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So I'm thinking of getting the Space Marine Strikeforce, since I've always loved the Marines and it'd be nice to start again after a long period of using Xenos armies. However, before I commit to buying anything, I'm hoping to hear how competitive an army you can make from the kit.

The Strikeforce contains:
- Commander
- Command Squad
- Razorback
- 2 Tactical Squads
- 1 Assault Squad
- 1 Scout Squad with Snipers
- Venerable Dreadnought
- Drop Pod

You get a pretty sizeable force with that, probably around 1000 points, maybe a bit more. First of all I'd have to consider the Chapter Tactics: I'm currently considering Red Scorpions (free Feel No Pain to Tactical Squads), or Ultramarines (since I'd like to go for the 2nd Edition look of blue/yellow).

When considering the force itself, it doesn't seem that bad. You have access to Grav Weapons in the Tac Squads, the addition of a Sternguard Squad gives Turn 1 AT potential when using the Drop Pod, and Scouts can hold back on an objective while assisting with their Snipers (granted, I know Snipers aren't actually that good, but it's better than Bolters when sitting in the back field).

So what's your opinion? Does this kit actually have some sort of competitive build in it, or will I just be wasting a fair bit of money?

I bought one and have loved it as a "cheap" entry point to the game. I actually own it, and the SM halves of the Assault on Black Reach and Dark Vengeance starters (chop wings off of random DAs and suddenly they're just more cheap C:SM), and between all of that I have had many fun games, and own a great foundation for future competitive lists.

You'll have a bunch of extra bits, meaning cobbling together your own Sternguard are a possibility, and even though people hate them, Dreadnaughts can be a lot of fun (and likewise drop-podded with multi-melta for AT)

I'm a big fan of that Strike-Force for new players, or newer collectors, and at 20% off via the internet resellers, its actually pretty value rich.

How competitive you looking to be? The strike force doesn’t help with bike builds, flyers, TFCs, etc. Most of the “must haves” for the more competitive builds from C:SM.

That said, you can build a TAC list out of this box for a friendly Saturday at your FLGS and give as good as you take. And it doesn’t take much added to it to round out your force.

Even before you get discounts from your vendor, this box is a bargain. Even if you don’t like 2-3 units in it, you still save money. As someone who already had a reasonably sized collection I still picked one up. If you can afford the price to buy in to marines at this level, I would recommend it.

With this in mind, here's a quick list I've come up with

Chapter Tactics: Red Scorpions (free Apothecary uprade for Tactical Squads

HQ
Chapter Master - 235pts
- Burning Blade
- Shield Eternal
- Artificier Armour

Command Squad - 165pts
- Apothecary
- 2x Storm Shields
- 2x Power Weapons

Elites
Dreadnought - 120pts
- 2x Autocannon

Troops
Tactical Squad - 180pts
- Apothecary
- Power Weapon
- 2x Grav Guns

Tactical Squad - 180pts
- Apothecary
- Power Weapon
- 2x Grav Guns

Scout Squad - 55pts
- 5x Sniper Rifles
(Red Scorpion Chapter Tactics prevent the use of Camo Cloaks)

Heavy Support
Devestator Squad - 130pts
- 4x Plasma Cannon

Hunter - 70pts



Any thoughts on this? It's nowhere near a competitive list but I feel it could hold against certain forces, although I might struggle against 13+ armour.

How WYSWYG do you play? I ask because this thread started as “what can I do with this box” and you sample list has a lot of upgrades and wargear not found in said box.

Tac squads can take one heavy, and one special; not double specials. And while grav guns rock on bikes and cents, I would not field them on a non-relentless or S&P platform.

You are entirely footslogging. If you are going to be basing this force off of the strikeforce, use the pod and the razor/rhino. Put the Captain/command squad in the pod, put him in the front to tank wounds, then charge. Chapter masters can’t take command squads, so he’ll need to take a demotion. On the bright side, the 40 points you save will buy you the pod.

You have no way of dealing with AV14, and rely on spamming S7 hits to deal with AV13. And you are not spamming enough to make that work. Anything pretending to be armor is just going to steamroll you. While not the best anti-armor, there are a few things in the strikeforce that can help:

TLLC on the dread and razorback
There should be 3 meltaguns, and 3 c-meltas total.
Powerfists, meltabombs.
2 MLs in the tac squads, one in the scouts

Once you straighten out the few illegal parts, I think your list would do OK against another starting, footslogging army. But the inability to deal with anything other then light armor is crippling, and the lack of mobility is going to hamper you when it comes to objectives.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just tossing together a ~1,250 WYSWYG list based just off of the strikeforce

Captain, command squad (apoth, plus extras)
-Drop pod

Ven dread, TLLC, DCCW(SB)

