Blood Angels 2K Highlander List: 1 CAD, No Allies, No Formations, No LoW, No Fortifications, No FW

I have seen alot of stuff recently on the concept of the "Highlander" list. I am not going to go into the details here, but it seems interesting to me. Rather than looking at it as a way to balance the game, I look at it as a way to challenge your skills in the game. Resources one may typically rely upon are now limited to only one! With that in mind I made this list for Blood Angels with every conceivable restriction and with what I thought to be a Take All Comers approach (albeit BA style)

HQ: Commander Dante- 225: Warlord
HQ: Librarian- 165: Jump Pack, Epistolary (lvl 2), Plasma Pistol, Force Axe
HQ: Honour Guard (5)- 265: Jump Packs, Sanguinary Novitiate, Blood Champion, Vet w/ Melta Gun, Vet w/ Power Weapon, Vet w/ Powerfist and Chapter Banner

Elites: Sanguinary Priest- 75: Jump Pack

Troops: Assault Squad (10)- 235: Sergeant w/ Power Weapon and Infernus Pistol, Meltagun, Flamer
Troops: Scout Squad (5)- 75: Sniper Rifles
Troops: Death Company (6)- 375: Chaplain Lemartes, Power Weapon, Power Fist, Hand Flamer
Troops: Death Company Dreadnought- 125: Blood Fists w/ Meltagun & Storm Bolter

Fast Attack: Baal Predator- 115: TL Assault Cannon

Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship- 200: TL Assault Cannon, TL Multi-melta
Heavy Support: Vindicator- 145

Total: 2000

So there you go. Concept is to have a good Angel Assault Corps with the HG and assault squads. Two Sanguinary Priest FC bubbles and some FNP to lend out. This is why I went with the Honour Guard, to get that second priest that it provides. Combine that with a nice Chapter Banner +1A bubble and you'll hit hard. A mix of anti-tank/MC weapons thrown into the mix. The assault should handle infantry just fine. If need be, combat squad the Assault Squad into anti-tank and anti-infantry halves. Throw a librarian into the whole mis and you get whatever kind of shenanigans suites your fancy.
The DC and Dread should ride in on the Stormraven as a fast reaction that can take on just about anything short of a Knight. Which if playing this list under all the given restriction, you would not have to worry about that.
To round out the list is a Baal and Vindicator. Both great in both an anti-armour and infantry roll IMO. Sure they need to close range, especially for anti-tank performance, but that is where FAST comes into play. Rending on the Baal and an S10 ordnance blast are both nice for either scenario.

Petition to Games Workshop reaches 10,000 Supporters!

Today marked a momentous milestone in the GW Petition, 10,000 signatures! I never thought it would ever be so successful. I just felt I had concerns and that there had to be others that had the same concerns for their beloved hobby, and sat down and wrote from my heart. Now only a few weeks later, so many people from all around the globe have spoken up with me, and it really is great to know that there are so many people equally impassioned by this game and universe we call Warhammer.

For those who have not read it but are interested you can go to it here

Refocus your business model on the sale of a game and support of a gaming community vice the pure sale of collectible miniatures.

Here is my latest update on change.org:

In my last update I said I wouldn't update again until the unlikely event the Petition reached 10,000 signatures... WELL IT DID!

Thank you everyone for your support to this. Know that the petition is open for a full year (standard change.org petition length) so you can keep sharing: tinyurl.com/kjqng2g  #GWPetition 

I want to give a special thank you to one California signer who promoted the petition. You were the first, and it is truly awesome that you felt strongly enough to do so!

Even if GW doesn't enact the changes, I am gald that we, as their customers and fans, at least stood up and said what we felt needed to be said. In the words of Princeps Senioris Mikal of the Legio Praesagius, The True Messengers, "It does not matter if we are defeated today, it is enough that we fight. The artifices of the Machine God have been perverted to a traitorous cause and we cannot allow that to pass without response." 

I want to reiterate that this is not attempting to champion tournaments, but rather a game that can support all types of play, both hardcore competition and narrative/relaxed, and that GW should focus on making a GAME and the excellent models that are for that game, and not just models that a game just happens to exist for their use.

The plan from here is to print and mail the Petition and a copy of all the signatures to Tom Kirby and the other executives at GW.

Speaking of reaching out to the executives, change.org informed me that 5 of the email contacts for the recipients of the petition are invalid. If you know or have access to the following individuals emails, please contact me so I can update them here.
Elaine O'Donnell- Non-executive Director
Chris Myatt- Non-executive Director
Nick Donaldson- Non-executive Director
Rachel Tounge- Company Secretary
Erik Morgenson- Web Store Manager

As I said before, I do not want to spam your inbox, so don't expect to many updates (every few thousand or so from here on out OR if GW reacts/contacts me/change.org). I may from time to time post related content or updates on my blog instead, so if you want more consistent coverage, just follow/check out www.sepulchreofheroes.blogspot.com 

Necromunda Arbite Enforcer Sergeant

I was tired of painting Marines for a night, so I did up this guy instead.

