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Hey all,

I've got a small and very unpainted Ultramarine army sitting on my shelf, awaiting their turn for when Waaagh Wheatabix nears completion. However, I was wondering what you would suggest for expansion? I'm a big fan of heavy infantry, and of taking an army focused around a competent core of the basic unit choice, so a tactical squad heavy list was suggesting itself to me. I've read that it tends to be lots of combat squads sprinting around the place, with meltas nailing tanks and missiles at the back of the board. Can anyone elaborate, and enlighten me as to how this can be made into an effective list? Apologies if this is very stale ground.

HQ
BR Captain (thus relic blade)
Chaplain with Bolt Pistol, Power Armour

Terminators - 10 total, but 5 still on the sprues

Dreadnought - Multimelta

Tactical Squad with Flamer/Missile Launcher
Tactical Squad with Flamer/Missile Launcher

Assault Squad, 5 men with a Power Sword sergeant

Here are some generalities:

Chaplains are bad, Librarians are good.

Terminators need Land Raiders or deep strike assistance.

Tactical Marines are bad in assault.

The main thing your list is vehicles, so getting some LRRs and rhinos/razorbackswould turn your small list into a respectable force. If you don't like transports, then at least use some predators or speeders to bring anti-vehicle guns to the table.

You need Rhinos for the Tactical Squads. It is more difficult to play SM without vehicles than it is to play Orks without vehicles.

You will not be able to play a competetive infantry only SM, bar bikes.

That said, I suggest a Devastator squad - gives you 6 Mariens and 8 Heavy Weapon, to fit your Tacticals with. Don't even consider fiealding a devastator squad

Yes, you can make a strong SM list based around Tactical Marines. Contrary to what a lot of people will tell you (and I used to think this way too), Tactical Marines are fantastic simply because of Combat Squads, Rhinos and cheap weapons.

You never stated what points level you're looking at, so I'm giving you a full army.

Librarian (Nullzone, Avenger) - 100
Dreadnought, TL-Autocannon - 125
Dreadnought, TL-Autocannon - 125
Tactical Marines (10), Combi-Flamer, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Rhino - 220
Tactical Marines (10), Combi-Flamer, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Rhino - 220
Tactical Marines (10), Combi-Flamer, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Rhino - 220
Tactical Marines (10), Combi-Flamer, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Rhino - 220
Tactical Marines (10), Combi-Flamer, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Rhino - 220
Land Speeder, Typhoon Missile Launcher - 90
Land Speeder, Typhoon Missile Launcher - 90
Predator, Lascannon Sponsons - 120
Predator, Lascannon Sponsons - 120
Predator, Lascannon Sponsons - 120
Total: 1990

A whole lot of fire support, bodies and vehicles on the field. Yeah, it's pretty much my usual SM list but with more 'core' and less 'bling'.

I would trade the combi flamers for combi melta.

Solid post.

As imweasel said, i'd probably trade the combi-flamers for combi-meltas to double your chances when you absolutely have to kill that tank, but that is a really solid list. Fifty marines are not easy to get rid of, and there's a lot of long range support as well.

Grrr

If you want tacs on the board rather than hiding in transports then a mass drop-pod army may be of interest. Maybe not a top-tier list but with dreads/tacs/termies all dropping in it can wreck castling armies.

That is an interesting list that you post. I take it that the combi-weapons are on the sergeants? Unfortunately I own very few of those models, but hey ho.

Also, how would you use the combat squads? Would the rhino sit at the back with the missile launcher in it, or drive around melta-gunning things? I'm wary of the idea of 5 man squads in general, which probably betrays my Ork experiences...

With that many MEQs I would consider Pedro. Not only could you take a sternguard squad for some extra hittines but he could alos double the CC capabilities of the tacticals squads with his +1A Bubble...

Rhinos want extra armour. Then they keep moving if glanced by an enemy where otherwise it's just plain annoying and ruins your line of rhinos charging the enemy.

p_gray99 wrote:Rhinos want extra armour. Then they keep moving if glanced by an enemy where otherwise it's just plain annoying and ruins your line of rhinos charging the enemy.

You want to pay a 42% penalty to aviod a 17% chance of a stun result? Go right ahead.

Now if EA avoided stuns and shaken results, that would be a totally different story. But even a glance only has a 1in6 chance of getting a stunned result.

Not a good bang for the buck on points...