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I need an answer to settle an argument with a friend who says he is
awesome. i disagree however, and think he just looks lke a sucky lictor.

Marbo is known to hunt lictors.

You realize you are opening a pandora's box for IG players right?

Asking "is Marbo good?" is like asking "Lascannons or Autocannons?", "are vendettas mandatory?", or the infamous "Meltas vs Plasma" debates.

As for me, I think he is absolutely worth it, if you use him right. Treating him as a pure fire and forget demo charge will leave things to be desired. He's a disruptive unit, designed to cause chaos in the opponent's line. Stick him in cover where only a couple of the opponent's can see him, assassinate a character, and then have him go reenact Ramo III by stealing a quadgun, getting an easy linebreaker point, or playing "catch the melta bomb" with the friendly neighborhood Vindicator.

Making it where only a couple of units can shoot at him, units that REALLY want to shoot something else can also help.

But then again, I'm not exactly a diehard tourney player, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I like to have fun games with memorable moments, and Marbo NEVER fails to deliver in that regard

Marbo is what Lictors wish they were.

If Lictors had a ranged attack, they might be worthwhile, or so I'm told. Marbo has two.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Marbo is what Lictors wish they were.

If Lictors had a ranged attack, they might be worthwhile, or so I'm told. Marbo has two.

That's funny because Lictors have a ranged attack. It's not very good, but it's there.

What Lictors need is Stealth and Shrouding while deployed, so it's not suicide delopying them anywhere but 48" away from your opponent.

^^; I haven't looked at Lictor stats for two codices, I'm just going off what Tyranid players I talk to say, which is that Lictors suck.

I played a 2k point list today, and after adding all the tanks and options I wanted to my list, I found I had precisely 65 points left. Immediately I thought, "65 points? Marboooooo!"

He showed up on turn 2, threw his demo pack, and nuked an entire unit of SPESS MEHREENS.

Next turn, he took a metric buttload of bolter shots, failed 90% of the saves, and died.

Worth 65 points to kill some marines? Probably not.

Did exactly what I expected him to do? You betcha.

Moral of the story: If you have spare points and nothing better to do, throw in Marbo. Don't expect him to live more than a turn or two. Otherwise, do something else.

Marbo is the best value in the IG codex, points to possible damage out put.

His positive

1. He deepstrikes and does not scatter.
2. Demolition charge with BS 5.
3. Poison 2+ weapon

Negatives.

1. He is squishy as any IG. He dies pretty quick after he comes in.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
^^; I haven't looked at Lictor stats for two codices, I'm just going off what Tyranid players I talk to say, which is that Lictors suck.

They really do. Deathleaper's pretty good, although he's fragile and ridiculously overcosted (2.5x the cost of Marbo).

As for Marbo, he's the  , you can't go wrong for 65pts.

I had a game where a space marine player deepstrikes his 10 man termi squad behind my gun line. they shot and kill a LRBT, next turn Marbo comes in, I deside to just drop marbo behind the termis. He throws his demo and kills 7 out of the 10... well worth it but Use him wisely.

He's better than good, he's Marbo.

Marbo.first blood was pretty good.

But the sequels were pretty lame.

With his demo charge, he is most likely making up for the 60 some points he is. Target a tac squad, kill idk, 4-5 and he already made his points back. On top of that if you don't kill him he comes is and swings as one of the (if not hardesrt) cc unit (for one guy) in the imperial guard codex. Has a sick regular gun to.

In my opinion best unit in the codex, because he's a strong swarm killer, elite killer, sniper and assassin. (except maybe vendettas). Reason to ever ally imperial guard for me lol.

Honestly for me they could drop 3/4 to 1/2 of his gak he has and I would still play him.

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Marbo.first blood was pretty good.

But the sequels were pretty lame.

Remember the Saturday morning cartoon?

Someone made a typo the other day and called him "Marbro". I've adopted it, because he really is a bro. As in awesome.

Marbo is awesome,,

For all the reasons already listed,,,and he is great fun as well,for you and whom ever you are playing,

Just remember for every awesome ,epic movie type turn you have with him,he is just as apt to demo pack himself.

He's BS5, he almost never demo charges himself, lol.

Firepower-wise, Marbo is the hunter-killer of large blast weapons. He's not worth taking it for just the demo charge. Find more points and take real artillery instead.

There are two things that make him vaguely worth taking, though. The first is that he can basically guarantee you linebreaker and, very infrequently, will be able to contest objectives with good placement and a lot of support. Secondly, there aren't very many good things to spend 65 points on in the guard codex once you've gotten all your weapon upgrades in order. It's easy to stretch 40 points up to 65, but it's pretty tough to stretch that number up to anything else useful.

105 points gets you melticide stormies, and 125 gets you a basilisk, but marbo does fit in that awkward hole between real units and doling out a few extra plasma pistols.

