I need your best 3K Marine Tournament list idea. It's not for me, it's for a shy friend, honest

It would need to be a take-all-comers list made from one of the SM lists from the current compendium, built with only one single caveat; no titans (unfortunately this includes Warhounds).

The player has a preference for Terminators, so here's a draft of what I (as a non-SM player) would suggest the form of an air-assault army.

TERMINATOR [350] 4 Terminators
TERMINATOR [400] 4 Terminators, Chaplain
TERMINATOR [400] 4 Terminators, Chaplain

THUNDERHAWK [200]
THUNDERHAWK [200]
THUNDERHAWK [200]

WHIRLWIND [475] 4 Whirlwinds, Supreme Commander, Hunter (BTS Blitz guard)

LAND SPEEDER [225] 4 Landspeeder, Typhoon
LAND SPEEDER [200] 5 Landspeeder

THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [175] 2 Thunderbolt Fighters
THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [175] 2 Thunderbolt Fighters

It ain't subtle, but then it's not supposed to be.
What's your best 3k?

I've always thought this one was scary

STRIKE CRUISER

TACTICAL
TACTICAL

DEVASTATOR
DEVASTATOR

THUNDERHAWK
THUNDERHAWK

ASSAULT + CHAPLAIN
ASSAULT

TERMINATOR + CHAPLAIN
TERMINATOR

THUNDERBOLT

2975 points. The Tacticals drop pod in. It's a dropper list, obviously, but pretty nasty I think.

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Former Blood Angels Army Champion
Epic Gamers Los Angeles Chapter
Armies Played:
Blood Angels
Black Legion
Codex Marines
Imperial Fists

I think this one is fun:

BIKE [250]
5 Bike Unit, Chaplain

DEVASTATOR [250]
4 Devastators, Rhinos

LAND SPEEDER [200]
5 Landspeeder

SCOUT [150]
4 Scouts, Rhinos

TACTICAL [450]
6 Tacticals, Supreme Commander, Hunter, Rhinos

TACTICAL [325]
6 Tacticals, Dreadnought

TERMINATOR [350]
4 Terminators

THUNDERHAWK [200]

THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [175]
2 Thunderbolt Fighters

THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [175]
2 Thunderbolt Fighters

THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [175]
2 Thunderbolt Fighters

WHIRLWIND [300]
4 Whirlwinds

Sometimes I drop the Terminators for a Landing Craft, which is even more fun.

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Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

This is my best 3k SM list:

Tacticals + Chaplain + Las Razorback + Land Raider - 425 (BTS)
Tacticals + Las Razorback + Land Raider - 375
Assault - 175
Devestators + Land Raider - 325
Land Speeders - 200
Land Speeders - 200
Predator Annihilators + Hyperios (Hunter) - 325
Land Raiders + Hyperios (Hunter) - 400
Vindicators – 225
Terminators – 325

It's done well for me in the past. There's a lot of armour and 7 4+ Reinforced Land Raiders.


Sounds like a bad move to me. If you can help it, it's generally better not to have a Supreme be the BTS as well - makes it too tempting a target.

A Whirlwind is a very easily killable host for a Supreme too. Against enemy air assaulters or teleportors (SM air, SM or CSM Terminators, Lictors, Ork Landa, ect) they would die very easily and would probably require babysitting by one of the Land Speeder formations for the game, tying them up from doing anything better. Tacticals are normally the best BTS in a SM army, but Terminators with a character would be better than Whirlwinds.

With 1+ initiative you don't really need a Supreme and I do without one in 90+% of my SM lists, preferring to spend the points on more boots on the ground / killy things.

Nice list, the first two look as[edit] keep it nice, that's insulting to people's views[edit] play against.

For the purpose of this exercise it's perfectly acceptable for the suggestions to be efficient rather than novel.

I'm happy to rely on the players to make the game fun, the vagaries of chance to make the game unpredictable and the tactics used to make the game interesting rather than placing all those burdens on the army list itself.

What about the first company list?

5x terminator formations
5x thunderhawks

chaplain, captain, librarian and supreme commander makes it 3k on the nose....

