Warhammer 40K: Hot Takes On The Space Marine FAQs

Happy FAQ Day everyone! Let’s take a look at what the new FAQs mean for Space Marines.

Another Codex, another FAQ – or in this case 1 Codex, 2 supplements and 4 FAQs. Today the fine folks at GW dropped FAQs for all the new Space Marine goodness we’ve gotten. While I don’t think anything was super earth-shattering here, there were a few surprises and some nice confirmations.  Let’s go over the key points of all 4 FAQs and what, if anything they mean.

Codex: Space Marines FAQ

Here are my highlights:

• Right off the bat, we’ve got a couple of quick but needed errata. First off, while Drop Pods might be exempt from the tactical reserve rule, they still get destroyed if they don’t come in by turn 3. There go players hopes of keeping a small objective scoring squad off the table till turn five to snatch backfield objectives. Overall not a huge change, I think it was a corner case, but interesting.
• The next change is a minor quibble of mine that I’m glad they addressed. Previously Ultramarinesines’ ability to fall back and shoot with a -1 was actually a detriment to any of their units with fly. GW fixed this. Nice.
• Next on the importance list: they’ve gutted the Indomitus Crusader detachment from Vigilus. While we kinda saw this coming, I’m still sad to see it happen. By pulling all those stratagems out of the detachment, as well as reprinting one of the relics, you leave the detachment with little of use beyond its warlord trait. Given that the detachment was kind of the centerpiece of Vigilus 1 it is sad.
• GW also clarified the obvious truth that nothing in the 2017 Codex can be used any more. Nice try rules-lawyers.
• Next up we’ve got an odd ruling that matches the wording in the Codex, but undermines their general rules. They’ve stated that none of the stratagems in the Codex can target units from the other “Space Marine Chapters” (i.e. Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Deathwatch, etc.), even though they have the right key words. While this is consistent with the wording of the Codex, which states they aren’t “Space Marines” and can’t use rules in the book, it is yet another instance of the keyword system breaking down.
• A little bit down we’ve got one that is somewhat of a surprise to me. GW has ruled that taking an Assassin, even with the stratagem, stops you from using Combat Doctrines. While the RAW on this was clear, I really thought they’d rule an exception here as it seems like it would make a lot of logical sense.
• Last bit of importance, they confirmed that units getting out of an Impuslor can still move even if the Impuslor moved first. I was pretty sure it worked that way, but nice to get confirmation. Feel free to slingshot your Prime Time Tiggys across the board.

Aside from those big points, the rest is mostly confirming wordings and minor clarifications. As you can see, nothing really crazy going on here, but nice to have it all in one place.

The Ultramarines Supplement FAQ

The Ultramarines have a pretty short FAQ and about half of it seems to deal with Sergeant Chronos. While I’d never thought of it before, giving Chronos a warlord trait is kind of a cool idea. I could see giving him Iron Resolve for an extra though tank, or Rites of War so you Land Raider gets objective secured. Maybe even Paragon of War and put him the tank with the most shots. Not sure if it’s good, but it id kind of funny. Outside of Chornos related stuff, it’s mostly confirmations of what we know. Yes, Aggressors fire twice all the time in Tactical Doctrine, no you can’t take Master-Crafted Weapons from multiple books.

The White Scars Supplement FAQ

This FAQ is short and sweet. Most of what is in it can already be found in the Ultramarines version. The only thing of any real note here is that they changed the Master of Snares trait to not work on units with a minimum move, meaning you can’t cause flyers to auto crash. GW must have heard me talking about my plans to do this – I’ve literaly had to rewrite a future article because of this FAQ out of spite.)

The Odds and Ends FAQ

This FAQ covers all the other books with “Space Marines” in them. The big change here, and it’s a bit of a shock, is that they gave all the Index units Angels of Death so you can use them in your Space Marine armies still. Too bad Larry, it looks like the Indexes will stick around for a bit longer now! Joking aside I assume this move is being made because the units will all get the rules during the transition over to Legends, whenever that happens, though I’m still unclear why this didn’t happen when they put out the first version of this FAQ. Other than that shocker the rest of the FAQ is just making sure things work the same across all the various armies, with no real surprises. They did clarify that the drop pod exemption only applies to the main Drop Pod and not variations found in other books.

Until Next FAQ Day!

And that’s about it for FAQs this time around. Like I said before, nothing that really changes the game. We got some good confirmations, and overall the FAQs this time will just lead to a smoother game, good job GW!

Let us know what you think of the FAQs, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.