Codex Space Marine
HQ Tactics

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You will need at least one HQ unit for each game you play. There are very occasional times where you may come across low point scenarios where you do not need a HQ, but for the most part you can guarantee that you need one.

As you will be needing a HQ unit for virtually every, it is highly recommended that you get to know the few HQ choices that you have available in detail.

Special Characters

The Space Marine Codex includes a selection of named characters. These are usually associated with specific chapters. If a Character has a 'Chapter Tactics' special rule then he really can only be included in a force with units from that chapter, or successor chapters. For really large games you can field forces from different armies. This does give you the chance to field forces from different Space Marine Chapters at the same time too.

Special Characters can be quite dominating in a game. It is polite to agree to use named characters before including one in your army list. This is usually done when you are discussing how many points to play. It could be a good idea to have two army rosters to hand, one with Special Characters, and one without. This will give you the flexibility of which army list to use at short notice.

Marneus Calgar

 Marneus Calgar is the chapter master of the Ultramarine Space Marines. He is also the most expensive character in the Space Marine Codex. This is because he has a lot of extra special rules. Make sure you know all his extra rules so you get the full value from him. Because the points cost of Marneus Calgar is so high you will want to be careful about using him in smaller games. Remember to make sure that you have enough points to create a rounded army.

Marneus Calgar is a good 'well rounded' character. He has a good shooting weapon and a high ballistic skill to make use of it, and can call an orbital strike once in the game. Marneus Calgar also is useful in close combat. he has an extra attack over the normal chapter master and his two power fists give him an extra attack for two close combat attacks. Remember that the power fists will not make use of his high initiative.

Strength and Weapons

Marneus Calgar is the chapter master of the Ultramarines. This means that he gets the pick of the Ultramarine's wargear. What he chose was the "Gauntlets of Ultramar". These are a pair of Power Fists that strike Marneus's standard I5 instead of the I1. The Gauntlets also have storm bolter like ranged weapons built in. These have the same stats as a storm bolter except that they are AP2.

Assault :
4 attacks * (3/6 to hit) (4/6 to wound) No saves *14/275 = 4x0.5×4÷6×14÷275 =0.0678787879

However if he takes on larger targets then his score works out better.

Shooting:
2*shots, 5/6 hit, 3/6 wound, no saves *14 point per marine /275 points per Marneus = 2×5÷6×0.5×14÷275 =0.04242

This means that it would take 20+ rounds of shooting basic Space Marines for you to get your point value back. Which just shows that Marneus is designed to take on bigger targets!

Special Rules

As I mentioned above Marneus has a number of special rules that you would be advised get to know ( or write on a small card ) when you use him.

Warlord Traits

Marneus Calgar has to select his Warlord traits from the Space Marine Warlord traits. Three traits will be chosen at random. You may choose one of these three traits. This means that if you have 2 favourite traits, there is a good chance that you will be able to pick one each game. So get good at using two or three traits.

Chapter Tactics - Ultramarines

Marneus Calgar can be one of the units that you choose to use a doctrine. For full effect though you will want to keep the doctrines for larger units. So if you are wanting to use a doctrine this way you may want to make sure that Marneus is attached to a Ultramarine ( or successor ) unit when the time comes.

Eternal Warrior

This is the universal special rule that makes a character immune to instant death. This means that if Marneus is hit by S8, S9, or S10 weapon, then he only takes one wound, instead of dieing instantly like other characters would. Some weapons have a ' Cause instant death ' clause too. This special rule means that he only takes one wound at a time from these weapons too.

God of War

This special rule come with a couple of interesting bonuses to Marneus's skills.

The first is that is allows those the Chapter Tactics ( Ultramarines ) the ability pass or fail any moral test they need to take. This means that they can be as stubborn or as flighty as you like. This removes a notable element of randomness from the Ultramarines game play. As I have mentioned elsewhere the randomization is the main enemy of tactical planning.

The next bonus that this special rule gives you is that you can use one of the Ultramarines combat doctrine twice. Also as you do not have to reveal which doctrine you are going to use a 2nd time until you use it, this means that you do not need to pick which doctrine you will use a 2nd time until then.

Orbital Bombardment

When the big guns are not big enough, drop some death for space!

Titanic Might

Marneus Calgar likes thumping tanks. He is a bit like 'The Hulk' in this respect. :-0
However he does seem to be good at giving large chunks of metal a good left hook. It game terms he gets to re-roll failed and glancing armour penetration results.

This raises the question of how do you get Marneus Calgar close to the enemy tanks without being shot up first? There are 3 options here.

The first is to place him in a Land Raider. A Rhino is an option, but in a Land Raider Marneus Calgar will have a chance to disembark and assault in the same turn.

The 2nd option is to place him with a command squad in a drop pod. This will allow you to drop Marneus Calgar deep in to the battle field during the game. If you do this, be sure to tool up the command squad for tank hunting!

