Why Play Space Marines[edit]Space Marines are perhaps the best army for beginners. Their units are fairly expensive points-wise, so they can't field as many units as most other armies. While you can't bog down your foes in waves of men, this makes army construction cheaper and painting faster. Additionally, Space Marines are dead'ard; their basic troops have Toughness 4 and a 3+ armor save (except for the Scouts), giving them great staying power against most basic infantry of other armies. They're also very forgiving in whatever role they're put in; Marines are good shots, and they're not half bad in an assault, either.Just bear in mind that once the novelty of seeing your brilliantly painted chapter wears off there's little incentive to continue playing C:SM instead of Space Wolves, Blood/Dark Angels or Grey Knights(Just take a few as allies) though the variety of Chapter Tactics and therefore ways of playing Space marines alleviates this to a good degree.Space Marine tanks, on the other hand, while not as robust or as powerful as those of the Imperial Guard's, are dirt-cheap and reliable. Tanks aside, they have Dreadnoughts; while not quite as good at shooting as a tank, Dreadnoughts are cheaper and a smaller target than a tank and are far better in close combat (unless you are one of those idiots who has cheating good luck with tank shocking...), able to take on heroes, units and other tanks and come out on top.Other benefits include: eBay-ability. Space marines are the most commonly auctioned off army. This makes starting out with them second-hand cheap (by Warhammer standards). Easy to paint. The broad, flat areas (legs, shoulders) and defined ridges make painting straight-forward and simple.Littleis easier to paint than a space marine. They even drybrush well for the lazy painter who just wants a force finished on the table ASAP. Conversely, they also provide large amounts of open areas for more advanced painters to go ham with freehand and more detailed painting. Quick to build, easy to convert. Space marines have the greatest range of bitz available to any army in any game, and not just from Games Workshop. There are several companies out there that make GW Marine conversion bitz. Almost everyone who plays 40k has some space marine bitz sitting around, and they're almost all plastic, so you can easily make a force that's really "you". Easy to play for beginners. Your basic troops can take a bit of abuse, so the army is relatively forgiving of noob mistakes, and you won't be horribly FUBAR because of a single poorly-thought out move. Very little in the codex is dead weight, so almost any unit purchased will be a welcome addition to your growing force. Rewarding for experts. Space marines are an army that you can really grow with. Once you learn how to shuffle your metal boxes around, and get the gist of the game, a closer examination of the space marine codex reveals a wealth and depth of available army builds and tactics unrivaled in the current 40k codices. Space Marines have a rather decent new codexNew units are a large battle suit "Centurion" marine type available in Devastator or Assault Marine flavors and two AA vehicles (missile and dual tri-barrel cannon variants) ripped from Epic. Common consensus is that the Centurions are a result of a GW Marketing meeting where they decided to double their profits by putting their top selling model line inside itself like a Russian Doll, doubling its appeal and selling them fortwicefour times the price! The AA tanks look decent, but new plastic Sternguard and Vanguard vets look best! Also, theBlack Templarshave been rolled into here, so they've lost several special tools, but gained all of the toys that almost every other chapter gets. Games Workshop has a long history oftilting things in the Marines' favor. The introduction of AP values to melee weapons was largely for the benefit of Marines and especially Terminators, and the grav gun has been introduced so you can kill heavily armored troops without burning your fingers. Other armies have weaknesses, but whenever a weakness is found for the Marines, GW just releases something to patch over it.Also, thanks to UNBOUND ARMIES and infinite allies, you can mix and match your Space Marine Army with other Faction Marines. Dark Angels with the worst fliers? Give them a storm talon or two. Want some serious firepower for your SpaceWolves? Centurions shall work wonders. All the pain of the last few years with various Marine armies lacking decent units or updates has been patched up.Also, a new 7th Edition Codex is dropping. It seems GW is cramming all popular 40k stuff before they launch Warhammer Fantasy 9th Edition this Summer. Here's what the rumor mill is saying: Marneus Calgar is now a Lord of War. Makes sense considering he costs more than a Land Raider and this trend happened with many special Astartes Snowflakes (Dante, Draigo, Grimnar) Close. Speaking of Land Raiders, Crusader and Redeemer variants are Fast Attack options. Wrong. Black Templars are gone. This better mean a Black Templar Supplement or have their own unique book back. Wrong. The Space Marine Captain gets cheaper, and like the Grey Knight Brother-Captain can be simply upgraded to Chapter Master. Wrong. Librarians also got cheaper, and can be upgraded to Codicier or Epistolary for special bonuses. Namely, Codicier is ML2, and Epistolary is ML3. Time to start trolling with Daemons. Wrong. Honor Guard are no more. Wrong. We now get a Terminator Command Squad which can have 3-9 guys in it if you take a Captain or Chapter Master in Terminator Armor. All the Dark Angels players seeing this can begin crying. Wrong. Land Speeders now can join Bike squadrons too like Dark Angels. Biker Squads as troops will probably go away, but still, this is pretty nice. Wrong. You can now squadron Predators, Vindicators, and Whirlwinds up to groups of 3. A big fuck you to the meat shields and their Leman Russ squadrons since you now can have 9 tanks like they do for slightly cheaper. Closer to the mark. Chapter Tactics remain mostly the same, but now Chapter Tactics unlock specific relics and Characters. Wrong. 3 new detachments in the Codex. The latter is obviously to push the sales of Raven Guard, who are thoroughly outclassed in speediness and assault capability by other armies. Codex Astartes Battle Company Raven Guard Strike Squadron White Scars Hunting Party Last but not least, Tactical marines got an all important 1 point cheaper. Can stack if you play like 6 Tactical Squads, but what-fucking-ever. Wrong.Unit Analysis[edit]Chapter Tactics[edit]The Chapter Tactics have been redone. Rather than needing a special character, you get one of seven army-wide rules - one for each of the First Founding Chapters that don't get their own codex, and the Black Templars. This also applies to their successor Chapters. Note that special characters may not be part of a detachment that does not have the same version of Chapter Tactics as them - i.e. Papa Smurf can't lead a detachment of Salamanders, however he can be taken if you're, say, Iron Snakes, as you can choose what Chapter they "are" and thus what Tactics they have; furthermore, counts-as characters are still a thing, you just have use the Chapter Tactics they're associated with. Ultramarines: You have three single-use powers ("Doctrines"), each of which lasts for one turn. Assault: Re-roll charges, Assault Marines and Bikes get Fleet. Tactical: Re-roll ones to hit for shooting, Tactical Marines get to re-roll all shots. Devastator: Re-roll Snap Shots, Devastators are also Relentless unless they disembarked from a transport. These tactics are not point and click.. they require some thinking, proper timing, and possibly preparing your army's positioning in the preceding turn, to use the doctrines correctly. If you are new, you might want to consider easier tactics to take advantage of until you get the hang of things. The Ultramarines are the only chapter that gets access to Tyrannic War Veterans. Remember this if you going against the Great Devourer and want just one more weapon to take them on the swarms. Imperial Fists: Bolter Drill - re-roll ones to hit with shots from all bolt weapons (but doesn't apply to Sternguard special ammunition). Also, Devastators (both normal and Centurion) get Tank Hunters and add 1 to building damage rolls. See the Fortifications section for ADL Quad gun shenanigans. Baby's first chapter tactics for newbies. Sentinels of Terra:Replace "re-roll all ones" with "twin-linked at half range", with all bolter weapons. Drop pod assault might be your friend here. Salamanders: Master-Crafted, Master-Crafted everywhere; characters get one weapon Master-Crafted for free (which can include ANY weapon, even one bought as an upgrade). Also can re-roll saves from flame-inflicted wounds and twin-linked flame weapons for you. The way the rule is worded, vehicles don't benefit from it, so no twin-linked heavy flamers on your Land Speeders, sadly. Raven Guard: Stealth on the first turn and Scouts, but only for non-Bulky models,so not for assault marines, making Raven Guard one of the few chapters tactics that can directly benefit vehicles(Because vehicles carrying a model with Scout also gain Scout). Also, all Jump Packs can be used in movementas well asassault, so you get 12" movement, and re-roll charge distance, and Hammer of Wrath. Jump Infantry also re-roll failed To Wound rolls for those Hammer of Wrath hits. This is the only Chapter Tactic other than White Scars with Khan that can run Mech Marines well against a variety of lists. Iron Hands: Feel No Pain (6+), vehicles and characters get It Will Not Die, and Techmarines/Masters of the Forge get +1 to Blessings of the Omnissiah. Nice. If you plan on bringing lots of vehicles and tanks, and infantry that won't immediately evaporate at the sight of plasma, then the Iron Hands are a must have, since their Tactics affect every single unit in your army. To get the most of these Chapter tactics is consider the 6+ FNP as a nice bonus and the IWND as central part of the rule. This means stocking up on as much AV12+ vehicles as you can along with armor saturation. The Chapter Master is the one unit that can make the most of IWND. With the 7th edition seeing the resurgence in vehicles the Iron Hands can definitely see some use in the game these days. With the ability to repair vehicles and regrow hull points faster than any other army the Iron Hands definitely have a powerful advantage in the new edition. So basically don't be afraid to splurge a little on AV heavy hitters like Land Raiders and Ironclad Dreadnoughts. White Scars: The White Scars gives all your Bikes the ability to ignore Dangerous Terrain, hit at strength 5 with their hammer of wrath, and +1 to Jink(though jinking is now a choice, which means the unit can only snapshot if it jinks), whereas everybody (except Terminators and Centurions) get Hit and Run. Combine this with the Captain's ability to make Bikers Troops and the abusability of the Salvo 2/3 Grav-guns, and you'll have a very fast, very tough, very killy army that can take on anything short ofScreamerstar. Black Templars: Their characters get re-rolls To Hit