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Hey Guys,

I've officially gotten underway in building my space marine army as I am currently working on painting my first tactical squad. I know eventually I would like to collect to a 2,000 point army. I have a rough list together (1835 points) which consists of just stock value units.
I'm hoping to get some advice on both the composition of the list and what upgrades I should consider taking. I'm looking to use it for pretty much casual play however If I can win a couple games with it too it would make me a happy guy.
Overall I'm looking to play an assault heavy army that uses ranged units to provide extra damage and help take out bigger baddies from range.

HQ
- Captain
Elites
- Honor Guard
- 2x Vanguard Veteran Squad
- Terminator Squad
- 2x venerable dreadnoughts
Troops
-2x tactical squad
Fast Attack
- 2x Assault Squad
- 2x Drop pod
- 2x Rhino
Heavy Support
- Devastator squad
- land raider
Lord of War
- Marneus Calgar

Unfortunately, I can't speculate as to the gaming environment of the stores I will be playing at since I haven't been able to visit when they've had an event yet.

Thanks for any advice!

Welcome to Dakka, the Ultramarines, and the NY 40k scene.

I’m not sure how competitive they are out in your neck of the woods. We range from casual to competitive in the capital area, but mostly the top end stuff is reserved for the tournaments.

One thing I’d recommend is looking into formations. You are very close to a battle demi-comapny backed up by a 1st company TF and a few extra command elements added. I think all you need to do is swap an assault squad for a tac squad, and you are set. Maybe drop one of the dreads (only if you pod them)

For your list, I might go with a chaplain, rather then a captain. You’ve got Calgar for a beatstick.

I like a mix of axes and swords in my HG. Banner is worth it IMHO.

How to gear VVs is a tricky balancing act. Again, probably a mix of swords/axes, but potentially some fists and a SS or two.

What flavor terminators? I assume the LR is going to be in use by the HG. Tactical ones I like an AsC and a chainfist. CC ones I like a mix of hammers and claws. But alway in a LR; not a fan of foot slogging/DSing assault troops.

Ven dreads depend a lot on role. In a pod, the AsC or MM is probably your go-to, with the fist (w/flamer) on the other arm. Footslogging I might run the AsC still, or look into a long range option.

Tac squads can be geared to fill gaps in the rest of your list. For you, I don’t see much melta/grav. Both of which can be nice to have on the table. I’d go MM/M, c-melta sarge on one, and GC/G, c-grav on the other. If points are tight, just run both melta. (I assume they get the rhinos. Work well in pods as well)

Assault squads I like a pair of flamers and a vet sarge with a power weapon. If there is a character with them, an axe, if not, a maul/sword. 5 men.

4xLC is my dev squad of choice. Best AV you are going to get unless you are pulling funky tricks with podding in MM/GC devs.


In general you want an odd number of pods to maximize your first turn strike. You might want to look into sternguard.

Unless you're playing classic 40k games where it's 1CAD only, you might as well go with the Gladius Strike Force. In a CAD, the heavy use of elites would seem like a point sink, but in a Gladius you can get a lot of formation bonuses for fielding them in the 1st Company Task Force. You could also look into the Skyhammer Annihilation Force as well.

How is this looking?

Gladius Strike Force

- Demi-company
-- Chaplain
-- Command Squad
-- Venerable Dreadnought
-- 3x Tactical Squad
-- Assault Squad
-- Devastator Squad

- Strike Force Command
-- Honor Guard
-- Marneus Calgar

- 1st Company Task Force
-- Terminator Assault Squad
-- 2x Vangaurd Veteran Squad

Comes out to be 1380 points of stock units.

Not a bad structure, but don't forget your transports and upgrades.

Sure I figured I would do the upgrades after I get the total unit inventory completed.

Any other units that I should definitely include besides dedicated transports?

My personal rule of thumb (mind you, I'm not a top tournament player or anything) is to stick to a theme. If you're going to use transports, make sure all your forces have transports of some kind. That way you can better focus your attack as well as focus on the things that can hurt your army while ignoring the things you can't. Alternatively, you can go for no transports at all and just run a solid gun line.

To be honest, I’d calculate in the cost of upgrades/transports before thinking about adding more units.

You need to make sure the bodies you have on the table have the tools to do their job before adding more on. To be honest, the command squad might need to get the axe just due to points.

I run a battle demi co at 1,000 points. 3 full tac squads in transports, 5 man assault/devs, bare bones jump chaplain.

Your 1st company TF is probably going to be about 500 points, and that’s footslogging the terminators. 750ish if you take the LR.

Calgar and the HG are probably going to rack in at 400-500 points, depending on how big the squad is, and upgrades.

The dread and command squad with transports is probably going to be another 400 points.

Everything you have listed would probably clock into a 2,500 point list, with gear and transports. Now you could shave some down by using minimal 5 man tac squads, and dropping the optional choices. You can also do things like swap the assault squad out for an attack bike, or cheep speeder. Or just collect and paint it all and swap units around as the mood takes you.

As you stated in the original post your goal was a 2k list, you should probably stop.

But other things to add:
Sternguard in a pod are quite good. Could sub in for one of the other vet squads, or just add for larger games.
You might consider an ironclad dread instead of the venerable. Less shooting, more rending. Also AV13 is significantly tougher.
Librarian conclave. They can add a lot of juice to your army. Either concentrated together for massed power, or spread out to disperse buffs.
10th company TF. Good, low cost, auxiliary formation. Can be fun to infiltrate homers for things to DS onto.