Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Blood Angels

This is the latest Edition's tactics. 5th Edition Tactics are here.

Why Play Blood Angels (AKA the red ones)

• People are jealous of your Vampire-Jesus self.
• Haters gonna Hate.
• Deep-striking Land Raiders.
• Some of the best close-combat units in the game.
• You like jump pack marines (if you want tacts, go play vanilla, pansy)
• FLYING METUHL BAWKSE- I mean Stormravens That will take your superior dreadnoughts and death company right down your enemy's throat in zero - tabled in record speed.
• SPESS VAMPIRES
• You like to make Khorne players jealous of all the blood you spill.

• Oh god 6th and 7th edition have nerfed Blood Angels into oblivion. Melee combat is trash now, and we lost all our cool psychic powers: resulting in the end of Mephiston. (Oh wow, you can roll on Biomancy, well, you no longer have str 10 or a jump pack.) Basically, run your Blood Angels as Classic Space Marines now, use whatever chapter tactics you want (Raven Guard?) and enjoy.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Commander Dante: Pretty damned powerful for a Chapter Master, with a jump pack, an infernus pistol (it's pretty much a melta pistol), and a Power Axe (great for Hit and Run). He can deal with pretty much any kind of enemy in the game with a decent chance of winning. Sanguinary Guard now count as Troops when he's in the army (freeing up an Elites slot, mostly) and he can completely screw over an enemy IC unit of your choice before the game even begins. Doesn't have Eternal Warrior, so keep him away from S8+ attacks, but now that melee weapons have AP values his artificer armour lets him laugh at power swords. He nullifies the scatter distance of the unit he's with, so pair him with a Honor Guard unit with multiple meltaguns to kill a tank and threaten its contents the next turn, or deliver some other killy unit with precision. Take him and Mephiston for extra lulz. Also, if you really really don't like hitting at I1, do remember that he has a pistol. Let it never be said that there is no choice.
• Chapter Master Gabriel Seth: The incredibly badass Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers. Doesn't have a power weapon, but his huge chain sword, Blood Reaver, hits at Strength 8 (in Initiative order, even!) and has Rending. Instead of making his normal attacks, he can instead inflict an automatic hit on every enemy model in base contact with him, which can be extremely useful against hordes. Also, any time an enemy rolls a one to hit him, Seth kicks them in the fucking balls/ovaries. Also, he's low priced at 160 points, has 4 attacks base, and is Fearless by default to boot. The downside is that he doesn't buff your army in any way (other than granting Fearless to the squad he's in), so take a Librarian or a Reclusiarch with him to make him and the army more effective. While not quite amazing, as a pure combat character, Gabe is pretty far from a bad buy.
• Astorath the Grim: Oh hey, now half my army can have the Red Thirst. He's basically a Reclusiarch with Artificer Armour, a jump pack, and a two-handed power axe that forces the enemy to re-roll successful invulnerable saves. And he removes the 0-1 limit on Death Company. Who needs scoring units anyway? Also, with the new edition's rules, he is now initiative 1, so he will be the stain on the end of your opponent's commander's boot if you're not careful.
• The Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host: Responsible for 30% of Blood Angel bitching. Your army's special character only wishes he was half as special as this snowflake. Apparently responsible for a great deal of the Blood Angels' past victories (including killing an Eldar Avatar, but pretty much every codex these days has someone or something killing an Avatar so meh) he's nowhere near as impressive on the tabletop. Yes, he has high Initiative and WS 8. Yes, he has a master-crafted power weapon and a jump pack. Yes, he has 2+ armour, 3+ invulnerable, Furious Charge, Fearless, and Eternal Warrior. However, he's still only T4 and has 3 Wounds, which means he can be shot to death by Orks, Termagaunts or Guardsmen in one turn. He has grenades and in 6th one model in a unit can throw a grenade as a shooting attack, but can't take a bodyguard to back him up, since he doesn't have Independent Character. He also costs about as much as a Land Raider. Against mediocre opponents, you can do fine hiding him behind bawkses and keeping him out of LoS of killy guns, but he's not as good as everybody thinks he is. And his model also looks kind of silly.
