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So, I like Space Marines in Rhinos, and shooting heavy weapons, or special weapons, or whatever. I like bolters, and I like Space Marines with bolters, and I want a bunch of them in my army, and I like Rhinos.

However, any time I try to build a list using the Gladius, I get stuck with what else to do or get. So maybe this is just a guy-spam Rhino Rush type army I'm looking for help with. It doesn't have to be "ultra-competitive", it just has to have a little punch, have alot of bodies and weapons and what not.

Another helpful requirement would be if I could find a way to also include this with a 1st Company Strike Force of 3x Terminator Squads. I love terminators, they are just cool models, even though I know they aren't the most useful. Fearless and the leadership debuff from the formation are decent enough.

Any ideas? Am I not seeing something obvious? Also, what would be a good HQ for a majority Rhino-born type of army?

I don't see why you wouldn't just run Gladius with Khan and 1st Company with 3 squads of Terminators. It all easily fits in 1850 (you never mentioned a point limit).

It fits all of your criteria and it has exactly what you want in a list. Why don't you want to run it again? You mentioned you get stuck with what else - but you laid out what you like and what you DO want and you described Gladius to a 'T'.

Khan gives your Rhinos some love. Grav is great with Khan and scouting, and Terminators are an Auxiliary for Gladius.

I'm a little confused by your post - I guess.

I can see how it would be confusing. I'm shooting for 1850, yes, but I keep floundering on what else needs to be in the list.

Doesn't Khan need to be on a bike too? I'd like to try to stay away from that if possible.

Also, I keep having ideas of whether or not my Assault Squads should be Land Speeders or Attack Bikes, or if my Devastators should be Centurions or not, but then the points get kinda tight, and then I think, wouldn't it be better if I ran a CAD with 4x Rhino Tac marines and like 2x Centurion Squads, what's the difference?

See what I mean?

If you are spamming bodies, I’ll assume you are just going to drown anything resembling light troops in bolter fire.

So what’s your answer for vehicles?

You could go bikes for your FA picks. Melta or grav will fill the role. Speeders also work. You could go 2xMM and gun for heavy armor, or a TML/HB speeder to hang back and pop the light stuff.

I’d probably run a dev squad for your heavy pick. If you do go full company, they get a free transport. Even if you don’t go down that path, they still fit the theme of PA spam. LCs to sit back and shoot.

---

If you are not aiming for top level competitiveness, I’d avoid the full company gladius though. It is crazy powerful in objective games, but has such a high tax/buy in, it is cumbersome to work with. Just run a basic gladius. One demi-co and an aux. My demi co runs 1,000 points the way I put it on the table most times. 3 full tac squads, in rhinos with decent gear, and 5 men assault/dev squads with the tools they need. If you do the same thing, that leaves you with 850 points for your 1st company, which should be quite doable. That could be 2 DSing shooty squads, and a CC squad in a LR. Should be balanced enough to put up a good fight at the FLGS, and scratches the tac-spam itch and gets some TDA on the field.

And not to send you down the rabbit hole, but have you considered 30k? 20 man squads of marines armed with bolters marching in waves across the table, Terminators of multiple types making up the elite units, sounds like it’s right up your alley. New box full of Mk. III armor releasing in a few weeks...

 Nevelon wrote:
If you are spamming bodies, I’ll assume you are just going to drown anything resembling light troops in bolter fire.

So what’s your answer for vehicles?

You could go bikes for your FA picks. Melta or grav will fill the role. Speeders also work. You could go 2xMM and gun for heavy armor, or a TML/HB speeder to hang back and pop the light stuff.

I’d probably run a dev squad for your heavy pick. If you do go full company, they get a free transport. Even if you don’t go down that path, they still fit the theme of PA spam. LCs to sit back and shoot.

---

If you are not aiming for top level competitiveness, I’d avoid the full company gladius though. It is crazy powerful in objective games, but has such a high tax/buy in, it is cumbersome to work with. Just run a basic gladius. One demi-co and an aux. My demi co runs 1,000 points the way I put it on the table most times. 3 full tac squads, in rhinos with decent gear, and 5 men assault/dev squads with the tools they need. If you do the same thing, that leaves you with 850 points for your 1st company, which should be quite doable. That could be 2 DSing shooty squads, and a CC squad in a LR. Should be balanced enough to put up a good fight at the FLGS, and scratches the tac-spam itch and gets some TDA on the field.

And not to send you down the rabbit hole, but have you considered 30k? 20 man squads of marines armed with bolters marching in waves across the table, Terminators of multiple types making up the elite units, sounds like it’s right up your alley. New box full of Mk. III armor releasing in a few weeks...

Thanks Nevelon, you've given me some other things to think about. On the other hand, if you're not going to go Full Battle Company, I'm starting to wonder whats the benefit of the Gladius. I could also just run a CAD with 4x Tac Squads in Rhinos and some other things, and then have my Terminator 1st Company.

