Ok so the Stormraven Gunship is a brand new piece of kit for Blood Angels. It's new to the 5th Edition and of course the model was only released a few weeks ago. However already i feel confident enough to say that my Stormraven is pretty much the centre piece of my army.
This thing has a weapon for eveyr occasion, so i'm going to go through the Stormravens capabilities and weapons one by one and give you all my thoughts on how a Stormraven can be most effectively used.
So the first and most obvious things to note are the weapons. The Stormraven is armed with 3 main weapon systems, with an optional 4th. So the first of these weapon systems can be either a set of Twin-Linked Heavy Bolters or a Twin-Linked Multi-Melta and for an extra 25pts can even be upgraded to the Typhoon Missile Launcher.
Now the first thing to do is identify the purpose of each of these weapons systems, so obviously Heavy Bolters are great against anything from Light to Heavy infantry and can even be useful against some very light armour, i.e Radiers/Ravager, Land Speeders, Sentinels (Not the Armoured versions however) and many other open topped light vehicles. There strength of 5 combined with an AP of 4, and 3 shots per turn means they bring down anything short of space marine infantry with no effort at all and even space marines might take a few wounds from them.
So next is the Multi-Melta, obviously once again this is particularly good against armour, get in close (Within 12") roll to hit, re roll if failed, 2 D6 to penetrate with strength 8, plus 1 to any rolls on the damage table, and then sit back and watch your opponent break down in tears as you melt his favourite Land Raider into a puddle of liquid metal. Of course these only get 1 shot per turn which is great against armour but makes for a difficult task when trying to kill squads of 10 or more men, especially when playing for Kill Points.
Lastly is the Typhoon Missile Launcher, with the ability to fire both Frag (Strength 4, AP6, Small Blast Template, Heavy 2) and Krak (Strength 8, AP3, Heavy 2) shots, this is a weapon ideal at both killing infantry AND armour. Of course Frag shells aren't quite as good as a Heavy Bolter for killing infantry, and Krak shells loose the Melta rule and AP 1 of the Multi-Melta, but the fact that they're an all round useful weapon and that they each get 2 shots per turn makes Typhoon Missile Launchers a great weapon to use.
Then comes Weapon System 2, for this you have a choice of Twin-Linked Assault Cannons, Twin-Linked Plasma Cannons or Twin-Linked Lascannons. Once again Assault Cannons are great against virtually any infantry at all, and even good against light armour, not to mention their rending special rule means they can even take down heavier armour if your lucky. The fact they get 4 shots a turn just makes them all the more useful.
Lascannons don't even need to be discussed really, they are and have always been one of the absolute favourite weapons of practically any Space Marine, Chaos or Imperial Guard player since they first appeared in Warhammer 40,000. With the second highest strength available in the game, and the second highest AP value available in the game, the stopping power of these weapons is unbelievable, the only drawback, as with the Multi-Melta, is that they only get one shot a turn, making them ideal against enemy armour, but just not enough against large numbers of infantry, i mean sure they'll make Terminators turn and run, but unless your opponent is using his terminators in squads of 1 then your going to struggle to rack up kill points quickly.
And lastly, once again we have a neutral option, the Plasma Cannon, not quite as good against amour as a Lascannon, not quite as good against infantry as an assault cannon (Altho it does use a blast template so its entirely possible it could even do better than an assault cannon sometimes) This i'd say is the inbetweener again. With a strength 7, AP 2 and small blast template this will wreak havoc amongst even the heaviest infantry squads, and will even melt a nice radioactive hole through most vehicles.
Next you have Bloodstrike Missiles. Often overlooked, these missiles are fantastic against vehicles, ok they'd struggle to bring down a Land Raider (altho rolling 2 6's for penetration and damage would still do the trick!) but anything else would sufffer seriously under fire from these badboys esepecially if you hit it with all 4 of the Stormravens Bloodstrike Missiles at once. As a rule i'd say if you finish a game with your Stormraven intact and it has any of these left then your not using your Stormraven properly.
