Tactics - Angry Marines

Codex is Here. READ IT COCKSUCKER!!! Also, why are you here if you haven't read the codex already, the shit there is far cooler.

Why Play Angry Marines

Much like the hulking, green English football hooligans that everyone loves to play against, you can be a slightly less hulking, yellow football hooligan cock knocking anyone that stands in your way whilst screaming a never ending battle cry of FUUUUUUUUUUUU

Angry Marines, while not a GW endorsed army, can be just as fun to play as the Orks (If the Orks and Angry Marines put their very small amount of differences aside, the Angry Waaagh would probably dominate the galaxy!). And much like Orks, conversion work is higly reccomended for Angry Marines, if not mandatory. Get out your greenstuff, glue, and plasticard and get ready to make some middlefingers or Commisar Fuklaw will have you carrying the Portable FUCK Launcher for the rest of your angry life. Happy converting.

Pros

• You get to play the coolest home-brew faction in existence, what more reasons do you need?!!!
• EVERYTHING IS WRITTEN IN FUCKING CAPS LOCKS ON AND CURSE WORDS AT CUNTING MAXIMIUM!!!
• You have one of the best (if not the best) melee armies in the game, even your guns can be used in melee.
• You get to stick a giant middle finger up at GW for the shit they've pulled over the years (although even some of their stupid shit is cool, mostly it’s just the pricing).
• If you're a long standing 40K player your probably have what you need to play the Angry Marines just lying around.
• There are no really redundant units, unlike other factions where there is a lot of competition for different roles, each angry marine unit is either not directly competing with another unit or is very flexible, as almost every unit can run in an extremely choppy or dakkery variant.
• Everyone will love you for playing them.
  • Seriously, unless your a total dick about it turning up with your space marine orks will have everyone smiling, you will brighten up their day with your yellow and red glow.
• You have the best (if somewhat dangerous) deepstriking methods which allow for a greater than 50% chance of making a successful charge even without rerolls, and one of your methods deep strikes a rhino onto the field at 6”, the fun you can have with flame throwers in such a situation is beautiful.
• BECAUSE I SAID SO DICKHEAD!!!

Cons

• THERE ARE NO DOWNSIDES NOW SHUT UP YOU PRICK!!!
• All your models are either going to be proxy or difficult to make, as there is a lot of "character" which has to go into the angry marines, the painting alone puts them above and beyond other factions in terms of detail/graffiti.
• If your not careful other armies will eat you for breakfast, as there's lots of stuff out there which is specifically designed to anally abuse MEQ'S.
• The codex is not yet finished or balanced, so you'll either have your arse handed to you or be labelled as "that guy".
• Most of your shooting is orks levels of accuracy unless you go to your elites or hq slots (but then again, that’s kind of the point).
• You will never be able to officially play them as there is no chance GW will make them cannon, never fucking mind releasing a proper codex for them, your best hope is that your local game club or GW shop let’s you play them after checking that the rules aren’t broken.
• As it stand there are no forge world model variants, so you won’t be able to properly play apocalypse with these guys (although hordes of marines will surprisingly quickly grind a titan down).

Angry Marines Rules

Angry Marines Keywords

• the (Angry Marines) and Angry Marine Keywords is not the same Keyword. the (Angry Marines) Keyword is a Faction Keyword, and the Angry Marine Keyword is is just a Keyword and not a Faction Keyword.

Angry Marines Abilities

• THIS SHIT'S OURS NOW, FUCKERS!:

In a way this is the best ability in the entire angry marine codex, the ability to hold an objective regardless of how many models you have on said objective, you can win games even by having your army annihilated. I may be over exaggerating a little, but it is an exceptional ability considering how durable your guys are, especially as they're not going to lose in melee so your opponents only real choice is to throw excess amounts of dakka at the problem, and every bit of dakka your opponent is focusing on your squad of five marines, is less dakka focused at your more melee focused (and yes, there are things more deadly in melee than a standard angry marine at your disposal) guys who are heading straight towards your opponents objective. (This ability is just a space marine codex ability, just renamed, but GW has came out with an Errata a few months ago that said that all armies have this ability to their troops).

