In-Focus: Space Marine Tactical Squad

Space Marines are undoubtedly one of the most common armies played in Warhammer 40,000. I would say that, on average, 1/3^rd of all armies you play against will be some form of Space Marine army. However, with the new full-sized codexes for Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, and Black Templars, you could find yourself against a myriad of different types of Space Marines.

Described here though is the regular bread & butter Space Marine Tactical Squad. Every Space Marine army will be fielding at least 1 of these squads (with the exception of Scout armies, but that is truly the exception, and I have never seen one fielded). Even though some armies will have special rules that may modify how this squad functions, there are basic changes that will require that you shift your strategy marginally.

For example, Space Wolf squads will benefit from the Counter-Assault special rule, which take away many of the advantages of assaulting – specifically, the bonus attacks. This means that you cannot count on as many of your troops surviving an assault. Plan accordingly, and this should not be too much of an issue. It’s still better to charge rather than be charged, but it may not be worth it to throw low-initiative troops at them (like a stray, low-model count squad of Orks).

To sum up the Tactical Squad I need only 2 words – “great” and “flexible”. This can describe the Space Marines as a whole, but it’s because their basic troop is the template for almost every model in their army (each one being a minor change from this basic template).

Tactical Marines have a high save (3+), a good toughness (4), and the “They Shall Know No Fear” special rule. These stats alone account for most of their points cost. It means that, no matter what, a Tactical Squad is going to be a threat down to the very last man, and that it’s not going to be any small task getting there. This unit’s survivability means that it can contest objectives even when gravely injured, and can resist the Massacre! result better than most other armies.

Tactical Squads now, under the new 5^th edition codex, are better than ever thanks to the new “Combat Squads” special rule, allowing Space Marines to split up a maxed-out Tactical Squad into 2 squads. When they do so, it’s important to remember that although the squad takes up 1 slot in the Force Organization chart, they will function effectively as two distinct squads.

***Combat Squads, being only 5 models large, can sneakily grab an objective. Even these 3 models can claim and/or contest this objective.***

Tactical Squads (or their Combat Squad) will be designed for a purpose before the game begins. Space Marine players have to choose their special weapons in advance, and this will lock that squad in to a certain role. If they’re armed with a flamer and a Sergeant with a power weapon/fist, then you can be pretty sure that the squad is assigned to move around and engage in assault moves. If they’re armed with a Lascannon, they’re almost certainly anti-tank/monstrous creature.

You’re likely to run into many that carry Missile Launchers. They’re cheap, and can support the army in an anti-tank or anti-infantry manner. They’re not quite as good as the Heavy Bolter for fighting infantry (actually, they’re almost as good if not better in some circumstances), and not quite as good as the Lascannon for tanks, but their flexibility and low-cost really makes them shine.

Of special note is the Squad Sergeant. I like to think of the Sergeant as a special weapon model more than a support model when it comes to Space Marines. Since the Sergeant comes automatically with any squad, the only real difference is how he's armed. Most commonly you'll catch Sergeants with a Pistol and Power Fist, but don't let that fool you into thinking that's all you'll see. Many players will sacrifice the extra attack for a combi-weapon (plasma or flamer). These potent weapons can give the squad a small pump to handle a variety of opponents. Keep your eyes peeled for these combi-weapons, as they often come as a surprised to the unprepared.

The Tactical Squad’s basic armament, the Bolter, is also an incredible weapon – one that well-respected by many players. It has a good strength compared to most other small-arms, good range, rapid fire for close-range, and an AP that means a lot of non-Space Marine armies are going to lose their saves to your basic weapon. That’s quite a punch. Not only that, but Tactical Squads come equipped with Bolt Pistols too! Even though they are not carrying a close combat weapon (CCW), the Pistol is incredibly handy. It allows a Space Marine squad to effectively obtain a 3^rd attack each when charging (1 + 1 for charging + 1 for the pistol shot).

However, Tactical Squads must be cautious when using the pistol. If an enemy is just within reach of a charge, a few pistol shots and a flamer could allow their opponent to remove the first line of troops, preventing the assault. Use this information wisely.

Finally, Tactical Squads also are able to take a myriad of transport options. I’ll cover transports again in the future – but to sum it up quickly, they are allowed a Drop Pod, a light transport, and a heavy transport.

