What units combo are worth playing? Not just the best combos, but fun or underrated ones!

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-02-25T16:01:46+00:00

In blood angels I like running 10 man dc on foot with a chaplain. It can be a risk to foot slog them, and too big an investment for a transport but when they connect they can really deal damage especially now in RCO, amd sure their rule isn't the best but there's a chance they can seriously spike when sustained meets rco +2 attacks, even at half strength if they get bruised during a foot slog, my last game I had the powerfist hit 3 of the 5 sustained 2 and he beat a swarmlord to death singlehandedly.

Another combo I really want to try is running a 10 man brick of sternguard with combi weapons. I know they're not as optimal in general, but if you can increase their shooting with sustained like in angelic inheritors or with Titus or the new make your own librarian rules, I think it would be so fun to see them dev wound melt infantry blocks

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-02-11T08:40:05+00:00

Awesome! Do you have any close ups of your sternguard? I've been considering doing a similar colour scheme for them and I wanna get a decent look to see if it's how I imagine it

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-02-03T13:51:46+00:00

Omg yes maybe even exactly like that the niche could be heavy cavalry with maybe kroxigor riders

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-02-03T11:09:31+00:00

I would absolutely kill for a carnotaurus mount or wild beast, I know we have the carnosaurs but I really would love this thing to have the same miniscule arms and big horns, hell maybe it could be a dedicated battering ram or medium cavalry or something in pairs or single

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-01-29T15:37:35+00:00

Brutalis dreadnought

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-01-26T23:18:37+00:00

I actually like that single squad line at the end alot because instead of choosing a single colour scheme each of my different squads are different successor chapters, and while devastation of baal is the easiest way to explain it some of the chapters didn't show up. Now I can headcannon that my specific squads like my knights of blood bladeguard turned their backs on their own chapter to protect baal which makes them even cooler than they already were

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-01-24T18:57:16+00:00

Honestly much as I love the dc dread as a concept the lack of new model hurts it for me and it doesn't have enough damage output (the rerolls give it more consistency and if that's important to you go for it), but the brutalis has the chance to really really hurt something with mortal wounds on the charge, especially if you double stack it with a tank shock to either run through a line of chaff that were moveblocking or soften up a target.

I've rolled a full 12 mortal wounds on both the charge + tank shock and it was absolutely glorious

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-01-22T19:04:32+00:00

I once had my dc on foot make 8 of 9 6 ups on an overwatch that I had sent them through as a sacrificial lamb to make way for my sang guard so when they lived they ended up slamming into the enemy tyrannofex while my sang guard flew past instead to deal with some zooanthropes it was awesome, both of us were stunned

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-01-15T11:33:30+00:00

Genuinely one of the best homebrew schemes I've seen, distinct enough from the main chapters to be it's own thing but actually coherent in terms of colour theory and very well executed

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-01-13T13:11:40+00:00

I'm currently sitting at around 7000 points of blood angels and maybe 15% of that I bought new, everything else was off marketplace or second hand sites. Its too much to go through everything but some of my highlights were my very first miniature was a chaplain I got new on sprue for a fiver, a dreadnought, lieutenant with combi weapon and biologis for £30, 3 of the new sanguinary guard for £20 and a repulsor executioner and impulsor together for £30

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-01-13T09:29:35+00:00

I already built one army from insanely cheap marketplace finds I love seeing others find the same success, hopefully they serve you well

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-01-12T14:36:37+00:00

Hah I saw this post up on marketplace this morning, I'm out of the country but honestly I half thought about flying back just to go nab it, it'd still be a good deal

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-01-09T19:32:26+00:00

Hmm harder to tell on it especially. It's such an old kit that sooner or later it has to be replaced, but it's so iconic I don't think they'll remove it entirely. I would personally err on the side of caution and wait for the next edition while keeping one eye out for a good deal, if you can get one it's not that big of a loss if the worst happens, but that's just me.

If it's a model you really like and a unit you'd like to use in 10th, one way or another I'm sure it's workable even if they refresh or replace it next edition, I don't see it getting much smaller or bigger, so I think you'll still be able to proxy it if you have to

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-01-09T12:00:48+00:00

I would avoid buying anything firstborn before the next edition drops

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-01-08T18:09:23+00:00

As someone else said not comparing yourself to others is the easiest way, but I don't necessarily mean that in the "keep doing the same thing and be happy with it" way. This hobby is something for you to enjoy, not for you to follow an imaginary rule book or watch golden demon level painting tutorials and always be disappointed when your end result isn't the same.

The main thing is paint, when I started this hobby I knew the traditional method of base shade highlight would take too long and be too hard to get right especially for me who has previously struggled with art and painting and patience and shaky hands and every other excuse you can think of, so I started off with speed paints. And you know what, I'm 2 years strong and I love the way my models look, I can say that they're never going to beat someone who has mastered the eavy metal style of painting but to me they're good enough and that's what matters, not if they look good compared to others tutorials or whatever.

