While this was one of the earliest codexes released it also languished due to it’s lackluster crusade rules (no not you Necrons, you got a bunch of new core, and are good competitively…for now) the Space Marines were in desperate need of an update. GW seems to have realized this and has released a series of updates to patch the issue. Today we will look at a few of their updates and see what impact they have made.
- Banners of Renown
Released in the Warzone Nachmund book, these rules allow you to embrace your inner-american and create a story about “Olde Glory”. At any time, if you have an Ancient of any type, you can pay one CP to make the banner a “Banner of Renown”. After each battle you can gain renown by ending the game in your opponent’s deployment zone, killing characters, controlling an objective, being within 6″ of enemy units etc. You can use these points to upgrade your banner by giving it additional auras or buffs to the Ancient carrying it. A lot of these buffs are useful and you can make the Ancient decently killy and even provide some mortal wounds. It’s also interesting that there is no cap on how many times you can take an upgrade, though most obviously don’t stack. I doubt it will ever come up but something for the GM to keep an eye on.
Banners can also be damaged by failing Out-Of-Action tests. Each time you do (regardless of whether the Ancient takes a scar) you roll a D3 and suffer some form of damage. Damage usually reduces the range or effectiveness of the banner’s basic abilities and can be healed by spending 10 renown points.
- Warden Raiders
Also released in the Warzone Nachmund book, these rules are an intriguing option for Space Marine players to consider. You start by building a force that requires non-Spearhed, no superheavy, Space Marine only units. Any vehicles must have a minimum movement of 10″ and infantry must start the game embarked in a transport, infiltrate or deepstrike onto the board. You also ignore the normal rules surrounding experience and instead gain 1 raid point per battle rather than 1 experience. You use these raid points to buy special upgrades and traits (though don’t forget about the cap of max 6 battle honors per unit). It appears that these units can get these “Raider Force Battle Traits” in addition to regular experience upgrades, though max out at 2.
You also gain access to a series of special requisitions. While these provide additional Raid Points they are difficult to abuse. One of the more interesting ones is Mechanized Assault which awards a max of 2 Raid Points if a unit within a specific vehicle, or a unit that just disembarked from that vehicle killed 3+ units over the course of the game. Now you need to start that vehicle in Strategic Reserve but it’s one of the easiest ways for vehicle units to get Raid Points and works wonders with Storm Eagle or Storm Raven transports!
The Raid Wardens get three unique tables to choose from when upgrading their units. The Vehicle table has three useful upgrades. The first allows you to make a free 9″ move at the start of the game (though you must stay 9″ away from enemy units). The second allows you to fire heavy and rapid-fire weapons as assault, and the last allows you to count the turn as being 1 higher than normal when deploying out of reserve(great for Termite drills!) The Biker table is less fantastic, if you charge or are charged you get a free re-roll to hit and to wound. You can get free re-rolls to hit vs Chaos space marines, and the last one is identical to the vehicle table. The Raid Infantry table is also just okay. The first allows you to re-roll advance rolls, the second gives you a re-roll to charge rolls the first time you leave a transport (my favorite option), and the last allows you to re-roll 1’s to hit for ranged attacks the first time you leave a transport.
Conclusion:
Both of these rule sets help flesh out the Space Marine options, though they aren’t for every army. I like the banner system and it gives you a nice incentive to use an Ancient model (if you have one lying around). You can also upgrade relic banners using these rules but I think that works fine. The Raider Warden rules work very well for any Raven Guard or aggressive marine chapters out there. As you level up your units you can run mass-drop pod assault armies, or fast Rhino rush options. There is some flexibility if you want to play aggressively or cagey and i like that multiple chapters can find a niche here. I wouldn’t say any of the rules are over-powered, and the army construction rules mitigate much of the cheesing possible. I am strongly considering a first-born only Charachrodons Warden Raiding force for my next crusade army!
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