Assault Marines

So to continue with my review of BA scoring units, I will be discussing the Assault Marines.  In 5th, these, in a free rhino or cheap razorback, were our go to scoring units.  With 6th edition, everyone has abandoned the vehicles, based on perception that vehicles are no longer safe, and that you have to get out to score anyway.  I haven't done math-hammer, or test games, although I might by the end of this article, so I don't know if this is a knee-jerk reaction, or if this is how the game will be for the rest of 6th.

As to the Marines themselves.  They have the base marine stat-line, with lots of options, although some of them are moderately expensive for what they do.  As always, how they are equipped, and how we use them, depends on what role we assign them.  I know a lot of this is pretty basic to a marine player, but I wanted to be as complete as possible, partially to benefit new players (my brother wants to start playing as soon as he can afford an army), and partially to clarify things I already knew:

1. Cheap scoring:  For 100 points, you can put 5 of them in a rhino.  This unit can sit on or near the objective until turn 5, and then act a screen (maybe even line of sight blocker).  With new line of sight rules, you should be able to hide at least 2-3 marines from all angles, so that the enemy will be forced to explode your rhino in order to get a shot.  This unit should be able to survive 1 round of shooting, especially if your other units have been taking the enemy shooters apart for 5 turns.

2. Less Cheap, more useful scoring : For 150 points, you can put 5 marines in a razorback with a las cannon.  This might make the marines more of a target, but will let them contribute to the fight.  It is true that concentrated fire can easily kill a razorback in a turn, so take a couple, and stay way back.  By turn 2, he should have enough other things to worry about (although you may have to deal with flyers way back there, as well as outflanking attacks).  You could of course keep the heavy bolter for cheaper, but there are a lot more things that can kill razorbacks inside of 36" (like heavy bolters).  On turn 5, jump out and use razor to screen, as above.

3. Back field objective holders, no vehicle: Don't do this.  These guys contribute nothing to the war at all.  Their pistols won't reach mid-field (or barely will), and all of the their special weapons are equally limited in terms of range.  You would be better off taking 5 scouts with cloaks and sniper rifles, and then automatically go to ground whenever someone shoots at them.

4. Assault Marines: This is the standard, jump across the board and assault targets as appropriate.  You will usually get the charge, and your high level of mobility will let you pick targets at will (so that you might actually get to use your infernus pistol at 3")  Equip for melee, or anti-vehicle, or both.  The advantage is you will usually get the charge.  The disadvantage is that if the enemy is trying to avoid melee (by lining up more than 24" away) you could get shot for at least 2 rounds before you get to combat.  Depending on what is shooting you, this could severely limit you viability as a melee threat.

5. Harassment Unit:  This is my favorite way to use Assault marines.  Give them jump packs, and use Descent of Angels to drop them into enemy lines on turn 2.  With 2 squads of these, combat squaded into 4 5-man squads, you can cause a lot of trouble for you opponent.  5 Marines will not smash very many units in hand to hand, but they will generally survive a few turns (obviously not against terminators, but against "normal" stuff.  In groups of 5, with DoA, you only need to drop about 7 inches away (8 if you want to be 100% save).  The reason you want to get so close is because you want to use melta guns and flamers, to maximize the amount of damage you do the turn you come in.
The advantage to the harassment style, is that you get to do damage that the enemy cannot stop.  He can't shoot you until you come on the board, so you can deliver that 1 critical attack where ever it needs to be.  If you have reserve vehicles, this unit is great for clearing the way.  Drop down behind an Agis defense line and flamer it clear, drop next to some hydro cannons, and take them out.  Once you have completed the mission, if you are pretty shot up, use your mobility to escape the death star that may come after you, and position yourself to claim an objective.  If you survive enemy shooting mostly intact (and if you have 4 combat squad, some of them should), assault something.  You might not be able to kill that Dev squad or those 14 lootas in 1 turn, but you should survive long enough to keep them from shooting for at least 1 turn, and forcing enemy units into roles they weren't chosen for is huge hindrance for you opponent.