With Combat Squads, the most logical option for me would be to take the heavy transport option – the Razorback. The Razorback is everything the Rhino is, and more, and while carrying a combat-squad, the 6-model maximum restriction is easily overlookable. Remember, having an extra weapon makes the Razorback harder to kill and neutralize as a threat.

The Rhino is the classic Space Marine transport. Rhinos can carry a full Tactical Squad. This is most useful for assault-oriented armies, so if you see a Rhino, you can bet that the Space Marines will try to use this to bring in a large squad of ready Space Marines.

Finally, the Drop Pod is useful, and allows incredible tactical options at the beginning of the game, and does it all for a real bargain in points. However, it is stationary (auto-hit in close combat), and the Tactical Squad will not be able to re-embark to go somewhere else. Drop Pod forces are likely to land right where you don’t want them. If their entire force is embarked in Drop Pods, then prepare for a Drop Pod Assault Force (more on that in another article as well), otherwise, try to keep an eye on where would be a good spot for them to land. Plan your strategy accordingly. One of the biggest mistakes to make is to allow a single Drop-Pod to completely destabilize your army’s momentum. A Drop-Pod and the Tactical Marines within are expensive (close or over 200 points). If you can deal with it without letting it disrupt much of your army, you’re golden.

Strategies, Tactics, and What They Mean.

"Seeing the forest from the trees," "getting the big picture," and "sensing the flow of the game," are all ways that we describe the concept of prioritizing strategy and tactics. However, many players don't see or understand this concept, and many fail to even understand the differences between them

I once saw an article on the internet for Warhammer 40,000 titled “Why tactics are useless in Warhammer,” and I was really stunned that someone would say this. I think what the person was meaning to say is that strategy is useless, since the game requires a strong use of tactics. But even then, I believe that the person was wrong, as there are many strategic components to the game – but most of these decisions are made before the game even begins.

Sun Tzu wrote in the Art of War:

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."

This is especially true for Warhammer, although the structure is somewhat reversed. It is possible to win a game of Warhammer with tactics alone, but without strategy you’re only half-way to victory. Conversely, having a strategy in Warhammer is great, but without tactics to back you up, you’re doomed to fail.

The reason behind this is simple. In Warhammer, you win any match so long as you wipe your opponent out (a Massacre result) before the game ends. Regardless of any other objective, a wiped-out opponent loses, and you win. I recently won a game this way – a special scenario where only HQ units could score killpoints. At the end, with my HQ that had scored kill-points dead, I had 0 points. However, I had wiped my opponent out. If he had even 1 unit of grots left (who couldn’t even score points), we’d have tied – but since he was wiped out, I won.

So what do I mean by strategy, and what do I mean by tactics?

In marketing, the terms are very rigidly defined. Quickly put, tactics are things you do to improve your business that are short-term (within the span of 1 year). These are things like hiring/firing, discounting old merchandise, and picking out the right Christmas merchandise before the season hits.

Strategies, on the other hand, are things that you do to improve your business that are long-term (span of greater than 1 year). These are things like trying to change customer’s perceptions of your store/brand, modifying the customer experience, or creating an online sales department.

The same concept of strategy and tactics apply in Warhammer, but we’re not dealing with massive time-frames. Tactics are still short-term decisions, and strategies are still long-term.

How short-term, and how long-term though?

Tactics:

Tactics in 40k are the small decisions that you make throughout the game. They are your unit by unit, turn by turn, choices. How far will you move? What will you shoot? Will you assault or not? How will you disembark from your transport? Do you risk immobilizing your vehicle going through the difficult terrain, or risk losing your cover save when the enemy comes into a firing position next turn? These are all examples of tactics.

Tactics are extremely important in Warhammer. If you make the incorrect small decisions, you can’t hope to fulfill your strategy (the basics of which likely are; "win games"). If you’re assaulting Wraithlords with your woefully under-equipped HQ, you’re likely making the wrong tactical decision. But some tactical decisions are more difficult than this. A classic question is when you have to choose to either assault one, two, three, or no units!

