Today, we invite Eddie to be our tactician, and here's what he has to say about the Rubric Marines.
Rubric Marines are amongst the most reliable and dependable troops choices in Warhammer 40,000. In a pure Thousand Sons force (or Detachment), not only do they gain the advantage of being able to secure objectives against enemy units, they also gain access to a lot of synergies with other units, Stratagems and powers, both obvious and subtle.
In most situations, Rubric Marines are very durable; an increased save against Damage 1 weaponry makes them all but immune to most small arms fire, and against heavier weaponry, Tzeentch was nice enough to give them all a 5+ invulnerable save. In practice, this means your enemy is probably going to have to bring heavy weaponry to bear to remove any sizeable unit of Rubric Marines at range. This is fine – if they’re shooting your Rubric Marines, it means they’re leaving your vehicles and monsters alone. Use this natural resilience to force your opponent to make hard choices about where they direct their best firepower – when everything in your army requires their best weapons to take out, you force your opponent to concentrate on some units at the expense of others.
Yeah. Sounds pretty cool to me. Eddie says not to throw them into close combat, though. While they will survive melee and can tarpit enemies, there are much better units for that role (*cough* Tzaangors *cough*). Anyway, the Rubric Marines shine because of their durability and their weapons loadout. Eddie looks at both the inferno boltgun and the warpflamer.
Take note, the inferno boltgun synergizes better with the soulreaper cannon because it has the same range, and is also designed to mow down infantry - the same role as your inferno boltguns. Both the inferno boltguns and soulreaper cannon are meant to take down armored infantry such as Marines and their equivalent, so make sure you use the AP -2 to their maximum advantage.
On the other hand, warpflamers lack the range of the inferno boltguns, and there's no point bringing a soulreaper cannon with your warpflamer dudes. While only packing a measly 8" range, they are devastating against hordes and they auto-hit. Awesome. For maximum carnage, pack a 10-men Rubric Marine squad, all equipped with warpflamers, and dish out 9D6 Strength 4 AP -2 auto-hits. They'll literally melt hordes. Yeah, we'll turn all into dust like our Rubric dudes.
Eddie offers a few good advice on how to use warpflamer dudes. They're great in overwatch - 9D6 auto-hit shots are no joke. If you need to get rid of light vehicles (Toughness 7 or 6), throw in the Veterans of the Long War Stratagem and they'll wound those things on a 4+. Need to get rid of power armored blobs like those treacherous Space Puppies? Use that and they'll be wounding them on 3+s. Infantry? 2+s. I wouldn't waste my Command Points on those unless I really, really need them dead, though.
If you ask me, the best way to use these guys is to webway infiltrate them within 9" of whatever horde you need dead, cast Warp Time on them with a Deep-striking Sorcerer in Terminator Armor or Exalted Sorcerer on disc, move them another 5" forward, and roast whatever needs cooking. All is dust indeed.
Then you have the Aspiring Sorcerers.
Even Eddie thinks their gimped Smite is useless. In other words, you do not bring loads of Rubric Marines because you want to spam Smite. No, you bring them along with their Discipline of Change. To make your Rubric Marines (and Scarab Occult Terminators) more durable and survivable than they already are, you have the choice of casting either Glamor of Tzeentch or Weaver of Fates.
Cool, right? This will make your Rubric Marines a lot more survivable than Tzaangors. They're also a lot more shooty. Don't listen to the nonsense the haters in dakka dakka are spouting about how Tzaangors are superior to Rubric Marines in every way (especially this guy who claims 1) Rubrics are outmatched by Tzangors in almost every aspect.). They obviously have no idea what they're talking about. Are you telling me Tzaangors outmatch Rubric Marines in shooting? With our AP -2 and better BS? Can Tzaangors take warpflamers? No, Tzaangors are better than Rubric Marines only in melee. Shooting wise, durability wise, they are worse. Not to mention, you'll lose a ton of Tzaangors to morale because of how fragile they are, as well as to overwatch when you charge them into whatever. Rubric Marines do not face the same problem. If you think Tzaangors are better than Rubric Marines in almost every aspect, then you're not playing them right. I can think of a dozen situations where I want my Rubric Marines instead of Tzaangors. Hell, my Thousand Sons army has no Tzaangors right now. Besides, Tzaangors don't have an Aspiring Sorcerer, which will make your already durable Rubric Marines even harder to kill!
Some people are just complaining for the sake of it.
Anyway, Eddie has advice on how to move your Rubric Marines. They include transports, where you load them up on Rhinos and Land Raiders. I'll pass on that. Sure, they'll make your slow 5" movement Rubric Marines a lot more mobile, but if I wanted fast, mobile Troops to grab objectives, I would bring Tzaangors instead. No, Rubric Marines excel in holding backfield objectives, getting dug in and being difficult to remove. I'm not saying they are impossible to wipe out, but your opponent has to devote a ton of firepower just to remove them, and that's firepower not directed at your Daemon Engines. Tzaangors will just die to weight of fire, like lasguns, pulse rifles, heavy bolters, boltguns, Punisher gatling cannons, Damage-1 weapons and other anti-infantry weapons. Your Rubric Marines, on the other hand, will laugh at even plasma rifles, un-supercharged plasma guns, hot-shot lasguns and other inferno boltguns. Seriously, do the math. And in the event you lose 1 or 2 to the weight of fire, they will not succumb as easily to morale as your Tzaangors.
