Space Marines Army Tactics

Space Marines are the easiest army to start out with, and some of the most resilient and generally powerful basic troops in the game.  That being said, they also have some of the fewest numbers in the game, and that can become a huge disadvantage against the right player (looking at you, Gaunt horde). Now, once you realize this, there are a few ways to deal with this.

1. Space Marines are a static, ranged army.  They work best when entrenched and in cover, while your opponent is forced to advance towards them.  Position your troops well and let your opponent do your work for you while you whittle down his army.
2. Keep your forces together, supporting each other. Robert Baratheon had it right, at around 2:05: You need to keep your army together, and fighting as one.  Find one target, and eliminate it. Move onto the next.  Fight as one, cohesive army, and your opponent will find you much harder to swallow.  This works well for any army, but when you focus the firepower and Ballistic Skill of the Space Marines, it goes so much further.
3. Always be the player assaulting.  Yes, your marines are tough and have a good initiative, but they can be overwhelmed easily, especially when they are assaulted by units getting 20+ attacks in assault. You need to be the one charging and gaining the attacks, so you can quickly end the assault and go back to your static shooting tactics.
4. Avoid being surrounded.  This is harder than it sounds.  When your army is surrounded it becomes harder to focus your firepower and you must split your fires. If you do find yourself surrounded, focus your forces on one target, move to it, shoot at it, and assault through it, until your forces are only dealing with a single-direction attack.
5. Have you seen 300? If not, watch it, regardless of this blog. Regardless, my point is that area denial is the Space Marine's friend. Use it to your advantage, and force your opponent into funneling his troops through difficult terrain to get to you. His mass of troops can't do near as much damage when they're in single-file line slowly working their way towards your position, one squad at a time.
6. Anti-Tank works best in one of three ways: 

• By joining and travelling with your "fist." Make them part of your troops and further enhance your fighting abilities by mixing anti-vehicle support.
• By staying static. Find them a location with good cover and line of sight either during deployment or on turn 1, and keep them there, preventing your opponent from using his vehicles.
• By staying mobile. Take all of your Anti-Tank forces, move them as another solid fist, maneuvering around terrain to flank and annihilate your opponent's vehicles.
• Any way you work your anti-tank, once your opponent's vehicles are destroyed, use them to target characters and command units.

That being said, this is a tactics site, and I will also list tips to fight against them. While, as previously mentioned, they are tough, Space Marines are far from invincible. There are a handful of ways to exploit their inherent weaknesses and deal with their strengths.

1. Keep them on the move. Deny them ground to consolidate and centralize their forces, and prevent them from forming that cohesive force. They fight best as a static force, so keep them from being that.
2. Bait and surround them.  Give them one target to attack, and make them come to it, then surround and eliminate them.
3. Always assault them, and always with superior attacks or numbers. Their low numbers means that keeping one squad bogged down in assault for too long can bog down his entire force.
4. Do not funnel your forces. Avoid it at (almost) all costs, and make area denial Space Marines a high priority target.
5. Volume of fire. While they can single out one of your squads to wipe out at a time, do the same to them.  One Tactical Squad is usually worth 1 1/2 or more of your squads. Similarly, their high armor save means that most of the weapons where the AP even factors in will only get 1 or 2 shots.  Focus instead on ordnance, blast, template, and multiple shot weapons. If you can inflict 30 wounds, odds are 10 will fail. Play that to your advantage.

That's all I have for now, next I will move more onto army formations and ideas.

Taking a break...

So there's been a lot going on recently, and, as a result, I have had neither the time nor the inclination to post things. Probably not going to do so this weekend, as there is much work to be done. Long story short, I've been working 11 hour days, unpacking (I moved a short time ago), National Guard obligations, and sleeping on average 3-4 hours. A couple of years ago, this would have been no problem, but I find that as time goes on, my body is not keeping up with my demands of it. I had pre-written a number of blogs, but they need to be severely edited. As I need to do this, I am cutting out a snippet of one and adding it later (it really didn't have a place in the overall blog, I tacked it on because I thought it was good ideas).