Hello all,
Rawdogger here to talk what we should expect to see with the upcoming Space Marine codex release.
Boy, how time flies. It only seems like a couple years ago that we got a new Space Marines codex and were all mortified with how Centurions looked dumb and grav weapons would ruin the game. What? Oh that was only two years ago? Really? Oh geez. Whatever, I still want a rockin codex with a hunky Marneus Calgar plastered right on the front. Following up on the heels of the arguably most powerful codex ever created, Codex Craftword Eldar, it’s safe to assume that GW will be giving a comparable boost to their most valuable product line. Here are some things that we will likely be seeing with the codex release.
Tactical Marines with More Swag – Expect to see Tactical Marines with more heavy weapon options. Most likely they will have access to the Heavy Flamer a la Blood Angel Tactical Squads as well as the Heavy Grav Cannon the Devestators are rumored to have access to. As for the stats themselves I don’t think we will see a change in their point costs. I think they are fine costed at 14 points anyways. It would be nice if they came with a chainsword and a boltpistol but that might be asking too much of GW.
More Grav – It’s just like butter, baby. Can you ever have enough Grav weaponry? Any time I’m making a Space Marine army list I ask myself WWGD or What Would Grav Do? I refer to Grav as a proper noun, by the way. With an entire universe aiming to kill my strapping men, I need to use every gun in my arsenal to pound them into the dust. Literally with Grav weaponry. With the Mechanicum codex having heavy Grav weaponry (Torrent 4/6) it only stands to reason the Space Marines will also have access to this technology. GW needs to sell those new Devestator kits somehow, right? No way GW is going to create a new Tactical Marine box so it stands to reason that in order to sell more Devestator kits they would have them contain Grav Cannons so people would have to buy them for their Tactical Marines. Why isn’t GW paying me for these ideas?
New Formations – Well duh. We should be seeing some the Decurion detachments all the cool Necron and Eldar players are getting. Most likely will involve a tax of some slow selling model kits. I would assume either a Whirlwind or Land Raiders. Smart money would be on the inclusion of the new Assault Marine or Devastators since they will be getting new model kits and GW will be keen to move them. We will certainly be seeing some sort of Veteran formation with Vanguard and Sternguard where they ignore cover or armor saves or something. It
Vehicle Squadrons – You know it’s coming. It’s just like having your third heart attack. Just relax and let it flow over you. We will most likely see squadrons of Vindicators and Predators in the upcoming Space Marine codex. Perhaps they will get an increased armor save for every model in the Squadron? How about some BS5 while in the squadron? Predators really need some lovin and this would be a great way to make them viable again.
Updated Chapter Tactics- Now this may be better or it may be worse for Space Marine players. Some of the current Chapter Tactics are really good (Ultramarines/Iron Hands) and some are not so much (Raven Guard/Black Templars). It would be almost impossible for GW to put out a new codex without at least modifying the current Chapter Tactics in at least SOME way. White Scar players should probably be afraid of the nerf hammer.
Black Templars – Unfortunately for Black Templar players, the fact that there was not a Black Templar codex released before the Space Marine codex does not bode well for them getting their own treatment. I just can’t see GW not including them and having a stand alone codex for the Templars further down the road. That would just leave too many loopholes for people creating rip off Black Templar models and then saying GW didn’t have rules for them. Hopefully they give them more than a couple of meh Chapter Tactics and meh characters and a meh special troop unit.
Legion of the Damned – I’m going to go out on a ledge here and say that the Legion of the Damned will not be included in this codex. GW famously do not like having the same units in different codices so it stands to reason the only way to get these guys into your army is by purchasing the data slate. GW GET SUM!
D Slaps – I actually don’t think we will be seeing any D weaponry in the codex. I just can’t think of any platform the D would be appropriate on. I know there was a big D panic as soon as the Eldar were released but you know what we didn’t see any in the Imperial Knight codex and I’m fairly sure there is none in the new Cult Mechanicum codex being released this weekend. If you can think of a way for them to sneak the D in while we are sleeping let me know because I just can’t seem to figure out how to do it!
