Blood Angel Tactics: Headquarters

Blood Angels have some very interesting options for HQ.  From the standard Captain to the powerful and inspiring Reclusiarch.  Following on the tail of Adam's Dark Angels tactics, I thought I'd give a treatise on the other Angels of Death, the Blood Angels.

Captain: The Blood angel captains are pretty run of the mill.  Nothing special or exciting about these guys.  The only difference is they can get an infernus pistol and when they take a jump pack they get the descent of angels rule.  (only scatters 1D6 on the Deep strike).  They can take an honor guard which in my opinion would be better if you could make it larger then 5 guys.  A nice bonus that normal SM don't get is the Sanguinary priests.  The ability to get Furious charge and Feel no pain is pretty major.   I just feel they are rather underwhelming for the points.

Librarian: The Blood angel librarian is a pretty nice addition to a Blood angel army.  The blood angels librarian is the same as a space marines minus the powers.  Still the same set backs(lack of invulnerable save) and low amount of attacks.  But here is a list of the powers.

• Smite - Same as C:SM. 12" S4 AP2 Assault 4.
• Might of Heroes - Gives you +D3 attacks.
• Wings of Sanguinius -  you get Jump Pack movement.
• Unleash Rage - You and your squad gains the Preferred Enemy USR this turn.
• Blood Boil - Pick an enemy unit from 12". It takes a wound with no armor save. If you roll 5 or less on your psychic test, you choose the model.
• Blood Lance - 4D6" straight line that ignores friendly models. Enemy units touched by the line takes a S8 AP1 Lance hit.
• Shield of Sanguinius - All friendly units with 6" of you get a 5+ cover save.
• Fear of the Darkness - 24" Enemy unit takes a morale test at -2 to their Ld.
• Shackle Soul - Enemy needs a leadership test to do anything; move, shoot, run, assault.
• The Sanguine Sword - Your Librarian has S10 this turn.

So lets start by talking about the ranged attack spells.  Smite is the standard space marines spell.  Its good but kinda a waste of a test.  Blood boil can be really usefull for popping heavy weapon or power fists if it works.  Kind of a big gamble.  Blood lance now alot of people swear this spell is the best.  I don't see it.  I mean yes if a guard player lines up all his tanks for you and you roll 24 for range.  Then its SUPER!!!!  but 40K doesn't have closed lists so any player with half a brain will see that spell and never line up.  Fear of the darkness is kinda cool to use on mech guard players or space wolf players, dark eldar or any fairly low leadership armies.

Next we can talk about the support spells.  Shield of Sanguinius gives a 5+ cover save to all models with in 6 inches.  Not a bad spell for when you deepstrike down and have to face down alot of plasma guns.  Next is shackle soul.  This spell can be good if it works.  It can ruin an ork players day.  Then every-ones favorite wings of Sanguinius.  Now it lets you moves as jump infantry not great for a librarian cause he can take a jump pack but for dread librarians.  Well that's a different story for another blog!

Last we have the close combat spells.  Here is the bread and butter of the librarians spells.  First you have Might of heroes.  Who doesn't want more attacks and at strength 10 yes please!  Then there is unleash rage.  This one pretty much says who needs a chaplain.  Lastly is The sanguine sword.  Gives the librarian strength 10.  Can't go wrong with that.

Reclusiarch:Now these guys are my favorite HQ.  They are super chaplains.  They make the squads fearless.  They allow re rolls on the charge to hit(death company can also reroll to wound.  They are 130 points but have 1 higher BS, Initiative, attacks, and wounds.  I think they are by far the best non special character in the Blood angels army.