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

===Dataslate Formations===

Several of these formations are old dataslates and share their name or broad composition with one from the 7th Edition Space Marine Codex. Since some players or tournament organizers may argue that the dataslates have been replaced by the codex formations, these formations will have their names marked in ''Italics.''

*'''Strike Force Ultima (Web Bundle)''' A termie captain, 1 sternguard veteran squad, 1 terminator squad, 1 tactical squad, 1 stormhawk interceptor, 1 land raider, 1 razorback and 1 drop pod. All units from this formation must be placed in reserve (non-vehicle units in a transport vehicle or in deep strike reserve) and automatically arrive in the first turn. When a unit from this formation arrives from reserve or disembarks from a transport vehicle for the first time, all ranged weapons carried by the unit add 1 to the number of shots they can make until the end of the turn. 
**Pairs extremely well with the Skyhammer Annihilation Force - if you are [[That Guy]]

*'''Firespear Strike Force (Start Collecting Space Marines pack):''' A Termie captain can only bring a Ven Dread and a tac squad. The captain '''must''' designate one unit from his detachment within 12" of his model during the movement phase. That unit forgoes moving (and also forgoes the ability to charge or run that turn) to open fire during the movement phase, and it can then later fire ''again'' normally during the shooting phase. This leads to some decent dakka but the stupid wording means that one of the units in the formation must stand still each turn, making using the formation... Difficult. The Levitation power from the Telekinesis discipline can be used to move the unit around. That's admittededly a waste of resources though. But if you really want to move them it ''can'' be done. 
**Goes decently with the Primarch's Wrath for 2*5 S 4 AP 4 shots from the Captain alone, best paired with heavy bolter for the least investment and optimum similarity between weapons or grav gun and grav cannon for maximum firepower.  
*''' ''Adeptus Astartes Storm Wing'' ''' - Two Storm Talons and a Storm Raven in one formation.
** The Storm Talons act as Escorts for the Storm Raven (Meaning than when you're rolling for reserves, you only roll for the Storm Raven), thus giving the Raven some extra wounds if it gets set upon when they arrive.  The Talons also give the Raven the Strafing Run rule so long as at least one of them isn't destroyed.  Yep, GW be mad desperate to push out the fliers between this and Death From the Skies. 

*''' ''Reclusiam Command Squad'' ''' - Alongside the Chaplain, you have to give the Command Squad an Apothecary, a Champion and a Standard Bearer and stuff them in a Razorback.
** This one's really iffy, mainly because the rules for it (Which give the squad Crusader as well as getting re-rolls on combat while the Chaplain still lives) focus really on the Champion and Chaplain, while the other guys are just along for the ride (Though FNP is a good thing to have).

*'''The Legion Ascendant (Apocalypse/Legion of the Damned Codex)''' - 2+ Legion squads with 10+ Legionnaires.
**  By joining in, they get Fear, Deep Strike that causes S2d6 S4 AP5 Soulblaze hits to anyone within 6", and -3 to all Leadership for the enemy.  All for a rather decent price.  Plus, on the turn they arrive, they get Fleshbane and Ignores Cover to really make the best of it.

*'''Saint Tylus Battle Force''' - Cassius gets to bring along at least one Tyrannic Veteran Squad and up to six Storm Talons as a formation.
** Your Storm Talons are gonna be the stars of this formation as they can not only choose whether they want to infiltrate or start on-board in hover mode, but whenever they hit an enemy, then the Vets can ignore cover with their guns, since they saw who was getting hit.  Stack on the Vet's Preferred Enemy (Nids) and Zealot rule against the Nids, and you'll begin to weep along side your Tyranid-using foe.  Difference is that you'll be crying tears of joy at your muderous prowess, while they'll be crying over how hard Cruddace fucked them over.

*'''First Company Hammerfall Assault Force''' - A Termie Captain/Lysander, a 5-man Termie squad of each kind, and a Land Raider (Crusader or Redeemer). 
** The Captain and the AssTermies have to must come from reserves embarked in the Land Raider, while the other Termies are forced to Deep Strike.  The models in the Land Raider gain Hammer of Wrath the turn they assault after disembarking, and the Deep Striking Termies can run and shoot on the turn they DS.  Rather...minimal, though run-and gun Termies sounds nice and HoW on Termies sounds awesome.

*'''First Company Skyspear Assault Wing''' - A five-man Termie squad of each sort join a Venerable Dreadnought and a Storm Raven for a ride.  
** The AssTermies have to embark in the Raven alongside the Dread and hide in reserves, while the other Termies have to DS their way in.  Other than that, it's the same as the one above, replacing the Land Raider with the Storm Talon.

*''' ''Strike Force Ultra'' ''' - The Hammerfall and Skyspear formations have to join together. Aside from any benefits the others have by themselves, having the Captain alive allows you to roll for reserves in the first turn.  Oh look, all that dakka is being laid down to kill your ass.  Oh joy, all that Hammer or Wrath.
** The new Codex gives them new boosts: Everyone still has to be in reserves or in transports, but they can arrive on Turn 1 now, and everyone who Deep Strikes or disembarks for the first time gets a free attack and shot for the turn.

*'''Strike Force Solaq (Boxed Set)''' - Solaq needs Vanguard squad Davros, Sternguard squad Amarex and Land Speeder Darkwind.  Everyone gets Acute Senses and Move Through Cover (Which is killer for them), Scout, and the ability to re-roll runs/add 6" to Flat-Out.  This makes this small team real good at being moving fast or attacking from safety.

