Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Space Marines (section)

==Why Play Space Marines==
The Emperor’s finest; the Space Marines; the Angels of Death; the warriors of the Adeptus Astartes go by many names, and all spell annihilation to the enemies of Mankind. Possessing terrifying speed, strength, and resilience, the Space Marines are genetically engineered super-soldiers whose humanity has been sacrificed so that they may unflinchingly stand against those who would see the Imperium fall. They go to war clad in nigh-impenetrable armour. They wield devastating weapons such as the bolt rifle, the chainsword and the lascannon. They can speed into battle in armoured tanks and gunships, drop from the skies on grav-chutes and jump packs, or even teleport directly into their enemies’ midst. Coupled with their unshakeable resolve, the strike forces of Adeptus Astartes are the most powerful and tactically flexible in the Imperium.

===Pros===
*Easy for beginners to play, the army is highly customizable with generally acceptable grades of viability.
*Your basic units are pretty well rounded and durable with strength 4, toughness 4, 3+ armor saves, and 2 wounds base. 
*Space Marines are the iconic poster boy army of 40k, you're always going to be the first out of the gate with a new book and some new models every edition.
*You have a variety of useful psychic powers, many of which are flat-out buffs of other armies' powers.
*Loads of powerful characters to choose from, many of which have potent buffs to surrounding units.
*Units can do something of everything, with an answer to every situation.
*Many of your models are simple to paint with their solid colors and easily identified highlight areas - this makes painting your army very beginner friendly.

===Cons===
*Space Marines have the largest pool of units in the game, it can feel overwhelming when deciding what to take and many units seem redundant.
*As the most popular army by a long shot, most people build their armies with at least a few options for killing Space Marines present. 
*GW releases new units with overpowered statlines at breakneck pace, which results in massive drain on both your time and your wallet. In the long term, this can cause hobby fatigue and/or feelings of resentment. 
*The Elites slot is overcrowded. 
*You will almost always be outnumbered, though [[Crimson Fists|some]] Chapter tactics make use of low model counts, and codex has some answers to this. 
*Marines vs. Marines is grating and monotonous, which sucks since it's the most popular faction in the game. 
*On that note: as the most popular army everyone makes sure to include anti-marine tech into any list they make, and as the most popular army odds are your opponent has piloted a marine force themselves and so knows your weaknesses and strengths better then you might a non marine army.
*[[Eradicator|Eradicators]] are stupidly overpowered and unquestionably [[cheese]]. Bring a squad or two at most - any more than that is firmly in [[That Guy]] territory.
*They are losing the versatility each unity had for more Eldarish specialized roles which is chipping away at their beginner friendliness.

===TL;DR===
* Space Marines sit at the middle of the spectrum between ranged and melee armies.  They're fundamentally a shooty army, but on the spectrum of shooty troops they are the least fucked in melee.  They don't have a lot of attacks, so the longer they stay in melee with melee specialists the worse it's going for them.  Their durability comes at a points premium per unit, which underlines the Astartes' greatest nemesis: Hordes.  Astartes aren't Custodes; their points premium doesn't make them so tough that they can shrug off an entire squad worth of knives and flashlights.  The fluff may say an Astartes is worth a hundred men, but in their respective roles, guardsmen and boyz are more points economical.  Playing Space Marines is not about playing to strengths... it's about playing to the enemy's weaknesses.