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Hey guys, it's been a while since I've played the game, and some of my mates are getting back into the game. So naturally, I decided to join them.

I'm looking at running Space Marines, simply because I've ran Guard and Orks in the past, and these drastically changed over the course of the 5-6 years I was actually playing. So now I'm just looking at running an army that can be (essentially) the same for every format, and altered accordingly with relative ease. I'm also looking for something kind of simple to paint

So is there a Dakkaite that would be able to give me a very brief rundown on Codex: Space Marines?

Just a simple:
Unit X = Good
Unit Y = Bad

Any sort of feedback here would be grand, I just don't want to end up with an army that's complete jank like my Orks were.....

Thanks in advance!

:EDIT:

Oh, I know I should probably sift through other Marine threads on here, but at the time of writing, I haven't quite got the time to spend a few hours reading through pages, hence the request for a few lines of text

Sorry if I've offended or annoyed anyone with my request.

A squad of heavy bolter devastators can be surprisingly effective and versatile. Force enough wounds to cut down 3-4 power armor models, and will absolutely wreck horde like Termagants, Guardsmen and Boyz.

Also look into getting a squad of Assault Terminators. Pound for pound some of the best assaulting units in the game right now, but you'll want to take a LR probably so YMMV.

I like the Speeders w/ Multimelta + Typhoon Rack OR Heavy Flamer + Heavy Bolter. Can be very good firing platforms for the price.

Good luck with your new army man and enjoy!

Going through the Codex, ignoring Special Characters for the time being:

HQ
Chapter Master: Decent. Captain plus orbital bombardment. Use if you have points to spare.
Honor Guard: Less overpriced than they used to be with the reduction in AP2 weapons running around. Stick to small units and keep in a transport of some sort.
Captain: Decent. Versatile, capable of being armed to take on a lot. Bike is a helpful option if you want to build a fast army.
Command Squad: Helpful for the Deathstar potential (five on bikes with storm shields and an Apothecary are kind of hard to challenge in terms of durability (T5/3+/3++/FNP)), but easy to go overboard with. Avoid in games below about 2,000pts.
Librarian: Good. Ingredient in interesting combos.
Chaplain: Mediocre. Worse in close combat than the Captain and worse at buffing other people than the Librarian.
Master of the Forge: Situational, fun if he works.

Elites
Sternguard: Pretty good, easy to go overboard with, avoid taking too much stuff.
Terminators: Mediocre, not as good at shooting as other things, not as good at assault as other things, avoid.
Assault Terminators: Good, powerful and nigh-invulnerable. Use Deep Strike rather than Land Raiders to get them into the fray, they can weather the fire on their own and the Land Raider is too expensive.
Dreadnaught: Marvelous, tough, well-armed; best used with a mixture of autocannons, lascannons, and missile launchers for long-ranged fire support.
Venerable Dreadnaught: Pretty expensive, but still useful for BS5 fire. Use like a regular Dreadnaught.
Ironclad Dreadnaught: I don't have a lot of experience with them, but near as I can tell they're anti-vehicle assault units. Don't bother, these days an autocannon Dreadnaught will do the same job from further away for cheaper in almost every situation. Field with a Drop Pod if you're particularly attached to them.
Techmarine: Not very useful; expensive and can't take a hit. Avoid.
Legion of the Damned: Overpriced; a Slow and Purposeful missile launcher could be helpful, but they're mostly a waste of a hundred and fifty points before upgrades.

Troops
Tactical Marines: Good, tough and reasonably killy at mid-short ranges. This is the best place to put more expensive heavy weapons (plasma cannon, lascannon), cheaper ones (missile launcher, heavy bolter) do better with Devastators and multi-meltas should never be taken under any circumstances since they're cripplingly short-ranged and overkill for taking on almost any tank these days.
Scouts: Good, not as tough but killier at long-ranges, snipers are a must nowadays.

Transports
Rhino: Halfway decent because it's so cheap, but don't rely on it surviving past the first Shooting phase.
Razorback: Mostly useful because it gets you an extra long-ranged weapon; too fragile and expensive to be assault vehicles the way Rhinos/Land Raiders can be.
Drop Pod: Cheap and very useful for getting close-ranged models into the fight quickly; couple Sternguard with Drop Pods, teleporting Terminators, and teleport homers from Scouts for instant fun.

Fast Attack
Assault Marines: Expensive, best used as small units for versatility; ideally you'd field Blood Angels for an Assault Marine-based army for the sake of adding Death Company and Sanguinary Priests, but the Raven Guard special characters (Shrike in the vanilla Codex and Korvyde in Imperial Armor 8) do make Assault Marine armies a bit more viable. Generally speaking they're a weaker Fast Attack choice.
Vanguard Veterans: Generally the same notes as Assault Marines, with the added remark that it's at least as easy to go overboard with them as it is to with Sternguard Veterans. I suppose they could see some use outfitted with Storm Shields and played like faster Assault Terminators, though; Heroic Intervention is always a nice rule.
Land Speeders: The crown jewel of the vanilla Codex' Fast Attack selection; Tornado, twin-flamer, and bolter-flamer are the best configurations. Have a few models on hand even if you don't use them every game.
Bikes: Ideally used as MSU attack units and/or played as the core of a list using a Bike Captain. Take a mixture of three-man squads with two special weapons and a heavy bolter attack bike if you do so, additional bikes only as points permit.
Attack Bike Squadron: Expensive and lack ablative bodies if used on their own, best used in combination with units of bikes.
Land Speeder Storm: Sucks. Don't use it.
Scout Bikes: Mostly useful for their ability to tote a locator beacon in close to the enemy. Situational, mostly mediocre.

