The Death Company is randomly generated using the rules given in the Blood Angels Special Rules section. If the army includes a Chaplain, any additional Death Company join his squad.
Errata — Chapter Approved: Codex: Blood Angels Q&A (v1.0): If you take two Chaplains, remember you can only ever have one Death Company unit — both Chaplains and their Death Company Space Marines form a single unit.
| Points/Model | WS | BS | S | T | W | I | A | Ld | Sv | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Death Company | free | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 3+ |
Squad: Consists of a randomly determined number of Death Company Space Marines.
Weapons: Bolter or bolt pistol and close combat weapon. Each model is also armed with frag grenades. Veteran Sergeants who become part of the Death Company may be armed with a bolt pistol and either a power weapon or power fist.
Options: The squad may either have jump packs or be mounted in a Rhino armoured troop carrier for no extra points cost.
Errata — Chapter Approved: Codex: Blood Angels Q&A (v1.0): Decide jump packs or Rhino before each game, after generating the unit (WYSIWYG models are needed to do this). You only ever get one Rhino, and if you decide to take the Rhino, any extra Death Company models that won't fit inside it are lost.
Special Rules
The Red Thirst: The only characters who may lead a Death Company unit are Blood Angels Chaplains or a Sanguinary High Priest (providing, of course, that he does not have an Honour Guard). A Death Company which is not led by a Blood Angels Chaplain or Sanguinary High Priest must move towards the nearest enemy unit as fast as possible and must make an assault if it can do so.
Fearless: Blood Angels gripped by the Red Thirst are utterly heedless of danger to themselves and will fight on against any opposition. A Death Company automatically passes any Leadership test it is required to make and ignores any effects that would normally make them fall back automatically. This also applies to any character who joins the Death Company unit.
Errata — Chapter Approved: Codex: Blood Angels Q&A (v1.0): This automatic-pass only applies to Leadership tests, not Psychic tests — if a Librarian joins the Death Company, he does not automatically pass his Psychic tests. The automatic-pass also applies to Morale tests, not just Leadership checks in general.
Ignore injury: Death Company warriors are so blood-frenzied they can ignore injuries that would incapacitate even a battle-hardened Space Marine. If a Death Company Space Marine loses a wound, roll a dice. On a 1, 2 or 3 remove the model as normal. On a 4, 5 or 6 the injury is ignored and the model continues fighting. This ability cannot be used against weapons which inflict instant death (ie, those with a Strength double or more the model's Toughness) or against close combat weapons that allow no save (eg, power fists, power swords, Dreadnought close combat weapons, etc).
Deep strike: Space Marine models with jump packs may deep strike. See the Jump Pack rules in the Wargear section of Codex: Space Marines.
Deployment: The Death Company is deployed as Elites in scenarios where this is relevant.