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Hey,

I appologise if this has already been covered but I didn't see much about it when I searched. I was planning on getting marbo as part of IG allies for my marines and I was wondering what would be the best way to use him? Does anybody have any good tactical tips for him?

Generally Marbo shows up, throws his demo charge at a high priority target, then dies shortly afterwards

There are few units in my guard army that I have as much fun with as marbo

sounds good lol.

The Marbo bomb is probably the most common tactic people use for him though there are some other possibilities for him.
Another tactic is to deepstrike him into another unit and giving it Marbo's Stealth, hit and run and and some extra cc attacks. If the unit gets swept they also benefit from Marbo's high initiative. I generally do this if when Marbo comes on there isn't really a good unit to bomb with the demo charge.

Marbo is not an IC so he cannot join a unit.

Besides the throw demo charge tactic, which is his primary move, he does have some others that can be useful.

He has that sniper pistol, which can be used to stack wounds on MC's or IC's.

He can also be used to hit on rear armor of vehicles. Either place him out of LOS in terrain and then move him to assault it with his melta bombs or place him so that your opponent must address him. The more firepower he soaks up the better.

 pie zuri wrote:
The Marbo bomb is probably the most common tactic people use for him though there are some other possibilities for him.
Another tactic is to deepstrike him into another unit and giving it Marbo's Stealth, hit and run and and some extra cc attacks. If the unit gets swept they also benefit from Marbo's high initiative. I generally do this if when Marbo comes on there isn't really a good unit to bomb with the demo charge.

Marbo is not an independent character so this does not work.



As for how to use Marbo, as has been said, you drop him near something expensive the deserves a demo charge and throw the demo charge. If he somehow survives the next shooting phase you charge something and do a bit more damage (don't forget your melta bomb).

Oh crap, I've never noticed that. That means I've been cheating with my Marbo a couple of times.

 pie zuri wrote:
Oh crap, I've never noticed that. That means I've been cheating with my Marbo a couple of times.

I wouldn't consider it cheating if you do something simply out of your own ignorance of the rules. However, now that you have been illuminated, if you continue to use him this way you'd be full on cheating.

Yeah I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. Just explain to your opponents that it was an honest mistake and I'm sure there'll be no harm done.

The changes to reserves have been a blessing for Marbo. You can choose exactly when you want him to come in, and he will never scatter. This means he's incredibly likely to come in exactly where and when you want him to.

So if you know your opponent is deep-striking some termies, or has just disembarked in a nice big clump...Marbo's there.

But yeah, he is a one-shot wonder. He'll die almost immediately (well I like to think he doesn't actually die, he just gets bored and wanders off into the Jungle )

 Testify wrote:
The changes to reserves have been a blessing for Marbo. You can choose exactly when you want him to come in, and he will never scatter. This means he's incredibly likely to come in exactly where and when you want him to.

Err, no. Nothing in the new rules allows you to choose when you arrive, the only change is that it now starts at a 3+ so you're more likely to arrive earlier than in 5th. It's still mandatory to roll, and still mandatory to arrive if you pass your roll.

(well I like to think he doesn't actually die, he just gets bored and wanders off into the Jungle )

Exactly. Marbo never dies, he simply decides that it would be selfish of him to table your opponent by himself so he departs the battle to allow other units to have the fun of killing the enemy.

Has anyone ever had marbo live until the end of the game?
Even when accompanied by 20 nearby stormtroopers, I've never had him get past two turns.

Marbo does two things:
1: Super accurate (usually) Str8 Ap2 largeblast delivery system. If you're lucky, he can take out like 500 points of terminators in one go. If you're unlucky, he kills himself, and maybe like one marine. (in a tournament, he killed a total of 4 marines in 3 games :/)
2: Bullet sponge. The turn following his arrival, he will draw fire like nobodies biznizz. Distracting nearby units that would otherwise be chewing up something else in your list, which is not bad for 65 points.

Number 1 is pretty straightforward. Land him near something juicy, with heavy deathstar type infantry being the prime pickings. Terminators and their ilk. I wouldnt recommend throwing his detpack at vehicles as it's only str 8, and not ordinance, this is pretty much a last resort.

Number 2 can be made better by picking good placement when he comes in. Remember that he doesnt exactly 'deep strike', but instead pops out of the ground without penalties. This means you can place him in cover easily and make him really annoying to shift as he has stealth. Dropping him on a weakly held objective, blowing away most of the defenders, then going to ground with a 3+ or 2+ cover save to contest can make him a real pain in the ass.

I sometimes drop him with stormtrooper squads for a real kick-in-the-nuts alpha strike (detpack followed up by plasma and hellguns will wipe most things off the board), and though this doesnt increase his life expectancy, it DOES draw fire away from the stormtroopers most of the time, buying them another turn or two to mess things up in the backfield. The enemy has a hard choice to make. Shoot marbo, and have all that plasma kicking around, or shoot stormtroopers and have marbo knifing punks and shoving meltabombs in tailpipes.

