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I'm putting my finishing touches to my first 40k army, which is 650 points of space marines. I've got 35 points to spare, and want to add a transport to one of my squads. My question though is whether to get a rhino or drop pod.

Going in the transport will be my captain who has a storm bolter and relic blade, along with a tactical squad of 5 marines (sergeant with combi melta and a marine with a melta gun). This unit will get up close and personal.

The rest of my small army is made up of:

Another squad of five marines, with a sergeant with combi plasma and a marine with a plasma gun. This will hang back a bit further.
A squad of five assault marines wigh jump packs, with a sergeant with plasma pistol and power weapon and a marine with a flamer.
A devastating squad, with two lascannons, a plasma cannon and a missile launcher. I know people say to not mix and match weapons in a devastated squad, but I like having variety and in a small battle I want to cover all bases.

Thanks in advance for any tips on which transport to get for my captain and first squad of marines. Likewise if you think those 35 points could be better spent elsewhere then your advice would be appreciated

Thanks

For this list, I’d go with a rhino. A 5 man squad is not going to live long out by itself. But you can roll the rhino up the table, keep the assault marines out of LOS behind it, and work together.

From a long term POV, what style army do you want to build towards? Do you like the concept of drop pod lists more then mechanized ones? Both are valid choices. But I’d not buy a rhino just for this list, when what you really want is a drop assault style list.

Thanks for the tip

To be honest I have no idea where I see it going haha. I'm new to the hobby so I'll see how things go. I'm definitely keen to get a bit of everything into my army, and I'm 100% in for having fun rather than winning

Having fun is a good goal!

It’s just a good idea to keep a longer term goal in mind. You don’t want to buy/paint stuff now that’s just going to warm the shelf later.

If you are just getting started, I’d recommend learning how to magnetize. Not everything needs it, but it helps keep your options open.

Relic blade/storm bolter is a very generic multi-purpose captain. IMHO stormbolters are not worth the points these days, you would be better off either going all-in for more CC/survivability, or get a combi to get some semi-decent firepower. You might want to pay the points to counts-as the relic bolter. That way you get a few more shots out of it.

Both your tac squads are solid. Grav might be better overall then plasma, but on foot on the move is still one of the cases where plasma can still shine.

Plasma pistols, while iconic and cool, are comically overpriced. Those 15 points would be better served upgrading the sarge to veteran, and adding a second flamer to the squad.

While your dev squad is mixed, it’s at least functional. You give up focus for flexibility. And at least everything has a similar range, and can still threaten medium armor. It’s not like you have range gaps (like mixing grav cannons/MMs and LCs) or target confusion (LCs and HBs)

That's some really great feedback and tips, thank you!

I did think about having a second flamer in the assault squad, but I though having an extra guy with an additional attack in combat from having the bolt pistol and chainsword (am I interpreting that rule right) would be better. Maybe if I extend the squad I could add another flamer.

And yes that was my thinking with the devastator squad. Glad it sounds okay

it all depends on the scenario, is it a fast insertion type scenario?, or is a street cleaning scenario?

With the flamer, you front load the damage, at the cost of getting stuck in.

Both ignore cover
Both the flamer and the marine are S4.
Flamer is AP5, which is occasionally important.

Flamer hits automatically, generally 3-4 guys, but sometimes a lot more (and sometime less, to be fair).
The marine generally hits half the time (sometimes 2/3rds), but gets to swing in both assault phases.

Flamer hits before combat
Marine hits at initiative.

The flamer will occasionally kill enough guys to make it hard to charge (although very rarely)
Flamer has wall of death, which is nice if you get charged.

How many rounds of CC does it take for that one attack to make up for the damage you got roasting things before piling in? 4ish? Depends a lot on what you are burning, how tight they are packed, WS, etc. But for 5 points, I’d rather front load my damage so I can burn and/or chop one target to death and then move on to the next. Will it hurt me if I get stuck in vs. a tarpit? Yup. That’s a tradeoff. But one I’m OK with.

YMMV.