RUMORS: Codex Space Marines ~ ICs and More
Rumors brought to the community by Bolter and Chainsword’s: turelhim vampire
Hi folks,
I hope you all had a good holiday weekend. Lets right to it. A raftload of new rumors broke this weekend regarding an Independant Characters in the upcoming marine codex, and various other changes to weapons and special powers. Here we go:
Special Characters
Vulkan Estan: He is the ex-4th Salamander Company Captain and is a kind of wandering champion. He has almost Inquisition-like leverage over the Salamander Chapter, as his task is to seek out and recover nine holy relics made by Vulkan before he disappeared. If all nine are recovered, it is said Vulkan will return. Estan has recovered the following three and uses them:
- Salamander Hide Cloak,
- Gauntlet which counts as a Heavy Flamer and allows re-rolls to wound.
- Spear of Vulkan is a S6 master crafted power weapon.
Estan allows any and all Salamanders in the army to replace their Combat Tactics special rule with a 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.
13 special characters: in the codex. White Scars character confirmed. There is no model as yet for him or Vulkan Estan. The special characters are designed to be taken by any chapter using “counts as” rules.
General Codex Info
Storm Shields: now grant a 3+ Invulnerable Save versus shooting and assault.
Combat Tactics: special rule allow marines to voluntarily pass or fail any fall back or sweeping advance tests.
Bike Commanders: allow bike squads as troops.
Tactical 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 weapon options.
Drop pod Assault: Half the drop pods deploy on turn 1. This half have “deployment beacons” that allow the rest (who are held as reserve) to come in more accurately. Tactical squads may choose to deploy as combat squads AFTER they land.
Scouts: in all their forms (including mounted in a Landspeeder Storm) may infiltrate in one of two ways: infiltrate normally or they can come in as reserves from ANY table edge and get to use their free “scout” move when they arrive. Scouts are still troops
Dreadnought Options: Standard, Venerable, and Ironclad with each being an elite choice.
- Venerables are back to WS/BS 5.
- Ironclads have 13/13/10 armour and can take twin DCCW, Hurricane bolter, twin linked heavy flamer, and some others It also has a rule which (possibly a weapon option) called the Seismic Hammer which counts as a thunder hammer and allows difficult terrain tests to be re-roll as the Ironclad batters terrain out of the way.
- Dreads weapons options: Assault Cannon, Multi Melta, linked Heavy Bolters, linked Heavy Flamers, linked las cannon, linked autocannon, plasma cannon, DCCW, Missile Launcher, and maybe more. The linked autocannon can be purchased for BOTH arms, and possibly some others options as well.
Sternguard Veterans: have Deathwatch style ammo. Two can take special/heavies/special CCW including HEAVY FLAMERS. For +5pts each they can also take any combi weapon and still keep the specialist ammo type.
Vanguard Veterans: are similar but are combat-heavy and can have jump packs as an option. They may be further upgraded to Honour Guard if you take a Company Master.
Combi-Grenade Launchers: may be taken by special characters and scouts. They are the same as they used to be but are now rapid fire weapons
Land Raider Crusader is now cheaper but does not include the multi-melta; this option may now be purchased as a pintle mounted weapon for ALL land raiders.
Land Raider Redeemer flame cannons are S:6 AP:3 but are not Inferno Cannons; the template must touch the weapon.
Power of the Machine Spirit now allows each weapon on a Land Raider to fire at a separate target.
~Wow, the Salamander’s go from getting no love to getting ALL the love! Its a good time to be one of the sons of Vulkan. I’m also liking the changes to Storm Shields. That change should make assault termys a more viable option compared to the standard squads. As usual folks, take a very large dose of Caveat Emptors with this batch, as some of this stuff seems to good to be true. On the other hand, some of it is in line with this stuff.
