Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Space Marines

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

This is the 7th Edition's tactics. Previous editions' tactics may be found on Warhammer_40,000/Tactics.

Why Play Space Marines

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. Just bear in mind that once the novelty of seeing your brilliantly painted chapter wears off there's little incentive to continue playing C:SM instead of Space Wolves, Blood/Dark Angels or Grey Knights(Just take a few as allies) though the variety of Chapter Tactics and therefore ways of playing Space marines alleviates this to a good degree.

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 idiots 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. Conversely, they also provide large amounts of open areas for more advanced painters to go ham with freehand and more detailed painting.
• Quick to build, easy to convert. Space marines have the greatest range of bitz available to any army in any game, and 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 to play for beginners. Your basic troops can take a bit of abuse, so the army is relatively forgiving of noob mistakes, and you won't be 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.
• Space Marines have a rather decent new codex New units are a large battle suit "Centurion" marine type available in Devastator or Assault Marine flavors and two AA vehicles (missile and dual tri-barrel cannon variants) ripped from Epic. Common consensus is that the Centurions are a result of a GW Marketing meeting where they decided to double their profits by putting their top selling model line inside itself like a Russian Doll, doubling its appeal and selling them for twice four times the price! The AA tanks look decent, but new plastic Sternguard and Vanguard vets look best! Also, the Black Templars have been rolled into here, so they've lost several special tools, but gained all of the toys that almost every other chapter gets.
• Games Workshop has a long history of tilting things in the Marines' favor. The introduction of AP values to melee weapons was largely for the benefit of Marines and especially Terminators, and the grav gun has been introduced so you can kill heavily armored troops without burning your fingers. Other armies have weaknesses, but whenever a weakness is found for the Marines, GW just releases something to patch over it.

Also, thanks to UNBOUND ARMIES and infinite allies, you can mix and match your Space Marine Army with other Faction Marines. Dark Angels with the worst fliers? Give them a storm talon or two. Want some serious firepower for your SpaceWolves? Centurions shall work wonders. All the pain of the last few years with various Marine armies lacking decent units or updates has been patched up.

Also, a new 7th Edition Codex is dropping. It seems GW is cramming all popular 40k stuff before they launch Warhammer Fantasy 9th Edition this Summer. Here's what the rumor mill is saying:

• Marneus Calgar is now a Lord of War. Makes sense considering he costs more than a Land Raider and this trend happened with many special Astartes Snowflakes (Dante, Draigo, Grimnar) Close.
• Speaking of Land Raiders, Crusader and Redeemer variants are Fast Attack options. Wrong.
• Black Templars are gone. This better mean a Black Templar Supplement or have their own unique book back. Wrong.
• The Space Marine Captain gets cheaper, and like the Grey Knight Brother-Captain can be simply upgraded to Chapter Master. Wrong.
• Librarians also got cheaper, and can be upgraded to Codicier or Epistolary for special bonuses. Namely, Codicier is ML2, and Epistolary is ML3. Time to start trolling with Daemons. Wrong.
• Honor Guard are no more. Wrong.
• We now get a Terminator Command Squad which can have 3-9 guys in it if you take a Captain or Chapter Master in Terminator Armor. All the Dark Angels players seeing this can begin crying. Wrong.
• Land Speeders now can join Bike squadrons too like Dark Angels. Biker Squads as troops will probably go away, but still, this is pretty nice. Wrong.
• You can now squadron Predators, Vindicators, and Whirlwinds up to groups of 3. A big fuck you to the meat shields and their Leman Russ squadrons since you now can have 9 tanks like they do for slightly cheaper. Closer to the mark.
• Chapter Tactics remain mostly the same, but now Chapter Tactics unlock specific relics and Characters. Wrong.
• 3 new detachments in the Codex. The latter is obviously to push the sales of Raven Guard, who are thoroughly outclassed in speediness and assault capability by other armies.
  • Codex Astartes Battle Company
  • Raven Guard Strike Squadron
  • White Scars Hunting Party
• Last but not least, Tactical marines got an all important 1 point cheaper. Can stack if you play like 6 Tactical Squads, but what-fucking-ever. Wrong.

Unit Analysis

Chapter Tactics

The Chapter Tactics have been redone. Rather than needing a special character, you get one of seven army-wide rules - one for each of the First Founding Chapters that don't get their own codex, and the Black Templars. This also applies to their successor Chapters. Note that special characters may not be part of a detachment that does not have the same version of Chapter Tactics as them - i.e. Papa Smurf can't lead a detachment of Salamanders, however he can be taken if you're, say, Iron Snakes, as you can choose what Chapter they "are" and thus what Tactics they have; furthermore, counts-as characters are still a thing, you just have use the Chapter Tactics they're associated with.

• Ultramarines: You have three single-use powers ("Doctrines"), each of which lasts for one turn.
  • Assault: Re-roll charges, Assault Marines and Bikes get Fleet.
  • Tactical: Re-roll ones to hit for shooting, Tactical Marines get to re-roll all shots.
  • Devastator: Re-roll Snap Shots, Devastators are also Relentless unless they disembarked from a transport.
  • These tactics are not point and click.. they require some thinking, proper timing, and possibly preparing your army's positioning in the preceding turn, to use the doctrines correctly. If you are new, you might want to consider easier tactics to take advantage of until you get the hang of things.
  • The Ultramarines are the only chapter that gets access to Tyrannic War Veterans. Remember this if you going against the Great Devourer and want just one more weapon to take them on the swarms.
• Imperial Fists: Bolter Drill - re-roll ones to hit with shots from all bolt weapons (but doesn't apply to Sternguard special ammunition). Also, Devastators (both normal and Centurion) get Tank Hunters and add 1 to building damage rolls. See the Fortifications section for ADL Quad gun shenanigans. Baby's first chapter tactics for newbies.
  • Sentinels of Terra: Replace "re-roll all ones" with "twin-linked at half range", with all bolter weapons. Drop pod assault might be your friend here.
• Salamanders: Master-Crafted, Master-Crafted everywhere; characters get one weapon Master-Crafted for free (which can include ANY weapon, even one bought as an upgrade). Also can re-roll saves from flame-inflicted wounds and twin-linked flame weapons for you. The way the rule is worded, vehicles don't benefit from it, so no twin-linked heavy flamers on your Land Speeders, sadly.
• Raven Guard: Stealth on the first turn and Scouts, but only for non-Bulky models, so not for assault marines, making Raven Guard one of the few chapters tactics that can directly benefit vehicles(Because vehicles carrying a model with Scout also gain Scout). Also, all Jump Packs can be used in movement as well as assault, so you get 12" movement, and re-roll charge distance, and Hammer of Wrath. Jump Infantry also re-roll failed To Wound rolls for those Hammer of Wrath hits. This is the only Chapter Tactic other than White Scars with Khan that can run Mech Marines well against a variety of lists.
• Iron Hands: Feel No Pain (6+), vehicles and characters get It Will Not Die, and Techmarines/Masters of the Forge get +1 to Blessings of the Omnissiah. Nice. If you plan on bringing lots of vehicles and tanks, and infantry that won't immediately evaporate at the sight of plasma, then the Iron Hands are a must have, since their Tactics affect every single unit in your army.
  • To get the most of these Chapter tactics is consider the 6+ FNP as a nice bonus and the IWND as central part of the rule. This means stocking up on as much AV12+ vehicles as you can along with armor saturation. The Chapter Master is the one unit that can make the most of IWND.
  • With the 7th edition seeing the resurgence in vehicles the Iron Hands can definitely see some use in the game these days. With the ability to repair vehicles and regrow hull points faster than any other army the Iron Hands definitely have a powerful advantage in the new edition. So basically don't be afraid to splurge a little on AV heavy hitters like Land Raiders and Ironclad Dreadnoughts.
• White Scars: The White Scars gives all your Bikes the ability to ignore Dangerous Terrain, hit at strength 5 with their hammer of wrath, and +1 to Jink (though jinking is now a choice, which means the unit can only snapshot if it jinks), whereas everybody (except Terminators and Centurions) get Hit and Run. Combine this with the Captain's ability to make Bikers Troops and the abusability of the Salvo 2/3 Grav-guns, and you'll have a very fast, very tough, very killy army that can take on anything short of Screamerstar.
• Black Templars: Their characters get re-rolls To Hit and Rending while in challenges and all of their units have Crusader and Adamantium Will. BT are the only ones who can field Crusader Squads, who kept the ability to field a special and heavy weapon in a 5-man squad and mix Scouts (Neophytes) into their Marine squads. Also, no psykers for you.
  • While they may not have a unique codex anymore they are an interesting way for the standard codex to get a powerful melee horde into the mix, or of course, spamming some extra land raider crusaders.

Forge World also provided chapter tactics for a whole bunch of later-founding chapters:

• Red Scorpions: Can replace tactical (and ONLY tactical) sergeants/veteran sergeants with apothecaries for free (while keeping all their sergeant equipment and stats), and re-roll failed Pinning tests, but cannot go to ground voluntarily or buy camo cloaks, which render scout objective campers useless. Not like you really need them with FNP tacticals.
• Carcharodons: Gain fear and tactical marines can exchange any bolt weapon (either the bolter or bolt pistol) for a chainsword or BUY an extra chainsword or combat blade for +1 pt. After winning their first assault or forcing an enemy unit to fall back they go full berserker mode and get Rage with a minor penalty of being forced to consolidate towards nearest enemy unit. Keep in mind that if you use this Chapter Tactic, you can only ally with other Imperial armies, and even then their relationship is downgraded to Desperate Allies. Also note that since all your characters already get Fear from these tactics the Angel of Death Warlord trait is useless to you, meaning theres a 1 in 6 chance of getting a useless trait, unless you take Tyberos, who always has the same warlord trait.
• Raptors: Stealth on the first turn and Scouts. Just like their progenitor Raven Guard. Unlike the Raven Guard they can use bolters and bolt pistols as Heavy 1 Rending weapon, making their tacticals and especially sternguards basically anti-everything units, capable of brutally murdering MCs and AV12 or less vehicles. In general, these are alright if you're already sitting on an objective and firing at something beyond 12", but why are you wasting points doing that?
• Mantis Warriors: May take multilasers Everything not Bulky get move through cover and hammer of wrath, and if it charges through cover it also get furious charge - this mostly makes tacticals better at melee, where you don't want them to be, but also could make honor guards and vanguard veterans worth their points. If they are primary detachment, they also can re-roll failed seize initiative. But more important, their Librarians get access to Divination, which is priceless.
• Executioners: Get something like Stubborn on steroids, ignoring ALL negative Ld modifiers no matter what. Their characters inflict ID on to wound rolls of 6 in challenges but must also issue challenges if they got the highest WS in the squad.
• Angels Revenant: Get Hatred and Preferred Enemy against Necrons, and if enemy force happen to have no Necrons they become Fearless after losing half the units. The first one is very powerful against Necrons (and considering Newcron popularity you would face a lot of them), but the latter is meh.
• Red Hunters: These ones are tricky - you get one-turn-use ability that give one of the six useful special rules (Counter-attack, Monster Hunter, Tank Hunters, Hatred, Skyfire or Interceptor) to X units (including dreads), where X is a number of the current turn, so this bring a bit of risk management into the game. Used properly, this ability could be devastating, for example, this gives you easily the most powerful anti air weapon in the game, four devastators with lascannons and sky fire. This obviously works better when taken in allied detachment as with fewer units you can get more out of a fixed number of special rules. and 7th Edition's rework of Allies means they'll always be Battle Brothers.
• Star Phantoms: Get to reroll ones on reserve rolls for deep-strikers and can launch army-wide twin-link on all weapons for one turn. Mass drop-pod dakka hail of death. Consider them a drop-pod specific alternative to Ultramarines.
• Minotaurs: Get to reroll Pinning tests, do not suffer Morale tests from shooting, and get Crusade and +1 charge range on the enemy deploy zone. One of the worst ones.
• Fire Hawks: Get +1S for all flamer weapon the turn they deep strike and to HoW attacks and can get hand flamers for their characters. Their Assault Marines and Vanguards are scoring, but not troops. As of 7th edition everything is scoring, so unless this gives them objective secured (RAW it doesn't, but you can talk about this with your opponent. If he isn't That Guy he could agree with you) it basically does nothing, making the Fire Hawks chapter tactics the weakest by far. If you really want to proxy them you could always go with salamanders with a lot of jump units.
• Astral Claws: Get Stubborn, their Bikes have Skilled Rider, and their speeders - Scout. Does it remind you some other hidden traitors LOYALISTS?

For comparison (not including different units):

• Dark Angels: HQs get Fearless, Preferred Enemy: Chaos Marines, Termies get that too as well as Split-Fire & TL weapons when deep striking, everyone else gets Stubborn (DA scouts don't get either). Additionally, all bikes get Teleport Homers, Scouts and Hit & Run. Also their Mortis dreads aren't capped at 0-1.
• Blood Angels: Everything gets Furious Charge. Several of their vehicles are Fast, there is widespread access to Inferno/Flamer pistols and Tactical Squads can take Heavy Flamers.
• Space Wolves: Counter Attack and Acute Senses for everyone. Their Scouts have Marine statlines instead of neophytes, but assault/bike squads get neophyte statlines in return.

General Advice

The Space Marine Warlord Traits table kind of sucks. Most of them are worse versions of ones that already exist in the main 40k rulebook, and the table is too variable to count on getting something good for your playstyle. Stick with the core book traits.

1. Angel of Death: Fear. Cassius and Shrike have this.
2. The Imperium's Sword: One use only. For one assault phase the warlord and his unit have Furious Charge. Sicarius and Helbrecht have this.
3. Storm of Fire: One use only. For one shooting phase a friendly codex squad within 12" re-rolls misses. Tigurius has this.
4. Rites of War: Friendly Marine units within 12" of the warlord can use his leadership instead of their own for morale tests. Grimaldus has this.
5. Iron Resolve: Add plus one to the assault results total if the warlord is locked in that combat. Pedro and Vulkan have this.
6. Champion of Humanity: Killing the enemy warlord in a challenge nets you an extra D3 victory points. Sweeping Advance doesn't count though. Lysander and Khan have this.

Fighter Aces

In Skies of Death, you now have a bonus rule allowing you to pay 35 points for one of 3 special traits for any Flyer or FMC (FGC is still debatable).

1. Auto-Targeting System - +1 BS. This one is kind of pointless. Most of your flyers' weapons are Twin Linked already, and Stormtalons have Strafing Run, which already gives +1 BS against ground targets. Sort of a waste.
2. Vectored Retro-Thrusters - Fighter Ace can pivot 180 before moving. Not sure why it has the same name as a tool for Tau battlesuits, but it can help bait some flyers over to your big anti-air guys.
3. Wrath of the Emperor - Fellow models within 12" of a Fighter Ace with the same codex gain Preferred Enemy for the turn. Pretty handy on any end of the field.

Chapter Relics

NOTE: There has been a debate going on whether you can swap multiple weapons for multiple relics (i.e. bolt pistol and chainsword from a Chapter master for Burning Blade/The Shield Eternal, etc.) instead of a limit of one weapon for one relic (that is not the Armour Indomitus) due to rather ambiguous wording. As there has been no FAQ as of yet to resolve this issue it is left up to you whether you will allow yourself to use this particular loophole. If the opponent gripes about it, you could say that it's putting more 25-55pt eggs in the proverbial basket and just leave it at that.

• The Burning Blade- A power sword with +3S, AP2, and Blind. Its "Incandescent" rule means that it sort-of Gets Hot (take a S4 AP2 hit). It is believed to be the Emperor's sword, as it was found in the wreckage of Horus's destroyed flagship and was the only thing that wasn't corrupted by Chaos. Probably true, since it's too big for anyone but a Marine to think about using, and in most pictures depicting the Emperor's battle with Horus his sword's on fire. Despite this, it is not Two-Handed (because Emps was bigger and stronger than Marines are, thus he could wield a two-handed sword in one hand).
  • In general, its a good choice if you're looking to build a very killy HQ, it amplifies your MC killing ability significantly. Don't even think about giving it to anyone else except to a Chapter Master (or a Captain if you're short on points). Its a waste otherwise. Note that since the "Incandescent" rule says "takes a hit" it still has to roll to wound meaning theres only a 50% chance of actually having to take an invuln save.

• The Armour Indomitus- A 2+/6++ suit of Artificer Armour that gives the wearer Relentless and a 2++ save once per game for a phase of your choosing. How covenient.
  • Pretty crappy honestly, it costs far too much and The Shield Eternal is all the defense you'll need anyway, and its more persistent. Relentless would matter if the character could actually take heavy weapons, the best you can do is The Primarch's Wrath and you need to think if that's worth the price. Can be useful on characters who cannot ordinarily take Artificer Armour IE chaplains and librarians

• The Shield Eternal- A Storm Shield that gives the user Adamantium Will and Eternal Warrior. A pretty good choice if you're running a tough cookie. Can also be used to troll shooty armies by placing it in front of a unit and giving it to a cheap character like a Librarian to absorb hits like a boss. Give it to a Chapter Master with Artificer Armour using Iron Hands Chapter Tactics and BAM! You've got yourself a 2+/3++ It Will Not Die Character with 6+ Feel No Pain.
  • A Little Note: This just became redundant in most cases for Iron Hands. With their supplement, you can't take this, but not to fear, you got something BETTER. Chains of the Gorgon doesn't take a weapon slot, grants a 3++ Save, Eternal Warrior, and +1 on your FNP rolls. Combined with an Apothecary in a biker command squad, your chapter master will be able to go toe to toe with Abaddon and not only survive, but possibly probably win.

• The Primarch's Wrath- A Master-Crafted Salvo 3/5 AP4 bolter with Shred.
  • The weapon of choice for your Bike or Terminator Captain, as Relentless will let you use this thing to its full potential every turn. Overall, not the strongest choice of the relics, but it is the cheapest so it might be an okay choice if you only have a few points left over after army building. However, one often overlooked use is fire support. stick it on a chaplain. put him in a tactical squad. love your life as you pump out as much long ranged shots as five men with better AP, added to the firepower the squad already has. for extra lols, add the Armour Indomitus to give him relentless, making his firepower more mobile.

• Teeth of Terra- A chainsword with +2S, AP3, Specialist Weapon, Strikedown and Rampage.
  • Quite good for thinning out hordes and killing entire squads if given to a Captain/Master. With Rampage, you're getting 4 + D3 attacks on the charge and 3 + D3 each assault phase if the former unit is chosen.
  • A Note!- You can give a character a Powerfist or another CCW with the Specialist Weapon USR and then get up the NINE attacks on the charge! It is expensive but hilarious, as with a Chapter Master, you get 4, +1 for Charging, +1 for an extra CCW +D3 Attacks due to rampage. Watch as big blobs of guys melt away... But if you REALLY want to mow down those hordes, you can get up to 11(ELEVEN!!!!) Attacks on the charge!! Take Carcharodon tactics, give Chapter master second specialist weapon, chapter banner equipped honor guard, and make sure he got his rage( Take Tyberos AND CHAPLAIN,just remember for it to stay battle-forged you are gonna need 4 troops for that) for rerolling all failed to hit rolls on the first round (chaplain) and preferred enemy (infantry) and +1S with Tyberos. May the Emperor have mercy for those guys these blood crazed madmen charge, because they surely won't... With Chapter master ALONE I wiped out an enemy tactical squad before they even got to fight back, and also results in couple of dead TEQ's due to sheer amount of saving throws

• Standard of the Emperor Ascendant- A standard that gives the usual benefits to friendly units in 12" using the same chapter tactics as the wielder. Codex: Space Marine units within 6" of the bearer have Hatred, and +1 to assault results. The bearer and his unit inflict Fear. Quite good for buffing an assault-y unit. Good if you wanted a Chaplain, but couldn't fit one into your list.

• Tears of the Scorpion (Red Scorpions)- IA4 2E grants the Scorpions some bonus tools to use as upgrades for their relic blades. These weapons will generally take the form of some other weapon, with a universal Two-Handed and Murderous Strike (6 to-wound is ID).
  • Sword: Relic Blade with the above rules, better since it has the chance of causing ID.
  • Axe: Power Axe with +2S and -1I in combat. Awesome because its an AP2 weapon that strikes before other Axes and Fists.
  • Maul: Power Maul with +3S and Strikedown instead of Concussive. Shame Strikedown doesn't really matter in combat. The hell it doesn't, Strikedown reduces enemies to half Initiative.
  • Glaive: Rules as Written this thing is awesome, it actually is WORSE on the charge (the rules say use the first profile which is the inferior AP3 one) acting only as a two handed power sword with murderous strike. But all other situations have it as a +2S AP2 weapon which strikes in Initiative order, use this until a FAQ comes out to fix them.

Legacies of Glory (Forge World)

These can essentially turn your vehicles into special characters. A single legacy can be taken each 1000pts, and individual vehicles can take multiple legacies. However, only one of each can be taken per army.

• Battle of Keylek- Blast weapons used by this vehicle ignore cover. quite frankly amazing on vindicators or plasma dreadnoughts.
• Ullanor Crusade- A tank that takes this gains Preferred Enemy (Orks) USR. A walker will gain Hatred (Orks). Enemy models within charging range (12") of the vehicle, must re-roll successful To Hit rolls in the 1st round of each combat.
• War of Murder- Monster Hunter, friendly Space Marines within 6" are fearless.
• Battle of Sarosh- Once per game, one weapon gains; Skyfire, Intercept, Tank Hunter, and Night Vision. Only really good against flyers due to Skyfire changes.
• Isstvan III- Preferred Enemy (Chaos Space Marines), auto-pass dangerous terrain tests in ruins and 'similar'.
• Burning of Prospero- Adamantium Will, which is improved to +2 Deny-the-Witch against Witchfire powers.
• Isstvan V Dropsite Massacre- (Vehicles with Deep Strike Only) Never scatters when entering play via Deep Strike. Really nice for an air force army, as this can drop your flyers exactly where you want to make it hurt.
• Battle of Calth- Preferred Enemy (Chaos Space Marines), enemy Warlords within 12" suffer -1Ld.
• Battle of Signus Prime- Preferred Enemy (Chaos Daemons), friendly models that start the turn within 6" of the vehicle have Furious Charge until the end of that turn.
• Battle of the Phall System- Thunder Hawks and Storm Eagles only. +1 Jink save, a superheavy flyer will gain a 6+ Jink save.
• Thramas Crusade- All friendly Space Marines within 12" are Fearless. Kinda iffy since you already have ATSKNF to bolster your forces.
• Schism of Mars- Tanks only. Tank Hunters, +1BS against models with Daemonforge, ignore Haywire on a D6 of 4+.
• Battle of Terra- IWND, pretty straight forward, Iron Hands have this anyway. Costs a lot, so save it for your bigger and already expensive vehicles to make them unkillable.
• Icon of Glory- The most expensive legacy, grants +1 BS or WS and grants a 6" increase on the range of the Warlord's Trait if he's within 2" of the vehicle. However, the vehicle also confers a victory point if destroyed because it's so precious.
• Shrouded Providence- Gives the vehicle Venerable, but makes it behave like an Ally of Convenience in your own detachment (therefore cannot transport units) or a Desperate Ally in allied detachments. Save it for something that'd probably be in the thick of it anyway.
• Ancient Mariner- The vehicle (and any unit previously transported) gets to re-roll mysterious terrain or "Archeotech Artifact" tables... this is extremly situational, but it's the cheapest legacy.

HQ Units

• Chapter Master: Properly kitted out, this guy can become a nigh-unstoppable rape machine that can go toe to toe with most any other character except maybe a kitted out Juggerlord, Daemon Prince, Greater Daemon, Be'lakor, and Abaddon. For 40 points more than a Captain, these guys get +1 A, +1 W and an Orbital Bombardment, which is neat, but not all that reliable. Mounting him on a Bike or giving him Terminator Armour now allows you to launch this S10 AP1 Large Blast AND move. A decent (but expensive) build is one of these guys on a Bike with Artificer Armour, a Storm Shield and the Burning Blade. A cheaper and more survivable option is Artificer Armor, Shield Eternal, and a weapon of your choice (either relic blade or Thunder Hammer). Iron Hands Chapter Tactics work well here. Another big benefit is that they get Honour Guard instead of Command Squads, and they now also allow Bikes as Troops if they are on a bike as well. All in all, an excellent HQ choice. Just remember he'll get expensive very fast, so consider a Captain if you want to spend some points elsewhere. For maximum cheese, go with the Chapter Master Smashfucker build for a unit that is all but indestructible and can make even melee beasts like Abbadon wet themselves in fear.
  • Honour Guard - Think of Honor Guard as what Vanguard Veterans should really be, except without jump packs. They have the standard Veteran Profile, plus Leadership 10, but they come default with Artificer Armor, Bolter, Bolt Pistol, AND Power Weapon. A Vanguard Veteran costs 19 points: For six more points per model, you get 35 points worth of upgrades, each.
  • Honor Guard have one purpose and one purpose only. Wiping out entire enemy squads by burying them in sheer numbers of attacks. At two attacks per model base, plus an extra for Dual Wielding(Power Weapon and Bolt Pistol) plus an extra attack from the Chapter Banner, Honor Guard are looking at four attacks base, five on the charge. If you have the points with it, stick a barebones Chaplain with them for the sake of Hatred. This makes Honor Guard one of the few units that can effectively take on most of the 7E Necron units in close combat.
  • Kitting out your Honor Guard is dependant on what you plan to use them on. They can take any of the four basic power weapons, so you can specialize against anything. If you tend to run against 30k Lists with lots of Marines, Power Swords are worth it. Against GEQs and Mechanicus, Power Mauls are wonderful. If for some reason you run into lots of Terminators, Power Axes.
  • Honor Guard should always be in a Land Raider. They're too expensive to put up with a turn of shooting outside of a transport, especially given their lack of an invul. However, unlike Terminators, Honor Guard aren't Bulky, so they can make effective use of the standard Land Raider and the Forge World varieties, not just the Crusader.

