10th Edition Competitive Faction Focus: Space Marines

With the release of 10th edition now firmly behind us and more than a month of competitive games in the books it’s time to start taking a deeper look at each of the game’s factions. In this series we’ll talk about each faction, what they have to offer, how they play, and talk about a few list concepts to consider.

You can find all the Faction Focuses that we’ve published here.

In this article we’re looking at the Space Marines, the iconic 40k faction. The focus here will be specifically on Index: Space Marines, with articles on the divergent Chapters appearing separately (in fact, you can already see Deathwatch here). However, there’s a lot of overlap between those two things now, with a shared roster and the ability for the divergent chapters to use regular Space Marine detachments as well as their own, so if you’re still awaiting your Chapter’s faction focus there will still be useful content in here for you.

Why Should You Play This Faction? 

Space Marines are an interesting proposition in 10th edition. They’re only middling in power; they’re comfortably able to beat many of the game’s weaker factions and evenly matched with others, but they have terrible win rates into the big dogs of the current meta. Opponents will complain about your Desolation Squads pasting their infantry from behind a ruin, but then a unit of Custodians will simply walk forwards at them and chop them into pieces without breaking a sweat. In essence Marines right now are this guy.

Those are all reflections on the metagame, however. Looking at the army itself, Space Marines have a lot to offer. They feel good to play, they have interesting abilities and a really flexible detachment in the Gladius Task Force, and of course they have an absolute bucketload of different units to work with. You have a bunch of different possibilities when it comes to building your army, and an absolutely incredible array of different Leaders to attach to different units to create combos that will power up both. If you’re looking to take some scalps at GTs or majors, you may want to give Marines a pass (or take a look at running them as Deathwatch/Dark Angels instead), but if you want to play Space Marines that really feel like Space Marines the 10th Edition version is one of the better implementations of them.

Five Things You Need to Know

1. Whatever the question, you have an answer. If you’re struggling against a particular faction, there’s probably something in the index that can take care of that for you. Your variety of Leaders, your Stratagem and Enhancement combos, and the sheer wealth of units available mean that Marines almost always have an answer to whatever question is being posed. The challenge is managing to strike a balance so that you aren’t geared up to take down Imperial Knights and find yourself plinking single shots into masses of Genestealer Cultists.
2. Your Marines will be tougher than you expect. Between the much more generous cover rules in 10th edition and the general decrease in AP in the game, your units will likely live longer in situations where you’d expect them to simply be erased from the table. Offer not guaranteed when playing against Aeldari.
3. All the melee units are bad. Space Marines have so many of them, and anyone coming from 9th edition probably has stacks of Bladeguard Veterans and Vanguard Veterans ready and waiting to hit the table. You probably don’t want any of them, sorry. If it’s any comfort, everyone else’s melee is bad too. Bladeguard are probably the closest to decent, particularly with a Judiciar, but you’re almost always better spending the points elsewhere.
4. Doctrines are life. Learning when to deploy these at the correct time is key to playing the army well. They unlock a ton of movement flexibility (and movement is king), and they also interact with several of your Enhancements and Stratagems to make them even better.
5. If it’s causing problems, deploy Oath of Moment on it. Yeah, it turns out re-rolling all hits and wounds against a target is pretty good, who knew?

What Are the Must-Have Units to Start This Faction?

A fun thing about this section is that the first thing you have to say is “a Desolation Squad” and the second thing you have to say is “which you cannot currently buy.” Desolation Squads appear in basically every single Marine list right now, for the simple reason that they were created in hell to prevent enemy infantry from existing, and also have good-quality anti-tank if you need it. We’ll talk more about how to use them and combos to turboboost their output later in this article, but your starting assumption should be that you want one and you will need to take to eBay to source one, unless you have a spare Strike Force Agastus box sitting around somewhere.

