USMC list - homemade

[jonasjuhlin]

l have just bought some USMC and Chindits from warlord games, so I decided to make some homemade army list for the USMC, until the pacific book arrives. We had a fun game with the list so I wanted to share it with you.

Comments are most welcomed.

US Marine Corps
USMC: USMC fire team, USMC heavy weapon team, USMC gunnery sergeant, USMC raiders, USMC officer.

Semper Fi special rule: Semper Fidelis or “semper fi” for short means always faithful. It’s the motto of the Marine Corps and marines have proven themselves always faithful in numerous pacific campaigns.

Once per game the USMC player may announce “semper fi”. All units with the “semper fi” attribute may increase their Drive by +1. NOTE: This cannot increase the Drive value beyond the original starting value.

USMC fire team:Green Infantry


M3 - RC+5 - CC3 - A3 - S2 - D3 - W1

Composition: 3 marines

Equipment: M1 Garand, Grenades and BAR (1 per squad)

Special attributes: Semper fi, every man counts

Options:
- The squads training level may be increased to Regular

- 1 member of the squad may exchange his M1 Garand with a M1 Carbine or M1 Thompson SMG

- The BAR gunner may exchange his BAR for a M1 Garand with rifle grenades.

USMC heavy weapon team:
Green Support

M3 - RC+5 - CC3 - A3 - S2 - D3 - W1

Composition: 3 marines

Equipment: M1 Garand, Grenades and 1 heavy weapon (see below)

Special attributes: Semper fi, every man counts

Options
- The squad may select one of the following weapons; Flamethrower, 60mm Mortar, Bazooka, .30 cal machine gun, the marine carrying the heavy weapon does not have a M1 Garand

- The squads training level may be increased to Regular

USMC Guadalcanal veterans:
Regular Infantry

M3 - RC+4 - CC3 - A3 - S2 - D4 - W1

Composition: 2 marines

Equipment: M1 Garand and Grenades

Special attributes: Semper fi, every man counts, acclimated (tropics)

Options:
- The squads training level may be increased to Veteran

- 1 member of the squad may exchange his M1 Garand with a M1 Carbine or M1 Thompson SMG

- The squad may exchanges their grenades for a M1 Garand with rifle grenades

- For every two Marine infantry selections in the detachment, one marine squad may exchange one of their M1 Garand for a BAR

USMC heavy weapon squad Guadalcanal veteran:
Regular Support

M3 - RC+4 - CC3 - A3 - S2 - D4 - W1

Composition: 2 marines

Equipment: M1 Garand, Grenades and 1 heavy weapon (see below)

Special attributes: Semper fi, every man counts, acclimated(tropics)

Options
- The squad may select one of the following weapons; Flamethrower, 60mm Mortar, Bazooka, .30 cal machinegun, the marine carrying the heavy weapon does not have a M1 Garand

- The squads training level may be increased to Veteran


USMC Gunnery Sergeant “Gunny”
Regular Infantry (individual)

M3 - RC+4 - CC4 - A3 - S2 - D5 - W2

Composition: 1 USMC sergeant

Equipment: 1 M1A1 Thompson SMG, Pistol, Grenades

Special abilities:
Command, Semper fi, Acclimated, every man counts, Demoralizing loss (see Basra book)

Options
- The individuals training level may be increased to veteran

- The individual may be designated as a Hero

- The individual may exchange his Thompson SMG with a M1 Carbine, M1 Garand or a Shotgun

USMC Raider
Veteran Infantry

M3 - RC+4 - CC3 - A3 - S2 - D5 - W2


Composition: 2 marines

Equipment: M1 Garand, Grenades, Explosives, Pistols

Special attributes: Semper fi, Acclimated, Infiltration (see OTW 17), every man counts

Options:
- All members of the squad may exchange their M1 Garand with a M1 Carbine or M1 Thompson SMG or a shotgun

- For every 2 USMC Raider squads selected, 1 marine may exchange his M1 Garand with a BAR or a flamethrower.

USMC OfficerVeteran Infantry (individual)

M3 - RC+4 - CC4 - A4 - S2 - D6 - W2

Composition: 1 USMC officer

Equipment: 1 M1A1 Thompson SMG, Pistol, Grenades

Special abilities: Command, Semper fi, Acclimated, every man counts, demoralizing loss

Options

- The individuals training level may be increased to Elite

- The individual may be designated as a Hero

- The individual may exchange his Thompson SMG with a M1 Carbine, M1 Garand or a Shotgun

Marine K9 squad: see page 140 in the main rulebook.
Add special rule Semper fi and Early warnin.
NOTE the Squad consist of one handler and one dog.

Early warning: the dogs have a 16" radius. within this radius
IJA or IJN units may NOT use the stealth special rule (see OTW 17) because the dogs can smell them as they creep forward.

