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

===Matchups and Counterplay===

This is where matchups and counter-play is discussed. Feel free to add what tactics and strategies have worked against specific armies in your own personal experience. For simplicity's sake, let's assume that these are mono-lists and are not relying on allies (AKA Soup).

====Imperium====
*'''Blood Angels:''' Blood Angels are very hit or miss. If you're playing a melee Marine faction, skirmish with them. White Scars in particular can practically instantly kill any Blood Angels unit with a squad of Vanguard Veterans on the charge. If you're playing more long range shooty, mow them down, might be difficult with the jump packs, but try anyway. If you're playing a bit of both, like Salamanders, feel free to just take the midpoints. Salamanders and Inner Circle Dark Angels in particular are incredibly strong against Blood Angels when it comes to contesting the mid points.
*'''Dark Angels:''' You beat these guys by playing the objectives. If you want to take potshots at them, do it. If you want to rush them with Vanguard Vets, have fun, but at the end of the day, they're slow and you're fast, or they're fast but have very little else going for them (in the case of Ravenwing). Just claim the objectives and stay calm.
*'''Space Wolves:''' These guys can intervene and are just, in general, incredibly strong. Very strong counter assault in particular. If you're playing melee, this is where you need to bring out some guns. Inceptors in particular are good at dealing with Space Wolves. Remember to Deny your opponents spells.
*'''Deathwatch:''' 
*'''Grey Knights:''' These guys have strong shooting and eternal deepstrike. Screen well, and use your higher efficiency units to deal with them.
*'''Imperial Guard:''' These guys have big guns and bad infantry. Kill the infantry with your infantry. Remember your marines have melee. Then use your amazing anti tank to finish off their no-invuln vehicles.
*'''Adeptus Mechanicus:''' Stay out of sight and grab objectives when you can. If you have more firepower or some consistent way to kill them, do that. Games with the Adeptus Mechanicus quickly devolve into murder.
*'''Adeptus Ministorum:'''
*'''Adeptus Custodes:''' Take the objectives and out efficiency the infantry. Shoot the vehicles with everything you have.
*'''Imperial Knights:''' Anti-tank them out. If you can deal with one knight, you can deal with the rest.

====Chaos====
*'''Chaos Space Marines:''' Some matchups will play out like a mirror match depending on the Legion traits, but Chaos Space marines have a better combination of USRs, as Death to the False Emperor will come into effect more often than ATSKNF. Like you, they have the shock assault and Bolter Discipline rules, making World Eaters armies horrifying on the charge. 
*'''Chaos Daemons:''' They often come in four flavors. Khorne Daemons hit like freight trains on the charge with all of their characters granting re-rolls on failed charges, and by paying command points to get Banners of Blood, they will often make their charges out of deep strike. Their shooting is a joke and basic Bloodletters are surprisingly fragile at T3, but a Khorne player worth their salt will make sure to lock you down to prevent you from capitalizing on it. Nurgle is obscenely tough to kill with the Disgustingly Resilient rule but like the Death Guard it's fucking slow. Slaanesh is fragile, but they are very fast and you will likely be staring turn 1 charges in the face if you don't back your shit up as far back as possible. Tzeentch is arguably the easiest to deal with as they are only good at range, and your ranged abilities will exceed theirs. Just remember to take librarians to deny some of their smites. Thunderfire Cannons and anything with an Assault Cannon will do well to hack up their infantry, and good lord deal with any greater daemons before they get close otherwise you're fucked, no other way to put it. Iron Hands and Ultramarine Chapter Tactics will do you well here, overwatching on a 5+ combined with a 6+ shrug will let you weather the storm, and Guilliman's aura will make a Daemon player ([[Cheese|or any opponent, really]]) cry.
*'''Death Guard:''' Mortal Wound spam out the ass, lots of rerollable wounds, and Disgustingly Resilient making their units extra-hardy. Fun times abound! They have the stronger Chaos Primarch, Mortarion. Morty is also known as [[that guy]] who absorbs all your fire even when he doesn't have any buffs to support him before ramming his rusted, STD-infested scythe up your army's gaping sphincter. Good thing they're slow as shit. Use that to your advantage. 
*'''Thousand Sons:''' They have the weaker Chaos Primarch, Magnus the Red. Magnus is also known as the guy who dies in 1 turn of shooting even if he receives all of the defensive buffs first. However, "weaker" should still not be misinterpreted as being the same as "weak", because he can still rip and tear with the best of them. Thousand Sons are an army that relies on their psychic phase more than anyone aside from Daemons and Grey Knights, and they've got access to way more powers than either of those. Their Tzaangors can create a nasty suicide unit by either moving forward with Warp Time, or deep striking in front of you and then charging. 
*'''Renegade Knights''': See Imperial Knights above. They share a lot of traits with them, but favor melee to a greater extent and can mix and match weapon types to a degree. 
*'''Renegades and Heretics (FW):''' This will play out much like a Guard match, but the difference is they still have access to morale-immunity on their hordes of renegades. Take Scout Snipers and assassinate their Enforcers like you would a Company Commander/Commissar!

