Having nearly completed both my Dark Elf and Warriors of Chaos Armies in WHFB, I have begun looking into 40k to decide if that would be an interesting game. The army that first caught my eyes was (obviously) Space Marines.
After reading quite a fair amount of threads about these guys I am none the wiser. How do they really play? Some people claim that they are mainly a shooting army, while other insists that they are mainly close combat. Would someone care to enlighten me? Bear in mind that I have never played 40k before, but am trying the best I can to learn the rules
Kind of depends on if you're going to take a codex on a specific chapter or if you're just going Space Marines 5th edition. In the general codex you can mix and match well enough.
Space Wolves though, they're all about chewing people up. Rune Priests with Jaws of the World Wolf is a little broken
Anywho, they can do most anything. Being that they get most of the attention of our 'benevolent' masters.
So the question is, what are you planning on doing codex wise?
"I have heard the call to power! Who of you can say you'd dare tread the same path as I?"
I was thinking of just the standard Codex: Space Marines/Ultramarines chapter, at least to start with. Probably splitting the Assault on Black Reach box with a friend first, and then buying a battleforce and whatever I might need after that. I'm just a little unsure of just how the army actually plays yet.
They can do anything, or can be tailored to do anything. Obviously some specific chapters specialise (Blood Angels and Space Wolves being close combat machines being the obvious example) but even bog-standard Tactical and Assault Marines are quite scary in combat.
40K being the game that it is, assault is the most dangerous and most effective way of winning, so optimising for combat, and particularly taking one of the aforementioned specialist chapters, is the norm; but if (for some reason) you preferred a shooting army, marines are very capable of doing that too.
I started with Ultramarines (after having played Eldar for years). I was pretty disappointed, to be honest because I missed the specialization of units, and I never really got anywhere, so I left them for a while. Then the Codex: Space Wolves came out, and they're just THE coolest marines. Period.
If you're talking about bog-standard marines, though (as I'm gathering from your posts), they can be tailored to do anything, and as long as you're not used to a higher degree of specialization (read - Eldar) you won't really be disapointed. A tactical squad can shoot, and then do combat, but they can do neither very effectively. 1 S4 attack just isn't going to cut it, no matter which way you look at it. Not if you're used to 4 S4 attacks anyway. And I never saw the point of heavy weapons in the squad (not the tank hunting ones anyway) because you have to choose between wasting your heavy weapon, or all the bolters. In short - I was never happy. They're too "one size fits all" for the way I play. But if you start with them, you might learn how to play using them, and in that case they can be a great army, just not a very special one as every man and his dog plays space marines.
When I think of something witty, I shall put it here.
Ok, you confirmed some of my fears about the army there Mr. Anderson. I will probably think about it for a little while longer and look at some of the other armies (or chapters) to see if anything interests me even more.
OK. I think I am starting to get a general understanding of the rules of the game now. I am however wondering, if I indeed should stick to the standard marines or try the Space Wolves instead. There will probably be a lot more converting to do with Space Wolves, but they seem like an army that play more the way I want to play. Looking at the point costs, does a tactical squad have any advantages at all over a unit of Grey Hunters?
Well, grey hunters can't take las cannons or heavy bolters or missile launchers (no heavy weapons at all), but that's where it ends. Tactical marines don't have furious charge, don't have CC weapons and bolt pistols and certainly don't have anywhere near that much character. And they can't take 2 plasma guns either. Having long fangs more than makes up for the lack of heavy weapons on grey hunters (these guys have devastators for breakfast. They've got a lot of punch, and then some - and they aren't stuffed like normal devastators when mélee pops by for dinner. I'll try to get some pics of my space wolves up. They are the only space marine chapter worth playing (if only for their blatant disregard for the codex astartes, seeing as they only think of it when toilet paper runs short).
There is also nothing like wolf guard terminators (again - they'll have normal assault terminators - not to mention bog-standard shooty terminators - for lunch). Space marines mounted on giant wolf-things is a bit of a joke, but then - if it floats your boat, it certainly is kinda cool.
As for converting - hell yes there will be converting! I'd say 80% of my wolves are converted to a certain point. Grey hunter boxes are stuffed to the brim with extra wolvy bits so you can combine a standard box of marines (which is slightly cheaper) and a grey hunter/blood claw/wolf guard box to have 2 equally awesome looking units (in fact, using all the bits on the 10 models in the box will make them look rather crowded - a bit like they magnetized their suits and then ran through a smithy, with anything that wasn't bolted down sticking to them in one way or another).
When I think of something witty, I shall put it here.
I've taken some pics, but I don't really like them. I'll start a painting blog type thing tomorrow (with nicer pictures), I'll put some pictures up there.
When I think of something witty, I shall put it here.
