How to defend against Marbo?

[Sgt. Nuthugger]

My buddy started collecting IG a few months back. I play C:SM and have been beating him pretty consistently up until now, that he has bought most of the units he needs for 1.500 points. But since the first game he has always fielded Marbo and boy does that dude open up a can of whoopass every single game.

 

Last game he destroyed 260 point termy combat squad and then survived a blast from an autocannon and two lascannon shots from my pred, then proceeded to blow it up with a meltabomb next turn. The game before that he finished off a whole tactical squad in a rhino by himself.

 

And I can't seem to find any counters, he deploys wherever he want's and usually destroys what he's attacks with his big blast bomb thingamagjig. And for a measly 60 something points he destroys units worth 3-4 times his own cost.

 

So what am I missing? Is there something I can do to help protect my dudes or is this just something I have to accept and stop fielding slogging termies?

[ShinyRhino]

I faced him for the first time this past weekend.

Overall, I was unimpressed. My opponent deployed him on the roof of a small building near my deployment zone, and then forgot to do anything with him that first turn he arrived. One model tucked away on a roof is easy to overlook. Since it was the opening round of a tournament, there was no way I was reminding him about the model (though I forgot about him, too), nor was I allowing him to "go back" through the Assault phase to shoot with the bugger.

 

He did drop his demo charge on some of my Assault Marines, and killed six, IIRC. They then ran off the table.

 

The best you can really do against him is plan ahead, and not bunch up your Marines. Marbo dies like a chump to one round of dedicated fire. He's an easy point in any game using Kill Points.

[Frosty the Pyro]

Last game he destroyed 260 point termy combat squad and then survived a blast from an autocannon and two lascannon shots from my pred, then proceeded to blow it up with a meltabomb next turn. The game before that he finished off a whole tactical squad in a rhino by himself.

 

did you just miss, or did you just roll a lot of ones to wound. He doesnt have an inv save and both of those weapons are enouph to ID him a T3.

 

 

Anyway, there isnt alot you can do about marbo. But here is the list

 

Be in a transport

Be spread out

Be in reserve

Make your inv saves

Make your cover saves. (though be aware if this will probly let him have cover saves too, and he has stealth)

 

After he drops his detpack marbo is not that big of deal, his poisend blade is not a power weapon and his pistol only gets one shot a turn. He's T3 with a 5+ armor save, and only 2 wounds, he should NOT survive your shooting phase unless you have bigger fish to fry (and likely you'll have something that only has him in range)

[Sgt. Nuthugger]

Thanks for the reply's, I thought as much, I was hoping there was some kind of trick to neutralizing him.

 

He was in cover so I only managed to get a single wound on him, I thought he was an eternal warrior?

 

I guess I just have to constantly think about him being deployed after turn one and try not to have any juicy targets on the table like deepstriking termies all bunched up. When he's thrown that big blast I usually dont worry about him, until my tank got meltabombed haha.

[Wolf Guard Dansef]

Yeah, I've had a few hairy moments with Marbo before as well, but I tend to find he's a one hit wonder. The best way to defend against him in my opinion is to play how all SM armies should be played, with units constantly supporting each other - i.e making sure there is always a unit on nearby/on hand to lend aid.

 

The first time I came against Marbo he didn't do wonders for SW/IG relations by taking out nearly a whole Long Fang squad. However, once he was finished giggling like a little schoolgirl, my Dakka Pred started on him, played with him like a rag doll, and then finished him in one very easy round of shooting.

 

An advantage you have when IG players take Marbo is that they are (from people I've met - no offence intended to all the IG players out there) very confident he will make us cry and fear him and change our entire battle plan to be rid of him. They seem quite complacent and smug once he makes an appearance. Yes, he packs a punch, but unlike Rambo - he doesn't take one very well. Especially if it's a big ass power armoured punch to the face, or better yet - an autocannon :D

[Frosty the Pyro]

He was in cover so I only managed to get a single wound on him, I thought he was an eternal warrior?

 

No eternal warior. he should have suffered some instant death.

 

Though I guess to be fair, marbo isnt to different from having a Master use orbital bombardment, he just has 5 less inches of scatter (though due to a 6 inch range its funny when marbo det packs himself). Well that and cover is measured from the center of the blast with OB, and its pinning, and its str 10 (which is only going to matter with some carnifex, wraithlords, and vehicles).

