The Blood Angels Begin

[hendybadger]

I am now about to start a new Blood Angels force.
With the kind donation of a printed PDF Codex from Brother Jazzman
( A Dread will be named after him!)

My plans are

Dante
5 X Honour Guard- jump
Mephiston
5 x Honour Guard
Lemartes
10 x Death Company - jump
BA Chaplain
10 x Death Company
Tycho
Corbulo

10 x Tactical
10 x Tactical
10 x Assaullt
10 x Assault
?
?

DC Ven Furioso (FW Chaplain)
Furioso (GW Metal)
DC Furioso (Ironclad)
5 x Terminatior - assault cannon
5 x Assault Terminator - 3LC 2TH+SS
10 x Vet assault

2 x Land Speeder - HB+AC
2 x Land Speeder - HB+AC

5/10 x Devastator- what with?
2 x Baal Pred - HB
Landraider Crusader
Landraider

Masters of the Chapter x 4 - Jump
Baal Stromlord !!!
Thunderhawk Gunship

All will have Resin/Metal pads, doors and icons.

But i have afew questions.
I want all models to have the correct company + squad markings with metal shoulder pads.

Can i mix companies fluff wise?
As in, 1St comp termies + vet Assault
2nd comp Tactical + Assault
3rd comp Assault LandSpeeders

How many tanks and Dreads are in a company?
What squad and company markings do they have?

This will be an on going thread with the progress of the army.
Problem is that im getting married in 2 weeks so the progress wont be that fast at first.
Im also building a Tyranid force and get the urge to do abit more to them at times.

Any advice, comments or thoughts would be greatly apreciated!

[swifty2]

Nice looking list mate, can't wait to see this done, absoloutely love blood angels.

To try and answer a few questions;
It's easy to mix companies in terms of fluff, occassionally after a long campaign and heavy losses units may be merged.
The number of tanks and dreads varies because they're taken from the armory rather than the company, but usually theres at least a squad of tanks which consists of 3, dreads are slightly different as their reverred individuals and as such are more like captains just doing their own thing.

[Kemosabe]

Nice to see some Blood Angels. Your list will do really well in CC but i think you need some heavy weapons for anti tank duty.

I would recommend Multi Meltas for your land speeders. The best choice in the game for anti tank duty combined with a fast and cheap vehicle! Not to bad

And get som pics up soon!

[hendybadger]

What sort of weapons would work for the Devs? Anything but missile launchers. Dont like those.
I though the Heavy Bolters on the Landspeeders would tie in with the Baal Preds and Stormlord.

[shabbadoo]

A good rule of thumb would be to start by reding your codex FULLY. That would answer most of your questions, but not all of them as the whole section on how the chapter is organized in not in there. So, in that regard, here are some general rules of thumb.

A Battle Company may have 3 each of Vindicators, Whirlwinds, and Predators(basically a 3-vehicle squadron of each of them). They might have 2-3 Dreadnoughts too. Each Battle Company has ten Rhinos(6 Tactical, 2 Assault, 2 Devastator) and perhaps up to 5 Razorbacks(for command or whatever). They will even likely have a Land Raider or two that will mostly likley be reserved for HQs and Honour Guard(taken as heavy support choices on the FOC).

You can mix units from different companies in the same army. Space Marines do that all of the time, especially with Terminators and Scouts who are only ever members of the 1st and 10th Companies in the Blood Angels organization. Such auxilliary units are used to round out the standard Battle Companies, and support them in various combat roles.

As to unit and company markings, have you even bothered to look at the Blood Angels Codex yet? You may want to look at the pic at the bottom of p. 26 of the Blood Angels Codex PDF. One item of note is that instead of the standard inner red shoulder pads with a black wing and blood drop that most every Blood Angel marine has, Blood Angels sergeants have black inner shoulder pads with the wings and blood drop in yellow(see the pic of the Honour Guard sergeant next to the unit entry on p.10 and p.17). Terminator and Scout sergeants have black shoulder pads with yellow chapter symbols as well. See the pics on p. 13 and elsewhere for further examples of unit marking placement. See the sidebar section on p. 25 for tips on vehicle markings, plus look at the pics of the vehicles too.

That ought to have you building and painting like a madman for some time.

[hendybadger]

With the ongoing thought that SM players dont read there Codex, I am not one of those.

The BA mini Codex doesnt have alot on general chapter organisation. So i just wanted to clear up afew quieries i had.

This force is going to look like the older BA colours which are now the Angels vermilion colors i think.
Armour will be red with black trim on the pads. Vets wil have black pads with red trim and yellow symbols.
All will have black on the top half of the backpacks

Would it be best to use normal Assault models or the new Vanguard for the Vet Assault squads?

[tcraigen]

actuall the older Blood angels colours were more orange and brighter, the vermilion dark reds were kinda their own entity or did you mean just the way that they paing parts of the amour like trim, pads and stuff? The black trim is definately an older theme. If you are doing 2 10 man units Id go with plastic it allows you to build your own and they have theyre own weapon choices different from that of the vans, plus you that saves a bit of $ if you really like them buy one box and mix them in. Im not trying to be bossy, Ive just painted up a couple of these my self, and have been doing so for a little while. I my self like the older style to the armour, Im not a big fan of all red. Any idea what company you want to do? If your going for a stonger yellow red black theme the 2nd is a good one to look at, what other companies are you thinking you might use? I have mixed companies before, if a battlefield requires more units then a standard company has a comander can request assistance from either reserves or another company. I just say the arena escalated and more forces were dragged in. I once did a force with all troop assaults and all elites as well, Vets get a good scull for their company and and the 1 st 2 had 2nd comp then 3rd and the other two had I think it was 8 or 9 that was all assault cant remember.

[shabbadoo]

Jeez. I should have edited that post before submitting it. Fixed and more readble now.

Vanguard Vet models can be used to represent BA Veteran Assault Squad models, but in a BA Veteran Assault Squad only three models can be armed with a power weapon or plasma pistol. The Vanguard Vets all have one of those options, so you'd be wasting two of the models unless you built up two BA Veteran Assault Squads. I'd go with two of the basic plastic Assault Squad boxed sets and add more decorative some bits to them(from the Command Squad box and other sets perhaps) than you do to your basic squads. You'll also end up with a few extra bits to use on other units too(never a bad thing).

[hendybadger]

i think the main force will be from the 1st and 3rd company. With the extra assault units from the 5th. Only because i dont like the look of the yellow and green blood drops.

Plastic Assault models it is then. I already have alot of weapon options i have gathered up for converting Necromunda models.

[Sojourner]

Can i mix companies fluff wise?
As in, 1St comp termies + vet Assault
2nd comp Tactical + Assault
3rd comp Assault LandSpeeders

No reason why not, space marine strike forces are drawn from troops that are available at the time. If half of 2nd Company come down in Thunderhawks and the remainder are called away to relieve 5th Company three hundred miles away because it was their thunderhawk on the deck at the time, when 2nd need support it'll have to be someone else. Marines are nothing if not flexible.

[hendybadger]

Yay! The first units have been bought.
A Legion of the Damned Tactical squad with Heavy Bolter + Flamer.
(count as BA Tactical)
And i now have the 1st BA Chaplain on foot with 5 Death Company

Edit: Love the missus. went out shopping and came home with a Land Raider. Yay!

[hendybadger]

Army list has been updated.
Landraider, Assault Termies and 5 DC now made.
Pics will be up soon.