• Captain - No longer just good for handicapping your army, the Captain is a versatile and generally pretty useful HQ choice. The only thing you should definitely not do with this guy is just leave him with a power weapon or fist and expect him to do well. Storm Shield should be strongly considered, and a few of the Relics are worth taking to make him a strong combatant. He doesn't have to go with his Command Squad and you can fit him into a variety of units, such as Sternguard, Vanguards, Terminators, etc. All have their merits. A good built is to stick him in a suit of Artificer armor and give him the Burning Blade and a storm shield. Costs 180 points, which is dirt cheap by most standards. Stick him with a Command squad that has an Apothecary and you have a model with 5+ FnP, a 3+ invuln from the storm shield that hits at S7 AP2. Ouch.
  • The Biker Captain deserves special mention; Biker Marines are a very nasty build, so it is worth taking a Captain for allowing Bikers as Troops should you want to do so. For a cheap Biker Command Squad leader, give him a Relic Blade and a Bike; alternately, you can load him out for solo work with a Relic Blade, Storm Shield, Artificer Armour and minor upgrades (Amusingly, due to the wording of Two-Handed and Storm Shields, they don't prevent a model from using both at once). Hellfire rounds you may consider the primarch's wrath.
  • Terminator Captain: - Now separate from the regular captain for some reason. Was meh in 5th edition and still meh now. Anything he can do, a Captain in Artificer Armor can do better and for around the same cost. Unless you're starting him in a unit of Terminators and are going to teleport him onto the field (and you damn well better have a teleport homer on the ground if you're doing that) pass on him and take a captain with Artificer Armor instead.

• Librarian - Used to be the best generic HQ option, but is now much less awesome due having to roll for powers and no access to Divination unless you use Mantis Warriors Chapter Tactics. It's harder to build a coherent list or strategy around one, so plan carefully. 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; you might not be able to take Invuln saves against Perils of the Warp any more, but you can take it against everything else. And you WILL be taking it against everything else because Librarians are priority targets. Of special note is The Shield Eternal due to Adamantium Will combined with a Psychic Hood. Suddenly your nearby units ignore offensive powers on a 4+. Suck on that, Eldar! Librarians are limited to rolling powers from Biomancy, Pyromancy, Daemonology, Telekinesis, and/or Telepathy. Overall, unless you sorely need him for a gimmick with Chapter Relics (I.e. shield Eternal), a Primaris power or to unlock a Command Squad, he's not worth it. Psychic hood means he can also Deny the Witch for nearby friendlies, and the new Perils table gives you a chance to survive.
  • REMINDER: If you feel daring enough to take a Daemonology power on a Librarian (yes, Librarians can use both Sanctic and Malefic powers), that they will roll Perils on any doubles, not just on double sixes. If you really need Banishment, just consider allying with the Inquisition or the Grey Knights. If summoning Daemons is really your thing (and what kind of Chapter would?), then consider just playing Chaos Space Marines because allying with Daemons is Come the Apocalypse, and that's not gonna roll good for you.

• Chaplain - A wonderful companion for Assault Marines, Vanguard Veterans, or Bikers, his melee-boosting abilities are quite helpful, and he's pretty damned good himself. Though if you're not putting him on a Bike or in a Jump Pack and are using the Ultramarine Chapter Tactics, consider taking Ortan Cassius instead if you can afford the extra 40 points. The Crozius Arcanum is just a Power Maul, so he's always S6 AP4. Chaplains ostensibly fit nice into the Black Templars, wherein they will boost a basic squad's fighting ability - and you should expect to get your Templars in close combat or something has gone horribly wrong? If you have the Emperor's Champion in the same unit, give the Chaplain the Teeth of Terra to seriously fuck up anyone that isn't a TEQ. If you don't have the points for a Chaplain but want his CC buffs, consider taking the relic standard instead, as it has similar (and arguably better) effects for a good bit cheaper, and it doesn't take up an HQ Slot.

• Command Squad - Now you can have a squad of these for your Chaplain and Librarian as well as your captain! A pretty nice, versatile squad. An Apothecary gives them Feel no Pain, and makes them pretty tough to kill with small-arms fire (they still fold to S8, though, which is fairly abundant in the form of Krak Missiles, Tau, and Power Fists), and at a much cheaper price tag than the Honour Guard. Fits excellently in a Razorback or Drop Pod, and can be equipped with a variety of melee and ranged weaponry. Biker Command Squads, while very costly, are a good source of mobile special weapons. Remember to NEVER kit a Command Squad for melee; if you want that, find the extra points for Honor Guard.

• Master of the Forge - Most often an overlooked, but pretty decent HQ. He lacks an invulnerable save, shouldn't go with anything that can be threatened with CC, and he works best as a shooting or support HQ. A Conversion Beamer and a Bike is nice support for a home scoring unit or a Biker unit (Bikes being Relentless by default). Ultimately, his usefulness is in his FoC moving ability, which allows you to field all three basic Dreadnought types as Heavy Support. This is beyond nice, as it frees up your excellent Elites slots, or lets you run six Dreadnoughts because you're that kind of beautiful disaster.. His low points cost just sweetens the deal. He can be more easily attached to squads willy-nilly to augment them than a Libby or Chaplain, because he gives you repairs, a TL PP, a Flamer, S8 attacks, and a 2+ armour save for sucking up wounds - as well as his other benefits. A good place to put the Primarch's Wrath relic with his high BS with out the urge to throw him into combat (and waste the shooting power of the relic).

• Techmarine In the HQ section, but doesn't take up a slot and can't fill a mandatory slot. You can take one for every HQ you have bar Command Squads, Servitors, Honour Guard, and other Techmarine. Can be a useful unit in smaller point games (~1000 or lower). Unfortunately, he has a hard time keeping up with the vehicles he's supposed to repair, unless he's, you know, INSIDE of it. The main use of the Techmarine is Bolster Defenses, which can boost the cover save of any non-fortification terrain piece by one, to a max of 3+ cover. Potentially useful, but if you're spending 50 points to do this, why not just spend 55 on a Wall of Martyrs Bunker?

• Servitors - Who forgot about these? They help the MotF or Techmarine repair stuff (add 1 to the Blessings roll for each one that has a servo-harness). That's all you will use them for, because a 10pt Heavy Bolter or Multi-Melta and 20pt Plasma Cannon at BS3 is kinda wasteful, as they will need to be running around with their master repairing stuff. 50pts for a full squad. Stick the whole lot in a Land Raider or Thunderhawk Gunship (you rich testicle-deprived bastard) and laugh as the single gun your enemy's volley of Krak Missiles shot off repairs itself and shoots back. Oh, and don't leave them alone, they will probably Mindlock and stand there soaking up bullets with their faces.

• Damocles Rhino (Forgeworld) Yes, an HQ vehicle! Like the Techmarine, it doesn't take an HQ slot, but can't fill the mandatory one either. Although the most expensive in terms of real money, point-wise it's one of your cheapest HQs. Armed with nothing but a Storm Bolter and a Searchlight for defense, with no transport capacity, it may not seem like an obvious choice. In fact, the Damocles' true power lies in its incredible support abilities - it allows a single Orbital Bombardment in the same way as a Chapter Master, lets all teleporting units within 12" arrive without scatter, and allows the owning player to modify reserve rolls by plus or minus one. In a Deep Strike-heavy army, with Terminators or such like, the Damocles is one of the best choices you can make. Also, don't buy it. Converting a normal Rhino is easy enough; try the radar dish part that comes with it plus the Comm Relay that comes with the Bastion, which fits perfectly in a Razorback turret mount. Special mention to Anton Narvaez (see below) and this thing. Synergize beautifully together both on the table and in the fluff.

Special Characters

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.

Ultramarines

• Marneus Augustus Calgar - Papa Smurf is the most expensive character in the codex (meaning he'll likely become a Lord of War come 8E Codex time), and also the most powerful in hand-to-hand, other than Lysander. He's a Chapter Master with double power-fists, an AP 2 storm bolter , Eternal Warrior, Titanic Might gives him Tank Hunters in CC and His main power is "God of War" which lets you use a Combat Doctrine twice. He can roll for his Codex Warlord Trait THREE times and let you pick which one you want. He can also swap-out his artificer armour for Terminator armor (allowing him to deep-strike) and even gets a free teleport homer, it should be noted he can still Sweeping Advance in terminator armour. He also has a power sword, you know, in case you don't want to hit at Initiative 1, but nobody ever uses it. It's worth noting that his powerfists are NOT specialist weapons, meaning that if some dickish Eldar player tries to disarm him to reduce his attacks, use the sword and a powerfist and keep on fisting that Avatar. He also has the most useless rule that lets him take 3 Honour Guard units which is pointless in most situations, if only because no one has that many spare points lying around. If you've noticed, pretty much his entire arsenal makes a mockery out of armor saves, even his ranged weapons. Also lets you choose to pass or fail any and all Morale checks (great if someone charges your devastator centurions). Still, the Papa is horribly expensive for what he does and the new codex upped his cost.
  • Alternate Take: Calgar should be seriously considered for any Ultramarine player out there. Trying to make a similar Chapter Master will end up costing about the same without Calgar's exceptional special rules. Being able to pass or fail any morale check combined with ATSKNF is one of the best abilities in the game. Need to make sure that one marine stays on that objective last turn? Don't want to run off the board turn one since 2 marines died in shooting? Calgar stares them down and makes them stay. If you are clever, you can even use it to get squads out of sticky situations without penalty by failing clutch leadership rolls such as a morale check after taking 25% casualties after going to ground. Pretend you're Imperial Guard for a bit. Hell, his Honour Guard rule can even be used to take 3 minimum size squads and give them options to either attack the 3 man squad and ignore your scoring units or get assaulted by a fairly nasty cheap CC squad. Using a combat doctrine twice allows for you to deal with threats you army may not have the best tools to deal with. Flying circus? Devastor doctrine twice. Fighting Tau? Assault doctrine twice. General fire fight? Pop tactical doctrine again. And you don't have to choose which you need until you use it the second time. Calgar relies on clever usage to be effective, just like he should be. Yes, he's expensive, don't forget that, but he is costed right for all the buffs he gives your army unlike other special characters. (Looking at you Khan...)
  • Herculean Feat (Apocalypse) - If Papa Smurf is within 18" of a Necron Super-heavy or Transcendent C'Tan when he calls his finest hour he gets fleet and also bumps his base strength up to 5, which gets doubled to 10 due to his mighty fists. This is so he can play frisbee with necron pylons, but is unlikely to ever happen considering the relative scarcity of Necron players in Apocalypse level games. Also, the difference between S8 and S10 is largely academic in most situations especially since he already has rerolls from "Titanic Might". Unless you are specifically punching high armour vehicles.

• Cato Sicarius - A somewhat expensive Captain. He allows one *tactical* squad to take either Counter-Attack, Infiltrate, Scout, or Tank Hunters, and gives you a +1 to Reserve Rolls. He's stuck with the crappy one-use Furious Charge warlord trait. Cato is pretty 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. By the way, his loadout is the default loadout for 4th Edition Captains, so he is somewhat nostalgic. And he is a glory whore, really.
  • Redemption Calls (Apocalypse) - Like Mac Daddy, Sicarius gets a boost to his finest hour when within 18" of necron big vehicles/monsters by jumping his WS/BS to 10 and giving him a free Vortex Grenade. This is marginally better than the Herculean feat, mostly because it gives him a re-roll on his plasma pistol shot, but even against most necron opponents, he was already hitting on 3s so is essentially only getting -1 on hits against him. The Vortex Grenade is what makes it special, as it will make that superheavy go "poof".

• Varro Tigurius - Tigurius has gotten cheaper in the 6th edition codex while retaining the ability to re-roll reserves. He has access to all the BRB disciplines including the much vaunted Divination and can also re-roll psychic powers which makes him much more likely to get a set of powers that you want. He's still your only option for Mastery Level 3 from the base Codex, and his exclusive Psychic Hood lets him re-roll failed psychic tests. If you make him your warlord then his warlord power also lets him grant one unit re-rolls to hit in the shooting phase once per game which isn't amazing, but always useful. It may be best to keep him behind the lines where he can place numerous blessings on your units and improve reserve rolls as his baseline stats are relatively fragile. A good supporting HQ. With rerolling for Psychic Powers and the improved nature of his unique psychic hood in 7th edition, he can be turned into a combat beast quite readily on the Biomancy table, potentially being S9 A7 AP2 I7 on the charge.

• 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 with the boltgun having the "poisoned (2+)" special rule, though it's only S1. 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 10 points more expensive than a stock Chaplain with Terminator, and a lot more survivable. He and his unit now cause Fear thanks to his Warlord Trait. Make a squad with him and Calgar for some majority toughness dickery.

Imperial Fists

• 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. His utility has mostly been lost from the previous edition, and his price has been increased by 30 points, but the destructive power of Lysander is undeniable as very few units in the space marine codex can deliver strength 10 close combat attacks and take the equivalent in return. It is worth noting that Lysander also allows all friendly Imperial fists within 12" to reroll morale and pinning checks, including himself, which ensures your battleline remains intact and friendly units are always on hand to respond to any changes in the field. Seriously though, his unwieldy initiative and 3 attacks mean he won't be clearing tarpits very well, but in a challenge, he has been proven one of the greatest character slayers in the game. He can go toe-to-toe with Calgar, Moloc, Ghazghkull, or Abaddon with a good chance of winning.

• Pedro Kantor - While Pedro boasts the same statline as a regular chapter master, his viability is assured in the numerous support special rules he carries, including the ability to confer Objective Secured to Sternguard Veteran, which allows these flexible units a greater degree of use on the field, holding down any objectives they might have cleared rather than waiting on a troops choice to move in and pick it up. In addition, all friendly units in his detachment have the Preferred Enemy (Orks) special rule, and all models within 12" gain +1 attack, amplifying the combat potential of your specialists, such as vanguard vets, terminators and honor guard. In terms of equipment, Pedro suffers from the lack of artificer armour and eternal warrior, making the character rather squishy in comparison to other special characters out there, this of course is evident in close combat, where his powerfist is more of a hindrance than a boon. Alternatively, Pedro can sit just outside of close combat, as one of his main strengths is his storm bolter, a 4 shot weapon with an AP of 4 which allows Pedro to suppress light units and deal quite a few casualties to any unit in the open, this is topped by his orbital bombardment, allowing him to deliver a high explosive payload on any unit you see fit.
  • Pedro can do something very, very unique in 7th edition. He allows you to run a unbound army list with all the OP/fluffy fun that entails while also giving you objective secured, namely on your Sternguard an infantry unit that is worth going unbound to get six squads of, and let me tell you, having seen it done this may be one of the most rage inducing army there is. Forget five riptide force, a army of sternguard with combi meltas or grav guns will eat it for lunch. Excepting 2+ save units (and even then with the aformentioend grav/melta combis) no unit can get a save from them. 5+ armor but in cover? ignore cover shooting. 4+ amour, Ap 4 rounds, power armor? AP 3 round. only 4+ and 3+ units have a chance, and that's only if they hang out in cover so they have to use the AP round rather then the cover ignoring bullet, and the most bitter, bitter pill, is that the squads have objective secured so even trying to play to the objectives won't help all that much.

Black Templars

• High Marshal Helbrecht - New to the Vanilla Marines codex, Helbrecht is the High Marshal (Chapter Master) of the Black Templars. He has the stats of a regular chapter master with artificer armor, a combi-melta, a master-crafted power sword that gives him d3 bonus attacks on the charge, and the Imperium's Sword Warlord trait. However he lacks an Orbital Bombardment, even though he's the Master of a fleet-based Chapter. Go figure. His wargear isn't anything special, but he's pretty point efficient for what you get. With the bonus from his sword he can get an ungodly seven attacks on a charge, meaning he's likely to eat most of a squad. His special rule Crusader of Wrath, grants him and all other space marines hatred and fleet for one assault phase, making for a truly horrific army-wide charge. His sword is only AP3 so he'll still get bogged down by 2+ saves outside of challenges where he'll have rending. Also, due to the rules for Hatred units already locked in close combat will not get the bonus from it when he uses Crusade of Wrath, so don't expect it to break your units out of tar pits they're already stuck in.

• Chaplain Grimaldus - Another Black Templars character. He's gotten slightly cheaper, has another wound, and has It Will Not Die which replaces his previous Only in Death Does Duty End rule. He also has the Zealot rule and projects it to any Black Templar units within 6" of him. His servitors also project a 6+ invulnerable save to any Black Tempar within 6" of him. He's not a frontline dueling character but he works well if used with Helbrecht to make your Crusader Squads enter BEAST MODE.

• Emperor's Champion - The third Black Templars character. He retains most of his original stats and has all the same wargear. The Black Sword is AP2 Master crafted, and his armor gives him 2+/4++. He is no longer mandatory for lists over 750 and isn't restricted to joining troop squads, but you no longer get to take vows. He always issues and accepts challenges, and can now choose between two stances when in challenges. One makes the black sword a Relic Blade with unwieldy, the second makes him cause instant death on a roll of 6 to wound. For 140 points he's essentially a nerfed Captain, with -1 to BS, W, and A. Except that he comes with an AP2 sword and he doesn't need BS, he's not going to be shooting. He's a good choice if you want a substitute to handle an assault that the Captain is too busy to reach, but in most cases he's too expensive to justify that. You're only gonna take him if you wanna play a fluffy list. Or else stick him next to Helbrecht to take challenges and deal with 2+ saves.

Raven Guard

• 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 himself has Stealth and Infiltrate, but can only join Jump Infantry units before deploying. A captain with the same wargear (and artificer armor) costs less, so you must carefully consider how valuable the special rules he lends (to himself and one squad) are.
  • NOTE - UNBOUND Shrike with Sanguinary Guard = Winged Command Squad and lots of fun. Experiment people. 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. While taking a biker command squad retinue sounds good at first glance, bikers get a 5+ jink save, and Shrike does not - so he would be blasted off the table in a single volley of focus-fire, and as previously stated, Shrike may only join with Jump Infantry before deploying, meaning that you will need to join during the course of the game, so good luck pulling that off.
  • Alternate Take: Shrike is about subversion and misdirection. He can infiltrate a Vanguard Vet squad near an opponents weak point in their front line or on a flank to wreak havoc in their back field. He is not designed to go toe-to-toe with Abaddon. He exploits weakness in the true Raven Guard way. Go hunt some skimmers, Long Fangs or the like then cut back in and slaughter their front line from behind the moment your line connects. Shrike requires more prowess than a player starting out to use properly.
  • Beacon of Hope (Apocalpyse): A lesser version of the same rule that Azrael gets for his Finest Hour, but can be activated on the turn (or turn after) he arrives from reserve. Granting friendly Imperial Guard units within 24" Fearless & Counter-attack. While Fearless can be useful considering the huge amount of casualties involved in Apocalypse games, it requires you to be teamed up with Guard and so doesn't give any further benefit to Shrike's finest hour unfortunately.
• Shadow Captain Korvydae (Forge World): One of the few non-Badab War Forgeworld characters, he is a Captain with Artificer Armour, Thunder Hammer, Jump Pack and Melta Bombs. Costing 5 points LESS than a normal captain with the same wargear, while giving his squad Hit and Run (but only if the squad is equipped with Jump Pack. But then again, why would you put him in a squad without them?) and makes Assault Squad a troop choice! He also force you to take at least one Scout Squad in your force, but that's not a bad bargain, all things considered. In short he allows you to build a fluffy RG army while being a lot cheaper, killier and more survivable than Shrike (which is quite sad...). Not the strongest special character in existence, but an excellent one for the Raven Guard.
  • Do note that he doesn't come with a warlord trait, so feel free to roll on any table you want. Like a true Shadow Captain you should adapt your force to your opponent.
  • Also of note is his lack of chapter tactics. That's only natural, since he is a relic of the past and his rules were never updated (Although Forge World seems intentioned to update all the Imperial Armour Books, so it shouldn't be long) but don't let That Guy find this out, because he will exploit the absence of the rule and use it against you, and sadly you won't be able to do anything to argue against him.

Salamanders

• Vulkan He'stan - Previously one of the most commonly used special characters, Vulkan is now Salamanders-only (thankfully). Vulkan has the same stat-line as a Captain (while not actually *being* a Captain currently in the fluff, he was one before becoming Forgefather, so he does have 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). Use him to kill any and all infantry short of TEQ. His Warlord Trait, Iron Resolve, adds +1 to combat results for his unit, further enhancing his effectiveness. He adds onto the "Chapter Tactics (Salamanders)" rule by making ALL meltaguns, combi-meltas, and multi-meltas in his detachment master-crafted. Enemy vehicle crews will shit themselves at the very thought of drop podding melta squads. Taking him results in a chain reaction: you want a lot of melta to make the most out of his Awesome special rule, thus making your army even more focussed on short range firepower. Not really a problem though, since you're salamanders. You did take lot of flamers too, right??
  • With his 2+/3++, Vulkan fits in nicely with a squad of Thunder Hammer Terminators, and since he strikes at initiative 5, he can take out those pesky power fists in the enemy squad before they mulch your expensive terminators.
  • There is also an exploit using RAW concerning the master-crafting of combi-meltas. If you take He'Stan and Sternguard and give them combi-meltas then the special ammunition portion of the boltgun part of the combi-weapon is also technically master-crafted as well.
• Pellas Mir’San (Forge World): The Winter Blade, Captain of the Salamander's second company and a really cheap investement for what he gives: he has the standard Captain profile, but with +1 WS, and comes with Artificer Armour, a Close Combat Weapon and a Combi-Flamer. He also has one special weapon (Cinder Edge) that's basically a Master Crafted Power Sword with AP 2. It still strike only at strenght 4, sadly, but is one of the rare AP 2 weapons that aren't unwieldy, and is not Two-Handed or Specialist Weapon, so he receive the +1 attack for his extra sword! He was clearly designed for challenges, as his warlord trait give him 1 victory point for any character he slain in challenges, while his Master Duellist rule allows him to either give himself +1 attack or his opponent -1 while in a challenge. For his cost he is one of the best challengers in the game, but remember to keep him away from the heavy weights: he wouldn't last 2 seconds. Lastly he can pull out the same trick of Calgar's God of War, but only for his squad though. While not as impressive as Calgar's rule, this is still pretty good and gives you a lot of controll over morale checks, so don't ever overlook it.
  • All in all he is a good and cheap support/fighter HQ, although, sadly, he doesn't compare to the other special options you get, not giving anything to your army except for the squad he is in, while not being a close combat monster like a lot of other special characters.
• Harath Shen (Forgeworld): Master apothecary with the profile of a Chaplain/Librarian, Artificer Armor, Plasma Pistol, Power Sword and Digital Weapons. He has Chapter Tactics (Salamanders) but, strangely enough, he doesn't have a Master Crafted weapon. But don't let that discourage you: for 135 pts, Shen allow you to put FNP 4+ in the squad you need it and, while he has no invuln, he gets to reroll Look Out Sir rolls AND he gives his squad +1 to the score to determine the result of any assault. If you ever want 2+/3++ FNP (4+) assault terminators (and who doesn’t?), this guy delivers. Also has a really unique warlord trait where you can get victory points back for destroyed units within 6" on a 5+. Not really impressive, but you don't take him for that, you take him for the TROLL!
• Bray’Arth Ashmatle (Forgeworld): Dreadnought HQ, forged by primarch Vulkan himself! Bray’Arth is a hell of a monster: with his front armor 13, 4 HP, venerable, extra armour, It Will not Die and immune to ALL extra dice roll to armor penetration (melta, armourbane, rending, Kharn, fucking Vindicare turbopenetrator shot, etc.) and to all effects that would reduce his armor, he is almost impossible to kill, without S10 weapon or some weird shit like haywire or gauss. He also has +1 WS and Attacks compared to a normal Venerable Dreadnought and is armed with two DCCW’s with inbuilt Heavy Flamers, which also can count as single Twin-Linked Meltagun. One thing that should be noted is that, unlike normal Dreadnoughts, he has Chapter Tactics (Salamanders) so his dual Heavy Flamers are a lot more deadly than normal! He can also forgo one close combat attack to auto hit anything in base contact with him (Friend or Foe, so be carefull and don't forget this) with a S5 AP4 hit at Initiative 1, for when that big unit thinks itself smart and try to tarpit him for the rest of the game. Basically he can take on everything barring Titans and the like, but beware Swooping Hawks and... Fire Warriors in melee - sure, they only hit him on a 5+ and his Burning Wrath could kill a lot of them, but remeber that it happens at initiative 1, which might be too late after he got haywired. Also his warlord trait (he CAN be the warlord, but only if there are no other HQs) gives him one Victory point for each vehicles with at leat one armour value of 12+ and/or Independent Character that he destroys in an assault, but only if there aren't other friendly models in the assault (Not really a problem for this Beast). This is Awesome since, unlike similar traits, doesn't state that he need to be in a challenge for this to work and he can trash most vehichles like they're not even there. Of course, he is extremely expensive, at both points and pounds, but he totally worth every point and penny. Put him into Lucius pattern drop pod. Drop him in to the middle of enemy gunline. Laugh maniacally. Field him against Bjorn and make compensating jokes.

White Scars

• Kor'sarro Khan - This crazy Mongol adds onto "Chapter Tactics (White Scars)" by giving every bike squad and squad with a dedicated transport scout, which in turn allows for outflanking, allowing them to come in from the side of the table; additionally, he has Furious Charge, which he does not confer to his unit. 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 an awesome character for a White Scars army. 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 squad of Assault Terminators in a Land Raider? Hell yeah.

Forge World

There are also a lot of special characters from Forge World Badab War IA-s. NOTE: Forge World has released new Chapter Tactics for all the Chapters relevant to these characters. If you take a character with the Chapter Tactics of one of the Forge World Chapters, you have to take them in a detachment of that Chapter. However, some of the Forge World Chapters have the same Chapter Tactics as Chapters in Codex: Space Marines, and you can take those characters in those armies, i.e., Vaylund Cal in an Iron Hands detachment. Most of these characters also have updated rules not yet discussed here.

Red Scorpions

• Lord High Commander Carab Culln: Chapter master, with terminator armor, teleport homer, MC storm bolter and his AP3 MC Power Sword with good ol' 6E Smash, Eternal Warrior and any Red Scorpion in his detachment can use his leadership for Morale and Pinning. His warlord trait (and if you take him, he'll ALWAYS be Warlord) gives any Red Scorpions within 12" locked in combat a +1 to combat resolution; +2 if he himself in is a challenge however he can never make a Look Out Sir!.
  • Commander Carab Culln: Same Guy, but back when he was first captain. Most of the same wargear, except his sword is a the Sword Tear of the Scorpion, and he still packs Termie Armor and a homer. All Red Scorpions can still use his Ld for Morale and Pinning. Any squad he joins gets Stubborn, Counter-Attack, and can re-roll to-hit when outnumbered in assault. Also, when he's Warlord, all combat occurring within 12" of him gets +1 for his side's combat resolution , upped to +2 if he is in a Challenge. Biggest downside is his inability to take LoS!, but that shouldn't be an issue if you stack him with a Tac, Command, or Vet Squad to get some FNP.
• Sevrin Loth: Chief Librarian with ML3 and can pick his powers from Biomancy, Telepathy or Telekinesis. Yes, pick, not roll, but they all have to be from the same discipline - get all that Biomancy goodies with Enfeeble, Endurance and maybe Life Leech to restore Peril wounds (with 3 powers per turn you WOULD get perils) and grab that free Smite. He has a 2+ armor save, which can become 2+ invulnerable (with a warp charge spent, no psy test required), and he has gotten much cheaper at 175 pts. Also, he can have honour guard, except better. Because, you see, his honour guard can have axes, and he can give them force dome, or FNP/relentless if you go biomancy. Because of this, and since axes aren't specialist weapons, they get 4 ap2 attacks each on the charge, 5 for the champ. And that's without a banner, which wouldn't be bad in a unit of Sevrin Loth +4 guards. Not so bad compared to assault termies now, eh?
  • Also, since all his powers have to be taken from the same discipline; Psychic Focus applies, since it doesn't necessarily mean you have generate them randomly. Just that your generated powers have to come from the same discipline.
  • Remember, he can take from telepathy. Meaning invisibility. This guy will destroy in challenges.

