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This thread is for general discussion of the various topics concerning the
Space Marines.

I have seen blood angels in action, they are nasty. Some stuff didn't quite make sense on a fluff to game level; like their boost on their vehicles. I would have expected that kind of thing on a chapter with heavy ties to the machine god. Although I also did see the one Tau fire warrior get extreamly lucky and live through an assault made by some blood angels. Good times smile

Yes the main reason why the blood angels have overcharged engines is so they can get into H2H faster.
And Mephiston is REALLY powerful, so he needs some kind of weakness.
One of my friends plays chaos and im looking at all the things for their special characters and was like "O.O ...if you were to loose with these guys you must really not know how to play with them" Theyre just so WOW!!
o.O Jon

I really hate the overpowered special characters. Sure, getting Outflank for every bike squad in your motorised army is a boon, but I'd just as soon leave Kor'Sarro out of the picture and take a bike-mounted captain (so bikes become troops and not assault).

I do appreciate the drop pod deployment rules, which give the Marines a lot more flavour. It's also a good thing that half the force needs to arrive in Turn 1. Things are just too inconsistent otherwise, and if the opponent gets lucky, they can still clear the table by turn 2.

Personally, I'll be looking at a fully motorised force. That means lots of bikes (including scout bikes, with homers and cluster mines), Tac squads in rhinos, and drop pods.

I'm debating buying one Land Raider, simply because fluff-wise, White Scars have no Dev squads or Dreads, so I'll be hard-pressed for heavy weapons (hence the Tac squads). I can get a fair amount of meltas and multimeltas in the bike/attack bike squads as anti-vehicle armament, but even with sniper scouts and powerfist sergeants, character and monster hunting will be difficult.

One way to remedy the situation would be a Vanguard squad with shields and claws, plus a chaplain (fearless, additional rerolls). But that is one expensive unit (about 500pts).

I'm also thinking Sternguard or shooty Terminators with a Stormseer and Gate of Infinity for objective scoring and medium range support. Those Sternguard bolters sure look nice. Two assault cannons in a Termy squad could also come in handy... Plus the 24" movement with no terrain checks.
If used with a Termy squad, he would allow me to take a second squad plus the Landraider as dedicated transport.

With bikes a troops, fast attack choices are scout bikes and speeders. Or aforementioned Vanguard squad.

Heavy support is where the list suddenly becomes really, really short. Another Landraider seems superfluous (White Scars tank army?). Leaves Whirlwind for long range support or Vindicator for short range soak busting.

Summing up, the main point towards Kor'Sarro is the fact that with Outflank, the reserve bikes can come in from the table sides, instead of only from my deployment zone.
However, boosting the bikes into the fray is just as simple, it just costs one turn of shooting.
Pod hopping is another option to keep the army mobile, but Vanguard are the only unit who can charge after dropping. The rest can only shoot.
Except for city fights, I'd be fielding more bikes than assault troops, so I won't have too many pods to worry about in any case.

One question is whether the Chaplain is more valuable on a bike or with a jump pack. On a bike, he could very well make a scout bike squadron a force to be reckoned with. In a Vanguard squad, he could make sure that 80+% of all power weapon attacks hit. On a charge, that's about 20 hits without armour saves. Of course, that squad would necessitate a drop pod, or else they'll be shot to pieces before ever putting a dent in enemy armour...

Another question I'll only be able to answer after a few practice games will be whether the Stormseer+Terminator squad is better situated in a pod or a tank.

I can name one thing: Monoliths.

Denying that bonus dice makes melta weapons really, really sad.

you and me both, pyro.... actually, it's almost weekly, for me.


even better than a LR for them, though, is a Vindicator. The things are 6" to a side, and with an average scatter of 3", they just don't miss.... and they get the job done.

That's because any model except the Forge World Vindicator looks just plain ugly.
There's also no transport capacity, and the range is relatively short. Add to that that it cost 150% of a Whirwind, and it makes one expensive, badly armoured front line tank.
Since they're one tank to the unit, you can't even use anything other than terrain to shield it, so buying a siege shield is a must.

So yeah, great strength 10 gun on a very bad vehicle. I think I'd rather field a MotF with a beamer... but that's even more expensive (albeit harder to hit for the necrons).

I think there's two necron players in town where I live, but it'll be several months before I'm ready to play. I made a short army list with some variation, and I simply don't have the funds to buy all that plastic now...
Besides, I never get around to painting much.

So far, the only finished, converted minis are Legion of the Damned sergeant, 1 Legion of the Damned marine, two Sternguard vets (one of them an intended sergeant with a combi-plasma, which was just to try something out, he won't see much use I suppose), terminator stormseer and motocross-modded scout bike with Astartes grenade launcher.

The assault chaplain is mostly done (waiting on the head, which is part of an ebay order), the chapter master is ready for the jetbike conversion (waiting on the BF Gothic imperial cruiser to get the last part I need), Kor'Sarro Khan is almost ready to be assembled (need to attach the handles to the new fuel tank somehow), mounted techmarine needs some more work, and that's about it.

Since I'm in Japan until late April, nothing much is going to happen, but I plan to take some WIP pictures once I get back.

Some models just aren't worth the effort. I'd rather order a Vindicator from a forge world store than put that much effort into a vehicle I'd hardly ever field in any case.
But at the moment, I feel like getting a basic force ready to get back into the game is more important than buying heavy artillery (or whatever passes for that with Space Marines).

I've drawn up some conversions in my spare time, so I'll have a go at those once I get back home.