This problem occurs more for horde armies than for elite ones (Tyranids, Orks), but can also apply to a mostly unmolested squad of Blood Angels, Howling Banshees, Kroot, or other 8+ model assault squads. The problem that tends to come up is this; you’re close to the enemy’s big bad assault character/unit (Killa Kanz, Wraithlord, Dreadnaught, Demon Prince, etc.). If you stay where you are, you’re likely going to die, if not from the enemy’s firepower, from the inevitable assault. If you assault, though, there’s another assault unit close by, and they can counter-charge you. If you assault, you may even kill off the unit that you’re assault, and then the enemy guns and other assault unit will definitely destroy you. Finally, there’s a third squad close by that you can double-charge and, while not an assault squad, stands to do some major damage to other parts of your army if it gets away.

This is a complicated tactical scenario. No answer seems to be the right one. Assaulting nothing is bad, assaulting one is also bad, and assaulting two enemies means that you’re basically sacrificing your squad. The correct answer will depend a lot on both the rest of you’re army’s position, and on your strategy. It’s one turn, one choice, but that tactical decision could have far-reaching implications.

Strategies:

Then there’s your strategy, which are the long-term decisions that you make, and which can influence your chances at winning not just one game, but in all your games with that army. A strategy can be as small as “In this game I need to capture the objective and then just survive,” to “I’ve collected my army based on the concept of dealing significant ordnance damage to the enemy, and then finishing them off with assault and flamer squads". Strategies are not individual choices, but is a philosophy that helps to direct or view future tactical decisions. You may want to charge the nearest enemy, and that may give you the best damage/loss ratio, but if you know the game's going to end soon you may need to charge that unit that you have no hope of defeating simply to stop them from getting to the objective.

It is nearly impossible not to have a strategy. A strategy can be as simple as “win this game”.

Strategies are merely philosophies that guide the rest of your decisions. It is possible not to play to win. GW employees learn to give intro-games, which are played with the strategy of presenting the game in the most favourable light to that player (players may like the models, the story, the rules, the competition, etc.). If I encounter a new player, I play to teach them the rules – so I might make decisions that, although not correct for the “win this game” strategy, do help the “teach the rules” strategy.

However, having a better defined strategy, or multiple levels of strategy, can greatly benefit you. Some levels are; army choice, army collection, tournament army lists, single-game army lists, size of game, play style, and placing terrain.

The most common time that players decide on strategies is when putting together an army list. Since I see Warhammer as a strategy game, a game that I try to win, I like to collect larger armies. A larger army allows me more strategic decisions when constructing an army list, since I can change my army list from game to game. One game I may use a strategy of lots of models, and another game I may use a strategy of fast vehicles. Making the strategic decision to collect a large army allows me choices for what strategies I will be able to execute later.

Remember these differences, because your understanding of Warhammer 40,000 and how to win it require that you know the difference!

Introducing...

Hey thar you git! Get over ‘ere before I knock you down one. I’ve been told that you need some teachings in Warhammer 40,000 battles – you not tuff ‘nuff yet to handle even a paltry pet squig! But don’t worry, Boss Klopz is ‘ere to help!

But you’re going to need the help of my whole team. ‘der da best of da boyz, and each is all smarts-like in their area of expertise.

First, der’s Big Mek Dakka Killa. He’s real smart – good for keeping yur boyz alive and stop them from doing silly things like dying. He’ll cover some of the more gibberishy things of Warhammer (he doesn’t realize dat the best way to blow something up, is just throw a bunch of boyz at it! Har har!).

Then there’s Big Mek Killa Dakka! He’s Dakka Killa’s brother. He’s faced and blown up almost everything there is out there! He’ll let you know all about the different enemies you could be fightin’.

Finally, there’s me! Boss Klopz! I’llz be telling you about strategies and tactik’s. Some are real sneaky too, like one of dem Kommando-boyz…

Every now and then, I’ll test ya too! See ‘ow much you learned. Here’s what I hope to bash into yur skull within the next 2 months:

- The Difference Between Tactics and Strategies

- In-Focus: Space Marine Tactical Squad

- By the Numbers: Probabilities Made Easy

- Dirty Tactics: Transports

- Spending Teeth: Defensive and Offensive Grenades

- Armchair Generaling: Don’t Over Simplify

- Losing Sight of the Objective

Don't forget to check back every week, or I'll trash ya!