Space Marines: Composition, Strategy and Tactical notes

Space Marines are the Emperor’s Chosen fighters.  They are feared on a thousand thousand worlds, and rightly so.  They have been genetically altered far beyond the humans they started as.  Their strength and abilities have been enhanced, as have their skills.  In addition, they wear power armor that makes each one like a small tank, and their standard weapon is as almost as powerful as many races heavy weapons.  Space Marines require these massive advantages, for their numbers are small, so they always fight outnumbered.

I was recently asked to write an article about Space Marine Tactics, and to include information about army composition.  While I do not play Space Marines, I have worked with them and against them on numerous occasions and I have done a lot of research into them.  For additional information and research of your own, I would like to refer you to two main sites: The Fighting Tigers of Veda and The Blood Drinkers, both of which are on my Superior Links page.  Two other excellent sites, which (as of this writing) I have not yet contacted about linking from my page, are Gnome’s site, and the Vindicators Inquisitorial Review, both of which can be found from The Fighting Tigers links page.

Composition

In my first paragraph, I noted a number of things about Space Marines.  You will note that all of the references are to the power of individual Space Marines.  I made no comments about their great vehicles or their impressive Wargear or anything else.  That is because I believe that the basic Tactical Marine is the most important part of a Space Marine army.  Each one of them is hard to kill and can put the hurt on almost any sort of enemy.  Tac squads enjoy the flexibility of being able to outshoot assault-type squads and out-assault shooty squads of other armies.  That, coupled with their hard to kill nature, makes for a very resilient, tactically flexible force.  I have seen Space Marine armies that tool up on Wargear and vehicles and just take the minimum number of Tac squads to fulfill the force organization charts.  I have also often seen these armies die by the numbers, since they didn’t have enough basic Marines.  On the other hand, I’ve seen some Space Marine armies that were filled with lots of basic Marines.  These armies may not have always won, but they always provided a challenging game and were able to adapt to a much wider variety of circumstances.  Therefore, I believe that one of the most important things in a Space Marine force is to have lots of Space Marines.

In a Space Marine force, in addition to having lots of Marines, you want to emphasize three things.  Mobility, Flexibility and Local Superiority.  Mobility allows you to concentrate your forces or achieve objectives.  Flexibility allows you to adapt to different opponents and conditions, and Local Superiority lets you take on a much larger force and win.

Vehicles give you better mobility than your standard walking movement.  Landspeeders, being Fast Skimmers, have excellent mobility so they can swiftly move to counter an enemy or to claim an objective.  Transports, such as Rhinos and Razorbacks, allow you to concentrate your forces, achieving Local Superiority or swiftly seizing valuable terrain or reinforcing your lines as need be.  On the other hand, vehicles can be expensive, and every 15pts you spend on a vehicle is one less Marine on the field, so don’t go overboard.  The humble Rhino is an excellent value for carrying large squads, and doesn’t replace too many Marines.  The Razorback, though more expensive, gives you the flexibility of having additional powerful weapons, as well as transport ability.

The Tactical squad gives you the most flexibility of the Marine force.  They are all fairly good at close combat, hard to kill and have good weapons in terms of both range and damage.  In addition, they can be given Heavy and Special weapons that can enhance their firepower, and the sergeant can be upgraded to a veteran and given additional gear to assist the squad in many roles. 

The high point cost and great capabilities of each Marine give you a great start on Local Superiority.  They automatically concentrate a lot of power in a small space.  To increase this local superiority, use them in groups, and use mobility to suddenly gather them together.  Alternately, you can use the range of their weapons to concentrate on a single target from across the battlefield, decimating it quickly.

Strategy

Strategically, the best attribute of Space Marines is their flexibility.  They are better at something than almost any foe, so they can respond to a variety of threats.  To make the best use of this flexibility, make sure that you design as much flexibility as possible into your force.  Part of this will be utilizing lots of Tactical Squads, giving you the numbers to make a large, hard to kill force.  In addition, equipping them with weapons that can kill infantry and armor is very important.  Giving at least some of your squads mobility through vehicles is also very useful.  With this mobility and flexibility, you can target the weakness of your enemy, instead of the strength.  If you run across an entirely static army that can outshoot your marines, they can mount up and make a charge across the board to carry the day in hand to hand combat.  When they then encounter a powerful assault force, they can draw up a defensive line and outshoot the enemy, using their mobility to mount counter-assaults and achieve Local Superiority by concentrating on one portion of the enemy.  Outfit your army to give you the most options, and you will be rewarded. 

