40K: It’s Time To Rethink Space Marines
Friends, let us talk about why Space Marines should be an assault army.
There been a lot of chatter over the last few months about how to “fix” Space Marines. Many people seem to feel that the iconic 40K faction is not really operating up to snuff. This has culminated in the last week with the announcement of new beta rules for Space Marines using bolt weapons. A change like this to the basic Space Marine weapon is an admission on GW’s part that Space Marines are not as good as they should be. It’s something people have in fact discussed a lot over the past few editions, but an issue that has grown much worse in 8th, as I’ve written about before. Now as I look at Space Marines, and the ways people talk about fixing them, I wonder if we aren’t going about Marines all wrong. Lets take a look at what I mean.
Birth of A Shooting Army
What the heck’s a CCW?
Back in the days of yore Space Marines were a jack of all trades army. The classic “all-comers army”. They could build both viable shooting and assault armies, with strengths in both areas. Over the years however Space Marines have slowly transitioned into a shooting focused army. (Note I am talking about Codex Marines in particular). As units have been added to the Codex they’ve tended to mostly be shooting based units. Of the 7 main Primaris units, Intercessors, Inceptors, Reivers, Hellblasters Agressors, Repulsor and Redemptors, only Reivers could really be considered to be an assault focused unit, and they aren’t particularly good at it.
Other recent additions, such as the flyers and some tanks are shooting based. At the same time new assault units are rare and far between. Assault Centurions, a comparatively recent addition are more a close ranged support unit that a real assault unit. Vanguard Veterans, a unit dating back to 5th Edition may be the last time a true assault unit was added to Codex:Space Marines. At the same time changes to the game has moved units that previously used to be good close combat units into other roles, or simply rendered them useless. Most terminator units have slowly transformed from deadly assault units into heavy ranged units, a process now pushed along by the new bolter units. At the same time units like Assault Marines and Bikers that used to have roles as good assault troops simply can’t cut it anymore. As a whole the army is now a shooting force.
Outmatched By Allies
Though the Space Marines have been pushed into the role of a shooting army, it does not mean they are a good one. While Space Marines have advantages as a shooting army, they are one of the most accurate armies in the game, they are out preformed by their Imperial Allies. Astra Militarium, Knights, and Even AdMech can all build better shooting lists. Outside of a Guilliman supported build it’s rare for a competitive player to pull from Space Marine units when looking for ranged options. This means that with so many of the Space Marine units being ranged, they just are not getting used. This isn’t even “wrong” per se, Astra Militarium SHOULD be the best Imperial shooting army, that’s kind of their thing.
What Are Space Marines Known For?
I detect a distinct lack of carefully aimed shooting
If we look at the fluff, what are the things Space Marines are known for? What are their iconic traits? Bolters, Power Armor, Chainswords certainly come to mind. Not knowing fear, super human strength, speed and co-ordination. Resilience and resolve. Size and battlefield presence are a big one, busting through walls, ripping stuff apart, using overwhelming strength to dominate the enemy, are pretty common theme. Rapid assaults, spearheads and drop pod landings also come to mind.
…and STAY down!
What doesn’t really come up as much is being a shooting army. Oh, sure, Space Marines are good at shooting, they are good at everything, but I wouldn’t really say its iconic. Space Marines are shock troops, and in the fluff that normally means they have to come to grips in hand to hand and overcome the enemy face to face. If you want the big guns, you call in the Guard, or the Knights.
The Fluff Isn’t Matching The Rules
So looking at a lot of what the Space Marines are known for, I just don’t see it represented on the tabletop. Quick brutal assaults? Space Marines are actually one of the slowest armies. Droppod/teleport attacks? Droppods are next to useless this edition and most armies have ways of deep striking as well. What about super human strength? These guys are augmented to be better than the best human, and then are wearing power armor on top of that! Well, turns out a basic Catachan is just as strong, and properly supported can even get 3 attacks, something a Tactical Marine cannot. Outfought by a standard human – the SHAME!
Toughness and resilience? T4 and a 3+ save is decent, but not nearly as good as it used to be. What about fear? Well turns out they know about as much as anyone else. However what about super human speed, thats a pretty common thing in the fluff? Well with the removal of the initiative stat there isn’t really a way to portray that in 40K anymore. Even bolters seem wrong. Yes Space Marines are really good with bolters, and the new Beta rule seeks to represent that. But Space Marines, in the fluff and art, are normally portrayed as being really good at close range bolter fire, and at running and gunning, not standing still to deliver long range fire. Overall it doesn’t seem the rules are matching the fluff.
So What Needs To Change?
Look, the key take away here is that based on the fluff I feel Space Marines should really be an assault army, not a ranged army. Currently the rules skew them towards a mid-long ranged shooting list. The new bolter rules are only going to encourage that more. This is however not a very good build overall and one that cannot normally hold its own in the meta. Based on the fluff Marines should be a rapid assault army, delivering precision close range firepower and then breaking the enemy with assaults. It’s no coincidence that the Marine force that comes closest to this ideal, the Blood Angels, is currently the best Marine force and the only one to really hold its own in the meta.
I think to properly represent the Marines and make them a competitive force GW needs to radically rethink the focus of the Marine army. Marines in general should get some combat boots. I think making them S5 would be a good move as it would better represent their superhuman strength and powered armor. Most likely they need extra attacks as well, certainly something is needed to make Marine close combat units actually good. In general a rewrite of rules to focus units more on quick assault, #makedroppodsgreatagain, is needed both from a fluff and meta perspective. It is also a good niche to fill. Outside of Custodes there aren’t really heavy infantry assault armies. Non-Codex Marines can still keep their distinctions, Blood Anges as the main user of Jump Packs, Dark Angels as Bikers/Speeders/Terminators, Deathwatch and Space Wolves as unique butterflies. Don’t take way their special things, but push all Marines more towards close combat. In short to fix Marines more than just an extra rule is needed, but a large scale rethink.
Let Us Know What Kind Of Army You Think Space Marines Should Be, Down In The Comments!
