Warhammer 40,000/10th Edition Tactics/Space Marines

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

This is the current 10th Edition's Space Marine tactics. 9th Edition Tactics are here.

Why Play Space Marines

Pros

  • Basically agreed upon to be one of the best if not the absolute best army in the game to start with. They're easy to paint, cheap, and elite.

Cons

  • Despite being GW's favorite child, you're the fanbase's punching bag.
    • Another consequence of being the favorite child is that everyone's going to be making armies to counter you out of habit simply because you're the first codex.

Faction Rules

  • Oath of Moment: The special rule of the faction, this lets you mark one enemy unit. All of your forces can re-roll to hit and wound this one unit, making it ideal for focus-firing an enemy to death. Expect Knight players to refuse to play against you.

Detachments

When a detachment is restricted to a specific Chapter, the Chapter name precedes the Detachment name; this always means you can't include any models whose datasheet specifies a different chapter (e.g. you can't field a Dark Angels datasheet in a Space Wolves detachment).

Gladius Task Force

Special Rules

  • Combat Doctrines: At the start of your command phase, you can pick one of these to apply to all adeptus astartes units in your army until the start of your next Command Phase, and each can only be picked 1/battle.
    • Devastator Doctrine: Your army can always shoot after advancing, which is actually best on non-heavy weapons that lose nothing from Advancing rather than Remaining Stationary, meaning this buffs your Devastator Squads and the like least. Because GW is bad at rules, this doesn't add the assault USR to all of your guns (instead applying the definition of it directly to every gun).
    • Tactical Doctrine: Your army can shoot and charge after falling back, which primarily buffs units with fly because they're better at falling back.
    • Assault Doctrine: Your army can charge after advancing.

Stratagems

  • Only in Death Does Duty End (2 CP): If your enemy hits and kills one of your models in melee, that model can get one last swing before going down.

Dark Angels Unforgiven Task Force

The exclusive Dark Angels detachment.

Special Rules

  • Grim Resolve: All battle-shocked units are set to OC 1 instead of 0. Very helpful for keeping objectives under your control, but it won't stop enemy Battleline troops from taking over.

Enhancements

Secondary Objectives

Stratagems

Space Wolves Champions of Russ

The exclusive detachment for the Space Wolves.

Special Rules

  • Deeds Worthy of Saga: At the end of each round, you can pick one Saga to channel. If you accomplished this Saga during that round, you get a permanent buff.
    • Saga of the Beastslayer: If you had a character model kill an enemy Monster or Vehicle model, everyone's melee weapons gain Lethal Hits.
    • Saga of the Bear: If you had a character model reduced to below half their wounds but it still lives, everyone gets Feel No Pain 6+++ to make everyone tanky.
    • Saga of Majesty: If you managed to control an objective in the enemy's DZ and got a character model within reach, your entire army gains +1 to their OC stats.
    • Saga of the Warrior Born: If one of your Characters killed an enemy character, all of your melee weapons gain Sustained Hits 1.

Enhancements

Secondary Objectives

Stratagems

Blood Angels Sons of Sanguinius

The exclusive detachment for the Blood Angels.

Special Rules

  • The Red Thirst: Any unit that charges adds +1 to the Strength and Attacks of any melee weapons they have.

Enhancements

Secondary Objectives

Stratagems

Black Templars Righteous Crusaders

The exclusive detachment for the Black Templars.

Special Rules

  • Templar Vows: Pick one vow to buff your army at the start of the game.
    • Abhor the Witch, Destroy the Witch: All units gain a 4++ save against psychic attacks and all melee weapons gain Anti-Psyker 4+. You need to be facing a seriously psyker-heavy army for this to be worth it.
    • Accept Any Challenge, No Matter the Odds: All melee weapons gain Sustained Hits 1. Best saved for horde armies; Lethal Hits is better on 5+ or 6+ to wound.
    • Suffer Not the Unclean to Live: All melee weapons gain Lethal Hits. Use to overcome high-Toughness armies; Sustained Hits 1 is better on 3+ or 2+ to wound.
    • Uphold the Honour of the Emperor: All units gain a 6+++ and improve their Leadership to 5+. If you go gun-heavy, the only applicable vow, but often better than the Dark Angels' Grim Resolve, as it makes a unit harder to battle-shock in the first place rather than partially mitigating one of the penalties of it.

Enhancements

Secondary Objectives

Stratagems

Deathwatch Black Spear Task Force

The exclusive detachment for the Deathwatch.

Special Rules

  • Mission Tactics: Essentially a variant of Chapter Tactics. Each Command phase lets you pick one tactic to benefit from for the turn.
    • Furor Tactics: All weapons gain Sustained Hits 1.
    • Malleus Tactics: All weapons gain Lethal Hits.
    • Purgatus Tactics: Any critical hits your army scores gain Precision.