• Mephiston, Lord of Death: Responsible for another 30% of Blood Angel bitching. How to best describe this. You know Abaddon the Despoiler? You know how most armies don't have units that can reliably hold him in close-combat? You know how most armies try to throw SQUADS at him to hold him off? With his bullshit powers, bullshit stat-line, (WS fucking 7, S6, T6, 5 fucking wounds and Initiative 7!) Mephiston is the biggest cheese unit in the Blood Angels Codex. Expensive, but rightfully so, Transfixing Gaze is utter bullshit, and this power against anything without 2+ armour basically ensures victory. It's a 50-50 shot against LD10 units that you'll be able to re-roll to hits and to-wounds in combats. Mephiston can basically solo almost any commander in the game, including, but not limited to: Straken (Since when is Straken powerful in melee?), Asurmen, Asdrubael Vect, Yarrick, The Nightbringer... you get the picture. He's also the Blood Angels' pysker special character, but mercifully he only gets 3 powers, though with ML3 he could use all of them in one turn (or two + force weapon). He gets Unleash Rage (giving him preferred enemy against whatever you're facing), Wings of Sanguinius (makes him jump infantry for a movement phase, and he's already pretty mobile since he's got Fleet) and Sangiune Sword (which makes him strength 10 for an assault phase, combined with his Force Weapon means Instant Death if the weapon gets activated. Additionally you could forgo his basic powers and roll two in Biomancy, where EVERY power but one is insanely good - Iron Arm and Warp Speed buffs his already sick stats to stratosphere, Enfeeble makes him instakill T4 models without Force Weapon, turning them to T3, Endurance provide more survivability with +1T, FNP and IWND and with Life Leech he could regain lost wounds. All in all, if you take him, be prepared for a LOT of people to hate you.
  • OK, now it's time for the cons side. First, his sword is only AP3, so keep him the fuck away from 2+ armored units (it's kind of weird that guy who can easily rip apart Dreadnought or even Land Raider can not hurt a terminator). Papa Smurf, Ghazghkull and Despoiler himself would make Mefhy their personal bitch in a challenge, as well as any 2+ armoured HQ with AP2 weapon and Eternal Warrior. Second, he is not an independent character and has no invulnerable save. You'd think this is not a problem with his bullshit stats, you'd be wrong. Venom-mounted blasterborns, plasma chosen, meltavets, fire dragons, ravenwing knights and so on could shoot him out of table in one salvo of plasma/melta/blasters, as well as Sternguards or Scourges with touhou-amount of poisoned bullets. (That, my friend, is why you keep him next to a sanguinary priest). Third, he's fucking expensive and have not enough attacks to solo most squads (unless you roll Warp Speed, which is 50/50 chance). Fourth, being so high reliant on psychic powers he would be heavily crippled by Farseers, Rune Priests or ANY Tyranid synapse creature. Additionally Necron players could troll you with their cheating wargear, like mindshackle scarabs (if he fails a Ld test on 3d6, which is about a 50% chance, they can make him whack himself in the face with his own force weapon for massive hilarity).
• Captain Tycho: Good ol' Cap'n Tycho, a mainstay from the olden days. He has a combi-melta, as he always had, but now it can fire the special-issue ammo that Sternguard get, making him a lot more versatile. On top of that, his close-combat attacks ignore armor and can roll 2d6 for armor penetration against vehicles. The melta gun is still better against tanks, though, so don't expect him to reliably punch out a Land Raider.

