Plague Marines

[Kennyjapan]

hi every1, my mate just got some plague marines, does anyone know of a topic on B&C about killing plague marines, if not any advice on how to kill em?

[Oojamaflip]

Well, being a Plague Marine player, I can confidently tell you that nothing kills them so just stand there and accept your fate...

 

Ok, jokes aside, the main thing that Plague Marines are good at surviving is small arms fire due to their increased toughness of 5 and Feel no Pain. However, these abilities are useless when faced high strength weapons with a good AP score, such as Plasma weapons, meltas, lascannons and such (or whatever the equivalent is in your army). Dedicated close combat troops with a high number of attacks and power weapons are good too, but bear in mind that Plague marines are great defensive troops who, when in cover, can tie up combat troops for a long time with their attack reducing blight grenades and the fact that they're fearless.

 

Concentrate your fire on one unit at a time as you'll never wipe out a squad with a bit of fire here and a bit there, and don't forget about the other things in his army. Just remember that for us chaos players, plague marines can be a game winning unit.

 

Hope this helps. It's not the most detailed tactical advice, but just bear in mind that plague marines die just like regular marines, it just takes a little more effort than usual.

 

Grandfather Nurgle loves you...

[Kennyjapan]

thanks its the only tactica ive found so its very helpful, ill try it out =)

[Brother Immolator]

I would advise plasma guns assuming you are a marine player.

[DarkGuard]

Vindicators. Also, missile launchers are golden. If you're a Marine player I'd be surprised if you didn't have a healthy amount of them to begin with. And I suppose a case could be made for Terminators, power fists/thunder hammers ignore both FnP and armour, plus still wound on 2s.

[Koremu]

Vindicators. Also, missile launchers are golden. If you're a Marine player I'd be surprised if you didn't have a healthy amount of them to begin with. And I suppose a case could be made for Terminators, power fists/thunder hammers ignore both FnP and armour, plus still wound on 2s.

It's worth remembering that Plague Marines are I3, not I4, so Lightning Claws (especially BA ones) are pretty good against them providing they aren't in cover (or your Raider has Frag Launchers).

 

S4 w/ reroll v. T5 = 55% chance of wound

S5 w/ reroll v. T5 = 75% chance of wound

[Brother Valerius]

Based upon my experience fighting plague marines, a quad-plasma command squad is worth its weight in gold.

[maturin]

For vanilla SM's, the relic blade is probably your best CC weapon against Plague Marines. Of course the problem is getting access to them - it means you're running honor guard, vanguard, or a command squad (maybe? - don't have codex here). Add a chaplain for rerolls and you're golden.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Based upon my experience fighting plague marines, a quad-plasma command squad is worth its weight in gold.

 

 

This. For a little extra oomph, a Librarian with the Avenger helps out on the turn when the Plague Marines have been de-Rhinoed and are all bunched up. Sure, they'll get their FNP, but you're wounding on a 4+ and they won't get their armor save.

[nurglephill]

As a massive fan of the Plague Marine (they are awesome) they do have flaws and they are very hard to use well.

 

What you will find is a lot of the time you will win because your codex is better than ours. Now before anyone jumps in to re-start this rant about how the chaos dex is awful and how it isn't fair blah blah I must say I am a big fan of the current codex. Another thread for this I think...ANYway what I find deals me doom most of the time are ANY weapons that ignore my armour save and my FNP roll. So go through your Codex of choice and pick them out, power weapons striking before I do (Plague Marines being I3) or your heavy plasma gun etc etc.

 

Having said that I know what guns and units can hurt me and what can't so I will pick on and destroy your power weapon heavy HQ unit and your heavy plasma carrying gits from turn one leaving only bolter weapons left at which point I can leave cover and mow you down. So while it IS as simple as saying 'anything that ignored my armour save and therefore my FNP roll is what you want' your opponent knows this too and will target them...so be mindful of this and keep them protected :)

[Something Wycked]

Summation:

 

In shooting, the best weapons to use are Strength 8+ and/or AP 2 or less; Strength 8, AP3 works very well because it denies their armor save and also denies their Feel no Pain due to Instant Death.

 

In assault, power weapons of any variety to ignore their armor and Feel no Pain. They will still be tough to wound at Toughness 4(5), however, so rerolls or Strength bonuses are very handy.

[spartan249]

Assault is the magic phase here. Get your heavy hitters into combat with plague marines, and chances are that you will win. Yes, they deny the bonus attack for charging, but they aren't very threatening offensively. My weapon of choice is, of course, the assault terminator squad, as they are normally cheaper and ignore all the defensive bonuses plague marines enjoy.

[Mysticaria]

Vindicators. Also, missile launchers are golden. If you're a Marine player I'd be surprised if you didn't have a healthy amount of them to begin with. And I suppose a case could be made for Terminators, power fists/thunder hammers ignore both FnP and armour, plus still wound on 2s.

If you can get Terminators WITH missiles... you will really be ahead of the game.

 

Also, keep in mind that you don't always have to kill them right away. The only thing they really do well is survive. If you knock out their transport they aren't going anywhere fast... they don't have outstanding shooting... they don't have outstanding close combat... they pretty much just get in the way and claim objectives. Use your missiles early to knock out their transports, and when they start to get close, hopefully when they are out in the open, light them up with those missiles.

 

-Myst

[thade]

Do you know how I kill plague marines? :) I use a Vanguard.

 

Yes, Hammernators would work too. Also, I can definitely get on the Krak Missile and Plasma band wagon.