Now finally the optional 4th weapon system, a pair of Hurricane Bolters. Now these set you back an extra 30 pts but against most opponents it's worth it for the extra kills these things can rack up. With a 24" range or the ability to double up on shots at 12" for a total of 12 shots with Twin-Linked Bolters making them fantastic against infantry. Of course it depends on your opponent, after all Boltgun fire would bounce of any vehicle as if it was a volley of BB's from an air rifle. So if your opponent isn't using large numbers of light infantry it might be worth saving the 30pts to spend on weapon upgrades elsewhere in your army.
Now to actually decide what configeration to use for each battle. At this point i would say that i Magnetised every weapon on my Stormraven so i constantly have the choice, and some players who play in a more relaxed environment would allow you to count weapons as slightly different to what they are just to save you having to buy 18 £41 kits just to be able to field any Stormraven Varient. Anyway the point is I like to think carefully about which weapons to arm my Stormraven with before a game.
Now as i've mentioned in earlier articles I mostly play against my Dad, who is a Dark Eldar player. So against him my standard build would be Typhoon Missile Launchers, Assault Cannons and Hurricane Bolters. This being because with Typhoon missile launchers its still a 3+ to wound Dark Eldar even with Frag shells and ok his Kabalites still get armour saves but 5+ saves aren't all that likely to pass anyway. Assault Cannons get 4 shots per turn, and being Twin-Linked that in most cases means 4 kills per turn. And lastly Hurricane Bolters. Any Blood Angels player (Or Space Marines in General) who's played against Dark Eldar will tell you that a round of boltgun fire into a squad of Kabalites is enough to cut their numbers down to half in just one turn in most cases. This means Hurricane Bolters are perfect for mopping up the survivors after the Missile Launcher and Assault Cannon have done their bit. The other advantage to this build is that against Dark Eldar, who don't have any real armour (Except the 2 flyers that are yet to have models and are still only AV12) and use mostly open topped vehicles, all of these weapons with the occasional exception of the Hurricane Bolters, can tear them down with ease.
Now i also occasionally play against a few other players, Most noteably a Space Wolves player, a Tyranids player, and an Imperial Guard player. Now against the Tyranids i usually use the same build as against the Dark Eldar, however the Space Wolves and even more so the Imperial Guard require a little more attention to detail. Now against the Space Wolves i normally go with an Anti-Armour build, figuring that if I can deal with their armour using my Stormraven, then the Death Company and Dreadnought that drop out of it can mop up the remaining infantry. So for this I'd use the Twin-Linked Multu-Melta, Twin-Linked Lascannon, and wouldn't waste the extra points on the Hurricane Bolters that would struggle against Space Marines anyway.
Against the Imperial Guard however i have to be careful. They are capable of fielding massive numbers of infantry or large collumns of vehicles, and the Stormraven is generally only going to be geared up for one or the other. Now i've found 3 builds to work in this case, none of them exceptionally well, but all of them well enough when teamed up with the rest of my army. The first is using all the neutral weapons, so the Typhoon Missile Launcher and Plasma Cannon. Unfortunately though unless i can get behind his vehicles some of their armour can still laugh that off as if the Stormraven wasn't even there. The second and third build i've tried both involve mixing and matching different weapon types, These would be using the Multi-Meltas with the Assault Cannons (Particularly good against vehicles but ok against infantry) or using the Heavy Bolters with the Lascannons (Particularly good against infantry but still ok against vehicles). Now my Hurricane Bolters in each of these builds only equate in if my oppenent is using large numbers of infantry, which often they will be.
Now what i say really is that for most games you'll have an idea before hand who your opponent is and what they are going to use against you but think carefully about how to set up your Stormraven before hand and provided it doesn't find itself the target of every tank killing gun on the board just for being a Stormraven (Which i have to say happens a lot to me unfortunately) then it should really start to prove it's worth pretty quickly, especially when you find yourself winning games 10 kill points to 0.
