Angel's Fury Spearhead Formation and Why You're Probably Doing it Wrong

The Blood Angels community got a gift in last week's White Dwarf in the form of the Angel's Fury Spearhead formation.  The formation allows Blood Angels players to do what they've always wanted; to assault with their units off of the deep strike.  A very strong ability that can be potentially game changing, the designers at GW have always been careful in utilizing such a rule.  Up until this new iteration of Blood Angels, aside from using some Forge World units, the only unit allowed to do an assault off a deep strike were Blood Angels Vanguard Veterans with their outdated Heroic Intervention rule. 

 

There are pros and cons to the formation, and this post isn't so much a review of it's uses or its potential.  This post is about how a lot of people are going to get the rules in this formation wrong on the table top.  So much so that it will inevitably be one of the most controversial formations/dataslates ever released by GW as more and more people attempt to use it.

 

First and foremost are the restrictions on the formation.  It consists of 3 stormraven gunships as well as 3 ten man tactical squads that must start the game embarked upon the stormravens.  The sergeants of each squad all get teleport homers for free.  The tactical marines in the formation have the objective secured special rule.

 

This formation is taken completely separately from your main detachment, which you will need to field another detachment/formation of some type to use the Angel's Fury Spearhead, which I'll cover in a moment.  So the tactical marines cannot both count for the requirements of the formation as well as the minimum troops choices in say a Baal Strike Force detachment or a Combined Arms Detachment. 

 

Next I'll cover the rule that's going to cause the most controversy in this formation; Augur Triangulation.  The special rule states if a friendly unit from the Blood Angels faction arrives from Deep Strike Reserve (note the capital letters in the formation) of at least 12" of two models from this formation equipped with teleport homers, then it does not scatter and may charge on the same turn it arrives.

 

Now, this means that in order to pull this off you'd need to deep strike between two of the sergeants, but fortunately since they're in transports (unless you've disembarked them already, which I'll cover shortly) you may measure from the hull of the stormravens.  The next part is pretty straight forward; the unit doesn't scatter and may charge the turn it arrives.

 

Confusion sets in when you throw in the tactical marines in the equation.  Tactical marines from this formation will NEVER be able to benefit from this special rule in the formation.  The only way they can assault from the stormraven is if it is dropped into hover, thus becoming an assault vehicle. 

 

Many are trying to twist the Stormraven's Skies of Fury special rule into something it isn't designed for.  Skies of Fury states that if a stormraven has moved more than 6" passengers may still disembark, but do so as if Deep Striking.  It's easy at first glance to think, oh I can use Skies of Fury to disembark the tacticals inside and assault the same turn.  No, you cannot.  Note in the rule for Augur Triangulation that it benefits Blood Angels faction units arriving from Deep Strike Reserve (noticed how I pointed out it is capitalized earlier.)  

 

You're going to argue, "as if deep striking" counts as arriving from Deep Strike Reserves.  No, it does not.  Arriving from deep strike reserves is arriving from deep strike reserves by committing a unit off the table into deep strike reserve, rolling to see if the unit arrives, and placing it on the table.  Tacticals in the stormraven aren't arriving from Deep Strike Reserve; they are disembarking a vehicle.  They are treated as having deep strike for the purposes of deploying them from the stormraven, but these units have not arrived from Deep Strike Reserve, as the Augur Triangulation rule states, thus do not gain the benefit from the special rule allowing them to charge.

 

This, I think, will be the most common misconception within this formation and will create a lot of controversy.  A great deal of Blood Angels players will attempt to do this in their games.  If you play Blood Angels, read the rules carefully.  Do not twist them into something they are not.  It's simple.  The tactical marines inside the stormraven will not benefit from Augur Triangulation.