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So, I've got 10 mkIII marines built with bolters, sergeant has a power sword (challenges) and my AoD box should arrive today or tomorrow.

I can't pick up the liber Astartes until my box arrives (I live in a basement flat and whoever delivers it will likely cock it up if I'm not in) and I wanted to ask for advice on how to build my new guys.

I've got two sets of the cataphractii storm shields in my basket on fw, are they worth it past looking cool? I was thinking of running two 20 man tac squads, with the other 10 marines should I run support squad or heavy weapon?


Basically I haven't played heresy since calth was released, and even back thenm my death guartd lists always got demolished, so I'm not great at list building. I don't want to waac, but it's also no fun ALWAYS losing.

Play to your Legions strengths.
-Fists are in a unique (I think) position in that they can take storm shields for their termies. This has the potential to make a Pride of the Legion list really strong. A unit with 2+/3++ is going to be hard to shift off an objective. Also lets you take the classic hammer/shield combo which is good for putting the smackdown on lots of different units. Brutal 2 means you'd be killing most things with one hit and even striking at Initiative 1 isn't too much of an issue since you have the 3++ save that'll see you get there. Add on the fact the AoD box comes with a spartan and you've got a reasonably threatening, if not expensive, hunter unit. Go a step further and add a melee consul of some sort and watch heads roll.
Personally, i'd be getting the shields. Both for thematic and game reasons.

-Depending on what point level you're playing at then yes, 2 lots of 20 man tac squads is fairly standard and a good start, but you might be able to get away with 2 squads of 15. Throw on an apothecary and plonk them on an objective and you'll have a unit that can take a hit and dish it back out in return thanks too Discipline and Resolve. Fury of the Legion will be your best friend here.

-For the other 10 marines, see what your list lacks and fill the gap. A plasma support squad is a solid choice. Not as effective as they were in 1.0 rules, but still a damn good weapon option. Volkite is another reasonable choice for throwing a lot of shots down range. Assault 2 and Deflagrate gives even a small squad the potential to put a lot of hurt on multi wound or larger squads.
You can access assault cannons. Although for the additional 10 points, i'm not sure how useful they are when compared to Autocannons or Heavy Bolters (especially now that HB's have 4 shots). And you can't go wrong with lascannons for some dedicated anti armour.



Also, in regards to the MkIII squad. On a bog standard marine sergeant, I'd think the power axe would be a better choice for challenges. Anything he's likely to come up against in a challenge is almost certainly going to have 2+ save. Even other tactical sergeants are probably going to have artificer armour. The powersword is fine for striking at initiative, but I'd personally take the chance of striking last and dying to get the bonus to killing my opponent, especially given the fact that lots of characters are also going to have hammers/fists/axes for this exact same reason and will be strike at I1 anyway. If you've got the points spare, a Solarite Gauntlet would be a better choice again.

That works perfectly for me, as I ordered the shields anyway as they looked cool. I would have also ordered the cataphractii praetor but it was out of stock.

I was thinking probably two squads of 15 tac marines, then I'd have 20 models to make into a support squad and a heavy weapons squad.

As for the sergeant, I'll probably stick with the sword for now to save me trying to find a power axe and breaking his hand off to fit it (I've already started painting the mkIII guys)

Also worth looking into are the Solo rite Gauntlets that can be used in replacement of normal power fists/thunder hammers, and are quite cheap (+10 on Fists, direct swap for thunder hammers.)

They be S10 AP1 and can pull double duty for both challenges (especially T5 ones) and the extra S and AP helps a lot for beating vehicles to death.