Best Chapter for Classic Space Marines

[General Strike]

What Chapter can put classic space marines best to use. I just got a classic all metal space marine strike force for christmas, and want to know how to grow and paint them

[Dumah]

Maybe Salamanders? Their chapter tactics lend themselves to MSU special or heavy weapon tac squads and the AP 1 negate would go some way towards making their firstborn less fragile. Edited January 11, 2020 by Dumah

[Brother Carpenter]

Templars of course.

Your crusade spent considerable time (read millennia) in the warp/uncharted territory crusading all *cuss* out of everything and decided to say hello to the emperium again.

[General Strike]

I will have 2x 10x Man tactical squads, with a flamer and missile launcher each. Then I will have a 10x man tactical squad of just bolters. I will also have a mixed devastator squad, 5x Terminators, a chaplain, librarian, techmarine, a captain, a dreadnought and five scouts. All the old school metal boys. I also have a lead on 20x Assault Marines, another devastator squad, and a apothecary.

[Claws and Effect]

Nice haul Strike!

 

I'd actually look into successor Tactics and see if you can work out a pair that works with the old boys.

[Chaplain Augustus]

Salamanders or Iron Hands arw great for old school marines. If you score the apothecary then IH with chief apothecary strat and father of the future can go along way towards making yer boys tougher. If ya wanna stick to all metal i bet you can find some dreads in metal without too much fuss and at that point your 'hands will be kickass.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Ultramarines. They want to be in Tactical Doctrine, which makes all those standard bolters AP-1.

[Medjugorje]

I would say there are no chapters which prefer strictly one side. The lists look very different if you try to optimize them.

[General Strike]

So my options for Anti-Tank are more limited for old metal models. Should I do Lascannon Ven Dreads, Lascannon Devs, or Predators?

[Chaplain Augustus]

Predators are cool but probably the least competitive of your choices. Ven dreads are sick (especially if you make one a character). I'm finding that 4 missile launcher devastators are more deadly in my IH successors.

[Chaplain Augustus]

If you take the ven dreads and find yourself up against a lot of flyers or eldar then they will probably be your best choice. Bonus: you can make your tech marine a master of the forge and make those -1 to hits disappear;)

[Aothaine]

I agree with Iron Father Ferrum. Ultramarines are going to be the best with those load-outs. 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

BA, DA, GK and SW come to mind since they all have specialized units with no equivalent Primaris units.

[jeremy1391]

Iron hand successors with master artisans and stealthy.

 

Tac squads with heavy weapons ignoring movement penalty and rerolling 1’s and getting cover.

 

Also helps with all old marines like Devastator squads,

Attack bikes, land speeders, old marine tanks.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

IH makes everything better with a heavy weapon isn’t that the point.

[Debauchery101]

Top 3 I think for fielding infantry heavy army of OG marines

 

1-Blood Angels-hands down have the best characters to buff your troops who come with some of the best options to close in and smash enemies in HTH. They can easily get around overwatch and probably capitalize less on primaris marines than other chapters. Who wants Flying dreadnought characters that hit on 2 plus with master crafted force halberd and can halve damage they take when attacked...

 

2-Ultramarines-super flexible, they can lay down constant withering bolter fire due to never counting as moving. Sternguard, terminators and ironclads with hurricane bolters rip it up. Tigurius Marneus and Cassius are awesome characters. You can easily dominate with bolter hordes or save points on basic troops since they always get double shots and take other units to play other roles

 

3-Tied between Salamanders and Imperial Fists. Take a lot of heavy weapons for Fists and never switch doctrines. You can gunline the crap out of people. 110 points for heavy bolter dev squad that are str 6, ap2 damage 2 vs vehicles and ignore cover....and hit on 2+ with sgt buff...it only gets better with stronger weapons.

 

Salamanders/successor chapters can do some ruthless combos with stuff like 10 Sternguard w/combiflamers in drop pod. Chapter trait with 3 extra in range on flamers, max shot stratagem while in tac doctrine...60 flamer shots, 20 bolter shots with boosted damage,AP, rerolls and you can make that even nastier with warlord buffs. Baseline every unit gets 1 reroll to hit, wound and damage per shooting and fight phase. You can maximize that with minimum size units. On venerable dreads with las cannons you're pretty much guaranteed to get one to damage every turn they shoot. Salamanders have probably the best chapter specific warlord buffs, litanies and psychic line. You can boost a captain on a bike to t7 & 6 wounds. With the relic to reduce all damage by 1 wound...

Edited January 17, 2020 by Debauchery101

[tychobi]

Paint them as a home brew chapter.

 

Rules change. You will want to try other things at some point. More fun for you to make your own fluff and bend it to the rules that suit you. Future proofing is a really good idea if you plan on keeping the models for a while. I really wish I had not tied myself to a GW chapter early on. Repainting sucks!

 

Try on different chapters rules and pick what you like! Best will change but the Sons of Somethingorother, Space Animals, and Moody Angels always rise to the top