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I want to start marines, but I have a few questions about them.

First of all, is it worthwhile to get assault on black reach. I was going to split the price with an ork player, and so from where I get my miniatures, I would get the marines in it for $36. Is there anything not worth it?

Is the battle-force worth it as well?

Beyond that, I have no idea how I am going to play marines. Is dreadnought spam ok? Is terminator spam good? And, if not, are either of those units worth taking?


Thanks, also, any other tips on what to get would be helpfull.

The aobr set is an amazing deal so yes splitting it with an ork player is a good deal. All battle forces are good if you plan to use all the units. You dont save a whole lot but its still saving none the less.

Ok, then I'll get aobr. I also have another question, are scouts good and worth it? The only thing I didn't like about the Battleforce was the scouts, but I don't know how good they are. I've played against marines a couple of times, and been through their codex, and it doesn't seem like scouts are incredibly good.

The Bringer wrote:First of all, is it worthwhile to get assault on black reach. I was going to split the price with an ork player, and so from where I get my miniatures, I would get the marines in it for $36. Is there anything not worth it?

It's worth it, but only once or twice, depending on how many Terminators and Dreadnoughts you want to run. If you want to run a ten-man unit of Terminators and two Dreadnoughts as your Elites choices, then it's absolutely worth buying two AoBR sets just for those alone - the two Tac squads are basically a bonus at that point. The Tac marines, on the other hand, are kind of boring - they're limited in their options (flamer's the only special weapon included, and missile launcher's the only heavy weapon) and their poses put me to sleep, but they're great for filling out units of Tac marines that already have their own interesting poses. The Captain is... well, a Captain. That is to say, not the best HQ choice in the codex, and with a power sword and boltgun, not with the best choice of equipment, either.

In short, yes, it's worth it overall, and then some.

The Bringer wrote:Is the battle-force worth it as well?

Again, depends on how you want to run your Marines. It does give you several solid Troops choices (three to four, in fact) and a Rhino, which you'll learn to love. So by and large, yes, I'd say it's worth it.

The Bringer wrote:Beyond that, I have no idea how I am going to play marines. Is dreadnought spam ok? Is terminator spam good? And, if not, are either of those units worth taking?

Depends - do you want to run a competitive list? A fluffy list? A list that's just plain fun to play? Which codex are you using? Space Marines? Space Wolves? Blood Angels? Dark Angels? Black Templars? All of the above are questions you need to ask yourself before you start buying models, period.

The Bringer wrote:Thanks, also, any other tips on what to get would be helpfull.

The best advice you'll ever get is simply to pick which Marine codex you want to play, and then buy that codex, before you buy ANY models. The worst mistake you can make is going out, buying 3000 points of Space Marines, then realizing that half the army you just bought, assembled, and painted, is absolute crap on the tabletop, doesn't synergize with the core of your army, doesn't play the way YOU want, etc.

I know. I did it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

The Bringer wrote:Ok, then I'll get aobr. I also have another question, are scouts good and worth it? The only thing I didn't like about the Battleforce was the scouts, but I don't know how good they are. I've played against marines a couple of times, and been through their codex, and it doesn't seem like scouts are incredibly good.

Scouts are cheap scoring units. They're not "good" per se in that everything they do power armor Marines do better, but a unit of 5 Scouts costs 75 points. That's as cheap as Marine scoring units get.

Personally, I use two units of 5 with sniper rifles as my scorers in my Deathwatch army. At 90 points each (with camo cloaks) they're annoyingly hard to push off an objective (getting 3+ cover saves even against plasma is a good time), and they constitute less than a fifth of my army (points-wise).

I like them.

I'd prefer my army to be a competitive fun-to-play one, fluff is secondary to me.

If it matters, I will be mostly playing swarm armies, like orks and nids, if that makes a difference in how I will play marines.

EDIT - Okay, I've decided to just to standard marines. That said, what are some good starting units to build off the battleforce and aobr? I don't want to start anything fancy, just a good base to build off of in later years. I have about $35 left in my budget after getting both those kits. What would you consider a good unit to get after those two kits?

Also, for future reference, what kind of lists DON'T work, and what models are never worth taking. As a Tau player, there is a good chunk of models not ever worth taking, is the same true for marines?

It sounds like you are off to a good start. If you have $35 left, you can consider picking up a few heroes or possibly a Devistator Squad to handle some of the tougher things you may be facing on the battlefield. With regards to heroes, Kantor and Sicarius are pretty solid if you ask me. Both have their purpose IMO.

I personally avoid named characters. While some of them are cool, I just don't feel right fielding someone with a name in a battle as small as the ones we fight. Doesn't make much sense. Even if it was a small part of a larger-scale battle, it feels like the character shouldn't have a force of tactical marines, scouts, assault marines, etc. surrounding him, but rather his own personal bodyguard or what have you.

But since fluff has no bearing on the way you play, go wild. Pedro Kantor is a solid character if you plan on fielding Sternguard, Shrike is pretty awesome for an assaulty Marine list, but other than that, none of the named characters particularly zing me.