Tactics

Use all your forces together.  Concentrate your power on one target at a time.  This doesn’t necessarily mean to mount everything up in a vehicle and charge across the board.  Fire support squads can use their ranged weapons to soften up targets before your assaulting squads (yes, more than one assaulting squad against a single target) tear into them.  You can also use those Fire support squads to tear holes in the enemy center, isolating the flanks, which will give your assaulting squads better odds in their local superiority.  The assaulting squads themselves should be used together, as mentioned above.  Pull up on either side of an enemy unit, jump out and shoot that unit with both squads, charge in and massacre that unit, then jump back in the Rhinos so you can do it again next turn.  All the while, your Fire support squads are shooting the center of the enemy line, so all your assaulting marines will be concentrating on a third or less of the enemy army.  On the defense against an assaulting army, use those assaulting squads to dogpile enemy units that get too close, while your fire teams switch targets to prevent the enemy from reinforcing those units.

Putting it all Together

Okay, you’ve got the idea of having a flexible, mobile force that has a lot of Tactical Marines.  You plan on using their strengths against the weaknesses of the enemy and concentrating their power to achieve local superiority.  Great, now what does that all mean?  Obviously, there are many ways to achieve this.  Here are some examples that I would recommend you try out.  For the ultimate in flexibility, it’s hard to beat this squad: 5 Tactical Marines in a Razorback with Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasma guns.  The Marines feature a Heavy Bolter, a Plasma Rifle, 2 Bolters and a Veteran Sergeant with a Powerfist and a Bolt pistol.  The unit has mobility, punch against armor and heavy infantry, punch against light infantry, and it has good assault capability.  One possible drawback is that it does feature only 6 models for over 220pts, which limits the number of your models.  One possibility would be to replace the Veteran Sergeant with a regular Sergeant, leaving the Powerfist to a more assault-based squad.  Another excellent unit is 9 or 10 Tactical Marines mounted in a Rhino.  The Marines can take a Heavy Bolter and a Flamer, and a Veteran Sergeant with a Powerfist, along with 6-7 Bolters.  This unit specializes a little more at assaulting, but it is very effective at it and has plenty of anti-infantry fire if it needs to stand and shoot.  Dreadnaughts can be very effective units, since they can fire on the move and are terrors in close combat.  Most everyone knows this, however, so make sure you put the Dreadnaught behind some sort of cover in case you don’t get the first turn.  You can always move it out of cover and still fire to full effect on your turn.  Landspeeders, either with Multimeltas or Heavy Bolters, are very effective at helping to concentrate your firepower suddenly or to swiftly reposition to flank enemy forces or seize an objective.  Keep these hidden as well, for their armor is light.  Although there are other excellent units available to a Space Marine Force, I believe these to be possibly the best ones.  To create your force, start with a couple of firepower-based Tactical Squads, such as the Razorback squad mentioned above.  These will form a strong firebase for your force.  Add a Chaplain or other leader with close combat abilities as your counter-assault force.  If you have the points, add a Landspeeder to improve your mobility.  As the force grows, start by adding another Tactical squad or two.  If you want more flexibility and assault prowess, use something akin to the Rhino squad listed above.  If you opt instead for an increased firebase, add the Dreadnaught to help your leader with counter assaults, otherwise add another Landspeeder to further increase mobility and to swiftly support your squads as they assault.  Continue adding more Tactical squads and then add the Dreadnaught.  So far the force looks something like this:

Chaplain

2-4 Razorback squads

2-4 Rhino squads

2 Landspeeders

Dreadnaught

The Chaplain can be added to a Rhino squad to assist in the assault.  If more assault power is needed, the Razorback squads can add their weight to the assault as well, while all the vehicles are used as a mobile firebase to keep the rest of the enemy at bay.  Once your force grows sufficiently that you have run out of Troops slots, Veterans are an excellent addition.  Outfitted for close combat and mounted in a Rhino, they add even more weight to your assault. 

Different commanders will use this force in different ways.  A commander that plans on primarily shooting the enemy will take more of the Razorback squads, giving a more powerful firebase, and using a smaller number of the Rhino squads (4-5 Razorbacks and 1-2 Rhinos, for instance) to use as a counter assault force in conjunction with the Chaplain and the Dreadnaught.  A commander that plans more on the assault may take more Rhinos, giving much more weight of numbers in the assault, while still keeping lots of anti-infantry fire.  Such a commander might take as many as 4 Rhinos to 2 Razorbacks, using the above-mentioned tactic of dividing the enemy with fire from the firebase, while speeding the Rhinos out (with the Chaplain) to smash into a flank (not the center) of the enemy and tear them to pieces.  A commander that wants both may take 3-4 Razorbacks for the firebase and 2-3 Rhino squads.  Again, they will use the idea of dividing the enemy by fire, but they will have more firepower to make up for the smaller assault force.  This assault may also be a later assault.  The game may start with the Rhino squads standing and shooting along with the firebase, then mounting up in turn 3 or 4 to speed across the board and mop up the enemy in hand to hand.

There are many different tactics to employ with Space Marines, and many different choices for making up their forces.  This is by no means a definitive look at Space Marines, and there are many different ways to achieve victory for the emperor, but I believe that these ideas will give you a sound basis to start from.  I would also recommend that you do more research and experimentation yourself, from trying different units and combinations to exploring those sites I mentioned above. 

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