Blood Angel Blues

I've been working on painting up my new jump-packers, but I am still not sure what exactly I want to do with my Blood Angels army. I definitely want to keep cranking out jump pack models, but I am not sure what exact tweaks to throw in. I am thinking that I want to keep my number of jump packers small, and really kit out some honor guard and vanguard veterans. The high points cost means that I won't have to get too many models...

Of course, the new codex presents some very interesting opportunities for the mechanized army. With Baal Predators being moved to the Fast Attack section of the force organization chart, the heavy support section is opened up to take more tanks. Maybe Vindicators? Or triple lascannon tank-hunting predators? I also only just realized that Blood Angels Land Raiders can deep-strike. Doesn't that just open up a can of worms? I'm not exactly sure what I would put into a land raider or two. Of course, assault terminators are the obvious choice, and I have been wanting to get my big boys back into my army. The clerk at my friendly local gaming store suggested death company; 15 of them and a chaplain could ride in a crusader. However, this death-nugget would cost around 650 points. What also really disturbs me about trying to deep-strike in a land raider is the fact that the model is huge, and could scatter up to 12". Putting over 500 points at risk by potentially having to roll on the mishap table is really scary. Depending on the terrain layout and enemy unit placement, there might not really be anywhere on the table that would serve as a feasible deep strike target.

I am really enticed by the Stormraven gunship, but alas, at present there is no model for it. I am definitely not up for scratch-building one, and I am not sure what would really work as a proxy. The best option would be a Thunderhawk gunship, but the $550 price tag HURTS; it would have to be, essentially, my only warhammer purchase for the whole year. Still, I have always wanted one as a centerpiece for my army, and I would have it around for Apocalypse games and whatnot once GW actually puts out a Stormraven model.

So, yeah, I really don't know what to do. I guess I need to get out there and start playing some games and testing some smaller lists, getting a feel for how the new codex plays before I go all-out and settle on a full scale 2500 point army and variations. Any advice from you gamers out there would be appreciated!