Astral Claws

• Lugft Huron: Chapter master, with terminator armor, heavy flamer, and AP2 lightning claw which forces opponent to reroll successful invulns. His orbital bombardment is S10 AP1 ordnance 2, his “living legend” rule makes all your army Ld10. He can come back from the dead... but only once. But he is expensive as hell for 235 pts. Still better in combat than Draigo (who's more expensive), and could even take on Abbadon/Swarmlord. He still has orbital bombardment and his warlord trait (who gives counter attack to units that enters from reserve) for support, and can deep strike. Main problem is that he's astral claws, with one of the worst chapter tactics. If you take him for his combat ability, then go unbound and bring him by himself in a seperate detatchment.
• Corien Sumatris: Captain, with +1WS, -1BS, MC power weapon, which gives him +1 additional attack on charge, storm shield, and some weird 12’’-range assault bolter. His main ability is to give Furious Charge to his squad (and himself) and +1WS to all your infantry within 12’’ of him. At 165 pts. he is a bit costly, so use his special powers properly (obviously, by putting him in dedicated CC squad).
• Armenneus Valthex: Master of the Forge, also known as “Alchemancer” with conversion beamer and some weird techno-thing called “Indynabula” which counts as two power weapons, and give him 5+ invuln, counter-strike USR. He can also make one squad’s bolters poisoned 2+, turning them to cheap wannabe-sternguards. But why the heck would you do that when you can poison Terminator storm bolters or (with the new pdf update) a Bike Squads twin-linked bolters? Think synergy people! Ever poisoned a Wraithknight to death? It is great fun! And he's surprisingly cheap, assuming his shiny wargear - maybe, to compensate those schizophrenic combination of ranged-oriented and close-combat-oriented bits.

Minotaurs

• Asterion Moloc: chapter master with terminator armor, storm shield, and eternal warrior but one less attack with basically a Custodes halberd (S+2 AP2 two handed weapon), except it shoots a powerful laser beam once per game instead of bolts. He also gives assault grenades and fearless to his squad and his "Sanctioned Fratricide" rule give his whole army the Preferred Enemy (Space Marines) at a cost of making all of them desperate allies. He is VERY expensive, but he has one of the few AP2 close combat weapons without unwieldy in a vanilla marine army, and with so many loyal marine armies around, preferred enemy could work more often than not.
• Ivanus Enkomi: Chaplain with "Crozius Arkanos" (S:User Master Crafted, Concussive, AP3 with built-in twin linked grenade launcher) power fist, jump pack and With +1 initiative, +1 attack, and extra +1 attack on charge for him and his squad he costs only 25 pts more than a vanilla chaplain with fist and jet pack.

Others

• Anton Narvaez: Marines Errant captain, though a new to his position, only recently pronoted from the position of a ship captain, and his stats tell, spotting -1 WS compared to the regular cap. He comes with a power weapon, bolt pistol, MC plasma gun and 3+ invuln instead of 4+ (with 50% chance to lose it each time it fails). He also has Scout and Move Through Cover USR’s. Can select D3 units of Tacticals, Devastators, Sternguard or himself and any Command Squad he has with him to Deep Strike via teleportation rolling 3 dice for scatter dropping the highest if the don't get a 'hit'. Overal a nice and cheap tactical HQ.
• Ahazra Redth: Mantis Warriors chief librarian. He is not a monster-psyker, like Tigurius or Loth, and is only ML2 but generates only one power due to the other one being "Mirage", but he'd still be able to use Psychic Focus and gain a free primaris power out of it. Has special psychic power to make multilasers On the other hand he does have a built-in 5+ invuln and is able to re-roll his first failed psychic test. His special psy-power “Mirage” gives his unit shrouded, and if they're attacked, their attackers make a disordered charge. Which is beyond awesome. His Warlord trait also gives any squad he joins Night Vision and Interceptor, which is pretty cool. On top of this, epistolary librarian cost only 15 pts less than Redth. Also, he is the only vanilla marine other than Tigurius with access to divination psychic powers, meaning he can make his squad durable with mirage, and then make them shootier AND killier with prescience. Win.
  • Take Redth and assault termies in Land Raider. Cast Mirage on LR and screen it with some tall, fast and cheap models (allied Rough Riders comes in mind). Look at your opponent face when he realize your über metal box has 3+ cover.
• Elam Courbray: Legion of the Damned Fire Hawks captain with jump pack and rending power sword, as well as I6. Like Culln, Elam can choose to do a SMASH attack instead but, strangely enough, his smash doesn't give him AP 2, only double strenght and reroll for armour penetration. However his sword has rending (and soul blaze...woohoo.) so you still have a slim chance to pass through terminator armour. Very slim (Hint: don't go hunting terminators in melee). Though he isn't a combat monster (but far to be a terrible one) he can really buff his squad, giving them Hit and Run and Counter Attack USRs. Also, his warlord trait is a blast attack when he deep strikes which he doesn't need to scatter around. He is also the only space marine character (outside of the blood angels) that can have a command squad with jump packs, making him suddenly a lot more valuable: kit them with a lot of flamers and watch the unholy hell being unleashed against your opponet!
• Mordaci Baylock: Novamarines terminator-captain with MC-shredding chainfist and storm bolter (WTF?). He can make his terminator squad choose to fail or pass any morale and pinning test, make terminators scoring and… that’s all. He cost 30 pts. more than vanilla captain with his wargear, so, take him only if you have a lot of termies, Though if you are, why aren't your playing Dark Angels?
• Tarnus Vale: Fire Angels Captain with… WHAT? Plasma pistol and chainsword? What the fuck? Why 165 points? He got nerfed in the update, But then you realize that he has Stubborn and Tank Hunters... as does any Transport he's in... which can also use his Ballistic Skill. In addition all of your Razorbacks, Rhinos and Land Raiders get 5+ Invulnerable saves against Glancing Hits, nice but not broken.
• Zhurukhal Androcles: Star Phantom captain with power fist and combi-melta. Makes Devastator Elites AND Heavy support and little else. Though not as devastating as Vale, he is cheaper and actually have some decent wargear.
• Silas Alberec: Exorcists captain with MC thunder hammer and S5 (which always wound daemons on 2+, if S10 isn't enough), bolt pistol, teleport homer. He gives FNP 5+ to himself and his unit against ANYTHING with psychic powers or marks of chaos or daemons, and his warlord trait lets you take morale checks on 3D6 and choosing the best. and is reasonably priced for his wargear.
• Lias Issodon: Reasonable Marines Raptors chapter master. Ten less points than Shrike without any of the downsides. He only has a power sword and pistol for close combat, -1WS and +1BS, compared to a standard chapter master, but is armed with some monstrous R30 Salvo 2/4 bolter with special ammunition (that must use the profiles described in C:SM), and can use the Raptor tactic of H1 rending, so he is a shooty chapter master, which is rare. He has no Invulnerable save, but this is made up for with artificer armour and shroud. The main reason you would like to take him is his special abilities: he forces a -1 on enemy reserve rolls, can re-roll his own reserves (even successful ones), and he can cripple (or even kill) one enemy's MC or vehicle before the game even starts. For some reason he doesn't have an invulnerable save or orbital bombardment, but he is relatively cheap, so shut up, camp his Raptors in the covers and shoot people to death like reasonable marines should do.
  • Thanks to his updated default Warlord Trait in 7th edition, you can now infiltrate him and up to three units and be able to build around this fact. How about 30 Assault Terminators w/ TH&SS starting 18" from your units for a start? Or how about a squad of Devastator Centurions halfway up the board? 2+ cover saves in ruins (shroud) on those bastards is just mean.
    • If you want a fluffy Raptors Command Squad for him. Take a squad of 10 Sternguard and let the Dakka fly. Honor Guard also get to use Raptors chapter tactics if you take them.
• Tyberos The Red Wake: Carcharodons chapter master with terminator armor and two weapons, which could count as lightning claws or chainfists and allocate hits with either as he wants with 5 base attacks. No iron halo, so his invuln is only 5+. Tyberos himself is a terrifying murderous machine in close combat, when subject to RAGE! usr, he AND EVERY Carcharodon unit that is subject to Rage becomes +1 str for the rest of the battle. His warlord trait 'savage beyond reason' gives him and his unit preferred enemy (infantry). He also allows you to take one LC-terminator unit as troops. And he costs less than a vanilla chapter master with two chainfists.
• Vaylund Cal: Iron Hands Sons of Medusa Master of the Forge with iron halo, thunder hammer, servo-harness, and monstrous creature stat line. Being an Iron Hand he gets FnP 6+ and It Will Not Die and +1 to Repair rolls. While being expensive as hell, he could put a lot of hurt in close combat and extremely hard to kill for his T6. For further expense, he can give devastator units in the army Toughness 5 for 50 points per squad, but don't expect it to save you against plasma firepower.
• Thulsa Doom Kane: Executioners high chaplain with artificer armor, plasma pistol and S6 AP2 Unwieldy sword. With +1WS/BS/W/A, eternal warrior and big 12” aura of “reroll 1 on to-wound” he also gives friendly Executioners squads +1 to their assault results and +1 to their sweeping advance provided he is fighting in a challenge. The only thing, Kane don’t have, is jump pack to join assault squad, or terminator armor to join teleporting assault termies.
• Chaplain-Dreadnought Titus: Howling Griffons dreadnought with +1 attack, which can reroll failed to hit roll in CC, and make everyone within 12” fearless. Also, despite being a vehicle he also becomes a Scoring unit if he's the only HQ left in the army and can also benefit from Ultramarines chapter tactics. For 15 pts. more than ordinary venerable dreadnought In 6-th editions venerable dreads are shit, so don't even think to take Titus unless you REALLY want that 12"-fearless aura.

Troops

• Tactical Squad - Your bread-and-butter scoring units. These guys don't excel at anything but are decent at everything. Unfortunately, their balance tends to be their downfall as most other basic troops tend to be better at everything than they are (see: Grey Hunters), and they're a tad expensive when fully kitted out. Keep them at a distance if possible, but keep in mind to make effective use of your Rapid Fire range. Great for camping objectives as the one thing they're best at doing is staying alive for a good while. Always take Rhinos or Razorbacks with your Tacs, even if they're camping an objective. Metal Boxes make excellent walls and mobile shields for your troops. Take at least 2 squads of these guys in every army.
  • 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 if you do, remember to shoot with your pistols/grenades/assault weapons first.
  • If you manage to run away and your enemy catches you, your Marines aren't auto-killed but continue the fight instead (6-th ed threw No Retreat rule away). Remember this! Next thing to remember, if your enemy does not catch you and you broke out in their close-combat phase, on your next turn which comes right up your Marines are auto-rallied as usual. They also count as not having moved. In other words, rocket launcher in the face or 6" move.
  • Loadouts for Tacs will usually consist of a few configurations: Flamer, Multi-Melta, and Combi-Weapon or Power Weapon on the Sergeant is the tried-and-true kit that threatens Infantry and Tanks both, and discourages either from getting close to your squad. Any Special Weapon, Missile Launcher, and Power Fist on the Sergeant is the old 5th Edition default for using Combat Squads by leaving the ML behind to take potshots at armor or infantry while your Rhino advances with the Sarge and special weapon. And finally, a Meltagun, Multi-Melta, and Combi-Melta on the Sarge, aka the Meltabunker, which decks your squad out for anti-tank duty. Thanks to the revised Combat Squads, you can leave the Multi-Melta in the Rhino to take shots from mobile protection (a pseudo MM turret for your Rhino) while your Sarge and Meltagunner can get out and hold an objective while discouraging enemy tanks from approaching them.
  • Never take a CC weapon, grav or plasma pistol on the Sergeant. Ever. They're worthless, and they scare nobody. Not Orks, not that nasty squad of Terminators, not the rampaging Khorne Berserkers. They're far too expensive and they take away points from your list. If you are nuts enough to take a plasma pistol though, your opponent will give you respect knuckles when your Sergeant one-shots a rampaging Dreadnought.
  • Also, this is the edition of MC's and hard-to-kill infantry, not vehicles. Outfitting them with meltaguns makes their use far too specific and the role is better given to a unit that can do AT and something else at the same time just as well. (e.g a Tri-Las Predator)
  • Do not take Heavy weapons in a Tactical squad if you are planning on having that squad be mobile (such as in Mech lists, Drop pod lists, or if they are moving in a transport of any sort). Only put them in units that you plan on having sit in one place for the entire game (combat squad on an objective).
  • Carcharodon tactical marines. 10pts (or free, sacrificing bolters) to give everyone in the squad an extra attack, gain RAGE after destroying an infantry unit in close combat (Tyberos' Scent of Blood rule adds +1S).
  • Probably the best Chapter Tactics for these guys are the Imperial Fist ones. Rerolls to bolt pistols and bolters (and heavy bolters, combi-weapons firing as bolters, and storm bolters) when rolling a one is sweet. It BS4 bolt weapon firing to almost the same accuracy as BS5 (normal BS4 is 24/36 chance to hit.. but with Imperial Fist Chapter Tactics BS4 is 28/36 chance to hit, which is almost normal BS5's 30/36 chance).

• Crusader Squad (Black Templars) - Essentially a beefed up tactical squad that is capable of taking neophytes as meatshields and a Sword Brother as a Veteran Sergeant for your initiates to survive longer and therefore be able to make the charge once they have gotten within range. They come standard with the Black Templars Chapter Tactics.
  • There are two ways to kit out your neophytes for close combat. Pistol/CCW allows a S4 AP5 shot before combat, and two S4 attacks at I4. The Shotgun option allows for two S4 shots before combat and a S4 attack at I4. The AP5 of the bolt pistol will rarely be more useful than the extra shot before overwatch is even fired. Also keep in mind the shooting attacks will always hit on a 4+, whereas the close combat attacks (at WS3) will sometimes hit on a 5+. Another consideration is that you might accidentally gimp your charge distance if you kill too many models in the shooting phase-shotguns can do this if you run into Termagaunts or the like. Black Templars should be running in the shooting phase to make use of their Crusaders special rule. The only time this wouldn't be true is if your squad used an LRC to get up close and is already within 6 inches of the enemy and can assault that turn. Crusader Squads want lots of Bolt Pistols and CCWs if you are using anything other than 5 man las-plas squads because Crusader Squads should be focused on assaulting. Use tactical squads if you want to sit back and shoot.
    • If you wish to switch between these options, assemble your scouts with close combat weapons and pistols, then trim the hands off the shotgun models and glue them to the scouts back as though holstered.
  • Also, don't make the mistake of giving a Crusader Squad a heavy weapon if you're running any squad bigger than the 5-man special/heavy squad. Crusader Squads can't Combat Squad, and you always want to be playing aggressively with Black Templars. Use the slot you'd normally use for a heavy weapon to buy either a power weapon or power fist.
  • You can get both a special AND a heavy weapon with just 5 guys. Thats right, Las/Plas is back baby!

• Scout Squad - Thanks to 7E rules, snipers no longer pin, so the novelty of sniper scouts took a hit, as pinning down squads made them a decent investment. Rending is still there basically, but hoping to roll 6's against MC's etc is a waste of points which can be better spent. A decent unit, especially if you want to focus on more expensive units for your army. You really don't need more than one squad of these guys, if any at all to go along with Tacs. Scouting and Infiltrating, they can put a Teleport Homer on the board rather fast and uncomfortably close to your enemy's forces, so keep that in mind if you run Terminators of either flavor. Not the worst unit in the world, but your points are often better spent elsewhere.
  • One of the classic Scout combos is to take a Techmarine (Master Of the Forge or a Thunderfire Cannon's crew also count). Give your scouts Camo Cloaks, put them into a ruin that you "fortify" with the aforementioned Techmarine's special power, and enjoy a 2+ cover save.
  • A final tactic worth mentioning is the "Shrike Stampede" You 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. You're just not allowed to assault in the first player turn, with infiltrating/scouting units. If you go second (your first turn is the second player turn), then you can still assault in game turn 1 with infiltrating units. This is unfortunately not a fact. Verbatim from the 7th Ed Rulebook: "A unit that makes a Scout redeployment cannot charge in the first GAME turn. So even if you go second, you're still not allowed to charge.
  • Torias Telion (Ultramarines) - An upgrade to a Scout Sergeant, Telion gives you a Rending, 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). Useful for putting pressure on your opponent and picking off specialists, which he will at least once in a game (problem, hidden Power Fists?) Pricey, so consider your points. Also worth noting that he gives free Stealth to his unit. So combined with the Techmarine-ruin-camo cloak strategy above, or even hidden in regular area terrain, his 2+ cover save makes him tough to flush out.
  • Scouts are have a great place in manning the Quad Gun on the Aegis Defense Line. Take Sniper Rifles and a rocket launcher, put them behind the line with an objective in your deployment zone, and have one guy man the Quad Gun. Throw in Telion with his free stealth cloaks for delicious 2+ save and the ability to have a BS6 rocket or Quad Gun at will and you have a rather solid back line.
  • Bear in mind, the wording of the rules for scouts says that the sniper rifle only replaces the boltgun. The sergeant can take items from the melee and ranged wargear lists, and both of those state that the model in question replaces his bolt pistol for the listed weapons. So yes, you can have a scout sergeant with a sniper rifle in one hand and a combi-weapon in the other, or a power weapon, or a lightning claw, or (hilariously) a thunder hammer. While funny, the combo probably isn't terribly effective, but the combi-weapon might be worth it as a nasty surprise for the slugga boyz charging the ruin where your sniper scouts are holed up, especially if you don’t have the leftover points for Telion and/or you’re not running with Ultramarines chapter tactics.
  • According to the wording in the rule book, models choose their weapons individually. Meaning you can take a squad of 5 w/ Snipers and 5 w/ Shotguns and a Land Speeder Storm, and at the beginning of the game, Combat Squad them and stick the melee squad in the Storm while the Snipers hang out in ruins with a Techmarine.

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 beyond "use it!" Seriously, don't footslog your marines. A walking marine is a dead marine, and dead men hold no objectives. The only upgrades recommended are the Dozer Blade and maybe Hunter-Killer Missiles (if you have a lot of HK's in your army already). Once the guys are out of it, you can basically throw it away in petty dick moves like preventing charges, blocking line of sight (tossing a dozer blade on the sucker will make this glorious bastard even longer, thus potentially blocking even more 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 glance 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.
  • NOTE: look on the entry for the rhino in your codex and you will notice a rule that no-one ever uses, which is a shame because it totally rocks: opt out of shooting for a 1/6 chance of repairing an immobilized result. Your opponent cries when he thinks he's immobilised your transport and then it starts moving again. I mean, what else are you going to do in that phase? You're not Chaos, you don't get decent guns on your Rhinos.
  • Exploit 7th Edition rules: Did you take a Drop pod with your troops choice? No? Then take a rhino! Vehicles got harder to insta-slag without dedicated (AP1/AP2) firepower pointed at them, and dedicated transports taken with troops count as troops. Now you can drive your squad to one objective, then rush your rhino over to hold down or contest another. Alternately: if they want to dislodge your hold on an objective, they now have to destroy both the squad on it AND the transport that took them there.
  • Using the Raven Guard or Khan-Scars Chapter Tactics a very nasty and potent trick can be pulled with Rhino squads. Start by deploying on 12, then scout 12 in your metal box before the game starts. In your first movement go 6 and disembark your infantry a further 6. Good at maths? You're now on their deployment line, and you can fire. Your opponent won't anticipate it and it gives you total board control by the end of turn 1 - you can dictate exactly where the fighting goes. That's invaluable.
  • Don’t forget that the Rhino comes stock with a free storm bolter, just like the Vindicator, so you can add a second one from the equipment list. A second set of storm bolter shots may not sound like much, but without access to the havoc launchers it’s pretty much the only way your metal box can give your dudes some quarter-decent fire support.

• 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 is one of the best choices for a SM army themed on firepower. Best configuration is a Tactical Squad of 10 with Lascannon and Melta gun/Plasma gun. "But you can't fit 10 men in that tiny metal box!!11" Actually, if you check the Space Marine FAQ a Tactical squad can choose a Razorback as a dedicated transport even if it has more than 6 men. So at game start you combat squad them, one with the Sergeant and PG/MG, and the other with Lascannon. The former goes in your transport, the latter stays at the back of the board, providing fire support and capturing your home objective. Give the Razorback twin linked lascannons. The LC/TLPG looks nice but its an illusion. The TL re-roll can win or lose games, and the PG is too much of an oddball for any task you use it for. Its short range, can damage the vehicle and isn't particularly effective against heavy infantry or light vehicles. This combo can be brutal in both low points and higher points games, giving you a lot of firepower. Just remember to be careful with your deployment if you come up against a gunline.
  • The Raven Guard scout gimmick and the TL heavy flamer work well together here.
  • Definitely avoid taking the Razorback stock. The TL Heavy Bolter became very inefficient this edition, the other weapon options are the same price however.
  • See that note above about Objective Secured on Troop Rhinos? Applies here.

• Infernum Pattern Razorback (Forge World) - Basically the Razorback with Multi-Melta turret, introduced by the Forge World to ruin the last thing Sisters of Battle had over the Space Marines.

• 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 regular reserve" rule common to deep-striking forces nowadays (bring an odd number of them if you bring more than one, because the "half on turn one" 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.
  • - Thanks to 7th, Drop Pods are now scoring. And if they delivered a troop squad to the battlefield, they're also denial units.
  • - Also note that the drop pod is one of two units able to take a Locator Beacon.
  • - The Deathwind launcher is now cheaper, but no more effective than it was before. But now with the reduced price you can pay a little more than a tact marine for the ability to lock down a 12" area around a drop pod with a S5 AP- pie plate. You kill a MEQ, you basically pay off the cost of the launcher. Put these on your drop pod assault pods otherwise it'll be a waste.
  • Note: drop-pods now can be shot down with interceptor shots, so beware quad guns and hydra platforms. Interceptor shots are fired at the end of the Drop-Pod-equipped player's movement phase, meaning AFTER it lands and the Spess Mehreens disembark. And yes, it still counts as open-topped against Interceptor.
  • Units arriving by drop pod CAN fire as normal counting as having moved. BRB page 36 states that they may do this. Units arriving by deep strike are allowed to disembark and fire or run as normal but they may not assault. Also thanks to 6th edition disembark rules you get 6" of free movement to negate whatever scatter you incurred during the drop. As well, drop pods may fire their Deathwind Missile Launcher upon entry, striking fear into hordes of low Toughness infantry.
  • Advanced tactics on the use of drop pods can be found in the common playing styles section towards the bottom of this tactica page.

• Land Speeder Storm - 6th edition may be where the land speeder storm finally comes out of the back of the model enthusiasts closet and onto the table as a viable and fun model to incorporate into your army. There are a lot of drawbacks to the storm in comparison to the your other choices of dedicated transport. AV10 all around and open topped means that if anything even gives this thing an angry look it has the chance of exploding into a giant fireball that will eat your squad of scouts. On the other hand the fact that the storm is a skimmer means that it gets a jink save and can flat out 30" in a turn and is also an assault vehicle! If you keep this thing behind cover it becomes a decent skirmisher and lets you grab late game objectives with scoring scouts. The BS3 of the storm is rather silly, but totally mitigated by the heavy flamer you can replace it's standard heavy bolter it comes with stock for the cost of zero points, and when running scouts you really don't want to be running them at anything that is tougher than them anyway. Lastly the Cerberus launcher got an overhaul and remains to be seen on the table whether it is anything more than a pointless gimmick. A S2 AP nothing large blast with blinding may just give you the edge on your enemy letting the scouts jump out and suddenly have a half decent chance of being the ones doing the killing rather than being a cheap single turn distraction for a larger unit. giving your scouts shotguns verses bolt pistols depends on what you are planning on fighting. As the storm is open topped this gives you a bunch of extra shots that you can fire off. For AP5 and worse the pistols seem like a better deal as they will cut through armor but for marines/firewarriors/guardians and better you are probably better served by the shotguns and hoping for weight of fire to do the work for you. All of this and the scout squad to go with it will only run you about 100 points. even adding every upgrade you can think of this unit won't even cost more than 150. That's savings that you can bank on.
  • Remember that tanks no longer suffer from Blind, so this can only work against infantry. It's still fairly good against low-initiative armies

Elites

• Terminator Squad - Expensive, and not too effective. 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. In small point games, terminators are hard to kill without AP 1/2. 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. Land raiders may be useful, but are better suited for assault terminators. All termies are buffed by new edition now that melee weapons have AP values, so they now laugh at power weapons (warning: klavies, warscythes, power axes, powerfists, hammers, and monstrous creatures still laugh at your armour save and first two aren't unwieldy), making (insert something here)wing armies much harder to kill. However, storm bolters simply aren't killy enough, and a single assault cannon or cyclone won't do much. Against the abundance of high strength AP1 and AP2 in many updated codices, you may find your toughness 4 terminators dying without doing much at all (besides absorbing firepower for a few turns, which turns them into distraction carnifexes).

• Assault Terminators - Is where you want a Land Raider at. These are the gold standard of assault units. Seriously, nearly every other dedicated assault unit in the game is compared to these fuckers, and 9 times out of ten, they cannot compare (That last 1 of 10 would most likely be genestealers or Incubi). They should absolutely not be footslogged if it can be avoidable. Always keep a majority of them with thunder hammers, a composition of perhaps 3 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. You don't have to worry about Grey Knights any more, unless they bring a lot of Daemon Hammers because their other Nemesis Force weapons are all AP3. Space marines now pay for their TH/SS at 5pts a pop.
  • Put these guys w/ storm shields right in front of a unit of horrors. Now, any wounds you take give you FnP, bonus points for iron hands or 2-wound termies.
    • It, does not quite work that way. after being hit with a warpflame attack you take a toughness test, if passed you gain +1FnP, if failed more hits. A storm shield does not make it any more or less likely for you to pass a toughness test.
  • 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 or you WILL be shot off table!
  • A third note: remember, a single Land Raider is a massive bullet magnet. Viable competitive lists bring two, but that's only viable at 2k pts, because you still want some support for your Termies.
  • If you have the points to burn and are also taking a dreadnought that you planned on hooking into a drop pod, smash your assault termies into a storm raven instead. Fly over the enemy to get that cover save, and parachute your assault termies in front of the enemy.

