A Quick Introduction to the Blood Angels

BA basics - like learning anything you begin with small steps, and then work on toward the more complex things :-)

   Beginner Blood Angel force...

 you generally need one HQ, and two troop choices

   So let's start you off with 

  HQ: Chaplain w/jumppack, term honors, and plasma pistol 
    he will lead your Death Company (of which you need about 8 to begin with)  This is a powerful, mobile assault force. Keep them behind cover - but move them up close enough to assault the bad guys.

   troop  choice 1: 10 man tac squad w/vet sergeant (plasma pistol/power weapon) and you'll need a meltagun and missile launcher  - put all these people in a Rhino with a dozer blade (so you can re-roll failed terrain tests :-)

    troop choice 2: a ten man tac squad - but this one will be "shooty" (that is to say it's primary job in life is to sit and shoot at the bad guys). so 1o tactical marines, give them one lascannon and one plasmagun.

   Now this will get you on the board and playing - there will be more things you need because 40K was designed for the armies to be well equipped somewhere around 1500pts, and this is like not quite half of that :-)

   After you play with this you will find you wish you had more people for assaults - which is why the next thing you should really think about it getting like an 8 man veteran assault squad - give them jumppacks (available from GW mailorder - and so are the close combat sprues you'll need). give them a vet sergeant with plasma pistol and power weapon. maybe hook up one of the guys with a flamer - another with a meltagun

 all these meltaguns and flamers are for killing vehicles - Blood Angels are notoriously light on shooting power, we have it - but the way our army is designed we often prefer to destroy the bad guys with our famous assaults (which is what I'm teaching you here today!) by arming your assault squads and a couple of tac squads with vehicle killing weapons you have a great chance to defend yourself from enemy armor AND get your assault people close enough to get into combat :-)  Especially your assault people (the ones with jumppacks) they can position themselves behind some trees (also known as "behind cover") and in one turn jump over the trees - fire their plasma pistols and meltaguns at a nearby enemy vehicle (and have a good chance of killing it) and THEN they can assault a totally different unit (yes sir we've got a rooster loose in the hen house now!) :-) anywho

 well now you've got your HQ
and two tac squads (one mounted in a rhino)
and you've got an assault squad...

you'll still want more shooting power - your next step is to get a couple of landspeeders with multimeltas - take each as a fast attack choice (so they can move and fire independently) and now my friend you have an army that's getting close to 1500pts

add a BA scout squad in there (oh say 7 scouts) this grou can infiltrate, and you'll see what fun this can be - it will allow you to assault the enemy with the scouts before any of the rest of your other units are even close - the scouts won't likely kill them all but they WILL keep that unit from shooting at anyone until your REAL assault units get there :-)

well now you are at 1500pts, and you have had just a taste of what the Blood Angels can do. I know I spelled out every step for you to this point - but I outlined not just the units, but the tactical lessons that one has to learn at each stage before they can really go on further (at least in my mind). 

The Blood Angels are one of the most aggressive armies in all of 40K, our assaults can make even veteran players cringe. The worst enemy we can face is a "shooty" enemy - a shooty imperial guard or Eldar army who can destroy our transports before we get close enough to assault, this is our worst nightmare, and eventually anyone who plays Blood Angels will have a day like this (some of us have had more than our share!), but you'll have a lot of fun figuring things out :-)

I hope that some of what I've said has made sense, and I hope some of it will help you in your games. It will take a while for you to collect everything - but there't no need to rush - play all the games you can with whatever you have and you will SEE what units you wish you had - you;ll find yourself saying things like "oh if only I could have had someone to shoot that tank - or if only I had a few more assault people, or one more tac squad" and let these thoughts help guide you to what you need :-)

There are so many ways to launch assaults - from having lots of tac squads in rhinos all driving up to assault the bad guys (don't try this against eldar tho), to landraiders, to jumppacks, to terminators, to attack bikes and predators and and and.... :-) so yes - it may have seemed like I was telling you exactly what to do... but not really - I was just trying to point you toward what I saw as the fast track to learning Blood Angels, there are many such tracks - I have shown you but one :-)