and Rending while in challenges and all of their units have Crusader and Adamantium Will. BT are the only ones who can field Crusader Squads, who kept the ability to field a special and heavy weapon in a 5-man squad and mix Scouts (Neophytes) into their Marine squads. Also, no psykers for you. While they may not have a unique codex anymore they are an interesting way for the standard codex to get a powerful melee horde into the mix, or of course, spamming some extra land raider crusaders. Dark Angels: HQs get Fearless, Preferred Enemy: Chaos Marines, Termies get that too as well as Split-Fire & TL weapons when deep striking, everyone else gets Stubborn (DA scouts don't get either). Additionally, all bikes get Teleport Homers, Scouts and Hit & Run. Also their Mortis dreads aren't capped at 0-1. Blood Angels: Everything gets Furious Charge. Several of their vehicles are Fast, there is widespread access to Inferno/Flamer pistols and Tactical Squads can take Heavy Flamers. Space Wolves: Counter Attack and Acute Senses for everyone. Their Scouts have Marine statlines instead of neophytes, but assault/bike squads get neophyte statlines in return.Warlord Traits[edit]General Advice[edit]The Space Marine Warlord Traits table kind of sucks. Most of them are worse versions of ones that already exist in the main 40k rulebook, and the table is too variable to count on getting something good for your playstyle. Stick with the core book traits.1. Angel of Death: Fear. Cassius and Shrike have this.2. The Imperium's Sword: One use only. For one assault phase the warlord and his unit have Furious Charge. Sicarius and Helbrecht have this.3. Storm of Fire: One use only. For one shooting phase a friendly codex squad within 12" re-rolls misses. Tigurius has this.4. Rites of War: Friendly Marine units within 12" of the warlord can use his leadership instead of their own for morale tests. Grimaldus has this.5. Iron Resolve: Add plus one to the assault results total if the warlord is locked in that combat. Pedro and Vulkan have this.6. Champion of Humanity: Killing the enemy warlord in a challenge nets you an extra D3 victory points. Sweeping Advance doesn't count though. Lysander and Khan have this.Fighter Aces[edit]In Skies of Death, you now have a bonus rule allowing you to pay 35 points for one of 3 special traits for any Flyer or FMC (FGC is still debatable).1. Auto-Targeting System- +1 BS. This one is kind of pointless. Most of your flyers' weapons are Twin Linked already, and Stormtalons have Strafing Run, which already gives +1 BS against ground targets. Sort of a waste.2. Vectored Retro-Thrusters- Fighter Ace can pivot 180 before moving. Not sure why it has the same name as a tool for Tau battlesuits, but it can help bait some flyers over to your big anti-air guys.3. Wrath of the Emperor- Fellow models within 12" of a Fighter Ace with the same codex gain Preferred Enemy for the turn. Pretty handy on any end of the field.Chapter Relics[edit]NOTE: There has been a debate going on whether you can swap multiple weapons for multiple relics (i.e. bolt pistol and chainsword from a Chapter master for Burning Blade/The Shield Eternal, etc.) instead of a limit of one weapon for one relic (that is not the Armour Indomitus) due to rather ambiguous wording. As there has been no FAQ as of yet to resolve this issue it is left up to you whether you will allow yourself to use this particular loophole. If the opponent gripes about it, you could say that it's putting more 25-55pt eggs in the proverbial basket and just leave it at that. The Burning Blade- A power sword with +3S, AP2, and Blind. Its "Incandescent" rule means that it sort-of Gets Hot (take a S4 AP2 hit). It is believed to be the Emperor's sword, as it was found in the wreckage of Horus's destroyed flagship and was the only thing that wasn't corrupted by Chaos. Probably true, since it's too big for anyone but a Marine to think about using, and in most pictures depicting the Emperor's battle with Horus his sword's on fire. Despite this, it is not Two-Handed (because Emps was bigger and stronger than Marines are, thus he could wield a two-handed sword in one hand). In general, its a good choice if you're looking to build a very killy HQ, it amplifies your MC killing ability significantly. Don't even think about giving it to anyone else except to a Chapter Master (or a Captain if you're short on points). Its a waste otherwise. Note that since the "Incandescent" rule says "takes a hit" it still has to roll to wound meaning theres only a 50% chance of actually having to take an invuln save. The Armour Indomitus- A 2+/6++ suit of Artificer Armour that gives the wearer Relentless and a 2++ save once per game for a phase of your choosing. How covenient. Pretty crappy honestly, it costs far too much and The Shield Eternal is all the defense you'll need anyway, and its more persistent. Relentless would matter if the character could actually take heavy weapons, the best you can do is The Primarch's Wrath and you need to think if that's worth the price. Can be useful on characters who cannot ordinarily take Artificer Armour IE chaplains and librarians The Shield Eternal- A Storm Shield that gives the user Adamantium Will and Eternal Warrior. A pretty good choice if you're running a tough cookie. Can also be used to troll shooty armies by placing it in front of a unit and giving it to a cheap character like a Librarian to absorb hits like a boss. Give it to a Chapter Master with Artificer Armour using Iron Hands Chapter Tactics and BAM! You've got yourself a 2+/3++ It Will Not Die Character with 6+ Feel No Pain. A Little Note: This just became redundant in most cases for Iron Hands. With their supplement, you can't take this, but not to fear, you got something BETTER. Chains of the Gorgon doesn't take a weapon slot, grants a 3++ Save, Eternal Warrior, and +1 on your FNP rolls.Combined with an Apothecary in a biker command squad, your chapter master will be able to go toe to toe withAbaddonand not only survive, butpossiblyprobably win. The Primarch's Wrath- A Master-Crafted Salvo 3/5 AP4 bolter with Shred. The weapon of choice for your Bike or Terminator Captain, as Relentless will let you use this thing to its full potential every turn. Overall, not the strongest choice of the relics, but it is the cheapest so it might be an okay choice if you only have a few points left over after army building. However, one often overlooked use is fire support. stick it on a chaplain. put him in a tactical squad. love your life as you pump out as much long ranged shots as five men with better AP, added to the firepower the squad already has. for extra lols, add the Armour Indomitus to give him relentless, making his firepower more mobile. Teeth of Terra- A chainsword with +2S, AP3, Specialist Weapon, Strikedown and Rampage. Quite good for thinning out hordes and killing entire squads if given to a Captain/Master. With Rampage, you're getting 4 + D3 attacks on the charge and 3 + D3 each assault phase if the former unit is chosen. A Note!-You can give a character a Powerfist or another CCW with the Specialist Weapon USR and then get up the NINE attacks on the charge! It is expensive but hilarious, as with a Chapter Master, you get 4, +1 for Charging, +1 for an extra CCW +D3 Attacks due to rampage. Watch as big blobs of guys melt away... But if you REALLY want to mow down those hordes, you can get up to 11(ELEVEN!!!!) Attacks on the charge!! Take Carcharodon tactics, give Chapter master second specialist weapon, chapter banner equipped honor guard, and make sure he got his rage( Take Tyberos AND CHAPLAIN,just remember for it to stay battle-forged you are gonna need 4 troops for that) for rerolling all failed to hit rolls on the first round (chaplain) and preferred enemy (infantry) and +1S with Tyberos. May the Emperor have mercy for those guys these blood crazed madmen charge, because they surely won't... With Chapter master ALONE I wiped out an enemy tactical squad before they even got to fight back, and also results in couple of dead TEQ's due to sheer amount of saving throws Standard of the Emperor Ascendant- A standard that gives the usual benefits to friendly units in 12" using the same chapter tactics as the wielder. Codex: Space Marine units within 6" of the bearer have Hatred, and +1 to assault results. The bearer and his unit inflict Fear. Quite good for buffing an assault-y unit. Good if you wanted a Chaplain, but couldn't fit one into your list. Tears of the Scorpion (Red Scorpions)- IA4 2E grants the Scorpions some bonus tools to use as upgrades for their relic blades. These weapons will generally take the form of some other weapon, with a universal Two-Handed and Murderous Strike (6 to-wound is ID). Sword: Relic Blade with the above rules, better since it has the chance of causing ID. Axe: Power Axe with +2S and -1I in combat. Awesome because its an AP2 weapon that strikes before other Axes and Fists. Maul: Power Maul with +3S and Strikedown instead of Concussive.Shame Strikedown doesn't really matter in combat.The hell it doesn't, Strikedown reduces enemies to half Initiative. Glaive: Rules as Written this thing is awesome, it actually is WORSE on the charge (the rules say use the first profile which is the inferior AP3 one) acting only as a two handed power sword with murderous strike. But all other situations have it as a +2S AP2 weapon which strikes in Initiative order, use this until a FAQ comes out to fix them.HQ Units[edit] Chapter Master:Properly kitted out, this guy can become a nigh-unstoppable rape machine that can go toe to toe with most any other character except maybe a kitted out Juggerlord, Daemon Prince, Greater Daemon, Be'lakor, and Abaddon. For 40 points more than a Captain, these guys get +1 A, +1 W and an Orbital Bombardment, which is neat, but not all that reliable. Mounting him on a Bike or giving him Terminator Armour now allows you to launch this S10 AP1 Large Blast AND move. A decent (but expensive) build is one of these guys on a Bike with Artificer Armour, a Storm Shield and the Burning Blade. A cheaper and more survivable option is Artificer Armor, Shield Eternal, and a weapon of your choice (either relic blade or Thunder Hammer). Iron Hands Chapter Tactics work well here. Another big benefit is that they get Honour Guard instead of Command Squads, and they now also allow Bikes as Troops if they are on a bike as well. All in all, an excellent HQ choice. Just remember he'll get expensive very fast, so consider a Captain if you want to spend some points elsewhere. For maximum cheese, go with theChapter Master Smashfuckerbuild for a unit that is all but indestructible and can make even melee beasts like Abbadon wet themselves in fear. Honour Guard- Think of Honor Guard as what Vanguard Veterans should really be, except without jump packs. They have the standard Veteran Profile, plus Leadership 10, but they come default with Artificer Armor, Bolter, Bolt Pistol, AND Power Weapon. A Vanguard Veteran costs 19 points: For six more points per model, you get 35 points worth of upgrades, each. Honor Guard have one purpose and one purpose only. Wiping out entire enemy squads by burying them in sheer