A major problem with blood knights (other than their pts value and slow raising) is the frenzy. Sure, frenzy gives +1 A, but it also means that against any good player, they either do nothing or die. Good players who know how to bait and redirect frenzied units will never have to fight them unless they want to. Which means that good players can ensure that the only thing bloods fight is chaff or something that will kill them. At that point it is just free VPs. Since they are so fragile, it is probably the later of the two options.
Sure, there are frenzied units that work in their armies. Skullcrushers and witches. But note, both of those units are useful because they are so durable, and they are in an army book with a lot of threats. In both DE and WoC, there are too many units that need to be redirected. Also, as skullcrushers have armor and multi wounds, and witches have just so many bodies, the units themselves are hard to actually kill. So even if those units do nothing but eat chaff, they aren't giving up any VPs and they aren't critical to the function of the army since those books have so many threats.
We don't have that luxury. Bloods are fragile (lot of points, not great armor, only 1W) so they do not function well as points denial units. Also, we do not have nearly the number of threats that WoC or DE have, so having our blood knights redirected all game removes one of our major hammers, even if they never die. It is a much bigger hit to overall strategy to have our blood knights be redirected all game than it is for WoC to lose their crushers to chaff all game, since we can not fill our core with heavy-hitting chariots, and our special with chimeras. Because we have so few hard-hitting units, every point we spend directed at killing stuff needs to be utilized. These guys are just too easy remove from the game.
The only time I have been able to get bloods to work is when I dedicated literally the entire rest of my army to clearing chaff and ensuring that unit made it to CC (3x hexwraith units to remove chaff with drive bys).
A min-sized unit of bloods can do great things and can pin a flank with their threat range, but IMO if you want an extra 200 pts of rare units to cover a flank and support your units, fill it with a black coach, which will protect the flank much better and not die nearly as easily.
But please, someone prove me wrong and then teach me how to use bloods! I love the models, but they have just discouraged me so much that I can usually spend the pts elsewhere.
Sure, there are frenzied units that work in their armies. Skullcrushers and witches. But note, both of those units are useful because they are so durable, and they are in an army book with a lot of threats. In both DE and WoC, there are too many units that need to be redirected. Also, as skullcrushers have armor and multi wounds, and witches have just so many bodies, the units themselves are hard to actually kill. So even if those units do nothing but eat chaff, they aren't giving up any VPs and they aren't critical to the function of the army since those books have so many threats.
We don't have that luxury. Bloods are fragile (lot of points, not great armor, only 1W) so they do not function well as points denial units. Also, we do not have nearly the number of threats that WoC or DE have, so having our blood knights redirected all game removes one of our major hammers, even if they never die. It is a much bigger hit to overall strategy to have our blood knights be redirected all game than it is for WoC to lose their crushers to chaff all game, since we can not fill our core with heavy-hitting chariots, and our special with chimeras. Because we have so few hard-hitting units, every point we spend directed at killing stuff needs to be utilized. These guys are just too easy remove from the game.
The only time I have been able to get bloods to work is when I dedicated literally the entire rest of my army to clearing chaff and ensuring that unit made it to CC (3x hexwraith units to remove chaff with drive bys).
A min-sized unit of bloods can do great things and can pin a flank with their threat range, but IMO if you want an extra 200 pts of rare units to cover a flank and support your units, fill it with a black coach, which will protect the flank much better and not die nearly as easily.
But please, someone prove me wrong and then teach me how to use bloods! I love the models, but they have just discouraged me so much that I can usually spend the pts elsewhere.
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