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Hey guys, I am mainly an Ork player(just a few months of experience but doing well thanks to all the Da Boyz on this site!)

I have sitting in my garage-two boxes of AOBR Space Marines, a box of 5 SM's (came with the little starter paint set), two boxes of assault termie bitz (Used the bodies to make 10 mega nobz) but my termies from AOBR are unassembled so I can build standard termies or termies with lightining claw/TH builds like I see posted.

I know marines have LOTS of different builds and themes that work. My understanding of Marines is VERY basic. I understand their "move in/move out" , when to use combat tactics, pretty good at knowing when to charge and when not to(I play them against my Orks for testing etc.) But beyond that I don't understand the synergies of some of their builds/HQ selection etc. So these are my questions:

What sort of army should I be designing for the 1000-1500 point range with what I have?
What type of HQ/play style goes with asault termie setups?
I am willing to spend a little bit of money to fill in some gaps, but don't want to go full bore. Just want a solid 1000-1500 points of Marines to break up the endless tide of green that is on my Orky workbench.
What is the most effective/common way to deploy assault termies? Vs normal termies?

Any other basic marine "unwritten rules for beginners for marines" i.e. "Always bring PK's on nobs w/ boyz" things like that.

Thanks!

For TH/SS assault termies I personally run them with a Librarian in termie armour with Null zone (another power of your choice) and a storm shield. Makes for a devastating assault unit that can move around nicely. Some like to mix LC with TH/SS. I have yet to try it, perhaps if you do 5 TH/SS 2 LC and the Libby in a Land Raider Crusader you would have a nice looking unit with a very strong punch. I would only use it in a 1500+ pts game though as it is very pricey.

A good Rule of thumb for SM is always have transports for your tactical marines. Never walk your 10 man squads. Always have a rhino. Or combat squad them and do some razorbacks. But I would say use the rhino for now. The tactical squad should carry the free ML and one of either the flamer or melta. Giving the Srgt a combi weapon and/or power fist can also be smart.

My 2 cents

My general rules of thumb:
1. Take a full Tactical Squad every 500 points (max of 3 at 2K and below)
2. Dont take PFs
3. Either go Melta AND combi-melta on Tacticals or just a flamer
4. Fast Attack is your best FOC section... Typhoons and MM Attack Bikes are amazing
5. Assault Termies in a LR are too pricey at 1500 IMO. However a squad of shooty Terminators with a CML can work

Edit: Put an upper bound on Tacticals

Any way to bring assault termies wo Land raider? How bout teleport homer setups? I ask because I have the bits/sprues already and wouldn't have to buy anything.

So marines don't rely too much on PF/PK like Orks, they use their meltas for opening cans so to say(vehicles).

Sounds like a good idea to build some normal termies in addition to the assault termies.

Sounds like I am also gonna need some rhinos/razorbacks.

I don't own a libby, I know the SM Captain is not everyone's favorite, but again I own him already so will prolly stick w him initially.


Thanks guys, feel free to elaborate

What happens if you get locked in combat with a walker or the like and don't have a fist or melta bombs?

It happens, dread, kans defilers, etc all lock up tac squads.

In the end if this is for fun I seriously think you should play what models YOU like. People will tell you don't do this that sucks. Play what you like, after all it's your army.

Gornall wrote:My general rules of thumb:
1. Take a full Tactical Squad every 500 points
2. Dont take PFs
3. Either go Melta AND combi-melta on Tacticals or just a flamer
4. Fast Attack is your best FOC section... Typhoons and MM Attack Bikes are amazing
5. Assault Termies in a LR are too pricey at 1500 IMO. However a squad of shooty Terminators with a CML can work

I almost completely agree with you (meant as a compliment).

1. Agreed
2. Agreed
3. Either go melta and combi-melta on tacs or flamer and meltabombs.
4. Fast attack is the worst section of the book, landspeeders are fragile (suicide) deathtraps (thank the Emperor they're 'cheep') and assault marines/vanguard vets are not only overcosted, but add nothing you can't already get elsewhere. Unless you want cheap MM suicide unit(s), pretend this section doesn't exist.
5. Agreed, but for a different reason, assault termies are USELESS without their transport, use tac termies with CML and attatch an IC (usually a cc oriented one) to them. The IC and squad Sgt will have plenty of pwr wpn attacks at initiative for whatever you want to assault, while the othe 4 guys have a crapton of pwr fist attcks incomming afterwards. Best of all, when their transport gets popped (and let's face it, everyone specifically builds something into their army to do this), they still have all those storm bolters (plus whatever your attatched IC is equiped with) and a CML to use, thus still contributing to the fight regardless of where they're located.

