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I never played 40k. In the beginning I only wanted to paint the miniatures. I bought the Rulebook and the Space Marines Codex, but I think I'm to dumb for this I read the Codex twice, but I can't figure out where to start and how to put an army together.
All I know is I want sternguards (got one box already) and drop-pods; no vehicles. Please help me.
If this post is in the wrong category, I apologize.

Welcome to the hobby!
I believe what would help you the most is to read the rulebook a couple of times and then observe friends at yout local store. Do not be afraid to ask them if you do not understand what is going on.
Building an army for the first time is not that hard. Just try to build it around things that you like and will enjoy painting and playing.
Pick units you like from every force slot.
For example, sternguard for the elites, stormtalons for fast attack and thunderfire cannons for heavy support.
Simplied, you need an HQ, 2 troops and a little bit from everything else.
There are some general bases that your list needs to cover: enough resilient and mobile scoring units, anti-air, anti-horde and anti-vehicle.
Hope this helps!
Let us know more specific questions, if any

OK, I thought of something. As I said, if it's possible i don't want vehicles in the army. i hope it's ok with the forum rules:

HQ

Marneus Calgar -585
- Armour of Antilochus
5x Honour Guard
- 4x Relic Blade, Chapter Banner, Chapter Champion
- Drop Pod


Cato Sicarius -400
5x Honour Guard
- Chapter Champion, Relic Blade

Elites

5x Sternguard Veteran Squad -170
- 4x Combi-Melta
- Sergeant, Power Fist, Bolt Pistol

5x Sternguard Veteran Squad -170
- 4x Combi-Plasma
- Sergeant, Power Fist, Bolt Pistol


Troops

10x Tactical Squad -205
- Multi-Melta, Drop Pod

10x Tactical Squad -170
- Multi-Melta

5x Tactical Squad 90


FA: ?

HS: ?

F: ?

1790 points

I don't play ultramarines but 900+ points on hqs seems a lot. I would get rid of Cato and his squad and would add a LR either reedemer or anahilator with assault termies and chance the multi melta for meltaguns....ooops forgot you did t want vehicles. Also I think a 10 man squad of sternguard would be better, more likely to survive if you ever drop them behind enemy lines.

take tigurius, he is awesome sauce.

yes he is. i would know.

(see profile pic)

also, consider playing IF. or CH. they have an HQ that can make sterngaurd troops. or scoring.

Relic Blades are Meh at best. I like the use of a Relic Blade, 2 Power Axes, a Power Maul. If you're running a drop Pod army, go all drop pods. It's fun and better that way. (I usually run 2 Ironclad Dreadnoughts, 10x Man Sterguard, 3x 5 Man Tac Squads, 10x Man Tac, 2x Flamer Assault Squads, HQ all in drop pods then a StormTalon)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
MY BAD! I got jumbled up with Honour Guard and Command Squads, completely disregard my comment.

great, now i'm clever as before
I guess I'll read the codex for a third time

If you want to get the most out of your army you should read the codex continuously....

For best use of sternguard you should ditch the idea of using Ultramarines and use Crimson Fists instead. Take Pedro Kantor and your Sternguard squads become scoring.

 Corennus wrote:
For best use of sternguard you should ditch the idea of using Ultramarines and use Crimson Fists instead. Take Pedro Kantor and your Sternguard squads become scoring.

I already painted the sternguards in ultramarine look :( also I am not really sure if I can mix a ultramarine chapter with crimson fists

You know you can just say they;re an offshoot of Ultramarines and use Imp Fists tactics....you're not tied to the chapter just cause you've painted them as Ultramarines


Automatically Appended Next Post:
but ok. if were going Ultramarines and Sternguard then you need a lot of Sternguard, preferably in Drop Pods

Librarian and Command Squad in Drop Pod

3 Sternguard Squads in Drop Pods

1 Tactical Squad in Drop Pod w/multi-melta and melta gun

2 scout squads w/ sniper rifles and missile launcher

2 Devs w/ missile launchers

Your problem is going to be anti-air, as the main anti-air defences are Stalker/Hunter/Storm Talon/Storm Raven.

You could use an Aegis Defence Line w/ quad gun..

Welcome along Galford.

Opinions vary, but these are my thoughts with pretty successful lists I've been running. These will highlight the units I think are really worth putting in an Ultra list.


HQ's
Chapter Master with or without Honour Guard.
Tigurius (He is seriously, SERIOUSLY awesome)

Troops
Never go wrong with Tactical Squads.
Sniper scouts with cloaks, and Telion.

Elites
Dreadnought w/ drop pods
Sterngaurd w/ drop pods
Vanguard without jump packs - lots of attacks for not very much. Stuff them in a Stormraven for lulz.

Fast Atack
Stormtalon
Stormtalon
More Stormtalon. (Fliers reign supreme)

Heavy support
Thunderfire
Stormraven

Those are my thoughts.

In his first post he specifically says no vehicles..........

And 3 Stormtalons???

Get 2 stormravens instead.