Enhancements

Secondary Objectives

Stratagems

Strike Force Octavius (Combat Patrol)

One of the first Combat Patrols released for 10E. Pretty much here to showcase the power of this new gameplay format.

Composition: 1 Captain Octavius, 1 Terminator Librarian, 5 Terminators, 5 Infernus

  • Captain Octavius: Pretty much a barebones Terminator Captain equipped with a power weapon and storm bolter. However, he loses access to the free stratagem each turn.

Enhancements

Secondary Objectives

  • Wrath of the Emperor: Your default Secondary is pretty basic. Just have your captain kill models and you get 2 VP.
  • Shock Tactics: A bit risky, as it requires you to claim any objectives that your enemy owned at the start of the turn. It's a worthwhile win though, as you get 5 VP for getting at least one.

Stratagems

  • Veteran Instincts (1 CP): During the fight phase, you can pick one Terminator squad that hadn't yet fought and lets them re-roll a 1 to wound or re-roll any wounds against Vehicles or monsters.

Equipment

Melee Weapons

  • Powerfist: S8 AP-2 D2.
  • Chainfist: Anti-Vehicle 3+ WS-1 S8 AP-2 D2.
  • Thunder Hammer: Devastating Wounds WS-1 S8 AP-2 D2.
  • Power Weapon: A+1 S5 AP-2 D1.
      • Twin Lightning Claws: TWIN-LINKED A+2 S5 AP-2 D1.
    • Relic Weapon: A+1 S5 AP-2 D2.
  • Force Weapon: Psychic S6 AP-1 Dd3.

Ranged Weapons

  • Bolt Pistol: Pistol 24" A1 S4 AP-0 D1.
  • Bolt Rifle: Assault Heavy 24" A2 WS3+ S4 AP-1 D1.
  • Storm Bolter: Rapid Fire 2 24" A2 WS3+ S4 AP-0 D1.
  • Combi-weapon: Anti-Infantry 4+ Devastating Wounds Rapid Fire 1 24" A1 WS4+ S4 AP-0 D1.
  • Flamer: Ignores cover Torrent 12" Ad6 WS- S4 AP-0 D1.
  • Heavy Flamer: Ignores cover Torrent 12" Ad6 WS- S5 AP-1 D1.
  • Assault Cannon: Devastating Wounds 24" A6 WS3+ S6 AP-0 D1.
  • Melta: Melta 2 18" A1 WS3+ S9 AP-4 Dd6.
    • Melta Rifle: Heavy Melta 2 18" A1 WS3+ S9 AP-4 Dd6.
  • Lascannon: 48" A1 WS3+ S12 AP-3 Dd6+1.
    • Heavy Laser Destroyer: Heavy 72" A2 WS3+ S16 AP-4 Dd6+4.
  • Hunter-killer Missile: One-shot 48" A1 WS2+ S14 AP-3 Dd6.
  • Heavy Bolter: Sustained Hits 1 36" A3 WS3+ S5 AP-1 D2.
  • Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon: Devastating Wounds 24" A12 WS3+ S6 AP-0 D1.

