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I really want to paint a marine army although i already have a space wolf army.

So i have decided to build an army from vanilla marine models that can be used as dark angels, vanilla marines, black Templar and blood angels.

I want to get models so that i can play the army as specialist at lower point games but balanced at higher. What would you recommend?

I have a budget of around 600 dollars.

Well I started few months ago so I can throw my few cents.

DONT, just DONT buy Assault on the black reach man. This stuff caused me nigthmares every other day! If you are lucky MOST of the stuff will match without massed use of scalpel and green stuff, however if you are not...

If you plan to use them as dark angels / templars / blood angels two battleforces may be advisable. This stuff brings you 2 tactical marine squads, 2 rhinos, 1 assault squad - which you could be able to use easily, nice spare parts from combat squad comes pretty handy when you loose head / arm / shoulder or two (being moron like me). BUT price is not that good if you cant use sh*tload of scouts which comes with the package. Well DA scouts are ok, BA and vanilla without sniper rifles can be used in Storm. You buy Storm and you need a heavy flamer which is not in a box...so you need to buy land speeder box to get one. Now you have landspeeder box...well you get the idea it goes on and on. Good thing is to come up with late list you want to use and slowly build it - its works for marines, but does not work for example for eldar, where used units vary greatly in different point levels (started playing with friend who did choose eldar and complains about this), so youre in advantage. You go Vulkan? Assemble HF/melta speeders. You dont go Vulkan? Assemble Typhoon/HB speeder. If you assemble two tactical squads WITHOUT plasma guns youve got 2 plasma guns left and can buy a Razorback and assemble it with las/plas. Just figure out your list for larger games, stick with it and buy stuff.

Jolrael, you had alot of flash/miscasts? I've bought/traded many AOBR sets in my time and never had a problem.

I agree with Jolrael and get two battleforces. I don't know what he is talking about with the AoBR marines, all the ones I have seen were great, and you can find a million of them on ebay for cheap. After your 2 battleforces, I would suggest an HQ for each of those armies (one vanilla HQ, one dark angels HQ, one Black Templar HQ, and one blood angels HQ). That way you can swap in the HQ for the flavor of the week without changing your lists too much. Additionally, you could pick an HQ that appears in all of these lists (a chaplain or a librarian, or possibly a captain). Though that is much more limiting, as you would have to find a load out that is available to all four of these armies (Bolter and a chainsword?). After that think about support options that all of the armies have. Predators? I'm pretty sure all of them use preds. Land Raiders? Again I think all these use them. Land speeders? maybe. After that your choices become more specialized. Terminators? Everyone has those, but the all work kinda different.

I think you should draw up a list of the same point value for all four armies, decide which units they can share, get them, get your HQs (or recycle them), then start picking and choosing what is left thats most important. Or after getting your HQs, build one list completely, then move onto the other, until you have them all.

Buy lots of magnets. Magnetize the backs so you can switch between jump and regular. Magnetize the arms so you can switch between bolters and pistol & chainsword.

I started with AOBR box and I've seen quite a few people at my FLGS start with that as well, and none of us have had a problem with it.

If you have money to spare, get the AOBR box and a battleforce. That'll get you well on your way.

Im going with 2 ravenwings 2 battleforces an emporers champion and a box of assault termies.

The raven-wings because they are ridiculously good value and they have bikes but better and i can use them for a DA army.

The battle forces because i can use the scouts for anyone the jump for BA or Vanilla the rhinos for anyone, the tactical marines for anyone and the emperors champion can be a cool looking captain and is required for BT. The termies are for the BT because there LC termies rock.

ChocolateGork wrote:Im going with 2 ravenwings 2 battleforces an emporers champion and a box of assault termies.

The raven-wings because they are ridiculously good value and they have bikes but better and i can use them for a DA army.

The battle forces because i can use the scouts for anyone the jump for BA or Vanilla the rhinos for anyone, the tactical marines for anyone and the emperors champion can be a cool looking captain and is required for BT. The termies are for the BT because there LC termies rock.

If it was me, I would just get one Ravenwing box. Sure, they're good value, but only compared to the normal price of bikes. They're the smallest of the three SM battleforces, both in terms of points and numbers. Instead I'd get another Space Marine or Space Wolves battleforce.

I'd also swap the Emperor's Champion out for a Space Marine Command squad. The Company Champion would make a good plastic Emperor's Champion and the set would give you more bits to mix into army for variety.

Lets see... 600 AUD is worth about 390 pounds, if you buy from Maelstrom. That means 4 battleforces for 200, command squad for 18, Assault termies for 27 for a total of 245 pounds, giving you 145 pounds remaining. What else would you like? A Space Marine commander for parts for conversions? A LRC?

Smarteye wrote:Jolrael, you had alot of flash/miscasts? I've bought/traded many AOBR sets in my time and never had a problem.

There were about 2 - 3 mm free space on the missile launcher arm on tactical space marine and 2 arms with bolter didnt match without "little" help. Bad luck I guess it is then.