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HQ: Pedro Kantor 175pts

Elites
Sternguard (x10) 2x Meltas 2x Combi-Flamers Drop Pod 325pts
Sternguard (x10) 2x Meltas 2x Combi-Flamers Drop Pod 325pts
Iron Clad Dred with Heavy Flamer Drop Pod 180pts

Troops
Tactical Squad (x10) Multi-Melta, Melta and Drop Pod 210pts
Tactical Squad (x10) Multi-Melta, Melta and Drop Pod 210pts
Tactical Squad (x10) Multi-Melta, Melta and Drop Pod 210pts
Tactical Squad (x10) Multi-Melta, Melta and Drop Pod 210pts
Scout Squad: 4x Snipers, Missile Launcher, Camo Cloaks
Scout Squad: Heavy Bolter

So no deployment. Scouts Infiltrate. Drop Pods rain Down, Blow Stuff Up. I have 8-14 Scouring Units so Objectives are not a problem.

My main problem is that I'm coming over from IG and have no experience with Space Marines, So I need a hand.

Hello,
Generally I think it looks good but definitely needs a few tweaks.
Just a few thoughts...

Where is Pedro going?
I think you get half of the drop pods in the first turn which rounded up would be 4 but you could be out numbered almost 2:1 in points cost in the first turn.
You're a shooty army but the best weapons the MM can not shoot on the turn they arrive.
Once you do commit you drop pods you have very little mobility and the weapons you have selected limit the support that your troops can offer each other; you need to cluster the drop pods to prevent them being isolated and ignored by the emeny; and no last minute rushes for objectives.
If you cluster your pods, a canny enemy with heavy armour would start to reverse away to keep you at arms length.
If you go second the enemy had the chance to snaffle the objectives, get the best cover, wipe out the scouts and even move any heavy tanks into better firing positions.
If you go second the enemy could set up infiltrators before you deploy your scouts (I've poss got the rules slightly wrong here) leaving you very little viable options for their deployment. Or if you deploy first your scouts have to deploy out of their ideal positions to prevent any emeny infiltrators from controlling vast areas of the board.
(I'm working on a CSM with two units of tooled up chosen in rhinos which would not make your day).

Ideas for tweaks:
Free up some points by doing away with one of the sternguards and its drop pod; gives you three pods in the first turn.
Slim the other down by one and put Pedro into it; tool it up for close combat a bit more.
Adjust the non-shooty scouts to shooty scouts and consider an additional scout unit similarly armed.
Remove a Tactical squad to free up the organisation chart for this.
That gives you lots of points free to invest in some more support or deep striking units to keep in with the theme. To keep it agressive I would take the fast attack slots and include a large unit of asault marines (for assaults and better overall mobility), land speeders for instant tank hunting and a small unit of Vanguard with jump packs for heroic intervention.

One thing to consider, is that you determine what pods are in the first wave, and where they go. So you can have one pod full of melta to land near a tank, one with flamers for infantry, etc. I'd add some diversity to your tac squads to take advantage of this. Since you are all drop, you need to use them well, you don't have much maneuverability once you hit the table. On the flip side, you can place right where you want. You have the follow up waves to adjust to the battle, and the whole list is scoring, so you should be OK.

While you can only snap shot heavies the turn you land, they are worth it for the rest of the fight. I'd stick with the free ones though (HB,MM, ML) Combi weapons on the sarge will help add some punch for the turn you land.

Personally, I'd take some sort of mobile force that can still zip around the board to help where needed. Thematically in you list, a small unit of scout bikers and some land speeders would fit nicely. A storm talon would not be out of place, and help with air superiority.

Add a librarian with Gate.

Also, all of your Sgt's should have combi bolters, for an added punch on the turn they arrive, I'd be inclined to go combi plasma for some of the Sternguard as plasma seems to have the edge in the new meta

I do a somewhat similar list to this, but I think you have far too many troops. Marines are tougher than guard, and 60 marines plus 10 scouts at this points level is overkill and you could use some of those points better elsewhere.

