Greetings from Baal Secundus!
Hey guys its the Captain again, and I’m back for another chance to crack the code of Newhammer through my shiny, red lens. As many of you guys who listen to Forge the Narrative know, I’m a die-hard Blood Angels fanatic, so get ready to dive into a fresh set of theoryhammer with me as we explore the next juicy tease from the Warhammer Community guys. Keep in mind, much of this is opinion and wishful thinking.
Check Out Those Profile Pics…
The good-old boltgun is up again on center stage as GW teases the latest, hot pics for our eyeballs to feast upon. Today’s installment is all about weapons, and just like any good picture it leaves something to the imagination. There are, of course, several terms that are familiar to use from across the 40k edition multiverse, such as rapid fire and AP, but what we don’t know is what the 1 next to rapid fire means. Apparently even in the 41st millennium, mystery is still sexy. AP, of course, means a modifier to the target’s save.
Great question, vile xenos! This is where things go a bit further into the realm of speculation than I normally would, however the biggest thing here that will make my Blood Angels happy is the flamer profile.
Swipe Right for Hot Tech
Flamers are going to make a bit comeback in 40k in general, since now you can hit a single model multiple times as maximum range with a single flamer. In theory, that means that the armies with the best flamers will have even more opportunity to take advantage of this profile. This will give Blood Angels a nice moment to shine, because we have some of the best and most ubiquitous access to Heavy Flamers among the Imperial Factions. I am already a big proponent of using Heavy Flamers on my tactical marines, and I’m happy to see that my weapon of choice won’t really need to change all that much. Depending on how you can load out your other marines (like assault marines) we might be able to really take advantage of moving up the table and dropping hot promethium at speed. Hot? Promethium? Speed? Who better to do this than…
When was the last time you can remember the Baal Predator actually doing anything with the Heavy Flamer sponsons? There’s no more shaken or stunned for vehicles now that they have a toughness, so now we could rush up the table with these guys and lay down a TON of pressure with literal FIREpower. Will this be better than heavy bolters or assault cannons? It’s hard to say at this point, but what we can say is that it doesn’t look like we can rule this out as an obvious bad choice anymore. Granted, a lot of this is assumption without context, but if GW really is trying to make every model useful, then this would be a top contender among models who really needs a boost.
What’s Missing?
One of the big things we still don’t know about (aside from 99% of all of the shooting weapon profiles) is how the melee weapons are looking. I bet they are saving this juicy tidbit for later, but I imagine that they will follow a lot of the same pattern. I’d love to see what the new stats are for the Blood Claws or Blood Fists on the dreadnoughts, but I can at least be happy with the knowledge that the flamers/frag cannons attached to those combat weapons will be doing some work for me on the table.
That’s all for now, folks! Stay tuned as I get my peepers on some more of the sneak peaks coming from GW. Until then, let me know what weapons you want to see the profiles of the most in the comments below, post up your guesses and we’ll see how closely they match up when they are all released officially!
Cheers
Captain Morgan
Big question WRT Baal preds: will ALL vehicles be able to move at full speed and fire all their weapons at full effect? My bet is on “yes”
They will fire -1 BS
Yeah I saw that. It’s a nice boost. Will make a lot of vehicles more usable. Double Heavy Flamer Chimeras, anyone?
Where flamers hit D6 times automatically, a -1 to hit doesn’t seem all that bad…
I think fast, heavy most likely is going away. This can be incorporated into the new movement stat. So my guess.. would be a vehicle can move its movement speed and following the shooting phase. fire all heavy weapons at -1 BS. This makes sense with what they have released so far.
Moving flat out “advancing” may be a roll or 2x movement speed ? this we can’t know until they say.
What about power weapons? They won’t be killing things nearly as much with just an armor modifier, so do you think they will get cheaper? I would think a 5pts decrease for power weapons across the board isn’t unreasonable…
There are so many variables that it’s really hard to say. If Power Mauls end up like they are in SW:A (S+3, -3 Sv), they’re easily worth as much as now.
But it’s also entirely possible that, say, Tactical Marines will get re-benchmarked at 20 Points each or something, and thus Power Weapons staying at 15 still does make them relatively cheaper, even if their specific cost doesn’t change.