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

===Fast Attack===
====Infantry/Nonvehicles====
*'''Assault Squad:''' Melee troops that can work both for deep striking or flying across the map. Not too expensive for what they do, and with a special character and a decently-equipped sergeant they can handle most situations. They might not fare so well against super-melee squads, but their mobility helps them pick and choose, and dual flamers even the odds against foes that would normally be far too numerous for them to consider taking on. Also if you can, give 'em melta bombs and watch them rampage through enemy armor columns. Upgrade the Sergeant to give them at least one guy with a power weapon. 
***Whether you buy a transport or Jump Packs really depends on your playstyle and the mission; keeping your guys in a tank limits mobility slightly, but keeps them alive against small arms; a drop pod lets them go anywhere, but they can't assault when they come out; standard jump packs let them go anywhere.  
***Take a drop pod and two flamers. You now have a 115 point unit that can decimate most infantry. Happy burning.
***Use them as above, or take them as a cheap counter-attack unit. Keep them out of sight behind your lines. If your front lines get overwhelmed, send these guys in to deal with it. With 3 attacks a pop on the charge, with hammer of wrath if they have jump packs, it'll usually take down whatever is assaulting your guys a notch. Note this doesn't work against dedicated assault units and they will most likely be killed. Works wonders against hordes though, but don't fall into the trap of giving them flamers in this role: their purpose is to charge a unit once it is locked in CC, where you can't use your range weapons. Use those 10 points to upgrade the sergeant instead.
***They just got updated. Good news- their cost has dropped to 70 points and they can now take an Eviscerator for every five models in the squad (so 3 special melee weapons in total, including the serge's power weapon, although your return is greatest if you have the vet serge take the Eviscerator, due to his second attack and the costs and availabilities of his other weapons - you're functionally buying a chainfist for 5 points less than others pay for it, since you can't buy a second specialist weapon anyhow).
***Plasma pistols are generally a poor choice here, and largely unnecessary what with Eviscerators allowing the squad to engage beefier armored targets.
***Running an assault squad without jump packs is a choice that few opponents will expect, and can serve as a cheap surprise when they jump out of the rhino/drop pod your opponent was expecting to contain a tactical squad.
***If playing Salamanders and you didn't give the Sergeant a weapon upgrade, consider master-crafting his Krak grenades. It's his best shooting attack within 8", hits before you get to melee, and works well in a plodding double flamer squad.

*'''Bike Squad:''' Once hardly used except as the odd troop choice with a captain, these guys are now one of the most competitive parts of the new codex for three reasons:
**Grav-guns - these guys are relentless, so they can fire their Grav weapons at full range and volume while moving and can still charge afterwards.
**Points cost - 21 points a pop, and the many benefits of the Space Marine Bike are worth the 7 points over a Tactical Marine.
**White Scars Chapter Tactics - Skilled Rider, Hit and Run, and +1S on Hammer of Wrath, and you can also take Khan for everyone to have Scout. All this for still only 1 pt more than a CSM biker. DO NOT take them as Fast Attack; putting them in a Troops slot lets you bring your flyers and attack bike squads/speeders. It's a crowded FOC slot, so try to avoid taking them as FA.
**With the new Codex, ''any'' HQ on a Bike qualifies Bikers for the Troops slot. Can't use a Captain in your army? Take a Librarian, Tech Marine or Chaplain, instead! Also gone is the limitation that only units of 5+ Bikes count as Troops. Excellent!

*'''Attack Bikes:''' The Yang to Land Speeders' Ying, this is the Marines' other great FA unit. The debate on the relative merits of the Speeder and the Attack Bike is endless. Great for their two wounds, and heavy weapons. Can fit into variety of roles, from tank hunting to infantry harassing, but their low number of attacks means they should be kept out of all but the easiest of melee combats (e.g., Fire Warriors). Attack Bikes also benefit from a wider array of Chapter Tactics when compared to Land Speeders, although the advantages may not be very significant (White Scars obviously being an exception). Also 5 points cheaper than before.

*'''Scout Bike Squad:''' Pretty decent anti-infantry shooting unit, with Infiltrate, Scout and 6 Frag blasts, which means they can hurt light infantry from a safe distance (24") right on turn 1. Krak grenades can glance or penetrate a bawks, too, but you can only use 1 from the whole squad per Assault phase (apparently everyone was playing grenades wrong for years according to the FAQ. Good rules writing there GW). Still, keep them in mind. With their new BS 4 you can use them to bolster your bike army by making a turn 1 disruption on your enemy's deployment zone.  
** Locator Beacons. They're one of two units that can take them, and the only unit that can both start on the board and be mobile. 
** Infiltrate + Scout move. They can turbo-boost to within 12" of the enemy before the game actually starts. This, combined with a Locator Beacon, allows for tactical insertion of your drop pods and, if you should so fancy, a scout-missile.
** Cluster Mines. For 20 points per unit, you can booby-trap a single piece of terrain on the field before the battle starts. It becomes dangerous terrain to enemies; your troops (as well as battle brothers) don't have to worry though.