• And They Shall Know No Fear - More like AND THEY SHALL FUCK YOU UP:

All marines get this, you know it, you love it, there's not really much to say about it, you get to re roll morale tests, in an edition where games are won and lost on morale tests you can see why these are important.

• ALWAYS ANGRY:

Units with this rule gain plus one attack on the charge, combine that with two melee weapons and some psychic powers and you get to ork and genestealers levels of insane numbers of attacks, and that's before you include re-rolls and buffs from your characters. Keep in mind that a lot of your melee in general relys on getting the charge first as your guys may be durable, but there are many things in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium specialised in killing marines.

• NOT ANGRY ENOUGH:

Units with this rule gain plus one attack on the charge, the rule for your guys who aren't proper angry marines and therefore don't get that plus one strength. These units are generally the ones you want to be holding back to shoot at the enemy, but if worst comes to worst your scouts can provide a nasty surprise to the squad of guardsmen looking for some easy points.

• Dual Melee Weapons:

Do you ever have those moments that where you look at your khorne beserkers and wish they were a little more choppy? Then this is the rule for you! It adds a plus one to a models attack characteristic if they have two of the same melee weapon, giving (as it stands) a model with two chainswords THREE EXTRA ATTACKS. Now that may not sound like a lot, but your playing Angry Marines, you have strength 5 almost across the board, you have access to the best buffing abilities and psychic powers anyone has to offer, and your actually allowed to carry two melee weapons. A bog standard squad of 10 marines with two chainswords each is going to put out (on average, ignoring the sergeant and not on the charge) 40 strength 5 attacks, and that's without any buffs (that's genestealer'S levels of FUCK YOU), once you add buffs, spells and the added dakka which the angry marines are backed by, there is nothing which can stand up to an Angry Marine charge.

Keep in mind however, these attacks don't have rending (as I only gave an example for with chainswords), if you want your guys to be dealing multiple wounds or ignoring armour your going to be paying through the teeth per model for those double melee weapons. And if not properly supported your foot sloggers are going to die like flies to ranged fire, but you shouldn't be footslogging, you have access to the best (if unsafe) deep striking methods available, and your playing angry marines, you win automatically just by turning up to a fight.

• Desert Fangs Tactics:

Fluff wise this is for the models which existed before the desert fangs became angry marines, but expresses their inherent rage. Crunch wise this makes models with this rule hit like their proper angry marine brothers by giving thm plus one attack and strength on the charge, any unit with this rule you want to charge and you want them to win the charge outright (by themselves or with help) otherwise they just become standard marines (which is fucking boring).

Angry Marine Stratagems

• ALL THE TIME!:

At the end of the fight phase, for 3 cp, your guys get to attack again. Yes it's expensive but your army is melee based, a single round of combat wit you is enough to wipe out most units, imagine what a second round could do. (This Stratagem is just a renamed Stratagem from the Codex Adeptus Astartes (Space Marines), but it's so much better for Angry Marines because your army is so much more melee based than normal Space Marines.)

• GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!:

An opposing psyker automatically manifests a spell but takes D3 mortal wounds, very situational but it will definitely make your opponent think twice before using their injured psyker.

• COVER IS FOR PUSSIES:

A unit can shoot and charge after advancing, yes please, your guys want to be getting into melee as fast as possible, and being able to do so and still fire some of the angry marines excellent guns, use this on a unit of terminators and watch them tear a hole hole in your opponent.

• THINK YOU SMART FUCKER!?!:

One of your vehicles explodes on a 2+, only really useful if said vehicle is in melee but (like the orks) you have some vehicles which are excellent n melee, this is simply the icing on the FUCK YOU!!! cake.

• COME BACK HERE, YOU COWARDS!:

For 2cp, prevent an enemy unit from disengaging from one of your units in melee, and that unit takes one mortal wound. It may seem expensive, but it could make the difference between that unit of tau battlesuits running off and annihilating you in the shooting phase, and that same unit being ripped to pieces, the mortal wound by itself can be enough to ruin your opponents day. Keep in mind that very few armies are going to want to be in melee against the angry marines, so it may be worth saving some extra cp just for this ability.

