To Relic Blade or not to Relic Blade...and other Space Marine questions

Okay guys, with the new Marine codex out I've got some questions, well two questions but I'm sure there will be others so I'm opening the floor for em'.

First, Relic Blades, they sound awesome but should you put one on your commander, with the loss of that extra attack from combat weapons? I'm torn between the Blade and a pair of lightning claws.

Second, between 10 Sternguard veterans in a drop pod and 5 Vanguard Vets deepstriking, which would be the better bang for the buck, since the point costs would be around the same?

Third, not actually for the codex itself but I'm wondering if anyone knows the dimensions of the Thunderhawk gunship?

I like Lightning claws, but what it comes down to is... How often do you need the higher strength....? Unless you are fighting Nids and their high toughness fex's and tyrants, or eldar wraithlords (which are tough to wound period), I would say claws and relic blade are close to one and the same. You wont be able to do much to light vehicles with claws like you could with the blade, but against infantry I think they are on the same par, I would say go with what looks cool Though, I personally would pick lightning claws

I have been hearing NASTY things regarding sternguard and their special ammo... a 5 man Stern squad, in a Drop pod with a libby (with the reroll invulnerable saves power) took out a C'tan in 1 turn of shooting..... thats a 100pt squad (not counting the libby) killing a 300pt model with no questions... I would go Sternguard IMO if I were to buy some myself and had the choice.

Go to the forgeworld website... they actually have the full dimensions of the thunderhawks by their descriptions.

System Commander wrote:I think I listened to the same 40K radio podcast as Matt..

When it comes down to it, I'd agree with Matt that lightening claws and relic blades are pretty close to the same. You'll have one less attack, but your going to be wounding the majority of stuff in the game on 2's. Lightening claws will do more wounds on regular guys becasue of the attacks and reroll wounds. Against tougher opponents though (nurgle marines, daemon princes, etc.) relic blades would probably bebetter. I think in this case the trade off is pretty even and would just be personal preference.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I've always wanted to do a commander on a bike with lightning claws, but was torn with the same fact that it would harm the ability to take on the bigger, nastier stuff like the princes. Ideally I want him with a command squad so I could counter that with having a powerfist on the sargent. Too bad the regular command squad can't take Relic blades. Though with the commander's ws of six I believe that would mean he's hitting everything except the biggest stuff on threes, that's not a bad thing for re-rolling wounds.
What I'm looking for for the commander and his squad is to make them a close combat monster squad that can reasonably take on anything they need to. I'm still don't know if that a relic blade on the commander or a sargent with a powerfist would work better. ^^

I personally like the Sternguard better because they have so many options. Vanguards are crazy expensive, and extremely dangerous, but outfitting with them goodies start to make them scary. Were you planning on giving Vangaurd jetpacks or just throwing like 2-3 relic blades on foot sloggers?

I was thinking jetpacks since that would allow the deepstrike to put them on equal footing of the drop podding Sternguard. It goes without saying that when it comes to Marines, I favor speed and maneuverability over footslogging. I'm leaning towards the Sternguard though, there are more bodies on the field and as you said Robin, you can't argue with the options on the bolter ammo. ^^