====Vehicles====

*'''Stormtalon Gunship:''' (Attack Flyer) The bastard child of a Thunderhawk and a Land Speeder, this fast flyer comes with AV 11 all around, TL assault cannons and heavy bolters, and can exchange the HBs for TL lascannons, a Typhoon ML, or a Skyhammer ML (which is basically a 3-shot autocannon), each of which became cheaper in the new codex (in particular, Skyhammer MLs are 5 points). While more expensive than Land Speeder, this little fucker is a lot more survivable, and has some interesting rules. For example, Zooming makes it go 6" further when going flat-out, while Hovering gives it +1 to Jink, making it a pain to remove. It also has Ceramite Shielding, but really, this is only for fluff. A Meltagun that can get a target lock on this thing's ass will blow it up regardless of how many dice it rolls.
**[[Rape|It has the strafing run special rule, meaning that it has BS5 against everything but skimmers and fliers]]. You know, in case Twin-Linked BS4 wasn't accurate enough for your tastes.
**With the new Stormwing Formation, you can now take one Stormraven, escorted by TWO Stormtalons. And as long as at least one Stormtalon is alive, EVERYONE HAS THE STRAFING RUN RULE. So with one Reserve roll, you bring on a Stormraven, two Stormtalons, an Ironclad Dreadnought and 10-man Honour Guard squad. Make your opponent cry. It's ok. You won't be able to hear them over your laughter.
**Thanks to the new Death from the Skies rules, the Stormtalon is now only good against ground targets. For a dedicated anti-flyer unit look down below. Also, you can run up to 4 in a single FA slot, without needing to keep coherency, unless of course you wanted to.

*'''Stormhawk Interceptor:''' (Fighter) With the Stormtalon losing skyfire, this is your dedicated flying anti-flyer. It has Front AV 12 and the same Ceramite Shielding as the Storm Talon. Lost strafing run and hover but got supersonic, making it more agile. It comes stock with TL Assault Cannons, a Las-Talon (which is basically a Lascannon with twice the shots at half the range) that can be exchanged for an Icarus Stormcannon, and TL Heavy Bolters that can be upgraded to Skyhammer/Typhoon Missile Lauchers (Typhoon negates a lot of drawbacks). It also comes with a new piece of equipment called Halo-Launcher to reroll failed jink-saves. It can be kitted out to either pump out a lot of shots at mediocre AP or fewer but stronger high AP shots. Unfortunately it is only BS3 against non flyer/skimmer units now, thanks to the new flyer rules. You can run up to 4 in a single FA slot, without needing to keep coherency, unless of course you wanted to.

*'''Land Speeders:''' One of the most awesome and potentially rage-inducing units in the Codex. These little buggers are very fragile, but also very underrated. They come very cheap with a multi-melta, and can bring a heavy flamer for infantry hunting. Deep striking, they are excellent tank or infantry hunters. Their only problem is that they may not last very long after they get their shots off, but if they do, they can deal some real damage to the enemy. Alternatively, try taking a Typhoon Missile Launcher and keeping it far out of harm's reach, raining missiles at shit; think of them as more mobile and cost-effective Predator Destructors. Very good at disabling light transports and as a last-turn objective contester.  When tackling enemy armour with multi-meltas, use the land speeder's maneuverability to your advantage: put the target between the speeder and the rest of his army, and pray you destroy the vehicle in one salvo, WITHOUT blowing it up. With any luck, the burning wreck will keep your flimsy aluminum speeder out of the kill zone. Obviously, this means you take on flank vehicles; charging this into the center of your opponent's army is a waste of a good land speeder, unless it's to kill a Leman Russ or something (an enemy's primary tank/threat) in a turn 1 suicide run. Do remember to BLOCK enemy transports and tanks, since they can't move through the Speeder. Great for delaying that big fat Land Raider from reaching your lines, for a 70 point sacrifice (and a decent chance to kill said Raider with your underslung multi-melta).
**The new codex added a rule, Anti-Grav upwash: so as long as you have 3 of them they flat out an additional 6".
**If taken in a Battle Demi-Company, land speeders gain objective secured.
**Unfortunately, Chapter Tactics do not apply to vehicles so you cannot use Salamanders for some twin-linked flamer shenanigans. But, on the other hand, they can be taken in squads of three, and doing so gives them a bonus 6" when moving Flat Out. 
***'''Iron Hands''' and '''Astral Claws''' chapter tactics ''do'' apply here, as well, because reasons.
**With '''Vulkan''', ''both'' multi-meltas ''will'' be master crafted, however.
**Because Land Speeders are ''Fast'', they can move 12" and let loose with both guns.
**'''Land Speeder Darkwind (Strike Force Solaq)''' - An AC and HB on a Speeder, pretending it's Raven'''WING''' instead of Raven '''GUARD''' with the ability to re-roll Jinks.  Neat.