Death Company Tycho: Tycho off his happy pills. He's not as good at shooting (BS4 instead of BS5), he can no longer join a squad (for want of Independent Character), but he's a beast in close combat (+1 WS, +1 Attack, Furious Charge, Feel No Pain). He's not as useful as his saner version, though; Death Company Tycho is basically a kamikaze unit, an expensive and surprisingly easy to one-shot kamikaze unit.

• Malakim Phoros (Forgeworld): Lamenters Chapter Master. The 2013 Forgeworld update turned him from an average character to a scary monster. He lost his ability to force enemy rerolls on successful leadership tests but instead gained the zealot special rule and also generates a 6" hatred bubble around himself, furthermore if he loses a wound he flips out and gains +1 S and A and also confers rage to himself and any unit he joins. All of this makes him very similar to a overcharged chaplain. His Inferno Pistol is now 12" range and his Glaive Encarmine grants +1 Strength on the charge. Finally, he's the ONLY Blood Angels character who has the chance to suffer /(benefit) from Red Thirst.

• Librarian: Identical to the vanilla Space Marines Librarian in statline, but has a different set of powers. Smite always makes for a decent shooting attack, but he can also sprout wings (making him move like Jump Infantry or a Jet Bike, depending on whether or not he's riding a bike) and can increase his close-combat Strength to 10. Surprisingly killy in close-combat. Still has no Invulnerable save, unless you take Terminator armor. Pretty much an auto-include if you don't run Reclusiarch or Dante or Mephiston. Can also choose to manifest powers from Biomancy, Divination, Telepathy, or Telekinesis if he wants to.
• Reclusiarch: Chaplain on steroids. For 30 points more, he gets +1 BS, +1 Wound, +1 Initiative, and +1 Attack. Give him a Jump Pack and stick him with an Assault/Vanguard VeteranDeath Company squad, or give him Terminator armor and stick him with a Terminator assault squad, and let him loose. Always take Fist - it's only 15 pts, and you still take +1A if you choose to swing with Corosius. Death Company with Endurance? Yes, please!
• Captain: Not quite as good as the vanilla Marines Captain is (which means "even more shitty"). For one, he loses such fancy toys such as Hellfire rounds, Artificer armor, digital weapons, Auxiliary Grenade Launchers, and Relic blades. Hand Flamer/Infernus pistol don't really make up for it. Stick him in a Terminator suit if you must have his 2+ save.
• Honour Guard: Just like the vanilla Command Squad, the difference being that you can take them for any HQ slot you have, not just Captains. Boast 4 special weapons, and combined with d6" scatter, can go and kill pretty much any vehicle on turn they arrive. Also, good at plasma gunning, as they have 3+, FnP from their own Sanguinary Priest, and 4 plasma guns (which is absolutely rapetastic). They do have an invul of 5+ due to the sanguinary's blood chalice providing the 'feel no pain' special rule. They will also benefit from furious charge (+1 strength) this could be handy with special weapons with x2 to the users strength. If you do take them with a chapter banner they can also enjoy +1 attacks.

