Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Space Marines

From 1d4chan

WE ARE THE SPEHSS MAHREENS! WE ARE THE EMPRA'S FUREH!

Why Play Space Marines

Why AREN'T you playing them?

In all seriousness, Space Marines are perhaps the best army for beginners. Their units are fairly expensive points-wise, so they can't field as many units as most other armies. While you can't bog down your foes in waves of men, this makes army construction cheaper and painting faster. Additionally, Space Marines are dead 'ard; their basic troops have Toughness 4 and a 3+ armor save (except for the Scouts), giving them great staying power against most basic infantry of other armies. They're also very forgiving in whatever role they're put in; Marines are good shots, and they're not half bad in an assault, either.

Space Marine tanks, on the other hand, while not as robust or as powerful as those of the Imperial Guard's, are dirt-cheap and reliable. Tanks aside, they have Dreadnoughts; while not quite as good at shooting as a tank, Dreadnoughts are cheaper and a smaller target than a tank and are far better in close combat(unless you are one of those bastards who has cheating good luck with tank shocking...), able to take on heroes, units and other tanks and come out on top.

Other benefits include:

  • eBay-ability. Space marines are the most commonly auctioned off army. This makes starting out with them "second hand" cheap (by Warhammer standards...)
  • Easy to paint. The broad, flat areas (legs, shoulders) and defined ridges make painting straight-forward and simple. Little is easier to paint than a space marine. They even drybrush well for the "Lazy painter" who just wants a force finished on the table ASAP.
  • Quick to build, easy to convert. Space marines have the greatest range of bitz available to any army in any game. Not just from Games Workshop, there are several companies out there that make GW-Marine conversion bitz. Almost everyone who plays 40k has some space marine bitz sitting around, and they're almost all plastic, so you can easily make a force that's really "you".
  • Easy for beginners. Your basic troop can take a bit of abuse, as such, they army is relatively forgiving of "newb" mistakes, and you aren't horribly FUBAR because of a single poorly-thought out move. Very little in the codex is "dead weight" so almost any unit purchased will be a welcome addition to your growing force.
  • Rewarding for experts. Space marines are an army that you can really grow with. Once you learn how to shuffle your metal boxes around, and get the gist of the game, a closer examination of the space marine codex reveals a wealth and depth of available army builds and tactics unrivaled in the current 40k codices.

Unit Analysis

HQ Units

  • Chapter Master - Not that great of a HQ, mainly due to being near identical with the Captain. 25 points more for the Orbital Bombardment ability, which all in all is a nice ability, but relatively hard to use on such a unit that needs to stay mobile. Can also get Honor Guards.
  • Honour Guards - Not worth it in my opinion, extremely costly. Hard to kill due to artificer armor, but you're probably better off getting assault terminators. Their only real advantage over Assault Terminators is their ability to cram into vehicles Terminators cannot, most notably drop pods. If, however, you want a squad that can truly shred through opponents in close combat, this can do the job, consider the other H2H units in the Space Marine codex, you have the Assault squad, which can get some good strength attacks into the fray, but cannot face most other pure H2H units. Then there are the Close Combat Terminators, they can annihilate squads by the bucketload, but like a sledgehammer, once they lose their momentum they can be hard to get moving again, and thanks to their low initiative, are dangerously vulnerable to fast power weapon armed foes. Honour guard squads, however, give phenomenal offensive abilities, while maintaining initiative and speed, and good resilience thanks to their artificer armour. If you ever play an apocalypse game, take one of these with Calgar, a chapter banner (+1 attack to every man in squad), and attach Chaplain Cassius. So basically every honour guard strikes at initiative 4, re-rolls to hit, and each get 4 attacks on the charge (5 for the champion), with power weapons. So cram Calgar, Cassius and 10 honour guard into a Crusader, and roll toward the enemy battle lines as quickly as possible. So when they attack they get a grand total of 52 (!!!!!!1111!!!!ONE) re-roll to hit, power weapon attacks, 7 from Calgar, 4 from Cassius, 5 from Chapter Champion, and 4 from each of the nine Honour Guards.
  • Captain - The main reason to take the Space Marine Captain is if you wish to field a Biker army. Costing the same as a Chaplain or Librarian while having a better statline, while not offering the same general-purpose utility that the latter option does (be it through Null Zone, and providing a Psychic Hood), by himself he isn't too appealing character. However, Biker Marines are a very nasty build so it is worth taking a Captain for allowing Bikers as troops. Relic Blade, Combi-melta and Storm Shield are about the only good weapon options, and all of the misc wargear (Hellfire rounds, melta-bombs, digital weapons) is okay, but don't go overboard on these.
  • Command Squad - Pretty nice and versatile squad. Apothecary gives them feel no pain, and makes them pretty tough to kill, and definitely cheaper than the honour guard. Fits excellent in a Razorback or drop pod, and can be equipped with both a variety of melee and ranged weaponry, so they're great if you like to have versatile squads. Take care, however, or they could quickly out-price even Honor guard squads. Sure, 5 blokes on bikes with Plasmaguns and Storm Shields might seem cool, but the cost is staggering. Really, the best, smallest upgrade is giving the company champion a storm shield, firstly, he looks like a medieval knight, secondly, any incoming AP3 attacks can be shifted to him to try and keep your squad alive longer. Mounted on bikes, they become the hard-hitting unit of your biker army, but are already costly as they are, so weigh your upgrades carefully.
  • Librarian - THE Space Marine HQ, goes excellent with ranged focused tactical squads in rhinos, or ranged terminator squads. Unlike the Captain and the Chaplain, he normally has no Invulnerable save, but he can take Terminator Armor, giving a 5+ Invuln, which can be upgraded to 3+ with a Storm Shield. This is extremely useful; Not only are Librarians priority targets, but a 3+ save will be far more likely to save you from Perils of the Warp than a 5+ will. Both Smite and Avenger are great ranged powers, Vortex of Doom is nasty but very dangerous to use and can only be effectively used by a Terminator librarian. The real "Tactical Gold" from this character comes from his two great support powers, First, "Null Zone" which forces your opponent to re-roll any successful invulnerable saves within 24" of the Librarian. This is excellent against Eldar, other Assault Terminators, and Daemon armies (if anyone actually plays those anymore). Second, "The Gate of Infinity" Which allows you to pick the Librarian's squad off the table (Even when they're in combat, or inside a transport, read White Dwarf folks) and deep-strike it back onto the table within 24". Great to abuse with locator beacons, and allows an otherwise slow unit a good deal of unexpected mobility. With the recent FAQ, you can even split in combat squads when arriving from the Gate.
  • Chaplain - A must to go with assault marines or bikers, his melee boosting abilities is quite helpful, and he's not bad himself. If you're not putting him on a bike or a jump pack though take Ortan Cassius instead as the cost difference is nil.
  • Master of the Forge - Most often an oversighted, but pretty decent HQ. While he lacks an invulnerable save, he shouldn't go with anything that can be threatened with CC, and he works best as a shooting HQ. Conversion Beamer is nice for a home scoring unit or a biker unit (bikes being Relentless by default). Utimately, his usefulness is in his FoC moving ability, which allows you to field Riflemen Dreadnoughts as Heavy Support, which is beyond nice as it frees up your excellent Elites slots. He is good, but you must build your list around him.
  • Damocles Rhino (Forgeworld) Yes, a HQ vehicle! At only 60 points it is the cheapest space marine HQ option (but most expensive in terms of real money). Armed with nothing but a storm bolter and a searchlight for defence, with no transport capacity, it may not seem like an obvious choice. BUT, the Damocles true power lies in it's incredible support abilities, it allows a single Orbital bombardment in the same way as a chapter master, lets all deep striking units re-roll the scatter dice, and allows a single reserve roll to be re-rolled a turn. In a deep strike heavy army (terminators and such-like) the Damocles is one of the best choices you can make for your HQ slot.

