Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

my brother smoked me last weekend with his eldar army against my space marine army, his mvp was definitely his harlequins, i couldnt do anything to stop those mostly because he had veil of tears from his shadowseer and fleet of foot plus move plus assault was getting him in close enough to take me out, so what are some good space marine units to use for close combat (terminators maybe?) or any other units/tactics i could use? i appreciate any input you guys can give me

This really belongs in the tactics forum. What does your army list look like? How much terrain do you play with on your board? What kind of strategy does your opponent favor--are his eldar vehicle or infantry heavy? Does he favor shooting or assault? If you give me a little more specifics, I can give you some advice on how to defeat the Eldar menace.

Take care,
Mike K.

we were doing a 1200 point army, i was fielding master of sanctity (with jump pack) 115, assault squad (x6) 142, predator annihilator 145, bike squad (x3 plus 1 attack bike) 181, dreadnought + ven 125, servitors 70 (2xgun, 2xtech), sniper scouts (x5) 95, tact squad flamer seargent (10) 156, tech marine (with servo harness) 100, scouts 70 (x5)
he had 6 harlequins plus 1 shadowseer, 2 wraithlords, 1 farseer, 2x9 (or 10, cant really remember) dire avengers, 6xswooping hawks, 5xwarp spiders, 1xfalcon, and that might have been it
the biggest problems were the harlequins and the wraithlords, tho my predator with lasacannon outfit was pretty nice against the wraiths since my attacks had 2 ap, so basically i need some way to counter the assault prowess of those damn harlequins or find units big and bad enough to take them in close combat (i didnt try my dreadnought against them since he was on the other side of the map, would he have had a shot?), like i said veil of tears was tough to get around or else my snipers would have had a couple of real good shots
anyways, thanks for the help

You have a couple of options for dealing with the quins. Their strength is that they are killer in hand to hand and that they can’t be shot from long range. Their weakness is that they are T3 and only have a 5++ save. So you want to avoid their strengths and exploit their weaknesses. To do that you have to do the following:

1) Stay out of hand to hand. Seriously, don’t get in with them if you can avoid it at all.
2) Don’t shoot at them from far away. You are just going to waste shots on the veil.
3) Get close. I know this sounds crazy after #1 there, but it’s what you need to do. Get close to them and then just open up with small arms fire.

You have 2 units that are likely to be able to accomplish this task. The first (and probably the best suited for it) would be your bike squad. They can zoom up 12” towards the quins and rapid fire their bolters at them. A half way decent veil roll should end the turn with a lot of dead quins. If you think you need more than that, send over your assault squad (the second unit of use here) and fire your pistols at the quins. It should take, on average, 20 bolter shots to completely wipe out the squad. If you manage to get them down to one or maybe 2 guys left, you can feel fairly safe charging them. To finish the job but it is imperative that you shoot them down as much as possible first.

Now 20 bolter shots may sound like a lot, but if you think about it, that’s the number of shots from a full squad of marines at short range. The best unit for dealing with quins would be a 10 man tac squad in a rhino (possibly armed with a flamer), so you may want to consider a rhino for the next addition to your force.

Phoenix nailed it on the head. Let the Harlequins get in close and use the bikes and the assault squad to rip them apart with sustained, short range fires. The only thing I have to add is to consider the spacing between your units---make sure you don't stack them close enough so that the Harlequins can consolidate from one assault into another and deny you the chance to shoot them if they reach your lines first.