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Title speaks for itself, but to remind, that's 6 tacticals, 2 assaults, 2 devastators, (all with transports of choice, I like the aesthetic of rhinos a lot, so probably only a few drop pods) 4 dreadnoughts, a few landspeeders/bikes, a stalker/hunter, command squad, captain, chaplain, librarian, possibly some other assets from a chapter's armoury like air support, predators or a land raider.
I intend to build a full company over the years as part of the hobby side of things, but would it ever be worth my time actually fielding it? (I've heard it put in the range of 3,000-4,000 points so it's not impossible.)

Yes and no.

The double demi-comapny full gladius, with the free transports, is one of our more competitive builds. It is, however, built as a MSU army, with just 5 man squads. So it’s not what us fluffy people would consider a full company, as it’s just 52ish marines and about a dozen boxes.

Last time I put my full company on the table, it was around 3,000 points. You almost never see games that large. Apocalypse games tend to have giant death-dealing things that can remove basic power armored guys in double handfuls. And a battle company doesn’t have a huge amount of things that can scratch the paint on the big stuff.

All that said, I’m glad I have my company. It makes a cool goal for collecting, and looks awesome ranked up. When pulling minis off the shelf to build a list, I’ve got plenty of options. It’s a solid backbone for most styles of armies. I’d recommend any serious hobbyist to go for it.

And then post pictures.

Yeah an actual battle company is pretty sucky without formation bonuses. Like several other models, the regular power armored marines are stuck in the past rules-wise, when power levels were lower and t4 3+ on foot with a bolter was closer to "okay." Now you either need formations to make them worth more, or to use some of the newer toys like centurions and grav cannons that are actually worth their cost in today's game. Doing neither brings the army down to a very mediocre power level, similar to how hiding your tyra-buddy's flyrant models makes his army feel like being hit with wet noodles.

I play chaos and those images are motivating me to build up my army to look as awesome as yours does when all together. Thanks.

OP: for fluffy games it would be pretty fun, just make sure your opponent doesn't go to crazy on their end.

I have about 1 1/2 companies worth of marines + transports I need to build, I'm looking forward to finally getting them painted up and on display. I probably won't get the chance to run them outside of a min squad Gladius though which is a shame.

Read this this morning and have been considering how you could make a fluffy yet competitive-ish SM company with what you wanted to include (plus a bit more).

So the following (not going into detail with weapon choices):

Gladius
Captain
Chaplain
6 5 man tactical squads with Razorbacks
2 5 man bike squads
2 5 man devestator squads with Razorbacks
2 Dreadnoughts with pods

Armoured Task Force
Techmarine
3 Thunderfire Cannons
3 Preds in a squadron for tank/monster hunter
Vindicator
Vindicator

Stormwing
Stormraven
2 stormtalons

Skyhammer annihilation force
2 5 man devestator squads with pod (admittedly this means your devestators will have 16 heavy weapons between the 20 of them that are in the army but you can explain this away as them having a wide access to the armoury)
2 5 man assault squads

CAD
1 Librarian
5 man command squad with pod
2 10 man tactical squads with pods
2 Dreadnoughts with pods
2 Rapier Laser Destroyers (manned by 4 tac marines)
3 Rapier quad launchers (manned by 6 tac marines)
Deimos Vindicator (strongly suggest schism of mars on this)
Typhon Heavy Seige Tank (with ceremite obvs)


Fluffwise it would be organised thus:
2nd(or whatever you want) company
Command - Captain, Chaplain and Librarian with 5 man command squad

Tac squad 1
10 man split between 2 Razorbacks

Tac squad 2
10 Man split between 2 Razorbacks

Tac squad 3
10 Man split between 2 Razorbacks

Tac squad 4
10 man in a pod

Tac squad 5
10 man in a pod

Tac squad 6
Manning the 5 rapier artillery pieces

Assault squad 1
10 man in skyhammer annihilation force split into 2 squads

Assault squad 2
10 man mounted on bikes split into 2 squads

Devestator squad 1
10 man split into 2 5 man squads with 2 razorbacks

Devestator squad 2
10 man split into 2 5 man squads in 2 pods in skyhammer annihilation force

4 Dreadnoughts with pods

Armoury support
4 Techmarines (3 on TFCs - makes sense that there would be so many with so many vehicles)

3 Predators

2 Vindicators

1 Deimos Vindicator

3 Thunderfire cannons

5 rapier artillery pieces

Typhon Heavy Siege Tank

Fleet support
1 Stormraven
2 Stormtalons


Putting Grav on the Skyhammer devs and bikes and taking assault cannons/lascannons on the razors, should mean you have enough fire power to seriously threaten all the superheavies you'll be facing. The Rapiers, Deimos, Typhon, Vinids, TH Preds and air support should be a serious threat to them, especially when combined with the multiple razors and pod drop. 7 pods outside of the skyhammer which means that all 4 dreads could arrive turn 1 if you wish, alongside the skyhammer.

