I managed to fit in a 1500pt game vs my friend and fraternity brother Darrin and his Chaos Daemons. He's mostly still learning the game but has a ton of models. He's more of a Magic/D&D guy, but will play just about any game with people. As per usual, I took some pictures and added some captions for you all to see, plus it's easier for me to go back to and go over my strategy that way. I can take video with my phone, but I hate my voice on recordings, so that's out for now, lol. Anyway my list was a tweaked version of the Mech list I just posted yesterday. Also note, this list has 0 invul saves and is basically like a horde marine list. Didn't set out to be that way, but what I'm doing is avoiding point sinks and going with a more is more approach. Too many awesome models die from a hail of bolter fire to suck up like 250 or more points. Running a lot of cheap, redundant models just seems smart in a game of dice. Plus, it breaks that psychological hold of an HQ. When my old PDF Dante would get murdered by a single Melta, it would throw me off as a general, as I dwelled on the loss. If I lose my 100pt HQ, I shrug it off and have another to take his place.

• 2x (10-man ASM: PF, 2-MG in a Rhino with Extra Armor) 530
• 2x (5-man ASM: PW/MB; 1-MG in a Rhino with extra Storm Bolter) 310
• 2x Priest 100
• 2x Librarian (S10 Sword, Preferred Enemy, Epistolary) 300
• 1x 10-man Sternguard 250

This got me to 1490 points. I believe Darrin's list was also 1490pts so we were even in points,  but not even in codexes as the battle will reveal. His list was approximately the below. They had a number of weapon upgrades but I don't remember them all like Phlegm and Breath of Chaos.

• Blood Thirster
• Skulltaker
• 2x Soul Grinders
• 2x Plague Bearers with Icon
• 2x 3-unit Flamer with Bolt of Tzeentch
• Nurgle Prince

So there you have it, another BA victory before turn 5. I guess I'm only friends with people playing old codexes and the books show their age. I'd say the single biggest let down seeing these Daemons in action is they mostly have 5+ saves. Sure, they're invul so they always get it against my shooting, but 5+ still fails a lot, as evident by the Nurgle Prince suffering a wound from 2 successful storm bolter shots. Also looking at their stat lines, nothing is really impressive save the Blood-Thirster, which he fielded, but failed to DS in. His best looking unit is actually the Flamer, since I guess each model gets a template over your units, and this can lead to a ton of wounds. You still have to roll a 4+ to wound with their weapon, but you're looking at a lot more than 1-2 wounds like a normal weapon at close range, plus each one auto-glances armor and the unit is Jump Infantry with a 4+ invul save. He was definitely let down by his first Soul Grinder as well, one of which he nicknamed "Lucky" for consistently dying on the first turn of his games. I chalk it up to it being such a threat that people throw whatever they can at it first. In this case, I zoomed up 2 Meltas and got a rear arc shot to take it down. I gave him some tips and we had a good after-battle talk to hopefully get him to think more about his army. Hope we get to play again soon!

After fiiiinally getting in some games with the new Blood Angel Codex, I have a better idea of how they handle. These have been 500-750pt games, but it's a start. I thought I'd start gearing up for 1500pt games again, once Jason gets up to speed on an updated codex, as the Necron are starting to show their age for him. I decided to drop Razorbacks for Rhinos for their versatility, and frankly, because they are cheap. Armor 11 was no match for even his need to roll 6s to at most glance. With a Rhino you're not losing a 35pt weapon in a single hit and if they become immobilized, Rhinos can repair themselves and RZBs cannot.  My shuffle also allows me to field full 10-man squads so I can get more special weapons on the board (normally Meltas). Currently, in this draft state, I have the below army plus 140pts remaining for either more Sternguard or upgrades to my Rhinos like Extra Armor to keep them moving up the board.

