Email in: Blood Angels list - Can I get your comments?

"G'day Kirby,

Love the blog, very entertaining! Lately I've been reading and re-reading your articles about Blood Angels and between that and the new codex, became quite obsessed. I know you've put up a few lists (Rodeo, JP, Mech) but I would like your opinion on a SR / DP list. I know you're not a huge fan of DC, and I'm not trying to make a fluff army (want it to be as competitive as possible in my meta) but I like the idea of dropping a large group of DC into the enemy then following up with the rest of the chapter.

The Anvil
Elites
Furioso Lib - DP (Shield, Blood Lance)

Troops
10 Death Company - DP
Death Company Dread - DP

605 Points

The Hammer
HQ
Librarian (Shield, Preferred Enemy)

Elites
5 Assault Terms - 2x TH/SS, 3x LC
3 Sang Priests (Assigned to RAS and Terms)

Troops
5 Scouts - Snipers
10 RAS - DP, 1x PF, 2x Melta
10 RAS - DP, 1x PF, 2x Melta
Death Company Dread

Fast Attack
Land Speeder

Heavy Support
Storm Raven - EA

1395 points
Total points 2000
 
Simply put, drop the Death Company and Death Company Dread with the Furioso Lib into one side of the enemy and then slam the Storm Raven and remaining RAS into the other side of them. (Hopefully minimizing the Rage rule in the process.)

What kind of changes should I make to this list to make it most effective?

Cheers Kirby!

-Teagashi"

Glad you like the blog Teagashi (another fan!) though I thought I was done with Blood Angel articles for a while! Blast lol (outside of Blood Rodeo though...). My initial thoughts to a SR/DP list are no. You're trying to cram too much into a list and basically grab as many toys as possible. You'll find this is the problem with most new books, you want all the shiny new toys but you just can't fit them all in I'm afraid. Whilst I'm also not a fan of DC, DC Dreads when supplemented with other Dreads can be quite scary and thus DC have some uses. So let's take a peek at your list.

Hammer & Anvil is an okay tactic but not really for this type of list (rather think Blood Rodeo) and certainly not as Warseer Eldar players see it (Eldar is all whoosh from the Hammer missing the Anvil...dur). Why? It's too easy for your opponent to use deep strike defenses against you or hide behind your initial units and thus create a sort of road block where your arriving units can't get access to your opponent. Not sure if this was how you were running your army (Hammer & Anvil) but just thought I'd get it out there so you know one of the greatest strengths of podding armies is the ability to be flexible on what drops T1 (ask Daemons how being inflexible is). To the list...

My initial thoughts were correct. You've essentially got a Drop list w/a tack on Stormraven w/TH/SS termies. Whilst you can Deep Strike the Stormraven you lose the advantage of being an assault vehicle. You therefore really need to pick one or the other, Pods or Stormraven. I personally think pods is the better choice (come on, 6+ Dreads!) but Stormraven lists are capable as well. I think if you end up going the route of Drop Pods and still want your DC then Chapter style army it's still doable. 10x DC w/2PFists, 2x DC Dreads all in Pods backed up by 2 Libby Dreads, 2 Normal Dreads, 5 ASM squads, Libby and some Priests if you have the points should do the trick or if you wanted to keep Termies they can be slotted in somehow as well. (jsut ran the points and I think that's a bit over the points limit). We'll keep the Furiosos as non-Libbies to free up some points and take 2x Libby instead. Here's a Drop Dread list @ 2k using 10x DC:

2x Libby w/Lance & Shield
HG w/4x meltagun in Pod
2x Furioso Dread in Pod
10x DC w/2x PFists in Pod
2x DC Dread in Pod
3x 5x ASM w/meltagun, infernous pistol in Pod
2x Dreadnought in Pod

That's what you're looking at roughly for a Dread Pod list (with 30 points to spare for upgrade, i.e. HFlamers). Problem is the DC are chewing up 3of our Troops slots and can't score, otherwise we could slap in some more ASM squads so this is also an option if you wish to trade a DC Dread for a normal Dread or Furioso w/Talons. It's a lot more synergetic than the SR/DP list as everything is working as one (and you don't have 500+ pts sunk into an AV12 skimmer) and you have the flexibility of dropping infantry or dreads on T1. So do you think you might prefer something like this or should we look at Stormravens. If you want to do a Stormraven/DP list the DPs will be small ASM squads as invisioned in Stelek's 2.5k list or Eddies' 2000 list [modified] which I think you weren't going for. Let me know what you think Teagashi and we can go from there.

Anyone else's thoughts are also appreciated!