The 3rd option is to upgrade Marneus Calgar's armour to terminator armour. This will allow him to drop deep in to the enemy lines again, and a lower points cost. You may want to team him up with a terminator squad anyway, so that he does not get out numbered by any counter assaulting enemy troops.

Captain Cato Sicarius

Captain Sicarius is the Ultramarine character in charge of the Ultramarine 2nd company, but please remember that you can include him in other Ultramarine succession army lists by just saying that this model is like Captain Sicarius ( & pay the points ).

Captain Sicarius is a good 2nd choice as a leader for your Ultramarine army. He is notably cheaper in points than Marneus Calgar, and this is because he does not have as many special rules or equipment that he does.

Toughness and Special Rules

Captain Sicarius has a suit of armour that is a chapter relic. Also even though is does not mention it specifically, we can see from the stats line that the armour is 2+ save artificer armour. The ' Mantle of the Suzerian' also gives him a Feel No Pain (5+) extra save if the 2+ armour does not save him.

Like most named characters Captain Sicarius also gets an Iron Halo. This gives him a 4+ invulnerable save against anti-tank and power weapons. Remember that this save is backed up with the Feel No Pain (5+) save too.

Chief Librarian Tigurius

Chief Librarian Tigurius is the highest ranking Librarian of the Ultramarine's army. He is L3 psyker so with the improvements to the 6th edition of the Warhammer 40k Rulebook this is a very useful ability.

You can use Tigurius as your general, but remember that as he is a Librarian Tigurius is not as skilled at close combat as other name captains. As you will want Tigurius to throw as many psychic bolts at your enemy as possible, the best location for him will be 12" to 24" from the enemy, but not in close combat. This means that you may want to team him up with a close support fire squad. You may want this squad armed with mental or flamer weapons.

Strength and Weapons

Tigurius stat line is ok, but not amazing. I would suggest that you will want to make sure that Tigurius has some backup, like a command squad if he is likely to get into close combat.

As for weapons Librarian Tigurius gets a useful, Master Crafted force weapon. Remember that this weapon is a force weapon, so it will take a psychic point, and a psychic test to get it to work.

Tigurius does get a bolt pistol too. This is useful as a 2nd weapon to give you an extra attack in close combat, or as a backup weapon if you have used up all your psychic points.

Armour and special Rules

Chief Librarian Tigurius only gets basic 3+ Power Armour with no Invulnerable saves, and no options to upgrade to better armour. This means that you will need to attach him to a squad, either a Command Squad, or a basic tactical squad, to soak up some incoming fire that is sure to come his way.

As Tigurius is a Librarian, he is automatically a Psyker. I have add notes about this a the start of this article. One special rule that was not mentioned there is that he gets a 'Master Psyker' special rule. This allows you to re-roll the psychic powers that you get, so if you have a preferred psychic power then this special rule means that you are very likely to get it.

Tigurius also gets a special psychic hood. This allows you to re-roll psychic tests, and this means that you are virtually guaranteed to pass all the psychic tests he will take.

Tigurius also gets a ' Gift of Prescience' special rule. This allows your Ultramarines (or successor chapters), to re-roll Reserve rolls. This in turn means that you have much more control over when your reserves arrive. So if you have a number of reserve units, you will want Tigurius in play from the first turn

Warlord Trait

If you take Tigurius for your Warlord then he automatically gets they 'Storm of Fire' trait. This trait allows a near by unit to re-roll missed 'to hit'  during the turn. As you declare that  are using this skill at the start of your turn the selected unit can re-roll shooting attacks and possibly re-roll close combat attacks too. As this is a one use skill, you will need to time it's use very carefully!

Chaplain Cassius

Chapter Master Pedro Kantor

Captain Darnath Lysander

Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike

Forgefather Vulkan He'stan

Kor'sarro Khan

Space Marine Chapter Master

The Chapter Master is the most senior and most skillful Space Marine of the whole chapter. Note that even though the Space Marine Codex does not limit you to one Space Marine Chapter Master, if you want to keep faithful to the story line then you should not have more than one Chapter Master one the table per Chapter. This could be bent with a bit of creative storytelling ( a chapter master thrown back in time due to a ripple in warp travel or similar).

Strength and Weapons

As the Chapter Master is the most senior of the Space Marine Chapter, he has access to all the armoury weapons. This is with the exception of any heavy weapons. This means that you can configure the Chapter Master for a number of close combat or medium ranged fire support roles.

The most popular configuration is to have a close combat weapon and a medium ranged shooting weapon. This will give you the most flexibility during the game. One one weapon to avoid is the Power fist. The Power fist always hits at Initiative 1. This means that you can not use the Chapter Master's high Initiative score.

As mentioned already the Chapter Master does not have a heavy weapon option, however he does get a special rule ' Orbital Bombardment'. This is a one shot weapon can hit any target in line of sight with a S10 small template. As this can only called if the Chapter Master does not move during the movement phase, it may be best to use this option near the start of the game when the Chapter Master has a good view of the table.