2x 10-man ASM: PF, 2x Melta, Rhino 500
2x 5-man ASM: PW/MB, 1x Melta, Rhino 290
2x Librarian (Shield, Lance) 200
2x Priest 100
1x 10-man Sternguard: 2x Missile Launcher (Combat Squads) 270

The 5-man squads ride with the Priest and Libby and are basically utility vehicles providing cover and FC/FP bubbles. Others like kitting these guys out for CC awesomeness, but that whole "single out ICs" in close combat is dangerous, especially as neither have a invul save and cost 50-100pts each. The forward Rhinos will blaze away with their Meltas and the support Rhinos will blaze away with another one plus Blood Lances all while shielded a bit. I can always disembark the Priest and Libby, say if needed for their insta-kill sword or leave the priests to provide FNP while my 5-men retreat to a flag point. More to come...

Ok, so I asked around about my Dante/Sang Guard list on here and forums and I got a resounding "Meh". Apparently the Sang Guard are trash, as they are still just marines. The only aspect of them I don't like is the 5-man limit. People also point out cost or no invul save, but I'm fine with that. I just like to have enough bodies around in the event guys drop, so if it were a 10-man unit, I'd still go with them. I still intend to put them on the board sometime as a lark and find out how fast they die. But, on to more lists as I said I would. This one is a Mech list, which actually is a modified Jump Pack list. Since the transition from JPs to transport is no longer free for normal assault marines, it ended up that I had to remove models and make 9-man units to fit everything in a transport plus the points difference. *Edited RZB weapon and Libbies for more anti-tank*

• 2x Librarian (Blood Lance and ??)
• 2x 9-man Assault Squad
• Power Weapon, 1x Melta-gun
• Rhino
• 2x 5-man Assault Squad
• Razorback with LC/TL-PG
• 2x Priest
• 2x 8-man Sternguard Squad
• Missile Launcher

If you haven't picked up on it, I like mirrored lists. It might be a deep seated OCD thing I don't know about, but there it is. I think it has to do with redundancy, should one unit fail via bad-luck I have a back up. It also means the enemy can't cherry pick the "uber" unit and single out my best guy. He has equal threats on both sides, so regardless of where he attacks I have more of the same. The Libbies are attached to the large squad in a Rhino and a Priest is with the 5-man in the RZB. It was between that or an Honor Guard that comes with the free Priest and were actually very near the same cost. It came down to the fact I now have 4 scoring units in armor instead of 2 scoring units, but really it's a toss up if you compare them on paper. The RZB is to protect the Priest from being singled out, say if he was with the main assault squad. If the RZB is popped, the 5-man squad isn't kitted to fight, but could be a counter-charge/meat shield and the Priest can break off to hide in maybe the newly emptied Rhino of the original squad to keep that bubble up. The Sternguard form a fire-base and mostly lay down 30" range shots to weaken units or target MCs, etc with their more specialized ammo, instead of my squishy troops trying to assault it.

As the title suggests, this is a poor-man's mech. Of course I want better upgrades, especially on those other 5-man units, but it's just impossible to fit it all. GW is forcing me to play 1750 almost so I can round everyone out. For example, taking 10-men squads and the other melta would be great! But that's 56 points I don't have at 1500 and plus my Librarians now are kicked out and have to walk or pay even more for a transport or JP. Every time I remove men from a squad, say like the Sternguard, I get more upgrades, but I'm losing shots that could be vital against a horde. This is a take-on-whatever list, so I'm planning to be rounded, so I don't want to lose anti-horde just to get more anti-MEQ when my troops can handle it. I can't decide on the Libby powers quite yet either. The Shield seems pretty awesome to have a 5+ cover save either on foot or in vehicles and I might take Preferred Enemy as well to ensure we'll win combat. Again, I hope to not be assaulting MCs, but if it happens, I can still use my Instant Death blade if it comes down to it, since stuff like 'nids lost Eternal Warrior on everything for just being in synapse.

Caveats: Again I have no experience with the list and no one else does, so let's not start off with "this list sucks" comments 'til we enter a time when the codex isn't the new hotness anymore. This is built of personal preference, not a jumping board to 'ard boys lists and dreams of tourneys or stomping one enemy type at the local club. I hope to try this out sometime soon. I'll build more lists in the future as well, so this isn't the end all be all for me.

