Friday 4 November 2011

In the Company of Marines


(Dave still cannot keep a straight face when he sees my pink 'n' purple Marines)
One of my fevered ideas, of which I have many, is to field a full company of one hundred Space Marines in a game of 40k. In a moment of weakness on Thursday, Gav (aka Claws & Fists, the head honcho around these parts) agreed to satisfy this most indulgent of requests and so, this coming Thursday, we will take to the table to fight out this Battle Royale.

In the Grey Corner...

...will be Gav's trusty Space Wolves - what else! Gav and I have played may games over the last two-and-a-bit years, since we both re-entered the hobby (originally unbeknownst to each other) and I struggle to recall a time when I have bested his wolfpelt-clad saviours of humanity.

In the Pink 'n' Purple Corner...

...will be my Chaos Space Marines, joined by about another seventy more Marines that I bought cheap from a mate of mine during the summer. These hundred power-armoured warriors will form the core of my Company of Marines for Thursday night's game, but my quandary is, which codex is best suited to fielding a full company of foot slogging Marines? The only requirement is that there are one hundred Space Marines on the table at the start of the game. They can be Scouts, regular Marines, Assault troops or even Terminators. I'm also happy to use a few Rhinos, as long as the points do not exceed 1,750pts.

My choices are:

 - Codex: Chaos Space Marines
 - Codex: Blood Angels
 - Codex: Space Wolves

The CSM book is my prefered option, as it allows me to field twenty-man strong Troops units which easily satisfies the purely numerical requirement of one hundred marines, however we all know that unless you play Plague Marines & Obliterators & Lash Prince, the CSM book is, umm, a little underwhelming, shall we say.

The BA book is a nice alternative, as the selection of a few Sanguinary Priests - with their 6" Feel No Pain bubble - will go a long way to keeping my infantry alive long enough to get into bolter range.

The third choice is to fight fire with fire. What better to fight Space Wolves with, but another army of Space Wolves? The real attraction here is the ability to field three full-strength units of Cheese-Fangs. As my foot-slogging army will be perilously under-powered in the big-gun department, the ability to fire Missile Launchers (and the odd Lascannon) at six different targets simultaneously is just to good to overlook.

So, it's over to you, the trusty crew of the good ship Claws & Fists. What do you think is the best way of fielding a full company of Marines?  

1 comment:

  1. If you really want to do standard troops on foot then it has to be Space Wolves. Bllod Claws can come in squads of 15 and hit like a wrecking ball if they get the charge. Plus there are some sneaky ways of getting cover...

    Stormcaller is a psychic power that gives a Rune Priest and all units within 6" a 5+ cover save. So, one big unit at the front, Priest in the unit behind. Unit in front gets 5+, everyone behind gets 4+.

    Plus there is Saga of the Hunter which can give a character the Stealth USR. Since that was FAQ'd to be passed to the unit you're with, he'll get a 3+ as long as his unit is behind the initial rank.

    Blood Angels are good, but if you're going to take them on foot, then you should really take them with Jump Packs to give them some mobility. Sanguinary Priests are ace but most of the things you're going to get shot with at range are going to ignore FNP anyway (I'm mainly thinking of Krak Rockets here) This, combined with 10 man squads could seriosuly dilute your punch by the time you reach combat.

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