Following the success of the first article in this series on the Sisters of Battle, I decided to dip my foot in and attempt another. This time on my own favourite army the Blood Angels. So like last time we’re going to start with the Combat Patrol box and then build this up to 1,000 points that will hopefully prove to be a fun introduction to what I think is the most characterful of Space Marine armies.

The combat patrol box is packed with goodies and like the other factions they’re a fantastic way to start a new army as they often give you a wide range of units.

In the Blood Angel Combat Patrol box you’re given;

• Primaris Librarian
• 5x Incursors
• 5x Intercessors
• 3x Aggressors
• Impulsor
• 2x Blood Angel upgrade frames

All of that for £85, which is bought separately would cost roughly £150.

On top of this we’ll add the following units;

• Sanguinary Guard (2 packs) £60
• Space Marine Captain (Free!) – you can kitbash one from the upgrade sprue and Sanguinary Guard.

This will cost you an additional £60, alongside the cost of the Codex (£30) and Blood Angel Supplement (£17.50) the entire army will set you back £192.50!

However! If you sign up for SCN Hobbies mailing list you’ll receive 25% off Games Workshops recommended retail price and 15% off web only miniatures. Meaning including postage the army and codex would cost £152! That’s a saving of just over £40!

To sign up to the SCN Hobbies mailing list, email Sarah on scnhobbyworld@outlook.com.

The list above brings us with upgrades to 1,000 points and the list will be as follows;

Vanguard Detachment (3CP)
Adeptus Astartes: Blood Angels

HQ
———-

Captain (Warlord) -140 pts
– Angel Exemplar (-1cp)
– Jump Pack
– Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
– Relic: Gleaming Pinions
– Warlord Traits: Speed of the Primarch, Gift of Foresight

Primaris Librarian – 95 pts
– Quickening

TROOPS
———-

Incursor Squad – 115 pts
– 4x Incursor w/Occulus Bolt Carbine
– Incursor Sergeant w/Occulus Bolt Carbine
– Haywire Mine

Intercessor Squad – 100 pts
– 4x Intercessor w/Auto-Bolt Rifles
– Intercessor Sergeant w/Auto-Bolt Rifle

ELITES
———-

Aggressor Squad – 120 pts
– 2x Aggressor w/Flamestorm Gauntlets
– Aggressor Sergeant w/Flamestorm Gauntlet

Sanguinary Ancient – 110 pts
– Angelus Boltgun and Encarmine Sword

Sanguinary Guard – 202 pts
– 4x Sanguinary Guard w/ Angelus Boltgun and Encarmine Swords
– 2x Sanguinary Guard w/ Angelus Boltgun and Power Fist

DEDICATED TRANSPORT
———-

Impulsor – 115 pts
– 2x Storm Bolters
– Ironhail Heavy Stubber

CAPTAIN

With your Captain you can kitbash this model from parts of the Sanguinary Guard (using the legs, body, backpack and head) plus the upgrade sprue – replacing the chainsword for a Thunder Hammer (ask a friend if you don’t have one of these, same for the storm shield).

Make this chap your Warlord and give him the relic Gleaming Pinions which will allow the captain to withdraw from combat and then charge again, as well as giving him the ability to re-roll fail charges. This guy will be an absolute beast for you. He’ll have five attacks on the charge with the Shock Assault rule (six if your in Assault Doctrine thanks to Savage Echoes) hitting on 3’s and wounding anything up to strength 7 on 2’s thanks to The Red Thirst.

With flat three damage which also has -2 AP, this guy can bring the pain. Plus if you give him Speed of the Primarch he’ll always fight first in the fight phase. By giving him Angel Exemplar for 1cp you’ll be able have an additional Warlord Trait as well, so why not give him Gift of Foresight to allow him to re-roll one hit roll, wound roll and save roll each turn?

Make sure you keep him within 6″ of your Sanguinary Guard and Ancient as they’ll benefit from a plus 1 to their attack hit roll. Perhaps consider keeping all three units in reserve and deploying them later to counter punch against the enemy.

This guy also has a 2+ save thanks to the Storm shield along with a 4+ invulnerable save, so he’ll be hard to shift without your enemy focusing on him.

PRIMARIS LIBRARIAN

This fellow comes inside the Combat Patrol box, and is our second HQ unit. You can make him tasty in combat by giving him the psychic power Quickening which will allow him to re-roll advance and charge rolls as well as adding D3 attacks to his attacks characteristic giving him the potential to dish out up to nine attacks on the charge thanks to Shock Assault and Savage Echoes. Plus with The Red Thirst you’ll be adding one to your wound rolls.

The draw back is his speed, he won’t be able to keep up with your Sanguinary Guard or Captain, but he can move up the field fairly quickly with the re-rolling of advance rolls. Your opponents will be surprised by his melee capability, hitting on 3’s with a strength five weapon that also provides -3 AP and D3 damage.

INCURSOR SQUAD

The Incursor Squads are great and fit into the Blood Angel theme perfectly. Equip these guys with a Haywire Mine which will cause D3 mortal wounds to an enemy within engagement range on a 2+ (flat 3 wounds if the target is a vehicle).

