Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Space Marines are Crying
Goatboy here and let me tell you 40K’s mighty Marines are crying. But should we even care?
Let me tell you I have a lot to say next week. Let’s just say something comes out that has me interested, and then something else comes out after that. That is something you all know I love so it’s gonna be a fun few weeks. Until then let me drag out my soap box and complain a bit.
Trust me, he’s crying under that helmet.
The Marines are Crying
Today’s discussion is how while having 2 wounds is nice the points upgrade is not really worth it. Today’s 40k game just doesn’t care about having that extra wound. Unless you are sitting at 3+ wounds you extra bit of fat baggage you are carrying means nothing to a world full of Swooping Hawk jerks, bullet hell bikes, and monsters ready to eat your butt to oblivion. It is just not a nice place to be a 2 wound Marine carrying a kind of worthless bolter versus a battlefield of pure murder hell.
It is very frustrating right now where the only Marine books doing good are those that get matched up well early enough to dodge the rough stuff. You have some Blood Angels doing well utilizing terrain and 2+ armor save jabronis carrying sweet swords. You got mind bullet jerks who fly around in ships and exterminate planets who don’t pass the chaos taint sniff test. Beyond that, there really isn’t anything else showing up and it is shame as the giant paper cut out at events are Marines and not those flesh consuming Tyranids from deep dark space.
Yup, these guys turned out to be a little too good…
What to Do About the Astartes Issue?
So how the heck do we fix this? Well, when you have everything out there that ignores your armor save thru your contempt of rules it gets hard to matter. I am not sure how to make things work beyond just giving the armies other stuff besides their boots on the ground. You could set up some other crazy set of damage reducing rules but that army isn’t doing nearly as well (Dark Angels). It is just frustrating because they are the poster boys of this game and one of the few “cheaper” options to get players involved.
Heck we even have an update to their old game (Horus Heresy Age of Darkness) where you really only play Marine versus Marine. Heck, it will probably be a much more balanced option but you can’t just have 40k be Marines versus Marines because the Xenos stuff is one of the cooler things. It is frustrating when you feel that armies are not built the same and while that is always the case for any big game we at least hope some things would be a little better balanced.
“Brothers, throw your bolters at them and RUN!!!”
Tone The Damage Down
Most likely the first thing would be to tone down all the damage in the game. There is way too much damage 2 close combat out there. The Harlies all just murder Marines and they don’t do nearly enough back to them thru their crotch gyrations and flippy bits. Heck, each of the smaller “Nid” monsters sit on toughness 5 with 3+ wounds too. They can hit back so much harder that you start to wonder if you took the same points cost worth of Marines is it even worth it?
Band-Aids Aren’t Cutting It
Oh and how annoying is Armor of Contempt? Is it a good rule? Sure it gives you better rules but it isn’t a clean rule. It feels like a weird band-aid thrown on your army with some out-of-date ointment on it and a whisper of a dream about waiting for your new book. I don’t want my Marines to be overpowered but I want them to be worth showing up on the tabletop. I’ve got a crap ton of them and it would be nice to have them show up sometime.
I don’t know it is just a weird time to be a power armored jerk of the universe. You aren’t as tough as your fluff says you should be. My Marines may end up sitting on a shelf for a while. They are also are scared about the giant Tyranid who wants to eat you. What are you hoping happens with Chaos Space Marines and Marines in general? I might have a ton of armies but I just don’t have the desire to hope around to things I don’t really want to build. It ends up costing too much in time as well as money.
Are you happy with Marines, or has the game just moved past them this edition?