• Sternguard Veterans - 22 points for the first 5 models in which you have to also pay for a Vet Sgt. and 22 for each after, and a very versatile ranged squad. Give combi-weapons to as many of them as you can, beware, for they're 10 points now so think is the one shot really worth it? they are also one of only 3 squads to be able to take a Heavy Flamer, the other two being the Legion of the Damned and Terminators. If you are fond of having a good ranged unit that can deal with almost any threat, bring in a squad of these in a Rhino or Drop pod. Razorback is bad as it requires disembarkation with the inevitable "SHOOT THEM OFF" from your enemy afterwards, while Rhino has the hatch. They also have access to a mix of two special/heavy weapons. If you take Pedro Kantor, they gain Objective Secured (they do NOT become Troops, you still need to take Tacs or Scouts if you want to stay Battle Forged) 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, but 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 attacks. Not a lot of opponents know this, so when they get 3A on the charge or 2A when defending some players are a little surprised. Still, they should be shooting and not fighting, assault only if completely necessary. Even Pedro Kantor's +1A doesn't make them super efficient at CC due to their cost. Still hilarious to add Kantor to the squad though, because in addition to an assault 4 storm bolter, adding to the ranged dakka, he also buffs them to A3, or A4 on the charge. Really effective way to catch a large ork boyz squad off guard, they just walked through a hail of 2+ wounding bolt shells, cover-ignoring bolt shells, or long range 'Eavy Armor piercing bolt shells, across the entire board, and then they get charged and stomped to death by the supposedly "ranged" squad that shot them up, when they finally get close enough. Just remember, if the enemy challenges Kantor with a lone CC monster, get the Sternguard sergeant to step in instead of Kantor. With the change to 7E Challenge rules, Kantor will still be able to pound the CC monster with his power fist, but be relatively safe from the monster's attacks in return.
  • Combi-Meltas make tanks cry, and Combi-Flamers make assaulting these guys a bad idea, BRING BOTH. Generally you'll want to avoid Combi-Plasmas unless you know you're going up against a lot of 2+ Armor saves, in which case you could use combi-gravs, and even then your Tacs should probably be packing Plasma Guns and Sternguard even have some AP3 ammo specially for killing Chaos Marines (no seriously). Just remember the AP3 bolter shot is 18", meaning it Rapid Fires at only 9", and it has Gets Hot!, so beware. Combi-gravs are excellent if you know your opponent loves him some overwhelming Terminator-esque firepower. 5++ won't do much against 20 AP2 shots, and taking 7 or 8 Terminators out on Turn 1 via Drop Pod is Tzeentchian-levels of Just As Planned.
  • Remember, you can bring up to two(!) Heavy Flamers in a 5-man Squad, and at only 10 Points each they're a steal. Take 9 dudes. Add a Librarian Pyro or Bio or Telpathy, put them in a Rhino or Drop pod, and laugh maniacally as you then pop out and butcher a unit. Doesn't matter what it is, if it don't have 2+ armour, Sternies will kill it. Trygon? Six wounds is cute, but when you take 12 or 15 armor saves (and possibly some Grav wounds)? Not so hot. Hordes? Combi-Flamers and Hellfire Rounds. Entrenched Guardsmen with Stealth Pants? Dragonfires and Heavy Flamers. 3+ saves? Vengeance Rounds if you feel lucky, punk, or bury them in Hellfire wounds.
  • A good idea with them may be to bring Grav special weapons, not combis. sure you lose out on some special bolt ammo fun, but the only thing Sternguard can't counter are 2+ armor saves. Grav guns give them six shots (if they don't move) that do just that. PLasma can put out few shots but are better for a squad that moves around, (12 range 2 shot compare to 9 range 2 shots)
  • Rapidfire now work on half range, not fixed 12", so kraken rounds now rapidfire on 15" and vengeance only on 9".
  • Sternguard vets can take a drop pod as a dedicated transport. Give them combi-meltas and drop them right behind the heaviest tank the enemy has on turn 1. They pop out, embark up to 6", and the tank gets shot in its flimsiest AV facing by 5 meltaguns at once, destroying it or making it useless before it can even do anything. Granted, your 205 pt squad will probably be rage-killed by everything that your opponent can throw at it, which is actually great, because now he/she/it/hermaphrodite just spent a turn killing one squad and no longer has their precious baneblade(or whatever you murdered).
  • Not quite how it works (Kantor specifically gives Sternguards Objective Secured, but it does not affect Drop Pods and they still remain Elites if picked for Sternguards. The reason Troop Drop Pods get Objective Secured is because they count as Troops themselves, not because they're attached to a squad with that rule).
  • Veteran Sergeant Haas (Red Scorpions) - An upgrade to a Sternguard squad sergeant, 45 points gives you an artificer armoured sergeant with a power sword and a pistol. That's not why you take him, however. You take him because he makes your squad Relentless. Sadly, this isn't as awesome as it sounds if you aren't spamming Heavy Weapons or spamming Grav Guns with their Salvo. Relentless will rarely benefit your sternguard vets, for the following reasons: a) you do NOT want your vets tied up in close combat, so you really don't want to charge in after you fire your weapons. B) the only weapon upgrade recommended for sternguard vets is the heavy flamer, which is assault anyway. Any other heavy weapon is better off in a tactical squad, since they have the same ballistic skill and you're not losing out on sexy special boltgun rounds. and c) moving no longer reduces rapid fire weapons. If you're using Grav Guns/Combi-Grav, then there's some more justification since they're Salvo Weapons.

• Tyrannic War Veterans (Ultramarines) - They're basically the same as Sternguard but only able to use Hellfire rounds for their bolters, cheaper as a base unit though smaller and cost 1 point more per extra model, Preferred Enemy (Tyranids), and a special rule that grants them Zealot when facing Tyranids. Needless to say, against any other army, they're practically better off as just plain Sternguard, but against Tyranids, they're a handy squad for hitting the inevitable gaunt hordes that will comprise of the Nid player's army.
  • Another take One of the few SM units which can be taken at the 4-man level. This can have value if you want to add an independent character in Terminator armor to ride around in one of the FW land raiders with a 6-man transport capacity (like the LR helios or achilles).

• Vanguard Veterans Substantially cheaper than Sternguard, but the same cost if you give them jump packs. They are better ASM for only 50 points(+1A, +1Ld). That's another metal box, or another Drop Pod, or another two Sternguard Veterans. Depending on how close you are to your points limit, the extra 50 points might be spent better elsewhere. They lost the assault from deepstrike due to the rewrite of "Heroic Intervention", but everything in this game is going to lose it anyway. The points decrease is well worth it. They each can take a Storm Shield for the cost of a combi weapon and take various power weapons at cost. Give a few the 3++ and stick them out front for saves against those pesky blastmasters and watch them survive. These are they guys you choose when you want elite jump infantry as opposed to just more ASMs by taking a few SS for all that low AP cover ignoring meta and some power weapons to cut down foes for less than the cost of two ASM units.
  • Veteran Sergeant Culln - Yes, this is the same guy who is the Red Scorpions Chapter Master. And First Captain. Yeah, it's weird. Anyways, the gist of it is that he is a 60 point upgrade to a sergeant, just like Haas, and he has two wounds, a jump pack and a relic blade, and gives the squad stubborn and re-roll to hits in CC. Fantastic, but on an already underwhelming unit, he is the only special character in the game with heroic intervention, so he's all your vanguards have got. Basically a budget chaplain with AP3, one less attack due to relic blade, heroic intervention, re-rolls that work throughout a fight instead of just on the first turn, and a much, much lower price tag. Not enough to make them "good", but makes them better. Especially if you take the forgeworld character who makes them scoring.
  • If you deep strike them anyway, a locator beacon is the best bet: first, drop pod an Ironclad dreadnought directly on top of an powerful enemy tank, and the drop pod will scatter to right next to it (Scout bikes work too, but less reliably). Then while the dread ties up the tank, use the pod's locator beacon to swoop in 5 Vanguard vets with melta bombs. With 5 vets all with melta bombs, this will work on anything from warbuggies to BANEBLADES!!! Once that's done, your vets and the Ironclad can go hunting.
    • Only problem here is that they need to survive an enemy round of shooting. 3+ is nice, 3++ Storm Shields are nicer, but the points start racking up quickly. Think perhaps a Stormraven instead.
  • Note they can each take a plasma or grav pistol. Take both and dual-wield flying cowboy marines.
  • Similarly, if you are only taking one pistol upgrade on any model, you can replace his chainsword instead of his bolt pistol. That way he'll have a bolt pistol and a plasma/grav pistol and benefit from the Gunslinger BRB rule, with no disadvantage to losing the chainsword because the two pistols still give you the +1A from having 2 CCW. Heck, you could run them all like this, without jump packs, and have an entire squad of goddamn Cypher-wannabes for giggles (though this is stupidly ineffective, so you shouldn't actually do this unless you magnetized everything, or just happened to rob a truck outside your local GW that turned out to be loaded with nothing but Cypher models).

• Dreadnought - There are 3 ways you can field this beast. The first is by making it a gun platform. There is no other option than putting a pair of TL Autocannons on it in this method. Anything else in this configuration is a waste. I dunno, the missile launcher allows tactical flexibility, and a Twin-linked lascannon is nothing to be sniffed at. The second way to field it is to optimise it for melee. Never do this. The first lesson Space Marine players learn is that a CC Dread is good for nothing but locking a unit up. And you pay out the ass for that luxury. Its because you get a pitifully low amount of attacks, 4 S10 attacks on the charge at I4 sounds brilliant on paper, but in practice you'll be killing 1-2 Marines each round of combat. And ever since 6E gave grenades a CC profile, they will be ripping you to shreds with Krak Grenades at the same time. The third, and best way to field a Dreadnought is as a stock Multi Melta Dread in a drop pod. On the first turn drop it near your opponent's prize tank (e.g a Land Raider filled with Grey Knights)and pop it on the first turn. Grats, you killed a 250+ point land raider with a 135 point unit. Unless you miss the multi-melta shot, you unlucky son of a bitch. Field him at 160 points as a venerable dread with multi-melta to prevent this happening and allow the chance that it'll be able to blaze another vehicle before it goes down.
  • Now Venerable is an upgrade to the normal Dread, and at 25 points (10 of which are for the +1 on WS and BS) it's a steal.

• Ironclad Dreadnought - You won't be getting krak'd to death anymore, but you pay more and for only a marginal increase in effectiveness. Not bad as a suicide DP dread. Don't come under the illusion that the Hurricane Bolter is worthwhile. It isn't. Why the fuck would you pay for it on this platform when a tactical squad does the same thing. Somewhat useful in that the seismic hammer and chainfist are interchangeable (before the game starts, obviously), so if you are fighting lots of light vehicles, use the hammer (+1 to damage roll), and the chainfist practically guarantees a penetrating hit on AV14 (S10 + 2d6). Deepstrike it in a drop pod next to their AV14 tank and laugh as they spend a turn killing it with all their heavy weapons (while your MM land speeder gets into range). Also, with the Stormraven going vanilla, you can crap the Ironclad there with a squad to give it support, cover and utterly destroy any threat that gets too close. Furthermore, the Stormraven is a Flyer and Assault vehicle! Imagine combining it with the Ironclad. For extra extra hilarity, put Assault terminators, tooled up vanguard vets, or honour guards with the Ironclad. Not only do you have a rampaging rape machine of destruction raging after enemy vehicles, any infantry nearby will be charged and raped by those melee units. Either that or put a sternguard squad in for fire support.

• Siege Dreadnought (Forge World): An interesting, somewhat cost effective alternative to the Ironclad, albeit not as heavily armoured. Has an inferno flamestorm (apparently) 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 hunter-killer 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.

• Chaplain Dreadnought (Forge World) - Because why the hell not? The idea behind this thing is take everything you like about a Venerable Dreadnought, all of Forgeworld's dreadnoughts (except the Contemptor) and a Chaplain. You can take pretty much every gun, including an inferno cannon, plus you can double up on DCW's plus heavy flamer. This thing has the Venerable and Litany of Hate rules, plus a Venerable's stat-line.

• Mortis Dreadnought (Forge World) - Dreadnought with 2 Missile Launchers, which can be upgraded to two Twin-Linked Heavy Bolters, two Twin-Linked Autocannons or two Twin-Linked Lascannons. It also counts as Skyfire/Interceptor while stationary - take double autocannons, and think of it like your space marine hydra flak tank. Unfortunately, you only can take one per detachment. Or instead of being an idiot, take double lascannons. Double autocannons is actually meh against fliers, and lascannons provide more use against ground forces due to being able to kill most vehicles in the game. Don't believe me on the Lascannon thing? Okay, mathhammer time. Dual autocannons will give you 4 shots, averaging on 3.6 hits. Assuming AV12, you need 5s to glance or 6s to pen, so in other words, a 33% chance to do something. This averages as 1.188 glance/pen, with a 50/50 chance of it being either. Conversely, on lascannons you get 2 shots, averaging at 1.8 hits. However, you will glance on a 3+ or pen on a 4+. This averages as ALSO 1.188 Glance/pen, most likely being the pen (1 glance for every 3 pens). So here we have the same chance to do something- either a glance or a pen- but significantly better chances on the Lascannon of that something being a penetrate. Added to that, the Lascannon does more damage through it's penetrations. Therefore, in the pure anti air role, the Lascannon wins out. It's also useful against enemy heavy armour, and kinda-able to deal with enemy heavy infantry, whilst the autocannon is stuck in that awkward position of being kinda-able to target heavy infantry, or kinda-able to target light vehicles. Unless you don't have the points for it, take the dual lascannons every time.

• Contemptor-Pattern Dreadnought (Forge World) - 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', and atomantic 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, plus you can mount a typhoon missile launcher - on its back without giving up its arm guns!

• Contemptor Mortis (Forge World): Probably the best Contemptor variant, this guy is exactly what it written on the can - a mixture of Contemptor and Moris, with the increased stats and relig wargear of the first one, and double-gun load-out and skyfire/interceptor ability of the second. 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 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. You will tear apart tanks, mow down infantry and blast aircraft out of the sky with this fucking thing.

• Hecaton Aiakos (Forge World) - A unique contemptor dreadnought character for the Minotaurs chapter, comes with a plasma cannon. Costs a fortune but he's much improved over a normal contemptor; first he's Venerable, which is something other contemptors don't get, letting you force re-rolls on the damage chart. Second he's got +1 to his Initiative, Ballistic Skill AND a +1 bonus to his atomantic shielding, so his invulnerable save is 4+ against shooting, making him a good choice for a footslogging army. On the flip side his rear AV is 10 and his explosion radius in increased by 2".

• Dreadnought-Brother Halar (Forge World) - A slightly beefed-up Dread with +1 WS/A. He also comes equipped like an Ironclad, but replacing his gun with a Flamestorm Cannon of fiery doomness. He also has a special rule: If he loses his last HP in anything that isn't Explodes or the D, he stays on the board until the next turn. On this last turn, he'll get Preferred Enemy (EVERYTHING) and will shrug off everything short of the D and explosions. If you have the points for this kamikaze, he's here.

• Centurion Assault Squad - New beefy assault unit in the new Codex. While 50% more expensive than assault terminators they are like, three times more durable (T5, 2 wounds), albeit fewer in number (though not as terrible as Mutilators) and without invulnerable saves. They are armed with double S9 chainfists WITHOUT unwieldy, and swing them on WS4 I4 (despite their war suits not being synchronised with the Black Carapace, meaning they should be I2 at best). Having only two attacks per base (3 on the sarge) and SAP they aren't good at killing any infantry other than TEQs (and only if they have no storm shields or equivalents), though double flamers and hurricane bolters help a bit, but any vehicle or building they successfully charge is already dead, just too stupid to realize it. Which brings us to their main problem - with close to zero mobility and no deep strike, it's almost impossible for them to charge anything without a Land Raider's help, and you can fit only 5 in a Crusader or 4 in a Redeemer. Spending near 500 points to kill a single enemy TEQ squad, vehicle or bastion and then being kited for the rest of the game is nowhere near cost-effective. With a massive points cost decrease, they might be worth it, but for now they're massively overcosted.
  • Another take - If you want a cheaper way to transport your Centurions, a StormRaven is both a cheaper and interesting option compare to the Land Raiders. To keep it cheap, give it a TL Assault Cannon and a TL Multi-Melta. Hurricane Bolters is a nice option if you have the points, which will add more anti-infantry shooting that Centurions lack, but it isn't required. As for how to use your Assault squad, that depends on what you want them to do. If you want to go tank/transport hunting with them, slap on the melta guns. When combined with the StormRaven's MM (Either way), this makes their job easier, and can assault the passengers after its destroyed. Now for going against infantry, either the Flamer or Melta gun is fine (Your choice), and the Iron Hands, Black Templars, or Ultrasmurfs tactics fits in this role. The 6++ FnP can give them a bit more survivability in combat and against AP2/1 shootings, and the Sergeant gets It Will Not Die and so does the SR too! BT on the other hand grants them +1 to Deny the Witch, which is great against Tzeentch Daemons and other psykers, but you can forget the Crusader rule due to Slow and Purposeful. Finally the Smurf tactics allows them to reroll charge distance once per a game, which is not bad at all. Either role you go for, have fun with them in casual games (Don't take them in tournies or in a competitive metas).
  • Anti-Lord of War Assault unit. Most super heavy walkers are at equal or lower initiative. Stock unit of 3 has 10 attacks on the charge, with almost every hit resulting in a penetration. Even if super heavy wipes the unit, it is very easy to get 5 HP of damage on a super-heavy without assistance from other units. Chaplains are amazing with this unit.
  • Stock unit is cheaper than stock terminator unit of 5 (10pts cheaper) and has more wounds (1 more). If already planning to use a Land Raider, Storm Raven, or allied transport for terminators, unit makes for an alternative that only requires 9 spaces (leaving room for an IC).

• Land Raider Prometheus (Forge World) An uber crusader. Four Twin-Linked heavy bolters (two on each sponson) is the same number of shots as hurricane bolters at <12", twice as many at 12-24, and can actually shoot up to 36, with the advantage of being S5. It's a HB dev squad, twin-linked. Granted, it loses the assault cannon, but it gains dedicated transport status in siege assault lists, and fucks with cover saves by one, ignores night fighting, and boosts reserve rolls by one (2+ reserves ftw!). Don't put it near enemy heavy armour, but a solid tank overall.
  • Despite four TL heavy bolters being functionally the same as the two quad linked heavy bolters it had previously while the tank remains stationary, The tank can keep firing at a reduced output from both sides until several weapon destroyed results are rolled on the tank rather than just losing whole sponsons. However, this does reduce its firepower output while the tank is on the move, since it will be forced to snapfire some of its heavy bolters and will make you less inclined to purchase pintle-mounted weaponry.

Fast Attack

• Assault Squad - Melee troops that can work both for deep striking or flying across the map. Not too expensive for what they do, and with a special character and a decently-equipped sergeant they can handle most situations. They might not fare so well against super-melee squads, but their mobility helps them pick and choose, 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 watch them rampage through enemy armor columns. Upgrade the Sergeant to give them at least one guy with a power weapon.
  • You can also trade in their jump packs for a rhino or drop pod, which might work to confuse your opponent when he thinks it's a tactical squad incoming, but then a bunch of guys with chainswords jump out and slice them in half. Except units can't charge after arriving by Drop Pod. It really depends on your playstyle and the mission; keeping your guys in a tank limits mobility slightly, but keeps them alive against small arms; a drop pod lets them go anywhere, but they can't assault when they come out; standard jump packs let them go anywhere.
  • Take a drop pod and two flamers. You now have a 95 point unit that can decimate most infantry. Happy burning.
  • Use them as above, or take them as a cheap counter attack unit. Keep them out of sight behind your lines. If your front lines get overwhelmed, send these guys in to deal with it. With 3 attacks a pop on the charge, with hammer of wrath, it'll usually take down whatever is assaulting your guys a notch. Note this doesn't work against dedicated assault units and they will most likely be killed. Works wonders against hordes though, but don't fall into the trap of giving them flamers in this role: Their point is to charge a unit once it is locked into CC, where you can't use your range weapons. Use those 10 points to upgrade the sergeant instead.

• Land Speeders - One of the most awesome and potentially rage-inducing units in the Codex. These little buggers are very fragile, but also very underrated. They come very cheap with a multi-melta, and can bring a heavy flamer for infantry hunting. Deep striking, they are excellent tank or infantry hunters. Their 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. Alternatively, try taking a Typhoon Missile Launcher and keeping it far out of harm's reach, raining missiles at shit. When tackling enemy armour with multi-meltas, use the land speeder's maneuverability 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 aluminum speeder out of the kill zone. Obviously, this means you take on flank vehicles, charging this into the center of his army is a waste of a good land speeder, unless it's to kill a Leman Russ or something (an enemy's primary tank/threat) in a turn 1 suicide run. Do remember to BLOCK enemy transports and tanks, since they can't move through the Speeder (and only AV14 tanks have the tiniest hope to ram him off). with the new damage chart even another Land Speeder can ram it to death from 1". Great for delaying that big fat Land Raider from reaching your lines, for a 70 pts sacrifice (and a decent chance to kill said Raider with your underslung multi-melta).
  • Unfortunately, in the new codex, Chapter Tactics no longer apply to vehicles so you cannot use Salamanders for some twin-linked flamer shenanigans.
  • With Vulkan the multi-melta will be master crafted, however.
  • It is completely legal to take a land speeder with two multi-meltas (one turret and one underslung) for 80 pts.

• Relic Javelin Attack Speeder (Forge World) - An upgunned and uparmored Land Speeder that flies solo. AV11 means it is now invulnerable to bolter fire, but still melts under anti-tank (though jink saves help a bit). Costs as much as a naked Predator, packs much more firepower and mobility, and as a nice bonus it looks absolutely fabulous. The main downside is a real money price - almost THREE TIMES MORE than regular speeder - like it's silver-plated or something.

• Land Speeder Tempest (Forge World) - the Stormtalon’s obscure older hipster step-brother. At 90 points, you get an up-armored Speeder with Armoured Cockpit (ignores crew shaken and crew stunned on a 4+); Extra Armour, Deep Strike, and Afterburner (can turn into a zooming flyer for one turn, but can’t shoot that turn either, so you’ll never use it outside of Apocalypse games on boards big enough to actually be worth wasting a turn just to get from point A to B.). You can get three in a squadron, and each one’s armed with a single assault cannon and a TL missile launcher loaded with frag, krak, and flakk missiles. No wargear options, WYSIWYG. The Tempest sits squarely in the middle ground between the Speeder and Stormtalon, being tougher than the former, weaker than the latter, and in certain respects less versatile than either. However, TL flakk missiles do make the Tempest one of the fastest non-flyer AA units in the game.
  • If you’re gonna take any, take a full squadron and think of them as sort of a faster and more heavily armed and armored squad of deep striking missile devastators.

• Stormtalon Gunship - The bastard child of a Thunderhawk and a Land Speeder, this fast flyer comes with AV 11 all around, TL assault cannons and heavy bolters, and can exchange the HBs for TL lascannons, a typhoon ML, or a Skyhammer ML (which is basically a 3-shot autocannon). While more expensive than Land Speeder, this little fucker is a lot more survivable, and has some interesting rules.
  • Also, its a flyer now. Take one or you'll die.
  • It has the strafing run special rule, meaning that it has BS5 against everything but skimmers and fliers. These shots are also pinning Not pinning since 7th edition, which removed pinning from various special rules.
  • Alternative Look: Take in pairs if possibly, the most expensive option rocking in at 145 points. A good note to take is that they can ESCORT other units, meaning that it is a lil bit more reliable to get those guys in there.
  • Also, if you want to kit these guys for anti-air duty, do not skimp and go for those lascannons. You want one-shot kill potential with these instead of chipping away at hull points with the S7 Skyhammer.
  • Alternative Look 2: Electric Boogaloo: With the new Stormwing Formation, you can now take one Stormraven, escorted by TWO Stormtalons. And as long as at least one Stormtalon is alive, EVERYONE HAS THE STRAFING RUN RULE. So with one Reserve roll, you bring on a Stormraven, two Stormtalons, an Ironclad Dreadnought and 10-man Vanguard Veteran squad. Make your opponent cry. It's ok. You won't be able to hear them over your laughter.

• Bike Squad - Once hardly used except as the odd troop choice with a captain, these guys are now one of the most competitive parts of the new codex for three reasons: Grav-guns - these guys are relentless, so they can fire their Grav weapons at full range and power while moving and can still charge afterwards. Price - these guys have had a price reduction, making a kitted-up squad of 7 bikers only cost as much as a tactical squad. White Scars Chapter Tactics - Skilled Rider, Hit and Run, and +1S on Hammer of Wrath, and you also take Khan for everyone to have scouts. All this for still only 1 pt more than a CSM biker. DO NOT take them as Fast Attack; putting them in a Troops slot lets you bring your flyers and attack bike squads/speeders. It's a crowded FOC slot, so try to avoid taking them as FA.

• Attack Bike - The Yang to Land Speeders' Yin, this is the Marines' other great FA unit. The debate on the relative merits of the Speeder and the Attack Bike is endless. Great for their two wounds, and heavy weapons. Can fit into variety of roles, from tank hunting to infantry harassing, but their low number of attacks means they should be kept out of all but the easiest of melee combats (e.g., Fire Warriors). Attack Bikes also benefit from a wider array of Chapter Tactics when compared to Land Speeders, although the advantages may not be very significant (White Scars obviously being an exception).

• Scout Bike Squad - Pretty decent anti-infantry shooting unit, with Infiltrate, Scout and 6 Frag blasts, which means they can hurt light infantry from a safe distance (24") right on turn 1, but they're a glass cannon (T5 helps, though). Krak grenades can glance or penetrate a bawks, too, so use them.
  • 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 to 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.

• 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-rolling the armour penetration dice when ramming with +1 to the vehicle damage roll, and nigh-impenetrable for a flyer armour of 13 13 11. Comes with 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 they can get straight into close combat (and no restriction against carrying 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: Flyer (hover mode), and it STILL can ram/tank shock while zooming. 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 of your enemy's 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.