These guys have Concealed Positions allowing them to deploy anywhere on the battlefield more than 9″ away from the enemy deployment zone or enemy units.

They also benefit from the Occulus Bolt Carbine which removes cover benefits for enemy targets.

Plus as with all Blood Angel units they’re tasty in hand to hand as well, with two attack each (three for the sergeant), and an additional one on the charge courtesy of Shock Assault, they can push out 3 attacks each (four if in Assault Doctrine, again thanks to Savage Echoes).

Buy another box of these when looking to expand your force in the future!

INTERCESSORS

Again, a solid unit and although only five man initially they still benefit from some solid gains though the Blood Angels special rules in the same way that the Incursors do.

Plus if you use the space marine stratagem Rapid Fire for 2cp you’ll be able to fire these boys for a second time at the end of the shooting phase. Rapid firing them on both occasions gets the most out of them. If you give them Auto-Bolt Rifles as well and use Rapid Fire then they could kick out 30 shots in a turn.

AGGRESSORS

These chaps are slow with only a 5″ movement, meaning they’ll be outpaced by the vast majority of units in the game. That being said with D6 shots from their flamestorm gauntlets once they close to within 12″ these guys will each kick out a serious number of hits which are great against large units such as Orks or Astra Militarum conscripts.

With three attacks (four for the sergeant) base these guys will also smash face in the fight phase, remember to charge and you’ll be kicking out 16 attacks for the unit with Shock Assault and Savage Echoes. Remember that Red Thirst will give you +1 to your wound rolls as well meaning they’re wounding most things on either 2’s or 3’s if it’s toughness 8 or above.

Also remember that you can use the Space Marine codex stratagem Unyielding in the Face of the Foe which, for 1 cp allows them to add +1 to their armour saves against weapons with damage 1.

SANGUINARY ANCIENT

The Sanguinary Ancient and the Sanguinary Guard will be your close combat specialists in the army, and that’s saying something for the Blood Angels when as we’ve seen even librarians can dish out up to nine attacks.

Keep this guy within 6″ of both the Guard and your Captain so that they gain +1 to their attack roll for being near the captain and +1 to their roll for having the Chapter banner nearby. This plus if any Sanguinary Guard or the Ancient are destroyed by an enemy model on a 4+ they’ll be able to make a final attack (shooting or melee) before being removed.

With Angelic Visage the enemy also suffer a -1 to hit roll on their attacks in the fight phase.

SANGUINARY GUARD

Much of what was mentioned for the Ancient applies to the Guard as well. Keep them within 6″ of the Captain and the Ancient and you’ll have one big scary melee ball of pain.

Each model is able to dish out three attacks base, and like all of the other units the Guard will benefit from Savage Echoes, The Red Thirst and Shock Assault. All this means is that each one will make four attacks on the charge (five when in assault doctrine). You can increase the potential by +1 on your attack roll if you use the Stratagem Descent of Angels on the turn which they arrived from reserve.

Plus with the Stratagem Upon Wings of Fire, once they’ve mulched their target in the next movement phase you can place them back into reserve and do it all over again.

Thanks to the Ancient and the Captain means they’ll always be hitting on 2’s and with the encarmine blade giving them +1 strength they’ll be able to wound anything up to T4 on 2’s and T5 targets (looking at you greenskins) on 3’s. With AP -3 and flat 2 damage these guys are great against any infantry opponent, and if you equip a couple with power fists they’ll take on tanks as well.

IMPULSOR

Ideally it would be nice to equip this with the Bellicatus Missile Array (allowing you to fire S8 missiles) as without this you’re just relying on the Heavy Stubber and Bolters. But, that being said it can still be useful for transporting your Intercessors and Librarian around the field at a quicker pace.

OTHER POINTS

With Blood Angels, it’s remembering your special rules when you charge and are in combat. The opponent won’t always remind you that you have Savage Echoes, The Red Thirst, Black Rage and Shock Assault so try and get into the habit of learning these if you are going to collect the Blood Angels.

The other thing to remember is that the Blood Angels are a close combat army and so you want to be getting up the field quickly and in the opponents faces as much as possible, but pick your fights well. Don’t throw away your units without possibly whittling down the enemy a little with your boltguns on the Intercessors. Target priority is always key with any army you play, look at your opponents army before your begin, work out the biggest threats and how you can use your units to counter them. Would it involved dropping the Guard, Ancient and Captain nine inches from the horribly big tank? Or perhaps you should kick out those 30 shots that the Intercessors can give on that Ork horde that’s approaching before charging with two or three of your close combat units?

If you like close combat, then these are the Marines for you. Plus who doesn’t love sculpted nips and abs on armour?

WHERE NEXT?

As I mentioned earlier I would probably look to be including more Incursors in the larger builds of this list alongside some of the other more well known Blood Angel units for flavour such as Mephiston and Death Company.

I hope you enjoyed this, please let me know in the comments below how you would build a 1,000 point list from the Combat Patrol Box and why not also let me know what you think to my list. There may well be aspects of the codex or units that I have not included that you think should be, so why not let us know in the comments below.

Peter