Codex Space Marines Tier List in Warhammer 40K 10th Edition - Strongest + Weakest Space Marine Units 

CORRECTIONS: Sorry forgot Cato Sicarius' reactive move is once per TURN not once PER GAME. That does make him better than I said. Still rarely/never seen in most optimised lists though.

Just run bikes. Nothing but bikes. All bikes. All the gas guzzling time. And maybe land speeders

Tacticals going up in the world, being “not the worst” is the best they could’ve hoped for

Space Marines really need Rhino tier unit capacity, either letting primaris use rhinos or just make a new one

Funniest thing about reivers is realizing they're the same points and nearly identical to raptors now except... Worse. In essentially every way?

I kinda hate playing Space Marines this edition. Codex compliant chapters feel terrible. I know it’s too late to expect any of these things to happen, but some of the most iconic units NEED rewritten abilities. Terminators and Sternguard, I’m looking at you. You can’t just fix bad rules with points drops, now they’re just cheaper garbage.

the outriders index is so frustrating to me, space marine bikers used to be so strong and their replacements are just such a bad kit. No weapon options, no real threat, cant even take melta bombs. Plus their base size is cumbersome as hell. Plus the new land speeder is anemic

My desolation marine proxies have been really fun in my games, if not super impactful. D6+1 damage and S10 does make a meaningful difference, and the indirect has been hilarious at pinning move-shoot-move units like drukhari scourges. Each marine having 2 guns helps justify taking them as they effectively do the role of multiple squads. I also pair suppressors with a predator destructor, storm speeder thunderstrike, and plunging fire, which is a very silly way of stacking loads of saves on tough targets at a distance. I've come to accept that my choices aren't optimal, but by god are they fun

I think the Heavy and Assault Intercessors could become more important in the upcoming Pariah Nexus mission pack if battleline gets buffed and can generate VP while on an objective

I will always advocate Terminators + Chaplain in Sons of Sanguinius, hitting on 2s re-rolling against your Oath target with S10 power fists and +1 to wound. They go absolutely bananas.

Infernus is also pretty good in Gladius since they just miss AP to be more dangerous. Gladius can give them that.

Thank you for making these videos so often to keep up with the rules changes. I love these and I feel like it really helps me choose what to focus on!!

I do love your commitment to the channel I would love one of these for Adepta Sororitas when their codex comes out

Every time I see a space marine tier list I have the same conclusion... Too many god darn space marine units...

6x Bladeguard Veterans + Ragnar + Shield & Sword Leutenant + Drop Pod is a good addition to your army when you capped out on TWC.

The apothecary can join into inner circle companions now 👀

Amazimg video! Love watching your stuff to help give me ideas!!! Would we be able to get an updated Aeldari tier list next?

72 minute video. Auspex, you truly are a hero!

I'm thinking of getting those melta-gun eradicators, most of my matches have been against heavy armor

Oh, one hour of enjoyment and useful info. Thank you, Auspex :)

Comprehensive and awesome video, great to paint to.

Great video! Thanks! I have 6k of Black Templars, and that collection is done. I'm seriously considering doing one more 40k collection and it will probably be Blood Angels, so this video has helped me figure out which regular space marine units I'd get to build the collection on.

It's a shame the army is Dog. I can't get it to work

My favorite kind of Auspecs vid!

This isn't competitive, but a combo I like for thematics is the standard Librarian with 10 Sternguard riding about in a Repulsor. 4+ invuln, if charged they retreat to the tank, and you double down on Dev Wounds with Smite, especially since the Librarian gets the reroll wound rolls of 1 from his Sternguard compatriots.

Thanks for this. It will be interesting

I have a question specifically about the judiciar, your notes said itd be better if bladeguard were better but what about leading a proteus killteam kitted for melee? 4 dwth 2 shields and lvmw and 4 termies with thss?

Two of my favorite units are Azrael + Apothecary + 10 Hellblasters and Jump Chaplain + 5 Jump Intersessors

1-2 Maxed out Outriders Squads with an ATV with Melta and twin linked Bolter Rifles lead by a Chaplain on Bike who can fight pretty well in Combat and provides a +1 to Wound in combat and gives Devasting Wounds to the units ranged attacks when targetting a unit within 12" which combos well with twinlinked Bolters which are equipped with all models in the unit. They excel in the Stormlance or Company of hunters depending on if you want to lean them more into combat or lean them into advance/fallback and shoot (detachment rule applies to all Dark Angel units, e.i. Intercessors with Jump Packs, Eradicators) plus gaining Battleline when taking them in the Ravenwing Detachment.

much appreciated sir your channel has been very helpful with my collection of expensive plastic toys :)

Ive been using some interesting combos with my Blood Angels and firestorm detachment. Librarian Dread can deep strike my aggressors. Sternguard because 30 shots with dev wounds is kind of nasty. Storm Raven with 10 Infernus (using dev wounds strat) and a Death Company Dread with the magna grapples. Stand out for sure though is the Libby Dread, yeeting your units around the board is really clutch.