numbers of attacks. At two attacks per model base, plus an extra for Dual Wielding(Power Weapon and Bolt Pistol) plus an extra attack from the Chapter Banner, Honor Guard are looking at four attacks base, five on the charge. If you have the points with it, stick a barebones Chaplain with them for the sake of Hatred. This makes Honor Guard one of the few units that can effectively take on most of the 7E Necron units in close combat. Kitting out your Honor Guard is dependant on what you plan to use them on. They can take any of the four basic power weapons, so you can specialize against anything. If you tend to run against 30k Lists with lots of Marines, Power Swords are worth it. Against GEQs and Mechanicus, Power Mauls are wonderful. If for some reason you run into lots of Terminators, Power Axes. Honor Guard should always be in a Land Raider. They're too expensive to put up with a turn of shooting outside of a transport, especially given their lack of an invul. However, unlike Terminators, Honor Guard aren't Bulky, so they can make effective use of the standard Land Raider and the Forge World varieties, not just the Crusader. Captain- No longer just good for handicapping your army, the Captain is a versatile and generally pretty useful HQ choice. The only thing you should definitely not do with this guy is just leave him with a power weapon or fist and expect him to do well. Storm Shield should be strongly considered, and a few of the Relics are worth taking to make him a strong combatant. He doesn't have to go with his Command Squad and you can fit him into a variety of units, such as Sternguard, Vanguards, Terminators, etc. All have their merits. A good built is to stick him in a suit of Artificer armor and give him the Burning Blade and a storm shield. Costs 180 points, which is dirt cheap by most standards. Stick him with a Command squad that has an Apothecary and you have a model with 5+ FnP, a 3+ invuln from the storm shield that hits at S7 AP2. Ouch. The Biker Captain deserves special mention; Biker Marines are a very nasty build, so it is worth taking a Captain for allowing Bikers as Troops should you want to do so. For a cheap Biker Command Squad leader, give him a Relic Blade and a Bike; alternately, you can load him out for solo work with a Relic Blade, Storm Shield, Artificer Armour and minor upgrades (Amusingly, due to the wording of Two-Handed and Storm Shields, they don't prevent a model from using both at once).Hellfire roundsyou may consider the primarch's wrath. Terminator Captain:- Now separate from the regular captain for some reason. Was meh in 5th edition and still meh now. Anything he can do, a Captain in Artificer Armor can do better and for around the same cost. Unless you're starting him in a unit of Terminators and are going to teleport him onto the field (and you damn well better have a teleport homer on the ground if you're doing that) pass on him and take a captain with Artificer Armor instead. Librarian- Used to be the best generic HQ option, but is now much less awesome due having to roll for powers and no access to Divination unless you use Mantis Warriors Chapter Tactics. It's harder to build a coherent list or strategy around one, so plan carefully. Unlike the Captain and the Chaplain, he normally has no Invulnerable save, but he can take Terminator Armor, giving a 5+ Invuln - which can be upgraded to 3+ with a Storm Shield. This is extremely useful; you might not be able to take Invuln saves against Perils of the Warp any more, but you can take it against everything else. And you WILL be taking it against everything else because Librarians are priority targets. Of special note is The Shield Eternal due to Adamantium Will combined with a Psychic Hood. Suddenly your nearby units ignore offensive powers on a 4+. Suck on that, Eldar! Librarians are limited to rolling powers from Biomancy, Pyromancy, Daemonology, Telekinesis, and/or Telepathy. Overall, unless you sorely need him for a gimmick with Chapter Relics (I.e. shield Eternal), a Primaris power or to unlock a Command Squad, he's not worth it. Psychic hood means he can also Deny the Witch for nearby friendlies, and the new Perils table gives you a chance to survive. REMINDER: If you feel daring enough to take a Daemonology power on a Librarian (yes, Librarians can use bothSancticandMaleficpowers), that they will roll Perils on any doubles, not just on double sixes. If you really need Banishment, just consider allying with the Inquisition or the Grey Knights. If summoning Daemons is really your thing (and what kind of Chapter would?), then consider just playing Chaos Space Marines because allying with Daemons is Come the Apocalypse, and that's not gonna roll good for you. Chaplain- A wonderful companion for Assault Marines, Vanguard Veterans, or Bikers, his melee-boosting abilities are quite helpful, and he's pretty damned good himself. Though if you're not putting him on a Bike or in a Jump Pack and are using the Ultramarine Chapter Tactics, consider taking Ortan Cassius instead if you can afford the extra 40 points. The Crozius Arcanum is just a Power Maul, so he's always S6 AP4. Chaplains ostensibly fit nice into the Black Templars, wherein they will boost a basic squad's fighting ability - and you should expect to get your Templars in close combat or something has gone horribly wrong? If you have the Emperor's Champion in the same unit, give the Chaplain the Teeth of Terra to seriously fuck up anyone that isn't a TEQ. If you don't have the points for a Chaplain but want his CC buffs, consider taking the relic standard instead, as it has similar (and arguably better) effects for a good bit cheaper, and it doesn't take up an HQ Slot. Command Squad- Now you can have a squad of these for your Chaplain and Librarian as well as your captain! A pretty nice, versatile squad. An Apothecary gives them Feel no Pain, and makes them pretty tough to kill with small-arms fire (they still fold to S8, though, which is fairly abundant in the form of Krak Missiles, Tau, and Power Fists), and at a much cheaper price tag than the Honour Guard. Fits excellently in a Razorback or Drop Pod, and can be equipped with a variety of melee and ranged weaponry. Biker Command Squads, while very costly, are a good source of mobile special weapons. Remember to NEVER kit a Command Squad for melee; if you want that, find the extra points for Honor Guard. Master of the Forge- Most often an overlooked, but pretty decent HQ. He lacks an invulnerable save, shouldn't go with anything that can be threatened with CC, and he works best as a shooting or support HQ. A Conversion Beamer and a Bike is nice support for a home scoring unit or a Biker unit (Bikes being Relentless by default). Ultimately, his usefulness is in his FoC moving ability, which allows you to field all three basic Dreadnought types as Heavy Support. This is beyond nice, as it frees up your excellent Elites slots, or lets you run six Dreadnoughts because you're that kind of beautiful disaster.. His low points cost just sweetens the deal. He can be more easily attached to squads willy-nilly to augment them than a Libby or Chaplain, because he gives you repairs, a TL PP, a Flamer, S8 attacks, and a 2+ armour save for sucking up wounds - as well as his other benefits. A good place to put the Primarch's Wrath relic with his high BS with out the urge to throw him into combat (and waste the shooting power of the relic). TechmarineIn the HQ section, but doesn't take up a slot and can't fill a mandatory slot. You can take one for every HQ you have bar Command Squads, Servitors, Honour Guard, and other Techmarine. Can be a useful unit in smaller point games (~1000 or lower). Unfortunately, he has a hard time keeping up with the vehicles he's supposed to repair, unless he's, you know, INSIDE of it. The main use of the Techmarine is Bolster Defenses, which can boost the cover save of any non-fortification terrain piece by one, to a max of 3+ cover. Potentially useful, but if you're spending 50 points to do this, why not just spend 55 on a Wall of Martyrs Bunker? Servitors- Who forgot about these? They help the MotF or Techmarine repair stuff (add 1 to the Blessings roll for each one that has a servo-harness). That's all you will use them for, because a 10pt Heavy Bolter or Multi-Melta and 20pt Plasma Cannon at BS3 is kinda wasteful, as they will need to be running around with their master repairing stuff. 50pts for a full squad. Stick the whole lot in a Land Raider or Thunderhawk Gunship (yourichtesticle-deprived bastard) and laugh as the single gun your enemy's volley of Krak Missiles shot off repairs itself and shoots back. Oh, and don't leave them alone, they will probably Mindlock and stand there soaking up bullets with their faces. Damocles Rhino (Forgeworld)Yes, an HQ vehicle! Like the Techmarine, it doesn't take an HQ slot, but can't fill the mandatory one either. Although the most expensive in terms of real money, point-wise it's one of your cheapest HQs. Armed with nothing but a Storm Bolter and a Searchlight for defense, with no transport capacity, it may not seem like an obvious choice. In fact, the Damocles' true power lies in its incredible support abilities - it allows a single Orbital Bombardment in the same way as a Chapter Master, lets all teleporting units within 12" arrive without scatter, and allows the owning player to modify reserve rolls by plus or minus one. In a Deep Strike-heavy army, with Terminators or such like, the Damocles is one of the best choices you can make. Also, don't buy it. Converting a normal Rhino is easy enough; try the radar dish part that comes with it plus the Comm Relay that comes with the Bastion, which fits perfectly in a Razorback turret mount. Special mention to Anton Narvaez (see below) and this thing. Synergize beautifully together both on the table and in the fluff.Special Characters[edit]Space Marine players also have access to a variety of special characters, most of which change how the whole army works. They're all fairly expensive, and, as such, should be viewed as force multipliers rather than stand-alone units.Ultramarines Marneus Augustus Calgar- Papa Smurf is the most expensive character in the codex (meaning he'll likely become a Lord of War come 8E Codex time), and also the most powerful in hand-to-hand, other than Lysander. He's a Chapter Master with double power-fists, anAP 2storm bolter , Eternal Warrior, Titanic Might gives him Tank Hunters in CC and His main power is "God of War" which lets you use a Combat Doctrine twice. He can roll for his Codex Warlord Trait THREE times and let you pick which one you want. He can also swap-out his artificer armour for Terminator armor (allowing him to deep-strike) and even gets a free teleport homer, it should be noted he can still Sweeping Advance in terminator armour. He also has a power sword, you know, in case you don't want to hit at Initiative 1,but nobody ever uses it.It's worth noting that his powerfists are NOT specialist weapons, meaning that if some dickish Eldar player tries to disarm him to reduce his attacks, use the sword and a powerfist and keep on fisting that Avatar. He also has the most useless rule that