Moar Powah!!!

Open War is coming up in early April which gives me about a month to sort out a list that I fancy throwing into the ring. I've been focused on Pedro, Lysander and Khan variations of a Vanilla Marine list because these guys are what I know best and I have a good amount of experience with them. I've also had some success in tournaments in the past with lists based on these Characters and finally because Special Characters are allowed this time at Open War it seems silly not to run one.

Yesterday I played Mick with a Blood Angels list featuring some jump packers. I've not done this sort of BA list before because I don't have the models and I've seen Gav's success with MSU Wolves and wanted to emulate it with a Blood Angels list. However I liked it and despite the fact I'd basically been tabled by the end of turn 5 I felt it could be competitive with a couple of tweaks and some practice.

So after a bit of mucking about on Army Builder here's what I've come up with and I'll talk through the changes I made and my reasoning below:

HQ
Astorath the Grim
I had a JP Reclusiarch on Saturday but as Open War is allowing special characters this time he looks like a great option to add.

ELITE
Sanguinary Priest
(2) 1x Jump Pack
I've dropped the Honour Guard Squad that I usually run so I need to add a JP Sanguinary Priest to support the Assault Squads. The one without the Jump Pack either drops with the Sternguard or hangs out in one of the Razorbacks

Sternguard Squad
(5) 3x Combi-Meltas; Drop Pod
These guys are the both a heavy armour solution and to get my opponent to compensate his deployment to avoid an alpha-strike. They are relatively cheap for what they bringand I'm not shy about using them as a speed bump.

TROOPS
Assault Squad
(10) 2x Flamer, Sgt w. Power Fist
Assault Squad
(10) 2x Flamer, Sgt w. Power Fist
Bouncing Assault Squads! Astorath and the JP Priest hang with these guys making them a formidable wedge of melee madness. I like the flamers for anti-infantry but there is a lack of melta in this list so I may need to make a few small tweaks to try and get a melta or two in these units just in case I come up against a multiple Land Raider list.

Assault Squad
(5) Razorback w. Lascannon & Twin-Linked Plasma Guns
Assault Squad
(5) Razorback w. Lascannon & Twin-Linked Plasma Guns
To be honest these are to add some armoured target saturation to take heat away from the Dreads and the Baals (not that I expect them to be too effective at that. They also lend some more fast moving scoring capability to the list and give me some mobile cover options fast enough to keep up with the jumpers.

FAST ATTACK
Baal Predator
Flamestorm Cannon
Baal Predator
Flamestorm Cannon
Scout move to threaten Power Armour at the back in cover on turn 1, or outflank and clog everything up in the middle ready for munching by the assault dudes. I do like these guys but have not had a lot of success with them yet. More practice needed.

HEAVY SUPPORT
Dreadnought
2x Twin-Linked Autocannons
Dreadnought
2x Twin-Linked Autocannons
Can openers extraordinaire! I love these guys, they eat up light armour and do well against troops and monstrous creatures as well.

So what's missing? The most notable unit that I took out of the list from Saturday is a 5-man Vanguard Unit. Perhaps I'm over-reacting to an exceptionally unlucky performance (they got the Heroic Intervention charge and lost the round of combat against a Long Fangs Pack and in 2 rounds of combat could not finish them before they were eaten by a Grey Hunter unit on the counter charge) but what this illustrated to me was the 5 guys are not enough to make an effective assault unit. This is also why I dropped the Honour Guard unit, even the inclusion of a hidden Sang Priest does not compensate for the fact there are only 5 of them.

As Gav's already mentioned “Go big or go home!”.