6. Vehicle assault: I won't address Rhino or Razor back assault, because that is just not good for them. It is just like dropping in (in terms of getting shot up after getting out of the vehicle), without the flexibility of  being able to strike weak spots across the board.
Without going into strengths and weaknesses of the vehicles themselves, I will only discuss them here in their ability to fill this role.
Stormraven - earliest you will be able to charge in turn 3.  Resistant to shooting, but a lucky hit will ruin your unit.  If I was going to use one, I would think about coming in hover mode and moving flat out.  This reduces you chance of removing big threats with your flyer, but it means that you can still move about 40" without losing everything to 1 lucky shot.  Even then, I would probably not use a stormraven to deliver a unit of assault marines unless I was also delivering a dread to support them, otherwise I would use a landraider.
Landraider - Armor 14 is hard to kill at a range, and once you are in melta range, you have already delivered your cargo.  Also, as a dedicated transport to Assault Marines, it is not many more points than a stormraven.  With a flat out move on turn 1, then moving 6" and unloading 6" on turn 2, you can give your marines a very real chance of charging into enemy deployment zone on turn 2.

I was considering the TL las cannon razorback idea, but seeing it is only 20 points cheaper than 10 tactical marines (with a missile launcher), makes me think I would probably not use it.

I would probably only use tactical marines as role 4 and 5, maybe 6 (although I'd probably rather use elite units) and maybe 2 (although with allies, I could get scoring units with the same, or more, fire power for cheaper).

Equipment options:

Flamer and Meltagun - both Great choices, depending on what you expect to face.  In an all comers list, take 1 of each per unit (or 1 unit with 2 flamers, and 1 unit with 2 meltaguns) that can be combat squaded as needed.  You will lose an attack, but I think it's worth it.

Hand Flamer - OK.  I think the +1 strength is worth the attack.  Since your flamers have to be in the front to shoot (since your template can't hit anything else), they are usually the first shooting casualty anyway, so make their shooting count, and don't worry about how many melee attacks they will have (because the answer is probably 0).

Plasma gun, plasma pistol - Good.  On the Sgt, I would say the plasma pistol is good choice, as he can use it to snipe targets on the charge (and you want the sgt to have as many attacks as possible - not that he can take plasmagun anyway).  For Rank and File, I think the plasmagun is better.  Yes you lose an attack, but if you are going to buy the most expensive upgrade available, get as much use from it as you can.  As Teq becomes more "it", I have thought about adding a plasma squad (2 plasma guns and gunslinging sgt with plasma pistols.  Dropping 6-8" away and shooting 6 plasma shots into MeQ or TeQ could be game changing.

Infernus Pistol - Good, only if you are not dropping in.  With a 6" range (3" melta), it would require you to take a major risk to ensure the use of your pistol the turn you drop in, and since you will probably be assaulted the next turn, those points will be wasted if you don't.

For the SGT, I've already discussed the ranged weapons - IF I upgraded the ranged weapon, I would take a plasma pistol in dropping in, or Infernus pistol if moving across the board.

Naked - Good - For melee, it is perfectly viable to leave him with no upgrades, and use him to absorb power weapon hits in challenges (18 points for a meatshield that will protect the rest of the squad from enemy super killer)

 Power sword - Good.  Still extra attack - may not win challenge, but at least has a chance.  If he does win, that power sword will help too.

Claws - OK - I don't think they offer enough to a SGT to be worth losing an attack.  (Against a character with lots of base attacks and high WS, the re-roll to wounds might be worth it, but the Assault Sgt is neither of those things).

Power fist and Thunder - Bad-Good hammer will never get a chance to swing.  However, if you were going to move across the board, and have control over what combats you are in (a choice you don't really get when you DOA in), the hammer and fist could serve a purpose (tank hunting).

 Stormshield -OK- With 1 wound and average stats, I don't think I would spend 20 points for a SGT to get a stormshield.  There could be times when the stormshield saves the day, but 20 points will make the SGT lose an attack, and will not make him anymore likely to survive a round with a real combat character. (and I think paying more for an upgrade that the cost of the model itself is counter-intuitive. - In fact, maybe there is a rule-of-thumb in there somewhere, like a character should not be upgraded more than 10% of his base cost, or something like that)

Combat shield. Good - for 5 points, it won't save the day as often as a stromshield, but when it does save they day, you won't yourself asking if it was worth the points. Equally,

Melta Bombs - Great.  Take out buildings, monsters, dreads, and vehicles for 5 points.  I always take these for all of my SGTs.  If I need the points, I may drop them from time to time (they aren't THAT much better than krak grenades in most of these cases), but they offer so much flexibility, for so cheap, that they are my first upgrade every time.