Email in: 2000 point Blood Angel List

Alright, got another email recently (sorry it took so long )-:  ) asking for list advice.  First, here's the email:


Hi, I've been reading your articles on Blood Angels lately and I have been inspired to make an all jump pack list at 2000 points.

HQ

The Sanguinor

Librarian-Fear of the darkness, shield of sanguinius, jump pack

4 X Honour Guard, 1 Sanguinary Novitiate, 1 blood champion, jump packs, 3 with power weapons, 1 melta gun

Elites

2 X Sanguinary Priests-PW and jump pack

Troops

10 X Assault marines-2 melta guns, sergeant with PF and infernus pistol

10 X Assault marines-2 melta guns, sergeant with PF and infernus pistol

10 X Assault marines-2 melta guns, sergeant with PF and infernus pistol

Fast Attack

10 X Vanguard Veterans-Entire squad with jump packs, 2 PW, 2 TH, 2 veteran with infernus pistol

So the thing is i've been wondering if i should drop the Sanguinor for something else? I know it's not the worlds most perfect BA list, but could you help me and give me advice? My regular opponent is a Tyranid player and I'm wondering how this list would work against it? Thanks.

My reply:

Thanks for the email!  Alright, this list actually looks pretty good.  You've got lots of bodies, and lots of melta to help you open tanks.  Quite a few options available to you as well!  As a core, the list looks pretty good.  There are for sure a few tweaks I'd give it though.

To start, the Honor Guard are kind of tooled weird.  They're a great source of melta for your army, but not really a good source for power weapons.  The power weapons seem attractive at first, since they have Furious Charge, and sometimes rerolls to hit.  However, since the Sanguinary Noviate is forced to take boring weapons, when you're attacking a squad, you'll be allowing your opponent's 'most important' characters to be able to take saves, which is generally inefficient.  The same thing applies to your Priest's weapons.  Here's my view on it.

Four Meltaguns on the squad is likely a better fit overall.  If you do the math, 2 meltaguns at close range to a Land Raider have a 33% chance to kill it (and slightly better to immobilize it).  Not great odds at all, really, but 4 melta guns make it double as likely to do something awful to the Raider.  It's useful having those extra melta guns in there, though it really seems like overkill.  If you're playing 'nids a lot, those melta are going to do lots better vs. their T6 spam/instant deathing warriors anyways.  Not that I condone building lists to counter other specific lists at all... but it will help.  The Champion of the squad is, generally speaking, a waste of points.  The extra WS and random ability you gain isn't worth the 20 points you pay.

On the Vanguards, I would advise against the infernus pistols.  Since you're most likely to be trying to assault with them off the jump, the VV will most times not even be able to use their pistols (since they can't shoot the same turn they jump in).  Vanguard Vets are somewhat of a suicide squad, and can't really be expected to do much once they've attacked their primary target.  Kill something to disrupt them, then die a somewhat sad death, is what VV are best at.  Otherwise, they're tooled basically correctly.

A word on Power Weapons vs. Claws, however.  You have the PWs everywhere, and though they aren't necessarily bad choices, Power Claws (for the same price) are always going to be better.  Though the Claws don't give you that extra attack, the reroll to wound makes them mathematically the same as the Power Weapon vs. low toughness things, and they grow lots better against high toughness targets.  Claws are almost always a better choice.  They look cooler too :)

I'd say either Sanguinor OR Mephiston fits here reasonably well.  It just depends on your playstyle.  Meph is a beatstick, and Sanguinor makes your guys better, and gives you a mini-character.  Remember that since it has to be random, your upgraded sergeant may end up being the VV sergeant, who may end up suiciding.  Maybe that's what you want, maybe not, but it's something to think about.

As for specific use against 'Nids- you've got some good stuff here to help deal with them.  Mass meltas, along with lots of fists and attacks are all great things to have.  One thing I'd advise (just in general really) is putting Hammers on your assault squad sergeants.  It looks cooler, and it helps against monstrous creatures pretty excellently, since it makes them strike at I1, and guarantees that you'll get another swing at them with your hammer instead of being insta-wiped the next turn.

The way I generally approach playing against 'Nids with a fast assault-oriented force, is to pick one flank, and start everything there.  Then, you focus fire one squad/MC until it's dead- having multiple sort-of-wounded MC's running around is exactly what the 'Nid player wants- taking a single big guy out for good can really hinder their overall effectiveness.  Remember- melta does wonders vs. MC's, and your assault troops with FNP are better vs. their troops than most other anti-horde out there.  

Overall, I like your force composition a lot.  The unit tweaks will help to optimize your list, and enable you to do some good stuff.  I think (with a little practice of course) that this list will serve you well.  Thanks for sending it in- any other questions for me?  I'll be happy to answer.

Anyone else have something to add?