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

====Tactics====
There's a lot of [[Skub]] about playing White Scars in 9th, mostly revolving around the fact that [[Derp|their Chapter Tactics and Doctrine don't synergize very well]], with most of your abilities only really coming into play turn 3. Most players prefer to play as Successors, so that they can pick Hungry for Battle (+1 Advance and Charge) and Whirlwind of Rage (exploding 6s to hit), two very decent tactics that pair extremely well with your Doctrine of +1 D, but lacks the super sexy advance+charging that makes White Scars the White Scars. There is also the Elephant in the room that if you want to go very heavy on bikes: [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Dark_Angels_(9E)|Dark Angel Raven Wing]] arguably do a better job of it with a unique bike unit with Assault Plasma, a 5/4++ Jink, and Objective Secured on bikes in Ravenwing Outrider detachments.

Don't discount playing White Scars as they're intended, however. Ravenwing may have tricks but so do you. Don't overcomplicate them and play them with their intended role on [[Bike Squad|Bikes]], with as many assault (e.g. Meltas and Heavy/Intercessors with Assault Weapons) as you can. A good White Scars list can flood the field with T5 3W and 3+ saves, such as Gravis and Bikes. 3x3 Attack Bikes with Multi-Meltas, which gives you 36 wounds and 18 Melta shots for only '''450 points''' (and using stratagems to get past the Heavy weapon weakness), and for 405 pts more, you can stack 3 more squads of Eradicators with Assault Melta on top of them, and this is by no means the most competitive combination. While your Turn 1 isn't going to do much, alpha-strikes aren't that competitive in the meta anymore, and you can make up for a subpar Turn 1 with your mobility, making full advantage of the fact that you can advance, shoot, and charge. 

'''TL;DR''': Get on a bike and use the abundance of Primaris Assault weapons in Turn 2, and charge survivors Turn 3. 

