Noob Advice on Armybuilding

[Rackhamm]

Hail Brothers!

I'm looking at getting back into this game and having lurked here on and off over the years (for fluff and general interest) I figured it would be a good place to start in getting some direction. I bought and painted a small SM army back in school (starting with the Battle for Macragge set) and I chose DA primarily because of the fluff but also due to the icanography and visuals. I only played a couple games due to lack of LGS and opponents. Now Im in a new town and found out there's a few local places that do 40k stuff on the regular.  I'm excited to get back to painting and start playing the game. Imagine my surprise when I find out 40k is now in 7th edition!!! But I suppose it has been almost 10 years hah!

I have the following:

 

10 man tac squad w/ missle launcher, flamer

 

10 man tac squad w/ missle launcher, plasma gun

 

10 man tac squad w/ plasma cannon, flamer, sgt w/ powerfist

5-man squad of assault marines with 2x plasma pistols and power fist/combat shield

5x terminators with assault cannon and chain fist

1 dread with capability of running assault cannon, missles, TL las cannon, or close combat arm

1 speeder with assault cannon and heavy bolter

 

Chaplain w/ jump pack

 

 

 

So my question is where do go from here in terms of building a viable army?

 

While I do think the DW/RW armies are pretty cool, I want to play something closer to a balanced list that utilizes the strengths of all three "wings". Is it viable to run a balanced type army or do we spread ourselves too thin and lose too much by not running mostly DA specialty units and by not being regular SM?

 

I was thinking I need to get another unit of terminators that aren't so shooty, some ravening bikes and an attack bike to teleport my terminators in with, a librarian of some sort, and dedicated transports for at least 2 of my tac squads (rhinos or drop pods maybe?), and possibly fill out the rest of the assault squad. Is this a good direction to go in? I have read a lot of opinions that DA aren't in a good spot at the moment but then I imagine everyone likes to complain about their own codex's shortcomings.

 

On another note, when are we likely to see a new DA codex? Now that they've pumped out another ruleset within 2 years of the last one, could they begin pushing out new codices every year or every other year?

[Bryan Blaire]

Doubtful, we are probably at least one year away from any new DA Codex, probably two or more. I can see them doing some 7th Edition updates, but it seems more likely that we'll go a full Edition without a new 'Dex, similar to 5th. If we do see a new one, I hope it is later, rather than sooner, so that they've had time to establish the appropriate power level for 7th Ed Codexes to be at.

[JGeils81]

I'm interested in this as well, I've bought a bunch of things, tac squads, termies, chaplain, dreads, pred, rhino, speeder along with the DV set. I understand the concept, but don't know how to really balance it out... No games yet and still building

[aura_enchanted]

Hail Brothers!

 

I'm looking at getting back into this game and having lurked here on and off over the years (for fluff and general interest) I figured it would be a good place to start in getting some direction. I bought and painted a small SM army back in school (starting with the Battle for Macragge set) and I chose DA primarily because of the fluff but also due to the icanography and visuals. I only played a couple games due to lack of LGS and opponents. Now Im in a new town and found out there's a few local places that do 40k stuff on the regular. I'm excited to get back to painting and start playing the game. Imagine my surprise when I find out 40k is now in 7th edition!!! But I suppose it has been almost 10 years hah!

 

I have the following:

 

10 man tac squad w/ missle launcher, flamer

 

10 man tac squad w/ missle launcher, plasma gun

 

10 man tac squad w/ plasma cannon, flamer, sgt w/ powerfist

 

5-man squad of assault marines with 2x plasma pistols and power fist/combat shield

 

5x terminators with assault cannon and chain fist

 

1 dread with capability of running assault cannon, missles, TL las cannon, or close combat arm

 

1 speeder with assault cannon and heavy bolter

 

Chaplain w/ jump pack

 

 

 

So my question is where do go from here in terms of building a viable army?

 

While I do think the DW/RW armies are pretty cool, I want to play something closer to a balanced list that utilizes the strengths of all three "wings". Is it viable to run a balanced type army or do we spread ourselves too thin and lose too much by not running mostly DA specialty units and by not being regular SM?

 

I was thinking I need to get another unit of terminators that aren't so shooty, some ravening bikes and an attack bike to teleport my terminators in with, a librarian of some sort, and dedicated transports for at least 2 of my tac squads (rhinos or drop pods maybe?), and possibly fill out the rest of the assault squad. Is this a good direction to go in? I have read a lot of opinions that DA aren't in a good spot at the moment but then I imagine everyone likes to complain about their own codex's shortcomings.

 

On another note, when are we likely to see a new DA codex? Now that they've pumped out another ruleset within 2 years of the last one, could they begin pushing out new codices every year or every other year?

1) mixed wing armies do work. I myself run a quasi tri wing army with pieces from each I think it does okay but your hq choices become a bit predictable in high point games so it's a good idea to have a b team taken from a single wing in order to jazz it up and keep the locals on their toes.

 

We shouldn't get a new book until 2016-2017. Gw is currently rolling out New books for EVERYONE (even fantasy and lotr) and they currently have a target of late 2015 to be done by. They will want to give us a window of at least 6- 8 months to adjust before moving all of us into New books.

 

3) suggestions

 

Get mite hq options. Company masters and librarians can be found on eBay for chips and getting a basic special like big zeek or Imodiu... I mean asmodai isn't a bad one either.

 

For adding in the other "wings" a great way to start is bikers and land raiders.

 

Our bikers are a great addition to any of our armies and putting a chaplain or librarian on a bike to go with them gives em some serious teeth. You can find bikers cheap on eBay in teams of three (one guy comes stock with a plasma gun).

 

Land raiders can be given the deathwing vehicle upgrade. You can also stuff a techmarine or another hq inside with a power field generator which is a wargear that grants the tank a 4+ save vs pretty much anything.

 

You effectively make with this paring a brick. A big ugly caliban green brick that you move to a spot on the map and it becomes tough as nails to get rid of.

 

 

One other thing I'm going to recommend is troops transports as scouts.

 

Rhinos. Razorbacks, drop pods are the lifeblood of a space marine army dominated by "normal" marines. Walking marines are weak marines.

 

Scouts are a great way to get cheap heavy weapons and special weapons/ special character killers on the field. They can also be decent skirmishers or cc distraction tools in a more limited capacity. Their also cheap as chips, an entire squad of scouts costs as much as a single special dark angels character :P

[Prot]

I'm interested in this as well, I've bought a bunch of things, tac squads, termies, chaplain, dreads, pred, rhino, speeder along with the DV set. I understand the concept, but don't know how to really balance it out... No games yet and still building

 

To you and the OP as well, this is good timing! I basically wrote this article to help guys like you get started using primarily the Dark Vengeance set and well beyond that:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/293650-prots-az-zeke-bomb-or-az-bomb-dark-angel-tactica-for-7th-ed/

[aura_enchanted]

 

I'm interested in this as well, I've bought a bunch of things, tac squads, termies, chaplain, dreads, pred, rhino, speeder along with the DV set. I understand the concept, but don't know how to really balance it out... No games yet and still building

 

To you and the OP as well, this is good timing! I basically wrote this article to help guys like you get started using primarily the Dark Vengeance set and well beyond that:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/293650-prots-az-zeke-bomb-or-az-bomb-dark-angel-tactica-for-7th-ed/

 

have a like!

[Prot]

Thanks. I remember trying to make the box set work for myself and realized as I was playing this list it could not only work, but it wasn't -that- expensive to get rolling with.