1500 SM competetive

[Anaximander]

HQ - Vulkan Hestan 190

TROOPS - 700
3 tactical squads, each with:
10 marines, sgt + power weapon, meltagun. razorback
2 squads with missile launchers, 1 with lascannon

FAST ATTACK - 150
3 attack bikes + multimeltas

ELITES - 335
ironclad dread, seismic hammer, dread ccw, meltagun, heavy flamer, 2 missiles, drop pod
dread + twin-linked lascannon

HEAVY - 125
vindicator+seige shield

TOTAL 1500

general tactics;
The ironclad drops in turn 1, hoping to take out a big tank and/or distract the enemy. Tac squads break into combat squads, HW parts laying down fire support while razorbacks manoeuvre. Vulkan rides in razorback. Attack bikes add mobile fire support with vindicator. Lascannon dread provides cc support at rear to shooty combat squads, while hoping to snipe armour at range.

Comments/criticisms please.

[Chumbalaya]

The Dread is a suicide drop anyway, why not save points and get a MM/HF normal Dread?

MM/HF Speeders might serve you better, they can run around independently, won't get tied up in combat, can Deep Strike if necessary, and give you some more burnination.

The Tacticals I'm iffy on. 6 men isn't all that much, Vulkan could easily get blown away with massed fire. I like 10 in a Rhino with multi-melta, flamer, and optional combi-melta + PF. You get a good variety of weapons that can threaten pretty much anything, twin-linked by Vulkan, and you realistically have the option of splitting up or not. If you want to stick with the Razors, I'd keep the MM/F so you keep the twin-linkage.

Siege Shield is pointless.

You could use some extra firepower at range. Dakka Preds are good for this, as are Typhoons and Mortis Dreads. TLLC Dreads are meh for the price, I'd rather 2 autocannons for cheaper.

[Confuddled]

Looks decent, though:

Tactical Squads
Seeing as how you’re running Vulkan, seems like a shame NOT to take at least 1 multi-melta with these guys. Maybe two, for that matter. Then again, the extra 24" range can be helpful for the missile launchers - your call, really.

I’d also consider taking flamers for your Tac Squad special weapons, since Vulkan’s re-rolls effectively make them heavy flamers!

Leave the melta-gunning to the attack bikes.



Attack Bikes
Good stuff. More is better, though.

Another squadron might be nice too.

Ideally, I’d call it two squadrons of 2 - or even 3/1/1 if you're not worried about the additional kill point.


MM/HF Speeders might serve you better, they can run around independently, won't get tied up in combat, can Deep Strike if necessary, and give you some more burnination.
I’d actually stick with the attack bikes.
1) Both speeders and attack bikes can be bought as separate fast attack choices, so that’s a wash.


2) Range envelopes (with regard to their primary purpose of tank-hunting, at any rate…) are identical, and attack bikes don’t have to worry about being destroyed by failed DT tests (not unless they’re down to 1 wound, at any rate…)


3) Attack bikes might get tied up in combat, but on occasion, that’s a good thing, since they give the Marine player the option to charge into combat.

Especially useful late game, when a timely assault can pull a garrison unit off an objective.


4) Attack bikes might be vulnerable to low-strength shooting, but theyr’e still T(4)5 power-armoured units, after all!).

Then again, the same might apply to a Speeder.
While lasrifles might just glance off a Speeder, it only takes 6 bolter hits to prevent a Speeder from shooting, whereas you’d need 18 bolter hits to prevent an attack bike from shooting (ie to kill it). The margin is narrower if the Speeder moved flat out, but its still 12 to 18...

Same thing applies to S5-S7 shooting – a single S5-S7 hit won’t kill an attack bike but they sure as heck have a good chance of suppressing a Land Speeder’s fire (2 S6 hits to stop a Speeder from shooting, 5 S6 hits to kill an attack bike).

The margin does get narrower as the strength of the attack goes up, though…


5) Attack bikes are cheaper – I’m looking at 3 multi-meltas (the twin-linked bolters are incidental) for the cost of 2 multi-meltas and 2 heavy flamers.
Granted, heavy flamers are very nice, especially in an army that would normally be lacking in precision flamer templates, but:
a) You’re paying extra for a weapon that is of limited utility against some opponents (mechanised armies, basically), and:
b) For all intents and purposes, Vulkan upgrades all your flamers to heavy flamers anyway!

Now, if these were BS3 Space Wolf attack bikes, then there’d be no contest…



Dreadnoughts
Ironclad Dreadnought
The Ironclad looks good. Missiles are nice, but definitely optional, imo.
The one thing that I’d take, though, would be Ironclad assault launchers.


The Dread is a suicide drop anyway, why not save points and get a MM/HF normal Dread?
Because an AV13 Ironclad is that much more survivable?

If you want a suicide drop whose sole purpose is to take out a key unit (or at least threaten to take out a key unit), then you might as well go with 5 Sternguard armed with combi-meltas. Bit more expensive than an Ironclad, perhaps, but you can be pretty darn sure that tank is going to go down …

With Dreadnoughts in general and Ironclads in particular, pulling an alpha strike out of your hat is secondary to posing a very credible threat on the next turn, drawing ridiculous amounts of fire, luring key enemy units into wasting time on the them and/or blocking the other guy’s deployment in the process.

On average, an Ironclad is:
- 10% more likely to ignore short-ranged melta attacks
- 15% more resistant to S10-S8 attack
- relatively unaffected by S7
- immune to S6 or lower
Factor in the 4+ obscurement save from its smoke launchers and built-in extra armour and you’re looking at a pretty darn resilient unit.


Dreadnought
Yeah. The twin-linked lascannon is pretty darn dodgy. For the points, I’d actually get more attack bikes. ;)

I can see him being a reasonably respectable babysitter for your garrison, though you could do almost as well with a lascannon-armed razorback – that one stays behind to snipe whilst the other two push forward.

A vehicle (or any other Rhino chassis for that matter) might not actually kill the other guy’s sneaky stuff, but they sure can put up a whole bunch of roadblocks!



Vindicator
S10 ordance is lovely.
Unfortunately, so is redundancy – at this point level, and with Vulkan along for the ride, maybe more attack bikes? ;) (See a trend here?)

As an alternative, maybe throw in a couple of 85-point hulls (Whirlwinds or Predator Destructors with sponsons)? They can advance OR pump out shots from your backfield, generate cover saves for your lascannon Razorback and/or do all the usual tank things.



Something like this, perhaps?


Vulkan

3x10 tac squads,
3 flamers, 3 power weapons, 2 free heavy weapons, 1 lascannon
2 Razorbacks, 1 lascannon Razorback

Ironclad, Assault Launchers, heavy flamer, drop pod

4 multi-melta attack bikes (allocate them between your 3 slots as you see fit).

2 85-point tanks (Whirlwinds or Pred Ds – your call).


1490 points, leaving you with 10 points to spend as you will. A hunter-killer missile to tack on somewhere (probably a regular Razorback?), melta-bombs, another lascannon…whatever tickles your fancy.

[Anaximander]

Thanks for all the advice, I agonised long over choosing attack bikes over speeders, but came down on the side of bikes because-
a. cheaper
b. can perform secondary role of assault

The difference between AV12 and AV13 is huge. Suddenly krak grenades are useless, and genestealers struggle. I even had it survive 3 turns cc against a hive tyrant!

I like the idea of more attack bikes. If I drop 1 tac squad and the seige shield, I get a chaplain to beef up assault, a whirlwind, another attack bike, and a heavy flamer on my basic dread ( something I always wanted ). This gives me a shooty army with a useful countercharge element. We'll see how it goes...