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Hey folks, as the title suggests, I'm looking to dig my space marines out of their comfy storage containers and see about getting them reworked into a playable force. I did a bunch of collecting around the tail end of 5th edition and a little more at the beginning of 6th, but I only got two games or so in before I fell out of contact with my primary opponent, and moved on for awhile. So I know, but am really shaky on, the 6th ed rules, and I have both Codex: Space marines, and Codex: Dark Angels in their new shiny goodness. What I would like to humbly ask of you is for some direction in getting what I've got laying around playable. I'm not 100% opposed to buying new units, if it's impossible to play without them, but I'd like to keep it to a minimum and stay within the two aforementioned books. Or well, maybe consider the new IG codex or whatever it is, I've got some of that stuff too. So here's what I've got:



I'd like to make something playable out of the above inventory using either C:SM, CA, or both. Probably something in the 2000 point range with the potential to be pared down. It doesn't have to be super competitive tournament grade, but I'd like to be able to give a serious player a run for their money so nobody goes away bored. I'm not unwilling to pick up more models to round things out, though I'd prefer to keep purchases to a minimum. A viable list from the above is, of course, the most preferable though I realize it isn't an optimized assortment. This is pretty much a blank slate, I'm fairly neutral towards chapters though I don't want to pick up another codex at this point. Would happily entertain a DIY chapter with the flexibility to represent more than one chapter tactic as well.

Is there some kind of Iron Hands dreadnoughts hiding behind a DA powerfield generator trick I should look into? Should I be leaving all of the tanks at home or converting them into scenery? Should I sell the terminators for more bikes and run some kind of White Scars shenanigans? I'm not looking to WAAC, but I would like your help in turning my forces into something playable so I can trim the excess fat and get myself set up to start painting what remains useful.

Thanks in advance!

I think you can definitely make a decent list with this. Rhinos aren't great anymore, but they can work. The 3 drop pods could also form the core of your list as well. Also, bikes are pretty good this edition, so I think you could have a very mobile, flexible force with just the models you already have.

Not to mention, Its hard to go wrong with a squad of termies with storm shields.

Yeah, when I was collecting on eBay and wherever else, I was mostly trying to get stuff I figured was good at the time or might weather a new edition well, I'm just kind of lost as to what to do with a 6th/6th edition/codex list anymore.

My goal is to get narrowed down to a single solid list towards which I can build. If I actually get to where I'm playing more than once every month or two, I'm sure I'll keep or pick up additional units to try.

The list looks pretty full as it us. All I would recommend for you is check the fluff on the chapters and there maybe one who will hear your calling but if not you can go imagination style and do a chapter of you like so many others have done. Play with the colour codes etc.

Read the fluff first because I'm sure you will fancy one of the existing ones. Plus look to expand if you need to using eBay and patience

It's probably 4500 points of marine stuff if I were to convert up a few characters, I could probably make three concurrent 1500 point lists if they all ran with a different theme. I really just want to trim it down to one nice 2000-2500 point collection, plenty of options to swap around in small games, but not so daunting a task to complete.

eBay is kind of why I have so many marines to begin with

I will probably choose a visual look and theme I like, regardless of which chapter/tactics I go with. Where I'm really struggling is getting a good core list that will work after all of the semi-recent changes. Hoping to gain some insight here to add to anything I can glean from the tactics forum, but I haven't played in so long I have trouble telling what works well together any more.

We'll stay away from blood angels. I've been told because of 6th edition they are currently the worst in the universe now. So anything BA is not worth touching. I hate saying it since my army is BA

 kerikhaos wrote:
We'll stay away from blood angels. I've been told because of 6th edition they are currently the worst in the universe now. So anything BA is not worth touching. I hate saying it since my army is BA

TBH, doesn't matter really. Editions come and go

It sounds like you may have the makings of the entire remnant of Celestial Lions! I like the following chapters:
Celestial Lions
Soul Drinkers
Lamenters
Black Dragons (especially if you are up for some cool conversions)
Relictors
Knights of Blood

I think they'll probably come back swinging pretty hard, but I've never really cared for them. I'm focusing on things in C:SM, or Dark Angels, since I have those two books. Trying to nail down whether I should be gearing up towards Salamanders, White scars, or so on, and whether or not I should be running two chapters allied together. And then if either of those should be DA, or if I should use my not-guardsmen.

I recommend Bulletbits on ebay (think I mentioned them to you before re. DFG bits) if you need to pick up odds and ends to make the army serviceable. They sell a lot of SM bits, which I've been picking up over a few orders to kit out my SM (Blood Raven) army that I'm working on. If you find you need a couple lascannons, some nice looking armour bits to bling ouot some vets, whatever, they'll have you covered.

Few people will give you grief about chapter and chapter tactics, so you should be able to run for example white scars as vanilla, white scars, DA, SW, whatever so long as it's all wysiwyg. So pick whatever flavour floats your boat, then use the 'dex or chapter tactics (including forgeworld chapter tactics if that's a go in your area) that matches your playstyle best. I'm really partial to the Blood Ravens thanks to the PC games and their alluded to descent from the 1K Sons with the associated high number of libbies so that's how I chose my chapter. I also like the scheme - red and bone - which is pretty important to your choice. Have a few different lists I've been playing with - SW's, IF's, DA's, foot sloggers, 5 libbies, armour saturation... fair bit of choice, though competitiveness of course varies hehe.

