Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Return of the Vehicle Parking Lot
With Astra Militarum here at last officially, look for massed tanks to hit the tabletop. The Marines are getting in on this as well!
The new AM book is finally going to come out and a lot more events are going to be overrun with tanks, elite storm trooper like guys, and probably a badly converted Golden daddy riding a horse. It is the slow grind of Astra Militarum and we all have to pay for our sins of rolling around with an assault based army. If you like tanks this is your time to shine.
Watch for Marine Gladiators
Of course at the same time as this is coming out the Dataslate and points update will bring another fun parking lot mentality back to the forefront. Thankfully it’s s much harder to “kit” base your way to a floating tank so we might see less Gladiator chassis parking lots of doom. That’s right – the replacement Predator for the Space Marines brought to them by their cybernetic Santa – Cawl – seems really strong in this update. Especially if they are being piloted by those Marines who love to shove pieces of metal into their bodies.
The Marine parking lot though is a lot rougher as no one really bought the Gladiator. This is why there isn’t any for sale currently as people try to scrounge around and get something to work. This is why I expect this style army to be seen a lot less beyond some of those crazy marine players who had to buy everything. It isn’t an easy tank to just get, build, and get ready to throw on the table.top Remember, the Gladiator wasn’t heavily wanted or needed at the time of release. This means I expect to see more “infantry” based armies showing up from the Marine side of things but will just have to wait and see what Meta Chasers go find out in the real world of plastic nonsense.
Astra Militarum Tacks Are Back
Now I think the AM side of things is going to be a lot rougher as the tank love for them is tanks those players most likely will have. As well as the Kasrkins and those players that love to use the old Storm Trooper models. Heck the biggest issue is if they grabbed a ton of the old FW Plasma Cannon upgrade sprue or we were smart about keeping any plasma tank options. People will have a ton of these tanks and while they need to source/find/build a Golden Horse Gawd it isn’t really going to be a stretch for them to build out an army. I feel for anyone starting this army as there will most likely be a shift coming with 10th edition as well as all the other changes/models you have to purchase to get this ready to go. I expect a lot of people will just borrow a ton and you will continue to see a mismatched meta chasing army when you see these on the tabletop.
Custodes Are Easy to Build
On the whole what list would I expect to see a lot more of? The very easy to source Adeptus Custodes will show in force, as each of their big box releases gave you the bodies you need. Mix in some FW goodness and you get an army that appears to be ready to be a pain in the butt for our Marine/AM overlords coming to the table top. Obviously a 4+ invulnerable save is really good mixed with a fat body to help absorb the incoming pain on the horizon. You also get some MW saves too so you easily can see how the golden boys will be a good choice for an event. Heck the changes to Behind Enemy Lines and some of the other options lets your Golden Gawds survive longer than they need to be.
Really it is the easiest army to collect, paint, and build so it will be showing up a lot. You will see my LVO list on Friday. I want to discuss the actual costs too as it is one of the cheaper options. AoC going away is a real big boon to it as all their bolters and other simple damage options look poised to wreck face. Plus again sitting on 3 wounds. This will become a problem for armies built around spawning out damage 2 or damage d6 wounds.
What Happens Next?
It is going to be a weird season as we have an idea on how long it’s going to last so really going hard into one of the new meta lists might not be worth it the cost investment. Of course if you have a friend that buys everything that is easier – but who knows if it is worth it to grab, build, and get to a nice standard to let you chase the meta to the top for 6 months. Or you just play what you like and just wait on what new nonsense comes with 10th edition.
Good Hunting at LVO folks. Cya on the other side!