So what do you think of my predictions regarding the new Space Marine codex? What are some the units we will likely see get a buff? What will get the nerf?
I can see the orbital bombardment possibly becoming S:D, if the eldar get it on an infantry platform then possibly the imperium might be able to have such things mounted on their starships 😉
Actually, I think that would be awesome, getting hit from a giant laser mounted on a space ship shouldn’t be the same potency as a shell lobbed out of a small siege tank.
Honestly, this is the kind of thing I’d actually like to see be D weapons in 40k. Single shot, cinematic strikes that make your foes run for cover.
Which will really such using the ITC ranged D rules… STR 10, AP1 is going to be better in many cases.
Isn’t ranged D still S10 for the purposes of instant death, with the exception of the D-Scythe and heavy D-Scythe, which are S4?
Unfortunately, since they updated the orbital bombardment to 7″ with the command tank release but kept it S10 AP1, my guess is they don’t change it again.
Then again, lots of times a 7″ S10 AP1 is better than a 5″ D . . . not sure how to make a dick joke out of that . . . no, wait . . . lots of times a 7″ soft D is better than a 5″ D.
I don’t think you’ll be too far off the mark with these predictions. What a lot of people fail to recognise when making predictions and/or wishlisting, is that we will not see any options on units unless GW make a model for that option (with the possible exception of minor stuff like grenades). So if GW don’t make a Space Marine with a particular weapon then there won’t be an option in the codex to have a Space Marine with a particular weapon. The upgrade sprues are an opportunity to introduce new options but it looks like we’re just getting shoulder pads, backpacks, helms etc, with few weapons or other wargear.
Possible bonus for the vehicle squadrons. “Each additional vehicle in the squadron raises the strength of all weapons in the squadron by 1. If a weapon would be higher than S 10, it becomes S D instead.
Also vortex grenades.
I think tacs will drop by a point each because they have a very long history of doing so in new books.
I bet the marine “decurion” setup will be awful. The core part will probably expect you to use like 2 tacs, some asm, a captain, and some devs as minimum, and the bonus for it will suck.
They really seem to like the “battle company” build, and unfortunately, none of the standard on-foot marines are very good.
Drop pods will continue to be one of the only ways to make tacticals perform.
I think these are all very good possibilities. I really hope that the Grav Cannon for the Devastators won’t just be 5 points more than a Heavy Bolter. I’m expecting a “free weapons” formation though, and wouldn’t be surprised by any and all of the suggestions here.
One exception – the Orbital Strike. It’s gotta be a D-gun. Might even be an Apocalyptic Mega-Blast.
My hope, even though I don’t expect to see it, would be all Space Marines gaining access to special ammo (if they pay the points). It just strikes me as odd that only Veterans get access to it, when it’s clearly just a weapon choice.
I kind of wish GW would just go completely off the deep end with the codex. Like, lower the point costs of the Tacticals to 8 points and all Bolters are rending and ignore cover. That would surely sell more Marines, right?
It’s like increasing federally mandated minimum wages. You have to do it in smaller increments, otherwise people will catch on…
They are waiting for the CSM codex- but probably in the opposite direction… 17 point base marine with BS, WS, and Init 3, but a fluffy table where you can add 1 to any of those abilities randomly turn by turn!
The Orbital Strike on the Rhino Primaris is Str10 AP1 Ordnance 1, Massive Blast, Barrage, One-Use-Only, Orbital and I assume that will be the profile used in every instance. Honestly, I think I’d prefer a Str10 AP1 7″ Ordnance blast to a StrD Large Blast.
Thanks for that info. I was under the impression that it was every turn for the Rhino?
The orbital array (which has both the coordinate reinforcements rule and the orbital alpha strike) can be used “any turn after the first,” and then the orbital alpha strike is “once per game.” Probably just misread the first part about “any turn after the first.”
