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So I have recently made 3 exchanges and got quite a bit of Imperial Guard (first time ever getting any) and reading through the codex, Guardsman Marbo caught my eye.

He has 5WS and 5BS, as well as 4 attacks. He costs 65 points. He is very squishy though, with a toughness of 3 and only 2 wounds. However, he has a good pistol (AP sniper, 12") and his blade is poison (2+), but what really caught my eye, is the fact that he has a demolition charge AND can arrive from reserve anywhere 1" away from a an enemy. He also has Fearless, Stealth, Move Through Cover, Hit and Run, and Fleet.

The demolition charge has a 6" range as well as 8Str 2AP and is Assault1 large blast (one shot only).

TL;DR: Guardsman Marbo arrives from reserve anywhere and has a one shot, 6", 8Str AP large blast weapon.

So what are the tactics with him? He cannot move nor assault the turn he comes in, and with 4 attacks and wounding on 2+, nobody is going to stay within range of his assault. So is there anything to do besides suicide bombing him?

Is it worth 65 points to have a Str8 AP2 large blast land anywhere you want on a random turn, but lose a victory point?

Unless you're playing a kill point mission, why would you lose a victory point? He doesn't come in until turn 2 at the earliest, so First Blood shouldn't be a concern...
Edit: He's also not Fast Attack or Heavy Support, so even in those missions he doesn't count.

Corollax wrote:
Unless you're playing a kill point mission, why would you lose a victory point? He doesn't come in until turn 2 at the earliest, so First Blood shouldn't be a concern...
Edit: He's also not Fast Attack or Heavy Support, so even in those missions he doesn't count.

Wait, what? I was talking about kill point missions, he is an elite choice, and is a unit, therefore counts as a victory point in kill point missions. I probably should have been more specific.

Edited for clerity

Well, by the core rules, only 1/6 of your games should be kill point missions. In the general case, he doesn't usually cost you a victory point.

That's pretty much Marbo. He comes in, kills something, makes up his points, and then... well, anything else is cake.

Plus, your enemy is forced to shoot at him, instead of the rest of your army. Very rarely is shooting at Marbo efficient, it just has to be done.

Corollax wrote:Well, by the core rules, only 1/6 of your games should be kill point missions. In the general case, he doesn't usually cost you a victory point.

Good point.

maceria wrote:That's pretty much Marbo. He comes in, kills something, makes up his points, and then... well, anything else is cake.

Plus, your enemy is forced to shoot at him, instead of the rest of your army. Very rarely is shooting at Marbo efficient, it just has to be done.

I totally forgot that the enemy will be forced to waste a whole unit's shooting turn to take him out or I get to keep him. My question is, is a str 8 ap2 large blast anywhere you want (but you don't get to pick when) as well as wasting a single unit's shooting phase worth 65 points and a Elite choice?

 Ryan_A wrote:
I totally forgot that the enemy will be forced to waste a whole unit's shooting turn to take him out or I get to keep him. My question is, is a str 8 ap2 large blast anywhere you want (but you don't get to pick when) as well as wasting a single unit's shooting phase worth 65 points and a Elite choice?

Usually. IG elites aren't very popular, only suicide melta stormtroopers are at all useful and even then it's rare that you'll want three units of them. And 65 points is a pretty reasonable price, you'll fairly consistently kill about that much worth of stuff and it's a small price to pay for the disruption factor (forcing your opponent to spread out at maximum 2" coherency with every vulnerable unit, etc).

 Ryan_A wrote:
My question is, is a str 8 ap2 large blast anywhere you want (but you don't get to pick when) as well as wasting a single unit's shooting phase worth 65 points and a Elite choice?

At most times yes. And there is not much competition in the Elites for IG, by the way .

Awesome, thanks everyone! I suppose I will be taking him. I put him in a list I just wrote, I think he fits in well: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/558220.page

Marbo is great. What he is is a one trick pony. No matter how you look at it, he comes in, pops a transport or a few terminators or other infantry. Then, he dies. I can only think of one time in over 100 games where he stayed alive over two turns. He just doesn't survive, after all, he is called "gaurdsman" Marbo for a reason.

If you use Marbo make sure you read ALL the rules and equipment.

Thing is IF he survives the first round of shooting all sorts of things can happen. That pistol has a 5/12 chance of putting a wound on just about anything. Combine with 6 heavily poisoned attacks at I5 on the charge. Then there are the meltabombs. The thing to look out for though is overwatch...

Hit and run can be particularly hilarious. Activate in opponents turn if stuck in combat and by some fluke of luck still alive. Average 11" hit and run move, 6" normal move then a charge on top of that. That's like 24" average action radius!

Try actively looking for opportunities to make Marbo's survival more likely once the demo charge has been delivered. Most of the time he will just die of course, but every now and then he will be epic!

The thing to remember is Marbo is only 65 points. Although that sounds like a lot for one model, he pretty much makes his points back in every single game. He is also extremely fun. If he survives into a second turn by some miracle he can mess up a lot of things in close combat, especially since he can challenge. Unfortunately as awesome of a backfield tau disruptor he would be, their mass of interceptor would destroy him.

zoat wrote:
If you use Marbo make sure you read ALL the rules and equipment.