====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:''' These guys have seen better days. In general, you won't have much difficulty killing their infantry; a universal T3 with an average 4+ save at best won't protect them from even your most basic weaponry. This is further compounded by their subpar weapon ranges which, despite their infantry's slightly faster movement speed, will struggle to even get within retaliatory range before you've already gunned down half (or more) of the enemy squad. Priority Aspect Warriors to watch out for are Shining Spears, Dark Reapers and Shadow Spectres. Shining Spears are a blisteringly fast biker unit that can reliably one-shot non-Gravis marines on the charge and can be surprisingly durable due to their 4++ save against ranged assaults. Dark Reapers and Shadow Spectres are the only ranged infantry in the entire Craftworld codex that can actually trade fire at similar ranges to your own units and are fully capable of killing even Gravis Marines and Terminators with a single shot from their guns. Additionally, they're actually moderately durable (for GEQ) due to their standard 3+ saves. Having said that, they're still T3 elves and what they have in ranged firepower, they lack in physical prowess. Lastly, any Farseers and Warlocks you happen to see on the field should be at the top of your kill list; many Craftworld lists extensively rely on psyker support to truly shine and tend to fall apart quite quickly if they're removed.
*'''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 T4 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 will 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. Terrain largely means nothing to them, as they ignore it and intervening models entirely when they move. Avoid placing your units too deep within terrain lest they corner you by phasing through the wall. Only the tightest cluster of screens will keep Troupes from just leaping over your marines to assassinate your characters. Good news is even though they all have a 4++ or better, they're still T3; 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 stratagems 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:''' You need to get on the objectives as soon as possible. If you fail to get on the objectives, the tyranid player will not and you will lose on points.
*'''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:''' 
*'''Orks:''' Get on those objectives. If you don't, the Ork player will happily beat you on points. Same rules when facing any other horde army. Trust in Bolt Rifles and the Tactical Doctrine!

====How To Kill Space Marines====
Space Marines can be a challenging army to fight. Their basic statlines are quite 'ard, they have a deep and varied roster which allows them to play a variety of styles effectively, and access to both classic and Primaris marines means they can field flexible units with plenty of redundancy or specialist units which are very effective in their niche. Together, these make list-building difficult because it's difficult to predict what you'll be fighting; many a player has wept at the sight of an armoured column rolling up in front of their anti-infantry gunlines, or brought specialised lists to negate Primaris specialisations only to be confronted with a varied and well-rounded force.

Nonetheless, there ARE certain things you can predict about the Marines, and certain decisions you can make which are ''generally'' reliable.

The first is that you're probably going to be facing a lot of Elites. Marines are already quite elite by the standard of most factions, but their Elite choices are particularly strong. This means you're going to need a way to deal with small groups of heavy and super-heavy infantry; the two most common statlines here are T4 2W and T5 3W. Armies like the Necrons or Tau who have strong basic guns won't care so much, but if the bulk of your firepower is S3 without AP you're going to run into difficulty, especially once the Marines get into cover.

So - crack open the special weapons. Most armies have access to something in the S5 D2 range, so you'll want to stock up on these, as they tend to be a very point-efficient way of dealing with marines. Heavy flamers and heavy bolters are easily available to a lot of factions, but be wary of going for Plasma; you'll need to overcharge these to outright kill a Marine with one shot and it's particularly risky in 9th Edition.

Dealing with T5 3W is much harder. These two stats are in a real sweet-spot where most anti-chaff is going to bounce off altogether, and even your dedicated elite-killers are usually D2 or Dd3, meaning twice the shots to bring them down. For these, your best options are looking for anything with high rate-of-fire in the S6 1D range, or just committing outright to anti-vehicle. Neither of these are particularly appealing choices, but now that Gravis armour is available in every slot, you need a way to take care of it. Don't skimp here; Heavy Intercessors aren't very efficient killers, but they're absolutely fantastic objective holders, and you don't want to get ground down on victory points, to say nothing of the damage things like Aggressors can do. If you can, consider going for high-strength D3 melee weapons (don't fuck about with Dd3 as this WILL cost you); if your opponent doesn't bring Gravis, they can still be put to work on vehicles or characters.

Speaking of characters; Marine characters are strong, but limited in numbers, especially given 9th Edition's restrictions on captains and lieutenants. Use this to your advantage; Marines generally like to build a castle of overlapping auras for their heavy guns like Devastators and Eliminators, so try and break line-of-sight. Just making those guns move has a much higher effect than you'd expect on their efficiency with re-rolls. Fast units and transports are particularly great here, being able to flit between areas where the Marines can't see to capture objectives, and can force the castle to play inefficiently or even split up altogether to try and shoot you off multiple objectives.

Melee is generally a good choice against the Marines. Marine infantry is decent in melee, but not points-efficient; even if you can't kill them, you can usually tie them up for a few turns to take advantage of their low unit numbers and attacks. Marines also tend to pour a lot of points into their guns, as they have great options there, so just swarming them with expendable fodder can tie up those guns for a turn or two and give you the advantage; that said, the dedicated melee units are very dangerous and several chapters have melee specializations that can make this strategy backfire. Blobs also tend to be very effective in general; Marines have plenty of options for deep-striking, so filling the board with trash can cut off their options and force them to land in their own territory, giving you more room to safely capture objectives in your own backfield.

Finally, Marine vehicles are strong, but tend to be surprisingly frail. S8 is your friend here; put down enemy vehicles as quickly as you can, and then turn those guns on their Elites. Because Marines tend to have low multi-wound models, powerful single-shot weapons like lascannons aren't too inefficient here, and are particularly good against Primaris as you can quickly pick off dangerous specialists as they get into their effective ranges.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000 9E]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40000 Tactics (9E)]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Space Marines]]

{{Warhammer_40k_Tactics}}