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As the title says and you may already be guessing now, I have a small mountain of unpainted marines and I'm really not sure what to do next, so I'm looking to pick your brains for ideas.

Like most people in the hobby, I horde miniatures. Often for that cool idea for that army/unit I want to do or because something was such a cheap deal I would be crazy not to get them! So after a few years away from 40K, I'm feeling the pull and want to be playing some games again and with a load of models to hand, I have plenty of things to keep me entertained. The problem is that I have no idea what I want to do! I have pretty much a blank canvas and have the following....

# A Betrayal from Calth Set
# Space Hulk
# Dark Vengeance
# Ravenwing Box Set (six bikes, attack bike, speeder and DA bits)
# Lots of Terminators
# Lots of Marines with parts for Tacticals and Assault Marines.
# DA/BA/SW bits

So I have the bits for a good core of a Marine army but I have no idea which direction to go in and I have no major preference for chapter as I think they are all cool. My play style is aggressive, so I'm guessing something alpha striking or can be in your face, take a hit and then hit back harder would be good, but I see all the codexes being able to do that. Then I have the thought about doing a traitor legion with less spikes and that could be cool.

So I need some ideas/advice where to go next (apart from selling ). What do you think would fit my playstyle and is a bit competitive? I like playing competitive games but accept that I'm not going to be winning events due to not being able to play as much as I need to.

I also have two Tyranid Start Collecting sets which would be cool with the Genestealers from Space Hulk which are tempting me!!!

Cheers

That's a lot of marines, but not a lot of the models that make marines good.

I have always thought Blood Angels are really the way to go for aggressive Space Marine armies. They have some superior infantry units that can dish it out in close combat and their rules are focused on getting up the board.

As far as Space Wolves go, I can understand wanting to use them, but it seems like there are so many Space Wolves armies these days.

Looks like you have a ton of power armor guys, a fistfull of bikes, and loads of terminators.

You could make a few viable codex marines lists with that. Not so sure about the other chapters, DA would probably be easy, not sure about BA.

Start by putting together a demi company. 3 tacs, an assault and a dev squad. Your tacs will need transports, rhinos or pods. Then depending on the chapter you pick, you might have a few different options for auxiliary formations. Terminators might not be the best thing out there, but you could take 3 squads of them for a 1st company TF. Alternatively, paint up some guys as sternguard. Who are good, but will require more transports.

 techsoldaten wrote:
That's a lot of marines, but not a lot of the models that make marines good.

Sort of my thinking as well. I'm not objectionable to getting additional things but want to try and use up what I have in my 'stash'

I have always thought Blood Angels are really the way to go for aggressive Space Marine armies. They have some superior infantry units that can dish it out in close combat and their rules are focused on getting up the board.

As far as Space Wolves go, I can understand wanting to use them, but it seems like there are so many Space Wolves armies these days.

So if you were in my shoes and had options to add some stuff in the future, how would you tackle this. Would you just assemble a company of marines and add the juicy good stuff after or write a competitive list with what is there and tweak so I can play some games? I'm not in a rush for anything as have a 9 month old and trying to move house but would love to do some GW events next summer.

Make them angry marines. The greatest chapter.

Deathwatch.

Unbound Terminator assault force.
Give em some love.

IMO, what's the perfect use of a ton of marines? 30k of course!

I like the balance better, you would have 19 armies to choose from (18 legions plus blackshields), and your PA marines can be very useful. Run a couple large squads of 15-20 tac marines with apothecaries, a couple heavy weapons squads, maybe convert some specialist squads from your remaining marines, and you could get a lot of use out of what you have. You could even do 2 armies (one traitor, one loyalist) to give yourself some options and also tempt others to play with you.

There's always fire.

Start with space hulk. Pick the chapter by colour/image that you like, and paint the SH termies up that shade. Paint the genestealers. Then you've got a good self contained game that you can add to as RL allows.

You can build any marine force with these so just choose a cool chapter or legion that you really like.
Do some research on this we are not going to supply you with your dream chapter do not forget to also read the SM supplements some novels and or 30k rulebooks. Once you do your research you will notice that some aren't as cool as others and you will definitely find the one you like.
If not go deathwatch...

Now on building your army

Step 1 Calculate the time you would need to paint them all to the standard you would like to see them painted.
Step 2 Determine the amount of time you are willing to spend in painting them
Step 3 Now build your army based on this allocation of time rather than actual in game point don't worry about in game points actual time is your real limiting factor.

Step 4 Evaluate and you might even think of ehm.... reducing your collection of grey unpainted plastic in an other way.
Such as trading a bulk of dudes you do not have the time for to paint them for vehicles you want in your army. But you might find that things go smoother if you use money as an in between step