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Is this viable? And I mean using space marine troops/bikers en masse like the legions of old with support elements. I just really liked the army composition of 30k and was wondering if there was a way to list build 40k marines to have a large assault army of boots on the ground. So far the best "army" for this seems to be space wolves but I'm not a fan of them personally..

So far what I can say is that it's not bad, esp with character support. I haven't gone "all in" on it yet, I'm definitely going to try to push it as far as I can take it when I get back to playing my loyalists (right now I'm playing Chaos). When I get back to my loyalist army I'll start with at least 60 foot troops in a 2000 point list, and try to expand to 80 once I get more Tacticals painted up.

I don't think the Legion type of squad organization is viable though (just bolters in the squads, or just heavies in the squads) mixing and matching is key to having better army-wide resilience.

In my Chaos army I'm taking 40 basic CSM at the moment and it's working pretty well.

With SW you don't want to go full infantries, there are tons of other units that are better. Grey hunters and blood claws are useful but I would never invest more than 600 points of troops, including their transports on a 2000 points SW list.

If you don't seek super competitive games an infantry based SM list can be viable for sure. Even without primaris.

The key with infantry-only is that you need the enemy to shoot the things you want them to shoot. I accomplish this by putting an ironclad dreadnought in the mix. They always shoot it and ignore the devastators... which is perfect.

It can definitely work.

Is 3x 10 grey hunters with chainswords a solid start? In rhinos for protection

Grey hunters suck. You want company veterans. Why ? A veteran has 2 attacks, the veteran sergeant has 3. They can take two chainswords, that means +2 attacks for each model, for free. Their unit size is 2. The point cost is the same for five 2 model units, or two 5 model units. But if you choose five 2 model units you get five sergeants, with two 5 model units you only get two. Five sergeants have three more attacks than two sergeants, for free. A 2 model unit is immune to morale losses, the sergeant has 9. If you play battle forged you can easily get two vanguard detachments with six 2 model units of company veterans, plus two hq, +2 CP. If your opponent shoots them any weapon with more than two attacks is wasted on a 2 model unit, only 2 can die. Each veteran can get a stormbolter for 2 pts. if you want some ranged attack capabilities. 10 models with stormbolters can deliver 40 shots at 12". Add a chainsword for +1 attack, for free.

p5freak wrote:
Grey hunters suck. You want company veterans. Why ? A veteran has 2 attacks, the veteran sergeant has 3. They can take two chainswords, that means +2 attacks for each model, for free. Their unit size is 2. The point cost is the same for five 2 model units, or two 5 model units. But if you choose five 2 model units you get five sergeants, with two 5 model units you only get two. Five sergeants have three more attacks than two sergeants, for free. A 2 model unit is immune to morale losses, the sergeant has 9. If you play battle forged you can easily get two vanguard detachments with six 2 model units of company veterans, plus two hq, +2 CP. If your opponent shoots them any weapon with more than two attacks is wasted on a 2 model unit, only 2 can die. Each veteran can get a stormbolter for 2 pts. if you want some ranged attack capabilities. 10 models with stormbolters can deliver 40 shots at 12". Add a chainsword for +1 attack, for free.

Ah okay this is what I was looking for. I was looking at blood claws and their berserk charge rule thinking +1 attack on the charge seemed like a sweet deal. This however, changes everything haha. Thank you I will definitely look into this