Editing Warhammer 40,000/5th Edition Tactics/Space Marines (section)

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

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

Some things to keep in mind:
* Note that generic marines are a "jack-of-all trades, master of none" type army: 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... BUT the army as a whole can't really excel in 1 general area.
** With that in mind, find what your opponent is most vulnerable to, then organize your stuff accordingly. Tau ''will'' outshoot you, but they're are weak to assault, so get some bikes to close the distance. Eldar will try to break you apart and escape, but they're fragile, so keep your big armor in their way and hit them with more guns than they can run from, and just outlast them. 
* MEHTAL BAWKSES save your life and time. Space marines love being in metal boxes. They make the tough marines even tougher. Stop them from getting bogged down in pointless hand to hand combats, prevent them from being pinned, and, perhaps most importantly, let them move faster and prevent them from being tarpitted. Invest in rhinos/razorbacks.
* You're not a Khorne Berserker. You'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''' to succeed. As Charles Darwin said: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to [[Tzeentch|change]]."