Rubric Marines: Difference between revisions
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Rubrics benefit heavily from having a [[Rhino Transport]]. Not because they need the survivability (they're tougher than the vehicle they're in, to be frank), but because the mobility they get is such an enormous boon. Take full advantage of their ability to shoot out of their transport, and use it in glorified [[50 Copper and Ludi'drizz't|Tzeentchian drive-by shooting]], before disembarking in rapid fire range and warpfire-blasting a bitch. | Rubrics benefit heavily from having a [[Rhino Transport]]. Not because they need the survivability (they're tougher than the vehicle they're in, to be frank), but because the mobility they get is such an enormous boon. Take full advantage of their ability to shoot out of their transport, and use it in glorified [[50 Copper and Ludi'drizz't|Tzeentchian drive-by shooting]], before disembarking in rapid fire range and warpfire-blasting a bitch. | ||
Like many [[Forgefiend|many]] [[Defiler|Chaos]] units, they have good looking stats but are too expensive to be worth taking. Even with a 4++ they're only MEQs, who also are shit in close combat, and can't run. Their main job, with AP3 Bolters, is to hunt down other MEQs. The thing is, basically any other expensive unit can kill MEQs far better than Rubric Marines can. You could get a lot more bang for your buck by putting points toward a [[Daemon Prince]] instead, who can straight up liquify MEQs, and just about anything else too. The sorcerer that comes with the squad is also pretty lackluster, since he's forced to roll his powers from the [[Shit|Tzeentch table]]. In the end your paying for a MEQ killer that's outshined by just about everything. They're also [[finecast]]. | |||
{{Template:Chaos-Official}} | {{Template:Chaos-Official}} | ||
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Space Marines]] | [[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Space Marines]] | ||
Revision as of 19:07, 14 July 2016
Rubric Marines - the cursed automatons of the Thousand Sons, and one of the two toughest infantry units that are available to the Traitor Legions, right alongside their Nurglite rivals, the Plague Marines. They serve a similar tactical role in that they're absolutely tough as balls, but whereas the Plague Marines, owing to their diseased bulk, can resist large volumes of anti-infantry fire, the Rubric Marines, protected by dark sorcery, will shrug off even the most powerful hits from anti-tank weapons.
They've been known to get pre-5th Edition Necron players to rage-quit.
Lore
The Rubric Marines were once basic Marines in the Thousand Sons. Due to someone's fuck-up with their gene-seed, the legion as a whole suffered horrifying, increasingly-debilitating mutations. For a time Magnus managed to stop this shit by striking a bargain with Tzeentch (for which he lost his eye BTW), but this worked only until the start of the Horus Heresy. This generally sucked, since it meant that increasingly, members of the legion were turning into that which must never be named. Tzeentch, in the Chaos God's proud tradition of not giving a fuck, left the Sons to work out their own solution to the problem, likely so he'd have some entertainment over the weekend.
At some point, trying to help fix this little mutation epidemic, a Sorcerer called Ahzek Ahriman used the knowledge he took from the Book of Magnus (which he was a bearer of), to find a way of curing his legion. He crafted a way to undo the mutations plaguing the legion, and cast an incredibly powerful spell called the Rubric of Ahriman. The spell was successful in stopping the mutation, but only really amongst the command staff - every non-Sorcerer in the legion was reduced to dust and trapped as bound spirits within their sealed power armor for eternity (or at least until the armor was destroyed). Suffice to say, Magnus was really pissed off and wanted to blow Ahriman up with mind-bullets, but Tzeentch asked him not to because that was some pretty epic douchebaggery. So Magnus kicked him out of the Thousand Sons, instead.
What a dick.