Look out for my Stormraven Tactics part 2, should be up soon.
Later guys
This website is all about the Blood Angels army from Warhammer 40,000. I've been a BA collecter for 14 years, and this is where i'm going to share my ideas on everything from paint schemes, and tactics right through to battle reports and scenario ideas.
Monday, 21 February 2011
Army Painter
Ok so someone has just shown me this stuff by a company called Army Painter, and yes as you've guessed they make paints and other similar products. But it actually looks pretty good, they do a variety of spray paint undercoat/primers in various colours, and they also make this stuff called quickshade (Which is essentially quite a thick glossy wash) and the idea is you paint the rough detail onto them, don't worry about anything like dry brushing or any of that time consuming nonsense and then dip the model in the quickshade. Once you've done this you take it out, flick it a couple of times to get rid of the excess wash and then leave it to dry... and the results are actually really aweseome
This is a picture from Army Painters website demonstrating what the Dragon Red Primer with the Dark Tone wash comes out like. I think the detail is pretty impressive actually considering that model will have taken considerably less time to paint than some of my absolute best paint jobs and in fact probably looks better.
They also do a Pure Red Primer, and a Strong Tone and Soft Tone wash, and there's examples of each on their website so have a look and see what you think, i like this deep red for my Blood Angels but obviously your army should be your own so what ever shade of red you think most appropriate is what you should go for.
Anyway have a look at the Army Painter range, and the sort of results it can get, and if like me you actually hate painting your models but you still want them to look just as awesome then maybe this is the stuff for you. The website is www.thearmypainter.com, theres a few tutorial videos on how to use it, and some articles about their products, along with an online store where you can buy their products. They also for that matter do things like flocks, little sculpted pieces of debris and rocks and things to base your models with, different glues, and even an anti shine matt spray to put on your models after you use quickshade if you don't like them looking so shiny.
Later guys
This is a picture from Army Painters website demonstrating what the Dragon Red Primer with the Dark Tone wash comes out like. I think the detail is pretty impressive actually considering that model will have taken considerably less time to paint than some of my absolute best paint jobs and in fact probably looks better.
They also do a Pure Red Primer, and a Strong Tone and Soft Tone wash, and there's examples of each on their website so have a look and see what you think, i like this deep red for my Blood Angels but obviously your army should be your own so what ever shade of red you think most appropriate is what you should go for.
Anyway have a look at the Army Painter range, and the sort of results it can get, and if like me you actually hate painting your models but you still want them to look just as awesome then maybe this is the stuff for you. The website is www.thearmypainter.com, theres a few tutorial videos on how to use it, and some articles about their products, along with an online store where you can buy their products. They also for that matter do things like flocks, little sculpted pieces of debris and rocks and things to base your models with, different glues, and even an anti shine matt spray to put on your models after you use quickshade if you don't like them looking so shiny.
Later guys
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Weapon Options
Right so i see so many Army lists, battle reports and tactics ideas online and i have to ask whats the obsession with Lascannons? I mean everywhere i look people are fielding Land Raiders, Predator Annihilators, Devastator squads with 4 Lascannons etc. I mean don't get me wrong they can be very useful when trying to tear down enemy armour. But most of the time i find i'm against a small amount of armour and a much larger amount of infantry.
Lascannons only get one shot per turn, and even with a Space Marines BS of 4 thats just not enough to do any serious damage, you need to have the option of hitting for 2-3 kills per turn against infantry as well as being able to tear through the enemy armour. In other words Missile Launchers rock! They can bring down anything short of a Land Raider if you use enough of them and they can also use frag shells to absolutely desimate infantry squads. It also depends on your opponent. For example i play against my Dad more than anyone, and hes a keen Dark Eldar player. Lascannons are wasted against Dark Eldar, when you consider it's possible (albeit difficult) to bring down a Raider, Venom or Ravager with a Bolt Pistol and Heavy Bolters and Heavy Flamers are both capable of bringing down either of their flyers.
