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Hello all,

First off, I'm new to 40k as far as playing but I have been around it quite a bit. My cousin finally got me talked in to starting up an army. I decided to build a Space Marine army for my first build due to the ease of making the army personal to me. I was looking through things and decided how I would like to play. I want an extremely strong defense, so lots of heavy options. Anti-tank, anti-infantry...the works. Basically, if it comes too close I want to pummel it without question. On the same side I want an offensive that will hold it's own if I were to want to move in on my opponent.

What I was looking at were probably a couple small devestator squads, a couple predators, 1-2 land raiders (prolly 1 normal, 1 crusader), max of up to 3 dreadnoughts. The way I see it that pretty well covers my defensive. Where I'm stuck is my offensive...the army style I am playing really doesn't work well with fast-attack. So bikes and speeders are kind of out. What kind of infantry should I look into. Scouts, assault, I'm not sure how to go about making a decent offensive section.

Thanks,
F-C

Well first off you rattled off 6 HS options, and unless you plan on playing apocalypse exclusively that will be illegal for normal games. Also dont think about going so big with your first army. I would say your first goal should be an HQ and 2 troops. Build them up and play some small games first before you try adding other stuff. Armies are best built this way, helps you learn the strengths and weaknesses for yourself. So to start just by yourself a commander box (optional command squad box as well) and 2 tactical boxes. The standard space marine is rather versatile and will offer you plenty of options for offensive/defensive.... plus good anti personal and anti tank. Once you have played a number of games at this level, 500-750pts or so, then you should be ready to add some elites, heavies, and fast choices to your army. Do keep in mind 5th edition comes out relatively soon and thus a new marine codex will be soon to follow. Now the rumors I have heard say that we will be losing the trait system, and will instead have something similar to dark angels where taking certain special characters will modify some of your choices. (ex. taking a white scars special character will make bikes troops etc). Thus why I suggest you start and build small, a commander and tactical marines will always be useful to you. And dont go thinking small games arent fun. Yeah maybe less of the complete flavor of an army comes out at 500-750, but you still start to learn just how to eek the most efficiency out of every last point when you dont have that much to spend. That helps to sharpen you skills as a commander, not to mention having so few models makes you value them a little bit more and helps you get better at tactics. Either way I hope my words have been of some help. Welcome to the addiction... I mean game.

My strengths for my chapter give me the ability to take devestator squads and I believe (can't remember for sure and I don't have my book) dreadnoughts as elites rather then heavy options. That gives me the option of fielding more heavys which is what I want. My weakness turns me down on fast attack, kind of makes them not nearly as good. Now, the other thing is that I am planning on starting out with the basics of the HQ and two troop groups. That's a given, but I'm not sure which kind of troop options would be the best.

Even though I am looking to get 3-4000 pts out of this army I don't plan on fielding that much at all to start out. I would like to field something good enough that I can get the full picture though. I know enough about what's going on and have sat in on enough games that I know I will enjoy it, it's just that I'm not sure on the strengths/weaknesses of the troops enough to know what is a good starting point for a troop led offensive army.

F-C

Well, seeing as you want to run tanks, the first rule is always run lots of them. Yyou could get two landraiders from terminator command squads, one dread and two dev squads along with three preds and a bunch of troops in rhinos and razorbacks.

Full-choke wrote:My strengths for my chapter give me the ability to take devestator squads and I believe (can't remember for sure and I don't have my book) dreadnoughts as elites rather then heavy options. That gives me the option of fielding more heavys which is what I want. My weakness turns me down on fast attack, kind of makes them not nearly as good. Now, the other thing is that I am planning on starting out with the basics of the HQ and two troop groups. That's a given, but I'm not sure which kind of troop options would be the best.

Even though I am looking to get 3-4000 pts out of this army I don't plan on fielding that much at all to start out. I would like to field something good enough that I can get the full picture though. I know enough about what's going on and have sat in on enough games that I know I will enjoy it, it's just that I'm not sure on the strengths/weaknesses of the troops enough to know what is a good starting point for a troop led offensive army.

F-C

OK well, dreads are always elites... you can take them as heavies w/ wisdom of the ancients, and devs are heavies you can take them as elites with I believe its honor your wargear. Taking both would be counter productive so I assume you arent doing that. Land Raiders are sorta hit and miss choices. In larger point games yeah why the hell not you will have points to throw around I guess. But then again at high points your foe could really be getting every last drop of use out of each and every point. Concerning troop choices, come 5th edition marine codex I am pretty sure scouts will be elites like DA and BA codices, therefore your troop option will be tactical marines alone. Some people like small las/plas squads which I personally hate, though if combat squading goes through as well its not so bad. At least then you can put yer mobile weapon with a 5 man group while you sit the other 5 with a heavy weapon back like a ghetto dev squad. Personally I like the 10 man squads with bolters and a PG mounted in a rhino. Run em up pop em out and shower the baddies with alotta accurate shots. Just remember the most dangerous thing in this game is drowning yourself in a bloated list. Strength of arms does not mean how strong a couple or arms are, but how strong hundreds of arms are. Now yeah marines are always meant to be an elite force so its not gonna be like 180 boys, or 200 guardsmen... but it should still have a nice pile of bodies. Remember, a single guardsmen out of a 10 man squad wounds and kills a terminator, even if he is in a 95pt las/plas squad, he just earned about half his squads points back with a flashlight. For now how about you secure your force org reqs, and maybe 1 elite, heavy, or fast... then post us that smaller list along with how things went for you in some games. Then we can give you solid advice for where to go from there.

Okay, well that helps a bunch. For some reason I had it locked in my head that dreads were heavies, not elites. Which is why I was taking both "Honor your Wargear" and "Wisdom of the Ancients". Since they are not that is going to rethink things. That gives me a good area to find another positive that could be useful. What I have starting out (and I will probably pick up a few more packs on Saturday) is a Term Lib., Reg. Chaplain, Dev Squad, Combat Squad, and a Predator. I am looking to probably pick up a 10 man infantry group and maybe a Dev on Saturday when I got in to play some with my cousins army. That gives me a good round about of everything there is to field and I should be able to get on my feet from there.

F-C

Dude, just go out and by the massive marine army box. 600 bucks for a (easily) 3000 pt army. And its like 200 off it parts which could go towards your dreads.