Gabriel Seth

How to run Seth?  I’ve been having trouble figuring out a place for Seth in my 1850 list.  At first blush he seems a great deal coming in at 155 points with chapter master stats but it’s hard to find him a good fit in the army.  Lord of War is the first stumbling block.  The 155 point cost is no longer as attractive when you consider an HQ tax must be paid.  You want him in assault but he is slow and really should have an assault transport to get him into the mix of things.  As far as what squads he fits with here is a list with pros and cons as I see it:

Assault Marines:

The go to kit out for this unit looks like three melta guns in a drop pod.  Plenty of room for Seth in the pod but he is exposed to a hefty counter attack when coming in with the suicide marines.  He does do well against vehicles in combat though so perhaps there is merit to putting him in a pod but it seems like a waist of his potential.

Death Company:

 Two reasons why I don’t think he fits here.  1) His fearless is wasted on Death Company.  2) Death Company are optimised now for jump packs.  I don’t think running them on foot is the way to go anymore.  At 20 points a pop and a reduced WS Death Company took a nerf when on foot.  However at 3 point per jump pack there are back on top of the heap again.  Even in a pod I don’t think they are that great.  I view pods as primarily as a means to get shooting units into optimal positions turn one.  Death Company don’t bring efficient shooting to the table so I figure leave the pods to the assault marines.  Also, it’s cheaper to give 10 Death Company jump packs than it is a pod.

Vanguard Vets:

I think they are a good fit for Seth.  Fearless is a nice buff for them, plus access to storm shields and melta bombs fits well with Seth.  Only big drawback I see with the vets is that I would rather take Death Company in my elite slots. 

Shooty Squad (Tac Marines, Stern Guard et al.):

Seth needs to run free.  Don’t want him in a shooty unit when he should be hacking away at the enemy.

Scouts:

This is the unit!  10 close combat scouts come in at 110 points.  Stick them in a raven with Seth and I think you have a solid unit.  The squad is cheap enough to still allow you to run with all the cool toys in the new book.  They take up a mandatory troop tax slot that points would have to go towards anyhow.  If objective secured you have a unit that is hard to shift with fearless.  If you need to take an objective you get 30 strength 5 attacks on the charge along with Seths 6 +d3 +d3 potential for mayhem.  The big benefit I see though is that this unit can jump out of a raven without much concern the turn the raven comes on the board to grab an objective.  Scouts ignore dangerous terrain tests so no real disadvantage to their being deployed this way.  Or if they stay in the storm raven a turn and it explodes losing the unit is not as devastating as if it were an expensive one.  Also Seth still has a 50% chance to crawl out of the ruble unscathed.  The biggest problem I have though with running scouts is the crummy models.  If I built this unit I think I would have to find some alternative way to represent them on the table top.

So at 1850 I’m thinking the following Combined Arms Detachment is something I’ll aim for:

LoW:

Seth

HQ:

Librarian – Auspex

Troops:

10 Marines – Heavy Flamer, Melta Gun, Combi Melta, Rhino

10 Marines – Missle Launcher, Melta Gun, Combi Melta, Rhino

10 Scouts – Blades

Cassor the Damned

Elite:

9 Death Company – Power Fist, Jump Packs

Fast:

5 Assault Marines – 2 Melta Guns, Combi Melta, Drop Pod (Death Wind)

3 Bikes – 2 Grav Guns, Combi Grav

Heavy:

2 Baal Preds – Heavy Bolters

Storm Raven

Total Points: 1850

The list has 8 objective secured units and still packs a punch.  Its fast and plays to the strengths of the Blood Angels.  If I where to go with the Baal Detachment I would drop the tac marines for more goodies to be had in the elite section.  As it stands though I’m of a mind it is not worth giving up objective secured for +1 initiative across the board.