If your'e doing any repair or assembly work, can't hurt to keep in mind magnetising arms and backs of some troops so they can swap between assault, jump pack assault and regular tacs. Also special and heavy weapons as that's where a lot of your effectiveness will come from. I'm partial to devastators though for heavy... love my foot sloggers.

Army list wise, tacticals are pretty underwhelming and if you want to be more competetive, it's common to run scouts or more often, bikes. Since you have some bikes, you could use them for enemy objective capping if you run a biker captain to make them troops and your scouts for home objective holding.

Keeping allied guard in mind is a good idea imo, for fluffiness if nothing else and is my plan. Tanith First... I'll assemble them one day...

@Chaz: My most recent scheme looks a lot like the Relictors but it's a couple shades darker and has black in the same places as the salamander scheme (if that makes sense), the Shadow Knights. Though, now that I've been airbrushing more and dipping everything, I'm considering new schemes and thusly chapter names. Seriously contemplating a white/black scheme, not because I love storm troopers, but because the colors would be potentially easy yet striking. Hmm maybe white and blue-green instead.

@Yonan: I'm not sure how well they combine shipping there, but the initial charge on a dollar bit hurts. Probably 'cause its an AU site and I'm here in the US Still, i'll keep them in mind. I do have a bucketful of bits though, I kind of went crazy ordering anything that was cheap that I might need in the future.

Mostly I'm trying to figure out what's good in this edition, both on it's own and in concert with other units. Bikes and scouts, then, may be superior to my tactical marines. I mean, I may just go nuts and paint every space marine thing I own someday, but until I get that kind of crazy... I want to focus on what may be considered superior units. Maybe I'll alter the title to reflect my needs.

Most of my assembled marines have magnets in the shoulders at least, though if I'm supposed to be running bikers...

Maybe I can just knock out a really simple color scheme and paint it all, and figure out the tactics end later, but this will be very much a painted to play project, I'm sort of tired of space marines aesthetically but they're my best bet for fielding a playable 40k list any time soon.

"Shipping cost for the U.S. Is $3.00 for the first set of bits and $.20 for each additional set. *International shipping cost is $7.50 for the first set of bits and $.60 for each additional set."

The link must have been for Australian ebay sorry, but shipping is much more reasonable for you lot since it's definitely a US shop. Pretty nasty for us as you noticed, but it's much better than anything local.

You airbrush right? SMs so easy to airbrush, it's great. You'll definitely be able to knock out an army in short order. Part assembly so you can do the shoulders and helms/heads separately, very little brushwork needed, though aobr marines are bastards in that regard.

The marines could still be useful as stern or honour guard so it's probably worth getting a couple squads at least of marines up too, not to mention devastators.

Oh derp. I should have looked closer at the site.

I'm like...allergic to painting shoulder pads and backpacks separately, as much easier as it can make things. Bolters too. Though I like to paint models off of their bases, its uhh just how thing are Still, I figure primary color spray, off color, few little details, dip, and I can move on. Maybe come back later and add weathering or chipping.

When I painted my Infinity Moderator he had a decent amount of white and all I did to it was base and dip and it looked pretty reasonable, really starting to wonder if a white/black scheme would be bad. Different heads would be easy over the white

Before it's over I'm gonna try some of those Eisenkern bits just to make sure the marines wouldn't look cool with those heads

I have Imperial Fists, but I'm starting a Marines Melevalant army.

I've done some looking, soul searching, whatever. I'm definitely starting to settle to liking an IH style chapter. The rampant bionics will give me open license to make crazy roboconversions, and it's the best chapter to help keep my fairly large motor pool viable. Plus... this character you can apparently make.. Smash..well .. this guy sounds kind of ridiculous and fun

Now to decide some particulars... such as if you are going to take the beatstick bike riding chapter master, it stands to reason to take a couple of squads of biker troops. This would use approximately 11 of my ~14 bikers which is cool. Could *possibly* swing some attack bikes with heavy conversion, though I already have some landspeeders that want to come out and play (even though the bikes are arguably tougher). Wonder if there is any merit to taking 6 bikers in those troop squads, though probably not as efficient/lean.

I will have to play with some lists to see what works in tandem with that start, I'd like to bring out my predators and potentially some dreads. I hear Ironclads with IWND can be fairly amusing, and I do have a few drop pods

I personally like the raptors chapter. They actually use things like camp and cover instead of running head first in a bright colour like bullfighters.

My guys are dark grey and black, often chipped up and worn down. Thematically they are a 'secret chapter' like they grey knights but more to do with recovering/preserving/destroying tech than with daemons, but they've lost their funding so to speak. They don't identify as excommunicated heretics, but they are looked upon with suspicion and don't see a lot of support. They operate in cells that often vary widely in terms of tactics and execution. Most are older than average with bionics keeping them going, and higher than usual dreadnought and techmarine count. So they default to iron hands but specific cells work differently so anything is possible.

Nice fluff! I wouldn't write off the guard as allies though. Some cheap vets to hold backfield objectives could work well if you focus on bikes for enemy objectives. If you do go DA's, a blob with a 4+ invuln is always nice too ; )

Yes, I'm keeping my options open. Azreal and his bro-mob has always sounded like a ridiculous and fun set up, but I'd want to use fanatics with las guns lol.

Guard used to fill out my theoretical force. Additional cheaper scoring, a second flyer, a few things like that. Having to buy a new codex is holding me back a bit but haven't burned any bridges yet.