How does one kill Plague Marines?

[thade]

(For the record I'm running a codex marine force.)

 

PM are amazing. Toughness 5, 3+ save, Feel No Pain...I couldn't get through them. They marched slowly from his side of the table to mine and only because they joined two assaults along the way and the game ended before turn 7 they didnt' reach my objective (capture and control mission)j...9" from victory. Clearly the fire power of one squad of Tacticals is not enough. =\ Any advice? How have you all dealt with PMs?

[I AM THE AWESOME]

Vindicators, Plasma anything (or indeed anything with decent strength and AP 1 or 2), Terminators w/ lightning claws, LRR's also do a decent job, and massed firepower.

[Vincent Black Shadow]

Demolisher cannons are great for taking out high T footsloggers. Sit a vindicator or two where they'll get to take a couple potshots at the heretics.

 

That, or massed fire. A squad of AC and HB toting land speeders, several whirlwind templates, plasma devastators, or the like. Hit them with a lot of dice, some will get through.

[Giga]

It´s easy if your opponent is footslogging.

 

Basically, shoot them with stuff that ignores FNP (usually the same kind of stuff that ignores their armor save, too). Plasma cannons are absolutely awesome when it comes to this, because they´re very cheap on tactical squads so you can easily have 2-3 in your army. Don´t be afraid to hit them with meltaguns, multimeltas, lascannons, and other anti-tank weaponry to thin their numbers. If you rapid fire them, then get more then one squad to do it. If you can throw a lot of wounds on them, then they will eventually start dying despite their big toughness and FNP.

 

As for close combat, th/ss terminators will tear them apart with no problem. ICs with relic blades or power fists/thammers will slaughter the plague marines, especially if the PMs dont have hidden powerfists. If you use a chapter master in your army, dont forget their orbital bombardment, too.

 

Finally, a vindicator or two is REALLY going to cramp his style. :D

[thade]

While I would love to have a squad of TH/SS termies and/or a pair of vindicators, my Warhammer budget is a bit overspent this month ;) so I'll have to make due with what I have.

 

Not sure if any of you saw my other post, but I'm putting together both an airborne and a footslogging vanguard...I'm going to put a rush on those to get them table-worthy (ie fully assembled and painted), hoping all of those storm shields and lighting claws do the trick. I'll save up for the Vindicator.

 

What kind of attacks ignore FNP?

[I AM THE AWESOME]

AP 1/2, power weapons, or instant death. So that's why Vindies and plasma are ideal.

[Spacefrisian]

Youre good old Missille launcher can kill them, they won't get Feel no pain for it.

[Drudge Dreadnought]

Youre good old Missille launcher can kill them, they won't get Feel no pain for it.

 

Yes they will. You get FNP against ap 3.

[Koremu]

Youre good old Missille launcher can kill them, they won't get Feel no pain for it.

 

Yes they will. You get FNP against ap 3.

You don't against Instant Death, and STR 8 is enough to ID T4 (remember that the MoNurgle doesn't count towards avoiding ID, just like bike toughness doesn't).

[Wolf Guard Nostromo]

All mentioned already, but my experience suggests vindicators, whirlwinds and devastators with plasma cannons and missile launchers before administering the coup de gras with thunder hammers and storm shields.

 

They are tough though, particularly to kick off an objective once they are in cover.

[Koremu]

You don't really need Assault Terminators. Regular Terminators will do the job, with the added advantage of shooting beforehand. Remember that Rending hits from an Assault Cannon also deny FNP.

 

It's also worth noting that Plague Marines are Initiative 3, not 4. Lightning Claws definitely have their uses here.

[Giga]

Not sure if any of you saw my other post, but I'm putting together both an airborne and a footslogging vanguard...I'm going to put a rush on those to get them table-worthy (ie fully assembled and painted), hoping all of those storm shields and lighting claws do the trick.

Ummm, how much does that unit cost pointwise? 500 points or so? ;p

[Muctar]

As everyone's said above plasma and power weapons are the way to go, along with vindicators. Though you will usually outnumber a PM army greatly, so lots and lots of bolter fire will go a long way in helping, and don't be afraid to get your tacticals into assault. You'll be striking before PMs, and you should have more marines which is an advantage in and of itself.

[gdeathlegion]

Youre good old Missille launcher can kill them, they won't get Feel no pain for it.

 

Yes they will. You get FNP against ap 3.

You don't against Instant Death, and STR 8 is enough to ID T4 (remember that the MoNurgle doesn't count towards avoiding ID, just like bike toughness doesn't).

 

 

You are incorrect, plague marines are T5 in their profile, if you used mark of nurgle on normal CSM, this might be the case, but plague marines are immune to S8/9 weapons.

 

FNP is ignored by ID which means Strength 10 or force weapons etc.. Or AP 3 or less power weapons, I sugest relic blades with buff command squads

[gdeathlegion]

As everyone's said above plasma and power weapons are the way to go, along with vindicators. Though you will usually outnumber a PM army greatly, so lots and lots of bolter fire will go a long way in helping, and don't be afraid to get your tacticals into assault. You'll be striking before PMs, and you should have more marines which is an advantage in and of itself.

