Prospective Blog Wars 4 Lists

 

Inspired by Alex talking about his army for Blog Wars 4 I thought I’d discuss my prospective Blog Wars 4 lists.

For those of you who didn’t know Blog Wars 4 is a Warhammer 40,000 tournament ran by Alex, author of the From the Fang blog. It uses the full 6^th ed rules and by that I do mean full. Everything from mysterious terrain to the Fortress of Redemption is in. The only restriction is that your army must contain a special character. Further information can be found here: http://fromthefang.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-wars-4-brave-new-world.html

I went to Blog Wars 3 this summer and it was an awesome days gaming. I took my Dark Eldar that time (led by the Baron) and to be honest I was just playing my standard Dark Elder build. The only real change was I took out some Trueborn and fielded around 18 Reaver Jetbikes.

I’ve been playing  Dark Eldar pretty much constantly for about a year now so I fancy a change, given the low amount of power armour present at the last blog wars I don’t feel too bad getting my Blood Angels out again.

I’ve got 2 lists in mind. None of them the most competitive thing in the world but they should be fun to run.

List 1: Bling Angels! 1850pts

Old Man Dante

Honour Guard: Jump Packs, 4 Plasma Guns

2 Sanguinary Priests: Jump Packs

Sanguinary Guard: 2 Infernus Pistols, Power Fist

Sanguinary Guard: 2 Infernus Pistols, Power Fist

Sanguinary Guard: 2 Infernus Pistols

Sanguinary Guard: 2 Infernus Pistols

5 Scouts: Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks

5 Devistators: 4 Missile Launchers

5 Devistators: 4 Missile Launchers

It’s pretty obvious what this list is all about. Can you cope with 20 flying terminators? Everything else is just support. The devs will soften things up and hopefully give me a stab at getting first blood. The scouts are the usual stay in reserve/go to ground brigade.

Dante makes the Sanguinary Guard scoring and prays that his 2+ armour save and 4++ will make up for his initiative 2 (stupid axe! Rant coming later) and lack of eternal warrior (I’ve kind of got over this one).

Priests supply furious charge and feel no pain. I honestly feel that feel no pain has got better on Sanguinary Guard. A 2+ armour save generally kept them safe from small arms fire and being able to get FNP on the ride in should help to mitigate all that plasma that seems to be around these days. After the latest FAQ I’ll be making sure there is at least one axe in ever squad of Sang Guard. I’m not sure if the price of the Fist is worth it now they can effectively get a master crafter power axe for free.

They do have a weakness to other elite infantry though but hopefully a dash of plasma fury from the honour guard will help to thin their numbers a bit. The imbedded priest is a tasty bonus.

As an aside I haven’t given the Sang Priests any other wargear bar the jump pack they need to keep up with the rest of the army because there are no characters in Sang Guard units so the priests are going to be turning down challenges left and right!     

I’m under no illusions that the list will struggle against flyers and any list with a lot of ap2 shooting, but as I said at the start of the article it’s a list that will be fun to play. The only real problem is that I’m working away during the week so finding the time to paint up 25 golden marines will be difficult. Particularly as I’d like to NMM the lot.

Ok now’s a good time for the Dante rant: Why In The Name of All That is Holy Does His Axe Make Him Strike At I1!!! Seriously! Kharn’s axe does similar things and he gets to strike at I5. Dante’s high initiative and number of attacks, was one of the ways you could hope to mitigate his lack of eternal warrior, before some jumped up Serg or Grey Knight decided it was time for the old man to head the way of his Primarch. Mysterious FAQ writers please make him strike at initiative! He was one of the better Blood Angels characters but now I’m not so sure.

Rant over. Steps off soap box. Time for list 2

List 2: Rolling Thunder or Make Your Own Cover 1850pts

Sanguinor

Sanguinary Priest: Jump Pack

10 Assault Marines: 2 Plasma Guns, Lightning Claw

10 Assault Marines: 2 Plasma Guns, Lightning Claw    

10 Assault Marines: 2 Melta Guns, Lightning Claw

5 Scouts: Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks

Baal Predator: Twin Linked Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Baal Predator: Twin Linked Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Predator: Autocannon, Lascannon Sponsons

Vindicator

Vindicator

The gist of this list is fairly self-explanatory. There are 5 front armour 13 vehicles for the assault marines and Sanguinor to hide behind. There’s not as much feel no pain around but the weapons I’d normally need it for will be focusing on the tanks.

The Baal Preds can soften up hordes and light armour. They might be able to help with flyers due to a high rate of fire and twin linked on the assault cannons.

The standard pred provides long range anti-tank. I’ve always like this set up and being able to move 12” and fire both lascannons at full BS with a snap fired auto cannon is pretty awesome.

Vindicators are the terrifying machines they always were. They handle Paladins, Nob Bikers etc that this list can’t really cope with. The old one gun syndrome has been slightly mitigated by the changes to glancing/penetrating hits and random rolls for which weapon goes.

I’m starting to warm to the Sanguinor in this edition. He doesn’t do anything against 2+ armour saves unfortunately but he is a great assassin. The ability to re roll hits and wounds against one of your opponents HQ choices fits very nicely with the blog wars ethos and missions. He isn’t an independent character but can hide behind the wall of tanks until it’s time for strike.

Weakness wise this list is also going to struggle against flyers and Dark Eldar are going to laugh at it. On the plus side I do have everything bar the Sanguinor and the sergeants painted. I do want to repaint all my assault marines but I think I’ve got painting red down now it shouldn’t be too hard to paint 10 assault marines in a week.

I’ll put the lists up there for the internet to discuss. To reiterate I’m not after something crazy good, as long as there’s some teeth to the list and it’s fun to play I’ll be happy.

I expect EYIG will have some words to say on list one as I’m pretty sure he’s ran the Sanguinary Guard in large numbers before.

Hope that made for interesting reading. Until next time.

Sir#67