=====Forge World=====

*'''Relic Javelin Attack Speeder (Forge World):''' An upgunned and uparmored Land Speeder that flies solo. AV11 means it is now invulnerable to bolter fire, but still melts under anti-tank (though jink saves help a bit). Costs as much as a naked Predator, packs much more firepower and mobility, and as a nice bonus it looks absolutely '''fabulous'''. The main downside is a real money price - almost THREE TIMES MORE than regular speeder - like it's silver-plated or something.

*'''Land Speeder Tempest (Forge World):''' The Stormtalon’s obscure older hipster step-brother. At 90 points, you get an up-armored Speeder with Armoured Cockpit (ignores crew shaken and crew stunned on a 4+); Extra Armour, Deep Strike, and Afterburner (can turn into a zooming flyer for one turn, but can’t shoot that turn either, so you’ll never use it outside of Apocalypse games on boards big enough to actually be worth wasting a turn just to get from point A to B.). You can get three in a squadron, and each one’s armed with a single assault cannon and a TL missile launcher loaded with frag, krak, and flakk missiles. No wargear options, WYSIWYG. The Tempest sits squarely in the middle ground between the Speeder and Stormtalon, being tougher than the former, weaker than the latter, and in certain respects less versatile than either. However, TL flakk missiles do make the Tempest one of the fastest non-flyer AA units in the game.
***If you’re gonna take any, take a full squadron and think of them as sort of a faster and more heavily armed and armored squad of deep striking missile devastators.

*'''Caestus Assault Ram (Forge World)''' Craziest vehicle in the game, designed to ram things (hence the name), and accomplishes this by having a 5+ inv. save against attacks on the front: (inc. rams, either from the enemy ramming you or you ramming them), re-rolling the armour penetration dice when ramming with +1 to the vehicle damage roll, and nigh-impenetrable for a flyer armour of 13 13 11. Comes with a twin-linked MAGNA-MELTA (WTF?), which is: range:18" str:8 AP:1 type:Heavy 1, large blast, melta. Sound fun, eh? Holds ten men, ideal for punching a hole in the enemy battle lines and disgorging troops, AND it's an assault vehicle, so they can get straight into close combat (and no restriction against carrying terminators, in fact, they only count as one man inside this, not two!). Now this means that the Caestus has to be fast, and it is! Its type is: Flyer (hover mode), and it STILL can ram/tank shock while zooming. Comes stock with extra armour and Ceramite shielding (immunity to 'melta' rule). Options are: Firefury missile battery (range: 36" str:6 AP:4 type:Heavy 4, blast, twin-linked, one-use), Teleport homer, and Frag assault launchers. One should use the Caestus to ram straight through the strongest point of your enemy's force, in most battles you'll be there on turn one, thanks to the 36" afterburner. Ram a tank with this (generally, given the colossal afterburner, you'll give them a S10 hit) and then deploy the men inside (preferably dedicated H2H troops), and charge straight in against the nearest infantry, or if you feel like it, shove a grenade up a nearby tank's tailpipe.

*'''Lucius Pattern Drop Pod (Forge World):''' Big dreadnought drop pod, which allow your dread to deep strike. With the newest update, you can no longer assault out of a deep strike. Instead it gets a rule where the transported dreadnought, the drop pod itself, and anything shot at through the drop pod get the shrouded special rule on the turn it drops down, which is pretty damn nice. Note that the drop pod assault rule DOES NOT require the dreadnought to actually EXIT the drop pod when it comes down, and as it is a transport, it can stay inside, safe from most shooting, and use the pod as ablative armor.As drop pod is open-topped, your dread could even shoot out of it. It also has the assault vehicle special rule, so if anyone is actually stupid enough to stay within charge range of the drop pod, it can then get out of it and start annihilating the nearest enemy unit.

*'''Hyperios Air Defense Battery (Forge World):''' One to four twin-linked missile turrets with Skyfiring, Intercepting, Heat-seeking krak missiles for only 35 points each. Perfect for trolling fliers. Unlike the other Space Marine Sentry Guns, they don't have firing modes thanks to Automated Artillery, allowing you to direct the shots at your leisure. This configuration does most jobs you ask it to without complaint. For 10 points you can replace one of the launchers with a Command Platform that gives the other platforms Split Fire, not that you need to.

*'''Xiphon Pattern Interceptor (Forgeworld):''' It's exactly what you'd expect an interceptor to be; light, fast and good against other vehicles. With two twin linked lascannons and a new rotary missile launcher. The launcher is two shot, S8 AP2 and forces jink and cover saves to be rerolled, plus when penetrating hits are rolled, it chooses the best of D3 results (adding one for AP2). It's light, only two hull points mean it'll go down against a stiff breeze, but with AV11 at least it's immune to small arms bolter fire just like a stormtalon. With Forgeworlds rules update it gets the new combat role Interceptor. It uses the same Attack Patterns as Fighters but has an additional special rule. At the beginning of the game you must select a single combat role the Xiphon can reroll all to-hit and penetration rolls of 1 against. The trade off ist that it always has to use skyfire now, so no more tank hunting. But at least it can still fire at normal BS against skimmers.