Heavy Support
Devastators: The unsung heroes of the Space Marines; my four-heavy-bolter Devastator unit and four-missile-launcher Devastator unit have done ungodly amounts of damage to the foe in their time. They're your best choice for concentrated cheap heavy fire; use missile launchers or heavy bolters only, plasma cannons and lascannons are too expensive and multi-meltas are too short-ranged.
Thunderfire Cannon: I haven't used one myself, but I have friends who swear by them; I'm not convinced they're incredibly awesome, but they do seem like they have uses. Keep them away from the enemy.
Land Raider: The Redeemer is by far and away your best choice here; in any case, save it for games of 2,000pts+, they eat up way too much of your points allowance in smaller games.
Predator: A marvelous vehicle; cheap and well-armed. Ideally use a Destructor (autocannon/heavy bolters) instead of an Annihilator (lascannons), it's half the price and does more against the light vehicles and infantry that make up the vast majority of all armies. Keep its flanks screened, front armor 13 is awesome, but side armor 11 is just as flimsy as a Rhino.
Whirlwind: Mostly useful in the context of having a model on hand to use with the anti-aircraft variant in Imperial Armor Aeronautica, avoid in regular games, you've got better anti-infantry ranged firepower.
Vindicator: I'm not particularly fond of it since it requires you to get right up in the enemy's face before it stops being a waste of points, but in the right situation/against the right enemy/on the right field I'm sure it has won games.

Well since this if the "tactics" thread, what sort of tactics do you prefer? You mentioned IG & Orks so lets assume your comfortable with "shooty/mechy/gunlines" and/or "choppy/speedy/hoardes", respectfully... You could go "Imperial Fist" for the former and "White Scar" for the latter? Best to get/borrow a copy of the codex so you can really figure out what "flavor" (sorry, "flav-ou-r"!) your really into? A lot has changed since you last played but generally speaking, for 6th ed, everything is more shooty than ever now. Totally dedicated assault units are probably not going to stand up anymore. Template spam and blast markers are a good choice with the new "snap shot" and "wound pool" allocation rules. For the Marines, Sternguard are still the best infantry around, thus making the choice of Kantor (makes them count a scoring units) as HQ a competetive option? Vulkan is good choice, Bikes and Khan (or just a bike cpt.) work well if used correctly. The Rifle-Dread rocks, though Vehicles are a little squishy overall now and Teminators are, well, Terminators! Blood Angels are disgustingly badass if your into fast, mechanized/jump pack assaults? I personally have been running a "Raven Guard, Cpt. Shrike infiltrating w/ Devastators or Tactical Terms, Scouts with Telion supported by Skimmers, Bikes, D-Podding Dread and a Vindicator out of reserves", list with some success lately :-P Borrow a copy of the dex and check it out, a lots changed for SM since you played last! Emperor be with you! (AnomandeRakes' breakdown above is pretty spot on!)

Thanks guys. So far, I'm looking at a captain, 2-3 squads of Tacticals, 2 small squads of sniper scouts and 2 units of devestators.

I haven't worked out points yet, but I'll get on that when I get a codex.

So, disclaimer, I've never actually played space marines.

That said, I consider myself smart, and I've read the codex, and this is what I thought, combined with several other people telling me why I'm wrong.

 Ailaros wrote:
So, disclaimer, I've never actually played space marines.

That said, I consider myself smart, and I've read the codex, and this is what I thought, combined with several other people telling me why I'm wrong.

I've just gotten to work, so I'll read it when I get home. Thanks for the input

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/480964.page Check this thread for a recent serious break down on Tac squads.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Don't completely agree with AnomanderRake break down.

Legion of the Damn =mini TDA's. at 155 point you get a 3++ save across the squad, Don't count against your reserve total, have a very accurate deepstrike thanks to re-rolls and take up 2 heavy weapons and a combi weapon in a 5 man squad.


Whirlwind: mostly a personal preference, but I find them pretty useful for dealling with anything not in a box. A barrage pie plate that ignores cover is great for clearing objectives before you send in your tacs. and since it works from cover without needing LOS it often can make your opponent take a transport killer out play fro a 2 turns to deal with it.

For what its worth when it comes to speeders I will say you can never have enough. With 6th edition rules for skimmers they got even better. I regularly field 2-3 typhoons with heavy bolters (move 12" and fire all guns is just awesome) and 1-2 with dual multimeltas. A lot of people are stuck with MM/HF speeders due to skimmers only being able to fire 1 weapon after deep striking, but that limitation is gone now (along with a nice 5+ jink save we get) so there is no reason NOT to take 2 multimeltas in my opinion. Melta-Fail is way too big an issue when you only have one gun and a heavy flamer on them.

 Gideon999 wrote:
For what its worth when it comes to speeders I will say you can never have enough. With 6th edition rules for skimmers they got even better. I regularly field 2-3 typhoons with heavy bolters (move 12" and fire all guns is just awesome) and 1-2 with dual multimeltas. A lot of people are stuck with MM/HF speeders due to skimmers only being able to fire 1 weapon after deep striking, but that limitation is gone now (along with a nice 5+ jink save we get) so there is no reason NOT to take 2 multimeltas in my opinion. Melta-Fail is way too big an issue when you only have one gun and a heavy flamer on them.

Or just take Vulkan

Vulkan is all well and good, but meltaspeeders aren't as useful as Typhoons (longer range) in basically every case anyway...