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I recently got back into 40k properly, and now I'm finding that the Marine armies I see are all shooty, nobody does assault anymore. So I thought, what kinds of strategies work now that the Rhino Rush is gone?

The first approach I'm going to try is centered around Assault Terminators. Take a squad with Furious Charge, give them a Chappy, stick 'em inside a LRC. Takes a lot of points, so it's for big games only, but will destroy just about anything.

For support, I was thinking Assault Marines following behind the LRC and a Vindicator to threaten with a S10 pie plate. A Land Speeder or two could come in handy as well, if only to stop exit blocking.

The rest is not so clear in my head yet, but Tactical Squads are probably the most realistic option, to give the force enough warm bodies to contest objectives.

Any thoughts and/or experiences?

Oddly enough, I have thought about this a bit.

I came up with a couple of lists that, in theory, could work really well.  I think the majority of marine players that want to go assaulty tend to gravitate toward BA, SW, or BT since they've all got an edge when it comes to assaulting power armor (or just go to the dark side since Chaos can do it even better).

My ideas revolved around what you'd need to have to get the job done:

- A way to keep your assault units relatively safe until they hit combat.

- A way to deal with things that typically hurt assault based armies the most (things like tanks, skimmers, etc... ).

I ended up with two, fairly similar lists - both of which I like a lot but neither of which I'll be capable of building any time soon.

List 1

Jump Reclusiarch or Codicier w/Fear

x5, 6-man Assault squads

x3, 6-man Tac squads (all with dual meltaguns and in Drop Pods)

x3 Pred Destructors

Basic Idea: Run the assault squads behind cover and a wall of AV 13 goodness until close enough to jump out and pounce.  The Pods either hit things in the backfield that will give you fits, or add even more cover for you to use as you work your way forward.  Why Preds and not Vindicators?  Well, the Preds are the cheapest way to get yourself some good cover and help out with the skimmer issue to boot.

List 2

Jump Reclusiarch or Codicier w/Fear

x2, 8- man Assault squads

x2, 8-man Tac squads in Rhinos

x4, 5-6 man Tac squads with dual specials (either meltas or plasma) in Pods

x2 Pred Destructors

Basic Idea: Very similar concept.  The Rhino squads would be kitted out for assault as well, allowing you to dump them out the turn the Assault squads hit and then pile in the following turn to mop up.  You're more dependant on your vehicles surviving since only 1/2 your assaulters have jump packs on, feels a litte more tricky to use than the previous list.

So yeah, I think it's a viable idea if you tool your army for it.

Kev

    Your ideas seem to be well-considered. I myself don't like to remove the standard bolter from by BT Crusader Squads, even though it would double my h2h attacks. What works for me instead is to deck'em out with a standard pattern CQC-esque (close quarters combat) weapon set of a BP+Power sword and a flamethrower, while the rest of the models have bolters. I plan to add at least another 3 or 4 more initiates to these 5-man tac teams (who will be armed with bp's and ccw's rather than bolters) since they are performing on a sub-par level (mostly b/c they're always hideously outnumbered). This will give me an eclectic mix of cc and regular shooting, and with the "Accept Any Challenge, No Matter the Odds" vow, I can perform quite well in cc while not sacrificing a ton of standard shooting, in the event my pansy opponent refuses to attack a position that I hold (this would of course be a rare occasion, but for argument's sake, Take and Hold objectives are easily lost when left unprotected).
    Who knows, maybe I'll swap out their bolters for bp's and ccw's one day, but for now, I really like being able to field a 106pt. squad that, at 12", can put out 6 rapid fire bolter shots, a bolt pistol round, and a flamethrower once they get within 8". Any closer, and you won't see but one shot from each bolter as they prepare to charge - speaking of which, this particular squad would get 11 cc attacks in the first round (3 from the bp+powersword initiate, 8 from the bolter and flamethrower troopers). This leaves my points open for lots of harasser units, namely 2 LSTs, a pair of Attack Bikes, and a 5-man Assault squad that is soon to be 8-strong. My poorly converted Vindicator made from an old Whirlwind model also helps, especially in urban combat - my specialty.
    I have too many elite infantry to be considered a fast-attack BT army, but since I pod my Marshal + Retinue, my Sword Brethren, and Teleport my Termies, I'm able to get into h2h quickly along with the help of my deepstriking LSTs, Assault Squad, and a pair of my infantry units (provided that the rules allow me to deepstrike my LSTs, Assault Squad, and my Dread - oh ya, forgot about him).

    My point therefore is that I don't take much stock (both literally and figuratively) in reg. infantry. I have 4 squads, 2 purely for fire support and some antitank, 2 for cqc, all for about 100 points each. So even in a 750pts. game, that gives me another 350 or so to buy on harasser units with good anti-inf, since assault armies thrive when they can get craploads of their own to match their opponent in numbers, which is an especially good idea if your opponent has diddly-crap armor or has hoarded anti-tank weapons.

Hope that helped.

CK