Warhammer 40K: Space Marine Range Is Shrinking Again
No, we’re not talking about Legions Imperialis shrinking either. These Space Marines are leaving the range.
It’s really happening: Games Workshop is actually cutting out more Space Marine units and these are some classic and iconic units leaving. To be fair the Space Marine range is HUGE. So pairing down some units from the catalogue probably isn’t a bad thing. GW has to make room for the new stuff coming in the future codex somehow, right?
Anyhow, what units are leaving? Here’s the list:
Space Marine Unit Retirements
- Attack Bike
- Bike Squad
- Scout Bike Squad
- Land Speeder
- Land Speeder Storm
- Stalker/Hunter
- Ironclad Dreadnought
- Assault Squad
- Company Command
- Scouts
- Scouts with Sniper Rifles
- Librarian
- Techmarine with Servitors
- Thunderfire Cannon
Death of the Firstborn?
If you’re seeing a bunch of Classic Marine units on the chopping block and are starting to panic that your “Firstborn” Space Marine army is going away: It’s not. At least, not yet.
“Fans of Firstborn Space Marines should know no fear, though – contrary to heretical whispers in the noosphere, they’re not being erased from the 41st Millennium. The new Space Marines Codex still includes plenty of non-Primaris units, if that’s your preference. Tactical Squads will still be driving about in Rhinos, fighting under the covering fire of Devastator Squads, and so on.”
As far as other units GW is basically recommending if they have an “analog unit” you could use them as then you can just do that. They give the example of a Bike Squad using the Outrider Squad rules. For lots of folks they would probably just say “eh, close enough” and move on. But if you’re going to play at a Tournament you might want to double check the rules policy on that one just in case!
For other units you might have to go check the Warhammer Legends options. Lot of these options will migrate over there which means you’ll have rules and points for them (eventually). That technically means you can use them for your non-Warhammer 40,000 Events (aka tournament) games. Additionally, if you’ve got the most recent Index then you’ve probably got the most recent rules versions for all these units already.
While it is a little shocking to see these units get retired it’s not that surprising. There’s going to be a ton of new units coming to the Space Marines when the new codex launches. Just based on what’s been removed, I’m wondering if we’re going to see some “replacement” Primaris options now…
To all these faithful units that served us all so well for so long, we salute you!
