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I have two squads of Assult marines equiped with normal weapons Bolt pistols, chain swords and  flamers.  Also like krak gernades and melta bombs. Suad is Sgt with 4 or 5 Troops.

I usually try to deep strike these guys if possible and usually close to vehicles.  That is where I run amuck.  My guys usually go down very quick from template and rtanged weapons.

So how can I run these guys more effectively?

Warrior 50

Keep them back by the main force to counter charge units, don't deep strike them. If you are fighting an assault force they may even go around just to avoid the space marines. I'm wondering whey you are going vehicle hunting with flamers though. Take two plasma pistols instead to make your counter charge effective.

First off, the assault marine squads for standard marines don't usually work well as a direct assault unit unless you go the full 10 and maybe add a character. The optimal squad size and load out that I have found to be the best is a 6 man squad with Vet SGT with bolt pistol and power fist, 2 guys get flamers and the whole squad gets meltabombs. Never equip your squad with Krak grenades as they are completely worthless. Why take krak when meltabombs are superior in every way?

While deepstrike is an option, I would never send them after tanks this way. First of all they are in a tight bunch and susceptable to template weapons. Secondly, they can't assault on the turn they land which means they have to do something with their short range weapons (pistols and flamers)...one bad scatter and you could put yourself out of range to shoot which means the unit does nothing for a turn. Thirdly, by doing this you risk losing a pretty decent point unit that has lots of diversity on what it can do since it can be caught in front of your opponent's gun line.

With that being said, the best uses for assault marines are as a counter attack unit. With 2 flamers they can make horde units go bye bye and still have enough close combat moxy to be dangerous to small squads of marines. With meltabombs and the 4 attacks you would get with a power fist on vehicles also makes them a great tank killer. Some people I know argue that dropping one flamer for a plasma pistol gives them some bite at range against light vehicles. It's a preference thing, but I still maintain two flamers are better. I'd also rather not lose a pricey model to an unfortunate overheat...usually at the worst possible time too.

As for deepstriking...on the whole it generally isn't a good idea, but in some situations it can help keep the unit alive. I guess using Deep Strike would be analyzed on a case by case basis (mission, amount of cover on the table, etc.) Sometimes the deployment zone will have little cover for them to hide behind and rather than have them get shot off the table in turn one, sometimes it is better to have them DS. I still would never suicide them into a unit by DS next to them and hoping you kill enough. I think that is were you are probably having problems. If you want them to be a killer assault unit, taking at least 8-10 and attach a character (most likely a chaplain) is your best bet. But in this case deepstriking is not a good option as you want to position yourself to have this unit assault as much as possible.

Hope that helps!

Capt K

I agree with a lot of things these guys have to say. Although I think that you should never ever hunt tanks with your assault marines unless you have plasma pistols and then only do it on rear armour.

Deepstrike them behind cover, sometimes this may be hard to do because they die if they land on terrain but if you can it really helps. Try to keep them close to fights that you know they can win. My usual squad consists of 8 marines with two plasma pistols (sarge with bolt pistol and power fist) and a reclusiarch. Also take frag gernades.

Remember that you don't have to deepstrike them into your opponents deployment area. You can just deepstrike your assault marines close to your lines if the situation in your opponent's deployment zone doesn't look good for them.

A nice big squad with a vet sgt and chaplain armed with lightning claws.

I prefer claws to power fists as there are other units more suited to taking down tanks.

When I'm not using pods my other army config for Marines uses two squads of Assault Marines with Furious Charge. I run at least 8 Marines, 2 Plasma Pistols (sometimes flamers), and a Vet with a Power Fist. I wouldn't use Lightning Claws since it's much more expensive and it gives you a harder time verses Monsterous Creatures.

Once of my Assault Marine squads gets a Chaplain attached to it. I've toyed with the idea of adding a power weapon to the other Assault Marine Squad in additon to the power fist since it doesn't have a chaplain going at I5 and it would be useful on the sarge. I haven't done it yet, so I can't say if it's worth the points.

I almost never deep strike them, I'll either use Cover or if I'm planning on them doing a lot then I'll take a Rhino or two for a shooty Tac Squad and just use the empty Rhino as mobile terrain for my Assault Marine Squad.

The key for using them vs. a shooty opponent is to either run them up behind cover or give them something else that they're going to want to shoot. Once you start adding Furious Charge and Frag Grenades you're up to 26 Points a model for a unit that's still just a MEQ, so if they have to suffer the enemy anti-MEQ fire it's not going to be pretty if they're exposed.

The nice part is that vs. a Shooty Army they can be in CC on Turn 2 if you want it and have the cover or if you're facing an assaulty army you can just keep them back and use them to pre-charge or counter charge, which is always nice. I'm almost always seem to forget what kind of damage these guys can do on the charge, it's pretty sick.

Also I've found that if you use the trait that allows you take Assault Marines as Elites w/ Furious Charge and then taking a decent amount of Speeders (3 Squads of 1 Tornado) works wonders for helping the assault marines make it through to the enemy as you can really overload your opponents with dangerous targets (in addition to whatever other stuff you have on the table).

Also something I've been wanting to test out is using the Assault Marines as teleport homer wagons to bring some Assault Cannon toting Termies in, giving me a good amount of firepower at whatever I wanted to charge while using the assault marines charging in to finish it off.

Thanks for the help.  Looks like I need to rework what I have a bit. 

 

Thanks

 

Warrior 50

So the good and the bad

Sargents with power fists: good
Deep striking: bad
Special weapons: good
Krak grenades: bad (like really bad, super bad, no worse than that)
Attached Chaplins: good
Tank hunting: bad (they can do it, but there are better ways to do it and tricking them out for it is generaly not worth it)