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I've been messing around with my marines off and on, and I can't seem to find a way of playing them that is actually fun (for me). If I want a bunch of super soldiers with snazzy guns, I feel like my eldar do it better and with more mobility. If I want durability, necrons would probably do that job better. Marines are hardly the most mobile option around.

I like the idea of "sneaky marines" that operate mostly on foot and with jump packs, then do a sort of combined arms tac marine + assault marine + devastator thing to leverage their unique strengths against the enemy's weaknesses, but that doesn't seem to be terribly effective as marines are too death prone outside of vehicles. Drop pods seem cliche and just not very interesting to me.

So help me find the fun in my marines, guys. They aren't really durable or killy enough to be "super soldiers." I don't really have any options to represent sneaky sabotage/clever deathtrap styles of doing things. Successful marine lists seem to be all about grav spam and drop pods, and that's simply not as interesting to me as somehow making a mix of assault/devs/tacs/termies work. What am I missing? What's the gameplay appeal of marines? Not the fluff appeal, but on the table, what do marines bring that makes them fun to actually use?

I guess it comes down to options. In a single army you can have a group of weapon specialists with all the tools they need for any job with Sternguard, guys that appear with 2+ armor in Terminators, zippy little gun boats with Bikes, plenty of tanks, the most armored things available in the regular game with Land Raiders, and so many special characters that can change how you play the game just by existing. The versatility of Marines means that you don't have to go out and buy a whole new army if you want to do something different. Just a handful of units and you're golden. All the while, the basic everything is durable enough to forgive your mistakes.

Use Skyhammer and/or Gladius/Lion's Blade. Fill the requirement and then dominate in the name of the emperor!

Codex Marines/Dark Angels both have formation that actually boost them or at the very least give you something in exchange of using what many people consider to be a lesser choice and at the same time it is rewarding for someone like me who has a full company of Dark Angels. I can now field 50+ marine with free transport rather easily in every match, go with a combined assault from the Greemwing/Ironwing/Deathwing/Ravenwing.

Since you are looking for commando like Marines I would go Ravenguard from Codex Space Marine and probably use the Gladius with Demi-Company, lots of Scout support and some flyer/landspeeder.

At one point you have to decide wheter you want to be hyper competitive and do really boring list that break the fluff or the way the army should act or have fun with friends and play with people that also play with the same goal.

Else you would be better to look at Horus Heresy. They got some good marine on marine action and you might find the kind of gameplay you are looking for with sneaky/spec ops marine.

 A Watcher In The Dark wrote:
Use Skyhammer and/or Gladius/Lion's Blade. Fill the requirement and then dominate in the name of the emperor!

Codex Marines/Dark Angels both have formation that actually boost them or at the very least give you something in exchange of using what many people consider to be a lesser choice and at the same time it is rewarding for someone like me who has a full company of Dark Angels. I can now field 50+ marine with free transport rather easily in every match, go with a combined assault from the Greemwing/Ironwing/Deathwing/Ravenwing.

Since you are looking for commando like Marines I would go Ravenguard from Codex Space Marine and probably use the Gladius with Demi-Company, lots of Scout support and some flyer/landspeeder.

At one point you have to decide wheter you want to be hyper competitive and do really boring list that break the fluff or the way the army should act or have fun with friends and play with people that also play with the same goal.

Else you would be better to look at Horus Heresy. They got some good marine on marine action and you might find the kind of gameplay you are looking for with sneaky/spec ops marine.

Horus Heresy looks like a fantastic game that I have absolutely no interest in playing. They have some fantastic legion-specific rules and some great rules for sabotage units. They just also emphasize painting nothing but marines (mostly) and fighting nothing but marines (mostly) and collecting a much larger army than I'm inclined to buy for a single faction. ^_^;

They also sort of conflict with my brain's insistence on upholding the law of conservation of ninjutsu. I like the idea of a small, elite force that's tough as nails and scarier on a man-by-man basis than the average enemy soldier. Unfortunately, marines on foot are pretty squishy, especially if you don't drop pod them, and the tac marines I find so cool in fluff and to paint are pretty unimpressive rules-wise. So maybe I'm just being too picky or contrary to the current rules set. I think what I'd really like to see is a marine force that's halfway between what we have now and a movie marine. Raven Guard seems pretty cool, but I know that assault marine themed armies are kind of an uphill fight, and I prefer the idea of stealthy, skilled tac marines to scouts (unfortunately).