Marine sniper:
see page 137 in the main rulebook. Add Semper fi special rule and every man counts

Marine senior officer: see OTW 1 for details. Add semper fi, every man counts and demoralizing loss

Marine RTO:
See OTW 1 for details. Add Semper fi and every man counts special rule

Naval corpsman
see OTW 4 for details. Due to the very good and close relationship between the marines and the navel corpsmen add the Semper fi special rule.
Due to the japanese disregard for medics Navel corpsmen are armed with a pistol. They may shoot at enemy models that had fired at them.


USMC can take Infantry detachment, recon detachment, support detachment, command detachment, veteran detachment, tank detachment, experimental detachment and occult detachment.
Note on USMC tank detachment; light tank – LVT(A)-3 and LVT(A)-4; medium tank – M5 stuart; heavy tank – M4 Sherman.



As you can see the marines are a hard bunch. The semper fi rule means that they will stand and fight for a longer time than the GI´s. The marines have CC 3. Since the British and Japanese both have CC 3 we thought that marines too should have it. The bar in each fire team is because the marines i ´late´44 and 45 had 3 BAR per squad (oppose 1 BAR in army squads).
The marines should also be able to select the sniper, the K9 squad, assault engineres, Radio op, Medic and senior officer. All should have the Semper fi rule if they are marines.

[TrueRonin]

One thing I disaprove is the RC rating of the Marines, they are notoriously famous for being good shots and RC 5+ doesn't do them credit.

You could work around this however in a simple way. By adding some "Guadalcanal Veterans" to the mix, they'd be the same statwise as Airborne Infantry, just add the Semper-Fi and Acclimated rules.

Where is the K9 unit? To my knowledge the USMC used them extensively as an early warning system to protect against sneaky japanese crawling up on you as well as sniper detectors. What about the Codetalkers, where are they? Would they be supernaturals just like the shapechangers from the ETO?

Oh... I forgot to give you a thumbs up for the work you've done... ;D

[jonasjuhlin]

Thank you.

there are some good points. I have updatet the post to include Navel Corpsmen, K9 squads + some others.

I like the idea about the guadalcanal veterans.

as for the Wind talkers, I have no idea how they sould be representet in AEWWII. But they could be twisted into a wierd unit together with OORD skinwalker, wendigo and the medicin man.

[CmdrKiley]

Stuff looks real good. I'd like to comment some more but as a playtester privy to the official USMC army list, I really can't say.

I'm going to have to prod Rob & Chris some more about releasing a sneak preview of the USMC list like the IJA one again.

[TrueRonin]

@ CmdrKiley. Aside from the playtesting part, couldn't you give your personal opinion on the contents of the list, without refering to the official rules coming (later this year maybe?)?

@topic. I like the changes you've made, but I would still like to see you implement the veteran squad somehow? Here is what I had in mind...

Guadalcanal Veterans

Any one USMC Infantry, Specialist or Heavy Weapons choice including Individuals, may be upgraded to Guadalcanal Veterans. Adding +1 RC, +1 CC, +1 DR to their statline. They're moved one slot up and will occupy the next higher tier than before. These die-hard Veterans are so well respected and battlehardended that they serve as an inspiration to all their comrades in arms, so aside from the selections normal special rules, including Semper-Fi and Acclimated (X), they also gain the Inspiring Prescence special rule. Any other special rules they may have had, as well as equipment choices and selections remain as they were.

The above can also be used as a hero template, so in effect you'll be able to upgrade two choices.

[CmdrKiley]

You're right TrueRonin, let's see what I can comment on. Besides it looks like you guys have been thinking this thing through. I'm always glad to see some passion for the game and some good ideas brought up.

I like Semper Fi, it's fits the background, and it works. Overall a good idea and a pretty original approach.

The 3 man Green/Regular team having an RC of 5+ is pretty much standard practice for all factions. Where a 2 man Regular Veteran Team usually has an RC 4+. Having a 3 man Green team with an RC of 4+ seems a bit unbalancing. You can't just drop the Green selections from army list as you will need to them to build some Detachments.

I'd suggest keep the 3 man team with an RC of 5+ and just simply call them Marine Recruits or Marine Replacements. The 2 man team with an RC of 4+ would simply be Marines then.

Adding Acclimated is a nice idea, however I'd suggest that it be changed to Acclimated (X), to cover different battlefield environments between the desert related units from Basra 1946 and the PTO units. Even though the Battlefield effects may be the same, this would differentiate between units acclimated to desert conditions (high temperatures with no humidity) and tropic conditions (high temperatures with high humidity). Thus PTO units with Acclimated (Tropics) would function no differently than a non-acclimated unit if put into a setting out in the desert fighting against say KODAT or Arab League units. Same goes for Acclimated units from Basra 1946, they would then be defined as Acclimated (Desert) and enjoy this advantage if they found themselves fighting in the Pacific.

