I posted this on bgg and though I would leave it here as well.

I thought I would post a space marine build that I've been working on. I would love to get some feedback, and some great strategy discussion.

This post is for a specific build, if you want to see an overview of the space marine faction, checkout UmbralAeronaut's amazing faction overview here in the strategy forums.

Onto the build:

This strategy relies on the marine's dominate ability to gain quick access to tier 2 ground units (land raiders) and using direct the faithful to amass a very powerful push in the second round of the game.

Starting setup:

A few important things have to happen during tile setup to make this strategy viable. Number one, you need to be able to dominate for a cache token on the first round. Number two, warp storms and tile placement have to allow you some breathing room. That is to say, make sure your opponent can't do too much damage to you on the first round. And number three, place your space marine in a position to be aggressive on round two.

Edit: you will want to start your home sector with the two reinforcement token side up for help with early aggression.

How does it work:

Turn one: dominate the system with your marine to gain s cache token and upgrade your marine to a land raider. ( five materiel remaining)

Turn two: build a city using your cache token. (Four materiel remaining)

Turn three: strategize to buy direct the faithful. If you are sure you will have at least five materiel for round two, then go ahead and grab a combat upgrade*(see the edit at the bottom) as well.

Turn four: this one you will have to play by ear, I would either dominate for more cache or reinforcement tokens, or advance to increase your materiel supply or to set up your turn two attack.

Round two:

Strategize in the system with your starting factory. Turn the factory into a city using direct the faithful, and purchase armored advance or break the line. Collect a few reinforcement tokens and then attack using your very powerful land raider and its upgrade card. Make sure to send in reinforcements so it won't be routed. (Edit: if you can send a scout with this first push it becomes much stronger as you can commit up to two reinforcement tokens rather than one.) This is a very powerful turn two army, and you should be able to claim an objective, or advance to a very powerful position.

After the attack:

Continue to use dominate action to upgrade scouts to marine to land raiders.

Use strategize actions and direct the faithful to transform your cities into factories (or bastions if you want recruitment worlds).

The rests of the game should look like this, use strategize to turn a city into a factory and purchase a command level 0 upgrade card. Build from your factory. Then, next round strategize again turning your factory back into a city and buying another command level two combat upgrade.

Using this strategy, you can gain a powerful combat deck and ground army very quickly.

*Edit: I would suggest skipping the drop pods combat upgrade for the first few rounds as your marines should be quickly turned into land raiders using your dominate ability. It might be best to take the level 0 scout combat upgrades as you can trigger them with reinforcement tokens.

Let me hear your comments! If this gets some positive attention, I'll post my quick tech orcs build. It's somewhat similar to this build, but it focuses on transitioning into gargantuan on round 3.

Thanks for reading!

in this game, no matter the units if you have no cards that suport the unit. no matter have two LR in the second round if you can´t get a combat card, I've seen several times and fails when I read the rules and thought it was OP but not

in this game, no matter the units if you have no cards that suport the unit. no matter have two LR in the second round if you can´t get a combat card, I've seen several times and fails when I read the rules and thought it was OP but not

Maybe you misunderstood. This does give you a level 2 upgrade card before the attack, not two land raiders. I agree two land raiders isn't that powerful. It's the attack card that makes it strong. Even if you don't happen to draw it in that first battle, you should still have a large advantage.

in this game, no matter the units if you have no cards that suport the unit. no matter have two LR in the second round if you can´t get a combat card, I've seen several times and fails when I read the rules and thought it was OP but not

Maybe you misunderstood. This does give you a level 2 upgrade card before the attack, not two land raiders. I agree two land raiders isn't that powerful. It's the attack card that makes it strong. Even if you don't happen to draw it in that first battle, you should still have a large advantage.

yeah you are right

I think that such rigid thinking is bad in this game. While there are grand strategies... there is a lot of reactionary planning you need to do. I am not sure I agree with the entire concept of going in with per-designed "builds". I think this would lock you into predictable patterns and make you much easier to beat, weakening your game immensely. You maybe good for "one" game but next time you play you would be telegraphing you moves from miles away.

I think that such rigid thinking is bad in this game. While there are grand strategies... there is a lot of reactionary planning you need to do. I am not sure I agree with the entire concept of going in with per-designed "builds". I think this would lock you into predictable patterns and make you much easier to beat, weakening your game immensely. You maybe good for "one" game but next time you play you would be telegraphing you moves from miles away.

But if this build is powerful, your opponent have to beware of the rush , and may disturb his plan.

‘ predictable patterns’ maybe a fake move. Such builds can make a game shines.

I think that such rigid thinking is bad in this game. While there are grand strategies... there is a lot of reactionary planning you need to do. I am not sure I agree with the entire concept of going in with per-designed "builds". I think this would lock you into predictable patterns and make you much easier to beat, weakening your game immensely. You maybe good for "one" game but next time you play you would be telegraphing you moves from miles away.

Agreed. We see a lot of this sort of thing from new TI3 players. They come to the table after putting the rulebook under a microscope and thinking up grand strategies and when they deploy the strategy they get owned. This will happen in Forbidden Stars as well its just that right now there are no experts in the game so any strategy you try is going to be a new strategy at most tables. After a while though veteran players will know every trick of the trade and this sort of stuff will never work as is the case in TI3. The only way to win a game of TI3 at our table these days is to reckognize that its a dynamic game where you have to find the oppertunities and exploit them as they come up.

While I agree in general that you can't rigidly define your entire game from the onset, this is a strict optimized first turn. It isn't a game stretching grand strategy. Really you could go many different ways on your second turn instead of the land raider attack that I initially wrote.

Perhaps I should have posted this as a first turn optimization that can lead you into a good setup for the early game. I feel that in general, you can plan your first turn if you place you initial planets and warp storm correctly.

And I also agree that if you use this build every game, you will signal to your opponents exactly what you are doing. It isn't meant for that. It's just one idea for a game start. And I think once people get a ton of plays under their belt, they will have a few starting builds that optimize their starting resources, and spring board them into the rest of their strategy.