Elite

• Chaplain: Pretty much the same as the vanilla Space Marines Chaplain, but moved to Elites for some reason. Not worth the Elites slot; get a Reclusiarch instead.
• Sanguinary Guard: Blood Guard who have Blood swords and Angel wings and Angelus bolters that shoot Bloodshard shells that spill Blood for the Blood God- I mean, Emprah. All equipped with jump packs, two-handed master-crafted power weapons and 12" AP4 Storm Bolters. Cost as much as a Terminator squad, but can't have more than five guys in a squad. One of them can carry the chapter banner, and all of them can swap out their usual gear for power fists, plasma pistols, or infernus pistols, and they can take death masks, which forces the enemy to roll a Leadership test or hit at WS1 on the turn they charge. 2+ armor save which means power weapons won't hurt much which just made this unit much more valuable on the field, but no invuln save at all; keep them away from plasma and AP2 or lower weapons in general. Attach a Sanguinary Priest to them for extra lulz. Cool unit, Your mileage may vary. Perhaps just spend those points on a termi squad.
• Furioso Dreadnought: A WS6, 13/12/10 Dreadnought that can take Blood Talons (Lightning Claws) that generate extra attacks. Formerly auto-include cheese bricks, but sixth edition hit them pretty hard. Walkers are significantly worse in close combat and Blood Talons got nerfed to S6 AP3, meaning you can no longer point your Furioso at enemy tanks and make them blend. You'll have to be a bit more choosy with how you tool it up, and let's just say that if you're expecting lots of 2+ armor saves or AV13+ vehicles take a Frag Cannon and a Magna Grapple or double DCW's. Blood Talons can still be a cost effective investment, but only if your opponent has a lot of weedy infantry to mulch. Like most vehicles they work best in pairs or trips.
  • Librarian Furioso: Flying Psyker Dreadnought, end of argument. Known to reduce grown men to tears. All the bullshit of the regular furioso up to eleven sums this abomination of a unit up pretty well.
• Contemptor Furioso Dreadnought (Forgeworld): Exactly what it says on the tin, which is to say it gives you everything you love/hate about Furiosos in a Contemptor's package. Benefits include Atomantic Shielding, 13/12/11 armour (thus making it impervious to units that only get S4 in melee), fleet, S7, WS5, Red Thirst, two DCW's with storm bolters - and that's just to start! You get the option for both contemptor fun (trading a DCW for Kheres Assault Cannon, Heavy Conversion Beamer, other dread guns, Chainfist, etc) and Blood Angel goodies (Blood Talons, upgrading a storm bolter to a meltagun to break people out of their metal bawkses, the Frag Cannon arm replacement, and the chassis-mounted Magna Grapple). If you do go with Blood Talons, you really, really, want to fail your Red Thirst roll and take a Magna Grapple, just in case. This thing is essentially a giant middle finger to infantry blobs, as the overwhelming majority of the infantry units in the game cannot even touch it, and with Atomantic shielding it also extends a second middle finger to anything that hoped to use glancing hits against it.
• Terminator Squad: They're Terminators, what's not to like? Use them just like you would vanilla Terminators, there's not much of a difference. Heavy Flamers are cheap and ignore cover, and Assault Cannons and Cyclone Missile Launchers ensure long-range carnage. Remember to bring at least one Chainfist, and a Sanguinary Priest couldn't hurt either. If you're fighting 'Nids, reminisce about the good old days of Space Hulk.
• Terminator Assault Squad: Well, Matt Ward found out how popular the almighty Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield combo was, so he increased the price of it... to five points each(like every other Stormshield in the Army cost 5 more). If you get these guys, pray that you roll a 1 for their Red Thirst roll, because Furious Charge benefits these guys greatly. It is absolutely necessary that you take a Land Raider to ensure they make the long trip to the enemy. They benefit greatly from a buffer unit like a Reclusiarch (to boost their close combat capabilities even more) a Sanguinary Priest (a squad 2+ armour saves, 3+ invul. saves with Feel no Pain? Yes please) or a Librarian (In case you needed yet another sledgehammer in your squad). Bottom line: great CC squad, but they can become really expensive, really soon.
• Techmarine: A minor chance to make a vehicle move again. Unlike vanilla Marines, they can take Jump Packs (at the cost of their Servo-arm), so at least they can keep up with the vehicles they're supposed to repair. One-wound model, though, so they are good for little else than deep-striking with a combi-melta, and even then, you can find a better use for an Elites slot. However, it is also worth noting in recent FAQs the techmarine can repair vehicles while being inside of them. In other words give a techmarine his servoharness and put him in your stormraven and laugh as you regain your hullpoints. If you take him and don't put him in the stormraven to fix it, then you doing it wrong. (It's also worth noting that Servitors are cheaper than a harness.)
• Sternguard Veteran Squad: Yep, they're back. Yep, they're still awesome. Dakka, dakka, dakka. Just keep 'em away from tanks and high-armor units, unless you remembered to bring some combi-meltas/plasmas. Not as useful for Blood Angels, with the amount of anti-infantry and meltaguns they usually possess, but still a fine buy.
• Sanguinary Priest: Responsible for the last 10% of Blood Angel Bitching. You can take three of them for one Elites slot. They can have Jump Packs, or even Terminator Armor. Bullets no longer hurt your troops. As if marines needed to become even more survivable. Enjoy your immortal demigod soldiers. Don't send them in combat, powerfists make them cry. You can trail him behind, abusing 2" coherency, though, so he won't get in combat too soon.
  • Brother Corbulo: Bullets no longer hurt your troops and you get one free re-roll. And this can be for any roll except deployment or game continuation. Unless he dies before you use it, at which point you kinda didn't deserve it anyway. He is a lot more survivable himself, with 2+ FnP, and more killy, with S5 Rending chainsword, but costs as 2 ordinary Priests and is still vulnerable to powerfists.