You will almost certainly want some Infiltrators, which you already have from 9th edition. They do the same things they did in 9th, those things are still super valuable, so just leave them in your case and assume they’re still in your list. You might also consider Incursors, who aren’t as good at screening things out but do bring the highly useful ability to put a +1 to hit buff on a key target – which helps all your shooting, but in particular can help your indirect fire out by mitigating the penalty (at least for those non-Desolation Squad units that care about it in the first place). Rounding out the Stealthy Guy units, Scout Snipers have had a revival recently, with the combination of the ability to Infiltrate and their pseudo-Lone Operative rule making them surprisingly hard to dig out, and in particular making them essentially immune to a lot of indirect fire which might otherwise expect to trivially sweep them. If you don’t already own these, however, now is not the time to invest; the models have gone Last Chance to Buy ahead of the codex release.

Beyond that, the world is your oyster – to the extent that Space Marines are succeeding at all at the moment, they’re doing it with a variety of different units. Whirlwinds add to your ability to attack people with INDIRECT FIRE. The Gladiator Lancer and Eradicators both offer vehicle-killing power and also importantly bring their own sources of re-rolls, which is highly beneficial as it means they’re not reliant on Oath of Moment for their output. “Gun tanks” generally are pretty good – lots of Predators and Vindicators have been dusted off recently, and they can combo particularly well with the Storm Speeders, who each have a different buff to hand out including the Thunderstrike’s very helpful +1 to wound against VEHICLE or MONSTER targets. Also getting another look after a period on the shelf are Inceptors, in both assault bolter and plasma exterminator flavours; their output is good, but their ability to deep strike at 3” rather than 9” range is exceptional for both striking at vulnerable targets but also for objective play. Having TWIN-LINKED on their guns also means you can get output boosts from them into targets other than your main Oaths victim.

Character-wise, Primaris Librarians and Apothecaries are highly popular. They bring useful abilities for the units they’re attached to, but they’re also cheap bodies to stick Bolter Discipline onto, enhancing the shooting output of their Bodyguard considerably. Captains unlocking free Stratagems is also as good here as it is everywhere else. Roboute Guilliman is also seeing a lot of use, because he’s a powerhouse in his own right and also brings the flexible Author of the Codex rule, which is primarily used to pick two Oath targets per turn rather than one, but also offers some clutch flexibility for Stratagem use or objective control if that’s more important or relevant than killing power.

How Does This Faction Secure Objectives?

There’s two things to think about when it comes to objectives – getting them in the first place, and then keeping them afterwards.

When it comes to early game objective control, it’s helpful to have units that can start the game positioned on them. I’ve mentioned Scout Snipers already, and they’re perfect for this job; thanks to being INFILTRATORS they can deploy on a point, and their pseudo-Lone Operative rule makes them more resilient against enemy indirect which might otherwise come their way to knock them off before they can score. Infiltrators are also well-placed in this role, as although they lack the Lone Operative rule they bring their own Feel No Pain and have power armour, so they’re marginally tougher, and their anti-deep strike bubble means that if opponents want to charge in and take the objective from them then they need to foot slog over to them. Incursors lost INFILTRATORS in 10th edition, but they still have Scouts 6”, so they can deploy somewhere that gives them an option on a run to a point and then use their scout move to close the distance – or alternatively, to run backwards out of line of sight if you lose the roll-off. Eliminator Squads can also reach surprisingly far with their combination of being INFILTRATORS and the ability to make a Normal Move after shooting. You might also consider using some allied units here, particularly the Imperial Assassins. I’m personally a big fan of the Callidus, who is a great objective piece with her mix of INFILTRATORS, DEEP STRIKE, and her datasheet redeployment ability; the Eversor is also great in this role thanks to a 9” Scout move, the ability to Advance and shoot and charge (which means he can Advance and do actions), and being cheap as chips.

