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Hello 40k professionals. I would like criticism on my list, I have only played 1 game with it so far.

Pedro Kantor

1 squad of 5 Terminators SB/PF

1 Ironclad dreadnaught HF/meltagun/Siesmic Hammer

3 squads of 10 Tactical Marines
2 - flamer/ML
1 - plasma gun/ plasma cannon

1 squad of 5 scouts Sniper Rifles

1 squad of 5 sternguard with 1 multimelta and 4 boltguns

Tactics-wise, I hold the line and try to kill any vehicles with dreadnaught and multi-melta.

Let me know what you think, I believe the list was 1250 even. Also, i dont understand the point of combat squads. What are the benefits and what are the negatives?

Combat squadding lets your heavy weapon sit back and fire at full effect (while securing a home objective), while the flamer moves forward to roast stuff at close range. I also allows a 10 man sternguard to come down in a pod, have half the squad pop a LR with combi-meltas, and the other half kill the terminators inside with combi-plasma. There are tricks you can do with it, but it is not required to make an effective army. I rarely use it myself.

As to your list. You are a bit troop heavy for the point scale. The general rule of thumb is 1 solid troop pick for every 500 points. With Kantor making the sternguard scoring, you even have an extra. I would drop one of the ML/F tac squads to pay for extras.

Kantor really shines when you have a lot of sternguard. With only 1, he's a little overpriced. I'd either replace him with another HQ, or add more sternguard. Or keep him if you like him, he is a nice guy.

Add a AC or CML to your terminators. They add a chunk of firepower to the squad.

Your dread wants a drop pod so he can kill things faster. Barring that it might be worth giving him a pair of HKs to help with the AV. If you just want a dread to shore up a gun line, I like the assault cannon/ DCCW(SB) for that job.

I'd get a rhino or two for your tacs. At least one to help seize objectives. A razorback would not be a bad choice for the plasma squad. It would let the cannon sit back and cover your advance.

Sniper scouts are good objective campers. You have a lot of those in this list, but they do the job well.

I'm not a fan of anything that take the special ammo away from sternguard (except maybe HFs) I'd buy these guys a drop pod or a razorback. You want to keep them in rapid fire for as much of the game as you can. As the are a scoring unit with Kantor, you should use them to move forward, clear and claim an objective. Splash a few c-meltas on the squad if you want to use them for anti-tank fire. If you can make the squad larger, or add some more, that'd be good.

If you have the spare elite slot, a 5 man stick of sternguard with a pair of heavy weapons makes for a good faux-devestator squad. Scoring in a Kantor list as well.

The TL;DR summery: Drop a tac squad, get some rides, more sternguard.

I deffinately like the idea of drop podding a 10man strong group of sternguard into the enemies like. I would combat squad 2 heavy flamers and 2 combi-flamers and a PF seargent, with another group of 5 combi-meltas. Drop in, Flame whatever, then melta any scary vehicle they have. Is this tactic sound or is it a huge waste of points?

 TheV0791 wrote:
I deffinately like the idea of drop podding a 10man strong group of sternguard into the enemies like. I would combat squad 2 heavy flamers and 2 combi-flamers and a PF seargent, with another group of 5 combi-meltas. Drop in, Flame whatever, then melta any scary vehicle they have. Is this tactic sound or is it a huge waste of points?

It should work, but depends on what your opponent is fielding and how they deploy. You are basically looking at a 300-400 point suicide unit. Best case, you land next to a land raider full of terminators. Pop the LR (250+ points) and vaporize the contents (200-300 points) You are past the break even point. But now your opponent has to dedicate the firepower to kill the sternguard, and possibly the pod they came in on. That's fire not going into the rest of your army. But if they don't have any nice, big, juicy targets, you might not be able to get your points back. But then again, you don't need to drop into the teeth of your foe. A more conservative midfield drop is safer, but lacks the punch of an aggressive drop.

Another thing to consider is to field odd numbers of pod for maximum effect. Drop the sternguard and the ironclad in close proximity first turn. They can help support each other. The third pod has a tac squad waiting for a late game objective grab. And don't forget that you can change around which ones drop first once you see what your opponent has in store. It might be worth it to keep the sternguard to respond to what he has in reserve.

 TheV0791 wrote:
I deffinately like the idea of drop podding a 10man strong group of sternguard into the enemies like. I would combat squad 2 heavy flamers and 2 combi-flamers and a PF seargent, with another group of 5 combi-meltas. Drop in, Flame whatever, then melta any scary vehicle they have. Is this tactic sound or is it a huge waste of points?

I run a dirty VUlkan list that has a 10 man stern guard in a pod with 5 CM and 2 Melta guns. I combat squad if needed to pop multi heavies. you have Vulkan with the heavy flamer so you can use him for squishies aswell. In a Kantor list it would essential work the same (- the reroll on meltas) I would scrap a Meltagun and get a Heavy Flamer cause you wont have vulkan. Dont forget you are dropping behind tanks which is juicy rear armour hits even the basic rapid fire on the other 3 marines is gonna have good odds ripping hull points AV10. Assault 4 dorns arrow + 3 extra troops rapid fire is 10 shots on rear armour 10 decent odds to strip that last hull point.

Can't go wrong with a pumped up sternguard you dont even have to go super aggressive if you dont want just pod on an objective and area deny aswell. you will have the firepower!

Forgot to add this earlier try to use 1 troop for every 500 points. for 1250 there is a crap load of troops there!

one basic list i used at 1500 with vulka that works really well.