Nice idea with the Corpsman having a pistol, and only shooting at models that have attacked him. Technically he could still shoot his weapon with Pacifist rule and no other need for a special rule as the Pacifist rule says he can't shoot at a human model. Thus if you arm a Corpsman, he could still shoot at non-human weird units or engage in Suppression fire (perhaps an M1 Carbine would be a better choice if you simply stick with the Pacifist role). With the short range of the pistol, I really don't see it being very effective against units with rifles. With a system that doesn't have an Overwatch mechanic, they aren't every effective against warding off bayonet charges either. With the Move & Shoot rule for the pistol, I've generally seen used in more offensive actions than defensive, which really doesn't fit the role of the medic very well.

The Early Warning on the K-9. You might want to consider a range from the dogs that enemy units may not Infiltrate or Hidden Deployment within. This sort of creates a strategy in placement of the unit, gives you a reason to place the K-9 unit to protect a spot, and gives the IJA player a chance (otherwise he'll never bother fieldign those sneaky units, if he knows the Marine player will be fielding a K-9 unit.

Now keep in mind when you are statting these units out that there should be some balance between these Marines and other existing units. If this was a point based system, it would be easy as the added attributes would simply raise the value of the unit and thus restrict you from fielding as many units in a point controlled game. For a point-less system it becomes more difficult and you generally have to either balance the unit (the easy approach) or to tweak the army list (the harder to quantify approach). I usually like to build a spreadsheet and list all existing units and compare them at once.

Right now looking at these Marine proposals, I'd say to myself why would I ever want to take a US Army detachment when the Marines look so much better? So there needs to be some sort of trade-off to balance the Marines against other factions. Right now a Marine looks like an Airborne with Semper Fi and thus has more bang for the buck.

Look into some other trade-offs:
- less weapons available
- reduce some other stat
- less models in a unit (consider 1 dog in the K-9 unit if you have Early Warning)
- add an inferior weapon (weren't Marines notorious for getting stuff after the Army?) Perhaps some units start out with Springfields and need a trade-off to upgrade to a Garand or something.
- some other special rule that restricts or inhibits them (i.e. Every Man Counts, Reluctant, Vulnerable (x), etc.)

[CmdrKiley]

Another suggestion is to consult the AE-Bounty rulebook. It has lots of special rules, many of which are derived from AE-WWII, in a gereric format and broken down to a selection for balance purposes.

[jonasjuhlin]

Wonderful feedback.
I have altert the list to include some new changes such as what kind of detachments the marines can take.
I have added two units called Guadalcanal veterans and Guadalcanal heavy weapon veterans. These are a mirror of the US Army Airborne except that the “canal vets” have the semper fi rule AND every man counts rule. So it will hurt more when a “Guadalcanal veteran” is KIA as opposed to a marine recruit in the fire teams.
The K9 squads are now down to one dog only. The dog have a 16” “smell radius”
The USMC raiders have been upgraded to veteran infantry. Some of their stats have been increased.
The good question remains. Why would I take a US army detachment when I can have a USMC detachment?

Well the USMC infantry is mostly better than their army cousins. The USMC fire teams and heavy weapons are both better than the GIs. The “canal vets”, the NCO and the officer all have the semper fi and every man counts rules. So this should make them different, but only a bit better than the US army.

The real weakness is: The Marines cannot take tesla weapon teams.
The Marines cannot take cavalry or motorist infantry detachments.

The marine tank detachment is inferior to the army. A M4 Sherman is now considered a heavy tank for selection purpose. A M5 Stuart tank is a medium selection and LVTs are light tank selections

[TrueRonin]

And... More importantly, the USMC are not a part of the European/African theatre of War.

[CmdrKiley]

True but they should balance out against all factions.

In the playtesting I was involved with on the IJA we played them against not only US Army but British, Soviet, Wehrmacht, SD, SS and even ROA forces.

Besides this is Weird War II, remember the end of the Basra 1946 fluff where the Japanese had arrived in Iraq.

As for the lack of ARPA units and a weaker armor selection. That might not be enough balance as only as it really only affects a few detachments. In more commonly used Detachments, like Infantry or Veteran, the USMC would rule (and I'm sure Marines would be proud of that) but you need to balance history with gameplay and I'll tell you it is a challenge with a point-less game mechanic.

I'm curious to see what you guys come up with for USMC weird units.

[jonasjuhlin]

We just had another playtest of the list. We decided to add "every man counts" to all marine units. We also added demoralizing loss to the gunnery sergeant and the officers.

I have updated the list.

the Marines are still hard hitting, but we feel they are more even now. anyway we had a good game.

as for wierd units we have few ideas right know.

I´m looking forward to the official list, very much. I´d love to see how the darkson team have done it.