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Good morning one and all

Dakka Dakka Virginity Broken with my first post (and Thread)

I need some advice really on the Mighty (or currently not so as it would seem) Space marines.

Is it just me or since the other Faction codices ha been released Space marines seem very lack luster against anything these days? I am tyring to work out a 120 PL list for the throine of skulls at GW in November but i am relly struggling to get a grip with anything that works.

Can anyone help at all?

Many thanks in advance guys

Tony

Welcome to Dakka!

First, I would search through this forum to get an impression about Space Marine lists.
The best Space Marine armies are soup lists these days.

I thought soup lists were ruled out at Tournaments now though since the FAQ came out?

What are people using in soup lists?

No, soup lists are not ruled out. A SM soup list can be an UM battalion, BA vanguard, DA spearhead. All detachments should be pure, to get chapter tactics. You can also add a pure AM battalion. Anything that has the IMPERIUM keyword, but detachments should be pure, meaning only units from that faction.

Ah Ok, that makes sense. that opens a few doors for me so with that in mind what would you recommend? I am new to other chapters and guard as well.

TJA87 wrote:
Ah Ok, that makes sense. that opens a few doors for me so with that in mind what would you recommend? I am new to other chapters and guard as well.

Depends on the models you have, the models you like (to buy), and the play style you like.

First off choose a play style. So assauly, shooty, tough, fast, lots of infantry or lots of armour.

Then choose the Space Marine chapters and models that best go with your play style.

There is no "BEST" Space Marine chapter or list.

Each chapter has its strengths and weaknesses. BA is good in CC, DA is good with plasma weapons, RG is good avoiding getting hit at longer distances and infiltrating, UM are good as gunlines with girlyman re-rolling everything. You could pick UM with vehicles as a gunline, DA with plasma, and BA for CC.

If you want to go competitive, one of the first things you do as Imperium is take a Guard Battalion:

2x CC, one of whom takes the Kurov's Aquilla - If you don't have a particular SM Warlord Trait in mind, give the CC the Grand Strategist trait.

3x Infantry Squads

180pts for 32 squishy but useful bodies, and most importantly, +5CP with the ability to recycle yours, and gain one whenever your opponent uses a strategem on a 5+

Valkyrie is right; if you're feeling mega competitive its a guard battalion + 3 shield captains, raven guard aggressors and dreadnoughts... maybe guilliman. maybe razorbacks. a pure space marine list can do well, and with a predicted codex revamp on the horizon if it's space marines you want; build a space marine army. my Ultramarines are 15-0 this edition, so it's up to you mate

TJA87 wrote:


Is it just me or since the other Faction codices ha been released Space marines seem very lack luster against anything these days? I am tyring to work out a 120 PL list for the throine of skulls at GW in November but i am relly struggling to get a grip with anything that works.

It really depends upon your playstyle. There's a lot of comments about the need to be Imperial soup and so forth but hopefully I can address your main query.

Yes - Space Marines can seem very lack luster these days. The Aeldari are faster than us the Tau can out shoot us, the Necrons can survive better than us and the Tyranids are just awesome. Orks - we'll see.

This said - that's how it's supposed to be. Each army has a key strength and a key weakness and you opponents will play to that. The problem with being a Space Marine player isn't necessarily that we're lackluster - it's that we're common as much and everyone thinks about playing them when designing their army.

This said, Space Marines have considerably more flexibility than most of armies. We can make fast armies against those weak against it (eg. Necrons), we can make shooty armies with MSU for those pesky glass cannons (looking at you Aeldari), we can take assault armies for those that hate it (eg, Guard - but not going to say Tau as I don't subscribe to the belief we should assault them).

In addition, the army has superior support abilities and access to re-rolls. We can cater to all lists - unfortunately at high level games - those lists are usually catered to beat Space Marines

With regards to your tournament - Personally I'm a massive Salamanders fan and happily take 6 troop choices, all 5 man squads with a Lascannon / Missile Launchers in each (Las in the Tacticals, Missile in the Scouts), along with as many Razorbacks with assault cannons I can fit in - the rest I leave to the imagination. All those high toughness, high wound tanks combined with the volume of assault cannon shots and Lascannons that can re-roll all to hits and wounds (as only 1 per unit) - they make a real mess of most of my opponents in the first 2 turns (even Alaitoc - bless those re-rolls) leaving me to push up with my 12" movement transports. Just remember against Tau you want to think backwards. Most people shoot their AT weapons first - against Tau you shoot your anti-infantry first so that their drones don't eat up your anti-tank.

This is not my "friendly" list btw.