Vulkan
Sternguard in pod 5xcm 2xmelta (Pod down first Clear and objective area)
Dreadnought MM HF Pod (Pod down first support and clear objective area)
Dreadnought MM HF Pod (Support forward troops or last ditch close objective)
Tactical Rhino MM F CM PF (Press onto Objective)
Tactical Rhino MM F CM PF (press aswell or support home objectives)
Tactical MM F PF (stay at home objectives)

use your pods to block lanes on enemy vehicles to objectives aswll unless they blow them up the cant drive through them.

If you're going for a firing line, Get some Heavy support
I'd follow the advice above with one caveat, get a TFC.

At 1250 pts a devastator squad is just too expensive, but if you camp the TFC in some ruins He'll deal out the pain and ensure that one of your scout squads has a better cover save to boot.

I'd personally drop the terminators for more sternguard with pedro. If you put a pod on a tac squad, and pods on the sternguard squads they will both drop first round an absolutely pwn their area/objective. Send Pedro with them and tool them up with the appropriate combi weps and you have a mid-range death-star. Sternguard are base attack 2, so if charged and withing 6" of Pedro they get base 3Atk due to his special rule. Seeing as how you're enemy will be taking overwatch fire with special ammo to the face on the way in, you should be fine, especially if you use you're 6" deployment move from the pod to get them in cover. Have the Sgt accept any challenges, and have Pedro wreck the opposing squad with his fist for maximum carnage.

You should have the points if you drop a tac squad and the termies, as two tac squads on the firing line should be enough.

Here's what I came up with for 1250

HQ:

Pedro

Elite:

10 Man Sternguard
4x combi-weps (you're choice), Sgt with combi-wep and power sword, Drop Pod

5 Man Sternguard
4x combi-wep (you're choice), Sgt with combi-wep and powersword, Drop Pod

Troops:

5 Man Scout Squad
3x Sniper, ML, Sgt with Sniper

(2x) 10 Man Tac Squad
Flamer, ML, Bare Bones Sgt

Heavy:

TFC

You've got 5 scorring units in here ,a massive amount of fire power, and can customize your combi-wep load outs as needed for the enemy you're playing.

If you go up to 1500, get an ADL with Quad gun, upgrade Scout Sgt to Telion and man the Quadgun, then add more men to the Second Stern-guard Squad , a Drop pod to one of the tac squads (to get both stern dropping on round one), or another TFC.

Hope that Helps

I came up with a new list, using some suggestions. And a few modifications of my own.

Pedro

Tac squad (10 man)
Flamer/ Lascannon/ Combiflamer/ Drop Pod

Scout Squad (5 man)
4 Sniper Rifles/ Heavy Bolter/ 5 Camo Cloaks

Vindicator
Siege Shield

Ironclad Dreadnoght
Heavy Flamer/ Ironclad Assault Launchers/ Drop Pod

Sternguard (10 man)
2 Heavy Flamers/ 5 Combimeltas/ Drop Pod with Deathwind Missile Launchers

Sternguard (10 man)
2 Combimeltas/ 3 Combiflamers/ 2 Plasma Cannons/ Rhino (bare)

And that is 1500 points. Let me know what you guys think. I was looking at the TFC and I like it a lot, but I didnt see where it would fit.

With Kantor, the TFC is a bit o fa stretch. It looks pretty good, you are just gonna have to be watchful of enemy armor. The PCannons are ok, but you may want to trade one out for a Las and one for a HB. Why risk a Gets Hot roll with 2 weapons, when you can get similar results without it.

I just love the idea of having 2 plasma cannons dropping 2 blast templates of anti Meq goodness from the safety of the rhino hull

Don't believe you can fire heavy weapons from the hatch, can you?

I looked over the rules, and all i could find was that if the vehicle moves, the units inside count as moving. So if i move the rhino, i would fire with 2 boltguns. But the plan is to drop 1 combat squad on an objective, then shield with the rhino firing the heavy weapons. What do you think?

You CAN fire the heavy weapons, BUT getting that damn gets hot sucks and with blast weapons you gotta roll well for them to be effective. nothing sucks more than rolling a miss, arrow leading into one of your own troops and killing them, OR a botched GH roll.

Plasma Cannons are totally worth it if you are playing against other MEQs though... My first game of 6th was with the new DV set (I was playing DA) and on my first turn, I took out the ENTIRE chosen squad in one shot due to them being all bunched up to get through a terrain chokepoint

That is a great thing, but remember the marines excel at taking all comers, and plasma have a habit of betraying you at a critical junction. Look at the battle rep for the Thousand Sons vs Imperial Fists that was recently posted. The Fists lost 3 or 4 guys to GH. That risk is just not worth it to me. I know everyone loves AP, but think on this: If I fire a Plas Cannon into your MEQs, I roll #1 drift dice, #2 distance dice, #3 WOUND dice, and #4 GH dice, and no armor saves. If I shoot the same unit with a HB, #1,2,and 3 are all hit dice, #4,5, and hopefully 6 are all wounds at 3+, but a: no gets hot, and b:yeah he gets armor, but anything else like IG Ork or Faildar wont. I'd rather err on the side of caution. With vehicles now having to roll GH as well, Plasma is quickly losing its good sides to the negative. Mebbe new DA rules will help it back to being more useful, but as a rule, (in the Army and in life, game or otherwise) if it can kill you as easy as an enemy, I'd rather go elsewhere. Why risk a jam with the M16 when my AK never does is the best example.