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I’m currently working on 3 small SM armies (imperial fists, space wolves, UM) and I got 6 of vehicles for cheap from a friend and none of them are painted, how do I divvy them up so each vehicle is in its best chapter. My armies are all primaris except for space wolves which are 50-50 primaris grey hunters/terminators. Vehicles I have are Repulsor, Repulsor executioner, impulsor, predator with lascannons, razorback, land raider with las cannons (this one isn’t in great shape so I may trade it in for another impulsor/Repulsor) any help would be greatly appreciated.

First, Welcome to Dakka.

If your SW is the only army with classic marines, they get the LR and razor. Primaris can’t ride in them, so unless you want to waste the transport capacity, they are it.

Probablty go with Repulsor + Pred, and Executioner + Impulsor. Which chapter gets which is really up to the composition of the rest of your forces, but this splits the firepower a bit. I might lean towards giving the Ultras the repulsor/pred pair.

These sorts of questions are hard to answer in a vacuum. With marine armies, there are SO many ways to build them, and different overlaps in what units can do, you really need to look at the whole list.

Thanks for the reply! There seems to be a stigma online that land raiders are bad, and I’ve heard that space wolves have a hard time getting into combat, which makes me consider swapping out the LR for an impulsor, but on the other hand all the melee units are non primaris. My army for SW is the primaris start collecting, 5 wulfen, 5 wolf guard terminators, 10 grey hunters im considering hellblasters if my anti tank is lacking.

The problem with LRs is that a lot of people who play competitively have to gear their lists to be able to drop multiple imperial knights. And if you list can do that, you can pop a LR in one round. Without an invuln they are not as durable as some of their peers. THe also suffer the issue that they have had their entire lives. You pay points for the firepower, and you pay points for the transport capacity. You very rarely will be in a situation where you can get good milage from both. If you rush forward as a battle taxi, you risk being tarpitted, bogged down, or getting slapped around by power fists and thinderhammers. If you sit back, you get to keep the guns blazing, but get cobwebs in the cargo hold (which is part of your cost)

Want a taxi? Rhinos, drop pods, Storm Ravens all get troops where they need to be.
Want firepower? Quad las preds are not as tough, but like half the price.

LRs pay for being a jack of all trades. Or as we Ultramarines like to call it, tactically flexible. Which is a good thing in fun, TAC lists. But top tables tend to favor specialization. You want to units to be both very effective AND efficient at their job. And LRs pay too much to be OK at their jobs

I don’t play SW, and it’s been multiple editions since I’ve seen one across the table, so can’t really comment on them. There might be a place for a LR in their lists.

Also keep in mind that a lot of advice is based on more competitive play. At the FLGS/basementhammer level, where people are not trying to squeeze max power out of their lists, there is a LOT more room to include fun units you love the lore/look of. You just need to be sure you and your opponent are on the same page.

Against lists not optimized to drop a knight a turn, the LR has a lot more life in it.

I'm definitely in the FLGS and basementhammer level, nowhere near competitive but I don't want to use blatantly bad stuff. I do like the look and lore of the LR but it seems worse than everything else and is more expensive money wise, may just swap it. Thanks a ton for the help!

guacamole_s wrote:
I'm definitely in the FLGS and basementhammer level, nowhere near competitive but I don't want to use blatantly bad stuff. I do like the look and lore of the LR but it seems worse than everything else and is more expensive money wise, may just swap it. Thanks a ton for the help!

Ok, to be honest I just dont understand this approach.
You already own the landraider.
You've stated that your not playing on the tournament lv.
You've stated that you like the landraider.

So why not paint it up for the SW & play it?

Whats the worst that'll happen? You'll play something thats not the best choice but that you LIKE? You may lose a game at the local shop? (hey. If that happens look at it this way: youve got a convenient excuse. "Well I'd have done better/won if I hadn't used the LR....)
And you don't have to use it every game, every week.

ccs wrote:

guacamole_s wrote:
I'm definitely in the FLGS and basementhammer level, nowhere near competitive but I don't want to use blatantly bad stuff. I do like the look and lore of the LR but it seems worse than everything else and is more expensive money wise, may just swap it. Thanks a ton for the help!

Ok, to be honest I just dont understand this approach.
You already own the landraider.
You've stated that your not playing on the tournament lv.
You've stated that you like the landraider.

So why not paint it up for the SW & play it?

Whats the worst that'll happen? You'll play something thats not the best choice but that you LIKE? You may lose a game at the local shop? (hey. If that happens look at it this way: youve got a convenient excuse. "Well I'd have done better/won if I hadn't used the LR....)
And you don't have to use it every game, every week.

Nobody likes to loose. Even at the “fun” level. I get wanting to check on units, especially ones with bad reputations. And the LR has had a checkered past for most of it’s life.

Almost everything in the marine book does it’s job. You look at the LR and ask "Does it blow up tanks?” Point it’s Godhammers at something and you will see. Against a lot of targets, it just does fine. Sure it has bad match-ups, but so does everything. Is it tough? It’s not bad. Pile of T8 wounds with a 2+ save. Sure, it will melt to dedicated firepower, but that can be said about most everything these days. Will it keep the small arms fire off the cargo and get them across the table? Yup. For the most part it delivers on the promises it makes.

Does it pay a reasonable amount of point for all this? Here is were we switch from effectiveness to efficiency. But there is space in lists for fun. You might need to tighten up your list in other places to compensate, and try not to take too many “bad” units at once.

