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I was recently talking to one of my more obnoxious of war gaming buddies, and he was claiming a all infantry MEQ army of any type is a utterly 'Stupid idea, and Black Templar's do not count!'

After many raised eyebrows I challanged to take on his 1750 point Marine army, with my Chaos space marines (After having built up quite a collection). He'll be fielding most likely a Land Raider with TH/SS and LC termies, 3 tactical squads, acouple predators and the rest would be some of his 'new toys' so I assume acouple of Dreads or TFC

I was wondering if Dakka has any advise to give, as personally in casual games I find a Marine horde army both hilarious and a refreshing change.

The main of the army would most likely be- 15 CSM with Icon of Nurgle to march in front of the Khorne Berserkers or PM's, Termicide and HQ would most likely be acouple of Lash sorcerer's in some large squads of CSM.

Some Berserkers would also be lurking mixed between the CSM bulk squads with some Plagues for melta goodness.

So Dakka, any thoughts and ideas for some truely effective ways?

Lesser daemons. They're like vanguard vets except they only work inside the zone and they're significantly less killy. You can use them to tie up units for a phase or two, pull off foot assaults of 6+d6+X+6", where X is what you gain from bases. And they're scoring, and no-one expects them.

Also, a 5man raptor squad with 2 meltas and an icon is like 120pts. Icon of slaanesh could be worth it against loyalist marines though.

I wouldn't use termies outside of termicide, they're just going to suck up the AT fire.

Your friend is probably sort of right though.

You can make a really interesting horde using Fabius Bile and "enhanced marines". They will all be S5 or S6, making powerfists that much juicier for your champs, and will all be fearless.

Run them in big squads of 20 with double melta or plasma, or run them in Rhinos for extra fun. Give them Icons for added interest. Hell, run Rhinos with them anyway, and just have the rhino drive in front of them so they can't be shot/charged until you want.

EDIT:

Try to go for 60-80 marines, and go nuts.

The main thing I think you're going to be lacking is speed...

Unfortunately, I'm not that familiar with the CSM codex, so I can't offer any specific suggestions.

Good luck though, let us know how it turned out!

Infiltrating chosen can make up for speed by being in position at the start. Add an Icon and you can use terminators, lesser and greater demons coming off of them.
Otherwise to get hoard speed best recommendation is chaos bikers or raptors.

There are a lot of foot armies that do very well, and yes, BT do count.

Deathwing.
Draigowing.
Loganwing.
All foot SW
DOA (although they have some awful match ups)
Tyranids
Footdar
WWP Deldar
And the list goes on.

Anyway, as to your challenge (and I hope you spank his bottom) the problem with CSMs is that they aren't fearless. One bad round of combat, and they can get run down.

Cult troops are the way to go for assault.

3 man units of Termies with a Reaper Auto Cannon, 2 combi plas and a chain fist are great units for popping light transports and hoping into a fight were needed.

Termicide works well to take out pesky back field vehicles and units.

Lash is great. Remember, it is no longer a shooting attack, so you can now use it anytime during the shooting phase. You can lash one unit and charge another. It got much more powerful with that last FAQ...as if it needed to be better.

Plague Marines, Bexerkers for counter assault, a Greater Daemon, MSU termies and Noise Marines with doom siren or blastmaseters and infiltrating Chosen with 5 specials are all great units.

5 man Auto-cannon havocs and oblits are fantastic.

I would use this, personally:

Unit Description Size
HQ
Sorcerer MoS, Lash 1
Sorcerer MoS, Lash 1
Greater Daemon 1

Troops
Plague Marines Champ, Fist, Melta x 2 10
Noise Marines Blastmaster, Champ 5
Berzerkers Champ, Fist 10

Elites
Chosen Melta x 5 5
Terminators Reaper, Combi Plas x 2, C.Fist 3

Fast Attack

Heavy Support
Obliterators 3
Havocs Auto Cannon x 4 5

That gives you a good mix of units to take on anything he throws at you, scoring units, deployment options, board control and some heavy hitters. That isn't quite 1750, so you have some options to beef units out or mix things up a bit.

Infantry lists can and do win. If you roll up KPs, you should have a big advantage.

Aye, just dredged up my old Chaos Daemon army, tempted to do a Fabius Bile inspired army and a Daemon wave.

My chosen with Melt'as have just been painted and the termies are ready, all I really need are 2 squads of havocs, 1 with AC's and another with ML

I want to know why BT don't count. They're just as valid as any other marine codex, and they do footslogging perfectly well thanks to falling back FORWARD.

I assume he meant that a marine foot horde that isn't BT is a stupid idea. They're not part of that statement, so they don't count. You know?