lets him take 3 Honour Guard units which is pointless in most situations, if only becauseno onehas that many spare points lying around. If you've noticed, pretty much his entire arsenal makes a mockery out of armor saves, even his ranged weapons. Also lets you choose to pass or fail any and all Morale checks (great if someone charges your devastator centurions). Still, the Papa is horribly expensive for what he does and the new codex upped his cost. Alternate Take:Calgar should be seriously considered for any Ultramarine player out there. Trying to make a similar Chapter Master will end up costing about the same without Calgar's exceptional special rules. Being able to pass or fail any morale check combined with ATSKNF is one of the best abilities in the game. Need to make sure that one marine stays on that objective last turn? Don't want to run off the board turn one since 2 marines died in shooting? Calgar stares them down and makes them stay. If you are clever, you can even use it to get squads out of sticky situations without penalty by failing clutch leadership rolls such as a morale check after taking 25% casualties after going to ground. Pretend you're Imperial Guard for a bit. Hell, his Honour Guard rule can even be used to take 3 minimum size squads and give them options to either attack the 3 man squad and ignore your scoring units or get assaulted by a fairly nasty cheap CC squad. Using a combat doctrine twice allows for you to deal with threats you army may not have the best tools to deal with. Flying circus? Devastor doctrine twice. Fighting Tau? Assault doctrine twice. General fire fight? Pop tactical doctrine again. And you don't have to choose which you need until you use it the second time. Calgar relies on clever usage to be effective, just like he should be. Yes, he's expensive, don't forget that, but he is costed right for all the buffs he gives your army unlike other special characters. (Looking at you Khan...) Herculean Feat (Apocalypse)- If Papa Smurf is within 18" of a Necron Super-heavy or Transcendent C'Tan when he calls his finest hour he gets fleet and also bumps his base strength up to 5, which gets doubled to 10 due to his mighty fists. This is so he can play frisbee with necron pylons, but is unlikely to ever happen considering the relative scarcity of Necron players in Apocalypse level games. Also, the difference between S8 and S10 is largely academic in most situations especially since he already has rerolls from "Titanic Might". Unless you are specifically punching high armour vehicles. Cato Sicarius- A somewhat expensive Captain. He allows one *tactical* squad to take either Counter-Attack, Infiltrate, Scout, or Tank Hunters, and gives you a +1 to Reserve Rolls. He's stuck with the crappy one-use Furious Charge warlord trait. Cato is pretty average in hand-to-hand combat. Being a bit tougher than most Space Marine characters (2+ armor, Feel No Pain) and having the option to make a single attack that causes Instant Death. But other than that, he's just got 4 power-weapon attacks. He's got a nice laundry list of utility, great durability, and fair combat prowess, though it comes at a fairly high price. He also has the benefit of being the Captain of the 2nd Company so 99% of Smurf players are already using his Company Heraldry on their models and therefore he should be taken in all Ultramarine armies, unless its one of the 3 Ultramarine armies that isn't 2nd Company. By the way, his loadout is the default loadout for 4th Edition Captains, so he is somewhat nostalgic. And he is a glory whore, really. Redemption Calls (Apocalypse)- Like Mac Daddy, Sicarius gets a boost to his finest hour when within 18" of necron big vehicles/monsters by jumping his WS/BS to10and giving him a free Vortex Grenade. This is marginally better than the Herculean feat, mostly because it gives him a re-roll on his plasma pistol shot, but even against most necron opponents, he was already hitting on 3s so is essentially only getting -1 on hits against him. The Vortex Grenade is what makes it special, as it will make that superheavy go "poof". Varro Tigurius- Tigurius has gotten cheaper in the 6th edition codex while retaining the ability to re-roll reserves. He has access to all the BRB disciplines including the much vaunted Divination and can also re-roll psychic powers which makes him much more likely to get a set of powers that you want. He's still your only option for Mastery Level 3 from the base Codex, and his exclusive Psychic Hood lets him re-roll failed psychic tests. If you make him your warlord then his warlord power also lets him grant one unit re-rolls to hit in the shooting phase once per game which isn't amazing, but always useful. It may be best to keep him behind the lines where he can place numerous blessings on your units and improve reserve rolls as his baseline stats are relatively fragile. A good supporting HQ. With rerolling for Psychic Powers and the improved nature of his unique psychic hood in 7th edition, he can be turned into a combat beast quite readily on the Biomancy table, potentially being S9 A7 AP2 I7 on the charge. Ortan Cassius- Special character Chaplain. He's pretty much a normal, power-armored Chaplain, but at T6 with feel no pain and a master-crafted combi-flamer with the boltgun having the "poisoned (2+)" special rule, though it's only S1. If you're planning on taking a Chaplain in power armor (or even terminator armor), it might as well be this guy, he's only 10 points more expensive than a stock Chaplain with Terminator, and a lot more survivable. He and his unit now cause Fear thanks to his Warlord Trait. Make a squad with him and Calgar for some majority toughness dickery.Imperial Fists Darnath Lysander- One of the toughest kids on the block. Lysander is a Space Marine Captain, but has Eternal Warrior, 4 wounds, Terminator armor, a Storm Shield and a S10 Thunder Hammer. His utility has mostly been lost from the previous edition, and his price has been increased by 30 points, but the destructive power of Lysander is undeniable as very few units in the space marine codex can deliver strength 10 close combat attacks and take the equivalent in return. It is worth noting that Lysander also allows all friendly Imperial fists within 12" to reroll morale and pinning checks, including himself, which ensures your battleline remains intact and friendly units are always on hand to respond to any changes in the field. Seriously though, his unwieldy initiative and 3 attacks mean he won't be clearing tarpits very well, but in a challenge, he has been proven one of the greatest character slayers in the game. He can go toe-to-toe with Calgar, Moloc, Ghazghkull, or Abaddon with a good chance of winning. Pedro Kantor- While Pedro boasts the same statline as a regular chapter master, his viability is assured in the numerous support special rules he carries, including the ability to confer Objective Secured to Sternguard Veteran, which allows these flexible units a greater degree of use on the field, holding down any objectives they might have cleared rather than waiting on a troops choice to move in and pick it up. In addition, all friendly units in his detachment have the Preferred Enemy (Orks) special rule, and all models within 12" gain +1 attack, amplifying the combat potential of your specialists, such as vanguard vets, terminators and honor guard. In terms of equipment, Pedro suffers from the lack of artificer armour and eternal warrior, making the character rather squishy in comparison to other special characters out there, this of course is evident in close combat, where his powerfist is more of a hindrance than a boon. Alternatively, Pedro can sit just outside of close combat, as one of his main strengths is his storm bolter, a 4 shot weapon with an AP of 4 which allows Pedro to suppress light units and deal quite a few casualties to any unit in the open, this is topped by his orbital bombardment, allowing him to deliver a high explosive payload on any unit you see fit. Pedro can do something very, very unique in 7th edition. He allows you to run a unbound army list with all the OP/fluffy fun that entails while also giving you objective secured, namely on your Sternguard an infantry unit that is worth going unbound to get six squads of, and let me tell you, having seen it done this may be one of the most rage inducing army there is. Forget five riptide force, a army of sternguard with combi meltas or grav guns will eat it for lunch. Excepting 2+ save units (and even then with the aformentioend grav/melta combis) no unit can get a save from them. 5+ armor but in cover? ignore cover shooting. 4+ amour, Ap 4 rounds, power armor? AP 3 round. only 4+ and 3+ units have a chance, and that's only if they hang out in cover so they have to use the AP round rather then the cover ignoring bullet, and the most bitter, bitter pill, is that the squads have objective secured so even trying to play to the objectives won't help all that much.Black Templars High MarshalHelbrecht- New to the Vanilla Marines codex, Helbrecht is the High Marshal (Chapter Master) of the Black Templars. He has the stats of a regular chapter master with artificer armor, a combi-melta, a master-crafted power sword that gives him d3 bonus attacks on the charge, and the Imperium's Sword Warlord trait. However he lacks an Orbital Bombardment, even though he's the Master of a fleet-based Chapter. Go figure. His wargear isn't anything special, but he's pretty point efficient for what you get. With the bonus from his sword he can get an ungodlyseven attacks on a charge, meaning he's likely toeat most of a squad. His special rule Crusader of Wrath, grants him and all other space marines hatred and fleet for one assault phase, making for atruly horrific army-wide charge. His sword is only AP3 so he'll still get bogged down by 2+ saves outside of challenges where he'll have rending. Also, due to the rules for Hatred units already locked in close combat will not get the bonus from it when he uses Crusade of Wrath, so don't expect it to break your units out of tar pits they're already stuck in. ChaplainGrimaldus- Another Black Templars character. He's gotten slightly cheaper, has another wound, and has It Will Not Die which replaces his previous Only in Death Does Duty End rule. He also has the Zealot rule and projects it to any Black Templar units within 6" of him. His servitors also project a 6+ invulnerable save to any Black Tempar within 6" of him. He's not a frontline dueling character but he works well if used with Helbrecht to make your Crusader Squads enter BEAST MODE. Emperor's Champion- The third Black Templars character. He retains most of his original stats and has all the same wargear. The Black Sword is AP2 Master crafted, and his armor gives him 2+/4++. He is no longer mandatory for lists over 750 and isn't restricted to joining troop squads, but you no longer get to take vows. He always issues and accepts challenges, and can now choose between two stances when in challenges. One makes the black sword a Relic Blade with unwieldy, the second makes him cause instant death on a roll of 6 to wound. For 140 points he's essentially a nerfed