If you like it, use it. You will do fine. But support it. It’s a lot of eggs in one basket. Use armor saturation to your advantage. Give your opponent a choice. He can blow up the LR, or the razor, or a rhino full of something mean, or bjorn/murderfang, or some other hard target that’s about to wreck his world. He’s not going to be able to get them all. Then punish him for his choice. It’s not like there was a right answer, he just gets to choose the form of his destruction.

One use for the cargo in a phobos LR is a counter charge unit. You sit back and reach across the table with coherent beams of death, while the boys inside chill and have a brew. Someone gets close, you hop out and intercept them. It helps keep them alive for when they are needed late game, to keep people’s grubby hands off the bumper, and go grab objectives and stuff. Against very fast lists, or heavy DS, you might need to start them outside as an additional screen. But that’s OK. Just because you have the cargo space doesn’t mean you need to use it every game. That’s one of the perks with flexible units. They can do a lot of things, so look at each game and see what you need to use for that one.

LR crusader, razorbacks and Storwolf/Storfang are always in when I play SW. The crusader might be worse in 9th if hordes become less frequent, and I wouldn't recommend the other two types of LR. Rhinos are also decent in SW armies.

 Blackie wrote:
LR crusader, razorbacks and Storwolf/Storfang are always in when I play SW. The crusader might be worse in 9th if hordes become less frequent, and I wouldn't recommend the other two types of LR. Rhinos are also decent in SW armies.

As someone who plays spacewolves do you think an impulsor/repulsor is worth it to transport the primaris marines, or do they not need it and I should keep the LR (i have the start collecting primaris, and im probably adding 5 hellblasters and 5 infiltrators. On the non primaris I have 5 wulfen, Njal, 10 bloodclaws/greyhunters (this one is NIB so could build either way) and WG terminators. I also have a stormfang/stormwolf I could use for transport (working on magnetizing it.) I have a second predator that is missing pieces so I could convert that into a second razorback or rhino.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Nevelon wrote:

ccs wrote:

guacamole_s wrote:
I'm definitely in the FLGS and basementhammer level, nowhere near competitive but I don't want to use blatantly bad stuff. I do like the look and lore of the LR but it seems worse than everything else and is more expensive money wise, may just swap it. Thanks a ton for the help!

Ok, to be honest I just dont understand this approach.
You already own the landraider.
You've stated that your not playing on the tournament lv.
You've stated that you like the landraider.

So why not paint it up for the SW & play it?

Whats the worst that'll happen? You'll play something thats not the best choice but that you LIKE? You may lose a game at the local shop? (hey. If that happens look at it this way: youve got a convenient excuse. "Well I'd have done better/won if I hadn't used the LR....)
And you don't have to use it every game, every week.

Nobody likes to loose. Even at the “fun” level. I get wanting to check on units, especially ones with bad reputations. And the LR has had a checkered past for most of it’s life.

Almost everything in the marine book does it’s job. You look at the LR and ask "Does it blow up tanks?” Point it’s Godhammers at something and you will see. Against a lot of targets, it just does fine. Sure it has bad match-ups, but so does everything. Is it tough? It’s not bad. Pile of T8 wounds with a 2+ save. Sure, it will melt to dedicated firepower, but that can be said about most everything these days. Will it keep the small arms fire off the cargo and get them across the table? Yup. For the most part it delivers on the promises it makes.

Does it pay a reasonable amount of point for all this? Here is were we switch from effectiveness to efficiency. But there is space in lists for fun. You might need to tighten up your list in other places to compensate, and try not to take too many “bad” units at once.

If you like it, use it. You will do fine. But support it. It’s a lot of eggs in one basket. Use armor saturation to your advantage. Give your opponent a choice. He can blow up the LR, or the razor, or a rhino full of something mean, or bjorn/murderfang, or some other hard target that’s about to wreck his world. He’s not going to be able to get them all. Then punish him for his choice. It’s not like there was a right answer, he just gets to choose the form of his destruction.

One use for the cargo in a phobos LR is a counter charge unit. You sit back and reach across the table with coherent beams of death, while the boys inside chill and have a brew. Someone gets close, you hop out and intercept them. It helps keep them alive for when they are needed late game, to keep people’s grubby hands off the bumper, and go grab objectives and stuff. Against very fast lists, or heavy DS, you might need to start them outside as an additional screen. But that’s OK. Just because you have the cargo space doesn’t mean you need to use it every game. That’s one of the perks with flexible units. They can do a lot of things, so look at each game and see what you need to use for that one.

So much advice online revolves around the most competitive and optimal stuff and tends to be super overwhelming, and in my experience a lot of new player advice is typically get a start collecting box and some HQs and you're good. I'm kind of in an awkward situation because I got the UM, SW and a good chunk of the IF armies basically whole (from the same dude who gave me the vehicles) and I haven't been able to play them due to covid so I don't really have much experience with these armies or how to build them so I end up following a lot of the competitive advice, which pretty much all say LR's are not great. I like the model, but i'm not married to it and I might just be happier swapping it in for a different vehicle that is "good". I know that at my skill level the tools are not the limiting factor and what works competitively does not always work casually, but I may be happier thinking about having a subpar and eventually outdated unit as a centerpiece of my force. I would like to say a big thanks to you guys for a ton of advice, this thread has been very helpful!