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.

I am back and forth on how to run Noise Marines. Here is the lastest idea and I think it might work well.

Noise Champ - Doom Siren, Power Sword

5 Noise Marines - Sonic Blasters

3 Noise Marines - Bolters, Bolt Postols, CC weapons

1 Blastmaster

Rhino

My thought here is this unit gets pretty versitile.

wondering how others run this set up.

the sonic blasters just aren't worth it inmho. you need to be able to move and shoot, which sonic blasters can't do, or have more range like blastmasters.

I run 10 marines with a doomsiren and a blastmaster, IoE. Champion has a lightning claw. Most have ubergrit, but not all.

Thulsa Doom wrote:
I am back and forth on how to run Noise Marines. Here is the lastest idea and I think it might work well.

Noise Champ - Doom Siren, Power Sword

5 Noise Marines - Sonic Blasters

3 Noise Marines - Bolters, Bolt Postols, CC weapons

1 Blastmaster

Rhino

My thought here is this unit gets pretty versitile.

wondering how others run this set up.

Thats pretty much how mine are set up - I use them defensively, set on an objective. (I have 4 Sonic Blasters)
They've not died yet.
And I have 4 marines to act as living shields.

I run mine with two seperate builds-

A couple of 6-10 man units with a doomsiren/power sword champ, CCW and a rhino with dirge caster to use offensively

and a 12 man unit with 10 sonics, a blastmaster and a naked champion, these ones are for camping a home objective. Or, if you want to use huron or ahriman
(or just get lucky and roll master of deception on the warlord table), they can be infiltrated midfield to be in range a lot quicker.

Only played them like this a couple of times, but they have performed reasonably well so far

I run 4 squads of 10 with Rhinos, Sonic Weapons, the Blastmaster and IoE in most games. This sets up some interesting tactics that come up frequently in games.

What I like to do is move the squads together up the board towards the middle, then have the NMs disembark behind the Rhinos. Typically, at least 3 of the Rhinos survive until the end of the second turn, at which point I have a wall between myself and opponents.

At that point, my NMs have enough range to hit the bulk of my opponent's forces and I can move the Rhinos whenever I want to create fire lanes and restrict an opponent's ability to shoot back. What this forces people to do is make a choice about how to deal with them, and the choices it gives people are not very friendly.

In most cases, the choices are:

1) They can blow up the Rhinos, potentially exposing their units to 100+ cover ignoring shots the next turn and a few blast markers.

2) They can charge between the Rhinos and try to get to my marines. Besides overwatch, charges do not always work because my guys always stand a few inches back.

3) They can wait behind the Rhinos until the next turn, trying to get position for a proper charge.

4) They can ignore the Noise Marines and move onto something else.

The trick here is that it's actually pretty hard to blow up 4 Rhinos, and most armies can't do it fast enough to get at what's behind them in a single turn. It allows me to leave my NMs protected and stationary long enough to get in a few good rounds of shooting. NM models themselves just occupy a lot of space, so it's not hard to spread them out almost across the board while still maintaining a lot of cover behind the Rhinos.

Most often, opponents try to shoot up the Rhinos, which I really don't care about at that point. The next turn, my NMs fire without having to move, and will generally wipe out 1 - 2 MEQ units and cause serious damage to anything else I can target. Surprisingly, the natural reaction here is not to pull back, but for opponents to dedicate more forces to the assault. I usually have the NMs stand there at least 3 turns before they need to move, and they usually do a lot of damage in this time.

Sometimes, people try to charge between the Rhinos. They will generally take a couple wounds from overwatch fire, then get into cc with a bunch of marines with I5 and FnP. The other 3 squads NMs are still free to fire the next round. It's not actually better than the first option, mostly because charges fail more often then not. It just means they might get a couple close combat wounds. I have had trouble with charges from Death Company and Ork Bikers, but that's really it.

Every once in a while, someone will try to use my Rhinos for cover which is always a bad idea. I generally tank shock them the next turn before shooting them up, and can sometimes rout 2 units while shooting up 2 others. When I am really in a pissy mood, I will send 4 Rhinos tank shocking and screw with the placement of an opponent's unit. It can make for a very boring game, with everything suddenly in retreat, but I have sent the bulk of an Ork army running in a single turn with this tactic.

Some opponents will try to ignore the NMs, in which case I simply get back in the Rhinos and move them up again. You can't really ignore or avoid NMs, all you can really hope to do is get the jump on them. I will use attempts to avoid the NMs to split up an opponents army, park on objectives, or go after him firing the blastmasters from the Rhinos. There always comes a point where I have him pinned and he has to face the NMs, usually to his disadvantage.

