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I'm looking at starting a new army. I want to do a 500pt space marine army. I'm planning on making it Black Templars, but really just generic. No Primaris.

I'm thinking of buying a Start Collecting box, a 3 man bike squad and a Predator, plus a couple of boxes of Black Templars bits.

this gives me:

HQ Space Marine captain in Terminator armor.

TR 10 man tac squad

El Dreadnought

HS Predator

FA Bike squad

thats 490 pts without options

Does this sound like a good starter army? I'm just looking for casual gaming on this one (at my store we only play with points, not power)

Preds and tac marines are not very good in this edition; I'd recommned replacing the pred with a razorback with twin lascannons or assault cannons. That's much cheaper and gives you transport capacity. Venerable dreads are pretty good.

Any particular reason you want BT? Bikes dont really scream BT, but I wont discourage another brother BT.

BT normally do heavy CC, so your Terminator Cap isn't a bad choice for that DS attack, but what sort of loadout are you thinking for those units?

For casual play that looks just fine. What is the most min/max way of getting firepower to the table is less of a concern if everyone is just there to have fun. You run across a more competitive list, you might get stomped, but 40k is at its best when everyone is on the same level.

It looks like you have a decent mix of firepower, some anti tank and some small arms for thinning out hordes. A dash of mobility in the bikes. Should play well.

What gear you hand out will be key. Hard to go wrong with plasma. And if going BT, make sure everyone has a stabby bit.