*'''Centurion Decimator Cohort (Apocalypse)''' - Group together 3-6 Centurion Squads and buy all the sarges Omniscopes.
** Gathering this many giant matryoshka marines gives a special rule: before firing, one of the sergeants in the formation can nominate one target within LoS.  All shots fired at that target can now gain either Ignores Cover, Monster Hunter, or Tank Hunter.  More likely than not, you're probably gonna use the last two, as your weapons aren't exactly the best and therefore don't benefit so much from Ignores Cover.
** what are you talking about? Ignores cover on grav-cannons can destroy bikes and the like without even trying. 
** In no way is ignore cover bad. If we're talking Gravity Cannons, the other options do nothing due to the amp, but even Las Cannons can benefit more from Ignore Cover than a from the reroll from Tank or Monster Hunter. 33% chance to ignore all damage (5+ cover) being negated, vs a 20% to increase the odds of penetration Vs arm 14. 25% for 13. Similar odds for the very few creatures with high enough toughness not to be wounded on a 2+... Ignore cover is just far and away better than the other options in most cases. Let's not even talk about the 2+ Cover units of ridiculousness some factions have...

*''' ''Centurion Siegebreaker Cohort''  (Apocalypse Dataslate)''' - 2+ Centurion Assault Squads + 1 Ironclad Dreadnought, all sergeants need omniscopes.
** As long as a sergeant is still alive, all models get to re-roll armour penetration vs buildings (shooting & melee). Also if a building suffers any form of collapse or detonation result, units inside the building suffer an additional d6 hits. As a formation it's not necessarily the best, seeing as the units are all really good at pulling down buildings anyway and at the apocalypse level there are already many big weapons capable of taking buildings down easily. That said, the formation costs you nothing if you already have the models. Do it if there is no other formations you can use.

*'''Space Marine Company (Apocalypse)''' - A Captain, Chaplain, Command Squad with Standard, and trio of Dreads have a choice.  If they're from a battle company, they must have 6 Tac squads, 2 Assault Squads, and 2 Devastator Squads.  If they're from a reserve company, they must have all 10 squads be of one type of the three.  All squads must have 10 men.
** A fluffy formation that really works depending on how you kit them out.  No matter what, they get an Orbital Strike Strategic Asset and Counter-Attack.  If they're within 12" of an objective, they get Stubborn.  If someone charges an infantry unit of this formation within 12" of them, they get the Tau Supporting Fire rule once per assault phase.

*'''First Company Veterans (Apocalypse)''' - A Termie Captain/Lysander, a Chaplain, a Command Squad with Standard and 3 Ven Dreads have to take 100 models of either Vets or Termies.
** Despite their hefty cost, they come with a few more rules.  For one, they get Counter-Attack, Deep Strike, Fear, and Preferred Enemy.  They also get all the rules from above.  Like above, this depends heavily on how they're kitted.

*''' ''Librarius''  (Apocalypse)''' - 5 Librarians or Rune Priests.  If you want, you can replace one of them with a named Librarian, but in doing so, you have to make them all of the same force (Meaning no mixed Chapter Tactics).
** These Librarians form a Warp Charge 4 (!!) power called Force Vortex, a 24" S:D AP1 Heavy 1, Large Blast Vortex.  IF they don't recall it before it moves, then it'll scatter off and kill everyone.  BEfore you run with this ask yourself: How confident am I that this won't kill absolutely everything?

*'''Masters of the Chapter (Apocalypse)''' - A Chapter Master can take an optional Honour Guard squad along his 4-10 Captains of the same chapter.  Any of them can be replaced with a named Character where fitting.
** This is not an assault force; it's too small for that.  What it can do, though, is give you 3 additional assets on the first break and give them a 3++ on the turn they use their Finest Hour/Sons of the Primarch ability.

*'''Predator Assassin Squadron (Apocalypse)''' - 3-5 Predators, here to kill.
** The tanks do their part by giving them a reroll on all failed to-hit rolls against a chosen enemy when within 6" of another member of the squad in exchange for the ability to fire at someone else until the enemy is gone.  Any Predators with two lascannons and a TL lascannon can also exchange all their hits for a single Strength D AP2 Killshot that will total a single enemy.  If there was ever a priority target removal system for the tanks, it's this one.

*'''Scout Company (Apocalypse)''' - A non-termie Captain without a Command Squad must lead 10 squads of 10 Scouts.
** The Captain gets some compensation for his lack of survivability by giving him Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, and Scout.  Everyone as a team gets the ability to charge from reserves and a +1 to all cover saves from buildings in their deployment zone.  Really, keep them shooting at the proper targets and keep moving from cover to cover.

*'''Titan Hammer Formation (Apocalypse)''' - Lysander takes 3+ TH/SS Termie squads for titan-killing fun.
** THIS is how you kill titans, superheavies and Biotitans. The Formation is Lysander and 3+ TH/SS terminator squads who must all deepstrike, within 12" of where Lysander deepstrikes, but they only scatter D6", and are Fearless, and LYSANDER GETS A VORTEX GRENADE! Sweet Jesus, this could reduce Tyranid players to tears as you one-shot their biotitans (D6 wounds on gargantuan creatures, no saves) Baneblades (D3 structure points)and Primarchs (removed with no saves allowed). Best part about vortex is the blast can drift around, and one-shot ANOTHER biotitan! Fuck yeah! Anything that survives can try it's luck with dozens of TH/SS terminators led by Lysander, with Fearless.