Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Okay, so, I bought Dark Imperium and got the space marines part (my brother got death guard). I also have an attack bike (I know it’s not very useful but it was maybe 3 bucks so....)
Where should I go after this for building up to about 3000 pts?
I was thinking get the Start Collecting Space Marines, try my hand at magnetizing the dreadnought, split the 10 marines into 2 5 man squads (with plasma/combi melta and melta/combi plasma). After that get a Razorback, magnetize it, run one squad inside with the twin assault cannons.
Maybe a storm talon after that.

Any feedback on this/improvements to the idea would be appreciated.

A lot depends on what kind of army you want to play.

What you have listed should work, at least for fun games.

One thing the DI box lacks is long range AV fire. You have the hellblasters, and that’s about it. Getting a pred or a dev squad would help out there.

Scouts are very nice for bubble wrapping and denying people the ability to get yup in your face first turn.

Some mobility might be nice. A lot of games need to score objectives.

Most importantly: make up your own color scheme so you can play them as any chapter (and use any subfaction's rules)

 axisofentropy wrote:
Most importantly: make up your own color scheme so you can play them as any chapter (and use any subfaction's rules)

Yeah, this is the clear winner unless you're really tied to that GW color scheme. You get a lot more flexibility in what can play over time.

Each chapter favors certain units over others so this suggestion is misleading. It can also be argued it’s not legal.

Clip them off the sprue, clean the mould lines, assemble with glue.

In all seriousness, I enjoy my Ultramarines, so i paint and play them as Ultramarines. Do what you like, youll enjoy the hobby more.

From Dark Imperium or the Start Collecting, I would suggest some armour. Predators, Dreads, Razorbacks, or Repulsors if you are going Primaris.

 Primark G wrote:
Each chapter favors certain units over others so this suggestion is misleading. It can also be argued it’s not legal.

There's no rule saying that your Ultramarines have to be painted blue, and anyone trying to convince you otherwise is just trying to feth you over.

 Primark G wrote:
Each chapter favors certain units over others so this suggestion is misleading. It can also be argued it’s not legal.

Wait are you saying that painting them however they want is not legal? If someone wants Florence to yellow marines using the ultras ruleset pretty sure there are no rules against it.

If one wants to make ultrahighlighters or similar that’s fine.

Yeah you can paint them how you like, and then use the CTs you want.

However, as Primark G says, you do actually want to get units that work with your chapter tactics, so that flexibility is worth less than it first appears.

Most people agree that ravenguard have the best tactics. They favour an all, or mostly, infantry army. The good news is that for now infantry is all that you have, so you're in a great spot.

If you wanted to expand on a ravenguard list the way to go would be by adding more hellblasters (probably of the assault variety) and hellblasters (certainly of the bolter variety - never flamers). Assault hellblasters work really well at shooting stuff dead from range, and not being shot back. Meanwhile Aggressors using the strike from the shadows stratagem are borderline unfair if you're going first.

Dreadnoughts get chapter tactics, so a couple of these would be no bad thing. Contemptors and Contemptor Mortis are probably the most efficient, though a venerable dread with twin las and missile is also a solid option. Or if you're happy to use non-primaris stuff, devastator squads work really well too.

Ravenguard intercessors are actually pretty useful. They are difficult to kill and great for screening your more valuable stuff.

A librarian is always a good buy.

Thanks for the input. I like the Ultramarines and have already painted dark imperium as them, so Ravenguard/changing chapters periodically is out unfortunately.
As for anti-armor stuff, would a predator with lascannon sponsons and an auto cannon be better than the storm talon as a thing to buy after start collecting and razorback (should I get the Razorback? I would put one of the 5 man tactical squads and a librarian in it with assault cannons)?

oh if you're playing ultramarines then you need guilliman why have you not bought guilliman yet????

I get how good he is, just something about the model rubs me the wrong way. I’ll probably get him sometime, just not immediately. There are some other things I think would be more useful first.

I’ve fielded both my pred and talon, and like them both. Razors are still good, but with your collections I might spring for the lascannons. Long term, the AsCs might be the better call, depends a lot on the rest of your list.

The codex is pretty solid. Most of the stuff in there does what it says on the tin. Once you start getting into more competitive play, things like point efficiency start to become more relevant. But IMHO everything has a use, some units are just a little tougher to get the most out of though. But as a new player, if something appeals to you, you can make it work.