Troops

• Assault Squad: These guys are the Blood Angels' bread and butter: mobile, deadly, and cost effective. They can be tooled any number of ways and most of them are deadly. Small squads with Melta, Combi-Weapon, and a FAST razorback with Lascannon and TL Plasma, or a large 10-man squad, either flying, in a free drop pod, in a 15-point Rhino, or a discounted Raider. You really can't go wrong. Just make sure a Sanguinary Priest is within 6" so they have the joy of FNP and Furious Charge. In a competitive meta, the 10 fly guys are the way to go, as a transport may get lased to death as it steps out and you do NOT want these guys foot slogging. On the other side, it's still harder to glance razor to death rather than to kill some infantry units. So razors can be competitive, especially when your opponent has good anti-infantry units, but is not very good in killing many vehicles (and if you go razors, take 4 with 5 ASM each).
• Tactical Squad: Shooty. Better than vanilla Space Marines, because you can give them Feel no Pain (through the means of attaching a Sanguinary Priest). Tactical marines are a mighty fine addition to any mech themed army, with the chance to be deployed in fast rhinos, it means you can create a fast moving jack of all trades army. Good for grabbing objectives late on from edges of the board, whilst providing fire support and being the main bulk of your army. Their main power is in cheap special weapons, being flexible and generally being VAMPIRES IN SPESS. Shoot with your tactical marines and then charge your enemy with assault marines.
• Death Company: No longer a required troop choice, but you played Blood Angels for the sauce and this is it. If you're going to be a bitch and refuse to spend points just take an assault squad, its the cost effective choice. They don't have Rending like they used to, but are now WS 5 and still have Fearless and Furious Charge. 6-th edition change them a lot - while they don't have +1I on the charge, new Rage rules mean you now can control them, and even take one extra attack on charge for maximum carnage. Do not forget that they are Relentless, so give bolters to fist-equipped guys for free extra shots. If you're going to use these, it's highly advisable to throw in a chaplain for rerolls (Liturgies of Blood lets them re-roll failed wounds as well as hits) and an array of close combat weapons. Taken together they make Death Company the last word in terminal close encounters. An eight-man power-weapon-equipped death company squad with a chaplain can easily wipe out full bloodcrushers squads IN ONE CHARGE, but new ap3-power weapon nerfed power-DC a lot, since they can no longer threaten TEQ's (unless you take some power axes and a very big squad). A Land Raider actually makes a good transport for these guys, particularly the Land Raider Crusader; 15 blood-crazed maniacs + 1 chaplain + Land Raider Crusader = pretty much a guaranteed charge and a whole lot of dead things. Another option is to give a 5 man squad jump packs add a librarian or captain with a jump pack(make sure captain has power sword) and charge up to a unit of space marines and watch as your captain or librarian kills one or two space marines then your death company hits on threes and wounds on threes.
  • Lemartes: The resident Zen berserker maniac Chaplain of the Death Company, Lemmy's weapon change to a power maul in 6th Ed seems like it's nerfed him somewhat, but the moment he gets wounded he turns into one of the nastiest things for any character to face in a challenge. With his special rule, you're looking at 8 (!!!) Str 8 (!!!!) AP4 I6 attacks on the charge with rerolls to hit and wound - enough to instant-death most T4 characters without Eternal Warrior through their armor saves before they even have a chance to strike back. This also means he actually has a really good chance at wrecking vehicles with his beatin' stick now. And he fits in non-Stormraven transports now too. Take him (No he can't, jump infantry can't take transport unless specified.) Get him shot once. Enjoy.
• Death Company Dreadnought: Thanks to 6th Ed, the DC dread isn't as gloriously nasty as it used to be. Blood Talons are now AP3 as mentioned, and the immunity to Stunned/Shaken results is nerfed majorly with hull points. Thanks to those, krak grenades hitting at normal WS also make its AV12 a gigantic liability compared to a Furioso's AV13. On the plus side, it -does- get one more attack than a Furioso (two on the charge, thanks to Rage). Blood Fists are actually a pretty decent alternative now, even if they invalidate FC. You'll still pulp shit if you manage to keep it alive for long enough. And this dread is a troops choice (so it won't use up an elite slot...but of course it's not a scoring unit, being a vehicle).
• Scout Squad: Cheap, infiltrating, and scoring like every other Scout unit. Unlike every other Scout unit they have "The Red Thirst" special rule which can turn them into mini berserkers if taken with an HQ choice like Astorath. Give them all pistols and knives to make them even better in assault; a Power Fist/Plasma Pistol for the Sergeant might also be warranted. Sure, they don't have Hellfire shells for their heavy bolters, but who cares? Another tiny, easy to miss upgrade that separates BA Scouts from their weedier codex brethren is their ability to take a Locator Beacon. Yeah, now you can flawlessly deepstrike, say, Land Raiders, within 6" of the enemy. Should the Scouts live (doubtful, since they will almost undoubtedly attract ridiculous amounts of fire from this), they can guide in all the other deep-striking stuff that BA have access to as well, like, Vanguard. Anyway, they're not a combat unit with their 4+ save and WS3, and BA don't really require more DS precision (take Dante if you do), so they're a mediocre choice. If you want your scouts to provide some ranged support you can equip them with sniper rifles for free. Thanks to the changes in 6th edition you can try to snipe the hidden power klaws and similar threats before your marines have to engage it in melee.