Also worth noting that it can’t be used with any formation that allows you to roll for reserves turn one since it doesn’t allow reserve manipulation until turn two.
Should also add that it means Damocles Command Rhino is still totally relevant since it can do the +1/-1 on turn one, orbital on turn one (if you’re brave enough to deploy it with LoS) and it’s obviously MUCH cheaper.
Assault marines will have the heavy grav – you heard it here first!
And they’ll be putting a heavy grav sprue in with warp talons. Chaos can’t use it, they just really want to shift those boxes.
We all know boaters are becoming d
I can’t understand the words that are coming out of your mouth!
Maybe he means bolters?
He is talking about motorboating and becoming the D. I don;t understand, but I think it’s probably meant to be filthy
Every Chapter Master I’ve seen rides a bike and wears the Shield Eternal. Maybe they will limit the access of CM to bikes and take away their Eternal Warrior artifact.
My money is on the Chapter Master being a LOW, which would be rad as it would be the first generic character LOW and it would be in line with the other named chapter masters.
1 Raw Dogger article a week is not nearly enough. Always spit-take worthy
I really wish they would add the split fire rule to tactical squads so that a heavy weapon is actually a choice, as tactical marines aren’t very flexible in spite of fluff. No points increase just part of their rules.
Also add flak missiles to missile launchers for free to make those the Swiss army knife of weapons without an additional 10pt tax, and you may actually see one on the table, and then errata/FAQ the other codexes. Seeing as this weapon is now designed to glance/hull point out vehicles.
Would be great to see formation force charts that imply chapters organization similar to how Eldar did it. Though their is a good chance they will just make formations for the different companies. The Devestator Companies would rock allot of fire power.
All Marines except scouts should get +1 wound. I mean seriously they routinely fight on after taking wounds that would kill baseline humans.
So do Orks…
That’s what the T4 is all about.
My prediction is that there will be a “Company” formation that is the standard 1 captain, 6 tacticals, 2 assaults, 2 devys and that you’ll get free upgrades on the units if you do it. Then you get options of other HQs, Dreads, Heavy Support, and rides for the Marines.
They’ll probably make the Battle company take some dreadnoughts as a requirement, just to push more dreadnought kits, same with the command squad. Which will also probably put the formation out of the 1850 range
Maybe, but if you assume that all the upgrades on the tacticals and such are free, then it’s still possible.
I could totally see a single dread as part of the package though.
I hope the Captain HAS to take a power sword and a plasma pistol.
Would be fluffy!
Heard it will be a $100 dollar codex that is over 150 pages as well… HUGE
With new fluff! I honestly expect this codex to have relatively *meh* rule changes, but some awesome story changes. Awesome meaning large in magnitude, not necessarily foreshadowed, sensical, or consistent with other publications.
I would like them to make the autocannons on predators into the 30k Heavy Autocannon Version, ie Heavy 4 instead of Heavy 2. Possibly allow Tactical Terminators to have sternguard ammo in their stormbolters (for a cost upgrade per). Dropping the concept of assault and tactical terminators and just mix and match them. Putting suspensors on Heavy weapons (devestator only?) giving them slow and purposeful or allowing the heavy weapons to be fired with a slight BS penalty. Allow the Heavy weapon in the tactical squad split fire from the rest of the squad with a LD check. Heavy Flamers in tac squads. Yes and I wouldn’t mind Chaos Marines getting the same types of upgrades, etc maybe the sternguard ammo for terminator stormbolters/combi bolters. Though the idea of special ammo for combibolters for marked chaos shouldn’t be ruled out.
I am hoping for individual formations.for each part of a company.
Such as an assault formation, a devastated formation, a tactical formation.
I’m not really sure what I’m hoping for, I have some Chaos Marines w bolters waiting to become some sort of Space Marines, but I wanna wait until the Dark Angels get their new book too…..really I just want to use my Mortis Contemptor and Deredeo 🙂
I’m leaving a comment here to feed raw dogs ego.