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I've been working hard to get a balanced list to do well agaisnt all armies. Criticism is more than welcome.

HQ
Librarian w/ mastery level 2 90pts

Elite
Sternguard squad w/ 2 combi melta and 2 combi plasma and rhino 305pts
Sternguard squad w/ 2 combi melta and rhino 285pts

Troops
Tactical squad w/ meltagun and rhino 185pts
Tactical squad w/ meltagun and rhino 185pts
Tactical squad w/ meltagun and rhino 185pts

Fast Attack
Stormtalon w/ skyhammer 125pts
Stormtalon w/ skyhammer 125pts

Heavy Support
Dev squad X 5 w/ 2 ML and 2 LC 126pts
Preadator w/ full LC 140pts
TF cannon 100pts

1851pts

What do you think I did well and what did I do poorly?

To be honest i think you will do poorly.

First things first, what chapter tactics? Looking at your list I would guess imperial fists but nothing in there is definitive so please fill us all in.

Second, I don't know how comeptitive your meta is or what tournaments you are trying to take this list to but if it's a grand tournament this list will not cut it. If your meta has Lynx, craft world eldar, or even super focused space marines, deamons or tyranids you will be in for a world of hurt.

There are things like fire raptors, contemptor dreads, bikes, sicarians, and even Spartan assualt tanks. All forgeworld modles. All things to consider if you want to make a competitve marine list.

All things considered your current list is not bad, just very cookie cutter and sticks to the basic codex. Not that that is a bad thing, it just isn't the most competitive. As it stands you have a strong army if you aren't allowing anything but standard codex units, if you go to tournamnets that allow forgeworld, multiple formations(any more than 2 is trouble), imperial Knights, ect I don't see this list in the top 10.

More information please!!!

Aren't the points off for the Dev squad? A min sized squad with 2 ML and 2 LC would be 140 points. I would drop it and get another storm talon or make room for some forgeworld like epartalis mentioned.

BlazingOrange wrote:
I've been working hard to get a balanced list to do well agaisnt all armies. Criticism is more than welcome.

HQ
Librarian w/ mastery level 2 90pts

Elite
Sternguard squad w/ 2 combi melta and 2 combi plasma and rhino 305pts
Sternguard squad w/ 2 combi melta and rhino 285pts

Troops
Tactical squad w/ meltagun and rhino 185pts
Tactical squad w/ meltagun and rhino 185pts
Tactical squad w/ meltagun and rhino 185pts

Fast Attack
Stormtalon w/ skyhammer 125pts
Stormtalon w/ skyhammer 125pts

Heavy Support
Dev squad X 5 w/ 2 ML and 2 LC 126pts
Preadator w/ full LC 140pts
TF cannon 100pts

1851pts

What do you think I did well and what did I do poorly?

One psyker won't be able to do much on his own, you won't always have all the dice you want and vanilla marines don't even have access to Divination. You might want to reconsider your HQ choice. Maybe a Chaplain with a jump pack and some assault marines instead?

Max out the combi- and special weapons on your veteran squads and put them in drop pods if possible. 2 melta shots per squad just isn't very scary and popping a Land Raider just won't happen reliably unless you have more shots. Knights would just laugh at 2 meltas and roflstomp the squads. Always put in melta bombs on the squads in a TAC army, so you can actually stand a better chance of taking in all comers. I know that the special issue ammunition is really nice to have but I feel like you're counting too much on that wiping infantry squads and not paying enough attention to enemy vehicles.

In just about every competitive SM army you want to run with minimum amount of troops (of course there are exceptions... this list just isn't one of them). Of course you can run with 3 tac squads but cut the numbers down to 5 man squads and for Flying Spaghetti Monster's sake, give the sergeants combi-weapons (and melta bombs)! If I run 3 tac squads I have 2 plasma squads and 1 melta.

Don't really know much about marine flyers so someone else can chime in on that.

If you want to field more bodies you might actually want to consider boosting the dev squad to 10 and splitting it to combat squads. That way you can shoot at tanks with the lascannons and frag infantry at the same time. Predator annihilator is a pretty solid pick. Of course someone will say here that pick up a Sicaran from FW, but that's not always necessary. Have a look at Legacies of Glory for the predator, Schism of Mars and Battle of Sarosh are favourites for many people. Don't know about TF cannons but I guess they're at least ok.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Marshal_Gus wrote:
Aren't the points off for the Dev squad? A min sized squad with 2 ML and 2 LC would be 140 points. I would drop it and get another storm talon or make room for some forgeworld like epartalis mentioned.

I guess that the cost is straight from Battlescribe, which for some reason doesn't include a sergeant in the squad by default. Including the sergeant would bring the sum up to 140 as you mentioned. And those points are pretty damn important honestly. I'm not sure how many people want to play a list that is over the limit in a tournament, even if it's just by 1 point.

When I said competitive all I meant was I wanted to make a winning list instead of getting beat all the time. Yes I did make an error on the Dev squad and I will fix it. So overall I should drop some troops and max out special weapons in tac squads and stern squads? Imperial fists CT, yes. I personally dislike FW and refuse to play agaisnt people who want to field it so it does not concern me.

You don't need forgeworld. But to do well you need to take some of the better things in the codex. Best things in current codex: Grav Centurions, Bikes (especially white scars with Grav guns by the bucketload), Legion Of The Damned and drop pods (especially with melta guns inside). Also TFC and Stormtalons are okay. Tac squads in rhinos are okayish, but I'd only go five man and not bother with weapon upgrades. They can score okay (not as good as bikes).

White Scar bike armies are the best space marine armies. Unless you include allies in which case Cent star Combining with Grey Knights or Wolfstar combining with space wolf iron priests and twc. Drop pod spam with tonnes of small units and as many melta guns as you can fit in also does quite well.

Put the sternguards into drop pods, and max their meltas, so that they can pop vehicles straight from the pod. Or even exchange a sternguard for a command squad and do the same trick for less points.

You should max your tac-squads and give them 2 special weapons. Consider combat squading them.

In 40k things works best i pairs, due to redundancy in your opponents shooting. Therefore, I would either take 2 predators with lascannons and have one survive as he runs out of anti-av13 shots, or 2 squads of devastators and not have any high av vehicles for him to shoot at.