Unit Analysis

Characters

  • Captain: Attaching a Captain to a squad lets them re-roll their charge rolls.
    • Terminator Captain: Takes the same Primaris buff seen on other Termies for T5. Alongside the charge re-rolls, this captain can also give you the option to use one strat for free on any unit, including one you already used for another strat. If you're looking for additional durability, you can buy a Relic Shield, which only provides an extra wound this time rather than improving your saves beyond the stock 2+/4++.
      • While the Storm Bolter remains the same as ever, Combi-Weapons have been tragically mothballed into a singular tool, giving you A1 BS3+ S4 AP0 D1 with Anti-Infantry 4+, Devastating Wounds, and Rapid Fire 1. Gone are the days of using a suicide captain to tote a combi-melta to pop a tank, gone are the days of a combi-flamer giving you budget crowd control for a terminator sergeant.
      • Melee weapons have similarly seen a mass downsizing, as all power weapons got axed, and the Relic Blade got relegated to just being a fancier power weapon at S5 AP-2 D2. The power fist and chainfist remain effective options while the Thunder Hammer got a bit of a bump by gaining Devastating Wounds and the Twin Lightning Claws (presumably the single one just became a power weapon) kept Twin-Linked so they can still re-roll wounds.
      • A quick note on A*WS*D, since this is primarily a melee model due to re-rolling charges:
        • Chainfist: 6 2/3 at S8 AP-2 with anti-vehicle 3+. Only better than a Power Fist against a T9+ vehicle, in which case a Thunder Hammer is far more likely to be useful anyway; stick with those two.
        • Thunder hammer: 6 2/3 at S8 AP-2 with devastating wounds. Better than a Power Fist against T8+ Sv2+ and T16+ Sv3+, otherwise worse. Barring a highly specific meta, a Power Fist is a better choice.
        • Power fist: 8 1/3 at S8 AP-2. The most commonly useful weapon in this list.
        • Relic weapon: 10 at S5 AP-2. Ideal for MEQ-slaying, but against anything T5-15, you're gonna want a Power Fist. If you bring a Terminator Lieutenant along cos you're Space Wolves or Dark Angels, almost always better than a Power Fist (the only exceptions are T6 and T7).
        • TLC: 5 5/6 at S5 AP-2 with twin-linked; because you need to be rolling 1s to wound base to beat a Relic Weapon and this takes up both hands, a Relic weapon is a much more generally useful choice, except against W1 targets.
  • Librarian:
    • Terminator Librarian: Get all the bonuses that Terminator armour provides, making them tougher to remove. Very good front-line addition to any Marine unit as they have good Melee power and can make all Attacks gain Sustained Hits 1, which will probably apply to their psychic attacks as well (pending GW fixing the current word salad on rules that buff units when a Leader attaches, as it's not clear whether the Attached unit gets it, which includes the Leader, or the Bodyguard unit does, which does not). Has a Psychic Hood that gives 4+++ against Psychic attacks (won't work on Hazardous tests, even Psychically induced ones, because Hazardous tests aren't attacks) to the same target as Sustained Hits 1 (neither rule applies while the librarian is alone, as no unit is being led). Overall, by far the best psychic in the game so far. Take this over a Lieutenant on big guns that expect to wound on 2s or 3s.
      • Remember, as always, that abilities that require a led unit don't apply when not leading a unit: a terminator librarian on his own has no access to his own Sustained Hits 1 rule, as you can see in action here, where his sixes to hit don't result in additional hits.
  • Lieutenant: Attaching a Lieutenant to a squad gives its weapons Lethal Hits and the ability to shoot and charge after falling back. Take this over a Librarian on weaker guns that expect to wound on 5s or 6s.
    • Phobos Lieutenant:
  • Apothecary Biologis:

Epic Heroes

  • Roboute Guilliman: The Avenging Son has received an extra wound and can come back from the dead on a 3+ (with 6 wounds) the first time he's defeated. While he can't join units, he gains Lone Operative any time he's within 3" of any Space Marines infantry units to compensate. (Sadly, he still can't take transports because he's not infantry.) His shooting is roughly the same since while the Hand of Dominion is only Rapid Fire 2 now, it compensates with AP-2. In melee, he's as dangerous as ever, with the Emperor's Sword granting 14 S8 AP-3 D2 attacks with Devastating Wounds and the Hand of Dominion granting 7 S14 AP-4 D4 attacks with Lethal Hits. Finally, Adept of the Codex lets him choose one of three buffs at the start of the Command Phase, which will last until the next Command Phase:
    • Primarch of the XIIIth: Friendly Space Marine units within 6" gain +1 to OC and can re-roll Leadership and Battle-Shock tests.
    • Master of Battle: After picking the target for Oath of Moment, select a second enemy unit. If the first target dies, your army receives the re-roll bonuses that Oath of Moment provides against the second target.
    • Supreme Strategist: A friendly Space Marine unit within 12" can be targeted with a Stratagem for free, even if the Stratagem you're targeting it with has already been used that Command Phase.

Battleline

  • Infernus Squad: Primaris all equipped with AP0 heavy flamers. They also get the ability Purge the Foe, causing one infantry unit that got flamed to make a Battle-Shock test. Got the specialized role of clearing out GEQ units and forcing Battle-Shocks. Still, they're no faster than any other foot soldier and they've only got a 12" non-assault weapon, so transport is often recommended.
  • Intercessor Squad: The biggest change to Intercessors is that all three types of Bolt Rifle have been folded into a single weapon; as it has both Assault and Heavy, they can both shoot after advancing and gain +1 to hit if they stay still. Needless to say, this means they're way more flexible than they used to be, even if they still need help against heavier targets.
  • Sternguard Veterans:

Deathwatch

  • Deathwatch Veterans: Your elite alien hunters. They still have plenty of firepower to use and Death to the Alien lets them re-roll 1s to hit, improving to re-rolling all hits against units without the Imperium or Chaos keywords, which is ideal when you want to fish for critical hits.
    • Alongside their basic bolter and the missile launcher, they also have access to the Long Vigil ranged weapon, essentially a Combi-weapon under a fancier name. They can also take a Frag Cannon for a powerful weapon that can blast plenty of GEQ and MEQ in short order as well as the Infernus Heavy Bolter if you need both the heavy bolter's rapid firepower with the heavy flamer's coverage.
    • The Long Vigil melee weapon is just a fancier power weapon seen elsewhere and can be outdone by the Xenophase Blade which gives an additional attack as well as Devastating Wounds. What you have that's fancy, however, is the Deathwatch Thunder Hammer, which is somehow even stronger than those on a terminator at S10.

