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I'm nearing completion of the marine force I have, which was bought to be played in friendly games at about 1500 points, I'm thinking of expanding to 1850 to play in some local tournaments and I was wondering what you guys thought of this list.  Basically all that it requires from me is to buy two more PVC pods and 2 more Dreads and I have everything I need.

I've never played in a tournement before so I'm sure I have a lot ot learn about playing in that kind of situation, but I'm building this list to be pretty tough as well as a take on all "tournament comers" list.

Traits: Cleanse and Purify
Disadvantage: Without Allies

HQ
Epistolary - Terminator Armor, Fury, Fear, Storm Bolter - 159 Points
Terminator Command Squad - 4 Terminators, 2 Assault Cannons - 200 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Elites
Dread - Extra Armor, Storm Bolter, Tank Hunters - 120 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Dread - Extra Armor, Storm Bolter, Tank Hunters - 120 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Dread - Extra Armor, Storm Bolter, Tank Hunters - 120 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Troops
Tactical Squad - 10 Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Vet with Power Fist - 205 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Tactical Squad - 10 Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Vet with Power Fist - 205 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Tactical Squad - 10 Marines, 2 Plasmaguns, Vet with Power Fist - 205 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Tactical Squad - 10 Marines, 2 Flamers, Vet with Power Fist - 196 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Fast Attack
Land Speeder Tornado - 80 Points

Comments would be appreciated, as well as any advice.  This is very close to my normal drop pod Marine list at 1500 points that I use for friendly play, just this one has a lot more assault cannons.

The Dreads have tankhunters to help against AV12 skimmers.

Drop all of the tac squads to 8. That frees up 120 points.

Buy another tornado and heavy flamers for all the dreads. I'm sure you recall just how painful a heavy flamer that you get to drop where you want can be

The problem with a power armor focused drop list is that you have late game range problems. That's just something you'll have to consider and adjust for.

If you want a test game against any of the armies I field (or me running your orks), you know how to track me down.

I am interested in how a pod army works. Are massive Dread. drops that useful?

I can only speak for dreads in my army, which is terminator heavy.

I drop them in places where they'll have very limited exposure to fire (thank you LOS blocking pods!) and against things that I know I'll want to flame and then charge. I'll often suicide them in against things that my terminators really hate, hoping they last just long enough to keep the terminators alive.

They are not MVPs by any means, but they are the rock to someone's scissors often enough, and are cheap enough that I get alot of use from them.

I was under the impression that a dread had to be venerable to take tank hunters? And if you take the 3 dread trait, non ven-dreads would have to be heavy support, correct?

That's correct. I missed that.

And it's not cost effective to take tank hunter on a dread. Take it on terminators where you get it on two assault cannons for less points.

But venerable is always worth it.

Thanks for the information Mauleed!

I appreciate the comments and for pointing out the list was illegal. DOH!

I've taken some of the advice and instead of 3 Dreads I'm opting for a second squad of terminators and one dread.  None of the dreads have tank hunters or Heavy Flamers only because I don't have the points, I feel bad enough going down to 8 Man Squads but it does bring a lot more firepower to the table without sacrificing much staying power.  I could drop one flamer from the Tac squad and put it on a dread, but I figure that the dreads job will be to sit back and provide me ranged assault cannon support while the tac squads do the up close thing.

HQ
Epistolary - Terminator Armor, Fury, Fear, Storm Bolter - 159 Points
Terminator Command Squad - 4 Terminators, 2 Assault Cannons, Tank Hunters - 215 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Elites
Dread - Extra Armor, Storm Bolter, Venerable - 130 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Dread - Extra Armor, Storm Bolter - 110 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Terminator Squad - 5 Terminators, 2 Assault Cannons, Tank Hunters - 255 Points

Troops
Tactical Squad - 8 Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Vet with Power Fist - 175 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Tactical Squad - 8 Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Vet with Power Fist - 175 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Tactical Squad - 8 Marines, 2 Plasmaguns, Vet with Power Fist - 175 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Tactical Squad - 8 Marines, 2 Flamers, Vet with Power Fist - 166 Points
-Drop Pod Transport - 30 Points

Fast Attack
Land Speeder Tornado - 80 Points

And BTW, I appreciate the offer Ed, but it'll take me at least another month to get the army "done" and I'm a little loathe to go play outside my circle of friends without painted stuff it's kind of embarrassing to play new people with nicely painted armies and my unfinished army looks terrible in comparison. I would like to take you up on the offer though, I'm not used to playing with lists like this and I'm sure there's a lot I need to learn about tourny play.  Hell I need to learn when/where the tournies are in our area!

Any more comments would be appreciated.

but I figure that the dreads job will be to sit back and provide me ranged assault cannon support while the tac squads do the up close thing

And you would be mistaken. If you just want ranged assault cannon support, dump both dreads and buy another terminator squad. It'll be much better in that roll. Dreads are up close and personal units in this sort of list. But play it out and see what I mean. Just remember, you can't shake a terminator.

As for local tournaments, you should check out these two boards:

The TFG club board (which is the closed Rogue's Den board):

http://www.roguesden.com/phpBB2/

Fat Cat Comics runs monthly fantasy and 40k tournaments. The locals there are very middle of the road in skill and army lists. It's an hour from the Cherry Hill store, but worth the drive.

http://www.fatcatcomics.biz/index.html

Well I can drop the one Venerable Dread down to a normal one and using the points to give them both Heavy Flamers. I know venerable is always worth it though, but I'm not sure where I'd get the extra 20 points from.

The reason I was figuring the Asssault Cannon toting units would be the "stand back and shoot constantly" was to provide me with ranged support while forcing my opponent into dealing with the tactical squads who would be upclose by definition to do what they need to.

Thanks for the links I'll save em for when I'm ready to start coming around to play and my armies are done (I've also got 1850 KoS that I'm finishing up, but I doubt it'll be as effective as pods). A couple of my friends from the group I play with may be interested too and I'll pass the info on.

The more the merrier. We could use some new blood.

I would bump the terminator command squad up to full size.

Posted By Green Bloater on 07/26/2006 10:33 AM
I would bump the terminator command squad up to full size.

Why?

Oops! I meant to say take five terminators as the retinue for the Librarian and deep strike them. A six man squad of terminators is harder for the opponent to drop below 50 percent. I usually take one scout squad with a teleport homer. The points saved losing the drop pod helps pay for the extra terminator. My apology for the confusion.

Remember the IC and retinue are scored separately. So 5+1 isn't the magic "6" where you'd have to kill 4. It's just 5+1, which scores the same as 4+1.

And when you have a librarian with fear, the pod is practically mandatory, so you can drop in as close as you like.