Fast Attack

• Vanguard Veteran Squad: Yep, they're back. Any Blood Angels unit that has Jump Packs automatically gets the "Descent of Angels" special rule. They also have a rule that lets them assault after deep striking (but not if they have an independent character with them, which means they can't take a Reclusiarch/Sanguinary Priest if you want to do this). Their Sergeant also gets uber gear at a discount. Which is a savage anal raping, FOR YOU. Be careful not to go overboard on the wargear; they WILL draw fire, and they can get very expensive, very fast. The best use is tank hunting or killing shooting units so pack them with a Thunder Hammer of Power/Chainfist. So your enemy's units like a predator or dev squad will be bounded in close combat with your vets when other parts of your army get close to fuck your enemy and your metal boxes will be in safety from big guns.
• Land Speeder Squadron: Basically the damn same as the Land Speeders in the Space Marine codex. If you run one, run two, same as other vehicles. The key feature of these fuckers is that you can speed 'em around the field fast enough that they always get their 4+ cover save from moving flat out. If you're lucky, you can get people to waste a turn or two shooting at these while your real vehicles are getting shit done unimpeded. Of course, if your enemy ignores them, then you probably get a chance to pop something with your Multi-meltas, so you might win either way.
• Baal Predator: The Blood Angels' unique Predator, armed with a twin-linked Assault Cannon. Can take Heavy Bolter or Heavy Flamer sponsons, or replace the Assault Cannon with a Flamestorm cannon, the S6 AP3 flamer found on the Land Raider Redeemer. It's fast, it ruins infantry's day, it will likely draw a lot of fire to stop it from killing their troops.
• Attack Bike Squad: Bikes with heavy weapons. Give them Multi-Meltas and go tank hunting. Other units can handle anti-infantry roles, such as the Baal Predator.
• Bike Squad: Blood Angels aren't as good as vanilla Marines are with bikers, if only because they lack the ability to take bikes as Troops. Still, they can prove to be useful as skirmishers as long as you don't let them get bogged down in an assault. Take a meltagun and/or a plasma gun to kill shit faster. There's also a build, known as Blood Rodeo, in which ASM and Bikes are used together. FNP and FC bikes? Yes please.
• Scout Bike Squad: More fragile than standard Bikers, have WS/BS 3, and can't take meltas/flamers/plasma guns; instead, all they can do is replace their bikes' boltguns with rapid-firing grenade launchers. However, they can Infiltrate, and thanks to their Sergeant, an Infiltrating Power Fist on a bike is nothing to sniff at. They can also take Locator Beacons, to help put that deep-striking Land Raider where you want it.

Heavy Support

• Dreadnought: Blood Angels love Dreadnoughts, and you should too. The assault cannon is probably the most cost-effective shooting weapon available to them, and replacing the standard storm bolter with a heavy flamer can't hurt either. You can kit them out for tank-hunting, but other units can easily fill that role, too. They're no slouches in melee either (unless you were a fool and swapped the DCCW for a missile launcher) but it can't compare to the Furioso pattern when it comes to well and truly fucking something's shit up.
• Stormraven Gunship: Basically, a flying Land Raider. This ugly flying brick is now available to vanilla Marines and Black Templars, no more a Blood Angels/Grey Knights only for no adequately explained reason. Go figure.) It costs 200 points base, has AV12 all around (pretty fragile for such a fire magnet), and meltaguns don't get the extra D6 for AP when shooting at them. It's also bristling with guns; it has a twin-linked heavy bolter, a twin-linked assault cannon, and four Bloodstrike missiles (72" S8 AP1, one shot each), and that's only standard issue. It can replace the heavy bolters with a twin-linked multimelta for free or a Typhoon missile launcher for 25 points, and replace the assault cannon with a twin-linked plasma cannon or a twin-linked lascannon for free. And if that's not enough dakka for you, it can take hurricane bolters in side sponsons. It can't deep strike (as per the latest errata, Stormravens can't Deep Strike anymore), but it can take a locator beacon. (So you could use it as a highly mobile beacon for a Deep Striking Land Raider.) The real gravy comes with its transport capacity; it can carry 12 guys in power armor (or 6 Jump Infantry/Terminators) AND one Dreadnought. Watch your opponent cry tears of bitter rage as your Death Company comes out of fucking nowhere to ruin his day. It'll cost you an arm and a leg, but you certainly get what you pay for. And speaking of 6th edition it's a flyer. You need it.
• Predator: Marginally more useful than the vanilla Predator, since it's now a Fast vehicle, though it also costs more because of that. Meaning it can move further and fire more guns at once. NOPE. they've FAQed it so now it's just a regular predator that costs more (yaay). Go check the FAQ we are back to fast so actual yay (Yup, this is correct, they redid the FAQ and added fast vehicle. God this is an abusive relationship I have with GW) ! The Baal Predator is better than the Destructor against infantry (Compare S7 AP4 Heavy 2 to twin-linked S6 AP4 Heavy 4, Rending); use the Annihilator variant to hunt tanks and Monstrous Creatures instead.
• Devastator Squad: They're just like the vanilla Marines' Devastators, only with the Red Thirst, and cheaper weapons. Great with 4 missile launchers - a cheap and universal squad with a lot of firepower. Carry around a priest to babysit them. Park them in cover. Perfect for shooty army-list.
• Vindicator: It's a massive gun strapped to a Fast vehicle. Imperial Guard wished they had something this awesome. Don't worry ASTRA MILITARUM, now you have something exactly this awesome and with better armour(Gotta love these updates) (don't worry people, we're back to square one). Even if the gun gets blown off (likely, considering the amount of fire this thing will draw), you can go all-out and ram your target instead for massive damage. Just bear in mind that your choice of targets will be limited once the rest of your army gets into melee, and no-one likes scattering S10 AP2 "friendly fire" pie-plates. Except maybe your opponent.
• Whirlwind: The Fast engine can actually help Whirlwinds out if they get too close to enemies; just zip off to somewhere safe for you to rain fiery death down upon them. But, as it's strictly anti-infantry, and costs even more because of Fast, it's even worse than vanilla.

