Hey all. I'd really appreciate some thoughts and suggestions on a two-tiered Space Marine army I'm putting together. I'm building several armies at the same time, so my aim is to collect in 500pt blocks, hence the two forces.

I'm building with casual play in mind with no intention to ever go to tournies, and I prefer a troop-heavy balanced force over some killer, will always win, tank and character heavy army. It's also important that all models in the 500pt force be used in the 100 pointer from an economic point of view.

So, without further ado..

500pt:




1000pt:




I'm short on points in each as I'd appreciate more knowledgeable heads to say what the must haves are for squads and vehicles. EG, melta bombs, putting a heavy weapon in the scouts or swapping flamers for meltas and the like.

The 500pt force is fairly straight foward. My idea with the 1000pt was to use the dreadnaught as a mobile weapons platform, so to kit it out with two heavy weapons, and something similar with the speeder, to harry the edges of the enemy.

So, thoughts and opinions? All are welcome.

Heya. Is this for 5th or 6th edition?

A couple of your tactical squads are illegal. They need to be 10 strong to take a heavy weapon (in your case, the free missile launcher).

As some general advice, put some equipment on your Captain and sarges. I love Captains with Relic Blades. If you give him a Jump Pack, he can fly with the Assault Sqaud though you should bulk that squad out to 10 and add a Power Fist to the sarge there. Landspeeder Typhoons are great, Autocannon/Heavy Bolter sponson predators are great for cheap firepower. The Hellfire heavy bolter is great in a sniper scout squad as are camo cloaks.

If you want to take 2 long range weapons on the dread, do *not* take the missile launcher arm. It just isn't worth it especially compared to the Twin-Linked Autocannon left arm and even better with a Twin-Linked Autocannon right arm to go with that.

Well, that is a start.

Oops yeah I should have said it was for the 6th ed

Mmh, I must have read the codex wrong then, re; tactical squad size and weapons. I thought it was one extra support weapon per five members. Was that changed for the 6th ed?



Heavy bolter for scouts and avoid missile launcher for dread, got it, thanks. I was looking at the launcher for it.

OK, so looking more closely at the codex I did read it wrong, which raises the question "what's the point in taking anything less than ten men in a tactical sqaud?" but I assume that's an issue which has been raised before.

Anyway, this raises a couple of qustions for the lower force:

• Does taking ten men and splitting them into two combat squads count as '2 troop' choices?
• Would it be more affective at this point brakcet to just have two scout squads? Given they can take a heavy weapon with just 5 men?

Also; what are people's opinions on flamers vs meltas for general purpose?

There was an option similar to this in the 4th edition marine codex. 6th ed rules haven't changed the codex entries or list building rules much, just some of the ways the rules work.




Yup, that is a mystery without a satisfactory answer. A 5 man tac squad in a Razorback is an ok cheap-ish scoring unit option but there are better ways to spend the points too.


Splitting into combat squads is done at deployment. Having 2 Troops is a pre-req of list building so no, it will only count as 1 Troops no matter how you use it in a game just like if it had a dedicated rhino, it still counts as 1 Troops slot even though it is 2 units.

Scouts have WS3, BS3 and worse armour. So their heavy weapon won't be as accurate as a tac squad and they cant stand up to damage as well as a tac squad can on average. In 5th ed I quite like Scout Snipers with a Hellfire heavy bolter (I think I will still like them given Precision shots in 6th) and in small points games, Scouts could be ok but at larger points, I wouldn't use them as your only troops.

I prefer meltaguns since they can kill 1 infantryman or 1 tank where as the flamer might kill a few guys but cannot scratch a tank and both have about the same range.

Ah OK, thanks for clearing that up, Darkhorse, I appreciate it.

That really tightens a low points force. So really now I'm looking at a single 10 man tac squad so I can take the heavy and support weapons, and a scout squad with a heavy bolter, dropping the assult squad.

Still, on the plus side I'll be taking a ten man assault squad for the 1000 pointer.

And with the larger force I'll drop the smaller tac squad, whcih I now know I can't take the missile launcher with, and probably take a devestator squad. Which may mean I change the dreadought, either for a close assult one or something else entirely... I'll have to think on that.

And thanks for the suggestion of meltas. TBH I never liked flamers.

Could anyone tell me if a tac squad sprue comes with a selection of support weapons? EI, I don't have to buy something seperate for a meltagun.

Since I am here the tac squad upgrade sprue has a missile launcher, meltagun, flamer and plasma gun and a chainsword and bolt pistol for sergeant options.

Thankeekindly, good sir! That's much appreciated.