When you also consider the possibility of close combat equipment like Melta Bombs or Power Fists against vehicle armour Lascannons are completely unessacery against Dark Eldar, However due to there numbers your going to need template weapons and weapons with higher rates of fire like Heavy Bolters, Assault Cannons and even at a push Autocannons. I've found Baal Predators with Flamestorm Cannons, and Heavy Flamer side sponsons can be particularly effective against Dark Eldar.
Weapons like Lascannons, and Multi-Meltas however can be particularly effective against vehicles. Autocannons once again can be good against light armour and so can Assualt Cannons because of their Rending special rule. If your fighting against an Imperial Guard army with a large focus on Armour for example this is an ideal time to use these kinds of weapons. Plasma Cannons are a fantastic all round choice cos of their high strength and blast template as well.
The real thing to take from this is rather than just buying a kit and instantly building it with as many lascannons as possible think about what battles your likely to be facing in the near future. The other possibility is magnetise your models so you can switch between weapon variants for different battles. That can allow you to use your highest firing rate weapons against the likes of eldar and dark eldar whilst being able to get some real tank slayers against imperial guard and space marines.
Cheers
Lascannons only get one shot per turn, and even with a Space Marines BS of 4 thats just not enough to do any serious damage, you need to have the option of hitting for 2-3 kills per turn against infantry as well as being able to tear through the enemy armour. In other words Missile Launchers rock! They can bring down anything short of a Land Raider if you use enough of them and they can also use frag shells to absolutely desimate infantry squads. It also depends on your opponent. For example i play against my Dad more than anyone, and hes a keen Dark Eldar player. Lascannons are wasted against Dark Eldar, when you consider it's possible (albeit difficult) to bring down a Raider, Venom or Ravager with a Bolt Pistol and Heavy Bolters and Heavy Flamers are both capable of bringing down either of their flyers.
When you also consider the possibility of close combat equipment like Melta Bombs or Power Fists against vehicle armour Lascannons are completely unessacery against Dark Eldar, However due to there numbers your going to need template weapons and weapons with higher rates of fire like Heavy Bolters, Assault Cannons and even at a push Autocannons. I've found Baal Predators with Flamestorm Cannons, and Heavy Flamer side sponsons can be particularly effective against Dark Eldar.
Weapons like Lascannons, and Multi-Meltas however can be particularly effective against vehicles. Autocannons once again can be good against light armour and so can Assualt Cannons because of their Rending special rule. If your fighting against an Imperial Guard army with a large focus on Armour for example this is an ideal time to use these kinds of weapons. Plasma Cannons are a fantastic all round choice cos of their high strength and blast template as well.
The real thing to take from this is rather than just buying a kit and instantly building it with as many lascannons as possible think about what battles your likely to be facing in the near future. The other possibility is magnetise your models so you can switch between weapon variants for different battles. That can allow you to use your highest firing rate weapons against the likes of eldar and dark eldar whilst being able to get some real tank slayers against imperial guard and space marines.
Cheers
Unique Heroes or Normal Characters
Ok so in my experience people go one way or the other on this. Nobody seems to mix and match as appropriate. Or at least very few people do. Even the battle reports in White Dwarf always seem to be full of each armies greatest heroes.
I have to say i'm fond of my Blood Angels characters and they all lend themselves well to a particular purpose. For example Dante is a great character to use if you use Sanguinary Guard cos you can take them as troops choices (freeing up precious Elites slots for Terminators, and Furioso Dreadnoughts and Sternguard Veterans and other beautifully killy units that you may want to field) and he has a similar level of equipment to the sanguinary guard making him particularly useful when standing next to them on the battle field. Or Astoroth the Grim whose particularly awesome when stood side by side with a Death Company (Not to mention that he lifts the 0-1 limit allowing you to take up to 6, 30 man, Death Companies, enough to make even a Titan Crew panic).
