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Looking at the noise marines. I am somewhat confused by them. While there high I make them great for CC they have the access to that great weapon the sonic blaster. While they do cost a hefty amount i think you get your points worth.

The first thing I could figure right of the bat is it would be a bad idea to give everyone a sonic blaster as your gunna take some wounds threw out the game. I would figure 7 being about right for a squad of ten.

The second though. I cant seem to figure if they would be best in rhinoes or not Being able to roll up and shoot twice then charge and odds are going first does seem devastating. Being that there weapons are assault or heavy make me think that they are mobile enuff to not actually need a rhino. Freeing up points as well as kill points. Which personally transports in kill point games really bother me as they are just so easy to pop.

Those are my few thoughts on them. Anyone else have any good exp with using them. How did you use them and what was the out come? As well as just general advice on them would be great.

I am aware I left out the blastmaster but it seems to be to costly to really ever be used. Unless I am wrong.

Oni
I have a cult of slaanesh that Ive played off and on for about a year. Id like to share some of my ideas about noise marines. Here's the army I run...near as I can remember off the top of my head.

2 Sorcerers lash of submission warp time familiar

4 noise marine squads 10 noise marines 10 sonic blasters 1 aspiring champion w/doom siren and a power weapon

2 havoc squads 4 lascannons a piece icon of chaos glory

My reasoning is...
sorcerers over demon princes because as this army stands lascannons and melta weapons dont really have any worthwhile targets. if I put a demon prince in those weapons would naturally gravitate towards them so sorcerers are really about keeping the lash on the table past turn 2. with warp time hes also a real killer in close combat.

no rhinos on the squadrons because I feel they dont really need them and it keeps potential kill points off the board. As the army stands there are 8 possible kill points vs an average of 12 or so in most opposing builds. It also goes to the way I believe noise marines fight best; sitting in cover blasting the crap out of anything that gets within two feet of them. that way each guy has a 50/50 shot of surviving even the heaviest weapon fire and they can get the most, both from an extra dice and from the extra turn or two of shooting, from their sonic weapons. It doesnt make the best use of their init 5 I know but I feel like the init 5 is only going to swing a close-run fight. against say terminators its not going to save the noise marines so I think its a mistake to regard them as close range specialists. I agree with you 100% about blast masters.... between cover saves and scattering off the target this thing is just wayyyy too pricey.

as far as the havocs I felt like I needed a more resilient alternative to obliterators.... its one thing to use them in a normal chaos list that has a ton of meltas but noise marines dont really have anything to use against tanks so they are completely reliant on their heavy support. Obliterators are just too vulnerable to fill this roll because of instant death. Its entirely realistic to suppose that a clever opponent can completely deprive you of anti tank weaponry by turn 2 by focusing their lascannons on them. And guard make you reroll your cover saves...... ugh. too scary. The havocs are by comparison very resilient. 8 lascannons are enough to be reasonably certain of crippling even a land raider in 1 turn in my experience but also enough to blast a hive tyrant or greater demon off the board if youve got to do it.

So to sum up I believe the strengths of this army are that there's no good target for the opponents anti-tank weapons, that noise marines are extremely shooty, and that lash of submission is of course awesome. the weaknesses (at least how I run it) is that your squads are sharply divided between anti-infantry and anti-tank, creating vulnerabilities against clever opponents, the mobility isnt very good, and low body count.

I dont play this army competitively bc I believe noise marines are too expensive for what they are, but still its a fun and characterful force.
AF

Well, I play EC since the 3rd ed.
Recently, I fielded this army vs. Space Wolves and crushed my opponent. Hello Michael.
Usually, I take 2 NM squads in Rhinos each of which led by an AC with power weapon and doom siren.
The army is led by 2 DP's with lash of submission and wings.
Another Rhino squad is mandatory.
Shooty support is given by Predators and Obliterators.

Noise marines are overpriced for what you get, but can be useful. The key is to pick a roll. Usually a blastmaster sitting back dropping S8 AP3 blasts or the Doom Siren PFist/Pweapon AC moving in. I wouldn't buy SBs as they generally aren't really worth it. You arealready tying up alot of points per model, 5 more for another bolter shot isn't great.

Wustenfex uses a similar setuo to what I had success with. Two fight DoomSiren squads in rhinos, daemon prince (or two) two min sized blastmaster squads and HS to deal with armor (Obliterators work great, defilers and predators are also good). If points allow, a Chaos Dread for some more fire (and make sure you use the 5th TLoS rules for fire frenzy!).

