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Hi all, I've started fiddling around with SM since I have a large supply of them floating about, and I'm looking for advice/opinions/tactics on using them

***For major reference- my local meta consists of about 8 different opponents, with a few armies between them. I mainly play vs CSM/daemons, 'nids, eldar, Wolves, Guard. There are practically no flyers in the meta, and no one plays tournament style lists, but still fairly competitive. We have no forgeworld models- not because we refuse to play with them, but because we literally do not have any***

Last game I played (first game I played with vanilla SM) was 1750, vs CSM my list was roughly:

libby (gate/nullzone)
3TH/SS 2DLC Terms (No raider, my housemate used the only raider we have)
2x 10 man tac squads in rhinos (barebones, ML/Flamer and bolter sarge)
10 man tac squad in a pod
ironclad in a pod with bacon
8 sternguard in a bacon pod with 4 combi's
2x barebones vindicators
2x MM/HB speeders
whirlwind

vs

Khorne lord on foot with murder sword
15ish zerkers
khorne terms in a raider
CSM in a rhino
2 cultist squads
2 oblits
daemon prince with wings and the mace

so the plan was, deploy gunline, and use the bacon pods as gate targets. So I could deploy my terms/libby, or leave them in reserve (they were intended as counterattack/counter big melee unit). The whirlwinds was in case of cultists (good choice), the vindicators were chosen because they've been solid performers for me playing CSM/SW, 1 tac squad per 500points, and 3 pods- the idea is I can choose which pair of pods to drop given the situation, giving me some tactical versatility. The ironclad i chose because it can't be hurt by marines in CC, and i could afford it, and the sternguard were chosen as a gunline troop- I wanted my opponent to think I may think about dropping them in their face to utilize the comibweapons, but the plan was to drop them midfield or even close to my deployment and use their special ammo to max effect then use the combi's (plas/melta)

Worked pretty well. Using the marines at range pinging bolters slowly chipped away at the zerkers and cultists, and the rhino's kept them safe from being targets. The bezerkers were presented a field of death to charge up (I deployed second, set the vindi's up on a hill overlooking the middle, in the diagonal deployment zone that we rolled up), so they ended up going a long route so they could get cover and head for my tac squads. I dropped the ironclad on his flank, deep in his territory- his CSM had plasma, and the cultists had nothing that could hurt it, so it was an effective bully unit, slowly chewing through them, And I dropped the tac squad first turn on a back/midfield objective (my side of the table, but in the no mans land because of the diagonal deployment) and combat squadded, being effective with bolterfire/missiles at long range to help the ironclad. The landraider blew one of my vindi's first turn, and the other snuck up into range (thank you premeasuring!) and popped the raider in return, then gruesomely popped the terms. The marines stayed at good range popping shots and the zerkers, and when they got close and it looked hairy, the sternguard showed up, the libby gated to them with the terms, and the 10~ zerkers were presented with 5 ass terms, 20 tac marines, and 8 sternguard should they charge forward, and his cultists were practically gone off the objective, his other flank the DP was dealing with the ironclad whilst most of the scoring elements had been whittled down by the dread and the whirlwind. The zerkers did what they had to do- charge the terms. They killed them all down to a man, and i had a dilemma- the zerkers were going to kill the last term, in my turn and then charge my tac/sternguard marines. So i charged them in, and the 18 of them failed to kill any zerkers unluckily, but slowly crunched them down to one zerker at the end of turn 5 (end of the game)

He won the game, by one objective. Basically- If I had moved the last two marines of the combat drop pod towards his objective, I would have contested and won. I moved back to reinforce my objective, and if the game had gone on another turn or two I would have won, his forces were down to a DP(one wound left) and cultists+marines and oblits (who were going to die very shortly, and had flailed ALL game with bad rolls), I had 27 tac marines, 6 Sternguard (full combi's still), a vindi, whirlwind, full pods and rhino's with stormbolters, and would cap another 2 objectives and quite possibly push him off his, so by playing for the chance the game may have gone on cost me the game, but it was a close game and my forces did come on top



I've been looking into more lists and ideas. Things that stick out to me (please consider my small fairly flyer free meta)

assterms- It seems pretty much gotta have them. Gotta have them as a rock/counter unit. Sure they got mulched by the zerkers, but thats what zerkers are for- and the LC's took a hefty toll on the zerkers. The gate libby and the bacon pods made up for no raider.

1 tac squad per 500 points- feels right. So many options, combat squads give larger presence with more units (more capping, choice of units to shoot at etc). the key thing to me is that tac marines can do everything, in a given circumstance. In the zerkers case, they charged in with the sternguard- sure they just have their fists, but it was better than copping a zerker charge, and my weight of numbers compensated for the zerkers WS advantage. Boltguns at range were good at not killing whole units, but good at whittling down cultists, and 2-3 tac squad rapid firing into a single unit can be fairly deadly at times. Concentrated fire seems key.

rhino's/pods- they stick so well with the tactical them of vanilla SM. for 35 points your list gets the option of delivery for where you want your tac squad guaranteed, or an armored shell to protect them. So very win. The changes to 6th may have stopped mech spam being so prevalent, but rhino's are still a choice purchase

Librarian- 100points- gate/nullzone. How can you go wrong?

Cheap effective firepower- riflemen, dakka/AC-Las preds, speeders, vindicators; the SM codex seems full of cheap effective units. by avoiding splurging too much (Venerable dread with all the trimmings, trilaspred) you can put alot more models on the table and get more firepower


I've been thinking about trying some other units in my next few games.

Thunderfire cannon- The argument in my mind is that it will be excellent for GEQ targets like the cultists, similar to the whirlwind. The whirlwind I can hide and fire without worrying too much about return fire, the TFC seems to put out more damage but is more exposed and costs more.

Special characters- Vulkan is well known. I've been looking at Vulkan lists, and have made some, but is it really worth it with the end of "everything is mech"? Calgar seems rather cool, but exorbitant in the price. Punches hard (against my local opponents, not against some potential foes), but so expensive, doesn't really seem worth it.

Triple dakka pred- Its a nice amount of firepower, but any recommendations on what to use to fill the AT gap?



What are peoples thoughts and opinions on C:SM's units and capabilites?

It sounds like you have a pretty good idea of how things work. One thing about C:SM is that there are a lot of units that can be geared up to fill a number of roles. So it's up to you and your preference to figure out which one to use.

AT is one example. The two good ways to deal with armor is melta and lascannons, and there are a lot of ways to get that.

Melta:
Drop pod: ironclads and sternguard
tac squads
Fast melta: attack bikes, land speeders, bike squads

LC:
5 man sternguard w/2 (faux devs), dreads
combat squadded Tacs, razorbacks
Preds, LRs, Dev squads.
Flyers

As you can see, there is a way of cracking open tanks in every FOC slot. Each option has pros and cons, How these interact with the rest of your list is important. This is one reason it's hard to give advice in a vacuum on C:SM lists. Just be sure to cover all your bases, and built a flexible TAC list, and you should do fine.