Try a CAD that uses LSS mounted scouts as troops choices, a couple drop pod units of sternguard with a few combi-bolters as elites (i know you said you don't like pods - you could use razorbacks if you'd prefer them), a couple of jump-pack equipped squads of vanguard with a mix of weapons as fast attack, a squadron or two of predators as heavy support (or some fire raptors, they are my personal favorite), and Lias Issodon from the raptors chapter as your HQ (he's a FW character who offers interesting tactical buffs - his rules are here).

That might be what you're looking for.

Marines are kind of like Mario in Super Smash. They're decent all around units that don't really excel anywhere, unless you take min troops max specialized units.

If you look at them as Tactical Marines, they're boring to play, because Tactical Marines are pretty god awful.

You look at the other units instead. I personally hate flashy armor, so my Tacticals are relegated to Sternguard duty, and then we have Scouts and Bikers as the real stars of the Troop selection.

Then you have all the conversion possibilities. The relics and the several different weapons they have available makes for interesting bitz use. Hell, they have so many special characters that you could create a unique conversion for each one as a counts-as, and NOBODY would hate you for it. For example, my friend has a great Chapter Master Smashfucker using the top bit of Wordbreaker, Horus' Power Maul, for a Thunder Hammer instead of the usual fare.
I feel like Marines give more opportunities in the conversion department than Orks, to be honest.

Stat wise, space marines have never felt 'super'. They're 150% more than guard and only around 50% more survivable. They're options are suppose to make up for the rest - but as to how quantifiable/useful these options are, is more like distinguishing between types of toilet paper, like Charmins vs Scott.

They're 150% more than guard and only around 50% more survivable.

In which edition?Because it sure aint 6 or 7th with its str6 ignore cover or higher strenght weapons.

Being that special and unique snowflake.

Makumba wrote:

They're 150% more than guard and only around 50% more survivable.

In which edition?Because it sure aint 6 or 7th with its str6 ignore cover or higher strenght weapons.

You mean the same weapons that allow SMs to get their 3+ save but ignore any save a Guardsman could feasibly get?

I enjoy running bike armies. Lots of mobility, firepower and a boost to survivability, plus they look great on the table. I currently have decent sized Ravenwing and White Scars armies that are a blast to use.

Marines are super humans, but they are humans unlike eldar and necrons. Eldar and Necrons have superior technology, humanity is like children for them.

Space marines are resilient jack of all trades and they have different play styles where to choose. We have many options, we have glass hammers, tought heavy hitters and fast units.

Most important, We have The Emperor and His ATSKNF.

What makes marines fun to play? Absolutely nothing! Unless you're a child, of course

Ultramarines seem to have access to pretty much every single vehicle and weapons platform that aren't made for specific chapters. I think that would make them fun to play.

Just my $0.02

SG

I dunno? don't play competitively? CSM are widely considered garbage but I enjoy the heck out of them. Try to build for a theme as best you can and imagine some head canon to go along with it. And play friendly games.

I had an all rubric army with ahriman +sorcerer at 1000 points vs a deathwing army and I somehow handed his ass to him. Might have had one chosen squad though.

With space Marines you should have little difficultly for coming up with any given strategy, between all the codices you get and chapter tactics.

SGTPozy wrote:
What makes marines fun to play? Absolutely nothing! Unless you're a child, of course

I think that needlessly insulting and belittling huge chunks of the Dakka userbase is a lot more childish than fielding a Space Marine army... but I'm a Space Marine player, so what could I possibly know?

Im not sure but the fact that they cost less than three Guardsmen, are more survivable than 6 and capable of putting 7 to 8 Guardsmens worth of hurt downrange ha something to do with it.

That or the fact that 9 times out of 10 they get the newest shiny toy.

Or the fact that they are, baring the Eldar, the most powerful codex at the moment.

Or that they are Games Workshops poster boys.