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I think that whether we keep Land Raiders as a separate upgrade or lump them into the 'Armor' upgrade, they should be available to 'Tactical' detachments, representing Veteran squads.
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Are there examples in which GW has sacrificed fluff in order to make an army list work?
Yeah, the power level of Marines in the fluff, compared to their Game capabilities. Marine infantry is vastly underpowered in 40, compared to the stories. Look at the 'Movie Marines' list from WD300(US), where a 1500 point Marine army is one squad of Marines and a Rhino! The Movie Marines list is supposed to be the closest take on what Space Marines are supposed to be, based on the books and fluff stories, and even then, they've been powered down a bit to keep them playable.
The story of IA4 (with Det99 Elysian Drop Troops, some Cadians, and Red Scorpions Marines), has the Marines operating mostly as Shock Troops, clearing 'nids from the research facilities one by one, except for the 'Thunderhawk Down' rescue mission. In that mission, the Marines are in two separate groups, one the survivors from the Thunderhawk crash, and the other the rescuing force traveling in Rhinos and Razorbacks.
The marine list can be tweaked but it will never be a heavy armored force.
Marine's haven't been a heavy armored force since the end of the Heresy, and weren't really heavy armor then. What they were was a spearhead for the Imperial Army to follow behind. To do this, they needed fast, relatively powerful tanks, like the Land Raider. When your spearhead keeps moving after breaking through, you need fewer tanks than the guys that have to stop you, and you rely on the heavier tanks of the Army to hold the ground.
Its never been portrayed that way in the fluff (noting especially the removal of the old ironwing).
Considering that a big part of the Ironwing was mechanized infantry (which all Marines are, or can be, now), it makes sense to remove the Ironwing as a Mechanized Infantry Battalion. The part that's left after taking the Mechanized infantry away is a couple companies of Medium armor (Predators are not heavy tanks on par with Leman Russes), and another company or two of Heavy Armor (Land Raiders).
The First Company of most Marine Chapters has 20 Land Raiders assigned to it, and there's another 16-20 in the Armory. That's a LOT of armor, but it's not the entire division's worth that was commonly fielded during the Great Crusade. In fact, it's less than a Battalion of Land Raiders. Those 2 companies of Land Raiders are often broken down into 'Platoons' (called Detachments in Epic:A). Then there's the company and change (or maybe two Companies, depending on what you'd call a Marine Armored Company) of Predators, also divided up in Platoons. That's not an insignificant amount of armor, since a modern US Marine Expeditionary Unit (roughly 4 Companies) only has a platoon of 4 Abrams tanks, and the US Marines never seem to complain about a lack of armored support.
Remember, the typical fighting strength of a Marine Chapter is only about 4 Companies. Let's break that down to what one Company would be reinforced with (using about half the available vehicles from the Armory, to leave a reserve): 4 Land Raiders, 4 Predators, 2 Whirlwinds, and about 2 Vindicators. Most of the Battle Reports I've seen have 2 companies of Marine Infantry and about that much supporting armor (usually trading the Vindicators for Whirlwinds), while I bring a bit more (usually 2-3 Pred dets and a Whirlwind det or two).
If your really followed fluff marines would not have access to allied titans or aircraft in a list. You missed the key point in that statement: Allied. Meaning not a part of your armed forces, but fighting along side you. Which is exactly what they are. I can build a Marine force that has NO IN or Titan support (or just use the Black Templars list), but that does not necessarily reflect the way that Marines normally operate, it just means that particular force is not working with the Imperial Navy or the AdMech at that time. (IA3 actually has a bit of story about getting all the forces together that would be good for you to read.) It does not mean that Marines NEVER fight with Titans alongside them, or without IN air support overhead. It just means that Marines don't always fight with supporting Titans or IN air support.
IA3 has 3 scenarios with Marines in them: The first Taros intervention (a drop-pod assault too small to fight in Epic), the Assault on Missile Silo Decima (an Air Assault to clear some orbital defenses, roughly 1500 Epic points or 3k 40k points), and the Iracunda Breakthrough (a major Ground offensive, about 6k Epic points). Of those three missions (the only three times that Marines fought, BTW), the first 2 were completely unsupported, while the third was a full-on 'Army of the Imperium' with Marines and Titans leading an IG spearhead. Right now, the Epic:A 'Codex' list works very well in the first two scenarios, but is sucking hind teat in the third scenario (which was the only time that the Tau actually came off the worst in an engagement in the Taros campaign). That situation is not acceptable.
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"For the Lion and the Emperor!"
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