Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition is upon us and, thanks to Games Workshop, we’ve been able to spend some time looking through Index Blood Angels and all of the updated Datasheets, Stratagems, Enhancements, Army and Detachment rules for the Adeptus Astartes.

Over the next week Games Workshop will be releasing the free 10th Edition rules for every faction in Warhammer 40k over on Warhammer Community! Every army will be getting a set of Index cards (That will also be available to buy later) covering the rules for each datasheet, along with the Army Rules, Detachment rules for a single detachment plus all the enhancements and stratagems!

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Also check out our 10th Edition 40k Coverage on the site and below on YouTube

Army Rules

Army wide rules for all factions in 10th edition have been significatly streamlined. Rules that used to span several pages (and sometimes even several books) have now been condensed into a single page, a single rule in fact! Blood Angels, being Adeptus Astartes, inherit the Oath of Moment rule which is an incredible army wide rule, able to benefit multiple units in your army and giving you the flexibility to ensure you’re able to deal with your opponent’s most threatening units as the battle progresses.

Sons of Sanguinius Detachment

Detachment rules have also changed quite a bit in 10th edition with each faction gaining access to a single faction-specific Detachment (although I suspect we’ll see more options as Codexes are published). In addition there are now no longer any ‘army-build’ restrictions imposed upon the player when using a Detachment allowing for a much simpler and more flexible list building process. Index Blood Angels contains the Sons of Sanguinius Detachment which grants ,The Red Thirst ability to all Blood Angels units. Provided a Blood Angels units completed a charge move that turn they gain a bonus +1 to both their Attacks and Strength characteristic during the subsequent Fight phase. Blood Angels have access to a number of solid melee units that can make good use of this ability (further enhanced by their Oath of Moment army wide rule of course!

Sons of Sanguinius Enhancements

Enhancements are a new concept in Warhammer 40,000 10th edition and essentially bring together a number of Warlord Traits, Relics and other ‘unit upgrades’ from across the different 9th edition books. The Enhancements themselves are associated with the aforementioned Sons of Sanguinius Detachment and are only availble to make use of if you have selected this specifc Detachment. Only Characters (not including Epic Heroes) can be upgraded with Enhancements and they are limited to just a single choice (although you can take up to three across your entire army).

Artisan of War is a useful enhancement that provides both a boost the to AP of equipped weapons and also a 2+ save. A useful pick on Captains and the like. Visage of Death can be used to help snatch control of objectives from opposing units, halving the OC characteristic of all enemy units within engagement range (which, as a Blood Angel, is where you’ll want to spend most of your time).

Archangel’s Shard is nice pick if you’re up against a Chaos opponent, granting equipped melee weapons the Anti-Chaos 5+ and Lance ability! Finally we have Icon of the Angel which can punish enemy units as they try to fall back.

Sons of Sanguinius Stratagems

The selection of Stratagems have also been trimmed for all factions in 10th edition with just six (in addition to those in the Core Rulebook) available to the Adeptus Astartes – these being locked behind the Sons of Sanguinius Detachment .

Angel’s Sacrifice can be used to gain some measure of revenge upon an enemy unit that has destroyed one of your characters, providing a re-roll to hit bonus for all your remaining units that target that specific enemy unit. Re-rolls are pretty easy to come by in an Adeptus Astartes army (Oath of Moment for example) so I’m not sure how useful this Stratagem is, especially as you have to sacrifice one of your characters to trigger it. Aggressive Onslaught is a very nice pick which allows one of your units to consolidate up to 6″ instead of 3″ so long as they can end that move within engagement range of an enemy unit! This could easily catch unprepared opponents of guard.

Red Rampage can further boost the melee capabilities of a Blood Angels unit by granting the Lance and Lethal Hits abilities to a unit’s equipped melee weapons. A great option for Sanguinary Guard or Death Company. Relentless Assault allows a selected unit to fall back and charge later that turn, enabling you to benefit from The Red Thirst again and again.

Only In Death Does Duty End grants a unit a ‘fight on death’ ability in the Fight Phase which is always a useful deterrent to your opponent. Armour of Contempt can be used to reduce the Armour Penetration of incoming ranged or melee attacks.

Key Units

The Datasheets in Index Blood Angels compliments those that appear in Index Space Marines and are now all available over on the Warhammer Community website for you to download and digest at your leisure. Every Datasheet has been updated in some way and there are plenty of synergies and devastating combinations to discover.

Commander Dante, as well as being a melee power house also buffs the melee capabilities of the squad he is attached to, granting a +1 to hit and charge rolls bonus! The Sanguinary Priest also looks solid in 10th, granting his squad the Feel No Pain 5+ ability and upping their Attacks characteristic.

Death Company Dreadnoughts have a really cool ability called Frenzied Reprisal which can make them incredibly diffciult for an opponent to deal with. Each time they are targeted by an attack the Dreadnought is able to either shoot or fight as if it were its Shooting or Fight phase!