Running an Airborne/Air Cav themed guard army (when using the IG Codex and not the IA8 one) I have always taken Marbo and for good reason, to my recollection he has done/taken outthe following out while using him basically as a suicide bomber :

-Multiple Long Fang Squads

-Some nasty Terminators of all kinds (units of x5 to x10)

-Tac Marines

-Alot of Special Characters

-Ork Nobz

-Gotten me Line breaker multiple times

-Distracted my opponent for one viatal turn.

-Incubi

-....and himself

Basically for 65 points he is total worth (and fun) to use, especially in this edition. I say that because since so many people love to use the Aegis Defense Line and pack it full of goodies that a nicely placed demo charge will take care of, especially thanks to his 1inch away deployment I can be inside and they get no cover. Thank you IG player I played last week for allowing me to nuke about 5 heavy weapon teams

I think he works best as a psychological weapon. When he comes down you opponent will either be "OH MA LAWD KILL IT WITH EVERYTHING WE GOT" then they turn their entire army around and open fire, then you run in and grab the objectives. OR they'll be like "meh" then he throws the demo charge and they all turn around etc.

As has been said Marbo is so good that good has become full circle and he becomes bad.

What this means is that if you deploy him with conservatively and only sacrifice him when you need to then he is the most incredible unit in the codex.

If you just drop him in the middle of the enemy and nuke some TAC marines then yeah he is pretty mediocre and you will feel disappointed. He is not a swarmlord who can take an army worth of shooting and survive.

Now I want to play a 3250 pt apocolypse game where I just field 50 Marbo's. Really that is Marbo actually trying and not just phoning it in cause he is bored.

 ansacs wrote:
If you just drop him in the middle of the enemy and nuke some TAC marines then yeah he is pretty mediocre and you will feel disappointed.

You'll only be disappointed if you confuse the "MARBO IS AWESOME" meme with the actual numbers. In reality dropping Marbo on a tactical squad is a fine way of causing 65 points worth of damage, and if you remember that you're talking about a 65-point character instead of a 300 point god of war you're going to be perfectly happy with that outcome. In fact, it's what Marbo does best: point-efficient damage anywhere you want it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ailaros wrote:
Firepower-wise, Marbo is the hunter-killer of large blast weapons. He's not worth taking it for just the demo charge. Find more points and take real artillery instead.

This is terrible advice. Marbo costs half of a "real" artillery unit, which means that the "real" artillery unit needs to fire twice just to break even with Marbo (well, still somewhat short because of BS 5 vs BS 3) and three times to actually have an advantage. Now, ask yourself how often your open-topped AV 12 artillery tanks get to fire three times before being suppressed or destroyed against opponents who are actually vulnerable to artillery. And then ask yourself again whether an elites slot or a heavy support slot is more valuable (the heavy support slot, obviously), and adjust your break-even point appropriately.

And then once you've made that comparison consider the fact that Marbo is AP 2, which means that to truly equal his firepower your "real artillery" consists of one option: a Medusa. Now your fragile artillery tank doesn't fire as a barrage weapon (so cover saves, no barrage sniping, etc), so you have to fire for 3-4 turns instead of 2-3 to match Marbo. And given the short range and high threat priority of a Medusa do you really think you're going to keep it alive long enough to beat Marbo?

(The answer, btw, is no. Medusas do not survive 3-4 turns.)

Marbo is a 45 point character carrying a 20 point demo charge. Just lobbing the demo charge will probably buy back his points unless you fluff it completely.

More people appear to be rational about him, but some still think he's like the most dangerous thing to put on the table. In short:

He will make his 65pts back more often than not. Rarely will he do much more, rarely will he do much less. He is a 65pts One Trick Pony.
Don't make room for him in your list by dropping useful upgrades, but if you have points spare, he's a decent buy.

Marbo=Marbo
Marbo>Chuck Norris.

There you go. One answer for you.

 thenoobbomb wrote:

Marbo>Chuck Norris.

I don't get this. Why is Chuck Norris the bench mark? Chuck Norris is outspoken against vaccination, and pro-alternative "medicine". Being better than Chuck Norris isn't difficult.

"Is Marbo any good?"


You should ask him yourself. He's right behind you...

 G. Whitenbeard wrote:
"Is Marbo any good?"


You should ask him yourself. He's right behind you...

i guess i owe my friend an apology...
but before do apologise, just to save face, i know very little about both guard and nids.
Which was definately why I was so wrong.
thanks for all your cooperation.

 Griddlelol wrote:

 thenoobbomb wrote:

Marbo>Chuck Norris.

I don't get this. Why is Chuck Norris the bench mark? Chuck Norris is outspoken against vaccination, and pro-alternative "medicine". Being better than Chuck Norris isn't difficult.

Chuck Norris, The Legend =/= Chuck Norris, The Man.