• Lucius Pattern Drop Pod (Forge World) - big dreadnought drop pod, which allow your dread to deep strike. With the newest update, you can no longer assault out of a deep strike. Instead it gets a rule where the transported dreadnought, the drop pod itself, and anything shot at through the drop pod get the shrouded special rule on the turn it drops down, which is pretty damn nice. Note that the drop pod assault rule DOES NOT require the dreadnought to actually EXIT the drop pod when it comes down, and as it is a transport, it can stay inside, safe from most shooting, and use the pod as ablative armor.As drop pod is open-topped, your dread could even shoot out of it. It also has the assault vehicle special rule, so if anyone is actually stupid enough to stay within charge range of the drop pod, it can then get out of it and start annihilating the nearest enemy unit.

• Hyperios Air Defense Battery (Forge World) - One to four twin-linked missile turrets with Skyfiring, Intercepting, Heat-seeking krak missiles for only 35 points each. Perfect for trolling fliers. Unlike the other Space Marine Sentry Guns, they don't have firing modes thanks to Automated Artillery, allowing you to direct the shots at your leisure. This configuration does most jobs you ask it to without complaint. For 10 points you can replace one of the launchers with a Command Platform that gives the other platforms Split Fire, not that you need to.

• Xiphon pattern Interceptor (Forgeworld) - experimental rules for this is online. Its exactly what you'd expect an interceptor to be; light, fast and good against other vehicles. With two twin linked lascannons and a new rotary missile launcher. The launcher is two shot, S8 AP2 and forces jink and cover saves to be rerolled, plus when penetrating hits are rolled, it chooses the best of D3 results (adding one for AP2). It's a great vehicle hunter, but as mentioned its light, only two hull points mean it'll go down against a stiff breeze, but with AV11 at least it's immune to small arms bolter fire just like a stormtalon. If you want a good all rounder you should take the talon which at least has a hover mode, but this thing is a dedicated vehicle killer.

Heavy Support

Infantry

• Devastator Squad - If you take them, 1-2 ablative wounds are mandatory, and never mix weapons. Bear in mind you're in 7th, not 6th edition now and Lascannons work well because since vehicles (and I'm looking at YOU, Land Raiders) can't be killed in one-shot by anything weaker than AP2. Though Missile Launchers work well in groups since you can whittle down hull points over time and unlike other anti tank weapons you can go and throw some anti infantry frag missiles around when there aren't any tanks. Mind you MC's that shrug off the krak Missiles are much more common but missiles work well as a general choice, good at nothing in particular but not really wanting in any one place. The only other weapon worth taking are plasma cannons if the rest of your bases are covered. Why? Heavy Bolters are too ineffective against anything tougher than MEQ. Multi Meltas are too short ranged.
  • Vigilator Sergeant Hamath Kraatos (Minotaurs Special Character) - FUCKING EXCELLENT: a BS+1, 2-wound, Devastator Sergeant with a Heavy Bolter and preferred enemy (anything not a Vehicle, Monstrous Creature or cavalry/beasts for some reason). Has the added bonus of being able to switch his normal shooting for a special "assassin shell" which is basically a S6 AP3 Sniper rifle.
  • The only time Multi-Melta Devs are worth is with Salamander CT. Vulkan twin-linking them means that even when snapshot (say, when coming out of a drop pod right into melta range) they have a chance to hit something.
  • The only other time Multi-Melta Devs are worth is with Calgar and Ultramarines. 5 guys with two Multimeltas and a Rhino cost 125 points for two turns of mobile melta fire, thanks to relentless rule. Take another 5 guys with two missile launchers or two las-cannons and leave them in the backfield. - Except that the Devestator rule doesn't apply when you are disembarking from a vehicle...
  • 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, which is a shame because +1BS to a single model in the squad can come in handy...
    • Remember how this works, the Signium DOES NOT give +1 BS, it gives one squad member BS 5 for that shooting phase. The reason that matters is that if your BS is some how reduced, typically by a psychic power, you can still crank out at least one BS 5 shot from at least one heavy weapon.
  • Four plasma cannons might seem like a waste of points, since they might blow themselves up, but if you get some lucky rolls in, you can obliterate any heavy infantry squad from three feet away. Bit of a risk, but they are the only infantry weapons that can take on multiple terminators in one shot (and if your opponent's army is grouped, you will at least hit something). Being only Heavy 1 (only one shot per shooting phase) and having a 3+ armor save means that there's only a 1/18 chance to actually lose a man. A Dev squad firing all 4 plasma cannons every single turn for six turns can expect to take 1.33 casualties from Gets Hot, but if you actually did, imagine the carnage that 24 plasma cannon blasts would have caused on the enemy.
  • Ultramarines CT works wonderful with Plasma Cannons, as you will reroll overheating rolls at least during one turn, two or three turns with Calgar, and even more with Tigurius.
  • Remember that Devastators can take flak missiles now. A minimum strength squad with MLs & flakk missiles is almost as effective against fliers as a tricked-out Stormraven and comes a lot cheaper. However an Aegis defense line w/ quad gun gives twin-linked AND interceptor so you're better off looking somewhere else for reliable AA. Why not both?
  • Take some red shirt boltgun marines if you don't want your fragile Devastator squad heavy weapons dying the instant your opponent glances at it (though this does increase the cost).
  • You could do much worse than a Heavy Bolter-wielding Dev squad if you're using the Imperial Fist chapter tactics. Lots of rerolls, and the ability to go through hull points on light vehicles like piss through toilet paper. (and statistically take out a few terminators by making them roll lots of saves)
  • A lascannon squad with Tigurius and Perfect Timing/Prescience will put some serious hurt on Skimmers. Park them next to an Icarus Lascannon for even more damage.

• Centurion Devastator Squad - The shooting versions of their punchy brethren. If you seek cheap dakka, go elsewhere, as those guys are expensive as hell and only bring half or even a third the firepower of a Devastator squad of the same price. Though they are tough as hell, menacing and attract a lot of firepower. There is no reason to go with lascannons and MLs to hunt mech Imperial Fist tactics disagree with you - regular devs camping in heavy cover do it better, but the standard setup with double HB's and Hurricane Bolters is kinda good at killing light infantry hordes (and in 6e/7e you WILL face hordes). The last option is grav-cannons and grav-amps, which can vomit 5 AP2 shots per model that wound on a model's armor save roll with rerolls, but it's only 24" range. A squad of 4-5 grav centurions will eat any MEQ, TEQ, MC, or GC unit within 24" in one volley, but will be tarpitted by ANYTHING till the end of the game - being A1 with no close combat weapon they'll struggle to kill even Fire Warriors in CC. Grav centurions are really only good for killing heavily-armored death star units like mega-nobz, terminators, and monstrous/gargantuan creatures. Much like their Assault counterparts, these guys are massively overcosted, even with the Grav Cannons. For the same price as three man unit with Grav Cannons or Lascannons, you could have a Land Raider. Why aren't you taking the Land Raider again?
  • A nice setup for them is with twin-linked lascannons and missile launchers. Pair them with Imperial Fists Chapter Tactics, an omniscope on the sargent (so that they have Night Vision and can split fire) and camp them in cover. Tanks won't trouble you anymore this way.
  • Also worth noting is that the Ultramarines' Devastator doctrine applies to them as well as regular Devs.(I doubt Centurions will become Relentless, but it doesn't matter, unless they are charged, because they are slow and purposeful. However re-rolling snap shots is great for hunting air planes, specially with grav-cannons)
    • Actually slow and purposeful gives you relentless anyways, so waltz up the board and kill EVERYTHING.
  • Against AV14 vehicles, Grav-Centurions actually outshine Las/krak-Centurions for fewer points. In a 5-man squad (what you can fit in a Crusader), Grav-Centurions will average 3.8 HPs a round and a guaranteed immobilize. Las/krak-Centurions average only 2.1 HPs with 1 penetrating hit rolling on the damage table. Take a Grav-cannon and keep your Hurricane bolter and you can be more effective against AV14 and also tear through hordes for 10 points cheaper per model.
  • The main problem with the Grav-cents vs Las-Krak cents is that the range on the Las-Krak cents is much, much higher. You can sit them in cover near the back of the board and still be a threat. Whilst grav-cents seem like they cost less, you usually have to take them in a land raider due to their short range. Also whilst Grav-cents are good for stripping hull points, remember that there are a fair few ways for vehicles to regain hull points, whilst a penetration will do something far more permanent. In addition, everyone and their mother knows about grav-cents and you can bet your ass a lot of firepower will be targeting these guys.

Vehicles

• Predator - A decent dakka unit. 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 (95pts) and can dakka pretty well. Upgrades are usually not necessary: Extra Armor is not critical, as you will in 99% cases be out of reach of any units with CC anti-tank, and 24" Storm Bolters won't get to shoot much after the 36" guns are done. The only thing worth considering is the Hunter-Killer missile, but even then, it's only efficient in numbers (like, 7-8 HKMs). Dakka Preds are mediocre unfortanutely, you're killing about 1-2 MEQ a turn at best and you're wasting HS slots that are far better spent. A Thunderfire Cannon is far better firepower.
  • Tri-Las Predators are a very good choice in this slot. They're good for a number of reasons- first of all, missile launchers now suck balls, and GW decided that giving every Codex a dozen new ways to massacre MEQ was a great idea, meaning Devastators with Lascannons need extra ablative wounds, inflating their already more expensive price even higher. In a competitive list these are your Hammer units for taking out the heavy hitting MC's. A unit with high strength AP2 runs up the board and cripples or wounds something like a Riptide until its on its last legs. They're the Anvil on which the ground is set, and where you're going to strike with your Hammer. You can very reliably kill a Riptide or Wraithknight in three or four turns or even two if you get lucky. In addition, they can take out vehicles very well, don't take a large drop in effectiveness like Devs do when they lose men, and they're immune to small arms and the majority of the impromptu AT people take. Also *can* be effective against fliers in a pinch, due to one lascannon being twin linked (Snap Shots at BS1 have a 16.67% chance to hit, Twin-Linked BS1 boosts this to 30.56%).
  • Unlike many other battle tanks in the game, the Predator's side AV is 11, which is glaringly lower than its frontal AV13, and makes its flanks attractive targets. Protect their sides with positioning terrain, Rhinos that have already delivered their passengers, etc.

• 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. This is good because it keeps guns trained away from the rest of your army, but bad because it's easily shot down from the side (especially if your opponent deploys his anti-tank in opposite corners) and easily neutralized (glancing hits don't shake/stun anymore, but add up quickly, and EVERY damage result on a penetrating hit either makes it useless for at least a turn, if not permanently). In addition, they suck against MC's, Thunderfires are better at wiping infantry off objectives and they take up valuable HS slots. Still awesome due to sheer destructive power.

• DO NOT forget the fact that the Vindi comes with a free Stormbolter. It could save your main cannon from being removed via Weapon Destroyed result. Or not, 50/50 chance either way.

• 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. Thanks to 6-th edition there is more infantry and less tanks around, so Whirlwind now can found a lot more use. Another often overlooked part of the barrage rule in 6-th edition is that wound allocation is always done from the centre of the blast marker! The Whirlwind just became a lot more useful. With BS4 and a direct shot you have slightly less than a 50% chance to get that large blast placed exactly where you want it. Use it to selectively snipe special weapons models hidden in the middle or back of units. Perfect for taking away ion/rail rifles from Tau Pathfinders for example. Go for characters if you want, but remember that 'Look out Sir!' still applies so they have a good chance to survive. DO NOTE that the Whirlwind can fire its main armament at Combat Speed, so reserving it to preserve it from anti-tank fire in the beginning and having it come in later in the game is perfectly viable, though it would cost you one or two turns of shooting.

• Hunter - One of the new Space Marine AA weapons. Comes with a massive missile launcher, which is S7 AP2 and armourbane, so rather than glancing enemy flyers to death like the most flakk tanks it is designed to blast it in one shot. Hunter's misses transform into missiles on the target's tail that hit REAR armor on 5+ each turn and don't time out unless the target leave the table, which is kinda funny and overall useful, especially against IG and Tau flyers. You don't get the lock-on if shooting at a non-flyer, but remember, skyfire still allows full BS shooting at skimmers. Use one to pop eldar, tau, deldar and necron vehicles of all sorts.

• Stalker - The other new Space Marine AA weapon. Comes with a pair of triple barrelled autocannons. For all intents and purposes it is basically a Hydra Flakk Tank with better side armor, BS and crappy ability to fire at two different targets (which you would never use) for the cost of lower range. And yes, it is as cheap as Hydra. The main drawback is the same - no Interceptor, so it is useless against ground targets and would be blown to shreds by the flyers the turn they arrive from reserves (not that it would matter much anyway, because Interceptor in 7th no longer allows models with Skyfire to target ground-based targets at full BS; so far only Flyers/FMCs/FGCS, Tau Suits (and the Skyray) with Velocity Trackers, Mortis Dreads, or units lucky enough to claim a Skyfire Nexus, get the choice, and usually, that choice is all or nothing.)
  • If a the stalker's "dual targets" mode has the servo-tracking special rule, and "all shots fired using the servo-tracking special rule are made at BS2", what happens when it makes snap-shots?
    • Answer: Need to hit on 6's still. The sevo-tracking just changes the BS of the stalker, it doesn't override Snap Shots.

• Land Raider - The biggest metal box of all. Can carry termies, and lets them assault after disembarking. Comes in eight flavors:
  • Classic (or Godhammer) pattern Land Raider - 2 sets of twin-linked lascannons and a twin-linked heavy bolter. Carries 10 (it was 12 in 5th edition until it got changed). 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. It's not completely useless thanks to Power of the Machine Spirit which allows an additional weapon to be fired at a different target (even while shaken/stunned), theoretically allowing you to move 6" and destroy two enemy tanks (if you're lucky). This tactic works quite well with Antaro Chronus as his BS 5 makes this more likely.
  • Crusader - 2 sets of "Hurricane Bolters" (3 regular bolters, all twin-linked) and 1 twin-linked Assault cannon, and the 6th edition changes to the rules have greatly improved its weapons. Carries 16(!) This was, and sometimes still is, 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, even if it doesn't fit as many Terminators. Far Nastier against infantry than the crusader, but needs to be up closer... which means melta-range. Whoops. Also, it doesn't help that Flamestrom Cannons being mounted on the side means that the Redeemer can have difficulty hitting things directly in front of it. Multi-Melta optional, but nice. And the cherry on top: 10 points cheaper than the other two Land Raider varieties. Remember, you may not be allowed to snap shot templates, but power of the machine spirit means you can move 12 an still make someone extra crispy.
  • 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 (like REALLY unlucky, about a .3343% chance or 13 in 3888 odds). 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 (Forge World) - 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. Eldar and Dark Eldar will really Rage at it since that don't have much anti-tank outside of meltas and lances. Tthough, they have haywire/D-weapon, and you really should beware them, as hawks, wraithguards, witches and scourges would blow your "expensive but invincible" tank in eye blink, once they came in threat range. (another option is to take a iron hand character, which gives the achilles IWND. Then ally in a cheap DA librarian with bike and Powerfield generator for a 4++ (divination for rerollable inv save shenanigans). Just try and destroy that platform of death, I dare you...)--Make it worse? Put an Iron Hands Master of the Forge in it with the Relic that gives IWND on a 4+. So, get your repair shot (w/Iron Hands bonuses) + IWND as well. Unless they can take out the HP in one round, this thing isn't going down.
  • 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 its 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 (Forge World) - A Whirlwind on steroids, which comes stock with twin-linked lascannon sponsons. More survivable and versatile than the Whirlwind, but is not 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. Not bad if you're only transporting six models anyways (i.e. command squad) since it's basically ten points to upgrade the heavy bolter to a whirlwind launcher, which can be PotMS fired at at infantry while you hit something with lascannon. Not that a command squad needs a LR, but this could be an awesome choice for them if you do it anyways.
    • Despite your uber metal box having AV14 all around and 4HP there are a lot of things that could kill it for like 1/4 of it's cost. Lances and S10 weapons should make you worry. Be afraid of melta and armourbane weapons. Be VERY fucking afraid of units with haywire grenades. Necrons would eat your Land Raider alive without any problems, unless they go for full tesla and no scarabs (highly unlikely). If your opponent try to squeeze a Titan loaded with D-weapons into 40k game per new Escalation rules feel free to beat him to death with your old reliable metal dreadnought.

• Antaro Chronus (Ultramarines) - 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. The reccent update also gives the Tank It Will Not Die and a price drop meaning he may be worth it for something that takes a lot of fire. 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. Remember though, he is only allowed to be used on Ultramarine vehicles. That means you cannot use him if you don't have Ultramarine allies. I'm sure most friendly games will let it slide, but if you want to be playing tournaments with him in a Spartan Assault Tank, you're going to have to paint it blue and every other model you have.
  • Chronus only counts as an upgrade for the tank, meaning that he is part of the tank unit even when he jumps ship. Funny to way to troll your opponent when he misses out on an extra kill point!!

• Thunderfire Cannon - A powerful, cost-efficient and versatile artillery piece. This is now a beast choice in 6-th edition being very useful at putting pressure on scoring units, being able to choose 3 different shell types, one at strength 6, one which Ignores cover at strength 5 and the last causes models affected by the blast to move through difficult terrain at Strength 4. Keep this far away as possible with a good line of sight, if your lucky you can end up with 20 wounds if all goes to plan. MEQ's can buckle hard under the pressure it can fire off. 6-th edition buffed artillery staying power, by giving it 2 wounds and 3+ save, so it won't die like a bitch to a single krak shot or turn of bolter fire. But it still completely stationary. This doesn't fare so well in small games as it attract attention quicker, It is forgotten about most of the time in larger games which is great as it will harass your opponent's infantry. Most 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 might as well get one cannon 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 again, if you're using this as a big tactic, you sure as fuck need something else to break those vehicles!!)
  • TFCs can be Awesome in Apocalypse if you use them right, especially against horde armies you can just spam the Subterranean shells at. The key here is the Subterranean Shell's Tremor rule; opponents really don't like it when you're constantly putting down Blast templates of difficult/dangerous terrain in their way, even if the shell doesn't hurt anything. Do this every turn you're not firing on infantry, and many start trying to spread out and attempt a pincer rather than risk terrain tests.
  • 6th Edition has made all Thunderfire Cannon shells Barrage. Fun times ahead.
  • If there's no exposed infantry units to fire at, use the Strength 6 shells on the light AV vehicles/APC's that are definitely going to be around. Remember that Barrage shots hit side armor, so you'll be getting up to four hits on AV10-12 most of the time.
  • Since we can ally with Necrons, bring an allied detachment including a C'tan Shard with Writhing Worldscape and watch those difficult terrain shots become dangerous terrain. (Well, in 6E they were more chummy than they should have been, in 7E you simply have Unbound which is good too).

• Stormraven Gunship: Basically, a flying Land Raider. It costs 200 points base, has AV12 all around and meltaguns don't get the extra D6 for AP when shooting at them. It's also bristling with guns; it has a twin-linked heavy bolter, a twin-linked assault cannon, and four Stormstrike missiles (72" S8 AP2, Concussive, one shot each), and that's only standard issue. It can replace the heavy bolters with a twin-linked multimelta for free or a Typhoon missile launcher for 25 points, and replace the assault cannon with a twin-linked plasma cannon or a twin-linked lascannon for free. And if that's not enough dakka for you, it can take hurricane bolters in side sponsons. It can't deep strike anymore, but it can take a locator beacon, but the real gravy comes with its transport capacity; it can carry 12 guys in power armor (or 6 Jump Infantry/Terminators) AND one Dreadnought ANND it's an assault vehicle. Watch your opponent cry tears of bitter rage as your Vanguard Veterans with power weapons come out of fucking nowhere to ruin his day, along with a rampaging Ironclad dreadnought.. It'll cost you an arm and a leg, but you certainly get what you pay for. And speaking of 6th edition it's a flyer. You need it.
  • If you're going Iron Hands, take a Tech with a servo harness or a MotF and stick them in there to regain your hullpoints. You will be targeted so it's always important to bring these guys to make sure your Stormraven stays up in the air. In the end you will have a It will not die Storm Raven with a 3+ (4+ if not Iron Hands) Blessing of the Omnissiah rolls. Trust me, nothing can easily take it down with all those dice rolls that keeps it up. Take both if you got the points to spare.
  • Take one of these full of power weapon VV's/dread and a Stormtalon escort. Drink your opponents tears. Bonus points for being Raven Guard.
  • Another deathstar you can use is Lysander with a full load of Assault Hammernators with a dreadnaught. Expensive, but deadly.

• • alternative take It's a 200 point unit that can swap it's stock weapons out for twin lascannons and multimeltas for free. In other words, use it as an anti-flyer with the transport capacity coming in as a bonus.

Forge World

• Predator Executioner - Do you remember Leman Russ Executioner? Well, space marines look at it, and say "we need something like that". With 3-shot plasma cannon (THAT DOES NOT GET HOT) this thing would blast MEQ and TEQ from table next turn they come in range. Additionally, you can swap main gun for heavy conversion beamer - this would only work better on high distances, and force you to move or shoot, but 48-72" S10 AP1 big blast shot would retake the price of tank the second it shot - think of it like a long range Vindicator.

• Predator Infernus - Predator with turret mounted flamestorm cannon (those AP3 flamethrower from Redeemer). While highly devastating at close range it's just too slow. Slow flamer tanks sucks. If you want one that bad, just take allied Blood Angels with a Baal Pred. If this thing come close to any non-TEQ infantry, it would ruin their day, and then die to a single melta shot, or hail of krak grenades. But most commonly it would just die, because big scary flamer, approaching your lines attract a LOT of fire. Thank god, this tank is also cheap, so you can use it as expendable fire magnet. Alternatively Infernus can exchange his super-flamer for MAGNA-MELTA (R18 S8 AP1 Heavy1, Large Blast, Melta), transforming into wannabe-Vindicator.

• Vindicator Laser Derstroyer - The ultimate tank killer, this beast spots a souped-up Laser Destroyer, found on Rapiers, except better. Now this twin-linked ordnance lascannon have a proper 48" range (so it's no longer outranged by things it's supposed to kill) and AP1 (so thing would go boom on 5+). But there's more. If it doesn't move, it can shoot up to THREE times (two normally, and one more with a slight risk of overheating). This tank arguably packs more anti-armor punch than Terninus Ultra and Spartan, while being cheaper than Predator Annihilator, with the only three downsides of being more vulnerable to weapon destroyed, being less mobile, and the aforementioned slight chance of overheating.

• Spartan Assault Tank - Forgeworld takes the old schizophrenic Land Raider, and pumps it up with steroids. Bubbleing five hull points, two twin-linked two-shot lascannons (it almost gets off as many lascannon shots as a terminus ultra while still being able to carry troops, doesn't go boom when you roll badly, and gets way more goodies), TL heavy bolters, transport capacity of 25, in-built extra armor, good-old 14/14/14, PotMS and Assault Vehicle. You even can take frag launchers (which got far more awesome with the new grenade rules) and ceramite shielding (bubble you, meltaguns) for a marginal increase in points. Meaning it can do the roles of the Terminus Ultra, the Achilles, and the Ares all at the same time, all it really needs are some burny weapons. But what are the drawbacks you ask? This uber metal box can not be taken as a dedicated transport at all. Also, as a Forgeworld model, it will cost you a unicorn's soul.
  • At only 45 points more, there is no reason to take the Godhammer landraider over this beast ever again.
  • Your opponent might hate your guts if you field this.
  • Want to make your opponent cry or perhaps even strangle you? Take this beast, the Armoured Ceramite upgrade (Just in case), the Iron Hands Chapter Tactics, a Master of the Forge and with a few Servitors (One should do), and if you have the points add a techmarine with a servoharness as well. If you do all that you will end with HP 5, It Will Not Die and Melta Immune Spartan Assault Tank (That's AV 14 all around no less) and a MotF with a 2+ Blessing of the Omnissiah Rolls with a 3+ roll of insurance from the Techmarine. Make sure those guys are in the vehicle as of the recent faq, Techs can repair while in the vehicle. This will only cost you 440 points.
  • Fully kitted out Spartan is a textbook definition of Cheese - if your opponent have no answer to it, it'll going to run around wreck havoc unopposed, but if he have - it's you who's screwed, as you pretty much sinked more than a quarter of your points into a giant metal box, that just get blown up in a single turn by a cheap haywire-equipped unit, or a Railgun, or anything Necron, or just fucking Nurglings. At least with this tank-light edition you may hope your opponent had left his anti-tech guns at home in favor of moar plasma (because, God knows, you need all the plasma in the world against all these MCs roaming around).
• Relic Sicaran - A high speed assault tank that is a halfway between a Land Raider and a Predator. For 135 points you get 13/12/12, fast and the Herakles pattern Accelerator Autocannon, which is R48", S7, AP4, Heavy 6, Rending, and Twin-linked....and no jink saves allowed. This tank makes the Eldar cry. Even Wave Serpents will fall before this (sadly you can only have one while the Eldar player will spam Wave Serpents.) The Sicaran can also take ceremite plating, making it very durable.

• Whirlwind Hyperios - This thing is supposed to be your main ground based anti-air, but it sucks. One skyfire/interceptor krak shot per turn, even twin-linked is just don't cut it, and you can not squadron this thing, like IG player squadron their Hydras.

• Relic Whirlwind Scorpius - Unlike the standard Whirlwind, the Scorpius fires a small blast, but at S8 and AP3 it eats marines for breakfast. And if it stands still it can fire D3+1 templates.

• Space Marine Sentry Gun Battery - From IA:12 you get a battery of up to three immobile twin-linked Heavy Bolters for the bargain cost of 15 points each and swap them for a Multi-melta for five or pay ten for TL Lascannons. Being automated, you have very little control over what they actually do in the battle, they select their own targets based on pre-set criteria, you basically just get to choose at deployment what their arcs are: 360 degrees but at 18" range, or 90 degrees at 36" range, so you're rarely going to be blasting things across the table with these things. You DO get the ability to deep strike them for a laugh or give them camo netting for stealth if you can set them up in a good spot to make them invulnerable to most shooting. (while you can pay the cost for both, just don't because it you deep strike into cover you are waiting for a mishap.)
  • DON'T EVER mix and match guns or targeting criteria, nowhere in the rules do they say they deploy separately or behave any differently from any other artillery battery, meaning they should all be firing at the same target, which is still the one they select for themselves...
  • As a added bonus though, you can instead swap the guns for a Hyperios Missile Launcher (see Fast Attack section).