So I had fun with my Death Company list below. I'll proxy that sometime just for fun and see how it goes and I'll report. Otherwise, let's get back to a real list I might field. Again, I'm not set on this being the list, this is just the first in a line of test lists to come. This list is an elite jump pack army, using the Sang Guard as troop choices, so we're talking high cost, power units that are pretty efficient. I'll come out with a regular Jump Pack list with normal troops and a Mech list to utilize more of the Fast Rhino chassis'. 

• Dante
• Librarian w/ Infernus
• 2x 5-man Sanguinary Guard w/ 1 Infernus
• 2x Priests with Jump Packs (Single Elite choice)
• 2x Baal Predators with HB Sponsons
• 1x 10-man Tactical Squad (Combat Squad)
• Las-cannon, Power Fist, Melta-gun
• Razorback with TL Assault Cannon

Edit: I found my original list and added what I was missing, which was some pistols, PF, and melta-gun. The first thing that jumps out at me after making the list, is holy crap are Priests expensive, let alone put a jump pack on em or a bike. My two guys are almost as expensive as the 5-man Sang Guard squad! I was aiming to put Carbulo in here to get his special re-roll ability, but this is a tough squeeze and had to drop him. Each squad will have an attached priest and HQ, the Baals for fire support, the first combat squad of Tacticals will be in the RZB to plug any gaps or provide cover for the other 5-man combat squad that will be in the back taking pot-shots and holding home objectives.

I did some math hammer with the squads on the charge and you're looking at about 8-12 unsaved wounds per assault phase. The trick here is to kill off anything that can insta-gib your priest like a fist or power weapon but also trying not to wipe the squad, leaving you exposed. This will be what I need to work on for the most part, well, that and getting them to the target before losing guys to ranged fire. 2+/4+FNP will keep the guard up easily, but need to watch out for certain cannons or melta fire. The goal is always to stay locked in CC until the enemy phase to wipe out the unit, freeing you to assault again on your turn, or now use Dante's Hit-and-Run ability.

Other than that, I'm not sure what abilities I want to take for the Libby. I could take the Shield which will give my guys a 5+ Cover save while we're walking around, which sounds a bit tasty. And also Unleash Rage (Preferred Enemy) would be nice, but seems to be overkill, as my Guard come with master-crafted weapons, letting me re-roll 5 "to hits" anyway. The Shackle Soul could lock down units to make sure they don't run away (shooty units) or counter me by assaulting me first. Basically since he's not an Epistolary and he's already with a CC monster unit, he doesn't need to pick up the slack and can just be a support unit to keep everyone alive long enough to deliver their payload.

So there you go, my first play test list for the new Codex. Comments/Questions/Concerns are welcome. I might test it out this weekend with my friend Seth, but we'll see. Then I'll work on my other lists and get them posted as soon as I can. On a side note, I've started building my assault marines finally! (I've been using my Necron models for all previous battles) I'll post on my progress with those and a short thing on magnetizing them for different weapon selections.

I spent the last couple days pouring over the new codex, as seen with my last post, as well as forums to help with some new rules we'll be dealing with. I knew I wanted to generate multiple army lists to choose from and play test, instead of finding one "uber" list right away and be let down by it later. The first thing that popped into my head was a crazy DC list. The list has no real staying power; it is pure killing a.k.a. brick-to-the-face. I'd play this to have fun, not be competitive. I'll go over the caveats after the list:

• Astorath
• Lemartes
• 5-man Death Company x2
• Power Weapon x3
• Death Company Dread x2
• Heavy Flamer
• Stormraven x2
• TL-MM and TL-AC

 As you can see, this is incapable of holding an objective. This list can only win KP missions and Draw in anything else. So no need to tell me the list is retarded, I know, lol, but it is technically a legal list.You'll also notice it's a mirrored list with 2 Stormravens carrying 6 models each, all jump pack bound and two identical Dreads. The ravens could start on the table, fire off all the Blood Missiles to soften up the enemy. All the units can assault from disembarking from the ravens with FC, FNP, and re-roll to hit and to wound on the charge, many of these being power weapon strikes. The DC Dreads can focus on the big stuff with their Blood Fists. The ravens can then provide fire support. Sorry, as ridiculous as it is, it comes out to a perfect 1500 and just seems so awesome. I actually came up with a second list already that is more balanced and I hope, competitive. That one is based on jump packs as well, but not falling into the point sinks of Stormravens or the craziest HQs. Finally, I'll make a mech list with lots of 5-man squads, razorbacks, and tanks.

