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My son and I played in our first RTT last weekend. He plays Tyranids, and I brought Ultramarines. We had played each other several times, but had only a couple of other games against live opponents.

As this was at a small out of the way hobby store I was thinking more along the lines of a diverse army with some of my prettier stuff, rather than a kill at all costs army.  I was not really happy when half the players showed up wearing Grand Tournament T shirts. Still, I did ok beating a Thousand Son's army and a Tyranid army.... I'd still love to hear comments.

At 1500 points I brought:

Codicier Librarian with Fury of the Ancients

 6 figure and a 7 figure Las/Plas squad, officer with close combat weapon and pistol

 5 figure Assault squad with Jump packs

6 figure Scout squad with 4 Sniper rifles, one Heavy bolter, one bolter

One Landspeeder with Assault Cannon and Heavy Bolter

One Landspeeder (ancient metal version) Heavy flamer and Multi-melta

Whirlwind

Tank with twin linked LasCannon, Lascannon sponsons, Pintle storm bolter

Two Dreadnoughts with Assault Cannon/bolter/ccw; one Venerable

One Terminator squad of 6 figures with 2 assault cannons.

I'll post a battle report for my last game-which I flunked, against Tau. We used Escalation, and sadly my tanks and Dreadnoughts came in first, then his Hammerheads arrived and got to move and shoot-which was horrible enough. But then he had battlesuits that could jump over a wall, fire, and jump back-and missles that could hit my marines without LOS.  Should have kept the armycloser together, and should have considered deep striking my terminators to get flank shots on his Hammerheads and Devilfish, a meltabomb would have made my assault squad into a threat as well.....

 

 

 

Without completely overhauling your list these are changes i would make:

Epistolary Terminator; Fear of the Darkness: command squad of 5 terminators with 2 assault cannons.

6 man Las/Plas squad all with bolters

6 man Las/Plas squad all with bolters

6 man Assault squad with Jump packs, vet with Power fist

6 man Scout squad with 5 Sniper rifles, one missile launcher

One Landspeeder with Assault Cannon and Heavy Bolter

One Landspeeder with Heavy flamer and Multi-melta

Whirlwind

Tank with twin linked LasCannon, Lascannon sponsons (no storm bolter)

Two Dreadnoughts with Assault Cannon/bolter/ccw

I think the key to fighting Tau is being able to move more than 6 inches a turn.

Many thanks. I found the Whirlwind to be useful in one game against the Tyranids, took out a less than optimally arranged Gene Stealer unit. But, of less use against the Thousand Sons. It did hit one Tau Hammerhead in the rear armor- what luck! But, failed to glance or penetrate. So, its fluffy, maybe good against Orks and Nids. I'd try replacing it with Devastators next time (missle launchers, not lascannons-or so I've read, love that plasma gun!)

I see very few Marine armies in the top 10 at any of the Grand Tournaments, and that is usually not based on their battle score. I know that they achieved some success last year with the Drop Pod variant, but I'm not going to spent another thousand dollars to make them competitive.

Without going into specific point values, what units do you use in an 'optimized' vanilla marine army? Anyone ever try 9 Landspeeders, or apothecaries with each las/plas squad?

mike

Many thanks. I found the Whirlwind to be useful in one game against the Tyranids, took out a less than optimally arranged Gene Stealer unit. But, of less use against the Thousand Sons. It did hit one Tau Hammerhead in the rear armor- what luck! But, failed to glance or penetrate. So, its fluffy, maybe good against Orks and Nids. I'd try replacing it with Devastators next time (missle launchers, not lascannons-or so I've read, love that plasma gun!)

I see very few Marine armies in the top 10 at any of the Grand Tournaments, and that is usually not based on their battle score. I know that they achieved some success last year with the Drop Pod variant, but I'm not going to spent another thousand dollars to make them competitive.

Without going into specific point values, what units do you use in an 'optimized' vanilla marine army? Anyone ever try 9 Landspeeders, or apothecaries with each las/plas squad?

mike

land speeder tornados with HB/AC are godly.
I have been working on a list that uses the apocethary trait and infiltrate trait.
basically for that list i have 4 apocetharies and 3 devestator squads(2 with ML's and been swaping the others between HB's and ML's to get the right amount of anti infantry)
I think it is more of a fun list than competative...
one that i think would be a fun 2000 pt army is the trait that makes you able to run 6 devastator units

Just sounds like you need to play test armies to see what you like
GL