I'd keep both sternguard squads and two tactical squads, plus pedro and the dread, and add a storm talon or two (or typhoon speeders) for mobility. It's also worth considering a vangaurd squad, as this is the one army list where they can kick ass - give pedro's pod and one other pod locator beacons and they can drop down and get the charge off reliably every time, and with the +1 attack from pedro too. It's a very useful trick to have in your arsenal, although it's not effective against terminators so you'll need an alternative tactic for them.

Sternguard have the AP3 rounds making plasma less must have for me. having plasma on some of your tacticals isn't a bad plan though.

My concern is the lack of speed. Either you cluster and make it a happy time for enemy templates or you leave yourself open for being picked apart piecemeal. Now the sternguard bolters protect you from infantry but MM do a poor job of affecting vehicles since they have to be within 12" or snapfire.

My suggestion would be to lose one tactical squad and put the points into landspeeders w MM or MM/HF or Attack Bikes with MM. That gives you a good reaction force to affect vehicles no matter where they go. If you reserve them, you can deep strike the speeders or just hide the bikes and use them to snipe vehicles.

With that much melta....Vulkan He'stan.

Wolfsblood wrote:
With that much melta....Vulkan He'stan.

Just a question. Say you took both Vulkan and Pedro. Now you switch combat tactics for melta fun.
i know you don't then get the stubborn from Pedro but do you still qualify sternguard as troops for purposes of holding objectives?

If not then I understand the reason for Pedro otherwise dump a tactical or two in a heartbeat and take them both.

I would bring more melta shots into the sternguard. They want to land and be able to down tanks reliably.
I find combiflamers are not that much better than the usual bolter firepower.
Also heavy flamers happen to be awesome.

I would bring 2 or 3 stormtalons. This brings antiflyer, mobility and long range fire power into your list, all of which is needed.

You do not need all those scoring units. Maybe even MotF just to bring drop pod dreads instead may be good or even allies(try deathwing)

DAaddict wrote:

Wolfsblood wrote:
With that much melta....Vulkan He'stan.

Just a question. Say you took both Vulkan and Pedro. Now you switch combat tactics for melta fun.
i know you don't then get the stubborn from Pedro but do you still qualify sternguard as troops for purposes of holding objectives?

If not then I understand the reason for Pedro otherwise dump a tactical or two in a heartbeat and take them both.

Yea you have to pick one or the other. Losing the sternguard as scoring wouldnt be that big of an issue considering there are 50 scoring troops on the board. Is there a particular reason you want 4 full tac squads? Is it the IG player in ya?

Wolfsblood wrote:

DAaddict wrote:

Wolfsblood wrote:
With that much melta....Vulkan He'stan.

Just a question. Say you took both Vulkan and Pedro. Now you switch combat tactics for melta fun.
i know you don't then get the stubborn from Pedro but do you still qualify sternguard as troops for purposes of holding objectives?

If not then I understand the reason for Pedro otherwise dump a tactical or two in a heartbeat and take them both.

Yea you have to pick one or the other. Losing the sternguard as scoring wouldnt be that big of an issue considering there are 50 scoring troops on the board. Is there a particular reason you want 4 full tac squads? Is it the IG player in ya?

I read to Codex and I DO believe you still get Pedro's Sternguard as troops. It is in a separate paragraph from the Combat Tactics switch.
That means you can take Vulkan and switch combat tactics for TL meltas/flamers and still have the sternguard count as scoring.

If that is the case dump a tactical and melta-up both of your sternguard. I would almost just drop the Ironclad for another small sternguard with combi-meltas.

Yeah all the troops are influenced by my playing guard, so I could drop them down some. I planed on the Combi Flamers to help if my Sternguard get assualted, so I can do the d3 autohits.

The locator beacons and vanguard's heroic intervention sounds nasty, so I'm going to try to work it in.

I'll work on a new list when I can.

