Best of the Blood Angels Codex

Most cost effective HQ:
Librarian followed by Reclusiarch. You either choose to take a cheap psyker with a Ld.10 hood and awesome psychic abilities (such as Blood Lance, Sanguine Sword, Unleash Rage..) or you take a super Chaplain that has +I/A/W and makes your squad Fearless/Re-rolls to hit. Both are good choices with the Chaplain slightly more expensive.

Best Troop choice:
Aside from your basic Tactical Squad, you can now have 10x Assault Space Marines without Jump Packs in a Rhino, Fist and 2x Meltaguns for 250 points. That's pretty amazing if you consider how many attacks they can have and the fact that you can take 2x Special Weapons. With Fast Rhinos, you can move 18" your first turn and get ready to party the next. A close contender for second is probably smaller ASM squads in a Razorback. If you drop Jump Packs from them, you get a 35 point discount on your next transport. That's pretty damn good.

Best FA slot:
I only see one unit here that stands apart from everyone else, and that's the new Baal Predator. For 145 points, you get a Baal Pred with Scout and Fast, Twin-linked Assault Cannons and HB sponsons. The runner up in this field is Vanguard Veterans with their ability to Heroic Intervention off Decent of Angels. DoA allows your reserve rolls to be re-rolled and you only scatter 1D6" for Jump Pack units. Now that BA VVs are 5 points cheaper than C:SM equivalents, you can deck them out with some weapons and go hunting reliably.


Best elite flying unit:
You basically have 3 to choose from: Honor Guard on Jump Packs, Vanguard Veterans or Sanguinary Guard. Honor Guard comes with a Priest for the lovely 6" FNP/FC but doesn't have any power weapons to begin with. Sanguinary Guard are expensive (same costs as a Assault Terminator Squad), carry S4 AP4 Assault 2 Bolters, have MC two-handed Power Weapons and Artificer Armor. Both HG and SG have Decent of Angels.. but they can't assault the turn they come down. You can't take them above 5 dudes either, so I think Vanguard Veterans are the way to go. They can assault the turn they come down and they can have more bodies in the squad for the extra wounds/ummmph!

Best Special Character:
A lot of people hate special characters, but I love them. I think they add a lot of flavor to the army as long as their fluff is perfectly represented ingame. The winner here is Mephiston. He has a monster statline: WS7, BS5, S6, T6, W5, I7, A5 (6 with FW/PP, 7 on the charge), 2+. He also sits comfortably on a 25mm base so you can deny LoS all day long and give him that beautiful 4+ cover that 5th Ed. enjoys. He's not a IC so he can't join squads, but if you can cast 3 psychic powers a turn like he can and offer a 24" Ld.10 Psychic Hood to the table, then things aren't so bad. His 3 powers are Sanguine Sword (makes him S10), Unleash Rage (gives him Preferred Enemy) and Wings of Sanguinius (Jump Pack). Keep in mind he doesn't need to use all 3 to be effective because his Force Weapon can still blow people up. In a metagame where everything is T4(5) or have FNP, his S10 Force Weapon pimp slaps the opposition as long as he's carefully used and not exposed.

Best Elite choice:
Well.. aside from the no brainer Sanguinary Priests (50 ppm, gives your army a 6" bubble of FNP/FC), I think the Furioso Dreadnought goes into this category. He's WS6, AV13/12/10 and has 2(3) attacks. On top of this, he can either take off his Blood Fists for Blood Talons which essentially makes him a meat grinder. Every wound he deals with those S6 Lightning Claws gives him another attack.. and this basically goes until you whiff or the enemy is dead. He can also take a Frag Cannon instead of an extra DCCW for S6 AP- Assault 2 Template Rending. Shoot this at a couple of MEQ in cover and see what happens. S6 Rending also allows him to touch vehicles semi-reliably. If this wasn't enough, the Furioso Dreadnought can also switch out his weapons and turn into a Furioso Librarian! This gives him a Ld.10 Psychic Hood, 2 psychic abilities to choose from (can only use 1 per turn), a S6 Force Weapon in conjunction with a S10 DCCW so he still gets 2(3) attacks. The highlight here is that the Furioso Librarian Dreadnought can take Wings of Sanguinius; which basically allows him to fly.

Best Heavy slot:
For now, this will go to the humble Vindicator. Because all Rhino chassis vehicles now have the Fast vehicle rule, the Vindicator can now move 12" and fire his S10 AP2 large blast demolisher cannon of doom. As a big Vindicator fan, this is going to be loads of fun (for me, not my opponent). Of course, this change also made BA Vindies 30 points more expensive than C:SM equivalents. Well worth it though if you ask me.

Most cost ineffective units in the Codex:
Death Company and Sanguinary Guard. DC are a big disappointment for me in the new book. They have almost every USR in the book that matters; FNP, Fearless, FC, Fleet, Relentless.. but they also have the worst: Rage. They cannot be controlled under any circumstance, regardless or whether or not you have a Chaplain in there. They just run around killing things and dying once you set them free. Fluff wise, I can see this.. but in terms of gameplay they don't count as troops, can't reliably contest or hold any objectives and can't follow basic orders because of Rage. I hate this! If they could be controlled, I would take a small batch every game because DC are one of the hallmarks of the Blood Angels Chapter. As for Sanguinary Guard, they're just really bad PPM (points per model). At 40 points per, they still die like normal MEQ to Plasma, Melta or anything AP2. Not worth it imo.

What I expect to see from the new Codex:
- A lot of AV13 presence on the field, a lot of tanks and targets to shoot at.
- Librarian Dreads that be drop podded and can fly 12".
- 9x DC in a Rhino with Reclusiarch w/ power weapons and Fists (re-roll hits and wounds).
- Furioso/DC Dreads with Blood Talons that have S6 Lightning Claws that gains more attacks per wound dealt.
- 5x Assault Terminators in a LRC with Sanguinary Priest in TDA giving them FNP and FC.
- Sanguinor and Honor Guard w/ Chapter Banner providing +1 attack bonuses.
- Dante and the ability to take Sanguinary Guard as troops.
- Mass Dreads as troop/elite/heavy choices.