Response to TKE

TKE put up an excellent analysis of my Hybrid BA list.  Rather than clutter up his comment section with my super long reply, I'll just put it up here just so you readers at home have to keep even more tabs up, fuckers.

Whoa, I'm famous.  Not feelings hurt brah, I'm touched you would take the effort to look at this with a real critical eye.  <3

Emo marines sulk and saunter, just for clarification.

SHPs can't fit pistols because I only had 10 points to spare, hence the melta bombs.  I like toys too, but you can't have any beer until your finish your tequila ;)

I've got sponsons for dakka really.  My assault marines can't reach out and touch somebody across the board, but I can slap them with my Baals no problem.  Baals are in mostly because I wanted that tasty AV13 and sponsons are in because of dakka.  S5 isn't much, but 6 S5 shots apiece combined with the AC can hurt or at least suppress light armor, plus any side armor I can get a piece of.  I've got 6 of the things, losing 1 or 2 wouldn't be too harsh.  And any fire going after Preds is the kind of fire you'll typically need to drag down my RAS.  That's kinda the point of the whole list, everything is pretty much immune to small arms and medium S heavy weapons.

Normal Preds go for the tougher stuff of course.  They really are both dual role, but the Baals lean more towards anti-infantry/light armor while normal Preds have their own wheelhouse.  

I put in sponsons because I want mo' shooting really.  Preds are maneuverable enough that I can draw a bead on what I need to and since I don't have to worry about Rhinos and Razors crowding the board I've only got RAS to block LoS and they won't be giving cover to other tanks, usually.  Baals can scout too, so I can make plenty of room if I need it.

I like hybrid style lists for a couple reasons.  I like versatility, and an army like this has a lot of options just in how it plays.  I can stay off board and use DoA, I can combat squad, I can castle, and so on.  I may lose out on 18" move versus a 12", but full on mech lists can't even use DoA.  Full DS lists can overload the board with targets, but I can get that extra 6" of movement, castle up, or stay off board.  Lots of angles I can work at here.  

I like hybrids that don't suck.  If you wanted to do this with the vanilla book I'd slap you around the head.  BA, IG and SW can pull off armies like this and I like that.  Vehicles are tough, but infantry are squishy, so mixing the two rarely ends well.  If I can field infantry that are either unsquishy (T5, FNP, stubborn blobs), capable of keeping up with armor (jump packs, cav movement) and/or able to do plenty of damage (FCing assault marines, TWC, lots of guns) then I'm happy.  Infantry and vehicles have different weakness and strengths, units that are hybrid-friendly are able to mitigate these weaknesses while maximizing their strengths and meshing together.  Normal Assault Marines are not very tough, have no melta and don't hit hard.  BA RAS fix all that, plus give them reliable DS.  Now what hurts infantry doesn't hurt them as much, it'll take AT fire to really threaten them.  Well, I've got 6 tanks over here too, so how much AT did you bring?    Another thing RAS do better than RAS in Rhinos is they have a much bigger effective assault range.  They don't have to sit and wait, they just hop right in.  Obviously, Rhino squads trade that for their extra layer of protection, but FNP is plenty resilient yes?  This also applies to TWC and SM Bikes, also IG infantry due to their sheer numbers and fun stuff like allies and orders.  

I like armies that don't kill my bank account, and cutting back on my Rhino buying is very helpful.  This doesn't get brought up much, but I'm not made of money.  This hybrid, buying all new, would cost around $420.  A mech list like the one MVB proposed (or I did before) would cost a good deal more.  I'm all about cutting costs without cutting the competitive edge.

I also like being a snowflake, building something a bit different from the established "norm".  Call me zany, but I like playing my Loganwing, Bloodwing, hybrids, and the like.  It's not to throw people off or upset the metagame or any kind of BoLShit like that, it's just me putting my own spin on stuff to keep it viable but still unique.

But, I'm rambling like crazy, so let me get back to the actual list.

If I were to drop the sponsons and go for Riflemen, I'd have 135 points free.  Even if I dropped Mephiston for a normal Libby I couldn't do much with 260 points, or at least enough that I'd see a big change.  I could pick up two RAS in Razorbacks (las/plas) if I dropped the infernus and melta bombs.  2 lascannons, 2 TL plasma guns on a fast platform gives me a pair cheap scoring units and help replace the lascannons I lost.   I'd have less melta, more tanks but with less AV, and I'd lose my mini-MC.  All in all, I'd say it would be a bit of a wash.  Razorbacks aren't the toughest cookies in the jar, and I wouldn't have as much of the "wow" factor as if I had Mephiston and 6 AV13 vehicles.  I'd love to be able to fit in Librarian Dreads, but nothing really sticks out as worth throwing out.

Rhino Squads, MVB style, would also be an option.  They would bring some melta bunkers to help stop stuff like Land Raiders, plus 2 smoking Rhinos holding it down at midfield could bring the pressure on my opponent.  Hell, I could bring a couple more of those for not much pointswise.

HQ

Librarian w/ Blood Lance, Shield of Sanguinius

Elites

2 SHP

Troops

2x RAS, 10 men, 2 meltas, powerfist

4x RAS, 5 men, melta, infernus, power weapon, Rhino

Fast Attack

3x Baals w/ TLAC

Heavy Support

3x Rifleman Dreads

That's 1995 and may even be better than the original.  4 Rhinos zoom up to midfield with smoke or Shield up, Preds and Dreads move in as support to bring down armor, and RAS follow up as the hybrid element smashy.  I could even bring back Mephiston in exchange for a Rhino RAS.  If I were going full mech, I'd swap the RAS for HG or flying Dreads, but with the RAS here I don't have to rely on getting Wings off, I've got plenty of melta, and I have 20 FNP FC marines that can quickly respond and assault, DoA if needed, and generally be the flexible core that I can put to good use.

Christ, that was epic.  Happy TKE?  Look what you did!  Thanks for making me do more thinking, dickhead.  Well, that's my brain for today.  Lemme know what you think, I'm always up to get more lively discussion going.

I'm gonna go get drunk for my birthday tomorrow, and with my new knee brace I can do whatever I want!