Since we all know that Space Marines are the heart of the Imperium, we wanted to diverge from the alien scum for a while and post a little about the Space Marines.
Here's the models i own for my SM Army, and some opinions.
HQ:
Captain Lysander -- this guy is a survivor. I think he may even beat Calgar in just taking damage. However, due to the new 5th edition, The Forge Father Vulkan He'stan's special rule, which makes all flame throwers and meltaguns twin linked, is far superior to Lysander's special rules (assuming you were smart enough to put only flamers and meltaguns in your army).
Black Reach Captain with power sword (which i sometimes just sub as Captain Sicarius, since they pretty much have the same equipment.) I honestly haven't used Sicarius much, mostly just in Apocalypse games. So i don't really have any good strategies.
Here's a Black Reach Captain that I painted for a friend. Unfortunately this friend no longer plays. The Captain I have was not painted by myself, and therefore looks a bit better.
Chaplain with jetpack -- i like him on paper, and the model is pretty cool too, but honestly he just doesn't do well, so i plan to sell him. I've heard he does ok with some termies with thunderhammers/shields, but since i dont have assault termies, i just use him for my Assault Marines. And honestly, Assault Marines just can't stand up to any real melee oriented units, i only use them for taking out ranged units, and for aggressive nuisances. (UPDATE: I sold him)
Elites:
Sternguard -- full squad, with heavy plasma cannon, and rocket launcher. Granted, the heavy weapons suck, but those were the models i had available. these dudes are expensive, so i painted up a regular Tactical squad to look veteran, and i sub them in for sternguard. Usually i use them for holding the middle ground, but they don't do much damage there. the more reviews i read, the more i realize that these guys need to be aggressive and drop pod in. i've also heard of sticking a librarian with them, and using Gate of Infinity to gate them around and do serious damage, jumping from locater beacon to locator beacon. sounds like a seriously awesome strategy. i dont have a librarian yet, but i'd like to give it a go. definitely using drop pod for them though.
Dreadnought -- a vanilla dreadnought (multimelta, dreadnought CC arm). very nice. however i'm not aggressive as i should be, or i end up droping him in without support. i think i'll get a 2nd one, and i'll have 2 vanillas drop in on the first turn, and sternguard and ironclad when i roll my reserves in. Sometimes i stick a heavy flamer on him if i'm facing hordes. (NOTE: there's not enough elite slots for me to do that. But I was thinking more in terms of Planet Strike where you get more elite slots)
Ironclad -- i've still yet to use him to great effect, but i haven't had him for very long yet. I love the 13 AV tho.
Terminators -- i have 2 squads, 1 with an assault cannon, and 1 squad with a heavy flamer. Again, i'm not aggressive enough, but the more i learn about termies, the more convinced i am that i need to sell the ones i have and get some assault termies. (UPDATE: i sold the squad with the Assault Cannon)
Techmarine with 4 servitors, 2 of those have heavy bolters. Suck. his blessing of omissah is useful, and i could see proxying him as Master of the Forge to get more dreadnoughts in, but i just haven't seen many results. He's too slow to get to vehicles to fix them, and if you put in on a bike, the servitors can't keep up. i've tried a rhino, but it had difficulty maneuvering. i haven't decided to sell him yet, but i'm strongly considering it. (UPDATE: I sold the squad)
Troops:
Scouts -- i have 3 scout squads. Scouts are valuable for holding objectives, and are a pain to oust, and if properly entrenched, you'll end up having to flame or assault them to get them out. with the Blessing of Omissah (by techmarine or Lysander) on a ruin giving a +1 to cover save, and camo cloaks also giving a +1, these guys get cover saves of 2+! that's freaking awesome. flamers and CC will eat you alive, but hopefully they're far enough behind your lines that those won't affect you.
first squad of 6 includes Sergeant Telion (who is aight, not spectacular, but aight) 1 missile launcher, and the rest have sniper rifles. I use this squad often.
the 2 other squads are cookie cutter, with 5 men, and a heavy bolter in each squad. with the 5th edition codex, their BS sucks, and i almost never use them. they're pretty sucky in a fight. i will probably just tell my opponent that they are all holding sniper rifles... By the way, i would say that Gate of Infinity works with the scout homer beacons, as well as drop pod locator beacons. Many disagree with the scout homer beacons because it doesn't explicitly say that they are teleporting. But if using a gate to go from one place to another isn't teleporting, i dunno what is. BTW some people also disagree with the drop pod location beacons as well, just FYI. But i find the majority finds them A-OK.
