Faction Focus: Blood Angels – Rage-cursed Onslaught

Few factions in Warhammer 40,000 can match the resplendent glory of the Blood Angels. They are revered as one of the most noble and heroic Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, paragons of martial excellence in service to the Imperium of Man. Clad in red and gold power armor adorned with rich heraldry, they descend from the heavens to strike at the heart of the enemy with speed, precision, and brutal efficiency.

Yet beneath that noble exterior lies a dark and terrible truth. A curse borne from their Primarch’s final moments. One that the highest ranks of the Chapter have long sought to conceal from the wider Imperium while endlessly searching for a cure. The Black Rage.

In the fury of battle, Blood Angels warriors can fall prey to the Red Thirst, an overwhelming and violent urge to spill the blood of their enemies. For some, this descent goes even further. When the Black Rage takes hold, a Space Marine becomes lost to the present, reliving the final battle of Sanguinius against the Arch-Traitor Horus again and again. These doomed warriors are inducted into the Death Company, where they are watched over by Sanguinary Priests and Chaplains until the moment their fury is unleashed upon the battlefield one final time.

If the idea of hurling power-armoured Space Marines headlong across the table to carve your enemies apart in glorious melee speaks to you, then the Rage-cursed Onslaught Detachment is exactly where you want to be. Released in December as part of the Grotmas calendar, this detachment brings together many of the strongest themes and mechanics from previous Blood Angels detachments while layering in a set of unique stratagems that push aggression to its absolute limit.

While Rage-cursed Onslaught clearly rewards heavy investment into Death Company units, it is far from a one-note detachment. It provides plenty of tools to support the rest of your Blood Angels force, allowing you to apply pressure across the table with speed, durability, and lethal close-combat threat. When piloted well, it creates a relentless tempo that forces your opponent onto the back foot from the opening turns.

Let’s dig into how it all comes together on the tabletop.

Rage-cursed Onslaught: Detachment Rule

Maddened Ferocity:

• Each time an ADEPTUS ASTARTES model from your army makes a melee attack, re-roll a Wound roll of 1.
• Each time an ADEPTUS ASTARTES unit from your army is selected to fight, if that unit made a Charge move this turn, until the end of the phase, add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of melee weapons equipped by models in that unit. If your unit is Battle-shocked, add 2 to the Attacks characteristic of melee weapons equipped by models in that unit instead.

This Detachment does include the restriction of being able to take Blood Angels units, but not any units from any other chapter, which is pretty standard.

This has a great Detachment Rule being able to re-roll 1s to Wound in combat and gaining +1 Attack (or +2 Attacks if the unit is Battle-shocked) in melee on the Charge. Liberator Assault Group Detachment had several stratagems that would give extra benefits if you Battle-shocked yourself, but they were often not good enough to warrant the benefit. Rage-cursed Onslaught actually rewards all units in the Detachment when Battle-shocked through the Detachment Rule which is a nice change. Now, being Battle-shocked is not just a straight liability and can potentially make your units hit even harder in combat.

And glorious combat is where this army really wants to be.

Rage-cursed Onslaught: Enhancements

The enhancements in Rage-cursed Onslaught are all pretty solid, despite carrying a very steep cost. You usually can only afford one or two of these, and can easily build potent in-game strategies around them, so they carry a lot of value when equipped properly.

