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Hello folks,
for the next year i plan to start 30k. This includes buying the rule books and fluff books, miniatures*, and everything else what is needed. I know the basics of how to create an army but i still have no knowledge of the "true value" of units. In addition, are rites of war hot or not and which one is the best to begin with (experimentation follows with more experience). Burning of Prospero is an awesome box to get a lot of cool minis for a "ceap" price (compared with FW). So my follwing situation is this. I already have 60* marines MK3 from the new box and the 10 Terminators. I will convert one of the characters to play him as a hq choice for my Deathguard.

But how should i play the marines.
I thought to field two 20men tacitcal squads with sgt in artificer armour power first, melta bombs, and for the squad 1 vox and 1 standart. Is this a good choice? or should i play 10 men squads in rhinos? Vetereans would be an options for the remaining 20 marines i have if I play the two 20men squads.

I will later add 10 assault marines, a spartan land raider, whirlwind and deathshourd terminators because i love the look of all this units/vehicles. Contemptor deradnoughts are an option as well but i have no clue what equipment is usefull for my playstyle.

HQ choce, praetor or centurion? where is the differnce?

If someone has expericen with the 20 men blobs or if someone is a Deathguard player, could you please give me some advice? Everything is welcome!

Yes! Join our Death Guard-y ranks!

BASICS

LOTS of 20-man tactical squads w/ extra CCWs and apothecaries for them.
LOTS of terminators of any variety (out legion specific ones are AMAZING and are stupidly cheap for what we get)
LOTS of Dreadnoughts. Mortarion liked them, so you should too!
LOTS of Heavy support squads, vindicators, and other heavy artillery
LOTS of phosphex, 'cause poison is fluffy and fun

Thoughts on tac squads: I'd say the melta bomb isn't really worth it, unless you fear a dread slamming into your tac squads. The vox is great if you ever have any artillery or deep strikers, and the standard (vexillia, BTW) is almost an auto-include as we don't have ATSKNF. It's also a good idea to give an attached apothecary an augury scanner for that juicy interceptor.

for 60-marines, I would do something like this:

2 20-man tax squads (w/ extra CCWs, AA on srgt, vox, vexilia, and p. fist on srgt)
1 10-man vet squad (I like 'em w/ 2 heavy bolters, but don't rely on these guys to be your main line infantry. think of them as more a percision tool since they are so squishy in 30k)
1 5-man support squad (meltas would be fun) or seeker squad
3 converted apothecaries

and you would have 2 spare bodies left over.

Depending on what rite you want to run I would actually consider a 10 man heavy support squad with missile launchers (or las cannons) over a vet squad if you run the reaping ROW. For fluff I would not do assault marines but that is up to you.

Other than that I agree with Brennonjw, lots of bodies, lots of termies/dreads and lots of heavy support.

 Brennonjw wrote:
Yes! Join our Death Guard-y ranks!

2 20-man tax squads (w/ extra CCWs, AA on srgt, vox, vexilia, and p. fist on srgt)
1 10-man vet squad (I like 'em w/ 2 heavy bolters, but don't rely on these guys to be your main line infantry. think of them as more a percision tool since they are so squishy in 30k)
1 5-man support squad (meltas would be fun) or seeker squad
3 converted apothecaries

and you would have 2 spare bodies left over.

I think i can purchase the apothecaries form FW so conversion it not necessary. In addition i want to purchase a rhino and flamers for a 10 man verteran squad. This guys + chem ammonition should work very fine in close combot, rigt? Or is this idea not so good, I can chance the vetersn for a support squead as well, but i have no idea where the difference is or what a better choice is.
Second the HQ. I want to kitbash Ahriman and convert him so i can play him as a Centurion (or is a Praeton better?) Later this year i want to buy this fething awesome deathshourd bodyguards and a spartan assault tank. I know i cannot purchase it as a dedicated transport but there should be no problem if the spartan uses a heavy support slot. Would you agree so far? greetings

 Paintalist wrote:

 Brennonjw wrote:
Yes! Join our Death Guard-y ranks!

2 20-man tax squads (w/ extra CCWs, AA on srgt, vox, vexilia, and p. fist on srgt)
1 10-man vet squad (I like 'em w/ 2 heavy bolters, but don't rely on these guys to be your main line infantry. think of them as more a percision tool since they are so squishy in 30k)
1 5-man support squad (meltas would be fun) or seeker squad
3 converted apothecaries

and you would have 2 spare bodies left over.

I think i can purchase the apothecaries form FW so conversion it not necessary. In addition i want to purchase a rhino and flamers for a 10 man verteran squad. This guys + chem ammonition should work very fine in close combot, rigt? Or is this idea not so good, I can chance the vetersn for a support squead as well, but i have no idea where the difference is or what a better choice is.
Second the HQ. I want to kitbash Ahriman and convert him so i can play him as a Centurion (or is a Praeton better?) Later this year i want to buy this fething awesome deathshourd bodyguards and a spartan assault tank. I know i cannot purchase it as a dedicated transport but there should be no problem if the spartan uses a heavy support slot. Would you agree so far? greetings

I'm not a huge fan of veteran tac squads (I only have 2 squads in ~16,000 points of DG). If you REALLY wanted to play with the flamers, go for a 10-man support squad with flamers and extra CCWs in a rhino. now THAT is a fun unit to play with, even without chem munitions
vet. tac squads are basically this: 2 special weapon options, 5-10 men, 1 choice of special rule, can all take power weapons and other such upgrades. They are interesting, but very expensive, and very squishy in a 30k setting. The support squad is 5-10 marines with all the same special weapon (in this case, flamers. 'cause 10 templates is fun)

You basically NEED a praetor in most 30k lists to get access to rights of war (there are ways around this, but a praetor is the simplest). We're I you, I wouldn't use either of the HQs in the prospero box (to legion specific or psyker looking), and I would try and trade them for the actual FW praetors (or other captain models) or for the plastic ones from Betrayal at Calth.

Deathshroud are amazing, but, and this is just my experience, Spartans are nice, but a bit overly-common and easy to play around. Try foot slogging them once or twice before mandating a transport, and on top of that, consider the orbital assault right of war: Since we can bring so many Terminators (as HQs and Heavy supports, no less), it's a very effective ROW for us to use