No one uses Desolation Marines, why?

[Lathe Biosas]

I've noticed that no one plays with Desolation Marines. 

 

I understand that they are dumb looking and appear to be armed with the Imperium's greatest collection of NERF weaponry, but ugly models are still used if they have good rules.

 

The Marines are essentially armed with a 36" indirect bolter and either a 48" krak or frag missile... and they can use both the 36" and the 48" gun in the same shooting phase.

 

(Tbh, I can't remember what the Sergeant can upgrade his weapon to right now)

 

 

Is it because the current Indirect Fire Rules are bad, or is the nonuse attributed to the fact that 5 models cost 200 points? Or is it a mixture of these, along with the general goofiness of the weapons?

 

[Karhedron]

A bit of both, Indirect Fire is weak and has gotten weaker in 11th edition. Also the S10 krak missiles are not quite powerful enough to cut the mustard as anti-tank weapons. 200 points is just too much for what they bring to the table. If they dropped to 150 points they might be worth considering for the flexibility but not as it stands. Still, there is a new codex coming out in 6 weeks so maybe they will get a bit of attention.

[Tawnis]

They are also exceptionally fragile for their points. While indirect does help with this a bit, 38 point models that are T4 2W 3+Sv won't stand up to much that can close the distance. 

They have gone down to 180 points, from their former 200 for the first unit (Though they are 210 after that, yikes), but I still don't expect to see them much. 

[Tacitus]

For a while, "everybody" did.  They were much cheaper and spamming them was potent.  Which is why they changed to 5 and only 5, for 200.  Additionally it resulted in a bunch of changes to Indirect Fire rules because that tactic/playstyle was getting abused across multiple factions. 

 

For 200ish Points you could get 5 Desolation Dudes who could indirect fire the secondary weapon but not the Primary.  Or you could get a Dev Squad with four lascannon.  They may not be able to Indirect Fire the primary (or anything) either but they came with 12 Ablative Wounds before you started losing the big guns.  For SIGNIFICANTLY less than 200 you could take a Ballistus Dread with 2 Lascannon and two Missiles, two more wounds, T10, and a 2+ armor save.  The weird but most accurate answer is: Most armies aren't big enough to go that far down the Bang-For-Your-Buck matrix and they don't need anything exclusive to the Desolation Dudes. 

[Mazer Rackham]

23 hours ago, Lathe Biosas said:

Or is it a mixture of these, along with the general goofiness of the weapons?

 

For me, yep.

 

[Indy Techwisp]

Regarding the models looking dumb:

They do. The launchers make no sense.

 

That said with the new codex there's gonna be quite a few people who are gonna have a number of officially recommended replacement models to hand already, so let's hope the codex makes their stats better to shore up that side of the issue.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

They’re ugly

[Tacitus]

9 hours ago, Indy Techwisp said:

Regarding the models looking dumb:

They do. The launchers make no sense.

 

That said with the new codex there's gonna be quite a few people who are gonna have a number of officially recommended replacement models to hand already, so let's hope the codex makes their stats better to shore up that side of the issue.

They're still on my pile of shame right now, but my plan is to move the missile launcher box to the pauldron or backpack as a shoulder mount.  I think that looks way better.

[Jolemai]

Personally? Because they aren't Devastators.

[Subtleknife]

I just think they look awful, which is the reason I don't use them. I really liked the missile launcher from the firstborns. I would have just preferred they were all armed with those in different poses.

[Karhedron]

33 minutes ago, Subtleknife said:

I just think they look awful, which is the reason I don't use them. I really liked the missile launcher from the firstborns. I would have just preferred they were all armed with those in different poses.

 

Given that Devastators are now officially intended to be proxied as Desolators, you can do it now. Personally I would like to build them with classic HH missile launchers.

 

[jaxom]

On 8/27/2026 at 4:23 AM, Karhedron said:

the S10 krak missiles are not quite powerful enough to cut the mustard as anti-tank weapons.

This is what boggles my mind. I’m not sure what their variance is, but I feel like either a good turn of shooting or buffed shooting from them should kill at least an APC or Sentinel equivalent.

[BrainFireBob]

What's their ideal target?

 

Is that target currently dominant or common in the meta?

 

Is there a unit that can handle that target that's also strong in the mta?

[Karhedron]

On 9/4/2026 at 2:21 AM, jaxom said:

This is what boggles my mind. I’m not sure what their variance is, but I feel like either a good turn of shooting or buffed shooting from them should kill at least an APC or Sentinel equivalent.

 

Even against T9 and below, they are mediocre. They will put an average of 5-6 wounds on a Rhino with Superkrak. As soon as you go to proper tanks at T11+ (Leman Russ, Big Knights, Repulsor etc) that drops to on 2-3 wounds per volley which is just pathetic. Add to that indirect shooting has been strongly nerfed in 11th meaning that their anti-infantry shooting is not much to write home about either.

 

Yes you can buff them but then you are spending even more points on a unit that costs 180 points to start with. At 120 points they might be viable as they are flexible at least but you can get much better fire support units cheaper. A Ballistus Dreadnought is only 150 points and will put 7-8 wounds on a Rhino or 4-5 on a T11 target. The Ballistus can also switch out the superkrak missiles for superfrag if you want to bombard infantry so it is also flexible (although it does not have indirect fire).