For the homer beacons, Adepticon's INAT FAQ agrees with me. http://www.adepticon.org/?page_id=687
Four 10-man tactical squads
1) meltagun, and heavy bolter. melta is good, heavy is not so good, but i dont have a better weapon to replace it with, except for maybe a reg bolter... i usually split them up into combat squads
2) Lascannon. The rest have bolters. These guys i usually use for defense, they hang back on an objective or in a rhino.
3) cookie cutter, flamer and missile launcher. eh.. wish i could get a multimelta instead of missile. i combat squad
4) Plasmagun and heavy bolter. Lots of people give the plasmagun bad reviews, but it is similar to the bolters in that it's rapid fire, i find it useful for taking out elites with heavy armor. its AP plus a lot of bolter fire does pretty good. i also combat squad these guys.
I don't combat squad if its kill points, but for some reason i almost never play for kill points... must be luck of the dice or something.
Transports:
I have 3 Razorbacks with twin linked lascannons. They're pretty expensive. Generally i just take the guns off and run them as rhinos. But in really big games, i like to put the lascannons on. they don't do super damage cuz i have to move them around, but i find that they are decently low on the enemy's target priority list in a big game. So its nice to have an extra 3 cannons
I also have 1 regular rhino which i haven't assembled yet.
And i have 4 drop pods-- locator beacons i put on if i have at least 3 deep striking units, and even then i don't always put them on all the drop pods. Which can get confusing, you just have to mark which ones have the beacon for your opponent. If i'm facing a horde army, i do put the Deathwind launcher on it (12" range, str 5, AP -). It's not a super great weapon, but because the drop pods are pretty low on the target list, i find they generally make a nice surprise when a large unit units near. Opponents usually forget about them, even if you told them at the beginning of the game.
Fast Attack:
Assault Marines -- 2 squads
6 man -- seargent has power axe and combat shield, i usually stick chaplain with these dudes. but honestly, these guys can't stand up to any real CC unit, they exist to harass ranged units. I play against IG, Orks, and Tau a lot. IG i use assault marines against their heavy weapons, Orks i take out the lootas, and tau any ranged unit like firewarriors or stealth suits. the chaplain really isn't necessary. he helps them survive a little longer for sure, using his invulnerable save and his 2 wounds, but they dont really need to survive... just harass.
5 man squad. just bolt pistols and chain swords
Attack bike squad -- 3 strong. multimelta. supposedly i use them for tank busters. but they just don't survive. if the enemy did a lot of outflank or deepstrike with dangerous units or vehicles, they might be worth their points. they'd stay with your lines and let your army move on. as tank busters, when they have to charge enemy lines, they just don't hold up. you have to use Turboboost, and then you get to shoot the turn after. i find they just don't live through it. i plan to sell them.
Land Speeder squadron -- 3 strong. all with multimeltas. 2 with typhoon missile launchers. at 60 points with just their multimelta, they'd pretty sweet tank busters. are the typhoons really worth their 40 points? i'm not really sure. in theory you get 3x the str 8 shots, but that's limited if they are moving around (cuz you can only fire 1 weapon if you move more than 6") and personally i'm always moving them. up to recently i'd always put them on, simply because my army lacks tank busters. but i plan to buy another one, and have 2 squads of 2, and just run multimeltas.
Vanguard Squad -- 3 power swords, 2 plasma pistols. models look awesome. They suck. awful awful unit. i'm selling them soon as i can. in extremely situational circumstances they could drop down next to a tank, assault, and stick it full of meltabombs. but it almost never happens. they cost a ton, they do do pretty well in CC, but they never survive after their first fight (assuming they even get to that). (UPDATE: I sold them)
Heavy Support:
Predator -- i have it with an auto cannon and 2 lasconnon sponsons. suck. it never does any damage, nor does it live long. and it costs a lot of points. i hear better reviews with having heavy bolter sponsons, but i'm still leery. I'll try the heavy bolters out before selling it.
Vindicator -- i've never really had it do much damage do to its short range, but the feeling of dropping a str 10 Ap 2 large blast marker on the enemy is just too great. some people think it sucks, others think you should take a bunch of them for them to be effect. i'm not really sure whether i should buy a second one or not. i haven't decided. Generally i leave him out if its not a big game.
Land raider -- he's a survivor. i feel like i'd prefer a crusader, since for some reason lascanons suck for me. they always hit cuz they are twin linked, but i never do any damage. this is another unit that i'm just too cautious with and need to just charge with it. i need to stick some assault termies in it.
Well, sorry for all the text. I'll get some pictures in there sometime. Also later I'll give a run down on my Tyranid army.
Written by:
Jenk the Invincible
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