How are you outfitting and supporting you PM's?

[Guest]

Simple question. What gear are people putting on their PM's, and what units do you use to support them?

 

I am currently running 3 grouos of a champion with PF, sword, plasma gun. 4x with boltguns, 2x with blight launcher. I am not sure what to run to support them.

[Wolf Lord Loki]

Would probably deprnd on your regular opponents but bloat drones seem a winner at the mo.

[DuskRaider]

I run my Plague Marines the same way I have for the past 15 years... Plasma Guns. 2 x Plasma in each squad, only now I get the bonus third with the Champion. The Champions have Power Fists, a Plague Sword, and of course their own Plasma Gun.

 

I recently built an assault squad all armed for CC with the exception of 2 x Blight Launchers and a Plasma Gun (as well as Power Fist and Plague Sword) on the Champion. The others have 2 x Flails and 2 x Mace / Axe combo. Not too sure how they'll do, but I couldn't resist the idea of Plague Berserkers.

 

As far as support for said Plague Marines, we are spoiled. None of our Independent Characters are stellar in CC, but they make up for it with buffs out the whazoo. Every single one buffs our Troops to a varying degree and I think it's something that both makes the army true to its character of "Infantry First" and makes us unique.

 

As far as support, obviously everything else lends itself to assisting Plague Marines on the field, but the Blight Hauler stands out as having rules specifically for this. It's a fast mobile weapons platform that gives Troops cover as they advance and can assist with some crazy shenanigans when ICs are used as well... such as giving Marines cover into the enemy to allow them to huck a bucket load of grenades or assault first using the Blightspawn.

[Bulwyf]

I've found the best support is to give your opponent enough other targets to worry about that your PM squads don't warrant undue attention.

[happyslugger]

I have 2 x 5 man squads with 2 plasma and fist and plasma on champ. 1 x 5 man squad with 2 blight launcher and fist and plasma on champ.

 

I then used the last 5 out of my PM box to model them as CC with plasma pistol and fist on champ, axes, maces, flail and the melta gun.

 

I find my oponents tend to shoot at other things prior to the PMs.

[Wayniac]

I am running two 5-man squads; one has two plasma and champion with powerfist and plasma, the other has 2 blight launchers and champion with powerfist and plasma. 

 

For support I think drones, crawlers and haulers all have merit depending on what you are aiming to do with your marines.

[Guest]

I have 2 x 5 man squads with 2 plasma and fist and plasma on champ. 1 x 5 man squad with 2 blight launcher and fist and plasma on champ.

I then used the last 5 out of my PM box to model them as CC with plasma pistol and fist on champ, axes, maces, flail and the melta gun.

I find my oponents tend to shoot at other things prior to the PMs.

May I ask why Plasma and not blight launchers?

[TURBULENCE]

 

I have 2 x 5 man squads with 2 plasma and fist and plasma on champ. 1 x 5 man squad with 2 blight launcher and fist and plasma on champ.

I then used the last 5 out of my PM box to model them as CC with plasma pistol and fist on champ, axes, maces, flail and the melta gun.

I find my oponents tend to shoot at other things prior to the PMs.

May I ask why Plasma and not blight launchers?

I can't speak for him but I also run one unit with all plasma. For me at first it was simply a nostalgic thing, plasma being the classic death guard build. But then tactics formed around that. I find plasma and blight launchers don't really work well together. With the launchers I want to advance and fire on the move, plasma I set up in key positions and sit back and shoot. They've been great for reacting to deep striking terminators and the like. My first 8th game the plasma team in one round of shooting neutered a group of terminators while overcharging. Didn't lose a single one either. Meanwhile the blight launcher team was blowing up light vehicles in the front lines. I actually left the champion with the launcher with just a bolter. Though I think a plasma pistol might be a better choice for him.

[happyslugger]

 

I have 2 x 5 man squads with 2 plasma and fist and plasma on champ. 1 x 5 man squad with 2 blight launcher and fist and plasma on champ.