Will read up on melta bombs. Orks don't have an equivalent.

Boyz have the same problem with the dreadnought scenario you are talking about-that is why we must bring PK's on nobs. But seems like sgt with PF is not the correct solution and should look at meltas instead.

What is the tactic with rhinos? Is it like the Ork trukk where you are basically just trying to get in as fast as possible? Doesn't seem to me marines play that way since they are not quite as good at CC.

Rhino/razorback isn't just a transport, correct me if I am wrong but it is also a weapons platform that compliments whatever you put on your tacs right?

Rhinos are mobile av11 pillboxes essentially. Two marines can fire from them and they have a storm bolter standard (can also get hunter-killer missiles). They are pretty much an auto-include for any/all tac squads you take.

Cool so with what I currently own and purchasing 2 rhinos/razors I could be playing ~1000 point games.

Something Like

HQ Captain(all I currently own)
Which upgrades?

10 man tac squad Melta/MM
Rhino/razor

10 man tac squad Flamer/Melta Bombs
Rhino/razor

Tac Termies +maybe another Choppy HQ

Dreadnought?

The Aobr Dreads have TL Las cannons. I like it, it's dead killy at whatever you point it at, especially compared to my ork boyz rokkits lol! I usually put a flamer in the DCCW then pew pew with the laser when I fight my own orks. Is that a pretty solid setup for the Dreadnought?

Sorta bummed the SS/LC/TH termies are worthless wo the LR. Is the teleport homer something to look at w termies? Could that make it possible to bring the assault termies?

The AoBR dread has a Multi-melta.

If all you have for HQ atm is the AoBR captain, then I'd give him artificer armor (always nice and matches the termies' armor saves), a relic blade, and a storm bolter and keep him with the termies. Reason for the storm bolter is that as he's not in termie armor, if he rapid-fires a bolter or combi-bolter/weapon, he and the entire squad he's attatched to can no longer assault.

Eventually you're goin to want to get a a land raider for them so i'd suggest saving for that (get the crusader/redeemer kit, ignore the regular/lascannon land raider).

To create the storm bolter for your Captain, I'd try and glue another bolter alongside the one he comes with as a start.

Grots R OP wrote: feel free to elaborate

Given the advice so far, I don't know if you want much more of it.

Before you start asking broad questions of others, you should start by thinking things through for yourself a bit. For example, compare 3 boyz to a single tac marine. Both are roughly equally survivable to bolters/S4 chainswords (assuming the boyz have a KFF), and both can take hidden power fists. They are about as shooty and choppy as shootas while being twice as shooty and half as choppy as sluggas. Really, you should start by thinking of 10-man tac squads as being the rough equal of 30-boy ork mobz, and can be played with in a likewise similar manner. From there, you start to note the actual differences, like the marine's lack of WAAAUGH, but its ability to retreat sneakily in close combat and their ability to take special, heavy, and combi-weapons.

Likewise, you can think of termies and MANZ along very similar lines. They do the mostly the same things, in roughly the same manner, except with slightly different styles.

If you want to make a copy of your ork list in marines, you most certainly can, except in those things that ork lists can do that marine lists simply can't. Once you get there, you can look at the things that marines can do that orks can't (such as long-range anti-tank), and re-create the list moving towards those strengths. Of course, playing will cause refinement.

If you sit down and compare the two codecies, and follow solid list-building fundamentals, you'll probably get much closer to what you're looking for than one liners like "This suxx, never take" and "all marine armies must have this", and other, often obsolete, scarcely applicable little snippets like that.

Cool, thanks a ton guys that was exactly what I was looking for. Good point on putting the Captain w termies because of the weapon types. That is something I genearlly don't need to be aware of with orks because they are almost all assaut weapons.

I definitely need to do alot more reading on my own, but I wanted to work in the right direction on it as well and this helps alot.

Ailaros wrote:
For example, compare 3 boyz to a single tac marine. Both are roughly equally survivable to bolters/S4 chainswords (assuming the boyz have a KFF), and both can take hidden power fists. They are about as shooty and choppy as shootas while being twice as shooty and half as choppy as sluggas. Really, you should start by thinking of 10-man tac squads as being the rough equal of 30-boy ork mobz, and can be played with in a likewise similar manner. From there, you start to note the actual differences, like the marine's lack of WAAAUGH, but its ability to retreat sneakily in close combat and their ability to take special, heavy, and combi-weapons.

