Saturday, July 5, 2008

Marine-tastic Rumorgasm

From two posts by turelhim vampire at The Bolter and Chainsword:

I don’t know if this has already been mentioned but I don’t have time to scrawl though 38 pages whilst I am at work. I just got off the phone with a GW employee – this was from ringing GW mail order at Nottingham - who had the book in front of him and gleaned a few tid bits.

Salamanders Special Character:
NOT Tu’shan – his name is Vulkan Estan he is the ex-4th Company Captain and is a kind of wandering champion. Apparently he has almost inquisition like leverage over the Salamander Chapter, as his task is to seek out and recover 9 holy relics made by Vulkan before he disappeared. Apparently if all 9 are recovered Vulkan will return. Estan has recovered 3 and is using them. One is a Salamander Hide Cloak, one is a Gauntlet which counts as a Heavy Flamer and allows him to re-roll to wound. The third is the Spear of Vulkan - a S6 master crafted power weapon.

On top of this he allows any and all Salamanders in the army to replace their “vanilla” Combat Tactics with the Salamanders version – they get Master Crafted Thunder Hammers for free. All Melta/flamer weapons in the army, no matter their source, count as twin linked – also for free.

In addition (this is a general marine rule) Storm Shields now grant a 3+ Inv. Save against shooting and combat. And all Salamanders Terminator Assault squads come with them, and there thunder hammers are master crafted if Estan is present.


Also I heard the Spearhead will include:
Codex
Drop pod
Telion
Cantor
Sicarius
Tank Commander character
Scout Bikes
5 Vanguard
5 Sternguard
1x Speeder (could be a storm)


Just thought I’d contribute.

Second Post:

Right, now work is over and I can talk in some depth, here is what I was told:

-The special characters are designed to be taken by any chapter using "counts as" rules.
-If you give a commander a bike, bike squads are troops.
-Tac squads can have any number of marines - from 5 to 10, but can only have special/heavy weapons if you take a full 10 man squad. They can be split into combat squads during deployment. To make up for the "must have 10 for special/heavies" rule flamers, missile launchers, multi-meltas and heavy bolters are now FREE - you only pay points to take the rest of the options.
-Drop pod assault: Half the drop pods deploy on turn 1 - these half have "deployment beacons" that allow the rest (held as reserves) to come in more accurately. Tac squads choose to deploy as combat squads AFTER they land.
-Scouts in all their forms (including the storm) infiltrate in one of two ways - normally or can come in as reserves from ANY table edge and get to use their free "scout" move when they arrive. Scouts are still troops - Marine Airbourne Cavalry of Doom anyone?
-3 Dread options - Standard, Venerable, and Ironclad - all separate elite entries. Venerables are back to how they used to be and have WS/BS 5. Ironclads have 13/13/10 armour, can take 2x DCCW, Hurricane bolter, twin linked heavy flamer, and some others, I forget now. It also has a rule which could be a weapon option called the "seismic hammer" which counts as a thunder hammer and allows difficult terrain tests to be re-roll as it batters terrain out of the way.
-Dreads are crazy now weapons include - Assault Cannon, Multi Melta, twin Heavy Bolters, twin Heavy Flamers, twin las cannon, twin autocannon, plasma cannon, DCCW, Missile Launcher, and maybe more I have forgotten. Oh, and AT LEAST the twin autocannon can be purchased for BOTH arms.
-Sternguard vets have DW style ammo, 2 can take special/heavies/special CCW - Including HEAVY FLAMERS. biggrin.gif For +5pts each they can also take ANY combi weapon - and still keep the specialist ammo type.
-Vanguard vets are similar but are combat-heavy and can have jump packs as an option. Interestingly, they can be further upgraded to "Honour Guard" if you take a Company Master.
-Scouts and Characters can take Combi-Grenade launchers, which are the same as they used to be but are now RAPID FIRE.
-Crusader is now cheaper but does not come with the multi-melta - but this can be purchased as a pintle mounted weapon - possible for ALL land raiders. Redeemer flame cannons are S6 AP3 but are NOT inferno cannons - the template has to touch the weapon - however the machine spirit now allows each weapon on the raider to fire at a separate target.
-There are 13 special characters in total. White Scars character confirmed. No model as yet for him or Vulkan.

Thats all I can remember.

If you're a marine player -- like me -- your first inclination is to disbelieve these rumors, because they're too good.

However, I'm just hopeful enough that they'll be true to pass them along.

What do y'all think?

8 comments:

  1. If this tidbit about drop pods is true, 1/2 coming in on turn one and the rest off their "beacons".. WOW. I wish I had those in my army.

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  2. SEETHING HATE RAY

    Some very ridiculous stuff in there, and I refuse to believe that the same company that brought us the latest CSM book is revamping the SM book like this. FREE flamer / heavy weapons if you take 10 dudes? Insane dread options? Master crafting everywhere? Not to mention the busted all melta / flamer weapons are twin-linked army buff from the previously-known-as-Tushan guy. The ONLY way I can see them account for all of this is by adding 5 points to ALL current marine costs: 20 point tacticals, etc. Given the raw POWER of Combat Tactics (no matter which one you take!) I think this is fair.

    Except I'm expecting marines to now cost 14 points a pop. You know, cause they have Ld 8.

    Seriously GeeDub: W T F??

    - Salvage

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  3. Hmmm, I really need to get these filthy xenos I'm working on finished before fall!

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  4. @ron: That's one of the rumors I doubt the most. I'll believe it when I read it in the new 'dex.

    @boss salvage: I know what you mean. The only way that this will make any sense is if the rumored Codex: Chaos Legions is true. Oh, and if it rocks. A lot.

    @innergeek: If I recall your "filthy xenos" are Eldar...you'll be fine. Y'know, holofields n'such. :)

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  5. Nice work, Matey - Found you via TheInnerGeek and I've put up a link to your blog: I guess you won't mind...?

    Cheers,

    - Drax

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  6. @Drax: Welcome, welcome...and thanks for the link. I'll be adding your blog to my daily reading list (and linking up to it as well!)

    As for the rumors themselves, I wish I could have actually provided the information from a well-placed inside source at GW, but I'm not that cool. :)

    But hey, passing along the grist from the mill is what it's all about, right?

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  7. I wonder what this does to Dark Angel armies. What's the point if you can now take a Vanilla Ravenwing or Vanilla Deathwing?

    DA/BA still have to pay for their special/heavy weapons and don't get access to any of the new Vanilla toys; from what the rumors are saying.

    Rumors are also saying that Marines get a Vanilla "deathwing assault". My DW doesn't feel so special now.

    I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

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  8. I think "wait and see" is the best answer, really. I know while I'm hopeful that some of these rumors are true, I tend to take them with a grain of salty goodness. :)

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