Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Space Marines (section)

====Xenos====
*'''Tau:''' Tau vs. Marine matchups exist in a weird space as Tau are both devastating at range, and a pain in the ass to charge with their bonuses to overwatch. At the same time, space marine armies (regardless of composition) are strongly middle-range armies. Part of surviving tau is closing in with the enemy with multiple units to force the split of overwatch. Youre not going to outshoot them, and while you should beat them in close combat, you're not a close combat army either. While they have indirect fire options, a huge part of their mechanics rely on line of sight, so cover becomes remarkably important. Tau guns are strong but are usually wielded as BS4+, so anything with minuses to-hit (like Raven Guard units) will fare well against Tau. Ensure to remove supporting drones with bolters before shooting your lascannons at the battlesuits, or your shots will likely be wasted. Sniping buffing characters like Fireblades and Ethereals will make your life easier. Most importantly, Tau often castle up to make the most of their synergies. If they do, don't try take them head-on, instead just play the mission and win on victory points!
*'''Craftworld Eldar:'''  Classic Eldar are known for two things: psychic powers and hyper-specialized units. Use a few snipers or psykers of your own to shut down or prevent Farseers/Warlocks from supporting their units or debuffing/smiting yours. This will cripple the Craftworlders significantly, as many of their units will begin to struggle against MEQ without their buffs helping them work around their otherwise garbage GEQ statlines. As for units like their aspect warriors, simply take advantage of their weaknesses; Howling Banshees, Striking Scorpions and Fire Dragons are practically helpless at range, while units like Dark Reapers, Swooping Hawks and Shadow Spectres are considerably easier in melee. Wraith units might have devastating firepower and can still easily throw down in a fist fight, but all variants are generally slow and have very limited ranges on their weapons. If you lack heavier firepower to simply punch through their armour and toughness, you can still kite them with relative ease and whittle them down.
*'''Dark Eldar:''' This faction is a bit special in that their codex more or less divides itself into three armies so here's an entry for each.
**'''Kabals:''' Death of a thousand cuts. Most of their units will whittle you down with splinter fire since your T 4 doesn't mean a thing to them, and they have a startling lack of multi damage weapons outside of Dark Lances and the like making Primaris units quite useful as short of disintegrators they don't have any cost effective solution to bringing them down. Moreover their infantry fold under bolt fire like guardsmen and are quite afraid of it; luckily Venoms also crumple easily under massed bolter fire, Raiders and Ravagers are slightly tougher but will quickly fall apart under heavier firepower however. That being said, do not underestimate the speed or cost-effective anti-tank their vehicles can bring. 
**'''Wych Cults:''' One of the two combat heavy sides to the DE with terrific invuln saves in combat, avoid melee if you can even with your own dedicated CQC units as they will get bogged down pretty quickly and your more ranged units will either be killed or mauled quite badly. However, the good news is outside of combat they're essentially useless and like the one above massed bolt fire will work wonders, even against their transports, and Assault Cannons are just their worst nightmare. Be prepared to fall back as often as you'll be able to open up their units to your fire, but hey, you're the Imperium: when is Guns O' Clock not the solution?
**'''Covens:''' The other combat heavy side that relies on being obscenely tough. Everyone gets an invulnerable save, be it close combat or at range. Quick, but not as fast as the Wyches, so finishing them off with well placed charges can be effective. They can also bring a fair amount of beefy monsters and can harm your Primaris marines a fair bit more reliably. The best way to beat their invuln saves is by swamping them in Bolter fire which doesn't care about armor. 
*'''Harlequins:''' Death of a thousand honks . . . wait. In all seriousness though these lot are FAST, like insanely fast, like genestealer fast! Okay maybe not that fast, but still they well be in your lines turn 2 at the latest. Unfortunately for you they can and will shred Marines faster than you can blink so avoid melee like the plague. Good news is even though they all have a 4++ or better they're still T 3 so massed bolters will wipe out whole units at a time. Bad news is they'll make sure they have transports, which have 4++ and a -1 to hit so taking them down quick will be a challenge, mortal wounds will bypass those well enough or a well positioned librarian with Nullzone can lead to you wiping out most of their army in one go.
