40K Teaser: Inside Codex Space Marines
What to expect when you’re expecting Codex Space Marines.
Got some breaking news for you this morning–GW’s given us all a quick peek at Codex Space Marines, detailing some of the units and other information you can find within. So congratulations! It’s a Codex!
via Warhammer Community
This is the complete guide to your army, with 104 pages of background, covering the long and storied history of the Adeptus Astartes and the distinct traditions of the First Founding Chapters and their Successors. There’s also new background focused on the Primaris Marines and the Ultima Founding, from Chapters brought back from the brink of destruction like the Crimson Fists to new heroes like the Rift Stalkers. There’s detailed livery to inspire your own paint schemes, as well as a breakdown of squad and company markings, from those of the more Codex compliant Chapters like the Ultramarines to the unique battle-iconography of the Black Templars.
And just as a refresher, some fun things we know, Primaris marines have three extra organs that help make them harder, better, faster, stronger–the steel within (supermetals coiled around sinew), the magnificat amplifier (a half functional organ that makes all the other organs better, basically the biotech equivalent of a management consultant who helps leverage your core synergies and everyone in the office just hates them and are sick of hearing ‘work smarter not harder’), and the Belisarian furnace (a last ditch boost for a dying Primaris).
Here are the Primaris organs on their annual team building retreat.
The codex is packed with new units, too. We can’t tell you about all of these yet, but we can guarantee you’ll see everything from Dark Imperium, our new Primaris Space Marine heroes, the Reivers, the Repulsor and the colossal Redemptor Dreadnought. There are also all the characters and units you know and love, including Chapter-specific special characters that will unlock yet more avenues for army building and themed forces. Again, Space Marine players will have a very powerful and complex force at their disposal, with some truly terrifying combinations available to those who make the maximum use of Primaris and non-Primaris units; one of our favourites is combining Reivers with High Marshal Helbrecht and Chaplain Grimaldus to create a savage assault army capable of striking the fear of the Emperor into the heart of the most obstinate heretic. All in all, there are 85 datasheets in the book – the codex is almost the size of the Warhammer 40,000 book.
Yup, that’s right. Space Marines are so cool their book is basically another edition of 8th edition. Which, given what we’ve seen of the new rules and units, isn’t that far off. Space Marines definitely pull ahead of the game right now.
Of course, a Space Marine army wouldn’t be a Space Marine army without the legacy of its Primarch; these are represented in Codex: Space Marines with Chapter Tactics for (deep breath now) the Ultramarines, the White Scars, the Imperial Fists, the Black Templars, the Salamanders, the Raven Guard and the Iron Hands. These have been changed a little from what you may be used to, and for the better – we’ve been able to make the Chapter Tactics very powerful and very flexible, but your army will need to be battle-forged to use them. Previous Chapter Tactics generally focused around specific units and weapons like Salamanders with flamers or Imperial Fists with bolter-armed Tactical Squads, but this time around, they’ll be benefitting every unit and every army build; the strength of the Space Marines is diversity, after all.
As we’ve seen, even Dreadnoughts get to use the swanky new Chapter Tactics, like the Ultramarine’s ability to disengage from close combat and still shoot. This can be devastating in the right hands–no doubt the other chair tactics will be equally as cheaty powerful and suited to their respective chapters’ idiom.
With Stratagems, you’ll be able to build armoured columns, focus on your heroes or master the Fight phase. These are paired with 14 Warlord Traits – 6 for any Space Marine army and 8 for the different Chapters. Particularly shrewd readers will notice that’s one more than there should be – that’s because the Crimson Fists, while using the Chapter Tactics of the Imperial Fists, have their own Warlord Trait and Relic.
I like the precedent this sets. A new Warlord trait for something firmly rooted in-fiction, it’s a good way to reflect the unfolding narrative even in tabletop play. Who knows what else we’ll see come out of this.
We’ve already seen some of the specific stratagems, including the ability to upgrade a captain to a chapter master. And there are 26 all in all, including some new iteration of Linebreaker Bombardment and Tremor Shells for the Thunder Cannon. Many of these new stratagems will give a boost to specific units. So if you’re paying against Space Marines, prepare to see new ways of getting killed every time your opponent spends a CP.
One last little tidbit–look at these new faces hiding in the crowd:
That is one stylish Poxwalker about to get missiled and minigunned to heck by those swanky looking Primaris.
These guys look cool–but it took me longer than it should have to realize the gray native in the upper right was just a statue. Probably my favorite model in the spread, though.
Codex: Space Marines will be available for pre-order next week.