Space Marine players also have access to a variety of special characters, most of which change how the whole army works. They're all fairly expensive, and, as such, should be viewed as force multipliers rather than stand-alone units.

  • Marneus Augustus Calgar - Aka "Big Papa Smurf", is the most expensive character in the codex, and also the most powerful in hand-to-hand. He's a Chapter Master with double power-fists, an AP 2 storm bolter , Eternal Warrior, and the ability to re-roll all failed "to wound" rolls. His main power is "God of War" which lets him, and all units in his army, CHOOSE to pass or fail ANY morale check they take. He can also swap-out his power armour for Terminator armor (allowing him to deepstrike) and even gets a free teleport homer if he does so. He also has a power sword, you know, in case you don't want to hit at Initiative 1, but nobody ever uses it. He also has the most useless rule that lets him take 3 Honour Guard units which is pointless outside of Apocalypse games because no one has that many spare points lying around and even in Apocalypse why not simply take more Chapter Masters? If you've noticed, pretty much his entire arsenal makes a mockery out of armor saves, even his ranged weapons. Still, the Papa is horribly expensive for what he does
  • Cato Sicarius - A very expensive Captain. He allows one *tactical* squad to take a single skill, gives you a re-roll on the seize the initiative roll, and, most importantly, lets every one of your marines on the table use his impressive LD of 10 as long as he's on the board. Cato is pretty much average in hand-to-hand combat. Being a bit tougher than most Space Marine characters (2+ armor, Feel No Pain) and having the option to make a single attack that causes Instant-death. But other than that, he's just got 4 power-weapon attacks. He's got a nice laundry list of utility, great durability, and fair combat prowess, though it comes at a fairly high price. He also has the benefit of being the Captain of the 2nd Company so 99% of Smurf players are already using his Company Heraldry on their models and therefore he should be taken in all Ultramarine armies, unless its one of the 3 Ultramarine armies that isn't 2nd Company. Btw, his loadout is the default loadout for 4th Edition Captains, so he is somewhat nostalgic.
  • Varro Tigurius - Special character Librarian. Very expensive, knows every power, and can use three a turn. Perhaps his greatest strength is that he allows you to re-roll any and all of your reserves rolls, helping you get what you want, when you want it. His greatest weakness is his complete and total lack of an Invulnerable save his need to cast Force Dome every turn, its the reason why he gets to use an extra psychic power a turn, therefore he must absolutely be squadded kept away from anti-psychic units that can block the casting of Force Dome and leave him vulnerable for another unit to finish off. But, the only power you really need is the Null Zone, and Tigurius is more expensive than two Librarians.
  • Ortan Cassius - Special character Chaplain. He's pretty much a normal, power-armored Chaplain, but at T6 with feel no pain and a master-crafted combi-flamer that always wounds on a 2+. If you're planning on taking a Chaplain in power armor (or even terminator armor), it might as well be this guy, he's only slightly more expensive than a stock Chaplain, and a lot more survivable.
  • Pedro Kantor - One of the most reasonably priced characters in the codex, Pedro Kantor is a Chapter Master, with a Power Fist, 4 shot AP4 Storm Bolter and a few special rules. The first replaces your army's "Chapter Tactics" rule with the Stubborn Universal special rule (bad, as you can't fall back from combat). The second makes all Sternguard Veterans scoring units (not Troops; pretty useless as you should contest enemy objectives, not hold them, and you do have your Tacticals for scoring duty). The third gives all friendly units within 12" of Pedro +1 Attack (You shouldn't be in it in the first place). He's one of the most commonly used special characters, and a total badass to boot. His boost to Sternguard squads has some synergy with Lysander, but using him with Darnath overweights your HQ significantly. In the end, he makes a shooting army more killy in CC, which is totally meh.
  • Darnath Lysander - One of the toughest kids on the block. Lysander is a Space Marine Captain, but has Eternal Warrior, 4 wounds, Terminator armor, a Storm Shield and a S10 Thunder Hammer (that adds +1 to vehicle damage rolls!). He also replaces your army's "Chapter Tactics" with Stubborn. Additionally, any unit Lysander joins gets to re-roll all failed "to hit" rolls when firing any bolt weapons (Boltguns, bolt pistols, storm bolters, heavy bolters). Lysander doesn't commonly find his way into competitive lists due to his high cost, and schizophrenic rules (he amplifies shooting, but is a pure h2h character). However, he's nigh-impossible to kill and brilliant for popping vehicles and monstrous creatures alike, if you can get him within range. Good setup is Lysander with 10 Sternguard packing Combi-Meltas/-Flamers and Powerfist on the Sarge in a Drop Pod with a locator beacon. Drop it next to any unit or model in the game and remove it, excluding that stupid Tyranid Apocalypse Blob, Flyers and Titans. Lysander lets you reroll the Vengeance rounds and unless there is a surviving melee monster like the Swarmlord or a blingthirster (which should be dead because you're supposed to kill them first), your opponent will either a) pull everything back and shoot the unit, fail to kill Lysander and the Sarge, force a Morale Check on Ld 10 Space Marines, ignoring the pod that will call down more Deep Striking shit into the center of his deployment zone and ignoring the rest of your army while it advances. Or b) push everything into the unit in vain hopes of killing it before it can shoot again, this normally wipes the Sternguard or tarpits it for the rest of the game, except you have Lysander and a powerfist so what ever assaults it will take some serious wounds. If they kill the assaulting unit or survive the firestom, you have successfully placed Lysander in their deployment zone, setup a forward position to safely Deepstrike Assault Terminators, shooty Terminators, more Drop Pods of Sternguard and even allows your Vanguard Veterans to actually use their special rule, eliminated 1-2 units, 1 of which is guaranteed to have been important and its still only the first turn. This has lots of Synergy with Pedro Kantor.
  • Kayvaan Shrike - A Space Marine Captain with a Jump Pack, and two Master-Crafted Lightning Claws (which also have Rending, so he won't be stuck fighting a Dreadnought). Shrike replaces "Chapter Tactics" with fleet of foot (Great for FLEETING ASSAULT TERMINATORS OH MOTHER OF CHRIST) and allows any one squad he joins to infiltrate or outflank. A captain with the same wargear (and artificer armor) costs less, so you must carefully consider how valuable the special rules he lends are.
    • NOTE: Shrike has a Jump Pack but a Command Squad cannot take Jump Packs, either put him in an Assault Squad for mediocrity or a Vanguard Squad for Awesome But Impracticality.
  • Vulkan He'Stan - Possibly the most common special character, Vulkan has the same stat-line as a Captain (while not actually *being* a Captain, and, as such, not having access to a Command Squad). Vulkan is tricked out for up-close-and-dirty face-bashing with essentially the best gear possible (Artificer armor, 3+ Invulnerable Save, Master-crafted Relic Blade, and a Heavy Flamer). He replaces the "Chapter Tactics" rule with one that causes ALL your flamers, heavy flamers, and melta-weapons to become twin-linked, and all your Thunder Hammers to become master-crafted. This, obviously, makes a Space Marine army far deadlier at close-range fire-fights, which is why he's so popular. Taking him results in a chain reaction — he is only worth it if you really focus on all these weapons, which are short-ranged. Being short-ranged, and stripped of Combat Tactics, means your army is open to assault, thus you need combat units (read: Assault Terminators) yourself to defend. So, Vulkan drastically changes the way you approach list building. Do not forget that. Also take note that his rule doesn't apply to the Redeemer's sponson weapons.
  • Kor'Sarro Khan - This crazy Mongol replaces "Chapter Tactics" by giving every squad and dedicated transport outflank, allowing them to come in from the side of the table; additionally, the squad he joins gains Furious Charge and Hit and Run, meaning he can make a Bike Command Squad even deadlier than it was beforehand. Other than that, he's an average Captain (who can be upgraded to ride a bike) whose power weapon just so happens to cause Instant Death on a roll of 6. He's a situational character; the loss of Combat Tactics in a Biker Army in exchange for Outflanking is problematic, but the ability to make a Bike Command Squad deadlier than it was beforehand helps provide a hammer that many Bike armies do not have. At higher point-levels, he teams up well with Vulkan for this reason. Outflanking is also a gamble if you take Kor'Sarro Khan in a No Bikes Mech army, screwing up the outflank rolls can put all your scoring units on one side and anti-tank fire will make them all footslog. But goddammit, an outflanking FC/HaR Assault Terminators in a Land Raider? Hell yeah.

