Vanguard, SG or Honor Guard?

Today, I'm going to compare these three units and highlight the good and bad of each one.

Vanguard Vets for Blood Angels are simply better than their C:SM counterparts.  Not only are they cheaper, but they have Descent of Angels ontop of Heroic Intervention.  Vanguard Veterans can reliably come in at the right place and the right time to assault anything in the game.  They can take special pistols, carry power weapons and use meltabombs against those stationary artillery units.  The best thing about these guys is their ability to come down and turn the tide of battle instantly.  If you're stuck in combat with a squad that's wearing you down or if you're getting bombarded from afar from some artillery vehicle, Vanguard Veterans can save the day.

For these guys, I prefer a cheap and effective layout:

5x Vanguard Veterans (3x PW, 2x MB) = 205

Keep in mind that the squad leader already comes with a power weapon so you're only paying for 2 more.  For these guys, a Power Fist is another strong investment because of the 2 base attacks, but I prefer Power Weapons and Meltabombs instead.  The reason why is because they're supposed to act as a counter-charge element that can free up tarpits (near a FC/FNP bubble) or destroy non-moving vehicles.  This is why my cheap squad has 3 guys with power weapons.  The rest of your army should have fists already so I'm not really worried lack of S8 on these guys.

Salamanders

"Into the fires of battle, unto the anvil of war!"

Battlecry of the Salamanders

Whenever you hear about Salamanders these days, you hear about Vulkan He'stan.  He is the current Forgefather for the Chapter, charged with finding the lost relics of his Primarch.  Being one of the First Founding Chapters, the Salamanders have served the Emperor with distinction for thousands of years.  They are known for their artisan craftsmanship and their use of heat-based weapons.  This should be no surprise as their homeworld of Nocturne is ridden with volcanic fire and violent radiation.  Weapons such as Flamers and Meltaguns are all commonly seen on the battlefield when the Salamanders are present.  Even Thunderhammers are expertly designed and perfectly balanced; fitting for the forge-born warriors of Nocturne.  By taking the Vulkan He'stan to battle, Space Marine players can truly enjoy the gifts of the forgefather.

Vulkan He'stan trades Chapter Tactics for something truly remarkable.  He makes all your fire-based weapons such as Flamers, Heavy Flamers, Meltaguns and Multi-meltas twin-linked.  Vulkan also makes all your Thunderhammers master-crafted.  The forgfather himself has Captain stats and has a 2+/3++ armor/invulnerable save.  He also comes with a MC Relic Blade (S6) and a built-in Heavy Flamer as well.  Because of this army-wide buff that Vulkan provides, Space Marine players can quickly take advantage of the most destructive weapons of mankind and use them with greater effect than other Marine Chapters.

With that in mind, it's not too difficult to construct a list that can take advantage of these bonuses and keep to the theme of the Salamanders Chapter.  The list below is the list that I constructed at 1750 points:

Raven Guard

"Victorus aut Mortis."

Battlecry of the Raven Guard

The Raven Guard are one of the original Space Marines Legions.  They are known for their hit and run tactics and their ability to strike unseen from the shadows.  Stealth and infiltration is their forte and their attacks are precise and focused.  By striking at their opponents weak points, they leave their opponents disorganized and confused; making them susceptible to the fury of the Space Marines.

My second thematic army from the C:SM Codex was the Raven Guard.  After playing Crimson Fists for a bit, I decided to needed to spice it up a bit.  After looking through the codex for some inspiration, I came along a Special Character named Kayvaan Shrike, Captain of the Raven Guard 3rd Company.  Being one of the more familiar names in Space Marine lore, I quickly looked over his special rules and noted what he can offer to the table.  The first thing I noticed about Shrike is that he trades Chapter Tactics for Fleet.  This makes the assault elements of your army even more deadly as they can close the distance and engage in battle much quicker.  The other thing to note about Shrike is that he can give him and the squad that he's in Infiltrate.  This means that regardless of where your opponents deploy, Shrike's squad can start 18" away from them (or 12" if they're out of LoS).  The ideas quickly started to pour into my head.  I needed an army that can have enormous first strike potential at the weaker points of my opponents' army.  The army needed to be precise like a surgeon's knife and hit hard like a hammer.  This is how I came up with my army list:

Crimson Fists

"There is only the Emperor!"

