Doing 'real marines' with existing rules

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Kid_Kyoto**

For a while now me and other people have wanted to see something like the 'movie marines' from WD a few years back. Marines who can single-handedly tear apart enemy squads and where 10 of them are enough to turn the tide of a battle.

Obviosuly GW will NEVER do this. They have no interest in a set of rules that sells FEWER models.

So what about this...

Model 3 'true scale' marines and then 7 servo skulls or serfs. They play as a normal squad but the servo skulls count as the normal marines and the 3 true scales are the heavy the special and the sgt.

The commander would have a 'command squad' that also is nothing but servo skulls and servitors, basically wound counters for a 10 wound commander.

Assuming basing rules are followed how would this work for people?

**Paul Atreides**

It would take some effort, but that is indeed a very good idea, not in any way impossible.

**Orkeosaurus**

Seems like there might be an excessive number of serfs and servo-skulls running around.

The army might end up looking more like some Lost and the Damned reject army than an actual space marine army.

Super-powerful marines would be kind of cool though.

**Kilkrazy**

What are the proposed stats of super mariens?

**KingCracker**

hmm I remember that article from awhile back, but barely. Didnt they all have stats of like 8 or 10 or something like that. I remember it was only like 10 marines and it was enough to go head to head with like a 1000 or 1500 pt army. It made a round or two at the place I used to play at.

**Kid_Kyoto**

IIRC the Movie Marines were something like S5, T5, mulpiple wounds, bolters had assault cannon stats, 3+ save with a reroll AND they could buy 'stunt doubles' to take wounds instead.

I can dig it out.

But this idea is just to rep marines differently. Having very few 'marine' models on the table but lots of things that count as marines.

**shartmatau**

Why dont you play with 1 marine counting as a unit, or maybe 1 Marine figure = 5 marines. So a 10 man tactical unit would be represented by 2 figures on the board. Each marine would have 5 wounds, counts as power weapon maybe, and a gun of their choice from the unit selection.

It might work, at least for a few laughs. You could just use wound markers or dice to keep track of wounds taken.
Cheers.

**Shaman**

Thinking out loud. Couldnt you use terminator rules and rep them with regular marines?

Then his flamer missle lancherhvy bolter (asss cannon) would be real good. And a marine could win any arm wrestle with those power fists.

cheers.

**FoxPhoenix135**

This is the beauty of house rules.... You can make cool and crazy scenarios like this. Obviously would never see acceptance at a GW sanctioned tourney as you said before, but I would be totally down with a narrative-type game like this.

**Kid_Kyoto**

Well the whole point is not to ahve house rules. I'd have a normal marine army, but it's repped as 20 marines with a whole bunch of skulls, cherubs and the like...

**Flashman**

Doesn't Kill Squad from 4th Edition meet this need for a squad of "uber" marines in a mission impossible style game?

**jackinthetank**

So basically you are trying to get away with being lazy and building an army of servo skulls?

**Kilkrazy**

An army of servo skulls doesn't count as an army in 40K, it counts as a hat.

**Cheese Elemental**

But a very big hat. And big hats show power in 40K.

**Orkeosaurus**

You could play Deathwing, but with true-scale marines instead of termies, and termies instead of dreadnoughts, and.. uh.. I don't know how the other vehicles would work, to be honest.

Rhinos are not that awesome, rules or fluff, so Land Raiders wouldn't really work.

I guess your marines could just actually be in Land Raiders.

**Wehrkind**

I was thinking of the Death Wing idea too, with piles of terminator sized marines.

I have been representing Chaos marines in my LatD with Ork nobs, the Boyz nobs having heavy armor and power klaw, and Meganobz being terminators. It has been pretty satisfying to see biggerized marines smashing through things with Str9 klaws and 2 wounds, especially the warboss in mega armor.

I could see doing an entire army like this, with two warbosses, two scoring units of nobs and a unit of hardboys (melee scouts) then some elite choices and tanks. The trouble is that it works with chaos pretty well, but regular marines who don't shoot is kind of wierd.

**JohnHwangDD**

You know, from the title, "real marines", I expected RL USMC / USCM Marines.

Not "movie marines".

**Ludovic**

I too thought it would be American Marines. I was all ready to say "like Guardsmen but with better BS and LD. Considering the equipment difference they should be a match man for man."

**ShumaGorath**

Movie marines were a bit too powerful given the games mechanics to be representative of marines. They were basically hive tyrants.

I would like more fluffy marine stats though. T5 and STR5 with a dumbed down version of FNP would be a must. Honestly I would prefer if this were actually the game standard. Marines should be outnumbered three or more to one in most games.

**Orkeosaurus**

Ludovic wrote:I too thought it would be American Marines. I was all ready to say "like Guardsmen but with better BS and LD. Considering the equipment difference they should be a match man for man."

Better BS and Ld?

You really think a US Marine is better than a Cadian?

**Grotsnik**

IMHO a trained monkey w/ a sharp stick is better than a Cadian. Or any other of the cannon fodder called Imperial Guard.

**Orkeosaurus**

Making fun of IG is all well and good, but that's really in comparison to other troops who are ridiculously powerful.

I would guess most Imperial Guardsmen are a cut above most modern troops.
PDF is the conscripts, IG are usually a professional army, and Cadia has some of the best troops in the Imperial Guard.

**Orlanth**

I think the best way to handle this idea is to double up each marine.

Every marine equals what the model has plus an ordinary marine of the squad type. For assault terminators you need to buy the termies in pairs.

So a ten marine squad has a sergeant, special weapon heavy weapon and two marines. Combat squads will have to be split 3/2. Each marine represents itself plus an additional seperate wound set of attack save etc. For instant kill purposes each 'jalf' of the marine is totally seperated, if caught under a blast template only one marine is hit.

This only halves your army size but it should work out and have the resired effect.

**Delephont**

Whats the point of the Servo Skulls counting as "normal" Marines?

From the first post, I understood that you want to create a Marine "army" that has a fluff characteristic that can be used in WH40K games....correct? So I get the whole "True Scale" thang, and bumping up the stats for said true scale Marines....but I can't place a point of relevance on the Servo Skulls.....its not as though servo skulls are the done thing in a fluff Chapter...at least not on the field of battle.

So why not just work out your movie stats, do a squad of ten true scale Marines and be done with it?

**Kid_Kyoto**

Delephont wrote:Whats the point of the Servo Skulls counting as "normal" Marines?

From the first post, I understood that you want to create a Marine "army" that has a fluff characteristic that can be used in WH40K games....correct? So I get the whole "True Scale" thang, and bumping up the stats for said true scale Marines....but I can't place a point of relevance on the Servo Skulls.....its not as though servo skulls are the done thing in a fluff Chapter...at least not on the field of battle.

So why not just work out your movie stats, do a squad of ten true scale Marines and be done with it?

It's looking for a way for make a marine army that looks like a marine army should. 10-20 guys in power armor taking 100+ Orks.

So rather than come up with house rules for 3 wound marines (which I already did: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/234682.page) I would instead make each 10 man squad 3 marines + 7 other things (skulls, serfs, servitors, cherubs etc).

Sounds like no one likes the idea though.

**smiling Assassin**

That would make for a great fun horde game.

Basically waves of Tyranids, 10 Marines in a bunker. Just like a much more boring version of CoDW@W Zombies.

It would be also great fun for Skirmish matches, a group of PMCs hunt down a rogue Marine, etc. etc.

Instead of the waves of Servoskulls, have Scouts/Arbites and Combat Servitors.

sA