Goatboy’s 40k Thoughts: Why Are New Marines Good?
Goatboy here and this is a question will be asking for a while as we wait on a new 40k book that isn’t a 3+ armor save crusader of humanity. Why are the new Marines good?
This is what I have been asking as I prepare for the new meta shift: how best to survive the upcoming bolter apocalypse that everyone seems to be dreading? What makes them a strong army now (instead of being left to some specific build types)?
Strong Troops
I think the big change is making the actual Space Marine troops good. Think of how all the good armies in the game usually had one thing in common: strong and viable troop choices. Whether they were just designed to be hard to remove (Plague Bearers), could do a decent amount of damage (AM squads that could mob up, throw no LOS shots, etc), or had some tricks that let them be good (20 Guardians deep striking is still usable) – all of these had their uses.
The older Marine book was missing this. While they had a good cheap troop choice (Scouts) they didn’t do much beyond blocking deployment/placement. The additional rules, updated weapons, and even tricks added by the Marine books have done a lot to make the Troop choice a much more viable option that can finally do some damage.
Single Codex Emphasis
I do think it’s a big help that the books force you to be a Full Marine army in order to get those rules. Again, this forces you to take Troop choices in order to get those precious Command Points. This is the crux of the new design that I expect to show up in other books as a way to limit the dreaded soup builds that some of the other books need to compete. I don’t know how viable it will be because it screws up the design of some of the Xenos books (Orks), but if forcing one type of Clan/Legion/Chapter is the future, we better see a lot of extra rules dumped on our alien friends.
Marine Doctrines
Beyond the power of the troop option in the new Marine book, I think the other factor to look at is the new overall cascading rules the army as a whole gets. The new Doctrine system is very powerful, unique, and an interesting method for army building. Look at how each other Marine Chapter utilizes this one blanket set of rules differently. Each Chapter has an obvious reason to stay within a doctrine in order to generate a new additional blanket rule. This all stems from just one universal rule and how you can tweak and add on to it. It also shows a lot more thought going into how the army works from turn to turn.
Will see if this ends up mattering but it is an interesting thought when looking at these books. The game usually has big turns 2 and 3 when playing at higher levels, so the Marine books designed for those turns will end up being powerful and popular. It also benefits those armies that really just want to stay in one doctrine as they are designed specifically for that. I think the introduction of the Doctrines ends up being the most significant new addition to Marines. At the very least, it is the most blanketing new set of rules and biggest proponent to going full Marine Bro.
New Strategem Philosophy
Once you start to go deeper into each Marine chapter you start to see how the majority of the Stratagems are actually useful. This is another shift in design philosophy, while not every single one is an all-star option they all have their uses. On top of this, each Chapter’s Stratagem are different and unique in ways to make the armies all play differently on our imagined battlefield.
This isn’t just a single army release – it looks to be 6+ armies we have to worry about and plan for. Can you kill a bunch of tough tanks? Awesome, well you better worry about those sneaky marines getting you. Can you take the first turn, no overwatch charge from some crazy bikers? How about those guys in blue you can’t keep down and will be boltering you forever? Heck, the rumored Salamander rules are also looking pretty rough as you get burninated to the ends of time. Mix in the successor chapter abilities and you get more layers of gameplay and army styles.
Player Choice Is King
This ability to make your army the way you want it is a big reason why the new Marine book is actually a good one. It’s just layers and layers of choices, rules, and abilities that can bring about whatever game style you want. This is where you can see the overarching change in the army style as the die-hard Chaos Player is actively looking at playing Marines because they look powerful and fun. The Raven Guard and their sneaky offensive ways really have me thinking of getting a good guy army. Heck, we got 2 more books and even a rumored boxed set mini codex coming so we are not done with trying to figure out how to beat those powered armor jerks.
I hope we see this design show up in updated codexes. We hear chatter that the Marine books will all become supplements off of the Main marine option. While sad in some ways I do think it ends up being better for the other books. The Doctrine system is powerful, the initial Stratagems are good, and it will end up letting the other Marines get simple and unique rules to make them powerful. We’ll see if the rumors end up being true.
Of course, I would love to see something like this come to Chaos Space Marines, but I would just want their Legion rules to show up on all their options at least first. This is the only book that doesn’t get to use their army rules on all their choices and it is something that just needs to be fixed and updated. Sure you get some -1 to hit giant monsters, but when are they winning a game?
Until next time – Death to the False Emperor unless I am playing Raven Guard.
