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I started a Space Marine chapter called the Burning Blades as a display army, fully magnetised, but now that I am starting to play I need to organise my army into a coherent force.
I am still relatively new to list-creating, as I bought the 6e SM codex, then left it as I didn't make an army.

I (currently) have
10 man tac squad
6 man tac squad
1 Librarian
1 Captain/Chapter Master
1 Rhino/Razorback
1 Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer
1 Stormraven
1 Drop Pod
1 Devastator Squad
5 man Sniper Scouts
6 Vanguard Veterans, that I can run as Assault Marines is I need to

What would be a good 750 point list, with Raven Guard tactics? I have a stock of bits that I can use to convert weapons, so I can modify weapons and squads as need be

Many thanks

Are your HQs on foot? If one had a jump pack, he’d fit in well with the VV/AMs.

ML2 Librarian (with JP if you have it)
10 man tac, drop pod. I’d like to see MM/melta, c-melta on the sarge here
5 man tac, TLLC razorback. special/matching combi. Probably plasma. Foot HQ goes here if needed.

5 man assault marines, vet sarge w/sword, 2xflamers
5 man Devs, 4xLC


According to my back of the envelope math, that should be roughly a 750 list. Should make a reasonably balanced intro army. If you wanted to bump up to a 1k list, add in the raven the scouts. You’d need to trim a little something probably.

The LRC/R is a battle-taxi, without good cargo in your collection.

Yes, all 3 of my HQs are able to take Jump Packs, and because they are only slightly more decorated than my Vanguard Veterans, I run them as VV as well, excluding the Librarian because he's blue

What about Anti-Air? Do I need any AA defences? my old list used to get destroyed by aircraft

Here's a great article on general list-building:

http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2013/02/28/an-introduction-and-words-on-winning-with-tyranids-part-1/

This part has very little to do with Tyranids I promise haha. Basically just try to build an army that is ready to deal with anything and you will be able to win just about any game.

Flaming Marine wrote:
Yes, all 3 of my HQs are able to take Jump Packs, and because they are only slightly more decorated than my Vanguard Veterans, I run them as VV as well, excluding the Librarian because he's blue

What about Anti-Air? Do I need any AA defences? my old list used to get destroyed by aircraft

At 750? Probably don’t need to worry overmuch about flyers. Just focus on the ground game and keep an eye on victory conditions/objectives. If you are worried, just juggle things around to take the Raven.

At 750? Probably don’t need to worry overmuch about flyers. Just focus on the ground game and keep an eye on victory conditions/objectives. If you are worried, just juggle things around to take the Raven.

I got destroyed by flyers. In a game against Dark Angels, I got my snipers and my tac squad taken out by the flyer, and nothing hit it
Same with flying Hive Tyrants, and Necron flyers
Are flakk missiles worth it? or should I just keep spamming the flyers with my Meltas and my Multi Meltas?

Flack missiles are overpriced and not that effective. Of out AA choices they are near the bottom. IMHO, even below “ignore them”. Other opinions differ, so take that with a grain of salt.

Ravens work well as a gunboat. If you are worried about flyers, take it. You already own it, so why not? It’s expensive, and you pay for the cargo space that you probably shouldn’t use. I get a lot of milage out of my stormtalon. Fly with skyhammers, it gets the job done at a reasonable cost.

I just got my AA tank primed, will be a while before it gets paint and sees the field. But for the points, the stalker puts out a lot of Dakka. And even if there are no flyers, it still works on skimmers and the like. Or just snap shotting a ton of dice downrange.

Would it be worthwhile sticking my JP Captain/Chapter Master with a Vanguard/Assault Squad and a Dreadnought in the Stormraven? Or would this leave me strained for ground support troops such as Tac Squads and Scouts?

Not at low points, and questionable at higher ones.

I’m not a big fan of keeping a lot of stuff in reserves. The fraction on the table is going to take all the heat until they show up, and if your reserves roll fail you, you might show up too late to do anything relevant.

There are a few ways to manipulate reserves, so it’s something to keep in mind. But I’d stay away from them until you have a larger army.

Flaming Marine wrote:

At 750? Probably don’t need to worry overmuch about flyers. Just focus on the ground game and keep an eye on victory conditions/objectives. If you are worried, just juggle things around to take the Raven.

I got destroyed by flyers. In a game against Dark Angels, I got my snipers and my tac squad taken out by the flyer, and nothing hit it
Same with flying Hive Tyrants, and Necron flyers
Are flakk missiles worth it? or should I just keep spamming the flyers with my Meltas and my Multi Meltas?

Ignore the flyers. They can't hurt you that badly.

Is it worthwhile taking Artificer Armour, a Relic Blade and a Storm Shield on the captain? or is it not?
What about loading Assault Termies into a Land Raider Crusader?

I'll add a vote to ignore flyers, with a couple of caveats. The first is circumstantial, but you might try to negotiate a cap in a friendly game. If flyers make up a major part of your opponent's force, say more than a quarter to a third... well, in my case, they wreck me so hard I can't manage objectives. I'm always agreeable to a single flyer, but my regular opponents restrain themselves and don't throw multiple flyers at me when they know I don't have a reasonable counter. The second is to only ignore them as far as not dumping snapshots after them and focusing on ground objectives... I've won a few very outmatched games this way with only a few models hiding from flyers and time runs out. But you can't ignore them in terms of deployment and table position. I turn my back on the Heldrake only once I've ensured that I have left a juicy bunch of troops in a conveniently Torrent-sized blob, I make an effort to face my front armor toward where Stormtalons will try to glance me to death with assault cannons, etc. Don't waste shooting on them, but don't ignore them either.

Just used Force Req. to check the list, comes in to 750 points exactly

Unfortunately, I don't have 2 extra lascannons, and i am running short on Shoulder Pads

Anyone know how to get my hands on some more bits, in Australia, cheaply?

I’d suggest heading down to your FLGS and asking around. You never know what people have kicking around their bitsboxes. Lascannons might be a little rough though. You can sub in MLs in the list to fill out the squad. 2xML, 2xLC is less focused, but can still get the job done. Or if you aren’t a stickler for WYSWYG, just tell your opponent it’s a full LC squad.

Shoulderpads is an odd thing to run low on. Most kits have more then you need. Again, asking at your local should yield some. They might just be the basic ones, but any marine player who’s been in the game for a while should have a few dozen kicking around.

Unfortunately, due to...some....reason...I have been unable to find any FLGSs or Hobby Stores other than my local GeeDubs
The guy that runs the store looks pretty chill, didn't seem to mind when I asked him if my converted Librarian's Psychic Hood (made by clipping a shoulder pad) was close enough to an actual hood.
The 'conversion packs' that they sell look pretty neat, I was thinking of picking up a Blood Angels one, then I looked that the hefty $30 price tag and decided to just keep GreenStuffing

On the topic of Greenstuffing, is casting shoulder pads from greenstuff doable?

Is it doable? Absolutely. Could I do it? Probably not in any way that looked like anything but a sad blob. But there are people with green stuffing skills that will blow your mind.

I know GW has you guys over a barrel down there, so can’t really help with specifics. I know there are a number of other people flying your flag here on Dakka, maybe one of them will chime in. My only suggestions would be to use the player/store finder up at the top of the page to look for other folks/stores, and check e-bay for bits sellers. Just keep an eye on shipping.