I need help with Marauders!

M

MaxSteiner

Mongoose
Ok, I never thought I'd be saying this, but I really need help!
Someone I've just introduced to the game has some kinda insatiable SST appatite. He spends all day at work thinking up cunning new cheese tactics, rushes home and writes them down.
He's read the rulebook so many times that he's pointing out rules I didn't even know about (Although we were handling orbital missiles wrong, to my detriment), read the novel in the space of two days, and worst of all, he's latched onto Marauders platoons as his army of choice...

I really don't know what to do, my modest arachnid army isnt cutting it, and whenever I try any sort of gimick beside warrior bugs they're dead on the secound turn. Normally Rupture is banned, and Im trying ot get that revoked so thers some chance of actually hurting them...

I know things like a thorny tanker or a plasma attached to a tunneler so it can hide would decimate them, but other than that my minds drawing a blank...
Does anyone have any secretive techniques they could let slip?
:D
Thanks alot!
 
Ouch.
I sometimes felt that way with reborn!
So I see your pain! My advice is play for fun, not just to win. If he's just going to decimate you with no flaws whatsoever (nigh on impossible really), just refuse to play. What's the point if he's always going to win?
 
I hear you there dude!
But its getting harder every day, last game we played I had annihilate, he had delay, and all seemed pretty equal all the way up until the end where he killed my brain ( With 16 javelin shots followed by a firestorm missile!!!!!!!!!!! Ammo dumps and reliants set up in the corner of the board on deep defense is pretty soul destroying :( ).
Got to the end of the battle and I lost by 2650pts! :evil:
Im all for enjoying a game, but that really did sting, and its not as if he was playing dirtily either, it was just the worst possible combination of objectives, against a brutally hard army...

The only plus side to it is that I've finally gotten of my arse and sorted out the mission matrix so it makes sense (I'll probably post it when I remember, but I'd imagine Im not the only person to flip and randomise the tables).
Anyway, hopefully this weekend it might go a bit better :D
 
Plasma bugs, tunneling tankers (and thorny tankers maybe?) rushing small groups of warriors at him far enough apart so they avoid getting splattered by 1 round of shooting, hoppers are also damn nasty.

Or you could just go cheese in return and start playing skinnies ;) They can be played very very nastily.
 
Lots and lots of tunnelling assets. Esp. if you can put a bug central in there and use endless tide, that way you can bring reinforcements up quickly. Carrion bugs will make your units last much longer. You might want to consider throwing some air assets into the mix as well.

Don't bother with Cave-Ins. They're nasty, but won't work against Marauders I'm afraid.


Have you been using a plasma bug parked behind a hill in the corner of the table? Won't guarantee it'll last the entire game, but he should stay around long enough to kill a few Marauders. (And when you're opponent plays a Marauder platoon, every casualty really hurts).
 
cordas said:
Plasma bugs, tunneling tankers (and thorny tankers maybe?) rushing small groups of warriors at him far enough apart so they avoid getting splattered by 1 round of shooting, hoppers are also damn nasty.

Or you could just go cheese in return and start playing skinnies ;) They can be played very very nastily.
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Exactly, just take a cheapo leader, keep him hidden.
Take a load of Venerables with rocket packs and accurate (6D6+Size if readied) AND soldier units with as many heavy weps as possible.
Best way to get around armies of purely hard stuff. :)
 
ID sending is good, since it adds the size of the unit (can't remember the trait name).

Hoppers off board, readied and doing a 24" movement and surrounding the marauder, with d10 attacks.
 
im not familiar to the game yet but i have the same problem with some lotr players unfortunately wat i do is let the enemy come to me while they charge in i just open up all my shooting on them (idk of all the shooty bugs exept the tankers and plasma) and then one in range i charge em and trap them im guessing some warrior busg and gaurde bugs in the front and hpppers stab the scumie humans in the back. hope my tactic might work good luck (im planning on ordering the big box set this month after games day)
 
The previous suggestions are great. If you have lots of high LOS blocking terrain I'd really go with lots of Hoppers and fade in and out attacks so they can't be killed by reactions.

I played a very fun game at Xintao's place last night. A Tanker bug used the spit to get the Chickenhawk's kill number. It was already carrying a wound so the kill doing 2 more wounds finished it off.

Now if I was building an army and if I knew a person always played Marauders, I might use Infiltrator Bugs. They can't be gunned down from far away and get a pretty hefty close combat attack with 2 dice rolls. So with two kill rolls or a wound and a kill roll and you can take out a Marauder. Mantis Hunter Bugs might also be useful for setting up closer than normal and the additional cover bonus. Plus they also get the two dice with a possibility of getting the kill number. And they move fast.