No. Not at all.

10 Tac Marines have very little in common with 30 Boyz. With 30 Boyz you advance, in cover when you can but abandoning when you have to, rake the enemy with fire, and charge as soon as you can. With 10 Tac Marines you do NOT, ever, charge if you have any other options. In fact, even if you know you're going to be charged on your opponent's turn, sometimes you STILL don't want to charge.

20 Boyz + Nob is about as many points as 10 SM + Sergeant. 20 Shoota Boyz get 40 S4 shots at 18" with 13 expected hits; Tac Marines get the same number of hits but only at 12", and get 6 expected hits out to 24". So they CAN hit at a slightly longer range, but only if they hold still; in order to match Ork fire, they have to be close-in with bolters. In Assault, Tac Marines just crumple to Orks. 20 Shootas with Nob get 4 PK attacks and 57 regular attacks on the charge; Tac Marines get 20 regular attacks on the charge, or 18 and 2 PF. If 20 Boyz + Nob charge 10 Tac Marines, they expect to kill 6-7 of them; if 10 Tac Marines charge 20 Boyz, they expect to kill 4 of them, and then lose or tie combat.

In short, basic Tac Marines are inferior in both shooting AND assault to roughly-equal points of Ork Boyz, although close in shooting, and if you tried to go up against Boyz on a 1-to-1 unit basis you would always, always lose. What you're paying those points for is durability and options. Tac Marines can take fire from weapons that absolutely murder Boyz; blast weapons aren't very scary, neither are templates. With 3+ armor, cover is much less important to them than it is to orks; if you need to, you can park a Tac squad out in the open for a turn or two. Combat squads let you park a heavy weapon in the backfield and still advance to claim objectives with the same unit; Combat Tactics let you leave an enemy who assaults you hanging in the breeze under the barrels of all your guns. But never forget that Tac Marines are NOT killers, like Boyz are. They're a defensive unit, not an offensive one, so you'll have to change your tactics significantly.

What happens if you get locked in combat with a walker or the like and don't have a fist or melta bombs?

It happens, dread, kans defilers, etc all lock up tac squads.

If you get locked in with a Walker, you don't want to be depending on hitting him with a single Meltabomb... on a 6+. You are better off losing the 1-2 guys he smushes and trying to fall back using Combat Tactics.

Project2501 wrote:4. Fast attack is the worst section of the book, landspeeders are fragile (suicide) deathtraps (thank the Emperor they're 'cheep') and assault marines/vanguard vets are not only overcosted, but add nothing you can't already get elsewhere. Unless you want cheap MM suicide unit(s), pretend this section doesn't exist.
5. Agreed, but for a different reason, assault termies are USELESS without their transport, use tac termies with CML and attatch an IC (usually a cc oriented one) to them. The IC and squad Sgt will have plenty of pwr wpn attacks at initiative for whatever you want to assault, while the othe 4 guys have a crapton of pwr fist attcks incomming afterwards. Best of all, when their transport gets popped (and let's face it, everyone specifically builds something into their army to do this), they still have all those storm bolters (plus whatever your attatched IC is equiped with) and a CML to use, thus still contributing to the fight regardless of where they're located.

You're right... I actually did forget that Assault Marines and VGVs exist. They are terrible and shouldn't be used outside of the BA codex. However, Typhoon Landspeeders and MM Attack Bikes are great (and cheap!) firesupport units. Typhoons are cheap, can work against just about anything short of Termies, and can outrange many of the threats that can down them easily. Also, it's much better to "suicide" a fast, non-scoring, 100 point MM unit that can pop LRs at 12" versus a similarly costed Combat Squad with MG and Combi-Melta that has to get within 6" (and is definately going to die at that point).

I agree 100% on the Tactical Termies. If you can afford both a LR and Termies... take the Assault Termies. Otherwise, use Tactical Termies to march up the board with the Captain (works much better with a Libby if you had one).

As to the OP, your list looks like a solid start given your stated goals and model restrictions. If you had a Libby, you could possibly use Gate of Infinity to get Assault Termies around, but it's risky.

If you are really interested in Space Marines, I would recommend www.bolterandchainsword.com It covers everything Power Armor related.