I then used the last 5 out of my PM box to model them as CC with plasma pistol and fist on champ, axes, maces, flail and the melta gun.

I find my oponents tend to shoot at other things prior to the PMs.

May I ask why Plasma and not blight launchers?

 

I like my plasma guys to hang back and double tap at 18" and I do not like mixing weapons in squads if I can help it.  

[Kobrakei]

I've gone with 3 units of 7 marines with plasma gun and blight launcher including a champ with power fist and plasma. Got a decent amount of umph. Generally I'll shield them with two lots of 20 poxwalkers

[SkimaskMohawk]

Don't really understand putting a power fist on the seargents for such small squads. Msu style generally tries to shave unnecessary points; a melee weapon for a shooting unit that you want to keep shooting isn't great

[TURBULENCE]

Don't really understand putting a power fist on the seargents for such small squads. Msu style generally tries to shave unnecessary points; a melee weapon for a shooting unit that you want to keep shooting isn't great

me personally, I just love power fists. And considering that our terminators can't take them, gotta slip them in somewhere. Plus with how many times the 'hidden power fist' has been a boon to me across multiple additions of this game, it never feels like a bad choice. Saved my bacon and backhanded characters out of existence numerous times.

[Wolf Lord Loki]

Plus given most of our buffs are auras which affect plague weapons (which are prodominently cc weapons) at some point our plasma marines are going to want to close to combat range.

 

And most of the models for sargent already have a powerfist modelled on..

[Lord Marshal]

Yeah, for me it's literally a case of 'most of the stock models already have power fists'. 

[BlackTriton]

With the recent point adjustment, plague launcher are a lot more atractive than plasma. So I load out a typical 5 man with 2 PL and either powerfist+ melee marine or plasma gun and bolter.

Support for them depends, a Daemon prince to cast protective spell and provide RR, pox walker to activate the untargetable stratagem, if they go in melee

Multiple blight hauler and chaos lord if they stay at range.

Just a lot of drone to charge foward to distract fire power from them.

Always have a biologus to enable the blight bombardment stratagem!

 

I want to build a 2 melta squad to see how it performes next to blight launcher, for diversity and because I have the bits.

[SkimaskMohawk]

I mean, you don't have to pay the points for them, and considering every monopose champ has a knife/sword in addition to the fist it's not like you're telling your opponent they're being clobbered by an unactivated fist.

 

 

As for this

 

 

Plus given most of our buffs are auras which affect plague weapons (which are prodominently cc weapons) at some point our plasma marines are going to want to close to combat range.

 

There's so many confusing things here. There's one aura buff and one psychic buff, that's it. There's more melee plague weapons than not, but a knife marine is really bad in combat; low model count squads (the best way to maximize shooting plague marines) would never want to trade 3x plasma guns or plasma gun 2x blight launcher for 2 power fist attacks and 4 str 4s that reroll to wound. Very odd choice to throw a squad with three special weapons and low amounts of low damage attacks into combat so you can hit once with a powerfist.

 

Idk guys, not hating the fist always, could be a lot of fun in a big melee blob with all the melee special weapons, but in small units that are kitted to shoot? Seems like a misapplication of resources

[DuskRaider]

Don't really understand putting a power fist on the seargents for such small squads. Msu style generally tries to shave unnecessary points; a melee weapon for a shooting unit that you want to keep shooting isn't great

Because some people play squads of 7 for the fluff, don't care about competition, and like the Power Fist bits?

[Wolf Lord Loki]

I mean, you don't have to pay the points for them, and considering every monopose champ has a knife/sword in addition to the fist it's not like you're telling your opponent they're being clobbered by an unactivated fist.

 

 

As for this

 

Plus given most of our buffs are auras which affect plague weapons (which are prodominently cc weapons) at some point our plasma marines are going to want to close to combat range.

There's so many confusing things here. There's one aura buff and one psychic buff, that's it. There's more melee plague weapons than not, but a knife marine is really bad in combat; low model count squads (the best way to maximize shooting plague marines) would never want to trade 3x plasma guns or plasma gun 2x blight launcher for 2 power fist attacks and 4 str 4s that reroll to wound. Very odd choice to throw a squad with three special weapons and low amounts of low damage attacks into combat so you can hit once with a powerfist.

