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So, like so many other people, I bought the Black Reach set for one of the races, and ended up with a whole bunch of other models that I just don't want to sell on. I want to make a Marine army, but can't quite get a feel for how they play as there are just so damned many troop types. I was thinking of building a 1000 point starter force, obviously based around the AOBR models and have been looking for a suitable army online, but haven't found one yet. I've found the list below on the GW site, which is 1500 points, and I wondered how it stacked up? Is it balanced? I realise that no army can take on all comers and win, but I'm looking for something that will give me a good introduction to marines and stands a reasonable chance of not being walked over. Also, if I wanted to drop 500 points to get down to 1000, how would I do it? Plus, the dreadnought isn't in there. Should I seek to get it into the list. Thanks in advance for the help!


Space Marine Captain, Lightning Claws , Melta bombs 135

Command Squad (5 strong), Company Standard, Company Champion, Storm bolter & power sword, Melta gun, Rhino 208

Terminator Squad (5 strong), Heavy flamer 205

Tactical Squad (10 strong), Flamer & missile launcher, Rhino 205

Tactical Squad (10 strong), Flamer & missile launcher, Rhino 205

Scout Squad (10 strong), Sniper rifles (free) & Missile Launcher, Melta bombs 155

Assault Squad (10 strong), 2 x plasma pistols, Powerfist and combat shield 250

Vindicator, Dozer Blade 120

Whirlwind 85

Total Points 1498

What exactly do you want to do? Shooty, assaulting, tanky, one-uber unit, multiple smaller units, multi-tasking units, mobile, drop podding, teleporting, walking?

never follow GW's lists, they are allways poor quality.

that army has 2 CC units (ok, fine)
random termy unit (again, fine)
2 tac squads (great, but erm, why have rhino's?)

seems they wanted a bit of everything in there, best of to focus on 1 aspect, so shooty, tanks, loads of smaller units, drop pod death ect.

What's actually wrong in taking units that focus on different abilities in the same army?

Just imagine, a Vindicator and a Whirlwind blast an ork squad around a bit and then combat squaded assault squad takes care of the rest.
All units that have capability in cc can also block the way to vulnerable shooty squads holding objectives. Also I think drop pods work best when there are only a few of them.

Razerous wrote:What exactly do you want to do? Shooty, assaulting, tanky, one-uber unit, multiple smaller units, multi-tasking units, mobile, drop podding, teleporting, walking?

That's exactly the problem - I don't know. I'm looking for a good general army that will give me a good introduction to how marines play. I'm not looking to enter competitions with it, just get a feel of how different units work, but still with a vague chance of winning a couple of games.

JD21290 wrote:never follow GW's lists, they are allways poor quality.

that army has 2 CC units (ok, fine)
random termy unit (again, fine)
2 tac squads (great, but erm, why have rhino's?)

seems they wanted a bit of everything in there, best of to focus on 1 aspect, so shooty, tanks, loads of smaller units, drop pod death ect.

See above. It's very hard to know what focus to have, whilst still enabling me to have a good introduction to the race and see it's potential. I'm really open to suggestions though as I have minimal experience with them.

Zaephyr wrote:What's actually wrong in taking units that focus on different abilities in the same army?

Just imagine, a Vindicator and a Whirlwind blast an ork squad around a bit and then combat squaded assault squad takes care of the rest.
All units that have capability in cc can also block the way to vulnerable shooty squads holding objectives. Also I think drop pods work best when there are only a few of them.

I might steer away from drop pods for a 1000 point army as I'm not keen to have models that I can't move and really 'deal with'. Any further thoughts from you guys? It's making me think about it all quite a lot. I'm not tied to the GW list, by any means. If you have a better suggestion for 1000 points, please please please suggest it! Thanks again, in advance.

Get one drop pod and get one dredenought. Keep it equiped with a multi-melta, buy a h.flamer and every game, first turn - go after serious armored threats from behind.

Want good all-rounders, tacticals with lascannons, flamers, combi-flamers and a sgt-powerfist. Stick the flamer, 3 marines & the sgt in a razorback and now youve got a mobile assault unit and a nice backfield keep unit. If you want slightly better CC results drop the combi-flamer and get a powersword instead, perhaps also giving the plasma gun (instead of a flamer) to the lascannon crew. If you want forward mobile anti-tank, drop the pfist/sword and equip the sgt with a combi-melta and swap the flamer for a meltagun.

Scouts. Versitile, shooty, mobile (in deployement). 5man. 4 snipers, 1 h.bolter (read up the hellfire rules, thier cool) or missile launcher to suit taste. Cloaks a useful optional extra.

All the above will come to roughly 700 pts. Gives you a good mobile scoring core and some nice deep-striking, first turn, virtualy risk free (dont let it land off-of the egde) punch. 100-200pts on a hq and either 100-200pts of somthing to work well with that HQ or somthing to work alongside the army as a whole.

For an intro, not by any means the best, I would avoid the assault marines and scouts for now. Likewise I would avoid vehicles/drop pods until you decide where you want to go with it.

Assuming you have 1 black reach. Add 1 box of tacticals, 1 box of devastators and maybe 1 more box of tacticals so you can proxy command squad or sternguard.

1 Captain 100
2 Tacticals 340
1 Devastator 200+
1 Terminator 200+
1 Dreadnought 105

Standard marines are typically more shooty oriented so one termie squad and perhaps one command squad will give you enough close combat to see whether you have a liking for more CC units or more shooty units. The devastator box will give you 1 or 2 of each weapon so you can try different weapons in the devs and the tac squads.

After you play a few at 1000 with this and feel the need for speed or more CC or the need for armor, you will know how you want to focus your army.

I would also suggest buying or proxying the other command options - librarian, chaplain, chapter master, named characters to see what you really like about each.

Thank you very much razerous and DAaddict. Some great suggestions for how to proceed with the army! Will incorporate both ideas somehow as best I can and will get around to a blog soon. Thanks!