Incoming: Codex Space Marines. Rumour Thoughts

As a Space Marine player, and creator of my own chapter, the thought of a new Space Marine Codex right around the corner is more than a tad exciting! New models, new rules, new background and gadgetry to immerse myself into. Here I take a look at some of the rumours I'm most intrugued with and what directions I may take my army. 

The combat tactics rules seem like a great idea and a much better way to represent armies. In the current (not for long) codex the only way to add real flavour is by taking one of the special characters. This doesn't lead to an awful lot of variety, hence why I've mostly used my own characters from stock. I can now choose which Chapter to allign mine with, and use those Combat Tactics to boost the skills of my army without the need for a special character.

It seems the points have been reduced for a number of units also. Tactical and Devastator marines have been reduced by 2 pts a model, which is more in line with Dark Angels and Space Wolves. Thank the Emperor for that! In a picture from a battle report I've also seen a dreadnought with twin linked lascannon and missile launcher was 135 pts, and I'm sure thats 10 pts cheaper than it currently is. It'll be interesting to see how it all adds up in an apocalypse force, which I'll be doing for a game the day after the Codex hits the shelves!

White Scars are going to be amazing. I may get more bikes to try them out a little! Hit and Run, +1 to Jink saves, bonus to Hammer of Wrath... wowser.

Theres a lot of talk about the Grav weapons, and I think they'll be great against elite armies with good armour but against hordes, not sure I'd bother. I'm doubtful about taking them either way, plasma has always done a good job of slaughtering termies even if my devastators rarely survive the battle due to overheating!

Flakk missiles for Missile Launchers. Hallalujah! As a huge fan of missile launcher toting devastators this is great news. Some more AA options are always welcome, and I love the new hunter tank with its single rocket launcher, looks fantastic!

Chapter Masters now have 4 wounds and 4 attacks.... more like it! Currently the only thing over a Captain they have is orbital bombardment and some different choices to take. Now they're a little bit better and with the addition of Chapter Relics we should be able to finally take on some of the nastier enemies our foes can throw at us!

Legion of the Damned are one of my favourite units. Not in how good they are, because they're an expensive unit that just take a lot of killing, but because I love the models. And now it seems they're 5pts cheaper and their weapons ignore cover. Thats awesome! Especially now I have one armed with a multimelta, be useful for those Tau and Eldar vehicles that have extr bonuses to cover saves and jinks.

Centurions are still a very unsure thing for me. Do I like the models? A little. Do I like the rules? Not so much. T and S 5 is cool, but no invulnerable? Hmm not sure how good that makes them. I'm sure they will have their uses but I'll wait and see how they are in the codex before judging them.

The final thing that affects me is to do with troop capacity on the drop pods and Land Raider. Both have dropped from 12 to 10, which is also in line with other marine codex books but its a bit annoying. Tactical squad with a character dropping down behind enemy lines cannot be done anymore, neither can you have 5 terminators lead by a chaplain or other character in the normal land raider. I can understand why but it is a bit of a shame. 

All in all however I think we'll end up with a very competitive book, Space Marines are always competitive (at least in my eyes) and I've done well with them so far. Lets hope this continues and I'll love my as yet unamed chapter even more. September 7th, I await you!

Sixth Sense.

 

So the last few days have been incredibly fruitful for those of us awaiting the new rules that Warhammer 40k Sixth Edition will bring. How will our armies be affected? How will it affect our opponants? How, and perhaps most importantly, will it affect our fun.  

One of the key sentences I've picked up on is that it has been said they GW want to make 40k more cinematic. This screams out to me as an ideal not of intent. I play games of 40k not to win or lose, but to have those hilarious or dramatic moments when the dice either favour or betray you and give you those jaw dropping moments. One of the richest things this hobby brings is its background story for the games. Why wouldn't you want your games ot be more involving of moments that tie into this richness? How the rules will help this, we won't know for certain until the rulebook is not just been in our hands, but has been used for a number of games. 

I like now that you have a Warlord. This HQ choice is then given an ability and can help add a wee bit of flavour to your army. Does he count as a scoring unit therefore making him a very hands-on character? Or does he give his Leadership to other friendly models and have such an inspiring presence? I think its a great little touch and helps add a little richness to your army.

Being able to buy buildings is a great idea, as hopefully it may encourage people (myself included) to be more hands on when it comes to building terrain. Is it practical to have to carry a bunker around? Probably not, but have themed armies that include certain fortifications or siege terrain could work well. Another cinematic box ticked. 

There was said to be a picture of a Beastman Guardsmen and mentioned ab-humans, YES!!! Anything ab-human could mean the possiblility of Squats. The more I hear about the new rules the more I see the 5th edition rulebook cwtching up into bed making sweet love to the 2nd edition rulebook. 2nd Edition was the last rulebook to feature squats, and thus gives me hope for a future appearence. 

Having to remove the nearest models from shooting attakcs sounds great too, when a unit is advancing towards you and only the guys in the back are falling its a wee daft, and now I'll be picturing the first lines falling with the slightly better troops behind ready to take their place. 

The rules for Snipers where if you hit with a six YOU allocate the wounds, this makes snipers a much better choice than they were and fits in with the sniper ethos much better. 

