got a points reduction.
Death Company Dreadnoughts can be taken without taking 5 DC. Magna Grapples are free and give move through cover and reroll distance to assault tanks. Blood Talons are strength x2 (so.. 12, 13 on the charge... Jesus) AP2 Shred. Not bad. You won't need to reroll wounds with that though. Maybe rerolling pens on some vehicles.. but on the charge that is AUTO PENNING half the vehicles in the game, and auto glancing most Astartes vehicles. Frag cannons are still cool, too. But I think DC or Furioso Dreads with talons will be popular.
Vanguard vets with grav pistols and powerweapons will be popular. They lost the ability to charge after deep strike.
Terminators are now the only squads that can take Landraiders of any kind as transports. That sucks. But... the new terminator models are pretty damn slick.
 
All (non landraider) heavy support ground vehicles can be upgraded to Fast for 10 points. So... Get ready for that. Unfortunately with the Baal as a HS vehicle (they are already fast without the upgrade... what?) you've got lots of good choices and only 3 slots... that's not good. Stormravens are still good *but apparently ALL BA chapters used up all of their blood strike missiles and now have to make do with Stormstrike*, but so are fast Vindicators, fast Predators, fast Whirlwinds, and Baal Predators... ugh.
Lastly I want to talk about the Lords of War choices and express a little... "What the :cuss?"
Dante, Lord of the Blood Angels, is a Lord of War Choice. Cool. I get that. He gives descent of Angels as an automatic warlord trait so Jump Packing armies will field him reflexively. He is a beast of an IC that can join a unit with Jump Packs, and Sanguinary Guard are much more viable than they had been, so why not?
 
The other Lord of War Choice is Gabriel Seth. What the actual :cuss? He costs less than Mephiston (155 points), isn't nearly as ass kickingly powerful, doesn't have the same kind of fluff about him, and has never been the Astartes version of a Demon Prince. So I really don't get this choice. The Sanguinor fits the bill for Lord of War more. Comparing Seth to Logan Grimnar or Gazghul Thrakka is a bit... sad. Seth is a beast, though, in his own right. As an HQ choice he would be solid as hell. He has furious charge, Rage, and Rampage. That's nothing to sneeze at when he's hitting at S9 on a charge with rending wounds and the Whirlwind of Gore special rule, but he's not on par with Grimnar or even Dante.
The Baal Strikeforce requires 1 HQ, two troops, and one elite. This gives the detachment +1 initiative on the charge. This is the new Red Thirst.
The Blood Angels Battle Company (apocalypse games only) gives objective secured, and +1 initiative.