Managed to fit in a quick game on Sunday with my friend Dak and his Tau again after a long hiatus. He's more into Dungeons and Dragons right now so his Tau are on the side lines at my place most of the time. I decided to repeat my last army list, which my friend Seth came up with during my last batrep. I also took pictures this time to help detail the situation! My list:

• Carbulo (on foot)
  
• 3 Death Company (on foot)
• 2x Land Speeders with MM and HF
• 2x Baal Preds with HB Sponsons
• 1x Furioso Dread w/ DC and HF
• 3x 10-man ASM (2 in Rhinos, 1 Jump Packs)
  
• Sargent w/ PW and MB
• 1 Plasma Pistol

One unit of ASM were using Packs for two reasons: 1) I didn't have enough Rhino hulls to represent 2 Preds and 3 transports and 2) I had yet to field Jump Packs and wanted to see how maneuverable and deadly they could be. Tau forces were (from my memory):

• 2x HQ Suits with Plasma/Missile and Shield Drone
• 2x Suits with Plasma/Missile
• 2x Hammerhead with Ion Cannon
• 1x Hammerhead with Rail
• 2x Firewarrior Squads, only 1 Devilfish transport
• Squad of Kroot and Hounds around 20 or more strong
• Mystery unit that was in the back, but never shot or did anything so I can't remember what it was.

Here is a picture of the opening layout. We rolled for Seize Ground and Pitched deployment. He won the roll off and handed me first turn. I deploy everything and so does he.
At the end of my shooting phase, before I even assaulted his FW with my ASM, he called the game. He failed to kill anything of mine and his troop choices were dwindling. He was down to one suit as well that already lost its drone and a wound. I would say my forces were nicely balanced and I was rolling an abundance of 4+'s with about 3-4 rending shots on his suits. He also rolled an abundance of 3-'s for his to-hits, to-wounds, and armor saves for his troops. 

My friend Seth, who was the one that pushed me into the table top hobby, visited from out of town this weekend and he brought his mixed Chaos force to do battle. We played 1500pt, Dawn of War, with one Control Point, that being my AV14 Bunker in the center of the board. It was going to be a blood bath. We played two games using this setup. The first is sort of my "all-comers" list and the second is his suggestion of an "all-comers" list, so neither were geared for killing Chaos. His forces:

• Daemon Prince with Lash
• 3x Squads of Death Guard with 2x Meltas and a PF each w/ Rhino
  
• 2x Squads of Bezerkers w/ Rhino

My Forces in Game #1:

• Lord Dante
• Carbulo in Rhino with 3 DC
• 2x 5-man ASM in Rhinos
• Sargents had PW and Melta Bombs
• 10-man Tac Squad with Las-cannon
• 3x Landspeeders with MM
• 3x Baal Preds with HB Sponsons
• All vehicles had Extra Armor

My Forces in Game #2:

• Carbulo
• 3 Death Company (foot slogging)
• 2x Land Speeders with MM and HF
• 2x Baal Preds with HB Sponsons
• 1x Furioso Dread w/ DC and HF
• 3x 10-man ASM in Rhinos
• Sargent w/ PW and MB
• 1 Plasma Pistol

To keep things short and sweet, and maybe it's obvious, but both games ended in draws. With only one CP in the center, there weren't any chances for last turn grabs and there were just too many things to kill that any one thing could contest. In the first game I used two Landspeeders that had no weapons to turbo boost in and just provide something to contest. Overall, most of my stuff died, including Dante on turn 1 from a melta (*curses old edition codex with no eternal warrior*). In the second game it was more of the same, but my units fared a bit better with surviving and killing the Chaos, but still a draw. A picture of the end of game two is below. At the bottom of 5 we just laid it out on the table of what we'd do the next couple turns and it was determined that it was impossible for either of us to get a "win" as all of our units were on top of the point, so even if he cracked open the objective and killed my marines inside in one turn, there were still Rhinos that could sit and contest that would take more than 2 turns to wreck or destroy, so we just called it.