 Corennus wrote:
In his first post he specifically says no vehicles..........

And 3 Stormtalons???

Get 2 stormravens instead.

All I was doing was highlighting units I feel are efffective, as he might be inclined to see what options he has.

Also 3 Talons are superior to 2 Ravens IMO.

2 Ravens - 460 (Assuming MM and Hurricane)
3 Talons - 390 (Assuming Skyhammer)

3 Assault Cannons > 2 Hurricane Bolters
9 Skyhammer Missiles > 2 MM shots
3 Armour 11 > 2 Armour 2

Ravens have transport Capacity. Talons can escort.

Papa smurf is a must. I would throw two command squads into drop pods. One with flamers and one with melta or plasma. A storm raven is good. Check out the forge world doors before you start with the glue and examine the merits of magnets. Find a friend and proxy like mad before spending more money.

 galford wrote:
OK, I thought of something. As I said, if it's possible i don't want vehicles in the army. i hope it's ok with the forum rules:

HQ

Marneus Calgar -585
- Armour of Antilochus
5x Honour Guard
- 4x Relic Blade, Chapter Banner, Chapter Champion
- Drop Pod


Cato Sicarius -400
5x Honour Guard
- Chapter Champion, Relic Blade

Elites

5x Sternguard Veteran Squad -170
- 4x Combi-Melta
- Sergeant, Power Fist, Bolt Pistol

5x Sternguard Veteran Squad -170
- 4x Combi-Plasma
- Sergeant, Power Fist, Bolt Pistol


Troops

10x Tactical Squad -205
- Multi-Melta, Drop Pod

10x Tactical Squad -170
- Multi-Melta

5x Tactical Squad 90


FA: ?

HS: ?

F: ?

1790 points

I'm going to lead off with some generic advice I posted in another thread:

With most unit choices, what to take depends on what else you have in the list and what you like/your style of play. You just need to make sure you have all your bases covered.

Getting scoring units to objectives alive on the final turn of the game
Having a way to deal with:
Heavy armor (metla, LCs)
Light armor (Massed medium fire here)
Monstrous creatures (snipers, sternguard, grav)
Hordes (flamers, blasts, templates)
Flyers (ADL, flyers, hunter/stalker)

Most units can be upgraded to fill different roles. Dreadnought, for example, can have a multimelta for tank hunting (best in a drop pod) 2xTLAC for popping transports, flamers for hordes, etc. My suggestion is to thumb through the codex and see what grabs your eye. What calls out to you? Take that, and adjust your army around it. Everything in the book has a use, you'll just have to fill out the rest of your list with things to cover the jobs that it doesn't.

One of the blessings and curses of codex marines is that they can do everything kinda OK. So it's hard to give advice to new players. You need to figure out the kind of army you like. Drop pods? Mech? Hybrid? Bikers? Gunline? What is your end goal? Build to a 2k list and stop? Collect a full battle company with support? Pick up random cool looking stuff and build a list out of them?

I think Ultramarines should be built as Take All Comers, flexible lists. Take a little something from every FOC slot. Hyper-specialization is for Eldar and other filthy Xenos.

But at the end of the day, you need to make sure you are having fun. And crushing the enemies of mankind. That's important too...

So you like drop pods, that's fine. Do you want to go 100% drop, or start with something on the table? A good rule of thumb is to keep an odd number of pods. For anything not starting in a pod, you can only reserve 50% of them. So if you want to DS some assault marines, you should include a unit of scouts hiding in a corner somewhere.

You say you don't want vehicles, but drop pods are OK. Is there anything else you'd make exceptions for? Is it just the dumpster-like rhino chassis you dislike? How about fortifications (such as the aegis defense line)? The TFC is not a vehicle, but might still trigger your ire, thoughts on artillery? Just trying to narrow down what we have to work with here.

While some of the other chapters have some perks, Ultramarines can do drop lists just fine. Salamanders and Crimson Fists do them better, but that doesn't mean we can't. Unless you are going for maximal efficiency, you can still have fun dropping Ultras down from orbit.

I'd pick one HQ and run with that. Particularly expensive ones. I'd have to double check my codex, but as a captain, Sicarious should qualify for a command squad, not honor guard.

IMHO sternguard should rely on their special ammo, and not combi weapons these days. Having a few in the squad is fine, but I'd rather have more boots on the ground then a few over equipped ones. Opinions vary, so take that with a grain of salt. I'm also not a fan of power fists on single wound models, or anything that takes the special ammo away from sternguard (barring the HF, which I'm kinda fond of) I'd bump your squads up to 9-10 men, depending if you need space in the pod for an IC.

If you are running 10 man tac squads in pods, take the special weapon, not just the heavy. A combi to match the squad on the sarge is also a good investment in points.

If you are looking for a FA pick, 5 assault marines with a pair of flamers, swapping jump packs for a drop pod seems to be a good way to boost your pod count up.

(sorry to cut the post short, need to finish cooking dinner, I can add more advice later)