Whoops, getting distracted here. What I mean to say, your Rubric Marines don't neeed the protection of a transport, and they're nigh indestructible against anti-infantry weapons so stick them in your backfield and dig them in to hold objectives. They excel at that a lot more than the supposedly superior Tzaangors. roll eyes
But the codex now offers you a lot of flexibility to move your slow Rubric Marines across the table if you need to! Can't get any hordes within range of your warpflamers? Look no further than Webway Infiltration. Spend a Command Point, Deep Strike them in the enemy's deployment zone, cast Warp Time with a Deep Striking Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (who is also being protected by Scarab Occult Terminators), and then unleash the flames!
Oh, you killed everything in your opponent's deployment zone and must now rush back toward your own deployment zone because your enemy's Deep Striking units have wiped out the Tzaangors there? Use Black Matter Crystal to warp them across the table - you did take the Relic on your Sorcerer in Terminator armor, right? - and unleash another bunch of flames. Or if your opponent charged you and made into combat, tarpitting your poor Rubric Marines, just pull the eject button and warp them across the table to flame another horde. It's a great hit-and-run tactic that allows you to move your Rubric Marines around the table with great flexibility.
Now, I can hear people crying out that the Webway Infiltration and Black Matter Crystal will be better for Tzaangors. In some cases, probably. But why would you use them to Deep Strike your Tzaangors!? They already move pretty fast, can Advance because quite frankly, their autopistols don't do jack. But honestly, even though they are better in melee, they suck in shooting, and to get them into combat, you're gonna eat a lot of overwatch and lose a few models before they slam in. Yeah, they might tear apart your opponents in melee with the Tzaangor Shaman's buff, but honestly? Strength 4 AP 0 attacks aren't going to do much. I would rather shoot Strength 4 AP -2 shots from a distance without losing a few guys to overwatch. And fire my own overwatch when people charge at my Rubric Marines. Jeez, stop staring at the Tzaangors with blinkers and accept that there are roles where Rubric Marines are much better than them. Use your damned imagination. Do the math. Stop howling about how Tzaangors are superior to Rubric Marines and start thinking about how to better use the latter. The Rubric Marines' strengths lie in shooting and durability. Build an army around that. Tzaangors are for those players who prefer hordes and volume of fire - but they are glass cannons who can't shoot and must get within range of your opponent to actually do anything. Whereas your Rubric Marines can dig in, secure an Objective and survive whatever firepower your opponent throws at them.
Looking at the complaints really gets me annoyed. The problem isn't with Games Workshop. They have given you new tools to play with your Rubric Marines, but for some reason you're just focusing on how they're good or better for Tzaangors and completely ignoring how they excel for your Rubric Marines. Seriously, I can spend a Command Point on 30-40 Tzaangors, cast Warptime on them and then charge them into combat but I'll lose a bunch of them to overwatch and to morale, plus their Strength 4 AP 0 attacks wouldn't do much against armored foes. On the other hand, 10 Rubric Marines with 9 warpflamers and 9D6 Strength 4 AP -2 attacks plus an Aspiring Sorcerer to keep them more survivable would do the same job without losing any models to overwatch or morale. And would probably kill more too, to be honest. Or maybe I'm doing my math wrong, but your 10 Rubric Marines will be sticking around for a long while whereas that blob of Tzaangors will go down really, really fast. Not only that, you have a lot more tactical flexibility with Rubric Marines and their warpflamers due to the split fire mechanic in 8th Edition. 2 5-men enemy squads? Sure you can declare a multi-charge and eat both squads' overwatch with your Tzaangors, but you can split fire your Rubric Marines into both squads safely without wasting your charge (especially if you can only charge and fight one unit). 4 warpflamers into the first squad, 5 warpflamers into the second. Boom. If your opponent has his 2 squads bunched together, you can probably split your Tzaangors in combat, but if he doesn't? You waste one turn getting rid of one squad at a time. Good luck fighting against Tau.
Think about it. Look at the ways you can play with Rubric Marines and stop comparing or thinking about how Tzaangors will do the job better - yes, they will do the job better in melee, but they can't shoot, they die to a breeze, and they are vulnerable to morale and overwatch. Your Rubric Marines are not, and they have superior shooting weapons, and have the option to deal out a devastating overwatch of their own. Quit complaining, pull the blinkers away from your eyes and explore your new tactical options with your Rubric Marines. Don't let the supposedly good stuff of Tzaangors blind you to the Rubric Marines' strengths.
You're playing an army of Tzeentch followers. Nothing is going to be straightforward. Your Thousand Sons army isn't going to be straightforward. It's not as simple as Tzaangors are better in every respect or spamming hordes of Tzaangors. There are many cases where Tzaangors are flat out worse than Rubric Marines. If you would just pull away those blinkers, stop drinking salty tears and quit focusing on the synergy between Tzaangor units and actually consider using the Stratagems, psychic spells and Relics for Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators, you'll see it.
I'm sure my advice will fall on deaf ears, but...oh well. I tried.
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