Not too long ago, I ended up with a copy of the 7th ed Blood Angels codex before an overseas flight and was pretty much instantly inspired to start work on a new BA army. Then spending a few weeks obsessing over what form that might take...
40K gaming was a major hobby in my teen/uni phase (a long time ago)... and while the opportunity for gaming has disappeared, the occasional bit of miniature building is still a lot of fun on a weekend.
My very first 40k game would have been in 1993, playing 1 squad of death company, represented by cardboard circles, and 1 brand new vindicare assassin model. The first squad of miniatures I ever painted was the 10-man sprue from 2nd edition; in bright orange, and looking like a kid with crayons had done the fine detail. Getting into regular gaming, and having 2 mates already running marines, I shifted to building out a ~3000pt Eldar army instead, but always loved the BA character and sheer badassery of death company carving through fields of cultists or gretchin.
For me, 40k is much more about masses of core infantry - vehicles, elites and special characters should always be a sliver of support rather than the standard for games... Dante can't be in every skirmish, and there are what... 30 sanguinary guard in existence? You want to have half of those in your army fighting 20 orks? Even with my old Eldar army, it felt wrong to have purely elite squads without at least the same number of guardians waving craftworld colours.
In building a BA army, it might be tempting to run dozens of assault or terminators/veterans. Which is probably more competitive but feels like the wrong character to me.
A blood angels battle company on the other hand... is the core of what goes into a chapter - suitably ambitious to paint even as a 50-man demi-company, and able to add a few extra interesting bits on the side without throwing the composition out too much. Mass tactical squads and I can give that little hint of squad specific marking so everything has it's place.
Cool - which one?
Battle companies are the 2nd-5th... the 2nd seems to be used for all the promo shots these days, and the 3rd being more closely tied to Tycho doesn't appeal. Leaving the 4th or 5th company...
Reading a little more about the company profiles made the choice much easier. I have ~25 metal Grey Knights and Grey Knight terminators from ~2004, so the perfect fit to have these running alongside would be the Daemonbanes: the 5th Company.
Black blood drop insignia, 3 dreadnoughts (1 of each type), and the 'Keeper of the Arsenal' title isn't such a bad thing to point to if we decide to load out a whole bunch of special weapons on units. Perfick.
A full company however is... a lot. For the full codex loadout, that could include:
100 company marines
Captain
Command squad
Librarian
1-2 chaplains
10-15 death company
2 dreadnoughts
Up to 6 rhinos/drop pods for the tactical squads alone...
I can't forsee bikes, landspeeders, heavy artillery being part of it, but that is still a lot. 130+ miniatures and a LOT of red paint.
The demi-company is a much better start to at least break the goal into something that can be completed in a normal human lifespan... A demi-company masquerading as 'Full Company' (ie, 5-man combat squads) doesn't seem as tough:
3x 10 man tactical squads = 6x 5 man tac
1x 10 man assault squad = 2x 5 man assault
2x 5 man devastators (can later add a tactical squad meat-shield, but 8x big guns first)
1x 5 man command squad
Captain + Chaplain or Librarian
10 Death company
2x Dreadnoughts
= 50 troops in 10x 5-man squads, 2 characters, command squad, 10 DC, 2 dreadnoughts
= 69 minis in total.
Simples :-)
Then let's get on with some planning & trimming plastic.
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