Troops

  • Tactical Squad - Your scoring units. Take two full squads and move on. Remember to combat squad every time it's possible, as it nets you 4 scoring units instead of 2. Buy them a Rhino, split into a fire support/home scoring squad with a heavy weapon (usually ML) and a melta-hunter squad with a combi-melta on Sarge and a meltagun, load the meltagunners into Rhino and roll forward. Or, as an alternative, outfit them with a flamer/MM/CbM and form a scoring "meltabunker" with your MM combat squad, as on your 2nd turn you will be able to slag any vehicle that comes within 12" of your Rhino, and threaten light vehicles within 24", which is huge as it makes your opponent think twice. They are generally bad at what they do, since they lack focus, but that's also their strong side as they are able to operate independently from your other army, plonking shots with a lascannon from behind, melting tanks on the frontline or double-tapping boltguns into light infantry. A solid unit, though overcosted (a full squad with all bling costs around 200 pts). Combat Tactics is an ofter overlooked ability, but it allows them to break off close combats while still being able to shoot when falling back.On a good roll the enemy won't catch you.
    • Important side note, if you plan to assault with these men remember they all have Bolt pistols, meaning you can unleash 10 bolts while still being able to assault. Generally, though, you shouldn't assault with Tacticals, but shoot the incoming enemy and fall back on the first morele check.
  • Scout Squad - As bad as Tacs, but worse, since they don't bring the special weapons of Tacs, are worse at fighting, and are less durable. But nevertheless they make a decent disruption unit, when outfitted with Camo Cloaks and Sniper Rifles. Don't expect them to do anything beyond scoring a couple of glaces or taking off 1-2 wounds off an MC, though. Unless you are versusing Guard and Tyranids, that is, then you may expect to pin the poor sobs down. Also note that they're fairly good at CCing support units (Devastators, Lootas etc.) with their knives and rifle buttocks. Remember to combat squad, as not every army can remove two T4 3+ cover scoring squads quickly. All in all, not really worth it.
    • One of the classic Scout-Combos occurs when taking either a Master Of the Forge, or the Special Character Lysander, as your HQ, or a Techmarine in the elite slot, or a Thunderfire Cannon. Give your scouts Camo Cloaks, put them into a ruin that you "fortify" with the aforementioned HQ's special power, and enjoy a 2+ cover save. Like anybody would care, really.
    • A second is the "Scout Missile" in which a small suicide squad of scouts (often with a PowerFist and/or melta bomb) is placed in a Land Speeder Storm and tasked with turn 1 assassination of a vital target (Such as a high-cost Tank, vulnerable shooting unit etc). Useful for beating noobs, good players can and will prevent your scouts from doing anything.
    • A Final tactic worth mentioning is the "Shrike Stampede" in which the special character "Shrike" is used to give your army Fleet of Foot. You then load up on scouts armed for hand-to-hand combat, Infiltrate as close as possible to the enemy (18") take your 6" scout move, and on turn one, scream "kekekezergrush" while charging in and hoping for the best. Not actually a good tactic, but fun, and catches some people off guard.
    • Torias Telion - An upgrade to a Scout Sergeant, Telion gives you a rending, pinning, sniper-boltgun that you get to allocate the wounds from. He can also forfeit his shooting (aww) to allow one model in his squad to shoot at BS 6 (say, a scout with a missile launcher; not a good thing to do). Useful for putting pressure on your opponent and picking off specialists, which he will at least once in a game. (Problem, hidden powerfists?). Pricey, so consider your points. Also worth noting that he gives free Stealth to his unit.

Dedicated Transports

  • Rhinos - Very cheap and good transport since space marines are KNOWN TO HIDE IN MEHTAL BAWKSES, DA KOWARDZ! TEH FEWLZ!. There's not much to say about it, use it and don't footslog your marines. A walking marine is a dead marine. And dead men hold no objectives. Upgrades are not recommended, as Rhinos are expendable (the only viable ones are Dozer Blade and multiple Hunter-killers in an army). Once the guys are out of it, you can basically throw it away in petty dick moves like preventing charges, blocking line of sight, and tank shocking people into tight formation to be hit with flamers, more useful for shielding your own guys as it's side armour is 11, as opposed to the 10 most transports have (*cough* Chimera *cough*) so str 4 weapons (standard infantry power) can't penetrate it. You can also use its speed to dick around with Necrons if you feel like trolling them and don't really care about winning.
  • Razorback - The Razorback is a basically a Rhino but you can fit heavier guns on it including anti-tank weapons and of course more expensive than a standard Metal box. It fits with certain squads, but I would advice against it for your tacticals. It's can also be very costly to put any good weapons on it, especially considering how fragile it is. One of the most popular configurations is to give it a Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasma Gun. Can be used to bring in a combat squad of 5 SM with flamer/melta up close, and keep the other 5 behind with a heavy weapon. The largest problem is that you want to get things up to the enemy, and hardly have time to fire when moving flat out. The "stock razorback" isn't a horrible choice in hueg numbers. If you're not planning on putting the whole squad in the rhino (or if it's a small squad to begin with) why not pay the 5 points and get a Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter out of the deal? (Not like it will change anything, but MOAR DAKKA is good) Another tactic is to use the Razorback to transport a 5 man Devastator squad to a good position, then augment their fire-power with its heavy weapon, and because the weapon can be easily changed, the razorback can usefully assist anti infantry or anti armour Devastators.
  • Drop Pod - Also great, mainly because of it's ability to deep strike in the most useful position. Another great reason is the ability to avoid impossible terrain and models, thereby avoiding deep strike mishaps. Excellent tool to hunt tanks with squads of melta, or drop down a dreadnought where they least expect it. These transports suffer from the "Half on turn 1, half... later" rule common to deep-striking forces nowadays (bring an odd number of them if you bring more than one, because the "half" is rounded up.). However, even a single Drop Pod is a major psychological tool. A Deep-striking Dreadnought is almost guaranteed to change how your opponent deploys. Consider this carefully.
    • - Also note that the drop pod is one of two units able to take a Locator Beacon.