I'll let you work out the points :-p


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Swap out Vindis for Preds/Whilrwinds where you see fit, the Deimos for a Sicaran, the Typhon for a Fellblade, the Laser Destroyers for more Quad Launchers, the Dreds for Iron Clads, two tac squads pods with Rhinos, command squad pod with Land Raider etc.

Remember: not all SM chapters are at full strength. You don't need a full company to be fluffy, just whatever seems like what they had available. It may not make sense for chapters like the Minotaurs, but for extreme examples like the Lamenters you could justifiably fit the whole chapter into 3,000 pts with room to spare.

Just for fun, I did about half of a write-up, then got frustrated with the new Battlescribe app and gave up.

Long story short, though, this wouldn't really be practical or particularly effective. 100 Power Armored bodies, plus all the gear, transports, etc. that would normally be brought just isn't an effective list, because when it's all said and done you're going too be spending at least 4000 points (Unless everything is barebones, which wouldn't be fluffy anyways,) and in a 40k list, you're just not going to have options to deal with a lot of the things that your opponent could bring. A Blue Tide list really can't compete with most Apocalypse-level enemies.

I'm a Tactical Squad squad short of a full company of Dark Angels (I'm sure I'll get one in the 8th ed. starter box anyway) - though I don't have transports for every squad and the 4th and 5th Tactical Squads aren't painted yet.

It does look cool, but not very practical - I've never played everything at once, though I do sometimes play lists with 2 Devastator Squads or two Assault Squads. I've never felt the need to field 50-60 Tactical Marines at once.

If you really want to do a horde of Marines, a 30K army might be the way to go - Calth & Prospero get you 60 Power Armor bodies, and in 30K there are more reasons to field that many.

Waaaghpower wrote:Just for fun, I did about half of a write-up, then got frustrated with the new Battlescribe app and gave up.

Long story short, though, this wouldn't really be practical or particularly effective. 100 Power Armored bodies, plus all the gear, transports, etc. that would normally be brought just isn't an effective list, because when it's all said and done you're going too be spending at least 4000 points (Unless everything is barebones, which wouldn't be fluffy anyways,) and in a 40k list, you're just not going to have options to deal with a lot of the things that your opponent could bring. A Blue Tide list really can't compete with most Apocalypse-level enemies.

I thought about that, and there's nothing that says you can't bring some super heavies alongside the company, or politely ask whoever has agreed to play not to go overboard on the lords of war slot in the interests of a fluffy fun game.

Asmodai wrote:I'm a Tactical Squad squad short of a full company of Dark Angels (I'm sure I'll get one in the 8th ed. starter box anyway) - though I don't have transports for every squad and the 4th and 5th Tactical Squads aren't painted yet.

It does look cool, but not very practical - I've never played everything at once, though I do sometimes play lists with 2 Devastator Squads or two Assault Squads. I've never felt the need to field 50-60 Tactical Marines at once.

If you really want to do a horde of Marines, a 30K army might be the way to go - Calth & Prospero get you 60 Power Armor bodies, and in 30K there are more reasons to field that many.

I would, but the fluff specifically says the chapter I chose (2nd founding) lost all their heresy era equipment. Plus I prefer the look of the 40k marines.

andysonic1 wrote:I play chaos and those images are motivating me to build up my army to look as awesome as yours does when all together. Thanks.

Glad I can inspire.

Waaaghpower wrote:Just for fun, I did about half of a write-up, then got frustrated with the new Battlescribe app and gave up.

Long story short, though, this wouldn't really be practical or particularly effective. 100 Power Armored bodies, plus all the gear, transports, etc. that would normally be brought just isn't an effective list, because when it's all said and done you're going too be spending at least 4000 points (Unless everything is barebones, which wouldn't be fluffy anyways,) and in a 40k list, you're just not going to have options to deal with a lot of the things that your opponent could bring. A Blue Tide list really can't compete with most Apocalypse-level enemies.

I’m not fond of the new Battlescribe format. But as the update made my old shelf deployment roster impossible to read, I re-entered it.

My company, on shelf, is 2,615 points. WYSWYG. While I’ve not gone overboard with the gear, they are not bare-bones. Every option to take a special/heavy I have, the command squad has moderate gear, and 3 dreadnoughts with some upgrades. I’ve not paid points for transports, as the full gladius provides them for free. In my case, this would be 3 pods, 3 rhinos. But even if you were paying, you would still be under 3k. And if I did a little trimming, I could probably fit in under 2,500.

If you are playing a company at 4k, you are going to have grav on everybody, extra vet sarges and power weapons on tac squads, etc.

I intend to build a full company over the years

I think it's hard to predict what will be good after two years or more, but marines should always be good, and building the company sounds like a great idea fluff-wise. So I think you can't go wrong with it. Maybe it would be best to start with most competitive parts of the company, and then complete the less playable parts?

