Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I am looking to getting in to Warhammer 40k Space Marines / IF specifically. I haven't played before, and I know the faction isn't deemed all that good. But I wanted to know what a good starting list is that I can build towards.

Do you have any models already?
How big a concern is budget?
How competitive are you, and the people you are going to play?
Are you going to jump in to a 2k list? Or slow grow, maybe starting with a combat patrol?
What about the army drew you to it? Are there must have units in your eyes?

Grain of salt: I am not a competitive player, and not up on the must-have efficient units to make killer lists. Offering general advice here.

First, there are cash savings to be had in bundle boxes. Obviously if you don’t want/need some of it, the deal gets worse. But compare the cost of the bundle with getting stuff separately. You can also generally find people on e-bay/trade groups parting out these boxes, so if you want one of the units in it (especially if off-meta, or something most people don’t want multiples of) for less then retail GW prices.

First step of building a list is to figure out what units need to be included. This could be because they are the only ones you have to start, the ones that make your heart sing, or the ones you most recently painted and need to be bloodied on the field of battle. Now look at what roles they fill. And then what other jobs you need to do, and if there are any units you need to add to leverage their synergies.

So what is your core? What playstyle do you enjoy? What should we be building around?

Hi there, thanks for the quick response.

I currently don't own any models and budget isn't really too much of an issue.

I will only be playing casual games, so just having a pretty standard list is fine for me.

I don't really plan on playing anything over 1250 point games as that's what my local group play.

Ok, so why ‘Fists? What drew you to the Space Marines, and specifically this subfaction?

You can find tournament lists on the web, but the goal here for more casual players to to get you a list you will love to play. That’s also not so soft and fluffy you loose all your games.

There are a lot of different ways to build marine lists. Need to find the one that best fits your ideas and playstyle.

Lighting strikes? Methotical advances? Tanks? Troopers? Elites? Stealth? Deep strike?

Why do you want to play marines. What part of the models and/or lore calls to you.

Honestly, I just really like the colour of them. The lore is also pretty neat.

I'd just like a very generic list that could be built up from if needed. Something with a dreadnought preferably

If you can find a Leviathan box at a reasonable price, that’s a solid core with a dread.

How do you feel about the combat patrol? Getting it would let you play that mode of the game, and is about 500 points.

Just quickly slapping together a sample list:

Terminator captain
Lieutenant.

5 man intercessor squad
5 man intercessor squad
5 man scout squad
5 man infurnus squad
5 man terminator squad
Redemptor dread
Ballistus dread.

Obviously, this is quick and to taste. A lot can be swapped out.

The core is a combat patrol. There are 2 terminator characters, but one squad to stick them in, so I went with the captain. The librarian could be used instead.

The inferno guys are good for clearing chaff and bullying soft units.

Terminators are tough, good at most everything. Especially with a character leading them.

Intercessors are there to take and hold objectives, play the mission. Amd it would feel wrong to put together a list without a few battle brothers tossing bolter fire downrange.

Scouts are there for screning, infiltrating backfield to get into shenanigans, and other miscellaneous mischief. Most of the phobos armor units could do the same thing.

Dreads are there as anchors and AV. I picked the shooty one and a generalist, but frankly they all work.

Most everything can be swapped out to taste. You need units to kill tanks. Units to kill troops. Units to score missions and objectives, and table control. There are a lot of ways to get there. This is just one quick slapped together example.

Edit:
Full disclosure: I’m an Ultramarine player, and favor a little bit of everything, take all comers, general army philosophy. You might be better served with some focused hammers, like agressor squads or hellblasters.

doctorsimon4 wrote:
Honestly, I just really like the colour of them. The lore is also pretty neat.

I'd just like a very generic list that could be built up from if needed. Something with a dreadnought preferably

I have an army of Fists that I'm planning on getting rid of because I'm swapping everything over to Gravis units and terminators.

The list of stuff I'm dropping is:

Apothecary
Chaplain on Bike
Lieutenant (Volkite and Shield)

5 Assault Intercessors
5 Assault Intercessors
5 Intercessors
5 Intercessors

3 Blade Guard
3 Eliminators
5 Hellblasters
5 Infiltrators
Invader ATV
Leviathan Dread (Melta Lance and ... the big four barrel cannon)

Theyre all on detailed GW bases from Imperialis/Mechanicus/Necromunda and they have the upgraded Imp Fist Shoulder pads (minus the Blade guard and phobos armored guys).
Theyre all painted well except the icon of many of their shoulders (ive been trying to find an easier method of painting them) 5 of the Assault Intercessor chainsword hilts need to be finished as well.
Heres a pic of them with some stuff I'm not parting with...

The question is do you want your IF to be shooting or fighting mostly. If shooting then intercessors and hellblasters are a safe bet.
If fighty then you want assault intercessors or blade guard or even terminators.

You also need to think of how mobile you want your army.
Are they standing there shooting or running around to get into combat quickly or deep striking

A Storm Speeder of some type would be cool. It gets places way faster than the rest of your marines and can have weapons on it that will deal with things that are difficult for infantry to deal with. It can cross terrain easily. Best of all it should come in around 150pts so it won't eat up too much of your 1k pts limit.