1500-pt Codex Marines force--looking for some input!

[Kevin48220]

OK, I'm seriously hooked at this point. I've been able to play about 4 full games at this point, and I've set myself the goal of playing every unit in the vanilla Marines Codex to see how I like them, and spending 2013 learning all the ins-n-outs of the codex.

To that end, I've made a new list to try out some new units and continue my quest to build a good 'all comers' list with balanced options for my Crusaders DIY chapter.

This list is just a few points shy of 1500:

HQ:
1. Librarian (Terminator Armor/SS) w/Vortex of Doom/Gate of Infinity
2. Chaplain (Terminator Armor/Storm Bolter/Digital Wpn)

TROOPS:
1. Tactical Squad (10 marines + Plasma Gun/Missile Launcher, Sgt w/Melta Bombs)
2. Tactical Squad (10 marines + Plasma Cannon/Flamer, Sgt w/Melta Bombs)
3. Scout Squad (6 scouts--5 w/sniper rifles, 1 w/Missile Launcher)

ELITE:
1. Assault Terminators (9 total; 5 w/LC, 4 w/SS & TH)

FA:
1. Scout Bikes x 3 w/grenade launchers & cluster mines

HVY:
1. Thunderfire Cannon
2. Vindicator Tank

FORT:
1. Aegis Defense Line w/Quad Cannon

The general idea is: The assault terminator will combat squad at the top of the game, and Libby goes with the SS/TH unit, and the Chaplain goes with the LC guys. I'm putting the Chaplain with the LC guys to take full advantage of his Litanies ability. The Librarian is supposed to use his Gate power to move the SS/TH guys around quickly and get them into position for assaults. Vortex of Doom is there as a "smart bomb" that can be used for...um...overkill.

They will be covered by the Tac squads as they advance/gate around and cause havoc. The tac squads hopefully have enough gear to be both anti-infantry and anti-mech. The scout bikes will basically roam around and run interference, and focus their grenade fire on infantry units and/or vehicles.

The scout squad will man the Aegis Line, which will be put on the best ground I can find for sight lines. They will snipe enemy units and fire the Quad Cannon. The Thunderfire will be placed either in with them, or in a ruined area very close by (to use the Tech's bolster defense ability). They will provide a stationary base of (hopefully) heavy and well-targeted fire, and have the quad cannon to deal with any flying units. The Vindicator will stay with the main group, providing heavy fire support for the Terminators and Tactical Marines.

The idea is to have a list that can cover the basic contingencies and still have a good number of scoring units, and have enough redundancy to allow for normal functioning after taking some losses.

What do you all think? I won't be playing this list until after the Thanksgiving holiday, so I have some time to work on it.

[entendre_entendre]

You can't Combat Squad a unit of 9, you need 10 to make 2 units of 5. So make your Termies a squad of 10 if you plan on Combat squadding them. Something I've noticed through my years of playing can be summed up as this: walking terminators will die. Fast. A single demolisher cannon will ruin your day. So you either want to DS them or give them a pricey Land Raider to get them where you want to go. Never underestimate your opponent's compulsive need to destroy terminators whenever possible. Terminators at 1500 basically do one of 2 things: they kill a lot/everything -OR- they do nothing/die. There's pretty much no way to know which until the dice start flying.

Your troops are relatively stationary or easy to destroy if you combat squad them. If you roll up the Relic mission or the one with 2 objectives (I can't remember the name, Emprah's will?) you're kinda hooped. I always look at the basic missions and try to build my lists around being able to accomplish the objectives in some fashion. In 6th, you need lots of troops to capture objectives, preferably fast moving and/or very durable to capture objectives outside your deployment.

You can do this fairly easily by chucking a unit or two in a rhino and charging balls out, or by using Gate of Infinity to teleport across the board. However, if you want to port your tacticals, you'll need to run your libby with your bolter boys, so terminator armour more or less unnecessary.

Scout bikers are 'meh' at best, you might want to spend the points on more troops, guns, or both instead.

Just some things to think about. A guy at my LGS runs something like the following with great success:
HQ: Epistolary (the mastery 2 librarian): Gate of Infinity, Null Zone

Troops: Tactical Squad: Lascannon, plasmagun, Rhino
Tac Squad: Lascannon, meltagun, Rhino
Tac Squad: Plasmacannon, flamer, Rhino

FA: Land Speeders: (Squad of 3) Typhoon Missiles, heavy bolters (all) <-- This squad hurts. 6 krak missiles with a 5+ cover save? >.>

HS: Vindicator: Siege shield
Vindicator: Siege Shield
Contemptor (FW model): Kheres Assault Cannon x2, Cyclone Missile launcher <-- Expensive to buy but will wreck some face when it starts firing. 2 Heavy 6 assault cannons + 2 missiles at BS5, with AV 13/12/11 with a 5++ save against shooting, and gets Skyfire when stationary. 0.0
/~1500

He Combat squads all his tacs and shunts the 5-man Sgt + Special weapon squads in Rhinos towards the enemy/objectives while the other 3 hold his line, Contemptor is his AA and this thing hurts like a MFer. Vindicators eat everything. Libby goes where he's needed, often in the Rhinos, sometimes 'porting a 10 man squad across the board onto an objective liek a bowss.

Now this is just an example, not meant to be something for you to copy/paste (especially since FW is pricey >.<), but you get the idea. Lots of scoring, lots of shooting. Such is 6th.

[Kevin48220]

e.e., thanks for your comments--and especially the reminder on squad size. 'New guy' mistake strikes again! As to those terminators, I think I will have to DS them--no land raider here as yet. But, I do like the idea of using them in DS, I will be able to place them better and maybe keep them around a bit longer than if they are just advancing on foot.

But I like where that could go. If I DS the two 1/2 squads of terminators, then I can use the Libby's gate to move my tacticals around more quickly (for as long as he's alive, since he will be a big target). I can shave off the terminator armor and tweak a bit here and there and use those points to get the 10th guy on the squad.

I'd love to run some landspeeders--just don't have any right now. But I get your point on the scout bikes. I was just looking for something that would be decent anti-infantry and be very mobile. Of course, with a bit of tweaking, I could probably get a Predator onto this list instead of the scout bikes.