me again..........(sample army list, any comments appreciated)

[Gapow]

Ok, I\'ll try and group as many questions as I can think of in this post, to stop making so damn many,lol

Are spacemarine bikers worth having? I have 6, the old bike squadron and 3 bikers I have converted to have similar weapons. I was planning on running them as two seperate 3 man squads, which is why I converted some, would they be better as a 6 man squad?

My army (if you can call it that) comprises of Marneus Calgar, chief librarian tigurius, space marine captain, chaplain, epistolary, dreadnought with assault cannon, terminators with assault cannon, landspeeder tornado with heavy flamer and multimelta,2 tactical squad which can mix weapons, devastator squad which can pick from lascannon,multimelta, missile launcher, plasma cannon, heavy bolter and the 6 bikers previously mentioned.

I know it\'s a bit rag-tag and I can\'t use all of the \"characters\" in one army, I bought it all 10yrs ago when they had 3 for 2 on lead models, after they brought out the white metal,lol. Which is why I have so many character models.

Can a good army be salvaged out of this lot, maybe adding some sternguard and some assault troops?

 

[L.E.J.]

the new 40k rules rely heavily on troop choices as they are the main units to win games in 2 of the 3 game types.

the models you have can certainly be used but maybe a few more tactical marines?

hope this helps

 

[Undave]

Bikes: Yes they are rather good... T5 and a 3up save is always a good combination. Add to that the relentless rule (allowing you to shoot your twin linked bolters and still assault) and the sheer speed of them and you have a very hard hitting unit. Keep them as one squad and split them into two combat squads if the situation warrants it. I can\'t remember off the top of my head how many you have to have before you can split them in the new SM codex or if you can even do it at all so I\'m going with Ravenwing rules here but I\'m assuming the new rules are similar.

As for the rest of it you\'ll probably find you won\'t want to use all of that in the same army but you have a good core of troops to start off with. One thing I will say is; don\'t mix the weapons in your dev squad. Ever since the first dev box set came out someone at GW has thought it would be a good idea for them to have 4 different weapons and a sargeant with a powerfist which has to be the biggest waste of points ever. All the heavy weapons are designed for different roles, heavy bolters for massed infantry, plasma cannons for heavy infantry, lascannons for long range anti-armour and multi meltas for short range, as well as misslie launchers for a versatile mix. Either have 4 of the same weapon or have a 2/2 split and field combat squads, that way your\' lascannon wont be picking on single models when your heavy bolter rakes an infantry squad and conversely the bolter shells won\'t be pinging off armour when the lascannon is shooting at tanks. And for Gods sake give the sargeant a bolter! If he\'s wandering up to something to hit it with a power fist they you\'re doing it wrong. If you have to upgrade him give him a stormbolter and put him in with the anti infantry part of the squad.

That turned into a bit of a rant didn\'t it lol


My best advice would be to get hold of the new codex when it comes out in a couple of weeks and go from there.

 

[uberdark]

Originally posted by L.E.J.
the new 40k rules rely heavily on troop choices as they are the main units to win games in 2 of the 3 game types.

the models you have can certainly be used but maybe a few more tactical marines?

hope this helps

i totally agree upon this.

undaves comments on some fast attack bikes are well worth the point cost.

as for me, since i dont know much about SM i will put in my two small cents, assault squads. move in fast and kill.

i tend to play a bit aggresively.... that might be why i play kult of speed now. lol but in my experience if you have a surgical knife of assault squads to come in and cut out a cancer of whatever the biggest threat is, i say go for it. then move all your others in to get objectives and break up the monotony.

just my opinion.

cheers.

uber

 

[Gapow]

Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated as ever!

In answer to the chapter question, I am collecting ultramarines. I know they might not be known for fast attacks with bikes etc, but I liked the models and thought the bikes and a landspeeder would give me some good fast attack options.

