Space Marine HQ Choices
In General
Space Marine HQ's work 1 of 2 ways. Something to base your army on or a 100 point distraction. I'll start with the distractions
Chapter Master/Captain
They are both basically the same. If you have 25 points left that and you can't think of another thing you need, choose a chapter master, other wise a captain. In my mind they have 2 purposes.
1. to keep your army fluffy
2. Huge distraction.
Honour Guard - Powerfull but expensive. You will probably kill something, posisble distract your opponent for 1-2 turns but if used properly will die quickly. I don't have a problem with sacrificial units, just remember they are not there to survive.
Command Squad - Big distraction. On bikes, even more so. Teching with 4 plasma weapons is nasty due to feel no pain. Use them as a distration, do not expect them to live.
Chaplain
- Fluff purposes only. Marines will do ok in close combat but its not what they are promarily for.
Librarian
Even in terminator armour and carying a storm shield the powers are great, this is my favorite HQ choice but I still go into every battle expecting him to last 2-3 turns.
Remember: Use gate of infinity to prevent the librarian and his squad dieing in close combat during your turn. If you oponent wants to kill them, let him use his own turn.
Marneus Augustus Calgar - GOD of War, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines
They don't com bigger. Put him in a land raider with some terminators and cram him down the enemies throat. This is however a 700 point distraction.
When playing against - Take out the raider, then keep your distance. If he isn't on a VITAL objective stay the hell away and let him slowly come to you.
Remember - You can reroll to hit and would with all his shooting attacks. Including the orbital bombardment.
Cato Sicarus - 200 points for this? Plasma Pistol, Nice. Power weapon, ok. 1 attack that insta kills on a 6? What the hell. Usefull against Nobs, maybe. if it worked on MC's great, but they're imune to instant death. Reroll to seize init? I ussually try for second anyway(Will cover in a later article). I could go on but I wont. This guy should be 150 points, 170 tops.
Chaplain Cassius - If only he could take a jump pack. Still great for a chaplain.
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Characters to base an army off.
Master of the Forge - 6 Drednoughts. 6. 9 in planet strike. This can be achieved in as little as 730 points, meaning you can run a MoF, 6 dreds, and 2 x 5 man scout squads at 880 points. I have done this at 1000 and 1200 points. It is likely to get your opponent to say "#%$@ this. I'll find someone else to play".
Varro Tigurius - Pure awsome. Deapstriking, outflanking force of death. Waiting to get some scout bikes then I'll throw a list up.
Pedro Kantor - Good but a little unfocussed. 1 assaulty power, 1 shooty power. Do you mex out sternguard? Take him with honour guard? Try and do both? Its alot of points for infantry. He is a really good HQ but you need the points to make him work And if you use him in assault expect him to die.
Captain Darnath Lysander - Another contridiction. A close combat tank which helps his squad shoot better. Team him with some terminators with as many cyclone missile launchers as possible and tack on a librarian. Gate, shoot, Next turn, move, shoot, assault. A great objective clearer.
Shadow Captain Shrike - Infiltrate some terminators. Fleet, Assault.
Forgefather Vulkan He'Stan - After play a vulkan army at LOT I'm impressed. Flamer and melta weapons perform well and are cheap. The only problem is getting close enough to use them. With drop and land speeder spam this quickly becomes Ridiculous. 500 points fpr 9 skimmers, 5 multi-meltas and 4 heavy flamers. Tactical squad in a drop pod with Combi Flamer/melta, Meltagun/Flamer, Multi Melta for just over 200 points each, and drednought with multimelta, Heavy flamer, Drop pod for 150. Then there are Iron Clads, Stern Guard, Bikers. It's very easy to build a list, hell I might do it myself.
Kor'Sarro Khan - Bike armies are awesome. But expensive. Out flanking landraiders, Awsome. Beware the jerk who manages to deny complete board edges. If you can't deploy you get destroyed. Combine with Tigurius for turn 2 out flank rush or turn 4 objective tank shocking. Out flank is a little to random for this to be effective, but still a fun idea.
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That raps it up. Troops are next. League is on tommorrow night so expect a battle report. 60 marines and a libararian carving up 1200 points. Last time I took this army I played against gaurd and won so this should be good.
Not a bad writeup.
ReplyDeleteI would say that a Commander kitted out with a Relic Blade discourages assault, especially if he's got a storm shield. The only way he and his become more of a distraction would be a heavily kitted-out biker squad, at which point it is the thing that destroys units.
I'd say if you're considering anything short of a jump-chaplain, go Tigurius. If you're not running Vulkan, but packing TH/SS termies, Tigurius is disgusting. He's just a beast for what you get, with the T6 and FNP.
I'd add to the Libby w/ Gate of Infinity:
He can ALSO get troops into position. You'd want to run some Drop Pods for their Locator Beacons. They give you a more precision deepstrike. Then, you do something like bring a close-range shooty squad (IE: Sternguard w/combi-meltas, regular Termies, or even something as nasty as allied Grey Knight termies w/ Lysander in there) in to the enemy's face.
Alternatively, you can take a couple of those libbies to ferry terminators close to the enemy, and not worry so much about something like a Land Raider going boom.
I agree with you on Calgar. Personally? I'd skip him. Too many points in one basket.
Sicarius? Agree as well. Plus, the vet skills for tac squads are unlikely to actually have that great of an impact.
Master of the forge? Agree, though I'd add that he's a bit more useful as a shooter. No invulnerable save and only WS4 is a downer. I'd stick him with camo-cloak sniper-scouts that have the poison heavy bolter to get a 'wounds a lot with blast weapons' guy, or slap him on a bike with the conversion beamer as well.
I have to disagree with you on Tigurius. He has lots of psychic powers (...that aren't necessarily that cool), but no invulnerable save. This means he doesn't really want to get into combat. Additionally, re-rolling reserves is neat, but marines don't really NEED that so much. Outflank? Outflanking isn't that reliable; there's a 33% chance your guys come in on the wrong side. Deep striking? The most reliable way to get troops in via deep-strike is the Drop Pod assault, and he knocks a 230pt chunk out of that. I think I'd rather take a Master of the Forge and just drop-pod a crap-ton of dreads.
Kantor: I disagree. He's not got syngergy. He ecourages you to take more Sternguard, but he kills their ability to use combat tactics and get out of assault by auto-failing a test. He helps out in CC a bit with his aura of +1 attack, but he's not durable in CC to instant death attacks. He's conflicted, and is essentially a very expensive vet sarge in melee.
Lysander? I think I agree with you. He boosts a shooty squad, but his melee prowess is their protection in melee. If it's just a gate libby with, say, Sternguard? Something like a Dreadnought can walk in and smash some. Or, if it's something more expensive/nasty (but still vulnerable to dreads) like Grey Knight Termies? Lysander says "YOU DIE NOW!" with his S10, +1 to damage results hammer.
Shrike? Spot on. Or, spam scouts, but that has some issues. Or, spam assault squads and and such.
Vulkan? Spot on. He's the simplest to use; he TELLS you how to build an army around him, and stuff like MM/HF speeders are just solid units on their own.
Khan? You called it. Outflank is fun, but not reliable.
All in all, a good noob guide.
The other suggestion isn't related to this guide, but are you familiar with the From the Warp blog-roll? It's a fine resource.
http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/
Thanks For the feedback. And Yes I read FtW nearly everyday.
ReplyDeleteGood Suggestions, I'll have a look and may include above (full credit given of course)