[DarkGuard]

Do you know how I kill plague marines? ^_^ I use a Vanguard.

 

Yes, Hammernators would work too. Also, I can definitely get on the Krak Missile and Plasma band wagon.

 

What about the Honour Guard bandwagon? :D

[thade]

What about the Honour Guard bandwagon? :blush:

I gave up on the vanilla dex before I got to try out an Honor Guard, but I always wanted to. The BA "honor guard" is really their command squad...and the real "Honor Guard" is very specifically BA and I can't use them in my DIY. The *one* thing that concerned me about them was their lack of invuln save...it sort of pigeon holes them (I think) into two roles: charging units that don't have power weapons (which they'll wreck) or charging in with another unit (and the other unit engages the power weapon model). There is a third (riskier) role...which is to charge a unit that you have initiative on and hope you wipe them before they get to swing back. Maybe not difficult considering how many attacks they get with power swords.

 

But yea! The HG would tear a Plague Marine unit apart. I'd go with at least half relic blades. Actually, DG would know better than I how to configure them, but I can see them doing well. Str 6 wounds on 2...it's (I think) negligibly worse than Str 4 re-rollable (lightning claws) and has the same number of swings on the charge.

[Koremu]

But yea! The HG would tear a Plague Marine unit apart. I'd go with at least half relic blades. Actually, DG would know better than I how to configure them, but I can see them doing well. Str 6 wounds on 2...it's (I think) negligibly worse than Str 4 re-rollable (lightning claws) and has the same number of swings on the charge.

It's better.

 

Vs. T4, Relic Blade wounds 83% of the time, compared with 75% for LC

Vs. T5, Relic Blade wounds 66% of the time, compared with 55% for LC

 

Only if you have furious charge (i.e. you LC is S5, while your Relic Blade is still static at S6) are LCs better, and even then only on the charge.

[thade]

But yea! The HG would tear a Plague Marine unit apart. I'd go with at least half relic blades. Actually, DG would know better than I how to configure them, but I can see them doing well. Str 6 wounds on 2...it's (I think) negligibly worse than Str 4 re-rollable (lightning claws) and has the same number of swings on the charge.

It's better.

 

Vs. T4, Relic Blade wounds 83% of the time, compared with 75% for LC

Vs. T5, Relic Blade wounds 66% of the time, compared with 55% for LC

 

Only if you have furious charge (i.e. you LC is S5, while your Relic Blade is still static at S6) are LCs better, and even then only on the charge.

Haha, derp; yes, I was factoring in FC (as my army has that). Sorry. :P Still, 11% isn't that big a deal, and Vanguard can take Storm Shields...and a single Relic Blade (in the vanilla dex). YMMV, either way.

 

In general, Plague marines are an assault tarpit; if all you have in the assaulting unit is a single power fist, you can expect to be there for a long while.

[DarkGuard]

Koremu is right, relic blades would be very effective. However, when I attempted to charge Plague Marines a few weeks back I did so with a squad of 5 with only one relic blade (on the Sergeant) and the rest with power weapons, oh, and the Chapter Master with a relic blade. I didn't get to charge as I rolled poorly for terrain and they got lashed away.

 

Anyway, relic blades would be ideal, but in an all comers list it's unlikely as they cost a lot. I know that I certainly run an Idaho pattern squad which has only one relic blade on the squad, and one of the Master, all to keep the points down and numbers up. But even with S4 attacks, you have 20 of them on the charge so you should still dish out some hurt, and then there's the 10 relic blade attacks, so I'd be surprised if you didn't come out on top.

[Koremu]

Koremu is right, relic blades would be very effective. However, when I attempted to charge Plague Marines a few weeks back I did so with a squad of 5 with only one relic blade (on the Sergeant) and the rest with power weapons, oh, and the Chapter Master with a relic blade. I didn't get to charge as I rolled poorly for terrain and they got lashed away.

 

Anyway, relic blades would be ideal, but in an all comers list it's unlikely as they cost a lot. I know that I certainly run an Idaho pattern squad which has only one relic blade on the squad, and one of the Master, all to keep the points down and numbers up. But even with S4 attacks, you have 20 of them on the charge so you should still dish out some hurt, and then there's the 10 relic blade attacks, so I'd be surprised if you didn't come out on top.

Indeed,anything which takes out their FNP & Armour save will do.

 

But your average WS4/S4 attack (no Power Weapon)... you need 36 of them to average 1 kill. Bad odds. Especially with no bonus attack for charging.

[thade]

Indeed,anything which takes out their FNP & Armour save will do.

 

But your average WS4/S4 attack (no Power Weapon)... you need 36 of them to average 1 kill. Bad odds. Especially with no bonus attack for charging.

Yea, they're a tarpit. Fists, Relic Blades, and Lit Claws are recommended if you plan to close with those things.

[DarkGuard]

I keep forgetting about their defensive grenades, make that 16 power weapon attacks and 8 relic blade attacks then.

[thade]

I keep forgetting about their defensive grenades, make that 16 power weapon attacks and 8 relic blade attacks then.

I always forget those things too. The plague marine player never does tho. ;)

[MagicMan]

Ive never found i needed anything particuarly nasty against them in CC. They make soak up alot of fire, but in CC they're feeble.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Feeble? Two attacks with defensive grenades, T5, 3+, FnP? The only thing that gives any sort of advantage over them is the I3. I wouldn't call that feeble.