Dedicated Transports

• Rhino: Looks like the Orks were right after all: The red ones DO go faster. (Yeah, if only we were DAMN ORKS) Costs 15 more points than a vanilla Rhino (50 compared to 35) but is now a Fast vehicle, making them absurdly useful. (I think I'm going to cry with all the fast vehicle edits I have to make) (disregard we are fast yet again) Take one for as many infantry units as you can.
• Razorback: It's fast and it has a big gun on top. Use it in conjunction with Sternguard or your hero unit + Honor Guard. Take the las/plas turret if you can spare the points. 6-th edition buffed fast las/plas a lot, allowing it to move 12" speed and fire both guns.
• Drop Pod: Perfect for putting Dreadnoughts where they need to be. Assault Squads can take one for free if they remove their jump packs.
• Land Raider/Crusader/Redeemer: Pretty much the same as the vanilla counterparts: normal Land Raider is schizo, Crusader is God-tier for Terminator transport, Redeemer fucks infantry's shit up. One big difference is the Blood Angels' ability to deep-strike their Land Raiders. While it initially sounds awesome and broken, it's really not a good idea. Land Raiders are huge. That means they have huge guts, and they're far more likely to suffer a mishap, which means say goodbye to your 300+ point unit. More likely to survive if you infiltrate Scouts with locator beacons first. Even if you do succeed, you're that much closer into melta range. They can also only be taken as Dedicated Transports, which isn't that big a deal for some people.

Building your Army

The Blood Angels battleforce has been released. Start with that. Then start filling in your base. Get yourself an HQ model and another Space Marine squad. Alternatively, go purchase Astorath the Grim. Now, go onto EBay and spam-buy yourself Death Company. Since Astorath removes the 0-1 Death Company limit, and Death Company are a Troops choice, an army of said BLACK DEATH awaits. You can also buy Commander Dante and fill out your troops with Sanguinary Guard. You get your elites slots free for anything you like.

Here's an in depth look, a little spammy, but a nice starting point you can add flavor to! Fill out your troops with assault marines. A couple squads of 10 of them (with the jump packs!), sergeant with power weapon and 2 meltaguns marines is a pretty good composition. Add 1 or 2 sanguinary priests for the survivability.

Get librarians for your HQ. Jump packs to keep pace!

BA are a pretty good mech list, with all the tanks being fast, so get a predator(s) with autocannon on top, and lascannons on the side. (for the maximum price efficiency)

Also with the buff to fliers- add a stormraven. (I know they cost a lot, but it helps) Throw a Furioso dread in that, and add a nice hammer unit. (Though don't waste too many points)

pretty balanced base start with and add on to

If you go a DC list, IG allies are a fine buy, because they provide you with infantry platoon - a reliable scoring unit.

Also, for a laugh, have a one-detachment force with 11 Dreads (3 Dreads, 3 Furiosos, 5 DC Dreads), and laugh your face off when you drop-pod half of them in on turn 1.

Allies

Battle Brothers

• Black Templars: Coming soon.
• Dark Angels: Coming soon.
• Imperial Guard: Coming soon.
• Inquisition: Coming soon.
• Space Marines: Coming soon.
• Space Wolves: Coming soon.

