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Hey guys,

This is my second post, I've decided to go with a SM army and I've already received my SM Codex!

I bought a set of Tactical Marines to experiment with and now I'm curious to know which SM Bundle set would yield the most in return for Model/$.

I'm planning to develop a successor chapter of Ultramarines / White Scars~

Currently, I plan on purchasing:

1x Centurion Devestators + Drop pod
1x Bikes Squad
1x Rhino

[ List currently WIP ]

I have

1x Tact Marines

Thanks again for all your help



Automatically Appended Next Post:
bump

Hmmm. Pretty sure the best marine bundle in town right now is betrayal at calth. 135 bucks for 2 HQs, what, 30 Tacs, 5 termies and a dreadnought? Absolutely unheard of. Just add rhinos or pods, ready built army.

The Battle Demi-Company box is pretty good. It comes with three tactical squads, a dev squad, an Assault squad, a dread, and a Captain for $220. Add Drop Pods or Rhinos and you are good.

There really isn't a bundle or army box right now that fits your needs. Most of what GW offers on their website is mainly infantry (Battle Demi Company and Betrayal at Calth). If you have a local game store, check out their shelves for some army boxes from last year that might still be kicking around. Or, just ring up an online retailer, tell them exactly what you need, and save some money that way.

Thanks for the input guys.

What four kits would you buy first for a general SM army?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm deciding between the Strike Force bundle or the Battle Demi-Company..

A lot depends on what kind of list you want to make.

In addition to Ultramarines, you mention White Scars. That implies bikes, and lots of them. Since they discontinued/replaced the old DA battleforce, there isn’t a good way of getting cheep, generic bikes these days. Recommending he BaC box or the demi co isn’t going to be very useful if you plan on fielding a bike army.

A good rule of thumb is that is there isn’t a box, there aren’t savings. Never spring for the 1-click bundles. You often end up with stuff you don’t need, and don’t get a discount. At least with the boxes, you save 10-20%, so it’s buy the stuff you want, get an extra unit or two free.

For a generic Ultramarine list, The Calth box or the demi-co is a solid start. From a playability POV, I think the company box has the edge, but value the HH box takes the lead. IIRC the strike force wasn’t bad, but I don’t see it on GW’s webpage for the details.

Once you get the core of your list, figure out what you want to do for transports and grab a few of those. You don’t want to footslog. Both pods and rhinos have advantages. Buy razorback kits over rhinos, unless you can get a good deal.

simplycj wrote:
Thanks for the input guys.

What four kits would you buy first for a general SM army?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm deciding between the Strike Force bundle or the Battle Demi-Company..

The First Company Strike Force contains way more termies than you'll ever need, so the savings is illusory. The Battle Demi-Company contains three tactical squads, so again, including your already purchased tac squad, you end up with a lot more basic marines than you'll probably ever need.

In all honesty, your original post mentioned that you wanted some Centurions, a drop pod, some bikes, and a Rhino. Why not just start there? My only suggestion being buy a Razorback kit instead of the Rhino for the option to run either/or by not gluing down the top hatch.

 the_Armyman wrote:
The Battle Demi-Company contains three tactical squads, so again, including your already purchased tac squad, you end up with a lot more basic marines than you'll probably ever need.

On this point:

You can never have too many basic marines. OK, that’s a slight exaggeration. 3 full 10 man tac squads is more then enough for any reasonable game, and if you want to do full company formation shenanigans, 6x5 tacs is probably all you need there.

But you can always make extra marines to swap around, or paint them to represent different things. If you don’t want to magnetize, you can make spare sergeants to swap out for wargear options. The Dev box comes with more guns then you need (2 of each). So if you have spare PA bodies, you can get those gun to the table. A spare tac squad could also just be rolled through the bots box and extra time and given white trim on the shoulderpads to be fielded as sternguard.

The Sternguard box had enough extra ornate bits that if you have some extra legs and torsos hanging around, you can stretch it out to a full 10 man squad. So extra bodies can be useful for future projects. On that note, I’d recommend a box of SG for anyone starting a new army. While pricy on a per model basis ($50 for 5 guys is not good), there are a ton of extras in the kit that can be spread out over your army, making your sarges more impressive, and even putting together some nice captains/chapter masters/honor guard out of the kit. Frankly it does the job as a multipose captain kit better then that kit itself does. And head and shoulders better then the overpriced monoposes.