I am busy painting this very list up to try..... it will certainly be a nice stress test for lists which are weak against air assault....

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Just some guy

My hobby/painting threads

Army Forge List Co-ordinator

You could do a lot worse than check out the Epic-UK lists.

The better lists tend to be those with 1-2 terminators and 1-2 Thunderhawks, possibly with 1-2 Warhounds. Then add scouts, 1-2 Thunderbolts, and 1-2 Landspeeders to taste. The amounts of each formation type depend on personal play style, increasing or decreasing the strength of Air assault and supporting ground forces.

The 1st company list is one extreme variant of this, but the Marines can find themselves fighting a series of isolated engagements. The other extreme are the "ground-pounder" lists with no air-transports like those above.

2 Terminators
2 Thunderhawks
2 Captains
3 Land speeders
8 Scouts

or

2 Landing craft
5 Land Speeders
2 Captains
8 Scouts

_________________
"War is not about who is right, but about who is left". - B. Russell

It's interesting, but the issue I have with that sort of army is that against some opponents it would actually be tempting to play that as a Turn 3 list. It can stay off for 2 turns and then just come down on all the objectives, deal with some overwatch fire (assuming the enemy was smart enough to move to objectives on turn 1 and set up overwatch on turn 2) and potentially just win.
And against some opponents it could win like that too... but are you really playing Epic?




It's a good list, and has tons of actiations but are you comfortable with no AA and no Supreme Commander?
Also wouldn't both Terminators be BTS?

Any thoughts on this version:

TACTICAL [450] 6 Tacticals, Hunter, Supreme Commander

LAND SPEEDER [200] 5 Landspeeder
LAND SPEEDER [225] 4 Landspeeder, Typhoon
SCOUT [150] 4 Scouts

TERMINATOR [400] 4 Terminators, Chaplain
TERMINATOR [400] 4 Terminators, Chaplain
TERMINATOR [400] 4 Terminators, Chaplain

THUNDERHAWK [200]
THUNDERHAWK [200]
THUNDERHAWK [200]

THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [175] 2 Thunderbolt Fighters

Sounds reasonable, though personally I'd go for a Land Raider and Razorback for the Tacticals rather than a Supreme.

The Typhoon upgrade is overpriced and not that great (Epic-UK cost it at 10 rather than 25 which is probably a better cost but we never adopted it), you'd probably be better off giving the Scouts a single Las Razorback instead. Land Speeders (of either type) are fast enough to be able to double forward and attack without needing a single range 45 attack.

A single Hunter and Thunderbolts is a little light on AA too, but you're likely to be swiftly attacking so could get away with it.

@Matt: You love Terminators, eh?

I usually find them sub-par when fielded is so many numbers, but your experience might be different.

The list you propose also risks being severely out-activated which is a big deal for SM especially.

Finally, you risk being seriously countered by Nightwings + Firestorms, which are commonly fielded in some metagames.

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"War is not about who is right, but about who is left". - B. Russell

I agree that nightwings could be a serious thorn in your side, and to a lesser degree firestorms, the simplest method for dealing with them that I've found is liberal application of warhound, but as the list will be titan-free you will have fewer options for trying to hit the opposing flak and create safe landing zones

Similarly against necrons a couple of pylons could really put a crimp in your day!

_________________
Just some guy

My hobby/painting threads

Army Forge List Co-ordinator

No, I never use them myself, but this list is for someone who is a terminator fanatic. The problem is he often teleports them, which is a lot less flexible.



It does have 11 activations (although that includes 3 THs, so effectively 8 activations on turn 1). It's for use in a tournament in Australia which doesn't generally seem to feature that amount of quality AA.



Landraiders over Supreme Commander sounds good. Dropping Typhoon for Las Razorback is a great idea. The typhoon was just to spend the points.

2 Terminators, 1 with chaplain
4 Land Speeders
9 Scouts
2 Captains

There you go, teleporting Terminators, no Titans, tons of activations, flexible play and deployment.

Against many players you should win without too much thinking.

Edit: If I remember correctly from your earlier posts, Minervans are quite popular in your area. This army should rock Minervans every time.

_________________
"War is not about who is right, but about who is left". - B. Russell