• Space Marine Rapier Carrier Battery - Almost identical to its Imperial Guard counterpart, with the same cheap price and the same awesome weapon, except with Space Marine ballistic skill, toughness, Chapter Tactics and And They Shall Know No Fear. The shining point is still the trolltastic ability to fire a twin-linked 36" S9 AP2 Ordnance 1 Laser Destroyer shot out of a transport’s fire points. “Wait!” You say, “Rapiers can’t hitch a ride with METAHL BAWKSES, because Rhinos can’t carry bulky, very bulky, or extremely bulky units!” That’s true, and that’s okay. Just hijack an allied chimera, cram a two gun battery into it, and you still have room left over for a techy and a servitor.

• Storm Eagle - Your transport Flyer. (IA12 moved it to heavy) Occupies the middle-ground between the Stormraven and the Thunderhawk. Transport capacity of 20, with terminators and jump infantry counting as 2 models each. Impressive arsenal of weaponry, standard armament: Hull-mounted twin-linked Heavy Bolter, Hull-mounted Vengeance Launcher (Range:48"|Str:5|AP:4|Heavy 2, Large Blast). Optional armament includes: Switching Heavy bolters for Multi-meltas or a Typhoon missile launcher, and adding 4 Hellstrike Missiles or 2 Twin-linked Lascannon under the wings. Also get ceramite shielding, and the 'Power of the Machine Spirit' special rule, along with 12|12|12 armour. Can also deep strike, and disembarking infantry can assault in the same turn.
  • Same with the Stormraven. Motf/Tech with a servo Harness put them inside and stay up.

• Fire Raptor Gunship (Forge World) - Official rules in IA2:2nd. Comes naked with a TL Avenger Bolt Cannon (being a proper manly S6 AP3 7 shots, 4 Stormtrike Missiles (S8 Concussive, NOT Ordnance, YAY) and two Independent-Turret Quad Heavy Bolters (which can be replaced with TL Autocannon for free); the latter which aside from firing at their own targets as rumored, don't count towards the number of weapons fired! With all the twin-linked goodness, Strafing Run and PotMS/Independent-turrets; this bastard can dump its entire payload on FOUR SEPARATE TARGETS in a single turn and hit almost every time. It is a relic vehicle, so if you want to take more than one (or any other relic vehicle) remember to grab a Master of the Forge as one of your HQ choices.

• 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 turn. 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.

• Relic Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought (Experimental Rules online) - A Heavy Support alternative to a Mortis-Dreadnought or Mortis-Contemptor. For exactly the same cost as Contemptor-Mortis with a pair of TL Autocannons you get +1 rear armour, +1 Ballistic Skill, Extra Armour and TL Heavy Bolters built-in and the Deredeo's Anvillus Autocannons have higher strength and the Sunder quality (basically Tank Hunters USR for that weapon only). You get the same Helical Targeting array and Atomantic Shielding, but you lose a point of strength, one attack and don't have many customisation options (right now), but since this is not a melee dreadnought at all, for that cost it's a bargain and preferable over a Contemptor Mortis for an AA role. The Aiolos Launcher is a bit off-key, since it doesn't really have the strength to rate highly as an anti-vehicle, even though it always hits targets side armour and does better as an MEQ killer due to AP3, which is helped in this role since it can fire independently of the Deredeo's other weapon. Don't forget that it still fires snap shots against ground targets if you choose to use rule that provides Skyfire and Interceptor.

Super Heavy [all Forge World]

• Thunderhawk Gunship - 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 700 points it's certainly expensive, and it doesn't have much armour (12,12,10) 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 pummeled by 700 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.
• Now you can now use this bad boy in normal games, why? Not a good ideal seeing how its 700 points....

• Fellblade - This is your ELEVEN THIRTEEN BARRELS OF HELL: Quad-lascannon or laser destroyer sponsons, twin-linked heavy bolters/flamers and a demolisher cannon on the hull, and a fuck-huge Accelerator Cannon (also known as a rape cannon) mounted on top. On top of that, you can take a pintle-mounted storm bolter, heavy bolter, heavy flamer or multi-melta, pushing it up to a mighty FIFTEEN BARRELS OF HELL. Take it with Armoured Ceramite to protect it from IG Melta-Vet squads, and make sure to protect the relatively vunerable rear, and you have a tank that'll put any of your former friend's Baneblade variants to shame.

• Thunderhawk Transporter - Get this if you if you have a burning desire to kneel down and sacrifice your money to the gods of Games Workshop. It costs the same amount of cash as the regular thunderhawk, and you'll probably end up wishing you had one of those instead. It's not that the transporter is awful, the ability to fly in a loaded up land raider and place it where you want is cool, you can even scoop up other vehicles while in hover mode without having to cease your movement. But unless you are playing on REALLY big gaming tables (we're talking the same size of games where Earthshaker guns run out of range.), there's no real need to do this and your Thunderhawk itself doesn't have much else to do with only a few heavybolters for its defense. Just get the regular Thunderhawk and for now and you'll feel less guilty.

• Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer - An odd superheavy tank. Its weapon is S10 AP1, but has no blast, so if you miss there's no consolation prize by accidentally wiping out a nearby unit (it is twin linked, so you're unlikely to miss). However, whatever it hits is raped. It fires D3 shots every time it fires and anything that somehow survives a penetrating hit from it can only snap-fire next turn (including other superheavies... neutering that poor emperor class titan.) but if it fails a penetrate ROLL (glances are fine) or to-wound its target (remember it's a primary weapon, so already gets re-rolls), it instead damages itself by an automatic hull point on a further roll of 1. It can be given the standard predator sponsons or pintle mounted heavy weapons, but you're probably going to want to load up on anti-tank and leave anti infantry to your other units.

• Typhon Heavy Siege Tank - It's a giant vindicator. Cheaper and better armoured than the Fellblade and more reliable than the Cerberus. It fires off a 7" Blast S10 AP1 weapon, which ignores cover, and so will erase entire units on 2s unless they have invulnerable saves. Can also be equipped with sponsons like a predator and pintlemounted options including heavy bolters, or a multi-melta. And unlike the Cerberus, since your main gun doesn't fill an uber specialised role you can choose what you want and split your fire to shoot in all directions and pick your targets by relevance. Also give it armoured ceramite so it can never be killed by melta & lances.

Fortifications

• Aegis Defence Line: Cheap means of getting a quad gun. Scouts with camo cloaks and telion make this another delicious 2+ cover save. Even better, play Imperial Fists or take an Imperial Fists detachment. Take a Devastator squad. Have them man the Quad gun. You now have a BS5 Quad gun that is twin-linked, and re-rolls failed pens/glances against all vehicles. This thing will fucking blow Heldrakes out of the sky in a single Shooting phase if you're a little lucky.
• Skyshield Landing Pad: 4++ save, park your vehicles that are just going to stay still and shoot on top of this thing. It can't be demolished, laugh as your predators rain death unmolested.(Technically you can put a war-hound titan on-top of this and still get an invun save but you have to take dangerous terrain test if you move off of it).
• Imperial Bastion: It basically serves the same role as the Aegis Line, but it has more guns and better cover. It's as expensive as the Skyshield, though, without protecting your tanks, and your infantry squads probably won't find it worthwhile to sit around all game--unless they're Devastators, which is where this shines.
• Fortress of RedemptionG.I. JOE COBRA COMMAND CENTER PLAYSET: It's a massive "centerpiece" terrain model, which is kinda silly when you think about it. It basically forces you to sit around and shoot, and it certainly does have plenty of firepower, but then you don't necessarily want to do that--you're not Impy Guard or Tau, remember. Really, the biggest question when taking this is, for that price, why aren't you taking another Land Raider?

Supplements

Sentinels of Terra

• Close Ranged Bolter Drill: Replaces the Imperial Fists Bolter Drill with re-rolls to hit at half range. Works for bolt pistols, boltguns, storm bolters, heavy bolters, combi-weapons firing as bolters. Does not apply to Special Issue Ammo. Useful, but now you have to be closer to the enemy, so watch out.
• Centurion Warsuits: Like Centurions? Now Centurion Devastator Squads are Elites and Heavy Support, Centurion Assault Squads are Fast Attack and Elites. Useful for freeing up slots for more useful things like Vindicators, but mostly this is for fluff rather than spam. Take 54 Marines wearing larger Marines for lols.
• Tor Garadon: Upgrade for a Tactical Squad. Has profile of Captain rather than Sergeant (though he does get promoted to Captain, so it fits), power fist, grenades (frag and krak) and the Spartean (see below). Makes his Tac Squad HQ. Pretty good, open ups cheap HQ option, with meatshields. Kit him up and hunt a tank.

Warlord Traits

With Stronghold Assault expansion coming, Warlord traits involving buildings are going to become much more useful.

1. Siege Lord: Shots from Warlord and unit add 1 to their roll on building damage table. Maybe useful in apoc, if your opponents spam fortifications, but really, no.
2. Tenacious Opponent: Warlord gets It Will Not Die. Nice. Wait. Don't tell me he went all Necron on me.
3. Wise Commander: While your Warlord is alive, add or subtract 1 from reserve rolls. Very nice, very nice indeed.
4. Indomitable: Provided the Warlord and his unit don't move, they get Fearless and Counter Attack until the start of your next turn. Useful if the enemy breaks your lines, maybe too situational.
5. Architect of War: The building your Warlord cowers in gets -1 to damage rolls against it. Ugh.
6. Fleet Commander: One use, Infinite Range, S10 AP1, Large Blast Ordinance Barrage that ignores BS when scattering. Sure, your Warlord can't fire another weapon that turn, but really, why should he? Awesomesauce. LOIC anyone?

Company Relics

• The Eye of Hypnoth: Used in place of a shooting attack, for 15 points you reduce a unit or building's cover save by 1 until the end of the phase. 18" range and non-cumulative with the Auspex, but it is cheap. Chuck it on a Scout Squad with Snipers, peg off a pesky commander.
• The Angel of Sacrifice: Chaplain only, as it replaces the Crozius Arcanum. When killed in assault, Chaplain stays around until close combat attacks are resolved, and then attacks. S+2, AP 4 Concussive, very cheap, if you have a Chaplain, it's an auto include.
• The Bones of Orsak: Librarian gets 1 extra warp charge and re-rolls failed psychic tests. One of the strongest relic in this edition.
• The Banner of Staganda: Can only be carried by anyone that can take a Company Standard, bearer gets Counter-Attack and Crusader, and Imperial Fists within 12" reroll failed morale and pinning tests.
• The Spartean: Garadon's Pistol, though if you aren't taking Garadon you can chuck it on someone else. Master Crafted Bolt Pistol that Ignores Cover. If you have the points to spare, take it, can't hurt.

Tactics

With close range bolter drill, this turns the army into a close quaters monster, a bit like the opposite of the Tau who want to stay away from the enemy, this one wants to get within a 12-8 inch range to make the most of twinlinked bolters. But that means you always moving forward to get into this golden butter zone, additionally your enemy will be in a perfect place to charge you if you try to shoot his melee troops, on the other hand overwatch fire could be brutal as twinlinking will let the 20 or so dice a ten man tact squad can throw down be devastating and could easily stop a charge dead as you pick off three or maybe five models off and that could be enough. It might be best to ignore heavy weapons in tactical squads since you'll be moving most turns, on the other hand a twinlinked heavy bolter, even snap fire, could make it's price back. Think Aspect Eldar and keep your tactical focused on destroying infantry and use your extra Centurions to deal with armor and even terminators will fall under enough bolter fire.

Clan Raukaan

• Company Rules: Dreadnoughts can be taken as either Heavy or Elite Choices without a Master of the Forge and two Techmarines can be taken for each HQ; three if the HQ is a MotF. Handy if you want to run two MotF, six Techmarines and 6 Dreadnoughts.

Warlord Traits

1. Adept of the Omnissiah - Gain Blessing of the Omnissiah or a re-roll if they already have it.
2. Will of Iron - Warlord becomes Fearless...But why would you even want this, you have ATSKNF already.
3. FLESH IS WEAK - +1 to FNP roll. This is the pick you want when using Chapter Master Smashfucker. And why wouldn't you be using him when running an Iron Hands list?
4. Student of History - In an attempt to avoid winding up without heads, the Warlord and Clan Raukaan unit can auto-fail Morale checks.
5. Merciless Resolve - Warlord and friendly Clan Raukaan units with 12" get Crusader USR
6. Target Protocols - Warlord and Clan Raukaan unit can re-roll To Hits of 1 in shooting phase. Definitely a way to make them Fists and Smurfs jelly of your sexy augmetics.

Company Relics

• The Mindforge Stave: Force thunder hammer, which is obviously restricted to librarians only. Otherwise, Smashfucker would be even more horrendously cheesy.
• Axe of Medusa: Master-crafted Power Axe with +2S, A to-hit roll of 6 makes it +4S usually making you hit at S8. Essentially a "wish I was a power fist."
• Betrayers Bane: Master-crafted Combi-Melta with 'unlimited' melta shots, just in case you REALLY wanna wreck that tank.
• Iron Stone: Clan Raukaan Tanks and Walkers within six 6" pass IWND of 4+ and a 6 will repair Immobilized or Weapon Destroyed. Put on your Master of the Forge and park him near your mechline in a siege assault vanguard list. Laugh all the way to the bank and dodge hurled models.
• The Tempered Helm: Morale tests within 24" use the wearers leadership. One unit within 12" can re-roll 1's to-hit.
• Gorgon Chain: The bonuses are based on how many wounds the user has suffered: 0 wounds suffered gets 3++, +1 to FNP, EW; 1 wound suffered gets 3++, EW; 2 wounds suffered 3++; 3 wounds suffered gets 4++; these are affected by IWND so regaining wounds makes it stronger again. Give this to a well-equipped Captain, attach an Apothecary to his unit, and laugh as everything short of a MC dies in close combat to him while he shrugs off wounds thanks to his supercharged FNP. Did I mention that IWND will return any buffs lost from taking Wounds? Also, this is the specialty tool of Chapter Master Smashfucker, so go! Emulate his murderous prowess!

Tactics

With this supplement the Iron Hands chapter master went from ded killy an' ded 'ard to even more killy and even 'arder. The Gorgon Chain doesn't replace a weapon so your chapter master can now wield a thunder hammer and a lightning claw for an additional attack and the option to strike at initative, with access to 4+, 3+ or 2+ FNP through lucky warlord trait rolls and a Psyker with Endurance or Harath Shen (4+ from Endurance, +1 from the warlord trait, + 1 from the chain). Add Grey Knight Allied Detachment (or play unbound) for a guaranteed little-to-no-perilling Sanctuary from Daemonology - Santic powers to give the psyker and his unit (YES, THIS INCLUDES SMASHFUCKER) +1 TO HIS INVULNERABLE. That is a 2+ Armour, 2+ Invulnerable, and a 2+ FNP, with IWND and EW. FUCKING TRY TO KILL HIM NOW.

Not exactly fluffy, buuuut, since you've got all those tech marines, all of which have bolster defenses, you could stick a bunch of scouts in the bolstered cover. A bit more fluffy, Raptors as allies would go nicely for your Sons of Medusa. If you don't care about fluff, then Eldar will love your bolstered cover. Other than that, you can stick techmarines in squads as special weapon toting seargents or you can have them take along servitors for repair work or to carry plasma cannons. Take along some Inquisitorial allies, and use the arco-flagellants as failed aspirants.

If you feel bad, simply kit bash the bikers to be extremely augmented marines; use Terminators (especially Forge World's Gorgon Termies), add tech marine crap and done. The +1 toughness it easily explain because of how they're basically robots. Their speed, again their legs can move faster, or they have wheels for legs. Jink saves; because their sensors detect incoming fire, and they dodge out of the way.

Drop Pod Spam

Perhaps a silly tactic, but it may work. Multiple Drop Pods with Deathwind Launchers and It Will Not Die plus multiple Techmarines which repair at +4 are annoying.

Take one Master of the Forge and give him a combi-weapon. Take three Techmarines and give them combi-weapons. Now add four tactic squads with only five members, a plasma gun and another combi-weapon. Join each techmarine to each squad and deploy them in Pods with Deathwind Launchers. Fill the list with Ironclad Dreadnoughts in Pods.

At 1600 points you will have 8 Drop Pods with Deathwind Launchers with IWND, 4 Ironclad Dreadnoughts with IWND and 4 squads with +6 FNP, a plasma weapon, two combis and an indepedent character with +2 save who can tank wounds and repair Dreadnoughts and Pods. Take a captain and a squad on bikes for a fast scoring unit.

Legion of the Damned

While this is technically an independent Codex in its own right, its relatively sparse crunch and dubious feasibility for use as a Primary Detachment make it a supplement for all intents and purposes.

• Aid Unlooked For: Legion of the Damned units cannot be joined by ICs or benefit from Chapter Tactics. They start the game in reserve and arrive via Deep Strike. They can re-roll their Scatter die when Deep Striking.
  • problem: you can't run pure Legion of the damned army's because nothing can start on the table, and you lose the game by default on the first turn, unless you are attacking in Planetstrike, or using some other mission that allows you to arrive on the first turn.
• Unyielding Spectres: All LotD units get a 3+ invulnerable save.
• Flaming Projectiles: All LotD shooting weapons ignore cover.

Warlord Traits

1. 1- Inferno of Vengeance: The Warlord and his unit gain Soul Blaze on their guns. Probably the only bad trait considering how stupid Soulblaze gets.
2. 2- Aura of Fear: When taking Fear tests, all units in base contact with the Warlord's unit suffer a cumulative -1 Leadership penalty for every friendly LotD squad on the board beyond the first one. This can mean up to a -6 Ld penalty (if taken with three space marine legion squads but a -3 is more likely), which can make it quite effective if you can spare the points.
3. 3- Ethereal Bolts: Bolt pistols, boltguns, storm bolters, heavy bolters, and combi-weapons firing as bolters all gain Armorbane when wielded by the Warlord and his unit. Guaranteed to make vehicle-heavy lists cry.
4. 4- Spectral Bulwark: The Warlord and his unit gain FnP on a 5+. Also stacks up pretty well with the Animus Malorum, and can give you a fire-magnet to go alongside Smashfucker.
5. 5- Never Too Late, Never Too Early: The Warlord and his unit can bypass their reserve roll in favor of choosing to arrive on any turn before the fourth, which is like Deffwing Assault, but better.
6. 6- Retribution Made Manifest: The Warlord and his unit gain Preferred Enemy. Neat.

Relic of the Damned

• Animus Malorum: Sergeant Centurius' soul-eating skull gives the bearer and his unit FnP, and any unit which fails a Fear, Morale, or Pinning check within 12" of the bearer has a randomly chosen model immediately removed as a casualty with no saves allowed (although LoS! can still be used). Every model that is removed this way grants a +1 modifier to the FnP roll (up to a 2+) for the remainder of that turn. At only 35 points for a sergeant to use it, it's a steal (especially if you picked up the Aura of Fear Warlord Trait to make it more likely that enemies will fail their Fear roll).

Elites

You only have one unit, but you can bring up to 4 of them and they're OS units if taken as the Primary Detachment. Enjoy your heavy weapons spam.

• The Legion of the Damned - Improved from utter shit to very well usable! At the same cost that Sternguards used to have, you get Fear, Fearless, Slow and Purposeful, 3++, and all shooting Ignores Cover. Yes, all of it, including any special or heavy weapons WHICH ARE NOW THE SAME PRICE AS EVERYONE ELSE'S. They are also one of the 2 units that can take Heavy Flamers. On the downside, they can only arrive through Deep Strike, meaning if there's something you want them to kill, you'll have to wait a while, can't be joined by Independent Characters, and they don't get any of the Chapter Tactics, but this update more than makes up for that.
  • With the increasing amount of low AP weaponry and cover ignoring that is 6th these guys have some merit. They can contest and mow things down. Strike them near things with low AP weapons (Give them a Plasma Cannon to see S7 AP 2 Ignores Cover Blast) or the backfield and watch them turn firefights around. They will die to massed fire (But then again, what in this game doesn't?) but can tank low volume high power hits. Sure, you can minmax a list and leave them at home but how many of you are playing in world class tournaments and need 1d4chan tactics? They are good, but not uber. Most of all, they are fun.
    • Pro-Tip: You can use them as mobile cover for any troops and/or assault screens, especially if they have the Animus and/or rolled Spectral Bulwark.

Allies

Battle Brothers

• Other Chapters of muhreens: Let's get serious: if you're relying on MOAR marines it's because they have toys that you don't. With that clear, let's see what have your less Codex-compliant battle-brothers. Allying with other Codex-compliant chapters is good only if you want two different Chapter Tactics or another Chapter's special character.
  • Codex Space Marines: Unlike other Codices, Space Marines can ally with themselves, so it's worth noting it here. In general use, each chapter tactic works well with a unit and tactic. Combine chapter tactics to get the more out of certain units then one chapter tactic alone can give you. Fists have better devastators thanks to Tank Hunters, while Ravens have better assault Marines. Combine them to have Tank Hunting dev's de-can a transport for Assault marines to charge with extra hammer of wraths, or Salmanders cook with re-rolling wound flamers, or any combination you can come up with.
  • Black Templars: While not the brightest thing in the world to do now that Black Templars are included in the Codex Space Marines, this can be done if you wanted to mix chapter tactics. Say, your primary detachment is Imperial fists and in that detachment you kit your devastators out for anti tank duty, while the BTs act as, basically, scoring assault marines with land raiders.
  • Blood Angels: You're allying with BA because three things: army-wide Furious Charge, speedy tanks and surgical deep striking jet-packaged assault units. Otherwise GTFO. They have a good assault unit in Death company, good MEQ blasting in the Sanguinary guard and Vanguard veterans and their rhino-variants tanks are fast, which can be wonderful with certain ones. Since their tactical squads can take a heavy flamer and a grav-gun, consider kitting your own tacticals out with whatever would complement those best. They also get locator beacons in their Tactical squads, which can be hilarious if you have a Terminator-heavy army.
  • Dark Angels: We are talking about the Deathwing and Ravenwing. The Deathwing have some nasty terminators that can be used if you can't (or don't want to) use yours. The Ravenwing are the same, but replacing terminators for bikes, Land Speeders (this includes the Vengeance and Darkshroud patterns), and flyers. ALSO, they have librarians with divination powers (that can take power shield generator as well), just stick him with devastator squad and enjoy. Combining Darkshroud with the White Scars or Astral Claws could lead to entire army of 3+ covered bikers (2+ on turbo-boost).
  • Space Wolves: WOLFWOLFWOLFWOLFYWOLF... Ahem. Jokes aside, the Thunderwolves are a godsend to the vanilla. Resilient, fast and strong assault unit; even the TH/SS termies can't say that.

• Imperial Guard: They gives the Tarpit, cheap infantry and meatshields that may come in handy to the marines. Also useful for their artillery and tanks. Also very fluffy, everybody knows of hopeless IG whose asses must be saved by the marines. Also Leman Russes. Also Divination. Also veteran tankbusters/plasmaspam
  • Militarum Tempestus: The storm troopers have only a few tricks to give a marine, but as it is said "if your gonna be a one trick pony, better make it one hell of a trick". Tempestus give very good air support with valkyries but normal storm troopers are nothing to sneeze at and are able to chew though marines power armor with AP3 hot shot las guns, or you can use them as cheap deep strike melta.

• Grey Knights: Three words: Two. Wound. Terminators. Basically a DISTRACTION CARNIFEX, and pretty damn survivable, even without the Assault Terminator 3++ from Storm Shields. Just keep them away from S8+ weapons - there's nothing worse than Paladins going down to Krak Missiles. Up against another Marines player with a few Deep Striking units? Vortex of DOOM, motherfucker. Do beware that they'll end up extremely pricy though. If you grab some homers for a Nemesis Strike Force, they'll thank you tons for it.

• Adepta Sororitas: They actually have rules outside of White Dwarf now! And Exorcists. Yes please. Consider a command squad with Condemnor Boltguns if expecting to face Screamerstars or faggots. Troops with heavy flamers are fantastic for roasting hordes, Dominions with meltas are even better at opening cans than Imperial Fist lascannon devs, and there's nothing like an Exorcist for making Crisis Suits cry. Sisters Repentia are - in a Land Raider or Stormraven - the definitive counter for an Imperial Knight.

• Inquisition: Why haven't you taken it yet? Seriously, you get 3 Elites Choices (Read: 3 units of Inquisitorial Henchmen) and each of them can take a transport like a Rhino, or a Chimera or a Land Raider or a Valkyrie. That makes it worth it right up front, but with the right load out, they can fill holes in your army, so this should be your first choice right here. Consider taking a Inquisitor in a Valkyrie and a tarpit or two of Acolytes, while still having a full Guard artillery battery and doing some screening with large blocks of bolter brothers; or a four lascannon Devastator squad buffed by a psyker Inquisitor while Space Wolves take care of the melee combat. If you want to be a douche, attach an Inquisitor to Dev Centurions w/ Grav Cannons and roll for Perfect Timing. If there's something your current army is lacking, the Inquisition has something that can compensate for it

• Imperial Knights: An Errant Knight titan is probably a good bet for players looking for some reliable long range anti-tank/anti-TEQ killer. The Paladin Knight brings some long range high strength high AP shooting (Double shot battle cannon? Hell yeah) to an army that can really use some for only two termies more than two Leman Russ Tanks. And these things score (well, maybe, the Facebook post wasn't clear with whether the allied ones score), so charge him at the enemy lines faster than you can say DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. Thanks to their Str. D CC arm, they can reliably deal with with most monstrous creatures with ease, barring Skarbrand and maybe a Wraithknight. Also, Seer/Screamer-Star or any other re-rollable 2+ bullshit? Meet D-Weapon. If you fight a Riptide heavy list, these might become your best friend you still cannot catch the fuckers. Bitch please, you have a 12 movement and a 2D6 charge. The Riptide has a 6 move and a 2D6 jump, and limited space to escape with given how they'll be hiding at the back like sissies. Plus, they're shit at killing the Knight.

• Skitarii: the newest BFFs in the block, they can put a good amount of precision shots/wannabe-markerlights around. But since they don't have an HQ you can't use an Allied Detachment, only their special CAD. The Ironstrider Ballistarius, with their Twin-Linked Cognis Autocannon, can provide a fuckload of S7 shooting plus a good AA coverage, since they snap fire at BS2.

Allies of Convenience

• Eldar: That's it, the only Ally of convenience is Craftworld Eldar now. Like you, they shoot and fight, but with their poor Toughness (Wraith units notwithstanding), you fight, let them shoot. Dark Reapers make MEQs cry, Jetbikes are great for harassment, and Fire Dragons or Wraithguard are awesome for removing AV14 or MCs. The Wraithknight is the mother of all distractions. Use wisely.