Captain, with -1 to BS, W, and A.Except that he comes with an AP2 sword and he doesn't need BS, he's not going to be shooting.He's a good choice if you want a substitute to handle an assault that the Captain is too busy to reach, but in most cases he's too expensive to justify that. You're only gonna take him if you wanna play a fluffy list. Or else stick him next to Helbrecht to take challenges and deal with 2+ saves.Raven Guard Kayvaan Shrike- A Space Marine Captain with a Jump Pack, and two Master-Crafted Lightning Claws (which also have Rending, so he won't be stuck fighting a Dreadnought). Shrike himself has Stealth and Infiltrate, but can only join Jump Infantry units before deploying. A captain with the same wargear (and artificer armor) costs less, so you must carefully consider how valuable the special rules he lends (to himself and one squad) are. NOTE- UNBOUND Shrike with Sanguinary Guard = Winged Command Squad and lots of fun. Experiment people. Shrike has a Jump Pack but a Command Squad cannot take Jump Packs, either put him in an Assault Squad for mediocrity or a Vanguard Squad for Awesome. While taking a biker command squad retinue sounds good at first glance, bikers get a 5+ jink save, and Shrike does not - so he would be blasted off the table in a single volley of focus-fire, and as previously stated, Shrike may only join with Jump Infantry before deploying, meaning that you will need to join during the course of the game, so good luck pulling that off. Alternate Take:Shrike is about subversion and misdirection. He can infiltrate a Vanguard Vet squad near an opponents weak point in their front line or on a flank to wreak havoc in their back field. He is not designed to go toe-to-toe with Abaddon. He exploits weakness in the true Raven Guard way. Go hunt some skimmers, Long Fangs or the like then cut back in and slaughter their front line from behind the moment your line connects. Shrike requires more prowess than a player starting out to use properly. Beacon of Hope (Apocalpyse):A lesser version of the same rule thatAzraelgets for his Finest Hour, but can be activated on the turn (or turn after) he arrives from reserve. Granting friendly Imperial Guard units within 24" Fearless & Counter-attack. While Fearless can be useful considering the huge amount of casualties involved in Apocalypse games, it requires you to be teamed up with Guard and so doesn't give any further benefit to Shrike's finest hour unfortunately. Shadow Captain Korvydae (Forge World): One of the few non-Badab War Forgeworld characters, he is a Captain with Artificer Armour, Thunder Hammer, Jump Pack and Melta Bombs. Costing 5 pointsLESSthan a normal captain with the same wargear, while giving his squad Hit and Run (but only if the squad is equipped with Jump Pack. But then again, why would you put him in a squad without them?) and makes Assault Squad a troop choice! He also force you to take at least one Scout Squad in your force, but that's not a bad bargain, all things considered. In short he allows you to build a fluffy RG army while being a lot cheaper, killier and more survivable than Shrike (which is quite sad...). Not the strongest special character in existence, but an excellent one for the Raven Guard. Do note that he doesn't come with a warlord trait, so feel free to roll on any table you want. Like a trueShadow Captainyou should adapt your force to your opponent. Also of note is his lack of chapter tactics. That's only natural, since he is a relic of the past and his rules were never updated (Although Forge World seems intentioned to update all the Imperial Armour Books, so it shouldn't be long) but don't letThat Guyfind this out, because he will exploit the absence of the rule and use it against you, and sadly you won't be able to do anything to argue against him.Salamanders Vulkan He'stan- Previously one of the most commonly used special characters, Vulkan is now Salamanders-only (thankfully). Vulkan has the same stat-line as a Captain (while not actually *being* a Captain currently in the fluff, he was one before becoming Forgefather, so he does have access to a Command Squad). Vulkan is tricked out for up-close-and-dirty face-bashing with essentially the best gear possible (Artificer armor, 3+ Invulnerable Save, Master-crafted Relic Blade, and a Heavy Flamer). Use him to kill any and all infantry short of TEQ. His Warlord Trait, Iron Resolve, adds +1 to combat results for his unit, further enhancing his effectiveness. He adds onto the "Chapter Tactics (Salamanders)" rule by makingALLmeltaguns, combi-meltas, and multi-meltasin his detachmentmaster-crafted. Enemy vehicle crews will shit themselves at the very thought of drop podding melta squads. Taking him results in a chain reaction: you want a lot of melta to make the most out of hisAwesomespecial rule, thus making your army even more focussed on short range firepower. Not really a problem though, since you're salamanders. You did take lot of flamers too, right?? With his 2+/3++, Vulkan fits in nicely with a squad of Thunder Hammer Terminators, and since he strikes at initiative 5, he can take out those pesky power fists in the enemy squad before they mulch your expensive terminators. There is also an exploit using RAW concerning the master-crafting of combi-meltas. If you take He'Stan and Sternguard and give them combi-meltas then the special ammunition portion of the boltgun part of the combi-weapon is also technically master-crafted as well.White Scars Kor'sarro Khan- This crazy Mongol adds onto "Chapter Tactics (White Scars)" by giving everybike squadandsquad with a dedicated transportscout, which in turn allows for outflanking, allowing them to come in from the side of the table; additionally, he has Furious Charge, which hedoes not confer to his unit. Other than that, he's an average Captain (who can be upgraded to ride a bike) whose power weapon just so happens to cause Instant Death on a roll of 6. He's an awesome character for a White Scars army. Outflanking is also a gamble if you take Kor'Sarro Khan in a No Bikes Mech army, screwing up the outflank rolls can put all your scoring units on one side and anti-tank fire will make them all footslog. But goddammit, an outflanking squad of Assault Terminators in a Land Raider? Hell yeah.Forge World[edit]There are also a lot of special characters fromForge WorldBadab WarIA-s.NOTE:Forge World has released new Chapter Tactics for all the Chapters relevant to these characters. If you take a character with the Chapter Tactics of one of the Forge World Chapters, you have to take them in a detachment of that Chapter. However, some of the Forge World Chapters have the same Chapter Tactics as Chapters in Codex: Space Marines, and you can take those characters in those armies, i.e., Vaylund Cal in an Iron Hands detachment. Most of these characters also have updated rules not yet discussed here.Red Scorpions Lord High Commander Carab Culln: Chapter master, with terminator armor, teleport homer, MC storm bolter and his AP3 MC Power Sword with good ol' 6E Smash, Eternal Warrior and any Red Scorpion in his detachment can use his leadership for Morale and Pinning. His warlord trait (and if you take him, he'll ALWAYS be Warlord) gives any Red Scorpions within 12" locked in combat a +1 to combat resolution; +2 if he himself in is a challenge however he can never make a Look Out Sir!. Commander Carab Culln: Same Guy, but back when he was first captain. Most of the same wargear, except his sword is a the Sword Tear of the Scorpion, and he still packs Termie Armor and a homer. All Red Scorpions can still use his Ld for Morale and Pinning. Any squad he joins gets Stubborn, Counter-Attack, and can re-roll to-hit when outnumbered in assault. Also, when he's Warlord, all combat occurring within 12" of him gets +1 for his side's combat resolution , upped to +2 if he is in a Challenge. Biggest downside is his inability to take LoS!, but that shouldn't be an issue if you stack him with a Tac, Command, or Vet Squad to get some FNP. Sevrin Loth: Chief Librarian with ML3 and can pick his powers from Biomancy, Telepathy or Telekinesis. Yes,pick, not roll, but they all have to be from the same discipline - get all that Biomancy goodies with Enfeeble, Endurance and maybe Life Leech to restore Peril wounds (with 3 powers per turn you WOULD get perils) and grab that free Smite. He has a 2+ armor save, which can become 2+ invulnerable (with a warp charge spent, no psy test required), and he has gotten much cheaper at 175 pts. Also, he can have honour guard, except better. Because, you see, his honour guard can have axes, and he can give them force dome, or FNP/relentless if you go biomancy. Because of this, and since axes aren't specialist weapons, they get 4 ap2 attacks each on the charge, 5 for the champ. And that's without a banner, which wouldn't be bad in a unit of Sevrin Loth +4 guards. Not so bad compared to assault termies now, eh? Also, since all his powers have to be taken from the same discipline;Psychic Focusapplies, since it doesn't necessarily mean you have generate them randomly. Just that your generated powers have to come from the same discipline. Remember, he can take from telepathy. Meaning invisibility. This guy will destroy in challenges.Astral ClawsTroops[edit] Tactical Squad- Your bread-and-butter scoring units. These guys don't excel at anything but are decent at everything. Unfortunately, their balance tends to be their downfall as most other basic troops tend to be better at everything than they are (see: Grey Hunters), and they're a tad expensive when fully kitted out. Keep them at a distance if possible, but keep in mind to make effective use of your Rapid Fire range. Great for camping objectives as the one thing they're best at doing is staying alive for a good while. Always take Rhinos or Razorbacks with your Tacs, even if they're camping an objective. Metal Boxes make excellent walls and mobile shields for your troops. Take at least 2 squads of these guys in every army. Important side note, if you plan to assault with these men remember they all have Bolt pistols, meaning you can unleash 10 bolts while still being able to assault. Generally, though, you shouldn't assault with Tacticals, but if you do, remember to shoot with your pistols/grenades/assault weapons first. If you manage to run away and your enemy catches you, your Marines aren't auto-killed but continue the fight instead (6-th ed threw No Retreat rule away). Remember this! Next thing to remember, if your enemy does not catch you and you broke out in their close-combat phase, on your next turn which comes right up your Marines are auto-rallied as usual. They also count asnot having moved. In other words, rocket launcher in the face or 6" move. Loadouts for Tacs will usually consist of a few configurations: Flamer, Multi-Melta, and Combi-Weapon or Power Weapon on the Sergeant is the tried-and-true kit that threatens Infantry and Tanks both, and discourages either from getting close to your squad. Any Special Weapon, Missile Launcher, and Power Fist on the Sergeant is the old 5th Edition default for using Combat Squads by leaving the ML behind to take potshots at armor or infantry while your Rhino advances with the Sarge and special weapon. And finally, a Meltagun, Multi-Melta, and Combi-Melta on the Sarge, aka the Meltabunker, which decks your squad out for anti-tank duty. Thanks to the revised Combat Squads, you can leave the Multi-Melta in the Rhino to take shots from mobile protection (a pseudo MM turret for your Rhino) while your Sarge and Meltagunner can get out and hold an objective while discouraging enemy tanks from approaching them. Never take a CC weapon, grav or plasma pistol on the Sergeant. Ever. They're worthless, and they scare nobody. Not Orks, not that nasty squad of Terminators, not the rampaging Khorne Berserkers. They're far too expensive and they take away points from your list. If you are nuts enough to take a plasma pistol though, your opponent will give you respect knuckles when your Sergeant one-shots a rampaging Dreadnought. Also, this is the edition of MC's and hard-to-kill infantry, not vehicles. Outfitting them with meltaguns makes their use far too specific and the role is better given to a unit that can do AT and something else at the same time just as well. (e.g a Tri-Las Predator) Do not take Heavy weapons in a Tactical squad if you are planning on having that squad be mobile (such as in Mech lists, Drop pod lists, or if they are moving in a transport of any sort). Only put them in units that you plan on having sit in one place for the entire game (combat squad on an objective). Carcharodon tactical marines. 