From the Front Line - Movie Marines and Ordnance

Okay, last night was interesting.

First up...Movie Marines!

Some donut (sic) in the US WD team decided that the current Marine stats line didn't reflect the marines from the stories. So he created Movie Marines.

Each marine is an Independent Character with stats WS, BS, S, T = 6 and two wounds a piece and four attacks.
Bolters are Assault 4, S6, AP4, and Rending.
Bolt pistols are Assault 4, S6, AP4, and Rending.
Frag missiles are ordnance template, S6, AP3
Krak missiles are small template, S10, AP1
Chainswords are Rending.
Armour save 3+ with re-roll, 3+ invulnerable save.

Each Marine is 100 points (although perhaps 150 from later information)

With the month of fun to celebrate 30 years of WD, they were running a movie marine challenge - take on the squad of ten with a 1000 point army (upped to 1500 after my game) with a potential prize for whomever kills most movie marines before being wiped out.

I managed to nail one of them before I was wiped out. Fun to try once.

What really pissed me off was the GW guy running it, herein known as Dopey. He's from the Bristol store, and was all "oh, these are how marines are supposed to be!", having seen the issue of WD that contained the rules. He came in part way through my game, after Zak had started us off (hence the mistake in points values) and we were playing the scenario where each side is trying to get off the opposite table edge. When he mentioned the Independent character bit, I pointed out (with tongue in cheek and half my army gone) that the movie marines now had no scoring units. "Oh, but they're movie marines, you don't play scenarios with them, they just kill everything!" was the reply. He didn't like our questions about how "Movie Guard" or "Movie Eldar" would work, since they too seem to be far more powerful in the stories...

Whilst I did enjoy the game as a one-off, I wasn't prepared to play again, even as the Movie Marine player (far too one sided!).

Anyway, had a second game against George and his Eldar (the little fellow can really paint well!). We had to call it a day after turn three as Dopey (GW guy) wanted to cash up early. I lost, having lost the entire Ravenwing squadron...but that's another story. I fielded a heavy bolter in the tactical squad, and oh boy is that good at mowing down Eldar. I think the guy single headedly accounted for 10 kills. The rest came from the Whirlwind. Ohboyohboyohboy. Indirect fire, S5 against T3 troops. With a template big enough to nail 3-6 models per turn. Amazing against squads that are skulking behind cover trying to avoid be hit by a mad man with a heavy bolter! And all for 85 points. Me need more. I can see why they are so useful in Cities of Death (not what we were using). You just plonk it behind a nice big piece of scenery so that nothing can see you. And then point and say "Die!". Ahem.