As an aside, we do play with Rupture. I used it first turn and my Brain Bug tied first time and then I had to roll against a 10 and lost 5 wounds. Next turn I used it once after using Shield and only did 1 wound to the Chickenhawk. I was going to duck into a tunnel entrance on turn 3 to avoid getting smacked down by some Exosuits. So although it can be a game decider, it's potential death from its own ability and the resulting lack of command confusion from its death make using the ability a double edged sword. Take Rupture away from the Bugs and you may as well take away the big guns from the MI. Just my opinion of course. YMMV.
 
Greg Smith said:
ID sending is good, since it adds the size of the unit (can't remember the trait name)
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Accurate is the trait. AFAIK, ID sending is the only Accurate weapon in the Bug Arsenal..It is tough to get the kill numbers.

Ego War costs more points but could be useful to prep for an attack by a close attack, like say an Infiltrator, Mantis Bug, or Hoppers.

Suggestion (Enhanced is best) could also be used to force the Marauders in a unit to fire off all their one shot weapons like Pee-Wees or Blizzard packs before the proper targets have presented themselves.
 
Always take a Brain with the Psi power, Ego War
Take as many Hoppers as you can.

I also like Mantis Assassin bugs. The 10" Jump and devastating CC values make them a good choice for ant-Maurader work.

However the most underrated anti-Maurader and Exo-suit bug IMHO is the Firefry. 12" jump, 9" spit attack, D10 Flame spit, = 21" threat range and no dodge saves. You can't beat that for 20 points a pop. Plus at size 1 they can be screened behind warriors untill your in range.

Use Ego War to Freeze an emeny squad prior to unleashing a hopper attack. Or to reduce the damage to your bugs during reaction. Using Ego War takes up one "ready" action and can thus be attempted twice per turn. Either against the same unit if you miss, or against two units if your lucky.

Use Hoppers and remember they enter on any board edge outside the oponents deployment zone. They enter play already "Ready". This means a 24" Hover move with a CC against any enemy within 2" of the center of the model (quite a suprise). The target reacts after the completion of the Hover/CC move. Let's supose your oponent knows this and is positioned 36" in from any possable attack. Then the Brain Bug comes into play. Have the brain bug grant an extra action to the Hoppers, this does not cost the Brain any actions to do so. The Hoppers enter play 1st action Hover 24", Second action "ready", 3rd bonus action Hover 24"/CC. The targe of the CC will get to react after the completion of the CC. On a standard 6' by 4' table there are very few ways to avoid this attack.

Remember reduce a Maurader to less than half wounds it gets only one action per turn. Hit the leaders and the rest of the unit is severly limited in movement due to command range requirements. They can't move away from the commander or they are out of command and can only react.

Good luck
 
MaxSteiner said:
I hear you there dude!
But its getting harder every day, last game we played I had annihilate, he had delay[...]
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You can't have delay and annihilate in one game.
Either it's annihilate-annihilate or overrun-delay.

Good things against Marauder might be:
- Hoppers (though not ultimately usefull)
- Firefries (these friggin little bastards rock hell!)
- Thorny Tanker (destroys Mardauders with just one kill)
- Plasma Bugs (of course)
- Brain Bugs or Overseers (espacially with Enhanced Distract)
- Blister shielded by cheap carrion workers
 
Very true. I failed to mention that terrain is more important to the bug and LAMI player than any others. You can loose the game before it ever starts if their is too much or too little. Be involved in the selection and placement of terrain. In a tournament ask the judge about the position and number of terrain elements. Don't let the other player dominate the terrain placement process. Resolve arguments over terrain placement with an evens/odds roll of the dice.

Regards
 
MaxSteiner said:
Got to the end of the battle and I lost by 2650pts! :evil:
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One more thing to add. It appears you are playing large games. Another tactic you may want to try is to take PL1 for the Bugs and use multiple hosts to allow you more of the special Bugs than a single PL1 host would allow. This should give you extra access to tunnel entrances and tunnel markers as well. For every 1000 pts of your force you get a host so a 3000pt game for example gets you 3 hosts or 3 times each PL1 restriction.

Being PL 1 and the Marauders being a minimum of PL 2 allows you to force him into an offensive mode. Depending on whether he is PL 2 or 3 and you can be on delay or last stand and he's going to be on overrun or annihilate. Maybe take a defend posture for a more advantageous deployment. You can bury your guys underground as markers until he gets close. Tunnel markers have no size characteristic and are hidden by any terrain size 1 or higher for direct LOS. So camp out behind terrain and wait for him.. When running games I consider typical tunnel entrances to be size 4 but height 0 (so hidden by intervening terrain) but we would apply the size characteristic to direct fire accurate weapon shots whose LOS is not blocked.
 
Switch to Skinnies LMAO (cos I know you don't like them)!

My mates Marauder Army isn't worth the Glue its put together vs a well structured Skinnie force :)

He, He, He . . . . .
 
As far as terrain goes, I agree. I would rather have to move slowly through cover than get mowed down by long range fire. I rarely see terrain elements over 3" high this means that tankers are uneffected, and hoppers and jumpers are uneffected when using special moves so in general the more terrain the better.
 
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