Finally, the last thing I want to talk about are the missions. It seems that theres more variety, and more abilities and changes for objectives and units as to what they do and who can hold what etc. I love this especially if its true that secondary objectives are in also. This adds even more to the game and will hopefully encourage more fluff inspired games. 

Overall I'm really looking forward to seeing the rules, and I'll certainly be playing some games as soon as possible to try them out. Lets hope we get plenty more of those little moments that we'll remember in years to come and add to the legend our armies build.

6th Edition Starter Set.

And so this is where it all began. 

For me.

Yes, 6th edition is soon here, and with it comes a tide of hype and and no doubt there will be praise and critics, a conflict between gamers over what edition of the game they prefer that mirrors the conflicts we love to play out on our tables. I first played 40k when it was on its second iteration, and probably only played around 4 games. Ever. I remember the rules well however, as I used to play more Necromunda which had a very similar ruleset. It was easier for my younger mind and its more intimate setting was quicker and easier for myself and my then soon to be brother in law to play. The boxed set came with 2 tactical squads, 20 orks, and I think 20 gretchin. All the models were the same, as plastic was back in those days, but gave you enough troops to fight a few games with. 

As you know, with 6th edition soon coming there have been 3 versions since, and I've only played 4th edition since then and my proper foray into 5th edition. I love playing the game, and I, like many gamers, am excited about the new version. But the main meat of this post is about one thing. Starter Sets.

3rd edition featured the Black Templars, some of you may not know who these are as a codex for this Chapter is long overdue. In the box you were given a tactical squad, and a land speeder. On the other side were the new Dark Eldar, with around 15 or so of this new xenos to expunge from the galaxy. These models were all multi-part, and much better looking than the 2nd edition set. But there just wasn't enough in there. 

4th edition was similar, Ultramarines taking the cover and there was a tactical squad, a pilot model, some nice looking scenery pieces depicting a crashed aquila spacecraft, and some tyranid mini's. Again, a bit more variation but could have done with more. 

And then there was Reach. 

Black Reach.

What a great little set. Back to the more familiar Space Marines versus Orks rivalry, you had a tactical squad, a terminator squad, a captain and a dreadnought. The Orks had a warboss, a squad of orks, 5 nobs, and 3 deffcoptas. What an awesome way to start playing 40. Some great models, not very poseable but you didn't mind as there was so much in the box. Definately by far the best set that has been released.

So where will 6th edition take us? The rumours so far are Dark Angels and Chaos, either in one set or seperate. Belial, deathwing, tactical squad and maybe some bikes are rumoured, while Chaos may get a sorceror or other HQ choice, some Chaos Space Marines to make a squad, some cultists, and some sort of Dreadnought which may be a new thing.... interesting! How much is true of course should be taken with a handful of pepper, but lets hope the improvement keeps coming. But this led me to think... what is your ideal starter set? Why not make a bundle deal?

For example....

Rulebook, templates, a troops unit for your army, a limited choice hq, and maybe another squad or vehicle to add some flavour for a slightly discounted price?  I like the idea of the new starter set, but what am I gonna do with Dark Angels if they have all the iconography on them and aren't easily convertable? Not much I think. So why not make them vanilla marines? Surely you can't go wrong, especially if theres some bitz add-ons you can get hold of? Ho hum, only time will tell. The starter set is always an appealing way of getting into a new rules system, and while I will buy the rulebook on the release date, I will be intrigued to see what the new starter set has to offer.

What say you?

40k. What I'd Like to See.

So the new edition is coming, and theres been rumours of rules and story flying everywhere. And flyers. But what would we all like to see?

Squats.

(image from here)

Every time I see something like this, I get a nerd-on. These look awesome, and I'd love to make some myself. I'd need faces and bears there though, but thats just me. Theres long been rumours that the Squats, or Demiurg, could appear in the next Tau codex, which could be out within the next 12 months. Nerd-on. Story rumours also mention about how the Emperor mentioned to some close to him that the Tau were uncorruptable by Chaos and should be protected. This could lead to Tau and Space Marine allies. So some maths here.

Tau(squats/demiurg) + Space Marines = Uber-nerd-on.

As I've mentioned before, I've decided that at some point, I'd like to include some Squats in my SM army. It seems like this could become reality. I'm awaiting the models first however, so plenty of time, but if I can convert them enough to make a few models to integrate into my existing Evandalists, I'll be very happy. Speaking of which, ALLIES!!!

I'd like to see some 'mysteries' solved too, or at least hinted at. I think its too early for missing Primarchs to come back, but perhaps some more hints as to where Vulkan and Leman Russ are could be good. Tease us GW TEASE US!!!! If not, then just keep enriching the fluff. The fluff feeds us inspiration, and in turn better more themed games.

As a SM player, and I'm sure other players would agree, special characters are used a lot but I'd love to be able to add abilities to standard characters to help enhance them not just on the battlefield but background wise too. I love continuing the story of my chapter and will hopefully be adding the last few missions to this very blog soon. I'm also upgrading camera soon too, an extra 8mp to play with and, wait for it, 1080p movie capture. Tech-bone!

Space Marine bikes. Please, please, PLEASE update these models. They're not bad looking, but they just look so dated. These have been around since around 1998, and I'd love to add more bikes to my army but until they make new ones I'll be just using the 6 I have.

I think thats the main things, I'm hoping the rules will still be accessible but a tad more in depth. Time shall tell! What would you ladies and gents like to see? Make a wishlist!