Elites

  • Terminator Squad - It's terminators, what's not to like about them? Expensive, but good. The regular terminators are best teleported in, but it depends on your enemies composition. If he has no AP2 or AP1 weaponry, footslogging them can be good, especially if you have an assault cannon or cyclone. If the enemy does have heavy weapons, it's best to deep strike them, and hope you can eliminate that weapon before that, or put them out of harms way. Can also go in a Land Raider, but I think it's a waste on normal terminators.
  • Assault Terminators - Is where you want a Land Raider at. They should absolutely not be footslogged if at all can be avoidable. Always keep a majority of them with thunder hammers, a composition of perhaps 4 thunderhammers and 2 lightning claws are the best, to get that 3+ Invulnerable save if he brings out anything big and nasty. These guys attract a LOT of firepower (i.e. all of it) so keeping them alive can be difficult. They wreck just about anything in the game. Be aware of anything that ignores both armor and invulnerable saves (Tyranid Swarm Lord, Necron's War Scythe etc) As that will ruin this expensive squad's day nothing does this anymore, so just watch out for shit that makes you reroll invul saves. Also, make sure you aren't tar-pitted (Nurgling etc). An interesting option is Kayvann Shrike allows all units to trade Combat Tactics for Fleet! Assault Termies have Combat Tactics, so suddenly your footslogging Assault Terminators are fleet, and become an incredibly dangerous unit, Shrike is expensive however.
    • As cool as they are, remember that they're expensive. Quite expensive. Like, A ready-for-battle-in-a-raider-squad will cost you 450+ points. Is that the best use of 450+ points? Choose carefully...
    • Also remember that a Land Raider is not 100% mandatory. If you want their Close Combat ability, but shrink at the price, consider putting a teleport homer or two in your list. It allows them a "Kinda safe" means of entering play that doesn't cost more points than the squad itself. Just be sure you have enough storm shields in the squad to cover your ass!
  • Sternguard Veterans - Expensive 25 points models, but a very versatile ranged squad. Give combi-weapons to as many of them as you can, they're only five points and still let them use their special ammo for the boltgun. If you are fond of having a good ranged unit that can deal with almost any threat, bring in a squad of these in either a rhino or a razorback. 6 of them is not too big of a number, and can go around with a razorback and deploy at cover or good attack positions, and give the razorback some time to fire as well. They also have access to a mix of two special/heavy weapons. If you take Pedro Kantor, they're scoring units (NOT troops, you still need to take tacticals) which allows you for some good ol' 4th edition style Las/Plas teams... but at too high a cost to be worth it. Another thing to be aware of is that although a storm bolter looks like a good upgrade, apparently you can't use their special ammo with it, which is TOTAL BULLSHIT, but them's the breaks.

Oh and don't forget Sternies get base 2 attack, not alot of opponents know this so when they get 3A on the charge or 2A when defending some players are little surprised.

  • Dreadnought - Another versatile unit. The charm about dreads is that they pack quite a lot of firepower, and melee power. They might not be the meanest killers in the field, but they can crush almost every vehicle in the game, and can tie up hordes of enemies without even being scratched. In my opinion, Assault Cannon is the best ranged and most point-worth ranged weapon for them. Also goes well in drop pods with multimelta and/or heavy flamer(s).
  • Ironclad Dreadnought - The ultimate melee dread. Tough as nail with his 13/13/10 armour, and will tear your enemy a new one up close. Even better to use in as a close-threat in a drop-pod than the normal dread due to his increased durability.
  • Venerable Dreadnought - Grandpa Dread has high BS and WS and will do a good job, and his reroll to the damage table can save him more times than not. He is however 60 points more expensive than a normal dread, and doesn't pack that much more *oomf*. One of these is nice if you like reliable vehicles. His special rule can be quite fun to use. "Using the rule. Reroll. What's that, you rolled a 1? That's too bad." - Add a Techmarine and it becomes the second hardest vehicle to break in the game, the hardest being the Grey Knight version because they can nullify the Crew Shaken result. Also he can take two pairs of twin-linked auto cannons thats 4 BS5 S7 AP4 rounds with reroll each turn, ruins melee capability but can shred even medium armoured infantry very easily (e.g tau firewarriors4+, most eldar infantry, all guard infantry etc.)
  • Siege Dreadnought (Forgeworld): An interesting, somewhat cost effective alternative to the Ironclad, albeit not as heavily armoured. Has an inferno cannon with (which can be replaced with a multi-melta for free) and an assault drill with a built in heavy flamer. Can also mount two hellstrike missiles just like an Ironclad, but the standout feature is that assault drill: +D6 for armour pen rolls on bunkers, fortifications, buildings and motionless vehicles. Then you get to take a free heavy flamer shot against anyone inside.
  • Techmarine - Sadly, not that many people use it. There can be a point to bring a techmarine and some servitors if you have a mech heavy list, but most cases than not, he won't see any action, as he can't really keep up with vehicles, is pretty vulnerable to incoming fire, and often more expensive than he's worth. On the other hand, he cranks out ten shitloads of melee attacks and can add a lot of fire to an offensive (quite literally, with flamer loads). Kit him out, get him near a tarpit, and watch it vanish like magic.
    • Run a Techmarine alongside a Venerable Dreadnought or two, despite their cost its retarded how much firepower it takes to down them and it psyches out most players when the only thing they can do is Crew Shaken results.
  • The Legion of the Damned - I've never seen anyone field these guys. Ever. They're fairly expensive, but come with a 3+ invulnerable save, and get to re-roll their deep-strike result if it's not to your liking. (handy). They're also "Slow and Purposeful" (mixed blessing). They can take a meltagun + MultiMelta, deepstrike in, and fire away. Or take some other configuration of special/heavy weapon, but their high cost prevents you from fielding a large squad. Unfortunately, despite their 2 Attacks, their slow movement usually sees them bogged down in some pointless combat instead of hunting priority targets. Because of these downsides, most people find this role better served by Sternguard with combi-meltas in a drop pod.
    • Don't use them, just cross that part of the codex out with a marker. Its just a Tactical Squad that can't be mechanized and is hard to move off a point... oops it can't Score and it can barely move to contest a point. The Special/Heavy Weapon is crap, its stupidly overpriced and can be taken elsewhere. The Sarge can dual-wield Powerfists, so thats a 3+ Invulnerable, 4 WS5 S8 powerfist attacks on the charge but doing this on the basic squad means you're paying slightly more then a Terminator unit of either flavour. Easily the most useless unit in the entire 'dex, and also the only unit in the 'dex that can't be used in some sort of interesting or effective strategy.
  • Contemptor-Pattern Dreadnought (Forgeworld) - A more advanced dreadnought, with more weapons options, greater base strength, 13 12 10 armour, a weapon skill of 5 and a substantial points hike. Also comes with 'fleet' (VERY useful), and automatic shielding (5+ inv. against shooting, 6+ inv. against close combat, and +1" to explosion if it suffers a 'vehicle explodes' result). Adding an extra dreadnought CCW would be best to take full advantage of 'fleet', but a shooty dread may be good since at range it retains a 5+ inv. save, and because the Kheres Pattern assault cannon is murderlicious (it's an assault cannon that's assault fucking 6!). However, the better loadout is two dread CCW's (one of which may be a chainfist), because contemptors get access to some nifty built-in guns to their hands: there's your standard storm bolter and heavy flamer, plus a plasma blaster (assault 2 plasma gun with an 18" range) and the freaky-deaky graviton gun. This gat shoots an AP3 small blast that forces a strength test or die and makes the terrain it hit difficult; vehicles are auto-glanced. Oh, and you can give the contemptor BS5 to go with its WS5 for a small upgrade.

