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Hey im startng a CSM army, my first army. I know next to nothing about the game from a practical point of view. But there seems to be a divide on noise marines. I checked some of the other forums, and half seem to suggest them for starting an army whilst the other half, (usually the ones talking about tourny's, and general competitivness). They are touched on here and there, but there isnt a general consensus on their effectiveness compared to say... I don't know (new player) just general vehicles and basic troops or even Thousand Sons. I live in Australia and I dont wanna spend 65$ on models that might look cool but could be replaced with a unit that just does more. Whilst i appreciate aesthetics, I get more joy out of beating or simply playing a good game against another player. I also realise not every unit is good in every situation, just asking if they fulfill a purpose that needs to be filled in most games.

Please help and thanks in advance

Also sorry if this forum is in the wrong location

Well, from a moderately competitive to-competitive standpoint, IMHO Noise Marines suffer in that they're expensive (25pts w/ sonic blasters) and only provide anti-infantry which can be provided elsewhere. However, it doesn't necessarily make them a bad unit, just not a particularly good or the best one.
In regards to Noise Marines, I'd recommend using them as auxilliaries, rather than the core of your force. By this I mean, have a couple of squads of CSM (or whomever) as your core troops, but supported by 1 or 2 small squads of Noise Marines, who can provide additional, flexible firepower. I believe Noise Marines are too 1-dimensional and expensive to form the core however.
I'd typically recommend either of the following builds IMHO:
6x Noise Marines, 6x Sonic Blasters, Rhino - 185pts
6x Noise Marines, 1 Champion w/ Doom Siren & Power Weapon Rhino - 200pts (this works well with LoS)

However, ultimately, you'd often just be better served with a 10 man squad of Chaos Space Marines (typically with 2 meltaguns and a rhino) for marginally more points. Or strictly from a competitive standpoint, Plague Marines too.

Check out Wayland Games btw; they can offer great deals to even overseas customers AFAIK.

Thanks for the tip, both on the shopping tip and the noise marines one

Note GW recently shut out the european distributors so they cannot ship outside EU

Wayland and Maelstrom have stopped shipping to Australia as a result
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/371626.page#2857937

I got my ass handed to me by a slaneesh only player that just drove his rhino full of noise marines around and blasted the doom siren out of the top, works wonders. I wouldn't pay for the sonic blasters and all the other stuff, its pretty much just four more troops for protecting the doom siren.

Another good configuration for noise marines (in addition to the mounted HtH unit with doomsiren champ) is 4 with bolters and 1 with blastmaster. As a fearless scoring unit, they can camp rear objectives and lob long-range str8 shots across the table, and with I5 they're a bit tougher against outflankers/wolf scouts than normal CSMs. And they're the cheapest of all the cult marines--20 points for a fearless, I5 guy with bp/ccw and bolt gun and power armor is not bad.

But overall they're not the most effective unit in the codex, and the sonic blaster upgrade is too expensive.

Although it's fun to tool them up with all sonic weapons, don't. They function very well as a small 5 man assault unit with a PW+D. Siren Champ, and 4 Sonic Guns. Either that, or the "all bolters and 1 Blastmaster" type loadout.

they are too expensive in my opinion. 20 pts for a csm with +1 initiative and more weapon options, wich are mayby not so cheap either. i wouldent take em

severedblue wrote:Note GW recently shut out the european distributors so they cannot ship outside EU

Wayland and Maelstrom have stopped shipping to Australia as a result
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/371626.page#2857937

Almost.
Wayland Games appears to have found a way round this, so are good to order from outside of the EU:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/376187.page

being a huge fan of slaanesh and noise marines I always try to incorporate them into my list and have never seen any problems with them

OK, they do cost a lot BUT they are fearless, have I5 and are able to grab some pretty tasty guns

I would take 2 units of 6 with a blastmaster and 5 blasters to camp on objectives

I would then have another 2 units of 6 in a rhino, with 5 blasters and a siren + power weapon champ to drive up close and pump some shots into your opponent and then assault

remember that blasters are not rapid fire weapons and so you can unload the same amount of shots as a bolter and still assault

I would also recomend putting (if you dont have any DP's) a lash sorc into each rhino squad and support your marines with a few oblits and/or defilers

6x Noise Marines, 1 Champion w/ Doom Siren & Power Weapon Rhino - 200pts (this works well with LoS)

This is the way I use them, 2 units in combination with 2 lash Princes and Obliterators giving fire support.
However, in mission based games you'll need at least a 3rd scoring unit.

Hey guys thnx for all the info on these guys. I think will probably buy at least one of each troops choice eventually. With that in mind ive been looking them up and the only one i havent decided hard on is TS. That aside its good to know that sound marines are viable, if a bit expensive

Don't forget to add a Rhino with Havoc Launcher if you're going to use the Blastmaster guy.

whitedragon wrote:Don't forget to add a Rhino with Havoc Launcher if you're going to use the Blastmaster guy.

A havoc launcher is also useful if you're using the cc oriented version of a NM unit.

From a tourney only point of view, your best bet is 5 with just a blastmaster in a rhino. Since you should have 2 lash princes anyway, the s8 blast template onto a lashed enemy can work wonders. And, as stated, they are a long range fearless troop, so make great objective campers.

If you instead are trying to run an actual cult of slaneesh, then you will take noise marines regardless of how good or bad they are, and your squad will be 6 strong. So since its a themed force who cares if they are good or bad.

I'm not a fan of the blast master personally; I find it's only any good for its heavy mode, which then restricts movement and costs 40pts!
In regards to lashing, you can just do the same with Oblits and Plasma Cannons, Defilers and Battle Cannons, Assault Troops and Doom Sirens IMHO.

Doom sirens cost quite a bit too, and the short range means they are a late game item.

And while Lash does work with oblits and defilers and vindicators, they are all heavy support and very high priority targets. The blastmaster hiding in the back is much lower priority.

Well, the doom siren is one of the best shooting weapons in the game, especially in combination with the lash.
Its absolutely great vs. MEQ. I've used it very often and it has always worked.

I dont mean to revive a dead thread, but whilst i think that wayland games once overcame the gw terms of agreement, it seems to be that they once more cannot ship gw products outside the EU. Is there anywhere that does?

As mentioned they work well as home objective sitters; 4 sonic blasters & blastmaster. Stationary this unit puts out 12 bolter shots, you would need a csm sq over twice the size to get the same firepower at 12 - 24 inch range.

I like to use my Noise marines with the Blastmaster and 4 Sonic Blasters. Camp on the objective with a Rhino and Havoc Launcher nearby. They do fairly well at keeping most at bay.

But the price is exorbitant. Nobody really fears a few extra bolter shots and the blastmaster is way overpriced even if it is a krak blast. So they can be effective, but *will* be overpriced. I really hope the new Codex makes them good- if they use the GKs as a basis, a Noise Marine should be 15 pts and come with the SB. Doom Siren and Blast Master should be around 15 considering NMs can't get any heavy weapons.

I use them as a core to my CSM. Two configurations:

Small 5-man units with sonic weapons and blastmaster in Rhino w Havoc launcher

Large 10-man units with asp champ w PW, doom siren. In Rhino or landraider.

The army is slaanesh themed with two lash princes. The rhino mounts keep your troops protected but you can always fire out the blastmaster and the havoc launcher after lashing your opponent together.

The big units are my assault troops - the +1 I means they will usually give better than they take and the fearlessness makes them units that take a while for the enemies true-blue close assault units to eat through.

The only problem is they are overpriced. But they are on the fringe of being overpriced so when tactically used well they can overcome this disadvantage.