For Firestorm the Stormraven and Assault Centurions are amazing. Assault Centurions taket a massive beating and and dish out crazy damage with everything being "Twin linked". Stormraven is expensive but the flexibility it brings is pure gold. Twin linked weapons are super efficient when hitting on 2s or oath of moment. Also air dropping 6x eradicators on an important vehicle or monster feels amazing every time😁 Stormraven might work for cheesy moves in Ironstorm for divergent chapters, but for codex compliant chapters its a lot of fun in Firestorm. Divergent chapters should be banned from codex compliant detachments and then they can drop the Stormraven to 240 again..

Not so sure about the firestrike, personally i love taking one with the twin las-talon option as i run an anti-armour focused army. Its great for making opponents think more about where they move, rather than risk a hit from it, because it'll damage that tank. Where it falls down is melee, because if a squad charges it, its basically toast.

On the Dreadnought is the Plasma Canon or the Aussalt Canon not legal anymore? It came with my Venerable kit.

Hellblasters with Azrael has gotten even better with the new Deathwing detachment.

Sternguard in tier 3 is a touch disrespectful. They’re actually decent imo with dev wounds and 4 attacks each

I once got a win cause of my drop pod once haha, was able to use it to do a ritual and make another objective that was swarmed with my Marines, I swear the VP were that close omg

It’s a sad tier. Feel like it hasn’t changed much all edition and I’m just running the same stuff. Kinda bored now, just waiting for some codexes to break the relentless monotony which is being a space marine player.

The apothecary is great when teamed up with Azrael and a 10man hellblaster squad

Where does my man Gabrirl Seth exist on this list? He's the only BA character with straight 3 damage on his weapon

Now I kinda of want to try playing a purely Terminator Salamanders army... Mixing the Assault and regular Terminator squads.

Eliminators are top notch for nuking heros, I take 3x3 of them and a vindicare assassin. I do find Outriders to be pretty useless. They need a better rule or a SGT with power fist or something

the apothecary might be a suboptimal unit for most chapters, but the deathwatch can use him in a proteus killteam to revive terminators

Just run all Gravis. All the Gravis units are tier 1 or tier 2 and they don't to a stiff breeze the way SM seem to do in 10th Edition. :D

Hi Auspex, could you discuss Primaris Sword Brethren vs Bladeguard Veterans for the Black Templars?

Thanks the Emperor that Tactical squad and Devastator squad qre still have forseeable future, but with How GW treat their golden child Stormcast Eternals we will see some primaris get squatted in late 10th and early 11th edition

Is this tier list in comparison with other factions units or comparison with other sm units within the codex. Like a terminator might be B tier within Space marine units, but D tier when compared with units in other factions.

Am I missing somthing ? Which tier was Repulsor executioner ?

Will there be one for other chapter s

Judicar giving fight first to blade guard is so good …

Its funny, cause Im planning on using reivers. I think the ONLY possible way they have a useful place is in the vanguard detachment. Having deep strike and being phobos (can pick 2 phobos units up with guerilla tactics strat) i think they have play. it drives me insane that the phobos Lt has deep strike but the reiver Lt does not lol. But, the reiver Lt is one of the best models GW has ever made, so, Im just using it as a proxy for the combi weapon Lt

Thank you.

What tier Aggressor Squad would be ?

The Cato Sicarius reactive move is once per turn, not once per game. Only used him once so far, but I'd rate high tier 3 minimum.

Isnt sicarius rule per turn not per game?

Coming back into the hobby since 4th edition, I'm enthused by the extra choice in units. I just wish my old Dreadnaughts were not so meh... 135 pts per unit they were ok in 4th edition plus you could deep strike them in Drop Pods. Please give the option to drop pod the basic dreads GW, give them a niche vs the newer shinier Dreads. Tac squads were never great but you needed them back in the day since you needed minimum 2 troop choices to meet Army Composition requirements. Since Army comp is no longer a thing, why take Tac squads when other options are better.