"He is our shield and our protector!"
Warcry of the Crimson Fists

The first army that I started with in the C:SM codex was the Crimson Fists.  Being a Seconding Founding Chapter of the Imperial Fists, the Crimson Fists received its unyielding tenacity from the Primarch Rogal Dorn.  Lately, tragedy has befallen the Chapter and their Fortress Monastery on Rynn's World has been destroyed the Orks.  Though injured and severely outnumbered, Pedro Kantor, Chapter Master of the Crimson Fists rallied the remnants of his Chapter and fought courageously to purge the Ork invaders from Rynn's World.

Ingame, Pedro Kantor is actually one of the most price effective choices in the entire book.  He's a Chapter Master so he automatically has access to Honor Guard and Orbital Bombardment.  His special rules replaces the entire army's Chapter Tactics with Stubborn and Hold The Line!  Stubborn makes it so you always take morale checks at max leadership when you lose combat and Hold The Line! makes all your Sternguard Veterans count as scoring units.  Probably the biggest bonus that he offers is an amazing 12" aura of +1 attack to all friendly units within 12" called Inspiring Presence.  This is huge!  It makes your basic Marines fight like Veterans and your Veterans fight like gods.  This also effects Dreadnoughts so your Ironclads get 5 attacks on the charge.  Aside from that, he comes with a S4 AP4 Assault 4 Storm Bolter at BS5 and a Power Fist at WS6 and 3 attacks base.

Three days, three Chapters

Over the next couple of days, I'll be revisiting the army lists that I've used for 5th Ed. Space Marines.  Space Marines was the first army that I started with 8 years ago and they're still my favorite.  When the new codex came out, I chose three thematic yet competitive ways to play the new book and I will cover one each day in the next three days.  Each list has a distinctive playstyle, true to the theme of the chapter they represent.  Those glorious heroes are the Crimson Fists, Raven Guard and Salamander Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes.  Enemies of the Imperium beware.

List synergy

A lot of the time I see people making lists that lack the synergy needed to carry out their battleplan.  You see lists that's supposed to be fast take slow units that slow the rest of the army down; or an army that takes too many reserves and it gets dissected on the field turn by turn.  This post will hopefully help people realize these issues and how to improve upon it.

Let's look at some example lists that preform well in battle and analyze why they work.

Eldar Castle list (Defensive):

Avatar

Eldrad

2x large units of Wraithguard

3x Wraithlords

A squad of counter-attacking Harlequins + Shadowseer

The entire army moves slow but the units here are incredibly resistant to damage.  The big to note about this list is that the army's movement speed is the same.  Everything moves as one, the tempo remains constant, and nothing is left stranded or out of reach of immediate assistance.  The Wraithguard, Avatar and Wraithlords are all really tough with their T6+ and 3+ saves.  Eldrad offers great protection to the army via zone wide psychic protection and Fortune on your units so you get that armor re-roll.  Your shooting is primarily short-ranged but with guide  your Wraithguards' no armor save instant death shots become really intimidating.  The main weakness of this army is CC, but that's why you have Harlequins with a Shadowseer hiding behind your Wraithguard as the ultimate counter-charging element.  Overall, this list favors a more defensive player's playstyle but has all the right tools to make it work.  It moves as one, shoots at one and reacts as one.

My Blood Angels unit bucket

So with the release of every new codex, I look through the book and find the best stuff and the worst stuff.  I erase all the garbage units (Chaos Spawn) in my head and concentrate on two sets of units; my competitive units and my fun units.  The competitive units are normally the best units in the codex; whether its because they're cost effective or just really good.  The fun units are the units that are fluffy, fun to take and mess around with, but I wouldn't take them in a serious game.  I completely understand that by dismissing the "garbage" units I throw out half of the units that I can possibly play.. but this is a money game in every sense of the word.  Maybe it's the RTS gamer in me that makes my use of resources so overly-critical, but I think anything with limited expenditure should be taken seriously.  It's all about being cost effective ingame, and in real life because you should only purchase models you know you'll use.

Before we continue, understand that these are my opinions on what the best choices are.  You don't have to agree, in fact, I encourage you don't.  That way, we can all engage in a wider spectrum of gameplay and playtest diversity.

Here is my competitive units bucket: