Email in: Input on my Imperial Fists

"Hey Kirby--

I found your blog a few weeks ago (I know, what is wrong with me...) and I've been doing everything I can to absorb as much info as I can. Its been a great resource. Just a little background about me: I've been "into" 40K for almost 15 years but have played very little. I've read almost every piece of fiction there is and have been reading codices and rulebooks as well. I'm finally at a point that I can start playing games and I'm looking to start slow with vanilla marines before moving into another army (building necrons right now). I don't know much about my local meta yet but here's my crack at a list. I'm not looking necessarily for tournament wins but rather to just be competitive in friendly, local games (I'm not opposed to tournaments once I get my legs under me).


[HQ]
Captain w/relic blade and combi-melta (135)
Librarian w/terminator armor and combi-melta (135)

[TR]
10 Tactical w/flamer and MM in Rhino (205)
10 Tactical w/flamer and MM in Rhino (205)

[EL]
5 Terminators w/assault cannon (230)
1 Dreadnought w/two TL autocannons (125)
10 Sternguard w/five combi-melta and two lascannons in Rhino (340)

[FA]
2 Attack Bikes w/heavy bolter (80)
2 Land Speeders w/heavy flamer and MM (140)

[HS]
2 Predator w/heavy bolter sponsons (170)
1 Vindicator w/siege shield (125)

Now, doing this math, this actually puts me about 110 points shy of the 2K mark and I'd like some advice on what to bring to fill that out as well as what needs tweaking. Perhaps sniper scouts for another troop choice? I have a Land Raider Crusader beautifully painted that I'd LIKE to include but there's not much room for it without dropping something else. The design for this build is to send the tactical squads into midfield in their mobile bunkers. The Librarian will deepstrike with the terminators to provide psychic defense and offense. The attack bikes and land speeders are interference/blocking and perform their assigned role (either tank busting or infantry killing). The predators, vindicator and dreadnought sit backfield and rain hell on anything they can see. The combi-melta sternguard and the captain mount up in the rhino and take the fight to the enemy providing midrange fire support for tactical squads and busting whatever armor that dares to get close enough. The lascannons and remaining sternguard use their rhino as a mobile bunker for sniping enemy armor.

I appreciate any input you can provide! Thanks!

Donny
Dallas, TX"

That's a pretty decent list without much playing experience or for super competitiveness. Couple things to tweak!

1) Vindicators are bad. You can get away with them in BA as they are fast but their limited arc of fire, range, one gun, etc. makes them a really sub-par choice, particularly if you have forward units.

2) Captain has no real place.

3) Not enough Troops.

Those are the major issues but with a few quick tweaks I think you'll get a list which is good for friendly play and if you ever feel like it, can move up to something better. First, drop the Vindi & Captain - replace with another Dakka pred or keep the points for later. Second, turn the Attack Bikes into MM rather than HB - you've got a lot of anti-infantry already with Dakka Preds + Tacticals but mobile MM is nothing to sneer at.

The extra points can now go into two places. First, the Terminator squad to make them 10x strong (and I'd give them CMLs over Assault Cannons) and second, more Troops. Scouts are a good start and then as many small Tacticals in RBacks with combi-weapons as you can (probably only one, two max if you don't get the Pred or extra Terminators). I'd lean towards more Troops here to make the list stronger but if you're less caring about that Terminators are always fun and fit the Fists theme well.

Otherwise good to go though be careful with deep-striking Libby + Terminators - they often work fine walking around and killing things.