A really simple solution to your termie problem is to magnetize the arms. Its incredibly easy to do and allows you to easily switch between the weapon types. This would allow you to play either. Another notable thought is that with termies DSing onto a locator beacon or teleport homer will not scatter. Your assault termies then become much more valuable. Add a locator beacon to a drop pod. If your only running a single drop pod then it is guaranteed to hit turn one. Then since drop pods are not often targeted, you termies are able to land right next to your drop pod. Your drop pod is also likely to land close to where you need it with the guidance system making it rarely mishap. Land it near your opponents back field. what ever is inside unloads to deal damage, but the important part is the termies teleporting in right beside them to deal damage to whatever they need to.

dmthomas7 wrote: Another notable thought is that with termies DSing onto a locator beacon or teleport homer will not scatter. Your assault termies then become much more valuable. Add a locator beacon to a drop pod. If your only running a single drop pod then it is guaranteed to hit turn one. Then since drop pods are not often targeted, you termies are able to land right next to your drop pod. Your drop pod is also likely to land close to where you need it with the guidance system making it rarely mishap. Land it near your opponents back field. what ever is inside unloads to deal damage, but the important part is the termies teleporting in right beside them to deal damage to whatever they need to.

Assault termies can assault after Deep Striking? Though you are completely correct in your tactical advice, if anything everything you explained just further puts tac termies over top of assault termies as they can contribute immediately whenever/wherever they arrive.

this is true they cant assault after arriving. It is a draw back certainly. With TH/SS termies though they should be able to survive long enough to punch through whatever you are aiming to hit. A 2+/3+ is rather difficuly to kill.

BeRzErKeR wrote:In short, basic Tac Marines are inferior in both shooting AND assault to roughly-equal points of Ork Boyz...
In Assault, Tac Marines just crumple to Orks. 20 Shootas with Nob get 4 PK attacks and 57 regular attacks on the charge;

If you're going to make blanket statements, you should start by making sure that they're accurate. Last I checked, even on the charge, orks only attack after marines. Looking at things in a bubble doesn't help either, as in a straight-up matchup between shootas and tac squads, the tac squad kills nearly half of the boyz before they get their first swing in, and that's assuming they have a KFF. If they don't, then the mob arrives with even fewer. After that, the ork statline ensures that they will do poorly over the next few rounds of combat, once they lose their +A and furious charge.

Conventional internet wisdom is what the OP should start by avoiding. There's a lot of advice out there that gets repeated just because it's old, or just because other people are still repeating it.

There's no substitute for running the numbers.

Ailaros wrote:

If you're going to make blanket statements, you should start by making sure that they're accurate. Last I checked, even on the charge, orks only attack after marines.

Conventional internet wisdom is what the OP should start by avoiding. There's a lot of advice out there that gets repeated just because it's old, or just because other people are still repeating it.

There's no substitute for running the numbers.

That's true; and even so, the orks STILL crush the Tac Marines.

Not to be rude, but if you're going to criticize other people's statements, you should start by making sure that you've read them accurately and understand what they mean. I said 20 Boyz with a PK Nob get 57 regular attacks and 4 PK attacks on the charge; this is true. If they attack Tac Marines, some of them will die before they get to swing; the rest will then take their attacks and, JUST AS I SAID, expect to kill 6-7 of the Marines. All my math is accurate, and everything I said is true. I RAN the numbers; try running them for yourself.

dmthomas7 wrote:this is true they cant assault after arriving. It is a draw back certainly. With TH/SS termies though they should be able to survive long enough to punch through whatever you are aiming to hit. A 2+/3+ is rather difficuly to kill.

Yeah... they can't assault when they Deepstrike or Gate in. However, you can get them close enough to be a threat. I would agree with Project2501 in that Tactical Termies are probably better in this role at smaller points levels.

@Ailaros: What is funny is that Orks are actually more point efficient at basic shooting output than Tactical Marines, even with BS2. As for the "conventional internet wisdom"--I know the tips I provided are based on my playing experience with SMs over the past two years at the local RTT level. I would assume that the other people chiming in probably have similar experience either playing SM... or against them.

I just want to commit on the idea of assault termis being useless without a transport. It's just no true. What happens when you don't have a transport is the termis are no longer counter-Punchers or center of battle units. What they are are units that can deep strike near an opponents home objective (reliably if you include a locator beacon on a dread drop pod) and mess with what is ever holding it. They will pretty reliably kill any codex Troop choice that is siting there, and with enough ss can usually survive a round of shooting. Further by dropping them deep the enemy has to direct fire there and or come back instead of trying to engage your lines

Looks like there's been some debate as to the base shooting and assault effectiveness of Tactical Squads. I also noticed that a few people brought up "a full Tactical Squad for every 500 points" as a guideline. In my experience, Tactical Squads haven't been terribly effective compared to other units in my army (in terms of the above debate, I would rate them below the effectiveness of an equal points group of Boyz), and I certainly wouldn't recommend a full squad for every 500 points.

