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Hello. I'm a wh40k newbie struggling to paint an army (those guys are tiny!).

I'm aiming at 500p Space Marines for my first go at this game, and would be grateful if anyone could lend me a hand.

Currently I'm looking at somethings along these lines:

HQ:
Chaplain Reclusiarch 106p
jump pack, frag grenades

Fast attack:
Assault Squad 151p
2 vanilla 2*22p
1 flamer 28p
1 plasma pistol 27p
1 Veteran Sergeant 52p
power fist

Troop 1, 2 and 3:
Tactical Squad 75p
5 vanilla 5*15p

All in all it adds up to 106 + 151 + 3*75 = 482p

All comments and critique is appreciated, but please try to be verbose as I'm a total newbie and would like it if I can understand what you're saying.

Thanks.

Drop one of the 5-man Tactical squads and add 1 guy to each of the other 2 making them 6 strong. Then try to fit a lascannon and a plasma gun into each of them. It'll help give your army some teeth...it's sorely lacking any long range fire support atm.

Is it really a good idea to put lascannons into regular squads? It would seem to be better to save them for devastator squads so that the tactical squads aren't locked in place at the far back just because they have to fire that single long range lascannon shot (which might very well have no effect whatsoever).

Yeah, but if you shove all your heavies into a devastator squad, guess where all your eggs are? Yeup, in one basket.

If your tactical squads aren't in the back, shooting, what are they doing anyways?

Don't have my codex with me, some comments may be imprecise. Lascannon in tactical squad costs less than in devastator squad.

Don't put yourself down. Everyone was a beginner. Everyone is beginning in 5th edition. Lots of good players are going to lose games very badly at any given tournament.

The Las/Plas squad is a classic marine set up. If you are only playing 500 point games then you might consider going to a missile launcher/plas squad; for frag missiles. Against other opponents you might want flamers/plasma gun.

Your Jump squad looks pretty good! I might have gone two flamers if that's allowed, or get used to modeling some figures with exchangeable weapons. If you're playing against Horde armies, the second flamer/template weapon could come in handy.

5th ed. toned down rending, and hence assault cannons. Landspeeders are another good choice for fast attack. A sacrificial Landspeeder with multimelta, or a HB/assault cannon Landspeeder are good choices as well for fast attack. But, if you are playing smaller games, I think you're fine with your Jump Marines.

Check out the rules for an Apothecary, under traits. I forget the exact rule, but I think they can get you a reroll.

You need a command unit, how about a librarian with a jump pack, or a Chaplin...

In such an small army I thought a dedicated command squad would cost too much, hence I gave the chaplain a jump pack so i can attach him to the assault squad (without gimping their movement). This also means they can reroll misses when charging which I thought would be good for an assault squad.

From the above discussion regarding heavy weapons I take it 24" is enough range? I figured using heavy weapons in tactical squads were bad since the range of the heavy weapon is in effect restricted to 24".

The reason I wanted three tactical squads was that I wanted to atleast have a chance at taking a majority of the objectives in a five objectives mission, but I guess I won't have a chance at that anyway if my army is crap and dies.

I unfortunately forgot my codex at a friends house today, so I might get some numbers wrong. But maybe an updated list could look something like this:

HQ:
Chaplain Reclusiarch 106p
jump pack, frag grenades

Fast attack:
Assault Squad 151p
2 vanilla 2*22p
1 flamer 28p
1 plasma pistol 27p
1 Veteran Sergeant 52p
power fist

Troop 1: 115p
1 Lascannon 30p
1 Plasma gun 25p
4 vanilla 4*15p

Troop 2: 120p
1 Plasma cannon 35p
1 Plasma gun 25p
4 vanilla 4*15p

106 + 151 + 115 + 120 = 492p

The plasma cannon also uses the blast template, right?

If you are taking a Chaplain with a jump pack, add a Bolt Pistol for 1pt. Gives him an extra attack. For Assault Squads, remember this. The rule of "8" is a good one. It's good to always keep a CC unit a total of 8 or more. This keeps them alive until they reach the enemy. Drop the Plasma Pistol and add another Flamer. You're going to be close anyway.

For the Tactical Squads. In a low point game, they dont need lascannons or Missle launchers. A S7, AP2, 24" rapid fire is good enough. You wont see much AV, and if you do, it's low like 11, or 10.

Two more assault marines is 44p, which is quite hard to squeeze in there unless i remove the veteran sergeant (which I kinda like because I painted his helm in another color and it looks cool ).

What is the reasoning behind what you call "the rule of 8"? Is it about morale checks when 25% of the squad is gone? If so the attached chaplain makes the assault squad fearless so that's not an issue.

Try this one:


Reclusiarch: jumppack,boltpistol,frag =107
Assault squad: 7x marines, Vet sgt (powerfist,*searches english word*?"light variant stormshield", 2x flamer =201
Tac squad 1: 5x marines,plasmagun,missile launcher = 95
Tac squad 2: 5x marines,plasmagun,missile launcher = 95
=> 18 marines at 498

Go for more Tacs at 1000 pts

Be aware of new SM dex in october! You may need to upgrade some troops then.

As I said before I'm new to this game, so I'd be thankful someone could explain why the combat shield is a good choice.

It won't do any good aslong as the vet is in the squad will it? And isn't it likely he would already have ran away before he got to fight all by himself?

I don't know about it being a good choice but models with powerfists don't get an extra attack from a 2nd close combat weapon. So a bolt pistol or chainsword doesn't do him much good.

Also if the # of wounds inflicted on your squad exceeds the number of models in the squad then you will have to allocate wounds (see the rulebook)

Most likely he was just trying to spend some extra points.

When you take more possible wounds than models you have to choose who gets hit.The chaplain will not take everything on
his 3+ invul, so your points not spend may be good for a 5+ save in cc,where your powerfist should be.
A choice to have a little help against weapons ignoring your armoursave for 5 points.Not good but better than use only 495 pts.
I would go for a real storm shield,but before codex SM is available, I haven't seen this as option for a sgt in the new dex.

Your chaplain and vetsgt should be always in the heart of the fight! You will have to fight nearby models in 5th!
Most wounds came then on them. to roll at 5 or 6 can save your sgt.