• Carmine Reliquary – 30 Points – CHAPLAIN model only. Models in the bearer’s unit have the Scouts 6″ ability. Each time you take a Battle-shock test for an ADEPTUS ASTARTES unit within 6″ of the bearer, you can re-roll the result. This enhancement is incredibly pricey and, since it’s limited to a Chaplain, it’s only natural to put this on a Chaplain with Jump Pack leading a squad of Death Company Marines with Jump Packs to get some early melee pressure on the opponent. With the ability to make a Scout move, make a 12″ move plus an Advance AND Charge (via a Strat…more on that later) this unit can have an incredible threat range early in the game. That said, the price point with the enhancement pushes this unit to well over 200 points which makes it difficult to get decent trade value.
• Master of the Red Thirst – 25 Points – ADEPTUS ASTARTES model only. Once per battle, at the start of the Fight phase, the bearer can use this enhancement. If it does, until the end of the phase, models in the bearer’s unit have the Fights First ability. Blood Angels already have a decent assortment of Fights First units, but attaching this to a Captain with Jump Pack to give Sanguinary Guard Fights First, or even a Chaplain with Jump Pack to give his unit of Death Company marines with Jump Packs the Fights First ability is incredibly strong and you can build entire strategies around using this unit. This enhancement is an A+ choice and if you’re trying to decide which enhancement to invest in, then this is probably the top choice.
• Sanguinary Tear (Aura) -35 Points – ADEPTUS ASTARTES model only. While a friendly DEATH COMPANY unit is within 6″ of the bearer, add 1 to the Strength characteristic of weapons equipped by models in this unit. This comes in as strangely the most expensive of all the enhancements and while it is strong, it’s probably too pricey to justify the cost. One interesting thing to note with this enhancement is that it doesn’t simply affect melee attacks which makes it a somewhat interesting choice when paired with Death Company Dreadnoughts and their Multi-Melta attacks.
• Angel’s Fang – 25 Points – ADEPTUS ASTARTES model only. Each time the bearer makes a melee attack that targets a CHARACTER, MONSTER or VEHICLE unit, that attack has the (SUSTAINED HITS 2) ability. Similar to the Rage-fueled Warrior enhancement for the Liberator Assault Group, Angel’s Fang is a nice melee buff for a Blood Angels Captain when he pops off his Finest Hour ability. The limiting factor here being that it only works against Character, Monster and Vehicle units as opposed to Rage-fueled Warrior which works on any unit (albeit once per battle.) That said, it’s still a great enhancement to take as there are still plenty of units this will pop-off against. Note, this also works when he makes attacks against a unit with a Character attached as that unit becomes a “Character unit” having gained the keyword. A bit expensive, but probably worth taking if you are going to run a Captain with a squad of Assault Intercessors or Sternguard Veterans for those sweet Wound re-rolls (although you get re-roll Wounds of 1 with the Detachment Rule anyway).

Overall, this is a powerful suite of enhancements to choose from, but extremely costly. Master of the Red Thirst seems like the only absolute “auto-take” of this list because giving a squad of Death Company or Sanguinary Guard the Fights First ability is always a nice tool to have. Angel’s Fang seems the second best choice if you’re going to run the Blood Angels Captain (and you probably want to for strat purposes…more on that below.) These enhancements provide some very strong abilities to build around though and provide a lot of flexibility which is nice.

Rage-cursed Onslaught: Stratagems

This is where the Rage-cursed Onslaught Detachment really shines. This Detachment offers an amazing suite of Stratagems to choose from. So much in fact that you may find yourself struggling to manage Command Points throughout the game as all of these are just incredibly strong.

• Armour of Contempt – 1 CP – Used in the Shooting or Fight Phase after an enemy unit selects the target of their attacks. Worsen the AP of those attacks by 1. AoC is a standard in every Space Marines army. Particularly useful when you need to keep that unit alive just a little bit longer or to force your opponent to have to over-commit resources to remove the target. Nothing more to say here. Most everyone knows how powerful this stratagem is.
• A Grim Warning – 1 CP – Use in any phase just after a BLOOD ANGELS unit from your army is destroyed within range of an objective marker you control. That objective becomes “stickied” This is a key strat for Rage-cursed Onslaught, as it really encourages you to WANT to take more of the Blood Angels specific units like Baal Predators and Death Company Dreadnoughts because it doesn’t work on your normal Space Marines units like Scouts. It only works on Blood Angels units. Remember how I noted above in the enhancements section that you’d want to take the Blood Angels Captain as opposed to just the regular Captain? Yeah, this is why. This strat really helps you lean into an early aggressive playstyle as it keeps you on the Primary board forcing your opponent to come towards your objectives and thus closer to your melee threats, to take it back. This is an A+ strat and one could argue could be the sole reason alone to play this Detachment…that is if Limb from Limb didn’t exist. Speaking of…
• Limb from Limb – 1 CP – Used in the Fight Phase. One ADEPTUS ASTARTES unit that made a Charge move this turn. Select either Strength or Armor Penetration and improve that by 1 OR you may Battle-shock the unit and receive the benefit of both until the end of the phase. This is the key offensive stratagem you’re going to build around. It works in tandem with the Detachment Rule as it’s declared in the Fight phase and thus if you choose to Battle-shock the unit you’re getting +2 Attacks with +1 Strength and AP. Great to use on a squad of Sanguinary Guard with the Ancient attached as the unit remains OC 1 with the banner even after being Battle-shocked which allows you to really push their attacks further to clear off objectives.
• Insensate Rampage – 1 CP – Used in your opponent’s Shooting or Fight phase just after an enemy unit has selected its target. One DEATH COMPANY unit from your army chosen as the target of one or more of those attacks gains the Feel No Pain 5+ Ability. A great defensive strat to push your Death Company Marines survivability just a bit further. This is especially handy when used on a Lemartes led unit of Death Company as he reduces all damage by 1 to the unit. -1 Damage and a 5+ Feel No Pain gives you a lot more mileage out of them. Note this also works on a Death Company Dreadnought in the early stages of the game as well as it is not limited to just infantry.
• Deathless Duty – 2 CP – Fight phase just after an enemy unit has selected its targets. One DEATH COMPANY unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks. Fight on death. That’s right, true fight on death is back for the Death Company. Many who played index Blood Angels in early 10th may recall how powerful this was. Now, of note it is limited to a Death Company unit, and since a regular Captain or Jump Pack Captain cannot join Death Company Marines, you’ll never really have a way to reduce the cost of this stratagem. So you’re always going to spend 2 CP to use this, but it is great tech against other melee armies as the threat of just losing their unit that charged is always there.
• Red Wrath – 1 CP – Your movement phase just after an ADEPTUS ASTARTES unit from your army Advances. That unit can either Shoot or Charge in a turn in which it Advanced OR you may Battle-shock the unit and do both. This is another core strat to help boost your output offensively. Want to get those Sanguinary Guard in combat from afar and get the bonus +2 Attacks from the Detachment Rule? Battle-shock the unit with Red Wrath and not only can they Advance and Charge, but also get that sweet Detachment buff.

