Thursday, November 5, 2009

IG or SM?

So, as I said in an earlier post (albeit in a much emo-er way), I'm going to be consolidating my collection. I'll be selling/trading the stuff I don't use any more (my B-listers) and focusing more on having armies as opposed to collections. I own one of everything of my marines, and my Orks too. That dog don't hunt. My Orks are more or less settled in as a Battlewagon brigade style mekky list, all I need is my buddy's broken up Wave Serpent to convert into my 4th and final Battlewagon.

So, with my Orks sorted, I turn to my Dark Angels. If ever you wanted a good example of a clusterfuck style army, this is it. Some of these guys date back from when I started a good 8 years ago with the 3rd edition starter set. The marines are still kicking around, but the DE are MIA (probably KIA, you'd have to ask Genestealer about those). I have my half company from my days as a fluffy bunny scrub player too. When AoBR dropped I finally got my Deathwing off the ground and thanks to Space Hulk I now have around 35 Terminators.

The way my collection is I would need a significant rework to make them even remotely competitive. Sorry, foot marines in a gunline ain't gonna cut it. I've got a trio of Rhinos (1 is a golden oldie, used to be a Whirlwind), a triple lascannon Predator, 1 HB/AC Speeder, and 3 Dreads. No Land Raiders to speak of, but I do have Sammael on his Speeder. I've got 50 or so Tac Marines, Devastators, 10 Assault Marines, 20 Scouts, 25 robed marines, and a good mix of heavies and specials (no meltas of course, fuck you 4th edition). I also have every character under the sun, Azzie, Zeke, 3 Librarians, a jump Chaplain and about 4 captains. And let's toss in 6 RW Bikes and an Attack Bike for funsies. There's a lot there, just a mess really.

I don't have nearly as much for IG, just 2 Russes, 30 guardsmen, 3 HWT, 2 Sentinels, a Chimera, and a converted Inquisitor plus retinue.

So, I'm trying to decide if I should just scrap them all in favor of IG, or rework them into something passable. The Termies and Bikes are staying, no question since I'm making my DW/RW army out of them anyway (just need 1 more RW Battleforce, 2 more and I can jack Froggage's Bike army).

Why can't I have you both? I love both armies, models, fluff, and play style, but I don't think I can maintain both either in terms of space or money. So a decision must be made. I'm not getting rid of the Orks because they're my favoritest army ever and I'm not getting rid of the Deathwing because they're also my favoritest army ever. Since both of them are somewhat subpar competitively, my IG/SM army needs to be face-smashingly, turnonetablingly, friendswillnevertalktomeagainly, turnituppast11ly competitive. I'm going to be bringing these inglorious basterds to tournies this next year and try my best to stomp on enough balls to encourage our local scene to get with the times and stiffen our competition.

IG and SM have a lot of variety and can be made competitive pretty easily. Making the decision won't be easy. So I'll be doing some analysis of the Codices themselves, unit choices, options, and son, optimal builds and potential contenders, and finally some tactics and strategies that can push them over the edge. I'll also throw in some cost analysis too to see which army ends up being the biggest bang for my buck. At the end I'll hopefully have reached a decision and maybe learned something.

And of course, any suggestions from the peanut gallery would be most appreciated.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have I.G and S.M armies and I really like them both.

If money is a issue, then I would go with space marines. They have a smaller force with less models. If you go mech with guard its £18 per chimera and then £12 per guard unit, if your doing vets. Thats £30 times by 4.

I think guard will be more expensive, but work it out.

I find more space marine players about because they're a easy all rounded army. Not so many guard players, so perhaps be different?

Dverning said...

Hrm. I'd have to vote for dropping the IG.
1. They're still very flavor of the month. Space Wolves have taken over for the Marines, but IG are still the favorite of the "anything but Marines" crowd.
2. Spinning the IG you have to a viable force? 4-6+ V's, 4+Chimera, and however many more Troopers w special weapons and all. That's going to be a chunk of change and time.
3. A "Green Marine" list can share models with your Doublewing. Depending on how your Termies are armed, you might have the basis for a pretty solid WolfWing, Vulkan or Shrike list. With your bikes, you have a start on a competitive Khan Outflank list. Or you could just pick up another Pred or a couple Vindies, plus maybe a few Razorbacks and run stock Vanilla Mech Marines.

Cheers!