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Hi guys. I'm new to warhammer and so far have only had 2 battles both against my friend. I play as space marines and he uses Blood Angels. His list is something like this:

Mephiston
Terminator close combat squad that deep strike in
2x 10 man assault squads each with power sword and 2x melt as
Furioso librarian dreadnought
2x attack bikes with meltas
10 Death company with power fist and X2 power swords

He sometimes uses a librarian instead of mephiston and adds extra attack bikes or scouts. It seems that although I get plenty of shots at him I dont get many kills and then he's in close combat with me and butchers my troops and with all his meltas armour doesn't last long.
Any ideas?

What does your list look like? What models do you have to work with?

Take some scoring units but take loads of cool killy, shooty stuff.
You can out shoot his list.

Actually think about dreads. They can counter assault the assault squads, then the assault squads will try their best krak the dread to death.

If you want a straight forward suggestion then bring 3 vindicators.

I use:
Librarian with epistolary terminator armour storm shield
terminator squad with cyclone missile launcher
Terminator close combat squad 2t/s 3lightning claws
10 tactical marines with power sword flamer and missile launcher
5 scouts with missile launcher and sniper rifles and camo cloaks
2 attack bikes with meltas
Land speeder with flamer and missiles
Ironclad dreadnought with hunter killer missile
Stormraven with twin linked lascannons hurricane sponsons and cyclone missiles

I know the raven isn't in my codex but my friends have all agreed I can use it against them. I put the librarian with the close combat terminators in the raven along with the ironclad.

A TFC might be helpful, hit his jump units with the tremor rounds. You'll wound a fair amount but his armor will stop a decent amount but you make the ground near him difficult, which can cause him to risk using his jump pack to move and might lose a guy. Or it could make him more timid and slow him down with difficult terrain which can also reduce his charge distance. That'll give you more time to reduce his numbers. A counter CC unit is also helpful. Your termies can do that well. But they are slow so they're not always near when you need them.

Vindicators are a great choice. Nothing like dropping an ID template on someone.

Sternguard with Missiles/Plasma Cannon can also do good damage.

What powers do you use with your librarian?

I normally go for 'divination' powers as i like the primaris power prescience and most of the others in that discipline. I like the idea of having a tfc so think I'll try out one of those and a vindicator. I also like the look of the stern guard veteran models.

Your Terminators are your key (well, ok, only) counter-attack unit, and they will do very well against certain opponents but not very well against others. Usually they're placed in a Land Raider to ensure they get the charge but if you're being allowed to use the Stormraven, that'll do nicely too with its Assault Vehicle rule.

It would be useful to know how your opponent's Termies are armed. If they're TH/SS, try to avoid them as much as possible since you don't have a unit capable of taking it out quickly in close combat. If they're LC's - send your Tactical Termies against them. The claws will bounce off your own 2+ saves, giving your fists time to strike back and ignore his own.

Your assault Termies should be loaded in the Stormraven and looking to attack the standard Assault Squads, Mephiston (who no longer ignores 2+ saves and is easily hurt by TH's), or the Attack Bikes.

Above all else, DO NOT LET THE DEATH COMPANY CHARGE. This is by far his strongest and most survivable unit and that charge only makes them stronger. Try to avoid them if you can but if you can't get away, make sure you charge them instead. (added) ooh, I missed the Ironclad Dreadnought, which would actually be a good option here. Its attacks will ignore their armour AND their FNP, and in return you only really have the fist to worry about. Pick that fist out early with placed shots from the snipers if at all possible, though unlikely.

Lastly, remember that as vanilla Marines you have Combat Tactics, which allows you to voluntarily fall back from combat, then automatically regroup with ATSKNF. If you do this in your opponent's turn, and can get away from the Sweeping Advance (which his Terminators can't do anyway), you get a round of free shooting in and a possibility of charging in for the bonus attack.

Thanks Super Ready. I didn't even know about `combat tactics' . The last battle I had with him went down pretty much like you said but with the minor inconvenience of mephiston constantly challenging my librarian and assault terminator captain to keep himself from being attacked by the whole squad. Most annoying. I think I should try to add another troop choice in there some how as generally I have none left by the time my raven drops off the ironclad and lib/termies.

knowN0fear wrote:Thanks Super Ready. I didn't even know about `combat tactics'.

No problem. Just make sure you've read the rule in the codex, if you haven't already - namely, you need to be taking a morale test to be able to voluntarily fall back. You can't do it if you've just won a combat.

knowN0fear wrote:Thanks Super Ready. I didn't even know about `combat tactics' . The last battle I had with him went down pretty much like you said but with the minor inconvenience of mephiston constantly challenging my librarian and assault terminator captain to keep himself from being attacked by the whole squad. Most annoying. I think I should try to add another troop choice in there some how as generally I have none left by the time my raven drops off the ironclad and lib/termies.

Just refuse the challenge. Mephiston will find it hard work going through SS/TH termies. Whereas they will slice through his armour nicely. All that happens when refusing is one character sits at the back, the librarian will like the rest bite.