10 Ways to Win at Warhammer 40,000 with a Space Marine Tactical Squad

1. In objective battles, split your Tactical Squad into combat squads to hold 2 objectives - a huge advantage over everyone else's Troops choices. However, keep the squad whole for Kill point missions, otherwise you're giving away easy points to the enemy.

2. Leap out of a Rhino or Drop Pod within 12" of the enemy and rapid fire. Twenty boltgun shots will spoil anyone's day, and is usually more effective than charging into assault.

3. Make sure they are equipped to deal with armoured vehicles at range and in close combat. The whole point of a Tactical Squad is that they can deal with anything, but if you leave out that crucial armour-piercing wargear then you may find your squad entirely negated by an enemy they can't hurt.

4. Use their transport to shield them from incoming fire. Careful positioning is important when you disembark your squad. Use the vehicle to block lines of sight from all enemies except the Space Marines' target target. Otherwise, the foe's next Shooting phase may be very painful!

5. Split the ten Space Marines into combat squads so the heavy weapon can stay still and fire (preferably while sitting on an objective), and the other half with a fighty sergeant and a flamer or meltagun can advance on the enemy.

6. Look out for easy targets with a 6 or 5+ save that boltguns will negate. With a bit of lucj, you can expect to see the whole enemy unit evaporate. Bring along a flamer for extra effectiveness.

7. A great way to take down heavy infantry like terminators is weight of fire. A ten-man Tactical squad firing bolters at Terminators will statistically kill 1 model, worth 40 points. Those same five Terminators firing storm bolters at the Tactical squad would also expect to kill 1 model, but worth only 16 points. And remember that the Tactical squad was cheaper to field in the first place, by 30 points.

8. Field extra Tactical squads against armies with lots of AP3 guns. These weapons kill a tooled up Vanguard Veteran just as easily as a budget Tactical Marine, so you might as well have more bodies and more bolters.

9. Take a Rhino - they are a absolute bargain for how useful they can be, and opponents often don't shoot at them once they are empty because they have more urgent targets. Consequently, it's common to have your sturdy transport still running at the end of the game, when it can nip in to contest an objective.

10. Take as many as you can fit in your army. When this codex was written, Games Workshop were actively encouraging armies to have more core troops - consequently, the Tactical squad is a bit of a bargain.