10pts (or free, sacrificing bolters) to give everyone in the squad an extra attack, gain RAGE after destroying an infantry unit in close combat (Tyberos' Scent of Blood rule adds +1S). Probably the best Chapter Tactics for these guys are the Imperial Fist ones. Rerolls to bolt pistols and bolters (and heavy bolters, combi-weapons firing as bolters, and storm bolters) when rolling a one is sweet. It BS4 bolt weapon firing to almost the same accuracy as BS5 (normal BS4 is 24/36 chance to hit.. but with Imperial Fist Chapter Tactics BS4 is 28/36 chance to hit, which is almost normal BS5's 30/36 chance). Crusader Squad (Black Templars)- Essentially a beefed up tactical squad that is capable of taking neophytes as meatshields and a Sword Brother as a Veteran Sergeant for your initiates to survive longer and therefore be able to make the charge once they have gotten within range. They come standard with the Black Templars Chapter Tactics. There are two ways to kit out your neophytes for close combat. Pistol/CCW allows a S4 AP5 shot before combat, and two S4 attacks at I4. The Shotgun option allows for two S4 shots before combat and a S4 attack at I4. The AP5 of the bolt pistol will rarely be more useful than the extra shot before overwatch is even fired. Also keep in mind the shooting attacks will always hit on a 4+, whereas the close combat attacks (at WS3) will sometimes hit on a 5+. Another consideration is that you might accidentally gimp your charge distance if you kill too many models in the shooting phase-shotguns can do this if you run into Termagaunts or the like. Black Templars should be running in the shooting phase to make use of their Crusaders special rule. The only time this wouldn't be true is if your squad used an LRC to get up close and is already within 6 inches of the enemy and can assault that turn. Crusader Squads want lots of Bolt Pistols and CCWs if you are using anything other than 5 man las-plas squads because Crusader Squads should be focused on assaulting. Use tactical squads if you want to sit back and shoot. If you wish to switch between these options, assemble your scouts with close combat weapons and pistols, then trim the hands off the shotgun models and glue them to the scouts back as though holstered. Also, don't make the mistake of giving a Crusader Squad a heavy weapon if you're running any squad bigger than the 5-man special/heavy squad. Crusader Squads can't Combat Squad, and you always want to be playing aggressively with Black Templars. Use the slot you'd normally use for a heavy weapon to buy either a power weapon or power fist. You can get both a special AND a heavy weapon with just 5 guys. Thats right, Las/Plas is back baby! Scout Squad- Thanks to 7E rules, snipers no longer pin, so the novelty of sniper scouts took a hit, as pinning down squads made them a decent investment. Rending is still there basically, but hoping to roll 6's against MC's etc is a waste of points which can be better spent. A decent unit, especially if you want to focus on more expensive units for your army. You really don't need more than one squad of these guys, if any at all to go along with Tacs. Scouting and Infiltrating, they can put a Teleport Homer on the board rather fast and uncomfortably close to your enemy's forces, so keep that in mind if you run Terminators of either flavor. Not the worst unit in the world, but your points are often better spent elsewhere. One of the classic Scout combos is to take a Techmarine (Master Of the Forge or a Thunderfire Cannon's crew also count). Give your scouts Camo Cloaks, put them into a ruin that you "fortify" with the aforementioned Techmarine's special power, andenjoya 2+ cover save. A final tactic worth mentioning is the "Shrike Stampede" You load up on scouts armed for hand-to-hand combat, Infiltrate as close as possible to the enemy (18") take your 6" scout move, and on turn one, scream "kekekezergrush" while charging in and hoping for the best. Not actually a good tactic, but fun, and catches some people off guard.You're just not allowed to assault in the first player turn, with infiltrating/scouting units. If you go second (your first turn is the second player turn), then you can still assault in game turn 1 with infiltrating units.This is unfortunately not a fact. Verbatim from the 7th Ed Rulebook: "A unit that makes a Scout redeployment cannot charge in the first GAME turn. So even if you go second, you're still not allowed to charge. Torias Telion(Ultramarines)- An upgrade to a Scout Sergeant, Telion gives you a Rending, Sniper-boltgun that you get to allocate the wounds from. He can also forfeit his shooting (aww) to allow one model in his squad to shoot at BS 6 (say, a scout with a missile launcher). Useful for putting pressure on your opponent and picking off specialists, which he will at least once in a game (problem, hidden Power Fists?) Pricey, so consider your points. Also worth noting that he gives free Stealth to his unit. So combined with the Techmarine-ruin-camo cloak strategy above, or even hidden in regular area terrain, his2+ cover savemakes him tough to flush out. Scouts are have a great place in manning the Quad Gun on the Aegis Defense Line. Take Sniper Rifles and a rocket launcher, put them behind the line with an objective in your deployment zone, and have one guy man the Quad Gun. Throw in Telion with his free stealth cloaks for delicious 2+ save and the ability to have a BS6 rocket or Quad Gun at will and you have a rather solid back line. Bear in mind, the wording of the rules for scouts says that the sniper rifle only replaces theboltgun. The sergeant can take items from the melee and ranged wargear lists, and both of those state that the model in question replaces hisbolt pistolfor the listed weapons. So yes, you can have a scout sergeant with a sniper rifle in one hand and a combi-weapon in the other, or a power weapon, or a lightning claw, or (hilariously) a thunder hammer. While funny, the combo probably isn't terribly effective, but the combi-weapon might be worth it as a nasty surprise for the slugga boyz charging the ruin where your sniper scouts are holed up, especially if you dont have the leftover points for Telion and/or youre not running with Ultramarines chapter tactics. According to the wording in the rule book, models choose their weapons individually. Meaning you can take a squad of 5 w/ Snipers and 5 w/ Shotguns and a Land Speeder Storm, and at the beginning of the game, Combat Squad them and stick the melee squad in the Storm while the Snipers hang out in ruins with a Techmarine.Dedicated Transports[edit] Rhinos- Very cheap and good transport since space marines are KNOWN TO HIDE IN MEHTAL BAWKSES, DA KOWARDZ! TEH FEWLZ! There's not much to say about it beyond "use it!" Seriously, don't footslog your marines. A walking marine is a dead marine, and dead men hold no objectives. The only upgrades recommended are the Dozer Blade and maybe Hunter-Killer Missiles (if you have a lot of HK's in your army already). Once the guys are out of it, you can basically throw it away in petty dick moves like preventing charges, blocking line of sight (tossing a dozer blade on the sucker will make this glorious bastard even longer, thus potentially blocking even more line of sight), and tank shocking people into tight formation to be hit with flamers, more useful for shielding your own guys as it's side armour is 11, as opposed to the 10 most transports have (*cough* Chimera *cough*) so str 4 weapons (standard infantry power) can't glance it. You can also use its speed to dick around with Necrons if you feel like trolling them and don't really care about winning. NOTE: look on the entry for the rhino in your codex and you will notice a rule that no-one ever uses, which is a shame because it totally rocks: opt out of shooting for a 1/6 chance of repairing an immobilized result. Your opponent cries when he thinks he's immobilised your transport and then it starts moving again. I mean, what else are you going to do in that phase? You're not Chaos, you don't get decent guns on your Rhinos. Exploit 7th Edition rules: Did you take a Drop pod with your troops choice? No? Then take a rhino! Vehicles got harder to insta-slag without dedicated (AP1/AP2) firepower pointed at them, and dedicated transports taken with troops count as troops. Now you can drive your squad to one objective, then rush your rhino over to hold down or contest another. Alternately: if they want to dislodge your hold on an objective, they now have to destroy both the squad on it AND the transport that took them there. Using the Raven Guard or Khan-Scars Chapter Tactics a very nasty and potent trick can be pulled with Rhino squads. Start by deploying on 12, then scout 12in your metal box before the game starts. In your first movement go 6and disembark your infantry a further 6. Good at maths? You're now on their deployment line, and you can fire. Your opponent won't anticipate it and it gives you total board control by the end of turn 1 - you can dictate exactly where the fighting goes. That's invaluable. Dont forget that the Rhino comes stock with a free storm bolter, just like the Vindicator, so you can add a second one from the equipment list. A second set of storm bolter shots may not sound like much, but without access to the havoc launchers its pretty much the only way your metal box can giveyour dudessome quarter-decent fire support. Razorback- The Razorback is a basically a Rhino but you can fit heavier guns on it including anti-tank weapons and of course more expensive than a standard Metal box. It is one of the best choices for a SM army themed on firepower. Best configuration is a Tactical Squad of 10 