Using Assault: Yay or Nay?

[breng77]

I look at assault marines as having several issues at least some of which would need to be addressed for them to be decent.

 

1.) Not enough attacks, having 2 attacks (1 base + chainsword) just isn't enough when you have no AP.  And 1 attack with an eviscerator is terrible.  They needed to be 2 attacks base to be a viable assault threat.  I guess you could try to go with 2 chainswords on each model to get that many attacks.  That might be their best load out.

 

2.) No reliable way to get into melee, deepstrike and charge is great.  But unless you have re-rolls to charge it is tough to do.  They need a re-roll to charge or some other method to get into combat.

 

3.) no good weapon options.  Flamers on a squad that cannot get easily into range are meh, plasma pistols are ok, but not great.  I already addressed the eviscerator, so really its a power weapon on a 2 attack sarge.  But lack of good shooting makes FLY really not all that great for them.

 

I think if I were trying to make them work I might go with 2 chainswords each on whatever size squad (10 guys with 2 chainswords each would be 31 attacks on the charge), but even kitted out like that they would be better in a different book because they would benefit more from the tactics and stratagems.  Blood angels would actually wound chaff on 2+, Templars would get re-roll charges, White scars could "fall back and charge"  all of which would have tactical merit.  IN DA they are just Meh.

[Berzul]

Like I said, should I play in a heavy terrain board again, I would definetly consider them. They can maneuver amazingly well. But, they need some serious dedication of points and support to be decent in combat. Or they need to just go hunt th weaker units of the enemy, and ignore real threats.

[Chaplain Killmer]

Assault squads are some of our (Space Marine in general) oldest unit types. Back when you could equip more or less everybody with the weapon that you wanted. Since then they suffered a lot by shaping them into a typical troop type. In the last edition they got already some boost with the introduction of the evicerator with enabled them to take on a lonely transport or something that they only could damage with plasma pistols. The problem the Assault Squads have is not in our codex - it's in vanilla and the BAs ones and its called Vanguards - every major buff of the Assault Squads will cause a problem with them.

 

Now I would use them hiding midfield close to an objective if there is a LOS blocking terrain feature - no they will not kill the unit grabbing it but they will still annoy them and against a cheap objective grabbing unit they might even do something. To me the Assault Squad is only something to bring if you play a 40k game with lots of terrain.

[Chaplain Killmer]

Well I agree to Berzul's points completely. But all games in 40k should be terrain heavy to be honest. If you don't like terrain play fantasy :)

[march10k]

I used a full squad of them in a game against tau.  Dropped them 9" from some fire warriors who were camping underneath pathfinders.  Killed a couple of pathfinders with pistol shooting, didn't invite overwatch against the faint hope of a 11" charge (vertical distance) against the fire warriors.  Drew fire away from my devastators long enough for the devastators to kill a HQ suit and a ghostkeel.  So...they didn't kill much, but they were a fantastic "you must deal with this right away" distraction.  If they'd been ignored, they would certainly have eaten the fire warriors and the pathfinders without any trouble, collapsing the enemy's flank.

[Interrogator Stobz]

I’m loading up one of my new lieutenants with a jump pack to accompany my jp Chappy with Aslt Sqd too.

Sure they need buffing, but what doesn’t ;)

[Syphid]

I used a full squad of them in a game against tau.  Dropped them 9" from some fire warriors who were camping underneath pathfinders.  Killed a couple of pathfinders with pistol shooting, didn't invite overwatch against the faint hope of a 11" charge (vertical distance) against the fire warriors.  Drew fire away from my devastators long enough for the devastators to kill a HQ suit and a ghostkeel.  So...they didn't kill much, but they were a fantastic "you must deal with this right away" distraction.  If they'd been ignored, they would certainly have eaten the fire warriors and the pathfinders without any trouble, collapsing the enemy's flank.

I thought Assault Squads with ump packs didn't count vertical distance, did you use a drop pod?

[march10k]

 

I used a full squad of them in a game against tau. Dropped them 9" from some fire warriors who were camping underneath pathfinders. Killed a couple of pathfinders with pistol shooting, didn't invite overwatch against the faint hope of a 11" charge (vertical distance) against the fire warriors. Drew fire away from my devastators long enough for the devastators to kill a HQ suit and a ghostkeel. So...they didn't kill much, but they were a fantastic "you must deal with this right away" distraction. If they'd been ignored, they would certainly have eaten the fire warriors and the pathfinders without any trouble, collapsing the enemy's flank.

I thought Assault Squads with ump packs didn't count vertical distance, did you use a drop pod?

. No place to stand/land on the third level, which was smaller than the second level. Edited January 3, 2018 by march10k

[Helycon]

Assault troops are perfectly depicted in Dawn of War 2's campaign. Fun for massacring low toughness troops, but get hammered down as soon as it gets tougher. They just don't hit hard enough otherwise. Sadly, the inclusion of low toughness troops is done in big blobsking overwatch scary and kill them with ease.

[Berzul]

I have decided to try and play the Assault Marines more often....

It is a reality of my current gaming group, that boards are saturated with terrain. The mentality is kind of "the more the better", and it just never stops. Bikes and tanks have become really difficult to play most of the time. Maybe Assault Marines are the answer here.

I will have to assemble some new ones, though