Tactical Squad Herodius

Here's some pics of my Blood Angel's strike force tactical squad. Named after Sgt. Herodius (the guy with the chainsword and the sawed off bolter) it's a pretty standard tactical, usually fielded with a melta gun and a missile launcher, no other fancy stuff to keep point cost low. I've plans to paint a plasma gunner 'cause i think that it works well both in range and rate of fire with the bolters of the rest of the squad.

In game, i use them behind a Aegis Defense Line, Librarian Willis goes with them and mans the Quad Gun. Their purpose is to hold objectives in my part of the table, since tacticals are quite resilient, expecially if they can go to ground behind the Line and get a nice +2 cover save.

Paintwise, i kept their red quite dark, not the nearly orange hue you see with many Blood Angels armies. Strangely enough, i enjoyed painting them more than i did with the assault squad (of which more lately), even if i had to keep the paintjob simple and quick. I painted the chest eagles yellow, and not grey/black as usual, 'cause this is a independent strike force with their own colours and heraldry so i wanted to differentiate them from the "usual" Blood Angel trooper and in the same time keep something that linked them with the assault squad which also have yellow insignias (even if the ASM are painted in a much brighter red).

Anyway, here are the pics, enjoy.

Brother Librarian Willis

This is actually the only HQ of my small Blood Angels force, usually i just field him with standard gear and give him powers from the divination discipline. On higher points matches i can upgrade him to epistolary, but then i have to be lucky and roll powers that goes along well together, so usually i stick to the basic. With my current army list he doesn't see much action: he just stays in the back with the tacticals, mans the quad gun and dish out prescience to whoever needs it. For his point cost, i think it's already enough, but i wish we had cheap librarians like Dark Angels got in their last codex to equip him a little better or buy more stuff with the spare points... We'll see when we get a new codex too i guess.

From a fluffy point of view, Brother Willis is a die hard (guessed that?) veteran, even if he's a librarian he's more an action guy than a student, he got his psychic talents very late, when he was already an accomplished warrior with a reputation for survival. On the down side, he's very undisciplined, and he's known to often question orders if he sees them to be unfit or plainly stupid. You can imagine this have gained him a lot of troubles even in a chapter like Blood Angels that's not so strict about rules (well, if he was a Ultramarine, he would have managed to get himself executed or booted for insubordination by now...).

Anyway, this is the first librarian i paint, and i'm quite happy with him, so here come the pic (maybe you can guess why i called him Willis by the way...):

A small sadness

So GW has raised prices once again on a whole category (this time it's paints and painting stuff), and this means that the already meager amount of GW products i could afford have shrinked a little more.

I've read many comments about GW price policy, and what i say basically is that if people keep buying their stuff and they make profit out of it they are in their right to do whatever they think is best.

This doesn't mean i don't feel a little sad. My wage stays the same (well, lately it's been decreasing slowly but steadily) and prices just go up. This is forcing me to stop buying GW products (amongst others).

Many call this "rage quitting". Mine, at least, is not rage quitting: it's slowly chocking.

Once i used to go to my local GW shop, play a game, and then buy some minis just to repay them for the time they lent me. With the economical situation getting worse and GW prices getting up, i had to stop buying whole boxed kits or even single minis, but every time i bought at least a paint can or a brush.
Now they raised prices even on the last thing i could afford to buy. You can object that a 20 cent increase it's not that big deal (here in Italy now  a paint pot is 3,20 Euros up from 3). Problem is, they were already overpriced compared to other ranges (e.g. Vallejo) which, let's face it, in addition of being cheaper are actually better too. So i finally decided: a) to stop playing at local GW store, even if the store owner is a kind and nice person; b) move to another nearby store who sells many brands (Vallejo included), where i can buy what i want and still play a few games.
In the end, everyone is losing: GW cause i will not buy anymore from them and me cause i liked playing at their store and buy their (already) overpriced colours. There's enough to be a little sad, i think...

Blood Angels Vindicator list

(The above pics are from some very cool Space Wolves Vindicator i've seen at Battle Brothers here in Turin last sunday).

Reading this post on Imperius Dominatus about Vindicators, i thought about a vindi's list for Blood Angels that could maybe bring some competitiveness in our old and neglected codex.

Hq: librarian with divination. 100 pts

Elite: terminator squad with assault cannon. 230 pts

        sanguinary priest with jump pack. 75 pts

Troops: tactical squad with flamer and missile launcher. 170 pts

            assault squad (10 men) with 2 x melta gun and power sword. 225 pts

            assault squad (5 men) with 1 x melta gun and power fist. 135 pts

            assault squad (5 men) with flamer and razorback (las/plas). 155 pts

Fast Attack: land speeder typhoon with multi melta x 2. 200 pts

                  veteran vanguard squad (5 men), power sword, melta bombs, power fist. 195 pts

Heavy support: vindicator x 2. 290 pts

                      dreadnought with 2 x twin linked autocannon. 120 pts

Fortification: aegis defense line with quad gun. 100 pts

1995 pts

This army lists have 3 components:

1) The librarian and the tactical squad stay in defense behind the Aegis Defense Line. The dreadnought stay close behind and provide more fire support. This should lend a strong anti air and anti vehicle support, since 6 twin linked autocannons (4 of which have skyfire and interceptor) should deal with most air threat unless facing a flyer heavy list like Cron Air or Heldrake spam.

2) The mech component (vindicators and razorback) goes in front sheltering the advancing assault squads toward enemy held objectives. The vindicators should be a aggro magnets and keep incoming fire away from the brittle assault squads for long enough to get them in charge range. Hopefully the vindies will be able to spam some pie too. Land speeders zoom ahead and kill heavy armor with multi meltas and krak missiles or supress infantry with frag pies. Their main role, though, is to draw some fire away from advancing troops.

3) Terminators and vanguard veterans will deep strike behind enemy lines and provide some distraction or even kill enemy's shooty units castled way behind.

With this kind of list, you don't want to annihilate your opponent, you rather beat him on objectives. You have plenty of resilient and fast scoring units and plenty of scary distracting units (vindicators, land speeders, terminators, vets) who can contest or even score with the right mission so your opponent will still need to take care of them. If you are lucky and you get first blood, linebreaker or even kill the enemy warlord, you are pretty sure you can win on points. Only mission i see very hard to win is kill points, but who knows...

Chronicles of the Blood Angels

In the year of the Emperor 999.M41 Baal, home planet and fortress of the Blood Angels Chapter, was laid under siege by the forces of xenos and tainted chaos evil alike.

This is the account of the desperate struggle of a few valiant heroes of the chapter, fighting together under the command of Brother Librarian Willis aboard the "Constellation" strike cruiser.

Caught during the return curse from the beleaguered Nova Pavonis system, under assault by the foul forces of the Tau xenos, the "Constellation" was crippled by a sudden attack by unknown ennemies. Forced to land on a bare and rocky moon orbiting the outermost planet of the Baal sytem, Ammonai, Librarian Willis quickly redeployed his battle group, aptly named "Hammer of Haefestus", ready to retaliate at whatever menace was coming at them.

Soon, the "Hammer" will strike against the hidden ennemies of the Emperor, and no retribution has even been more swift...