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My friends have gotten me into 40k, and I am trying to start an army on the cheap. I bought two tactical squads and a devastator squad. I also have four sniper rifle scouts, as well as some extra parts to make my HQ choice and one extra marine. So in total I can field 27 power armored men and 5 scouts. I am trying to make a ranged focused infantry army of 1000 pts. I am converting tac squads to represent veterans/ legion of the damned, so having those minis is not a problem. The problem is that after reading every basic players guide/ tactic, my army list is at best sub par. So I am asking for some simple fixes (if there are any) within these admittedly tight constraints. Also, I am planning on expanding this force soon, so I was wondering what new units/ improvements to these units I should set my eyes on.

army 987

HQ 120
Master of the Forge
conversion beamer

Troops 347
Scout Squad: 5 men 147
sniper 3
camo cloaks 4
heavy bolter
sergeant telion

tactical squad
10 men
200
plasma gun
plasma pistol
plasma cannon

Elites 520
Legion of the damned 5 men 230
meltagun
multi-melta
sergeant:
powerfist

Sternguard 5 men 135
heavy bolter 2

Sternguard 5 men 155
2 lascannon

Your tac squad is going to be spending all game legging it towards an objective. They will never get to fire the PC. You might want to give them a HB or ML.

LotD are expensive for what they do, and compete for your elite slots. Generally regarded as sub-par and not worth taking. That being said, they deep strike, so add an element of mobility otherwise lacking in a footslogging army. Weapons are OK, not sure if they need the fist.

Fielding sternguard as faux devastator squads is a good trick, as long as you have free elite picks. I'd probably go with PCs rather then HBs in the first squad. As your army grows, you might not be fielding these guys like this anymore. Sternguard like to have combi weapons, maybe a heavy flamer, for most deployments. I would not "veteran up" the heavy weapon guys, just paint them as normal troops. They will probably spend most of their life swapping around in your tac squads. But in low point games where you have free slots, this is a very nice use of them.

For a HQ I would go with a captain in artificer armor, with a combi weapon and some sort of power weapon, preferably a relic blade. With wound allocation being what it is, he is going to take point and lead your tactical squad to victory. By taking point walking across the table, you can save on his 2+/4++. If things get ugly, you can look out sir! and shuffle wounds back on the squad.

For a collection of stock power armor marines, I think you have done well putting this list together. As for where to go, there are a bunch of ways.

First, what chapter are you playing? Do any of the special characters appeal to you, either for fluff, or mechanically (you can file the name off and make your own version) Do you want to keep playing an infantry focused army? Or is that just because of model restrictions? I recommend taking a little something from every slot. For FA, a pair of land speeders have a huge amount of flexibility (use magnets or poster tack so you can swap weapons) Most of the HS picks are good, I'm a fan of auto/las preds. If you want to keep with the infantry gunline theme, a TFC might be a nice pick.

Another major consideration is mobility. Most games have objectives you need to seize, so you need to have a way to get troops over there. A pair of tac squads in rhinos is a staple in almost every list I make. There are other ways of getting there, but if you don't keep this in mind when building lists, you will find yourself short at the end of the game when tallying up VPs.

thanks so much for the concrit, for the LOTD I was thinking that they were only worth it for the deep strike as meltas would make them solid tank hunters when deepstriked behind enemy lines. Also, I really want to take the advice on the plasma cannons but the heavy bolters are just too darn cool looking.

As for characters/ fluff my army is a chapter of my own devising, The Angels of Desolation, they are a remnant of a chapter called the protectors who defended an outlying planet's population of citizens and imperial guard. However, the planet and their chapter was nearly wiped out by a army of necrons rising from the ground. They defeated the necrons but not without losing the vast majority of the people they were sworn to protect. The chapter all but dead, their gear destroyed, and their promise to protect failed, they became the angels of desolation. Under the command of a veteran sergeant (probably pedro cantor count as) and a techmarine armed with a ancient necron weapon (conversion beamer) they repaired their tarnished armor with parts from fallen necron legions and prepared to attack the fiendish chaos and dark eldar armies massing above their desolate planet.

I have modeled many of them with necron heads replacing the front of their helmets, many of them have tabards I sculpted from gs as well, my goal is to make the whole army look like veterans of a brutal war with weathering and unofficial battle trophies on all of them. I have always loved sterngaurds, heavy bolters, and the idea of space marine infantry as an impenetrable infantry gun line, so that is sort of my concept, any more advice with that in mind?

Do you think my next purchase should be another tac squad to fill out both the sterngaurds and a drop pod for the now lotd to make them strenguards with deepstrike and combi meltas for tank hunting? Or should I focus on fast attack? See my hope is to do the range really well as my friends are planning on doing large battles with me and a guy playing the new dark vengeance dark angels as allies, so maybe just that in itself will make the army more effective?