*'''Jumppack:''' Not as fast as bikes but still fairly fast when advancing and charging and ignoring terrain when moving.  Now that Assault Marines and other Jump Pack units are a lot cheaper, you can easily build yourself a flying deathball of chainsword attacks to shred enemy infantry, while your Inceptors and Vanguard Vets deal with anything heavier than a Marine. 
**'''Jump Pack Support:''' Jump Librarians and Jump Lieutenants are ''very'' reasonable choices for you, and you might want to consider Jump Captains and Jump Chaplains if you opt out of their Bike versions.  Sadly, unlike Blood and Dark Angels, you have no access to Ancients or Apothecaries with Jump Packs or Bikes.
*'''Primaris''' Devastating Charge and Lightning Assault make Primaris close combat viable.
**'''Intercessors:''' A unit of 5 ABR Intercessors with a grenade launcher and a Power Fist/Thunder hammer on the sergeant is just about the best Troops choice available to you.
**'''Assault Intercessors:''' Good at clearing chaff, somewhat inferior to ABR intercessors if not in combat as they gain +1A and -1AP in exchange for losing 3 S4 AP0 shots at 24".
**'''Aggressors:''' These are worse than their weight in Assault Centurions when armed with flamers.  The bolt flavor is more what you want, with inferior mobility and dakka compared to Inceptors, but radically better melee, and can start engaging the target 6" earlier than your Assault Centurions... and critically, they're Core, unlike Assault Centurions, so they're easier to buff.
**'''Eradicators:''' Yes, although you can't double tap after advancing, you can still doubletap after coming out of encirclement, and 24" assault melta (without penalty) is still nothing to scoff at. Everyone '''hates''' Eradicators, so let them shoot at a 135 point unit while your more dangerous attack bikes and ATV zip around.
**'''Bladeguard Veterans:''' Absurdly good, one of the best things you can take in terms of melee that ''can't'' shoot on the advance.
*'''Bikes:''' T5 and 12-20" move, with their multiwounds and good saves, Bikes are Fast Gravis, and should be played as such. Don't throw them at the enemy first turn, and instead make use of cover and seize objectives until your Doctrine becomes active and you can really put in work. Since most Bikes only carry boltguns, you're not really going to be advancing if you plan on shooting, but 12" move is enough that you're not going to need to advance every single turn.
**'''Scout Bikes''' 16" move and covered in assault and melee weapons, they are tailor-built for WS advance and charge. You can give the Sergeant a melee weapon ''on top of'' his combat knife.  The AP0 combat knives themselves mean your Scouts punch as much as generic vets or primaris, but they're only 2W and 4+, so you're buying them to advance and charge once and dying in return. They can innately outflank, however.
**'''Outriders''' will drown the enemy in S4 AP1 chainsword attacks and have an extra W, but are capped at 3 models and have no attacks outside of S4. 
**Actual '''Bike Squads''', like Tacticals, are an in between, since they have a wound over scout bikes and a better save, can serve as ablative wounds for an Attack Bike that carries heavy weapons, while still kitting out their Sergeant with a melee weapon. You could also give them chainswords for AP-1. Hampered by the relative lack of assault weapons, but good for tanking hits in cover. 
***Arks of Omen Detachments lets you make Fast Attack compulsory, giving you an opportunity for 3x9 Bike Squads. They won't be ObSec, but these 27 bikes can then split apart becoming 9x3 bike squads, letting you spread them apart for board control and forcing your opponent to deal with each squad of three individually. Competitive? No. Expensive? Yes. The look on your opponent's face when he realizes he has to chew his way through 9 separate squads? Priceless.
**'''Attack Bikes:''' Seriously consider them. Since they're Core, they're very easy to buff compared to the Invader ATV. Heavy Bolters arent worth it because Multimeltas are free now, so you may as well go all in with Multimeltas. The 24" of range is only extended with its native 14" move, meaning anything within 26" is within the danger zone of D6+2. Can Assault and shoot with two different 1cp strats, and can turn their Heavy weapons into Assault to get AP5 in turn 2. Again, you '''don't need to spend every turn advancing.'''
**'''Invader ATV:''' A more expensive attack bike with double the wounds and A, but not Core. A distraction carnifex with Multimeltas, but quite expensive to take 3.
**'''Primaris Chaplain on Bike''' Returns a legends unit to legal play. Has a bigger base and keeps up with advancing bikes to spread his litanies. Dreadnought-seeking missile in close combat with the Benediction of Fury relic, Sword of the Imperium WL trait, and Mantra of Strength litany. You can also run the Chogorian Storm WL trait for a crushing 7+D3 S8 AP3 D5 attacks on a turn 3 charge. You should strongly consider fielding one with Canticle of Hate for charge buffing, although a Jump Pack Chaplain can also do quite well (if he also has a power fist, both models cost exactly the same).
**'''Captain on Bike:''' Over a Captain on Jump Pack, he lacks fly and a built-in deepstrike, but has +1 W and T. If you're going to pick him over a Jump Pack guy, consider making him a Chapter Master since he'll be starting on the board anyway. 
***You can make a [[Smashfucker]] with Chogorian Storm and Imperium's sword, for 6+D3 attacks on the charge, rerolling charges and +1 S. If you're okay with a Smashfucker that puts all his eggs in offense, you can also give him Teeth of Terra as a relic for an additional 3 S+1 AP2 D2 (3 in the Assault Phase) attacks. 
*'''Speed of foot:''' On foot your ground troops can cover 6" + d6" + 2d6". Impulsors can jet troops 20" easily while providing some defense (good for moving in your melee heavy hitters).  With Impulsors, a unit can't charge, but it ''can'' advance and shoot.
**'''Assault Centurions:''' *Ludicrously* good, with the caveat they're not core and hence hard to buff - on their own, especially with meltaguns (despite the steep points cost compared to anything else that can take melta) and assault launchers, they're incredibly useful.
**'''Assault Terminators:''' Do not take - they'll be Vanguard Vets or Bladeguard Veterans but worse, in actual practice.  If you insist on taking them, double lightning claw is the way to go.
*'''Dreadnoughts:''' Your Ironclads are ''very'' good, even though they have to carry at least one non-Assault gun.
*'''Encirclement:''' Using a big threat, you can put your opponent in a difficult position by forcing them to decide between holding the rear, thus losing their chance to hold midfield objectives, or risking a deathstar appearing behind their lines and causing havoc.
*'''Lightning Claws''' Rip and tear. One A2 model with 2 lightning claws puts out 5 S4 AP-3 D2 attacks in the assault phase on the charge, re-rolling wounds. Kills slightly more than 2 marines on average in one round.  One lightning claw is usually better, especially  when your other hand can carry a meltagun, combimelta, or storm shield, which isn't everyone, of course - depending on the unit, any or all of those those can cost the same as a claw, and the melee attack you give up is worse than the melta shot you could have taken or the protection the shield would have granted you.
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