with Lascannon and Melta gun/Plasma gun. "But you can't fit 10 men in that tiny metal box!!11" Actually, if you check the Space Marine FAQ a Tactical squad can choose a Razorback as a dedicated transport even if it has more than 6 men. So at game start you combat squad them, one with the Sergeant and PG/MG, and the other with Lascannon. The former goes in your transport, the latter stays at the back of the board, providing fire support and capturing your home objective. Give the Razorback twin linked lascannons. The LC/TLPG looks nice but its an illusion. The TL re-roll can win or lose games, and the PG is too much of an oddball for any task you use it for. Its short range, can damage the vehicle and isn't particularly effective against heavy infantry or light vehicles. This combo can be brutal in both low points and higher points games, giving you a lot of firepower. Just remember to be careful with your deployment if you come up against a gunline. The Raven Guard scout gimmick and the TL heavy flamer work well together here. Definitely avoid taking the Razorback stock. The TL Heavy Bolter became very inefficient this edition, the other weapon options are the same price however. See that note above about Objective Secured on Troop Rhinos? Applies here. Infernum Pattern Razorback (Forge World)- Basically the Razorback with Multi-Melta turret, introduced by the Forge World to ruin the last thing Sisters of Battle had over the Space Marines. Drop Pod- Also great, mainly because of it's ability to deep strike in the most useful position. Another great reason is the ability to avoid impossible terrain and models, thereby avoiding deep strike mishaps. Excellent tool to hunt tanks with squads of melta, or drop down a dreadnought where they least expect it. These transports suffer from the "Half on turn 1, half regular reserve" rule common to deep-striking forces nowadays (bring an odd number of them if you bring more than one, because the "half on turn one" is rounded up). However, even a single Drop Pod is a major psychological tool. A Deep-striking Dreadnought is almost guaranteed to change how your opponent deploys. Consider this carefully. - Thanks to 7th, Drop Pods are now scoring. And if they delivered a troop squad to the battlefield, they're also denial units. - Also note that the drop pod is one of two units able to take a Locator Beacon. - The Deathwind launcher is now cheaper, but no more effective than it was before. But now with the reduced price you can pay a little more than a tact marine for the ability to lock down a 12" area around a drop pod with a S5 AP- pie plate. You kill a MEQ, you basically pay off the cost of the launcher. Put these on your drop pod assault pods otherwise it'll be a waste. Note: drop-pods now can be shot down with interceptor shots, so beware quad guns and hydra platforms. Interceptor shots are fired at the end of the Drop-Pod-equipped player's movement phase, meaning AFTER it lands and the Spess Mehreens disembark. And yes, it still counts as open-topped against Interceptor. Units arriving by drop pod CAN fire as normal counting as having moved. BRB page 36 states that they may do this. Units arriving by deep strike are allowed to disembark and fire or run as normal but they may not assault. Also thanks to 6th edition disembark rules you get 6" of free movement to negate whatever scatter you incurred during the drop. As well, drop pods may fire their Deathwind Missile Launcher upon entry, striking fear into hordes of low Toughness infantry. Advanced tactics on the use of drop pods can be found in the common playing styles section towards the bottom of this tactica page. Land Speeder Storm- 6th edition may be where the land speeder storm finally comes out of the back of the model enthusiasts closet and onto the table as a viable and fun model to incorporate into your army. There are a lot of drawbacks to the storm in comparison to the your other choices of dedicated transport. AV10 all around and open topped means that if anything even gives this thing an angry look it has the chance of exploding into a giant fireball that will eat your squad of scouts. On the other hand the fact that the storm is a skimmer means that it gets a jink save and can flat out 30" in a turn and is also an assault vehicle! If you keep this thing behind cover it becomes a decent skirmisher and lets you grab late game objectives with scoring scouts. The BS3 of the storm is rather silly, but totally mitigated by the heavy flamer you can replace it's standard heavy bolter it comes with stock for the cost of zero points, and when running scouts you really don't want to be running them at anything that is tougher than them anyway. Lastly the Cerberus launcher got an overhaul and remains to be seen on the table whether it is anything more than a pointless gimmick. A S2 AP nothing large blast with blinding may just give you the edge on your enemy letting the scouts jump out and suddenly have a half decent chance of being the ones doing the killing rather than being a cheap single turn distraction for a larger unit. giving your scouts shotguns verses bolt pistols depends on what you are planning on fighting. As the storm is open topped this gives you a bunch of extra shots that you can fire off. For AP5 and worse the pistols seem like a better deal as they will cut through armor but for marines/firewarriors/guardians and better you are probably better served by the shotguns and hoping for weight of fire to do the work for you. All of this and the scout squad to go with it will only run you about 100 points. even adding every upgrade you can think of this unit won't even cost more than 150. That's savings that you can bank on. Remember that tanks no longer suffer from Blind, so this can only work against infantry. It's still fairly good againstlow-initiativearmiesElites[edit] Terminator Squad- Expensive, and not too effective. The regular terminators are best teleported in, but it depends on your enemies composition. If he has no AP2 or AP1 weaponry, footslogging them can be good, especially if you have an assault cannon or cyclone. In small point games, terminators are hard to kill without AP 1/2. If the enemy does have heavy weapons, it's best to deep strike them, and hope you can eliminate that weapon before that, or put them out of harms way. Land raiders may be useful, but are better suited for assault terminators. All termies are buffed by new edition now that melee weapons have AP values, so they now laugh at power weapons (warning: klavies, warscythes, power axes, powerfists, hammers, and monstrous creatures still laugh at your armour save and first two aren't unwieldy), making (insert something here)wing armies much harder to kill. However, storm bolters simply aren't killy enough, and a single assault cannon or cyclone won't do much. Against the abundance of high strength AP1 and AP2 in many updated codices, you may find your toughness 4 terminators dying without doing much at all (besides absorbing firepower for a few turns, which turns them into distraction carnifexes). Assault Terminators- Is where you want a Land Raider at. These are the gold standard of assault units. Seriously, nearly every other dedicated assault unit in the game is compared to these fuckers, and 9 times out of ten, they cannot compare (That last 1 of 10 would most likely be genestealers or Incubi). They should absolutely not be footslogged if it can be avoidable. Always keep a majority of them with thunder hammers, a composition of perhaps 3 thunderhammers and 2 lightning claws are the best, to get that 3+ Invulnerable save if he brings out anything big and nasty. These guys attract a LOT of firepower (i.e. all of it) so keeping them alive can be difficult. They wreck just about anything in the game. You don't have to worry about Grey Knights any more, unless they bring a lot of Daemon Hammers because their other Nemesis Force weapons are all AP3. Space marines now pay for their TH/SS at 5pts a pop. Put these guys w/ storm shields right in front of a unit of horrors. Now, any wounds you take give you FnP, bonus points for iron hands or 2-wound termies. It, does not quite work that way. after being hit with a warpflame attack you take a toughness test, if passed you gain +1FnP, if failed more hits. A storm shield does not make it any more or less likely for you to pass a toughness test. As cool as they are, remember that they're expensive. Quite expensive. Like, A ready-for-battle-in-a-raider-squad will cost you 450+ points. Is that the best use of 450+ points? Choose carefully... Also remember that a Land Raider is not 100% mandatory. If you want their Close Combat ability, but shrink at the price, consider putting a teleport homer or two in your list. It allows them a "Kinda safe" means of entering play that doesn't cost more points than the squad itself. Just be sure you have enough storm shields in the squad to cover your ass or you WILL be shot off table! A third note: remember, a single Land Raider is amassivebullet magnet. Viable competitive lists bring two, but that's only viable at 2k pts, because you still want some support for your Termies. If you have the points to burn and are also taking a dreadnought that you planned on hooking into a drop pod, smash your assault termies into a storm raven instead. Fly over the enemy to get that cover save, and parachute your assault termies in front of the enemy. Sternguard Veterans- 22 points for the first 5 models in which you have to also pay for a Vet Sgt. and 22 for each after, and a very versatile ranged squad. Give combi-weapons to as many of them as you can, beware, for they're 10 points now so think is the one shot really worth it? they are also one of only 3 squads to be able to take a Heavy Flamer, the other two being the Legion of the Damned and Terminators. If you are fond of having a good ranged unit that can deal with almost any threat, bring in a squad of these in a Rhino or Drop pod. Razorback is bad as it requires disembarkation with the inevitable "SHOOT THEM OFF" from your enemy afterwards, while Rhino has the hatch. They also have access to a mix of two special/heavy weapons. If you take Pedro Kantor, they gain Objective Secured (they do NOT become Troops, you still need to take Tacs or Scouts if you want to stay Battle Forged) which allows you for some good ol' 4th edition style Las/Plas teams... but at too high a cost to be worth it. Another thing to be aware of is that although a storm bolterlookslike a good upgrade, but you can't use their special ammo with it, which is TOTAL BULLSHIT, but them's the breaks. Oh, and don't forget: Sternies get base 2 attacks. Not a lot of opponents know this, so when they get 3A on the charge or 2A when defending some players are a little surprised. Still, they should be shooting and not fighting, assault only if completely necessary. Even Pedro Kantor's +1A doesn't make them super efficient at CC due to their cost. Still hilarious to add Kantor to the squad though, because in addition to an assault 4 storm bolter, adding to the ranged dakka, he also buffs them to A3, or A4 on the charge. Really effective way to catch a large ork boyz squad off guard, they just walked through a hail of 2+ wounding bolt shells, cover-ignoring bolt shells, or long range 'Eavy Armor piercing bolt shells, across the entire board, and then they get charged and stomped to death by the supposedly "ranged" squad that shot them up, when they finally get close enough. Just remember, if the enemy challenges Kantor with a lone CC monster, get the Sternguard sergeant to step in instead of Kantor. With the change to 7E Challenge rules, Kantor will still be able to pound the CC monster with his power fist, but be relatively safe from the monster's attacks in return. Combi-Meltas make tanks cry, and Combi-Flamers make assaulting these guys a bad idea, BRING BOTH. Generally you'll want to avoid Combi-Plasmas unless you know you're going up against a lot of 2+ Armor saves, in which case you could use combi-gravs, and even then your Tacs should probably be packing Plasma Guns and Sternguard even have some AP3 ammo specially for killing Chaos Marines (no seriously). Just remember the AP3 bolter shot is 18", meaning it Rapid Fires at only 9", and it has Gets Hot!, so beware. Combi-gravs are excellent if you know your opponent loves him some overwhelming Terminator-esque firepower. 