To Tank or not to Tank, that is the question.

[DoomKnights]

So far in the past three weeks my army lists have gone without any time of tank, dreadnought or land speeders in my space marine army.

I have to say the extra bodies are helping greatly. I have been having an easier time holding my own against all races with the exeption of eldar of course. The sad irony is that half my 10k army is put into those things! Having four dreads, a Land Raider, Land Raider Crusader, five pred ani, three pred des, eight rhinos and two Land Speeders.

After playing a good deal of games without them it has come to my opionion that the only good armour so far are venerable dreadnoughts. Any other type gets killed far far too easy with one shot. Smokes are good, but only last once. It comes down to what uses the slots the best and I still find myself shrugging on tanks. Points wise they are sometimes nice and cheap, but I don't feel they have the staying power that eldar has, nor the ability to up their armour stats.

I might just for fun make a tank army again, knowing full well facing those I play who use chaos will die far to fast. Although, I will say that having three preds and then taking the dev trait would be fun. The power you can bear with so much long range attacks would be insane.

[The Farseer]

It really depends on the sort of opponents that you fight. I personally use two dreadnoughts and a Baal Predator in my army and they generally survive to do enough damage to justify themselves. Saying that in the same army I have 10 terminators for people to worry about and 24 marines that are a pain.

[DoomKnights]

Wow thats a low body count. With no tanks I come out with around 50-60 marines in a 1500 army. Just the shear numbers is daunting. Although, I will admit I miss using my dreads. I'll start to split my army us soon enough when time allows.

[sirabbadon]

All I have is a LS and Dread. I don't take many vehicles because I use them for very specific purposes. Troops are my bread and butter (mmmm... troops) If the vehicles survive beyond accomplishing their objective, great, but I really don't need them. Other than eldar and tau, vehicles are just too fragile for me to invest much in them.

[Brother Wolf]

Lots of vehicles has the benefit of forcing the opponent to use their best S/AP weaponry to bring them down in a timely fashion, leaving the infantry free to perform it's duties. However, as I've stated on teh forums for quite some time, the switch from 2nd ed to 3rd ed forced most of us IG vets to drop vehicles entirely until new tactics could be devised to keep them alive.

With regards to SM, however, I totally agree that more bodies will tend to prove out stronger than more vehicles UNLESS you bring enough of the right vehicles. My BT Mech force runs 2 Rhinos, 2 Razorbacks, PredA & 2 Vindis w/ 32 Marines @ 1500pts. 1850 throws about 8 or so Bikes into the mix. My Drop Pod armies though bring the pain as 2 Dreads, 60 Marines and 6 Drop Pods. Both are very strong lists. However, the extra 10+ bodies I could throw in the DP list, (or 30 or so extra bodies if I dropped the pods and Dreads), would be enough to go man for man against almost any other shooter force, (IG, Tau), in a far more durable and accurate platform. Losing the mobility to capture objectives and fire on the move, however, is a HUGE hit and tough to come back from.

[Exetus]

I find that if you work appropriately to position your own armor it typically lasts longer. Also, I NEVER get a tank without something else to give the opponent another target to shoot at. Be it dreads in drop pods (huge fan) or another tank to support. I also typically run a couple of razorbacks and rhinos, every now and then a vindicator. Point being is that you can have a very strong force with tanks that gives you a better shot of taking on enemy armor than pure infantry most of the time. Take out their tanks and lots of time the advantage switches to you. However, it's a double-edged sword. Invariably, it comes down to your style of play, more than anything else.

[Olgerth Istaarn]

To me it's got to do with flavor as well.

I just don't see Space Marines as a too-heavily mechanized force. To me they are a SWAT team made of walking tanks. A SWAT team rides up in an armoured vehicle (a Rhino), kicks arse and gets out.

That said, I love dreadnoughts. After a frustrating episode with a FW dread, I finally got all the perfect parts in... and it looks amazing standing next to the ranks of Marines. I like Rhinos, and wish they sucked less. I like the idea of drop pods, and also wish they sucked less...

[Grimjaw]

I say, use tanks/vehicles to support your infantry, not vice versa. Only time you should focus heavily upon vehicles, is if your army is all mounted up in transports (such as Mechanized or Speed Kult).

I run 6 Kanz and a Dread in my Goff list. I feel bad for the poor guys who spend excessive firepower gunning the things down, only to find out their points cost doesn't even cover 1 / 4th of my army list.

[Vretsu]

I have two Russes in my IG. Typically I hide them behind my vast hordes and shell my foes from complete safety with my 72'' range battlecannons.

:/