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Hello everyone,

Is there some kind of general guidelines for Marine tactics now, without resorting to outright cheese or special characters? As I'm getting back into the game I've purchased a Space Marine Strike Force as a starting point, but having been away for some 12 years I'm trying to figure out what units work and what doesn't. When I last played the usual style was the "Rhino Rush" with everything mechanized to get into combat as quickly as possible, but I've read that 6th edition is more shooty than choppy now.

Can anyone give a brief breakdown of the C:SM units that are good, bad, etc so I have something to work off of, or point me to an existing tactica or similar for the new codex that goes into more detail, as I'm having trouble finding one.

Space Marines have a lot of different chapters to choose from so what chaper you select will dictate what type of list you will run.
White Scars=bikes
Salamaders=drop pods
Ultramarines=a little of everything
Until you decide on a chapter tactic any info we give you could be useless. What look do you want to go for? What play style is your thing? Nothing is just 'good' or 'bad' it is how you build your list that determines how the units function together.

I've been going over this for a while. It's quite opinionated, but seems in general agreeance with everything else I've been reading about space marines:

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/6th_Edition_Tactics/Space%20Marines

skycapt44 wrote:
Space Marines have a lot of different chapters to choose from so what chaper you select will dictate what type of list you will run.
White Scars=bikes
Salamaders=drop pods
Ultramarines=a little of everything
Until you decide on a chapter tactic any info we give you could be useless. What look do you want to go for? What play style is your thing? Nothing is just 'good' or 'bad' it is how you build your list that determines how the units function together.

For fluff reasons, either Ultras or Imperial Fists (I am making my own Chapter), still undecided but leaning towards Fists since it fits better with my idea of the chapter, but I kind of like how the Ultras can change their tactics (at least once) depending on the circumstances.

It really depends on the chapter tactic you are using. In my opinion this is how to use them.

Ultras: tactical and devestator spam with calgar

White scars: bikes lots of bikes

Iron hands: tanks. tanks everywhere and techmarines for repair (also best tank character in the codex)

Salamaders: best as an dpod alpha strike with melta and flamer

BT: either massive troop numbers or MSU

Imp/Crimson Fists: as many bolters as you can get and a mid-field gunline

Raven guard: jump troops for fluff and fast hitting assault

As far as units being good. In no particular order:
Honour guard
sternguard
dev centurions
TFC
bikes (good for all but WS in particular)
bike command squad
dpod
devs (with the right chapter tactic)
tanks/dreads (really only iron hands)
Tacticals (some might disagree but I think they are amazing)

Tiggy (just to amazing not to list)
Vulcan (still very good)
Calgar (in specific setups)

 Vaerros wrote:
I've been going over this for a while. It's quite opinionated, but seems in general agreeance with everything else I've been reading about space marines:

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/6th_Edition_Tactics/Space%20Marines

Thanks for that, I will check it out. Looks pretty good so far

Only thing I might be cheating myself on is that I refuse to use special characters as I'm doing my own Chapter; maybe in the future if I branch out to some allies.

WayneTheGame wrote:

 Vaerros wrote:
I've been going over this for a while. It's quite opinionated, but seems in general agreeance with everything else I've been reading about space marines:

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/6th_Edition_Tactics/Space%20Marines

Thanks for that, I will check it out. Looks pretty good so far

Only thing I might be cheating myself on is that I refuse to use special characters as I'm doing my own Chapter; maybe in the future if I branch out to some allies.

Like you said, don't cheat yourself. If you're going to run an IF CT army, make a Lysander proxy out of a TH/SS termie. That way you get his stats but looks like your chapter instead without all the IF icons on his armor. Just make sure to make it clear to your opponent that it's a proxy from the start.

WayneTheGame wrote:

 Vaerros wrote:
I've been going over this for a while. It's quite opinionated, but seems in general agreeance with everything else I've been reading about space marines:

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/6th_Edition_Tactics/Space%20Marines

Thanks for that, I will check it out. Looks pretty good so far

Only thing I might be cheating myself on is that I refuse to use special characters as I'm doing my own Chapter; maybe in the future if I branch out to some allies.

Just follow the rule of cool. If it looks like a badass character, then you can use the rules for the appropriate special character. I've also found I don't generally need special characters in the new codex though. I've been playing my White Scars successors without Khan ever since the new book came out and haven't had any issues. The generic chapter master on bike is pretty awesome and an IF successor chaptermaster in terminator armor is pretty boss by himself.

 RavenGuard55 wrote:

WayneTheGame wrote:

 Vaerros wrote:
I've been going over this for a while. It's quite opinionated, but seems in general agreeance with everything else I've been reading about space marines:

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/6th_Edition_Tactics/Space%20Marines

Thanks for that, I will check it out. Looks pretty good so far

Only thing I might be cheating myself on is that I refuse to use special characters as I'm doing my own Chapter; maybe in the future if I branch out to some allies.

Like you said, don't cheat yourself. If you're going to run an IF CT army, make a Lysander proxy out of a TH/SS termie. That way you get his stats but looks like your chapter instead without all the IF icons on his armor. Just make sure to make it clear to your opponent that it's a proxy from the start.

Suppose you are right, and might have to look into that. I'm used from the old editions to where you needed permission to field special characters and it was generally frowned upon to field Marneus Calgar and say he wasn't really Marneus Calgar, he's "High Lord Superman" of your own chapter, who just happens to have the same stats/weapons.

However, being fond of the background that could mean opportunities to rename/reflavor the gear and have them "count as" whatever, so rules-wise it's Lysander, but fluff-wise it's a character of my own devising with unique weapons/armor (although it would have to look similar to the normal gear, I would assume, to properly count as).

Interesting possibilities...

Special characters aren't really a permission thing any more and seem more ubiquitous, likely because of the nature for a lot of special characters having abilities which shake up your FOC. If you're not keen on proxying the model, I'm a fan of painting your SC in your chapter colors and giving him a different name like Barmath Icelander or some such.