Hey everyone,

So I'm starting to put together the bases of marines that I got from eBay, rearranging them and rebasing them to fit how I want, but I've come to something I'd like some input on:

What are the basic tactics around SM characters? Like for example, I put a Chaplain with the assault marines, that one is an obvious choice. But I'm just wondering how you guys generally distribute commanders, librarians, etc. Like do you put Librarians with scouts? tacticals? Do you put commanders with terminators?

I guess I'm looking for some basic army building help. Right now, for troops, I have 2 tac detachments, 1 assault, 1 scout, 1 termi, and 2 devastator, and 1 bike, as well as 2 of each character

Tactical <-- commader/supreme commander or nothing
Devastator <-- librarian or nothing, can also take the sup com if you want to save points on tacticals
assault <-- chaplain or nothing (possibly a commander in some lists)
bike <-- chaplain or nothing
Terminators <-- chaplain (commander/sup com in some lists if using 2 terminator formations). Even if you take no other characters in a marine list, you probably want a terminator chaplain!
Scouts <-- nothing (commander in spam lists) scouts are nice because they're cheap, so +50pt characters work against that unless you have something fancy going on

librarians can also find a home in land speeders, but speeders are great without a character anyway.

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librarians can be useful in terminators if you're playing a supportive style where the extra MW FF can come in really handy supporting a nearby engagement, but that's advanced level marine stuff, the kind of thing only guys of the calibre of dptdexys, steve54 and yme-loc can pull off with their witch-powers

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Just some guy

My hobby/painting threads

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hmm ok. So Chaplain is good for the Assault marines. Maybe I'll paint the extra bike I have as a chaplain. I had 11 bikes, so I made 5 bases with 2 bikes, and then 1 extra base with a lone biker.

I'll probably stick the Librarian on the base of bolter marines he's with right now, I can then sub him into the devastators if I want.

And the commander/supreme com. are on command squad bases, so they can pretty much be stuck in the tacticals no problem.

Thanks for the feedback. I wasn't aware that a terminator chaplain was so crucial. I'll have to see what I can do.

overall, how does this look as an army list (no vehicles or WE yet, just infantry. I have a couple warlord titans, a bunch of rhinos and land raiders, some dreadnoughts, and a couple of predators and vindicators as well.)

2x tactical detachment, 1 with commander/supreme
2x devastator detachment, 1 with librarian
1x assault detachment with chaplain
1x terminator detachment with chaplain
1x bike detachment with chaplain

Obviously I could cut characters to save points or whatever. But what should I focus on? What vehicles are "essential"? If i wanted to expand it, should I add more terminators? More bikes?

You have enough bikes (unless you plan to run the white scars sub-list).

Based on the vehicles you say you already have, get the predators up to a formation of 4. 1 or 2 hunter AA tanks (just convert from a whirlwind, or paint a whirlwind differently, or something basic). Maybe 1 or 2 razorbacks. 1 or 2 formations of landspeeders (or scout marines). 1 or 2 thunderhawks, pair of warhounds.

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

marines are at their core an air-assault + drop pod list, you probably want to include thunderhawks to carry the terminators and/or assault marines around in, something to knock out ground flak with (warhounds, predator annihilators, drop podding devastators) and scouts (scouts or speeders are both great)

or just play around and see what works for you, I wouldn't usually take that many characters and typically only use supreme commanders and chaplains

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Just some guy

My hobby/painting threads

Army Forge List Co-ordinator

yeah drop pods and thunderhawks are definitely on my need-to-buy list. I've been struggling to find cheap models for them though.

Yeah the vehicles I have right now are:

3 Warlord titans (beetlebacks)
25+ Land Raiders (thanks eBay)
9 rhinos
3 vindicators
3 predator destructors (the old kind with round turret. could count as annihilators I guess)
2 ccw dreads and 3 hellfire dreads

I can always convert rhinos into vindicators or hunters or whirlwinds pretty easily, so I've been trying to keep an eye out on ebay for more Rhinos (since vindicators and whirlwinds and such are usually expensive). I've found some Warhound titans that I think I'm gonna buy, I know those are pretty much must-haves for a marine army.

Ouch thats a whole lotta not so usefull vehicles i'm afraid...

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Well, long term goals would be to have a bit of everything. My army is going to be painted as a mixed legion force of Luna wolves, imperial Fists, war hounds, and death guard, with Titans from legio mortis. Eventually I'd maybe expand to make a full imperial Fists force.

But what are the essential vehicles then? Warhounds are ordered, I will work on the drop pods and thunderhawks, but what else?

I find that Rhinos, Hunters, Land Speeders, Thunderhawks and sometimes Predator Annihilators covers all my vehicular needs. Everything else is mostly for fun.

FWIW, you can consider putting two Dreads with the Devastators
- CC version for offensive drops by THawk or drop pod
- FF version for fire support roles mid table, again deployed by air or space
- FF version, possibly with Hunter for Garrison role (defensive or offensive) on OW

I quite like adding two Dreads to Termies, transported by Landing Craft (you will need a proxy for that); with a Chaplain included it gives a serious amount of assault capability, though this does tend to put your BTS in harms way, so you need to consider how you will support this killer assault.

And finally Land Raiders can be added to Devs for a strong fire support force, (though a fairly brittle BTS) which allows you to place your Supreme Commander in a cheaper formation (which is recommended practice if possible).

However I agree that you will struggle to do well using significant numbers of LRs and Vindis.

welp, I've got a total of 19 rhinos on the way, and will convert some to hunters or predators or whatever. How many hunters do people usually take? Do you spread them out with 1 in each formation? Or do you take a separate detachment? I'm not too familiar yet with how aircraft work, so I don't quite know how many air defense units are needed, or how to deploy them

The problem is gonna be getting my hands on thunderhawks, or even proxies.


thanks for the valuable info. Good to know that there's actually a semi-competitive use for the dreads. I've heard of the tactic of drop podding a detachment of devastators and using them offensively like that, or even using them as a garrison to hold a flank or something.

And I like the idea of stuffing them in with thunderhawking terminators.

I figured that Land Raiders weren't supremely useful (too expensive for pure transports, too flimsy/not enough firepower for dedicated battle tanks) and if I really wanted the lascannons I'd be better off with the Annihilators. But they're just oh so fluffy lol. And I kinda love the old style minis with the exposed tracks.

edit: I'm kinda surprised and disappointed that vindicators aren't more valuable. I woulda thought the Ignore Cover would be useful, since it doesn't seem like Marines have much of that.

1-2 hunters is the usual amount in most lists (that i've seen).

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"You have a right to be offended" - Steve Hughes
"Your feelings are hurting my thoughts" - Aron Flam

A nice guide to playing The Emperor's Finest can be found at:

http://d6addiction.blogspot.com.au/2016 ... -epic.html