The only thing i dont agree with is the placement for regular Intercessors and the Stormspeeder Thunderstrike. Intercessors are easily one of the worst units in the entire codex imho, they do legit nothing in any detachment. They are not even worth the sticky obj and i've never seen them be worth it in 10th at any table, even the argument of taking a single unit is flat-out just bad when you compare them to how amazing scouts are. (and so many other options) Thunderstrikes are easily tier 1, they scale so hard with so many good detachments and buff the entire army while also being insanely fast and at a very fair cost for sure tier 1.

Terminator's Storm Bolter should have it's Rapid Fire removed and instead should have anti-infantry 4+ devastating wounds - to make them actually CHAPTER'S ELITE unit, that strikes fear to enemy. Plus more special weapons - Melta Destroyer and Plasma Cannon, Heavy flamer could remain as is but with 2d6 hits.

They really did dirty to the desolation squad 😢

Did i miss all the blood angel characters or were they not in there?

Trying out my space marines for the first time against my friends orks next week

Apothecaries auto include with hell blasters. Im sorry its not overshaddowed in my eyes if anything - tactical squad should definatly go down a peg

Man... maybe its just new army syndrome but I just cannot find it in me to care about space marines right now.

Was that a stifled yawn at 13:48 @auspextactics? Bless you man, get some rest.

Isn't Valiant S 10 on sponsons already ? In Firestorm it should be 11.

Can you make one of these but for admech

I feel like you are undervaluing the iron father. Put him on the mid board in a giant 10 Man heavy intercessor blob and you are going to see some frankly hilarious durability. It literally tanks Knights for multiple turns.

did I miss the Terminator Ancient?

Currently putting together a list of tier 4 units for fluff's sake 😊

I will always die on the hill that Heavy Intercessors are an absolutely awesome unit to throw in a list. 30 T6 Wounds with +3 Save, a massive blob of anti-infantry weaponry whose sole job it is to get on a point and *stay* on it.

Bravo, sir

Judicator is great for BT sword brethren.

I m always surprised top hear SM doing bad. Even more surprising, i never encounter a SM player in the wild to see/ask him. I live in a big city(EU), and i can´t find any in my local GW strore, nor in my tabletop club. I guess everyone is just a meta chaser and that´s why i dont see them. And looking at their datasheets, many of their units or detachement abilities from SM seem pretty awesome to me. Like the "Gladiator Lancer" alone! 160pts for that thing looks to me as a Nids player. like an absolute steal. I just don´t get it, how the poster child faction, with an unmatched variety of units could struggle so much. I wish somebody would explaine it to me better than just saying phases like, "jack of all trades, master of non". They got, speed, firepower, OC holding, like what is it? Points seem fine. Are they dying too fast?

Looking at space marine rules while putting together my second army , Flesh Tearer, makes me appreciate my Death Guard. Yeah SM are faster and have more units but that hurts them imo. Units are weaker and need a leader and their battle line is weaker than most other armies. But rule of cool soooo a army of death company Flesh Tearers lol

Hi everyone. I'm a new player of the hobby and i'm not sure yet if torrent weapons automaticly hit on overwatch strat, because the rule says that the weapon in overwatch only hit on 6 what so ever be its ballistic stat. Can anyone tell me ?

I ran a 6 man outrider squad with a chaplain a few weeks ago vs those tough old orks. Did better then i was expecting, they would have sucked if the chaplain wasnt there, chaplains rock this edition. Won the game.

Hello What about assassins ?

Hammerfall bunker: can deep strike in lore but can't deep strike on tabletop. :< Back in 8th Ed, I really did perceive that Reivers will be what Assault Intercessors are now, such a shame that GW decided to make them Elites with a weak upgrade. Honestly, GW could have made Reivers into a Killteam with an upgrade kit that could have hopefully fixed the unit instead of giving the KT treatment to the Infiltrators. Again, with the tactical marines, I think it would have been worthwhile for GW to have made a Killteam upgrade kit for these marines. They're classic and the long standing image of 40k. Even though Intercessors have taken over that role, the old kit deserves one last ride.

