Blood Angels Codex review - Lords of war, formations and supplements

This last section deals with the lords of war and the formation in the book, but also with the extra formations and detachments added in shield of Baal and White Dwarf.

LORDS OF WAR

Dante:

The man everyone is talking about, Dante is now truly worth of the title 'Lord of war'. Where to begin? He is now an eternal warrior as he always should have been making him much more survivable. The axe mortalis is no longer unwieldy and is +2S, AP2, master crafted. Dante also packs I6. Dante has descent of Angels, arguably the best Warlord trait in the book, and also can take a tactical trait in addition when using tactical objectives for free. He retains his inferno pistol, furious charge, hit and run and his death mask of sanguinius now grants him both fear as standard and all enemy units in 6" at the start of the fight sub phase must also take a fear test. So some subtle changes, but the most notable are the axe mortalis and eternal warrior. For 5 points less we now have an awesome character to lead our army who is not only a beast in combat, but also a tank hunter, squad bolsterer and army bolsterer. Almost an auto-include at higher points levels.

Seth:

Not really Lord of war material in terms of cost or ability but poor Seth wasn't a Chapter Master to be left out  of the trend. Now 5 points cheaper, Seth has the rampage warlord trait and blood reaver remains much the same as a S8 AP4 rending two-handed weapon. Seth has rage as standard as well as fearless and furious charge. Ferocious instincts is gone and whirlwind of gore now scores an additional hit on the target for every 6 to hit. I think he's about the same as before to be honest and is obviously a gorgeous model that can be taken outside the FOC chart without being too costly. He's good against vehicles but hardly game changing due to the AP4. Maybe worth it for that one challenge where you rend with S8+ and inst-kill a terminator captain though!

DETACHMENTS

Strike force Deathstorm

All the chaps from the set basically - all gain fearless (if already fearless gain counter-attack) and once per game all units can reroll to wound in one phase.

Blood Angels battle company

A battle company + Chaplain, dreadnought, furioso, death company - warlord can reroll trait, all troops have objective secured and all units have red thirst as with the detachment (+1 I on the charge unless disordered). This is the best of all worlds if you are playing a large enough game or use minimum sized squads.

FORMATIONS

Flesh Tearers Blood rain strike force

This formation consists of one of each of a death company squad, vanguard squad, assault squad, stormraven and furioso - all of which must have jump packs of start embarked on the stormraven. All models gain the crusader rule and the following. Crimson thunderbolt means you can reroll charge ranges and gain rage if your unit charges on the turn they disembark from the stormraven. Poised to strike is the standard all units arrive from reserve at the same time type rule, though note all jump packers must be placed in deep strike reserve. Rain of blood grants these units fearless and counter attack the turn they arrive from deep strike. This is a nice formation with useful units and when all of them arrive from reserve at the same time with these perks it will be a lot of pain in your opponents face in one go. Of course the stormraven and jump packers have to survive that turn until they can charge, but I think a good way to go may be putting the death company in the stormraven without jump packs at 12 strong, place the vanguard in such a way that storm shields protect them then take a small melta heavy assault squad to get some use out of them before they die (ideally killing any AA that will target the stormraven. Then next turn you should still have enough models to bring the pain!

Angel's wrath intervention force

Basically, 1 vanguard veteran squad and 2 Assault squads which must have jump packs. Guided drop means they must be placed in deep strike reserve and a single reserve roll for the entire formation. If they arrive, all vanguard veterans must be placed first and units of assault marines do not scatter so long as the first model is placed within 6" of the vanguard veterans unit. Meteoric impact means that immediately after deploying, any enemy units within 6" of any units from this formation suffer a strength 4 AP- hit for each of their models which is within 6" of a model from the formation. In addition, these enemy units must move as if they are in difficult terrain until the end of their next turn. This is a reasonably decent formation which allows you to get good use out of assault troops which are not taking up fast/elite slots in your army and also can arrive as a single force. The units can be any size also, so this would be a good alternative to a drop pod assault squad list that are all guaranteed to turn up at the same time and cause extra disruption to enemy squads. Good placement of storm shields and meltas could make this a devastating and relatively affordable/durable shock unit.

Angels fury spearhead force

This formation consists of 3 tactical squads (10-man) and 3 stormraven gunships. The sergeant of each tactical squad in this formation must take a teleport homer as a free upgrade. Augur triangulation allows a friendly unit with the Blood angels faction to arrive from deep strike reserve without scatter and can charge the turn it arrives so long as it is within 12" of at least two models from the formation equipped with teleport homers! The tactical squads also have objective secured and you only need to make a single reserve roll for the entire formation. It gets better - this can be rolled from turn 1 and rerolled if unsuccesful. Essentially, an expensive formation that gives you the ability to assault from reserve and arrive in force in turn one. These formations just keep getting better and better!