Desperate Allies

• Dark Eldar: They are faster than you, so use that. A good strategy with them are using them as skirmishers and go against one unit at once. Kabalites are good versus infantry and monsters or launch Wyches against vehicles. Do not invest in Haemonculi's minions, you have better stuff. Remember keep them far from your units. The marines will likely survive one turn stopped and useless, the DE don't.

• Tau Empire: What are the Tau? Ungodly shooting power. You can give them infantry that doesn't suck in CQC. Also, crisis suits are just like attack bikes, except better in every way. They used to be a lot better in 6E when they were Battle Brothers, but nowadays a lot of their utility is lost. If they end up too close to the Tau, they'll be doing nothing, which will be costly. It pays to remember, though - Tau don't have to be a static gunline. Battlesuits - all of them except R'Varnas and Broadsides - are jet pack infantry. That means they can Deep Strike and they can seriously haul heinie. Play your cards right, especially with a Farsight Enclaves detachment, and OEO will never be a problem. Use fusion-armed crisis suits or ion/fusion Riptides to destroy a Land Raider then jump them clear just in time for your assault termies to smash the hell out of whatever was inside.

Come the Apocalypse

• Necrons: They're the anvil. You're the hammer. Let the undead robots take the shit, because they can handle it. You can deep strike later to win the day. Also useful when there are many high-armor (13+) vehicles in the field.

• Orks: Use them as a first and expendable wave to tarpit and soften the enemy or silence their biggest cannons by assaulting them (or both), so you can later choose better your attacks. But remember that you have to begin the marine offensive when every one of the orks are dead, as the "One eye open" rule can ruin even the best plan.

• Chaos Daemons- Grey Knights are better.

• Chaos Space Marines- What? Why? Unless you're just f**king around, dont.

• Tyranids- Genestealers. Nuff said.

Building Your Army

Games Workshop always advocates it, and it bears repeating: start with an HQ and two Troops.

• For your HQ, you are somewhat split for choice. If you're playing a chapter with SC's, they're a good starting point. Support HQ's like a Libby or Master of the Forge are worth considering. If you're looking to create a badass retinue for a tough guy character then a Captain or Chapter Master with tooled up weaponry is a good starting point. Fundamentally, HQ choice comes down to planning - they are the most difficult units to integrate by far. You could just take a 65 Libby to minimise the tax, but in many cases that becomes a waste in itself - what the hell is it going to accomplish? Its still a lot of points. Base your HQ on things that *will* happen, not what *might* happen. Weigh up having a tough HQ that can handle itself in a fight (to say claim Slay the Warlord whilst not giving it away) versus a Force Multiplier. Many of the Special Characters combine both.
  • e.g don't put a Captain inside a rhino with a Tactical squad and expect him to reach enemy lines. You'll get obliberated. However- if you take RG chapter tactics and pull off the maximum movement, he will reach threat range by the beginning of turn 2. Drop pods, Land Raiders, strong retinues, all are good assurance a Captain *will* and not *might*.

• Good starting troops are:
  • Tactical Squads. They're your bread and butter. Unless you're writing a gimmicky spam list you're going to have them. They're an oddball, or a guilty pleasure if you will. Having a load of bolters is not good for your list in all honesty, you want your Tac squads to have maximised firepower or potential. Don't equip them for AT, they suck at it, tanks are too rare to compensate for with an entire unit for, and the alternatives are better. You *need* a method of transporting them. Consider very carefully how you choose to do so, you should not mix and match pods with rhinos unless its just one or two pods and they're carrying a deadly alpha strike unit. Rhinos only become truly good if you're using either the Raven Guard chapter tactic or Khan and the White Scars - you need the mobility and alpha strike potential scout gives you. Razorbacks are alright but don't form a good core unless you're either taking them minimum or maxing them out. The best options here are generally Plasma and Flamers for wiping infantry. Don't forget the Sarge can take a combi-weapon - and by the Emperor make it the same as your special, or he'll twitch.
  • Scout Squads. Sniper Scouts are the time honoured classic choice for holding backfield objectives. Honestly, they're not that good at all, but by throne are they cheap. In 6th you can use them as a counter attack or alpha strike unit by abusing Land Speeder Storms, which let you charge out of them with open topped and move a long distance at the start of the game with scout. They can also snatch objectives at the last second.
  • Biker Squads. These became very good with the new Codex, and they're a very viable choice for basing an army around, but you need a Captain/Master/SC to field them as troops. Grav Gun spam makes them a very nasty bastion of firepower.

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.

Some things to keep in mind:

• Note that generic marines are a "jack-of-all trades, master of none" type army: each unit type has a loose yet specific role that they're best at, and because something in the Codex covers each base the army itself is adaptable to pretty much any tactic. Don't run lists around the concept as a whole though. You want your units to have focus. Taking Devastators? don't mix and match your anti-infantry and anti-tank. You want to annihilate what you shoot at. Consider this trait a convenience (or at worst, a hindrance) and nothing else.
  • Never, ever, ever take CC weapons in non CC orientated squads like Tacticals, Sternguard, or Bikers. The objective of those squads is to shoot. What they can't already kill in CC will not be changed by a CC weapon. They're expensive and they massacre your focus. Also bear in mind that weapons like plasma or grav pistols are extremely inefficient for what you pay - they're not worth taking, but a combi-weapon that is both cheaper and supports the squad role is.
• 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.
  • take drop pods. They're just as good rhinos. Put your marines in high priority area's with out worrying about hull points.
• You're not a Khorne Berserker. You're not even a Blood Angel. You cannot turn anything at close range into mulch while being fearless. 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 a 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!
• You're not a Leman Russ Squadron. You can't take a bunch of vehicles and just crush everything in your way. Your tanks are good, but not great, so keep them just as alert as the rest of your minis and let them do their jobs.

Overall, space marine armies require BALANCE FOCUS to succeed. As Charles Darwin (didn't actually) say: "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."

The logic is that you need a hard counter to whatever pops up in this edition. Missile Devastators made mincemeat of vehicles last edition like it was going out of fashion. And it did, because now if you come up against a Riptide that every Tau *will* have they're absolutely worthless. Some people didn't even take vehicles in 6th. This may very well change now in 7th as vehicles score and Dedicated Transports for Troops count as Objective Secured.

Another thing of note is that your chapter is not long just a color scheme, you should build your army to be suit their chapter tactics, ie Raven Guard assault marines, white scars bikes ect.

You need to consider the following when writing a list:

• • Anti Scoring. You want to wash them off objectives, because objectives win games. Preferably with minimum effort. Examples : 3 Flamer Assault Squad with DP, Thunderfire Cannon, anything else that ignores cover or reliably reaches their scoring.
  • Anti Tank. Not half as important this edition but still needs to be considered, you don't want to be boned when you inevitably come up against someone who anticipates a lack of AT. Don't take Melta. Its too situational, unreliable and takes away your focus. Good examples include: Tri-Las Predators, Storm Talons, (even if you don't have the AT guns you can still fly behind and fire at their rear armour with your 360' gun) Devastators. If it can't also do Anti-MC you should probably not take it.
  • Anti Monstrous Creatures. High strength, low AP guns that pound the wounds off these fuckers. They're almost always deadly and critical to your opponent's strategy. The trick is killing them so hard and so fast your opponent crumbles. They vary from Nid MC's that rampage towards you to backfield MCs such as Riptides. You need to plan for the latter especially. Good examples include: Alpha striking Sternguard with combi weapons, Tri-Las Predators, any ranged unit or set of ranged units that can leverage a large amount of high strength AP2 firepower reliably. Don't deal in *might*'s, deal in *will*'s. CC units are not a good choice for this category because they are a *might* on the face of it.
  • Anti Flyer. You need to shoot these down before they wreck your list without compromising it. A fortification with Quad Gun is a good easy choice, but you need to plan about how you're going to use them best. Taking your own flyers is a valid counter - they can elect to get skyfire. The Hunter/Stalker have benefits each and are both worth considering.
  • List backbone. Its all well and good covering all of this, but if your list is literally a jumbled mess of different units performing different roles with no cohesion you're in trouble. When you look at your list become your own opponent. Think about what they would target first, what is easy to neutralize, and about the amount of damage they would need to inflict in order to cripple your chances at winning.
  • Also relating to list backbone, duality. It is inevitable that a unit can't always reliably achieve its goal. You will take casualties. The easiest way to absorb every punch is to have another layer under your skin - take pairs, triples, quadruplets even of units with the same role. You destroyed a Rhino with 10 Tactical Marines? Here's 3 more squads that all pose the same threat. Unless a unit is exceedingly hard to kill or extremely reliable (e.g in a low points game a DP Sternguard alpha strike unit or a squad of 10 Terminators) you should always have duality.

• Note: If you happen to have 7000£ lying around and several servants who can paint awesomely buy the astartes ultra i.e. THE ENTIRE ULTRAMARINES CHAPTER COMPOSING OF 1200 MODELS and 17000 point not including vehicles characters

1. contact a friend who has a similarly sized tyranid army
2. have 6 fortresses of redemption clustered into 2 giant (polar) fortresses
3. plan at some point a challenge between calger and the swarmlord
4. sell tickets
5.  ??????
6. PROFIT

Tactics

"Ye who dare enter within these sacred walls, heed the wisdom of the ancients as it is written, but see past the mere limitations of words and bold statements.

1) Thou shalt ne'er dismount from thy sacred steel coffin. Doing so is equal to doing the enemy's work. He cannot hurt thou until he hast dismounted thou power armored asses from thy rhinos, and all thy most fearsome weapons are usable from thy blessed rhino hatch of potent power and might.

2) Thou shalt fear no evil, for thou art fear incarnate, but thou shalt not let this power go to thine head. Thou shalt respect the enemy as thou respect thy own forces, for arrogance leads to thine own downfall, and the perfunctory loss of massive chunks of thine army to 'only lasguns,' and 'puny long-ranged meltaguns,' or 'that immobilized chaos dread in the corner.'

3) Whilst thine sacred, holy, blessed space marines are an elite force, the likes of which has ne'er been seen prior to, nor since, strength is still to be found in numbers. For whilst a solitary squad of thine most esteemed sternguard will fall versus a score of chaos marines, 3 squads shall not.

4) Thou shalt ensure thou uses the enemy's strengths and weaknesses against them equally. If thine foe is strong up close, thou shall prevent him from getting there. If he is slow and plentiful, thou wilst thin his ranks with potshots, whilst biding thine time to lay into him with tankshock, sacred heavy flamer, and assaults on thine terms. If he is powerful at range, you will drive towards him most fearlessly, making careful use of terrain, smoke launchers, the superior armor value of thine vigilant and invincible predators, and bunkering up where his guns are the thinnest. If his numbers be but few yet strong in spirit and body, thou shalt focus fire on one unit at a time, until it is no more. If the enemy is fast, thou shall present him with a wall of rhinos shielding thy sacred space marine infantry, and careful placement and redeployment to make his valiant efforts for victory futile. If thou art facing thine British Firing Line, pummel them with devastators and then assault them in many different places. Thine foe's supporting fire shalt make an arse out of you if thou don't.

5) Thou shalt not, under any circumstance, allow the vile enemy to have her or his way. If faced with a charge from a score of ork boyz, thou shalt famously unload thy blessed boltpistols and holy promethium from thine flamers into their ranks, and thereafter take the charge most gloriously and defyingly, denying them the initiative, all charging bonuses, and catching the enemy commander unprepared, for yours is the gear, the profile, and the abilities to turn certain death into certain victory for the glory of the Emperor.

6) Thou will fight on all ground, in all terrain, on all fields of combat, and thou wilt do so with stubborn cunning, and the unrelenting, unlimited imagination held by all human beings. Thou wilt use the pieces of the board for all they're worth, and attacking the flanks of any entrenched, isolated firebase with no doubt or hesitation in mind, for it takes a lot of autocannons to guarantee the kill of even a single rhino, and thou wilt field at least 4 at all times.

7) The sole time in which thine mighty armaments of the emperor are useless, is when thine most holy guns cannot reach the foe.

8) Thou shalt always hold the initiative. Thou shalt press on, and use thine forces expertly, while applying pressure to the enemy from the flanks, the rear, and the front - anywhere it is possible. Thou shalt never remain immobile, for giving up thy movement is tantamount to rolling over like a bitch, and presenting thy previously mentioned power armored ass to the enemy.

9) Thine space marines are few in numbers, yet strong and reliable. They will hold the line where lesser men may not, and survive firepower that would render any ordinary squad dead. Thou shalt trust in thine power armor, thine krak grenades, holy boltgun, boltpistol, and thine most underestimated frag grenade, for few of the foe's elite are as royally equipped as thine grunts, or as capable of using them.

10) Thou shalt learn to appreciate a very powerful, versatile, unfocused profile, for yours is the strength and power of three lesser men, contained in one package. Where a man may be exceptional at shooting or combat, thine grunts are capable of both in equal measure, and blessed with the gear to make both a reality.

11) Whilst a plasma gun will ignore thy power armor, it will not ignore thy high leadership, or thy sacred cover save. Unless you elect to fall back, you will hold most stubbornly on a consistent basis.

12) Cowardice is naught but an illusion of lesser men. The popular sentiment is 'he who runs away lives to fight another day.' This is not so. He who runs away lives to rapid fire bolters against the foe that made him run away.

13) Knowledge is power, but power is useless if it's not being put to use. Study thy opponent's tome of lore and wisdom. Read it again, closer. Put the words to mind, so thou wilt not hesitate that destroyers are indeed toughness 5, and a krak missile thusly wilst not inflict instant death upon it.

14) Thou shalt ne'er do the opponent's work for him. While the other races, such as eldar, are wont to kill their own units with Yriel's eye of death, you know better. Thou shalt not ever, under any circumstance, nuke too close to your own units, or 'assault' with a depleted 3 man tactical squad - no! For that tactical squad shall hide inside the nearby, immobilized rhino, so that thy foe has to dig them out to score the killpoint, and make thy 3 space marines stop firing bolters.

15) Though it may take a lesser foe 10 shots fired to damage armor, thy space marines bring melta, and thy blessed profile gives thou a significantly higher chance to score hits, cutting the necessary firepower down considerably. Thou wilt not forget this, for it is the mark of a fool to focus too little or too much dakka and manpower on the task of destroying a single chimera.

16) Thou shalt not load up on tactical marines, for it weakens your army immensely. Thine two mandatory meltabunkers are plenty, and thy further troops slots shalt only ever be employed in case thou needeth more plasmaback or assbacks."

General Reminders

1) Krak Grenades can not only be thrown in this edition, but they can be both thrown in overwatch and at flyers.

2) Rams are now an auto-hit at 1 for tanks + half the vehicles front armor + 1 for a dozer blade. This means that SM vehicles with odd front armor can get +1 strength to their ram attacks. Rams are resolved against the armor facing hit. Very notably, skimmer jink saves cannot be taken against rams and Walkers are not allowed to death or glory against ram attacks.

Source (this blog also has a wealth of useful info about playing tabletop 40k, so check it out).

White Scars Tactical Objectives

A bizarre gift for the 2014 Advent Calendar, the White Scars tactical objectives. Really, why do this and not some sort of supplements for other Chapter Tactics in the fashion of Clan Raukaan and Sentinels of Terra. Or at least TacO's for all the Chapter Tactics.

11 - Rapid Redeployment

Find an Objective that's more than 18" from your models. Win 1 VP when you control it.

12 - Run Them Down

1 VP for destroying a unit via Sweeping Advance. While you're pretty well off, it's more dependent on a) your enemy not having Hit & Run or some other way to end the engagement before you end the fight, or b) you getting enough kills to force a morale check.

13 - Mounted Assault

1 VP if a friendly Biker kills an enemy. d3 VP if your bike kills at least 3.

14 - Feigned Retreat

1 VP for using Hit & Run and passing. Easy as that!

15 - The Clean Kill

This one's risky. You win 1 VP if you kill a model with 3 wounds during an assault phase. You win d3 VP if you kill a model with 5 wounds during assault. Issue with this is that bikers aren't the best with prolonged combats without pricy stuff like Power Axes or Fists.

16 - Claim the Head

1 VP if you kill a Character in a challenge during your turn. d3 VP if you kill the Warlord in a challenge during your turn. d3+3 VP if your Warlord kills the other Warlord during your turn. While doable in any means, it's meant to promote BALLS OF FUCKING STEEL.

Counter-Tactics

This section has both generic and specific info on countering (killing, destroying, locking down, making useless) enemy units. Add whatever has worked for you!

Generic

Tactics for countering generic classes of units, light infantry, medium vehicles, etc.

• Light Infantry - This means anything weaker than your tacticals. So less than 4S or T, 5+ or worse armor save.
  • Melee - Anything this weak attacking you in melee should not even be a problem. Just shoot the shit out of them until they all die or fail a moral check and flee. Your standard bolters should wound them easily and pierce their armor before they even get into melee range. If they do, your average marine should be able to handle them easily, unless they are heavily outnumbered or have power weapons.
  • Ranged - Unless they have heavy ranged weapons, the damage your tacticals can do will outweigh the damage they can do. If you can, try to get in melee with them, to deny their ranged weapons from firing.

• Medium Infantry - This means anything about equal to your tacticals.
  • You have two options: break out the Ap2 shooting (grav and plas guns) or break out a lot of shots and let them roll that one or two eventually.

• Heavy Infantry - Terminators and equivalent.
  • Typically, these squads are small, so you only have to cause relatively few wounds to eliminate them. However, causing those wounds is difficult and you have two options. First you can force as many saves as you can, since some will statistically fail and you will eventually win. Just lay on the firepower and they will go down eventually. Your second option is to engage them with dedicated ap2 weapons such as thunder hammer Termies or mass plas/grav guns if you brought them.

• Superheavy Infantry - Independent characters decked out with lots of wounds, high T, high S, low armor and invuln saves.
  • Use Chapter Master Smashfucker.

• Light vehicles - AV10/11 tops. Your Tacticals can take out AV10 at range or if they can attack with grenades. No need to waste your heavy anti-vehicle shots, unless you already destroyed the heavier vehicles. Plasma is most useful here.

• Medium Vehicles - AV12/13. Use heavier weaponry, like Terminators or lascannons. Plasma can help, but melta at close range can be very effective. Ironclad dreadnoughts with chainfists will rip these vehicles to shreds.

• Heavy Vehicles - AV14. Now you are in for a shitfest. High strength weapons, like lascannons or powerfists are wasted trying to glance these bad boys. A well placed shot from an orbital strike or a vindicator shot may do some damage, but Chainfists should Rip and Tear through any kind of armor. Ironclad dreadnoughts can do some damage, but a squad of Terminators with Chainfists in a Land Raider Redeemer WILL ruin any vehicles day.

• Flyers - Use anti-flyer units and defences or bring your own flyers. Talons are cheap and are strong against medium infantry, alternatively an aegis or bastion wih a quad gun provides good cover and a quad gun for half the price. Anything else gets a massive penalty to hit, so keep ground forces fighting ground forces. Unless it is something that ignores power armor (cough heldrake cough) you can also get away with ignoring them.

Specific Units

Tactics for countering specific enemy units that can be major problems (Terminators, tyranid swarms, Monoliths, etc)

• Terminators - Force as many saves as you can. If you have weapons that can ignore their 2+ armor save, all the better. Even if you do, it may be worth it to fire high shot count weapons at them anyway. Devastators with 4 HB can kill 1 or 2 a turn if you roll well, which is enough to force a moral check most of the time, equip them with Plasma Cannons and can kill the whole squad. Take them against anything spouting a save of 3+ or better. Your own terminators (or other heavy infantry) can then move in for the kill.

Common Playing Styles

Drop Pod Assault aka Steehl Rehn

This can take on several layers of tactics, depending on -what- you're putting in the drop pods (however the overall strategy is almost always basically the same). Either way, a mass drop pod assault will cause the opponent to massively shift the way he deploys his armor, especially any heavy tanks he has (expecting plenty of melta which you should be packing).

Strengths & Weaknesses

Pros :

• From turn 1 you determine where the majority of fighting will be at, thus forcing your opponent to be on his feet tactically.
• A --> B, it gets you there, no questions asked. You no longer have to worry about Rhinos and Razorbacks getting popped with flimsy AV11 HP3 and being stranded 24"+ from your intended objectives
• Option of null deployment, you can start with nothing on the table! Very powerful if you can waste an opponent's turn.
• Alpha strike, 9/10 times with the exception of Interceptor shots, you will get in the first strike, meaning your opponent should always be on the backfoot in these fire fights after you drop.

Cons :

• Weak to Flyers; Stalkers, Hunters and ADL's w/ Quad gun are weak counter-measures in a drop army when you're trying to limit the number of static units you have in your army. Flyers are your friends here.
• Interceptor, you must always be aware of which units have it and where, or you can get torn to shreds before firing a shot. Drop strategically to give you cover or drop units that can tank the hits face on.
• Lack of mobility after drop. Your army at this point is mostly foot-slogging, so you must take this into account when choosing your drop sites
• Also, while you start the game on offense, dropping melta behind enemy tanks and setting up devastators for support and vanguard vets for assault, after all your drop pods are on the table, your guys have nothing to do but footslog. This means that on turn 3-4 you will be low on mobility and can get pushed into a defensive position if the enemy regroups and pushes you back. Drop pod assault loses the advantage late game, so you have to be sure that you utilize the first turn in such a way that insures that you will have the upper hand till the end. To do this you will want large amounts of melta, if they have transports, or Flamers, if they are footslogging it. Break down their big guns early on and leave whatever comes in from reserve to deal with the squishies!
• only HALF of your drop pods show up on the first turn. If the majority of your army is in orbit you have to have a crippling alpha strike or for every point of your army on the board you will be fighting two.

Optimal Chapter Tactics

• Salamanders- These Tactics and Drop pods go together almost perfectly, with both meltas and flamers being brought to where you want them straight from turn one. If you want to actually to be able to use melta's and justify their existence in your tactical squads, then take Vulkan He'Stan (at 1500pts or above at least). Combi-meltas are great with him because that one-shot for 10pts is more likely to hit, so it's a little bit safer to load up on them. But remember that flamer weapons mounted on vehicles don't count as they don't have Chapter Tactics. Basically there's a lot of synergy between drop pod assaults and Salamanders, but you'll want to load up on flamers and meltas to take advantage of the short range engagement.

• Ultramarines- Believe it or not the Ultramarines have some solid Tactics that synergize decently with Drop pod units, given you know when to use the appropriate doctrine. The Tactical doctrine provides a much stronger alpha strike if you load up on tacticals and units that fire a lot of shots from the get-go. Tigurius is a god-send with his ability to take Divination and drop with your units, provided some neat buffs while altering reserve rolls which can be key to a drop pod/deep strke strategy.

• Iron hands- Iron Hands have a good deal of strength in drop pods as well, though they are limited in the number of truly viable units. Ironclads, being tough to kill already with AV13, become nightmares with IWND as long as they don't get penetrated by AP2/1/Ordnance. Chapter Master Smashbane/Smashfucker can either ride his bike from the ground or take Tactical dreadnought armor (15pts cheaper than bike/artificer armor) and ride in a pod and get into the enemy's face from turn 1. Just walk out of the pod, lay down his Orbital Bombardment and laugh as the enemy tries to kill him with your 2+/3++/6+++/5++++. Iron Hands in this case are weaker on the alpha strike, but a heck of a lot more durable than most other Chapters with the same units and can still do decent damage in the enemy lines. Drop pods with IWND along with a locator beacon/deathwind launcher become legitimate threats and using these on the first turn alpha strike will increase the number of targets your opponent has to deal with.

• Imperial Fists/Sentinels of Terra- Not as strong as the above overall, but can provide solid backline support with Devastators (Centurions) and re-rolling bolter shots makes their alpha strike a little bit stronger than normal.

Units

• With Deathwind Launchers seeing a drop in points cost, they become a little more viable to purchase if you got points lying around. For the cost of a Power Sword you can arm a drop pod with a S5 AP- pie plate that can do a respectable amount of damage should an enemy infantry unit or even a light vehicle come too close. People gripe about the 12" range but you should really see it as locking down a 12" radius all around the drop pod. It's best to buy them for your first-turn pods, since due to 7th edition changes, those DWL's can be fired on the turn they drop! If you kill a MEQ you will have basically paid off the cost of the launcher.
• If you take long-range arty in your Heavy Support slots (Thunderfire Cannons, Whirlwind, allied IG arty, etc.) and have them on the table on turn 1, you can support your 1st wave drop pods straight from turn 1 and not have to have them completely without support. The best way to do this is load up on all anti-armor special weapons such as meltas, crack open transports, and then let the artillery fly on the exposed troops
• Ironclads are tough, intimidating, and provide a good AV13 distraction for squishier units in a first wave. With Iron Hands these become a lot harder to kill other than outright blowing them up. Other Dreadnoughts can be krak'd to death but are cheaper if you're on a budget.
• Sternguard are one of the best but also most expensive units to put in your drop pods. Most of the time I drop them down next to something mean (often high toughness units) and pump it full of wounds on a 2+ ammo. They will also remove units from cover, or mess up MEQ. They really do everything. The one problem is that they die just like other marines. So either choose a safe target that’s not going to shoot back once you unload on it, or kill something worth more than you. Dropping next to greater demons first turn and killing them before they get buffs running is worth the sacrifice.
• Assault squads with x2 flamers is small, cheap, and pretty burny
• Tactical squads should be normally taken as a full 10man unit since they can split up from the drop pod to deal with different targets. If you're packing a multi-melta with Vulkan, you have a decent chance of hitting something with it as well. However multiple 5 man Tactical squads allows you to bring more pods and waste less points on heavy weapons.
• Salamanders: You can either take Vet sergeants with master-crafted power weapons for the inevitable charge and be relatively choppy in CC, or slim down with regular sergeants and take a master-crafted combi-weapon instead.
• Legion of the Damned don't benefit from Chapter Tactics as per Aid Unlooked For rule, and take up an Elites choice that could be filled with Sternguards or Ironclads instead. And besides, Sternguard have ammunition that ignores cover anyway. Vulkan may RAW have strong synergy, Slow & Purposeful, master-crafted, multi-melta (which again ignores cover) and take a beating that would leave Ironclads/Sternguard blasted off of the table (typical AP2/3 weapons).
• Honor Guard- a small cheap unit of these along with an IC to soak wounds and they provide hard-hitting power weapon attacks on the charge. Solid choice in a drop pod if you take a Chapter master and intend to drop him.

