GWvsJohn Talks Tactics: Space Marine Close Combat

So, TastyTaste is an idiot. But in the midst of his ramblings, one thing spoke to me. “Stelek’s constant reliance on firepower in his lists and his play (that is if he even plays games anymore) leaves you wondering does he even know about the Assault phase anymore?” While TT is trying to flame, and he uses anymore twice in one sentence, he does have a point. Stelek puts a huge focus on shooting, especially in his vanilla Space Marine lists. Now, don’t get me wrong, Stelek is a much better player and builder than I am, but I never feel comfortable going to battle without some “reliable” CC. With the addition of CC capable Nids, Angels and Wolves to the “sub-par”/CC oriented CSM and Orks, I’ve seen too many games become a race to kill all my opponents CC units before a lone Wolf Lord or Greater Daemon wrecks my line. This article will look at how we can incorporate some CC into an otherwise shooty SM list.

The obvious answer would be TH/SS Terminators in Land Raiders. The downside is that this combo costs 1000 points (bringing 1 “rock” is a terrible idea) and after we add in min troops, we only have 600 points to make a “shooty” list. That’s not gonna fly. We need cheaper options. Let’s run through the possibilities.

Master/Captain – I don’t think we need to go too deep into why these aren’t good options. T4 without EW makes them PF bait and they get expensive real fast. Still, they can ride in transports and are relatively immune to shooting.

Chaplain – He adds support for a CC unit (if we ever find one). Still, 2 wounds at 3+/4+ for 100 points doesn’t seem great. If we have a CC unit and a way to have him roll with them he might be worth his point. We’ll revisit him.

Librarian – Null zone is almost mandatory in an all-comers list, so we have 1 power to choose. With 4’s and 2w and no ++ save, I just don’t see the CC powers being better than the shooty ones. If you’re close enough to charge, Avenger is usually going to be better than s6 or i10. We’ll be bringing him for a Hood and support, but he’s not a CC threat.

Dreadnought – Now we’re getting somewhere. A regular Dread is cheap, packs a multi-melta, can ignore small arms and has 2 i4 PF attacks. Downsides are a crippling lack of speed and a vulnerability to AT fire, particularly short ranged melta-weapons. We can drop him to up speed, but he can’t charge on the drop and is melta bait. Overall a dread is a solid CC support unit and fits into a variety of lists (see Stelek’s original Best Of Marines style lists)

Ironclad – 30 points nets you +1 AV, +1 A, +1 damage in CC and +1 HK (for 10 more) but costs you 6/12” of melta range. They have the same downsides as a standard dread, only amplified by the increased cost (8+2d6 wrecks av13 nearly as easily as av12). I’ve had some success with a triple ‘Clad list. Turn 1 launch 6 kraks, turn 2 run and smoke, turn 3+ try to get in CC. The lack of speed really becomes apparent against very shooty lists like Tau and IG. The ‘Clad doesn’t become a real threat until turn 3, giving AT fire 2 turns to take out my shooting, then rip the Dreads turn 3. Still, I think they’re our best option so far.

Assault Marines – Another big debate unit on Warseer. I just don’t see foot marines who are scared of terrain being effective, even with a 12” move and CCW. If they could carry a pair of meltaguns, maybe, but currently they’re 200 points of ablative wounds for a lone PF. Not a great buy IMO. Adding those FC/FNP bubbles in the BA dex really makes a difference. I guess you could spend 235, hide 10 of them behind your Razorback line and have them jump out as a last-ditch speed bump. They really need some sort of bump in the SM dex. A special character to make them score might be enough.

Scouts – 5 with a fist in a Storm can be a decent surprise unit, and they score. 4 4+ save models make poor ablative wounds for a PF and the Storm is a poor use of a FA slot. Not the worst way to spend 160 (take the HF on the Storm to eliminate bs3) but will only catch noobs off guard.

This brings us full circle. What about TH/SS Terminators. I don’t want to spend 1000 to ride in style, but what about just 10 on foot? We all know that they’re one of the best CC units in the game, but on foot they’re soooo slow, and they don’t have any shooting to offset that speed (compared to a Dread/Ironclad) But we can speed them up. Let’s add a Termie Libby with Gate and Null. We were bringing a Librarian anyway (and in this way I can use my Terminator Librarian model, right Kirbs? J) so while the unit “costs” 525, it’s really more like 425. It gives your Librarian somewhere to hang out, which can be tough in a Rhino-based list. The unit seems versatile to me. Against fast/CC lists, it is a big scary roadblock type unit that you have to grind through to attack my juicy shooty units. Against a gunline-type list, Gate them across the board and extend your threat turn 1. With 2+/3++ the unit can weather a lot of the return fire and since it doesn’t shoot, it can run out of “please template me” formation. Just drop them into an army of 1500 points of shooting and voila, instant CC. You could even bring 2, or add 2 Ironclads to make a very CC army. This unit is also a decent spot for a Chaplain. 30 TH attacks with re-rolls to hit become a very scary AT unit, even if the tank is moving fast.

I think I’m going to write up a list with this unit and playtest it a bit. What does the Pink Army think? Can this unit work in a competitive environment?

-GWvsJohn