 

I never bet against plague marines like that, the t5 means you wound on 5s so that's 5 wounds total before saves against them, even if you charge. That's one MAYBE two dead plague marines. You will lose combat, fall back, and take more wounds.

 

Just shoot them, to death, sterngard make a joke of T5 and AP3, pick your poison.

[Koremu]

Youre good old Missille launcher can kill them, they won't get Feel no pain for it.

 

Yes they will. You get FNP against ap 3.

You don't against Instant Death, and STR 8 is enough to ID T4 (remember that the MoNurgle doesn't count towards avoiding ID, just like bike toughness doesn't).

 

 

You are incorrect, plague marines are T5 in their profile, if you used mark of nurgle on normal CSM, this might be the case, but plague marines are immune to S8/9 weapons.

 

FNP is ignored by ID which means Strength 10 or force weapons etc.. Or AP 3 or less power weapons, I sugest relic blades with buff command squads

You're wrong. Their Toughness is displayed in all cases as "4(5)" - pp 38, 97, 104, Codex:CSM - and on pp 38 and 97 it says "Special Rules: ... Mark of Nurgle (included in profile)."

 

Furthermore, on p25 it explicitly states that; "Models with the Mark of Nurgle gain +1 Toughness. Like the Toughness bonus for riding a Bike, this Mark does not affect the model's Toughness in regards to the Instant Death rule."

 

You don't get much more definite than that.

 

Krak Missiles disallow FNP on Plague Marines.

 

I never bet against plague marines like that, the t5 means you wound on 5s so that's 5 wounds total before saves against them, even if you charge. That's one MAYBE two dead plague marines. You will lose combat, fall back, and take more wounds.

 

Just shoot them, to death, sterngard make a joke of T5 and AP3, pick your poison.

Actually, Plague Marines are one of the worst targets for Sternguard. You're forced to pick betwen Wounding on 5+ but allowing no armour save, or Wounding on 2+ but grating the 3+ save. In both cases, you still get a 4+ FNP save, so the best odds of killing a Plague Marine is 1 in 6 per hit (so 1 in 9 per shot). Given that those rounds have Gets Hot! as a special rule, it's a 1 in 18 chance of killing the firer! Not good odds.

[Grey Mage]

Plasmacannons. Lots of tasty tasty plasmacannons.

 

Pretty good against alot of other chaos stuff too- rhinos, dreads, defilers, besekers, noise marines, undivided marines, obliterators, raptors....

 

Yeah. Plasmacannons, four of them- thatll do it. :P.

[thade]

Not sure if any of you saw my other post, but I'm putting together both an airborne and a footslogging vanguard...I'm going to put a rush on those to get them table-worthy (ie fully assembled and painted), hoping all of those storm shields and lighting claws do the trick.

Ummm, how much does that unit cost pointwise? 500 points or so? ;p

 

350 points typically; I'll run it between 300 and 380 points depending on the point limit and what kind of mood I'm in. =) The foot sloggers will run a bit more expensive as they'll need a transport (and odds are I'll give them the LR I'm building), but I'm in love with jump troops, so there it is.

 

Turns out we had misread the rules (i.e. I didn't go back to look up FNP when we had to deal with it), so his squad got the benefit (reroll would saves) and zero detriments (I didn't recall that AP1/2, power weaps, 2x str etc disregard FNP). Which means my librarian would have killed half their squad before he went down to their assault (he Gated out of the assault in which they *killed* my terminators with said-invincibility) and my lascannon marine in the tac squad (that was sitting on the objective they were marching on) would have popped more than a few before they closed with that tac squad (which has a power fist in it).

[greatcrusade08]

Im surprised no-ones said snipers!!

They have always worked for me, and Telion can take out the harmful fists and special weapons.

 

GC08

[Kadaeux]

All this arguing about Missile Launchers, Demolishers etc.

 

I prefer antibiotics.....

 

*badum-tish*

 

Ironclads.

[Vel'Cona]

MotF w/ CB and Bike. Able to out pace the PMs, take out their transport (easily) and then kill 2-3 a turn (provided you can maintain max range or something close to it). You also have the nice side effect that PMs can't shoot further than 24" and so you are well protected from reprisals (this, of course, doesn't take into account other support elements. Beware Defilers, Oblits, and other ranged nasties).

[I AM THE AWESOME]

MotF w/ CB and Bike. Able to out pace the PMs, take out their transport (easily) and then kill 2-3 a turn (provided you can maintain max range or something close to it). You also have the nice side effect that PMs can't shoot further than 24" and so you are well protected from reprisals (this, of course, doesn't take into account other support elements. Beware Defilers, Oblits, and other ranged nasties).

 

But, honestly, on a board that's 48" straight across, with Plague Marines driving 12"+ towards you, what are the chances of being more than 42" away?

[Vel'Cona]

Good point. I suppose you can still take out the transport either way, though it is quite difficult to maintain max range with the CB.