Faction Focus: Blood Angels – Liberator Assault Group

Blood Angels, the Imperium’s most noble Space Marines, trace their origins to the time of the Great Crusade even before the Horus Heresy. They are the remnants of one of the first Space Marine “Legions”. After the Heresy, and the death of their winged Primarch, Sanguinius, at the hands of the arch-traitor, Horus, the Space Marine legions were divided up into smaller “chapters” numbering 1000 Space Marines.

Beneath the grand nobility of the Blood Angels lies a dark secret known as the Black Rage. When a Blood Angels Space Marine falls to the Black Rage they are stuck in an everlasting cycle envisioning themselves as their Primarch fighting Horus Lupercal. Those subject to the Black Rage enter the Death Company and are unleashed onto the battlefield in service of the Imperium one last time with their fate being a glorious death in battle.

The Blood Angels are known primarily for their preferred rapid assault fighting style. On the tabletop in Warhammer 40K, this equates to rapid moving jump pack clad Space Marines who strike with a ferocity unrivaled by most. The Liberator Assault Group Detachment embodies this fighting style well, with a focus on fast moving combat units that use terrain and cover to stage before launching an overwhelming assault onto the enemy. This Detachment gives the army real melee punch, strong tempo swings, and the ability to turn one successful charge phase into a massive board shift. In competitive play, that makes Blood Angels dangerous into armies that struggle to absorb layered pressure or survive repeated elite melee trades.

The faction shines when it can stage safely, threaten from multiple angles, and crash into the right targets with force. Blood Angels do especially well at punishing overextension, overwhelming key parts of the enemy line, and using their movement to dictate how the mid game unfolds. Their biggest challenges usually come into armies that screen well, slow the table down, or force awkward engagements through cheap trading pieces and layered defensive play. Liberator Assault Group rewards controlled aggression and often requires a degree of patience before launching a “go turn” that can very likely cripple the opponent’s ability to respond.

Liberator Assault Group: Detachment Rule

Red Thirst:

• Each time an Adeptus Astartes unit from your army is selected to fight, if that unit made a Charge move that turn, until the end of the phase it adds 1 to the Attacks characteristic and 2 to the Strength characteristic of its melee weapons.

This is the engine of the entire detachment. It takes already solid melee units and pushes them into a much more dangerous damage bracket. The extra Attack raises output enough to chew through infantry and elite bodies more efficiently, while the Strength boost helps Blood Angels crack targets that would otherwise take too much effort to remove. This allows their units to “punch up” into harder targets which provides more trade value. Even a basic Assault Intercessor with Jump Pack unit can land devastating attacks on units that are more costly for the opponent.

This rule also shapes how the army wants to play. Liberator Assault Group is built around staging for clean charges and timing your commit turn properly. You want your melee units hitting with purpose, not drifting into low value trades. Blood Angels get rewarded when several threats connect at once and force the opponent to absorb multiple brutal activations in the same phase.

Liberator Assault Group: Enhancements

The enhancement package gives Blood Angels a nice mix of spike damage, combat control, and reliability.

Speed of the Primarch: Once per battle, at the start of the Fight phase, the bearer can use it and models in the bearer’s unit gain Fights First until the end of the phase. This is one of the best enhancements in the detachment. Being able to give a hard-hitting melee unit like Sanguinary Guard the Fights First ability is a huge tool in competitive play. It lets you dictate an important combat, protect a key unit from getting picked up before it swings, and take control of crowded mid-board fights. It is excellent on a Jump Pack Captain with Sanguinary Guard, a Jump Pack Chaplain leading Death Company, or a Sanguinary Priest or Chaplain supporting Bladeguard Veterans.

Rage-fuelled Warrior: Once per battle, at the start of the Fight phase, the bearer can use it and their melee weapons gain Sustained Hits 3 until the end of the phase. This gives a combat character a very real ceiling and helps create those turns where one model or one unit erases something that absolutely had to die. It is especially strong on a Blood Angels Captain with his Finest Hour ability to get Devastating Wounds on his melee attacks. Especially useful when paired with a unit like Assault Intercessors or Sternguard Veterans when they can re-roll Wound rolls against the target.

Gift of Foresight: Once per battle round, just after making a Hit roll, Wound roll, or saving throw for the bearer, you can change the result to an unmodified 6. This one is not as flashy as the top two, but it offers consistent reliability. A guaranteed 6 at the right time can secure a wound, force through a key save, or keep an important character alive for another activation. It is a solid pick when you want steady value over a full game.

Icon of the Angel: When an enemy unit, excluding Monsters and Vehicles, within Engagement Range of the bearer’s unit is selected to Fall Back, models in that enemy unit must take Desperate Escape tests as though their unit were Battle-shocked. If they are already Battle-shocked, each of those tests are taken at an additional -1. There is technical value here, especially into armies that want to tag and leave or into matchups where trapping units matters. It can be useful, but in most builds it tends to sit behind the more broadly powerful options. It is a very situational Enhancement that is unlikely to give value in every game which makes it hard to justify the points investment.

Overall, Speed of the Primarch and Rage-fuelled Warrior are the main standouts. Gift of Foresight offers dependable utility, and Icon of the Angel is there for players who want a more technical control piece.

Liberator Assault Group: Stratagems

The stratagem suite is where this detachment really comes together. Blood Angels get tools for damage spikes, mobility, reactive melee pressure, and just enough durability support to keep key units alive through important exchanges. Further, all of the Stratagems here cost 1 Command Point to use, which is nice in an army that has no access to gaining CP through Character or Enhancement abilities.

