Warhammer 40,000/10th Edition Tactics/Space Marines
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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
Gladius Task Force
Special Rules
- Combat Doctrines: This has come back, but it's been cut back considerably form being a fundamental asset for guiding your army's movement to now once-per-game buffs.
- Devastator Doctrine: Your army can always shoot after advancing. Incredibly handy for heavy gunners Heavy Intercessors and Helblasters.
- Tactical Doctrine: Your army can shoot and charge after 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.
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
- Twin Lighting Claws: TWIN-LINKED S5 AP-2 D1.
- Powerfist: S8 AP-2 D2.
- Chainfist: Anti-Infatry 3+ S8 AP-2 D2.
- Relic Weapon: S5 AP-2 D2.
- Thunder Hammer: Devastating Wounds S8 AP-2 D2.
- Force Weapon: Psychic S6 AP-1 D3.
Ranged Weapons
- 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-Infatry 4+ Devastating Wounds Rapid Fire 1 24" A1 WS4+ S4 AP-0 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 an additional attack at BS3+ 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) gained Twin-Linked to make it more of a threat.
- 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++.
- 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.
- 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:
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.
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.
- As with last edition, it can easily grab Wulfen and Termies with ease (each model taking two slots) and can even fit Centurions (each taking three slots), but now it can also carry any Gravis units as well (at two slots a model), meaning you can easily use it to cart a pack of Aggressors so they can incinerate the opposition or assist some Heavy Intercessors with capping a point.
- Of course, its "unique" Godhammer lascannons don't have to deal with the return of Twin-Linked and just get 2 shots base, same as your Ballistus lascannons.
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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