Adeptus Astartes

[Admiral-Badruck]

I like the Bike Beaky boss Idea I faced that one and the World Wide War last year (RIP)..

That guy was nuts and if I had not gotten very Lucky I would have lost that game instead I pulled a tie... by the skin of my teeth. Relic blade and a storm shield.. is as close to broken as could be... love it... need to make a model for it but as soon as I can I must have one of those for my Red Scorpions... the lack of scouts makes it very hard for us to get around.. bikes could really help...

[Primarch]

Codex Space Marines boasts a plethora of great unit choices and combos.
Some decent tactics to consider:
* Put Ironclad dreadnoughts into drop pods. Drop them near enemy units and watch them panic as you open fire with Heavy Flamers or Meltas.
* Give a Librarian Terminator Armour or a Bike. Attach him to a unit and use gates of infinity to teleport him near an enemy unit that you want to kill. Use drop pods with teleport beacons to avoid scatter. Good choices for his attached unit are Sternguard (they kill anything without a 2+ save) or Attack Bikes (nothing says "goodbye tanks" like 3 multimeltas deepstriking behind a squadron).
* Make the Librarian an Epistolary and have him drop Vortex of Doom (S10 AP1) on a unit when he arrives.
* Buy 2 heavy flamers and 2 combi meltas for a 10 man sternguard squad. Drop them in a drop pod and deploy in combat squads. The heavy flamers wipe out any nearby infantry and the combi meltas pop a tank. If you are using Vulkan they get even better.
* Master of the Forge on a bike with a conversion beamer. He can ensure he gets a good range on his shots for maximum damage.
* Land Speeder squadrons are great. Either run 2x double multimelta land speeders for tank hunting or 3x double heavy bolter landspeeders for killing infantry. I have 1 dual HBolter squadron and I love them. They never let me down. Whilst only AV10 all round, they can stay out of range of most units and most long range anti-tank guns are usually focussed on something else.
* Land Raiders are scary. Land Raiders with a passenger bay full of assault terminators are really scary. Redeemers and Crusaders are better as transports because they need to get up close to use their guns. Turn 1 rush them forward and pop smoke. Turn 2 rush forward again and drop the terminators off where they need to be. Use PotMS to shoot some guns.
* Against a horde army use Whirlwinds and/or thunderfire cannons to soften them up whilst avoiding return fire.
* Against other power armour armies, load up on Plasma Guns, Plasma Cannons and Combi Plasmas in your tactical squads.

[Primarch]

Be prepared for eldar players to whinge about it though :p

Too late.

Editing and adding to my sig....

[me_in_japan]

The best reason to play codex marines is because they are not Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Dark Angels or any of the other "we're so cool we get our own codex" chapters.

Space Marine. Defender of the Imperium. Legend.

...And They Shall Know No Fear.

not vampires in space, not barbarians in space, not bloody goths in space. Just big, bad-ass, mighty heroes of legend.

If I played marines, I'd either make up my own chapter or play ultramarines. There's a kind of...purity to em.

[Admiral-Badruck]

now you are talking Prime some of that just sounds like pure win the only question I have is.. cant the BAs and Space Dogs do all of that but better????

[Primarch]

The best reason to play codex marines is because they are not Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Dark Angels or any of the other "we're so cool we get our own codex" chapters.

Space Marine. Defender of the Imperium. Legend

And thats why I have 1 DA army, 1 SW army, 1 DA army and 3 (currently ) Space Marine armies....well, that and I am insane.

[Primarch]

now you are talking Prime some of that just sounds like pure win the only question I have is.. cant the BAs and Space Dogs do all of that but better????

No Ironclads,
No Vortex of Doom
No Gates of Infinity
No Master of the Forge
No Conversion Beamer
TH+SS combo is more expensive
No Thunderfire Cannons
SW cant take plasma cannons in tacs. BA shouldnt be taking tacs.
BA Whirlwinds are more expensive
BA have Baals filling fast attack slots (they should: scouting, fast S6 AP3 flamers?)
SW bikes are BS 3

[Primarch]

I have split this topic so we can get back on track with talking about actual armylists and tactics.
Space Wolves and Blood Angels are different from Space Marines so dont try to keep up with them. They have newer books and newer toys.

@Zhyr - What armies do you usually play against? Can you post your usual army list here and we will see if anyone has any suggestions.

[Admiral-Badruck]

Good question what do you have in your list and I will tell you how to make it win...

[Sergent Zhyr]

Many thanks to prime for his vast knowledge of the different marine armies.

I normally play with two tactical squads in drop pods or in rhinos. I normally take stern guard terminators and an ironclad dreadnought. In a big game I will take a landraider redeemer and and land speeders or bikes.

I take a lord high commander (chapter master) or a chaplain for HQ

after reading the comments I guess the librarian is a very good choice. seems like he was made go with stern guard.