5 Man assault marines, 2xflamer, vet sarge w/sword, meltabombs

10 man tac, ML/Meltagun, c-melta on sarge
--TLLC razorback

10 man tac, ML/plasma, c-plas on sarge

5 man scout, 4 sniper, 1 ML, camo


How to kit out the captain and what toys to hand to the command squad is up to personal preference, but the way this list is set up you have around 200 points to do so. If you are worried about flyers, the 3 MLs can be upgraded to flack missiles, and the TLLCs have a chance of splashing a bird. 2 chances to roll a 6 might not be the best per shot, but few flyers enjoy getting hit with a lascannon. By trimming upgrades and wargear, you could probably fit this under 1k if you wanted to use everything, or just drop a unit.

Ah, wasn't aware of the illegal bits. Suppose that's the result of building a list while hungover. I'm not going to make the list solely with the contents of the Strikeforce, I'm hoping to use the kit as a starting point, and just add little bits here and there.

With that in mind, here's the revised list.

HQ
Captain - 195pts
- Burning Blade
- Shield Eternal
- Artificier Armour

Command Squad - 200pts
- Apothecary
- 2x Storm Shields
- 2x Power Weapons
- Drop Pod

Elites
Dreadnought - 120pts
- 2x Autocannon

Troops
Tactical Squad - 215pts
- Apothecary
- Power Weapon
- Meltagun
- Multi Melta
- Drop Pod

Tactical Squad - 215pts
- Apothecary
- Power Weapon
- Meltagun
- Multi Melta
- Drop Pod

Scout Squad - 55pts
- 5x Sniper Rifles
(Red Scorpion Chapter Tactics prevent the use of Camo Cloaks)

Heavy Support
Devestator Squad - 130pts
- 4x Plasma Cannon

Hunter - 70pts

What's the point of taking multimelta on tac squad? It's heavy so you can only shoot snapshots if you drop pod them and 24' effective s8 range with 12' immobile melta is bad. I'd go laz or plazma cannon and combat-squad to sit on a backpoint and provide shooting assistance. If you want a 10-man drop - just don't take heavy weapon at all. Anywayz, multimelta is generally used on attack bikes and best on legion of the damned cause they're snp and ignore cover. Legion of the damned is a solid investment and you can make them out of regular tac marines.

Dreadnaughts are just bad now, unfortunately. I really like the models and fluff and i usually take them. But like every time i take regular dreadnaughts - they're a waste cause they either sit back and i feel that a predator with 13 front and 2 lazcannons+ac would be better and cheaper or footslog forward too slowly and are taken down whenever an enemy wants it cause of av12, no invul and sloooow speed. What you could use is an ironclad dreadnought - it's usually better cause of av13 can provade him extra turn or two. Give him 2 heavy flamers or hf +melta and drop pod him! Though, i'm not sure if it's easy to convert a regular dreadnaught into an ironclad. But i think some extra plastic bits and he can easilly be counted as one and noone will ever say a word.

What would also be a solid investment is buying 6 bikes for a captain and comsquad. That's what can make them like nob bikers. Very tough and fast.

That's what i'd do with u'r forces assuming you get 6 bikes:



An anti-flyer or devs can be taken also. Though, for 1250 points they can only pack 2 missile launchers or plazma cannons, however, you could take away something like scout missile launcher in exchange or an assault launcher from a dreadnought. Or you could take combi-grav on bikers.
Anywayz, i think this list could work while being not extremely competitive and rather fun to play. And you can shift weaponry depending on your meta. So that'd be a tac working list.

Later it can be expanded by literally anything you feel would be needed: bikers, sternguard, legion of the damned, chapter master, librarian, tfc (alwayz a solid choice but don't spam them), some flyers, demolisher...u got many choices.

It's a good place to start from, it's what I did.

 koooaei wrote:
What's the point of taking multimelta on tac squad? It's heavy so you can only shoot snapshots if you drop pod them and 24' effective s8 range with 12' immobile melta is bad. I'd go laz or plazma cannon and combat-squad to sit on a backpoint and provide shooting assistance. If you want a 10-man drop - just don't take heavy weapon at all. Anywayz, multimelta is generally used on attack bikes and best on legion of the damned cause they're snp and ignore cover. Legion of the damned is a solid investment and you can make them out of regular tac marines.

Just responding to this part: Personally, I use them as the heavy in my support tac squads (5 man with multi-melta/combi-weapon and TL Las Razorback), but I also run them in Salamanders with Vulkan, and I tend to aggressively deploy them to cover objectives in the no-man's land section of the board. In any other list I'd suggest a Lascannon or Heavy Bolter (depending on the rest of the list) instead.