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I am fairly new to 40k and have been slowly building my SM army. I'm up to about 1300pts, mostly infantry; the only armor I have is a single rhino and two speeders (if you can really call that armor). I am entertaining the idea of collecting some armor for my force.

My army is mid range infantry shooting at the moment, with Tacs/Sterns/Tac Terms/Devs/Librarian/Captain/Assault Marines/Scouts/Typhoon Speeders. I can change around heavy/special weapons to make my infantry better vs armor or infantry as needed.
I want my armor to be complementary to my force and not the main attraction. Between Vindicators, Predators, Dreads, and TFC's. Which would be most effective in a footslogging infantry based force, without drawing so much attention that they get slagged first turn. Or maybe having them be fire magnets would help my infantry survive long enough to get the job done.

I know this is a pretty vague question, but what are some general tips/theories/strategies a rookie player should keep in mind about putting armor in their list?
Dreads w/ LC/ML or Rifleman? Double Vindi's advancing behind an infantry line. Double Preds sitting at 36inches and firing away?

Based on your experience playing as SM or against SM; is it all about finding the balance in the list, or are there some things that just tend to work while other things tend to fail?

Hi

I personally find that in this edition dreadnoughts fly under the radar on most players because of the HP and for me that is a good thing , a ML dread is ok against hordes/light vehicles and do not tend to miss much ,the Rifleman is a solid midfield treat to most infantry and Light vehicles , the 2 versions do the same thing at different ranges .
This being said go with a 85 points predator those thing rock , the damage that they do against non Power armoured enemies is very good. The Vindicator is a priority target with sort range and the TFC is just a glass cannon.

Ironclads with drop-pods can be cool......I really enjoy seeing how much carnage a couple of them can wreak before being destroyed lol

Lovepug13 wrote:
Ironclads with drop-pods can be cool......I really enjoy seeing how much carnage a couple of them can wreak before being destroyed lol

FW assault drop pods

The TFC comes with a techmarine to bolster ruins. That will help a foot slogging army. But it only does one thing well, and that is blow chunks out of horde armies. Something like a predator or a dreadnought can vary it's weapon load to take on any target you need to kill.

I'm a big fan of the auto/las pred, I find they fill a nice niche in my lists (long range anti-tank) The auto/HB "dakka" preds do an excellent job thinning out hordes, but I normally rely on massed bolter fire for that. The TLLC turret is massively overpriced IMHO.

I don't own a vindicator, but on paper they are rather nice. You have to respect the pie plate of doom. Not quite as flexible as an auto/las, but what it does, it does REALY well.

I'd also like to give a mention to the whirlwind. While it generally gets a bad rap, it is cheap, and the new wound allocation rules make barrage weapons the ultimate sniper's tool.

Dreads I like to have acting like a big brother in an advancing gunline. Assault cannon/DCCW(SB) walking up next to the tacs. I used to field them more as a gun platform (TLLC/ML) but find I do this a lot less now that I have 2 typhoon speeders and a pred. I like to keep dreads as flexible troubleshooters.

Ironclads are an excellent suicide drop pick. I keep thinking of fielding one with the hurricane bolter and a pair of HKs, acting like a big, armored, tac squad, but never get around to it.

Dreadnought always work. Ironclads in pods, venerables and normal dreads in and/or out of pods, predators for either anti-infantry or anti-tank, razorbacks supporting whatever, storm talons make excellent and cheap anti-tank gunboats with lascannons, land speeders can do either anti-tank or anti-anything light tank or less.

There's lots of options. It's all about how your list is setup and what you need. Razorbacks with lascannons keep them safe, but if you don't need lascannons, assault cannons work too.

 Nevelon wrote:
The TFC comes with a techmarine to bolster ruins. That will help a foot slogging army. But it only does one thing well, and that is blow chunks out of horde armies. .

Incorrect. A TFC deals with anything except fliers. Troops, MC's, Light tanks, it doesn't matter. If you don't have a round, put the enemy LR in terrain.

As a BA player, I am of two thoughts about SM armor. It's not fast like mine, but its cheaper. This makes it better for static strategies, but inferior for mobility based strategies.

For the elite slot, the rifleman dread is the best armored choice. It gets 4 S7 shots twin linked out to 48". This can punish everything from rhinos to demon princes. In fact, I am building smurf allies and this will be my elite choice!

The heavy section has a lot of possibilities. I like unit specialization, so I'm a fan of the cheap thunderfire. Ignores cover is a nice option. It can blast hordes and light vehicles and the S6 round can torrent meqs. If your target has cover, this thing is better than a plasma cannon devastator squad, since it never gets hot. I like the whirlwind for the same reason, its specialized and cheap. They both can do nasty things to turbo boosting jet bikes with no cover save ammo.

I would avoid devastators; they are static and can't take the almighty autocannon like their havoc cousins. They don't even get the discount that my BA do, and I never use BA devastators either. Devastators have no ignore cover options and vanilla libbies can't even get divination, so be static really sucks for them.

Predators are solid, but I can see where some wouldn't like them. The non-fast predator is considerably more limited than the fast version, but the auto/las configuration still has a lot of utility. It can park in one spot and present its AV 13 front to targets and wail away from 48".

Vindicators are nice too. But their range of 24" has a tendency to get them shot on their AV 11 sides starting about turn 2 or 3. This makes the shelf life of this kinda pricey tank quite low. Plus, everyone hates it. I'll use these things, but I don't like them as much as auto/las due to lack of staying power. And targets of course, still get cover vs the template of doom.

Land raiders. Got assault terminators? Get one. If not, skip them. Pretty easy. If you have shooty terminators, its probably more point efficient to teleport them in with teleport homer, since they can do their thing after deep striking.

Sorry; I forgot fast attack. For this slot, I really prefer attack bikes to the flimsy AV 10 speeders. I'm partial though, because I can give them FNP. For vanilla, its a bit closer. But there is no chance of say a melta kiling an attack bike in one shot. There is that chance for speeders. They both get jink and MM. I guess speeder can have two MM, but that's getting expensive for an AV 10 2 HP vehicle. Oh, and attack bikes can punch people in the face and not get krak grenaded. I don't like the SM "armor" in the fast attack slot. But if you want to take it, I'm not gonna say its the worst idea ever. Sometimes skimming is better than having a bike.

Thanks for the replies. I like the idea of dreads even though many people seem to think they aren't competitive. Vindicators seem bad A, but less versatile than the Auto/Las Pred.

I'd like to have some sort of firebase to sit back and shoot long range or camp objectives, while having the rest of my force move up and take objectives or take the fight into rapid fire range. Right now I use Scouts/devs/tac combat squad to sit back and hold objectives/shoot, and stern, tacs, capt, and assault squad to move up and take objectives/kill, Tac Terms DS or march up as the situation demands, typhoon speeders shoot and scoot at range.

Seems like some armor would give opponents some target priority issues. I can see a dread walking up with the forward element for a fire magnet and to provide cover, or maybe podding in an Ironclad w/ a teleport homer to give the Tac Terms something to drop in on. Two vindicators following the troops could draw fire and help smash the enemy line wherever we meet. Or two Predators could sit back w/ the objective campers and shoot away.

Anyone use similar tactics or fight against anyone who does?

Dreads need a drop pod or need to shoot. Foot slogging doesn't work unless you spam ala chaos dreads in 5th.