Not quite sure about the Incursors and Outriders. Outriders deal not enough damage and the mounted keyword is not ideal for their purpose. Their special ability is just bad in my opinion. They are fast enough anyway, the autoadvance is just too much. On the other hand they don't have assault weapons which is extra dumb. Adding a chaplain on bike does not really help them enough. Also they have some tough rivals: jump assault intercessors or assault Intercessors are just way better in my experience. I think outriders could be fixed, if the sergeant could use a special weapon and if the get the same ability as the assault intercessors. That would make them a tier 2 unit at least. But with the current rules, they are Tier 4 in my opinion. Incursors on the other hand have a similar problem as reivers. They lack some AP with their weapons. Their abilities are quite bad. The hit roll isn't the problem with space marines. Buffing it is nice but in most cases not really meaningful. The mine is okay but can be used only one time in the game so it is just not enough for my taste. They can't even infiltrate or deep strike. I don't see why anybody would take Incursors if he could take Scouts or Infiltrators instead. Incursors are tier 3 or 4 in my opinion.

Remember early in the edition when people were losing their minds about Space Marines being too OP and being sour grapes about the poster boys getting special treatment blah blah blah...Yet here we are again, like clockwork as the edition drags on the worse they get being dwindled to 1 or 2 viable lists if that with many datasheets languishing. Some even since before the previous edition but whose counting?

It's sad that the best units in SM--from a game standpoint--are almost all beautifully mid.

Desolation squad in tier 4 is crazy. If we mean it being in its best detachment it’s tier 2. Anvil Siege Force helps with this weapon greatly.

Auspecs you again forget Cato Sicarius gives you reactive move once per TURN, not per game. It's not a game changer, but it makes him bit better.

Also guys i have a chaplin from the old da combat patrol dont know what to do with it

I read chaos space marines... Sad traiter noise 😢

As I’m painting my infiltrators

I, Cato Sicarius will not stand at being ranked at tier 4. I, Cato Sicarius should and always be at the top. - Cato Sicarius

Always be charging

I thought about making a spacemarine list out of literal cardboxes. all I love about marines are the tanks and dreads, and since they are just squares, I could just get boxes that are exactly their size, paint them black with a white fist on them and be good to go to play them!

Are you taking battleline/non-battleline into account for this? With Jump Intercessors not being battleline I have doubts they should be in Tier 1.

Did you mention the Stormfang Gunship at all?

Assault Intercessors can't assault

Twice you mention Reivers + Phobos Lt charging from deepstrike. Not only do those units not attach, but they get no special bonuses to charging or melee even if they did.

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57:30 is this right? The Datasheet says "enemy units from strategic reserves". I mind that Deepstrikers are not effected by the Omniscrambler, because they are technicly no part of strategic reserves.

Anvil player: scouts and eliminators are the cheapest heavy weapons. Infiltrators are also heavy, so those three carry some good weight.

To be honest I would rank the Tactical Squad and Firstborn Dreadnought in _Tier 1_ purely based on the fact that they're auto-include for me. I've taken mine to every tournament I've ever been to, and they've always performed well. Actually, I'm surprised more people don't run them. Not only are they formidable, but there are _thousands_ of secondhand Firstborn armies online. By far the cheapest and most effective way to get 2,000 points together, and Space Marines as an army aren't going anywhere ever. The more that Firstborn appear on lists, the more people will understand how good they are. Definitely grab yourself some!

Even in OPR the Reivers are completely garbage, being a sort of scout unit that hits on 4+ instead of 3+ like almost all other marines. They're pretty good at forcing fatigue though, with their ambush/DS and they're comparatively much cheaper. OPR alsomade Desolators kind of weak, with a very pathetic indirect and not that great direct fire for either profile. The reason I bring these up is because OPR actually does better profile balancing than GW does: For most armies your special units (non-troops) almost always come in 3's, so dark reapers, devastators, lootas and the like, but desolators come in a unit of 5 and are relatively cheap. So even if each model is kind of weak, you get more shots. For Reivers they just made them a cheap and easy deep-striking unit with a 4+ instead of a 3+ (the ranged profile is a shared phobos profile with Rending, a scout move and a sniper option, which is clever). The more I play it, the better I think it is.

SM needs a solid rework, almost everything here is a crap, all these units were designed during INDEX making, with rerolls to wound, and they worked then, but then GW deleted rerolls to wound on aoth, and suddenly 80% of these things stop killing at all, but still are expensive in points and die very fast, so -> it is useless... GW should add additional AP to this army, or change some datasheets so they stop wound on 5+ , also Terminators for like 37 points per model that have like 3 attacks on 4+ is a joke who design it? it is all bullsh***

You might have missed several units. I’m not seeing the Repulsor, Impulsor, or the Ballistus.