Dante’s Personal Guard

Following this post we wanted to reveal the Blood Angels army that we have in the works. This 2,000 point army will form the second tier in the ‘Three Armies in a Case’ project. Known as TAIAC for short, details of which were posted earlier today.

The list has been fine tuned, reviewed, tested, and looked over many times until it has arrived at this latest incarnation.

As with the Uber Elite Fenrisians (UEF) there were a number of conditions:

Rules:

• Each 2,000 point army must fit into a single standard Games Workshop figure case foam tray

Principles:

• Each army must reflect the background appropriate to the army
• Each army must showcase some of the buffs rules and special rules of the army
• Each army must include a variety of units
• Each army must include at least one unit we would NEVER normally select for use

Clearly the rules are the most restrictive part of this project. Fitting a workable 2,000 point army which is diverse and contains an unusual unit choise is no mean feat! Fortunately the Blood Angels are up to the challenge.

With their ready access to jump infantry the blodd angels are already an elite army. Of the three lists this one presented me with the most tactical options and is easily the most capable on the tabletop. Where the UEF hit hard, but are small in numbers and are on foot the blood angels are better armoured, feel-no-pained and a lot more mobile.

That’s enough bluster, time for the list. As ever, only optional upgrades are shown. Dante comes with all of his kit as standard so we won’t waste your time with it.

Dante’s Personal Guard

HQ:

Commander Dante

Epistolary
Shield of Sanguinius; Fear of the Darkness; Jump Pack; Infernus Pistol

5 Honour Guard
Jump Packs; 3 x Meltagun; Flamer

Elite:

Techmarine
Jump Pack; Combi-Melta

Sanguinary Priest
Jump Pack; Combi-Meltagun

Sanguinary Priest
Jump Pack; Combi-Meltagun

Troops:

5 Sanguinary Guard
Death Masks; Power Fist; 2 x Infernus Pistol

5 Sanguinary Guard
Chapter Banner; 2 x Infernus Pistol

6 Death Company
Lemartes, Guardian of the Lost; Jump Packs; Thunder Hammer; Bolters

Fast Attack:

6 Vanguard Veterans
Jump Packs; Pair of Lightning Claws (Sergeant); Melta Bombs; 2 x Power Weapon; Power Fist

Explanation:

Hopefully you’ll be able to see the sense of what we’ve gone for immediately. This army has so many special rules and buffs that it needs a full-blown crib sheet to get you through the first few games. I’ve been careful to remind myself of special rules ever since I forgot my rhinos have ‘repair’ and so lost a game in a GT back in 2008.

Let’s talk through the choices we’ve made.

HQ Choices:

Blood Angels have some excellent HQ choices available to them. Given the nature of the list we were setting out to build one of our HQ slots was practicaslly reserved for Dante.

His FOC rule allows us to slot the elite sanguinary guard in to our troop slots, increasing the average value of the models in our army and giving our compact force some brutal close combat punch.

Close on Dante’s heels was an epistolary. The BA psychic powers are brilliant and psychic hoods are a wonder to have around when the going gets tough. We’re not settled on powers yet. We may play the army against a few more foes before we settle on the powers we want permanently.

We’d have loved one of the other characters but being unable to take the furioso dreads due to our size rules the other HQ had to stay at home while our librarian friend came out to play.

We wrap up the HQ with an honour guard squad. This unit forms both a bodyguard unit and a suicide melta squad in a pinch. I’d rather not sacrifice anything in an army this small but if there’s a tank or MC that absolutely must die as quickly as possible these are the boys for the job.

Before it comes up, there were five points hanging around when all else was accounted for. So we bought the last guy a flamer so he wouldn’t feel left out with his mates all toting cool apothecary kit or meltaguns.

Elite Choices:

The techmarine is the unit we would never normally take, the other Elite choices would normally be too tempting.

The opportunity to take one with a jump pack was something we wanted to try and even with a combi-melta this is a relatively cheap unit. Better yet he represented some great modelling opportunities when it comes to building the army later.

The second and third slots were quickly filled by sanguinary priests with jump packs. Need we say more? Lovely.

Troop Choices:

At first we filled the troops choices with as many sanguinary guard as we could fit in. On reflection however we wanted to include as much variety and flavour as possible. Death Company were the obvious answer. While they have their problems their name is almost synonymous with the blood angels and no army would be complete without some of these deranged warriors.

Lemartes was an obvious selection. He buffs the unit, comes with a jump pack and costs a pile of points. All good things when you have very little space to work with. It’s also a chance to get another character in to the army when we’re out of HQ slots.

The sanguinary guard were loaded up with death masks and infernus pistols and made ready to go. Perhaps the easiest units to equip of the lot. Their basic equipment is their strength and we wanted to distract from that as little as possible.

Fast Attack:

The rest of the army can deepstrike very accurately, Dante can even deepstrike with his eyes closed, but only one unit can arrive and get stuck in on the same turn. Vanguard veterans.

We opted for six in the end. We wanted a unit that could arrive and immediately get stuck in to whatever unit most needed their attention. Key suspects are support units such as lootas, devastators and the like or large mobs of cheap troops. If they’re inside one of the army’s three feel-no-pain bubbles this unit can weather a mountain of standard attacks.

With a fist and melta bombs in their arsenal the unit can also assault enemy armour if there are no soft targets available on the turn they arrive amidst streamers of glory, howling cries of doom at their enemies as they hurtle from the stained skies… Ahem.

Actually, on that note. It did occur to us that jump infantry devastators would be the coolest innovation since flour was baked, sliced and spread with butter! But we digress.

The theme is strong in this army. It feels very true to both the established background and the new codex. We love the UEF but the DPG have taken the prize in terms of cool… for now!

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

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Dante’s Personal Guard

Posted by on December 18 2010. Filed under Blog Network. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry