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So I didn't see a 8th SM tactica started.. if I made a mistake please combine. Got to play a few 2k point test games with Marines. I figured I would post some thoughts on units used.

I found that screening units are a must in this edition. Blocking deep strikes and drop tactics is easier now with the 9" restriction but if you don't mitigate it you could end up in trouble. I found that Scout units do this well. I run minimum of 3 units in a couple games ran 5 units. Screeners are also good to slow down 1st turn charge of your meatier back units. They will need to retreat from time to time so I only geared them with HBs and bolters. Shotguns sound promising but I never tried them. combi melta is good if putting them in a Storm Speeder.

Scouts: great blockers (necessary IMHO), fallback with very little penalty since they are cheap. fallback, block and repeat.

In 1 game I wanted to run 3 Assault Cannon Razor Backs so I took 3 Basic marine squads. I ran CombiMeltas and Meltas in each squad. They stayed in Razorbacks till enemy got close for me to bail out. rolling 2D6 for damage was very good on.meltas. Assault cannon Razorbacks were very nice. 12 shots each..-1 to save and S6 very very good solid all around shooting. The bad is range. unless spread out they can be multi engaged and then all 12 shots go away... I wanted to use them a screen blockers sometimes but it hurt losing all those shots when I retreated. That's the bad thing in this edition. Engaging units is pretty easy now..so shooting can be negated big time.

Infantry Troops: still solid units. necessary to spam RazorBacks. Doubling up on the special weapons (combi included) is great. I suggest a chainsword on the sgt. Melta is very good. Melta -4 on the save pretty much means no save and its going to hurt and its going to do multiwounds generally.

TLAC RazorBacks: Go to transport right now for troops. TLAC is great ... pumps out lots of s6 shots.. your going to wound on 3+ most time vs infantry units. -1 save is good to. Great vs Orks. The bad: engagement is very very easy now. Your tanks shooting can get shut down easy now. Hurts when its 12 shots a tank.. 24" range isn't great.

Devastators: Love these guys. Split fire made them great again. I loaded with 2 HB and 2LC. Also brought 2 Twin Linked lascannon Razorbacks with them. Lascannons are great at putting multi wounds on big guys. The Devs and TLLC RBs worked together to do that. HBs focused on hord and basic units. Decent but not overpowered shooting. Dirt cheap for 10pts each. Take the Chreub for a few pts. its worth shooting that LC a second time 1x per game. use a reroll stratagem if needed. Don't forget to use SGT signum too. TLLC RBs survive because they stay back.. and hopefully your screening units hold up.


I ran 2 Captains with jump packs, Hammers and Plasma pistols.
These guys will drop in range of my 2 vanguard vet units with dual Plasma pistols

Captains were there to allow re-roll of 1s Very important when overcharging plasmas. The hammers hit like a freight train as well. I ran 1 game with the hammers on the sgts. Moved them to the capts due to there better WS and amount of hits they put out. They finished off a 50% damaged Monolith in combat. Don't overcharge the Capt plasma pistols unless its worth losing them. 1 missed re-roll of 1 and they die.

Vanguard are just awesome. precission deepstrike with 2 pistols.. rerolls of 1s(capts) allowed me to take out a few special characters (they got me Slay the warlord in 2 game) Overcharging is never needed vs single wound units... but these guys should be going after big stuff. They held backfield objectives in a couple games. They move fast 12" and fly.. so they engage very well.
Shooting is there bread and butter.. each unit puts out 9 shots that can do 2 damage each. Plasma hurts this edition.

I ran a thunderfire cannon as well... I found it to be meh. hopefully others will find good uses for them.. I didn't and wound up dropping it.