Pedro 175
Vulkan 190
365

10 Sternguard 10 x Combi-melta Drop Pod 335
10 Sternguard 10 x Combi-melta Drop Pod 335
1 Ironclad w HF Drop Pod 180
850

Tactical w Drop Pod 210
Tactical w Drop Pod 210
Tactical w Drop Pod 210
630

1845 - Now you have TL Melta and MM fun. 5 Scoring choices and two rock hard HQs. If you keep them together and go with a sternguard, you have a scary HTH unit too.

Jasper wrote:
Hello,
Generally I think it looks good but definitely needs a few tweaks.
Just a few thoughts...

Where is Pedro going?
I think you get half of the drop pods in the first turn which rounded up would be 4 but you could be out numbered almost 2:1 in points cost in the first turn.
You're a shooty army but the best weapons the MM can not shoot on the turn they arrive.
Once you do commit you drop pods you have very little mobility and the weapons you have selected limit the support that your troops can offer each other; you need to cluster the drop pods to prevent them being isolated and ignored by the emeny; and no last minute rushes for objectives.
If you cluster your pods, a canny enemy with heavy armour would start to reverse away to keep you at arms length.
If you go second the enemy had the chance to snaffle the objectives, get the best cover, wipe out the scouts and even move any heavy tanks into better firing positions.
If you go second the enemy could set up infiltrators before you deploy your scouts (I've poss got the rules slightly wrong here) leaving you very little viable options for their deployment. Or if you deploy first your scouts have to deploy out of their ideal positions to prevent any emeny infiltrators from controlling vast areas of the board.
(I'm working on a CSM with two units of tooled up chosen in rhinos which would not make your day).

Ideas for tweaks:
Free up some points by doing away with one of the sternguards and its drop pod; gives you three pods in the first turn.
Slim the other down by one and put Pedro into it; tool it up for close combat a bit more.
Adjust the non-shooty scouts to shooty scouts and consider an additional scout unit similarly armed.
Remove a Tactical squad to free up the organisation chart for this.
That gives you lots of points free to invest in some more support or deep striking units to keep in with the theme. To keep it agressive I would take the fast attack slots and include a large unit of asault marines (for assaults and better overall mobility), land speeders for instant tank hunting and a small unit of Vanguard with jump packs for heroic intervention.

I agree with absolutely none of these tweaks. Sure, you can do away with a unit of sternguard but that seems to be part of the theme of this list. Not to mention how good these guys are in 6th with overwatch and the rapid fire buff and all.

Secondly, why would you take your best shooting unit you have and gear it for the opposite role? Sternguard need to land and rape whatever their target is with a hail of gunfire considering they will become priority targets on subsequent turns. This seems completely counter intuitive... Maybe i am just crazy.

Third, drop a tactical squad in favor of scouts?! For real? In a drop pod army that is the wrong answer because you need as much power armor on the table first turn as possible. Scouts are still mediocre at best and they just dont pack enough heat to be worth dropping the tac squad.

The only thing, in my opinion, that is in question here would be the use of a dread (considering how easily it could be popped with one shot.) and using MMs in my tactical squads. I think a combi melta on your SL would be a better bet with the melta you already have and wont be forced to fire a snap shot on your first turn. Also, i would consider plasma here as well. 2 strength 7 shots on rear armor might be more effective that 1 str 8. YOU decide where you are going. I believe it was mentioned above but the best way to work this type of army is to make sure each squad has a defined role and little to no chance to fail at their mission. (I.e. busting vics or mowing down infantry.)

Jasper mentioned land speeders. I currently use 2 of them in my Drop army and they are always worth their weight in gold. There is your MM for only 60 points and either it pops a way more pricey vehicle or they take a ton of heat off of my troops for a turn. (Like expensive Sternguard) All in all though i think the list looks pretty solid man. With this type of army you can section off peoples forces using cover and the board and force him to engage with only a fraction of his force. Let me know how your list fairs!

Here is a revised list. Was going to do vanguard, but those guys are wicked expensive. Dropped the Scouts, and the Dred, worked in some landspeeders and a small sternguard squad. Added more combi weapons and changed up the tacticals. Since the MM are free anyway I left them in.