Maybe I can take them to Adepticon 2015.

Completed Blood Angels Astorath the Grim

This week I sat down and painted up my High Chaplain Astorath aka Astorath the Grim. Despite his axe being nerfed to I 1 (a mistake I believe will be remedied in the new codex) he still has some awesome army wide benefits I like (going from a 16.7% chance for Furious Charge to a 50% chance is awesome), and is a Chaplain to boot he is still often worth taking IMO.

Really not much else to say, other than I practiced using washes a lot more than usually on this guy, and I have to say I am happy with the results.

Notice his name on top of his Jump Pack

Photo edited a little to get rid of some white wash

This last picture is edited a bunch, but I like how it picked out the detail a little more starkly

All the photography (minus the edits) is compliments of my wife. Thank you dear!

Another new Tyranid Monstrous Creature- The Tyrannocyte (A TYRANID TRANSPORT)

Saw this leaked image floating around: THE TYRANNOCYTE

Reading the page it has the following:
75 points
WS 2 or 3, BS 3, S 5, T 5, W 6,  I 3, A 3, Ld 8, Sv 4+
Unit Type: Monstrous Creature
Unit Composition: 1 Tyrannocyte
Weapons & Biomorphs: 5 Deathspitters
Special Rules: Deepstrike, Fearless, Instinctive Fire
Drifting Death: Tyrannocytes cannot run or charge. They can consolidate, but may not make a sweeping advance
Transport Spore: A Tyrannocyte does not use up a slot on the Force Org Chart. It can carry a single unit with the Tyranid Faction and has a transport capacity of 20- Monstrous Creatures count as 20 for the purposes of transport capacity. Declare which unit is being carried during deployment.
A Tyrannocyte always enters play using the deep strike rules. If when a Tyrannocyte Deep Strikes it scatters on top of impassible terrain or another model friend or foe, reduce the scatter distance by the minimum required to avoid the obstacle.
Once a Tyrannocyte DS, a unit carried in it must disembark. Place the unit so that every model is w/in 6" of the Tyrannocyte and (Unreadable) are withing 1" of an enemy or withing impassible terrrain.  Any model that cannot be placed  is removed as a casualty. A unit cannot move or charge in the same turn it disembarks, but can run or shoot. No unit can embark in the Tyrannocyte for the rest of the game.

Options:
May replace all 5 deathspitters with the following
-5 Barbed Stranglers -25pts
-5 Venom Cannons- 25pts

SO It is really just a Tyranid Drop Pod/Whirlwind drop pod combo. For 75 points, it is pretty resilient and not very weak IMO. Especially since this is a really REALLY easy way to wrack up line breaker and other maelstrom points.

Another thing to notice is the Hive Fleet Leviathan paint scheme... perfect for the Shield of Baal: Leviathan release.

Like look like Multiple Zoanthropes pasted onto a Zerg overlord with a crown in the shape of Suaron's tower to me. Not saying that is bad, just what it first appears as.

In Plain Sight- Photographic Proof of BA vs Nids: Shield of Baal Campaign

I know there are a lot of rumors and the translated German White Dwarf that says "Shield of Baal", but "hidden" on the Games Workshop site is photographic proof to back this up (or so I believe)

Typically the Studio will paint models not just for the webstore images, but for codicies and other rule books, so when you look at the new Tyranid Toxicrene, look under the creatures foot

A BLOOD ANGELS TERMINATOR

And to prove this is not just fancy conversion work by a maverick studio artist, here is the Toxicrene Sprue. Look on the bottom left.

A TERMINATOR

Now since it doesn't to seem to have chapter specific icons, that leads me to believe that it was a conscious decision to make it specifically a Blood Angel. Why would that be the chapter of choice? (Other than they are amazing) Well simple: they need pictures for the forthcoming "Shield of Baal" release of Tyranids vs Blood Angels.

To back this claim up further is the fact that the Toxicrene with the Blood Angel in it is painted in Hive Fleet Leviathan colors, where as the new Maleceptor is painted in Hive Fleet Kraken colors and does NOT feature a Blood Angel. Why is this important? Well the new campaign book is supposedly "Shield of Baal: Leviathan" and is a continuation of Tyranid dataslates featuring Corbulo and a force of BA. Check out the Bundle Deal from GW to quickly compare the schemes (how it is a bundle when it is just 2 kits for the exact same price of two kits separately is a separate story).

Just my theory, but all the pieces fit IMO. What do you think?