Background.
There exist a range of attitudes toward destroyer units amongst the legions. There are those that simply do not use them (Salamanders) to those that regularly use them without remorse (Death Guard), and various shades of shunning, and occasional use in-between. For the Blood Angels, they use them, but only when Sanguinius calls for it. These then are the Angel's Tears: Destroyers for the Blood Angels, also called Erelim, and part of the First Sphere like the Crimson Paladins. They have given up their names and identities whilst they serve in this manner.
Strengths.
For all intents and purposes, the Angel's Tears are counted as Destroyers. This means that they can fulfil any compulsory role in a roster that destroyers would, and so forth.
The main strength here is that the Elelim are better than regular legion destroyers in many ways.
The sheer customisability is great. Rad grenades abound on every model, coupled with jump packs, and volkite serpentas. There are some crazy upgrades available here like assault cannons with suspensor webs, or maybe you'd prefer grenade launchers on every model. Honestly, this is a really great unit choice. About the only thing they never get access to is phosphex. (They also don't get rad missiles, but the rad grenade launcher partially makes up for this).
Weaknesses.
Can you live without phosphex?
Of course, you can still take Destroyer squads should you want, but that is just not fluffy. The background clearly states that the Erelim replace destroyer squads. So even if you want phosphex (the Erelim don't have access to it), you can, but don't expect to win best army awards.
The bottom line here is that these marines are assault infantry with special gear weapons. Treat them well and they should do the trick for you.
Builds.
Oh my. There are a lot of thoughts I have about the Angel's Tears. I'll try to cover some of my favourite builds here, but since there are so many options, I'm not claiming that this list is exhaustive. Not that we cannot take hand flamers as the legion rules state that the volkite serpent MUST be part of the warmer OPTIONS, and not part of the baseline equipment. However, Inferno Pistols on the squad leader is viable.
5 Erelim, Arch-Erelim with artificer armour and thunder hammer (160 points).
Something of a baseline unit for me personally. I like the quasi-assault squad feel of this that is coupled with rad grenades. Add extra marines to taste.
5 Erelim, Arch-Erelim with inferno pistol, artificer armour, thunder hammer, 2 heavy flamers, 2 assault cannons, melta bombs all round (240 points).
Hunt down and take out troop transports. Mop up the contents.
10 Erelim, Arch-Erelim with artificer armour and power weapon, all with heavy flamers (325 points).
The anti-horde build, and something of a heavy support choice on jump packs. Heavy flamers on every space marine makes for a flying wall of death. Honestly, I'm seeing this build as really good in conjunction with infiltrate (think: Coils of the Hydra / Alpha Legion!). Take melta bombs to taste.
10 Erelim, Arch-Erelim with artificer armour, all with Iliastus pattern assault cannons and suspensor webs (365 points).
Ha ha ha ha ha! The sheer shooting output of this unit is crazy. Forty shots at strength of 6 is amazing. Against other marines, that 27 hits on average (rounded), which in turn cause 22 wounds, of which, 7 get through. That's good enough to make unit of 5 marines dead, and a unit of 10 take a rout test under ordinary circumstances. Probably good against light transport vehicles too.
10 Erelim, Arch-Erelim with artificer armour and power fist, all with Angel's Tears grenade launchers (380 points).
I really like this build as well. It has the same range as the assault cannon build above (24 inches), but instead it is firing small blast templates which will hopefully hit more targets than the assault cannons. Rad phase and fleshbane will really help here as well.
There exist a range of attitudes toward destroyer units amongst the legions. There are those that simply do not use them (Salamanders) to those that regularly use them without remorse (Death Guard), and various shades of shunning, and occasional use in-between. For the Blood Angels, they use them, but only when Sanguinius calls for it. These then are the Angel's Tears: Destroyers for the Blood Angels, also called Erelim, and part of the First Sphere like the Crimson Paladins. They have given up their names and identities whilst they serve in this manner.
Strengths.
For all intents and purposes, the Angel's Tears are counted as Destroyers. This means that they can fulfil any compulsory role in a roster that destroyers would, and so forth.
The main strength here is that the Elelim are better than regular legion destroyers in many ways.
The sheer customisability is great. Rad grenades abound on every model, coupled with jump packs, and volkite serpentas. There are some crazy upgrades available here like assault cannons with suspensor webs, or maybe you'd prefer grenade launchers on every model. Honestly, this is a really great unit choice. About the only thing they never get access to is phosphex. (They also don't get rad missiles, but the rad grenade launcher partially makes up for this).
Weaknesses.
Can you live without phosphex?
Of course, you can still take Destroyer squads should you want, but that is just not fluffy. The background clearly states that the Erelim replace destroyer squads. So even if you want phosphex (the Erelim don't have access to it), you can, but don't expect to win best army awards.
The bottom line here is that these marines are assault infantry with special gear weapons. Treat them well and they should do the trick for you.
Builds.
Oh my. There are a lot of thoughts I have about the Angel's Tears. I'll try to cover some of my favourite builds here, but since there are so many options, I'm not claiming that this list is exhaustive. Not that we cannot take hand flamers as the legion rules state that the volkite serpent MUST be part of the warmer OPTIONS, and not part of the baseline equipment. However, Inferno Pistols on the squad leader is viable.
5 Erelim, Arch-Erelim with artificer armour and thunder hammer (160 points).
Something of a baseline unit for me personally. I like the quasi-assault squad feel of this that is coupled with rad grenades. Add extra marines to taste.
5 Erelim, Arch-Erelim with inferno pistol, artificer armour, thunder hammer, 2 heavy flamers, 2 assault cannons, melta bombs all round (240 points).
Hunt down and take out troop transports. Mop up the contents.
10 Erelim, Arch-Erelim with artificer armour and power weapon, all with heavy flamers (325 points).
The anti-horde build, and something of a heavy support choice on jump packs. Heavy flamers on every space marine makes for a flying wall of death. Honestly, I'm seeing this build as really good in conjunction with infiltrate (think: Coils of the Hydra / Alpha Legion!). Take melta bombs to taste.
10 Erelim, Arch-Erelim with artificer armour, all with Iliastus pattern assault cannons and suspensor webs (365 points).
Ha ha ha ha ha! The sheer shooting output of this unit is crazy. Forty shots at strength of 6 is amazing. Against other marines, that 27 hits on average (rounded), which in turn cause 22 wounds, of which, 7 get through. That's good enough to make unit of 5 marines dead, and a unit of 10 take a rout test under ordinary circumstances. Probably good against light transport vehicles too.
10 Erelim, Arch-Erelim with artificer armour and power fist, all with Angel's Tears grenade launchers (380 points).
I really like this build as well. It has the same range as the assault cannon build above (24 inches), but instead it is firing small blast templates which will hopefully hit more targets than the assault cannons. Rad phase and fleshbane will really help here as well.
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