Fast Attack

  • Assault Squad - Great melee troop that can work both for deep striking or flying across the map. Not too expensive for what they do, with a special character and a decently equipped sergeant, these can go up against most things. They might not fare so well against super-melee squads, but their mobility helps them pick and chose, and dual-flamers even the odds against foes that would normally be far too numerous for them to consider taking on. Also if you can, give 'em melta bombs and see them ravage through enemy armor columns. Upgrade the Sergeant to give em' at least one guy with a power weapon.
  • Vanguard Veterans - Too expensive and unreliable. Their main ability is to charge after they deepstrike, but it's both dangerous, and they need to land very close to the enemy, making them prone for mishaps (especially as it only works with jump packs, not drop pods). Additionally, they can't take any characters along for the ride. Simply not worth it. For what a decently-equipped squad of 8-10 Vanguard cost, you could easily get 10 Assault Terminators. Or 5 and Most of a Land Raider. Which would you rather have? Of course, since their power is rubbish because they can't deepstrike close enough, a locator beacon is perhaps pretty good, first, drop pod an Ironclad dreadnought directly on top of an powerful enemy tank, the drop pod will scatter to right next to it, use the dread to tie up the tank, then with the locator you added to the pod, swoop in 5 Vanguard vets with melta bombs, then charge them straight into the tank and melt it into little peices (with 5 vets all with melta bombs, this will work on anything from warbuggy's to BANEBLADES!!!), once thats done, go hunting with your vets and the Ironclad.
  • Land Speeders - These little buggers are very fragile, but also very underrated. They come very cheap with a multimelta, and can bring a heavy flamer for infantry hunting. Deep striking, they are excellent tank or infantry hunters. Only problem is that they may not last very long after they get their shots off, but if they do, they can deal some real damage to the enemy. Can also work with the Typhoon Missile Launcher and keep far out of harms reach, raining missiles at shit. When tackling enemy armour with multi-melta's, use the land speeder's manoeuvrability to your advantage, put the target between the speeder and the rest of his army, and pray you destroy the vehicle in one salvo, WITHOUT blowing it up, with any luck, the burning wreck will keep your flimsy aluminium speeder out of the kill zone. Obviously, this means you take on flank vehicles, charging this into the centre of his army is useless...UNLESS, it's to kill a Leman Russ or something (an enemy's primary tank/threat) in a turn 1 suicide.
    • Vulkan He'Stan makes the land speeder into an overpowered vehicle unit that will always get some hurt in, spamming 9 of them with Vulkan is like Turkey Slapping your opponent.
  • Bike Squad - Another great fast attack choice, mostly used for stand-off shooting. Durable and fast, unfortunately, their cost keeps them from being too numerous, and they have a large "footprint". Tougher than normal tacticals in hand-to-hand, but no better at dishing out the hate, so they tend to get charged at some point, and stuck for the rest of the game. By default the bikers come in with a twin-linked bolter and you can attach a sergeant, you can also mount a melta-gun on one of them.
  • Attack Bike - Good and fast ranged focused bikes. Great for their two wounds, and heavy weapons. Can fit a variety of roles, from tank hunting to infantry harassing, but their low number of attacks, and inability to take a powerfist means they should be kept out of all but the most token of melee situations.
  • Scout Bike Squad - One of the most hated (By space marine players) units in the codex. Almost as expensive as normal bikes, but weedier (4+ save) and worse shots (BS 3). Can take Rapid Fire Grenade launchers, but they're expensive, and worse than the Melta/Flamer/Plasma normal bikes have access to, and their "Cluster Mines" are largely a joke. They have a few things going for them though:
    • Locator Beacons. They're one of two units that can take them, and the only unit that can both start on the board, and be mobile.
    • Infiltrate + Scout move. They can turbo-boost up within 12" of the enemy before the game actually starts. This, combined with a Locator Beacon, allows for tactical insertion of your drop pods and, if you should so fancy, a scout-missile.
  • Land Speeder Storm - This is an odd one, but I am inclined to think it can do some good with a scout squad. Very fast transport that can easily head for fragile targets, and launch a squad of shotgun equipped scouts to fire and assault. Only Dark Eldar has access to skimmers that are opened topped, for that extremely fast assault against vulnerable targets. See the "Scout Missile" in the troops section. For the speeder itself, the low BS of the scout crew (and the increased fragility of the speeder) means that it should be kept out of fire as much as possible, and exposing it to take shots is pretty much a death sentence, with low chance of return. As such, it should either be equipped with stock gun, or a heavy flamer (*possibly* a melta) to support its squad in a suicide role. Alternatively, fill it with some bolter armed scouts, and use it for drive by shootings....IIIIIN SPAAAAAAAACEEEE. Actually quite effective, as open-toppedness means all men can fire out of it, so it can rush within 12" of a light infanty squad, shred it with much bolter fire, then run away. Of course, try to keep this tactic away from heavy enemy infantry, as they will charge or shoot you to death the following turn.
  • Caestus Assault Ram (Forge World) - Craziest vehicle in the game, designed to ram things (hence the name), and accomplishes this by having a 5+ inv. save against attacks on the front (inc. rams, either from the enemy ramming you or you ramming them), re-rolls the armour penetration dice when ramming, and +1 to the vehicle damage roll, and fairly-impressive-for-a-skimmer armour of 13 13 11. Contains a twin-linked MAGNA-MELTA (WTF?), which is: range:18" str:8 AP:1 type:Heavy 1, large blast, melta. Sound fun, eh? Holds ten men, ideal for punching a hole in the enemy battle lines and disgorging troops, AND it's an assault vehicle, so straight into close combat (and no restriction against terminators, in fact, they only count as one man inside this, not two!). Now this means that the Caestus has to be fast, and it is! Its type is: fast, skimmer, and when going 'flat out', it moves 36" (!) instead of 24". Comes stock with extra armour, and Ceramite shielding (immunity to 'melta' rule). Options are: Firefury missile battery (range: 36" str:6 AP:4 type:Heavy 4, blast, twin-linked, one-use), Teleport homer, and Frag assault launchers. One should use the Caestus to ram straight through the strongest point in your enemies force, in most battles you'll be there on turn one, thanks to the 36" afterburner. Ram a tank with this (Generally given the colossal afterburner you'll give them a S10 hit) and then deploy the men inside (preferably dedicated H2H troops), and charge straight in against the nearest infantry, or if you feel like it, shove a grenade up a nearby tank's tailpipe.