5++ won't do much against 20 AP2 shots, and taking 7 or 8 Terminators out on Turn 1 via Drop Pod is Tzeentchian-levels of Just As Planned. Remember, you can bring up to two(!) Heavy Flamers in a 5-man Squad, and at only 10 Points each they're a steal. Take 9 dudes. Add a Librarian Pyro or Bio or Telpathy, put them in a Rhino or Drop pod, and laugh maniacally as you then pop out and butcher a unit. Doesn't matter what it is, if it don't have 2+ armour, Sternies will kill it. Trygon? Six wounds is cute, but when you take 12 or 15 armor saves (and possibly some Grav wounds)? Not so hot. Hordes? Combi-Flamers and Hellfire Rounds. Entrenched Guardsmen with Stealth Pants? Dragonfires and Heavy Flamers. 3+ saves? Vengeance Rounds if you feel lucky, punk, or bury them in Hellfire wounds. A good idea with them may be to bring Grav special weapons, not combis. sure you lose out on some special bolt ammo fun, but the only thing Sternguard can't counter are 2+ armor saves. Grav guns give them six shots (if they don't move) that do just that. PLasma can put out few shots but are better for a squad that moves around, (12 range 2 shot compare to 9 range 2 shots) Rapidfire now work on half range, not fixed 12", so kraken rounds now rapidfire on 15" and vengeance only on 9". Sternguard vets can take a drop pod as a dedicated transport. Give them combi-meltas and drop them right behind the heaviest tank the enemy has on turn 1. They pop out, embark up to 6", and the tank gets shot in its flimsiest AV facing by 5 meltaguns at once, destroying it or making it useless before it can even do anything. Granted, your 205 pt squad will probably be rage-killed by everything that your opponent can throw at it, which is actually great, because now he/she/it/hermaphrodite just spent a turn killing one squad and no longer has their precious baneblade(or whatever you murdered). Not quite how it works (Kantor specifically gives Sternguards Objective Secured, but it does not affect Drop Pods and they still remain Elites if picked for Sternguards. The reason Troop Drop Pods get Objective Secured is because they count as Troops themselves, not because they're attached to a squad with that rule). Veteran Sergeant Haas (Red Scorpions)- An upgrade to a Sternguard squad sergeant, 45 points gives you an artificer armoured sergeant with a power sword and a pistol. That's not why you take him, however. You take him because he makes your squad Relentless. Sadly, this isn't as awesome as it sounds if you aren't spamming Heavy Weapons or spamming Grav Guns with their Salvo. Relentless will rarely benefit your sternguard vets, for the following reasons: a) you do NOT want your vets tied up in close combat, so you really don't want to charge in after you fire your weapons. B) the only weapon upgrade recommended for sternguard vets is the heavy flamer, which is assault anyway. Any other heavy weapon is better off in a tactical squad, since they have the same ballistic skill and you're not losing out on sexy special boltgun rounds. and c) moving no longer reduces rapid fire weapons. If you're using Grav Guns/Combi-Grav, then there's some more justification since they're Salvo Weapons. Tyrannic War Veterans (Ultramarines)- They're basically the same as Sternguard but only able to use Hellfire rounds for their bolters, cheaper as a base unit though smaller and cost 1 point more per extra model, Preferred Enemy (Tyranids), and a special rule that grants them Zealot when facing Tyranids. Needless to say, against any other army, they're practically better off as just plain Sternguard, but against Tyranids, they're a handy squad for hitting the inevitable gaunt hordes that will comprise of the Nid player's army. Another takeOne of the few SM units which can be taken at the 4-man level. This can have value if you want to add an independent character in Terminator armor to ride around in one of the FW land raiders with a 6-man transport capacity (like the LR helios or achilles). Vanguard VeteransSubstantially cheaper than Sternguard, but the same cost if you give them jump packs. They are better ASM for only 50 points(+1A, +1Ld). That's another metal box, or another Drop Pod, or another two Sternguard Veterans. Depending on how close you are to your points limit, the extra 50 points might be spent better elsewhere. They lost the assault from deepstrike due to the rewrite of "Heroic Intervention", but everything in this game is going to lose it anyway. The points decrease is well worth it. They each can take a Storm Shield for the cost of a combi weapon and take various power weapons at cost. Give a few the 3++ and stick them out front for saves against those pesky blastmasters and watch them survive. These are they guys you choose when you want elite jump infantry as opposed to just more ASMs by taking a few SS for all that low AP cover ignoring meta and some power weapons to cut down foes for less than the cost of two ASM units. Veteran Sergeant Culln- Yes, this is the same guy who is the Red Scorpions Chapter Master. And First Captain. Yeah, it's weird. Anyways, the gist of it is that he is a 60 point upgrade to a sergeant, just like Haas, and he has two wounds, a jump pack and a relic blade, and gives the squad stubborn and re-roll to hits in CC. Fantastic, but on an already underwhelming unit, he is the only special character in the game with heroic intervention, so he's all your vanguards have got. Basically a budget chaplain with AP3, one less attack due to relic blade, heroic intervention, re-rolls that work throughout a fight instead of just on the first turn, and a much, much lower price tag. Not enough to make them "good", but makes them better. Especially if you take the forgeworld character who makes them scoring. If you deep strike them anyway, a locator beacon is the best bet: first, drop pod an Ironclad dreadnought directly on top of an powerful enemy tank, and the drop pod will scatter to right next to it (Scout bikes work too, but less reliably). Then while the dread ties up the tank, use the pod's locator beacon to swoop in 5 Vanguard vets with melta bombs. With 5 vets all with melta bombs, this will work on anything from warbuggies to BANEBLADES!!! Once that's done, your vets and the Ironclad can go hunting. Only problem here is that they need to survive an enemy round of shooting. 3+ is nice, 3++ Storm Shields are nicer, but the points start racking up quickly. Think perhaps a Stormraven instead. Note they can each take a plasma or grav pistol. Take both and dual-wield flying cowboy marines. Similarly, if you are only taking one pistol upgrade on any model, you can replace his chainsword instead of his bolt pistol. That way he'll have a bolt pistol and a plasma/grav pistol and benefit from the Gunslinger BRB rule, with no disadvantage to losing the chainsword because the two pistols still give you the +1A from having 2 CCW. Heck, you could run them all like this, without jump packs, and have an entire squad of goddamn Cypher-wannabes for giggles (though this is stupidly ineffective, so you shouldn't actually do this unless you magnetized everything, or just happened to rob a truck outside your local GW that turned out to be loaded with nothing but Cypher models). Dreadnought- There are 3 ways you can field this beast. The first is by making it a gun platform. There is no other option than putting a pair of TL Autocannons on it in this method.Anything else in this configuration is a waste.I dunno, the missile launcher allows tactical flexibility, and a Twin-linked lascannon is nothing to be sniffed at. The second way to field it is to optimise it for melee. Never do this. The first lesson Space Marine players learn is that a CC Dread is good for nothing but locking a unit up. And you pay out the ass for that luxury. Its because you get a pitifully low amount of attacks, 4 S10 attacks on the charge at I4 sounds brilliant on paper, but in practice you'll be killing 1-2 Marines each round of combat. And ever since 6E gave grenades a CC profile, they will be ripping you to shreds with Krak Grenades at the same time. The third, and best way to field a Dreadnought is as a stock Multi Melta Dread in a drop pod. On the first turn drop it near your opponent's prize tank (e.g a Land Raider filled with Grey Knights)and pop it on the first turn. Grats, you killed a 250+ point land raider with a 135 point unit. Unless you miss the multi-melta shot, you unlucky son of a bitch. Field him at 160 points as a venerable dread with multi-melta to prevent this happening and allow the chance that it'll be able to blaze another vehicle before it goes down. NowVenerableis an upgrade to the normal Dread, and at 25 points (10 of which are for the +1 on WS and BS) it's a steal. Ironclad Dreadnought- You won't be getting krak'd to death anymore, but you pay more and for only a marginal increase in effectiveness. Not bad as a suicide DP dread. Don't come under the illusion that the Hurricane Bolter is worthwhile. It isn't. Why the fuck would you pay for it on this platform when a tactical squad does the same thing. Somewhat useful in that the seismic hammer and chainfist are interchangeable (before the game starts, obviously), so if you are fighting lots of light vehicles, use the hammer (+1 to damage roll), and the chainfist practically guarantees a penetrating hit on AV14 (S10 + 2d6).Deepstrike it in a drop pod next to their AV14 tank and laugh as they spend a turn killing it with all their heavy weapons(while your MM land speeder gets into range). Also, with the Stormraven going vanilla, you can crap the Ironclad there with a squad to give it support, cover and utterly destroy any threat that gets too close. Furthermore, the Stormraven is a Flyer and Assault vehicle!Imagine combining it with the Ironclad. For extra extra hilarity, put Assault terminators, tooled up vanguard vets, or honour guards with the Ironclad. Not only do you have a rampaging rape machine of destruction raging after enemy v