short range marine armies

[minigun762]

For either chaos or codex marines, do you think its viable to build a list with only short range weapons like plasma and melta and focus on getting up close quickly. The drawback seems to be against really fast lists like eldar who can kite you around but can that be countered with speed and numbers?

[Master of the Shields]

The easy answer c:sm would be... Vulkan! Muwahahahahaha!

 

No but seriously, you could make it viable versus MEQ I think. Especially multi-melta/plasma gun combo in tac squads, MM/HF speeders, standard dreadnaught. Possibly get some drop pods. Against hordes I'd be worried though, as you get overtaken by orks, or severely out gunned by IG gunline armies.

[Br.Pat]

Space Marines excel at Medium-Short range. However, I believe these lists have some trouble against hordes.

[minigun762]

I'm not sure that you'd ever want to try and out gun an IG army at range. I guess the real question is what is the value of those lascannons or missiles on turns one and two compared to more bodies moving forward earlier.

[Arnil]

BIKES.

 

 

BIKES BIKES BIKES> Attack Bike squads are three multimelta models which can move 24 inches if they turbo boost and 12 otherwise. Plus you can sink one in every squad of bikes along with a melta gun and a combimelta in the squad!

 

White Scars FTW!

[minigun762]

BIKES.

 

 

BIKES BIKES BIKES> Attack Bike squads are three multimelta models which can move 24 inches if they turbo boost and 12 otherwise. Plus you can sink one in every squad of bikes along with a melta gun and a combimelta in the squad!

 

White Scars FTW!

 

That is a prime example, MM Attack Bikes are not a long range weapon, instead they rely on speed to get to mid/short range and work their magic.

[Arnil]

Point of interest. I played an apocalypse game today against imperial guard so I can attest to this strategy of outflanked multimeltas working perfectly. Twin linked double tap blotters don't do too bad against troops either!

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Also take into consideration the mission type being played. As long as its not Annihilation, all the speed in the world might keep, say, Eldar away from your predominantly short-ranged guns, but if you're sitting on a majority of objectives, they will be FORCED to come to you to push you off. Remember, most Eldar guns are also quite short-ranged with most reaching no more than 36" (I do believe the only exceptions are the missile launcher at 48" and prism cannon at 60"). 36" is also the max for heavy bolters and plasma cannons, both of which fall into that medium-range category that bridges the gap between our small arms and heavy anti-tank guns (autocannons, lascannons, missile launchers).

 

Take drop pods and come down right on an objective. That way, your opponent must kill the pod as well as its contents to claim the objective -- vehicles can't hold them, but they can still contest them.

 

In kill point scenarios, however, you'll have to start thinking creatively.

[Gothical]

I have thought about this before, in relation to my Salamanders.

 

The biggest concern for me, was that with a short-ranged force (12-24" effectiveness) you can be shut down VERY quickly by an opposing player - the points spent on long-ranged anti-tank seem better placed in strengthening your attack and giving you some redundancy, however in reality the opponent can use *their* long-ranged guns to eliminate your transports and fast-moving units, stranding your force in a position that means it can be easily picked-off and can't really retaliate effectively.

 

The other short-fall is that without long-ranged weapon systems such as Typhoons, Rifleman Dreadnoughts, Predators and Devastators you can't take out the enemy's transports early on - enabling them to either out-manoeuvre you (since they can take out *your* transports at range as detailed above) or to get protection from the lethal (to infantry/commanders) short-ranged weapons, surviving the initial turn of short-ranged deadliness from your own units, then either hitting them with the appropriate firepower, or mincing them in assault.

 

It really bugs me! I don't think it is viable, but if someone can come up with some ideas then I'd certainly be very interested in this topic too!