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

===Fast Attack===
Rocket jumpers, deadly riders and all kinds of zoomers, here you find units boasting great mobility but also lots of dakka and not just fast blades. The changes to Combat Doctrines make these units more relevant as game progression draws you to close range. Plenty of points reductions here, notably on bikes of all shapes and sizes, making them very useful fast and tough units.

*'''[[Assault Squad]]:''' Pistol and chainsword space marines. Jump packs are optional, but to not take them is silly. For +2 pts you could take Vanguard Vets, which have 2x the base attacks and can bring actual blades to a fight. The reason you'd ''ever'' take them is numbers; single wound marines are rather fragile. While Assault marines can't die in your Vanguards' stead like a Devastator squad's boltgun marines can, they can be used to screen the Vanguards from overwatch and be a unit the enemy ''has'' to deal with or get his forces tied up. Arguments can be made about how warhammer is now a shooty game, but since when did space knights with jump packs and chainswords stop being cool?
**They can be built akin to a special weapons squad. Access to a couple of flamers and plasma pistols restric them to anti-infantry, though with decent close-quarters performance and great mobility. As for melee, two Eviscerator attacks on the charge aren't reliable. See them as an extension to the sarge's <s>power fist</s> Thunder hammer, but it's best to keep it simple and aim those chainswords at infantry. They can use a melta bomb after falling back, but wouldn't count on it to deal with anything heavier than a Sentinel.

*'''[[Inceptor]] Squad:''' What you get when an Assault marine wields a Devastator marine in each hand. With 3W T5 and lots of dakka, these guys are ''Space Marine Crisis suits''. Armed with snub versions of the heavy bolter and plasma cannon (same stats, 18" Assault instead of 36" Heavy) they're powerful anti infantry, and arguably better than deepstriking an equivalent Devastator squad. While shooty, they want to charge weak nearby units to hide in the enemy's shooting phase/force them to fall back, like tanks.
**These guys do benefit from a jump pack captain or better yet, a jump pack chaplain to get a ''safe plasma cannon on each hand''. Three plasma Aggressors shoot even more plasma than Hellblasters.

*'''[[Suppressor]] Squad:''' Lighter Inceptors (not gravis, M12" T4 2W) with improved "Accelerator" AP-2 autocannons that cancel enemy overwatch if they kill a model from the charged unit, making them good support for your melee units now that [[Agripinaa|many]] [[Mordia|factions]] [[Iron Hands|overwatch]] [[Imperial Fists|on a]] [[Tau|5+]]. The sergeant can give up his shooting to chuck out smoke grenades for -1 to be hit, just like a vehicle, though his teammates still get to shoot. Accelerator autocannons are Heavy 2 meaning they lose accuracy on the move, so pop the smoke when jumping from one piece of cover to another.

