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Hey folks, I know I have asked many times before, but back then, nobody ever really answered me........yup..........nobody..........anyways, I have been searching for a new way to make my sm army better, and more of a 'winning' army when on the field, that can be a good all around force. But, now with the rules change, ( I haven't gotten a chance to view the new stuff yet), but I hope there is some good stuff in the the new rules set. Anyways, the new army builds I was thinking of, were-

1. Mostly termi army w/tanks
2. Heavy infantry w/tanks
3. mobile infantry, which is sort of my army right now
4. a mix of heavy infantry, and termis w/tanks, etc, sort of like a blitz force, that just gets in, blows the enemy up, and gets out unharmed.......something like that.....

I was thinking of buying the sm strikeforce, the new one, (in the picture below with all the termis) So then I would have more termis to jump in with and keep pushing into enemy forces, etc, etc, then use my other troops and vehicles to bring in the firepower, etc....etc....or..... I had the idea of completely swapping my sm over to space wolves........would that maybe be better??? If so, would buying the new Sanctum reach box with the space wolves and orks be a good investment?

First off, I don't think anyone is even sure of what kind of marines you want. I'm assuming Ultramarines because of the strike force?

Anyways, if you want a "winning" marine army you should stay away form terminators. They are still one of the worst units in the codex and should never be the focal point of an army.

Your option 3 is the best possible option for a competitive list, though it probably isn't what you would expect. Go heavy infantry in pods, rhinos, or a large amount of bikes. The most competitive marine armies should put a lot of models on the board.

Or

You can use centurions and Tiguruis, the best psyker in the game

Need to know what you exactly what you want to do with you SM. Try to use as much PA in Drop Pods and rhinos as possibly getting you over to objectives quickly. A 10 man Tact Squad can do a lot of damage and they are versatile, that's why I prefer Tact Marines over Grey Hunters. Bike are one way to go, cover much distances quicliy. If you go Space Wolves, TWC spam is a deathstar, can have 2 WGBL, 3 iron preist, than 3 5 man squads of TWC and you can do some serious damage, an might want to throw a Long Fang sqaud with 5 Lascannons in.

Stay away from Termies, one a 1 they die, and walking, deepstriking never ends up to well for them, I actually just boxed up my termies because I haven't made a list with them in over a month.

I agree with hyozanman the more marines on the table the better

I like salamanders myself. Vulkan He'stan's ability is arguably one of the best in the game for marines. Tigurius is also a Very nice Marine character indeed. If you're at all worried about psykers take him. Agree completely, abuse the heck out of combat squads. Put them all in rhinos and split them up when you disembark for multiple objective secured units. Speed can be achieved with rhinos. You can also go drop pod, although scatter is riskier in my opinion. The Rhinos approach is a blast so long as you take enough of them for target saturation. I run with 7 in a 1500 pts list. Agree, terminators are terrible with the exception of Hammernators with SS & TH dumped in your opponents face. Or possibly with a big nasty character to tank wounds, but still not ideal for my lists.

I am playing vanilla marines as well, just an fyi, but yeah, ultramarines, but just painted a different color, so pretty much, im just playing /creating my own chapter

IF you get Strikeforce Ultra, get the Dataslate for it. It makes about an 1850 point army and the best way to run Codex Termis.

I would emphasise the general message of the posts here - if you want to be competitive with SM you need to go all out for the chapter Tactics.

If you want to do Steel Rain, go Salamanders with Vulkan and build you list around Flamer/Meltapod strikes.
If you want to sit back and soak up pressure/deal damage from range, go Imperial fists and build around a DEV/Bolter gun line with TAC + Rhinos for go forward
If you want to get up close and personal, go Space Wolves, build around TWC and punch your opponents to death
If you want to do Tank rush, go Iron Hands and maximize the use of Machine empathy - tanks/Dreads everywhere with plenty of tech marines along for the ride.
If you want to do all corners and be jack of all trades, go Ultramarines and build your units to take advantage of the combat doctrines.

Personally I prefer the firs two - Steel Rain especially, as you can drop onto objectives and hold them with the AV12 pod, while your guys charge off and wreck stuff. Scatter isn't an issue with buildings/units due to the IGS, just make sure not to drop them within 8-10" of the table edge though as they might still scatter off for DS mishap.

I have also been on the receiving end of the TWC and watched my guys utterly fold under its onslaught. And of course, the great thing about Ultras is the wealth of characters to choose from, esp. Tiggy.