The armies I have the worst time with are Tau, Necrons and Mechanized IG, they just have the right tools to screw up strategies like this. I have been working on other ways to mitigate their natural strengths, but I am not optimistic that this could become a universal tactic to use against all comers. Pie plates, markerlights and rail guns are the natural counter.

Space Wolves and Grey Knights a little better than most, mostly because of the number of special weapons they can bring. I had to fight one SW army that had 10 missile launchers firing per round, meaning he ate my Rhinos before I was really set to respond.

But SM, Orks, Eldar, IG and SoBs have a very hard time against this tactic, it's just too much massed firing for most of their units to deal with even on a statistical average basis.

Looks like a great tactic Techsoldaten to bad i only own one squad of noice marines

Yeah, seems like everyone is trying to get models for them, or running armies where they don't know how to play them.

Check ebay and watch for sales on old Slaaneshi armies. I got around 50 of the second edition types from there, still painting the bulk of them.

I plan to make mine out of third party parts. For the sonic blasters I want to use the new forgeworld voltaic parts. Combined with puppetswar shoulderpads and a third party helmet, I think they will look quite nice.

Trying to decide if I want 20 or thirty of them total....

you want 20 at least 2 10 man squad with sonics blastmaster IoE is my standard 2 troops place them behind a big cultist blob with a biomancy sorceror with the endurance power and just walk up firing as you go

I personally really love using Huron to infiltrate squads of ten with full sonics, IoE, and a Blastmaster.

These units provide me with a durable, shooty, and above average CC firebasd within 18" of my opponent, this means I can often plant them onto an objective (mine are troops due to MoS lord) along with an IG veteran squad with Harker armed with a Lascannon and plasma guns to handle MEQ and hit weaker side armor.

The reason that these guys are so epic IMO is their ability to totaly ignore Xeno saves in general, Orks and their vehicles Kroot, Eldar infantry (some), most dark eldar infantry and all vehicles, IG infantry and vehicles with AV 10 sides etc...the list of good targets goes on. The sheer number of bolter shots can strip many hull points off of vehicles like raiders and venoms while butchering most non-MEQs, but that's what the blast master is for

NMs are just the tits.

hell they even mess MEQ up just with sheer volume of shots

Reading that tactic really makes me want to get NMs am I reading it right though that they don't make models for them? IF so any word on if some are scheduled to come out?

GW sells noise marine weapons on their web page. You get 5 sonic blasters and 1 blast master in the kit. I just ordered two to add to my existing models to make three 10 model units with 6 sonic blasters and a blast master. The two models left are the champ and the one marine holding the IoE. I just ripped of the arms from my chaos marines and replaced them with the sonic weapons.

which tactic ? ebay is your best bet for NM that or kit bash your own

You can also make some awesome 'counts-as' noise marines.

For example: my Alpha Legion includes two squads of "infiltrators" who are armed with Umbra Ferrox Bolters from FW, they have box magazines and scopes which represent the higher fire rate and the exrta range/ignores cover respectively.

My blastmasters are scout sniper rifles with "special ammo"

There are unlimited possibilities for how to model noise marines so just have at it!

I love the idea of using sound waves to obliterate enemies but i have set my mind on a Typhus zombie nurgle list, who knows mybe NM will be my future project. Sounds like a lot of fun and indeed Huron blackheart is a wise HQ choice .

Noise marines can be really effective in shooting. Just the other day i used my MOS sorcerer to cast the noise weapon boosting power on a unit of TH/SS terminators and managed to kill 4 terminators with just one of my noise marines squad shooting at them. The sheer amount of shots and boosted str just made my opponent roll so many dice that it was brutal I,'m running three squads of shooty NMs and one assaulty in a rhino in 2000 pts. If i play smaller games i usually drop one squad but allways take a minimum of two shooty squads into my list.

masquerade81 wrote:
Noise marines can be really effective in shooting. Just the other day i used my MOS sorcerer to cast the noise weapon boosting power on a unit of TH/SS terminators and managed to kill 4 terminators with just one of my noise marines squad shooting at them. The sheer amount of shots and boosted str just made my opponent roll so many dice that it was brutal I,'m running three squads of shooty NMs and one assaulty in a rhino in 2000 pts. If i play smaller games i usually drop one squad but allways take a minimum of two shooty squads into my list.

From what I've noticed thats the easiest way to take down termies. Just throw down a wave of fire and they are bound to roll some ones.