 

Idk guys, not hating the fist always, could be a lot of fun in a big melee blob with all the melee special weapons, but in small units that are kitted to shoot? Seems like a misapplication of resources

You probably have a point about if the intent is to shoot the powerfist is wasted

 

What i meant about aura effects are things like:

Lord of Contagion/ typhus- units within 7" of him and 1" of an enemy unit have the potential to cause mortal wounds

 

Warlord traits- arch contaminator/ living plague

 

Strategem - nurgles rot

 

Pyskic powers - blades (infact most of the powers are relatively short ranged)

 

My point is most of the awesome nurgley effects happen close up to the enemy otherwise we are over priced and a bit more resistant chaos space marines.

 

And i think we would lose most straight up shooting matches.

 

But this is mostly just an opinion over proven fact as My death guard have so far only had 2 outings

Edited December 4, 2017 by Wolf Lord Loki

[SkimaskMohawk]

Well my initial question had to do with smaller squads all with shooting options, all of which other people had given fists to. That's why I've been so specific about msu shooting units.

 

And yea, I agree a lot of our stuff is close range and we want to get close. The problem is that unless youre taking a blob of melee kitted marines, you never want them to be the ones in the thick of it. Poxwalkers are a great substitute, theyre dirt cheap and annoyingly resilient while being immune to morale. You can run them up the field and use nurgles rot off them or have the other mortal wound things too. You won't get blades on them, but mortarion is usually the best for that unless you have one of those blobs I was talking about. The damage auras are all kind of bad though. The warlord trait loses hard to AC, lord of contagion only procs once a game turn and is pretty unreliable on top of that. Nurgles rot is expensive as heck and is once per game, while mortarion gets it every single fight phase for free.

 

The whole thing for deathguard is to advance up with plaguemarines (either msu shooting or big melees), being screened by chaf that can get out of control, while putting pressure with drones and princes and/or heavy supports. The plaguemarines will lose a shooting match to hellblasters or plasma commands or any real high damage unit, no doubt. But those should all be distracted by your fast things, or blocked by cloud of flies if its big enough.

[DuskRaider]

I always have Power Fists on my Champions, even if they're in a ranged - dedicated squad. Why? Just because they're dedicated to ranged combat doesn't mean my opponent will play by my rules and may utilize deep striking, infiltration, and reserves to attempt to silence my guns. I'd prefer to spend the (now pretty cheap) points as an insurance plan to give myself at least a little something to fight back if they succeed in closing in somehow. It just makes sense, IMO.

[Cryptix]

I prefer a close range loadout personally - 2 x flails, 2 x axes, powerfist champ, and 2 x blight launchers.

[Plague _Lord]

Anyone used plague spewers on their plague marines?

[Wolf Lord Loki]

Anyone used plague spewers on their plague marines?

Ive not heard of anyone. And Ive only started considering it last few days (mostly cos i was considering getting a DI bloat drone and converting it to have a lawn mower of doom....

 

If you take the spewer is there any reason to NOT take the big version with the auto hits?

[Cleon]

 

Anyone used plague spewers on their plague marines?

Ive not heard of anyone. And Ive only started considering it last few days (mostly cos i was considering getting a DI bloat drone and converting it to have a lawn mower of doom....

 

If you take the spewer is there any reason to NOT take the big version with the auto hits?

 

 

Well you can't fire the big one if you advance, you can the little one and it's 9 points cheaper, but generally no, the big one is better

[Shockmaster]

I have 33 Plague Marines to decide what to do with, planning to go full footslogging & guns blazing while huddled around Blight Haulers for that potential 2+ save, no idea if it is strong but feels right thematically. 

 

I may try to buy an extra couple of plague marines from a bits seller, so that I can run five units of 7.

Edited December 5, 2017 by Shockmaster