Am I the Only One Who Thinks Noise Marines Are Actually Good?

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.

**ZacktheChaosChild**

I always feel that they are overlooked and ignored. I think they can really mess stuff up.

**Tzeentchling9**

Regular CSM with the IoS are cheaper and can get real special weapons and Sonic Weapons get really expensive fast.

That being said, Doom Siren ftw.

**Brother SRM**

I used to play footslogging Space Wolves and one of my opponents regularly fielded lots of Noise Marines. They'd pump me full of 3 bolter shots per man per turn, and once I got close enough to assault, they were initiative 5 and there weren't many of my guys left. They're really, really good anti-infantry, but mech shuts them down.

**cyrax777**

I love noise marines just wish the sonic blaster bits weren't so pricy. There so fun to use agienst foot sloggers & the lone blast master should be able to pop a rhino.

**revackey**

They are pretty nice from what I've seen, the ability to equip CCW/BP is nice too if you want that extra assault punch.

**ZacktheChaosChild**

Tzeentchling9 wrote:Regular CSM with the IoS are cheaper and can get real special weapons and Sonic Weapons get really expensive fast.

That being said, Doom Siren ftw.

"real special weapons"?

Anyway, thanks. I thought I might be insane.

**Avatar 720**

If they were cheaper or had sonic blasters as standard, then they'd be a great unit, but as it stands 20pts for I5 and a special rule isn't great, all the cult troops get fearless, TSons get a 4+ invul and ap3 bolters for their cost, plague marines get T4(5) (NOT T5 as many whiners will have you believe) and FnP, Berzerkers get Furious Charge and an extra attack, Noise Marines get I5 and... nothing else.

As a concept, they're a good unit, but unfortunately Gav Thorpe was high when he wrote the CSM book, so they got overcosted and have to pay extra to make them true noise marines.

If they were 18pts maybe, or 20-22pts with sonic blasters as standard. What other units do we know that are given a name but must buy upgrades before they live up to it?

**Shrike325**

Avatar 720 wrote:What other units do we know that are given a name but must buy upgrades before they live up to it?

Devastators

Long Fangs

Havoks

Battlesuits

to name a few.

Otherwise I agree with you. 25 points for a SM with a bolter is way too expensive.

**ZacktheChaosChild**

Shrike325 wrote:
Avatar 720 wrote:What other units do we know that are given a name but must buy upgrades before they live up to it?

Devastators

Long Fangs

Havoks

Battlesuits

to name a few.

Otherwise I agree with you. 25 points for a SM with a bolter is way too expensive.

It's not a bolter. It is a bolter they can shoot twice, 24" after moving. It may not have AP3, but the sheer amount of shots are awesome.

**mister robouteo**

Besides, even if the music is kind of meh, I hear they put on a great stage show.

**biccat**

ZacktheChaosChild wrote:It's not a bolter. It is a bolter they can shoot twice, 24" after moving. It may not have AP3, but the sheer amount of shots are awesome.

Right, it's a stormbolter.

Still not great when you can get 1.6 bolter-totin' CSM for the price of 1 Noise Marine with a blastmaster.

IMO, they're good, but not better than regular CSM with an Icon of Slaanesh.

**TheDevo**

Love 'em. Though I agree that they're too expensive, I disagree that they're worse than Marines w/ Slaanesh Mark.
If NMs were 18pts, or 23pts w/ Sonic Blaster as standard I could see them easily getting as much love as Plague/Zerkers.

Do not fret my chosen brothers, are time may soon come...

**Dark Apostle 666**

I like them in concept, and might even make space in my army list for them, but they are so expensive I'd end up just buying more bezerkers.

**reds8n**

I use them quite a bit,

I've been running the following with a fair old bit of success for a whee while now

2 lash princes
2 heavy bolter dreads, 1 with heavy flamer
1 lascannon dread
2 x2 oblits
1 Defiler --extra CC weapon
3 x5 Noise marines, 1 blastmaster, rhinos with armour
6 Noise marines with sonic blasters.

there's the odd extra item here and there etc in there, but you get the gist.

Use the 6 man squad as bait, hopefully in cover and with the option of going to ground and whilst they're not exactly a terrifying torrent of fire coming at you, they're quite capable of finishing off the inevitable pesky one or two survivors from a blastmaster shot or Defiler.