Heavy Support

  • Predator - A unit that has, for the most part, fallen by the wayside. They serve two real purposes, Infantry killing, or Tank Hunting.
    • Infantry killing predators should be equipped with the default auto-cannon, and Heavy Bolter sponsors. It's dirt cheap (85pts) and can dakka pretty well. Other upgrades to consider are:
      • Extra Armor - keeps you mobile, keeps you from getting a grenade up your tailpipe.
      • Storm Bolter - for a couple extra anti-infantry shots.
    • Tank hunting Predators are a bit over-costed for the fire power they deliver. The "Cheap" configuration is auto-cannon turret with Lascannons in the sides. Optionally, you can upgrade the turret to Twin-Linked lascannons, but that starts getting pretty expensive. Because it needs to sit largely stationary to fire, and lascannons ain't what they used to be, most people have abandoned the las-pred in favor of melta-based tactics, if you really need some anti-vehicular firepower, the Land-Raider Terminus Ultra will do the job far more cost effectively by virtue of having twice as many las cannons, a lot more armor, all at a maneagable price increase and a risk of going kaboom.
  • Devastator Squad - These are your tactical marines. Except they don't score. And their heavy weapons cost more. Some special weapons costs so much as to be totally impractical (Lascannon most notably, but also the plasma cannon, the get's hot rule for the plasma cannon doesn't help either, especially when regular plasma guns get rapid fire while being cheaper, balancing out the template dropping) And the short range (and zero mobility) of the multi-melta will keep it out of all but Salamander lists unless for some insane reason your enemy's vehicles all have ridiculously short range (although the multimelta is pretty damned effective against monstrous creatures as it ignores armor saves). The most commonly used weapons here are Missile Launchers and Heavy Bolters. The first is somewhat versatile, able to threaten infantry and tanks both, while the second is better against troops, but neigh-upon worthless against tanks.
    • Don't forget the Sergeant! He can take combi-weapons for one turn of extra punch. Or can be given a Power Fist for when someone charges your poor, vulnerable shooting squad.
      • He also comes, stock, with a Signum. No one ever remembers to use it. +1BS to a single model in the squad can come in handy...
        • The Missile Launchers are very useful in smaller games (XXX<1,500) as it allows you to take care of the few vehicles on the table and focus on other things.
  • Vindicator - This guy has a big, scary gun. Hampered by its short range, this S10 AP2 pie-plate causes most people (especially other marine players) nightmares. It's bound to draw fire, lots and lots of fire, away from the rest of your army. If you're going to take one, take two, then you *might* actually get a chance to shoot it. Three of you're feeling gutsy.
    • Extra armour is a must. People go to great lengths to kill this guy, and keeping him alive and mobile is important. AV13 in the front is great for tank-shocking when your gun gets blown off.
      • Have a few mechanized units behind the Vindicator line, Las/Plas Razorbacks are the best, and hit the enemy lines fast and hard. Don't try to hold back or play finesse tactics, use the Vindicators to make a hole and then pile as much stuff into the gap in one turn.
  • Land Raider - The biggest metal box of all. Comes in eight flavors:
    • Classic (or Godhammer) pattern Land Raider - 2 sets of twin-linked lascannons and a twin-linked heavy bolter. Carries 12. You'd think its good for tank hunting. You'd be wrong. It's just too expensive for that. Land Raiders need to be transporting stuff, and running forward at great speeds. This Land Raider is a confused beast, best left alone. If you want a little bit more reasoning for why the classic Land Raider is comparatively useless, here's a bit more explanation. For the cost of having it on the table, this Land Raider needs to be able to do both of its roles effectively at the same time, but since transporting soldiers doesn't work well with standing up front and shooting too, there's no real way to make this one as effective as it needs to be. Power of the machine spirit allows an additional weapon to be fired at a different target theoretically (if your lucky) allowing you to move 6" and destroy two enemy tanks. this tactic works quite well with Antaro Chronus as his BS 5 makes this more likely.
    • Crusader - 2 sets of "Hurricane Bolters", 1 twin-linked Assault cannon. Carries 16(!) This was the old standby transport for terminators. Often with a multi-melta added (for popping shots at tanks) This carries up to 8 Terminators up close to the foe where they do their work. The Crusader WANTS to be up close, where its short-ranged, anti-infantry guns work wonders to support the squad it was escorting. Give it Extra Armor, nothing sucks more than a stunned Land Raider. This used to be the ultimate in Terminator delivery, but recently, a challenger has appeared...
    • Redeemer - Keeps the twin-linked Assault Cannon of the Crusader, but replaces the side-mounted Hurricane Bolters with a pair of Flamestorm Cannons, nasty S6 AP3 flamers. Carries 12. The only other Land Raider you should even consider. Doesn't fit as many Terminators. Far Nastier against infantry than the crusader, but needs to be up closer... Also needs extra armor at all times. Multi-Melta optional, but nice. And the cherry on top: 10 points cheaper than the other two Land Raider varieties.
    • Terminus Ultra (Apocalypse) - Leman Russes and Baneblades got you down? Are Hammerhead gunships making you throw fits? Tyrannofexes slaughtering your tanks? Titans kicking your ass when you have none of your own? Do Predator Annihilators simply fail to cut it for you? Are your desperate, suicidal charges against a Monolith with only two tactical marines, two Predator Destructors, and three Land Speeders proving to be totally ineffective? Then the Terminus Ultra is a tank for you!!! Coming equipped with three(!) twin-linked lascannons and two single lascannons, it's only a measly 50 points more expensive than the standard Land Raider and has no troop carrying capacity. It is extremely effective against enemy armour, the Land raiders special rule allows the Terminus Ultra to easily take out 2 light vehicles in a single shooting phase or completely annihilate one heavy vehicle, I once managed to destroy a Warhound Titan with this thing. But some unlucky rolls can lead to the tank blowing up, through overheating of the lascannon batteries. Best used at long range, picking off the enemy vehicles one by one, or two by two. Pretty much, it causes enemy vehicles to suffer critical existence failure to an even greater degree than the Redeemer causes enemy infantry to spontaneously combust (probably because the Redeemer doesn't have an additional two weapon mounts.) If you could stick on a multi-melta or an additional Las-Cannon, all your anti-vehicle problems could be fixed but not even Matt Ward is willing to go that far. Antaro Chronus turns this into pretty much the final word in Imperial tank destroyers.
    • Achilles (Forgeworld) - Oh hell yes. For the same price as the Terminus Ultra, this beast sports a Thunderfire Cannon and twin-linked multi-melta sponsons, has immunity to the Melta and Lance special rules, puts a -1 penalty on most other attacks, can carry six models, and doesn't go 'splodey. Put a scout squad and a techmarine in it, plonk it down on an objective, and watch your opponent throw a shit fit.
    • Ares (Apocalypse) - This is for when a Vindicator just won't cut it. Comes standard with a Demolisher cannon, twin linked Assault cannons, twin-linked heavy flamer sponsons, and a siege shield, can take extra armour for +15pts, and always do have extra armour on it, the whole point of this tank is to get to the enemy lines as quickly as possible, therefore as soon as it's stunned, it's losing an entire turn of blowing the enemy apart as you'll reach them a turn later. When it was released there were those who questioned the point of the Demolisher cannon (By 'those', I mean Idiots, who wouldn't want a demolisher cannon...), as it's an ordnance weapon, no other weapons can be fired. HOWEVER, with the new 'Power of he machine spirit' rule, just make sure the Demolisher is the extra weapon you fire with POTMS, and you can still unleash all your weapons when stationary. Costs as much as two-and-a-half Vindicators, but a hell of a lot more survivable, and has more close-combat attack options into the bargain. This tank is the absolute final word in terminal close quarters battle, the demolisher cannon will annihilate half a unit, many more will be mown down by the Assault cannon, then move in to mop up with twin-linked heavy flamers (re-roll to wound), so...it's pretty good it's armour can stand up to the punishment it will no doubt sustain on it's way to the enemy front lines.
