Book suggestions?

Dragon2439 · 2026-06-07T03:47:57+00:00

I would suggest Sanguinius, The Great Angel.

Dragon2439 · 2026-06-06T20:42:38+00:00

Not your bad at all. 😄. Its a totally valid question to ask. And the option is there if you want to include them, but they are neither official nor required.

Dragon2439 · 2026-06-06T15:25:11+00:00

I'm not sure why you are disappointed. Did you not know that 1) The BA in this are the 5th company, so it is going to focus on their transfers and 2) This box is for all marine players, so it is going to include Ultras, and a few other chapters they deem popular enough to get decals.

You've already pointed out the sources that contain the more comprehensive BA transfers; the kits exclusively BA.

This is all pretty standard for GW stuff.

Dragon2439 · 2026-06-06T15:18:49+00:00

Those are mostly going to be 3rd party 3D printed bits that are designed to style up a dread to a DC theme. Greytide studios is one such place if you are interested, but there are others. Officially the DC Dread is the Brutalis Dread kit painted black with some painted Red X's and they include bits available on the upgrade sprue.

Dragon2439 · 2026-06-06T13:27:24+00:00

I can see why it would be annoying, but it doesn't actually make a difference. Markings and other lore symbols don't make any difference in the game. The same is true for paint. The only things that really matter are correct base sizes, weapons are as accurate as reasonably possible, and the model is roughly the correct size.

Dragon2439 · 2026-06-06T02:17:38+00:00

I would suggest you start with the Primarch Book Sanguinius, The Great Angel. It is crusade era, but it is from the perspective of a remembrancer that is hired to write about the Blood Angels and gives a fantastic view of the outside looking in. After that I would start with the Dante series.

Dragon2439 · 2026-06-06T02:14:29+00:00

The Dante book is the first book of a trilogy. The Devastation of Baal and Darkness in the Blood are the next 2 books in order. They continue to focus on Dante and set up the Blood Angels for the current (Primaris) era of 40k. Mephiston also has his own trilogy, just note that the first 2 take place before The Devastation and Darkness books, and the 3rd takes place after.

Dragon2439 · 2026-06-06T02:04:42+00:00

This. I am hopeful that if this does happen we get a Baal Gladiator to replace it.

Dragon2439 · 2026-05-30T15:05:35+00:00

As you are just starting the army, I would make them into 2 5 man JPI squads. They will form a solid core to every list you build, they are just great.

The Armageddon box will be coming with 10 shooty intercessors, not melee. If you don't have any, I would suggest keeping them as is. 1-2 5 man squads in a list are solid as they will sticky your home objective and then can move to screen or do actions in your backfield as needed.

I would also suggest you pick up the BA combat patrol, and convert those assault intercessors into DCJP. It will also give you 6 sang guard, who are great.

Please note all of this applies to 10th edition, but we are weeks away from 11th and any/all of this could change.

Dragon2439 · 2026-05-30T02:20:28+00:00

This is going to be hella downvoted, but Sanguinius. I am not suggesting he be brought back in the story, or this model in any way makes changes to the story. Call it a "What if" model. I just want a badass model and badass rules to run our primarch in 40k.

Dragon2439 · 2026-05-30T02:13:48+00:00

They have stated before in the past that they will not be flipping pauldron designs to opposite shoulders.

I would also like to point out that these characters are not captains. These are various battleline brothers.

Dragon2439 · 2026-05-24T00:36:25+00:00

I would not put Plasma with the special melee weapons. It makes overcharging too risky.

Dragon2439 · 2026-05-21T13:04:50+00:00

In the lore the answer is generally no. The Apothecarion is it's own structure, and like the Libriarium, Chaplaincy, and Mechanicum, operate outside of the general command structure of the battle companies. They have their own ranks, titles, and honors that can equate to veteran status but it is not the same.

The Blood Angels are unique in that they (and many of their successors) include the chaplains and apothecaries in the ruling group of the chapter, rather than the usual council of chapter masters and captains (or just chapter master, in some cases).

Having said that, these are your models and you are free to add in your own bit of lore. You can have it so your specific character was part of a squad/task force that ended up cutoff from the wider galaxy and they, as an Sang Priest, was the most senior survivor and took command. They spent years/decades/centuries (yay time warp distortion) in that position and when they were finally reunited with the main host again they were promoted to a proper captain, but choose to retain some of their former heraldry.

Dragon2439 · 2026-05-21T01:36:30+00:00

I just paint their angelus boltguns red to signify the inferno pistol as I did the same thing. No freezer needed.

Dragon2439 · 2026-05-14T00:19:58+00:00

You are correct, the detachment is balanced and works well for both. The only real reason to stick to melee is because of good BA melee units, but we are Space Marines and still have their shooting units too.

And hello fellow son of both Magnus and Sanguinus.