That’s fine for getting the points, but what about keeping them? Space Marine units are pretty resilient, so against the kind of incidental firepower that might wipe out some Guardsmen or Skitarii they’re usually pretty safe, but they’re not that tough and a dedicated push will generally wipe them out. One useful ability on the Intercessor Squad is Objective Secured, which means that if they hold an objective at the end of your Command Phase then you keep control of it even if you have no models in range of it. Intercessors aren’t great, but Objective Secured is a useful option if you really don’t want to have to leave anything behind, and it means an opponent has to actively come and take the objective off you rather than just killing what you have on there. If you’re more interested in your units hunkering down and holding a point, then Heavy Intercessors are also worth a look; they’re not much more expensive than the regular kind, but they get T6, an extra Wound, and the Unyielding in the Face of the Foe datasheet ability which gives them +1 to armour saves against Damage 1 weapons. Opponents will need to commit more serious firepower to getting rid of them, and their anti-infantry output is respectable thanks to their heavy bolt rifles. Aggressors have a similar defensive profile and are likely to be advancing forwards to take on enemy units in the first place, plus they have respectable melee, so they’re a likely choice for holding midfield points.

Other options include Impulsors – great for getting forwards at pace, and providing a tough shell for a unit to secure a point without exposing themselves so badly – and Drop Pods, which are obviously more static but can serve a useful purpose in both dropping offensive units like Devastators into a useful shooting position, and also putting them onto a midfield point you might otherwise struggle to reach. Speaking of deep striking, don’t forget about the Meteoric Assault on Inceptors, which can be very handy for flipping a weakly-defended point – in particular it can be hilarious for pulling off Capture Enemy Outpost if an unwary opponent has left their home objective vulnerable.

Finally, a brief mention for Redemptor Dreadnoughts, which are enjoying some play at the moment and are a nice tough chassis that can shoot a bit and fight a bit – like Aggressors, they’re likely to want to go forwards anyway, so they can also be a good piece to plonk on an objective and force the opponent to deal with them. And don’t forget, for all of the above, the ability to use Armour of Contempt to reduce incoming AP – particularly great on the Redemptor’s 2+ save, but handy anywhere you need to keep a unit alive to hold a point.

How Does This Faction Handle Enemy Hordes?

As suggested above, the first option anyone is going to think of here is the Desolation Squad which essentially pours out a whole bunch of indirect fire bolter shots. If you need to kill a bunch of infantry fast, then Desos will do that for you, often with minimal risk to themselves. For repeat themes, see also Aggressors, who pour out a huge volume of anti-infantry firepower. Whirlwinds can also contribute volume of shots to anti-infantry since they shoot d6+3 with a BLAST weapon, though unlike Desolation Squads they do suffer the indirect penalties and so you will want to account for cover and potentially either shoot them at an Oath target or give them +1 to hit from somewhere, or both.

For other options, you might also look at the Storm Speeder Hailstrike, which has respectable anti-infantry shooting and also grants additional AP to other Space Marine units that shoot at a target it hit – which can be great for setting up your lighter firepower to punch above its weight, and is particularly helpful into things that have AP-reducing effects like those under Illuminor Szeras’ aura.

Assault bolter Inceptors also produce a high volume of shots, particularly if you high-roll their SUSTAINED HITS 2. A surprise entry here is also the Impulsor, which can roll up with its two storm bolters and ironhail heavy stubber to pour out 14 shots at Rapid Fire range, a respectable number for a transport which also has FIRING DECK 6 to let you shoot with whatever’s inside – Sternguard Veterans and Hellblasters both offering different spins on this concept, and Hellblasters can also benefit from a kind of protection from their own HAZARDOUS rolls if they want to overcharge their plasma incinerators from inside the boat.

On the subject of transports, both the Land Raiders Crusader/Reedemer and the Repulsor offer decent anti-infantry shooting on top of their core functions, and often you’ll find with Marines that one way to manage hordes is simply to utilise all the random storm bolters and stubbers and such which get strapped to every vehicle and Dreadnought by default. We’ll talk more about grav-cannons in the next section, but it’s also worth remembering that they are 3 shots each at S6 AP-1 – so even if there’s not a good vehicle target for a unit of Devastators, they’re actually not terrible at shooting at volume, especially if you can get them to either sit still for HEAVY or give them +1 to hit with some Incursors.