But is it really worth it? Especially in small games! I mean you pay 225 points to put Dante on the battlefield. My Sanguinary guard normally set me back 275... in a 1000 point game that leaves me just 500 points to play with and i still have to get 1 of my compulsory 2 troops choices in. And if i don't take the Sanguinary Guard with him then whats the point in paying all those extra points! Sure he has the Death Mask of Sanguinis and his power weapon is Master-Crafted, but apart from that i could simply field a Captain with a Jump Pack, Power Weapon and Infernus Pistol and save myself 70 points... that's practically a whole scout squad extra!
The 2 best victories i've had since the 5th edition version of Codex Blood Angels came out both had nameless normal characters instead of special characters. I think the special characters fit neatly into some armies where they have a very specific purpose i.e the Sanguinor heading up a Sanguinary Guard with a Chapter Banner and a Sanguinary Priest with Power Weapon (Giving everyone in the Squad Feel No Pain, Furious Charge and plus 2 attacks in close combat). but in anything short of an apocolypse game your just not going to have the points to field all that. If you do then is all it takes is one well placed large blast template and you've lost anything from 20-50% of your army in one go. And having seen that happen to someone seriously its absolutely crippling, a hit like that at the start of a game and you are almost garunteed to loose.
I think your army is better served by a normal Captain, Resclusiarch or Librarian than a special character most of the time, however i will oppenly admit i do often use the special characters and heroes and can almost definately see the advantages of them.
But i think this is a point that could genuinly go either way, i'll post up my ideas on how to use all the special characters and get the most out of them soon but let us know your thoughts, do you reckon your run of the mill normal character is best, or do you prefer to have your armies led by Baals Greatest Heroes? I'm going to put up a Poll and lets see what you guys think.
Later guys
I have to say i'm fond of my Blood Angels characters and they all lend themselves well to a particular purpose. For example Dante is a great character to use if you use Sanguinary Guard cos you can take them as troops choices (freeing up precious Elites slots for Terminators, and Furioso Dreadnoughts and Sternguard Veterans and other beautifully killy units that you may want to field) and he has a similar level of equipment to the sanguinary guard making him particularly useful when standing next to them on the battle field. Or Astoroth the Grim whose particularly awesome when stood side by side with a Death Company (Not to mention that he lifts the 0-1 limit allowing you to take up to 6, 30 man, Death Companies, enough to make even a Titan Crew panic).
But is it really worth it? Especially in small games! I mean you pay 225 points to put Dante on the battlefield. My Sanguinary guard normally set me back 275... in a 1000 point game that leaves me just 500 points to play with and i still have to get 1 of my compulsory 2 troops choices in. And if i don't take the Sanguinary Guard with him then whats the point in paying all those extra points! Sure he has the Death Mask of Sanguinis and his power weapon is Master-Crafted, but apart from that i could simply field a Captain with a Jump Pack, Power Weapon and Infernus Pistol and save myself 70 points... that's practically a whole scout squad extra!
The 2 best victories i've had since the 5th edition version of Codex Blood Angels came out both had nameless normal characters instead of special characters. I think the special characters fit neatly into some armies where they have a very specific purpose i.e the Sanguinor heading up a Sanguinary Guard with a Chapter Banner and a Sanguinary Priest with Power Weapon (Giving everyone in the Squad Feel No Pain, Furious Charge and plus 2 attacks in close combat). but in anything short of an apocolypse game your just not going to have the points to field all that. If you do then is all it takes is one well placed large blast template and you've lost anything from 20-50% of your army in one go. And having seen that happen to someone seriously its absolutely crippling, a hit like that at the start of a game and you are almost garunteed to loose.
