Warhammer 40,000 Blood Angels Codex Review Part 4

Big Orbit games has asked a guest writer (Tim Weston) to review the Blood Angels Codex for us. This post contains the last instalment…

Warhammer 40,000 Blood Angels Codex Review Part 4: Psychic Powers and Review Summery

Psychic Powers

Blood Boil:
A successful Psychic test causes a wound on an enemy unit within 12” with no armour save allowed. The swiss replica watches model struck is allocated by the owning player. If the psychic test is passed with a result of 5 or less, The Blood Angels player allocates the wound.

This appears reasonable on its own but I don’t foresee it becoming a staple choice.

Fear of the Darkness
An enemy unit within 24 inches takes a morale check at -2 leadership.

I see this power being taken when a player ‘knows’ he is facing a low leadership army. More ‘power’ oriented players may try to use the ‘soullessness’ ability of a Culexus assassin, dropping an enemies leadership for certain units within range to a 7, to further reduce the leadership.

Might of Heroes
+d3 extra Attacks

I can envision this as a staple power being taken by the majority of librarians.

Shackle Soul
One enemy squad has to take a leadership test to Move, Run, Shoot or Assault.

I think the day this power was conceived and implemented it was to ‘round out’ and give the Blood Angel Librarian’s a comparable quantity of powers with librarians from Codex: Space Marines.

Shield of Sanguinius
Units within 6” get a 5+ cover save

Again, I call this, and other powers, filler type powers because it is obvious to me that it is included to ‘quantify’ the amount of powers with those of other codices.

Smite
As per Codex: Space Marines

There is no change to this power from the sited codex and probably just included as filler like I have mentioned previously.

The Blood Lance
The player draws a straight line 4d6” from the Librarian ignoring friendly models. Enemy units take a single S8 AP1 Lance hit.

I believe that this power will be seen on many librarians. The idea of drawing a line 4 to 24 inches and not needing line of site at the enemy will be too much to pass up by a ‘defensive type player’ with a librarian.

Initially, I am unsure if tournament type players will use this power as a staple. Putting the librarian on a bike and turbo boosting to get to a line of enemy vehicles and units, or getting the librarian to outflank somehow, would give an opportunity to make this power devastating. That said, the tactic would have to be tried and tested. I think that until this has been play-tested against a number of different armies and tactics that we will see this as a heavily used approach in tournaments.

The Sanguine Sword
Gives Librarian S10

I see this as a staple type power used on many librarians.

Unleash Rage
Gives unit Preferred Enemy.

I think selection of this power will depend on the preferences of the player when it comes to army selection and tactics.

Wings of Sanguinius
Allows the models to move as if they had a jump pack. If the model is mounted on a bike the bike moves as if it were a Jetbike.

I see this as a staple type power used by many librarians if not all.

Review Summery

After spending several days reading and trying to wrap my thoughts around the new Codex, I have to say that I like it overall but dislike some of the entries. The theme has not been lost from the history of the Blood Angels and even some new characters have appeared to expand their background. It is well written and existing & new Blood Angels players and will not be disappointed. However, it does make me wonder, what is next?

As far as equipment for the Blood Angels goes, I quote Phil Kelly from an interview when the Space Marine Codex was released and a question was posed about differing wargear among chapters; ‘there are enough variations among chapter forges for this to make sense.’ I’m not buying it now that a second marine oriented codex has been produced.

The list appears to be balanced despite some of the entries being out of place or expensive point wise, but only time will tell if this is correct. I still wonder about the unique characters, they have the feel of previous versions of the rules and I’m not sure if they will be effective, will non-unique choices become the standard. Tournament oriented players will definitely shy away from the more costly choices. I certainly don’t want to be on the receiving end of my Brothers in red armour and hope their enemies tremble in fear when the codex is released.

As with each release there is the discussion of ‘Codex creep’ in certain circles. Is this Codex designed specifically to counter older Codices already in play or is there a grander/diabolical scheme behind it all? I would like to think that Games Workshop is attempting to bring balance to the game so a novice cannot simply win over a veteran based on Codex selection. I may be being overly optimistic here but it would be nice to think so.

One drawback within the list and special rules is that there is nothing that represents the ‘flaw’ as such, low numbers of ‘models’ or something along those lines, other than the advantageous use of the ‘feel no pain’ USR by certain units and the creation of a new character. I’m not entirely sure if the ‘flaw’ can be adequately represented on the table but applaud the attempt by the designers.

Another thought that makes me wonder, is the ability to take multiple armour 12 and armour 13 vehicles in this list. Predators are found in two sections of the force organisation chart and dreadnoughts are in elites, troops, and heavy support. To me this does not make sense and would better suit the theme of say, Iron Hands or some other mechanized marine force. It’s a turn off for me and turns away from the background of the Blood Angels. Without an explanation it’s anybody’s guess why this was done.

The new plastic kits will be welcomed by converters and will be good sellers for Games Workshop. The Blood Angels take their place beside the Black Templar’s and Dark Angels when it comes to readily available plastics of specific iconic ‘bits’ to identify the chapter and its heritage. The kits are a good thing all around.

At the time of this article I stumbled across a list designed by a tournament player which had six predators included for the North American ‘Ard Boyz Tournament. It made me think of how many dreadnoughts people might try to include or the largest singular Death Company possible. Our hobby is full of fanatics who will try to design and build these sorts of things and I relish seeing them on the internet or playing against them outside the tournament environment.

– The End –

Overall score: 8/10

Thank you for reading – Tim Weston