How Does This Faction Handle Enemy Tanks and Monsters?

We may as well carry on talking about Devastators, since they’re right there. Grav-cannons are only S6, but they are also ANTI-VEHICLE 2+ and flat 3 damage, which makes them a great choice for taking on enemy armour. However, they’re also only AP-1, so you really want to find a way to help boost their AP – which is doable for Space Marines in various ways – and they don’t do much of anything into MONSTER units. You might instead consider lascannons or multi-meltas. Storm of Fire is your big tool for pushing the grav’s power up, as +1AP gets you to AP-2 and Ignores Cover, the perfect statline for Knight hunting.

More straightforward for anti-tank infantry, there’s Eradicators, whose datasheet ability lets them re-roll their whole Attack sequence – Hits, Wounds, and Damage rolls – into both MONSTER and VEHICLE units, which is super helpful both for making their melta weapons punch up into the array of things out there with T10 or T12, and also for making them less dependent on Oath of Moment. They are shorter-ranged than previously, however (just 18”), and since they’re Gravis-armoured they only move 5”, so getting them into range can be challenging. Strategic Reserves and Devastator Doctrine can mitigate this somewhat.

I mentioned the Gladiator Lancer earlier, which has both a Really Big Gun and also its own native re-rolls, and is priced to move. Also in the straightforward “shoot big gun at enemy tank” category is the Predator Annihilator, as well as the Vindicator and the Ballistus Dreadnought.

The Storm Speeder Hailstrike can help with boosting AP, but its cousin the Thunderstrike brings the useful ability to give +1 to wound against an enemy VEHICLE or MONSTER unit which it hits with its own attacks. This is a great all-round buff – it helps your dedicated anti-tank to be more efficient, whether that means big guns moving from 3s to 2s, but it also helps your S7-S9 firepower to punch up – the aforementioned Eradicators, but also Whirlwinds, Hellblasters, Redemptor Dreadnoughts and the like. Don’t sleep on its ability to allow volume fire to add anti-tank weight, either, particularly if combined with an AP boost from somewhere. Speaking of punching up, the Redemptor’s fist is also a viable option for close-range anti-tank, as is Roboute Guilliman’s and Tor Garadon’s.

What Combos Should You Build Around?

I’ve already alluded to several combos above, so let’s spell a few of them out.

First, let’s outline some specific buff effects that I really like. Incursors giving +1 to hit, Hailstrikes giving extra AP, and Thunderstrikes giving +1 to wound against MONSTER/VEHICLE units all trigger against any one unit they hit with their own attacks – so they’re easy to apply, and have broad applicability to making the rest of your shooting more efficient. Also highly obvious in this category is Oath of Moment, and you may find that the equation is as straightforward as “apply 1-3 buffs/debuffs to a key target which has Oaths on it, then shoot at that thing until it’s dead.” Guilliman, of course, can nominate two separate targets for Oaths, but there’s two key things to remember here – you have to completely destroy the first unit before the second Oaths applies, and the “Persisting Effects” rare rule means that if a character (or characters) is attached to that first unit they are still the “Oathed” unit until they’re dead too. You may find that you need to commit enough firepower to e.g. kill all the Necron Warriors, and still have enough activations left to kill a Cryptek and an Overlord or something as well before you can move on to the next target – so don’t get greedy.