HQ: Pedro Kantor 175pts

Elites
Sternguard (x10) 4x Combi-Meltas, 2x Meltas Drop Pod 335pts
Sternguard (x10) 4x Combi-Meltas, 2x Meltas Drop Pod 335pts
Sternguard (x5) 5x Combi-Plasmas Drop Pod 195pts

Troops
Tactical Squad (x10) Heavy Bolter, Flamer and Drop Pod 205pts
Tactical Squad (x10) Multi-Melta, Melta and Drop Pod 210pts
Tactical Squad (x10) Multi-Melta, Plasmagun, Combi-Plasma and Drop Pod 225pts
Tactical Squad (x10) Multi-Melta, Melta and Drop Pod 210pts

Fast Attack
Land Speeder with Multi-melta and Heavy Flamer
Land Speeder with Multi-melta and Heavy Flamer

One question I have is to keep the Meltas in the Sternguard, or make them Combi-meltas. Its a trade off, fire one melta and get the awesome sternguard ammo, or be able to fire melta all game.

I read to Codex and I DO believe you still get Pedro's Sternguard as troops. It is in a separate paragraph from the Combat Tactics switch.
That means you can take Vulkan and switch combat tactics for TL meltas/flamers and still have the sternguard count as scoring.

If that is the case dump a tactical and melta-up both of your sternguard. I would almost just drop the Ironclad for another small sternguard with combi-meltas.

The explanation of "hold the line" is in a separate entry but it says he gains hold the line in the combat tactics section.

Drop the meltaguns for combis on the sternguard. You have plenty of melta everywhere else.

It has been discussed to death but essentially it is badly written but you choose either scoring sternguard or TL goodness.
Though do not be surprised if you can get it passed legal at a tournament and win.

MFletch wrote:
It has been discussed to death but essentially it is badly written but you choose either scoring sternguard or TL goodness.
Though do not be surprised if you can get it passed legal at a tournament and win.

Yeah I'm not running Vulkan or any other SC, so its a moot point. However from what I read, Hold the line is part of combat tactics.

New, Points correct list, The other list was over points, I must have been too sleepy or something. I labeled the squads with their roles.

HQ (175pts)

Pedro Kantor 175pts

Elites 685pts
Sternguard (x10) 3x Combi-Meltas, 3x Combi-Plasma Drop Pod 315pts (Flexible Squad)
Sternguard (x5) 5x Combi-Meltas, Drop Pod 185pts (Anti-Armor)
Sternguard (x5) 5x Combi-Plasma, Drop Pod 185pts (Anti-Warlord/TEQ/Whatever)

Troops (850pts)
Tactical Squad (x10) Heavy Bolter Flamer and Drop Pod 205pts (Anti-Horde Squad)
Tactical Squad (x10) Multi-Melta, Melta and Drop Pod 210pts (Anti-Tank)
Tactical Squad (x10) Multi-Melta, Plasmagun, Combi-Plasma and Drop Pod 225pts (All around Squad)
Tactical Squad (x10) Multi-Melta, Melta and Drop Pod 210pts (Anti-Tank)

Fast Attack (140pts)
Land Speeder with Multi-melta and Heavy Flamer 70pts
Land Speeder with Multi-melta and Heavy Flamer 70pts

Complete newb question here but is this army legal? I thought in 6th you could only reserve 50% of your units or do things that have to be placed in reserve not count towards this?

LinkXx wrote:
Complete newb question here but is this army legal? I thought in 6th you could only reserve 50% of your units or do things that have to be placed in reserve not count towards this?

If the unit MUST be kept in reserve it doesn't count towards the half that has to be deployed. If it is all in drop pod, and drop pods all have to be off the board you are ok.

The land speeders may mean something needs to be deployed though?

kiwitexansfan wrote:

LinkXx wrote:
Complete newb question here but is this army legal? I thought in 6th you could only reserve 50% of your units or do things that have to be placed in reserve not count towards this?

If the unit MUST be kept in reserve it doesn't count towards the half that has to be deployed. If it is all in drop pod, and drop pods all have to be off the board you are ok.

The land speeders may mean something needs to be deployed though?

Thanks for clarifying mate!