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.

Hey, so I'm a fairly new player, I've only been playing for a few months, and I'm having major trouble beating space marines
Actually I haven't beat them at all

So, my main problems are devastators and assault terminators

usually how a game will go, is that I get within range, assault his marines, start destroying them, then the assault termies destroy me
or, my rhinos blow up, then my squads eat plasma cannon

What are the best ways to counter a shooty space marine army, with a land raider with assault termies?

I run a mechanized lash list, with a lash prince, lash sorceror, with two rhinos, one with plague marines, one with normal, 4 obliterators, and a land raider with berserkers in 1500 points

I play up to 1500 points

Models I have available:

DP
Ahriman/Chaos Sorceror (I've been proxying him for one)
Kharn
15 CSM
7 Plague Marines
8 berserkers
4 oblits
Land Raider
2 Rhinos
9 Thousand Sons + sorceror

any help would be appreciated

Well, you've got 2 Lashes in there. If you want to deal with the Assault Terminators + Land Raider jazz, then just meltagun the Raider (CSM, Plague Marines, whatever, they all should be running meltaguns), then lash the Assault Terminators away from you and into a cluster, then drop plasma cannons on them with the Obliterators. That'll fix them fairly quickly.

Assault Terminators aren't all they're cracked up to be man. I played Marines for a long time before I started playing CSM, and Assault Terminators are one of those units that everybody fears. I always found them to be very underwhelming.

melta are a must, either that or plasma weapons, to deal with with termis in general, use a rhino and get up there with the 1k sons and hit the devastor squad.
you can also use chosen and get behind him, or close enough to distrupt his fire

Darien13 wrote:Models I have available:

DP
Ahriman/Chaos Sorceror (I've been proxying him for one)
Kharn
15 CSM
7 Plague Marines
8 berserkers
4 oblits
Land Raider
2 Rhinos
9 Thousand Sons + sorceror

any help would be appreciated

1) Power Weapons on all units' champion. This will destroy his Assault Terminators, depending on how many he usually runs (I'm assuming five, though 10 will only make you sit there longer.) Make sure to have champions and the IoCG on your basic unit.

2) Run your Obliterators in a unit of 3 and a unit of 1. When the unit of 3 pops up, deepstrike them close to his devastators, and open fire (Remember to space them out so not all 3 can be shot by the same blast), assuming they are still standing next turn, assault with them. Obliterators come with 2 attacks with a power fist. 2 attacks, POWER FIST. for a unit of 3, thats 6 str 8 attacks no armor save, and with two wounds each, Devastators in a unit of five have to get completely lucky to do alot of damage to them before you open up with your power fists.

3) Always remember to pop smoke the first time it is necessary. When it comes into view of 5 Devastators with 4(?) plasma cannons, I wouldn't leave it up to chance.

1. Slarg knows what he's doing, listen to him, particularly that part about the DS Obliterators.

2. It looks like your best weapon against those assault terminators is going to be the lash. Cracking your enemy's land raider is a problem, but it's nothing obliterators can't solve with lascannon or preferably melta fire. From there, just lash them away from your units. Termis' main disadvantage is that they're slow. If you absolutely have to engage them, you can nail them with a zerk charge, and your 32 attacks should net you 24 hits and 16 wounds. Even with decent odds saving, he's gonna lose at least one, preferably three. If you power weapon the skull champion, you're looking at an average of three kills in the first turn. You'll lose a zerk or two, but those assault termis are toast. Anyways, that's the mathhammer on that fight.

3. Devastators put down a lot of fire, but they're hideously overpriced. Remember that. To minimize the casualties from his devastators, spread out your marine blob, and mount up your zerks and Tsons. Remember, neither of these units can be pinned, so even if he blasts your rhinos, you'll probably still be moving next turn. Always try to obscure your rhinos with his units as you approach those devastators; a little cover save goes a long way, especially since plasma cannons aren't amazingly good at shooting up rhinos. If you can just make them useless, he'll stop fielding them (as well he should; they're a huge point sink). Your real defense against those devastators is that as long as your units are engaged in melee, he can't shoot them.

MekanobSamael wrote:1. Slarg knows what he's doing, listen to him, particularly that part about the DS Obliterators.

You have no idea how awesome that is.

thanks for all the advice, I'll definitely use those tactics in future games

If your opponent is relying on those termies, take care of them as soon as they pop up. I recommend obliterators or the las-cannons on your land raider to get the job done. Meltas can be risky with assault terminators, so I don't absolutely recommend them.

You should invest in several boxes of CSM and more rhinos, just so you know I own seven rhinos, even though I can only use six.

Lash the Termies into a nice little circle, and plasma cannon death ensues.

Also consider outflanking chosen (of the plasma flavor) if he holds his Devestators near a board edge.

People here have a very good idea for what to do.