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I'm new to the forum and 40k and I am putting together a 500 point army to play with some of my friends. I am looking for advice because I am having some trouble deciding what I want it to look like.

The first list I put together because I really like the riptide but after putting it together it seemed that it took up a lot more points than I would want one unit to take up.

HQ
Commander (132 Pts) Crisis Battlesuit, Plasma Rifle, Drone Controller, Gun Drone(2)

Troops
Strike Team (90 Pts)
- Fire Warrior (10): Combat Armour, Photon Grenades, Pulse Rifle(10)
Strike Team (90 Pts)
- Fire Warrior (10): Combat Armour, Photon Grenades, Pulse Rifle(10)

Elites
XV104 Riptide (188 Pts)
- XV104 Riptide (1): Riptide Battlesuit, Riptide Shield Generator, Ion Accelerator, TL SMS, Advenced Targeting System

I then came up with a second list trying to include more units in place of the Riptide.

HQ
Commander (124 Pts) Crisis Battlesuit, Plasma Rifle, Gun Drone(2)

Troops
Strike Team (110 Pts)
- Fire Warrior (9): Combat Armour, Photon Grenades, Pulse Rifle(9), Bonding Knife Ritual(10)
- Fire Warrior Shas'ui (1): Combat Armour, Photon Grenades, Pulse Rifle, counter
Strike Team (110 Pts)
- Fire Warrior (9): Combat Armour, Photon Grenades, Pulse Rifle(9), Bonding Knife Ritual(10)
- Fire Warrior Shas'ui (1): Combat Armour, Photon Grenades, Pulse Rifle, counter

Elites
Stealth Team (98 Pts)
- Stealth Shas'ui (3): Stealth Battlesuit, Burst Cannon, Advenced Targeting System, Vectored Retro-thrusters

Heavy Support
Sniper Drone Team (58 Pts)
- Firesight Marksman (1): Combat Armour, Pulse Pistol, Drone Controller, Markerlight
- Sniper Drone (3): Long Shot Pulse Rifle

If you do not have to run a CAD then try the Optimized Stealth Cadre. It is very nice at this points level:

Something like this:

500p

Optimized Stealth Cadre

XV25 Team
1x Shas'vre [Fusion Blaster, Markerlight and target lock], 2x Shas'ui [Burst Cannon]

XV25 Team
1x Shas'vre [Fusion Blaster, Markerlight and target lock], 2x Shas'ui [Burst Cannon]

Ghostkell Team
Ghostkeel [Cyclic Ion Raker, Twin-linked Fusion Blaster]
Ghostkeel [Cyclic Ion Raker, Twin-linked Fusion Blaster]

I am by no means an expert. Your second list has no anti-tank in it. At 500 points you may not encounter many vehicles. But if you do, you will be hard pressed to deal with anything above AV 11. I would also recommend putting the drone controller back on your commander if you are giving him gun drones. I would also maybe recommend dropping the Sniper Drones and Stealth Team for either a few crisis suits, broadsides with all missiles, or piranhas with fusion blasters. This can give you some tank popping ability. The first list is pretty good. Riptides can be hard to deal with.