Its not to long ago you guys had this post active, so here goes :-)
It sounds to me like your opponents are all fielding the best their specific legions can. So I will share a few of my experiences, and then you can disregard them or not.
1. Decide if youre a fluff player or if you wanna play to win a bit. loads of marines = fluff, and UM aint one of the legions that truly benefits from loads of tacticals (look at IF with +1BS on bolters or
BA with +1 to wound),
2. Tacticals with power weapons = AWESOME looking, but not worth it in any way on the table. Your invictarus squad will outperform and destroy the vet squad.
3. I know this is not top of your list, but you need to get some transports into your list. What you have is to slow for the kinda game you seem to enjoy (loads of troops) as I see it. Trust me, I have 100 tacticals, and I love fielding them all, BUT in transports! or atleast 60% in transports.
Praetor with P fist and Iron Halo - OK, perhaps consider giving him the UM unique armour (2+ and
FnP 5+) and axe (with ap2 on
ini) instead of powerfist, or both? Keep the iron halo, and you would have a beast of a boss there. 2+/4++ with
FnP 5+ and the axe with
AP 2 on
ini, and possibly the
PF with double strength.
master of signals - classic solid choice.
damocles - this little fella is made of awesomeness!
9 Veterans with power swords - looks awesome! but footslogging? a unit this expensive desperatly needs a transport. 3+ saves just aint gonna save them.
Spartan with 10 Kata - whats your load out?
3 blobs of 20 tacticals - love it love it love it! but unless you boost them with characters and apothecaries, they dont do much for you. Try 6 groups of 10 in rhinos instead. Will 1) bring more survivability inside the rhino and 2) more tactical flexibility due to the quicker move in rhino and more targets.
2 volkite rifle squads - they look awesome, but are really not worth it
imo.
1 melta squad - 5 man? in transport?
Deredeo - with what load out? It is a beast if you have lascannons on it.
1 Laser Destroyer Vindicator - good if you run them in groups of 3. If not, they are mediocre at best
Plasma Predator Squadren - good
I have taken the liberty to do a similar walkthrough of your list over all the stuff you have:
Gulliman
Fellblade
HQ
Terminator Praetor -
classic with a group of terminators and a spartan.
2 Chaplains -
Use them with your tacticals.
Master of Signals -
Use this fella with your Damocles
Moritat -
With your destroyers. Plasma is fun, but not very good irl any longer.
Terminator Librarian -
classic with a group of terminators and a spartan.
Deimos Rhino -
awesome (assuming it is a damocles) tool for its points. In particular if you have reserves coming in.
Elites
10 Cataphracts power fists and chain fists -
Put them in a spartan. They are decent, not amazing.
10 Tartaros power fists and chain fists -
Put them in a spartan. They are decent, not amazing.
10 Invictari Axes -
Imba unit in a Spartan or a Phobos.
10 Destroyers -
Yes! with a moritat and jump packs they are good!
10 Invictari Thunder Hammers -
All thunderhammers? jezus, thats a lot of points. you HAVE to use a land raider or two to get them over the table. Must be a prime target for your opponents when they see this group?
3 Contemptor Dreadnoughts -
what load out do you have on these? they can be very very good with all cc weapons or some hard hitting ranged firepower (Khreres looks great, but really aint all that shiny when it comes down to it).
Troops
3 blobs of 20 tacticals -
As described above. Boost units with characters such as, libby or chaplains, and add in apothecaries and vexillas. No need to have vox as you dont have much artillery that would benefit from that. Possibly consider 10 man squads in rhinos for improved tactical flexibility? Do they have extra chainswords?
2 blobs of 20 sword breachers -
These must look awesome! but again, all those power weapons...irk, expensive. Its kinda like my Imperial Fist Warders with power axes all over. Looks amazing, but I have yet to see them work proper outside ZM.
20 Volkite Caliver (the 30'' one) -
Since it is heavy, they are not very tactical, but rather defensive,
Heavy Support
Vindicator with laser destroyer -
get more. Works best in groups of 3.
Plasma Predator Squadren -
nasty unit.
4 Land Raider Phobos -
One of these would be good to send in your veterans or (to be) Invictarus units. 4 is a lot.
Spartan -
Go to troop transport for elite units
Deredeo with auto cannons -
Decent against medium/light AV, and decent against fliers.
10 Missile Launchers -
swiss army knife. Good against light/medium AV and infantry, though useless against terminators.
10 Lascannons -
These are good with tankhunter (as the IF have). Possibly have a siege breaker join them. He will give them tankhunter, and now they become good!
All in all I have a few pointers I think is worth considering regarding your army:
-Get 2 more vindicators or drop the unit entirely.
-Drop the Veterans. Its a huge point sink for you, even if they do look amazing (you can always use some of them as a command squad). Use your Invictarus instead, and use your land raiders. Many AV14 is tough to handle, and dont get distressed when you loose 1 or 2 racing across the table. According to my experience, then veterans tends to work best in squads of 10, with 2 missile launchers and a rhino. Then give them Marksmen, and have them come in from the side of the board, and deploy 12" in, and shoot something with either
AV 10 (Rhinos, Predators, Artillery etc) or something with a high toughness value. Or simply shoot a bucket load of rounds into a heavy support squad. My opponents HATE my veteran squads for this very reason.
-Drop the 2 volkite squads. They look great, but heavy makes them defensive units, and you dont need to spend more pts on defensive units as I see it.
-You have access to a very nasty unit in your Fulmentari terminators. Consider building a squad of those? 2+ armour with 2
str 8 missiles per man is good.
-If youre playing in a meta with fliers, you should consider getting a deredo with lascannons. They are evil.
-
Get more rhinos for your army. They are dirt cheap for what they do imo.
As I see it, you have all the basics you need (if you disregard the rhinos) to make a very good and tactically flexibly army. Give your sergents the UM unique axe upgrades in your tactical squads, and also give them extra chainswords and a rhino. Suddenly they will have a bit of punch, and with many more targets to shoot at, your opponents can only stop that many in one round (having to destroy the rhinos first). Once a tactical unit is out of its rhino, its less of a threat, compared to the other units still in rhinos, so most likely your opponents will leave them as "targets of opportunity" rather than priority targets. Also, give all sergents melta bombs. Makes your units better against armour too.
I once had a 15 man tactical squad with a praetor and an apothecary attached to the unit. Sergent with all the shiny stuff in upgrades (could argue that was a waste of pts) where my opponent charged me with 9 jetbikes including his praetor. My sergent took the challenge from his praetor, and due to all the attacks my tacticals had combined with my praetor and the
FnP 5+, I destroyed his squad in the second round of combat where I had more attacks than he did, and the sheer number of attacks was enough to take him down.
You dont have to ruin the feel of your army to make it significantly better without making it a "broken" or designed against one particular army.
Any who, this was my 5 cent on the topic. If you wanna discuss some of this, please dont hold back :-)
P.S. If your legion is fully painted or close to, it would be cool to see a picture or two of them?