• LOOK AT THE FUCKERS RUN!:

An excellent stratagem, but a dangerous one to overuse due to its cp cost of 2, if liberally used you will find yourself up shit creek without a paddle. However, if used correctly and sparingly you can save your unit of hellblasters from that deep striking terminator squad (as the unit in question just has to have the infantry keyword). Useless against vehicles, monsters and the like, but there are plenty of enemy infantry units out there which you would prefer not to be firing at your guys.

• Cover them!:

A very situational stratagem, as you’ll only ever use it when you have an angry serf unit which is packing MASSIMIUM DAKKA and is right next to a charging unit of angry marines, which is unlikely as any unit of serfs which is that well kitted ouch for shooting is not going to be that close to the enemy. However, it is still an excellent card to have up your sleeve as it can certainly make a big difference by fucking up your opponents over watch and adding to their morale casualties.

• Orbital Barrel of FUCK YOU!!:

At 4 cp it is ridiculously expensive, but for that cost you get to give your opponent the biggest middle finger imaginable as you dish out d3 mortal wounds to EVERY UNIT on the battlefield (on a 4+). Use against those armies with lots of units or extremely high points costs to total wounds (fuck you grey knights), just don’t expect to use this more than once and expect a fair for casualties doing so, maybe hide all of your troops inside durable metal boxes before calling in a battle barge to crash onto your battlefield.

• RELICS OF RAGE!:

Allows you to bring along one or two extra relics, more of a personal preseference than a yes or no as although the angry marines have some excellent and fluffy relics you need to plan your army around having them, think of it more like a points cost in matched play than an on the battlefield cost, it’s a shame really that a model can’t have two relics, otherwise a model with the storm shield surfboard and the combi-combi flamer could make your opponent a wide variety of new holes to shit out of. (This Stratagem is also just a renamed Stratagem from the Codex Space Marines)

• HELLFIRE SHELLS:

Sacrifice the shots of a heavy bolter for the chance to cause D3 mortal wounds to a unit, great against a those expensive multi wound models, only use it with a unit which has a BS of 3+ or better, otherwise your just pissing away your command points. (This Stratagem is just a copied Stratagem from the Codex Space Marines)

• FUCKING SNEAKY BACHSTABBING ASSHOLES:

A free round of shooting at a minus one to hit for an infantry unit within 12” of an enemy unit which deepstriked. Only your normal infantry this is just an overwatch (something some tai suits get to do for free), so save it for your back line shooters which your opponent might want to wipe out with a sneaky deep strike. (This Stratagem is also just a renamed Stratagem from the Codex Space Marines)

• YOU TAKE THAT FUCKER, WE TAKE THESE FUCKERS!:

Wheras other marines get to split a unit into two separate units, you have to pay 1 cp per unit for the privilege, of your running a dakka variety of a unit it might be a good idea to split them to cut down on morale losses, but your melee blobs want to stick together for the most part to take advantage of overlapping buff bubbles.

• ONLY IN DEATH DOES THE RAGE END!:

A free round of either melee or shooting for a character which was just slain, expensive but your characters are beasts in melee to the point that they could make a good chunk of their points back through this stratagem. (This Stratagem is also just a renamed Stratagem from the Codex Space Marines)

• HERESY!:

An Angry marine or angry primaris unit fighting against a unit with the Chaos keyword generates extra hits in melee for every hit roll of 5+. Situational but your garnered to get extra attacks and some extras on top of that with the number of attacks a unit of Angry Marines can throw out. (This is an more expensive but better and renamed version of a Stratagem from the Codex Space Marines)

• EAT MY FUCKING GRENADE, BITCH!:

Just a rename of the Astra militarum Stratagem, allows a unit in the shooting phase to throw up to 10 grenades, use it either to clear out a horde of guardsmen or annihilate a rhino in a single phase.

• RUN THEM OVER!:

Another imperial guard Stratagem, an Angry marine vehicle which isn’t a rage speeder hits on a 2+ until the next turn, great considering that your tanks will often find themselves in melee anyway.

