Noise marine squads

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

How are people running them nowadays? 10/20 strong squads to maximise the use of buffs, or small msu to fill detachments and ignore moral? 

[Panzer]

I'd say one big-ish unit for Stratagems and the rest MSU for obvious reasons.

 

At least that's what I'd say if I were sane, but since I'm not .... units of 6 or 12 all the way! :P 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I'm currently running 2 squads of 12... I dislike the idea of minimum sized squads, as my noise marines are the primary recipient of unit buffs, both in the form of psychic powers/apostle auras and stratagems.

 

That said, my main opponents hate that they shoot when they die, potentially killing models that haven't yet shot, so they tend to get targetted last... so being large® isn't as much of a disadvantage as it might be.

[Slave to Darkness]

Only running a small unit atm and so far I have had mixed luck with them. Although I have a baggie somewhere with ten Sonic Blasters and two Blastmasters in so I might try out a large squad and see how that goes as well. 

[WarriorFish]

How many bullet catchers is a good idea for a squad - size dependent of course? Or should you just go all out, and maybe give them a Rhino to help ensure effectiveness (for the first shooting at least)?

[Maschinenpriester]

I usually have one squad of 10-12 in cover which I give T5 so my opponent has to deal with it. Or if the fuel allows it I hide it somewhere out Los. I usually include 1-2 bullet sponges.

[WarriorFish]

That doesn't feel like many sponges for the squad size, but it's a good idea to boost them with the new PA Stratagem. Along with cover they should be durable enough. As a more expensive unit they're a better use of the Stratagem, I considered it for my last CSM game but boosting a 10 man CSM squad didn't seem worth 2 Command Points. A larger squad however - and especially one like Noise Marines or Chosen... quite enticing indeed!

 

I know games will all be different, but how much of a difference does the NM's guns make? My tables are usually stocked with a healthy amount of cover so I reckon it's worth it, even if they're mostly aimed at anti-personnel duties.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Prior to the new bolter discipline, there was an argument for sonic blasters, for 6 points as you gain 1 shot within 12" and 2 shot between 12-24", the ability to advance and shoot, and ignores cover.  In my mind, that isn't worth 6 points, but it was arguable.  IMHO, sonic blasters should be closer to the cost of combibolters.

 

Now with bolter discipline you only gaining 1 shot at all ranges if you don't move, making the argument much harder to make.

 

That said, the new stratagem makes them much better - when using the stratagem.  So if you are doing one big squad and some small squads, maybe only in the big squad?

 

That said, all my noise marines have sonic weapons as that makes sense to me - why call them noise marines if they are don't have noise weapons?

 

Edit - was accidentally comparing to combibolters, so fixed that

Edited March 14, 2020 by Dr_Ruminahui