My Blood Angel Army in 6th Edition

Thinking or Failing?  Answer: Yes

So I've continued to think about my different armies and how they work in 6th edition.  I think I've played them all at least a few times with the exception of my CSM.   I don't really see the point in investing much play time with them right now as the dex is close enough to just put them on the back burner for now.

I've also played my Imperial Fists and my Bikes a bunch now and both armies I believe are fun and competitive.  I certainly can do some tweaking and have to get more practice with these but I think they are basically my two 'tournament options' at this point.  I'd just need to commit more time to getting their painting up from 'looks good' to 'looks great' which I think I could do if I committed a few weeks to doing so.

However that leaves several other armies collecting dust and I'd sure like to figure out what the best configs I can build for them would be for 6th edition.  I'm always a sucker for new projects and all, but with the above 3 armies probably needing the bulk of the painting time the later part of the year I'd like to keep these other armies to a bit of 'fixing' than complete overhauls.

Despite the fact there may no be fixing this.

So this is the remaining armies we're looking at upgrading to 6th:

Blood Angels
Orks
Black Templar
Tau

Today I'll tackle my Blood Angels.  The big problem with my BA in particular is that I build a specific Descent of Angels list and that has been blown up with 6th edition.  You can only place half of your army in reserves, so the idea of having an entire force (or most of it) landing on turn 2 on a flank, pin pointing your attack and then weathering return fire is gone.

So option one is just to run the same list as before and decide what 'half' you drop.  So for the sake of argument here is what my 5th edition DoA army looked like.

HQ: Commander Dante
HQ: Librarian in Power Armour + Jump Pack
Elite: 2 Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour+ Jump Pack + Combi-Meltagun
Troops: 5 Sanguinary Guard+ Chapter Banner + Infernus Pistol + Power Fist
Troops: 9 Assault Squad with 2x Meltagun, Sergeant + Infernus Pistol + Power Sword
Troops: 9 Assault Squad with 2x Meltagun, Sergeant + Infernus Pistol + Power Sword
Troops: 9 Assault Squad with 2x Meltagun, Sergeant + Infernus Pistol + Power Sword
Fast Attack: 10 Vanguard Veteran Squad with Jump Packs, 6 SS, 2 TH, 2 PW

It was pretty simple and provided lots of options.  The Vangaurd usually combat squaded and charged the nastiest thing on the table.  The assault squad combated up to melta vehicles.  Then the Dante/Libby/Priest/SangG would drop safely in the middle to provide support.  It worked well... but in 6th edition there are major problems.

So first of all I'd like to still have that 'drop of death' but obviously that is impossible in 6th edition.  That means at best I am going to get a few choice units down on turn 2.  For the sake of trying to keep the core of the army the same let's say it's the Vets and the Sang Gaurd squad.

So in theory that is:
Dante + Libby + Priest + Sang Gaurd
Vang Vets
Vang Vets

That is 6 units I want to put in reserve.  What does that leave me on the table?
Priest plus Assault Squad
Assault Squad
Assault Squad

So 4 units, which of course can easily be made up to 6 by combat squad two units.  But there is now a lot of waste in those assault squads.  For one the sarg load out doesn't seem so effective.  I think you have two options here, tool out the sarg for close combat or run them naked.  Since these guys are going to have to start on the field and try to weather fire and hang around to score I'm going naked with them.  If furious charge still gave the +1 Init, but with that gone and combat being what it is... I don't think that is these guys first choice of 'what to do.'  That's -90 points right there.

The next big problem is anti flier.  Running around with melta guns is not going to cut it in 6th edition.  I've toyed around with adding a Stormraven (or two) but the easiest answer is the Aegis Defence line with the quad gun.  The bonus here is there is now some nice cover for the squads on the table to start behind.  That's +100 pts.

However it seems silly to think the assault squads are going to stand there manning a gun all day.  So it's got me thinking about what to change out.  I could drop a tactial squad back there in lieu of the assault squad, but I think I'd like to look a dev squads.  One squads with 3 missile each is 120 points.   4 would be nice but it isn't like I can shoot at different targets like long fangs (bastards).

Or I could use this configuration... GENIUS!

The other thing I've been feeling like I need is an anti horde unit.  So what I'd like to try out is an honor gaurd squad loaded with flamers.  I can cut one of the solo priests and get that chalice in this squad with 4 flamers for 185 points with jump packs.

A few other tweaks and this is what I've got:

HQ: Commander Dante
HQ: Librarian in Power Armour + Jump Pack
HQ: 5 Honor Gaurds + Jump Packs + 4 Flamers
Elite: 1 Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour+ Jump Pack
Troops: 5 Sanguinary Guard+ Chapter Banner + 2 Infernus Pistol
Troops: 9 Assault Squad with 2x Meltagun, Sergeant
Troops: 9 Assault Squad with 2x Meltagun, Sergeant
Fast Attack: 10 Vanguard Veteran Squad with Jump Packs, 6 SS, 2 PF, 2 PW
Heavy Support: 5 Devastator Squad + Missile Launcher x3
Aegis Defence Lines+ Quad-gun

Starting on the table now:
Priest + Assault Squad
Assault Squad
Dev Squad
Honor Gaurd?

So I still have to split both Assault squads to get my reserve working but it is good to have more targets on the field.  The honor gaurd may start with the guys on the board, or if I really feel the need to land a number of flamers I could drop them with Dante and keep the Sang Gaurd/Priest/Libby on the board.  The army has a reduction in troops by 10 marines, but more importantly it went from 7 possible scoring units to 5.  So I'm not sure how that will work out really.  Maybe in Big Guns and Sourging I'll be helped a bit by the units in the list.

The good news is that I probably have all the bits to make the devs and honor gaurd, so this is not really a costly change.  It has some options to scale downward, probably having to lose half the vang vets to just get down to 1750 and ALL of them to get down to 1500.  Or maybe cut out the dev squads and some other trimmings for 1850, or cut dante and the SG... but there are at least some options.

I think it isn't horrible, but I think it lacks the ability to do the serious alpha damage that it could in 5th.  Plus it can possibly be tabled in turn one for a loss though I'd hope that would be AWFULLY hard to do, and any army that I think could do that I could of course just start on the table as well.

So I'm going to go do some bits rummaging and hopefully add this updated army into the queue for play testing.