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I have a bunch of these mono-pose guys from 2nd edition (probably well over 100). I wanted to use some of them as the core of a new army (or armies probably), but I don't really want to invest in things like Landraiders or vehicle kits, or anything too expensive to back them up. So I was wondering is there any value in having a whole army of foot slogging marines, with bolters? What would be the best chapter/units to play them as? And what would be the best way to support them without having to buy expensive kits?

I've been toying with the idea of taking them as 30 x Death Company with bolters, and just use them as a charging gun line with relentless. I do have a DC dread and a Storm Raven that might work with that list. And I can group the missile launcher guys together as Devs.

Would another chapter work better? (I'd quite like to have a go at an Imperial Fists army).

Out of the vanilla dex, best route would probably be to field them as 6x tac squads and use Marneus to double tap tactical doctrine.

Off the top of my head, some codexes or chapters that would fit best with bolter marines:

Dark Angels: the Standard of Devastation makes your bolters salvo 4/2 which gives quite a damage output boost

SMs, Black Templars: get some scouts and make some massive Crusader blobs

SMs, Imperial Fists: reroll 1s with bolter weapons or go with Sentinel of Terra supplement and get straight up twin-linked at half range

SMs, Iron Hands: 6+ FNP for all infantry for a slight boost in survivability

I'd advise against the Dark Angels. Salvo sucks when you're walking.

A horde of foot slogging marines?

My buddy actually plays this tactic with his Space Wolves and most times he can weigh you down in crappy melee units and pour on tons of plasma fire. Throw in which ever HQ he wants and it's pretty much a wrecking ball. I have a bit of a rough time taking down all the bodies with my own marines, but xenos often have it easier.

If you have a ton of models needing kitbashed I would suggest checking around on some of the bitz stores on ebay. You can do a lot with a basic marine, pretty much any infantry unit in the army can be built with just marines, so really your imagination is the only limit. I built all my Honour Guard out of spare dudes and they look just fine. Perhaps they don't look quite so epic but who the heck can swing a sword with all that bling anyways?

 obsidiankatana wrote:
Out of the vanilla dex, best route would probably be to field them as 6x tac squads and use Marneus to double tap tactical doctrine.

What would be the biggest weakness/danger running all foot sloggers?

darkcloak wrote:
A horde of foot slogging marines?

My buddy actually plays this tactic with his Space Wolves and most times he can weigh you down in crappy melee units and pour on tons of plasma fire. Throw in which ever HQ he wants and it's pretty much a wrecking ball. I have a bit of a rough time taking down all the bodies with my own marines, but xenos often have it easier.

If you have a ton of models needing kitbashed I would suggest checking around on some of the bitz stores on ebay. You can do a lot with a basic marine, pretty much any infantry unit in the army can be built with just marines, so really your imagination is the only limit. I built all my Honour Guard out of spare dudes and they look just fine. Perhaps they don't look quite so epic but who the heck can swing a sword with all that bling anyways?

yeah I figured from the point of view of target saturation is might be good, though given the amount of marine players, most armies are probably expecting a few.

Unfortunately these guys are the single pose 2nd edition marines, so there isn't much scope for modeling:


I could change their guns easy enough, and make them sternguard, but things like swords and stuff are probably not worth the trouble (the arms are fused to the body). Also I have plenty of regular posable marines to kit bash with, if I needed to add power fists or anything. These guys are really just to make up the numbers

Ravenguard for scout and stealth 1-st turn. Bring in a couple of rhinos and scout them forward. Others can either support or outflank.

Play Legion Astartes, and just throw squads of twenty marines with bolters at the opponent.

Oh yeah those guys!

They are similar to the snap fits from the DV kit, the guns are simple enough to swap but yeah swords and the like... why bother, especially if you have pose-able marines to work with.

I would say if you wanted to use the current SM codex, which is probably the cheapest option, go with Imperial Fists. You can make a few Devastator squads and benefit from both parts if IF Tactics. Tank Hunters really takes Devs from being okay to great.

Iron Hands Tactics will give you a bit more staying power but to really benefit from their set you need some vehicles and multi wound characters...

Crazyterran wrote:
Play Legion Astartes, and just throw squads of twenty marines with bolters at the opponent.

Oh yeah, i've tried it! It's fun! I've run 2*20-strong marines with apothecaries. Though, they got wiped by turn 2. Prescienced basilisks, plazmacannons and heavy voltkits won't allow you to do anything meaningful with footslogging marines. But if you can take out those before they shoot, than it's gona be fine!

I did this once (admittedly with BA so it cost more points per marine. Just tacs, devs and mephiston to see how it played. It was against old dex eldar (so not uber strong dex), and I got horribly tabled! My mass bolters and mls could do nothing against his 3 rapidly advancing wraithknights and infiltrating striking scorps with a tanking 2++ reroll karandras. Mephy took out a wraithknight then died horribly to 2 squads of fragons disembarking from serpents.

 Smacks wrote:

 obsidiankatana wrote:
Out of the vanilla dex, best route would probably be to field them as 6x tac squads and use Marneus to double tap tactical doctrine.

What would be the biggest weakness/danger running all foot sloggers?

darkcloak wrote:
A horde of foot slogging marines?

My buddy actually plays this tactic with his Space Wolves and most times he can weigh you down in crappy melee units and pour on tons of plasma fire. Throw in which ever HQ he wants and it's pretty much a wrecking ball. I have a bit of a rough time taking down all the bodies with my own marines, but xenos often have it easier.

If you have a ton of models needing kitbashed I would suggest checking around on some of the bitz stores on ebay. You can do a lot with a basic marine, pretty much any infantry unit in the army can be built with just marines, so really your imagination is the only limit. I built all my Honour Guard out of spare dudes and they look just fine. Perhaps they don't look quite so epic but who the heck can swing a sword with all that bling anyways?

yeah I figured from the point of view of target saturation is might be good, though given the amount of marine players, most armies are probably expecting a few.

Unfortunately these guys are the single pose 2nd edition marines, so there isn't much scope for modeling:


I could change their guns easy enough, and make them sternguard, but things like swords and stuff are probably not worth the trouble (the arms are fused to the body). Also I have plenty of regular posable marines to kit bash with, if I needed to add power fists or anything. These guys are really just to make up the numbers

if you buy dark vengance dark angels you can get plasma guns to fit those tac marine arms. you can also get plasma cannons