      • Irritatingly, there is no way to buy a kit for this vehicle, Forgeworld or otherwise, so you have to build it from scratch.
    • Helios (Forgeworld) - A Whirlwind on steroids, which comes stock with twin-linked lascannon sponsons. More survivable and versitile than the Whirlwind, but may not be worth the points cost. Also carries six models for some insane reason. If you ask us, it'd probably be better off not being able to transport infantry in exchange for two more gun mounts, probably autocannons. Mais c'est la vie.
    • Prometheus (Forgeworld) - Absolute and complete garbage. Don't even think about taking this; there is always a better way to spend your points.
  • Antaro Chronus - Not really a character so much as he is an upgrade to a tank. An expensive upgrade to a tank. He makes it BS 5, and ignores shaken and stunned results. Great, for a shooty tank... but you don't really have many shooty tanks expensive enough to merit this upgrade, except the Land Raider Terminus Ultra, conversely you could put him in an Achilles and make it even MORE resilient, resulting in absolutely 3PIC RAGE by your opponent as ridiculous amounts of firepower are literally thrown at the Achilles and nothing happens. Plus, you have a 2/3 chance of making the tank worth 2 kill points, as the 1W mook who pops out won't do much but die horribly.
  • THUNDERHAWK GUNSHIP (Apocalypse) - There is only one reason why you don't already have one, it costs a shitload of cash(£399), apart from this...small...price, the Thunderhawk has virtually no downsides, at 900 points it's certainly expensive, and it doesn't have much armour (12,12,12) but it does have 3 structure points and is immune to the 'melta' special rule. It's title of gunship is well deserved, it has a turbo laser (yes a fucking strength D weapon with a 5" blast!!!), four twin-linked heavy Bolters, two Lascannons and 6 weapon pylons, which can contain bombs or Hellstrike missiles. It also has a "modest" transport capacity of 30, so you can hold an entire 10 man squad of Terminators in this thing AND a techmarine and servitors to keep the thing running (they ARE allowed to repair vehicles they're embarked on, awesome). As the only super heavy vehicle in the space marines armoury, you will almost never field more than one of these, fortunately, you only need one. The best way to use this vehicle is to get close combat Terminators right into the middle of the enemies most dangerous shooting formation, then use the fearsome weapons on the gunship to destroy enemy vehicles that can insta-kill your guys, allowing your Terminators to destroy the shooty infantry and keep your grunts alive. Used properly this vehicle WILL make your opponent shit bricks, used improperly, it will do nothing but die uselessly as it gets pummelled by 900 points worth of enemy lascannons, rockets, missiles, battle cannon and lances, then it will explode and take the most of the rest of your army with it, because of this NEVER EVER keep it static, it's tempting to just hang back and pummel the enemies vehicles with the turbo laser, but don't. Just writing this entry reminds me of the greatest game I ever played, massive board, 17000 points per team, MANY Lascannons pointed at my Thunderhawk, just waiting for it to get in range, when suddenly...BANG...Terminator Librarian inside the Thunderhawk uses 'gate of infinity' and the Thunderhawk materialises behind his lines, unleashes it's baleful weaponry on those sneaky chaos devastators, and proceeds to disgorge 10 thunder hammer and storm shield equipped Assault Terminators and a Terminator Librarian with storm shield right into the middle of his ally's green tide formation of 150 greenskins, the combat lasted almost the entire game, of course, the Thunderhawk went on to destroy a traitor Baneblade and 7 Battlewagons (and countless orks) and was then itself destroyed (with a return of 1500 points damage for 900 points loss). On the very last turn of the game my Terminators, having received NO help against the green tide from anyone, crushed the Warboss' skull and finished off the tide, there were 5 of them left and the Librarian, so 150 orks for 5 terminators...
  • Whirlwind - An often forgotten option, the cheap whirlwind tank is actually an excellent troop hunter. Especially against the "swarm" armies (Nids, Orks, Guard). It comes stock with a choice of two shots, one with a better strength and AP for hunting troops in the open, and another, weaker shot that ignores cover saves (quite useful). The Whirlwind's real boon is it's ability to fire indirectly, and only having one gun means you can shuffle around every turn without compromising your fire power, on top of this, the 'barrage' type of its weapon means approaching units that have poor leadership(guardsmen, gaunts etc.) can be easily pinned and stay there while you pound them. While it lacks the sheer range and firepower of the Imperial Guard's Basilisk, it is pretty damned good for an artillery unit.
  • Thunderfire Cannon - Another often forgotten option. This one isn't worth remembering though. In case you care, while it is cheap, and does put out an impressive amount of fire power "on paper" it's Artillery, therefore extremely fragile. Like, worse-than-land-speeder fragile. And completely stationary. Works fine in small (sub 750pt) games where you'll be facing relatively little firepower, but in larger games, will die right off the bat. Forget that it even exists in Apocalypse games where you'll have access to units with even more firepower and the sheer amount of dakka that will be tossed around will cause this gun to spontaneously explode. The Thunderfire Cannon does have one saving grace, however: it comes with a free Techmarine with a servo-harness. If you plan on taking Techmarines anyway and have the slots open, you'd might as well get one round out of it for 25 points. Against armies that are heavily mechanized and must bunch up all their transports, 1-2 Thunderfire Cannons can cockblock the entire army with the earthquake shells, provided you actually have something else in the list for breaking those transports. Also the Earthquake shells can really fuck vehicle squadrons by making them waste movement to go around the templates. But if you using this as a tactic, then what the fuck have you got for breaking those vehicles?
    • Also TFCs are Awesome in Apocalypse, especially against horde armies, just spam the Subterranean shells.
    • NOTE: Thanks to the Subterranean Shell's Tremor rule, fire at the ground near units, or at units it can't hurt and place down Blast templates to mark terrain, do this every turn you're not firing on infantry, opponents get really weirded out by the constantly shifting terrain and many start trying to spread out and try to pincer rather than risk terrain tests.
  • Deathstorm Drop Pod (Forgeworld) - Expecting the drop pod that just landed to contain troops or a heavy weapons platform you don't have to worry about until next turn? SURPRISE! Whirlwind missiles! For you! In the face! When this modified drop pod lands, it immediately attacks every unit (friend or foe) in 12" and in line of sight d3 times, then attacks normally every subsequent term. It can also be upgraded to assault cannons for an extra 20 points, but this should only be done if you expect it to survive more than one turn (and you really shouldn't). Very situational, but if your opponent fields lots of small units relatively close together, dropping this in the middle of them is almost guaranteed to ruin his day. Can't take a locator beacon, though.
  • Contemptor Mortis (Forgeworld): Probably the best Contemptor variant, this guy trades in fleet for BS5 and AA shots if it stands still and can mount a big gun in each arm PLUS a cyclone missile launcher. Here's your loadout: ignore everything and take 2 Kheres pattern assault cannons and a cyclone missile launcher. There! You're done. If you find yourself not in range of the assault cannons, move forward and throw down with a couple of BS5 missiles. If you DO have something in assault cannon range, hold still and let the rape flow - your dread will loose a total of 12 S6 AP4 rending shots at 24" on a hapless unit and if you stood still, you can drop 2 more missiles on the poor fuckers ALL OF IT HITTING ON 2'S!