I'm not really looking to win tourneys with this list, just to put up a fighting chance and not have to be shoehorned into units I don't want. I'm not really a fan of bikes, speeders or any of that jazz. I think it would be neat to have an army of ground pounders/mechanized infantry, like the 3rd and 4th edition of old! And 30k isn't really something that interests me at the moment either.

 whitedragon wrote:
I can see how it would be confusing. I'm shooting for 1850, yes, but I keep floundering on what else needs to be in the list.

Doesn't Khan need to be on a bike too? I'd like to try to stay away from that if possible.

Also, I keep having ideas of whether or not my Assault Squads should be Land Speeders or Attack Bikes, or if my Devastators should be Centurions or not, but then the points get kinda tight, and then I think, wouldn't it be better if I ran a CAD with 4x Rhino Tac marines and like 2x Centurion Squads, what's the difference?

See what I mean?

He's absolutely does unless you like giving up Slay the Warlord easily.

 whitedragon wrote:

Thanks Nevelon, you've given me some other things to think about. On the other hand, if you're not going to go Full Battle Company, I'm starting to wonder whats the benefit of the Gladius. I could also just run a CAD with 4x Tac Squads in Rhinos and some other things, and then have my Terminator 1st Company.

I'm not really looking to win tourneys with this list, just to put up a fighting chance and not have to be shoehorned into units I don't want. I'm not really a fan of bikes, speeders or any of that jazz. I think it would be neat to have an army of ground pounders/mechanized infantry, like the 3rd and 4th edition of old! And 30k isn't really something that interests me at the moment either.

The benefit of the Gladius is the doctrines. Army-wide buffs are nothing to snear at. Even for for Ultramarines who already got them, the ability to spam the tactical doctrine to re-roll all your ones to hit army wide is crazy nice. And if you are going tac marine heavy, they get full re-rolls, not just ones, from the Tac Doctrine.

The battle demi-co also gives everything ObSec, even your dev/assault squads. CAD just gives it to troops. And another use of the tac doctrine.

If you don’t want to get fancy with the FA pick of the demi co, just run assault marines bare-bones in a rhino with a pair of flamers. Just like a tac squad with a few less bolter shots and paired special weapons. Dev squad can be done in a similar manner; two grav canons shooting out the top hatch of a rhino is a decent chunk of firepower.

 Nevelon wrote:

 whitedragon wrote:

Thanks Nevelon, you've given me some other things to think about. On the other hand, if you're not going to go Full Battle Company, I'm starting to wonder whats the benefit of the Gladius. I could also just run a CAD with 4x Tac Squads in Rhinos and some other things, and then have my Terminator 1st Company.

I'm not really looking to win tourneys with this list, just to put up a fighting chance and not have to be shoehorned into units I don't want. I'm not really a fan of bikes, speeders or any of that jazz. I think it would be neat to have an army of ground pounders/mechanized infantry, like the 3rd and 4th edition of old! And 30k isn't really something that interests me at the moment either.

The benefit of the Gladius is the doctrines. Army-wide buffs are nothing to snear at. Even for for Ultramarines who already got them, the ability to spam the tactical doctrine to re-roll all your ones to hit army wide is crazy nice. And if you are going tac marine heavy, they get full re-rolls, not just ones, from the Tac Doctrine.

The battle demi-co also gives everything ObSec, even your dev/assault squads. CAD just gives it to troops. And another use of the tac doctrine.

If you don’t want to get fancy with the FA pick of the demi co, just run assault marines bare-bones in a rhino with a pair of flamers. Just like a tac squad with a few less bolter shots and paired special weapons. Dev squad can be done in a similar manner; two grav canons shooting out the top hatch of a rhino is a decent chunk of firepower.

It sounds like "further testing is required" to find the right mix and what not. 10, 5-man squads with a sprinkling of heavy/special weapons doesn't sound like all that many to me, but I'm used to the old days where 4 Squads of 10 Grey Hunters with 2x Melta/Plasma in a Rhino was alot to deal with for anybody, and I think I'm stuck with those rose-tinted glasses. I get that the Gladius is more men and vehicles but it doesn't feel as focused.

Also, are there any other ways to run a similar army and not be Codex Space Marines? If I'm not that excited about White Scars, should I be looking at similar lists from Dark Angels, Blood Angels, etc?

 whitedragon wrote:
Also, are there any other ways to run a similar army and not be Codex Space Marines? If I'm not that excited about White Scars, should I be looking at similar lists from Dark Angels, Blood Angels, etc?

There are similar options available to the other loyalist marine codex's. Dark Angels have Lion's Blade which is very similar to Gladius (obsec and free transports in a full company), Blood Angels have only just got the Angel's Blade - no free transports or obsec though so no incentive to go full company. Space Wolfs have the Wolf Claw Strike Force which is their version of the Gladius, Legendary Greatpacks (core choices) like the Blackmanes are roughly full company size but have more unit variety.

Going back to Codex Space Marines - have you considered Raptors tactics? They could give (almost) army wide scout without taking Khan and "lots of bodies" gels with their improved boltguns.