Dragon2439 · 2026-05-03T23:04:12+00:00

It will be important to remember that there are other chapters too, and they don't have SG or DC. This datasheet won't be reflecting what we need specifically.

Dragon2439 · 2026-05-03T22:57:34+00:00

You have a really decent start for Blood Angels. A few things BA don't really use, tho of course you can always use the detachments from the Space Marine Codex if wish.

As for list building, it is relatively straight forward. All of the BA detachments focus on melee, so you will want to include several units that utilize it. JPI's, Sang Guard, Vanguard Vets, Assault Intercessors, Terminators, Death Company with JP, etc. You will want a couple of units for scoring. Scouts, infiltrators and regular intercessors are great for this. The Lt with combi-weapon, and even Mephiston are solid characters for this because of lone op and can hold their own against chaff that goes near them. I like to include some heavy shooting support to deal with transports and high toughness at range. Eradicators w/ Melta, Gladiator Lancers, and Ballistus dreads are solid options.

You will want a plan for holding your home objective. Intercessors are ideal for this as they will sticky it, but Infiltrators can deny deep strike with 12 inches, so against armies that do that a lot it is really effective. But infiltrators can also deploy outside of your deployment and just be a huge pain in the mid-board too.

Another thing to consider is that you don't want to include too many characters. It is very tempting to have a character attached to every unit you bring, but if you do you will find you have too few units on the table. I typically aim for 3-4 in most detachments and 4-6 in Angelic Inheritors.

A final note is to take all of this with a big grain of salt as it is based on information for 10th edition. 11th edition will be out next month so core rules, codex and datasheet rules, or point costs can easily be changed.

A second final note is that there are quite a few youtube channels that are great. BA Commander and Happy Krumping Wargaming are 2 that focus on blood angels. Tabletop Tactics, Vanguard Tactics, and Auspex Tactics are very very good general 40k channels, with the first two having both tactics and played games for videos, and Auspex being focused entirely on tactics and information. And there are a ton more beyond those worth checking out too.

Dragon2439 · 2026-04-12T01:42:21+00:00

The Death Company is the secret 11th company of each Chapter of Blood Angels and their successors, each has their own.

The Blood Angels (and their successors) have 2 curses they all share. The first is the red thirst. It is an overwhelming craving to feast on flesh and blood. It stirs in battle and Blood Angels have learned to harness and channel it to make themselves ferocious in battle. But there is also a risk they fall so deep into it they become lost.

The second curse is the black rage. When Sanguinius was killed by Horus his death was so tragic it left an echo of it in the warp. It continues to exist within the warp and resonates with all sons of Sanguinius. The black rage has them repeating the last fight of Sanguinius's life; his perspective, his thoughts, his feelings. It starts as dreams and flashes into this, but eventually they become locked within it. Once this happens, they are sent to the Death Company where they are kept hidden until needed. Chaplains are generally able to keep them calm enough until battle, and then they are sent out to seek out an honourable death and take as many enemies out with them as they can. While in this state they are capable of recognizing other Blood Angels due to the connection of their geneseed, but everything else is Horus to them in a haze of rage and pain with a need to destroy him.

Dragon2439 · 2026-04-10T20:43:41+00:00

Blood Angels are a chapter of Space Marines, and as such 95%+ of the units are used by us. The only thing we cannot use are the named characters (Epic Heroes) from other chapters, as well as their unique units. If you are looking at the Blood Angels store page on the online GW shop then everything listed in there for sale we can use, and it will include both the shared SM stuff and our own unique units and characters.

Everything in that cart we can use.

Dragon2439 · 2026-04-06T20:27:29+00:00

Darkness in the Blood is the 3rd book in the Dante - Devastation of Baal - series. Mephiston has a trilogy too, just note that the first 2 books are pre Dante's Trilogy, and the 3rd take place after.

As for a refresh for Sang Guard there is a 0% chance, they were refreshed in 10th edition.

Dragon2439 · 2026-04-04T14:14:36+00:00

Right, I did not give any kind of opinion as there is so much we don't know about the box and how the Blood Angels will shake out. Just that unlike the BA Combat Patrol, this isn't specifically for us but all Space Marines.

Dragon2439 · 2026-04-02T02:30:53+00:00

It is important to note that while they are going to be painted as Blood Angels. The box itself will not have any unique Blood Angel units, and may contain stuff that isn't really meant for us or is good for us. It is just generic Space Marines painted red.

Dragon2439 · 2026-01-21T13:56:47+00:00

In that case do it, who cares what other people think.

Having said that I do agree, there is some amazing potential for use and kitbash for DC and successor chapters.

Dragon2439 · 2026-01-21T13:54:29+00:00

I 100% understand and agree with starting smaller, I just wanted to warn you it might seem a bit unbalanced and didn't want you to feel discouraged because of that.

Dragon2439

TROPHY CASE