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

===Fist of Medusa Strike Force (Angels of Death)===
An Iron Hands flavored Decurion. Contains copy-pasta from the Gladius, plus some new units. The command benefits are a 12" bubble around any independent character that grants +1 to Feel No Pain rolls (because Smashfucker needed that...), with all vehicles in the bubble gaining Power of the Machine Spirit, and a bonus Warlord Trait, with the 2nd one only coming from either Strategic or Tactical rulebook traits.

*'''1-2 Core'''
**As Space Marines
***'''Armoured Task Force'''
***'''Battle Demi-Company'''
**New
***'''Stormlance Demi-Company'''
****1 Captain or Chaplain
****0-1 Command Squad
****3 Tactical Squads
****1 Devastator Squad
****1 Assault, Bike, or Attack Bike Squad, or 1 Land Speeder
****'''Clear and Sweep'''
*****Re-roll misses in the Shooting Phase when targeting an enemy unit which is controlling an Objective Marker.
****'''Mobile Firebase'''
*****Units with Bikes or Jump Packs can move 2d6" immediately after shooting in the shooting phase; other units can move 1d6".  They may embark on their Dedicated Transport if all of their models end this move within 2" of one of its Access Points, even if they disembarked on the same turn.  Units that move after shooting cannot charge in the subsequent Assault Phase.
*'''0-3 Command'''
**As Space Marines
***'''Reclusiam Command Squad'''
***'''Librarius Conclave'''
**New
***'''Strike Force Command'''
****1 Terminator Captain, Captain, Chaplain, or Venerable Dreadnought
****0-1 Honour Guard
****0-1 Command Squad
*'''1+ Auxiliary'''
**As Space Marines
***'''1st Company Task Force'''
***'''10th Company Task Force'''
***'''Storm Wing'''
***'''Anti-Air Defence Force'''
***'''Suppression Force'''
***'''Centurion Siege Breaker Cohort'''
***'''Land Raider Spearhead'''
***'''Strike Force Ultra'''
**New
***'''Skyhammer Orbital Strikeforce'''
****3 Tactical Squads, each with a Drop Pod as a Dedicated Transport
****1-3 Land Speeders
****'''Dropsite Clearance'''
*****At the start of your first turn, before any Drop Pods arrive using Drop Pod Assault, pick a point on the battlefield to mark the center of this Formation's dropsite.  Units gain Preferred Enemy against units within 12" of that point, and Drop Pods that Deep Strike within 12" of that point scatter one less die.
****'''Shock Assault'''
*****Tactical Squads can Run and then Shoot on the same turn they disembark from their Drop Pods.
***'''Skyhammer Annihilation Force'''
****2 Assault Squads with Jump Packs
****2 Devastator Squads with Drop Pods as Dedicated Transports
****'''Shock Deployment'''
*****All units in a Skyhammer Annihilation Force start the game in Deep Strike Reserve. Instead of using the normal deployment and reserve rules for these units, you can, during deployment, choose whether this Formation will arrive during your first or second turn. The entire Skyhammer Annihilation Force automatically arrives on the turn you choose—no Reserve Rolls are required. Ignore this Formation’s Drop Pods for the purposes of the Drop Pod Assault special rule.
****'''First the Fire, then the Blade'''
*****On the turn they arrive from Deep Strike Reserve, the Devastator Squads in a Skyhammer Annihilation Force have the Relentless special rule and the Assault Squads can charge even though they arrived from Reserves that turn.
****'''Suppressing Fusillade'''
*****A unit targeted by a Skyhammer Annihilation Force’s Devastator Squad in the Shooting phase must take a Morale test at the end of the phase on 3D6, regardless of how many casualties were inflicted. If the test is failed, the enemy unit does not Fall Back, but must immediately Go to Ground. If the test is passed, the enemy unit is unable to fire Overwatch for the rest of the turn.
****'''Leave No Survivors'''
*****Assault Squads in a Skyhammer Annihilation Force can use their Jump Packs in both the Movement phase and the Assault phase. If an Assault Squad from a Skyhammer Annihilation Force charges a unit that has Gone to Ground as a result of the Suppressing Fusillade special rule, that Assault Squad can reroll failed To Hit and To Wound rolls in the ensuring Assault phase.
***'''Raptor Wing'''
****1 unit of Land Speeders
****2 Stormtalons. 
****'''Incoming Support'''
*****The Stormtalons automatically arrive on your Turn 2 if they were in reserve. 
****'''Priority Target Received'''
*****Once per turn in the shooting phase, one Land Speeder may designate an enemy unit within 18" and in line of sight as a priority target, giving the Stormtalons re-rolls to Wound and Armor Penetration, and can even re-roll glances to try for penetrating hits instead.  The priority target remains such for this formation until it is destroyed or the formation designates a new one.
***'''Honored Ancients'''
****1 unit of normal, Venerable, Ironclad, or Contemptor Dreads.
***'''Iron Guardians'''
****This is copy-pasta of Honored Ancients, except you can include a Tactical Squad.

