Sanguinary Guard
The Sanguinary Guard are a elite squad of Marines that are available only to the Blood Angels and their successors. The Honour Guard of a Blood Angels Chapter Master on the battlefield, these Marines are as deadly as they are fabulous, and they are very, VERY fabulous.
The story of these scrotum crushing badasses stretches way back to the times when Sanguinius reunited with the Emperor and assumed command of the IXth Space Marine Legion.
At first they started as their Primarch's bodyguards. The Guard always protected him through the worst--Mega-Arachnids on Murder, the Nephilim of Melchior, all that nasty jazz in the Signus System, the Seige of mother flubbin' Terra and most importantly the assault on the Vengeful Spirit where they sacrificed themselves to a man to ensure their Primarch got to Horus. Well...all save for Azkaellon (who we'll get to in a minute) After Sanguinius's death at the hands of Horus, the only surviving member of this inner order was Azkaellon. Despite desperately wanting to be by his Primarch's side, Sanguinius made Azkaellon swear an oath to stay on Terra to help rebuild. Presumably many manly tears were shed.
Azkaellon was sad that he couldn't participate in the battles alongside his Primarch, yet he knew that he couldn't jeopardize the final orders he was given. When the Horus Heresy finally ended and Raldoron became the first Chapter Master, Azkaellon made sure that the Blood Angels, and every single one of their successors would have their own Sanguinary Guard, so that these warriors wouldn't die out. The other purpose (and even truer than simply maintaining them) was to maintain them as a symbol of hope for the Imperium, as well as a living legacy for the space angel vampires.
To become one is not simply a field duty or honour of the highest calibre. To be a Sanguinary Guard is to become part of a order of those that can be described as mortals-become-gods, as well part of a living legend that is over ten thousand years old. It also means you can beat the ever-loving piss out of most anything in the known galaxy fluff wise, and you'll be spending a loooooot of time with Dante.
Notable Members
Azkaellon of course, big daddy of the Sanguinary Guard and one of the most revered heroes of old. He's actually portrayed in the novels as being a more morally complex character than one would expect of a space marine. Duty driven to a fault and downright grumpy he makes a nice foil to the gregarious and fatherly Chapter Master Raldoran. He and Raldoran willingly commit themselves and captain Amit to secrecy after Amit murdered a buncha space wolves in his blood rage, all to keep Sanguinius single-minded on his goal to stop Horus. He gets shit done. Also he and Raldoran were some of the only ones able to hold off the initial bloodrage on Signus Prime, the others cheated and stood next to a Pariah. He also may or may not be turned into a literal angel...or just acting like one...Or it may actually be Sanguinius Reborn using Azkaellons corpse as a medium...or it's just Sanguinius reborn! Fuck it's confusing at this point.
The current herald of the SG Sepharan (oh more angel puns how original bitch please) Who not much is said about save that went into hell itself to save his chapters soul. Currently hasn't kicked it since as of GW's perpetually un-moving story-line he's up and at it so...success? Probably just went out for some brewskies from Fenris for the boys and wound up gridlocked in Cadia and had to make up a good excuse as for as to why he was late to the Sanguinala and why he had so many Traitor Legion heads with him.
Blind Erephon who liked playing life on hard mode. So badly that when his eyes were gouged, slashed, shot, popped, needled, or sneezed out or however the hell he lost them he decided "Ya know what? Fuck Eyes" and began kicking more ass without his vision. And closed 7 hellgates Never let it be said the Blood Angels aren't an equal opportunity employer.
Saranoth who's coming was so terrible it set Ork Waaaaagh! Rokchewa to flight. Jokes aside He's probably the only SG who knows the rule. There is never enough Dakka
And Andrastor who stood alone on Cripple-Ridge against a Tyranid swarm. And either two things happened, he defied all the odds and somehow won, pissing off the mysterious 'Nid beast that would later nom him so you can get his Jump-Pack in Deathwatch. Or he just bit it right there on that ridge and the Ordos Xenos is just really dumb. Both are viable options considering the source material.
Battlefield Role
On the fields of battle, these warriors act, as mentioned before, Honour Guards of a Force Commander (if he's lucky anyway, more often than not the Chapter Master will hoard their skills to himself rather than deign to deploy them elsewhere). Armoured in the best Artificer Armours, as well having Death Masks and Winged Jump Packs, the Sanguinary Guards are an impressive sight to behold. Their standard weapons are the Glaives Encarmine (that take the forms of axes and swords of all things) and the Angelus Bolters--imagine a storm-bolter on steroids with razor-filament shards that explode when the bolt detonates and are mounted on their armours wrists, freeing up their other hand. This naturally causes them to unleash immense amount of Cleave and Smite up close.
Variations
The Sanguinary Guard's looks differ marginally among the Blood Angel's successors (with only the right pauldron being painted in the successor's symbol and colours). The only exception are the Angels Encarmine, who paint their Sanguinary Guard's armours in alabaster white and black wings, as opposed to the traditional gold with white wings (though even the wing colours differ from successor to successor).
On the Tabletop
Crunch wise you'll basically be paying for a terminator squad's armour save sans invulnerable save, plus fearless, sans relentless, plus free jump-packs and master-crafted power weapons and you have the ability to give the entire squad death masks which look cool but are pretty meh, as most things you'll be fighting will most likely pass it new changes are afoot! With the new errata the "fear" usr has been nixed in favor of a "everything in base contact makes a leadership test, if failed they reduce their WS to 1. EVERYTHING. This is a huge deal as lower leadership models that could tarpit you before will die even faster, and Dante's will strike at a -2 LD modifier. Even other space marines. Sweet. Can take a Chapter banner which gives another attack and re-rolls. Have a few nifty toys to take that set them apart from their terminator armed brethren. Each can trade out their Angelus Boltgun for either an infernus pistol or a plasma pistol, and any can take a power fist instead of the Glaive Encarmine. Hook them up with a Sanguinary Priest and go MEQ hunting with sword-glaives or TEQ hunting with Axe-glaives or better yet give them all Infernus pistols and deepstrike perfectly with Dante right next to you opponents heaviest armoured vehicle and drink in his bitter tears. One downside that they'll hopefully fix in the newest update will by the option to turn one dude into a Champion.
Note that, while they're pretty awesome, they're not invincible, either in or out of close combat. Their lack of Invul means Grav and Plasma Weapons will make short work of them (a smarter commander will drop them behind LoS and make smart use of cover) and WS/I4 means that most of the top tier Close Combat Squads (Incubi, Deathwing Knights, Genestealers, Assault Terminators) will feed them their faces--though less so now that their death masks are actually a really viable option, giving the golden boys a solid fighting chance. They definitely need a Sanguinary Priest/Librarian with SoS to keep them breathing long enough to get into Close Combat and maybe to keep them going once they get there. Plus the offensive bonus of both those models is nothing to be sniffed at either, +1 WS from the priest or any of the buffs from the libby is really amazing.
Gallery
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Just look at the handsome bastard!
