Blood Angels - Chapter Organisation: At first glance it might seem odd that a Space Marine Legion so proud of its traditions would set aside its individuality, but the events of the Horus Heresy had shaken the Blood Angels to their core. The Blood Angels were thus amongst the first Space Marines to adopt Roboute Guilliman's Codex Astartes.In the aftermath of Horus' defeat on Terra, the death of Sanguinius left no clear line of succession. Factions within the Blood Angels formed around potential candidates. In addition, the Flaw was slowly making its presence felt, further muddying the Legion's future. Ultimately, it was Azkaellon, sole survivor of the Sanguinary Guard, who drove the Blood Angels' destiny onwards.Azkaellon -- who saw clearly that the Blood Angels had more pressing worries than organisational doctrine -- ensured the division of the Blood Angels Legion into the Chapters that endure today. These were the Blood Angels themselves, who maintained the old Legion's heraldry and traditions, the Flesh Tearers, the Angels Vermillion, the Angels Encarmine and the Angels Sanguine. What became of Azkaellon himself after this point is unrecorded, but his legacy lives on in the Chapters he created.The Blood Angels and their Successor Chapters adhere as closely to the Codex Astartes as their flaw allows -- they recognise the strictures of the Codex as a form of discipline that can be used to restrain the Red Thirst. Accordingly, each Chapter has a nominal strength of one thousand battle-brothers under arms, further divided into ten companies of roughly one hundred Space Marines each.The 1st Company is home to the Chapter's most experienced Veterans -- all of its Battle-Brothers steeped in solar decades, if not Terran centuries, of constant warfare. The 2nd through 5th Companies are the Chapter's backbone, the Battle Companies who form the core of any strike force.The remaining companies are reserve and training formations of one sort or another. The 6th and 7th Companies are the Tactical Companies, used to reinforce a strike force or battleline when the Battle Companies are overstretched. The 8th and 9th Companies are specialist formations, composed of Assault Squads and Devastator Squads respectively.These companies are rather more limited in their tactical scope, and are deployed only when an overwhelmingly single-minded approach is required. Finally, the 10th Company is seen by many as the future of the Chapter, for it is here that Scouts hone their skills in the Space Marine way of war. Of all a Chapter's companies, it is the 10th that fights least commonly as a single unit. Though the Scouts are not yet fully trained Space Marines, their skills are highly valued. As a result, every strike force will likely have a squad or two of Scouts attached to it.Though each company can, and does, fight as a separate unit, a Blood Angels strike force will often be composed of several squads from different companies, assembled on an ad hoc basis according to the mission at hand. Such strike forces are normally given code names, such as Bloodspear, Liberator or Primarch's Wrath.Nonetheless, a strike force will inevitably be referenced by the company from which most of its personnel are drawn, or the officer that leads it. The company that forms the core of such a strike force can be reinforced by auxiliary squads drawn from the Reserve Companies. Such squads will often become the 11th Squad and upwards of that company for the duration of the strike force's action.In addition to the personal armour and weaponry required by its Battle-Brothers, each company, save the 10th, also maintains a host of support vehicles. These range from Rhino and Razorback transports to bikes and Land Speeders -- such tools are drawn upon whenever the tactical situation requires. This allows even a single Blood Angels company to fulfil a multitude of tactical and strategic roles.Unusually for a Space Marine Chapter, the Blood Angels command sufficient Land Raiders to deploy these mighty vehicles as line transports, rather than elite support units. How the Blood Angels acquired so many Land Raiders is a mystery outside the Chapter. Perhaps more of their vehicles survived the Horus Heresy intact, or perhaps the Blood Angels were once closer allies of the Adeptus Mechanicus than their current, strained relations would suggest.The Chapter deploys per the Codex, but often modifies the engines of the Rhino APCs assigned to them in order to increase their speed. These modifications have a negative effect on the vehicle as a whole, and the Blood Angels' Rhinos are prone to breakdowns if their engines are pushed too hard.Other vehicles have also been modified by the Blood Angels. The Baal Predator mounts a twin-linked Assault Cannon, and is modified to lay down a torrent of fire as the Blood Angels advance, devastating infantry and light vehicles. The Blood Angels' Furioso Dreadnought variant eschews the heavy weaponry normally carried by Space Marine Dreadnoughts, replacing it with a second close combat weapon.