As for useless units, well... one of the beautiful things about the fifth-edition Marine codex is that there are no truly useless units. It's not like Tau in that respect. So if you like the unit, chances are you'll find some way to work it into a list. Keep in mind Marines are designed with synergy in mind - they don't overspecialize, but they still have specialists.

The Bringer wrote:I'd prefer my army to be a competitive fun-to-play one, fluff is secondary to me.

If it matters, I will be mostly playing swarm armies, like orks and nids, if that makes a difference in how I will play marines.

EDIT - Okay, I've decided to just to standard marines. That said, what are some good starting units to build off the battleforce and aobr? I don't want to start anything fancy, just a good base to build off of in later years. I have about $35 left in my budget after getting both those kits. What would you consider a good unit to get after those two kits?

Also, for future reference, what kind of lists DON'T work, and what models are never worth taking. As a Tau player, there is a good chunk of models not ever worth taking, is the same true for marines?

Do you have the codex? Like Saint said, you should get the codex before buying any models. I mabe the mistake of asembing most of my IG Battleforce bases mainly on looks and glances at statlines only, with no serious consideration for a coherant list. This has caused me a lot of annoyances, like having to buy another squad just to use the weapons I wanted after seiously looking over the codex, so if you do not have it, buy it before asmbling the battleforce.

I've went through the codex a lot, as a guy in my gaming group plays marines, I'll probably try and magnetize any units that I would be changing weapons on.

Though I like devastators, the kit only comes with parts that would force you to diversify the unit, which I would prefer not to, and for now I couldn't afford to build off of the base kit...

Just as another tip, you can always proxy a few units. A few of the members in my game group did that before making a purchase to see if units would be useful in their builds. Most friendly games will allow you to do that provided you declare what the units are prior to the start of the game. It is a nice alternative since some of the stuff is so expensive.

General Seric wrote:Like Saint said

Hazard.

If you have $35 left, get another rhino. You can never have too many, and almost all of marines tanks are based off the rhino chassis. So, if you want to try out playing with a Predator/Whirlwind/Vindicator/Razorback you can substitute your plain old rhino for it. Plus you will need something for your AoBR marine squad to ride in. And like SaintHazard said, there really are no useless units, just units more suited for different tactics. I.E. a bike force wouldn't be caught dead with a thunderfire cannon, while in a defensive army, the more the merrier on cannons. It's all in how you play.

I was talking with another marine player from my group just now, and I think I'll get AoBR, the Battleforce, and then some devastators. I'll cast the devastator arms, weapons, and backpacks then, and since I'd have 25 normal marines, I'd make 5 of them into devastators with the casted pieces.

The Bringer wrote:Ok, then I'll get aobr. I also have another question, are scouts good and worth it? The only thing I didn't like about the Battleforce was the scouts, but I don't know how good they are. I've played against marines a couple of times, and been through their codex, and it doesn't seem like scouts are incredibly good.

AOBR- you get
£25 termies
£25 dread
£22 tac squad
£13 captain
All for £25!!!!
So yes- get it.
Scouts- Depends how you use them. I have a squad of 7 scouts (the metal ones) and so far the sargeant (caddius) has killed:
Land speeder
Leman russ
Leman russ
Avatar of khaine
Daemon prince
Chaplain
Captain
Tactical squad
and much, much more.
It depends on the style of your army. If you're all tanks and deverstators, Don't get them. They'll die. If you're all assault squads and Drop pods, get them. there are many ways to use them:

Anti-tank choppy way A- give the sargeant meltabombs, and give the entire squad combat knives, Infitrate behind a wall, pop out turn 1 and meltabomb it.
Anti-tank choppy way B- same equipment, but wait for turn 2, outflank next to a tank and meltabomb it.
Anti-infrantry choppy way A- combat knives, infiltrate near a shooty squad (e.g: heavy weapons teams, fire warrior squad, ect.) and knive 'em.
Anti-infrantry choppy way B- Same, but outflank.
Anti-infrantry shooty way A- infiltrate, shoot in the face with shotguns.
Anti-infrantry shooty way B- outflank, shoot in the face with shotguns.
Anti-infrantry shooty way C- equip with snipers, go into cover, snipe. Repeat.
Anti-infrantry shooty way D- equip with bolters, go in cover. Repeat until dead.
Anti-tank shooty way A- equip with snipers and missile launcher. Shoot tanks. Hope to rend with snipers.
General holding the objective- Infiltrate on top of objective, equip with bolters. Fend off enemies. Repeat until dead or game ends.
Personally, I say they are incredibly usefulIF you equip them for a specific task (e.g: eliminating that annoying CCS, or blowing up that troublesome vindicator). If you just kit them up with any old thing, you will likely die without doing anything.

$35 left? Get an assault squad. Equip with meltabombs, power fist and storm shield. Count as vanguard veterans, and there you have it! the perfect anti-tank squad!
Deep strike, assault, hit with 5 S8+2D6 melta weapons. Live through that. And even if you have the worst luck imaginable, and roll all 1's, you still have a power fist and a 3+ inv.