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

=====Elites=====

*Many units from Codex Space Marines gain Wolf Guard. This is important for certain rules and stratagems that only affect Wolf Guard. They're listed below.
** '''Company Champion.'''
** '''Ancients of all flavours.'''
** '''Company Veterans.'''
** '''Veteran Intercessors.'''
** '''Bladeguard Veterans.'''
** '''Terminators.'''
** '''Assault Terminators.'''
** '''Relic Terminators.'''
*'''Dreadnoughts:''' Your dreadnoughts can take Helfrost Cannons, which suck for their cost, and can upgrade their melee weapons to Great Wolf Claws, which is an autoinclude, since it's free and better, but none of that changes the fact that like for all chapters, Venerables are better.
*'''Venerable Dreadnoughts:''' Your venerable dreadnoughts can take Helfrost Cannons, which suck for their cost, and can upgrade their melee weapons to Great Wolf Claws, which is an autoinclude, since it's free and better.  In fact, a Venerable Dreadnought with a Claw, Heavy Flamer, and Assault Cannon or Multimelta (depending on what you're planning on shooting) is not only incredibly effective, it's the primary reason ''not'' to bother taking a Wulfen Dread.  You can also swap ''both'' weapon arms for a Fenrisian Greataxe and Blizzard Shield.  While 3+/4++/6+++ is awesome defensively, that radically cuts your offensive output so much you have to seriously consider if it's worth it - when a Wulfen Dread does melee and shield, it has an option for ''two'' heavy flamers.
*'''Wolf Guard:''' The Space Wolf equivalent of the various types of Veterans, Wolf Guard lack any sort of bodyguard ability or special weapons, and have crippled pistol access - plasma pistols only.  They cost as much as Vanguard Vets base and can buy Jump Packs, Storm Shields, and Melee Weapons at Vanguard/Company prices, but buy their combi-weapons at Company Vet prices, ''not'' Sternguard.  While you can field them as melee and/or shield only and pretend they're Vanguard Vets just fine, what they do that no other Chapter can is drop down with their Jump Pack wielding a combimelta and melee weapon (i.e. thunder hammer on the sergeant and either hammers or fists on the rest), shoot something nearby surprisingly well, and then either charge it, or if it was a transport and it died, its erstwhile occupants.  Their Termi cousins can do this as well, but as usual for termis, trade cost and mobility for durability.
*'''Wolf Guard Terminators:''' Similar to their power-armoured little brothers, Wolf Guard Terminators can mix-and-match close combat and ranged loadouts in ways no other terminators can, not even Dark Angels or Deathwatch, even able to equip each Terminator with combi-weapons (much like Chaos Terminators) and assign storm shields individually, without requiring hammers.  That means a unit can basically start out as a 5-man squad of 5 storm shields, 1 heavy weapon, and any 4-5 combi-weapons you want (4 if you took an assault cannon or heavy flamer, 5 if cyclone).  This also lets you issue only the sergeant, with his +1A, a melee weapon (i.e. a thunder hammer, chainfist, or lightning claw, depending on your plan).  
**The ''only'' downside of this otherwise best or second best (Deathwatch has a particularly compelling terminator unit) termi unit in the SM codex is that it's built for doing dakka particularly well and is attached to a very melee-focused faction. 
**If you don't take some combination of chainfists or heavy weapons, this'll often be just worse than fielding non-termi Wolf Guard with combis or melees and storm shields (or, if you extra committed to melee weapons, assault or relic termis).  
*'''Wolf Guard on Bikes (Legends):''' One option that fills a similar role to Thunderwolves in a fast moving shock unit, but a bit more geared towards shooting than stabbing. Each model can take a combi weapon and any combination of melee weapons, shield, or bolt/plasma pistol. 
** Like the Wolf Guard Terminators, this can become yet another tough dakka squad. Two storm bolters and a couple storm shields mixed with melee weapons makes for a lot of shots with each model pumping out eight bolter shots at 24". A couple storm shields bump the squad to 2+/4++ and melee weapons help in case they get caught in an enemy charge.
*'''Hounds of Morkai:''' For whatever reason, the furries now get a special Reiver squad made to kill Psykers (hardly surprising given the beef against the Thousand Sons and Grey Knights). These guys have a fixed load-out of grapnels, pistols, and combat knives, so no Deep Striking. Either cram them in a Transport or Outflank them with grapnels. They can always target Psykers with shooting, even if they're Characters, and they gain +1 to hit rolls and +1D against them too, both with their guns and knives. In terms of defense, this unit has a 4+++ fnp against MWs caused in the Psychic Phase, and casters within 18" suffer -1 to Psychic Tests, rising to -2 if they're within 6". With that said, they've lost Terror Troops and Shock Grenades. 
**There's no good way to use these, so don't - their offensive buffs against psykers aren't enough to make them actually better than just fielding a better unit for the same job (Eliminators or Jump Pack Wolf Guard), and their mobility is just overall lacking for ensuring they can be near the psyker you need harassed right now.  