*'''Attack Bike Squad:''' 37 points for a heavy bolter or 49 points for a multi-melta is now VERY CHEAP, but you can't advance and shoot any of your guns, and moving will give the heavy weapon a penalty, so this is usually not a great choice, but the heavy bolter option is noteworthy for making this the cheapest in-Chapter option you have for Fast Attack, if you're looking to fill out a detachment.  The full weapons complement of one is the heavy weapon, a twin bolter, 1 bolt pistol (which can't be swapped for a chainsword, unlike with standard Bikes), frag grenades, and krak grenades, but most of these will never come up - the compulsory storm bolter means you'll never want to fire the pistol or frag grenade, and it'll be a very rare occurrence that you'll prefer 1 krak grenade to the storm bolter ''and'' the heavy weapon, even after the movement penalty.
**White Scars players could put the MultiMelta loadout to good use, as they can move and shoot without penalty.
**Frankly, anybody can use the HB load out at 37 points. A squad of 3 sets you back 111 points and gets you 12 T5 wounds, 3 HBs, and 3 stormbolters always firing full volume at 24." Surprisingly, just keep them still and serve as a distraction as they chew threw chaff.
**For the points, these are better than Gravis units when stationary. However, aggressors and inceptors have better abilities and gain infantry/fly bonuses while also having assault weapons.
**White Scars, Ultramarines, and Iron Hands do not care about heavy weapons restrictions, making these an interesting option for a Brigade.
*'''[[Bike Squad]]:''' For 2 points more than a Scout Bike, you drop from M16 to M14, and lose some weapons - no shotguns, and you have to choose between the pistol and the chainsword, instead of taking both - but you improve from a 4+ save to a 3+ save, and up to two non-Sergeants (minimum unit is Sergeant + 2 non-Sergeants) can take a Special Weapon instead of that pistol or chainsword.  The tl;dr here is that the ''only'' reason to take this squad is triple melta; you can see below for a discussion of the other choices.  112 points will get you your choice of 3 S8 shots at 26" (with melta-damage at 20"), 2 of which will hit, or 1.5 hitting at 32" and 26", respectively (before you ask, it's not worth the accuracy penalty to upgrade to melta damage).  That isn't remotely as efficient as lascannon Devastators, but those aren't as good as getting onto or holding an objective.  Don't take the Attack Bike if you can help it; losing Morale immunity isn't a big deal, but as just mentioned, the primary reason to take bikes is for the mobility, and Attack Bikes hate moving. '''tl;dr:''' Take ''only'' if you want relatively mobile but durable melta.
**The first, most obvious choice is Storm Bolters for the Sergeant; if you do that, you're looking at 83 points for 16 S4 shots at 38", while T5 and 2W. More points effective than Company Veterans on Bikes with all Storm Bolters, but worse than Scout Bikes. Keep in mind Storm Bolters are not on the Special Weapons List. This makes taking Flamers the slightly stronger option, giving every model more opportunities to wound while at closer range. 
**The next most obvious choice is Flamers, which is a significant mistake; due to the bolter taxes involved, a triple Flamer squad trying to use their speed and auto-Advancing to get into Flamer range will find itself delivering ''fewer'' S4 shots for ''far'' more points than a Scout Bike squad.  ''Without'' Advancing, you'll manage to out-shoot the Scout Bikes, but still by ''nowhere'' near enough to justify the cost, due to range limitations: your ''good'' threat range is only 22", which is the threat range on the S5 profile for the Scout Bikes' shotguns, and outside of that, you're incredibly inefficient!
**Finally, grav and plasma are fairly obviously bad - grav costs more than plasma for less damage against most targets you can be bothered shooting, and plasma is particularly a poor choice on models you've already paid a premium on for durability.
*'''[[Land Speeder]]s:''' Land speeders are now, for all intents and purposes, slightly bigger, faster, and more heavily armed attack bikes. The key difference here is that land speeders have the {{W40Kkeyword|fly}} keyword, which means if they ''do'' manage to survive the melee combat they'll occasionally find themselves in, they can just move out and shoot as normal (albeit with the penalty for moving with heavy weapons). This also makes them excellent at tarpitting gunlines. Currently, the Typhoon Missile Launcher is wildly undercosted, and should be your default choice.  Benefits from the Big Guns Never Tire and Skilled Riders stratagems to mitigate the survivability and accuracy issues.
** An interesting loadout for SALAMANDERS is a unit of 3 land speeders kitted out with 6 heavy flamers, as they're one of the units that benefit the most from the Flamecraft stratagem.
**Ultramarines are a fluffy and interesting chapter that can make use of these without much issue due to '''Scions of Guilliman'''. Iron Hands, while not fluffy, can also do so thanks to their Heavy Weapons doctrine.
**Taking landspeeders in squads is a slightly more appealing option this edition, as it helps to mitigate their fragility somewhat and this edition gives all units the ability to split fire, so small vehicle units soaking up enemy anti-tank guns is less of a factor.
*'''Scout Bike Squad:''' Scout bikes got very interesting this edition, especially with the new Bolter Discipline rule! They lost scout but gained a second wound and a ''lot of firepower''.  Every rider comes loaded for bear, with a twin bolter, combat knife (chainsword), shotgun, and bolt pistol, plus the usual grenades - every non-heavy weapon available to ground pounder Scouts. For each model this means 4 S4 shots at 24", and 6 at 12", two of which become S5 at 6". Up to 3 non-Sergeants can swap the twin bolter for a grenade launcher. But at the ludicrous cost of 9 pointsa and thanks to the Bolter Discipline, it become pretty useless: stay well away(unless you plan to exclusively advance). More interestingly, the Sergeant can drop his Pistol for a Storm Bolter. For only 2 points, he could single-handedly deliver '''8 S4 shots at 24", without taking his shotgun into account'''.  Not only that, but they keep their combat knives - they'll handily out-melee a bike squad any day, if both units commit to dakka, as they should. It goes without saying you should always, always do that, fielding these guys MSU style.
** '''tl;dr:''' Each 71 point 3-bike squad has a basic threat range of 16 S4 shots up to 40", 22 up to 28", and, outside of debuffs, is utterly immune to morale. One of the best delivery methods you have for a lot of S4 hits happening right now, on a reasonably durable, very mobile platform.  A great choice.

