Unit of the week Unit of the week: Noise Marines

[Cpt.Danjou]

+++Unit of the week+++

 

Noise Marines

This thread is only for tactics for Noise Marines, not for pictures, there are other places for that.

How to best use Noise Marines?

• Wargear?
• Legion?
• Which stratagems are worth throwing out?
• Any solid unit combos?

Edited January 16, 2023 by Xenith

[Cpt.Danjou]

Back in the day of the 3rd edition I used to play Emperor's Children, so Slaanesh and Noise Marines was my thing, the pain of converting and trying to get hold of Blast masters and Sonic blasters almost made me insane. I have pondered over maybe getting a squad or two and incorporate them into my Iron Warriors, as I already have both IW Plague Marines and Rubrics, I am waiting for the new Berzerkers to drop before I get them. Noise Marines are the least expensive of the Cult Marines which is a plus, if you count them without upgrades. They have lots attacks, and hits on a 2+ in cc with the Icon, which makes them an ok close combat squad, if more than the Champion could take a fun close combat weapon they would have been great. It is kinda weird that a unit that would be good for cc can't get any special cc weapons. The Sonic weaponry seems to be good, especially when in half range, lots of assault shooting. Combined with a Dark apostle, they area threat for a lot on the board, a theoretical range for a charge of 24", or in my case, with my luck with the dice of 9".

 

Has the Ark of omen changed a lot for the Emperor´s children? Noise Marines has dropped a little in interest for me as an Iron warriors, now when ordinary legioners can have their equipment for free, it is not that I lack in the close combat department. I am still experimenting with a 6 heavy slot list, so I am not that keen on a new elite unit that is good with shooting. I might get them for my crusade list in the future where my Warlord has begun to hear the sweet whispers of "She who thirst".

 

Cpt. Danjou

[Verbal Underbelly]

I've said on another thread somewhere that noise marines are only worthwhile if you're leaning into sonic weapons as their base cost and stats are essentially the same as legionaries. I guess that makes free wargear on legionaries moot. The advantage of noise marines is it's one of the few units you can sort of spam a single weapon with now. You can literally have a squad of 10 sonic blasters if you like. I'm currently building a smaller squad of 6 with a blast master and a power sword on the champion. They've always been a hybrid unit with something to offer in the shooting and combat phases. It's certainly worth giving the champ an icon and a CC weapon. 

[Eternal]

Sadly Noise Marines are only really good for spamming the Blastmaster, especially in an EC army. I think GW missed the opportunity to rebalance them in the last MFM by reducing the cost of the Sonic Blasters. 5 points a model is far too much, which is why you never see them in competitive armies, with players preferring to go with just the regular BP/CS combo, for good reason.

 

The change to Legionaries makes NM less attractive overall, I think. The Blastmaster is probably still good enough that you want to take them for EC, but all the free upgrades you can get on Slaanesh Legionaries makes them marginally better for non-EC armies, IMO.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Another Emperor's Children player here.

 

That's pretty much my take on them as well - I've never been a fan of sonic blasters at their current point cost, indeed I thought they were a touch too expensive when they were 3 points to the combi-bolters 2 (though they would probably be worth 3 points for the current Emperor's Children rules, given their ability to advance with no penalty).  Yes, blast masters are amazing now, but with only 1 per squad regardless of its size there really isn't much reason to take anything but minimum sized squads with bolters for everyone else.  Kind of a shame, given that means yoru "noise" marines aren't really, for the most part, using "noise" weapons - I guess they get their name because they shout a lot? 

 

Even before the free wargear on legionaires I thought noise marines were the worse choice for melee squads.  Even with the free mark of slannesh, the extra points really weren't worth it for what basically is just 1 more attack per model - and when you consider that you are also giving up the legionaires other options of insquad psycher, big axe and squad carried special weapons or plasma pistols (all now for free except the psycher), I don't see much place for melee noise marines anymore.

 

So, its kind of a shame that there really that there is little reason to take them at the moment, especially as an elites choice without your army traits.  And if you do take them, the best builds involve no noise weapons other than 1 blastmaster in any given squad.

Edited January 18, 2023 by Dr_Ruminahui
Missed typing the end of a paragraph

[Verbal Underbelly]

I'm defo seeing this through the lens of being EC - I don't see much point taking them in another legion.