Through covert means which I would rather not be closely examined, I managed to thumb
through a copy of the new Blood Angels codex before the Inquisition yanked it out of my
hands.
Caveat: I do not have a photographic memory. I cannot tell you the cost of the
"Baal" Predator. I cannot tell you what wargear options the Veteran Sergeant's
brother-in-law's Land Raider gets. I do not know how many breath-mints a BA Devistator
trooper keeps in his backpack.
So Don't Ask.
Description:
The Blood Angel codex is a "codexling", 24 pages long. The army list was fully a
third of the book, the special characters another third, and the rest fluff or color
pages.
The army list was about half-full. By that I mean that if it was a Blood Angel-specific
squad or vehicle, it had a listing, but if it was not BA-specific it just had a box
referring you to the Space Marine codex.
Example: "Devistator Squad - See Codex: Space Marines"
So you are required to have the Space Marines Codex to use this one. But we knew that.
There seemed to be a fair number of fluff sidebars, but I didn't read them because I knew
that my mission for the List was to get as much rules stuff as possible, right? [still,
the art was cool - lots of spattering blood and gore]
So without further ado...
Blood Angels get to add +1 to their Strength and +1 to their Initiative on the first turn
of HTH if they charge. For no additional cost.
Blood Angels get a Dreadnought with two close combat weapons (and a 2D6 + strength (10)
armor penetration).
Blood Angels get a Rhino and a Razorback with souped-up engines.
Blood Angels get the Baal Predator with twin-linked assault cannons.
Blood Angels get a Veteran Assault Squad.
Blood Angels get their own wargear list in addition to the "vanilla" Space
Marine list.
Death Company members get to ignore wounds on a 4+.
Death Company members get Jump Packs for free. Rhinos too. Souped-up Rhinos.
Cool, eh?
Right now there are a half-dozen guys reaching for the "reply" key and wondering
if they remember how to spell "escalation" correctly. But wait, there's more
(and less):
You can't buy the Death Company. Any Blood Angel squad will lose at least one member to
the Death Company on a 4+ die roll before the game. ANY squad - this means that a 42-point
terminator may turn into a black power-armored loony. Ditto a 35-point biker. The only
figures immune are characters and vehicle crews (bikers are not vehicle crews).
What the chances are for multiple loonies from a single squad escapes me. You can
theoretically lose your entire force to the Death Company, but the odds are
astronomical… I think you'd have to roll an unprecedented number of sixes.
Blood Angels have a 1-in-6 chance of making an uncontrolled move towards the enemy, no
matter what their original plans were. This means your Devistators may go for a little
bloodthirsty stroll instead of standing still and shooting like good little vampires. This
is each turn.
Blood Angels must always pursue a broken foe. They never have the option to consolidate
after a close combat.
The souped-up transports are more expensive than the normal ones (by 10-20 points as I
recall), and they do not have the option to buy the vanilla versions. There is some chance
to throw an axle or blow a gasket or something. Very Orky, these Blood Angels.
Unlike the "Appendix" Blood Angel army, the Codex BAs may not buy Assault Squads
out of the "troops" section. They are still "Fast Attack" - or
"Elite" in the case of the Assault Vets.
Blood Angels can only buy the HTH Dread from "Elites", the normal Dreads come
out of "Heavy Support".
Blood Angels are not allowed to buy a few items out of the vanilla Space Marine Wargear. I
don't remember which items, though.
Blood Angel scouts have less upgrade options than normal scouts. The actual restrictions
escape me, but I do recall that they are allowed one "normal" scout squad - any
others must be the "Blood Angels Lite" scouts.
That's all the pros and cons I can dredge out of my sorry memory.
The special characters were all there and more. Dante, Mephiston (Mr. The Lord of Death,
to you), Corbulo, Tycho. There was a character Dreadnought - I think a Death Company
Dread, or perhaps a Chaplain Dread. One or two other new personalities were present.
So, my take on it? It seemed like you could make almost any army that an Ultramarine or
Imperial Fist could make... but you couldn't use it like they could.
The BAs will be seriously short on Heavy Weapons - they can buy Devistators just fine, but
they'll be ineffective 1/6 of the time. They can buy HW dreadnoughts, but not out of the
"Elites" like other marines. Really, the armored vehicles will be the only place
to get
reliable Big Guns.
Worse that that is the risk of buying expensive troops like veterans, terminators and
bikers. There is 50/50 chance that each squad will be reduced by one, growing the Death
Company. Sure the DC are fairly tough, but losing a 60-point HTH termie so he can go paint
his armor black will be a severe blow. BAs would seem to favor large squads of normal
troopers if they want to reduce the impact of the Black Rage.
Of course, they might not want to reduce it at all - perhaps the prospect of an
uncontrollable assault force would be worth losing a few generic tactical troopers for. A
commander could take a mess of 5-man Tac squads on the assumption that half of them will
be reduced to 4-man squads giving him a decently-sized Death Company with free jump packs.
Still, the close-combat bonuses seem to be worth all the randomness. A typical BA trooper
will strike as fast as an Eldar and as hard as an Ogryn if he gets to charge. Few forces
(including many Tyranids) will be able to stand up to that kind of a hammer-blow.