After my first game I switched to all scouts (5) with Storm Speeders (5) w/MM and dropped the Marines and TLACRBs. The biggest thing I found was blockers was necessary. 3 scouts were ok.. but I wanted to see how the storms performed. I was surprised how much better they were then I originally thought. They are great at blocking units because of fly.. there ability to retreat out of combat and then shoot makes them very very good. Opened topped allows the scouts to shoot from them as well on the move. There speed is very nice as well. 14inch is good. I did a lot of engaging the enemy with the speeders just to shut down there shooting. I would let the scouts out and let them shoot.. move the storms up to block and shoot. Charge them and either they would have to fall back (enemy vehicals would) or I would fall back and then shoot in my turn because of the fly rule.
Basically I worked the storms and scouts in tandem to mitigate there shooting. The storms were also good in late game to move to objectives as well. I found that with 7 wounds they were surprisingly survivable. not as good as the RBs but very good. The MM was nice when it hit and damaged.

that's about it for now

Got my first games of 8th edition last night. I concur about the value of TLAC Razorbacks, there wasn't a single target I found them to be lacking against in my opponents list and the the 5 man tactical squads with Combi-Melta and Meltagun did wonderful clean up duty and late game objective grabbing. I backed mine with Marine Captain and Primaris Lieutenant buffs so had a wonderful bubble of 6" of re-rolling 1's to hit and wound on two razorbacks, a predator annihilator and a 4 Missile Launcher Devastator squad.

None of my opponents went for exploring the potential of the new deepstrike mechanics but I can definitely see the need for bubblewrap in 8th ed lists. I've been eyeing up the Primaris Intercessors for the job as they are cheap and resilient, but I suspect that scout may be better suited to the role.

I am thinking I might be trading my Drop Pods out for Rhinos for my Sternguard and my Rhinos for Razorbacks w/Twin Assault Cannons for my Tactical Squads. Drop Pods are just too expensive for how little they do once they land. Rhinos and Razorbacks offer some mobility while have the same or better shooting. I strongly hope that, once the first Chapter Approved comes out, Drop Pods get a price cut.

I play bikes, so sergeants with combi weapons are looking really good to me. I use a mix of grav and plasma, but with the changes to twin linked bolters and the fact that you can fire both parts of the combi weapon, even combi Flamers are looking like a decent choice.

Grav Centurions lost their drop pod, so what are some ideas for them nowadays? I do have a Storm Raven. Are there any clues to disembarking from one? I would assume it's non specific so works like any other transport now, so at the beginning of movement, disembark.

So I wasn't sure where to post this. Here seems like a good place. You guys tell what you think.

I played Catachans back in 4th it was my first army, and I loved the whole Vietnam Vet type thing.

Heres the plan. Bring Scouts in units of 10 have half of them be CC orientated with the Sgt. and the other half bring Sniper Rifles and Various Heavy Weapons (Heavy Bolters, Missile Launchers, and Flamers).

Do you guys think this would work?

I was just exploring the idea of 5 man Vanguard Vets with Jumppacks dropping down with 2x Grav pistol each, assassinating any characters that happen to get out of place, what do you think?

 Coyote81 wrote:
I was just exploring the idea of 5 man Vanguard Vets with Jumppacks dropping down with 2x Grav pistol each, assassinating any characters that happen to get out of place, what do you think?

It seems like you would have an easier time doing that with plasma pistols since it wounds things easier.

 Thousand-Son-Sorcerer wrote:
So I wasn't sure where to post this. Here seems like a good place. You guys tell what you think.

I played Catachans back in 4th it was my first army, and I loved the whole Vietnam Vet type thing.

Heres the plan. Bring Scouts in units of 10 have half of them be CC orientated with the Sgt. and the other half bring Sniper Rifles and Various Heavy Weapons (Heavy Bolters, Missile Launchers, and Flamers).

Do you guys think this would work?

I think having the core of your army to be scouts instead of tacticals (or intercessors) would work fine, but you probably want to bring at least some heavier elements. You need some hard hitting firepower to deal with tough enemy vehicles and big critters, some missile launchers are not gonna cut it.

 casvalremdeikun wrote:

 Coyote81 wrote:
I was just exploring the idea of 5 man Vanguard Vets with Jumppacks dropping down with 2x Grav pistol each, assassinating any characters that happen to get out of place, what do you think?

It seems like you would have an easier time doing that with plasma pistols since it wounds things easier.

correct. I ran 2 units with dual plasma pistols. Sniped out 2 warlords plus others. overcharging ability with rerolls makes plasma so versatile. S7 - 3 burns through single wound models and overcharge with 2D puts a hurt on multi wound characters. Just don't overcharge your character as well.