Toughness and Special Rules

The Chapter Master come with an iron halo as standard. This means that he get a 4+ invulnerable save as well as any armour save his armour may provide. This is usually 3+ that the Power Armour provides, but upgrading to Artificer armour or Terminator armour is usual and recommend. Remember that the Space Marine Chapter Master can also be given a Space Marine bike too. This will give the Chapter Master extra toughness too.

Space Marine Honour Guard

The Chapter Master can have a special type of Command Squad called an Honour Guard.

The Space Marines of the Honour Guard have the same stats as the regular Command Squad and veteran marines, but have better weapons and Artificer armour. This makes the veterans tough nuts to crack.

If you are looking to take a Honour Guard then you will be advised to take some transport. This will allow us to get your mega-expensive unit to the optimum place on the table quicker.

One of the Honour Guard will be the Chapter Champion. The Chapter Champion has a special rule where they have to attack a character during close combat. However if there are two characters you can pick the which character you wish to assault. My advice would be to pick on the weakest as this should reduce the number of return attacks.

One of the Honour Guard can also have the Chapter Banner. This is recommended for the benefits that it bestows on the Honour Guard unit and other friendly units in the area. This does mean that will benefit you if you have your Honour Guard in the centre of any units that have a lower leadership. With the new 6th Edition rules and aligned forces, this could be low leadership Imperial Guard units.

Space Marine Captain Tactics

If a Space Marine Chapter Master is too expensive the Space Marine Captain is a cut down version for less points. He has the same stats as the Chapter Master, but fewer special rules.

The problem with the Space Marine Captain is that there are other HQ choices or special characters that offer better value for the points cost. This means that for most of the time you will be advised to look at the other options like the Librarian or Chaplin.

So what is the Space Marine Captain good for?

There are times when the mission rules state that you can not have named characters. In these games and when the Space Marine Chapter Master is too many points then a Space Marine Captain and command squad may just be an option.

The Space Marine Captain on Bike

One special rule that the Space Marine Captain does come with is that if you place your Captain on a bike then you can have take Space Marine Bike units as Troop units as well as Fast Attack. This does mean that you can have up to 9 bike units in a regular force organization chart. This would create a fast moving, hard hitting force, but it would be expensive and you may not have enough points to add in some heavy firepower too.

If you do want to have a bike heavy army, taking the named White Scars captain Kor'sarro Khan is twice as many points, but comes with a number of special rules that more than makes up for the points difference.

Space Marine Librarian Tactics

The Space Marine Librarian is the psychic of the Space Marine army. This is helps the Space Marines in two ways. First the Librarian can use his power to strike at the enemy. The second way is that the Librarian can use his skills to nullify the enemies powers.

The psychic powers section of the Warhammer 40k game have been extended in the 6th Edition of the rules. This means that the Librarian has a big a bigger role these days than he has since the 2nd edition of the Warhammer 40k rules.

Librarians are Level 1 Psykers by default. It is often worth upgrading them to a L2 Psyker. The 4 disciples that you can choose from can be quite handy. My suggestion would be to get to know one discipline well before exploring the other ones. It is far better to be an expert on a few skills than to be unsure of a larger number of skills!

Space Marine Chaplain Tactics

Chaplains are good close combat characters. This does not mean that they can take on a whole army on their own, but it does mean that they can add extra punch to and assault unit.

If you are going to add your Chaplain to an assault unit it does make sense to give him similar transport to the unit he is joining. You will see that the picture insert here shows a Chaplain on a bike. This is because my Chaplain supports my bike unit. This confirmation would be not use if I wanted support to my jump pack troops. This in turn means that planning ahead is very important. So if you have a game plan before you turn up to a battle, this is one area where that forward planning will pay dividends!

Master of the Forge Tactics

The Master of the Forge has the task of keeping all the Space Marine equipment up and running. In a battle field situation this means that he can get tanks that where immobilized back up and working. A very useful skill.

Space Marine Command Squads

Having your hero out on his own presents a great target for your opponent. A better option is to buy a Command Squad for him. These are veteran space marines that have been detailed to be a bodyguard for your expensive HQ characters.

Command squads Space Marines have a number of weapon and special upgrade options, like apothecaries and standard bearers. Have a think about the role you have in mind for your characters, like close combat expert, or as close support for your troops. When you have decided on a role for your hero you will need to tool up your Command Squad for the same role too.

The advantage of adding a command squad is that they have access to a number of special weapons. This means that you can configure them for specific roles. Remember that they will always be attached to the HQ character, so keep to the same theme for both the HQ character and the Command Squad. For example if you are having a HQ character tolled up for close combat, then in makes sense to have the Command squad with complementing tools too.

Command Squads can take a Rhino or Razor back as an additional transport too. Having a troop carrier will make your command squad much more flexible. You could also consider using a Land Raider as a troop transporter too.

> Also Buy : Discount Space Marine Command Squads