Why? Tactical Squads are good at two things: holding objectives and killing infantry at short range. Yes, their heavy and special weapon options can give them the potential to engage other targets, but doing so wastes the potential of the rest of the squad. I'm a firm believer that every unit in the army should have a role, or something it's good at. For Tactical Squads, that's short range anti-infantry. Holding objectives doesn't count, even though it's a requirement for every army - if anything, it will prevent your Tactical Squads from engaging in another role.

Tactical Squads certainly aren't useless - even while they're camping an objective, the free heavy weapon lets them affect the battlefield. And a free flamer complements their anti-infantry role, allowing them to kill GEQ and put wounds on MEQ. But in my experience, they aren't worth taking more than you have to. I usually run two full Tac Squads in 1500 point games, and three in 2k, although I just reduced my 2k list to 2 Tac Squads and it seems to be functioning better. You don't need to spend about 2/5 of your army's points on units that all perform the same role in only a passable fashion. I love Tactical Squads (I run four in 2k if I'm playing a fluffy list, and I wish they were more viable), but they just don't bring enough punch against anything to really be scary.

Honestly, there's really two ways to run Tactical Squads, and neither of them are really optimal.

1) Take the bare minimum. Because they'll usually be relegated to objective holding, they won't be doing a whole lot. This approach also gives you a fragile core in objective games. This does, however, maximize the number of points you can spend on more effective units. I feel that this is the lesser of two evils - yes, my Tactical Marines will make a negligible impact on the game, but I have a greater number of C:SM's more potent units, which can both protect the Tactical Marines and actually damage the enemy.

2) Take one Tac Squad per 500 points like folks have recommended. You'll have a lot of bodies on the field, so your army will have decent survivability. Also, with so many objective holders, you'll be able to relegate more Tactical Marines to actually killing the enemy. The downside is that your army will lack hitting power, because Tactical Squads just really aren't that effective against anything tougher than GEQ. I play against one Vulkan list that commonly fields 4 Tac Squads at 2k (combi-flamer, fist, meltagun, ML, Rhino), and they just never seem to do a whole lot, even with the buffs Vulkan provides.

Roboute... You made several good points about how Tacticals are not the most cost effective for pure killing and I agree 100%. My Tacticals are generally relegated to popping off ML shots or cleaning up the remains of weakened squads with flamer/bolter... Or acting as sacrifical speedbumps.

I mispoke earlier when I said a Tactical at every 500 points. I personally use 2 at 1000 and 3 at 1500-2000 and it works well.

I don't think the rule is a full tactical squad for every 500 points, the rule is a scoring unit for every 500 points. At 1500 I run to tactically and a 5 man telion sniper squad, you want more scoring units as you go because te enemy will have more and more fire power as the points rise, two tactical squads will be easy pickings even combate squaded in a 2k game

I used to be an Ork player (well I guess I am still an Ork player)

I went to Space marines for kind of the same reasons, I bought 32 termies 75 tact and a whole bunch of other non mech for ~200 USD.

So I had all these extra marines and no idea how to play them. I am currently using Honorguard + Libby in a LR and Terms and a Marneus in a LR. It is a big fun change from moving a ton of units to moving 3-5 tanks. I am not so competitive with my smurf list, but it is a whole lot of fun.

Not to get OT, but I really like the Land raiders and small tactical squad numbers. I use only 2 tacticals @ 1500 points. Tacticals never really punched an army down like SS/TH Termies and HG can

Thanks so much guys. I do enjoy the smurfs, heck when I am not at work and not at gw store I am either building zillions of orks or building SM lists against orks to play on the 4x4 table in my garage. I do enjoy them but don'thaven't really studied them and this will help me take them to 1000 points. I really like the drop pod w dreadnought and teleporter because it would require minimal purchase and then just model the termies(which I already have tac and assault options) I will probably build a squad of both. I have noticed that the tac squad never really puts a dent in the Orks and that if they get into CC with the marines it's pretty much over. At the same time, I have a very hard time with orks getting to the marines and killing them sometimes, and then with marines I don't hesitate to leave combat go back and shoot some more then snatch objective. Totally different play style and I think you benefit from playing both because they are the standard horde and meq armies. I figure if nothing else expanding on marines will give me a better insight into the game overall. Besides that though I do like lightning claws alot, and the TL lascanon well that alone is enough to want to field some humies from time to time.