Quite a few models will be coming in soon and one of them is the BoC set!

I have a question about the termies, are they still viable or a competitive option? If so, do I build them with LCs?

simplycj wrote:
Quite a few models will be coming in soon and one of them is the BoC set!

I have a question about the termies, are they still viable or a competitive option? If so, do I build them with LCs?

Assault Terminators are viable. I run them in 3/2 Thunder Hammer and Lighning Claw. They make for a good character escort. However, even at their reduced points price, they are pretty spendy.

 casvalremdeikun wrote:

simplycj wrote:
Quite a few models will be coming in soon and one of them is the BoC set!

I have a question about the termies, are they still viable or a competitive option? If so, do I build them with LCs?

Assault Terminators are viable. I run them in 3/2 Thunder Hammer and Lighning Claw. They make for a good character escort. However, even at their reduced points price, they are pretty spendy.

Okay Thanks for the input!

Why do you choose to run 3/2 with the termies; does the SGT have Lightning Claws; Would normal thunder hammers and storm shields work with Cataphractii Termies?

 casvalremdeikun wrote:

simplycj wrote:
Quite a few models will be coming in soon and one of them is the BoC set!

I have a question about the termies, are they still viable or a competitive option? If so, do I build them with LCs?

Assault Terminators are viable. I run them in 3/2 Thunder Hammer and Lighning Claw. They make for a good character escort. However, even at their reduced points price, they are pretty spendy.

The spendy part is why I have shied away from them. Deep striking is risky, especially with an attached character. Furthermore, you might not see 400 points of your army until turn 4 (suck). If you toss them in a land raider, your 400 points of terminator and character are now 650 points. I've done it, and will continue to pull it out once in a while, but I don't get back my points as much as I used to.

I still love the terminator models, though. 2+ saves just aren't that reliable anymore.

Depends on how competitive you want to be. Terminators are a bit overpriced for what you get. As a small T4 unit, you can just hose them with bolter fire and wait for the 1s to show up. Being very expensive per wound, it also doesn’t take much AP2 firepower to savage the unit.

In friendly play, they can do fine, but you won’t find them in a lot of competitive lists. But in a more casual meta, you can probably take a “soft” unit and not totally cripple yourself. This is going to be very dependent on the guys you play with.

The one build that does get some attention is the TH/SS one. If you can restrict incoming fire and keep the shield pointed towards and plasma/pie plates, they can live long enough to put the hammers down and crush something. Like Casvalremdelkun said above, I like to run a mix of claws and hammers. Not everything needs the S8 hit, and getting some wounds in at I can help. But I don’t think I’d ever run full claws, which is unfortunately what the BaC box provides for CC options. If I did, I’d be sure to keep them in a LR, because there are just too many risks footslogging them across the table.

(That said I’m going to build my BaC terminators as full claws, because they look cool and it will balance out my collection)

Tactical terminators can work, but you need to be careful with them. They are not nearly as tough as the fluff would lead you to believe, and the amount of firepower they put out for their points is lackluster. That said, they are a squad of vets all with powerfists, with the option for chainfists. So if they make it to CC, they can crump some heads. They also work better without the land raider, so could be splashed into a list easier.

simplycj wrote:

 casvalremdeikun wrote:

simplycj wrote:
Quite a few models will be coming in soon and one of them is the BoC set!

I have a question about the termies, are they still viable or a competitive option? If so, do I build them with LCs?

Assault Terminators are viable. I run them in 3/2 Thunder Hammer and Lighning Claw. They make for a good character escort. However, even at their reduced points price, they are pretty spendy.

Okay Thanks for the input!

Why do you choose to run 3/2 with the termies; does the SGT have Lightning Claws; Would normal thunder hammers and storm shields work with Cataphractii Termies?

I do it to allow them to have some attacks at initiative.

If you are just chewing through MEQ or less, even things like bikes, the AP3 on the claws is all you need. Shred and the extra attack lets you pile up the wounds, regardless. It’s only when you are going monster hunting, or going up against other terminators that the TH really comes to the fore. Of course, for the points you are investing in the terminator squad, you probably do need to be able to tackle the big boys.

You mostly want the TH/SS for the shields. 3++ is what keeps the expensive vets from exploding into a lingering mist once something notices them in the open. In most cases they have the same damage output as the powerfists on the tactical terminators. Concussive, while a decent perk, is not all that.