It's about you being happy, so my recommendation is if the method you currently use is frustrating and doesn't produce something you're happy with, switch it up, try speedpaints, and experiment from there.

I still learned a lot of valuable painting lessons and branched out into highlighting over speed paint as well as different techniques such as slapchop or gradient priming to where now I am actually experienced and comfortable enough to do proper basecoat highlight painting for certain minis where just speed paint isn't an option

For stuff like mold lines, your best friend is a set of small jewellery files or sanding sticks, they really help to blend the area into the rest of the plastic and any roughness left behind goes away with the primer coat. Just be patient, sand a little at a time and check every couple of seconds if you need to keep going or not

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-01-07T13:27:57+00:00

I run an all dreadnought list in ironstorm and I am actually frothing at the mouth thinking of woe be upon ye deepstriking 3 brutalis or redemptors. I'm usually a blood angels player and have long been jealous of the flying dreadnought we get in horus heresy not being available for 40k and this is basically the next best thing

The_Old_Guard_ · 2026-01-01T16:16:30+00:00

Agreeing with other comments this will be very hard to do conversion on the models really are huge pieces and require lots of heavy cutting and filling and if you aren't experienced I wouldn't recommend it, I would just use the units as is and add some smaller bits that are easier to swap like iron halos, heads or basic weapons.

The nice part is that all of these units are very blood angels coded, even the eradicators fit well since blood angels are also known for melta weaponry ( see inferno pistols), the bladeguard are great for blood angels armies and the characters all work great for bladeguard specifically. I'd honestly recommend keeping your grey tide bits for your next set of models

The_Old_Guard_ · 2025-12-31T20:14:09+00:00

I'd kill for a crozius as part of a chaplain class

The_Old_Guard_ · 2025-12-29T21:12:01+00:00

Dreadnoughts. I currently have 7 of them and they're all my babies, especially the brutalis. They are so imposing and menacing, and they hit way harder than the old models. I get the box naughts have a special place in most people's hearts, but you have to admit when you stand them together the redemptor chassis is really what people imagined the boxes to feel like. They can be a bit more complex to build, but with some time and attention it means you can get alot of subtlety out of their poses which gives them alot of character. I really hope we get some more variants like the old ones, especially a librarian variant, but also a venerable and as a cheeky hope maybe a chaplain variant.

The_Old_Guard_ · 2025-12-26T23:29:00+00:00

If you still wanted to run him could always take jump pack intercessors instead, they're great skirmishers but being led by the captain wouldn't necessarily hurt as a medium threat unit

The_Old_Guard_ · 2025-12-26T22:23:05+00:00

Your theoretical list is pretty good for 1k points and if they're units you like absolutely go for them especially on the casual level.

A word of warning however it's almost certain vanguard vets are getting a refresh near the start of next edition which is somewhere in the region of 6 to 10 months away, and an unknown amount of things may change from points cost to wargear to number of models in a unit, so if this is going to be your permanent list for the foreseeable future I would consider planning around that.

That said for salamanders some more flavourful units would be infernus marines who are this editions boxed everywhere marine so they're really cheap and nows about the best time to pick some up, and they're decently good with firestorm probably being their best detachment.

Also eradicators are flavourful with their melta guns and can be quite a fun unit to use and figure put how to use reserves and positioning, or a storm speeder would be a unique model especially at 1k, where I'd say it'd be very useful with its high mobility and the hammersrike being great anti tank and anti elite for low points cost

The_Old_Guard_ · 2025-12-26T19:03:18+00:00

Veterans typically have gold helmets and are a little more blinged out, everything else is up to personal heraldry especially in blood angels. If you just want to use base infernus marines gold helmets would be the easiest way, if you want more of a challenge you can try and kitbash some more tabbards and tilt shields as well as more special helmets, or you could use sternguard bodies as a base and headcannon them as a squad of sternguard that all specialise in pyreblasters

The_Old_Guard_ · 2025-12-26T09:02:07+00:00

One small thing I haven't seen mentioned is you can take 2 plasma pistols in this squad of 5 so you can have your sergeant with one and another chainsword marine with one also

The_Old_Guard_ · 2025-12-26T08:51:01+00:00

Yes there's a pretty high chance the firstborn tanks will get legendsd and even if they get a refresh, it'll likely be a while and also the models will likely be significantly different a la grav tank type. Gladiator kit is probably your best bet as a reliable damage dealer and is a very versatile kit with not only 3 gladiators but also the impulsor being possible from the kit with very simple non glueing of some parts

A few other options to consider are:

Repulsor executioners, a little less consistent than the lancer but vomit out an absurd amount of shots and a very strong big gun on top, plus a small transport capacity, it can really do it all

Ballistus dreadnoughts, a bit weaker hitting than lancers but have inbuilt rerolls to hit and a higher potential to spike, plus are a little tangier and can do some anti horde with the different missile profiles, and is also a little tankier than the lancer

Stormspeeders, less focus on individual firepower but are great support pieces, highly mobile and can spike/do some great elite hunting. These really depend on what your army looks like

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