*'''Lukas the Trickster:''' WS2+, W5, A5, and a Frost Lightning Claw (S+1 AP-2 D2, re-roll failed wound rolls - no +1A, but it's presumably in his statline), he's no slouch in combat. He also has a plasma pistol, so don't overcharge it unless you want to risk becoming a cartoonish pair of smoking boots on the ground. He can also never be hit on a roll of unmodified 1-3, so weapons taking penalties to hit will often just him at the usual rate, but weapons expecting to be accurate will suddenly not be; note that he has no special protection at all against flamers and the like. He also has a nerfed version of the old Chaplain aura, in that Blood, Sky, and Swift Claw units within 6" can re-roll melee hit rolls (i.e. he has to be near the melee when it happens - he provides always-on Litany of Hate). If he's killed in melee, both players roll off (remember, per the rules, this means you both re-roll on ties until there's a winner); if you win, the enemy unit that killed him suffers d6 MWs. Finally, the bad stuff, he can never have a Warlord Trait and ''all'' friendly Space Wolf units within 3" suffer -1Ld. 
**''Don't'' forget that you can re-roll successful hits to fish for high numbers, which is ''usually'' worthless, even with your Doctrine bonus up, but as an example of how this can be useful, if Lukas's re-roll applies to a unit that's also being hit with the Wulfenstone's one-off ability during the Assault Doctrine ''and'' it's WS2+ (which it almost always will be - most of the members of the units he buffs can't carry melee penalty weapons, so it's usually a fuckton of WS2+ chainswords), it is 100% worth re-rolling hit rolls of 1-4 to fish for the 5+ you need for the additional hit.
** You may think cramming Lukas and three five-man Blood Claw Packs into a Crusader is a good way to go. You wouldn't be wrong per se, but they will easily be one of the most cowardly Marine units at Ld6. 
*'''Lone Wolf (Legends):''' He's now more expensive than a Primaris Lieutenant, with a worse statline and zero buffing ability. He DOES have better wargear, and rerolls 1s against monsters and characters, but is awkward to transport, expensive when geared up, and he takes up one of the most crowded parts of your FoC. In the past, his utility was found in being cheap enough to be disposable while still being a credible threat to lone characters and monsters, and now with 3 attacks at 75+ points, he's neither. Hard skip. His one redeeming factor could be his one chucklesome ability to ignore the loss of his last wound, rolled per hit, which makes him acceptably good at tying up high damage, low attack volume models.
*'''Lone Wolf in Terminator Armour (Legends):''' He's less terrible than his PA equivalent, but now costs more than a Wolf Lord. Teleport this bad boy next to the enemy and hope he gets his charge off. If not, your opponent will have to dump a fair bit of firepower into bringing him down, and as a character, that's only if he's the closest unit to them.
*'''Wulfen:''' One of the best melee units from 8th, the Pack Leader can now swap out his weapons to match his companions. They cannot perform actions, so don't expect them to help with VP in that way. S5 T5 W2 4+ makes them a little survivable, but not much, which doesn't matter much since the whole unit can take Storm Shields to be 3+/4++.  Plus, if they die in melee before they can swing, they can swing anyway on the way out. This unit always counts as being in the Assault Doctrine (thus always benefiting from the extra AP on melee weapons as well as the exploding 6s with melee attacks if you have an all-Space Wolf army) and as always having charged for Shock Assault. Finally, Space Wolf Infantry, Biker, and Cavalry units within 6" and Blood Claw units within 12" always re-roll failed charge rolls. So, 3A base + 1A from always having counted as charged. How are you using those attacks? Wulfen claws only give them AP-1, but frost claws are S+1, AP-2, D1, give +1A and re-roll failed wound rolls, and they only cost 5pts each. So unless you're lobotomised, the frost claws are effectively the basic weapon. They can be swapped for the MEQ-mulching great frost axe (S+3, AP-3, D2), but we both know you're here for the thunder hammer and storm shield combo. It does get expensive quickly however, pushing them to 41pts per model. That being said, it is always worth having at least two in your squad, as you're only sv4+ but become Sv3+/4++ with the inclusion of the shields. 
*'''Wulfen Dreadnought:''' Melee specialist dreads, but be warned, Wulfen Dreadnoughts kinda.. suck. Only has a single storm bolter (on BS5+, so not usually helpful) or heavy flamer as standard, along with a Fenrisian Greataze ''and'' Great Wolf Claw, which is as redundant as you'd expect - unlike an Ironclad, it gets no benefit from dual wielding melee weapons, so you'll almost certainly choose to drop one.  Its Wulfen nature means it re-rolls charge rolls but cannot perform actions, and ''isn't CORE'', making it harder to buff.  For options, you can pay 5 points to swap the axe or claw+bolter for a shield+bolter, granting a 4++ invuln, and you can pay 5 points per storm bolter to upgrade to a heavy flamer.  That means the most broadly useful build is Claw, Shield, and two Heavy Flamers, but it'll still really struggle to keep up with a Venerable Dread with the same Claw (but hitting on 2+), one Heavy Flamer, and a ''real'' gun, especially a multimelta or assault cannon.
*'''MURDERFANG:''' What Bjorn is to Venerable Dreadnoughts, this guy is to Wulfen Dreadnoughts. As a Character with fewer than 10 wounds, Murderfang can only be targeted with ranged weapons if he's the closest enemy. With a decent screen of infantry and good use of his Murderlust ability, getting him into close combat unharmed is almost too easy. His weapons are the Murderclaws (Sx2 (16) AP-3 D3, re-roll failed wound rolls) hitting on WS2+ with A5 base (but A8 in reality with Shock Assault, as he gains +3 from it instead of +1), a storm bolter on BS5+, and a heavy flamer. As a Wulfen, he cannot be your Warlord, have a Warlord Trait, or perform an action, but he re-rolls charges. Unlike his un-named cousins, Murderfang is bona fide better a melee murder, per point, than any other dread you can field, and against heavy targets especially, he borders on being your best melee, full stop.