So, lascannons would be better? From what I’ve seen it seems like putting out a lot of mid-high range shots seems to work better than a few strong ones against the guys I’ll be fighting the most (Death guard and Thousand Sons) just because of their invul. Saves eventually failing.

Just a thought, could maybe be wrong. I’m thinking predator over storm talon now, with two lascannons and a pred. autocannon. (Is that a good choice for the turret vs the lascannons?)

You still need to crack open hard targets at range, which is why I like LCs. Although full disclosure, I’ve not faced a lot of chaos in 8th, so YMMV.

I think both main guns on the pred are viable. The AC is going to do better vs. lighter targets, while the LC vs. hard ones.

Most weapon choices can depend a lot on what else you have in your list, and what sort of targets you can expect to face. I generally like to mix things up to make a TAC list, but I’m an old school Ultramarine like that.

You want a good amount of heavy fire power to deal with tanks and monsters but not at the exclusion of horde killing fire power. Space Marines can field heavy fire power in spades so keep the horde killing in mind as you develop your list. I recommend Tiggy as your Librarian - wow he’s still really good.

Should get the Forge World Guilliman if you dont like the GW one. Hes about the same if you have him on the scenic base.

Has a sword, fist, and the arbitrator is there on his back.

Gulliman also comes with a helmet option if its the face you dislike

Not only is there nothing that says you cant paint your models as a successor chapter and use the chapter tactics rules, I think its obviously encouraged and has a long heritage.

They leave tons of ambiguity on successors so you can easily make up your own backstory, scheme, heraldry and so on.

Only for the plastic model.

 Primark G wrote:
Only for the plastic model.

true I was refering to the GW one, granted I suppose you could proably stick the plastic helmet from the GW one on the FW model

As far as what to buy to get the best bang for your buck I highly suggest getting the Betrayal at Calth box. You get 30 Tacticals, a Contemptor Dreadnought, 5 Cataphractii Terminators, a Cataphractii Captain, and a Chaplain. For the price, this is an amazing deal and you can use most of it (though I almost never use the terminators). Then you just need to decide if you want to be fluffy, semi-competitive, or competitive. Fluffy do whatever. I like rebuilding an entire company and going from there. For Semi-competitive I do things like 10 man squads of things, adding in Rhinos and Drop Pods while keeping some of the stronger units, and things like that. For competitive things get more restricted. You will need scouts, at least 15. You will need Guilliman. Past that choose vehicles or infantry and focus on that. Devastators or Predators are pretty much needed, and you will want something for anti-infantry. I usually see Aggressors or Assbacks for this. For Space Marines the good thing is nothing will be wasted if you wait long enough. Just keep growing the collection and as editions and books change you will have a super flexible toolbox to keep relevant without having to drop a lot of money at once.

You should build them as Blood Angels or Dark Angels haha.

 NH Gunsmith wrote:
You should build them as Blood Angels or Dark Angels haha.

both together may actually be most competitive

Is there any doubt left that BA & DA are more competitive than standard marines?

 grouchoben wrote:
Is there any doubt left that BA & DA are more competitive than standard marines?

depends on the missions and meta etc. Sometimes Guilliman and Fire Raptors can do better.

How Should I Build my Space Marine Army?

As Chaos Space Marines.

If the looks and cohesion of the models matter, one option to consider is buying another DI set and trade the Death Guard away to cover the cost. Then buy Guilliman. Consider a Repulsor and if you're up for making conversions make a power-armoued Captain, a Librarian and an Apothecary from one of the Intercessor squads.

Stormtalons are very, very good. Run two.

I'd start by building to 1850, decent size but not so much that you get overwhelmed or have 6-hour games.

2k is the standard points value that people play to in my area, and it's not much more than 1850. But whatever.

It's hard to argue against people saying that DA or BA are better than codex marines at the moment. They simply get to pick from more options, many of which are really good. That said I don’t hugely rate their chapter tactics, or at least not necessarily more than the vanilla ones. RG are clearly way ahead on that score, but the others all have merit.

Personally I’d avoid tactical marines. Bolters don’t really do anything, and they only have one attack. Intercessors are way better, in my experience. I think devastators are probably the only good unit in power armour, and even they can be replaced by vehicles and/or hellblasters. This leads me to leave out stuff like razorbacks too.

If you want a flyer, the stormraven is probably better than the talon. Talons aren’t bad, but stormravens are much scarier, and tougher. Talons make really interesting harassment units though, because they can be used to charge enemy units and tie them up – which can win you games. The talon wouldn’t be a bad choice.