I know it's always tempting to max out squads at ten, but I decided to stay fluffy and keep my NM squads at six members, and that's worked just fine. With the guns you can take, each member puts out so much firepower that 10 guys is overkill. I use them in two main ways:

~Long-range anti-personnel: this squad has five Sonic Blasters and one Blastmaster. If you start them on an objective in cover, they are well-protected, serve a useful purpose, and can fire 15 bolter shots and a miniature Battlecannon up to 36" away. With the exception of Rubrics rapid-firing vs. Power Armour, this is the most effective anti-infantry technique Chaos has, in my experience. It can be even more effective if you add more bodies to the squad, but like I said, overkill.

~Close-combat: this is the version that brings that high initiative into use. In this case, I use five Sonic Blasters, and a champion with Doom Siren and Power Weapon. The point of this squad is to greatly thin an enemy unit with sheer volume of shots and an AP flamer, then rush in and wipe out the leftovers before they can even react. This can be very effective, but in my opinion, the trickiest aspect is delivery. That said, I once did very well against a drop pod army by keeping this squad in reserve, letting him land on my objective, then coming in on my table edge and slaughtering a squad of ten brutal CC units before they could even take one swing. That's a very specific case, of course, but it's worth pointing out that Initiative 5 and the Doom Siren are basically only useful against other kinds of Marines. Versus any other army, I'd use NMs as ranged support and leave the Siren at home.

I've been playing EC for a long time and have to agree with alanedomain on all points. I run my squads in one of those two variants as well. Or if im mixing them in with a chaos undivided force like it sounds like your doing I just take a 6 man squad with all SB and one BM. Great long range support to complement the rest of my khorne/nurgle, CC oriented army. Only way Ive run them to any effect.

I think the previous posters have nailed it:

Fire Support - Blastmaster plus Sonic Blasters in a bunker for mid-range infantry support

Close Combat - mostly a Doomsiren delivery mechanism. Run around in a Rhino and shoot out the hatch.

I love the idea of Noise Marines and would gladly build a Noise Marine themed army if it were points-efficient and viable, but they don't really quite get there in 5th edition. Sonic Blasters should be STANDARD, for god's sake!

If points allow, a Chaos Dread for some more fire (and make sure you use the 5th TLoS rules for fire frenzy!).

I had always bad luck with my FW EC Dread (with lascannon) so far.
It always shot one of my army in the first turn.

I played EC for years until recently, when I started doing other stuff.

The way I always thought about it was that the basic noise marine with no upgrades is a great value. 5 points more for fearless and I5, with the chaos built-in bp&ccw option in addition to the boltgun. So I mainly have used what others on this thread are calling the Doom Siren delivery squad, anywhere from 6 to 9 plain noise marines in a rhino with a DS champ.

I used sonic blasters in earlier editions, but never found them to be significantly better than a boltgun in 5th edition, especially when your noise marines ride around in rhinos anyway and usually want to fire the turn they disembark (so only 2 shots and no assault anyway). They never did anything in 5th edition for me that made them seem worth the points.

The major weakness in a noise marine army is the lack of antitank. Blast Masters really don't have enough shots to kill a lot of transports, and without melta you're helpless against AR14. So that means you gotta include one of the only 4 viable antitank solutions in the codex: obliterators, termicide, chosen with meltas or CSM/plague marines with melta.

Skarboy wrote:I love the idea of Noise Marines and would gladly build a Noise Marine themed army if it were points-efficient and viable, but they don't really quite get there in 5th edition. Sonic Blasters should be STANDARD, for god's sake!

Absolutely! SBs certainly aren't worth the current cost and making them an auto include would make Noise Marines actual noise marines and encourage better sales for the blasters.

Also Flavius +1.

AbaddonFidelis wrote:no rhinos

Alright, now it may seem like I'm picking on AF, but at this point I'm already on his ignore list so it doesn't matter. Other advice on the topic has been solid, I especially agree with Skarboy's break down. I'll add that if you need a middle ground don't feel forced to take all Sonic Blasters. What you really shouldn't do is play entirely without Rhinos. I'm trying to be quick, but I really want you to ignore that peice of advice. If you'd like me to elaborate just ask.

jmurph wrote:I wouldn't buy SBs as they generally aren't really worth it. You arealready tying up alot of points per model, 5 more for another bolter shot isn't great.

It isn't 5 points for an extra shot: at 24" it is 5 points for two extra shots.

Take them cheap and agile. They have such a large hidden cost that you have to careful where you spend your points. Anyway I have a whole tactica on how to use them on my blog

http://bloodofkittens.com/2009/04/21/come-on-feel-the-noize-a-profile-in-sonic-bliss/