• FLAKK MISSILE:

Just like the hellfire shells Stratagem, but the model must have a rocket launcher and be targeting a unit which can fly, roll one hit which causes D3 mortal wounds. Again, useful for the same reasons as hellfire shells. (This Stratagem is also just a copied Stratagem from the Codex Space Marines)

• DROP PODS ARE FOR PUSSIES:

Now we get to the good shit, you get to deepstrike a rhino with a unit inside it from a reserve, on a 1 or 2 on a d6 it dies along with the unit inside it (boo) but on a 3,4,5 or 6 you set it up 9” or more away from an enemy unit (yay, but the rhino takes 2D3 mortal wounds and can’t charge or move till next turn)). But what’s so great about this is that you then set up the unit which was inside it 6” or further away from the enemy, and they can still shoot and charge. It’s risky yes, but you are one of the few armies which can get a 6” deep strike, you are almost garenteed to be able to charge right into your enemies rear line, just don’t expect to survive the deep strike every time.

• Wildfire:

A whirlwind cremator instead of firing normally deals a Strength 6 AP -2 and Damage 2 auto hit to every model in a piece of terrain which the models can’t gain the benefit of cover against. Fantastic, as long as you have a whirlwind cremator, and there are some enemy units in a terrain feature, I’ve been using the word situational a lot but this time it most certainly applies.

• DEATH IS NOT AN EXCUSE:

A Dreadnought is slain and does not Explode is placed its side instead of removing it. Then roll a D6 at the beginning of your next turn. On a 4+, the model regains D3 wounds, and is placed as close to it previous position as possible while remaining more than 1" from any enemy models. great because it not going to immediately get shot back down again.

• YOU AND WHAT ARMY DICKHEAD?!!!:

Delay an enemy unit from deep striking for one turn, and it only costs 1 cp, it’s so beautiful it feels like cheating. A lot of armies rely on deep striking to win games by hitting your vulnerable units, being able to say NOPE to that is fantastic. It does lose some of its power the more units your opponent has in reserve to deep strike but it should not be taken lightly due to how cheap the ability is, save it for use against terminators, drop pods, Uber dakkery battlesuits and the likefor maximiuk effect.

Angry Marine Weapons

Ranged Weapons

• Hand flamer: Expensive at 8 points and short ranged at 6”, but your one of the few armies with easy access to 6” deepstrikes, and they can be absolutely brutal when fired into melee.

• Infernous pistol: Same problems as the hand flamer (and same work arounds), but with the added bonus that if you can get the weilder next to a character in melee you could one shot said character without the risk of them hitting you back.

• Plasma Pistol: Added range over the infernous pistol (and costs less than half the price) but far less of a character hunting rape machine, but far more reliable as just a GEQ or MEQ hunter.

• Flamer: Not much to say about this weapon other than it’s a great way to get around the Angry Marines terrible ballistic skill, probably good to bring a few along.

Melee Weapons

Special Issue Wargear

Vehicle Wargear

RELICS

• Sergeant Greenhands's SANCTIFIED Big Choppa:

An upgrade over the power wrench with an extra point of strength and damage, but falls one short of the s8 required to make it the meq character hunter it probably should be, and it doesn’t do better against anything except multi wound models and the odd t6 models you may have to fight. It does allow you to add one to your wound rolls against orks though, making it an excellent weapon for that purpose as you’ll be wounding warbosses on a 2+ (most certainly not to be sniffed at). But apart from when fighting against orks, probably best to leave this one at home, which is a shame really as this is the only old relic in the new codex.

• the looted, looted, looted, Pretty Marines "WARGH MOTHERFUCKER!!!" Banner:

Plus two leadership, rerolling charge distances and plus one attack on the charge. This is in direct competition with the codex Angry Marines, but this edges it out if you want to swamp the board with yellow and red foot sloggers, the only thing missing is a feel no pain save. With this you can almost garentee that any units with its range will not be failing any morale tests, and the rerollable charge range almost garentees that you’ll make that 6” charge distance from a drop pod or rhino, the extra attack is just delicious delicious gravy on the murder pie.

• The Codex Angry Marines:

An excellent beat stick and buffing relic at the same time, as a melee weapon it’s a power bat which deals two damage (not to be sniffed at in an age of multi wound models) but as a buffing tool it adds +1 to the hit rolls and allows rerolling of failed hits rolls for all Angry Marines in range. And that’s all hit rolls, hold this in back field with some plasma units to ensure that your units never miss or explode, or plop a character with this in a melee horde to effectively make all your attacks auto hits, stack with rip and tear to ensure that the ONLY dice rolls your opponent will have to save them are their armour or invulnerability saves. In short, this is Avery reliable and useful relic to have and you will probably be wanting to bring it to most battles.

