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I'm starting a Catachan army that includes Marbo, and I'm wondering what his targets should be. I'm thinking...
-A tank/artillery unit. His demo charge can take care of it.
-Things with bad armour saves, like Nobs, Lootas, enemy IG command squads, Psychic Choirs, and Daemon Heralds.
-Special characters. He has hit-and-run and wounds on a 2+, but he doesn't have a power weapon. He can more or less guarantee a wound from his pistol, but against, say, my friend's Terminator Sorcerer, he might have issues in CC.

I also am intrigued with the thought of building a Catachan style IG army. Marbo is the red hot snizzle. His ability to come in exactly where you want him with no scatter and the demo charge is too good for me to pass up on. I think the best way to decide how best to use him should be built on what type of armies you will face off against the majority of the time. The demo charge is AP 2 and Marbo is blessed with BS 5 so you subtract 5" inches from any scatter when tossing the bomb... That's really hot ! He can take out a lot of enemy units barring a really bad scatter. S8 versus armor is not so good so I would want to try my best to vaporize exposed enemy units. The inclusion of Marbo pretty much forces a mechanized opponent to stay inside their transports until after he arrives. Anything that alters how your opponent plays is powerful.

His poisoned knife is not a power weapon so while he can easily score a lot of wounds in close combat with his high weapon skill and initiative he is not going to cut down a squad of tactical Marines. In fact if you see yourself using him to primarily fill an assault role then you could be weighting him in the wrong direction for chucking his bomb. As a close combat fighter he is better off coming in close to a friendly unit and adding some punch if they get bogged down in close combat. The demo charge most often will be of best use if you stick him in all by his lonesome so you have closer access to any potential target.

His sniper pistol is pretty hot too, hits on a 2+ and ignores armor saves plus it's rending and forces a pinning check for an unsaved wound.

I can see him, Straken and the gunnery sergeant Harker as a fantastic combination. Harker is relentless and has a heavy bolted plus his ability to field a squad of veterans juiced up as Catachans. It's all good in my book.

G

The problem is, he cant charge the turn he comes into play. He is a 65 point demo charge.

Use him wisely, he could make your opponent lose his marboes!




......Yeah. Bad joke.

Ba dum dum.....

I see him poping in next to some termies and dropping that demo charge on them. You kill 2 or three and he just made his points back in my book.

I don't think he can join units though, so he can't really fall back and hook up with your command squad or veterans. He does get hit and run, which could be very useful as you can shoot, assault, fall back, and shoot.

He is complemented very well by a harker squad

A Harker squad? As in a whole squad of Harkers? Awesome! I never knew that was an option!

I think he meant a squad lead by Harker......

yeah.....

My gaming group had an over long discussion about Marbo. A friend of mine asked me, "what do you think of Marbo?" To which I replied, "Marbo sucks." and most everyone nodded in agreement. Some things just are the way they are I'm afraid.

I dunno, his pistol is AP2, wounds on a 2+, is rending, and causes pinning. It may be one shot per turn, but it's one heck of a shot.

He does need to be shot at lest he cause a reasonable amount of damage in H2H but he is -only- 65pts. How much can you throw his way.. how much would make him do his job in terms of distraction (as any 65pt unit eating 200pts worth of fire is worth it, no matter the reason)..etc etc.

I agree with GBF.. A golden unit. An awesome trump card.

I think will work wonders with Infiltrating harker & melta vets with a couple of outflanking (astropathed) penal legions.

He's what I like to call a "Look at me! Deal with me!" unit. He's not that threatening really, especially once he's used up his demo charge. But he's still dangerous, and your opponent has to expend resources to deal with him. Against small model count, elite armies he's extremely good - the demo charge is liable to take out a chunk of expensive troops, and then they'll have to waste some of their shooting to deal with him - shooting that isn't pointed at something else more worthwhile. The best situation would be against mass terminators, where not only can the demo charge nuke a fair few models, but the terminators then have to waste a unit's shooting, something they may not have much of. Against hordes, he's much less good. If your enemy has any sort of artillery, then again, he's very good. Demo charge one, then start slapping melta bombs on the rest. Again, he's an attention seeker. He needs to be dealt with, even if he's not that dangerous. Bring him on behind an advancing army, and they'll have to divert something to deal with him.

Kungfuhustler wrote:My gaming group had an over long discussion about Marbo. A friend of mine asked me, "what do you think of Marbo?" To which I replied, "Marbo sucks." and most everyone nodded in agreement. Some things just are the way they are I'm afraid.

"He is bad because my buddies agreed with me" is not a strong argument...

I think GCMandrake has nailed the argument perfectly, your enemy would be ill advised to leave Ramb-, I mean, Marbo running unchecked amongst their lines with a mad pistol and a full complement of melta bombs, and for a mere 65 he is an absolute bargain. As GBF also stated the synergy he provides a Catachan themed army is impressive as you force your enemy to deal with a number of cheap but comparatively tough squads that all pack a punch from early in the game.