Building Your Army

  • Games workshop advocates it in all their codices, and I'm going to repeat it here: Start with an HQ, and two troops.
    • Good starting HQs are:
      • Captain (who's an adequate h2h threat in low point games)
      • Librarian (who is an adequate shooting threat in low point games) and grows well with the army
    • Good starting troops are:
      • Tactical squad with Flamer, Missile Launcher. Cheap (Assault on Black reach set) versatile, convert Sergeant to have a power fist for bonus points.
      • Another Tactical squad. Melta gun. Missile Launcher. Branch out on your weapons. Melta weapons are key at higher point values...
      • A small scout unit with shotguns. Shotguns are fun, good flanking unit. Can become a "Scout missile" later on.
      • A small shooty scout unit with Camo cloaks and (possibly) Telion.

Once you've got a start on your army, the most important thing to do is play the game. A lot. Learn what you like. Build your army around that. Space marines can be build with more assault or shooting aspects as suits your preference. Experiment a lot. Very few units are outright bad, so if something's cool, you can find a way to make it work in your army. If your really stuck for ideas, just make a space marine company (6 tacticals, 2 devastators, 2 assaults, 2 dreadnoughts, 1 captain & command sq.), everything here has it's place, and provides and exceptional infantry base if you want to expand with armoured vehicles.

Some things to keep in mind:

  • Note that generic marines are a "jack-of-all trades, master of none" type army: They are good at what they do but they can't really excel in 1 general type.
  • MEHTAL BAWKSES save your life and time. Space marines love being in metal boxes. They make the tough marines even tougher. Stop them from getting bogged down in pointless hand to hand combats, prevent them from being pinned, and, perhaps most importantly, let them move faster and prevent them from being tarpitted. Invest in rhinos/razorbacks.
  • You're not a Khorne Berserker, you cannot turn anything at close range into mulch while being fearless. You're not even a Blood Angel. Pick your close combats wisely. Pure H2H focused space marine armies will struggle against codices that were actually designed with close combat in mind.
  • You're not an Tau Fire Warrior. You can't out-shoot *everything* no matter how many guns you take.
  • You're not a Guardsman, Sluggaboy, or Gaunt, you cannot defeat your enemies through weight of numbers alone. Don't sacrifice your men without careful consideration.
  • You're not a Grey Knight, Movie Marine, or Necron Immortal, you cannot rely on individual strength to win. Do not rely too strongly on small numbers of high priced units.
  • You're not a Necron Immortal or a Necron Warrior, you are tough, but you can't get back up. Stay under freaking cover!

Overall, space marine armies require BALANCE to succeed. As Charles Darwin said: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."

Tactics

I can't hear you, my guns are too loud!

Basically, you have a somewhat tau like army with you. Take a librarian and give him smite for units that are a little too far away for him to hit with his sword and take the avenger, just in case of a mass swarm. Take two tactical squads with flammer, missile launcher with one squad, and plasma gun, heavy bolter for the other. It's advised to take one or two close combat specialists to tie up any scary people that could bring the beat stick to your guys. Any other heavy shooters should be included. This is really good against swarm armies. Remember to take a few rhinos to pick up your guys if their gonna get smacked really hard. The librarian should be in one of the tactical squads since he can deal with any close combat baddies. This works in theory and has only been tested against tyranids and orks.

Pain Incarnate

Pain incarnate doesn't really mean that you will become pain incarnate, it just means that pain will be brought to who ever gets within distance with whatever guns your bringing to the fight and if your taking a mixture of assault troopers and tactical space marines. Take a Chapter master with artificer armor, storm shield, and a relic blade with a jump pack. If you can spare enough points for another HQ choice, take a chaplain and either take his bolt pistol for extra attacks or storm bolter to soften up meat shields before bringing down the beat stick known as chaplain. Take what ever troop choice you want just make sure you don't go over , say 1,000 points, put both with a rhino of their own. Then take assault marines. Keep adding what ever the hell you feel like putting in until you run out of points to spend. Put your chaplain with whatever assault squad you want, these will be your fast n furious beat sticks. Chapter master can go alone but you can put him with another squad of assault squad incase of heavy hitting weapons like a rail gun or something along the lines of that. On your first turn, use orbital bombardment as soon as possible. If you hit something, then good, if you don't, don't worry, if you took a stormbolter with your chaplain, then you can just take potshots of any units you can see or just run both squads incase they're out in the open and can be seen by big threats. KEEP THESE ASSAULT SQUAD IN COVER LEST THEY BECOME A BIGGER TARGET THAN THEY ALREADY ARE!!!! If you've run the turn before, you should be within either shooting distance with your bolt pistols and (hopefully) assault range, bring the pain. Tactical squads should move up to take the field as most of the other guys squads are too busy pissing their pants and flailing their arms as they run in fear to notice just a few squads moving up. At turn four or so, if your opponent hasn't figured out what's about to happen, most of his guys has been destroyed or running. The tactical squads and any other units with potential to smash tanks should be cleaning up tank messes left behind by the assault squads. In case of a worse case scenario, both HQ choices are some what well in survivability. CM gets a 3 up invulnerable save due to storm shield for evil pie plates that destroy what ever is in their path if your artificer armor is getting blown to bits. The chaplain is a different story, he just has a jet pack and his manly mace of manliness, so yeah camp in a corner like a bitch if his squad was destroyed until either the remainder of the threat has been taken out or pre occupied as the chaplain only has two wounds. If you had enough points to field terminators, slowly move them up so they can rip peoples spines out. Good for IG, Tau, CSM, Tyranids, Orks(sometimes), other SM, and anything that may be a combo of above. Be careful with necrons as they can ruin your day if keep dishing out painful gauss blasts. If they have any pie plates around, you should be alright. Just make sure that you remember that assault marines are just as squish as everyone else when it comes to pie plate barrage.

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