*'''Ynnari:'''  This particular faction of space elves can be a bit tricky to plan for, but invariably the weakest of the them all. The bad news is they are already tailormade to fuck you up as MSU is their preferred targets, the good news is they're a semi decent close combat army at best so the usual tactics apply. To really shut them down however it's best to bring some psychic denial to stop the new hotness for them Unbind Souls their version of Doom that'll only apply in combat, which means librarians or Black Templars. Next to worry about is their few key strategems which can make any of their characters get back up on a 4+, or the two separate ones they have to give reroll to wound against your units. Be warned you'll probably be facing dual battalions which means lots of elves, hope you brought your bolters.
*'''Tyranids:''' Almost an automatic win for you if you have a competent list. Kill off synapse and any significant firepower they may bring. Rub salt in the wound with your plethora of sniper weapons. You truly do not need help here.
*'''Genestealer Cults:''' Imperial Guard with Tyranid flavor, or Tyranid with Imperial Guard flavor? In all seriousness, deepstriking Genestealers with armoured support to back it up sounds like a very daunting prospect. As with Nids, avoid melee with anything that has a Rending Claw, Rock cutters/saws, or power hammers if possible. Remember to zone out ambushing units with Scouts. If you're planning on mixing in the new Primaris Vanguard units, remember that Infiltrators and the Phobos Captain can deny deep strikes within 12", making them and scouts your best friends against GSC by pushing them out of charge range. Ultramarines or Imperial Fists work well because the smurfs can fall back and still shoot, and the Fists can ignore cover (which a GSC player worth their salt would spring for). Unfortunately if you're reliant on offensive Librarians for damage, a single Magus will make you cry by giving all GSC units within 6" of it a free Deny the Witch. If that wasn't enough, Jackal Alphuses and Sanctuses will then proceed to heap the pain on characters with their Silencer sniper rifles (AP-1, d3 damage and forces perils on psykers that lose a wound to the shot). Kelermorphs are also bonkers since even if they don't have the relic pistol Oppressor's Bane they will snipe a non-screened Librarian, Chaplain, or Lieutenant with ease.
*'''Necrons:''' You shouldn't really need any help killing Necrons, but just in case: play for keeps and don't leave half-eaten units around. If you fail to wipe a unit, Reanimation Protocol will see a bunch of their slain models return (funnily enough, losses to morale do not count). Necron Wraiths and Lychguard with sword and board have especially good invulnerable saves, but a speedy Librarian build (Terminator, Index Bike, Jump Pack) with the Null Zone psychic power will make a mockery of them. The really solid unit Necrons have are Destroyers. Wraiths will constantly absorb firepower, while warrior blobs will harm your units badly if they can waddle into rapid fire range. 
*'''Orks:''' You shouldn't really need any help killing Orks, but just in case: the most important thing is target prioritizing. Take a lot of infantry mulching guns and unload into the massive units of Ork Boyz your opponent brought, and focus your anti-armour guns on popping their transport open. If you have any dedicated melee units of your own, don't rush into combat; that's playing right into the Ork players hand. Hold them back and let your guns soften the enemy up before intercepting them when they get too close. Also, keep in mind that''' 'ere We Go!''' allows orks to pull off charges from a surprising distance, so don't let that catch you off guard. Finally, if you must go toe-to-toe with a Warboss, make sure your character has a Storm Shield: Warbosses hit like a freight train and the Ork player can use the stratagem '''Orks is never defeated''' to guarantee that the boss gets a chance to fight. Orks are a volume army (both in T4 wounds and S4 attacks)... snipers picking off key buffing characters and the Warboss can cripple them.

[[Category:Warhammer 40000 Tactics(8E)]]
[[Category: Space Marines]]


{{Warhammer_40k_Tactics}}