quantity over quality

[Fausto2071]

am planning on having vast numbers of marines on the board, instead of a smaller force of more elite units, curious if this is a good tactic or not, and if not, what should i go with (unit-wise)?

 

what say you?

[Ryjak]

Well, playing a Horde Marine army can be effective when people don't know how to handle it and aren't prepaired to kill that much Power Armor. Specialized armies will probably tear you to pieces without breaking a sweat, especially armies designed for HtH, as they always plan to munch through Power Armor.

[Lord Sinaris]

It might work well, as long as you are properly mechanized. Foot-slogging mass-marines won't really work against most opponents, Rhino-riding mass-marines with a little punch added to them might, since increased mobility means so much to marines. A few hidden Powerfists here and there to up the CC-capacity, a few heavy weapons staying in the back to threaten enemy tanks, and you've got yourself a nice little army.

Its really nothing experienced opponents couldn't handle though. It might be fun to see your opponents face once you bring out 60+ Marines in a small game, but really, most of the time you will just lack the killing-abilities to really hurt him.

[Fausto2071]

lol mmkay thanks thanks

[Captain Idaho]

I do concur with the above posters. Mass Troops choices in most, if not all, armies generally leaves the army lacking in the knock out punch category. Chaos (both varieties) and all Genestealer armies are different kettles of fish, but even they want a little extra support in most lists. Orks, who can have Nobz as troops, I'm not counting because they are actually Elites choices using a loop hole.

 

To put it another way, when you put your army down on the board, what are you worried about in your opponents army? I worry about the units that can do harm to my units in CC with little or no return from my end (Daemon Princes against Tacticals for example) and units that can nuke my Honour Guard (battle suits and Obliterators for another example).

 

If you want massed Tacticals, mechanise at least 2 or 3 units up and you have some options open to you.

[DevianID]

As with other posters, massed marines are very 'earthy,' per silent requiem's element tactics. Thus, you can win games just by being there till the end without actually shooting a single weapon.

 

Think about a 1500 point list with 6 rhino tac squads with hidden fists for 230 each, with one tac squad 1 marine short for the inclusion of a captain with a powerfist/combiweapon. In objective games, you can beat the enemy simply by avoiding the enemy... alternate rhinos in front popping smoke with rhinos in back who havent smoked, and you can maintain a 4+ cover save for all of your vehicles for 3 turns straight on an open board. Versus armies that hurt in CC, moving 12 inches a turn with rhinos and never getting out will keep the marines safe for the entire game. Lash has no effect on models in transports, and nob bikers will actually lose to 30 marines in combat thanks to 3 hidden fists charging out of rhinos--should they actually catch the 12 inch moving rhinos in the first place. You can also combat squad if you want to put down 18 different units to overwhelm an elite armies ability to split fire.

 

At the end of the day though, while 6 tac squads can be played very well in an earth mind set, many people (myself included) prefer one of the other 3 styles. I am a fire player at heart, so tac squads simply dont kill fast enough compared to other choices in the codex (terminators and sternguard) while an air or water player may find that the extra range and mobility of bikes is more important. Really good earth units can also be the most 'boring' units sometimes.

[minigun762]

Massed infantry works, but you have to go with the fancy wargear to give them that edge against specialists.

That means transports, Power Weapons/Fists, special/heavy weapons etc.

 

The main negative is that after you've added all that stuff, you're looking at a squad that tips the scale @ 250ish points. Thats a fair investment so you have to have a better plan then simply running up the board hoping they don't die.