Tactics

• A string of drop pods across an enemy flank prevents all movement unless he goes around or -explodes- the drop pod in question. In addition to all this, the enemy has to devote some firepower to silence those storm bolters you should be firing into the enemy units' backs.
  • Do note, however, that smart opponent could block crucial parts of battlefield with widely spread cheap units, like conscripts, cultists, gretchin or kroot (who are not that cheap but can infiltrate), and of course with new terrain deployment system he may just put tank traps (which are impassable terrain for vehicles) anywhere he doesn't want your drop pods.
• The second problem you may face is interceptor shots - this means some of your drop pods or their passengers may be shot down right after they land, so be sure to screen meltaguns, sergeants and heavy weapons with some expendable bolter dudes and try to move as far away from pods as possible: S3 explosion isn't that dangerous for your MEQ's, but some days dice gods just wouldn't be on your side. AV13 Ironclad make for a weaker alpha strike in total, but can take the punishment of Interceptor and eliminate the threat for deadlier units to drop in later safely
  • When facing an overwhelming amount of Interceptor units it's completely viable to drop the pods empty in strategic locations and foot slog it
• When facing another drop pod army or deep strike heavy army, castle up your static units in a corner and counter-drop when possible. You want to go second so you can always drop and attack immediately, but if you can't get it, then you have to screen your own units and prepare to take some hits.
• If facing lots of scary large blasts in the drop zone, moving as close to 1” from enemy models without bunching up, this will keep the enemy from firing the blasts on his own units. He cannot "aim" at his own units so if any of his models are under the template when taking aim, then he cannot take the shot.
• Take note that if you want a cluster of drop pods to deepstrike in the same general area for some reason, a locator beacon is a handy tool to take on a Scouting bike squad or your on your first wave of pods. And -where- you drop those pods are crucial; and while you don't have to worry about landing on terrain or enemies, you want your placement of drop pods to inhibit enemy movement and create choke points where you need them.

DE DREADED DROP POD DEEPSTRIKE OF DEATH: Take a Master of the Forge and six Lucius podded Ironclads decked for melee. Load up the rest of your army however you see fit and watch as your opponent's jaw drops to the floor when you land and assault (stupidly enough, the lucius drop pod no longer allows you to assault after arriving from deep strike-IA Apoc. 2013 pg 24 for reference) with all the dreads you're capable of taking. Be sure to inform your opponent that the Codex Astartes calls this maneuver STEEL REHN. FORGEMAN MODE: as above, but drop Mortis Dreads in such a way that you've got your opponent pinned between your troops' gunline and your dread's gunline.

Mechanized Assault

When I'm talking mech, I'm talking armor over flesh, AV versus T, and tank treads versus boots on the ground. This is a lesser-played style that has both been nerfed and strengthened in different ways thanks to 6th Edition. With the Hull Points system, every vehicle becomes more fragile, meaning mobility and cover are the most important things for keeping your vehicles alive. In addition, no longer being able to move 12" and disembark cripples your mobility and ability to react on the fly to different situations over long distance - you now have a 24" deadly threat range with a squad inside a Rhino. To compensate, you gain the ability to go flat out and move up to 18" in a turn with a transport - though this is of limited use. This tactic has also been improved by 7th edition, thanks to vehicles only exploding on a penetration roll of 7!

Unfortunately, this is not a very competitive playstyle. It's brutal, and often even when it does work, the firepower you leverage against your opponent is not sufficient. It is, however, not entirely doom and gloom. If you run a mechanized list you should seriously consider either the Raven Guard Chapter Tactics or the White Scars Chapter Tactics with Khan as a HQ.

The advantages they confer make your army go from sub-competitive to just below tournament-level (tournament level if you're both lucky and good).

Both of these options give your mechanized infantry Scout, which they absolutely *need* in order to be as good as they should be. They give massive amounts of flexibility to your infantry and the potential for an alpha strike that leaves your opponent in checkmate after the first turn.

How, might you ask? Take your Mechanized Infantry and deploy them as close to the enemy as possible. Before the game, scout 12" towards the enemy. You now have a few options.

• Option 1) Move 6",disembark 6", be in their deployment zone, and fire. This gives you your alpha strike that, with the right units, can annihilate your opponent's deadliest unit or cripple part of his force.

• Option 2) Move 12", flat out 6". This allows you to compensate if your opponent bunches up and option 1 is not viable. Sometimes, having your men ready to react (remember you'll get a potential 6" move and 6" disembark instead of just the former) and staying inside the metal box is the best course of action.

• Option 3) Move 12", pop smoke. Use only if your opponent either had nothing that is worth risking getting out of the boxes to eliminate or if your opponent has a strong gunline with lots of anti-infantry firepower that you can't cripple.

Alternatively, you can do none of the above and outflank. This can be a risky but effective way of delivering an alpha strike or capturing an objective without being struck by fire.

Now, the real question is what to put in your Rhinos? As previously mentioned, a mech SM list suffers greatly from sometimes not being able to leverage enough firepower. This should be your primary concern.

Tactical Squads should probably not be taken with full numbers at 10 men - unless you plan to abuse combat squads for a very specific use. Reason being, you do not want heavy weapons. There is no reason to maximise bolters. Heavy weapons will rarely get to fire effectively and now cost you points out the ass. Taking a special weapon and combi-weapon should be considered mandatory. Do not give this squad melta guns. Leave that to the other elements in your army, because you want your Tacticals to leverage as much firepower against infantry or MC's as is humanly possible, and have enough duplicates that losses do not necessarily mean defeat.

• • Grav Guns are a matter of debate. They are flexible against vehicles (if you can get off enough shots) if you do encounter them, if you do dig in the extra shot is invaluable, and they get the extra shots at longer range than a Plasma Gun. If there's a Daemon Prince or CC unit they even reduce their initiative to 1, giving you better odds if you get dragged into a CC. However, they suck hairy balls against anything that isn't wearing power armour or better, and are utterly useless against buildings.
  • Flamers are exceedingly good at quickly wiping anything weaker than Marines off of objectives. They also provide some effective overwatch. Even power armored units will feel the heat due to the sheer number of wounds a flamer can throw at a unit. Their biggest drawback is being absolutely worthless against MCs.
  • Plasma Guns are good in that unless a rare high-toughness MC like a Wraithknight appears you'll be wounding on good rolls all the time. They don't suffer the drawbacks of Salvo (half range if you move, for instance) and have a greater maximum range than Grav weapons.

You should take at least one Sternguard squad tooled up with enough firepower to destroy (not just cause medium damage to) a unit. Using #Option 1 they can pull off some kills that win games. They are the guys that are going to hunt the nastiest, shittiest, pain-in-the ass targets that your bolters and Tacticals can't handle.

It's for this reason that they should have combi-plasmas or gravs. You might not survive into the following turn, as they will be a very high priority target, so what you shoot at needs to die. 4-5 combi-weapons should be sufficient. Heavy Flamers are worth considering, and the squad should not end up having more than 7-8 men. Do not tool up the Sergeant unless it's with a combi-weapon.

There may be other units that perform this role almost as well - you may want to consider them, too. The effectiveness of the Grav-Gun Bikers remains to be seen, but they could fill the same niche. makes them one of THE BEST units in the codex, and Captains/CMs make them troops.

These two units should form your core. In the end you should have a minimum of 3 mechanized squads, preferably 4. With the strong anti-infantry and anti-MC capability they provide you can look to everything else. Units you may want to consider include:

• • Tri-Las Predators or Devastators with Lascannons. If shit luck strikes and your Sternguard fail or don't do as well as you plan, these guys are Plan B. If there's tanks to kill, these are the units that will be your best counters.
  • Storm Talons or possibly Storm Ravens. They provide AA and additional firepower on the fly (no pun intended) where its needed. In a pinch they can also serve as backup AT.
  • Land Speeder Storm Scouts. Deep Strike disruption, cheap scoring, can tackle weaker troops, and you can take a heavy flamer for free at 45 points, which negates the need for flamer Tacticals.
  • Assault Squads with flamers and either a free drop pod or rhino. Unbelievably cheap and (in certain circumstances) incredibly effective.
  • Grav Gun Bikers, for the same reasons as Sternguard.
  • Grav Cannon shooty Centurions in a Land Raider. They can pull the same shit the rest of your army can as LR's don't have bulky - therefore they get scout. They are very bulky. All the downsides of the Grav-Cannon range are forgotten. Bear in mind that they're shit in melee so if they get caught they're boned. Of course, if you enough points for this, you can probably use them better elsewhere.

Flavor of the Month: Bike Armies

Thanks to the White Scars Chapter tactics and Khan, this is one of the strongest space marine army configurations out right now, since biker troops become very cost efficient in this manner. Skilled rider grants 4+ jink saves 3+ Jink Saves, along with the difficult terrain shenanigans (ain't no body got time for walls), whilst Hit&Run basically gives a superior version of the old Combat Tactics, meaning you will almost never be bogged down in a combat you don't want. Even better, you can disengage on the enemy Assault phase and then Shoot/Assault again in your own phases using Hit&Run.

Khan lists also generate an incredibly potent alpha strike army. Bikes can pack an astounding amount of small to medium arms fire, and put them in rapid fire range on turn 1. No one is safe when you have a 5 man command squad umping 15 grav bolts into them before they even get to think about moving. Tanks get melta shoved at them. On the return phase, you can capitalize on your 3+ Jink and then hit everything with S5 HoW hits, stay in combat, and then run away to do both again every turn.

For the love of God, though, break into the home of every Chaos player you know and smash their Helturkies. Heldrakes can really really mess this army up.

Dreadnaught Party

Use the Iron Hands chapter tactics. Take a Master of the Forge(or you just play clan raukaan instead), letting you use all flavors of dreadnaughts as elites and heavy support. Give him a full squad of bulletshields servitors. Take another techmarine if you want, since another guy repairing your dreads is always helpful (and can be a bullet magnet, letting your dreads get more shots in).

Put in the bare minimum 2 troops choices, preferably tacticals in drop pods or rhinos. This way, your army is not unbound, letting your tacticals just sit on objectives and act as denial units, meaning your enemies have to completely destroy your squads while your regenerating (thanks to the IWND rule) dreads rape them.

Next load up all 6 slots with dreadnaughts (some in drop pods if you want). The best might be an even mix of Ironclads, Venerable, and Normal dreads, but experiment with what combinations suit your playstlye. Remember you need some dreads to be heavy fire support (lascannons and autocannons), some to be close range fire support (assault cannons, heavy flamers, and meltacannons), and some to be melee (Ironclads are best for this, with two CC arms). Putting some in drop pods gives you flexibility at the start of the game, since half of your drop pods go down on turn one, two pods can come in with dreadnaughts first, and eliminate or tie down the heavier enemy units, then later your two tactical squad pods can come down and secure objectives.

The IWND rule combined with your MotF (and techmarine) can make your dreadnaught army last through firepower that would destroy land raiders, and if you give the MotF the ironstone relic, the dreadnoughts become even more Ded' ard') You shouldn't just stand there soaking it all up however, use your dreadnaughts like troops and keep them in cover and just use your head and they can last a lot longer than you think.

Dataslate Formations

• Adeptus Astartes Storm Wing - Two Storm Talons and a Storm Raven in one formation.
  • The Storm Talons act as Escorts for the Storm Raven (Meaning than when you're rolling for reserves, you only roll for the Storm Raven), thus giving the Raven some extra wounds if it gets set upon when they arrive. The Talons also give the Raven the Strafing Run rule so long as at least one of them isn't destroyed. Yep, GW be mad desperate to push out the fliers between this and Death From the Skies.

• Reclusiam Command Squad - Alongside the Chaplain, you have to give the Command Squad an Apothecary, a Champion and a Standard Bearer and stuff them in a Razorback.
  • This one's really iffy, mainly because the rules for it (Which give the squad Crusader as well as getting re-rolls on combat while the Chaplain still lives) focus really on the Champion and Chaplain, while the other guys are just along for the ride (Though FNP is a good thing to have).

• The Legion Ascendant (Apocalypse/Legion of the Damned Codex) - 2+ Legion squads with 10+ Legionnaires.
  • By joining in, they get Fear, Deep Strike that causes S2d6 S4 AP5 Soulblaze hits to anyone within 6", and -3 to all Leadership for the enemy. All for a rather decent price. Plus, on the turn they arrive, they get Fleshbane and Ignores Cover to really make the best of it.

• Saint Tylus Battle Force - Cassius gets to bring along at least one Tyrannic Veteran Squad and up to six Storm Talons as a formation.
  • Your Storm Talons are gonna be the stars of this formation as they can not only choose whether they want to infiltrate or start on-board in hover mode, but whenever they hit an enemy, then the Vets can ignore cover with their guns, since they saw who was getting hit. Stack on the Vet's Preferred Enemy (Nids) and Zealot rule against the Nids, and you'll begin to weep along side your Tyranid-using foe. Difference is that you'll be crying tears of joy at your muderous prowess, while they'll be crying over how hard Cruddace fucked them over.

• First Company Hammerfall Assault Force - A Termie Captain/Lysander, a 5-man Termie squad of each kind, and a Land Raider (Crusader or Redeemer).
  • The Captain and the AssTermies have to must come from reserves embarked in the Land Raider, while the other Termies are forced to Deep Strike. The models in the Land Raider gain Hammer of Wrath the turn they assault after disembarking, and the Deep Striking Termies can run and shoot on the turn they DS. Rather...minimal, though run-and gun Termies sounds nice and HoW on Termies sounds awesome.

• First Company Skyspear Assault Wing - A five-man Termie squad of each sort join a Venerable Dreadnought and a Storm Raven for a ride.
  • The AssTermies have to embark in the Raven alongside the Dread and hide in reserves, while the other Termies have to DS their way in. Other than that, it's the same as the one above, replacing the Land Raider with the Storm Talon.

• Strike Force Ultra - The Hammerfall and Skyspear formations have to join together.
  • Aside from any benefits the others have by themselves, having the Captain alive allows you to roll for reserves in the first turn. Oh look, all that dakka is being laid down to kill your ass. Oh joy, all that Hammer or Wrath.

• Centurion Decimator Cohort (Apocalypse) - Group together 3-6 Centurion Squads and buy all the sarges Omniscopes.
  • Gathering this many giant matryoshka marines gives a special rule: before firing, one of the sergeants in the formation can nominate one target within LoS. All shots fired at that target can now gain either Ignores Cover, Monster Hunter, or Tank Hunter. More likely than not, you're probably gonna use the last two, as your weapons aren't exactly the best and therefore don't benefit so much from Ignores Cover.
  • what are you talking about? Ignores cover on grav-cannons can destroy bikes and the like without even trying.

• Centurion Siegebreaker Cohort (Apocalypse Dataslate) - 2+ Centurion Assault Squads + 1 Ironclad Dreadnought, all sergeants need omniscopes.
  • As long as a sergeant is still alive, all models get to re-roll armour penetration vs buildings (shooting & melee). Also if a building suffers any form of collapse or detonation result, units inside the building suffer an additional d6 hits. As a formation it's not necessarily the best, seeing as the units are all really good at pulling down buildings anyway and at the apocalypse level there are already many big weapons capable of taking buildings down easily. That said, the formation costs you nothing if you already have the models. Do it if there is no other formations you can use.

• Space Marine Company (Apocalypse) - A Captain, Chaplain, Command Squad with Standard, and trio of Dreads have a choice. If they're from a battle company, they must have 6 Tac squads, 2 Assault Squads, and 2 Devastator Squads. If they're from a reserve company, they must have all 10 squads be of one type of the three. All squads must have 10 men.
  • A fluffy formation that really works depending on how you kit them out. No matter what, they get an Orbital Strike Strategic Asset and Counter-Attack. If they're within 12" of an objective, they get Stubborn. If someone charges an infantry unit of this formation within 12" of them, they get the Tau Supporting Fire rule once per assault phase.

• First Company Veterans (Apocalypse) - A Termie Captain/Lysander, a Chaplain, a Command Squad with Standard and 3 Ven Dreads have to take 100 models of either Vets or Termies.
  • Despite their hefty cost, they come with a few more rules. For one, they get Counter-Attack, Deep Strike, Fear, and Preferred Enemy. They also get all the rules from above. Like above, this depends heavily on how they're kitted.

• Librarius (Apocalypse) - 5 Librarians or Rune Priests. If you want, you can replace one of them with a named Librarian, but in doing so, you have to make them all of the same force (Meaning no mixed Chapter Tactics).
  • These Librarians form a Warp Charge 4 (!!) power called Force Vortex, a 24" S:D AP1 Heavy 1, Large Blast Vortex. IF they don't recall it before it moves, then it'll scatter off and kill everyone. BEfore you run with this ask yourself: How confident am I that this won't kill absolutely everything?

• Masters of the Chapter (Apocalypse) - A Chapter Master can take an optional Honour Guard squad along his 4-10 Captains of the same chapter. Any of them can be replaced with a named Character where fitting.
  • This is not an assault force; it's too small for that. What it can do, though, is give you 3 additional assets on the first break and give them a 3++ on the turn they use their Finest Hour/Sons of the Primarch ability.

• Predator Assassin Squadron (Apocalypse) - 3-5 Predators, here to kill.
  • The tanks do their part by giving them a reroll on all failed to-hit rolls against a chosen enemy when within 6" of another member of the squad in exchange for the ability to fire at someone else until the enemy is gone. Any Predators with two lascannons and a TL lascannon can also exchange all their hits for a single Strength D AP2 Killshot that will total a single enemy. If there was ever a priority target removal system for the tanks, it's this one.

• Scout Company (Apocalypse) - A non-termie Captain without a Command Squad must lead 10 squads of 10 Scouts.
  • The Captain gets some compensation for his lack of survivability by giving him Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, and Scout. Everyone as a team gets the ability to charge from reserves and a +1 to all cover saves from buildings in their deployment zone. Really, keep them shooting at the proper targets and keep moving from cover to cover.

• Titan Hammer Formation (Apocalypse) - Lysander takes 3+ TH/SS Termie squads for titan-killing fun.
  • THIS is how you kill titans, superheavies and Biotitans. The Formation is Lysander and 3+ TH/SS terminator squads who must all deepstrike, within 12" of where Lysander deepstrikes, but they only scatter D6", and are Fearless, and LYSANDER GETS A VORTEX GRENADE! Sweet Jesus, this could reduce Tyranid players to tears as you one-shot their biotitans (D6 wounds on gargantuan creatures, no saves) Baneblades (D3 structure points)and Primarchs (removed with no saves allowed). Best part about vortex is the blast can drift around, and one-shot ANOTHER biotitan! Fuck yeah! Anything that survives can try it's luck with dozens of TH/SS terminators led by Lysander, with Fearless.

Warzone: Armageddon

• The Legion Ascendant - Since this was made pre-Codex of the Damned, you get to nab 2+ Legion units here, so long as they all have 10 models.
  • These guys are made for mob-cleaning with Fear and an aura of -3 Ld within 12" of them. In addition, when they Deep Strike on board, they force everyone within 6" to take 2d6 S4 AP5 Soulblaze hits, and they get Fleshbane the turn they deploy.

Warzone: Damnos

• Conclave of the Ancients (Apocalypse) - A Venerable Dread leads a gang of 3+ Dreads and 1+ Ironclad Dread.
  • The main focus of this formation is surprise smashing, as the rules this formation gives focus on melee. Any Dreads within 6" of the Ven Dread gets Rampage and Preferred Enemy (For horde-cleaning, if you're willing to throw them there), while Dreads within 2" of two other Dreads in the formation get d6 Hammer of Wrath hits, just to incentivize charging into an idiot.

• Deathstorm Area Denial Force (Apocalypse) - Drop more than one Deathstorm Drop Pod near each other.
  • The main point of this formation is shock and awe, plain and simple. They force any successful morale and pinning tests caused by them to be rerolled, they can fire any of their weapons independently of each other, and, upon arrival, fire as if they were always stationary. Deploying more than three of the things gives them all +1 Strength the turn they come in. All in all, it's meant to scare them and distract fire away from squishier units.

• Deathwatch Strike Team (Apocalypse) - A generic Captain joins 2+ veteran squads of any make (Vanguard or Sternguard). Presumably, they'll adopt whatever Chapter Tactics you choose.
  • The draw this formation gets are special Antiphasic Bolts (24" Range, S4, AP4, and Rapid Fire) that can be used by any bolter or combi-weapon, which force Necrons hit by them to reroll their Reanimation Protocols, which is pretty useful. Aside from that, the formation gains Preferred Enemy against one Xenos Codex (So like a weaker form of the Ordo Xenos) and the ability to gain an extra VP when they slay the xenos Warlord. While they have their uses against any Xenos army, their best use is against Necrons with their special bolts.

• Land Raider Spearhead (Apocalypse) - Group together 3-5 Land Raiders of any sort.
  • This formation essentially turns them into a squadron, with the choice of Arrowhead Formation (help needed) giving them not only Tank Hunters and Preferred Enemy, but they also get to add 12" to any Flat-Out moves made. So essentially, listen to whatever is mentioned above about the Raiders and now add these benefits to them, which helps get them somewhere faster when they have the room to move.

• Line Breaker Squadron (Apocalypse) - 3-5 Vindicators. Let's go.
  • Gathering these Vindicators allows them to exchange their Demolisher shots into one single 24" S10 AP2 Ordinance 1 Apocalyptic Blast that can hit any buildings without needing to roll for pen. When calculating any results, you then have to add +1 for every Vindicator who joined in. Clearly, this would do great when using the Sentinels of Terra and their additional building damage.

• Skyhammer Orbital Strike Force (Apocalypse) - 3+ Tac Squads, as well as any HQ choices or other units that can grab Drop Pods, must take those Drop Pods and Deep Strike in on the first turn.
  • For this auto-Deffwing Assault, everyone gains Preferred Enemy against the Warlord and Crusader and Fear for the first two turns. Like the Other Drop Pod formation, this is for shock, awe, and lots of shooty, though Crusader makes them more useful in melee.

• Skyreign Hunter Squadron (Apocalypse) - 3-5 Hunters. All there is.
  • For each Savant Lock beyond the first used on a target, they take +1 for their roll on the lock counters to see if they get hit. In addition, if a locked target is within 18" of another flyer of any sort, the Hunters have to roll d6; on 1, nothing happens. On 2-4, only one Savant Lock can transfer to the new target. On 5+, you can transfer as many as you want. Really, this is so you can keep tabs on those pesky flyers.

• Spear of Macragge (Apocalypse) - Chronus takes the Terminus Ultra (A Land Raider with 2 lascannon sponsons, 2 TL lascannon sponsons, an HK Missile, a hull-mounted TL lascannon, a Searchlight and Smoke Launcher at the cost of transport) and 5+ tanks that are either Predators, Whirlwinds, or Vindicators.
  • For one, every tank within 12" of Chronus' tank get to fire on his BS of...5. However, if you roll more than 4 1's in a single shooting phase. it has to take an S9 AP2 hit on the side after it shoots. If you really need a tank army, you can't do much worse.

• Stormsurge Strike Wing (Apocalypse) - 3-5 Storm Ravens.
  • When they first come in through reserves, they have to move between 36-72" and use one of the special attacks this uses on anything they go over. While this bars them from deploying anyone, denying them evade, they instead get a 4+ save the start of the next turn.
    • Missile Storm requires that everyone fire ALL THE MISSILES. Once the hits go above 7, it becomes a Strength D AP2 Concussive hit that grows from just a hit to an Apocalyptic blast.
    • Strafing Storm makes them fire everything but the missiles, like as strafing run, but they also get Shred for the rest of the turn. This is meant more for infantry than tanks.

• Suppression Force (Apocalypse) - A Land Speeder or any sort assists 2+ Whirlwinds.
  • Anything within the Land Speeder's LoS and within 48" of it counts as being within the Whirlwinds' LoS, meaning that they now have infinite range with now twin-linked missiles. The Whirlwinds can then exchange their firing to fire one big-ass missile strike of either sort that now become Apocalyptic Barrage X blasts (Where X is twice the number of Whirlwinds contributing).

• Ultramarines Chapter Honour Guard (Apocalypse) - Calgar must take a full Honour Guard Squad with a Standard Bearer and a Land Raider to call his own. He can then opt to take Cassius, Tigurius, and/or a Venerable Dread.
  • The Land Raider gets Tank Hunter, Monster Hunter, and Preferred Enemy. The Guard give you the choice of 2 Strategic Assets because eliteness. Everything within 6" of Calgar himself either gain FNP (for infantry) or the ability to ignore Crew Shaken/Stunned results (for vehicles). Pretty clearly, this is a damn pricy setup, and it all hinges upon how you can manage Papa Smurf and his gang and the tank, though they do gain some good staying power with FNP.

Warzone: Damocles

• Armoured Vanguard Squadron (Apocalypse) - 3-5 Rhinos and/or Razorbacks being used as Transports are grouped up.
  • When using the Arrowhead Attack Pattern, the Rhinos now all gain Tank Hunters (which is of dubious use depending on the troops used) and Assault Vehicle (More awesome). This is definitely made with the Scars in mind.

• Stormclad Squadron (Apocalypse) - A Thunderhawk takes 2+ Stormtalons as groupies.
  • The T-Hawk is the big star of the show, while the Talons are just support. A Talon can give up shooting to give the big guy Night Vision and Preferred Enemy, and if they're within 4" of the Hawk, the Talons have to become little shields to the big one.

• Hunting Force (Apocalypse) - BIKES. BIKES EVERYWHERE. The Captain gets a bike (And can take a Command Squad or a Chaplain as accompaniment) and 1-3 squads of plain Bikes, Attack Bikes, and Scout Bikes. And in the Webway, Jaghatai Khan sheds a tear...
  • All the bikes give everyone Outflank and Scouts because FAST. They can also select an HQ or Apoc Formation to get Preferred Enemy and Furious Charge against, just so they can charge and shoot the bastard(s) to death.

• Stormbringer Squadron (Apocalypse) - 3-5 mix of either Land Speeders and/or Storms (The Storms no longer get to be Dedicated Transports though)
  • First of all, Scout for everyone, with an additional redeployment so long as they get at least 6" from an enemy, and anybody that disembarks from the Storms won't count as having moved for the first turn. In addition, when they redeploy, anyone else within 12" from the formation now must test for pinning. In short, this is for the Scouts and how they'll get into the field in the quickest way possible.

• Furion Peak Counter-Strike Command (Apocalypse) - Khan and Shrike take a Raven Guard Captain and a White Scars Librarian with them.
  • Really, the only bonus they get is the ability to give anyone within 12" of them Shrouded while the Librarian is alive. Considering that they won't be able to move very fast, this won't help very much, and it'll be holding them from bashing in stuff, though Shrouded is something good to have.