Today is the day all of the various content creators and YouTubers will be releasing their readings of the new Astra Militarum Codex. I am sure all of the Guard players will be rushing over to watch the 3 hour long videos of someone’s hands flipping through a brand new Codex, but I thought I would put some of my thoughts down about some of the many Guard previews GW has released since announcing the new Codex. If you read this after watching those beautiful YouTuber’s hands page through the new book let me know if I was way off with some of my ideas in the comments! In my last article I covered some of the things I would like to see stay, and some of the things I think need to go, for the new Astra Militarum Codex. Thankfully we did not have to wait long to see some Guard previews from Games Workshop, and some of the rules shown for their new Codex make this seem like an extremely interesting release. These previews make the new Codex look extremely interesting, and this is a real win for Games Workshop. Making the faction just filled with dudes fighting with flashlights exciting can be a tough task.
It looks like the Guard Codex will have the now standard build your own sub-faction included in their Codex. The interesting thing this new book does that previous books did not is give additional keywords to your units based on the regimental rules you select during army building. These keywords unlock certain stratagems your units can use during the game. This is a very interesting rules space that GW can work with, and I hope they include these keywords for other Codex’s sub-factions in the future.
The WarCom article about Regiments specifically mentions mixing and matching some sub-faction rules, but it does not mention rules for the Guard Regiments gamers are familiar with. If Cadians, Catachan, or Mordians are not their own sub-factions within the Codex I will be extremely surprised. The WarCom article reads like this is the case, but it is very hard to believe GW would stop including established sub-factions from their lore in future Codexes.
To further support the idea that those established regiments are now folded into the ‘pick your own’ regiment creator, Death Korps of Kreig and Catachan units have their own rules built into their own dataslate. Kreig units all get baby transhuman by not being able to be wounded on anything better than a 3+, and the Catachan get exploding 6s to hit in close combat. I will let you decided which is better.
The most interesting Regimental rule previewed so far is the Expert Bombardiers regiment. Getting plus 1 to hit for any artillery that is targeting an enemy unit that has a Vox-caster or Sentinel within 12 inches seems extremely good.
Speaking of the artillery, the Deathstrike’s Godspear Warheard looks to be hilariously broken or terrible. I cannot decide which just from looking at the rules. Placing a marker that won’t cause damage until your opponent’s next turn could be fine, but I think by taking multiple Deathstrike’s a Guard army can make entire areas of the battlefield (Objectives) completely inaccessible to their opponent. While this tank can only fire this powerful missile once per game, it does not count as firing it unless those whooping 8 mortal wounds make contact. We will see how the Guard Codexes’ points break down, but I shudder to think of an army that can take 3 of these along with Leman Russes and Infantry.
A great thing about the new Codex is it seems like Orders have stuck around. In the WarCom article preview it shows a sweet new Commissar model, and also shows some of their new Prefectus Orders. Falling Back and still Shooting and being able to Shoot as normal after moving or Advancing seem ok, but I hope this dude’s datasheet provides a little more reason to get this awesome looking model on the table.
Overall these previews make the Guard Codex look much more interesting than its former version. I am excited to see what dedicated Astra Militarum commanders can get on the table, and how they use all of the new rules found in their new Codex. They have waited a looooooong time to be good, so I hope this release sees them punch above a 40% win rate for the first time in the entire Edition.
If you are looking to get some of these new amazing Astra Militarum models, or need some of your current models painted up, check out the FLG Webstore for excellent prices on all GW products.