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New to space marines, I am trying to make a list that can handle Chaos SM, IG, and Orks. This is what I came up with, please tell me what is good and what is bad

Master of the forge, conversion beam 120

Tactical Squad x 10, plasma, las, lasplas razor 265
Tactical Squad x 10, plasma, las, lasplas razor 265

Dread 2x autocannon 125
Dread 2x autocannon 125
Dread 2x autocannon 125
Dread 2x autocannon 125

Pred sponsoon las 120
Pred sponsoon las 120

Land speeder multi melta, typhoon missle 100

tac squads split up to take objectives, auto cannons pop transports and such, lascannons go for heavier armor. Not sure what i could cut and add to help with horde armies, but please let me know what your thoughts are. Also, are vanilla space marines the best if I want to take a shooty space marine army?

mmmn vanilla.

seems a very versitile list. The dreds will me ver effective against everything. I would suggest having a dreadnought close combat weapon on each instead of the extra powerfist as str 10 is one of the big bonuses of dreads. And the extra attack is always good! this will allows them to take on ig tanks and also monstrous creatures such as deamons with ease,

its not really that bad but here i go

its usually not a good idea to give a tact squad a razor if you have a very limited amount. this is usually because you will need something to stay on the move for controlling an objective...rhinos come to mind here. also having that many dreads can be fun but can also get bogged down in close combat fairly easily...with that being said your gonna want something to help out with that. normally you can keep your dreads relatively close to each other for close combat support but with dual autocannons its useless as they dont have dread cc weapons to deal with heavier units.

I think you can solve the problem lliadon's presented by losing the conversion beamer and keeping the MotF near the rifleman dreads. They can block LOS to him pretty easily and definitely give him cover, then you can use him to repair the dreads and give some powerfist attacks, not exactly as good as a dread, but a good compromise.

Thanks for the advice guys, perhaps keep dual auto cannons on 2, and drop the conversion beam. That way still have 6 dread auto cannons to pop light armor and 2 dread cc's to mess some stuff up.

As for the razorbacks my plan was to split the tactical squad up into combat squads of 5. The 5 plain guys in a razor and the 5 with las/plas on foot to shoot at anything they happen across. Is this a bad strat? would putting all 10 in a rhino, shaving some points and getting a 3rd 10 man tac squad be advisable? I just liked the lascannons that the razorbacks bring to help with heavier armor. I don't like the idea of relying solely on the sponsoon las' on the predators.

Thanks for the critiques, keep them coming please.

The thing with Razorbacks is that they're not as good with vanilla SM as they are with BA (since theirs have Fast). Since you only have two Razorbacks, they'll get focus fired - yes, even with all the armor you're fielding already - since they have such good weaponry. In addition, vanilla SM LOVE the firing points with Rhinos, because against horde armies, you can drive up 6", fire a flamer and another bolter from the hatches while not exposing your own troops. Rhinos also have a storm bolter by default, so they can do something as well after the tac squads have disembarked.

I understand your thinking with adding Razorbacks as I was just in the same dilemma. I went with Rhinos because of how useful they are for vanilla.

I don't like your singleton Land Speeder, it's sure to get focus fired down since there's only one.

If I were you, here's what I would field:

MOTF, conversion beam - 120

Tac Squad, Flamer, ML, Rhino - 205
Tac Squad, Flamer, ML, Rhino - 205
Tac Squad, Flamer, ML, Rhino - 205

Dreadnought 2x TL Autocannon - 125
Dreadnought 2x TL Autocannon - 125
Dreadnought Assault Cannon with DCCW - 115
Dreadnought Assault Cannon with DCCW - 115

Predator with Las Sponsons - 120
Predator with Las Sponsons - 120

Points: 1455

You have 45 points free, so you could give combi-flamers to your Tac Squad sergeants.

I think that you miss melta... Having single AV 10 melta is pretty bad... AV 14 will own you...

Suks wrote:Master of the forge, conversion beam 120

Tactical Squad x 10, plasma, las, lasplas razor 265
Tactical Squad x 10, plasma, las, lasplas razor 265

Dread 2x autocannon 125
Dread 2x autocannon 125
Dread 2x autocannon 125
Dread 2x autocannon 125

Pred sponsoon las 120
Pred sponsoon las 120

Land speeder multi melta, typhoon missle 100

The comments on a little bit of melta are correct. You need at least 1 unit that can reliabliy take down some AV14. Due to AV 14 becoming less common in my local meta, I don't bring as much melta.

I would drop one Dread and replace it with 2 MM attack bikes. Alternatively you can buy 2 MM/HF speeders to do the job. I tend to perfer attack bikes as AV 10 that close to the enemy tend to be shredded to quickly for my tastes, but everyone likes different units.

I disagree on the AC/DCCW dread. You have a shooty army here, and at 1500 you can play the shooty game well. Any decent assault unit ill take the dread out before he can do any good. You've got one theme - and stick with it.

Is it possible for you to drop your TAC squads to 5 man and pick up a squad of scouts for home base objective camping? That might free up some points for you.