Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Space Marines (section)

====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. What's more, the boltgun part of the combi-melta is master-crafted as well. 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. They're also one of 2 chapters (others being Imperial Fists) that can take the (in)famous Skyhammer Annihilation Force as part of their Decurion-type detachment. This lets you drop 3 pods, 2 of which contain '''relentless''' devastators, on turn 1. Combine with Smashfucker, combat squad abuse, and FNP trolling for maximum fun/butthurt. Drop pods with IWND along with a locator beacon/deathwind launcher also become legitimate threats; 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.
*'''Star Phantoms''' - A somewhat more specialized version of the Ultramarines, the Phantoms gain a single army-wide turn of twin-linked shooting. This applies to all non-ordinance and non-flamer weapons, giving you the option to maximize firepower from Command Squads and Sternguard who would otherwise have to fall back on just re-rolling 1's. The Star Phantoms also have the ability to re-roll 1's for deep striking reserves, which helps to ensure your pods arrive on time.