Help Sanctus make an army

[MongrelFish]

HELP!! I am in need of some help orgainising a small (400pt) yet strong Space Marine army. I know roughtly what i want to do but every little bit of help... well... helps.

I'm trying to work to the 40k in 40 mintutes rules, eg no vehicle armour more than 32 and no 2+ saves.

So far I have my HQ sorta worked out:

SM Commander, 79 pts, bolt pistol, power weapon and combat shield, profile:

ws:5
bs:5
s:4
t:4
w:2
i:5
a:3
ld:9
sv:3+

This profile is before bonuses like 2 ccw are added.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

[Aaron]

I guess it depends which way you want to play.
Offensive or Defensive.

Offensive bike squad, assault bike & scouts

Defensive marines & scouts.

Personally I never have enough points to field a proper character (I always start out with one and end up with an Aspiring Champion (CSM obviously)).

Trouble is I dont know what the new rules are so take anything I say about 40k with a grain (or big handful) of salt!

[MongrelFish]

I'm thinking I want a force which is more defensive, yet can still be able to hold it's own in combat. My main fear is shooty armies such as Guard and Tau, what do you think will worlk best?

[Aaron]

I think I'd try and go for balance. I dont know points costs but something like

5 marines + heavy bolter.
5 marines + missile launcher.
3 bikes, 1 attack bike.
Space Marine Commander + Power Weapon + bike.

If you go up against combat armies throw the bikes forward (in cover) to engage the enemy in the flank, or let them go right past and engage from behind (particularly useful against transport vehicles). Your marines get themselves into shelter and fire away. Then start falling back when the opponent gets too close.

Against shooty armies the bikes advance (In cover) but firing as they go. Thro them straight into combat as soon as possible. They aren't as good at this as Chaos Bikers but they would do major damage to Tau or IG. Your marines hunker down & cover your bikes advance once the enemy is engaged your marines move forward with less risk of casualties.

Other advantages:
bikes can grab objectives late in a game.
Marines on the defensive are hard to remove.
Not many models to paint.

Disadvantages:
You will always be out numbered.
Bikes are expensive to buy.

Options:
You could drop 1 of the Marine squads (or both) for scouts to bolster your numbers.

[MongrelFish]

thats not such a bad idea that

Im not sure how well bikes would stand up, but they would do the trick.

Now the only problem is buying the models... stupid GW with their stupid rediculous prices

[Aaron]

Well its only theory but I thort it sounded good, perhaps I should mention my theories never come in under points cost! ;D

There is only 1 thing that I think is more overpriced than bikes and thats IG Sentinels, by god they are expensive!

I managed to pick up some very poor condition CSM bikes on TM and was (now distracted again) doing repair work to get them going. I bought one new bike for the spare parts & a decent rider to be a champion but I haven't finished them so dont know how well it will work...

[MongrelFish]

Actually, after sme consideration, are bikers worth it when I can have assault marines? 22pts a model for everything a biker gets, tthats about 10 pts cheaper.. sure they can only be fielded in units of 5+ but thats a price I'm willing to pay.

3 bikers @ 35 pts each = 105 pts

5 assault marines @ 22 pts each + assault weapons etc = 113ish points, thats an extra 2 guys for 10 points..

Which do you think I should be going for? (and no thats not a rhetorical question i relly do need/want an answer)

[MongrelFish]

How does this sound:

HQ: commander with jump pack, power weapon and bolt pistol, 81 pts.

Assault squad of 5, inc. vet and 2 plasma pistols, 150 pts.

2 Tactical saquads of 5, 1 with plasma gun and 1 with multi melta, 168 pts.

TOTAL: 399 pts

This is a small force (16 models) and I'm wondering how much punishment it can take

What do you think?

[Aaron]

Yeh, that looks pretty good.

I think with space marines you're always gonna be out gunned and having 16 marines in 400pts is doing pretty well.

I think the multi-melta is a bit of over kill in a game when you are only gonna be facing lightly armoured vehicles. Possibly swapping it for a missile launcher or 2 heavy bolters would be better value for money.

But overall very good. A firebase of 10 marines with bolters isn't something you want to attack head on and 5 assault marines + commander will make a mess of most everything in close combat. Good work!

[Aaron]

Sanctus said:

Which do you think I should be going for? (and no thats not a rhetorical question i relly do need/want an answer)

Well bikers are also T 5 and they always count as stationary when firing bolters, which is pretty useful. Im not sure on the movement rules that would probably decide it for me (well no I lie, owning assault marines would decide it for me).

Do bikes move 12 assault 6 and marines move 6 and assault 12? or vice versa.

Bottom line, you own assault marines, they will make a big mess in H-t-H go with them!

[MongrelFish]

New rapid fire rules mean I can advance and still shoot rapid fire ;D, which is a BIG advantage, hence the marines with bolters.

Bikers and assault marines move 12" and assault 6", normal marines move 6" assault 6".

Do you think I should drop the multi-melta in favour of a flamer? This could be useful if facing horde armies such as Tyranids or IG

[Aaron]

I'm not sure on the rules for a multi-melta (and you do mean multi-melta as opposed to meltagun) but if its what it used to be then yes. I would actually trade it for something slightly longer ranged (but thats cause I personally prefer killing things from a distance).

But its hard to make those minor tweaks until you start playing battles.

[MongrelFish]

Holy crap I just realsied my mistake lol

It should read meltagun, not multi-melta

so therefore, I have 2 tactical squads, one with plasma gun and one with meltagun

OOPS!!

[Aaron]

;D

Id be tempted with a flamer over a melta but possibly have both models standing by and you could pick and choose depending on your opponent.

[MongrelFish]

Well I have both models there, so I guess i can choose..

So now that I've got a basic force down, is there any way I can improve it? Any sggestions on tweaks I can make?