Melee marines

[Trollbeard]

Hey guys, I am just finishing up a squad of melee

Marines and am just wondering what the consensus is for optimal load outs?

 

I have 2 flails of corruption and a couple of guys with a 2nd plague knife, but am wondering if bubotic axes are worth it? And what about the mace of cantagion? It seems expensive for what it does.

 

Or is it better to keep everyone cheap (aside from the flails) with 2nd plague knives and try to get blades of putrefaction and VotLW on them?

 

Thanks I’m advance!

[TrawlingCleaner]

It's really depending on what you're playing against. I play against a lot of marines so axes over knives there as strength 5 base and AP vs strength 4 base and more attacks. The flails really do the work for me, I always try to get Blades of Putrification on them and Veterans only if I really need it. The mace is pretty bad and if you need higher strength a power fist on the champ might be the way to go.

[infyrana]

This is a great question, I managed to source some flails and wondered what else I should be trying to model for a melee squad. Gives me good reason to modify some of the duplicates I have from all the conquest magazine sprues :)

[Swarbie8D]

I made a full-on 20-man melee squad and I’m pretty sure it is:

 

8 dual plague knives (one with Icon of Despair when points are spare)

7 Bubotic axe and plague knife

2 Bubotic axe and mace of contagion

2 flails of corruption

Champion with Powerfist, Plaguesword and plasma pistol.

 

I’ve only used them in one game but with Blades of Putrefaction and the +1 S and T power they hit like a tonne of bricks. 2 guys with axes and knives wiped out a 10 man squad of Necron warriors on their own, a single flail guy took out a squad of Lychguard etc. They took a couple of turns to reach combat but once they did they just ground through enemy infantry, characters and support pieces with no problems. In a more competitive setting they’re probably not the best but they sure as hell can be fun.

 

Just remember that the dual-knife guys are there to take hits for the axe+knife guys, and the axe+knife guys are there to take hits for the flails and champion

[infyrana]

@Swarbie8D How would you condense that down to 10-man and 7-man squads in terms of ratio ?

[Swarbie8D]

In smaller squads you wanna maximise your punch; I’d say Powerfist Champion, two Flails, two Axe+Knife and 5 dual knives for a 10-man squad. For a 7-man squad I’d suggest just cutting 3 of the dual knife guys.

 

The bigger the unit the more they’re gonna get shot at; with my 20 man blob I fully expect all the dual-knife marines to die on the way in, but they protect the actually valuable axes, flails and Powerfist. With smaller squads you have the advantage of being able to hide them more easily and/or give them Rhinos to ride in, so you can afford to load them a bit more heavily with the good stuff. Especially on the 7-man squad: you can pop them in a Rhino with a Tallyman, Foul Blightspawn and a Plaguecaster to really support them in hitting a specific target.

 

This all comes with the caveat of: I am nowhere near a competitive player, I just enjoy messing around with melee Plague Marines after hearing them get dismissed online for ages xD

[Wolf Lord Loki]

I have an anti heavy unit with power fist, two meltas, two great plague cleavers and 2 axe/mace

 

They didn't do well in the only game Ive had a chance to use them in as they went up against a seige dreadnought and utterly fluffed their to hit rolls (wasn't able to get a lord close and had already used the command reroll)

 

They got pounded to a putretecent jam a few moments later....

 

But that was mostly bad luck on my part. Statistically they should have either killed it or hurt it a lot more than they did

[Raktra]

My favourite unit in my DG is a Champ with fist, two flails and four axe/knife boys. Pop up in a Rhino with a Blightspawn and Tallyman and they've always done wonderful, wonderful work. I think they peaked when, with Blades of Putrefaction and VotLW up, they wiped out a full unwounded unit of Thunderwolves in one round of combat. It was glorious.

[McElMcNinja]

I run 2 flails, 2 blight launchers (as they can advance and shoot), an icon, and then either dual knives or knife/bolter to fill out the unit. Having dual knives does grant you 3 attacks with hateful assault, but with bolters you have the option to shoot at stuff and you still get 2 attacks.

I have modeled a squad of knife/axe because they look cool, but I run them as dual knives. I just clarify that with my opponents and I've never had issues.

I like to take the icon with the dual knives in lieu of plasma gun on my Champion. I figure it's almost like an auto kill when my opponents have to take moral tests vs plasma which I can't shoot while in combat anyway. It's even more efficient when going up against multi-wound models.

[Hannibal]

For close combat marines I´d always go with at least one weapon that is able to hurt armour. Nothing is worse than being caught by a Dreadnought you can´t scratch.

 

That way I´d run a champ with fist, 2 guys with flails and try to give the squad 1-2 meltas. the rest of the party I´d try to keep them as cheap as possible because some of your marines will die before they can do their punching.

[eternal_warrior12]

My personal experience tells me that melee centered squads do not perform up to snuff. One wound and one attack per dude (at least until our update) means that a squad of scary cc weapons gets focus fired down until they aren’t a threat anymore. I still take a flail because I love them so much but I always take a ranged threat to at least have them contribute before battle is truly joined.

[Trollbeard]

My plan was to use cloud of flies on the unit as it advances up the board, I should also note that I usually run a nurgling battalion with 2x poxbringers for CP etc, so I can have nurgling squads eat incoming fire by having them deployed up the table.

 

I was also trying for the blades/vets combo on them, so was only taking 2 flails and lot of guys with 2 knives.

[CastellanDeMolay]

My personal experience tells me that melee centered squads do not perform up to snuff. One wound and one attack per dude (at least until our update) means that a squad of scary cc weapons gets focus fired down until they aren’t a threat anymore. I still take a flail because I love them so much but I always take a ranged threat to at least have them contribute before battle is truly joined.

This. I think you'll get a lot more mileage out of a unit that can shoot on its way across the board, and then slap the proverbial in Assault with a couple of flails after you've whittled down the enemy with Bolter fire. 

[McElMcNinja]

I was running a unit of 15 today, 1 flail, 2 BL, 1 plasma, and the other 11 with bolters. I had softened up a GK Terminator squad with shooting before I charged and I had Blades on them. I was also going for an objective so I only ended with 3 in attack range, could have been most of them. The flail swung first, I got 4 attacks and then proc'd 1 DttFE, 5 wounds +2 mortals. He failed 3 saves so I finished off the unit before I without having to use the other 2. I almost played VotLW on them, but I was confident the 3 in combat would be enough.

If they can reach combat, a flail or two should be plenty. So again, unless you're going for the rule of cool, I wouldn't run dual knives or axes. Now I do run a Tallymaster with Arch and Helm with them so they are rerolling hits and wounds.

Edited April 27, 2020 by McElMcNinja