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Hello everyone, I'm planning to make a Space Marine army and I wanted to theme it around the idea of a force that strikes out of nowhere. To that end I'm trying to come up with an army that entirely starts in reserve and arrives via teleportation and Drop Pods. Here's what I've come up with so far, but I'm wondering how it could be improved (or even if the whole thing's going to turn out to be a bad idea):

Captain
Artificer armour
Relic blade
Storm shield

Librarian (Epistolary)
Terminator Armour
Storm shield

10-man Assault Terminator Squad
10 x Thunder hammers

9-man Sternguard Squad
Sgt with power weapon and combi-melta
2x combi-flamer
6 x combi-melta
Drop Pod with locator beacon

10-man Tactical Squad
Multimelta
Power weapon
Drop Pod with locator beacon

10-man Tactical Squad
Multimelta
Power weapon
Drop Pod with locator beacon

Ironclad Dreadnought
Drop Pod with locator beacon and Deathwind launcher

Total : 1740 points.

The idea is that the Librarian will join the Terminators and the Captain will be attached to the Sternguard (I'm wondering how useful it is to put such a choppy IC with a shooty squad, but I really like the idea of having a Captain with sword and shield from a modelling point of view and I can't think of anywhere else to put him). I'm thinking of splitting the Sternguard squad when they arrive. Comments and constructive criticism are of course welcome...

You'll want to get some strong and some weak pods. So if you have 7 you place 4. Those 4 being most of your army and the other 3 being fairly weak.

There is an exception. You have to ask what would you do if your opponent deploys nothing. Suddenly you have deploy pods with no targets. You need to have enough range not to be bowled over by a move.

I've decided to greatly overhaul the above list (didn't seem to have enough troops). Now I'm thinking something like this:

Captain
Artificer Armour
Jump Pack
Storm Bolter
Meltabombs

Librarian
Terminator Armour + Storm Shield

10-man Tactical Squad
Multimelta
Flamer
Meltabombs
Drop Pod with beacon

10-man Tactical Squad
Multimelta
Flamer
Meltabombs
Drop Pod with beacon

10-man Tactical Squad
Missile launcher
Meltagun
Meltabombs
Drop Pod with beacon

5-man Scout Sniper squad
Missile launcher
Teleport homer

Ironclad Dreadnought
Drop Pod

5-man Assault Terminator Squad with 5 Thunder Hammers

10-man Assault Squad
2 flamers
Meltabombs

5-man Sternguard Squad
Drop Pod with beacon
Meltabombs
5 Combiweapons (haven't decided what yet)

1748 points in total.

Any advice with this would be greatly appreciated. Some things I'm trying to achieve:

1. I'm trying to put anti-vehicle and anti-infantry weapons in the Tactical Squads so I can split each into an anti-tank and anti-personnel Combat Squad. Is this a good idea?
2. I plan to attach the Librarian to the Assault Terminators.
3. The Scouts are meant to be infiltrated on to objectives and provide another point for my Termintaors to join the game.
4. I'm unsure about the Assault Marines. I put them there so the Captain can join them and jump round the table in a close-combat role, but on the other hand I've been considering dropping them and the Captain's jump pack and using the points to get more Sternguard or Terminators, attaching the Captain to the Sternguard instead (that Sternguard squad looks a little smaller than I'd like). How does that sound?

Hi there! I like the first list better, you had a small but strong force that could work if tweaked a little and played well.

Here's my suggestions:

HQ

Master of the forge with combi-melta, Thunderhammer

Elite

9-man Sternguard Squad
Sgt with combi-melta
2x combi-flamer
5 x combi-melta
Drop Pod with locator beacon

10 man Terminator assault Squad
Hammer and Shield

Troops

10-man Tactical Squad
Multimelta
meltagun
Sergeant with combi-flamer
Drop Pod with beacon

10-man Tactical Squad
Multimelta
meltagun
Sergeant with combi-flamer
Drop Pod with beacon

5-man Scout Squad
sniper rifles
camo cloacks

Heavy Support

Dreadnought
Two twin-linked autocannon
Drop pod with locator beacon

Dreadnought
Two twin-linked autocannon
Drop pod with locator beacon

1750 on the dot!

MoF goes with one of the tactical squad. Snipers are objective holders, though don't deploy them on their own - reserve/outflank if needed.

If you go second and your opponent does not reserve his force, you can deploy the dreadnoughts on the table and rain down on him with the Sternguards and Tacticals. If he reserves (or you're going first and don't know if he will reserve everything), deploy the Dreads and one tactical squad somewhere you can setup a fire base.

If you ever go to 1850 pts range, ditch the MoF's equipment and add a libby with TDA and SS to go with the Termies.

Hope this helps!

That's certainly very interesting! I hadn't really looked at the capabilities of the MotF and being able to take Dreads as heavy support is quite appealing. Lots of Melta and Hammers, which I'm also a fan of. The idea of delpoying the Dreads first seems to fit with MFletch's post (landing hard hitters first). To be quite honest I would like to go back to having 10 Terminators, partly because I know they're a strong unit but mainly just because Terminator-armoured units are some of my favourite models.

what about giving the Tac Squads flamers instead of meltaguns? They're free, and it seems like they might be a good way of getting few reliable hits in at close range - or is that the Sergeant's job? For the Sternguard in your revised list you've got one man without a combi-weapon - would you rejig some points so he can get one himself or should he be OK with his bolter + special ammo? Similarly, could the MotF perhaps do without the Hammer to free up a few points? After all, the servo-harness gives him 2 PF swings in CC...

As it stands I think it's safe to assume that there may be a certain amount of overlap between the 3 lists at different times - for example, I'd like to have a Librarian so I can use him when I feel like it, and I wouldn't mind having an Ironclad around because I like the model (as you may have guessed I own very few Space Marine models at the moment).

This is all very helpful, thank you.

For tactical squad, I think meltaguns are much more usefull - when you land, you can shoot at a transport/tank and then can keep shooting in the following round (something you can't do with a combi). Hence why I put a combi-flamer on the sergeant - if you failed to hit with a combi-melta, here goes your 10pts, but with a combi-flamer there's no miss possible.

The Sternguard squad is ten strong in fact (9 Veterans + 1 sergeant). This way you can combat squad and threaten two vehicles at a time or mass combi-melta on a LR/MC. In my experience, a couple of Sternguards without combi-weapon won't hurt you and you can always get those killed first and save the juicy combis.

You're probably right about the MoF, that 30 pts could be spend elsewhere if you feel like it. Just don't give power weapon to tactical sergeants that already have combis - two attacks at Str4, even if powered, won't help you that much. In fact, with 30 extra points, I would switch the combi-flamers in the sternguards for combi-meltas and give the squad two heavy flamers (now everybody has a cool kit!). The last 10 pts can give you a missile launcher on the Scouts or meltabombs on your Tactical sergeants.

I see your point about the meltaguns, I have an IG army based around Vet squads so I know the value of melta weapons, and treating them as a one-shot weapon goes against the grain for me. I was certainly planning to combat squad the (max-sized) Sternguard.

I'd probably go with the meltabomb option for Sergenats. I certainly like the look of power-weapon wielding models , but from a game standpoint they're not holding much appeal for me. I feel the points can make more difference elsewhere.