[I AM THE AWESOME]

He was in cover so I only managed to get a single wound on him, I thought he was an eternal warrior?

 

No eternal warior. he should have suffered some instant death.

 

Though I guess to be fair, marbo isnt to different from having a Master use orbital bombardment, he just has 5 less inches of scatter (though due to a 6 inch range its funny when marbo det packs himself). Well that and cover is measured from the center of the blast with OB, and its pinning, and its str 10 (which is only going to matter with some carnifex, wraithlords, and vehicles).

 

And TWC and their ilk.

[waaanial00]

And TWC and their ilk.

 

What? Acronyms are one thing but this makes absolutely no sense.

 

Could you clarify what that means please?

 

Wan

[Brother Nihm]

Thunder Wolf Cavalry I'm guessing.

[waaanial00]

Ahhh. Reading again illk is a word rather than an acronym.

 

According to Rumour this is how Lictors will be appearing in the new nids codex so expect this to happen a lot. As per Marbo its annoying and depending on when in the game he does his thing could be game breaking, however it rarely is.

 

Problem is that you cant guard against it but more react to it, the problem is his Demo Charge as others have mentioned he goes down to normal shooting fairly rapidly but if you dont keep your uinits supporting each other you can quickly find that the only unit in position to kill him is the one he has just detonated. Would make a great unit to crack an objective camper but you will still get your cover save.

 

Just avoid him unless you really have to kill him (or its a kill point mission - easy kill point) because after his demo he rarely has the power to influence the rest of the game.

 

Wan

[Giga]

The best thing to do about Marbo is to make sure your transport don't get popped by turn 2. And if they do get popped, make sure your marines get into cover ASAP. That demolition charge isn't really dangerous if your marines are spread out in area terrain, with a nice 4+ cover save to keep them happy.

 

The good idea is to also pop smoke with vulnerable vehicles (dreadnoughts, predators, vindicators, even whirlwinds) by the end of turn 1 or turn 2. For example, your 2nd turn, next turn marbo might come out of reserve, you pop smoke with your vehicles and get a nice 4+ cover save when marbo comes. This tends to discourage other players, making them use the demolition charge for something else.

 

You should also keep marbo in mind, so move you attack bikes from terrain to terrain until marbo has appeared and used his demolition charge. You attack bikes might end up with a wound or two from dangerous terrain tests, but at least they won't all be obliterated in a single shot.

[I AM THE AWESOME]

Thunder Wolf Cavalry I'm guessing.

 

Heh... sorry about that.

 

Nihm, you get a cookie ;)

[Sgt. Nuthugger]

He was in cover so I only managed to get a single wound on him, I thought he was an eternal warrior?

 

No eternal warior. he should have suffered some instant death.

 

Though I guess to be fair, marbo isnt to different from having a Master use orbital bombardment, he just has 5 less inches of scatter (though due to a 6 inch range its funny when marbo det packs himself). Well that and cover is measured from the center of the blast with OB, and its pinning, and its str 10 (which is only going to matter with some carnifex, wraithlords, and vehicles).

 

Ah good to know, I'll ram that down his throat next time. Fought him again yesterday and this time FINALLY Marbo did nothing, but that was my friends fault. He decided to be greedy and try and blow up a Redeemer with the pack instead of going for the Razorback sitting on top of an objective. Next turn I flamed the bejesus out of him, great success.

 

But I guess that's pretty much the only solution, to have lots of targets and none of them more vunerable than the next. He had too many juicy targets to choose from and not a single obvious one so he chose... poorly :)

[Vaktathi]

Basically just keep your dudes spread out as much as possible and remember that he's only T3 with a 5+ save. The biggest target is dudes that had their transports popped or that disembarked to shoot at something.

 

Really, he's just there to kill stuff and then die. He's a demo-charge delivery system, and little else most of the time. I've never had him live more than one turn yet. He comes in, kills most of a unit I just shot out of a transport, and then promptly gets killed by a bolter after that. He's scary in that he will usually kill far more than what he cost and he can really kill expensive infantry with that demo charge, but he's also very easy to kill.