Allies of Convenience

• Adepta Sororitas: Coming soon.
• Eldar: this army has the advantage of actually being able to keep up with you, but you might find that there to be a lot of overlap within the two codxes, that being said they are really quite a bit less durable than your standard troops, so just think carefully about whether or not you just want more blood angels.
• Grey Knights: Coming soon.
• Tau Empire: Coming soon.

Desperate Alllies

• Necrons: Coming soon.

Tactics

Now, deep striking a Land raider may sound fun, but is never really worth it in most cases. The main reason is because deep strikes tend to have lethal mishaps, also this isn't a Dreadnought or an SM squad, this is an ECKSBAWKS HUEG MEHTAL BAWKS so you're more prone to get this schizophrenic tank destroyed with a deep strike mishap than by an anti-tank squad. Now this only applies to maps with cover and difficult terrain, which tends to be used in games most of the time. If you're playing on open terrain with a large size, this COULD work but then again, you rarely have any room to actually deep strike a land raider into a good flanking position, unless it's late in the game, your opponent poorly deployed his army or your map is ecksbawks huegx2. This feature is really more-or-less for casual/fun/joke games but if you decide to take it to tournaments, prepare for your game to turn into a circus of hilarity with you either successfully flanking your opponent's rear lines with metal boxes of doom or losing 300+ points in a single turn because something got in the way. Either way, someone's bound to get a laugh out of this. Despite all of this,and you're still sure you want deepstrike a bunch of expensive metal boxes, fill your troop slots with 5 man units of scouts armed with locator beacons. Have them scout move and then (??on turn one??)on turn two, you can deepstrike the Land Raiders so they can mow down your foe's shit. 'Do not expect the scouts to survive after this. It's also worth mentioning you could bring an Inquisitorial Detachment with Inquisitors carrying Servo Skulls. If you Deep Strike within 12" of a Servo Skull, you roll one less scatter dice.

You have an army made for one purpose, and one purpose only. Motherfucking BLITZKRIEG!!! If there was any other army more adept at using this Nazi tactic it would overrape everything. Blood angels are the certified masters of BLITZKRIEG!!! I mean look at what they have in their army list. First, ALL your vehicles are basically fast attack skimmer or bikes. All others deep strike. Watch with glee as your opponent cry out in horror as your army crosses half the boardlength in the first turn (sort of. this fast vehicle FAQ may have taken away my will to live). Second, your troops are utterly focused on getting close as fast as humanly possible to the enemy and obliterating them at close-range and/or in CQC. Third, you have the best conditions for deep striking of all the armies in the galaxy All jump infantry can deep strike and uses only one die for scatter by default). Use deepstriking Dreadnoughts in drop pods, combine it with fast flying Stormravens carrying a ten-man assault squads joined by a Sanguinary Priest and Vindicators on the ground lobbing S: 10 large-blast templates of annihilation all over the table. Combine all this with the units mentioned above, along with their aforementioned tactics and you will basically bring all your opponents to their knees crying bitter tears of rage and frustration after you stand victorious at the end of turn 2.

Do not charge your Death Company into a Terminator squad, no matter what you may think will happen. Especially do not do this if you're playing against Space Wolves, Terminator Wolf Lords will eat your DCs alive without breaking a sweat. I want whatever this guy was having. Srsly. Death company is still the last word in CQC. counter-attack/TEQ's are cute but a fully tricked out Death Company will turn them into a fine red paste in one turn.

Always use Dreadnoughts with Blood Talons in a Drop Pod. Trust me, they're bound to screw up your opponent's strategy. Magna grapples+melta is also a must take.

Sanguinary Priests are your friends.

Though BA are powerful in close combat, they are nice in shooting with their 4bs and ASM's discounts for razorbacks. So you can really SPAM these fast shooty vehicles. Take 3-4 las-plas razor teams of 5 ASM with melta and maybe power sword and infernus pistol for the Sergeant. Concentrate firepower on one target and fuck it up. Then choose other target. Libby with shield of Sanguinius is also nice. Mephy or Furioso can be taken as counter-charge. Melta or plasma honour guards are always good. Missile Devs are universal unit in Heavy Support and Autocannon-Lascannon Predators are nice for fucking heavy units up. Baal Preds ruin infantry day. Melta-Attack Bikes or Land Speeders are your mobile anti-tank units.

Give your Assault Marine Sergeant TWO infernus pistols. With dat gunslinger rule, he can fire both simultaneously. Fuck tau right?