Centurions might be the go-to Space Marine unit for some of the more-generic Chapters. But Blood Angels have a few tricks to make Aggressors horrifying.
Combined with Blood of Baal and their codex, Blood Angels Aggressors might be the new sheriff in town. While Centurions are great in other Chapters, Blood Angels might just go with these guys instead.
So What’s the Combo?
The combo is pretty easy to work and it’s not got a lot of moving parts. All you need is:
- 6x Aggressors in one unit
- Librarian with Sheild of Sanguinius & Unleash Rage
- Sanguinary Priest/ Apothecary
Breaking it down a bit further, let’s assume you’re in the Assault Doctrine for the Blood Angels bonus and you’ve got all the units in the recipe above clumped together.
It comes down to personal preference on what you want your Aggressors geared with. The flamers are brutal for auto-hits but lack range. Meanwhile, the boltstorm gauntlets don’t have that auto-hitting capability but do have some more reach.
As for combos, you’ll want a Librarian to follow them around giving them a 5++ invuln with Shield of Sanguinius as well as Unleash Rage for +1 attack to each model in the unit. Also, remember that these guys get +1 to advance and charge rolls on top of the +1 to wound now AND they ignore the penalty to running and firing assault weapons. That means these guys can move 5+D6+1″ and still hose an enemy unit.
You’ll probably be running these guys up the middle of the board to cause disruption or meet a scary unit like a Knight head-on. Either way, you’ll be taking casualties even with a 5++ invuln. Thankfully, Blood Angels have Sanguinary Priests, which you can give a Jump Pack to for a 12″ movement to keep up. On top of that, they give a +1 Strength bonus which is huge in a melee-heavy faction.
There are two ways to make the Sanguinary Priest work:
- Flesh Tearers: They got a new relic Narthecium called Sorrow’s Genesis that can bring a unit back on a 2+ and automatically heals three-flat wounds. Purely translated, you’ll almost always be bringing back an Aggressor a turn and it’s definitely worth the CP if you fail.
- Blood Angels: If you don’t want to sacrifice your named characters like the new Mephiston in your list, for a Flesh Tearers relic, you can always just use the 1CP, Chalice Overflowing. This lets you heal twice a turn as well as target the same unit again.
Unlocking Their Melee Potential
Taking into account all of the buffs from:
- Assault Doctrine (Savage Echoes)
- Shock Assault
- Unleash Rage
- Red Thirst
You’ll be getting thirty-one powerfist attacks in close combat with an additional-1 AP and +1 S as icing on the cake. Sure, you’re hitting the enemy on a 4+ without any outside buffs or rerolls, but that’s (mathematically) fifteen HITS that’ll wound a Knight on a 2+ at -4 AP.
You’ve Still Got Plenty of Points To Put Elsewhere
The best part about all of this is that this combo works for just a total of around 400 pts (depending on wargear and Librarian choice).
Combined with the shooting/combat capability as well as durability from the 5++ invuln and an almost guaranteed full-health Aggressor back a turn, your opponents will have to deal with them in their entirety early on, or get a real bloody nose in the late-game. Plus, it’s not CP-hungry which means all your fuel can go toward juicing up your Smash Captains.
How do Aggressors look for Blood Angels now? Will you be testing this combo out on the tabletop? Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group, and sign up to get your free hobby updates newsletter (with discount coupon codes) each morning as well!
About the Author: Rob Baer