Thing is IF he survives the first round of shooting all sorts of things can happen. That pistol has a 5/12 chance of putting a wound on just about anything. Combine with 6 heavily poisoned attacks at I5 on the charge. Then there are the meltabombs. The thing to look out for though is overwatch...

Hit and run can be particularly hilarious. Activate in opponents turn if stuck in combat and by some fluke of luck still alive. Average 11" hit and run move, 6" normal move then a charge on top of that. That's like 24" average action radius!

Try actively looking for opportunities to make Marbo's survival more likely once the demo charge has been delivered. Most of the time he will just die of course, but every now and then he will be epic!

Pretty much this is why Marbo is so good. Not only do you get the demo charge (which is epic in its own right, I've netted 400+ points of tau in one shot with it before) but the enemy HAS to deal with him, or he will tear them a new one. He can be a good assassin with the sniper pistol and high number of attacks (that can precision hit, no less), and can mess up any vehicle with the meltabombs. he will either take far more than 65 points of firepower to down him, or he'll be ignored and can run some serious interference.

Furthermore, if you can get him in some good cover, he can GTG and be even more of a pain to shift. He can also be a potential linebreaker if all else fails, just put him in a corner out of LOS and that's a VP in the bag.

I used him for a long time but towards the end I found myself looking at Harker.

Harker is much more of a force multiplier, he addes a HB to a vet squad (a move and shoot HB!) and makes them infiltrators.

Seems a squad with harker, autocannon, 3x plasma and cameo cloaks would be a deadly unit to have infiltrating within 24"

Harker is also nice in many ways, but fulfils an entirely different role to marbo. Harker can make one of your vet squads put out a phenomenal amount of firepower (2 HB and 3 plasma is awesome and can provide weight of fire as well as high power shots) and with camo cloaks+Harker+ruins you can infiltrate in a ruin for 2+ cover, making them really hard to shift.

The difference comes in their place in a strategy. A Harker squad will probably need some other mobile elements to support it, as going in alone will leave then cut off and easily taken out, whereas Marbo can fir in almost any list, just showing up and blowing up. He is far more a reactive tool than Harker, around whom you kind of need to build a strategy or at least dedicate a significant proportion of your army to working with him.

In short, both are great, but do entirely different things. The best bit is, they are in no way other than points competing with each other, being in different FOC slots and roles, so there's nothing forcing you to choose one over the other, just take both!

zoat wrote:If you use Marbo make sure you read ALL the rules and equipment.

Thing is IF he survives the first round of shooting all sorts of things can happen. That pistol has a 5/12 chance of putting a wound on just about anything. Combine with 6 heavily poisoned attacks at I5 on the charge. Then there are the meltabombs. The thing to look out for though is overwatch...

Hit and run can be particularly hilarious. Activate in opponents turn if stuck in combat and by some fluke of luck still alive. Average 11" hit and run move, 6" normal move then a charge on top of that. That's like 24" average action radius!

Try actively looking for opportunities to make Marbo's survival more likely once the demo charge has been delivered. Most of the time he will just die of course, but every now and then he will be epic!

Great points! I totally forgot about the "sniper" pistol and the 2 CCW plus charge, as well as the meltabombs. I guess I didn't think they were a big deal. They aren't, but because he has all 3, you are almost guaranteed to be able to put one of them to use, which makes him really useful. Just a great tactica, thank you.

herpguy wrote:The thing to remember is Marbo is only 65 points. Although that sounds like a lot for one model, he pretty much makes his points back in every single game. He is also extremely fun. If he survives into a second turn by some miracle he can mess up a lot of things in close combat, especially since he can challenge. Unfortunately as awesome of a backfield tau disruptor he would be, their mass of interceptor would destroy him.

Ya, he seems like he would be really fun. "Oh, you want to know what this little guy is? Nothing special, he can just arrive wherever I want him to, he has a Str9 Ap2 LARGE BLAST ASSAULT! And thats just the start. You'll probably want to devote a whole unit to take him out or you will regret it." haha.

Paradigm wrote:Harker is also nice in many ways, but fulfils an entirely different role to marbo. Harker can make one of your vet squads put out a phenomenal amount of firepower (2 HB and 3 plasma is awesome and can provide weight of fire as well as high power shots) and with camo cloaks+Harker+ruins you can infiltrate in a ruin for 2+ cover, making them really hard to shift.

The difference comes in their place in a strategy. A Harker squad will probably need some other mobile elements to support it, as going in alone will leave then cut off and easily taken out, whereas Marbo can fir in almost any list, just showing up and blowing up. He is far more a reactive tool than Harker, around whom you kind of need to build a strategy or at least dedicate a significant proportion of your army to working with him.

In short, both are great, but do entirely different things. The best bit is, they are in no way other than points competing with each other, being in different FOC slots and roles, so there's nothing forcing you to choose one over the other, just take both!

Thanks for the info, I hadn't considered harker, using both would be pretty fun.