==== {{anchor|Fast Attack Forge World}} Forge World ====
Can you really blame the makers of superheavy choices for submitting fast attack choices that are mostly static guns? These units are dakka that is here so they won't overpopulate the Heavy section.
*'''Deathstorm Drop Pod:''' A Drop Pod full of automated guns; it can choose either an 18" 2-shot gun with S8 AP-2 D3 D or a 12" 6-shot S6 AP-1 1 D gun. In either case, it must make 1 full shooting attack against anything in range (except for CHARACTERS, who still can only be shot at if they're the closest unit in range).
** This is really good against a wide range of armies, especially MSU (the more times this thing gets to shoot the better) and gun-lines where an entire army is packed closely together. Granted, you're hitting like an Ork (BS5+ from the movement penalty) the turn you arrive...but you're also ''shooting'' [[Dakka|like an Ork.]]
*'''Land Speeder Tempest:''' A tiny drop in movement (well, sort of; see below) from the vanilla type, but has better T and Ld (not that the latter usually matters). Each one is equipped with an Assault Cannon and two Tempest Salvo Launchers (36" Heavy 1d3 S6 AP-3 D2; at only 10 points each, ''drastically'' better as a pair than a Typhoon Missile Launcher against anything at all, but the Tempest itself is a good deal more expensive than a vanilla). When Advancing, they must move between 20" and 35"; they also impose a -1 to hit against them in the next Shooting phase and prevents units without the FLY keyword from charging (or being charged by) them. Since they are neither Flyer nor Aircraft, they can still claim objectives and Breakthrough, despite having considerable reach and all upsides of being a Flyer.
**Relative movement:  These guys don't have Anti-grav Upwash, so a unit of 3 of them is 5" slower than a unit of 3 vanillas, rather than 1", when not Advancing.  When Advancing, they are ''much'' faster, regardless of unit size, since they can go their choice of 20-35" (no need to roll), instead of 16-21 for a small unit or 21-26 for a large unit of vanillas.  Unfortunately, there's no option to take Assault weapons on them of any stripe. 
**Dropped down 50p to 87p in Chapter Approved 2019, now these make more sense. Possible buffs: Skilled Rider strat (3++ when advancing, -1 to hit, immune to non-Fly charges), See, But Remain Unseen (for -2 to hit when advancing) or Big Guns Never Tire (all weapons are heavy, ignoring the movement penalty for a full unit might make sense).
*'''[[Tarantula]] Air Defense Battery:''' As below, but stuck with S8 AP-2 D3 D anti-air missiles that get +1 to hit against flyers and -1 against everything else. MUST target the nearest enemy flyer, and otherwise the nearest enemy non-flyer, but you were probably already planning to do that when you took this unit. 
*'''Tarantula Sentry Guns:''' Whoooo boy, these suckers got a huge buff in 8th edition. They ended up gaining a whopping +1 BS, along with Toughness 5 and 4 wounds, which makes them fairly sturdy for a 20 point/PL3 model. They are hit automatically in CC, but still shoot while an enemy is within 1", and that enemy can still be shot at by everyone else. The only really significant downside is that they can't move ([[Fail|and yet are somehow still fast attack]]) and can't deep strike, so they'll sit in your deployment zone the entire game. Tarantulas can be equipped with the following loadouts:
**Twin Heavy Bolters: These are the default weapons. Good against infantry, but comes with the caveat that it MUST target the nearest INFANTRY model, or else the nearest non-INFANTRY.  A steal at 17 points, but restrictive. Due to the large model footprint, relatively high resilience and low cost, it is useful to deny deep strike in a larger area while always contributing shots into the midfield. Also fairly useful as a speedbump - it is easy to block larger areas for non-Fly units, and anyone in CC with them is still a valid target for everyone, including the tarantula itself.
**Twin Assault Cannons: Hands down the best option. Tarantulas with dual assault cannons lose their targeting restrictions entirely, and gain a whopping 12 shots each. These can be a goddamn steal for what they do, and can be considered practically mandatory.  Like the THB option, cheaper than two of the base gun at only 35 points.
***Mathhammer:  It costs 37 points to field 6 shots at S5 AP-1 D1 restricted and 55 points to field 12 shots at S6 AP-1 D1 unrestricted, which means the latter would be the better choice even if you didn't also gain the benefit of lifting the restriction.  This is so good you even beat the AM version of these things, which cost 34 points for the THB variant. That being said, keep in mind these boys can't move and range will be important, meaning the heavy bolter can still have a place in your plans.
**Twin Lascannons: The other default, good against tanks. Also comes with a restriction that it MUST target the nearest enemy non-INFANTRY, or else the nearest INFANTRY.  Notably ''not'' a steal, since you pay the same cost two lascannons would cost (50 points), but still good.
**Multi-melta: Same deal as the lascannons, but mathematically worse (carrying two guns is better than carrying one). However, it does unlock your targeting restrictions, so a multi-melta equipped tarantula can fire at anything you want. Very expensive at 37 points for the total loadout (relatively so, you're still getting a multi-melta on a very durable platform for the price of one and a half intercessors).
***Mathhammer:  The Twin Lascannons have twice the rate of fire and twice the range as the Multimelta, at 60 points rather than 37, with similar performance against the same targets for the rest of the statline, but the targeting restrictions on them can be quite aggravating, since they will happily target things like BEASTS or SWARMS that you don't care about.  As for the Multi-Melta, 47 points is two points ''more'' than the Assault Cannon variant and you generally won't get into Melta range since you'd have to rely on the enemy to do it for you, so it's only better against medium and heavy vehicles, who are generally fast and/or well-armed enough to deal with turrets handily, which is why neither heavy option is remotely as compelling as the twin assault cannons.