Budget army building

Well, the title might be a bit of a misnomer, but what I am really referring to is building an army and making good decisions based upon total points for an army to work to its optimum capability.  Let's face it, marines are an elite army points-wise, but are generalists in gaming terms.  Because of this, we have to spend points carefully when constructing an army. So, the dread list, though not top-shelf when it comes to competitive ability, can be pushed in the more competitive direction by making appropriate selections.  This said, I have found that I have to take a hard line as to which units do what in my army. This leads to the great debate currently going on in my: single-purpose points saving units vs. duality.

Any player worth their salt will tell you that in a game of 40k, having built-in duality in a unit is the goal in mind.  Typically this is done by providing for a way to handle infantry/hordes and armor all in the same unit.  This has always been the dividing line since I have started playing.  As such, any unit that specializes in one or the other generally bears with it the criticism that it doesn't operate to handle both contingencies.  I would agree with this in principle.  Your eldar banshees are great at hacking up infantry units, but just don't stand a chance of popping armor.  As such, they usually are passed over. 

Unfortunately, in an army where each unit costs a premium, you can't get duality in every unit, even if it is possible due to wargear and weapon selection. So, how do you solve this problem?  Synergy.  Bring a mix of dual purpose and single purpose units that compliment each other on the field and you are golden. Even more so if you can pull off a battle plan that implements these units working together at optimum levels.

Looking at my dread heavy list, I realize that I have to pay around 850pt just on my master of the forge plus his dread buddies.  If I want to add venerable or ironclad status to the dreads they get pricier, so I have to look at what can stay and what needs to go.  Luckily, this doesn't necessarily mean units.  It usually means dropping equipment so that a unit loses its duality in order to support another single purpose unit.  Thus, I will take a look at my list and go through it unit by unit to show how dropping duality in favor of synergistic duality might work.

Basically, synergy means 1+1=3.  When you put multiple things together, they greatly increase their overall ability.  That said, synergy in 40k centers around being able to take out armor and then kill its contents with as few losses as possible to your own army.  Easier said than done, right.

Because vanilla marines aren't good in combat, they need another way of handling infantry units. I propose two things, torrents of fire and flamers.  Both can wrack up kills and will outright kill non-MEQs. 

On the flip side, vanilla marines have plenty that can pop armor. 

That leads to the building of synergy.  The army I build needs to be able to hammer armor from turn one while troop killing elements get into position.  When they are in position, flamers, double-tapping bolters, and finally combat should see off those units.  Here is a wacky rendition of my previously built dread list.

HQ
Master of the Forge- pistol/power weapon-115pt.

Elite
Dread- 2x TL autocannon- 125pt.
Dread- 2x TL autocannon- 125pt.
Dread- 2x TL autocannon- 125pt.

Troops
Tac squad- missile, flamer, sargeant with combi-melta and meltabombs riding in rhino-220pt.
Tac squad- missile, flamer, sargeant with combi-melta and meltabombs riding in rhino-220pt.
5 Scouts- pistol/CCW, sargeant with combi-melta and powerfist- 110pt.


Fast
Landspeeder Storm- multi-melta- 65pt.
Landspeeder- multi-melta, heavy flamer- 70pt.
10 strong assault squad- 2x flamers, powerfist-235pt.
Heavy
Ironclad Dread- DCCW/melta, seismic hammer/flamer, assault launchers, pod- 180pt.
Ironclad Dread- DCCW/melta, seismic hammer/flamer, assault launchers, pod- 180pt.
Ironclad Dread- DCCW/melta, seismic hammer/flamer, assault launchers, pod- 180pt.

So what do we have?
Armor popping ability- 12 autocannon shots, 2 missile launchers, 8 melta shots.
Infantry busting ability- 4 heavy flamers, 5 flamers, bolters, assault squad for tying things up, iron clads in combat

The gist of the army is that its many units are good specialist units.  Thus, it is of utmost importance to place units so that they build synergy, ie dreads landing and opening up tanks so that assault squads and tac marines can flame the units inside to death.  Where many armies utilize synergy as a bonus that makes their already nasty army harder, this army will need it to survive. This isn't perfect and it probably sucks, but I think it brings a lot to the table.  I will playtest it in the near future and let you know how it goes. What do you think?  I am interested in your comments.