I think your army is better served by a normal Captain, Resclusiarch or Librarian than a special character most of the time, however i will oppenly admit i do often use the special characters and heroes and can almost definately see the advantages of them.
But i think this is a point that could genuinly go either way, i'll post up my ideas on how to use all the special characters and get the most out of them soon but let us know your thoughts, do you reckon your run of the mill normal character is best, or do you prefer to have your armies led by Baals Greatest Heroes? I'm going to put up a Poll and lets see what you guys think.
Later guys
Welcome
Alright guys, so this is my first post, more of a welcome message than anything. So cheers for checking the page out in the first place.
So at this point may wana know a bit more detail about this site. Basically i've been collecting Blood Angels for 14 years since the age of 8 and in that time i've come to learn a few things. I've also gone through several paint schemes and tried all kinds of different techniques. I've experimented with pretty much every unit available right down to the recently added storm raven, i've used the characters, i've used the blood angels specialist units and i've even played games fielding them as a run of the mill Space Marines army using Codex Space Marines instead of Codex Blood Angels. I've battle against pretty much every race going, i've played in tournaments, campaigns, i've played your basic pitched battle using kill points to score, and i've played advanced mission styles like Planetstrike, Apocolypse, Cities of Death (And before that City Fight) and even used the Battle Missions book extensively. I have forge world Kits as well as my basic army, models old and new, and have even used different armies such as Imperial Guard, Tau, Demon Hunters, Eldar and more. So basically im drawing on some experience here.
That being said i don't know everything, i make mistakes, i've lost games as well as won them (Although now im a more experienced player that is happening less and less), i've had models that looked like theyd been put together and painted by a chimpanzee, and all the contents of these posts are simply my oppinions and reflections of my own experiences and encounters. So please if you don't agree with something I have posted don't get aggressive about it. However i welcome anyones oppinions and own thoughts on the matters, and in fact would love some ideas of new ways i can take my army, new tactics and army builds i can try and new methods of wiping the floor with my friends. So do respond, do comment back, do tell me your oppinions, just as long as you don't get aggressive or angry about it that is.
Anyway for a welcome post with no real sustinance on anything Blood Angels related this has gone on long enough so i'll end it here and start working on my first relavent posts.
Later Folklingtons =p
So at this point may wana know a bit more detail about this site. Basically i've been collecting Blood Angels for 14 years since the age of 8 and in that time i've come to learn a few things. I've also gone through several paint schemes and tried all kinds of different techniques. I've experimented with pretty much every unit available right down to the recently added storm raven, i've used the characters, i've used the blood angels specialist units and i've even played games fielding them as a run of the mill Space Marines army using Codex Space Marines instead of Codex Blood Angels. I've battle against pretty much every race going, i've played in tournaments, campaigns, i've played your basic pitched battle using kill points to score, and i've played advanced mission styles like Planetstrike, Apocolypse, Cities of Death (And before that City Fight) and even used the Battle Missions book extensively. I have forge world Kits as well as my basic army, models old and new, and have even used different armies such as Imperial Guard, Tau, Demon Hunters, Eldar and more. So basically im drawing on some experience here.
That being said i don't know everything, i make mistakes, i've lost games as well as won them (Although now im a more experienced player that is happening less and less), i've had models that looked like theyd been put together and painted by a chimpanzee, and all the contents of these posts are simply my oppinions and reflections of my own experiences and encounters. So please if you don't agree with something I have posted don't get aggressive about it. However i welcome anyones oppinions and own thoughts on the matters, and in fact would love some ideas of new ways i can take my army, new tactics and army builds i can try and new methods of wiping the floor with my friends. So do respond, do comment back, do tell me your oppinions, just as long as you don't get aggressive or angry about it that is.
Anyway for a welcome post with no real sustinance on anything Blood Angels related this has gone on long enough so i'll end it here and start working on my first relavent posts.
Later Folklingtons =p
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