The Stormlance Demi-Company can gain real traction in this detachment due to its formation bonuses overlapping really well with this detachment's bonuses. An optimal scenario has a Las-plas Razorback carrying a team of Tactical Marines. The Razorback moves 6", and the Marines disembark 3" away. They open fire at a choice target, before boarding their transport again. In turn, the Razorback fire both guns at full BS with the potential to engage two targets thanks to POTMS before it moves another D6 in turn. Multiply this by 3 and you have a solid army core to work with. When the Razorbacks do die, the Marines inside will still remain a threat due to the improved FNP from the detachment, as well as the ability to keep moving after firing; obsec is nice and all and losing it hurts, but actually getting to the objective and surviving to hold it also matters too. The real advantage to this over the Gladius/Battle-Company is you have a lower buy-in to take full advantage of this army, should you wish to play around with an allied CAD or go heavier on auxiliaries, plus you have the potential to get really cheeky with other units in your army. POTMS is cute on Land Speeder Storms and Stormtalons in terms of threatening enemy MSU, and it lets Ironclad Dreadnoughts do pseudo-Knight shenanigans where they shoot one unit before assaulting another. On the non-vehicle side, 10th Company Scouts become annoyingly difficult to kill for their points, and a Command Squad with Apothecary starts with FNP 3+(!). Round off with your Warlord getting a second Strategic Trait, and this detachment has a lot of small force multipliers that let it snowball into something more than the sum of its parts.

Alternately, this formation can also appeal to tank players. If you take any kind of a tank in an Armored Task Force that is a part of this formation, and give the Techmarine a servo-harness and a bike, you can have up to 5 units of [[Awesome|5+ IWND, Power of the Machine Spirit]] [[Predator|Predators]], [[Whirlwind|Whirlwinds]] or [[Vindicator|Vindicators]], that are repaired on 2+ by a character with T5, 2+ armor, 5+ FnP and very good mobility, and are completely immune to Crew Shaken and Crew Stunned. Meaning these Vindicators can now move 12", still fire their [[Demolisher_Cannon|DEMOLISHER CANNONS]] at full BS, and not give a fuck. If said Techmarine also has an Ironstone, that IWND increases to 4+ and also repairs a Weapon Destroyed or Immobilised result on a 6 if the Techie is within 6". Moreover, all you need to round up the bigger Decurion is a Dreadnought which gets almost all of the same bonuses, thus you can have the most resilient armored fire support formation EVER [[Cheese|for under 750 points]]. Now go ahead and include [[Smashfucker]] [[RAGE|as a Command choice]].
* Plonk this formation on top of a shielded Landing Pad and duck.
* Sadly, Thunderfire Gunners are not considered characters at all, so they don't get the FnP/PotMS bubble nor IWND from chapter tactics.
**In fact, this formation has astonishingly little access to Techmarines; the ''only'' way to field them is via the Armoured Task Force detachment.  It's a sharp contrast with an Anvil Strike Force or the Space Wolves, either of whom can spam an incredible number of Techmarines.
* Also of note is the ability to effectively split a squadron's fire while keeping the bonuses. So, for example, you can take 3 Tri-Las Predators in a squadron, with Tank/Monster Hunters as a bonus, and then use PotMS on each tank to fire 6 Lascannons at one target and 3 twin-linked Lascannons at three other different targets. Unfortunately, it's not as great for Whirlwinds; Multiple Barrage forces you to lay down your blast templates in a specific pattern regardless of the targets of the non-primary firer, so choosing different targets (or the same target twice, but declared to be different) does not let you re-roll scatter independently.  However, Whirlwinds DO still get the standard trick of firing after moving at Cruising Speed.
*As Independent Characters are critical to the benefits of this Formation, here are your ways to field them, gathered together:
**Command (0-3)
***'''Strike Force Command''' can get you a Terminator Captain, Captain, or Chaplain.
***'''Reclusiam Command Squad''' bans the Chaplain from leaving the unit but ''does not'' remove the IC rule from him, so this gets you one that will emit the bubble.
***'''Librarius Conclave''' gets you 3-5 Librarians, definitely the easiest way to get your hands on some ICs.
**Core (1-2)
***'''Stormlance Battle Demi-Company''' and '''Battle Demi-Company''' will both net you a single Captain, Terminator Captain, or Chaplain.
***'''Armoured Task Force''' will net you a Techmarine, the only way to get one in this formation.  As noted above, remember that the Thunderfire Gunners are ''not'' ICs.
**Auxiliary (1+)
***'''Strike Force Ultra''' will get you a Captain or Terminator Captain.