Several issues have been raised.
First you want a 1500pt army then have 2 full tactical squads then use the other points on better things. You do not need any more scoring units.

You need to balance fists and combat tactics. If you are happy staying out of combat and then combat tacticing out then go with out the fists.

Artificer armour means your captain can not teleport down. In general I would teleport down your shooty termies, though foot slogging with the dread would work. Assault termies will not usually be that great at this points cost.
Also stormbolter is expensive for what it does, if you are in assault range do not shoot with the model - you will not care as you get to tear the unit to shreads in cc, as indeed you are in assault range.

Unlike orks you should go for balance and flexibility. It is very different.
As an example of this you asked, way back when, about rhino tactics. Well there isn't really a strategy but there are tactics. Where as trukks have a strategy of charge at the enemy, with a few tactics besides. So for example
Rushing in shooting combimeltas and meltas from the turrets is the usual advice. After you have advanced sometimes you should line up for the assault from the rhino, sometimes line up outside for shooting, sometimes staying put.
Other times keeping them back and shooting the odd missile, usually with the tactical squad outside.
Against orks just using the rhino models as a wall is the best tactic.
Of course not to mention going forward and popping smoke to cover everyones advance.
Using tactical squads as meat shields around tanks is good to prevent nasty melta shots, if your enemy hasn't balanced their army and has only melta.

If you buy two Razorbacks which you keep the lids loose to use as rhinos, you will have lots of options.
With the dread and termies I would maybe go for razorbacks. This gives you a heavy wall that moves slowly forward, firing all the time. It will also give you two scoring units at the back, if you wanted to run a chapter master they could stay there and use the orbital bombardment, or as a captain they can go in a razorback. To keep your missile launchers company maybe then go for a dev. squad and then add a rifledread to the advancing party, this should take you up to points.

MFletch wrote:Several issues have been raised.
First you want a 1500pt army then have 2 full tactical squads then use the other points on better things. You do not need any more scoring units.

Debatable

You need to balance fists and combat tactics. If you are happy staying out of combat and then combat tacticing out then go with out the fists.

Only an issue if you want to take an IC that replaces combat tactics.

Artificer armour means your captain can not teleport down. In general I would teleport down your shooty termies, though foot slogging with the dread would work.

Read the OP, he's using what he's got from 2 AoBR boxes and a 5man snap together starter painting set squad. The artificer armor alleviates armor save shenanigans as it matches the rest of the termies' 2+ saves (and is just always nice to have tbh). Also, the artificer armor means that the captain still has grenades to allow charging into cover AND can even sweeping advance units...

Assault termies will not usually be that great at this points cost.

I'd argue at any points cost, but agreed.

Also stormbolter is expensive for what it does, if you are in assault range do not shoot with the model - you will not care as you get to tear the unit to shreads in cc, as indeed you are in assault range.

What? First, the storm bolter is less than 5pts. Second, as already explained above, as it's an assault weapon and not rapid fire, it does not preclude the aforementioned NON termie captain w/termies from assaulting. Third, as to whether one should assault when in range or not is a case by case basis call, not a blanket policy. Fourth, as te storm bolter is the same profile as the rest of the tac termie squad, it precludes one from wanting to shoot at targets that are not optimal for storm bolters (barring the CML).

Now, all that said, I do agree that the OP should also give a terminator armor equiped IC a shot as well at some point, probably more likely at a higher points level (along with a land raider), but it is by no means a draw back not to use one.

Storm bolters are a very small pt cost to upgrade to it then becomes everything a bolter wishes it could be as it is an assault weapon that fires 2 shots regardless of range. by far worth the upgrade if running beside a termie squad. Also taking the artificer armour makes the captain have the same armour as a Termie but still a better invul and he holds onto his grenades which the entire squad will benefit from. As long as you don't need to DS the unit in this is definitely the way to go. Bring a relic blade with the captain and digital weapons if you can afford it. Relic blade will reliably kill MEQ at a 2+ since the blade is a power weapon and ignores armour. though truthfully at that point the Digital weapons lose its effectiveness since you wont have many failed wounds to reroll. I you have 10 pts laying around though its not a bad upgrade.

I do love artificer armour. I just want the termies teleporting sometimes which leaves the HQ alone.

If you have the points lying around sure stormbolter is fine. Though 2 bolter shots will not change the course of battle.