• The Head of Ward:

An incredibly situational relic, but in the situations where it is needed it will be the bane of your opponents existence, mostly due to the range of the buffs it provides at 24”, and to work you only need one model in a unit to be within range, so you could quite happily have your entire army rerolling hits and wounds of one against that dick necron player who keeps pulling off teleportation and turn one charge cheese. Think of this relic as an anti cheese against all the that guys who think that copying and pasting an army list into a checkout basket makes them a brilliant player, just remember that this relic is useless against any army which hasn’t been fucked over my Matt Ward (CURSED BE HIS FUCKING NAME THE COCKSUCKER!!!)

• The combi-combi flamer:

This should really be your go to relic (even if it is just two combi flamers duct taped together) if your just after a source of wounds, with the potential to pump out 16 strength 4 hits (12 of which are auto hits) there is very little which will be surviving contact with this weapon, and the angry marines poor ballistic skill doesn’t really matter as most of your shots are auto hits. Keep in mind that this is just one gun, a gun which cannot be everywhere at once, has relatively poor range and is going to be a massive fire magnet. Also, it provides precisely zero choppy power, so if the weirder gets stuck in melee, he’s going to be there for a while.

• The Doom Guy gun:

A souped up storm bolter which always fires 4 shots (6 against daemons) but you always have to advance to use it (no minus one to hit though) which means that your dakka monster is never going to be charging anything unless you can buff him appropriately. Excellent for hunting down MEQ characters with invulnerability saves, or just throw it at those multi wound models like primaris marines or terminators and watch your opponent cry, don’t forget to drink their tears.

• The Storm Shield Surfboard:

A model with a storm shield may ride said shield, giving it a 12” movement range, fly and inflicts d3 mortal wounds to any unit it charges. Downside? You only get a 3+ invulnerability save in the fight phase, and your red and yellow surfer is going to be attracting a lot of dakka with that stat line. Could be excellent on one of your buffing characters to allow himself to be in the perfect position to buff your units, either that or give it to commissar fuklaw “SURF ME CLOSER, I WANT TO HIT THEM WITH MY SWORD!!!” (funny joke, but commissar fuklaw can not take RELICS.)

• Roll of Emergency Purity Seals:

A unit within 3” of the bearer (until your next turn) cannot suffer negative modifiers, coming from either an enemy ability, Psychic Power or Stratagem, that modifies their hit or wound rolls, or their Leadership or Toughness characteristics. You know those admec units with their minus one toughness aura allowing them to wound marines on 4+, fuck them. Or how about reivers with their minus one leadership aura, also fuck them. Or how about armies like the raven guard who impose a minus one to hit if the unit targeting them is 12” or more away, especially fuck them.

Just keep in mind that this ability is activated at the start of your turn, not whenever you feel like it, meaning that your opponent might simply decide to send their negative modifiers towards one of your other units, and, of course, this relic does absolutely fucking nothing if your opponent doesn’t have the ability to inflict negative modifiers. Otherwise, an excellent piece of insurance to bring along to ensure your guys stay as shooty and choppy as possible.

Angry Marine Psychic Powers

• FUCK HEAT:

A targeted unit with plasma weapons may re-roll all failed hit rolls for these weapons until your next Psychic phase. Incredibly useful because your plasma weapons have no “safe” mode (SAFETY MEASURES ARE FOR TAU FAGGOTS!!!) and because of this a roll of one will cost you dearly (Marines and plasma weapons not being cheap).

• FFFFFFFF-:

Your anti horde power, give an infantry unit plus one attack, plus two attack if it’s in melee or enters melee against a unit which outnumbers it, plus three if they’re outnumbered two to one or more. An incredibly flexible power, as most of the time your guys are going to be at least outnumbered (especially if your running five man squads) but this really comes into its own against orks, tyranids and those pesky conscripts that cunts like to spam into objectives.

