I played in a four round tourney this past weekend bringing 2000 points of pure jump infantry. I decided to drop the Stormraven/dreadnaught so I could take more boots on the ground. My conclusion is that the Stormraven does fulfill a vital role in a DoA list BUT you can win without it... You just have to play even more aggressively, which can be quite a rush.
Here's my list:
The Sanguinor
Dante
Chaplain: jump pack, infernus pistol
Chaplain: jump pack, infernus pistol
Sanguinary Priest: jump pack, power sword, infernus pistol
Sanguinary Priest: jump pack, power sword
Sanguinary Guard: 2x infernus pistol, power fist, Chapter Banner
Assault squad #1: melta/flamer, thunder hammer/stormshield
Assault squad #2: melta/flamer, thunder hammer/stormshield
5x Vanguard veterans: power fist/stormshield, 2x power sword, thunderhammer
I am going to exchange the infernus pistol on one of my Chaplains for a power fist in the future. Mech can still be tough for DoA and I believe the power fist is much better at wrecking armor - basically one melta shot in exchange for up to four S9 power fist attacks that reroll missed hits. The power fist also just happens to be cheaper than the melta pistol for both Chaplains and Recluisarchs!! By the way this is the Chaplain that attachs to the Sanguinary Guard along with Dante and the Priest (sans melta pistol). I learned this over the weekend from a good friend of mine (Brian Delgado) who is also another big Blood Angels fanatic.
I am also planning to switch back to dual meltaguns for both of my assault squads. I like having the flamers but as said mech can be a tough nut to crack... No need to get overly confident. Two melta shots per assault squad is much more likely to get the job done and I've found I can get by versus horde easily enough not to need the flamers.
Two of my games were versus Daemons and ork horde. I won the game versus Daemons but narrowly lost to the green mob - one more turn and I would have beaten the orks. Both games I held my entire army in reserves. Both games I was also going second which greatly influenced the decision to deepstrike everything. The daemon player was unlucky in that he got his wrong wave first and I was able to exploit that well. Going second means you get to see how your opponent deploys and they can't shoot you for the first two turns. This gives you the drop advantage - versus the Daemons I was able to destroy both Soul Grinders in the second turn, I then focused on killing the Tzneetch Heralds to eliminate the Breath attacks which are bad news versus power armor. Versus the ork horde (five full squads of Slugga boys, three units of three kill a kanz, Snikrot/kommandos and Ghaz plus some Lootaz) I was able to play keep away, use my movement to funnel his army and then assault en masses. I had destroyed seven out of the nine kanz by the end of the fifth turn then time was called... One more turn and I could have swept through that side of the table to grab two objectives FTW.
Basically the inherent speed of an all jump army coupled with precise deep strikes that reliably come in by turn three is a big advantage versus hordes. Two weekends ago I fought two Nid armies at Genghis Con, winning one game and drawing on the other. So over the past month I'm 2W-1L-1D versus horde and as I've said the loss and draw could have both been wins if those two games had gone one more turn each. This is all great experience for the Adepticon championship which is the purpose of attending these preceding events. The more variety of armies you play against the better you are prepared.
Finally an apology to the daemon player I played this past weekend - I made a mistake and used Dante's curse versus his Fateweaver (Pat from the 11th Company) - I don't think it affected the outcome of the game but I should have known better! Sorry man.
G
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