Beyond those, there’s the interplay of Leaders, Enhancements, and Stratagems. When we’re talking about Enhancements, probably the most common one you’ll see is Bolter Discipline, which has two effects – firstly the bearer’s unit gets SUSTAINED HITS 1 on their ranged weapons, and secondly the unit gets Critical Hits on a 5+ for ranged attacks when they’re in the Devastator Doctrine. This is a great effect for multiple use cases, and it can go on any Leader. You will see this very often on a Primaris Librarian attached to a Desolation Squad, since it juices their firepower even more; the Librarian also gives a 4+ invulnerable save and 4+ Feel No Pain against Psychic attacks, making his attached squad much harder to dig out. Those defensive abilities make the Librarian a great pick for any unit he can attach to, but you may also see this on an Apothecary of some kind – the Primaris Apothecary is a great choice to attach to Hellblasters, since he can pick them up again when they kill themselves with HAZARDOUS, while the Apothecary Biologis can attach to Gravis units which means he can give Bolter Discipline to the big boys like Eradicators or Aggressors. The Biologis is particularly good here because he also gives out LETHAL HITS, so he’ll have the triple effect of giving his unit auto-wounds, extra hits, and more of both in Devastator. While you’re there, you may as well use the Storm of Fire Stratagem for IGNORES COVER and, in Devastator, an additional point of AP.

Speaking of the need to be in Devastator Doctrine, don’t forget about Adaptive Strategy allowing you to be in a different Doctrine to the one you picked for the army, and to re-use one you already declared – your unit with Bolter Discipline will very often want to be in Devastator Doctrine, so using Adaptive Strategy each turn to achieve this can help give you extra mileage. On the same subject, I have so far mentioned Librarians and Apothecaries, but there’s a place for the various flavours of Captain too with their hyper-flexible Rites of Battle ability. This is great for both the ability to use a Stratagem for free but also being able to double up on them – you might want to use this offensively in your own turn, to get two units into Devastator or two of them under Storm of Fire, or use it defensively to double up on Armour of Contempt, or to pull off a Counter-Offensive or Only in Death Does Duty End if you’re lacking the CP to do it normally.

Much of the above has focused on Devastator Doctrine, but the other two Doctrines have linked Stratagems too – Honour the Chapter gives a unit LANCE and also extra AP if they’re in the Assault Doctrine, while Squad Tactics allows an infantry unit to move d6” if an enemy comes within 9” of it, but defaults to a full 6” while you’re in Tactical. Squad Tactics is a super-powerful ability when used correctly, letting you reduce angles and protect units after the opponent has had to commit to a move, and thinking ahead to when you might want to use it and whether your army can be in Tactical Doctrine to reduce your risk can be key.

Looking at other Leaders, Tor Garadon has had a significant boost this edition, and is now a cheap Captain with a good gun, a big fist, and the ability to hand out both LETHAL HITS and IGNORES COVER to his unit as well as giving himself +2 Strength, AP, and Damage against MONSTER/VEHICLE/FORTIFICATION units. He pairs nicely with a unit of Eradicators, giving them a damage boost but also benefiting from their re-rolls with his grav-gun, which looks a lot funkier when it’s re-rolling Hits and Wounds at AP-3 D4. More defensively, a Librarian in Phobos armour can give a unit his Shrouding ability, which is effectively Lone Operative – helpful for Eliminators to get line of sight without being shot back, or for helping a unit of Infiltrators to hold a distant point.

To conclude, let’s put a few of those units together, and summarise the various effects you might apply and how to use them. I won’t explicitly list them every time, but it’s worth remembering that Oath of Moment and the hit/wound/AP buffs mentioned above can all apply to these if needed.

10-model Desolation Squad + Primaris Librarian with Bolter Discipline, using Storm of Fire under Devastator Doctrine. Each model has d3 + BLAST shots indirectly at BS3+ S4 AP-1, with Sustained Hits 1 that crits on a 5+, plus the Sergeant’s Vengor launcher at S7 AP-2. If needed, they can also fire 9 superkrak rockets at BS4+ S10 AP-3 doing D6+1 damage. Defensively they have a 4+ invulnerable save and a 4+ Feel No Pain against Psychic attacks.