• RIP AND TEAR:

• FUCK YOUR PSYCHIC SHIT!!:

Obsolutely brutal against Parker heavy armies, as pskyers are general a bit fragile so are kept close together in bubble wrap units, making the -1 manifestation and deny bubble particularly useful. On the opposite end of the scale, this is fantastic against armies which only have one psyker, allowing you to effectively shut down the enemies psyker until their next turn, but before that you will cast this power again, and again, and again (the dice gods allowing). In short, a nice power to spam faster than an inquisitor with an exterminartus button, but of absolutely zero use if your opponent has no psykers, or your playing against the ctan, whose powers are more like shooting attack’s, and keep in mind that this only costs 6 WC to cast, making it a relatively simple power for your opponent to deny.

• ALL THE RAGE!!!:

• I'M COMING FOR YOU FUCKER!!:

A fantastic, if expensive (at wc 8), power, as it allows you to “throw” a character up to 36” at an enemy, allowing said character to make a full set of attacks and deal mortal wounds in the process. But this powers real purpose (apart from providing a lot of butt hurt to your opponent) is as overwatch cover, as the targeted unit can’t overwatch against the thrown character, and then can’t overwatch once they’re stuck into melee, allowing the unit which threw the character to charge in unmolested, the potential amount of rape this power can facilitate is insane.

Throw a character like captain satchel if you just want to tarpit an anemy unit (the fucker just won’t die) but don’t expect to reliably pull off this power due to its cost, so always have a contingency plan in place, especially as the range of this power is 6D6” so even if you manifest the power you could be out of range of actually hitting anything with it.

Warlord Traits

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Unit Analysis

Special Charecters

Enginseer Mightilypissedoff the third, Master of the Armoury

My ow my now do we have something special here, for the cost of three or so terminators you get to bring a character which will annihilate any vehicle (reroll all failed hit and wound rolls against vehicles) and will tear a new hole in anything titanic (all his attacks deal double damage against titanic units). All of this and more (multi use launcher, four Servo-arms and three boltstorm (Rapid Fire 6) welded onto a Power Fist , WHAT MORE DO YOU FUCKING WANT FROM ME?!!!), but when he’s not ruining baneblades you’ll be wanting to use him to repair D6 wounds on a vehicle at a time.

He does have some major flaws (as he should really). Firstly, although he has a 2+ armour save he doesn’t have an invulnerability save, which is fine against lasguns, but your opponent isn’t going to be wasting lasgun shots against him, they’re going to be using meltas, lascannons, heavy Flamers and battle cannons against him, all of which will chew through his armour, and he’s only toughness four. Then there’s the matter of his meagre four wounds, an imperial knight can kill him in one hit with most of its weapons, your going to want someone nearby to either heal or buff him. Then finally, he only has four attacks, this isn’t such a problem against vehicles as he can destroy light and Titan vihicles in a single round of melee (dice gods allowing) but without buffs to his attacks he will struggle with meadium and heavy (non-titanic) armour, and hordes, hordes especially will keep him in place for a good while, especially as his melee weapons all incur a minus one to hit.

So to sum up he is a fantastic glass cannon who can earn his points back and far more if played right, but he will die a fair bit faster than the equivalent three or so terminators it costs to field him.

Troops

• Angry Squad:

A unit which is most certainly not a tax for your army in matched play, coming in at only 13 points, with s5 and all the usual marine stats apart from their ork ballistic skill these guys will chew through any other armies troops apart from fully kitted out melee units and adeptus custodes. They come with a boltgun and bolt pistol as standard, but you’ll be wanting to ditch the Bolt pistol in favour of a Chainsword for free, or pay the totally unfair and overpriced cost of ONE POINT (that was sarcasm if you hadn’t guessed) for two chainswords, giving them a total of four attacks each. Alternatively you can give one of them a different melee weapon, a power sword or two is probably best but there’s no shortage of other options.

However, your never going to be running these guys in any way other than the boltgun and Chainsword, as these guys cannot shoot to save their lives, and unlikely orks, they only have standard one shot bolters, so they can’t mskr up for their poor aim with sheer weight of bullets. And because of this your going to want to get them close to the enemy, and although they’re by no means squishy, they will drop to heavy fire, and although they only cost 13 points each, their deaths can get expensive very quickly.