Angelic Grace: This stratagem gives a unit Feel No Pain 5+ against mortal wounds until the end of the phase, triggered after a mortal wound has been allocated to that unit. This is more situational than some of the others, but can be very useful against units that want to spike Mortals onto key units like Sanguinary Guard. Mortal wounds can soften up your key assault pieces before they get where they need to be, and having a way to blunt that damage helps preserve momentum.

Armour of Contempt: A classic defensive tool, this worsens the Armour Penetration characteristic of attacks targeting one of your units by 1 until the attacking unit has finished making its attacks. We all know AoC and how important it is by now most likely. It is a key defensive Stratagem found in just about every Space Marines Detachment in the game. It can be especially useful on Sanguinary Guard in cover as it then takes -3 AP shooting to get them to a 3+ Armor Save.

Savage Echoes: Used in your opponent’s Charge phase, this stratagem targets one of your units that was just charged. You can add 1 to either the Strength or Attacks characteristic of melee weapons in that unit until the end of the turn. You can also choose for the unit to give in to the Red Thirst. If you do, it becomes Battle-shocked and gains both bonuses. This is a very strong reactive combat tool especially when used on a unit that has Fights First, either through the unit’s ability or the Speed of the Primarch Enhancement. If they come into the wrong unit at the wrong time, they can get punished hard on the swing back.

Red Rampage: Used in the Fight phase, this stratagem lets one of your units that has not yet been selected to fight gain either Lance or Lethal Hits until the end of the phase. If the unit gives in to the Red Thirst, it becomes Battle-shocked and gets both. This is one of the best offensive stratagems in the detachment. It lets you tailor your output into the target in front of you, and when you need maximum pressure, the boosted version gives you a serious damage spike. Especially useful on units like Death Company Marines with Jump Packs or even Sanguinary Guard with Encarmine Blades with an Ancient in the unit, as they get to retain their 1 OC through the Ancient’s banner, and get the benefit of both Lance and Lethals. When you launch your “go turn” you’ll want this one handy for your most important combat.

Aggressive Onslaught: Used in your Movement phase after a unit Advances, this lets that unit shoot or declare a charge that turn. If it gives in to the Red Thirst, it becomes Battle-shocked and can both shoot and charge. This stratagem is critical in this Detachment. It helps Blood Angels project pressure farther than opponents may expect and creates strong threat extension turns. The threat of any one of many hard-hitting combat units being able to Advance and Charge creates difficult decision points for the opponent as you can project a much wider threat range. Also, the ability to Advance and Shoot with a unit like a Vindicator in the early turns also creates a threat that the opponent has to respect early in the game when they are trying to move their own units.

Relentless Assault: Used after a unit Falls Back, this lets that unit shoot or declare a charge that turn. If it gives in to the Red Thirst, it becomes Battle-shocked and can do both. This is another very useful pressure tool. Opponents often try to bog down elite melee armies with cheap units and awkward tags. Relentless Assault helps Blood Angels keep their momentum instead of losing a full turn of value. This Stratagem really sets Liberator Assault Group apart from other similar Blood Angels Detachments like Rage-Cursed Onslaught, as it gives you the flexibility with Fly units to reposition and get into other targets and reactivate the Detachment rule on the Charge.

Taken together, the stratagems give Liberator Assault Group a very complete feel. The detachment has the movement tricks to create pressure, the melee boosts to convert that pressure into damage, and enough reactive play to stay dangerous even when the opponent tries to take the initiative.

Running a Blood Angels Liberator Assault Group Army

Let’s take a look at an example list for a Blood Angels Liberator Assault Group army:

Blood Angels are my main faction and I’ve been collecting them for well over a decade. Of all the Detachments in 10th, Liberator Assault Group is by far my favorite way to play the army.

Blood Angels in Liberator Assault Group are all about controlled pressure melee threats. The Sanguinary Priest attaches to the Bladeguard Veterans here to present a real mid-board threat with the ability to pop the Fights First with the Speed of the Primarch Enhancement. Each Death Company Marines with Jump Pack squad has a Character attached to them to maximize their hard-hitting power. The Chaplain with Jump Pack gives them +1 to Wound while the Death Company Captain with Jump Pack is giving the unit Sustained Hits 1 which pairs well with the Death Company’s built-in ability to re-roll Hit rolls.

The Blood Angels Captain attaches to the Assault Intercessors here riding in the Impulsor. This makes a great pressure threat to the opponent’s expansion pieces with the ability to really punch way up with the Rage-Fueled Warrior Enhancement and the Assault Intercessors’s ability to re-roll Wound rolls to targets on Objectives. When combined with the Captains Finest Hour ability, they can put out devastating damage.

The Vindicators provide early game pressure with the threat to use the Aggressive Onslaught Stratagem to Advance and Shoot and can cover firing lanes while your assault elements stage up. Dante and the Sanguinary Guard are your mid-late game assault units. They can hit with such ferocity on a well timed Charge to cripple the opponent’s units.

While this Detachment poses tons of melee threat pressure, it lacks in shooting. The Vindicators are very good for hitting harder armor units or clearing off screens, but the army doesn’t really have much in the way of shooting threats.

Final Thoughts

Blood Angels Liberator Assault Group is a well rounded melee oriented Detachment that combines a great Detachment rule with useful Enhancements and a powerful suite of Stratagems. With proper staging and positioning they are capable of putting out devastating damage that can be difficult for the opponent to recover from. The key is to use the early turns to stage and hide your key units, threaten with Rapid Ingress and unleash a crippling “go turn” on the opponent in the mid-game. If you love fast, hard-hitting melee Space Marines, then Blood Angels is probably the army for you.

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