Infantry

  • Terminator Squad: Got the Primaris buff of T5 and a 4+ invulnerable save. Fortunately, their WS and BS remain fixed at 3+ (unless you attack your Oath of Moment target, in which case you jump to 2+), which surprisingly actually stays where it is on the power fists (which remains S8 D2 but loses a bit with AP-2 and one less attack than the power weapons), but are stuck on WS4+ on the Chainfists (which are just power fists but with Anti-Vehicle 3+). The power weapons, however, took a step down by just being power swords (no more axes, no more power mauls, just A4 WS3+ S5 AP-2 D1 for everything). Storm Bolters are slightly nerfed due to no longer having Bolter Discipline apply on these dudes, while the Heavy Flamer got a slight buff (it ignores cover now) and so did the Cyclone Missile Launcher (which actually got S9 on its krak missiles). The Assault Cannon took a nerf by losing its AP , but Devastating Wounds makes critical wounds more effective at penetrating saves and has excellent synergy with Oath of Moment against high-value targets, because you can re-roll successful non-critical wounds.
    • Fury of the First makes them a lot more reliable now that its been made into a rule instead of a Stratagem. Being able to ignore any penalties to hit helps throw off a lot, but this also lets you add +1 to hit against anyone you target with Oath of Moment.
    • The Teleport Homer remains as a means for reliable deep-striking, but now you need to set them up around 3" of the new pack-in beacon. This also requires you to use the Rapid Ingress Stratagem in order to use it, though you're not wasting a CP for it.

Dark Angels

  • Deathwing Command Squad: With a lot of the special rules being relegated to the various detachments, the Deathwing seem to be little more than glorified Terminators. Fortunately, the Command Squad remain a very reliable retinue for any Terminator heroes, as you have a Narthecium to resurrect a dead model per turn and an Ancient to improve the squad's OC. The champion carries a Halberd of Caliban for a slightly stronger power weapon with Precision to nail any rival characters without needing your attached leader to intervene as well as a +1 to charge and advance rolls. Keeping him alive also makes the Heroic Intervention strat free.
    • Aside from the basic weapons given to terminators, the Deathwing CS gets to add a Plasma Cannon for a high-powered bombardment weapon with Blast to handle any armored threats. As with any Deathwing unit, you can also equip a termie with either Twin Lightning Claws for an extra power weapon swipe and Twin Linked or a Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield for an extra wound and mighty if unwieldy weapon with Devastating Wounds.

Space Wolves

  • Hounds of Morkai: Specialized psyker-hunting Reivers. Not only do they get a 4++ save against all psychic powers, their knives and pistols also get Devastating Wounds, Precision and Anti-Psyker 4+ so you know just who to throw these bastards to. On top of that, they can target one enemy within 12" during the shooting phase (upped to 18" if they join a Reiver Lieutenant) and force them to take a Battleshock test with a -1 if they're a psyker. If they fail, the unit isn't only battle-shocked but now take a -1 to hit with any Psychic weapons they use.

Vehicle

  • Land Raider: Already we see the significant bump in durability as its Toughness got bumped up from 8 to 12 - incidentally, that's just enough that its lascannons (now bearing the "Godhammer" moniker) can only wound it on a 4+. That tankiness also influences its damage track, as it now only suffers a penalty to BS/WS when it's on its last 5 wounds. Assault Ramps also make a glorious return, granting your squads the ability to charge after disembarking.

Walker

  • Ballistus Dreadnought: The brand-new Dakkanought, as if the ability to re-roll to hit units at half-strength or higher isn't enough to show. At T10 W12 with a 2+ save, they're capable of taking a stray melta shot but not much beyond that. This dread comes in a classic Hellfire loadout, with one arm getting an A2 BS3+ S12 AP-3 D1+d6 lascannon, the other a missile launcher that can go between firing a decently-sized blast to handle mobs or a high-powered Krak to take care of light vehicles, and the only Twin-Linked weapon this thing gets, the Twin Storm Bolters.
  • Venerable Dreadnought: The inevitable is coming. The classic Castraferrum dread is being phased out of production and is confirmed to end up in Legends. While the Venerable Dread remains in production for now, it's believed to be only a matter of time before it goes too.

Dedicated Transports

  • Drop Pod:
  • Rhino:
  • Repulsor:


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