A recent e-mail in by 200ponies has had me re-look at the BA list dubbed Flamestorm. The list will pretty much stay the same but I think a couple of changes could make it a bit better. So the aim of the list is to throw a lot of fast tanks at your opponent with a bunch of melta and flame weapons to bust tanks and roast whatever is inside ala Immo spam done by Witchunters. The advantage Blood Angels have is Fast vehicles but won't be able to get as many templates due to the expense of their vehicles. The lack of IG allies also means they can't access an easy peasy objective holder which can put out good suppression fire and lose access to a cheap RBack if they do (i.e. Scouts). However, BA do get Dreads in Heavy Support which can provide more reliable and mobile suppression fire than an IG platoon/HWS but is vulnerable to suppression themselves and doesn’t score. In the original list I ran Sternguard in HFlamer RBacks but only had two Dreads and I think 3 Dreads would be better and being able to include some Honor Guard for top hatch pewpew (Rhinos) and FNP/FC bubbles whenever guys get disembarked.
So, we obviously need to build around ASM in RBacks as they get cheap RBacks and can pack two melta weapons in 5man squads. 155 points gets us 5 ASM, meltagun, infernous pistol, RBack w/TL-Heavy Flamer and a HKM. We'll start with 6 of these guys which gives us an excellent core of melta, scoring and templates and sets us back 930 points. Rifledreads provide us mobile and reliable suppression fire from backfield which can help the armored fist as it approaches the enemy. Three of these gives us 12 twin-linked S7 shots which is pretty good and sets us back 360 points (1290 total). We need to add to our armored fist and we've got Elites, FA and HQ to do this. We wanted to use Honor Guard for meltagun bunkering and to see if we can utilise the ability of Libby power like Blood Lance. Libby + HG w/2x meltaguns and Rhino is an expensive 285 points and only provides anti-mech and utility (Shield from Libby) but importantly can be done from the safety of inside a tank. This probably isn't worth it in the end as it chews up too many points so for the moment we'll just take the Libby (1390) and look at what else we can do before we look at what else we can take.
We can grab three more fast tanks in Fast Attack with Baal Preds which helps our armored fist and importantly can provide some AV13. This won't be huge as the speed of the army will often present side facings to a mobile army but with Scout and appropriate movement in the early going, this can provide extra protection to the RBacks behind. For 115 a piece we'll take three but out to outfit them? We can either provide more suppression fire with TL-assault cannons or provide a beefer template at S6 AP3. I feel the template is a better option for this army to help reliably bust Marines out of cover and with all of our meltaguns and Dreadnoughts we've got out anti-mech covered. I'm not putting on sponsons because their LoS will often be blocked and the army as a whole wants to move quickly so they will rarely be fired. This takes us to 1735 points, 265 remaining. This is where we reach an impasse as the current list works brilliantly at 1750 points (31 Marines, 12 tanks). If we recall, you cannot always take a list and simply scale it up whilst expecting it to be as effective as possible. In this case I think Flamestorm actually works better at 1750 with the following list:
Librarian w/Shield, Sanguine Sword, Infernous Pistol
5x Assault Marines w/meltagun, infernous pistol, Razorback w/TL-Heavy Flamer, Hunter Killer Missile
5x Assault Marines w/meltagun, infernous pistol, Razorback w/TL-Heavy Flamer, Hunter Killer Missile
5x Assault Marines w/meltagun, infernous pistol, Razorback w/TL-Heavy Flamer, Hunter Killer Missile
5x Assault Marines w/meltagun, infernous pistol, Razorback w/TL-Heavy Flamer, Hunter Killer Missile
5x Assault Marines w/meltagun, infernous pistol, Razorback w/TL-Heavy Flamer, Hunter Killer Missile
5x Assault Marines w/meltagun, infernous pistol, Razorback w/TL-Heavy Flamer, Hunter Killer Missile
Baal Predator w/Flamestorm Cannon
Baal Predator w/Flamestorm Cannon
Baal Predator w/Flamestorm Cannon
Dreadnought w/2x TL-autocannons
Dreadnought w/2x TL-autocannons
Dreadnought w/2x TL-autocannons
Totals: 1750 points
31 infantry
12 tanks
So, a rather impressive if uni-dimensional list. The ability to drop 9 templates from fast vehicle chassis backed up by 12 twin-linked autocannons, 6 HKM salvo and 13 melta weapons all protected by Shield of Sanguine is pretty impressive at this points level. Can it be taken to 2000 points? Yes and I will look at that in a different post but I think in terms of raw efficiency and effectiveness on the table-top, 1750 is where Flamestorm really works.
Oh and check out this awesome BA painting log from which the picture came from.
Oh and check out this 
