Blood Angels... A cognitive log.

Just my thoughts on Blood Angels. Got a lot of ideas running through my head at the moment, I'd like to get them all written down.
I should warn you, this is in no kind of pattern. Just thoughts as they come into my head.

Right so I've been playing a few games with my Blood Angels. All wins so far, but I feel like they could be better. So I've been looking over past winning lists and trying to find something that they have in common. And one of the main things I've found is they have the bear minimum of suppression fire that you can get away with, and usually a rock solid assault element.

So, with BA, how can we execute this? Well the best suppression fire is probably the 360pts in Heavy Support for 3 rifledreads, especially as I'm going mech. Alternatively however, for that same point cost I could put asscannons on razorbacks, but it reduces the number of chassis I'd have on the field greatly. The minimum amount of chassis I think I should is probably 10 or 11.

Right, ok so what do we have. Let's look at the blood angels book and see what strengths we can find.

The best one I can think of is the 125 pt assault squad. This is 5 Assault Marines with a melta gun and infernus pistol. You're getting 5 marines, 2 melta weapons and a rhino for 125pts. Right, ok that's nice. This gives us ample short ranged anti tank. I can have 18 melta guns in fast transports for 750pts. That's the same amount of melta most Eldar armies rely on as their sole anti tank. And I get it for troops. Awesome. Now, if I put my guys in rhinos I can stay inside, which is also nice. In addition I get Rifledreads and mobile melta in every FoC slot except Heavy Support (I'm not counting Land Raiders). So Anti Tank isn't really a problem.

Anti infantry. Now this one is interesting. I'm normally a big advocate of twin heavy flamers on razors, but lately I've been thinking, I think I'd rather my razors were a threat to everything. Lemme explain.

A TLHeavyFlamer Razor (from now on HFBack) is good against infantry. Vs something with a 4+ save or less, it's great against infantry. However, it's pretty crappy vs tanks. An Assback (assault cannon razorback) however can threaten tanks and infantry. However, it's more expensive so you're paying for it. This isn't really what I want, compared to say IG who get anti infantry and transport dinging power on their standard transport. So in this case, I may actually just help myself to some free rhinos. What this does is give me 30 marines in your face, with 12 melta guns. For 750pts. In fast transports that, when ramming at full speed, inflicts a S8 hit. Ok, great.

So lets have another look at some other options we have. The rifledread. Personally I think this is a must have, as there's just some units in the game you HAVE to ping. I say some units, you have to ping opposing rifledreads and vendettas. If you don't it's pretty much guaranteed to bite you in the ass. So 3 rifledreads, they're very reliable firepower, and easy to get cover on and get LoS with (which they don't get cover from). And they're cheaper than the vanilla ones. Ok, cool. So I know what I like in troops and heavy support.

Next up, let's see Fast Attack. Here we have Land Speeders and Baal's. Both good units, make no mistake. Both also fit into this list, which has a pretty blitzkriegy feel to it already. As to which one I'll take, I dunno, it's hard to say. I mean, speeders are cheaper, bring melta, and are really quick. And being able to move over stuff when you're up in close is amazingly good. However a Baal has AV13. That's pretty big. It means it can get the S10 ram nicely, as well as tank shock anything without a melta without worrying too much. In addition, it's probably better at range. It's also a fair bit less suicidey. With a flamestorm however, it becomes possibly more suicidey, but very killy. Ultimately though, I don't know if either mash into the army too well. I'll have a looksee.

Ok so in a list like this anti infantry pretty much comes naturally. Especially if I were to take a pair of Sangpriests in the army. Means my entire bubble that's up in your face has Furious Charge. Which I can see being pretty scary. Considering with rhinos I don't actually need to get out my tanks to hurt you. Ok, I like where this is going.

Elites. Well I think a sangpriest is pretty much necessary. Just one, if I bring honour guard. Because he adds an awful lot to the assault punch of the army. The other unit I'm interested in is Sternguard. 170pts for 5 with 2 meltas in a rhino. That's not half bad, if I need to bring more bodies to the fight. And having 2 meltas means it's a rhino that doesn't need to drive as close. Cool.

Ok for HQ I think a libby and Honour Guard are pretty much mandatory. The libby cause I need a HQ choice and the BA HQs tend to suck. The Honour Guard cause for the same price as a Sternguard squad I get a free sangpriest. I lose the bolters, true, but I gain a free sang priest!

Ok so putting this to paper I get something that looks like:

Librarian w/Shield of Sanguinius and The Blood Lance
5 Honour Guard w/2 Melta Guns + Rhino
Sanguinary Priest
6x5 Assault Marines w/Melta Gun, Infernus Pistol + Rhino
3 Rifleman Dreadnoughts
1430

That leaves me 320 points to play with. That's irritating, not much I wanna take for that amount of points. I have a fair whack of infantry coming toward you, but I'd like some power weapons in there. I also wouldn't mind something like a Baal or a Land Speeder. Hell, even another squad of Sternguard would be nice. Ok, so let's take this as a template then.

If I add in a Baal, and a Sternguard unit, I'm left with 35pts. With which I can get a pair of Lightning Claws. Now, I have dilemma. Do I put one on the priest? If I do, I get a LC that's WS5, which is nice. If I don't, I will feel no urge to get him in combat and can happily keep him in a rhino by himself. The downside to that is once your opponent destroys that rhino, he's by himself. However, that's an option. That would mean I'd have 12 tanks as well as 42 infantry models coming to pound your face in up close. Ok, what other options do I have... well...

I can add in a pair of Baals, a Land Speeder and a single lightning claw. This hurts my infantry-assault count a bit, but gives me a fair whack more anti infantry-transport at range. Of course, my infantry could drops by 5 and my melta count drops by 1, but it's definitely a viable option. It actually looks quite nice.

Next up, and this is pretty "out there" with our 320pts, we can buy one furioso and get a Baal or a pair of speeders. Not quite as mad as running two Furiosos, but it does (again) add more assaulty oomph to the list.

So yeah, that's my thoughts at the moment. My question being what would you add to this list:

Librarian w/Shield of Sanguinius and The Blood Lance
5 Honour Guard w/2 Melta Guns + Rhino
Sanguinary Priest
6x5 Assault Marines w/Melta Gun, Infernus Pistol + Rhino
3 Rifleman Dreadnoughts
1430

to bring it up to 1750 in fighting shape? Bear in mind the theme that I'm going for is an army where pretty much every unit has Anti Tank, but can shred infantry in combat. ^^

Hope you guys enjoyed this rant. And oh boy, is it a rant.

P.s. And all of this, regardless of the army I pick, is going to be bright yellow. Lamenters baby. ^^