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I think the Space Marines suffer the same problem the Dark Eldar suffer, to a lesser extent, in that they are maneuver and mission oriented, and not represented as to their true purpose very well.
Maneuver - vs- Attrition warfare: There are two very basic forms of warfare, maneuver fighting and attrition fighting. ?Maneuver fighting is all centered ?around the idea of using movement, fast movement, or even faster movement if possible, and firepower to defeat the enemy. ?How you use the movement is up to you, but the basic ideas are to either use it to achieve a firing postion that is more favorable to you and less to the enemy, (high movement rating) or to use movement to rapidly concentrate forces so that you have more of your stuff in a location than they do. (Commanders having 3 formations assault) ?Attrition fighting is your basic meatgrinder: kill more of them than they kill of you and survive the battle. ?Historically, Attrition Warfare has been the norm until you see the beginnings of Maneuver Warfare in German tactics at the end of WW1, with a big use of it in the Blitzkrieg at the beginning of WW2. ?The assumed tactics that were going to be used in a possible defense of Europe against the Soviet's assumed massive assault forced thinking towards Attrition Warfare, but once the Cold War was over you see the US Military start to use Maneuver Warfare more and more, with the biggest example being the Iraq Invasion in 2003 that allowed the US Military to take over a sizable country in a couple of weeks.
One of the neat things about the WH40K universe is that you see these different styles of warfare represented by the different races/armies to different dgrees. ?The Orks are the penultimate of Attrition Warfare, with the Tyranids right behind them. ?The Squats were very attrition oriented, but went the anvil approach against the Ork's hammer methods. ?The Imperial Guard are somewhat attrition oriented also, but they have the flexibility to go either way on a small scale (fast Valkyries and Vultures compared to the slow sledgehammer of SHT companies.) ?The Eldar are fairly maneuver oriented, and it shows in their rules (hit and run) and stats (high movement), but they also have a sizable army structure, giving them so mass also. ?The Space Marines are supposed to be Maneuver Warfare oriented force also, trading masses of troops and vehicles for armor and firepower. ?The most extreme example of Maneuver Warfare would be the Dark Eldar with their army geared towards high speed capturing slaves and sacrifices.
The Space Marines have many time been called "...the scalpel compared to the sledge hammer of the Imperial Guard." (or something like that.) ?Well, one of the things about a scalpel is that you don't use it to hack up bodies, you use it to remove specific pieces of tissue. ?How often do you remember reading in the fluff where the Space Marines were simply thrown into a mindless meatgrinder of a battle? ?None that I can remember. ?It's always been: capture this thing, kill that leader, establish an LZ, recon in force, assault that objective, etc. ?(For the Dark Eldar, it has always been capture victims.)
How has the Codex Astartes Space Marines army list captured that mission oriented mindset? ?Poorly. ?It got the Maneuver Warfare idea down really well with the idea of taking an air-cav force, but otherwise the list serves the ground-pounding Space Marines poorly. ?Oh, there are some units that need to have their points and stats brought closer to where they should be, and I think those have already been identified, but problems are not really in the stats so much as the unit compositions and special rules. ?I would like to make some suggestions to make the list better, without a lot of stat upgrades. ?
1) Free and Better Commanders - The Space Marines as a ground based maneuver force is directly comprimised by the activation rules, where you can only activate 1 detachment at a time unless you have a commander. ?This becomes a real problem for lone detachments going into an assault with no other detachments. ?Since the Space Marines lack a lot of mass, sacrificing 50 points a commander and 100 points for the Supreme Commander starts to take a lot of combat ability out of the overall force.
The Space Marines are supposed to be the best trained troops in the galaxy and have the best battlefield commanders that have graced mankind. ?And how is this shown in Epic? ?A 1+ activation roll. ?Wow...
Let the training and commanders really show in the army: Give the Space Marines a free commander for every 4th infantry detachment of any kind (to represent the company commander) and make the Supreme Commander a 50 point option. ?(Additional commanders can be bought for 50 points each as per normal) ?Also, make the commanders for the Space Marines better by allowing the three detachments that can assault at once be 15cm apart instead of just 5cm. ?Don't those highly trained marines all have radios?
Veteran Sgt. - remember these guys from WH40K? ?Put them in as an option that can be taken. ?25 points per Vet. Sgt. taken, maximum of 1 per 2 stands in the unit, where a Vet. Sgt. added to a stand of infantry gives it a Leader.
Techmarines and Apothocaries - Since maintaining mass is such a problem for the Space Marines put in units that will help: Techmarines and Apothocaries. ?A Techmarine would give an Invulnerable Save to all AV and LV in the detachment, while the Apothocary would give an Invulnerable Save to all INF and LV in the detachment. ?25 points each.
Objectives - Any competant commander would never throw Space Marines into a meatgrinder, nor would they allow themsleves to be. ?They would always go into a battle with the intent of achieving a high value objective. ?The Space Marine player is allowed to pick one of the objectives (Break Their Spirit, etc.) and make it count double towards the number of objectives achieved.
TSKNF - I would make the reccomended changes that have been mentioned in other threads.
What do you think?
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I shot a Deathstrike Missile and destroyed an enemy titan in my pajamas last night. ?How it got into my pajamas I still don't know...
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