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So I have some birthday cash to blow, and want to get a new Codex. I've never run my Space Marines before, and bought an army (still building it) based on the 5th ed codex. It consists of Termy Librarian, Terminators, Drop Pods with locator beacons for mostly risk free GoI movement, Land Speeders with HF's & MM's, tac squads, and missile launcher devastators. If I go for a SM codex, I'm strongly tempted by a squad of Sternguard OR HB totting centurions taking the IF chapter trait for re-rolls on bolter weapons.

My alternative is an army of the dead style Eldar allies force for my Dark Eldar, which itself usually consists of warriors and warriors and warriors and trueborn and a few other bits all in venoms.

I can only buy one though, so which do you recommend? Which is most fun, and which will help me the most?

Thanks for your opinions!

You already have the models, so why not bring your marines up to date? Then you are ready to go without any further costs.
I would advise against Codex DA. Th fluff is pretty mediocre/boring and there is so much less versatility in there than in the new SM codex.

Cool, between the two I think that's what I'd go for purely due to the SM codex being newer and allowing for a little more versatility, though not knowing the DA at all I threw them in in case I was missing anything special!

DA are actually a good, solid choice if you like Terminators. And I guess the fluff is a matter of taste since I like their fluff very much, whereas most chapters from C:SM have a boring and lame fluff (Ultramarines, ugh....).

But overall, regular Marines are stromger choice now, having the Grav-guns and lot's of bikes running (without expensive and ineffective character).

Take them. They are versatile as you can choose from their different Chapter Tactics, according to what you like

You've already got lotsa stuff, going with SM sounds like your best first bet, unless you gotta run only terminators and/or bikes with special tricks, win which case use DA.

DE however should probably be your 2nd purchase after you're comfortable with the game. They are a tricky, but excellent, army.

Well, if you have a Space Marine army, you could buy all the power armour codices and turn your one army into potentially 3!

Seriously though, having C: DA, C: BA, and C:SM means you can run any army list you want or use allies as you want while only playing for one army with a few special units or cool conversions.

I would go with Codex Space Marines. It is a really well done codex with a lot of versatility.

Space marines are really a fantastic army, I'd go for it.

Space marines should already be your choice based on the posts in this threat but I'll add something a little different.

Resale. The SM secondary market is HUGE compared to other armies. There are just so many more SM players than anything else it makes finding bits/tanks/whatever so much easier.

The codex is new, you can't expect any changes other than supplements which you can choose to use or not. (awesome)

And to be frank it's quite competitive if you want to go that route. Really flexible.

SM has always been one of the best armies to pick up and start for TONS of reasons. A few of those reasons are enhanced currently so go for it!

Thanks guys, that's cemented what I was strongly considering!

@juraigamer - DE were my first army when I got back in to the hobby in 5th ed, I was considering buffing their weaknesses with eldar allies, just to clarify

Space marines were perhaps the most versatile army in 5th ed and it seems the trend continues.
Tons of different builds and strategies to explore, unless you feel a bit WAA of course

I guess that's no surprise with their flagship product! If only all races could get the same treatment

i put my vote into eldar. they are a fun and greatly competitive list, especially when allied with dark eldar.

 kitch102 wrote:
DE were my first army when I got back in to the hobby in 5th ed, I was considering buffing their weaknesses with eldar allies, just to clarify

Ha ha well DE have a weakness, it's called being a glass cannon. They don't really need eldar allies, because the only real reason to take them would by anti-psyker, which disappeared with the new book.

For reference, something I run for DE at 2k is:


It does very well. I just ignore fliers. Key here is getting out of the transports on turn 2 so the explosions don't kill more guys.

If you like your DE, just make sure you get a good idea what you want and how you want it to work. They do quite well in the current enviorment, and can always take a firestorm redoubt for AA if they really, really need it.

@jurai, what's bite? My minds gone blank and no dex to hand!

My main reason for wanting eldar allies was simply to take wrath guard, wraith knights amd wraith everything else lol, more a fluff reason, I like the idea of my kabal raising and corrupting the dead for their own enjoyment cool models is the next reason, gaming buffs were actually pretty low on the priority list

Took the plunge though and got codex sm in the end, my god how heavy is that thing?! Love it though, wonderful book

 kitch102 wrote:
I guess that's no surprise with their flagship product! If only all races could get the same treatment

Couldn't agree more!