Space Marine Melee Resist

[Lt. Ekul]

I wasn't sure whether or not to put this in Balance or General discussion, so I thought I'd pick the safe option and go with General. Why do Tactical Marines and Scouts get melee resistance? Can someone please explain why they get this, because I can't really see why they should. I guess a case can be made for Tactical Marines getting it, although I disagree with the fact that they do, but I really can't see why Scouts should.

[Torpid]

Because scouts are meant to counter melee. Remember SM get no melee of their own. Yes, scouts have higher speed than melee units but between melee charges, pathing and the increased micro needed to micro ranged units vs melee units melee units will nonetheless get some hits off. Scouts have pitiful hp (which makes them easily countered by ranged units, especially considering their cost) so to ensure they are still countered by ranged but not too easily killed by melee they have the resist.

Tacs get it because they're tacs. Not only is it fluffy that they can somewhat hold their own in melee (even without combat knifes), but they do cost around twice as much as other ranged squads and they don't have any mobility bonuses to compensate for that. This means tacs will generally be relied upon to be about twice as powerful as any other squad with similar investment. However, as it is in many games, numbers present a large advantage in this game. Not only does it mean you have two squads worth of capping power, but it also means you have more models that can proc specials, it also makes kiting easier and it also means you can use one squad to tie up the opposition while you follow up with fire from the other squad.

That's why tacs capture faster and have melee resist I think. They need something to compensate for the lack of those advantages and when you add in their lack of bleed it works out. Them having melee resistance means they aren't instantly forced off by a melee squad that costs half the price of them and rightly so too, while nevertheless they're not absolutely indomitable vs ranged squads, although, of course, they're pretty good against them too due to their HI armour.

[Lt. Ekul]

Thank you for posting a sensible answer to my relatively rantish question

[Barrogh]

Was interesting read really. I didn't even know that scouts get melee resistance, probably because they melt quite fast still, thanks to 420 hp.

[Myrdal]

I didn't even know that scouts get melee resistance, probably because they melt quite fast still, thanks to 420 hp.

I think Torpid explained it very well in his response.

[Barrogh]

I didn't even know that scouts get melee resistance, probably because they melt quite fast still, thanks to 420 hp.

I think Torpid explained it very well in his response.

Indeed.

[Asmon]

I think you forgot that Caeltos removed melee resistance for vanilla scouts. They get it back only when shotguns are purchased.

[Dark Riku]

I think you forgot that Caeltos removed melee resistance for vanilla scouts. They get it back only when shotguns are purchased.

What? No he didn't. They have MS 60 while they had MS 71 standard before.
They now get +11 MS when upgraded to shotguns.