A huge part of the Ahriman's initial post heresy activities was trying to reverse the effects of the Rubric by, somewhat counter-intuitively, performing the Rubric again but doing it right this time. To this end, he created a new Rubric, and broke through to the Planet of the Sorcerers in order to perform it. Due to a huge amount of Just As Planned dickery from a number of parties, it didn't work. With the exception of one marine who was returned (sans any personal memory) to a full normal body. Rather than being declarative proof that the Rubric can be reversed, it seemed to be a concession on the part of Tzeentch to give Ahriman a little hope and string him along for more giggles further down the line.
Since the Rubric of Ahriman, the Thousand Sons have lost many of the Rubiks Cube Marines, but they still manage to keep their numbers at near thousand. Two main theories that they either perform the scaled-down version of Rubric on other marines, or reanimate fallen ones by pulling their souls out of Warp and putting them into repaired/new sets of armour. Or both. Whichever is creepier is up to you to decide. It's ironic, as the fluff states, they were turned from a legion of scholars and book lovers, into mindless, walking power armors that can't even think!. They can think, its just that they've lost all hope and purpose in life. Reduced from scholars to beings who can't even feel, they let the days slip into millennia. Only battle barely reminds them of what it was to be alive, and they fight accordingly. So grimdark.
They're also central to this tomfoolery, so props for that.
On The Tabletop
Rubric Marines are absolutely terrifying on the tabletop. They aren't quite as good at ignoring the sustained fire of 40 Shoota Boyz as their counterparts, the Plague Marines are, but unlike them they can ignore a direct Battle Cannon shot, since Rubrics possess a phenomenally-dickish 4++ invulnerable save. Even better, Rubric Marines pack Inferno Bolts, which means their Bolters are AP3. Suffice to say, they can carve through a squad of MEQ effortlessly, and, prior to their massive Tomb Kings in Space update, fielding one squad of intelligently-managed Rubric Marines essentially guaranteed victory against a typical Necron player (or current-gen Tyranid player; thanks a fucking bunch, Cruddace). They're also led by a Sorcerer, who gives them access to one psy power (typically something like Bolt of Change, so the squad can pop transports). The Sorcerer's Bolt Pistol also has Inferno Bolts.
Rubrics are cursed with Slow and Purposeful, and unlike the other aligned Chaos Marines, do not have close combat weapons or bolt pistols. At a glance, this makes them a very easy-to-target melee weak-spot, but in practice, this isn't quite true; they still have their beefy-as-shit 3+/4++ saves, and the Sorcerer's Force Weapon means that no MC worth their shit will get anywhere near them. What they are vulnerable to is being Tarpitted, due to their relatively lackluster number of attacks and immense focus on shooting to take advantage of their juicy AP 3 Bolter shots. Note that whilst they lack grenades and thus hit last if they (counter)charge into cover, they still have a marine statline for close-combat and a 4+ invuln save besides, so seeing these guys win a fight with a squad of Banshees isn't as absurd as you might think.
They also don't have grenades, so charging through a cover or blowing tanks with krak-grenades might be a problem, and even more so if they got caught in melee with AV11+ walker, since they're fearless and cannot choose to run away.
Rubrics benefit heavily from having a Rhino Transport. Not because they need the survivability (they're tougher than the vehicle they're in, to be frank), but because the mobility they get is such an enormous boon. Take full advantage of their ability to shoot out of their transport, and use it in glorified Tzeentchian drive-by shooting, before disembarking in rapid fire range and warpfire-blasting a bitch.
Like many many Chaos units, they have good looking stats but are too expensive to be worth taking. Even with a 4++ they're only MEQs, who also are shit in close combat, and can't run. Their main job, with AP3 Bolters, is to hunt down other MEQs. The thing is, basically any other expensive unit can kill MEQs far better than Rubric Marines can. You could get a lot more bang for your buck by putting points toward a Daemon Prince instead, who can straight up liquify MEQs, and just about anything else too. The sorcerer that comes with the squad is also pretty lackluster, since he's forced to roll his powers from the Tzeentch table. In the end your paying for a MEQ killer that's outshined by just about everything. They're also finecast.