6-model Aggressor Squad + Apothecary Biologis with Bolter Discipline, using Storm of Fire under Devastator Doctrine. Each model has 3 shots with its boltstorm gauntlet and d6 + BLAST with its fragstorm grenade launchers. Against the closest eligible target, they get AP-1, so with Storm of Fire they’re AP-2 and they also ignore cover. Your minimum here is 24 shots assuming you roll all 1s on the fragstorms and are shooting fewer than 5 models, but your ceiling (into a 20-24 model unit, which is about the biggest things go in 10th) is 78 shots, and with SUSTAINED HITS 1 and LETHAL HITS on a 5+ into an Oaths target you’re likely to end up rolling your hits and getting criticals with around half of them, so you end up with that many auto-wounds plus as many wound rolls as you had shots. You can also add a Captain in here to give them an option on Rites of Battle. Great for just sandblasting things off the table.

5-model Hellblaster Squad + Apothecary + Impulsor. When you’re using FIRING DECK to shoot out of a vehicle, it’s effectively the vehicle which is shooting – and therefore which takes the Hazardous Tests. They take 3 wounds per failure, but an Impulsor has 11 wounds, so they can eat a few before dying. If the vehicle does die in your turn, the squad disembarks and is then able to shoot again, because it wasn’t the unit that shot (the Impulsor was), and potentially the models can shoot a third time if they die and get the 3+ on their datasheet ability. All that and then the Apothecary can pick them up next turn and they can do it again.

6-model Eradicator Squad + Tor Garadon. Rolling out with 10 melta shots plus Tor’s grav-gun, which re-roll Hit/Wound/Damage rolls, and have LETHAL HITS and IGNORES COVER. Tor himself can rumble in melee, if needed, and at T6 W3 they’re pretty tough. Good clean fun, though don’t forget that Tor is a Captain but doesn’t give Rites of Battle. 

Incursors + 2 5-model Devastator Squads with grav-cannons + Drop Pod + Storm Speeder Hailstrike + Storm of Fire under Devastator Doctrine. Really need a vehicle dead? Drop the Devs in, tag the target with the Incursors and Hailstrike, pop Storm of Fire on the first unit, and suddenly those grav-cannons are putting out 12 shots that hit on 3s, wound on 2s, and have AP-3 damage 3, then another 12 at AP-2, both of which can auto-hit one shot with the Cherub. You can potentially pull off double Storm of Fire if Guilliman is nearby, although that requires a bit of set-up and opportunity cost.

You can’t necessarily do all of these at once – half of them want you to have Bolter Discipline in the unit after all – and in many cases we’re assuming optimal conditions and efficiency where every model is in range, every Stratagem is lined up, your buff units are all alive and able to tag the right model for your hammer to then slam into. The point isn’t to say that every one of these things will always work and you should cram them all into your list, but to explore a few different possibilities to show off what can be done with the Index, and what the Gladius Task Force detachment allows.

Army Lists

A good indicator of where Space Marines are in the meta right now is that I went looking for top 4 lists for pure Index: Space Marines without Deathwatch or Dark Angels additions, and only found two, both at small GTs.

Howard Watts – 4th Place – War in the Fort GT

Army List - Click to Expand

Michael Murrell – 2nd Place – Winchester 40k GT

Army List - Click to Expand

Final Thoughts

That’s that for Index: Space Marines, unadorned by divergent chapter frills. We will of course be covering those extra indexes elsewhere (and as mentioned have already published a view on Deathwatch), as well as looking at everything in 10th edition in our ongoing Faction Focus series. For now, enjoy your games, grit your teeth whenever Aeldari show up across the table, and rest assured – we’re at the start of an edition, and so Codex: Space Marines and its accompanying tidal wave of new Space Marine kits is inevitably coming soon, to add even more options to the faction which may or may not help keep elves from kicking its teeth in. As ever, if you have questions or feedback feel free to drop us a comment below, or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.