(tip-toeing into the debate)Ok, so the nub of the argument is that 'mud' marines need to be slightly beefed up in some way to balance out their relative inability to concentrate an attack on a single point?
I may be way out of line here, but it sounds as though the issue actually revolves around the relative size and mobility of the various units and how they are actually used. So I am in the camp that 'mud' marines ain't broke, though perhaps they are sub-optimal in certain circumstances.
The whole point of the 'air assault' army is that it can deploy a significant attack on a flank of the opponents line, destroying or disabling the enemy formations there while forcing the enemy to move other formations to meet the threat, potentially weakening return fire in the process. In essence, this strategy relies upon pushing the enemy off-balance and forcing un-coordinated responses.
As TRC says, the 'ground-pounder' army must rely on different tactics, perhaps diversionary forces used to pin and distract the enemy while the bulk of the army moves rapidly into position, or flank attacks etc. The relative weakness of marine armour combined with their small numbers means that they are less suited to frontal assaults and attition based warfare.
I think I would prefer to see something that reflects the much vaunted flexibility of the marines rather than changing points around. So, a really wild suggestion might be that the player can choose slightly different formation sizes for the same points, or buy an extra unit as an upgrade, where the larger size may not be air-dropped. eg
- 300 tacticals     (air) 6x units    (ground) 7x units
- 250 Devastators  (air) 4x units    (ground) 5x units
- 300 Predators    (air) 4x units    (ground) upgrade +1 unit 50 points
- 350 Land Raiders (air) 4x units    (ground) upgrade +1 unit 75 points ÂÂ
Note, the definition of a "ground" army would be that there were no THawks or space cruisers in the list. Also, I do not think you need to do much more.
Neal's points on the Dreadnoughts are spot on IMO, and ably demonstrate the point that certain units and formations have optimal and often restricted tactics - so add Dreadnoughts to formations that will air-assault or hold positions; air-drop Vindies to strenghten an assault on a known strong-point etc. (Indeed the main reason why Vindies are rarely used is that they are very specialist, and most people play 'blind' so cannot anticipate the situations where they would be appropriate).