 McGibs wrote:

2: Bullet sponge. The turn following his arrival, he will draw fire like nobodies biznizz. Distracting nearby units that would otherwise be chewing up something else in your list, which is not bad for 65 points.

Is he that big a threat after he's used the demo charge?

No, but everyone seems to think he is. (or they just want revenge on him after he splatters 500points of terminators)

He is really really annoying if you leave him alive though, especially near some expensive things to wreck. He's got meltabombs, an ap2 pistol, and a half-dozen poison knife attacks, so you cant really just ignore him.
And like I said, if you put him in good cover, he can soak up some damage before he inevitably catches a few boltrounds to the face.

Kevlar wrote:

 McGibs wrote:

2: Bullet sponge. The turn following his arrival, he will draw fire like nobodies biznizz. Distracting nearby units that would otherwise be chewing up something else in your list, which is not bad for 65 points.

Is he that big a threat after he's used the demo charge?

Depends.....Against a combat squad of five spesh marines he can do pretty well. But with overwatch......I would say he is more of a vehicle mc hunter now with that demo charge, poisen, and melta bombs.

 Peregrine wrote:
Exactly. Marbo never dies, he simply decides that it would be selfish of him to table your opponent by himself so he departs the battle to allow other units to have the fun of killing the enemy.

I have Marbo win draws by himself, with an victory coming from secondary points. Comes on kills most of a tactical squad, which runs off the board. Then runs keeping cover to the other tactical squad's objective to contest and also be the one unit still alive. Won due to firstblood.
Times when he doesn't last until the end I am sure as you say he just feels greedy.

None of Marbo's skills are that amazing for just a single, apart from the demo charge. The demo charge usually makes him worth it by itself, handy weapon which now is good to try to graze tanks with.
I think someone has mentioned that you can use him to steal quadguns from the enemy, not sure you can do this, not sure the enemy will let you do this but how cool if you could.

In the right situation I could be tempted to place him on an objective, so I would have line breaker and have the objective contested. If for some reason the enemy has put a LOS blocking terrain next to the objective.

 McGibs wrote:


Number 2 can be made better by picking good placement when he comes in. Remember that he doesnt exactly 'deep strike', but instead pops out of the ground without penalties. This means you can place him in cover easily and make him really annoying to shift as he has stealth. Dropping him on a weakly held objective, blowing away most of the defenders, then going to ground with a 3+ or 2+ cover save to contest can make him a real pain in the ass.

not sure he can got to ground in 6th as he is fearless.

Fearless is a big liability for him in 6th ed because of the inability to go to ground, and it does him little good because he's not part of a squad.

I like Marbo in 6th he fits in well as part of an IG allied detachment in my deamon army.

Like a couple other people have touched on, I have had good results with him when it comes to jumping in not to close to people and getting some snipe shots off at MCs or ICs.

MFletch wrote:
I think someone has mentioned that you can use him to steal quadguns from the enemy, not sure you can do this, not sure the enemy will let you do this but how cool if you could.

That remindes me of Rambo, I must try this.

LMAO that is awesome!!

On a side note, you can man an empty emplacement

I have used him to great successes. I have only dropped the Demo Charge once and have actually done well vs. Dreads, of course with Melta Bombs going off on I1 that will probably change. Of course I have my own personal Morbo.

1.Pop up to something you want to die/enemy really really REALLY would prefer doesn't die. Make sure to take advantage of premeasuring and make sure that you are as close as humanly possible to the target (that evil chaplain, commissar, runepriest, etc.)

2. Use a witty/cheesy one liner. The more groan inducing the pun, the less chance of scatter on the demo charge("Guess you didn't expect this!" *Demo charges coteaz, "DEMO CHARGES FOR THE DEMO GOD" *Demo charges beserkers, etc.)

3. Laugh evily and prepare your scatter die. Remember, if you do not laugh evilly, said demo charge WILL scatter back onto Marbo and kill him.

4. Annihilate said unit with demo charge. If you did not laugh evilly, Marbo has probably killed himself just now, hope you learned your lesson scrub.

5. Watch as your opponent dumps 600+pts worth of firepower into him to make sure he doesn't go on a rampage.

6. Laugh as said opponent realizes he completely forgot about your stormtroopers right next to his barely held objective.

7. Pack Marbo up so he can get ready to do everything over again next game.

Remember, if you don't take Marbo, you're not a real IG player, and thusly should join all the other non manly players at the not-imperial guard table.

Other than that, everyone has hit it on the head. Only other tactic I've learned is to place him in spots where it's hard for him to be seen by many units, or even better, only by a couple of select units that your enemy REALLY wants to shoot something else with. For example, one game I used him, and the only models that could see him were some longfangs in a building. Said longfangs had to make a tough choice, kill Marbo, and prevent themselves from dying, or kill the leman russ that was going to kill the rest of his army next turn. He chose both, and failed at both, which helped earn me that important win

With the Emplacement Quad-Gun it might be worth just having Morbo show up next to the Quad Gun and just take it over with his BS5.

 Anpu42 wrote:
Of course I have my own personal Morbo.