Overall Rage-cursed Onslaught is just full of useful stratagems you can really gameplan around. The beauty is that they really lean into a payoff when you do choose to Battle-shock the unit to get an added benefit from a strat as you’re getting the extra Attack as well in combat. The sticky strat really helps setup aggressive play as you can push units up like Baal Predators and even Death Company Dreadnoughts to threaten expansion objectives early and make your opponent pay for trying to destroy them. Of course, Limb from Limb is going to be a go-to strat you’ll use on your go turns most of the time.

Sadly what’s missing here is access to a Lance strat that we have seen in Liberator Assault Group and Angelic Inheritors, but with Strength buffs and built-in Lance on Sanguinary Guard spears as well as Chaplains leading Death Company (and giving them +1 to Wound with their melee attacks) Lance is hardly missed here. What IS missed however is access to Fall Back and Charge, which other Detachments do have and which can be very useful to have in the late stages of the game.

Running a Blood Angels Rage-cursed Onslaught Army

Let’s take a look at an example list for a Blood Angels Rage-cursed Onslaught army.

This Blood Angels Rage-cursed Onslaught list is all about aggression and pressure. With Blood Angels unique units like the Baal Predators and Death Company Dreadnought to push up early and threaten expansion objectives in No Man’s Land, you can make the opponent pay for destroying them by popping A Grim Warning to sticky those objectives early. You’ll usually want to keep Lemartes and his Death Company Marines brick in reserves to Rapid Ingress in Turn 2 or 3 to hit the enemy hard on your go turn. The second Death Company Marines brick with the Chaplain can help threaten the mid-board as well from enemy units who want to Charge the point you’re defending because of the Fights First enhancement. Meanwhile the Sanguinary Guard with Captains can surgically hit units, use the Rites of Battle ability to reduce the cost of the strats to pop off Limb from Limb while retaining their OC thanks to the banner.

This list is aggressive and strikes the opponent with a crippling go turn after you’ve staged in the early game. Of note, this army is particularly good at countering Victrix Honour Guard in Ultramarines especially with boosted AP from Limb from Limb which will counter their own Armor of Contempt use.

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for a Space Marines army that is fast, very aggressive and hits like a truck, then Blood Angels Rage-cursed Onslaught is for you. This build offers a lot of flexibility as well with the Blood Angels specific units like Death Company Marines, Sanguinary Guard, Death Company Dreadnoughts, Baal Predators and the Blood Angels Characters. There are a wide variety of directions you can go with this army but it all leads to the same place; glorious melee combat.

If you’re new to the game or want to improve quickly, then don’t forget to grab my FREE eBook: Forging Your Path to Victory: A Beginner’s Guide to Competitive 40K. A great starting point for those looking to jump into Competitive 40K. Subscribe and get your free copy!

Looking for more in-depth tips for running your Space Marines? Check out my coaching options. From list reviews to personal one-on-one coaching, I can help you develop your tactics and game strategies for success. I’d love to help you level up your game!

If you enjoyed this article and want to keep seeing ad free content and get access to additional competitive 40K content, consider supporting me on Patreon.

See you on the tabletop.