**Sephyr**

I really like them. They have suffered a bit in the current mech-prevalent meta but have uses.

My 2k list has a 6-squad of them with a PW champ to make use of his high Ini, a Doon Siren that has spanked Nob bikers in the past, and all sonic blasters for moving fire volume.

I even like the Blastmaster, but it's sadly way too overcosted right now.

**ZacktheChaosChild**

Thanks, for the respones, guys. Hopefully they will be cheaper and better against mech in the next book (with the codex creep going on, of course they will be

).

I just hope they get a badass kit with the ability for the WHOLE squad to have sonic blasters without shelling out more cash for them, or even just have sonic blasters standard.

**MechaEmperor7000**

Noise Marines would be awesome if you could take them Havoc style. Imagine a unit with 4 Blastmasters.

**ZacktheChaosChild**

All I can say is thisl:

Ouch.

Let's hope for the best.

**MechaEmperor7000**

I'm experimenting with the idea of a Slaanesh themed army using a lash Sorc and Doom Sirens. However Las Preds will be needed to kill armour and Blastmasters and Sonic Blasters will either be unused, or relegated to a single "Havoc" MSU Noise Marine squad designed to sit back and pummel enemies with sonic fire.

**Ailaros**

Avatar 720 wrote:TSons get a 4+ invul and ap3 bolters for their cost, plague marines get T4(5) (NOT T5 as many whiners will have you believe) and FnP, Berzerkers get Furious Charge and an extra attack, Noise Marines get I5 and... nothing else.

This is really it. The other 4 chaos gods give out a small bonus to the statline, and a useful USR. Slaanesh just gives them the statline boost without the USR. They're like only half god-soldiers.

If they were roughly 20 points, like the others, got their I5, and their superbolters rolled in AND got some sort of USR (like countercharge or preferred enemy), then they'd be on par with their bretheren.

Until then, I just can't really see ever taking them outside of a flufftastic list.

**ArtfcllyFlvrd**

Ailaros wrote:If they were roughly 20 points, like the others, got their I5, and their superbolters rolled in AND got some sort of USR (like countercharge or preferred enemy), then they'd be on par with their bretheren.

All the others are more than 20pts. A base noise marine is the cheapest cult trooper, and isn't a terrible buy. A 20pt fearless I5 chaos space marine. But like most things the newer shinier codices can do similar things for less points.

In the end their nonexistent special weapon options and WAY overpriced sonic weaponry is what kills me. Man oh man I wish they were they were good; I've got about 40 of them collecting dust. And they weren’t cheap either.

**MechaEmperor7000**

Khorne Berserkers, for a meager 1 extra point, gets a USR and 2 statboosts instead of 1 (and their USR basically negates the Noise Marine's statboost).

Plague Marines basically have a 2+ armor save (more or less, given statistics), a stat boost and an extra grenade. They're the only cult troopers with a noticable survival rate boost.

TSons are really the only other ones nerfed, but that was due to the core rules changing. In 4th they would have been decent to scary due to the AP3 bolter and 4++ (somehow the widespread 4+ cover save managed to negate both of their perks in one fell swoop).

The other problem with Noise Marines is that they're kinda confused on what they're suppose to do. They'd do pretty good as Assault Troops, with a Champion with a Power sword and Doom Siren in a raider. However if you try to sit back and pummel them with sonic weaponry, your wasting that I5 since you cant charge, and you only get one Blastmaster. If you do charge, your not using the Sonic Weaponry to it's fullest potential and any wounds you cause with them might actually ruin your chances to charge (by having the opponent killing off models closest to you).

**Tzeentchling9**

ZacktheChaosChild wrote:
Tzeentchling9 wrote:Regular CSM with the IoS are cheaper and can get real special weapons and Sonic Weapons get really expensive fast.

That being said, Doom Siren ftw.

"real special weapons"?

Flamers, Plasmaguns, and(most importantly) Meltaguns.

**notabot187**

I like noise marines. As long as you don't spend too much on them (wargear bloat) they can do just fine. I'm thinking 5 guys with blastmaster, sitting in a rhino w/ havok launcher. Comes in at less than 200 pts, has 2 blast templates, one the nice havok, the other the powerful blastmaster. Not that bad for a back line scoring fire support unit really.