GCMandrake wrote:He's what I like to call a "Look at me! Deal with me!" unit. He's not that threatening really, especially once he's used up his demo charge. But he's still dangerous, and your opponent has to expend resources to deal with him. Against small model count, elite armies he's extremely good - the demo charge is liable to take out a chunk of expensive troops, and then they'll have to waste some of their shooting to deal with him - shooting that isn't pointed at something else more worthwhile. The best situation would be against mass terminators, where not only can the demo charge nuke a fair few models, but the terminators then have to waste a unit's shooting, something they may not have much of. Against hordes, he's much less good. If your enemy has any sort of artillery, then again, he's very good. Demo charge one, then start slapping melta bombs on the rest. Again, he's an attention seeker. He needs to be dealt with, even if he's not that dangerous. Bring him on behind an advancing army, and they'll have to divert something to deal with him.

Exactly. Once I really looked at his rules I saw two things: Demolition Charge and Meltabombs. The guy is there to kill support. All his other abilities I categorize as "fun". I think of them this way, because I don't anticipate using them all that often as the opponent will have taken him out the turn after he shows up. His damage is done with the demo charge, the meltabombs simply mean he can't be ignored. Once he shows up, three main things can happen:

1.) They ignore him (probably the worst option). Result: He Moves Fhrough Cover and Runs off to the most convenient vehicle to slap on some meltabombs.
2.) They shoot him down.
-Worst Case Scenario: One unit spends its turn firing on Marbo.
-Middle Ground Scenario: One unit spends its turn firing on Marbo, he Goes to Ground and lives through it, and they have the same decision next turn.
-Best Case Scenario: They fail to kill him with shooting, see 1.)
3.) They assault him.
-Worst Case Scenario: Some objective grabbing unit otherwise unoccupied takes him out.
-Middle Ground Scenario: Some objective grabbing unit assaults and fails to kill him, he withdraws from combat (in any direction he wants), See 1.)
-Best Case Scenario: He wins combat and the opposing unit breaks, go to 1.)

From my point of view, none of these results are "bad", especially considering he already dropped the Demo Charge. Really the worst thing that can happen, I think, is that they use an objective grabbing squad to either shoot him down (hard) or assault him (easier). Even in the worst case assault scenario, you stand a pretty good chance of killing a MEQ before they strike, upping the odds of Marbo's survival to pull out of combat and keep being a jerk.

I'm back from a test game, and man, Marbo is fantastic. In game 1, he infiltrated behind a Battlewagon and blew it to pieces with a meltabomb and since the Meganobs are S&P, they couldn't reach him, not even by running. He then dropped a demo charge and killed all five.

Game 2, he dropped a demo charge on a ten-man squad of Chaos Terminators. Boom, six dead, he charged the rest, his high WS and attacks won out, another termie dropped, the squad broke, run, and got swept.

Game 3, he infiltrated next to a tactical squad, boom, demo charge killed nine of them and he killed the last one in assault.

Marbo is definitely designed to infiltrate near a powerful unit, drop his demo charge, fire his pistol if he gets the chance, and assault. He can hit most basic troops on a 3+ and gets 6 attacks on the charge, 5 base, because he has a pistol and CCW.

You're playing him wrong.. He cannot assault the turn he comes in, so that Battlewagon should have just drove off.

Ya'll be cheatin!

Hee!

G

His pistol can bust open AV1O!

His pistol can also Bust open AV 11 and glance AV 12, your point?

Like a big juicy cherry bomb.

G

I'm pretty sure his pistol only wounds on 4+'s... It's his knife that wounds on 2+, thanks to poisoning. his pistol is pretty much the same as a sniper rifle but shorter range. and since it is the same as sniper rifle with shorter range, it follows the "wound 4 & 5, pwn on 6" rule... although if you're opponent will let you get away with an AP2 weapon that wounds on 2's, go for it. I don't encourage it though.

Yes, you are right, I don't think anyone was claiming otherwise?

Just for FUnz, I'm going to try running Marbo along with the Callidus Assassin. I think this combo will give armies with "soft" backfield units (Tac Marines, Ork Lootas, certain Eldar, certain Guard) a very bad time.

Cheese Elemental wrote:I dunno, his pistol is AP2, wounds on a 2+, is rending, and causes pinning. It may be one shot per turn, but it's one heck of a shot.

<- forgot to quote it in my first post.

Ah. Well that is wrong. No offence, but Cheese Elemental seems to be playing Marbo really, really wrong :(

It would seem to be that way :( silly cheese elemental

Edit: anyway, in regards to the OP, I would use Marbo as anti-LR/'Lith. Infiltrate him behind some cover, about 7-11" away from it's hull, so you can, in the next turn, move, shoot, assault, make it go boom. Marbo Likes Big Boom

Yes, I made a bit of a mistake while playing. Still, it was only a test/proxy game.

And I really don't see him being any use against LRs/Monoliths, because Demo charges are only S8, so they have a 1/6 chance of glancing AV 14.

No, against AV14 there is no point, you want to be using his demo charge against Squishy Things or weak Tanks.

X = S4 for rending, yes? If you roll a 6 to penetrate armor then you roll another d6 to rend, yes? If the answer is yes to both questions then the total maximum is as follows:

4+6+(up to)6 = 16

If my assumptions are correct then the pistol can penetrate a landraider.

G