Think I\'ll definitely need to get the new codex to look at the rules and see how many to have in each squad. I have spare plasma guns and meltas from my tac squads, so can tool them up as necessary. i\'ve also just read the latest white dwarf, and the white scars kicked arse against chaos marines using loads of suads on bikes.

 

[L.E.J.]

Think I\'ll definitely need to get the new codex to look at the rules and see how many to have in each squad. I have spare plasma guns and meltas from my tac squads, so can tool them up as necessary.

remember that if u take 10 tac marines you can upgrade 2 for free - 1 with a heavy bolter and the other with a flamer

multi meltas and plasma guns may be quite costly

 

[OrkyDave]

If you are lovin bikes then I would strongly reccomend taking a captain on a bike as a hq choice, as he will allow you to take bikes as troops!

 

[Cleezy]

If you have a variety of weapons for your squads you could tool up squads and then break them down into combat squads making them more versatile. for example you could have a squad with missile launcher, flamer and then vet serg split them to 2x5 and have a troop for firepower and then a squad for assault as marines all come with bolter,bolt pistol and ccw.

As for your characters your special characters cost a lot but then they are the best you can gem i think marneus calgar is 250 pts and tigurius is 225.

As LEJ said your troops will keep you in the game, and with you having a variety of weapons you can have squads for different purposes.

Bikes are useful speedwise and they can take some stick with t5, land speeders can give good support firepower (typhoon launcher, multimelta or assault cannon etc)

The new marines have a lot of versatility, getting the codex will show this

 

[Gapow]

here\'s my army i was thinking of putting out against the tau

Ok, this is just a rough draft, so feel free to rip it apart and tell me I\'m an idiot!!

HQ
Captain with plasma pistol and power sword
Epistolary with bolt pistol and force sword

Elites
terminator squad with assault cannon
dreadnought with power fist and assault cannon

Troops
2x tactical squads with flamers and missile launchers, with either rhino or drop pods

fast attack
3 man bike squad with power weapon, and 2 plasma guns
3 man bike squad with power weapon and 2 multimeltas

As far as I can work out I have 220pts left, so was thinking of giving the captain a bike to allow the other bikes to count as troops, and possibly a scout squad or two, then add extra weaponry like melta bombs etc. Let me know what you guys think, I\'m total novice, I\'ve only ever played with the 2nd ed boxed set,lol

p.s it\'s a 1500 pts game, I\'d probably use tigurius or calgar if it was 2000pts or more

 

[Llanerion]

Don\'t know the new marine codex well enough to check if all of that list is doable as is, but I wanted to reaffirm the notion that with 5th Ed, troops win games. Sticking to the minimum 2 troops choices is risking putting yourself at a starting disadvantage in two out of three missions, though splitting into 2x5 man combat squads helps ease this.

You may also want to consider that in annihilation missions (kill points), splitting into combat squads offers 2 kill points per 10 marines if you go down that route, maintaining your squads with mixed purpose weapons (missle launchers are anti tank/ heavy infantry, flamers are assault anti light infantry) will leave you with one option unused for the majority of the game.

Last rambling suggestion is to protect your bike squads ... yes they are T5 and 3+ armour, yes they are able to lock down non-S/T4 units in close combat in comparitive safety .. but using them with enough caution to be around for turn 6 and claim/deny objectives with their speed will win you more games than rushing them in and showing off how killy they are.

 

[kingsmotley]

Its pretty good, I would suggest tryign to remodel the bikes so they are a unit of 5 (making them a troops choice if you put your captain on a bike, keep the meltaguns!), modelling a biker captain (see previous comment) that way you get 3 troop choices (inc a fast and hard unit)

I would definitely try to get another bike sqad or tactical squad - if you have devastator marines try to make up a 10 man squad with a las/plas combination (don\'t upgrade the sgt\'s wargear).

Should give you plenty of troops, speed and killing power - especially with the terminators and dread. I also suugest rhinos rather than drop pods - speed and mobile terrain!