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HQ:
Tigurius 230

Troops:

TAC squad
Drop pod with locator beacon
MM -
Melta
Sarge with PW
240


TAC squad
Drop pod with locator beacon
MM -
Melta
Sarge with PW
240

5 Scouts With cloaks and sniper rifles
ML
100

Elites

Sternguard x 8
Drop Pod with Locator beacon
8 Combi-meltas
285

Fast Attack

Assault Marines x 10
Sarge with Power fist
Flamer x2
235

Scout bikers x 10
Sarge with Power fist
Grenade launchers x3
Locator beacon
Cluster mines
300

Vanguard Veterans x5
Jump packs
Sarge with Relic Blade
LC x2
220


List Beta:

HQ:
Tigurius 230

Troops:

TAC squad
Drop pod with locator beacon
MM -
Melta
Sarge with PW
240


TAC squad
Drop pod with locator beacon
MM -
Melta
Sarge with PW
240

5 Scouts With cloaks and sniper rifles
HB
100

Elites

Sternguard x 8
Drop Pod with Locator beacon
7 Combi-meltas
285

Fast Attack

Assault Marines x 10
Sarge with Power fist
Flamer x2
235

Assault Marines x 10
Sarge with Power fist
Flamer x2
235

Scout bikers x 10
Sarge with Power fist
Grenade launchers x3
Locator beacon
290


First of all, concerns:
I am concerned that with all of the elite units i have in play here (namely vanguard, bikers, and sternguard) that I have made a too top heavy force. That, and the addition of Tigurius (yes i know, feel free to tell me to take an epostila-whatchamacallit for 80 points less) means that i have invested way too much into too little. If there are methods of solving this, please show me how.

I also don't know how to use half of these units. Vanguard, assault marines, drop podding tacticals, those are all staples of my play book but teleporting sternguard, Librarians, and scout bikers simply are not in my repertoire, some points of advice on the use of any of these units would be much appreciated.

Comments:
I actually like Tigurius, yes he's prohibitively expensive, but he does come with a mastercrafted stabby pole of doom . Also, when you look at the points you invest in an epistolary, you're merely getting the use of one other power per turn for the cost of 50 points. Tigurius on the other hand gives you the use of any three powers per turn, making him more versatile by far, also, he comes with a mastercrafted weapon and the nifty ability to almost ensure a 2nd turn drop of all of your reserves.



aside from that comment, have at it. I really only vaguely know what I'm doing with this list so please, C&C welcome.

I contemplated pretty much the same list and yes, it's very top heavy. It also seems a lot of fun to play.

Looks alright, though personally I'd drop the vanguard for another assault squad. Two squads are better than one and the assault squad is double strength in model terms. Vanguard are quite over priced.

The Vanguard might make up their points with the amount of Locator beacons you have. But I agree with Mercer that they are overpriced

I've only played the vanguard once and they killed 3 units (2 were below half strenght already) in once locator beacon assisted multi-assault But I do agree with Mercer, they're overpriced. 125 pts should have included jump packs.

I've actually never played a game where they didn't make up their points... o.o

but I will take this into consideration as having more bodies on the field is nice to be sure will post a second list with changes. My problem with List beta is that frankly, Assault Marines aren't that great at killing things, and in addition, though they provide so 5 more wounds, in all likelihood the vanguard will have killed enough to mitigate this.

against MEQ basics, assault marines are rated at 1/2*1/2*1*3= 1/12 times the number of attacks that they get. Basically with 10 assault marines, I'm rated at killing 2 1/2 marines. With my sarge The rated per average unit score goes down, but on the plus side the overall rating goes up to a whopping 3 1/2 kills on the charge.

The response attacks will result in the death of 5/6 of an assault marine.

Against your basic grunts (ws 3, t 3, sv 5) assault marines are rated at 2/3*2/3*2/3= 8/27 times 3 on the charge and 2 otherwise. This amounts to a very impressive 8 kills, and a further kill coming from the sarge. So this unit is pretty much wiped out when you consider shooting.


Vanguard on the other hand, when confronted with MEQ basics, are rated at 9/8 kills per Lightning Claw marine, and the Vet Sarge is rated at 1 1/4 kills the two regular marines are of course rated the same as assault marines but the extra attack means that the total kill rating of the squad on the charge is aproximately 4 1/3 kills on the charge.

It's not much more impressive than the assault marines, and the assault marines have better shooting, which is pre contact wounds, but assault marines are more expensive in this scenario. The most important defect about the assault marines however, is that they will deep strike, and then get shot to hell, while the vanguard will be safely (relatively speaking) buried in combat, a near guarantee due to the insane amount of locator beacons i have.

Don't deep strike the assault marines then. You really shouldn't deep strike assault units because as you said will get shot to ribbons.

Just use the same tactic for the vanguard as assault marines, the vanguard can only assault if lucky.

The reason I said take 2 is you can move across the table without losing one squad. With two squads you now have doulbe threat but more importantly unit redundancy. So I would give each squad the same wargear.

I play a similar list. The idea is to get as many drop pods as you can into play right off the bat. I'd recommend losing the assault squad, and maybe the Vanguards. Instead, take an Ironclad Dreadnought in a drop pod. It'll cost a little less then your assault marine squads, and do just as well in CC, and can do decently well in shooting.

As for using the bikes, the fact that they are toughness 5 makes them nice for the assault phase, and twin linked rapid fire everything is nice too. You have them well kitted out. Personally, I don;t use as many. I have 4, and I only expect them to live to turn three. Their entire purpose is to turbo-boost around the table so that I can deep strike my pods accurately.

Also, Tigurius is probably the most vital HQ choice you can take. A drop pod army's biggest weakness in not being able to put all those pods on the table, so his special ability to re-roll reserve rolls is vital.