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So I was hoping to make a sort of expeditionary force for my SMs. I wasn't too sure where to post this though, so sorry if this is the wrong spot.
I've been kicking around the idea of a vanguard force for my Ultramarines, and would appreciate some help. I haven't figured a point yet, but i'm thinking like 1500 or 1k. So the focus would be bikes, speeders, scouts, maybe a drop pod with sternguard, not heavys or slow units. Has anybody else made a list like this?

Also, I'm not too concerned about winning EVERY match, but I'd also like to not lose each time. Thanks in advance.

You'd probably be looking at scouts, tactical, and assault squads and some transports, perhaps drop pods.

Think about what you're going for, and think about what you'd see there. SM don't go exploring randomly, so you're thinking the first units into a fight, perhaps to establish a beachhead?

Yes that's a better explanation I suppose. I suppose I had in mind the first boots on the ground for a large operation. So scouts, bikes, land speeders. The guys in the front of the main force clearing the way or running advanced operations. I suppose its more akin to a Raven Guard or White Scars force, but I like the idea of scouts and speeders.
Also, im aware that you could just thunderhawk in some heavy stuff, but that's not what I had in mind...

Does that make more sense?

I play White Scars which sound pretty similar to your concept. I've been reporting on my battles since I started this army - check out the link in my sig if you're interested!

Divide your army in two parts: The vanguard, and the hammer. The vanguard is you mobile element, racing across the planet's surface. When the battlefield is right, they call up to the strike cruiser and the hammer comes down.

The only non-mobile unit I would take would be a small scout squad with cloaks. These guys have scouted the battlefield, voxed the mobile element that this is the proper killing field. From a mechanical standpoint, they also fill a vital troop pick, critical unless you go with a bike captain.

You want a squad of scout bikers. Nothing sums up the concept of what you are looking for like these guys. Plus, you can take a locator beacon, which will help when the hammer comes down. How big depends on points, but 3-5 should be fine.

What to do with the other FA slots is going to be rough. Bikes, attack bikes, land speeders, and even assault marines fit well into your concept. As do storm talons (although they will be more in the "hammer" fluff part of the list) I would probably take a pair of typhoon speeders and a bike squad loaded with melta. The typhoons are the FA's HS pick. Without pred/devs you don't have a lot of long range firepower. The speeders will help fill that battlefield role. Melta is melta, and you need some, bikes have the speed you need, and the flavor you want.

At this point we have a sniper squad hiding in ruins, and roughly a dozen bikes, half scouts supported by a pair of speeder gunboats. 1 troop and 3 FA picks. Add a bike captain, and this would be a fun stand-alone 750-1k list, depending on squad size. The real bikes would need to be 5+ strong to swap over to troops.

That's our vanguard. As points go up, you can bump the squads to full 10 man ones to combat squad as needed, or add more scouts. Once you hit 2k and double FOC, you get more FA slots to play with. Staring your captain on the ground on a bike will move them to troops and give you more space for FA toys.

Meanwhile, up on the strike cruiser, the Hammer team is drinking hot coco and waiting for the call to head dirt-side. Three drop pods are prepped and ready. The sternguard squad and dreadnought will be the first to launch, followed by a tactical squad who will drop last to secure the battlefield. A small unit of tactical terminators wait in the teleportarium, ready to step into the warp to arrive directly on the battlefield. A librarian consult's the Emperor's Tarot to determine if he would be better served dropping with the sternguard, or journeying through the warp with the terminators. Both choices will work.

This is my stock answer for hybrid drop lists. You have 3 pods, so two drop first turn. Sternguard and the dread (ironclad if you have the points, MM/DCCW(HF) if not) drop first and make an impact. Put a locator beacon in one of these pods. The tac squad is batting cleanup, dropping to secure an objective. Terminators are optional, but fun. Librarian should have GoI and another power of your choice, and a pair of beacons to hop between if needed. You have a mobile one on the scouts, and a static one on the pod.

So far we have a good balance of firepower. The one big thing we are missing is AA. Two options is to have the scouts set up an ADL before the fight starts, or use your otherwise ignored HS slots to pick up a storm raven or two as a big gunboat

If you want ground based support, just keep it in reserve. Nothing stopping you from having tanks or a few tac squads in rhinos, just start with them off the table to keep with your theme. I do think drop pods work better though.

If you want a pure vanguard force, without support from orbit, you need the bike captain. At any reasonable point scale, scouts just aren't going to cut it. If you do end up with a raven, keeping some scouts or a tac squad in it might be worth it, but I'm not a big fan of using them for cargo.

Okay, thanks for the Input fellas. Theres some really awesome stuff here, and its all great help. Taking into account the suggestions (or trying to), heres what I came up with.

1000 Point Spearhead List
-HQ-
Captain
On bike, with artificer armor.

-Troops-
Scouts
10 man
Snipers, Telion, ML

Bikes
5 bikes, sarge, 2 melta

Bikes
5 bikes, sarge, 2 plasma


-Fast Attack-
Landspeeder Typhoon
2 speeders, MLs, HBs

Landspeeder Typhoon
2 speeders, MMs, HFs

Open to suggestions.

Not a bad start, I like it.

You captain needs some toys. If you magnetize him it's less important, but in higher point games you will want some wargear. A relic blade is a good investment, and hellfire rounds for his bike would be a good base. PF/LC seems to be the flexible CC monster load for this edition, but costs more points then I like (and think it looks goofy)

At this point level I'd just run the scouts at 5 men. They are a sideline to the theme of the army, and you could spend the points of fast stuff instead. You have two troops in the bike squads, you could even drop them altogether; replace them with some scout bikers or just bulk up your remaining bike squads.

I'd like to see the attack bikes in with the squads, if possible. MM with the melta, HB with the plasma.

Love the typhoons

I'm a fan of the classic tornado speeder with the MM/HF. As you have the FA slot, I'd run them as singletons. You might want to consider going specialist, rather then generalist. Run a MM/MM and HF/HF speeder, rather then 2xMM/HF. It's not something I'd do, but there are some compelling arguments for flying that way.

The one thing you are lacking is AA fire. Now, you have the speed to get close and snap fire, or just stay out of arc. But with a low model count you could run into problems. I might drop one speeder from both squadrons and take a stormtalon instead. Depends how worried you are.

Well. If i drop the scouts to 5 man, and drop out telion. I get about 100 points. I suppose I could take a defense line for AA, but it seems counter-intuitive. The only justification is that maybe the scouts are setting up some kind of forward defensive post? And then I have the scouts at the AA gun.

I can throw Hellfire Rounds and Melta Bombs on my captain with the last 15 points.

BUT! I'm not too conernerd about fliers, there aren't alot at my FLGS. Some flyrants, and a stormtalon. So supposing I forgo the line, thats 100 points for 2 attack bikes, and a lightning claw or power weapon for my Cap'n.

So i suppose the question is does an aegis line make any sense? I don't know how hard they would be to set up.... But if theyre kind of like high way dividers you just drag em in and stand behind them?

So does that make sense for scouts?

IIRC they are portable defenses, that can be set up in forward positions. So I could see scouts seting one up under cover of darkness before the fight started. But they are a little bit of a fluff stretch for a rapid response force, but not an unreasonable one.

How "pure" do you want to keep to your concept, and how much flex do you want for practicality?

Well, if I was going for a strictly fun list I would probably just bring random fast attack. I have 6 speeders, and if I could I'd use em all. I feel like now im kinda running a modified bike list. So I just want a fun list based around a concept I think.

Well, an ADL isn't a requirement, it would be entirely reasonable to have a storm talon or two, or a storm raven flying around.

Paul