Goatboy’s 40K: Imperial Armor Marine Edition Review
Goatboy here again with another quick review of the new Space Marine Forge World book. How good is the resin crack in 8th?
Just like the Chaos one – this book takes all the Marine options from Forgeworld and updates it for 8th edition. There are a lot of things in here but unlike the Chaos one – all of them are just Marine options. So no good guy knights, titans, and other non Adeptus Astartes in this book. Still there are a ton of neat things and while most are overcosted I am sure there are a few gems to punish your opponents with – if you want to spend the cash on that oh so sweet resin crack.
Marine Tanks
First we have the basic Battle Tanks. Predators, Land Raider Variants, and Sicaran Variants make up this section. There is a lot of interesting stuff here from extra add-on Raider options, better battle tanks, and weapons that seem to do a lot of damage. All of these cost a pretty penny so while good – it might not be the best for a competitive player to throw them on the table top. I really like the Sicaran as it is one of the coolest looking models Forgewold has put out. It looks like an Anime tank and most of the time feels pretty powerful. The Punisher Assault Tank version is my favorite as rolling 18 dice when you shoot a weapon just feels awesome. It is like a crazy heavy bolter and the ability to Reroll 1’s if you don’t move seems pretty spicy.
After that we get ahold of the Heavy tanks from this book. This is the big stuff that is larger then a Land Raider. All of these things seem to have Steel Behemoth as a rule which allows them to leave combat and still charge. They also get to shoot at things even if they are within an inch of them as well. This tank is going to be shooting all the time and you can’t stop it backing up, unleashing hell, and then driving over unit. The wounds also start to get nutty with things hitting over 20 wounds and even up to 30. Heck you even get a Volcano cannon which is a rather beefy guy. The Spartan was always a strong tank and having rules for it in 8th might let it show up on the table top. Most of the others are pretty expensive beyond a few armies that love to showcase a huge hunk of resin on the playscape like the Mastodon.
Dreads
After this we get all the Dreadnoughts. Most of these are like better versions of the regular dreadnoughts – which while good if you have them – means that even still with the updated rules, dreadnoughts are not going to be seen as much on the table top. Now there are some Character dreadnoughts here and with less then 10 wounds these guys can hide amongst the cattle of your army. This might make them neat in a big massed foot Marine army lead by the fancy new Primarch. It gets hard to get super excited about these guys as while their rules work better now they just don’t seem to do enough to warrant inclusion in your list. I think the Chaplain dread might be worth it due to its Aura of granting an additional point of strength to his buddies as well as having the powerful Character Keyword to keep him safe.
Flyers
The flyers are next with the speeder options, attack craft, and finally big flyers. The Fire Raptor has a lot of shooting but again fails to be nearly as strong as the Storm Raven. The ability of the Raven to transport multiple options and limit your “drop” potential in a match up is extremely powerful. Still the Raptor isn’t bad – just not worth it when you compare it to the goldfish of doom that is the Storm Raven. The double fisted Ram ship and the Thunderhawk variants round out the list. I don’t think you will ever see these in a normal game as they are expensive. Still it is nice to see all their rules in this book.
Funky Stuff
We get to Support next with Whirlwinds, weird Rhinos, and other options. The Dreadnought Droppod shows up here as well. I am not sure if it is worth it as a whole and feel like GW made a lot of people sad when their Dreads got to fat to fit in a normal Drop Pod. There is no mention of the Quad Mortar we all loved to hate with the Raiper Batteries only having the Lascannon and the Heavy Bolter option. It is interesting to see the Sentry guns here too as I figured they would have showed up in the upcoming AM book. The Stronghold piece of terrain from FW is also here as well and that is a weird thing to see. I thought there were more boards as well – but hey at least something you spent a ton of cash on has rules for it.
After that you get into the weird other options for Marine like choices. Grey Knight Vehicles, Inquisition, and even Sisters of Battle tanks show up here. I suspected the Grey Knights to be in the book but it is odd to see Sisters and the Inquisition. The Grey Knight versions of Vehicles get access to a Psychic Power as well as their version of weapons. Psycannon and Incinerator variants seem to be the thing to make this flavor of option – Grey Knight. The Sisters of Battle Repressor seems good with its extra Wounds and decent gun holes throughout the model. I don’t know if it is better then just the cheaper Immolater but it is something to think about when you building a Sisters army with all those dang metal models.
Marine Characters
Finally we get to the good stuff with all the characters from Forge World. This is all the weird and interesting models that usually had odd rules that broke the old Ally matrix either with amazing Psychic options, crazy rules, or being cheap as hell for your army. I personally look for strong Aura effects as I feel those are keys to finding the best “character” for your army. Armennus seems pretty interesting by increasing the strength of bolter weapons around him. That seems like a powerful ability that could be utilized in an army. Mr. Moloc from the Minotaurs ability to allow his buddies to reroll charges sounds like an amazing option for any assault based army. Loth – the old king of the guaranteed psychic combo – seems interesting with the ability to cast 2 spells and deny 3. Tyberos looks like a beast as he gives two sets of auras out to the Space Sharks – +1 Strength and reroll attacks. The Executioners High Chaplain seems pretty good as he gives out the normal Chaplain aura as well as the ability to give more attacks if units near him roll a 6 to hit (Doesn’t generate more). Again if there is a crazy Marine assault army these types of characters can help facilitate that.
Overall this book is decent. I wish the Good guy Knights and Titans were in this book but I am thinking with all the extra characters added in they wanted to leave those options for the upcoming AM book. It is the same with how Chaos should probably have had the Renegade options in the book to make it feel like a complete “bad” guy book. Still at 25 dollars shipped this is a great thing to have if you have or have ever wanted to throw down with some Resin tanks/dreads/characters.
~ For the Emperor!