 Nevelon wrote:

andysonic1 wrote:I play chaos and those images are motivating me to build up my army to look as awesome as yours does when all together. Thanks.

Glad I can inspire.

Waaaghpower wrote:Just for fun, I did about half of a write-up, then got frustrated with the new Battlescribe app and gave up.

Long story short, though, this wouldn't really be practical or particularly effective. 100 Power Armored bodies, plus all the gear, transports, etc. that would normally be brought just isn't an effective list, because when it's all said and done you're going too be spending at least 4000 points (Unless everything is barebones, which wouldn't be fluffy anyways,) and in a 40k list, you're just not going to have options to deal with a lot of the things that your opponent could bring. A Blue Tide list really can't compete with most Apocalypse-level enemies.

I’m not fond of the new Battlescribe format. But as the update made my old shelf deployment roster impossible to read, I re-entered it.

My company, on shelf, is 2,615 points. WYSWYG. While I’ve not gone overboard with the gear, they are not bare-bones. Every option to take a special/heavy I have, the command squad has moderate gear, and 3 dreadnoughts with some upgrades. I’ve not paid points for transports, as the full gladius provides them for free. In my case, this would be 3 pods, 3 rhinos. But even if you were paying, you would still be under 3k. And if I did a little trimming, I could probably fit in under 2,500.

If you are playing a company at 4k, you are going to have grav on everybody, extra vet sarges and power weapons on tac squads, etc.

Well, first off, you're at least 350 points off for not bringing any transports there. I suppose that would be free if you're going double-decurion, but that's still going to bump things somewhat unless you aren't taking anything on your rhinos and razorbacks.

Secondly, though, I was using the original author's requirements: Not just the minimum body count to qualify as a 'Company', but also including some kind of tank support, a librarian, some land speeders, some AA, etc. Once you add all that in, it's going to be another 700-800 points, easy.

Poly Ranger wrote:

Spoiler:

Read this this morning and have been considering how you could make a fluffy yet competitive-ish SM company with what you wanted to include (plus a bit more).

So the following (not going into detail with weapon choices):

Gladius
Captain
Chaplain
6 5 man tactical squads with Razorbacks
2 5 man bike squads
2 5 man devestator squads with Razorbacks
2 Dreadnoughts with pods

Armoured Task Force
Techmarine
3 Thunderfire Cannons
3 Preds in a squadron for tank/monster hunter
Vindicator
Vindicator

Stormwing
Stormraven
2 stormtalons

Skyhammer annihilation force
2 5 man devestator squads with pod (admittedly this means your devestators will have 16 heavy weapons between the 20 of them that are in the army but you can explain this away as them having a wide access to the armoury)
2 5 man assault squads

CAD
1 Librarian
5 man command squad with pod
2 10 man tactical squads with pods
2 Dreadnoughts with pods
2 Rapier Laser Destroyers (manned by 4 tac marines)
3 Rapier quad launchers (manned by 6 tac marines)
Deimos Vindicator (strongly suggest schism of mars on this)
Typhon Heavy Seige Tank (with ceremite obvs)


Fluffwise it would be organised thus:
2nd(or whatever you want) company
Command - Captain, Chaplain and Librarian with 5 man command squad

Tac squad 1
10 man split between 2 Razorbacks

Tac squad 2
10 Man split between 2 Razorbacks

Tac squad 3
10 Man split between 2 Razorbacks

Tac squad 4
10 man in a pod

Tac squad 5
10 man in a pod

Tac squad 6
Manning the 5 rapier artillery pieces

Assault squad 1
10 man in skyhammer annihilation force split into 2 squads

Assault squad 2
10 man mounted on bikes split into 2 squads

Devestator squad 1
10 man split into 2 5 man squads with 2 razorbacks

Devestator squad 2
10 man split into 2 5 man squads in 2 pods in skyhammer annihilation force

4 Dreadnoughts with pods

Armoury support
4 Techmarines (3 on TFCs - makes sense that there would be so many with so many vehicles)

3 Predators

2 Vindicators

1 Deimos Vindicator

3 Thunderfire cannons

5 rapier artillery pieces

Typhon Heavy Siege Tank

Fleet support
1 Stormraven
2 Stormtalons


Putting Grav on the Skyhammer devs and bikes and taking assault cannons/lascannons on the razors, should mean you have enough fire power to seriously threaten all the superheavies you'll be facing. The Rapiers, Deimos, Typhon, Vinids, TH Preds and air support should be a serious threat to them, especially when combined with the multiple razors and pod drop. 7 pods outside of the skyhammer which means that all 4 dreads could arrive turn 1 if you wish, alongside the skyhammer.

I'll let you work out the points :-p


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Swap out Vindis for Preds/Whilrwinds where you see fit, the Deimos for a Sicaran, the Typhon for a Fellblade, the Laser Destroyers for more Quad Launchers, the Dreds for Iron Clads, two tac squads pods with Rhinos, command squad pod with Land Raider etc.

This is brilliant