Of course. Half the fun of Marbo is coming up with a proper conversion.

(Though DKoK Marbo >>>> all others.)

I like that one, I just wish he was more resilant, then I would make a Brock Samson Version.
My Favorite one I ever saw was a cardbord box with two legs stiking out of it, I whish I still had the Pic

 Anpu42 wrote:
With the Emplacement Quad-Gun it might be worth just having Morbo show up next to the Quad Gun and just take it over with his BS5.

Unless you killed said unit with his demo charge, then walked him over to grab the gun next turn, there is no way that is worth it.

His real strengths aren't necessarily in his stats, and I think that's something other players forget.

1. He shows up wherever you wish, no matter what, with 0 scatter. You literally can make him pop up from anywhere. With wounds being taken closest from the attacker, this has a huge psychological impact on any army that isn't 100% mounted up in transports (so all of them besides pure leaf blower and DE) Your opponent can no longer just stick important models at the back of a unit and be fine. They have to live with the fact that unless they surround their guy perfectly with scrubs, if you want him to die, he WILL die. Forcing a character towards the middle of the pack makes him easier to reach with your other weapons, which is always a good thing.

2. He is a real threat, even after he drops the demo charge. If your opponent doesn't kill him, they literally have Rambo running around in their back field. He will find something he doesn't like and proceed to horribly ruin it's day. So even though the demo charge, his signature weapon, is gone, they know full well what he'll do if they let him live (it seems like everyone's made that mistake once, or seen someone else do it) They MUST deal with him, or accept the consequences for letting him live.

3. He messes with your opponent. Even the really veteran tourney players I've faced hate him. He forces your opponent into a defensive mindset and makes them spread out. They know full well that he can't kill their whole army, but he doesn't need to. All he needs to do is find that one key unit, that lynchpin in your strategy. And then he throws a AP 2 S8 large blast monkey wrench in it. He makes your opponent have to play around him, to prepare for him. Anything that can force your opponent to play differently, and force him to change his tactics, is very handy. Marbo is undeniably the king at this, with the only close second possibly being stormtroopers, but they cost far more.

Using him just to steal a quad gun, no offense, just seems like a horrible waste of his abilities. Unless you REALLY need that quad gun knocked out, I would think using his element of surprise, firepower, and pyschological warfare is just far too good to waste on trying to steal a scary looking autocannon.

Sorry I did not make it clear, I ment just letting him take over your own Quad-Gun

 Anpu42 wrote:
Sorry I did not make it clear, I ment just letting him take over your own Quad-Gun

ohh...

I'll ask you this, and if I come across as rude, I'm very sorry.

But do you really need BS5 THAT badly? I mean, BS 4 should be plenty, and that can be grabbed from tons of other choices of models in our codex. Heck, I'd even use a lord commissar first. It just seems like a waste of marbo's abilites you know?

That said, he would look undeniably badass manning that gun. Reminds me of that scene from the newest rambo movie where he's manning the gun on the back of the jeep in the final battle. I was about to link it, until I watched it and remembered that it makes 40k "violence" look like rainbow kitty fluffland where no one dies ever. Just look up "Rambo 4 jeep scene" if you want to see what I mean.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
But do you really need BS5 THAT badly? I mean, BS 4 should be plenty, and that can be grabbed from tons of other choices of models in our codex.

This. Since it's a TL weapon you already have a 90% hit rate at BS 4, and going to BS 5 only brings that up to 97%, a mere 10% increase in firepower in exchange for committing one of your best characters to babysit a gun turret instead of wrecking stuff with a demo charge. Just stick a PCS behind the aegis line.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:

 Anpu42 wrote:
Sorry I did not make it clear, I ment just letting him take over your own Quad-Gun

ohh...

I'll ask you this, and if I come across as rude, I'm very sorry.

But do you really need BS5 THAT badly? I mean, BS 4 should be plenty, and that can be grabbed from tons of other choices of models in our codex. Heck, I'd even use a lord commissar first. It just seems like a waste of marbo's abilites you know?

That said, he would look undeniably badass manning that gun. Reminds me of that scene from the newest rambo movie where he's manning the gun on the back of the jeep in the final battle. I was about to link it, until I watched it and remembered that it makes 40k "violence" look like rainbow kitty fluffland where no one dies ever. Just look up "Rambo 4 jeep scene" if you want to see what I mean.

I was thinking of this as a different way of using him. Putting him within the ADL would give him a 3++ Save and what should be 4 S7 AP4 Hits a turn. He would be great for Skimmers and Flyers. If something gets close he still has the Demo-Charge and as long as it landed outside of the ADL he would have a chance of surviving it. I am not saying this would be the greatest use of him, but it would be an option.
Think about it, on turn three your opponent has been keeping a Counter Assault Unit in his rear waiting for Morbo. He has managed to wipe out a PC's in your ADL and all of a sudden Morbo show up next to the Quad-Gun and starts Blasting his Skimmers or Scout Units.

This is an Optional use of him.

As far as the Rambo bit, I live that part, if you look at my earlier post I already have posted a Pic of it.