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I like to print models from other sci fi universes and play them in open play games against friends. The latest universe is Star Craft. Here are the basic idea so far for Terran Marines/firebats.

CONFEDERATE MARINE CORPS

SQUAD SIZE 100 Points for 10 / 200 points for 20.
M WS BS S T W A LD SAVE
6” 4 4 4 4 1 1 8 3+

WEAPONS RANGE TYPE S AP D ABILITIES
C-14 Impaler Gauss Rifle 24” ASSAULT 2 4 -1 1

STIM PACK – Marines are equipped with stim pack autoinjectors, boosting marines speed and cognition for combat purposes, but at risk of causing physical harm to the marines. During the Command Phase you may use stim packs, which give an automatic 6” advance and the unit may SHOOT TWICE. Any attacks from the enemy to a Stimmed marine unit get a +1 to wound until their next turn. If Stim packs are used a 2nd turn in a row, then attacks against the unit get a +2 to wound until the next turn, an a 3rd turn in a row would be a +3 bonus to wound, etc.
While Stimmed, the squad automatically passes any moral tests and ignores combat attrition losses.

MEDICS - For every 10 Marines you may add up to 2 Medics for an additional 15 points each. Each medic allows you to roll 3 dice after you have suffered lost marines. Any dice rolls of 5+ and you may ignore a failed save for a maximum possible of 6.

FIREBATS – For an additional 9 points you may replace up to 5 Marines with a Firebat (for every 10 marines). The Firebats profile is below.

M WS BS S T W A LD SAVE
6” 4 4 4 4 1 1 8 3+

WEAPONS RANGE TYPE S AP D ABILITIES
Incinerators 8” FLAMER D6 4 0 1 When stimmed, Becomes 2D6, Autohit

*Volatile Mixture – If a Firebat is killed, roll a D6. Any 6 inflicts D3 mortal wounds on any unit within 3”.

STRATAGEM – U-238 Shells – 1 CP Confederate Marines C-14 Gauss Impaler Rifles gain 6” to range and -1 bonus to AP (For a modified AP of -2)

+2 or higher to wound is generally useless, since you cannot have a wound modifier above +1.

Well for games among friends we can make an exception. I am trying to figure out what a good ability would be for the medics to have. Maybe ignore stim pack effects if you have a medic for each 5 marines. Not quite sure how to give them a good mechanic for offsetting the stimpack wounds. Maybe just "on a 6 ignore wounds" if you have 1 medic per 10 marines.

Not sure if the Starcraft Marine rifle would have better AP than the 40k one.

Keep in mind you made them 10 points though. They seem a lot better than Sisters.

EviscerationPlague wrote:
Not sure if the Starcraft Marine rifle would have better AP than the 40k one.

Keep in mind you made them 10 points though. They seem a lot better than Sisters.

Oh god, I missed that! I saw base size of 10 models and 200 points, and didn't realize that was for the max size of 20.

Yeah, at 10 PPM... Compare them to an Intercessor.

Statline is identical, except for Wounds and Attacks. I think, at least-are those WS and BS values the old values, or are they meant to be 4+?
A single Intercessor might have twice the Wounds and Attacks, but costs twice as much. So they're actually LESS durable, since multi-damage isn't wasted on Intercessors, while it is on these guys.

For shooting, you get 4 S4 AP-1 D1 shots. Assuming they do hit on a 4+, that's 2 hits on average per 20 points-the same as an Intercessor with an AutoBolt Rifle, but with an extra point of AP.

The flamer sucks and would never be taken, generally speaking. Close to double the cost for +2.5 hits isn't good when you also gimp your range and lose an AP. Although since it quadruples with Stims, for a total of 4d6 autohits per Firebat... That might be worth it.

Yeah I was originally considering them to be a Toughness 3 but then thought their armor is very bulky... so if it was Toughness 3 then you think that would make them in line with 10 points? They are not intended to be that durable, but to get stimmed up the board and blast the crap out of stuff in a large murder ball.

The firebats would be effective if youre facing zerg armies full of gaunts and if anyone charges you like harlequins, you just blast them with a bunch of auto hits, so the firebats are specialized and have a role they excel at.

It is also supposed to be a lot of fun to use the unit, which is why I made the firebats blow up sometimes, which may lead to other firebats blowing up.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Or I could maybe reduce the rifle to have no AP and just make U-238 adjust it to -1 AP.

At minimum make them S3 if you want to capture the bulky armor but not as great at combat.

Starcraft marines are useless cannon fodder. They're also just normal humans. Statblock of 3s besides BS where I'd say a 4 is acceptable. Armor would only 4+, its clearly much inferior to 40k power armor. For combat drugs, I would make it once per game +1 increase to to Hit rolls, Toughness, and armor save for 1 round, but at the beginning of the next round the unit suffers D6 mortal wounds.

Their army looks as thick as power armor. And weapons are probably better than bolters. Firing hundreds of depleted uranium slugs at hyper velocity

Just because something has the same thickness as something doesn't make it as strong. Terran Marines also have a canonical combat lifespan of mere seconds. Their Power Armor is quite clearly garbage tier. It's really just an environmental suit that provides only nominal ranged protection, even if we were generous and said the threats they face are insanely strong.