So tonight while at the FLGS I noticed they had their copy of the new Guard codex. Watching that thing travel around the room was a joy, because I got to see these Guard players open it, page through it, and then smile.
I don't know enough about Guard to be able to say what the differences are between the old 'dex and the new one -- and don't ask me about points values because I didn't linger in my looking over it (though I do remember the plasma-packin' Russ, fully loaded with sponsons and everything was well over 200 points). What I do know is this: If you've been playing Guard for years now, and have been eating crap at the tournaments and even during friendly games...your Moment of Retribution is at hand.
There's some broken, broken stuff in this book. Guard are probably going to become a top-tier army, or close to it. You can roll out a TON of tanks. The special characters are awesome. It's a good time to be a Guard player. Enjoy it, my brethern in service to the Emperor, for the good times are here for you at last.
Showing posts with label codex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label codex. Show all posts
Friday, April 10, 2009
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Got to Read the New Space Marine Codex
Swung by the FLGS this evening and gave the new Space Marine codex a pretty thorough read-through (at least in terms of the game mechanics stuff, skipped the fluffy bits entirely).
I both love it and hate it.
Boy oh boy as you're reading through the unit descriptions, your mind begins to swirl with all kinds of possibilities and combinations...there's some raw power in there that will make you weep with joy.
Then you get to the actual army list part.
You read the point costs.
And you begin to weep again, this time bitter tears of sadness for the units that will never see the light of day.
Vanguard Vets, for example. They're stupidly overpriced. One of them with a jump pack will costs you...are you ready for this?
You sure?
...waaaait for it!
35 points.
That's right, 35 points.
Marneus Calgar? 250, with the option to take termie armor for a few points more.
Sicarius? 200, but probably worth it for Rites of Battle and his wargear, which is very nice indeed.
And trust me, you don't want to know what an all-las cannon equipped Predator is going to cost you (though the other configurations are actually very reasonable).
But there are definitely some bright spots...some very bright spots indeed.
Sternguard. 25 points. They are, to me, hands down the best thing in the whole book.
Scout bikes. They're like a Swiss army knife. If only that WS and BS had remained at 4...
Regular bikes are cheaper.
And yes, you can field a captain and attached command squad, all on bikes and including an apothecary (granting the unit FNP), giving you a sort of poor man's nob biker squad.
Other bits of joy:
Cheaper assault marines.
Dirt cheap las cannons for tac squads.
Legion of the Damned.
Ironclad Dreadnought (guess what I'm going to do with the Black Reach dreadnought? Yep, you guessed it...)
Dirt cheap Razorbacks. They're practically giving them away in the TLHB load-out.
It is possible -- though probably not very practical -- to field 5 Land Raiders. That's right, you heard me: 5 Land Raiders.
And oh yes, Scout Sergeant Telion. He's like Christmas morning. One of his special abilities makes him like a Vindicare assassin. He's awesome, and a bargain points-wise.
I'm ashamed to admit it, but I had a serious bitch-fest in the FLGS about the stupid, stupid stuff that's in there:
Chaplains? Nerfed. BS 4, W2, I4 A2. Lame. No upgrades available.
Librarians? Same stat line as Chaplains, and the psychic hood has that craptacular 24" range. Inquisitor lord, here I come. (Have I told you lately how much I hate that damned Doom/Guide/Fortune faucet? Shutting it off truly makes me smile.) At least they're still Ld 10...
GW no longer loves you if you love assault cannons. In fact, looking at it's point cost, I'm pretty sure they want you to forget it ever existed.
I'm sure I sounded like a little bitch while I was venting at the FLGS...but man, some of the nerfings and point costs don't make much sense.
Anyway...
There are definitely no Eldar- or Ork-style win buttons in this book (which -- I'm ashamed to admit -- I kind of wish there were at least one).
Overall first impression? While I have some issues with a few bits, all things considered, it's a great book. The good definitely outweighs the bad. I'm looking forward to using it. Release date can't come fast enough for me!
I both love it and hate it.
Boy oh boy as you're reading through the unit descriptions, your mind begins to swirl with all kinds of possibilities and combinations...there's some raw power in there that will make you weep with joy.
Then you get to the actual army list part.
You read the point costs.
And you begin to weep again, this time bitter tears of sadness for the units that will never see the light of day.
Vanguard Vets, for example. They're stupidly overpriced. One of them with a jump pack will costs you...are you ready for this?
You sure?
...waaaait for it!
35 points.
That's right, 35 points.
Marneus Calgar? 250, with the option to take termie armor for a few points more.
Sicarius? 200, but probably worth it for Rites of Battle and his wargear, which is very nice indeed.
And trust me, you don't want to know what an all-las cannon equipped Predator is going to cost you (though the other configurations are actually very reasonable).
But there are definitely some bright spots...some very bright spots indeed.
Sternguard. 25 points. They are, to me, hands down the best thing in the whole book.
Scout bikes. They're like a Swiss army knife. If only that WS and BS had remained at 4...
Regular bikes are cheaper.
And yes, you can field a captain and attached command squad, all on bikes and including an apothecary (granting the unit FNP), giving you a sort of poor man's nob biker squad.
Other bits of joy:
Cheaper assault marines.
Dirt cheap las cannons for tac squads.
Legion of the Damned.
Ironclad Dreadnought (guess what I'm going to do with the Black Reach dreadnought? Yep, you guessed it...)
Dirt cheap Razorbacks. They're practically giving them away in the TLHB load-out.
It is possible -- though probably not very practical -- to field 5 Land Raiders. That's right, you heard me: 5 Land Raiders.
And oh yes, Scout Sergeant Telion. He's like Christmas morning. One of his special abilities makes him like a Vindicare assassin. He's awesome, and a bargain points-wise.
I'm ashamed to admit it, but I had a serious bitch-fest in the FLGS about the stupid, stupid stuff that's in there:
Chaplains? Nerfed. BS 4, W2, I4 A2. Lame. No upgrades available.
Librarians? Same stat line as Chaplains, and the psychic hood has that craptacular 24" range. Inquisitor lord, here I come. (Have I told you lately how much I hate that damned Doom/Guide/Fortune faucet? Shutting it off truly makes me smile.) At least they're still Ld 10...
GW no longer loves you if you love assault cannons. In fact, looking at it's point cost, I'm pretty sure they want you to forget it ever existed.
I'm sure I sounded like a little bitch while I was venting at the FLGS...but man, some of the nerfings and point costs don't make much sense.
Anyway...
There are definitely no Eldar- or Ork-style win buttons in this book (which -- I'm ashamed to admit -- I kind of wish there were at least one).
Overall first impression? While I have some issues with a few bits, all things considered, it's a great book. The good definitely outweighs the bad. I'm looking forward to using it. Release date can't come fast enough for me!
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?
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?
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