You do have access to Angry primaris Marines, who can shoot straight and have bolt rifles and bolt pistols, making them excellent at providing support fire for their angrier, melee orientated brothers in their unit, and the two wounds, two attacks and the bolt pistols mean that they can certainly hold their own in melee. But the lack of s5 hurts when compared to normal Angry Marines, so it comes down to a matter of taste and intended target for how many of these guys you include in a unit.

Building an Army

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Tactics

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Counter-Tactics

• Range and dakka:

The Angry Marines main strength is their ability to chop you into little pieces, so your best tactic is to annihilate them at range. However, your movement is hampered by their deep strike capability, so your force either needs to be perfectly spaced out to prevent flanking, or incredibly concentrate your force. Unsurprisingly, the tau are the best at both these tactics, with the imperial guard coming second at the latter tactic, both have large amounts of dakka which is either cheap, reliable, high powered, high volume or a combination of all four. The added advantage of this is the Angry Marines have a relatively low unit count (like space marines in general), making picking them off with high powered, high accuracy weapons if not simple, then achievable.

• Mortal wound spam:

Run a thousand sons and/or tzeentch army set up to spam out the maximium number of mortal wounds, you may die in droves in melee and your shooting may be crap (unless your playing thousand sons who are very durable and dakkery) butvwho cares when a single mortal wound is killing 14 points worth of model and you can throw out 10 mortal wounds a turn. Downside is that your mortal wound spam is relatively close range, so if you get unlucky with the dice rolls or you get outmanoeuvred, your fucked.

There is a tyranid variety of this run can run of this which uses spore mines (lots of them), artillery and some of the excellent psychic powers the tyranids, and although they’re not as tanky as the thousand sons, they are a million times more choppy, and compared to tzeentch daemons? The comparison isn’t even fair, tyrannies will eat pink and blue horrors for breakfast if they weren’t incorporeal. The tyrannies also have the numbers to bubble wrap your really important units and fight off the marines, plus they have access to genestealers, the only real thing which competes or is better than the Angry Marines at melee.

• An equal and opposite reaction:

Probably the most fun (and realistic) way to fight the Angry Marines, throw your own horde of melee monsters at the them, tyranids, orks, daemons of khorne and certain imperial guard play styles all have the numbers and/or the high attack numbers for such a tactic to work, and have the specialised melee elites which they can send after high profile targets. The problem is that there are very few army load outs which can out melee the Angry Marines, genestealers are of course a prime candidate, khorne bezerkers if they survive the first round of combat to have their free second round and ghazgulled up orks on the charge will more than happily get the job done, but outside of these options there is very little which can get the job done. And you will not be pulling off this tactic with stuff like the eldar, although the harlequins can put up a good fight especially with their invulnerability saves.

Common Playstyles

• Da green tide!!!! BLAM! THE YELLOW AND RED TIDE MOTHERFUCKER!!!:

Simple really, just spam squads of run of the mill Angry Marines at max squad size (14 points a pop, roughly the same cost as a genstealer with far better armour and strength), some apothecarys and psykers to lay down buffs, along with one or two (maybe three) relics as nessecary, then (as the icing) some melee/dakka heavy hitters to deep strike in via drop pod or rhino. Then roll the red and yellow tide towards the enemy, decapitating any major threats with the deep striking units, keeping your horde alive until contact with the enemy via buffs and relics. It’s by no means subtle, but considering how deadly and durable your bog standard marines are, it’s still a viable approach.

• SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS!!!:

As previously mentioned, the Angry Marines have access to some excellent forms of deep striking, unfortunately, at least half of an armies models have to be on the battlefield, meaning that you require “anchor” units. But never mind, you have access to Angry Serfs, guardsmen with better armour and ws,, and as they’re more numerous than their angry marine counterparts, they make an excellent anchor to launch your more deadly units from, in the form of black brothers, veterans in a drop pod or terminators in a rhino, while your guardsman front line is “supported” by commissars and dreadnoughts. Such a play style is more in line with the current favoured tactic used by normal space marines, except that their deep strike methods are nowhere near as good.