BBF's Note - This article is by my good friend Chris who played on my ATC team this year - The Power Rangers. I had a couple of drops right before the ATC and was lucky enough to recruit Chris. He is a great guy, an up and coming player plus a really fun person to play.
Hail fellow gamers!
First of I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Christian Adorno also known as Blood Angel 13. I've been a 40k gamer since 3rd edition. After moving to South Florida and taking a few years off I found a gaming club called Sunshine Adventure Gaming... Little did I knew that my skills and casual gaming experience were going to be put to the test and pushed over and over again in the next few years to follow.
Over the past years I have participated in many local tournaments and GTs such as BeakyCon, Crucible and the FoB qualifiers - regardless of the meta my goal has always been to represent what's true to my heart and that is to be a fully fleshed out Blood Angels player. So far it has paid off as I've been able to place as follows:
Best Chapter Blood Angels 1st place - Crucible 2013 (Orlando)
2nd Best Space Marines - Crucible 2014
2nd Best Space Marines - SoFlo 2014 (Miami)
I've been also attended BeakyCon two years straight in a row for some good games but that event doesn't yet rank armies.
Now for my first major GT out of state I was chosen by my team captain Steve Turner when he messaged me about an open spot open on his team The Power Rangers offering me an invitation. I've known Steve for a few years now and he has been like a battle brother and a fellow Blood Angel player always motivating me to do my best. So I took the offer and started prepping the meanest Blood Angel list I could I imagine at the time - Flesh Tearers Detachment featuring 13 drop pods.
My list is as follows:
- HQ -
Librarian Dread (Level 2) - Meltagun
Drop Pod
- Elites -
Furioso Dreadnought - Frag Cannon - Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod
Furioso Dreadnought - Frag Cannon - Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod
Furioso Dreadnought - Frag Cannon - Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod
- Troops -
Tactical Squad (5 Marines) - Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod
Tactical Squad (5 Marines) - Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod
Tactical Squad (5 Marines) - Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod
- Fast Attack -
#1 Assault Squad (5 Marines) - 2x Meltagun - Dual Inferno Pistols (Sergeant)
Drop Pod
#2 Assault Squad (5 Marines) - 2x Meltagun - Dual Inferno Pistols (Sergeant)
Drop Pod
#3 Assault Squad (5 Marines) - 2x Meltagun - Dual Inferno Pistols (Sergeant)
Drop Pod
#4 Assault Squad (5 Marines) - 2x Meltagun - Dual Inferno Pistols (Sergeant)
Drop Pod
#5 Assault Squad (5 Marines) - 2x Meltagun - Dual Inferno Pistols (Sergeant)
Drop Pod
#6 Assault Squad (5 Marines) - 2x Flamer - Dual Flamer Pistols (Sergeant)
Drop Pod
This build maximizes the use of drop pods at the 1850 point level with deadly units for both melee and shooting along with objective holding superiority due to so many boots on the ground. That's 14 units total dropping on turn 1 all with lots of shooting. Never under estimate stormbolter firepower en mass against a wounded HQ or squad.
To break it down a bit more the total amount of turn 1 firepower is as follows:
3x Frag Cannon
6x Heavy Flamer
2x Flamer
2x Hand Flamer
That's 13 templates on turn 1 for the alpha strike.
Or
21 melta shots if I drop the melta squads first turn along with the Librarian dreadnaught (Blood Lance).
Turn 1 = 14 Stormbolter shots
Turn 2 = 26 Stormbolter shots assuming none from the first drop have been targeted yet which usually can happen by Turn 3 depending on the opponent.
So who said you need a gimmick or crazy allies to build a deadly list?
Don't get me wrong, I still like to ally from time to time and make some original combos but this time I wanted to show that the Sons of Sanguinius as well as a pure codex build can still be effective and strong enough to win with some good match ups against my opponents' over powered lists.
My experience at ATC was well beyond my expectations and the feed back I got on my list made it stand out as truly my number one favorite build ever. Here's the quick batreps for each round at ATC this year.
- Day 1
Mission 1 vs. Double WolfStar & BA Allies
I scored a major win versus this list after a fierce Alpha Strike and being more flexible... my opponent simply could not catch up following my successful alpha strike.
Mission 2 vs. Eldar
A double Wraithknight list with 6 squads of Warp Spiders!!! It was this round that I had to take one for the team. Knowing about Eldar trickery I went in guns blazing hoping to shock my opponent a bit just so that I could score some points and avoid the donut. In the end that goal was achieved as I held back the Eldar long enough to grab 10 points out of a total 33 possible this round. This match was one of the most interesting ones in my life and it was against one of the guys from the Chicago Kamikazes team - they finished seventh place overall.
Mission 3 vs. another WolfStar & SM Allies
I took this pairing head on - I felt I could dispatch this list like I did in round 1. However as I proceeded with my Alpha Strike causing a total of 40 wounds he saved 36 of them with the combination of really hot 2+ and 3++ saves. I know I always say never tell me the odds but dang! That's a lot of saves and I knew I was in a pickle... It was gonna be one of those games. His armor saves were on point and in the frustration of the moment I forgot to grab the relic taking one turn longer, letting him catch up to me. I still scored some points so a moral victory - I'm blaming some of the loss to being outdiced as well as outplayed by my opponent.
BBF's Note At the end of day one our team's overall score was firmly planted in the bottom half of the standings. I knew I needed to rally the team's moral and pump them up for a big finish on day two. I felt Chris could help make it happen as he was still very focused and thinking positive - gotta love his awesome team spirit !!!
- Day 2
Mission 1 vs. Necrons
It was a Decurion list with some solid units - 2 Wraiths squads, two spiders, 2 ghost arks, 2 tomb blade squads and a Barge Lord... strong resilient list. This was one of my most fearless games. When I saw my opponent had left an opening behind his line I dropped some of my pods in his backfield and gave him Hell... I dropped both behind with melta and in front with dreads boxing him in as I started to collect objective points and engaging his forces to keep him very busy. By the end of the game I scored two of three objectives plus all of the bonuses for a very solid win.
Mission 2 vs. Space Marines
I faced one of those Demi Company armies with Raven Guard chapter tactics and the Librarius Conclave. I was a bit out numbered with boots on the ground and his Librarians so I decided to play this one safe engaging his smaller units and focusing on mission points for a close win by just one point!
Mission 3 vs. Ravenwing & Blood Angels
My opponent had a Librarian and Ravenwing command squad with Ravenwing Knights and bike squads. His BA detachment featured two Furioso Dreadnoughts, assault terminators (TH/SS) in a Stormaven with a Sanguinary Priest and melta teams in drop pods. Having the first turn put me once again in a great position to start scoring early and in place to grab the relic early on... Good shooting and countering my opponents' strategies and movement gave me my last win of the tournament.
- Recap
I was happy with my overall battle results winning the award for Best Blood Angel player, ranking 59 out of 250 people with a pure single CAD style detachment. This shows that a single CAD using only one codex can still be strong in this highly competitive meta, even with a non top tier codex.
Blood Angels are still a strong choice even without any gimmicks such as allying to build yet another Death Star... This is where my heart and soul for the hobby falls into place - to be the top ranked Blood Angel player in Florida... The US if possible is a future goal.
So here my journey moves forward onto other GTs to represent the Sons of Sanguinius in battle and show their strength.
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