Mard is right in that this is a potentially broad discussion about the overall power of the codex list as viewed from differing perspectives, I think it's also important to note that there is no one single 'Australian' metagame, just as there isn't a single 'US' or 'Swedish' metagame, I recall that Onyx was one of the voices calling to keep the codex list as it is back when discussions happened previously, and as he's pretty prolific within his scene, I'd conclude that the codex does well in the WA scene (please correct me if I'm wrong!)
as a bit of a counterpoint to Elsaurio's primer for protecting against the codex list, I was inspired to write one from the perspective of the marine player trying to 'counter the counter' as much of what he said is valid and forms a fairly standard part of the overall 'marine defence' play in the UK scene
1. Take a spaceship and learn to use it!this is one of the single most important pointers I've picked up over the past few years, the two pie-plates can have a massive effect on your opponent's deployment, most of the UK tables tend to have 2-3 pieces of terrain either inside, or next to the deployment zone, these are great places to hide artillery and AA formations, if your opponent tries to double bluff and place them elsewhere, you can position units like warhounds and predators to deal with them
Aside from the orbital barrage, drop-podding devs provide a very strong alpha strike proposition, they add more blast markers from the deathwind to units already hit by the barrage, then the devs inside get to shoot, which means you can often break warhounds/shadowswords with blast markers alone. There could be entire articles written about the best usage of spaceships and barrages, but since including them in my lists, I've started winning more games!
The other big upshot is that your opponent now has to commit resources to dealing with the devs in his deployment zone, which means they're using up more activations reacting to you
oh and it also opens the option to planetfall, nuff said!
2. You don't always have to go first!sure that beefy SR5 is handy in turns 2+3 when you need those crucial assaults to come off, but never shy away from passing the initiative to your opponent if it will increase your activation advantage, this is particularly true of armies like AMTL who often only have 6-7 formations in total
3. The fewer targets you give your opponent, the better!if you plonk down a couple of units of scouts, bikes or speeders and keep the rest in thunderhawks, landing craft and drop pods, you can let your opponent go first knowing your valuable units are safe, it also plays into forcing them into a reactive playstyle and shooting at stuff they would rather be ignoring
4. When in doubt, HIDE! marines are big tough dudes, but it's usually a good idea to keep them hidden where possible, keep them close to vehicles for the cover and force your opponent to come towards you and spread out
5. Spread those objectives!if you spread your objectives to the edges of the table, your opponent will struggle to bring his forces to bear to defend them effectively and you can pick him apart
6. be patient!while you can often see a juicy BTS target for your terminators to knock out turn 1, it may be worth waiting until later in the game when you can better prep and support them and reduce the risk, always try to keep your terminator airstrike until the last activation of the turn when hopefully your opponent can't react, if there are no low-risk formations, don't feel you HAVE to use the terminators, thunderhawks have 75cm battlecannons after all, plink the AA from a safe distance, snipe to break units teetering on the edge of breaking, or pick off units in broken formations, it all helps!
7. Unless the opponent has nightwings, don't teleport!teleporting terminators is generally a less effective way to bring them in, they are vulnerable to losing the strategy roll off (especially against armies like Eldar and Chaos) when they can be clipped or simply avoided, they are also reasonably likely to be coming in with blast markers, and due to the aforementioned strategy roll vulnerability they usually need to activate at the start of the turn, are unable to bypass scout screens, and can't barge skimming transports out of the way
The thunderhawk is the premier air-assault transport in the game, yes sometimes you lose one to a lucky hydra shot, but generally they will fly through quite a bit of flak, they can hit anywhere on the table, can barge skimmer screens out of the way, and most importantly
cannot be stopped by scout screens thanks to the 'screen from behind' FAQ ruling
8. Protect your terminators!if you throw them in against an opponent early and lose them to reprisal attacks, you are giving away one of your biggest assets, not to mention probably two activations if you include the thunderhawk, unless you've built your list a certain way, don't view them as disposable unless you're chucking them in against a tough BTS having already got a 2-0 win in the bag
9. Bring lots of activations!scouts and land speeders are cheap enough to be fielded in numbers, but unlike many other armies cheap choices, they are far from useless, they are scouts which is pretty essential anyway, but scouts are reasonably handy in a scrap, and speeders are super fast for nabbing objectives, they also allow you to stall effectively, by moving scouts from cover to cover, ground attacking with planes and letting the opponent move first, you can quite easily gain the advantage, especially when your devs and spaceship have done their job and taken out an activation or two, just make sure that you keep the rhinos alive to maintain your speed in the late game
10. Remember the objectives!Last but not least, is to remember that epic is a game of maneuver as much as it is about killing stuff, a single speeder, bike or scout stand can capture or contest an objective as easily as a warlord titan can, while tabling your opponent is satisfying when it happens, you can take a hammering and still win the game provided you keep the objectives in mind! don't get drawn into firefights with steel legion, don't take tyranids on in assaults, play to your strengths, which are the surgical strike and your mobility, fight the battles you can win, avoid the ones you can't
